The first substantial Star Wars Zero Company patch is out, and it remedies some latent performance problems in the tactics game. These issues vary from crashes to mere graphical glitches, and a considerable amount of them have now been quashed to improve your playing experience.

These changes are right at the top of the patch notes from Bit Reactor. "Fixed various crash issues," reads the top bullet-point. "Fixed various visual stutters," reads the second.

Problems for the Beskar mode - where you can only use one save and if someone critical dies, the run is over - have been sorted as well. There was a recurring crash, and a problem where saves were being "temporarily deleted." Both sound rage-inducing, and it's good they've been quashed.

Numerous other issues are listed, across customization, databank, strategy, tactical, and more. There are a couple of additions as well. The back option in the Weapons Mod menu will close the tutorial, and the last fight in Tel-Rea's hero mission will now succeed at the end of the final enemy's turn, rather than finishing prematurely.

Lastly, if you're using GTX 10-series or RTX 20-series graphics cards, the post says that "adjusting a specific video setting can help improve your overall framerates." Switching the Environment Geometry Detail to off should help your machine if you're finding it's crawling along.

This is a truly deep post-launch update, designed to address many bugbears in one fell swoop. It comes on the back of dispiriting reports that much of Bit Reactor's staff were furloughed ahead of launch, with the possibility they'll be brought back if the game is successful. Hopefully this helps encourage players to check it out and lets those devs get back to their positions.

Star Wars Zero Company studio furloughed staff right before the strategy game launched due to reportedly running low on money

Four playable factions have been confirmed for Total War: Warhammer 40K: Space Marines, Orcs, Aeldari, and the Imperial Guard. But there's at least one more group we'll be seeing whilst fighting amongst the stars – the Traitor Guard, branches of the Imperial Guard who have turned on the Imperium due to Chaos corruption or plain ol' revolution.

I spotted the Traitor Guard's faction icon while playing Total War: Warhammer 40K at Gamescom, although I never encountered them first-hand. Afterward, I caught up with Dave Petry, battle product owner for Total War, and asked whether the Traitor Guard would function differently in battle compared to the Imperial Guard, or if their shifting allegiance would be purely cosmetic.

"There will be some presence of traitorous things occurring," says Petry, picking his words carefully. "They'll be around [as] things that you can fight, and will be causing trouble and uprisings throughout your campaign. And that's probably all that I ought to be talking about for now..."

Whether the Traitor Guard will differ from the Imperial Guard remains to be seen, but there is precedent for unique factions not being immediately playable in Total War. The first Total War: Warhammer launched with chivalric faction Bretonnia on the campaign map, but they were only made playable when their roster was fleshed out the following year.

Of course, the Traitor Guard could just be grumpy Imperial Guard. But given the secrecy, I wonder if Creative Assembly has more tricks hiding up its sleeve? There has been no concrete sign of Chaos in Total War: Warhammer 40K, with my campaign preview focused on fighting orcs as Space Marines, but the developer has already confirmed plans to add more factions post-launch. Given Creative Assembly wants to make "the seminal Warhammer 40K game," it will only be a matter of time until the heretics arrive.

Total War: Warhammer 40K is getting a closed beta, and its latest gameplay has convinced me its battles will be incredible

Something's being teased by Blizzard for StarCraft 2. A strange transmission started coming through the official site recently, and another is now available, potentially teasing the return of one Sarah Kerrigan.

The first teaser made it clear that Blizzard has made another ARG for the franchise, and now the second appears to point towards where this is heading. In this transmission, we get snippets about the contents of some crates going completely amok, potentially leading to a gruesome incident.

There's "screeching and screaming" going on within the precious cargo. It's all hush-hush, but distinctly ominous. Then we see a patient's shipping log. The person's name begins with a 'K', and the remaining seven letters are missing.

Hm. Eight letters, and starts with a 'K'? That seems like it might actually be Kerrigan, the infamous psychic spy who's infested by the Zerg to serve their bidding. Joke's on them, though, since she manages to take over the entire hive due to her extreme mental prowess.

She's made recurring appearances across the Starcraft series, often wreaking havoc of some description or another. We last saw her leaving with James Raynor, two years after she managed to kill Amon. On-screen text said James was "never heard from again."

She, on the other hand, isn't named in the epilogue. Convenient. Fans have been sensing something is on the horizon after a surprise patch turned the game on its head back in July. The last time Blizzard did an ARG with the Starcraft community was in 2013 for Heart of the Swarm. We'll see where this one leads, but fans are on the case, deconstructing every sliver of information that arrives.

Days before BlizzCon, Blizzard begins mysterious StarCraft teaser amid rumors of StarCraft 3

The Friend of a Friend choice operation in Star Wars Zero Company has you pick between three different plants without making it clear what any of them actually do. Between the Nysillin, Marcan Herb, and Brula Fruit, even experts on Star Wars lore can only make rough guesses at what to expect. In fact, all of these results result in useful buffs, but depending on your current status, some will be more or less helpful.

What's the best choice for the Friend of a Friend operation in Star Wars Zero Company?

The Friend of a Friend choice operation offers you to send two operators (not including Droids) to obtain one of three plants, or decline altogether. Here's the outcome of each option:

• Nysillin: Fully heals both operators of all injuries. If they have no injuries, it has no effect.
• Marcan Herb: Improves the bond between both operators.
• Brula Fruit: Increases the max health of both operators by 4.
• Decline: No effect or benefit (don't pick this!)

It probably goes without saying that the one thing you shouldn't do is decline, as there's no advantage to doing so. If you have two severely injured operators then a free heal can be beneficial, but if that's not the case, I recommend picking either of the other two.

A health boost is good for pretty much any character, especially tanks or mission-critical figures like Hawks, and increasing the bond can allow for Bond Training that can bestow various benefits (including, depending on randomisation, a +4 bonus to max health).

For more help with difficult choices, find out the benefits of Cautionary Intel in Star Wars Zero Company, or check out all the different Star Wars Zero Company mission difficulty levels so you know what challenges await!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Cautionary Intel in Star Wars Zero Company is offered as a reward for certain missions, but what does it mean, and what does it even do, especially when there appears to be a base upgrade for the Den with the exact same name? It's a bit confusing, in part because Zero Company doesn't actually show the effect of Cautionary Intel in any obvious way once you have it, but I'll explain what it does below and why it's useful.

What does Cautionary Intel do in Star Wars Zero Company?

You can get Cautionary Intel as one of the potential rewards for the "Our Jedi Friend" critical operation, assuming you take Neesh's lead instead of Bennic's. If you hover over it, you'll see that it reduces the chance of Injuries on Dangerous Operations by 20%.

There's a bit of a confusion of terminology here, as Dangerous is also one of the Star Wars Zero Company mission difficulty levels, but that's not what it means in this case. By "Dangerous Operations", it simply means any Operation that has a chance to injure Operators assigned to it. That makes it a seriously solid bonus, considering it's a permanent buff to the rest of the campaign.

The confusion is that there is also a Den/Base Upgrade called Cautionary Intel (in the Networking Chain), with the exact same effect. However, while they're identical, getting Cautionary Intel as a mission reward doesn't unlock the Base Upgrade, implying that while they have identical effects, they are different sources and therefore presumably stack.

For more base building, find out where to get the all-essential Star Wars Zero Company Capacitors! Or find out how many cycles in Star Wars Zero Company there are across the whole campaign and see what's ahead.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Mission difficulty levels in Star Wars Zero Company are more colourful than they are help, with different missions broken into the categories: Risky, Dangerous and Extreme. However, that's not particularly helpful when actually understanding what level of difficulty or challenge you can actually expect when going out, especially when they're not all presented in front of you. I'll explain what these terms mean and what you need to know about when you're picking out missions in Star Wars Zero Company.

All mission difficulty levels in Star Wars Zero Company and what they mean

There are three different mission difficulty levels that appear in Star Wars Zero Company for those you choose from the Holotable, shown in the bottom left. They are all listed below, along with that they mean for the mission.

• Risky: Easy
• Dangerous: Medium
• Extreme: Hard

Keep in mind that this is within the framework of the campaign difficulty that you chose at the beginning of Zero Company - so a Risky/Easy mission on Hard difficulty is still going to be a respectable challenge.

As you play, you'll learn to get a feel for these different challenge levels and how difficult you personally find each of them. I definitely recommend starting out with more Risky/Dangerous missions before trying anything extreme, or else you might have a brutal repeat of what happened to Aurelio in Star Wars Zero Company. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

Building out your base? Find out where to get the all-essential Star Wars Zero Company Capacitors! Or find out how many cycles in Star Wars Zero Company there are across the whole campaign.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Capacitors in Star Wars Zero Company are one of the rarest and most erratic items you can get, used for a very particular purpose: to obtain high level upgrades for your base and build new facilities. However, while all these base upgrades will need Capacitors, they themselves tend to show up somewhat sporadically, and there's no consistent method to obtain them. Instead, you'll be relying on a mixture of skill and luck, as laid out below.

Where do you get Capacitors in Star Wars Zero Company?

Capacitors are occasional rewards for both operations and missions, and as a result the opportunities to get them come up somewhat erratically.

Capacitors being a reward for choice operations are largely unpredictable. Sometimes you'll be told in advance when it's possible to earn them and sometimes not, but you should carefully read the descriptions of the choice, as you may be able to infer. For example, if the operation offers something like "the means to upgrade the Den" or something similar, that makes it very likely that there's Capacitors on the line.

Fortunately, Capacitors as a reward for completing missions are generally shown in advance, even if the missions that come up seem randomized. When a new selection of random missions is shown, look through their rewards on the Holotable, and if any of them will give you a Capacitor then they should tell you. Story-essential missions also tend to have a high chance to offer Capacitors as rewards, though not all of them.

Finally, keep in mind that you're not likely to earn Capacitors very often early on in the game, and instead they're more likely to pop up in the second and third act. To be honest, the high cost of Den upgrades sometimes means that players will begin to stock up on them faster than they can actually buy Den upgrades, as they do get very expensive later on.

If you regret losing a friend early on, find out if you did something wrong, and discover: can you save Aurelio in Star Wars Zero Company? Or, if you're wondering how long you have to get all the Den upgrades, here's how many cycles are in Star Wars Zero Company.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

A peculiar trend of Gamescom week was a flurry of licensed tactics games; Star Wars Zero Company's launch was accompanied by the reveal of both Rainbow Six Tactics and Worms Galactic Tactics. While I'm reliably informed that the former is an excellent addition to the Rainbow Six franchise, I'm here to reliably inform you that the latter is such an obvious use of the Worms identity that it feels like it should have existed for years.

In decades of being a turn-based strategy series that's experimented with all kinds of different gameplay formulae and camera angles, Worms has somehow avoided the isometric, grid-based perspective that dominates the tactics genre. Unsurprisingly, a series that already had the vast majority of important constituent parts in place doesn't exactly struggle with the addition of those remaining ideas that fully transform it into this new genre. But, this isn't a cheap twist on the established formula – it's a smartly thought-out adaptation that's made to fit perfectly with what Worms has already been for years.

Worm-like

Galactic Tactics pits your worms squad against increasingly difficult teams of enemy worms. Abducted and forced to fight in a gauntlet of gladiatorial games on an alien planet, your worms must battle it out in randomized arenas, at first using their basic weaponry – a bazooka, a ray gun, and a fire punch melee attack – to dispatch a lowly pair of enemies.

Win that first battle, and you earn cash which can be used on weapon upgrades to help you in subsequent fights. Lose too much health, however, and you'll need to waste resources in the Medbay to ensure you're not immediately dispatched by the opening exchanges of the next round. Lose every worm, and your run at the top prize is over, and you start again from the first round of the competition.

Beyond that first round, my fights are strictly 3v3 affairs, but Galactic Tactics tips the scales towards your opponent over time by granting ever more powerful types of enemy worms. In one round, the 'Boffin' worm begins with a shield that absorbs the first shot they take. In another, the Sargeant's armor means he takes less damage, and then deals more when he dips below half health. It's a clever way of increasing challenge without it feeling like a cheap buffing-up of enemy's health bars or damage numbers.

As the odds turn against me, I have my own tools to level the playing field. Coins earned from killing enemies quickly and picking up supply crates in round mean that I can buff my weaponry – even after having to pay to resurrect my unfortunate melee fighter twice. These upgrades can seem minor in isolation, some of them not even affecting weapon damage, but accrue enough, and build paths begin to emerge. Clearly, the depth of a true roguelike deckbuilder isn't what Galactic Tactics is going for, but I'm keen to see what happens when multiple upgrades begin to stack up as runs go on.

Terrain is also an important tool. Galactic Tactics relies on a tile-based grid, but using elevation effectively can be the difference between worm-life and worm-death. As in the older games, you can hide behind tiles to block enemy shots, but a smartly-aimed projectile can still deal damage. Worms flung into the gradually-rising water around the arena by nearby explosions will die instantly, meaning holding the high ground is crucial.

But, sometimes it's worth stepping off the safety of a high tower to seek out medkits or item crates, which offer powerful single-use weapons or gadgets that persist between rounds. In traditional Worms, those could often turn the tide of a battle, but in Galactic Tactics' tight arenas they're deadly, blowing huge chunks out of the map and leaving gaping holes down to the water.

I do find myself wishing that some of the displacement effects were more powerful – I missed the feeling of smacking an enemy worm miles off-screen with a baseball bat or a well-placed banana bomb – but a Holy Hand Grenade remains satisfying no matter how many worms get dispatched in the explosion.

Worms Galactic Tactics is an obvious addition to an enduring series. It won't be the most complex or punishing strategy game – a generous undo system means you're unlikely to inadvertently stumble into disaster, and dead worms can be resurrected at minimal cost for next round – but it's a clever twist that understands both parts of its core formula well, and one I'm keen to explore the depth of in a full run.

Worm your way to more tactical fun with our best strategy games recommendations!

If I can do justice to the hour I spent playing Afterworld, you'll see why it's the most exciting reveal of Gamescom 2026. Even if you don't like grand strategy games, which this is, Afterworld may be the first one you fall for. It's designed to be the "most approachable" game from developer Paradox Interactive (Crusader Kings, Stellaris), says game director Dan Lind, and although I've struggled to make sense of many of the developer's previous titles, I jumped into this one and intuitively had a blast.

By blast, I mean 'I made my settlers live in an irradiated factory and they started having mutant fish-people babies'. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, let's catch up on what Afterworld is – then we can talk about all the ways I was a terrible warlord.

Crawl out through the fallout

At its most basic, Afterworld is about ensuring your tribe survives in post-nuclear apocalypse America. But its most interesting dynamics are established before then. Beginning my preview, I'm asked to choose my tribe's origin story and how it handled pivotal moments in its history.

I picked a tribe leaving their underground shelter, which meant deciding how they navigated an earlier food crisis – cannibalism? Hoarding? – and whether a period of unrest was settled by ceding control to rioters or quietly killing its instigators. Each option has lasting effects on my tribe going forwards; the descendants of cannibals will still eat people, for example.

These identities keep evolving. Sending rangers out of the vault to find somewhere to settle, I discover an abandoned car manufacturer with water and wood within reach. It's more irradiated than its neighboring areas, but that seems like a long-term problem – what's a few spare noses among friends? Meanwhile, technology and belief trees are fleshed out through exploration. Finding the sea adds a research node for fishing, for example, while standing my ground against would-be bandits nudges my society further towards autocracy. Later, settling in radiation comes back to bite me in the gills as my people start giving birth to fish-human hybrids.

Even in this small window, I get the impression that Afterworld will be very dynamic between playthroughs. For starters, the societal side of the map – covering the whole of the U.S.A., with parts of Canada and Mexico – is randomized, with game director Dan Lind telling me that New York City can be a hole-in-the-ground in one playthrough, or ruled by mutant kings in another. When your society has taken root, you'll come up against Ancients – warlords who have been around since before the apocalypse happened 100 years ago – and decide whether to go up against them or fall in line, the latter letting you earn favor by working for them and following their rules.

"A lot of the dynamic playthrough comes from a lot of random actors, like the AIs and stuff, doing their thing [...] playing their own game," says Lind. "All the AIs have their own plans, right? Some may not have expansion plans, but a lot of them do. And when you have that combinatorics, a lot of agents doing a lot of stuff, and you also throw in things like beliefs and stuff that can affect each other, you get like an almost infinite soup where a lot of stuff can happen."

"And then a lot of it is creating those things, making them visible to the player, and also showing that they can become powerful," he continues. "So it's not just them like picking a different custom. It is because they picked this custom, they now become religious zealots to go on a crusade, and that's why they're coming to your town. A lot of our thinking about games is very much working backwards from cool stories that could happen, which is why I really like reading books and movies and being like, 'Okay, so this story happened in this book. How can we make this, the simulation of the game, output the story like that? What are the building blocks we would need?' And then breaking those down."

While Afterworld is unmistakably a grand strategy game (my jaw hits the floor when I zoom out and see its continental map), its depth is both accessible and in service to the game's overarching fantasy.

I'm reminded of two post-apocalyptic novels, Stephen King's The Stand and Robert R. McCammon's Swan Song, in the sense that seeing how new societies rise is fascinating. Both are influences, and Lind's face lights up when I mention Swan Song in particular – it's one of his "main inspirations" behind the game, and is featured in his introduction deck for new developers.

"It's the natural progression to grand strategy games – you scale up," says Lind on why he was drawn to that bigger-picture approach. "You're always looking for ways to affect the world outside and push your vision of what is true. And it's a great way to project what people think. You see this throughout human history – there are battles of will, battles of faith, right? So it's part of creating friction and argument. It's also a fantastic way to deliver lore."

Crucially, Afterworld is also much easier to get into than any other Paradox game I've played. I could just about manage Stellaris, but found Crusader Kings 2 and the Europa Universalis series were too menu-dense to get to grips with. Here, even just having characters and models to physically follow is a huge help. But it's tutorialized in a way that promotes discovery without being overwhelming. In similar fashion to society sim Dwarf Fortress, you're introduced to a few basic concepts at once (settling, migration, gathering) and the rest gradually unfurls as you prod in different directions – supporting your curiosity instead of smothering it.

Dwarf Fortress comes to mind because I've been playing it all month. But Afterworld also speaks to the part of my brain that snoops on every terminal email in Fallout and spends hours in Warhammer lore rabbit holes. To me, immersion comes from believability. The thought of seeing Afterworld's history being woven excites me as much as the finished tapestry – including the tribe of cannibal fish-people that would have conquered the surface, if only I had more time to teach them violence.

The 25 best strategy games to play right now

Humankind, the 4X strategy game that aimed to let you craft the entirety of human history by blending together dozens of different cultures, had two main spikes in the arrival of new players. The first, says chief creative officer Romain de Waubert de Genlis, came with the launch of the game. The second, and far more unexpected, was the arrival of one million players in the direct wake of Civilization 7.

Now, as developer Amplitude Studios prepares to wrap up the latest entry in its Endless series, Endless Legend 2, and return to work on the newly-announced Humankind 2, it faces two notable challenges; the ever-changing face of an early access scene it helped shape, and the ever-changing desires of an ultra-passionate 4X community.

Early bird

"We were one of the first two or three games" to offer players access to games in their Alpha stages, says de Waubert de Genlis of 2012's Endless Space. "It was something that was in the air already at the time, and we were always looking for new stuff to try." That community outreach was extremely effective for Amplitude, but in the years since, the nature of Early Access has changed massively.

"The first early access we did, players really had in mind that it's not a finished game," de Waubert de Genlis explains. "All the game elements we had were of final quality, but maybe half the game was missing, and that was fine. No negative reviews or bad feedback. People understood it, and they understood that the concept was to participate in building the game with you." But since Early Access became established as a meaningful tool for developers, in around 2015, studios now have more players coming in before 1.0, "with a lot more expectations."

"It should be a finished game that you update very often to take into account players' feedback on balancing or polishing the game," de Waubert de Genlis says of modern early access expectations.

"It's not about finishing the game or redoing entire pieces of the game. Because if you have a piece of the game that players don't like, they'll give you a negative review right away, and maybe not even change it if you fix [the problem] later. So it's really tough to try things, because if you get a negative review, they will never change."

Too many negative reviews, of course, and you spill out of Steam's 'Very Positive' threshold, at which point "you're in real trouble." It's a combination that means "to still be creative in early access, still taking risks, is a very difficult thing to do."

That inflexibility within a community is something that's been found in the 4X community's biggest name. Civilization 7 is still sitting at Mixed reviews, with an almost 50/50 split between positive and negative responses. That's an opportunity for Amplitude, but it's not something the team is relishing in: "We all benefit from great games. The more players who come to the competition, the more players will come to us. We want and need [Firaxis] to succeed for the whole 4X space."

"Personally, I love that they take risks," de Waubert de Genlis says. "They want to do things differently and change the recipe." That, however, is easier said than done, because Civilization's community has wanted so many different things over the decades. "Imagine [working] on Civilization, chatting with players who have been around for 30 years, and them telling you 'I want something new, but don't change anything'. And they're not the same players. Some really want innovation, others want a patch."

Regardless of how inflexible the community can sometimes seem, the Amplitude team knows that there's still room to continue pushing the genre's boundaries. Game director Benoît Humbert says that "no matter if Civ is performing or not, there's still space for improvement or innovation. There are so many things to do in the genre. I'm sad for Civ because I've been a huge fan since the first one, but I'm not worried for them. There's space for improvements but it's also an opportunity for us to see what went wrong. How can we be inspired? Because that's what matters."

Is your hunger for games like this far from endless? Check out our best strategy games ranking for more to stroke your chin to.

Aurelio in Star Wars Zero Company is a Rodian teammate who appears in the first mission, only to be beaten to death by a Coil Brute during the tutorial. Aurelio dying isn't exactly sad - he had maybe two lines prior to his clubbing - but with Zero Company having a permadeath system and new recruits being pretty expensive, is there a way to save Aurelio and stop him from dying?

Can you stop Aurelio from dying in Star Wars Zero Company?

No, there is no way to save Aurelio's life in Star Wars Zero Company. Him dying as part of the tutorial is locked in, as the game won't progress until you make the choice that results in his death. Basically, you can't do anything except place him in the spot where the Coil will than attack him.

Aside from anything else, this is actually to introduce a key mechanic of Zero Company: permadeath. All team members and operators in the game can be killed permanently, wiping them out for the rest of the campaign. They don't die as easily as Aurelio does, as he's introduced with two injuries off the bat, but aside from protagonist Hawks, all other characters can be subject to permadeath.

To tie into this, you can return to the hub zone known as the Den and check out the Memorial area at any point, which keeps a log of all killed members of Zero Company and their stats. Yes, that includes major or named characters, including Jedi and Droids.

Still learning all the mechanics? Find out how many cycles there are in Star Wars Zero Company, or check out all the best Star Wars Zero Company weapons.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Things reportedly aren't going well at Star Wars Zero Company studio Bit Reactor. Apparently, most of the team that worked on the tactics game were quietly furloughed right before it came out, and the company claims it intends to bring them back if sales prove good enough.

This comes from Game File, which reports that a large number of Bit Reactor's devs were furloughed mere weeks before Zero Company's release. Exact numbers are unknown, but one source says 80% of the staff, while another mentions the studio being run by a skeleton crew.

Zachariah Scott, a former artist at the studio, accused management of "concealing the fact that the team was furloughed weeks ago," this past week on LinkedIn, mere days after the project's launch. Alison Kelly, a co-founder of Bit Reactor who's been involved in an ongoing legal dispute with the company since 2024, mentioned similar in a filing from August 12.

A Bit Reactor representative confirmed the furlough to the outlet, but wouldn't go into specifics. The choice, per this rep, was made by the studio itself, and not by EA or Disney, and the intention is to bring people back at some point, implying Zero Company going gangbusters would change matters.

The reason for letting people go, even temporarily, is that money ran out before Zero Company came out. In comments made to Game File, Scott says that many of the employees he's spoken to aren't confident the whole team will be restored, regardless of what happens.

So far, Star Wars Zero Company is doing well. It's the third top-selling game on Steam at the moment, and it's got an 85 on Metacritic. Greg Foertsch, Bit Reactor's other co-founder, was touting future plans during interviews at Gamescom 2026.

Foertsch is tied up in Kelly's lawsuit, since her premise concerns being pushed out before her 2024 exit. She's suing for $20 million in damages, while Foertsch's counterclaim is that she was never a co-owner and that he's made accusations about her performance, which she denies.

Bitter, contentious, and unlikely to be resolved any time soon. Zero Company is Bit Reactor's first game. We'll keep you informed on what goes down in the months ahead.

Star Wars fans say if you love The Clone Wars and Bad Batch, you should play Zero Company

I was not ready for Total War: Warhammer 40K. Starting at the tutorial, I'm given 35 space marines to fight more than 1000 orcs – odds I would never take in another Total War game. Spoiler: it is one-sided.

With my squads positioned across hillside vantages and behind cover, the orcs charge into a slaughter. Space marines unload bolter fire into their ranks, some throwing frag grenades before drawing chainswords and carving the survivors up in vicious melee combat. The orcs are routed, and when the battle ends in my favor, I've only lost three space marines.

This introduction to Total War: Warhammer 40K teaches me a lot – like how its fluid ranged-to-melee battle lines work, the importance of cover, and how its armor system allows a handful of space marines to stand against thirty times their number. Just as importantly, it confirms that no amount of experience in Total War: Warhammer 3 is enough to prepare for developer Creative Assembly's jump to 40K – which has the makings to be the studio's most ambitious game ever.

'Eavy metal

Total War: Warhammer 40K is the freshest Total War game I've played since 2016, when Total War: Warhammer first took the series into fantasy territory. At the time, many wondered how its grounded strategic battles would survive contact with dragons and magic. I've asked similar questions about 40K – how much change is too much? – and after spending an hour with the game, it's a relief that it is still unmistakably Total War.

Asymmetricity is the cornerstone of Total War: Warhammer 40K, with each faction designed around unique strengths and weaknesses. Orcs are genuinely overwhelming, designed to whittle down elite forces over the course of several battles. Aeldari should feel like playing with cheats activated, I'm told by one developer. Space Marines, who I play with for several battles today, are few in number and difficult to replace. They rely on their individual unit strength and flexibility, calling down reinforcements and powerful fire support from orbit.

Off-map abilities in Total War: Warhammer 3 are a hammer for every nail – at times so strong they undermine the strategic layer – but they barely even the odds here. In a campaign slice that sees me trying to wrest a relay station away from orcs, I throw everything from bombing runs to orbital laser strikes at them and still lose. That's because each unit's firepower is ranked separately against light, medium, and heavy armor. Bolter fire turns lightly-armored orcs to mush (and yes, I'm told by CA that a bolter round will outright pop a regular human unit). But when I don't react in time to the orcs' super-heavy units, keeping marines to hold the line when in hindsight I should have pulled them back and left it to my tanks, they're slaughtered to the last man.

Picking the right tool for the correct job is more important than ever. I worried 40K's battles would be simpler thanks to the ludicrously powerful weaponry involved, but I actually have to pay closer attention to things like positioning. One-and-done decisions are fewer. While I can coast through most fantasy battles by marching a mealy frontline forwards and letting them work, here I'm punished for not pulling back and using more of the map to avoid being overwhelmed. Not matching fire to appropriately-armored targets is part of the challenge, but so is the asymmetrical layer. I foolishly let a number of space marines stand their ground against a combined mass of orcs, but the latter thrives in massed melee – while my own troops fall one by one.

It's been a long time since I felt tactically challenged by Total War's battles, so the change of pace is refreshing. The principles are the same – control the map as best you can and hope the enemy routes before you – but with more nuance between troops (unit loadouts are customizable!) and Creative Assembly leaning into each faction's unevenness, I get the impression that Total War is breaking new ground without losing itself.

I'll be sharing more on my hands-on soon, including my campaign experience and a chat with the game's developers. But if you've spent the last year worrying that there can be no Total War amongst the stars, I can put your mind at ease. After thousands of hours sunk into its fantasy predecessor, this already feels like a match made in heaven – for both Total War and 40K.

We've ranked the 10 best Warhammer games - how many have you played?

Cycles in Star Wars Zero Company are the game's unit of time, each one representing a day, and a single completed mission. As they begin to tick down, you might begin to wonder how many cycles are in Zero Company from beginning to end, and if there's a built-in timer for the whole game, similar to the ticking clock built in to pay the debt in Star Wars Zero Company in the game's early acts. If you want to know more, I'll explain the details below and how Cycles in the game work, in a guide that's completely spoiler free.

How many cycles in Star Wars Zero Company?

From beginning to end of Star Wars Zero Company will take roughly forty cycles, with a little variation in either direction depending on choices.

Zero Company is full of in-game mission timers that force you to make constant progress, so it's hard to deviate too significantly from the game's intended plan. Nobody is likely to have a game shorter than thirty-eight cycles, and nobody is likely to exceed forty-five.

In real life terms, this probably means 35-45 hours total, with each cycle usually taking a little less than an hour (assuming you don't die on missions and spend some time back at the Den playing with loadouts and character builds).

Still learning the basics of life as a starfaring merc? Find out how to recruit a Jedi in Star Wars Zero Company, or check out if you should hire Cly in Star Wars Zero Company when the Mandalorion comes knocking.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

• Star Wars Zero Company is perfect for two types of people: those craving a turn-based strategy challenge, and those looking for a cinematic new Star Wars story.

Personally, I fall into both categories, making Star Wars Zero Company a very easy recommendation. As for what to expect, think along the lines of XCOM or Fire Emblem. Keeping afloat in the Republic Era of Star Wars history requires keeping your mouthy mercs alive on the battlefield; while handling their facilities, resources, and relationships between missions.

Why play it today?

• I mention XCOM and Fire Emblem because Star Wars Zero Company is the first new strategy game in that space to make me care as much about what I'm doing

There's enough strategic depth in combat to make you think carefully about your actions, and Zero Company's misfits are a joy to spend time with.

You don't need to be a strategy pro to jump in, either. I'm playing on hard difficulty and having a blast, but developer Bit Reactor does an excellent job at laying out Zero Company's mechanics approachably – making it an excellent first-choice if you've been on the fence about playing more strategy games.

Being set in the Republic's reign means we're also treated with more Separatist droids – which, for my money, are the most entertaining Generic Baddie in gaming. Too specific? Fine – but what if I said you could design your own?

Time commitment:

While each battle is relatively short and snappy, this is a long adventure that could take 40 hours to finish. How much time you want to spend on missions can also be up to you depending on how much of a perfectionist you are.

Play Star Wars Zero Company if you love:

Skip Star Wars Zero Company if you want:

One thing to know:

Although perma-death features in Star Wars Zero Company, it can be toggled off for a more forgiving experience. Alternately, an optional Iron Man mode is there to put you through your paces with restricted saves (but Han Solo would have been the biggest save-scummer of us all).

A moment you'll remember:

The first time you encounter cultists of the Infinite Coil. After fighting mostly droids and gangsters, these zealots cannot be underestimated – take it from me, as this was the first mission I failed in Zero Company. With powers bordering on the supernatural, you'll need to pay close attention to their abilities.

The final verdict:

In our Star Wars Zero Company review, we said that "it might not reinvent the format like Midnight Suns, but it's a rare treat to see the tactics genre given this kind of big-budget treatment". With Star Wars Zero Company, Bit Reactor hits a bullseye on its debut game. I worried that this would appeal to casual strategy fans or XCOM diehards, catering to one and losing the other. But by putting an original story first, it all falls in line smoothly – which is more than can be said for some of the mercs on your team.

So, where can you play it?

Star Wars Zero Company is available to play on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam/Epic Games Store/the EA app.

How to get started with Star Wars Zero Company:

There are plenty of tactical calls you'll need to get used to making in Star Wars Zero Company, which can be intimidating if you're new to the genre of just need pointers in embracing the Star Wars twists on play here. Below, we've got some great advice on how you can kick off your own adventure.

Have your say:

Check out our best survival horror games list for more!

The Droideka in Star Wars Zero Company is the first major boss fight. The rolling Destroyer Droid is protected by regenerating ray shields that need to be broken through, but that's not easily done, especially with other enemies constantly spawning in and your team likely already weakened from the encounters you've had to reach this point. Still, with the Jedi Tel-Rea Vokoss now joining the squad, it should be an achievable fight for those involved. Below I'll explain how to beat the Destroyer Droid fight in Star Wars Zero Company, including weaknesses and more besides.

How to defeat the Droideka boss in Star Wars Zero Company

As part of the Slugrat's HQ mission, the Destroyer Droid is Star Wars Zero Company's first real boss fight, a powerful enemy who uses heavy firepower and regenerating ray shields to prevent damage.

The main three weaknesses of the Droideka are as follows:

• Concentrated Fire. With the shield regenerating every turn, you'll need to keep up regular and sustained fire. Repeaters and Longarm blasters are good here, being primarily damage-focused, but any damage works. Tel-Rea's melee attacks are good, but obviously that risks her being in the line of fire.
• Anti-Droid weapons and mods. If you're willing to reload a save prior to the beginning of the mission, the Droid Popper grenade and Ion Modulator weapon mods are both specifically designed to do increased damage to ray shields. Of course, these are somewhat randomly distributed as random items in the Black Market or mission rewards, so you may not have them. If you do get the Ion Modulator, equip it on a Blaster Pistol so you can use it multiple times per turn.
• Overwatch. The Destroyer Droid's shields go down when it moves, so characters with overwatch can shoot it as it transitions to a new location. Of course, for this to happen, you'll have to give it a reason to move. Back away and hope it pursues your characters, or push it with a Concussion Grenade or Kabb punch.

The Droideka regenerates 46 shield health per round, requiring players to pour pretty heavy damage into it. For that reason, unless you have a lot of AOE attacks and explosives, I suggest you relax focus on the reinforcements that keep coming in until the Droid is dead, as they'll just keep coming anyway. Take the Droideka off the board, then deal with the other Slugrats and enemies coming in.

You'll also want to be careful with Tel-Rea Vokoss, who appears for the first time in this fight. Yes, it's exciting to have finally unlocked the Star Wars Zero Company Jedi operator, but don't get too reckless: Tel-Rea doesn't have a huge amount of health and her melee focus often puts her in danger. Rather than have her target the Droideka directly, have her mainly use her Force powers to shove it, or take out the weaker reinforcements so the rest of the team can concentrate their fire. If you have any Star Wars Zero Company Astromech droids on staff, they pair very well with Vokoss's habit of burning through Action Points.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

To pay back the 80,000 credit debt to Gorga the Hutt in Star Wars Zero Company is the first major objective that you're given when you start playing, which seems pretty difficult to do once you start understanding the elements involved. You're given eight days (or "cycles") to pay back that enormous debt, and missions are only paying out a few hundred credits at a time. If you're worried that you're going to miss the window or are missing some essential element of Star Wars Zero Company, don't worry: I'll explain to you how to pay back the debt as easily as possible.

Spoiler warning: the following guide contains minor plot spoilers for the early sections of Star Wars Zero Company.

How to pay the 80,000 debt in Star Wars Zero Company

You can't clear the debt to Gorga the Hutt by paying it back normally in Star Wars Zero Company, as the eight day window you're given isn't nearly enough to make that kind of cash. Instead, what you need to do is simply to progress the main story until you reach Cycle 4, at which point mandatory events in the plot will introduce Hawks to new characters who are motivated to clear the debt for you and have the money to offer.

Once that happens, all you need to do is go to the Holotable and open the Critical Operation "Payback", which has you clear the debt and remove it as a factor from the game going forward. In this sense, the debt to Gorga is revealed to be less of a game mechanic and more of an early story driver - hence why you'll almost immediately be given the Gorga's Revenge choice in Star Wars Zero Company to follow this event.

Prepare yourself for the challenges to come: check out how to beat the Star Wars Zero Company Droideka!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The best characters and team comp in Star Wars Zero Company are what will make the difference between thriving as space mercs and dying at the hands of deranged cultists and battle droids. Though Zero Company gives you freedom to hire various randomised operators, there are nonetheless six or seven unique and defined characters built into the game with unique abilities, not including Hawks themselves.

These characters' unique powers ensure that they can hold a unique position in your team, and are often more powerful than the randomised operators as a result. Below I'll lay out all the best Zero Company characters, and the best possible team to make from them.

Best Characters in Star Wars Zero Company

Below I've laid out all the best characters in Star Wars Zero Company as part of a tier list, as well give a quick summary of their gameplay style.

• S-Tier
  • Cly Kullervo: A Mandalorian warrior who focuses on control and damage. Cly can jetpack around the battlefield for increased mobility, while firing electrical darts into enemies that slow their movement speed. When ready, she can detonate all these darts at once, turning enemies into bombs. Though a little hard to get a grip on, she's deadly when used right, especially against groups. Of course, you'll need to make sure to hire Cly in Star Wars Zero Company when the choice comes up.
  • Kabbney "Kabb" Uppercut: A support brawler, Kabb has a powerful melee attack that damages and shoves enemies. If fatal, it returns all Action Points to Kabb, effectively allowing him to kill an enemy for free. His other powers involve providing support fire, and making targets vulnerable to further damage. Shove abilities are very powerful in Zero Company, and Kabb has the durability of a tank, as well as being very simple to learn and master.
• A-Tier
  • Luco Bronc: A sniper who fires from the back lines, Luco comes with a power that enhances his accuracy and damage output temporarily. If you can get him to a good battlefield location high up with long sightlines, Luco is capable of serious damage. Just keep in mind that you'll want to give him the Longarm Blaster, the most restrictive of the Star Wars Zero Company weapons, to bring out his full potential.
  • Astromech Droid: OK, these little droids technically aren't unique characters, but considering that they're all identical in their abilities, they're worth treating as a monolith. Astromech droids are the ultimate support characters, able to hold three items and get two uses out of each one, while providing accuracy bonuses and action points to those around them. That being said, they have no dedicated attack, so you're dependant on whatever grenades you've equipped as well as the protection of others. For more info on how they work, check out our page on the Star Wars Zero Company Astromech Droids.
  • Tel-Rea Vokoss: The one Star Wars Zero Company Jedi operator is high-risk and high reward, capable of great melee damage and mobility, but often having to move to the most dangerous areas to maximise her output. As a result, Tel-Rea is the character who will most likely get more kills than any other, but also is the most likely to be downed in a mission. There's a high learning curve with this one.
• B-Tier
  • Jae Mordant: A fairly straightforward fighter and gunner who thrives in close range by being able to melee and fire a cone of bullets, Jae's unique power is to effectively kill off any enemy nearby who falls beneath a certain health threshold - but only once per turn. That can be useful, but the threshold is pretty low and ultimately a character with a blaster pistol can probably amount to the same thing.
  • Trick: A soldier with a focus on grenades and explosives, Trick's unique power is basically to self-revive if dropped. That's not bad as powers go, but ultimately it's better to invest in characters whose powers stop them from getting downed in the first place. What you get with Trick is a character who's average, but is just hard to put down permanently.

Obviously though this is to see only a small part of the experience, as these operators and characters all have to exist within the context of a larger team, with abilities that complement each other, as well as whatever build you've given to your version of Hawks.

Best Team Comp in Star Wars Zero Company

The best team composition and party build in Star Wars Zero Company is made from the following operators:

• Cly Kullervo
  • Weapon: Blaster Pistol
  • Utility Items: Concussion Grenade
• Kabbney "Kabb" Uppercut
  • Weapon: Repeater
  • Utility Items: Reinforced Underlay
• Astromech Droid
  • Weapon: N/A
  • Utility Items: Med-Pac, Impact Grenade, Concussion Grenade
• Tel-Rea Vokoss
  • Weapon: Lightsaber
  • Utility Items: Fast Healing (Jedi Meditation)

This is an aggressive build based on mobility: all of these are characters who are either agile or can move quickly for a low AP cost, such as Kabb's ability to move for free as long as he punches somebody to death at the end of it. The strategy here is that the group moves as a unit, never getting too far apart, with the Droid acting as the healer and supplying them with AP (you'll definitely want to give it a Med-Pac).

This is also a build with some strong control options: Cly's jetpack, Kabb's punch and Tel-Rea's Force powers all allow them to move enemies around, and if you give the Droid a Concussion Grenade, that means everybody has a way to manipulate the battlefield. Concentrating enemies into groups makes them highly vulnerable to attacks like Cly's dart detonation or grenade attacks. Ultimately this is a strategy-heavy team and one without a huge amount of options for long range, but one that's incredibly powerful if handled wisely.

You should also feel free to tweak weapon mods and utility items depending on need. A Droid Popper Grenade might be wiser in certain missions, for example. The above team comp isn't an exact science, but a strong template to be tweaked according to the threat ahead.

Want more help with the Galaxy at its most war-torn? Check out the best Gorga's Revenge choice in Star Wars Zero Company for when it's put before you, or find out how to pay the debt in Star Wars Zero Company and get the Hutts off your back for good.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Talents in Star Wars Zero Company are little feats and stat modifiers that Hawks and all the other Operators have, and you'll get the chance to pick out those Talents for Hawks during character creation, as well as the other randomized Operators you unlock throughout the game. Talents arguably aren't as important as the Specializations that you pick out, but they are nonetheless a serious advantage, especially if you can pair them with the right kind of specialization. Below I'll lay out the best Talents to pick out and what they pair well with for your Hawks build.

For more help building the most heroic Hawks you can, check out our guide on the best specialization and class in Star Wars Zero Company!

What are the best Talents in Star Wars Zero Company?

If you're picking a Talent out for Hawks in the beginning of Star Wars Zero Company, you should make your choice based on the kind of character build and playstyle you're aiming for, and specifically the Specialization you've given them. I've highlighted some very good Talents to consider below, depending on the general directions you can take Hawks.

• Cold-blooded: allows you to guarantee that your next attack is a critical hit. Very good for snipers or those who use repeaters as weapons.
• A Life of Labor: grants increased health and defense. Good for tanks, but also melee fighters, support classes or characters who are mission-critical - like Hawks.
• Fortitude: gives a +2 defense bonus while the Operator is injured. Works for characters who are likely to get hurt (tanks and brawlers), as well as giving you a chance to save injured characters.

One thing I don't really recommend is picking up the Thievery and Espionage Talents early on, tempting as they might be. One gives you bonus credits for completing a mission, and one gives you bonus intel, but only in very small amounts and there's no battlefield advantage tied to them. That being said, play Zero Company for a while and see if you're finding it easy: if you find you don't need that advantage to win, then try swapping out your Talent for either of those and take the small tip at the end of every combat mission.

How to change Talents in Star Wars Zero Company

You can swap out the Talents of Hawks or any other randomly generated Operator at any time you want between missions the same way you change specializations. Go to the Personnel table in the Den, and check the Focus Tree tab, then press the option to "Change Specialization" in the lower right. That will also give you the option to pick out a new Talent while you're there.

For more help in the murky sidelines of galactic war, check out how to pay the Hutt's debt in Star Wars Zero Company, or find out the best choice for Gorga's Revenge in Star Wars Zero Company!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The choice of Gorga's Revenge in Star Wars Zero Company is an early dilemma given to you about what to do with a traitor to one of the Hutts, and whether you should let him disappear or hand him over to Gorga. This is an early choice that is introducing you to the enormous amount of choices that you'll be making going forward in Star Wars Zero Company, so I'll explain exactly what this means and what the rewards involved are.

Should you let him disappear or hand him over in the Gorga's Revenge choice in Star Wars Zero Company?

Of the two choices in Gorga's Revenge In Zero Company, I suggest that you take the choice to let him disappear, with the rewards laid out thusly:

• Let him disappear.
  • Gain 3 Influence in Zone Cresh.
  • 500 Credits.
• Hand him over to Gorga.
  • Gain 5 Influence in Zone Jenth

There are not any longer term consequences beyond those rewards (beyond minor impacts on bonds with certain chaacters), and at this early phase in the game, it's more important to have the Credits than the small boost to reputation in a single sector.

That being said, it's not a huge deal either way. These are both offering very small rewards, and none of them are unique to this choice - you can make the money and the reputation back easily enough later on. What's more important is that this Choice Operation is more about establishing that you'll be making dozens of these choices across the course of the game, each one of which will have various impacts and rewards, as well as some that offer risks, potentially injuring the Operators that you assign to them.

That means that rather than a right or wrong choice, most of the time you'll have to look at your current situation and what you need (as well as what you're willing to stake) and pick accordingly.

Still constructing the ideal Hawks and team around them? Check out the best specialization and class in Star Wars Zero Company, and the best Talents in Star Wars Zero Company, and pair them together for some awesome results!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Unlockable Droids in Star Wars Zero Company are teased early on, with a broken Astromech droid back in the den that's reminscent of R2-D2, and which more than one character comments on repairing so that they can be added to the team. Droids can actually end up becoming one of the most valuable support characters in the whole game, so I'll explain how to unlock them in Zero Company, as well as how to get more of them beyond that first little robot recruit.

How to unlock Astromech Droids in Star Wars Zero Company

To unlock Astromech Droid operators in Zero Company, you need to take the following steps:

1. Progress the game until you reach Den Level 2, after paying the debt in Star Wars Zero Company.
2. You'll be given a sub-objective to Inspect the Old Astromech Droid in the Pit (next to the door). Do so.
3. Go to the Upgrade table and choose to build the Droid Repair Bay. You'll need 2000 Credits and it will take 1 Cycle to build.
4. After one mission, speak to M-3VO at the Medical Bay to add a new Droid - BR-1 - to the team as an Operator.

Once that's done, you'll be able to hire new Droids from the Recruitment table as well as the one you just got.

Astromech Droids are a unique support specialization and class in Star Wars Zero Company with certain nuances, listed below:

• They cannot be equipped with Blasters.
• They can be equipped with three different Utility items and gain additional uses out of them.
• Their Talent in Star Wars Zero Company is a Built-in Comlink that allows them to give allies additional Action Points at the cost of their own.
• They can increase the accuracy of allies and self-heal.
• They have extremely good mobility and can ascend or descend vertical surfaces without the need for stairs or similar.
• Later on they develop a secondary "Analytics" Specialization, further focused on increasing accuracy and defense of allies.

This makes Astromechs extremely powerful in certain sorts of parties, acting as a Healer/Support class. I found they pair very well with the game's one Jedi character, who burns through AP and often needs healing, both of which Droids can provide easily. However, they have no offensive abilities unless you equip them with grenades, and even then will only get a few uses per Grenade equipped.

Can you get other types of Droid?

No, there are no other types of Droid available to recruit in Star Wars Zero Company. Yes, M-3VO is a supporting character and there are plenty of different Droids present as enemies, such as the Star Wars Zero Company Destroyer Droid boss fight, but none that can be added to the team and uses in mission besides the standard Astromech droids.

For other colourful characters who can join the Operator roster, check out whether you should hire Cly Kullervo in Star Wars Zero Company?

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Hire Cly, or Don't Hire Cly? The choice in Star Wars Zero Company to recruit the Mandalorian fighter or not comes up after a certain amount of cycles spent adventuring, whereupon a surprise meeting is brought before you. Neesh introduces Cly Kullervo, the Mandalorion warrior who clearly has baggage and an unexplained agenda, and you're offered the choice as to whether you want to hire her onto the team or not. Below I'll explain the best choice for this, and whether or not Zero Company benefits by having Cly hired as an operator.

The Hire Cly choice in Star Wars Zero Company explained

According to my experiences, you should definitely hire the Mandalorian Cly Kullervo when the choice arises in Star Wars Zero Company.

Having played out both outcomes, it's largely down to whether you want to experience the subquests and loyalty missions tied to the Mandalorian's character. The game clearly also wants you to hire Cly, as if you choose not to, Neesh gives you a chance to reconsider and walk the back immediately, as if signalling that this is not the best choice.

There's one downside though: Cly's missions usually occur abruptly and have to be completed within the same day, as well as not including any meaningful rewards. This can throw a potential wrench in your long-term plans, but I'd still say it's worth it.

It's also worth pointing out that Cly Kullervo is one of the best characters in Star Wars Zero Company. She's capable of jetpacking around for increased mobility, and using electrified darts to shock enemies (reducing their movement speed) and then detonate the darts, hurting foes around them. If you've found your team struggling for raw firepower or control tactics, Cly is an excellent hire on that basis alone, capable even of bringing down a boss like the Star Wars Zero Company Droideka on her own if played right.

That being said, you'll definitely want to equip Cly accordingly. I recommend the Blaster Pistol from all the Star Wars Zero Company weapons, as rapid shots pair nicely with her skillset and need for mobility.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

To get a Jedi in Star Wars Zero Company is a bit fraught, as there's only one Jedi operator in the whole game, and if she gets killed in action, there's no replacing her. However, before we even get to that tension, you need to recruit and unlock this Padawan for your team, which I'll explain how to do in Zero Company below.

Want more iconic skillsets for your team? Find out how to hire Mandalorian Cly in Star Wars Zero Company - and whether you even should.

How to unlock Jedi Tel-Rea Vokoss in Star Wars Zero Company

To unlock the one Jedi character in Star Wars Zero Company, you simply need to progress the main story until you reach the mission "Smuggler's Den", as part of the "Jedi Undercover" quest chain. If you're solely focused on the story, you can reach this mission as early as Cycle 9.

Once you've completed the mission and completed the Star Wars Zero Company Droideka boss fight, the Jedi Padawan Tel-Rea Vokoss will be added as an operator to your team for no expense. Vokoss has a unique weapon in Star Wars Zero Company (a Lightsaber) and specialization (Jedi Padawan) that mean her playstyle and skills are different to any other character, gifted with incredible mobility and powerful melee attacks, as well as Force control powers that let her move enemies and deflect blaster shots.

Later on after recruiting Luco Bronc, Tel-Rea will also unlock a second unique specialization (Wayseeker), that enhances her abilities further. You can also unlock optional operations for her that grant her new Jedi Training powers to equip instead of utility items.

And yes, Tel-Rea Vokoss is the only Jedi in the game. You encounter others who serve as temporary allies in certain missions, but Vokoss is the only one who is added to Zero Company permanently, and who you can invest in. She's arguably one of the better best characters in Star Wars Zero Company as a result, though I'd argue not quite at the S-tier (see our attached guide for who is).

Can you get the Jedi back if she dies in Star Wars Zero Company?

If Tel-Rea Vokoss dies in a mission in Star Wars Zero Company and you've been playing with the standard permadeath option, there is no way to get another Jedi: she's unique and gone for the rest of your playthrough.

So if you enjoy playing as Vokoss and using Force powers, you'll definitely want to be careful with her as a character, which is admittedly sometimes difficult for a melee character whose deflection power necessitates she regularly get shot at without cover.

Make sure you've got a character able to heal and support her (such as a Medic specialist or Star Wars Zero Company Droid with a Med-Pac), and make sure to send her to the Medbay if she's injured between missions. Force Sensitivity is arguably one of the best Talents in Star Wars Zero Company, but you have to understand how it works, or risk ruining everything.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

There are multiple specializations in Star Wars Zero Company for players to choose between, acting essentially as the class for that character. Every character in the game has a single specialization attributed to them, and you can unlock a second specialization for them later in the campaign, effectively allowing them to multiclass.

However, what's most important is that you'll have to give Hawks, the player character and protagonist, a specialization class of their own. This can be changed later on if you have buyer's remorse, as we'll explain how to do below, but here's the best choice of class for Hawks in Star Wars Zero Company according to our experience with the game, and everything you need to know about the options on display.

For more about character building, check out our guide on the best Talents in Star Wars Zero Company, or find out which Star Wars Zero Company weapons to equip to your character!

Best specialization and class in Star Wars Zero Company

There are eight different specializations and classes for Hawks (and other characters) to choose from in Star Wars Zero Company, but I would say that the best option for Hawks specifically is one of the following three, in the following order of priority,

1. Medic: Heals and buffs allies.
2. Gunslinger: Makes multiple low-damage shots per turn.
3. Scout: Generates Advantage (used for fuelling special abilities) and marks targets.

There's a few reasons to choose these specializations: firstly, it's worth considering that Hawks has to be in a lot of the game's most important missions, so you want a character who fits into any team build - and these are all versatile, useful contributions to any Zero Company team comp.

It's also worth mentioning that out of all the characters who will later join Zero Company, none of them have the specializations above, preventing the redundancy of having two identical skillsets on the same team.

Finally, all of these are just genuinely good classes in Zero Company. The medic gets massive improvements to healing over the standard Med-Pac, the Gunslinger can be incredibly powerful if you can equip per-shot buffs and weapon mods, and the Scout is a support role that means all your other characters can use their most powerful abilities as often as possible.

How to change specialization in Star Wars Zero Company

To change the class of Hawks or any other hired character in Zero Company, you simply need to do the following:

1. Between missions, go to the Den.
2. At the back of the main room, past the Holotable, go to the counter marked "Personnel."
3. Scroll to the character whose specialization you want to change.
4. Go to the "Focus Tree" tab.
5. In the lower right corner of the screen will be an option marked "Change Specialization".

Keep in mind that you can only change the specialization of Hawks and hired operators, not story characters or Droids. Kabb, Trick, and other characters like that all have fixed specializations and talents that can't be changed.

How to unlock a second specialization

If players progress up until the point in the story where they first encounter Luco Bronc and complete the associated mission (which should take place roughly around Cycle 13-15). Once you return to the Den, you'll be able to give all characters a second specialization of your choice (with the exception of Droids and Jedi), and can customize and change them like you do anywhere else.

Certain characters pair very well with specific specializations. For example, Kabb being a melee character means he makes a very good Heavy (tank), as he's often in the middle of combat.

Here's a list of recommended secondary specializations for each character:

• Kabb: Scoundrel / Heavy
  • Kabb's melee focus means you can expect him to be in danger a lot of the time. Giving him a Heavy Tank build turns that from a problem into an asset.
• Trick: Soldier / Heavy OR Assault
  • Trick also has a melee element that means he can benefit as a tank, or you can focus on his guns by adding an Assault Class. Trick is versatile enough that there's really no obvious right or wrong option.
• Jae Mordant: Assault / Medic
  • Jae's powers and executions mean she generally has to stay close to allies, so making her a Medic is a surprisingly good way to capitalize on that.
• Cly Kullervo: Warrior / Scout
  • There's no contest here: Cly's shock darts are incredibly powerful, so giving her the ability to rapidly generate Advantage is just fuelling this overpowered ability constantly.
• Luco Bronc: Sharpshooter / Gunslinger
  • A Scout can also work, but making Luco a Gunslinger allows for a greater emphasis on critical hit damage, and allows him to fire more than once if need be.

All Specializations and Classes

Below are all the classes in Zero Company, as well as the powers and abilities tied to each one:

• Assault: Frontline fighter. Emphasis on mobility, short-range damage, and hitting enemies out of cover.
• Gunslinger: Quick shot expert. Focuses on multiple attacks that can hit a wide array of targets, or concentrate them all on one enemy.
• Heavy: Frontline tank. Can taunt enemies, counter attacks, increase their health and defensive stats.
• Medic: Backline support. Can heal, buff, and rally allies nearby better than any other class.
• Scoundrel: Versatile offense. Weakens enemies and increases damage done to them, marking targets and guaranteeing critical hits.
• Scout: Support attacker. Grants the team increased Advantage, which can be spent for powerful attacks.
• Sharpshooter: Backline sniper. Highly accurate marksman who focuses on range, overwatch, and landing guaranteed shots.
• Soldier: Mid-to-close range aggression. Uses a mixture of gunfire and explosives, with a melee strike that can daze enemies.
• Jedi Training: Melee, mobility, and control class, exclusive to the character Tel-Rea Vokoss, the only Star Wars Zero Company Jedi you can get. Unlocks Lightsaber attacks and Force powers.
• Astromech Droid: Support class, exclusive to Droid personnel. No weapons, but gets multiple uses of utility items, can increase allies' accuracy, and grant characters Action Points. If you want to know how to unlock them, check out our guide on Astromech droids in Star Wars Zero Company.

It's hard to say that there's an empirical best specialization, as all of these classes are supposed to be part of a larger team that compliment each other. For more info on that, check out our guide on the best characters and team in Star Wars Zero Company.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

There are four weapon classes in Star Wars Zero Company that you're given to pick from when you start: the Blaster Pistol, Blaster Rifle, Repeater and the Longarm Blaster, aka the game's answer to a sniper rifle. Picking out the best weapon from all these isn't easy, especially when SWZC asks you to choose early on with little information to go on, but I'm here to help explain to you the best gun for your specialization, and what you need to understand about how weapons work in Star Wars Zero Company.

What weapon class should you choose in Star Wars Zero Company?

The best weapon class to pick in Star Wars Zero Company for Hawks (and other characters later on) will vary depending on your specialization and class in Star Wars Zero Company, as well as your general playstyle for that character.

Rather than there being a definitive best gun, each weapon is supposed to match a certain sort of character build, as we'll explain below.

• Longarm Blaster. A sniper rifle that requires two Action Points for every shot, but has high damage, range and critical hit stats. It's suited for... Well, snipers! If you want to wait at the back of the combat arena, not move much, and shoot targets from a distance, this is the gun to choose. Also works well with any class that focuses on critical hit effects.
• Blaster Rifle. A middle-of-the-road weapon that requires one Action Point to fire the first time in a turn, and two for subsequent shots. With decent stats in all elements, this is the one to choose for characters and team comps in Star Wars Zero Company who exercise a mixture of mobility, firepower and versatility, and a safe choice if you're not sure.
• Blaster Pistol. This handgun does less damage but only costs one Action Point per shot, allowing players to target multiple enemies or fire multiple times on a single target. Suited for clearing out groups of weak foes, characters who emphasize mobility over damage, or those who can apply stacking status effects with every shot. Cly Kullervo, Star Wars Zero Company's Mandalorian, is a good example of a character like this.
• Repeater. Effectively a minigun or heavy machine gun, Repeaters use up all the characters remaining Action Points when fired, but their damage scales according to how many Action Points you have left. With three AP used to fire, you do huge damage to a single target! Repeaters are suited to characters who move infrequently, or who want to lay down heavy damage at the cost of all else.
• DC-17M Weapon System. Unlocked later in the campaign at the end of Trick's storyline, these weapons are specific to Clones and can only be used by them. The DC-17M can be used interchangeably in combat as a high-damage repeater, longarm sniper, and a grenade launcher, depending on which action you choose in combat, making it arguably the best weapon in the game if not for the fact that it cannot be modified, customised or upgraded in any way whatsoever.

How to change weapons in Star Wars Zero Company

To swap a character's weapons in Zero Company, you need to go to the Armory in the Den, found to the right of the central map table, run by the character Neesh.

Here, between missions, you can choose a character and select any of the four weapons to give to them (assuming that they're a character who can have their weapons swapped out, unlike Astromech Droids or the one Star Wars Zero Company Jedi character). You can also customize the weapons with Mods, which you earn as rewards and that alter their stats, or change their cosmetic appearance.

Get an early footing on the game with out story guides! Find out how to pay the debt in Star Wars Zero Company before the clock runs out, or discover the best Gorga's Revenge choice in Star Wars Zero Company!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

After a full decade without a new Heroes of Might and Magic game, Ubisoft is suddenly reviving the beloved strategy series on multiple fronts. It started with Olden Era, which launched to strong reception on Steam Early Access back in April, and it's continuing with Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake, which was just announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live. As it turns out, both games are part of one big roadmap to bringing the series back to life.

At Gamescom, we asked creative director Jean Felix Monin about why Ubisoft is remaking Heroes of Might and Magic 3 now, over a quarter-century after launch.

"It's part of a bigger strategy," he says. "We felt that the franchise had been dormant for quite a while – for more than 10 years – so we decided in 2022 to really work on a full roadmap with a couple of projects in it."

One of those projects was Olden Era, which is for people who want a "fresh take" on the series. "But at the same time, we wanted a second project," and that was Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake. The intent here is to "really federate" fans of the original who have played the original, "but maybe has not played recently," and to "attract them back to revisiting this world."

How well the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake can cater to those old fans remains to be seen, as you'll find a fair bit of backlash against the game's art style on social media. True purists at least have the option of picking up the original, which was just re-released in a complete package on Steam. Your purchase even seems to include the actual game now.

Stick with us for more as the Gamescom schedule rolls on.

Yesterday's big Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 showcase revealed a plethora of huge new games and the like, strategy sequel Humankind 2 included – but it didn't come without its share of controversies, however.

In case you missed it, Amplitude Studios unveiled Humankind 2 – an exciting follow-up to its turn-based 2021 gem – last night with a cinematic trailer… a cinematic trailer that folks online have been swearing up and down contains generative AI content.

According to the developers, though, this is not the case. The studio confirms as much over on X, replying directly to accusations dubbing its video "AI slop."

"The Humankind 2's live-action announcement trailer was filmed at Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia using real actors, practical sets, and custom-made props created specifically for the production," reads Amplitude Studio's post.

And, what's more, it looks like the devs are ready to air out some evidence to support their claims here, too, as they write, "We will be sharing behind-the-scenes images from the shoot soon."

Responses highlight that fans aren't entirely convinced – but they're hopeful nonetheless. One person comments, "Hope this is true! It's a good premise for the trailer." Another posts some screenshots from the Gamescom 2026 reveal, questioning whether or not the stills were truly made outside of gen AI.

It's a difficult conversation all around, honestly, especially with all the growing chatter surrounding the topic… regarding Humankind 2 and otherwise.

Interestingly, the Humankind 2 page is already live on Steam – and there is no AI disclosure, which Valve requires of developers who use the controversial technology.

I'm inclined to go with what the devs are saying here, then, personally, although I do understand why people feel so uneasy about the prospect of gen AI. It feels like we're seeing its use more and more at every turn, in both video game production and elsewhere.

Searching for something to play in the meantime? Browse through our handy roundup of the best strategy games out there right now for more to enjoy.

I hire Tagoz Tru fully expecting him to die. The Weequay bruiser isn't one of Star Wars Zero Company's big-name signings, like Tel-Rea the Jedi ronin or Cly Kullervo the Mandalorian bounty hunter. These characters – both of whom I have to google, just to make 100% sure they're not lifted from some Star Wars cartoon – come with their own dedicated side quests and hours of bespoke voice acting. And even they can be lost forever in battle. So what chance does a randomly rolled recruit like Tagoz have?

Better than I'd expected, as it turns out. Zero Company's permadeath is a tradition borrowed – like so many of this game's essentials – from XCOM, the seminal tactics game in which you fed faceless soldiers into an extraterrestrial meat grinder. There, finishing the campaign with a couple of dozen body bags to your name could be written off as an unqualified success.

Zero Company dangles this threat right from the beginning, killing off one of your starting roster in the tutorial, just to show that it means business. But that also illustrates just how thoroughly you need to fail for this ever to be a concern.

Death stars

A character whose health bar hits zero will drop to their knees, where a squadmate can revive them, Gears Of War-style. They'll get back up with an injury that limits their combat effectiveness, and it's only on the third wound that you lose them forever. At least on the default difficulty setting, it's pretty hard to get anyone killed, but that doesn't mean it has no effect.

Just knowing that permadeath is possible powers some brilliantly tense final turns. Most missions feature an objective – slice this computer terminal, rescue these captives – then an extraction, to pull you from one side of the map to the other. By the time the extraction zone appears, generally on the far side of an enemy reinforcement spawn point, your squad might have taken a wound or two achieving their objective. So, do you hunker down and fight off those reinforcements before a nice peaceful stroll to the exit, or just try to make a run for it?

The latter might sound like the easy option, but it can require at least as much brainpower to pull off. Each operative gets a very different mileage out of their three Action Points per turn – a heavy like Tagoz Tru isn't going to be able to keep up with a fleet-footed Jedi – and you probably still want to stick to cover, unless you've got some plan for running between the raindrops.

This leads to a lot of squinting at every character's abilities, which are presented on a thumbstick-friendly radial wheel. Is there some way of shunting spare AP from your speedier characters to the slowpokes? Can you tie up the pursuing foe with overwatch covering fire, or protect a more exposed route using smoke grenades?

Finally, if one of the retreating party does take a hit and get downed, do you send someone back to revive them, at the risk of the rescuer also catching a laser bullet? Once there's at least one body in the extraction zone, you can choose to end the mission there and then, leaving the others behind MIA. I'm not entirely sure how this works, though, because I can never quite bring myself to do it. No man – or Weequay – left behind.

Base elements

Back at base, you're dropped into the body of Hawks, the custom-created protagonist you can bring into missions as another unit (but, story requirements aside, don't need to). Wandering about the place in over-the-shoulder third person, chatting with squadmates, it's all very reminiscent of being aboard the Normandy, in Mass Effect.

Zooming the camera in from the aerial perspective of turn-based battles, to show that these little chess pieces actually have detailed faces and expressive animations is a cool trick, and it all holds up impressively well to close scrutiny. But look past all that and you'll find something that once again hews pretty close to the XCOM formula.

There are research projects for you to choose between, providing upgrades which won't bear fruit until after your next sortie, and opportunities to convert experience earned in missions into level-up rewards. There's also a med-bay where you can heal up those injuries, in exchange for cold hard credits. Even in the glory days of the Galactic Republic, it seems, the galaxy didn't offer free healthcare.

Running Zero Company, the eponymous mercenary outfit headed up by Hawks, you never have quite enough money to afford everything you want. That next big-ticket upgrade is tantalizingly out of reach, unless you're willing to let a couple of employees tick along with permanent injuries. So yes, it might look different – and incredibly shiny – but underneath it's that same old 'just one more go' XCOM magic.

Personally, I don't have a huge problem with Zero Company's reticence to reinvent the wheel. Not least because, well, it's a really damn good wheel. Besides, it's been long enough.

In the decade since XCOM 2, we've been blessed with a wide variety of takes on the format, from Into The Breach's bonsai-tree perfection to Mewgenics' wild excesses. And of course, Marvel's Midnight Suns, the missing link between XCOM and Zero Company, which was more experimental (for good and ill).

Having played them all, I've still got room in my heart for a more conventional take – especially one with the kind of big-budget production values I never expected to see lavished on this genre. Even when the game is idling, waiting for you to punch in your next set of orders, laser fire will dance across the battlefield, as both sides lay down suppressive fire. Occasionally, one of these blasts will connect with Tel-Rea's lightsaber and be deflected with an effortless flick of the wrist. And every time, my eyes light up like a child watching their favourite toys come to life.

This spectacle is offset, however, by frequent technical issues. Beautiful as they are, the animations don't always line up perfectly – I often find myself cursing a shot that has missed its mark, before the game catches up a second or two later, remembers to display a damage number and my target crumples to the ground. The camera can struggle to keep up, too, so that I'm left to watch some pivotal manoeuvres from the far side of a wall. A day-0 patch has been promised that will hopefully iron out these kinks, but they persist throughout my time with Zero Company, right up until the eve of launch.

Tru faith

Still, none of these bugs – nor the game's more conservative design choices – is enough to dampen my enthusiasm for just one more go. And shallow as it might sound, at least some of that comes down to the fact that Zero Company isn't just an XCOM-like game but a true Star Wars game.

There's something deep in my DNA that will always thrill at the sight of an R2-style Astromech launching a health stim from the top of its head, across the battlefield and into the waiting hand of a Jedi. When my scoundrel-class unit automatically finishes off an enemy clinging onto their last two health points with a quick burst from their blaster, it carries all the associations of Han and Greedo in the Cantina. Playing Zero Company has even helped give me a fresh fondness for the Prequel Trilogy droid army. Those might not be great films, but that's not the fault of Lucasfilm's art department, and the Droideka is a design classic.

These superficial boosts aside, what can Star Wars offer the tactics genre? A veritable toybox of abilities for you to play with.

In my campaign, Tel-Rea barely ever ignites her lightsaber, because I'm too busy Force Pushing and Pulling enemies into crates and over the edge of cliffs, and positioning her in 'Noble Stance', the overwatch-equivalent ability that returns blaster fire to sender. Cly Kullervo has a Boba Fett-style jetpack that not only allows her to flank enemies but spits a circle of fire wherever it lands; touching down in the middle of a now-burning crowd, you can follow up with a few quick-draw shots from her blaster pistol, each refunding your AP as long as it's fatal.

As you move up the upgrade trees, even the more unassuming characters can grow into distinctive heroes. I spec Tagoz Tru into a damage-eating tank, making the most of the high health and defence he had when I recruited him (stat boosts attributed, in a wonderfully characterful touch, to his history of hard labor). This is not exactly an unusual role for a unit in a tactics game, admittedly. But then there's this mission, one that begins with my objective complete and demands only that the squad make it safely to the extraction, with a Vulture drone hot on their heels, blowing up sections of the level and insta-killing anyone lagging behind.

I let the rest of the squad run ahead to safety while Tagoz brings up the rear, using his taunt and retaliation abilities to draw and then return enemy fire. When things begin to get hairy even for his formidable health bar, Tagoz is protected by a smoke grenade courtesy of my little Astromech, then buffed with a performance-enhancing stim from Hawks.

So, the mission ends with Tagoz drugged up to the eyeballs and shrouded in smoke, the gray cloud lighting up red and blue by incoming and outbound blaster fire, as a strafing drone closes in overhead. I fully expect him to die – and what a way to go! – but at the last minute, a change of heart: Hawks and the Astromech can surrender their own AP and pass it over to their Weequay saviour.

Tagoz dodges laser and rockets and makes it to the extraction, on the last turn before everything gets blown to hell. It's a perfect reminder of why I play every XCOM-style tactics game that comes along, and all the sweeter for knowing that, having brought Tagoz along not much caring if he lived or died, I can't stand to lose him to permadeath – and for how perfectly Star Wars this moment feels. I'm willing to forgive a lot, for a game that can leave me feeling like I've dropped a proton torpedo down the exhaust shaft of my own personal Death Star.

Star Wars Zero Company was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.

Check out our best strategy games ranking for more battles that'll make you think!

Following the reveal of the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 remake, Ubisoft released the classic strategy game on PC… but forgot to include the game files in the download.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is a beloved strategy game, but one you would want to avoid on Steam if you were keen to try it out. The only version of the game available on Valve's storefront for the longest time was the 2015 Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD Edition, developed by Dotemu. It is an okay way to play the game, but it was merely the base game, with its expansions missing. Thankfully, you could always get Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Complete on GOG.

As such, with the announcement of Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026, you could imagine why plenty would have been excited, especially because Ubisoft decided to shadowdrop the original complete edition onto Steam alongside it. But as the "Mostly Negative" rating on Steam may give away, it didn't go to plan.

As PC Gamer spotted, players who purchased the classic strategy game soon discovered that the download is only 23.49 KB, and while some older games are quite small, that's clearly not right. Turns out, the only file included is an executable, and none of the actual game files were included in the download.

The Might and Magic Twitter account was swift to respond: "Thank you to everyone who brought this to our attention. We investigated the issue and can confirm it has now been resolved. We appreciate the community's patience and reports while we worked on a fix and apologize for any inconvenience caused."

Thankfully, players are reporting that a 770 MB update was released about 11 hours after the game was released on Steam, so now you can purchase a game on Steam and actually get the game! What a novel concept!

After Ubisoft canceled its remake, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time gets an enhanced version from GOG

My empire in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake collapses with the grace of a dizzy donkey. Like many of history's greatest civilizations, the cause of its downfall is a tale as old as time: a necromancer with five ghost dragons.

In my defence, this is my first time stepping into Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (your honor, I was two when it launched in 1999). My interest in its remake lies less in its authenticity, then, and more in how it stacks up against my usual rotation of strategy games. Think Total War: Warhammer 3, XCOM, and any other turn-based malarky I can get my hands on.

The good news is that Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake slips into that pantheon like an overqualified god. Just a few hours with the game, including a brief story-driven prologue and a sandbox-style match on reimagined map Arrogance 2026, is enough to convince me that my two-year-old self should have been on this from day one.

A hero's welcome

Your time in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake is divided between exploring an overworld map (each 'turn' is a day), and fighting rival heroes and their armies in turn-based hexagonal combat. Cities can be conquered, securing their resources and allowing you to recruit from their denizen pool – a fiery hovel below-ground makes for an excellent source of demons, for example, while a tower high in the mountains can be repurposed to churn out powerful golems.

Building an army takes time. Recruitment buildings in your cities determine which fighters (and how many) are drawn to your banner each week. It's a neat feature for both balance and immersion, as it means you can't snap your fingers to replenish troops after a close battle. When rival hero Thorgrim lands an army on my shores, I march my biggest blob of pikemen, archers, and griffins to stop him. The battle is a slugfest, and although I win, my surviving forces are left tattered and I suspect I should have waited for a bigger advantage before picking a fight.

My only experience with HoMM is dabbling in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era for an hour, but the series' systems are very straightforward to pick up.

Attack and movement indicators make positioning easy to understand, and my tactics boil down to bogging melee foes down with pikemen while my archers and fast-flying Archangels cut down their backlines. Multiple units can be stacked into one, which is reflected in their health and damage – one hex can hold hundreds of pikemen that attack as one cohesive force, but with low individual health, an attack from, say, a ghost dragon can kill tens in one swoop.

Similarly, bigger units (say, a ghost dragon) are much hardier, requiring focused fire to take down. When I finally have enough troops to march on Thorgrim's tower across the sea, killing just one of his massive Titans requires using my hero to sling lightning while siege engines and archers pelt the construct with arrows.

It's smooth sailing right up until I uncover a gateway leading underground – revealing another layer of the map to fight over. Not that there's much fighting left to be done.

I recruit a necromancer hero and send her to the depths, in hopes of finding weaker units to kill and raise, only to be accosted by a far stronger necromancer with five (five!) ghost dragons. My own hero melts like fat off bone, and with the rest of my forces away fighting Thorgrim – and all recruitment pools bare from having bolstered them – my cities are defenseless.

My preview ends just as the gateway spills its undead guts onto the surface. The writing's on the wall – in a few more days, there would be nothing but ash and spectral scales and where my civilization once stood.

Coming into HoMM 3 Remake blind, I'm hooked on its high-fantasy flavor and no-frills strategy. But some changes are designed for long-time fans. The technology behind HoMM 3 Remake is capable of replicating existing and community-made maps from the 1999 original, switching their 20th-century graininess for lush modernity without losing each tile's functionality; alongside quality of life tweaks like attack previews.

It's a welcome surprise to see HoMM 3 given a new lease of life so soon after the runaway success of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. With the series' core proving remarkably timeless, HoMM 3 seems likely to bring even more new fans into the fold – myself included.

Here are the best strategy games to try out next if you're hankering for more tactical adventures!

It seems to be a bad time to be working in Paradox Interactive's marketing department, as the publisher has apparently just leaked its next big announcement. It appears that Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 will bring us the reveal of Afterworld, a post-apocalyptic grand strategy game that sounds like Fallout meets Crusader Kings.

Reddit user DimDimio first discovered the name of Afterworld while browsing the official Paradox Forum, where it appeared in a list of "unreleased games" in the site's filters. They then followed Paradox's typical URL conventions to track down the game's official Discord server, which describes Afterworld like this: "Lead a tribe of survivors, rediscover ancient technology, manage wasteland settlements and wage wars of conquest and political struggle in Afterworld, an original post-apocalyptic survival grand strategy game."

I've been unable to independently verify any of this – mentions of Afterworld have apparently been scrubbed from the forum, with no Archive.org backup, and it seems Paradox quickly cut off access to that Discord – but this all matches with the developer's official teases of its new project.

Paradox's official website features a big teaser for its "next grand strategy game," with a countdown set to end during Gamescom Opening Night Live. In the background, a desert storm obscures a scene featuring half-buried structures, a machete, and a stick plunged into the ground with a makeshift flag attached. Sure looks like it could be a teaser for a post-apocalyptic strategy game about laying claim to a newly ravaged world.

Paradox's brand of grand strategy tends to focus much more on politics and relationships between governing leaders than other strategy titles, and while there is potential for plenty of military conflict in these games, it's usually just one factor in a wide array of gameplay systems. I guess we'll find out for sure what Paradox has in store when Opening Night Live broadcasts on August 25.

We've got the whole Gamescom 2026 schedule broken down for you right here.

Anime Origins codes can give you a boost when fighting off waves of enemies, as they'll help you gain more powerful units to summon. As well as unlocking fresh units, they'll also allow you upgrade and evolve them more quickly so you can form the strongest defense force possible.

The promos available will provide you with a generous number of free trait rerolls to secure better stats through RNG, as well as increasing your balance of gems and other resources that are crucial for this Roblox experience. If you want to know more, then these are the codes for Anime Origins and how to redeem them.

If you're searching for some more general promos that will apply to all of your experiences, then we've got the latest Roblox promo codes covered.

All Anime Origins codes

The following Anime Origins codes are available to claim:

• TowerFixed – 2,000x Gems, 30x Trait Rerolls, 65x Scorpion Tokens new!
• RBD! – 2,000x Gold, 10x Azure Remnants, 5x Violet Remnants new!
• AuraMonster – 1,111x Gems, 11x Trait Rerolls, 11x Stat Prisms new!
• Update1 – 10x Trail Rerolls, 10x Perfect Stat Prisms, 10x Stat Prisms new!
• Origins – 20x Stat Prisms, 10x Perfect Stat Prisms
• AO – 25x Trait Rerolls
• Release! – 1,750x Gems

Codes for Anime Origins unlock a range of rewards, with plenty of Gems and Trait Rerolls included alongside other resources such as Prisms and Remnants. There is an in-game note stating that codes will be limited to players who are level 10+ following release, though at the time of writing that is not in effect.

How to redeem Anime Origins codes

To redeem Anime Origins codes, all you need to do is hit that Codes gift icon on the right of the screen, which will bring up the Codes menu. Use the Enter Code text box to type in a promo, then tap the Redeem button to receive your reward. Bear in mind that codes for Anime Origins are case-sensitive, so you need to enter them exactly as they're presented on our list or they'll be treated as invalid.

Expired Anime Origins codes

• 100K! – 25x Trait Reroll, 10x Perfect Stat Prism, 10x Stat Prism, 1,000x Gems
• ChallengesFixed – 10x Trait Rerolls, 750x Gems, 10x Azure Remnants, 5x Violet Remnants, 2x Radiant Remnants, 1x Prismatic Remnant
• GAMESPEED – 750x Gems, 10x Trait Rerolls, 5x Stat Prisms
• TYKaito! – 1,000x Gems, 25x Trait Rerolls, 5x Stat Prisms
• THANKYOU! – 10x Trait Rerolls, 10x Perfect Stat Prisms

There are now some expired Anime Origins codes, as the developer starts to retire active promos. In general promos rarely last for long, so make sure you've used all of the active codes listed earlier while you can.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

I'm a big fan of turn-based tactics and strategy games, be they my beloved XCOM, Marvel Midnight Suns, Into the Breach, or plenty more besides, so I was definitely intrigued when I first heard about Star Wars Zero Company, the newest addition to the genre set within George Lucas' iconic galaxy far, far away. However, after a chance to speak with two of the leading minds behind Zero Company and playing a preview build of the game for the best part of a week, there's a clear desire on behalf of the developer, Bit Reactor, not to just be yet another in the endless "tactical" morass.

"I want people to think 'this is a great game', I don't want to think of it as a tactics game," says game director Greg Foertsch, who feels modern gaming tastes extend beyond genre. "I don't want to think of it as anything else. I think gamers are more sophisticated now." He goes on to compare it to developing musical tastes, the way that Spotify playlists and similar have exposed people to new songs that they might otherwise have missed, enriching them in the process.

Planning the approach

Talking with Foertsch and narrative director Aaron Contreras, confidence in their audience's literacy comes up more than once, even if it's in the strangely niche inspirations behind it. "We want to build on [Star Wars] from what we've already seen in the TV and film," explains Contreras. "So screwball comedy, film noir, mid-century spy, John LeCarre stuff. I was just bombarding my writing team with influences from there. Our main character is called Hawks, explicitly as an homage to Howard Hawks, who's the director of movies like His Girl Friday or Only Angels Have Wings."

The latter, about a group of pilots in the 1930s, is a major touchstone for Zero Company, which focuses on a mercenary strike force during the Clone Wars who put aside their ideological differences to shoot people for money. "When I joined, we already had the notion of the team that would eventually be named Zero Company operating in this liminal space between the front lines and covert operations, sort of in the middle," says Contreras "That naturally lends itself to a tactical strategy game where you've got people going out and doing sneaky stuff, but you're also doing shooty-shooty all the time."

That murky, grey space is a recurring theme in Zero Company, with your advisors and employers all holding differing worldviews (or galaxyviews, perhaps) and may consequently get shirty with you depending on the choices you make – the choice of whether to hand over a snitch to an enraged mobster springs to mind. "The Clone Wars, for lots of reasons, was just a really natural fit," says Foertsch. "The political climate, all the guardedness of everybody. You don't know who to trust. Like the biases, political and non-political, that people had really lent itself to us telling this kind of story."

Having played it myself, I wouldn't say that Zero Company is a politically charged-game, not in the way that Andor was. Politics exist within the game, but they're largely presented in the same vein as sports teams, and protagonist Hawks pointedly doesn't care who's side you're on as long as they're shooting lasers in the right direction. "If you're a good pilot and you're there when we need you, you're one of us," says Contreras, speaking for their hero.

That tense collaboration will definitely be familiar to those experienced in the tactical strategy genre. Foertsch was the art director for genre titans XCOM 2 and Enemy Unknown before leaving Firaxis and founding Bit Reactor, with gameplay headed up by fellow XCOM veteran and Marvel Midnight Suns alum James Brawley.

XCOM definitely casts a long shadow, perhaps even more than Star Wars itself. I'm steering a small strike force through turn-based encounters, dashing between cover and firing at aliens, before grabbing a paycheck and returning to headquarters to knock together new facilities and hand out different flavors of grenade. But despite gamers being "more sophisticated" than they used to be, there's a clear effort being made to open up Zero Company to gamers who might normally be a bit intimidated by a more niche genre.

Having a player-made hero on the battlefield, rather than micro-managing through earpieces, was part of that effort to adapt, and non-negotiable to Contreras. "I pretty much said, 'if you want me to come on board, Greg, we need to have a character who's driving the story, who's there, who's on the ground, because that's who we empathize with in Star Wars. You're there with Han and Leia and Luke in the field. If we have an avatar character, that character needs to be there on the ground.'"

Do, or do not

It's for that reason that permadeath, often a staple of the genre, was nearly abandoned in the design phase. "We had a healthy debate around that, and at times I took the perspective that we should pull it," says Contreras. "I'm really happy we landed where we did with permadeath, and I'm very happy it's part of the game."

I am too. Permadeath is a sharper edge in a game that is perhaps a little too eager to sand them down, at least in my experience of it so far. Run, take cover, shoot if you have a target, go to overwatch if you don't. These are very familiar beats, and while Zero Company can certainly be fun, it doesn't yet gel with these ambitious goals and inspirations, nor entirely match with an earlier presentation from Foertsch that bordered on fiery, when he said that "the tactics genre has the most potential to be innovative, the most room to grow," and said "this is where the genre until now had just scratched the surface," when it came to providing cinematic experiences.

That's not to say that Zero Company is without its wildcard elements. Jedi and Astromech droids later join the team, allowing you to roll a quartet of beeping, quasi-sentient mailboxes into a firefight and wish them good luck, which is undeniably entertaining and hopefully a sign of greater creativity to come, particularly in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 world where turn-based dynamics have returned to the mainstream.

Space combat, perhaps? "No, we've done some games before that had interception and stuff," says Foertsch, referring to XCOM. "Each game kind of dictates what it needs, and in this case, that was one of the things, like fog of war, that just wasn't something that made sense to us early on."

Despite its simplicity, I still enjoyed my preview of Zero Company, and hope it carves out more of an identity as it progresses past that first act. Foertsch's "sophisticated" comment sticks with me in part because I feel sure that a sophisticated audience could handle a more complex dish than what I've sampled so far.

Still, it was only a preview build, and whatever the final result, Bit Reactor's passion is undeniable. "We hope that's recognized by the audience and see that we're trying to honor this great legacy of the genre of strategy games while picking our battles about where we must step up."

Star Wars Zero Company is out on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC on August 27, 2026.

Want an early tactical fix before Zero Company flies into view? Find out the best strategy games you can play right now!

The line between a good turn-based strategy game and a great turn-based strategy game is not a clear one, but after 12 hours with Star Wars Zero Company, I'm afraid it strays ever-so-slightly onto the wrong side of that line. It's a solid tactics game; grounded in its setting, satisfying in its combat, and with squad-based progression that's quick to reward intelligent choices. But it's also lacking the playful spark I think it needs to sustain what promises to be a meaty campaign.

Zero Company is a mercenary outfit that finds itself working for Republic Intelligence during the Clone Wars. Led by player-character Hawks, who I outfit as a sharpshooter in my hands-on, the crew is a rag-tag group of exiles from around the galaxy: discharged clone Trick; one-armed boxer Kabbney; exiled aristocrat Jae. Your medbay droid is also your pilot, your mechanic is clueless, and your accountant is a stressed-out former Separatist with a giant chip on their shoulder. Your debt to the Hutts is coming due, and while Zero Company's narrative thrust is hardly unique in that sense, it's enough to get the ball rolling on a story that weaves through the background of one of Star Wars' most sprawling eras.

All those different characters might imply an array of different playstyles, but for the first several missions you're limited to a group of characters that rely almost entirely on their skills with a rifle. Different weapons allow for different strategies; Hawks stays at the back with the sniper, which I'm quick to enhance with weapon mods and an ability that heightens their damage and accuracy as long as they stay in one place; Trick will unload as much of his weapon as he can in one burst, doing more damage the more Action Points he uses; Kabbney and Jae, who round out my team for almost the entire preview, juggle melee attacks and the ability to fire twice if you manage your AP effectively.

All that shooting could be augmented by character-specific abilities. Hawks hands out extra AP. Trick can charge up a long-range explosive strike. 'Utilities' – throwable items like grenades or stims – offer alternative ways to help friends or hurt foes. But, the best way to chew through enemies quickly is to make use of Zero Company's Backup system. Each turn, one character can call for help, instructing a given ally to fire a free shot at a given target. When properly lined up, and with abilities like Overwatch also in the mix, Backup adds a tactical edge that can see even the spongiest foes go down in a hail of blaster fire.

Who shot first?

That careful arrangement of all your sights in the same direction is one of Zero Company's most satisfying tactical systems when it works in your favor. But, it quickly starts to feel like a bit of a one trick droid. As much as mowing down squads of battle droids is as cathartic as it is in the best Star Wars games, it's not likely to hold up a 30-hour campaign.

The intended solution is in characters that move away from the traditional blaster-focused combat. Early on, one of those is an Astromech droid who rolls into battle armed not with a blaster, but with a cocktail of grenades and the ability to buff allies and disrupt enemies. Later on, you join forces with a Jedi Padawan whose kit focuses on controlling the battlefield – Force pushing enemies around and deflecting blaster fire back at them.

The trouble is, those characters don't really feel different enough from their traditional counterparts to warrant their existence in your squad, especially once you account for the bond-based progression system that encourages using the same team, and a permadeath system that's far too soft to require actually rotating through new characters. A pyromaniacal support droid and a Jedi should feel like brand-new ways to experience Zero Company, but they interact with the limited combat arenas in a way that's too similar to everyone else.

And that's where Zero Company fails to become a great tactics game so far. The best turn-based RPGs of the past decade are those that show you a battlefield and a ruleset, and set you free to navigate them as you see fit. Sometimes, that means games like Baldur's Gate 3 where combat is an enormous sandbox. Other times, it means the guesswork and deadly stakes of XCOM 2. Even on a small scale, the likes of Fights in Tight Spaces and Tactical Breach Wizards prove that a playful approach – driven by experimentation rather than optimization – are what elevate an amazing strategy game. Zero Company is perfectly competent, but it's missing the whimsy that it should have been able to take from a galaxy far, far away.

Here are some of the best tactical RPGs you can play while you wait for Zero Company.

The two makers of physics-based tower defense game Sir, We Have an Orc Problem are officially Steam millionaires.

After an explosive launch that brought in $360,000 of revenue in just 24 hours, small German developer Mumpitz Games says its orc-obliterating strategy game has now earned $1,053,927 in gross revenue after "exactly one week," or $898,460 in net revenue with taxes, refunds, and chargebacks removed.

Bear in mind, this game took four months to make, though it was notably made by people with many years of experience and other games under their belt. Obviously, more fees will also be cut out of this lump sum, including Valve's Steam tax, but that's still an enviable payday.

Importantly, the game is good. Short and sweet, Sir, We Have an Orc Problem sits at 2,106 Steam reviews averaging 86% positive. According to the dev's Steam backend data, the median player is putting 5 hours and 20 minutes into the game, which is more than enough to finish it according to many Steam reviews. And I do love me a short, $10 game.

"We will continue to improve the game," Mumpitz adds in its Twitter post. One of the devs previously admitted that, yeah, the art "kinda looks bad to be honest," hoping "maybe we can make it a bit prettier soon."

I do want to pause on those numbers for a minute, because this is a useful example of how wide the reviews-to-sales ratio can swing on Steam. With just over 2,100 reviews but over 128,000 copies sold, Sir, We Have an Orc Problem is averaging around one review per 60 units, which is far above the common napkin math estimate of about one to 30 or so.

Responding to a recent Twitter reply which argued the game has a solid cure but "the balance, art, depth, content are really lackluster," the Mumpitz account says, "I appreciate the valid feedback."

There's also another important number in this mix, and it's something many small teams dream of after releasing a game on Steam. Sir, We Have an Orc Problem is going to keep selling, and it's already comfortably above the revenue threshold believed to be used by Valve when sending out gifts of chocolate.

As Steam sleuth Chris Zukowski explained last year (after the Peak devs lamented previously missing Valve's coveted "chocolate tier"), Steam developers who earn approximately $800,000 in annual revenue receive an actual box of chocolate, estimated to be worth around $150, from Valve as a little thank-you and congratulations. If you cross $2 million or so, your chocolate is apparently upgraded to a $250 gourmet box.

There's a lot of 2026 left, so while Sir, We Have an Orc Problem will surely slow down after the launch sales boom, I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up hitting $2 million eventually. It is, after all, in what Zukowski calls "real Steam," the algorithmic promised land that will keep a game ticking over until the sun burns out.

An "extremely challenging" action game is spreading like fire on Steam, with nearly 1,800 reviews that are 92% positive after a week.

It's official – Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is bringing back another fan-favorite character from Three Houses, but believe it or not, that still doesn't help clarify the timeline of the two games or which one comes first.

Today's Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave Direct was a treat – the latest footage details the different story routes, our true protagonist, and the fact that there'll be a Three Houses-style time skip, but one major detail was also included in such a nonchalant way that you might have missed it altogether.

When showing off some of Fortune's Weave's advanced character classes, we're shown the Dragoon class. We see a man with green and yellow hair riding on the back of a dragon, and – looking at his name in the bottom corner of the screen – that's literally just Seteth. In Three Houses, he's the stern, mature-looking wyvern rider faithful to Archbishop Rhea, and here, he's, uh, rocking a bandana and some really bad hair dye.

No, seriously, look at him. He's largely got bright yellow hair, but his natural green eyebrows are still intact, and his green hair is poking through at the roots and in patches at the tips. Clearly he didn't apply his bleach very evenly, or recently, for that matter.

Although some had correctly speculated that this character was Seteth when he appeared in a previous trailer, it's understandable that some are surprised by his adventurous new look, to put it politely. "Seteth why are you here. Why do you have the world's shittiest dye job. I can see your fucking green tips and eyebrows," one post reads, as another replies: "Ohhh they just fucked his shit UP."

Another Seteth fan asks the important question: "Why did they put seteth back but gave him a bad bleach job without his purple shampoo or toner[?]" Other reactions include "I hate this wig on you sis," and "he looks so chopped," even if folks are excited that he's back. "That's father right there," one sagely says.

But what does this mean for the timeline of Three Houses and Fortune's Weave? Well, frankly, it doesn't help, but we need to delve into some Three Houses spoilers to explain why, so proceed with caution.

In Three Houses, it's revealed that Seteth is Nabatean – a descendant of Sothis who can turn into a dragon. That also means he's extremely old, even if he doesn't look it. It's thought that he's over 1,000 years old in the 2019 game.

With that in mind, he could feasibly be alive well before Three Houses took place, or significantly after it. Of course, we've already seen a more adult-looking Sothis, but that doesn't necessarily narrow things down either – after all, Sothis looks a lot older in a depiction of her in some mural-style Three Houses artwork, as well as in a brief shot in its opening cutscene. So, once again, Fortune's Weave could feasibly be far in the past or future.

For now, it seems that part still remains a mystery. For now, though, we're just left with questions – namely, who did Seteth's hair, and why did he decide against his lovely beard?

Switch 2 gets its second $80 game in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, as former Nintendo marketing lead says the publisher knows "fans of that series are as die-hard as they come."

Mumpitz Games just released Sir, We Have an Orc Problem on Steam. It's a classic little tower defense game about placing upgrading turrets then watching them chew through an army of green monsters. It is also the 15th best-selling game on Steam at the time of writing, and has generated over $360,000 in revenue for its two devs since its July 28 launch – a stunning example of how quick, fun ideas can explode on Steam and potentially change the lives of creators.

In a lengthy post-mortem shared to the gamedev subreddit, Mumpitz co-lead KaTeKaPe (who I'm going to call Kape) explains that the team shrunk from three people to two after the November 2025 release of Tiny Auto Knights, the studio's first Steam release. Importantly, Kape and their partner had both been "programming for over 10 years and more than half of that time professionally in the games industry," so they had plenty of experience.

Tiny Auto Knights took about a year and a half to make and, with Steam, publisher, and other cuts removed, netted the team around $30,000 after nine months. "So around $7k per year per dev. Not that great. After that game we decided to split up and we continued with only two devs," Kape explains.

Sir, We Have an Orc Problem is doing a bit better. "We made $361,657 gross revenue in the first 24 hours after releasing our 4 month game," Kape's post exclaims.

It's reviewing well on Steam, too: 89% positive after 550 reviews. It probably helps that it's only $10, or $9 with the 10% launch discount.

The game's impressive physics add a lot to the tower defense formula. Orcs clog up map choke points like a river of green, perfect for deployed abilities like bombing runs to blow thousands of 'em to smithereens.

"All of those numbers are still a bit unbelievable and we will surely need some more days to realize what actually just happened," they add.

"There was definitely some luck involved, but I strongly believe that there is a golden era for indie games right now," Kape continues, echoing the likes of Steam sleuth Chris Zukowski. "There are so many devs that just make a fun little game and somehow it sells exceptionally well. You just have to put your game out (social media, playtests, whatever) and let people see and play it. If there's some 'magic' to it, you will know immediately. And if there isn't, you have to decide if you want to finish the game because you personally like it or if you want to move on to something else."

Kape says the main inspiration for Sir, We Have an Orc Problem was another incremental tower defense game called Outhold, which, like Mumpitz' latest, has reviewed very well on Steam. The idea was to take a "very early, very ugly physics based tower defense prototype" and crank it to 11 with tech that allows for roughly a bazillion enemies on-screen.

The team showed off prototypes for the idea in social media posts, and soon "people were begging us for a Steam page so they can wishlist the game." The Steam page for Sir, We Have an Orc Problem went up April 9, and after some cheap promotion and Steam Next Fest demo success, ended up with quite the queue.

"We didn't spend any money on marketing, other than $200 for the Best Indie Games showcase," Kape clarifies.

Amusingly, Kape responded to a Reddit comment calling the game "an amazing example of how a gamedev with no 'artistic' ability can still make a really successful game if the gameplay shines," but not wanting to outright say "your game looks bad."

"It kinda looks bad to be honest," Kape reckons. "Maybe we can make it a bit prettier soon."

Steam indie hit Meccha Chameleon made more money than any other PC game last month apart from Fortnite, according to new data.

Star Wars Zero Company, the upcoming strategy game from a studio of former XCOM leads, has always been billed as exactly that: a turn-based tactics game livened up by the soap operatic flair of the Star Wars universe. Still, as with XCOM, there are bound to be various RPG elements specifically in its progression and class systems, but narratively, mostly everything's going to be on rails, studio Bit Reactor has confirmed.

As spotted by PC Gamer, the studio recently hosted a Discord Q&A and answered some key questions about Star Wars Zero Company, including whether there will be branching paths and romance options. No and no was the answer, more or less.

"There aren't any romance systems or branching paths," reads the studio's response. "While we are excited about pushing the genre forward with a more cinematic approach, this is still a turn-based tactics game at its heart where adept skill and strategy are needed to overcome tense combat challenges."

The developer did specify that there will be "story moments that can alter based on who you have in your squad, but the overall story is a linear one from beginning to end." And speaking of which, that ending "will be largely the same for everyone."

Again, this isn't a massive surprise given Bit Reactor's pedigree, and as a big XCOM fan I'm actually encouraged to hear the former devs are doubling down on what they do best. After all, RPG fans already have a feast on the horizon with the Knights of the Old Republic remake, although to be fair it's been a hot minute since we've seen or heard anything about that game.

Here are the best Star Wars games to play right now.

It would be easy to forget amid the whirlwind of Palworld 1.0 coming out just two weeks ago that Pocketpair handles other games as well. The latest indie project to emerge from the publisher is an island-builder that looks both incredibly clever and like it'll completely absorb all your time given half a chance.

The game in question is known as Clicky Islands, it's got an easy, pixelated aesthetic, and it comes from a pair of Polish developers known as Karrot Games. Pocketpair shares a new look at the release, which merges town management, clicker mechanics and the satisfaction of watching your creation gradually become autonomous.

"It's a really fun mix of clicker, incremental, automation and town building!" John 'Bucky' Buckley, head of communications and publishing at Pocketpair, says on Twitter. "It is, I promise, very addictive!"

He would say that, but he also points towards a new demo on Steam on the back of Pocketpair distributing the game, and I can tell you, there's definitely something here. Even after just a few minutes of playing, I could feel myself getting sucked in, which is a good sign for anything.

My first impressions were brief, but I'm immediately taken by just how quickly Clicky Islands gets you moving. The early game of city builders can be a little slow, as you're guided through all the menus and mechanics, but this is much more about just, well, clicking around and seeing how you go. The use of Factorio-type automation for how your civilization operates makes it immensely satisfying.

The clicker elements push you to make quick decisions too. I eagerly await more, and the full version is set for this year at some point.

Palworld lead promises "you will always be able to play" Pocketpair's survival game: "Why would you assume it had an 'end of service?'"

Anime Expedition codes will give you a significant head start in this tower defense experience, where you summon units from across the world of anime. Once you've assembled your team, you can process on your own or with friends to fight off enemies and continue your journey.

Initially the developers were particularly generous with Anime Expedition codes, with plenty of promos available to stock up on Equipment and Stat Locks and Rerolls to modify units, along with Trait Crystals and Gems to spend in this Roblox experience, though these have recently become less frequent. To prepare for your travels, these are the codes for Anime Expeditions and how to redeem them.

If you're looking for general promos that can be used in all of your experiences, then we've got the current Roblox promo codes covered.

All Anime Expeditions codes

The following Anime Expeditions codes can be claimed right now:

• Eclipse – 50x Trait Crystals, 25x Equipment Rerolls (expires September 12, 2026)

The number of codes for Anime Expeditions ebbs and flows, and at times there are no active promos available, though that usually doesn't happen for long. When available, the rewards from these codes usually add up to a significant number of crystals, rerolls, locks, and gems, so stack all of them up when you can and you'll be in a solid position to make good progress.

How to redeem Anime Expeditions codes

To redeem Anime Expeditions codes, you just need to tap the (...) icon at the top of the screen, then choose Redeem Codes from the menu that pops up. This will then take you to the Codes screen, where you can use the Enter Code... text box to type in a promo before using the Redeem Code button to claim your reward. The good news is that codes for Anime Expeditions are not case-sensitive, so as long as you use the correct spelling it doesn't matter about capitalization.

Expired Anime Expeditions codes

• fastrestart! – 25x Trait Crystals
• 250klikes – 1,000x Sand Dollars, 25x Equipment Rerolls, 25x Trait Crystals
• 8thCompany – 50x Stat Rerolls, 25x Trait Crystals
• EvolutionsFix – 25x Trait Crystals
• SummerSiege – 50x Equipment Rerolls, 800x Sand Dollars [Level 25]
• LighthingGod – 20x Trait Crystals, 500x Sand Dollars [Level 25]
• Update2 – 50x Stat Rerolls, 20x Trait Crystals
• EclipseSoon – 50x Trait Crystals
• QuickRestart! – 25x Trait Crystals
• 700mvisits – 50x Trait Crystals, 30x Equipment Rerolls, 30x Stat Rerolls
• patch1.0 – 100x Trait Crystals
• 600mvisits – 50x Trait Crystals, 30x Equipment Rerolls, 30x Stat Rerolls
• update1 – 100x Trait Crystals, 25x Equipment Locks, 25x Equipment Rerolls, 25x Stat Rerolls
• 2.5mgroup! – 50x Trait Crystals, 25x Equipment Rerolls, 25x Stat Locks, 25x Stat Rerolls
• sorry4longmaintenance – 250x Trait Crystals, 25x Stat Locks, 25x Stat Rerolls
• warriorsaga – 25x Equipment Rerolls, 25x Stat Locks, 25x Trait Crystals
• ballin! – 25x Trait Crystals, 10x Equipment Rerolls, 10x Stat Rerolls
• 500mvisits – 50x Trait Crystals, 30x Equipment Rerolls, 30x Stat Rerolls
• AnotherRestart – 50x Trait Crystals
• 400mvisits – 50x Trait Crystals, 30x Equipment Rerolls, 30x Stat Rerolls

There are already plenty of expired Anime Expeditions codes, highlighting that they don't seem to be sticking around for too long once they've been announced. As always, make sure you claim all of the active codes as soon as you can, so you don't miss out on any rewards.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Disgaea series creator and former president of Nippon Ichi Software, Sohei Niikawa, has spoken out against Sony's decision to kill discs for new PlayStation games from 2028, saying the company "may as well go all the way" and "eliminate the hardware too."

Sony's controversial announcement earlier this month has sparked outrage across the games industry, with everyone from players to devs raising concerns about the future of physical media, game preservation, ownership, and more. I'm honestly struggling to think of a single person I've seen in favor of the decision, and Niikawa certainly isn't one of them.

In an interview with Noisy Pixel at Anime Expo 2026, Niikawa explains that he thinks "physical editions of games are very important." For a start, he begins, there's the collectible aspect: "For fans, being able to keep a game they love as an object can have a great deal of value. It becomes a memory or a keepsake connected to something that matters to them," he says.

That point is clearly fresh on his mind given his attendance at Anime Expo. "They can also bring that physical game to an event like this and ask someone to sign it," he continues. "Afterward, they can take it home, display it, and decorate their room with it. Physical games are important because they can carry that kind of meaning."

Niikawa notes that he can understand Sony's decision "from a purely business perspective," but thinks that "the executives who decided it have probably never experienced" a fan approaching them to sign a physical game at an event. He adds: "I don't think they understand the feelings of those fans, and they may never have considered what physical editions mean to the people who value them."

As for the future of physical games, Niikawa sounds almost defeated as he suggests that, without physical games, there's little point in having consoles in the first place. "If they're going to go as far as eliminating physical packages, they may as well eliminate the hardware too," he says. "A television would be enough. Why would you need the console? If you're going to get rid of physical games, you may as well go all the way."

It's fair to say that with the likes of cloud gaming, there's a genuine possibility of that being the case going forward. Xbox may have shoved its odd "this is an Xbox" marketing under the rug, but Game Pass Ultimate's cloud functionality really can let a lot of devices function like a console, albeit with limitations like the constant internet connection requirement and smaller choice of games. Sony is delving more into cloud gaming now, too – following an update last year, you no longer need to own a PS5 in order to use the PlayStation Portal.

Is this a future people would actually want, though? I suspect not – the backlash over the disc situation has been bad enough. Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima previously said that the concept of a digital-only future where media can suddenly become inaccessible is "frightening."

As PlayStation kills discs, Nier Automata creator Yoko Taro is "saddened by the loss of physical media" and despairs over "the future" of games: "That's just the way things are going."

There's been a new patch for StarCraft 2 from Blizzard, and you might think after 16 years there isn't much the studio can do to truly disrupt the game or its community. Well, you'd be wrong, because a tweak in the latest update is sending shockwave through the player base right now.

The alterations listed are based around both Proton and Terran against Zerg, and there aren't all that many. "We are making changes based on player data and feedback," writes Blizzard in the intro. And right at the top of the Terran list is the biggie: Command Centers now cost 300 minerals instead of 400.

This is rather significant, because it's the main strategic hub of the Terran forces, presenting quite a lot of strategic value for a comparatively low price. The immediate comparison is to Supply Depots, which are 100 minerals, because although Command Centers are still three times more, you get 15 supply. Building one much earlier in a round is a no-brainer, and you can make a bunch of them later with considerable ease.

"This is the most impactful change that we've had in StarCraft 2 since Legacy of the Void," StarCraft 2 YouTuber Harstem says in a video going through the patch. "This is such an insanely big buff to Terran."

To him, this will impact the early, middle and late stages of any confrontation, because of how it subsumes Supply Depots as a choice now. He echoes the sentiments of many fans. "Might be a way to fix Terran early game economy but ultra late game will be even more broken," one Redditor observes.

"Holy [fuck] what are they doing in Anaheim," another incredulously asks. "I feel like this was an accident," a third commenter on Reddit says.

This is very much the kind of change that gets tempered post-rollout, because it's either an error, or the impact is greater than the devs anticipated. One player tells the community to make use of it while it's available. "That shit is 100% getting reverted. Gotta abuse it while you can!" they exclaim. I don't think they're wrong.

StarCraft 2 devs take another swing at getting the RTS game's surprise new update right, but Blizzard still hasn't rolled back the one change fans most want undone.

I've got a bunch of FNTD2 codes you can redeem for heaps of in-game rewards, letting you summon the best animatronics to add to your team. Standing out among the seemingly endless sea of anime tower defense games on Roblox, Five Nights TD2 instead pits a cast of FNAF characters against other FNAF characters.

If you want to draw the rarest FNAF faces, you're going to need plenty of Tokens and special 'presents', both of which you can get with these Five Nights TD2 codes, as well as Souls to boost your team's stats in the strategy Roblox experience.

Plus, if you want more codes for rewards you can use across experiences, take a look at our separate list of Roblox promo codes.

All FNTD2 codes

These are the FNTD2 codes that you can redeem right now:

• HEROUPGRADE! - 25,000x Tokens, 2,500x Untradable Souls new!
• CYBERPUNK!!! - 50,000x Tokens, 2,500x Untradable Souls, 50x Seasonal Presents, 50x Endo Chips, 10x Remnant (25k Faz-Rating required) new!
• TYCOON?! - 25,000x Tokens, 1,500x Untradable Souls, 10x Endo Chips, 5x Springlocks (10k Faz-Rating required) new!
• 2WEEKUPDATE! - 50,000x Tokens, 200x AFK2 Present, 50x Spring locks, 10x Remnant (35k Faz-Rating required) new!
• ABOUTTHEMDEADLINES - 2,500x Untradable Soul, 150x AFK 2 Present, 100x AFK 1 Present (20k Faz-Rating required) new!
• HMMMBYTES - 5,000x Tokens, 10x Endo Chip, 2x Springlock, 4x Remnant, 1x Pearl Byte, 1x Box Byte, 1x Bee Byte, 1x Reaper Byte (10k Faz-Rating required) new!
• ONEMILLIONFNTD2WEBVISITS! - 30,000x Tokens, 3,000x Untradable Soul, 150x AFK 2 Present, 25x Boss Raid Present, 100x Chocolate Bears (15k Faz-Rating required) new!
• AboutBossRaid - 1x Time Lord Withered Freddy Present (15k Faz Rating required)
• MALACHITE - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Anniversary Presents, 5x Raid Coins
• UPDATE44 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 50x Soldering Irons, 5x Season Presents
• DJLOLBIT - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• PASSINGOFTIME - 1,000x Souls, Oxidized Kronos Skin (10k Faz Rating required)
• FREEBIE - 5x Season Presents, 25x Souls, 2,500x Tokens
• CHIPSNOFISH - 50x Springlock, 50x Endo Chips

This list of valid FNTD2 codes shows just how varied the rewards are. From a new Pet to Season Presents and Raid Coins, there's so much to pick up for free here, so make sure you never miss any Five Nights TD2 codes.

How to redeem FNTD2 codes

To redeem FNTD2 codes, simply hit the Settings Cog button in the top right-hand corner of the screen in the lobby and enter your codes into the box at the bottom. Press Enter and the rewards will be yours.

The reason I highlight that you must do this in the lobby is that there is a codes redemption box in the in-match settings menu as well, but it appears this one works differently, and the codes listed above won't work there. You'll also find that some codes have a Faz Rating (AKA level) requirement, which can take a while to hit.

Expired FNTD2 codes

• FiveNightsDelay - 150x Anniversary Presents, 100x Stat Chips, 25x Spring Locks, 10x Remnants (25k Faz Rating required)
• BigUpgradeSoon! - 10,000x Untradable Souls, 50x Seasonal Presents, 25x Stat Chips, 5x Spring Locks, 1x Remnant
• UPDATE43 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 50x Soldering Irons, 5x Season Presents
• BULLDOZER - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents (2.5k Faz Rating required)
• MAGICIAN - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Anniversary Presents, 5x Raid Coins (5k Faz Rating required)
• UPDATE42 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 50x Soldering Irons, 5x Season Presents
• SEASON6 - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents (2.5k Faz Rating required)
• VENGEFULSPIRIT - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Anniversary Presents, 5x Raid Coins (5k Faz Rating required)
• CCU11k! - 6,000x Untradable Souls, 40x Anniversary Presents
• CCU10k! - 6,000x Untradable Souls, 5x Anniversary Presents
• Happy12YearsFNAF! - 50x Anniversary Presents, 12,000x Tokens, 1,200x Untradable Souls, 120x Boss Raid Token, 12x Remnant, 120x Apocalypse Present
• PRIDEMONTH - Pridetime Foxy Pet and Skin
• WITCHOFTHESEA - 25,000x tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins (5k Faz Rating required)
• UPDATE41 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 50x Soldering Irons, 5x Season Presents
• CHALLENGES - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents (2.5k Faz Rating required)
• VESSEL - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins (5k Faz Rating required)
• UPDATE40 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 50x Soldering Irons, 5x Season Presents
• ARRRRR - 10,000x Tokens, 250x souls, 25x Season Presents (2.5k Faz Rating required)
• 10KCCU2 - 25,000x Event Currency, 3,500x Untradable souls, 120x Choco Bears, 75x Soldering Irons, 100x Chips, 50x Springlocks
• SPAINWC2026 - Cucurella Freddy pet
• SORRY4DELAY3 - 50,000x Coins, 100x Raid Coins, 50x Endo Chips, 15x Springlocks, 1,000x XP, XP Potion 2
• CTHULU - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins
• CLANREWORK - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• UPDATE39 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 50x Soldering Irons, 5x Season Presents
• HIJACKED - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins
• CHIPS - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• UPDATE38 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 50x Soldering Irons, 5x Season Presents
• SORRY4DELAY2 - 50,000x Tokens, 100s Raid Coins, 250x Tower Coins, 1,000x Exp, Double Exp Potion (15 minutes)
• UPDATE37 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 5x Season Presents
• THETOWER - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• LOREKEEPER - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins
• 10KCCU - 100,000x Tokens, 1,000x Souls, 300x Endo Chips, 100x Springlocks, 100x Boss Raid Tokens, Clock Evo Material
• UPDATE36 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 5x Season Presents
• RAIDREFRESH - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• GAIACHICA - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins
• UPDATE35 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 5x Season Presents
• QUESTSHOP - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• ELCHIP - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins
• UPDATE34 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 5x Season Presents
• SEASON5 - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• LEFTY - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins

As you can see, plenty of FNTD2 codes have expired since the game launched - in fact, this is just a snippet of them. This means you should definitely redeem any valid codes while you can, and don't miss out on valuable rewards.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

You need these Anime Squadron codes if you want to unlock and power up the best team of units possible. In any anime-themed Roblox tower defence game, your units are everything, they are what stand between you and success. Not only do you need to Summon the best ones, then, but you also need to power them up.

To do this, you need Gems, Stat Reroll Cubes, Trait Shards, and more, and you can get all of them with the latest Anime Squadron codes, which I've listen below. So redeem them in the popular Roblox experience right now, unlock those Legendary and Mythic Units like Zaro and Shinks, and perfect their stats in no time.

For some more general rewards that can be used across all of your favorite experiences, then check out our list of the current Roblox promo codes, too.

All Anime Squadron codes

These are all the Anime Squadron codes you can redeem in-game right now:

• 10KCCUTHANKS! - 100x Trait Shards, 5,000x Reijatsu Crystals new!
• CrystalCompensation - 50x Trait Shards, 3,500x Reijatsu Crystals new!
• UPD4.0! - 100x Trait Shards, 1,500x Gems new!
• ThePowerToProtect! - 50x Trait Shards, 1,000x Reijatsu Crystals new!
• TheCalamity! - 500x Reroll Cubes, 100 Reijatsu Crystals new!

As you can see from the list above, each of the current Anime Squadron codes offers a load of cool rewards, including those all-important Gems for Summoning and Reroll cubes for perfecting your Units' stats.

How to redeem Anime Squadron codes

To redeem Anime Squadron codes, you need to make your way through part of the tutorial, until the menu opens up on the left-hand side of the screen. Then you can click on the Codes button, enter your code into the box, and hit Redeem Code to reap your rewards.

Anime Squadron codes are case-sensitive, so be careful to enter them correctly. If you're unsure or are having issues, you can always copy and paste them as they appear above.

Expired Anime Squadron codes

• UPD3.75! - 100x Trait Shards, 1,500x Gems
• ShadowGarden! - 50x Trait Shards, 1,500x Gems
• GearEquipVisualFix! - 10x Devil Capsules, 50x Trait Shards, 25x Reroll Cubes, 1,500x Gems
• JJKBugFixes - 50x Trait Shards, 2,000x Gems, 5x Perfect Cubes
• JJKBalanceChanges2.0! - 100x Trait Shards, 2,000x Gems, 2x Perfect Prisms
• BalanceChangesJJK! - 100x Trait Shards, 3,000x Gems, 10x Prisms
• AdminAbuse! - 50x Trait Shards, 5,000x Crusader Bills, 3,000x Gold
• AdminAbuse2! - 100x Trait Shards
• UPD2.5! - 100x Trait Shards, 1,500x Gems
• MUDAMUDAMUDA! - 5,000x Crusader Bill
• 1000YearsMaintenance! - 10x Perfect Cubes
• SorryForBalancingIssues - 50x Trait Shards, 5,000x Crusader Bill, 2,000x Gems
• EventChanges - 10x Baras Coins, 2,000x Gems, 100x Trait Shards
• UPD0.75! - 3x Bounty Tickets, 1,000x Gems, 50x Trait Shards, 1,000 Gold
• TheHeroHunter! - 50x Reroll Cubes
• SryForLongMaintenance!! - 50x Trait Shards, 1,000x Gems
• StrongestChallenger! - 10,000x Gold
• UPD0.5! - 3x Bounty Tickets, 1,000x Gems, 50x Trait Shards, 1,000x Gold
• Eclipse! - 50x Trait Shards, 30x Reroll Cubes, 3x Perfect Cubes
• LongMaintenance! - 100x Trait Shards, 20x Reroll Cubes, 5x Bounty Tickets, 5x Perfect Cubes
• Tysm80kCCU! - 75x Trait Shards, 50x Reroll Cubes, 5,000x Gold, 1,000x Gems
• Tysm60kCCU! - 100x Trait Shards, 50x Reroll Cubes, 2,000x Gold, 1,000x Gems, 5x Bounty Tickets
• EverythingIsPartOfMyPlan! - 25x Trait Shards

The above Anime Squadron codes have sadly expired, and, like them, those that are currently active will soon expire, so be sure to redeem them as soon as possible to avoid missing out.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

I'm a sucker for a good tactics game – which is why Star Wars Zero Company already has me buzzing. It's a genre where almost any game could announce a tactics spinoff and I'd be down. Persona 5 Tactica? Sure, why not? Rayman Raving Rabbids and Super Mario forming a strategic alliance? Hell yeah. The power of a good tactics RPG even works when I'm not into the series itself; I'm not huge into Final Fantasy, but damn if Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles isn't an all-timer. And my Marvel fatigue was swiftly cured with a helping of Marvel's Midnight Suns.

And then there's Star Wars. I'll be frank, The Rise of Skywalker stank so much that any love and interest I had in Star Wars left me. I haven't watched any of its many TV series, I never played Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – despite loving Fallen Order – and I haven't had any desire to go back and watch the older films I actually do like… but the series' upcoming strategic foray has me looking from across the room like your da staring longingly at that photo of him holding a big fish.

Force pull

But that's the thing: Star Wars seems perfect for the tactics RPG treatment it's getting with the rather XCOM-like Star Wars Zero Company. As fun as the space wizards and midi-chlorians are, as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate that the world is a lot more interesting outside of the Jedi and Sith. Sure, you have a Padawan on your squad, but having an R-series droid offsets that. I just know for a fact there's going to be a point when you face off against one of those magical bastards and things are going to feel bleak, like Darth Vader at the end of Rogue One bleak. I live for it. Plus, one of your team is a former boxer called Kabb Uppercut and if that isn't "Glup Shitto" adjacent I don't know what is.

But, thinking about how interested I am in a franchise I had sworn off of due to the virtue of it becoming tactical, it got me thinking. Why the hell has there never been another Metal Gear Acid?. If you know me, you know I may like Metal Gear, perhaps even a lot; and obviously Metal Gear is a massive series, but if there was ever to be something about it I'd call niche it would be the PSP duology.

Here's the pitch: first, take Metal Gear's tone, world, and somewhat approximate versions of its characters; second, make a story that is somehow more out there and silly than the games it's based on – the first game opens with psychic puppets hijacking a plane – and finally, adapt the stealth gameplay into a tactical RPG and imbue that with a deckbuilder with cards based off of older Metal Gear and Kojima games.

A stealth-based Tactical RPG deckbuilder doesn't sound like something that should work, and yet the duo of games stick out as two of the best games the PSP has to offer, and I'd say Metal Gear Acid 2 is among the best tactics RPGs ever made.

While it's not as punishing or hardcore as XCOM, what Metal Gear Acid does best is tension. The stealth aspects are extremely important on some missions, as – just like in the main series – you are not equipped to take on an army with ease. Which means every turn, and every card you can use to make a move, takes on even more importance. It's the same logic that means my Astromech GOAT in Zero Company will be racking up a sith kill count one way or another.

The deckbuilding itself also rules. Rather than just playing with cards each turn, your cards are given values like you've seen in games like Slay the Spire, except the catch here is rather than not being able to use cards if you don't have enough points, you can use whatever you want, as instead, points contribute to your turns, with the points you use needing to be counted down before you can take another.

This in-turn blends into the strategy RPG elements nicely, as something like the Metal Gear Rex card – which does 300 damage – is very powerful, but unless you are ending a battle with it or are far enough away from the next enemy, you're going to be at a major risk since it'll cost you 30 points to use. Again, it's the kind of balance I can also see Zero Company leveraging to explain why its ensemble cast aren't simply only to fight together, but complement one another.

Deckbuilders and tactics games have probably never been more popular than they are now, and so I ask, where is Metal Gear Acid 3 Konami? I see the publisher handing off Castlevania's reins to Dead Cells dev Evil Empire and think of what the likes of Fights in Tight Spaces dev Ground Shatter could do with Metal Gear. I know the series is still in a bit of limbo without Kojima, so why not bring things back gradually with a new iteration of one of its best spinoffs?

With such a lively franchise, a more ambitious attempt at the concept without the PSP's constraints could allow for some fantastic tactics design within that universe. When I see the cast of Star Wars: Zero Company combining moves, I can't help but think of the Rat Patrol's synchronized, nanomachine-enhanced teamwork in Metal Gear Solid 4 – those are the kind of team moves I'd love to orchestrate. At the very least get the Acid games into Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 2 or into PlayStation's growing Classics Catalog of PSP games, I beg of you.

Can't wait a long time to visit the galaxy far, far away? Check out our best Star Wars games for what you can play in the meantime!

I've been praying for Total War: Warhammer 40K news since visiting Creative Assembly last year, and on Sunday (June 7), the Emperor delivered. Not only did we get our best look yet at how Total War's real-time battles will function in the sci-fi setting, but its appearance at the PC Gaming Show 2026 also confirmed that we're getting a Total War: Warhammer 40K closed beta later this year – although an exact date is yet to be confirmed.

Of all the new games heading our way, Total War: Warhammer 40K is the one I'm most excited for. Seeing it in action – and hearing I'll get the chance to play it by year's end – puts that anticipation into overdrive. I'm working through it the only way I know how: by watching the reveal again and breaking down everything in sight.

Git krumpin'

While a teaser trailer for Total War: Warhammer 40K debuted during last month's Warhammer Skulls showcase, its focus on narrative and lack of in-game footage suggested we'd be waiting a while longer to see more of the game itself. But the PC Gaming Show 2026 aired with a surprising amount of alpha build gameplay, leaving lots to get into.

30 seconds in, we're brought into a battle between the Astra Militarum and a horde of orcs. Taking place on what seems to be the outskirts of a war-torn hive city, the map is a lot more textured and urban-focused than much of what we've seen from past Total War games – with charred ruins shored against a bridge crossing, I get the sense that battles will be designed for players to dig into longer than Total War: Warhammer 3's comparatively quick clashes.

The most important detail, though, is nestled in the game's UI – revealing how Creative Assembly has made ranged combat work. Guns are prominent in the developer's Warhammer (Old World) trilogy and the likes of Total War: Napoleon and Empire have made gunpowder lines work in the past, but fans have long speculated how 40K's more advanced guns – often wielded in tandem with melee weapons – would synergize with the series' more medieval-style frontline clashes.

Here, we see that while most units do have ranged attacks as options (at least for the Astra Militarum), each has their own firepower value for light, medium, and heavy targets. Cadian Shock Troopers have 5/10 firepower effectiveness against light-class targets, for example, but that drops all the way down to 1/10 against medium and heavy foes. A tank commander, on the other hand, has 9/10 effectiveness against light targets and 10/10 against medium armor; but 6/10 against heavies. I can already see how this could encourage more fluid back-and-forth in battle – beefier units like Space Marines will be able to close in on small-arms fire without being torn to shreds, while Cadians will depend on a combined arms approach – think harder-hitting vehicles keeping melee-centric infantry from reaching their gunlines.

If anything, I'm starting to think that 40K's battles could be more fulfilling for strategy nerds. With there being so many options for melee versus ranged tactics and vice versa, real-time fights should be more strategic and slow-burn. The importance of cover should force players to spread their forces thinner and pay attention to wider battle lines, while environment destruction and having tools for fast-moving attacks (Space Marine drop pods, orbital strikes, jetpacks) will hopefully encourage more layered formations rather than one single frontline clash.

While I still have many unanswered questions about Total War: Warhammer 40K's campaign map and factions, its latest reveal has sent my imagination running wild. I've already registered for the closed beta – which you can do here – and even though it's scheduled to kick off later this year, the wait may well kill me. Although, with Total War: Warhammer 3's biggest DLC now within touching distance, there's going to be enough to keep us busy in the Old World for a long time to come.

Star Wars Zero Company, the upcoming strategy game from a team of XCOM veterans, is releasing August 27 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, as confirmed in an action-packed gameplay trailer at Summer Game Fest.

The release date leaked this week just a day before the big show, which takes some of the wind out of the big reveal's sails, but at least we have a new trailer to pore over. In it, we see something rather surreal: the turn-based, tactical gameplay we've long associated with the XCOM series, but Star Wars-flavored. And it indeed looks very Star Wars, both in terms of production value and authenticity to the world of Lucasfilm, which collaborated closely with developer Bit Reactor.

"Our team has poured everything we love about Star Wars into Zero Company," says creative director Greg Foertsch. "The bold characters, powerful storytelling, striking settings and the sense of heart beneath the battles in Star Wars has helped us create an experience that pushes the tactics genre forward by combining deep gameplay with cinematic elegance.

"We've worked hand-in-hand with Lucasfilm Games to create an authentic Star Wars story packed with unique new characters, robust character customization, a new ship, Separatist Droids and much more, all rooted in the conflict of The Clone Wars."

Star Wars Zero Company is a collaborative effort between Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order studio Respawn and Bit Reactor, a studio founded by veterans of XCOM and Civilization developer Firaxis. The story takes place in the Clone Wars era and follows a ragtag outfit of mercenaries including a Clone Trooper, a Mandalorian of the ancient Clan Verminoth, a Jedi Padawan, and more. Under the banner of Zero Company, they're tasked with tracking down Separatist cult leader Kundri Fathom and putting a stop to his wicked deeds.

Here are the best Star Wars games to play right now.

Just one day before the main Summer Game Fest show kicks off, the release date for Star Wars Zero Company has been subject to last-minute leakage, and it looks like the new strategy game from former XCOM veterans is joining the crowd of games also taking refuge from the huge industry black hole known as GTA 6.

Summer Game Fest confirmed the new Star Wars game would be debuting another look at its turn-based tactical gameplay during tomorrow's show, but a new report from the ever-reliable Dealabs Magazine seemingly gives us an advanced look at a few details.

Star Wars Zero Company is reportedly launching on August 27, 2026, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S with a Standard Edition priced at $49.99 on PC and $59.99 on consoles. A Deluxe Edition is then said to cost $59.99 on PC and $69.99 on consoles, though there aren't yet any details as to what comes with the more expensive package or why there's a price difference between platforms.

The next far, far away adventure is only narrowly dodging the busiest September in years as multiple heavy hitters - such as Marvel's Wolverine, Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, and The Blood of Dawnwalker - look to avoid the incoming beast that is GTA 6. A few more games will probably try to squeeze in there when the dust on NotE3 season is settled, too - Gears of War: E-Day seems like a good candidate.

For those out of the loop, Star Wars Zero Company comes courtesy of Respawn Entertainment (Apex Legends, Jedi Fallen Order) and Bit Reactor, a studio made up of some veteran developers who worked on XCOM and Civilization, and follows a ragtag group of mercenaries during the tail end of The Clone Wars.

Can't wait? In the meantime, check out the best Star Wars games to play right now.

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick says the company's 2025 missteps with Borderlands 4 and Civilization 7 aren't a big problem in the grand scheme, and that publisher 2K is still "crushing it."

While Take-Two is in for a good year in 2026 – mainly because GTA 6 is going to make billions even if it's somehow bad – it's easy to overlook that 2025 wasn't exactly the best year in its history. Borderlands 4 released to somewhat lukewarm reception (despite solid reviews) but the game's PC port was the star of the show when it comes to that game's issues, with it only being rivalled by Monster Hunter Wilds as 2025's biggest PC debacle. And on top of that, Sid Meier's Civilization 7 reworked the series formula massively, so much so that the devs have released an update to rework it after fan feedback.

While Zelnick has previously taken "responsibility" for Civilization 7's failings, in an interview with the Game Business, Zelnick says, "I definitely can acknowledge missteps with both releases, but at the same time, these are great franchises, these are great iterations, and we couldn't be more thrilled of how the business is going broadly.

"I think 2K is crushing it across the board," he continues, adding: "If the worst you can say in a year when you've had this kind of [financial] performance is that a couple of titles did slightly less well than you would have hoped, and you're addressing whatever challenges you face and you're still generating profits with both titles… that's a high-class problem. I'll take those problems any day of the week."

He notes that "Borderlands 4 was highly successful. It will be a very profitable lifetime title. [Civilization] 7 was very successful and it will be a very profitable lifetime title," and adds that their respective challenges "are being addressed." Of course, it feels like with every single Civilization game, the new one is disliked until expansions and updates fill it out to become a favorite – at least, that's what happened with Civilization 5 and 6 – so hopefully Civ 7 will become a great game in the future.

GTA 6 finally releasing won't lead to a Rockstar staff exodus, Take-Two boss expects: "We have a lot of work to do after the launch."

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has hit one million sales since its launch into early access late last month, and it just got an official roadmap outlining what's to come this year and seemingly beyond.

In a post on Twitter, developer Unfrozen says the past few weeks have been a "lovely start" to early access, and it's been "extremely happy" to work on fans' feedback. "As always, we continue to monitor your feedback and weave it into the upcoming updates and changes," it adds.

Going forward, it says, "our main priority remains to ensure a smooth experience in Olden Era and to address any urgent issues that may arise – which will lead to many regular patches throughout Early Access," but it's still able to share some bigger content plans.

Kicking things off in Q3 2026, we can expect a rebalance to Hero skills, as well as an emote wheel update, advanced features for the Random Map Generator, and teamplay mode.

Moving into Q4 of the year, the devs are planning reworks for matchmaking and the Elite class, and a rebalance to Alternate Upgrades. Observer Mode and replays will also be added.

As for the rest of early access, Unfrozen is planning a number of things including underground terrain, new PvP win conditions, an Ironman mode for the campaign, and map editor improvements. Even bigger changes, like second and third acts for the campaign, a PvE roguelike mode, and map sharing support are planned for its full release, whenever that might be.

As outlined in a press release (which also confirms the game's one million sales milestone), it's stated that "the contents of this roadmap are subject to revisions as the game evolves, and additional updates to the development plan will be communicated as development progresses." So, there's no guarantee that everything on there will be followed to the letter, but it still seems like a pretty good indication of what's to come.

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era "broke even on development costs in just one day" as it launches to 90% positive Steam reviews and 250,000 sales.