Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios recently pulled back the curtain on the data pipeline it uses to track what players are doing and make adjustments based on their behavior, revealing a staggering bit of tech that can, within seconds, tell the devs about every single bullet fired in the game.

Speaking at the developer conference held by publisher Nexon, data engineer Mattias Andersson examines the structure and purpose of Embark's intense data tracking. This covers the studio's previous game, The Finals, as well, but Arc Raiders is the focus.

"We track every bullet in these games," Andersson says. "We track where the players are. We track whenever a bullet hits something. We have miniguns in our game, at least in The Finals, so this is a lot of bullets to keep track of.

"We're tracking more than 1,000 different event types," he continues. "We were tracking more than 100 billion events per day when Arc Raiders was at its peak. That is 30 terabytes of data per day. And we do all this with less than two second latency into [the data tool] BigQuery. So as soon as you fire a bullet, two seconds later, I can run a query in BigQuery and find out if you hit or not."

That peak would've been around November 2025 to February 2026, when Arc Raiders was regularly pulling over 400,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. The game is averaging far fewer than that today, with some players simply moving on or perhaps waiting for the big October update, but Arc Raiders is still hanging out in or around the top 50 most-played games on Steam.

Embark tracks this stuff so granularly, Andersson explains, for anti-cheat purposes, bug detection, improving elements like weapon balancing based on accuracy and damage, and to tune the behavior-driven matchmaking system of Arc Raiders in particular.

"We try to find out how aggressive a player you are," he says of Arc Raiders matchmaking. "We want to know who shot first in any encounter. Who was the one who started shooting at the other player? And then we try to make sure that people who want to PvP a lot get matchmade who PvP a lot, and the people who never initiate fights, the friendly players, get moved in together with the more friendly players."

This gives us a closer look at something Arc Raiders designer director Virgil Watkins told us about earlier this year. "We can track who shoots first and who takes damage and who [does] whatever," Watkins said at the time. "But the one thing the system does not do is attempt to assume intent. If I'm a very bad player and you're a good player, and I'm the aggressor and I just miss all my shots and you defend yourself, the game doesn't know what the intent was. They just saw you kill me because I'm terrible."

The data pipeline underpinning this approach is, from the outside, a dizzying labyrinth of dashboards, printouts, and applications. But some of it is pretty intuitive. For example, Embark has access to a custom "round viewer" that can replay player actions, including a "map replay" that shows where people move throughout a round. Heatmaps showing where players move, where they die, and clusters of other actions function similarly. An in-engine voxel heatmap of Arc Raiders' Stella Montis map confirms a few unsurprising death boxes.

Arc Raiders devs have "completed our rollout of Denuvo Anti-Cheat to all players," but Embark isn't done yet with "a more extensive update" striving for fair play.

Embark has hit an important milestone in its continued mission to root out and prevent cheating in Arc Raiders. The Denuvo Anti-Cheat software is now part of the experience for all players in the extraction shooter, and the devs are keeping an eye out for any anomalies it may cause.

"We have completed our rollout of Denuvo Anti-Cheat to all players," Embark community lead Ossen says in a new blog post. "We're keeping a close eye on its impact and performance."

Denuvo is part of ongoing efforts to combat people who're using various third-party services to get an unfair upper-hand while playing, as well as the exploits that are continually popping up. Embark's been playing whack-a-mole with duplication glitches near enough since Arc Raiders launched, as members of the community keep finding different ways of getting away with it.

"We are working on a more extensive update on our efforts towards fair play, which we'll share as soon as it's ready," the post finishes. This echoes prior messaging, where the studio emphasized how much of an ongoing process this is.

The plan is to put a framework in place where cheating of any kind is quickly noticed, and stamped out just as fast. "This means carefully detecting incidents, addressing them directly, and building safeguards to prevent them from happening in the future," a previous blog says. "It's detailed, methodical work."

That much is definitely true. These anti-cheat add-ons can create hurdles, due to false flags and potentially harming people's hardware. Obviously, the less of that the better, and treating it like a gradual process rather than a catch-all solution is always the right way forward in matters such as these.

Arc Raiders devs replace skill points with "mystery rewards" in latest Expedition as they try to address "the frustration of new players."

Arc Raiders is about to kick off its fourth Expedition, and the developers at Embark have some major changes on the way. In short? You're no longer getting any skill points from completing the Expedition challenge this time around, as you'll instead be getting an array of "mystery rewards" made up of small Raider Token payouts and temporary blueprints. The apparent nerf to Expedition rewards seems to be part of an ongoing effort to make the system friendlier to new players.

When the new Arc Raiders Expedition kicks off on July 7, you'll still be dealing damage to earn rewards, in line with the changes the devs made to the system earlier this year. Each completed departure objective will reward you with blueprints from a list that Embark has detailed in its announcement. These rewards are "temporary and will reset when you depart on your next Expedition." On the permanent side, you'll also get 150 Raider Token payouts for each completed departure objective.

Neither of those rewards really compete with the bonus skill points players were able to earn in the first three expeditions, however. Those extra skill points offered players a nice leg up on reset, but that seems to be exactly the problem – veteran players with a bank of extra skill points always have an advantage over newer ones, and while new players can retroactively get those bonus skill points in subsequent expeditions, it's not fun to dive into a new game with a pile of catch-up work to do.

"We understand the frustration of new players that are only now starting to do their Expeditions," the devs explain. "We need to find the right balance of rewarding our veteran players but also give new players fair and fun ways to catch up and not feel like they are always behind. This is a continuous effort and we'll keep you updated as we have more to share."

Judging by the tone of the responses to the change on Reddit, it seems the balance isn't really hitting right for veteran players. Without a meaningful reward to grind for, there's little reason to engage with Expeditions at all, and I doubt that's the outcome Embark is looking for.

Arc Raiders and Marathon aren't "dead" just because their concurrent player count has dropped, Palworld lead says – but he's "not denying that some games do 'die.'"

Arc Raiders studio Embark may have finally squished the duplication bugs infesting the extraction shooter for months with its recent patch, though cheaters are already trying to figure out how to raise the dead. Some people can't help themselves.

"Success on stopping the dupers... for now," says one Reddit user in a popular thread in the Arc Raiders subreddit, sharing a screenshot from "one of the dupe discords I'm spying in," in which a user announces that they're suspending sales of their Arc Raiders dupe tool that utilizes Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). This particular approach to duping seems to have been addressed by what Arc Raiders community lead Ossen referred to as "a fix for some instances of duplication exploits" in notes for Embark's June 23 Store Update 1.34.0.

Embark also addressed Arc Raiders' apparently endless parade of duplication glitches leading players to infinite ammo, rubber ducks, and debauchery in its June 16 patch that aimed to bolster Denuvo Anti-Cheat. The developer wrote at the time, "We've been focusing on addressing item duplication and taking strict measures against those involved. This means carefully detecting incidents, addressing them directly, and building safeguards to prevent them from happening in the future."

The developer sounds serious – but we've heard it all before. Embark has been struggling to fly swat all of Arc Raiders' duplication glitches for as long as they've been annoyingly buzzing around… which feels like forever. Law-abiding Arc Raiders players are understandably tired. As soon as one dupe glitch goes down, it seems another sprouts up right where it fell.

But this time, cheaters at least seem to be intimidated by Embark's dupe fix. In the screenshot the aforementioned Reddit user posted, the dupe exploiter calls their new attempts to circumvent Embark "a long shot," and they admit, "To be completely transparent, this one is a bit tricky."

The cheater continues to say it'll be "really complex" to develop a new, working dupe tool, and they seem really upset. That's great!

Arc Raiders preparing new kernel-level anti-cheat to blast cheaters out of the sky and "sharpen both detection and precision."

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead made an impassioned commitment in late spring this year to be better for irritated players. Like an estranged spouse who comes limping back, the developer promised to not just make promises this time – there would be frequent check-ins, community-informed updates, and other attempts to rebuild trust with its increasingly skeptical playerbase. So far, Arrowhead has stuck to its vows, and therefore it was easy for it to let fans know on June 23 that the next Warbond would be delayed indefinitely.

Leaks earlier this week had Helldivers 2 fans split on its summer Warbond, which was first revealed by a roadmap Arrowhead released in March. Some players were hesitant to judge what amounted to an unreleased battle pass as explained by Reddit screenshots, while others were comfortable declaring the leak "the worst warbond of helldivers," as one player wrote in a Reddit thread discussing the content of the leak.

The player says in the thread, "I'm shocked by the leaks, I thought they were fake, but apparently they're real, and it's horrible. Arrowhead hasn't learned anything."

Another player responds, "Get as angry as you want once the stuff is actually out please."

Arrowhead seems to have noticed the commotion in its community, so it issued that June 23 statement in both the Helldivers 2 official Discord and Twitter, explaining, "The last Warbond listed on the roadmap for June needs more time to cook. We would rather hold back and make sure the final product is something we're proud to release and you're excited to unlock."

The developer continues, "We will provide more information as it nears completion, and we appreciate your patience and your feedback about our latest update!"

Fans are guessing Arrowhead is scrambling to fill an empty Warbond after releasing a Fast Recon Vehicle (FRV) – here's how to get the Helldivers 2 FRV, by the way – as a stratagem rather than as part of its next battlepass. To me, that feels like part of the story, but possibly not all of it. I'd consider Arrowhead's delay statement neither confirmation nor denial of the Warbond leak's contents – it seems Arrowhead is primarily on mitigation duty after a preview of its next Warbond inspired civil unrest instead of a fireworks celebration.

And it seems to be going well, so far. Many Helldivers 2 fans seem glad Arrowhead is sticking to its spousal declarations of honesty, so they aren't disturbed by the next Warbond's delay if it means more chatting with devs.

"Thank you for the transparency!" one popular fan reaction on Twitter says. "We love when you COOK!"

"Fuck my life," another person says. Ultimately, whether you're on Super Earth or only the regular Earth, you can't win everyone over.

Helldivers 2 overhauls Major Orders with Galactic Campaigns, adds a new biome, buffs Exo Suits, and much more in a massive patch.

2026 has been a busy year for Capcom. Launching hot on the heels of Resident Evil Requiem came Pragmata, a third-person "dad-and-daughter" shooter set in a lunar facility overrun by a rogue AI. Themes of duality run through the whole game, a series of pushes and pulls that somehow balance one another out – humanity versus machine, shooting versus hacking, and two little android girls created with a very specific purpose in mind.

The response from the community has been resoundingly positive. To learn more about Capcom's reaction to all the buzz, I managed to get some questions across to producer Naoto Oyama to fill in the gaps following our last interview with the Pragmata team.

Q: Capcom's known for a lot of really strong legacy franchises, but Pragmata is a fantastic brand new addition. What do you think is important to get right with a new IP like this?

Naoto Oyama, producer: Since the start, our focus was to create something genuinely distinct, which is crucial when making a new IP. With that in mind, for Pragmata, we challenged ourselves to make a game which meshes unique combat and puzzle-solving encounters within a striking lunar setting. Our aim was to create something new and fresh, but also intuitive to actually play once held in the player's hand.

Releasing a demo to showcase elements of the game was also beneficial, as it allowed us to communicate the game's core 'hack n shoot' mechanics for new players to understand.

I would also add that making the game tightly paced allowed for each individual system and narrative beat to have its time in the sun. For a new IP, this helped us deliver something neatly packaged, memorable and satisfying.

Q: The game features sectors of the space station that were constructed to resemble what an AI might build itself, as a digital mind that doesn't quite understand humanity. How did you approach this almost uncanny design challenge?

Naoto: Regarding environmental design, we aimed to create spaces that felt they could be designed by a near-future AI on the moon. These digital spaces, on first glance, contain items and structures which resemble what they look like in the real world, but on closer inspection actually contain oddities. This is where that uncanny aesthetic fits; these are places and things which look familiar, but are distorted in some strange and peculiar way.

In the New York inspired sector, taxis, for instance, are literally phasing through the floor, and buses protrude from the walls. We created structures and things which appear functional, but in some bizarre way, collapse when closely viewed. This is essentially how we've designed the game's sectors – from the perspective of a system trying to imitate human environments.

No generative AI was used in the design process - even the most uncanny elements you see in the game are all hand-designed by human artists!

Q: GenAI is a hot button topic at the moment. How has that influenced your approach to tackling AI as a core theme in Pragmata?

Naoto: We started development on Pragmata before generative AI became quite as huge as it is today, so we were surprised by this development. Perhaps the near-future world we envisioned is closer than anyone thought!

Q: Half the controller feels like it's for shooting, and half for hacking. It works really well on a controller. How challenging was it to make doing two things at once feel right?

Naoto: There are only so many buttons on a controller, so we've worked to ensure the controls are simple and intuitive. In the early stages we've limited the maximum number of enemies that appear at once and slowed down their approach speed, so that players can get used to the basics of hacking and shooting at the same time. As the game progresses and players become more accustomed to the controls, new weapons and actions are unlocked, while the number and strength of enemies change, so players gradually get used to performing multiple actions simultaneously.

Balancing all this was very difficult, and took a lot of playtesting and refinement, including regularly getting feedback from first-time players. I think this approach worked and we got great results.

A lot of reviews have compared Pragmata to an Xbox 360-era title as a compliment [a sentiment echoed by director Yonghee Cho]. Why do you think that is? What's your response to that?

Naoto: We take this as a compliment! We know many players from the Xbox 360 and PS3 console era resonate with compact action games which contain engaging gameplay mechanics. Each sector in Pragmata is designed to introduce new additions (weapons, hacking nodes) which layer themselves on previous mechanics, and this sort of design is something players from that era associate with the game.

As with other titles from that era, rather than opting for a dense open-world, each sector is a bespoke and tightly designed zone where combat encounters steadily introduce new mechanics that test the player and diversify their tactical loadouts.

Q: Do you see Pragmata as the potential start to a new series?

Naoto: We're very grateful for the positive reception from Pragmata and the responses we've seen from players. While we can't talk about future plans, the game has only just been released and we're going to work to get even more players to join Hugh and Diana on their journey.

The Arc Raiders Forgotten Relics event and Converging Paths project are both live now, based around finding a Swamp and then various rare items from the past, including vintage relics and props. With two different ways to earn rewards, including a rare blueprint, it's worth understanding this limited time event before it disappears and you lose the chance to earn the prizes attached to it.

Below I'll take you through both a walkthrough for the Forgotten Relics event, and the attached Converging Paths project, as well as lay out how to complete all the mission objectives in the latter that Arc Raiders has included.

Forgotten Relics event in Arc Raiders explained

The new Forgotten Relics event in Arc Raiders is limited time and will only last for 42 days from launch, until July 28, 2026. It involves both a progression path with Merit rewards, and a new project called Converging Paths, both of which are their own individual challenges.

Forgotten Relics is its own progression path where players unlock rewards by earning Merits. Merits are earned through XP, but you can gain extra Merits by extracting with any of the following items:

• Train model (10)
• Sextant (15)
• Vintage Steering Wheel (15)
• Equatorial Sundial (25)
• Rare Colorful Shoes (25)
• Tellurion (50)
• Epic Colorful Shoes (50)
• Legendary Colorful Shoes (150)
• Elephant Obelisk (150)

These rewards, being Trinkets, are easiest and most commonly found in Commercial and Residential area. This makes the Bird City map modifier and the Buried City generally very good places to farm for them.

If players can work their way through to 3,150 Merits, they can unlock all 21 rewards on the progression path.

How to complete the Converging Paths project in Arc Raiders

Converging Paths is the player project tied to the Forgotten Relics event, accessible via the Projects tab on the Raider menu as normal. It's broken up into six sections, as outlined below.

Stage 1: Secure Safe Passage for the Nomads

In the first stage of the Forgotten Relics project you need to deal 1,200 damage to Arc enemies in the Swamp, by which they mean the area to the South of Dam Battlegrounds, around the South Swamp Outpost on the map shown above. The best thing you can do is spawn in and just go to work hunting them without leaving the area. It might take a few missions, but it's just a matter of time.

Stage 2: Collect Supplies

Stage 2 of Converging Paths goes back to the traditional approach of collecting items to submit. You'll need to get the following:

• Train Model x3
• Vintage Steering Wheel x2
• Air Freshener x2
• Arc Thermo Lining x6
• Rewards: Smoke Grenade Trap x3, Explosive Mine x3, Raider Tokens x25

Stage 3: Procure Relics

Rarity and number of items in Converging Paths escalate for the third phase.

• Sextant x4
• Equatorial Sundial x3
• Metal Brackets x5
• Arc Performance Steel x7
• Rewards: Blaze Grenade Trap x3, Jolt Mine x3, Rascal (level 2) x1, Raider Tokens x50

Stage 4: Create Emergency Caches

Stage 4 for Converging Paths escalates again, now demanding you obtain legendary tier items.

• Tellurion x3
• Elephant Obelisk x1
• Light Bulb x6
• Arc Coolant x9
• Rewards: Surge Coil x3, Blaze Grenade Trap x3, Explosive Mine x3, Raider Tokens x50

Stage 5: Finish the Cabinet of Curiosities

The penultimate phase of Converging Paths is the hardest for item collection, as now you need two legendary items.

• Rare Colorful Shoes x6
• Epic Colorful Shoes x3
• Legendary Colorful Shoes x2
• Arc Synthetic Resin x10
• Rewards: Combat Mk.3 (Flanking) Augment x1, Photoelectric Cloak x1, Bobcat (level 2) x1, Raider Tokens x50

Stage 6: Use Nomad Tactics to Fight Arc

The last Stage of Converging Paths is another objective mission, not an item collectathon. Here, you need to deal damage to Arc using mines or traps. That can include any of the following, to any enemy, on any map:

• Blaze Grenade Traps
• Pulse Mines
• Jolt Mines
• Explosive Mines
• Surge Coils

It's easiest to do this by applying them on huge enemies like Bastions who are easy to steer into them, but ultimately it's down to player preference.

• Rewards: Sextant Backpack Charm, Saltwalker "Red Black" outfit color, Raider Tokens x100, Surge Coil Blueprint x1

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Arc Raiders has seemingly entered the "it's so over" chapter of the inescapable live service cycle, with a non-trivial chunk of players recently put off by perhaps the most egregious wave of cheated items in the game's history, even as the game maintains a daily user base most games would kill for.

Coupled with slowing patches amid developer Embark Studios' pivot to major updates released six months apart, the game's been a bit quiet and the community a bit cranky. Facing this, Embark has promised "strict measures" for cheaters and dupe abusers. It's also rolled out a change that many fans have requested since 2025: a ban on free loadouts in certain modes.

In the latest Arc Raiders patch notes, Embark reveals a new, experimental restriction on night raids and the Close Scrutiny Arc event. For the next three weeks, you won't be able to bring a free loadout into these modes.

"We are disabling free loadouts for Night Raid and Close Scrutiny to increase the barrier of entry so that players commit to appropriate risk and reward in these scenarios that have better loot," Embark says.

"This is a time-limited change that we will be testing for the next three weeks. We may add this limitation to more map conditions in the future after we’ve observed its impact and analyzed your feedback."

Free loadouts have been contentious almost since Arc Raiders released. As soon as players built up enough gear to feel bad about losing it to someone who risks nothing, folks began calling for free loadouts to be nerfed somehow. We have seen direct nerfs to some of the white-rarity weapons included in free loadouts, as well as matchmaking changes that skew free loadout users toward joining raids late, but the risk-free option remains.

With this restriction, Embark is simultaneously juicing up night raids and Close Scrutiny rounds by raising the loot floor and implementing a soft version of the gear ante that players have also requested in the past. There isn't a true minimum loadout value barrier – in Marathon's end game map Cryo Archive, for instance, you have to bring in at least 5,000 credits worth of gear – but you will have to bring something. Well, in theory, you could bring literally nothing, not even a free kit, but you won't be a threat to anyone at that point either – at least not until you scrounge up some gear and ammo.

Embark acknowledges the slow spot Arc Raiders is in right now, and recognizes that "the road to October" and the fall major update, Frozen Trail, is a long one.

"We know that this quieter period is taking some getting used to, and we completely understand the desire for more things to do in the game," the devs say. "The balance for us is providing content in the short term through Projects and Events, and building something truly substantial for October, and then every six months beyond."

But really, there's no silver bullet (though that experimental PvE mode might excite some players). Things take time to make. Arc Raiders has some new but extremely familiar resource grinds in the latest update, but the game's gone mostly unchanged for a little while. Embark insists it's got its best and biggest on the way, but for now, you're just going to have to find your own fun or, in the wise words of the Final Fantasy 14 dev team, go play something else for a bit. I had my 350+ hours of fun with Arc Raiders, and I will come back for more, but all these RPGs won't play themselves.

If you're looking for something new to play, here are the best games of 2026 so far.

An enormous Helldivers 2 patch is here, overhauling the Major Order experience, adding a new biome, buffing Exo Suits, and much more.

Helldivers 2 Machinery of Oppression 6.3.0 is out now, and it finally adds some of those long-awaited "core" improvements that Arrowhead teased back in May. Specifically, Galactic Campaigns are here – Arrowhead previously described these as "the next evolution of Major Orders," which will each last one to three weeks and make current progress and potential outcomes clearer than before.

To assist in that aim, loyal Helldivers have now been given access to the Control Center terminal, found opposite your armory in your Super Destroyer. "Now Helldivers will be able to get more context to the ongoing Campaigns and their subsequent Major Orders," Arrowhead explains in the patch notes. "Each Campaign will come with its own potential reward, should the Helldivers be victorious in a majority of the Major Orders within it. The terminal will also feature an archive (to be populated as the first campaign concludes) so that new and returning Helldivers can read up on the twists and turns of previous campaigns."

Beyond that, and the new Fall-themed forest biome, there's a lot of rebalancing to dig into. Vehicles have been given "more accurate Armor values," with the Bastion tank appropriately "tankier" with its heavy armor, Exo Suits now able to better withstand medium and heavy attacks thanks to a health increase, with a similar health boost to the FRV to increase its survivability and make it more resistant to heavy attacks. The Ballistic Shield should also now be able to handle medium attacks better than before, and feel like it can ignore small attacks."

In another buff for Exo Suits, the cooldown has been reduced from 10 minutes to eight in the hopes of allowing "more time with fun stratagems."

Otherwise, reloading has been tweaked to make it feel "more responsive." Arrowhead explains: "Part of this is allowing reloading while dodge diving, also remembering the reload state better so if you're ragdolled while reloading you will continue it when regaining control." Delayed reloads have been introduced as part of this: "If you try to trigger a reload while the player is not allowed to do so, the reload will be delayed until the player is able to reload with a maximum of 1.2s delay from when the reload input was pressed."

Meanwhile, Orbital stratagems have been adjusted, with larger projectile explosions like the 120mm and 380mm "increased to make close hits more effective vs larger enemies like Chargers." Arrowhead adds: "Compared to explosions like the Ultimatum these will have less damage at the center, but also less damage fall off so it will have a more consistent damage over its total area."

There are many, many more adjustments and bug fixes in the full patch notes, so many that we'd be here all day if we went through them here – I'd recommend reading the full blog if you're interested. What's nice to see, though, is Arrowhead's commitment to making Helldivers 2 a better experience.

"Helldivers, we are committed to making the necessary upgrades to keep you in the fight," the patch notes read. "Because you have never given up on Managed Democracy, we will never give up on making it easier for you to spread."

The next Helldivers 2 Legendary Warbond is Warhammer 40,000, which is kind of perfect.

Embark says "our commitment to anti-cheat initiatives remains a top priority" for Arc Raiders, and it's pleased with how things are going so far when it comes to stomping out cheaters and item duplication.

In a new blog post, the team says that Denuvo Anti-Cheat is being expanded to more players and that devs are "pleased with the progress so far" and expect "further improvement as we scale up."

When it comes to one of the community's biggest bugbears, item duplication, Embark says that "strict measures" are being taken against those involved.

"This means carefully detecting incidents, addressing them directly, and building safeguards to prevent them from happening in the future," the blog post reads. "It's detailed, methodical work, and we truly appreciate your patience while we see it through."

In a move, no doubt, to make people feel like their reports are leading to something, Embark is also introducing new inbox messages to let you know what's been raised has been actioned. Now, you might receive an Action Notice if a player you've reported has been banned, or Loot Compensation, which will occur when Embark detects a cheater who led you to lose, well, loot.

"Our commitment to anti-cheat initiatives remains a top priority, and we will keep you informed as we work to maintain a fair environment," Embark says. "We appreciate your ongoing feedback and reports, and we thank you for being a part of the incredible journey through Topside."

Arc Raiders' fight against bad actors has been ongoing since its launch last year, though it's not something we haven't seen before, sadly. Popular shooters are often full of people using cheats to get results faster, at the expense of everyone else.

One benefit we have today, at least, is that this isn't new. If you're Embark, you can turn to the likes of Call of Duty and Apex Legends and see if there's any shared learning to be had.

It's necessary, no doubt. While Arc Raiders has enjoyed a great deal of popularity since its launch, we've also seen popular streamers come and go due to the cheating situation, which has basically cut off an arm of free marketing for Embark.

Combine that with other issues typical of anything live service – people running out of content, or simply getting bored – and it leaves the Arc Raiders team with plenty to do.

Thankfully, it looks like plenty is, indeed, being done. Elsewhere in the blog, the developers touch on an October update that's sure to be sizable. If you missed it, Embark recently admitted that its content style is no longer serving its needs, and that bigger swings are needed to keep people coming back. That, and a lack of cheaters. Thankfully, there seems to be movement on both.

Arc Raiders PvE mode coming to the Chinese version, and global players already want it in the main game too.

Taylor Kurosaki and Jacob Minkoff believe they have found a remedy to the rot that has crept into the third-person shooter genre. You may not recognise the names, but you'll certainly be familiar with their work – the pair have collaborated for almost two decades, having left their mark on countless Naughty Dog adventures and led the Modern Warfare revival at Infinity Ward.

Kurosaki and Minkoff just unveiled their latest creative endeavour: Crossfire. It's the debut project from That's No Moon Entertainment, developed in partnership with Smilegate. It's a third-person tactical action game with a focus on grounded stealth combat, built to leverage all that Unreal Engine 5 has to offer. Crossfire looks absolutely stunning in action, but the real point of focus should be in the miniature of its movement systems.

"Our vision is to combine cinematic storytelling with a genre-reinventing cover and traversal system that rewards players for being smart and tactical," says Minkoff, game director of Crossfire. "Our system will allow you to react to the severe pressure that we're putting on you in ways that you haven't been able to before in other video games."

To understand the ambition driving That's No Moon, you first need to understand where the genre it's claiming to reinvent is positioned. Back in 2004, developer Namco Hometek unleashed Kill.Switch – credited as the first video game to use cover as a core mechanic. It's one of those titles you probably haven't played, but you've certainly felt its influence elsewhere: Kill.Switch inspired the heavy cover systems that were later popularised by Gears of War and Uncharted. The third-person shooter never looked back, leaving battlefields strewn with blocks of waist-high cover in its wake.

Crossfire is here to change that. "The system that we have developed, and the fundamental innovation of this game, is what we are calling 'Adaptive Cover'," Minkoff tells me. "The basic idea is that the player enters cover mode, deflects the stick, and then the system chooses the correct stance and motions for the character, given the context of the environment around them and the line-of-sight of enemies."

I know what you're thinking, this all sounds incredibly dry, doesn't it? The thing you need to understand about Crossfire is that it's presenting exceptionally realistic environments (which is to say, unconventional; at least by traditional video game standards) for special-operative Layla, and her reluctant partner, Cross, to crawl through. It's all jagged rocks and splintered points of cover, a playspace that looks as if it has been weathered by time rather than the requirements of antiquated third-person shooter systems.

Adaptive Cover has been designed to dynamically adjust your stance to the terrain and enemy positions, allowing you to intuitively maintain cover. I should note that this is integral, given that a single bullet can kill here. While Minkoff is keen to explain that Crossfire is by no means a military simulator, it is designed to be tactical and challenging – ammunition and armor is limited, as are health reserves.

"We believe that a shooter that has sufficient lethality to make the player use interesting tactical options is also a shooter that has sufficient pressure to make the player buy into the arc of the characters," he tells me. "So, Crossfire is a stealth forward game. It kind of had to be, because this is a game about being intelligent in how you use the environment. This is a game about strategy over strength."

That strategy is reflected in the way that enemies relentlessly hunt Layla and Cross. "Enemies have individual knowledge of you and your buddy. Even if you're in hot combat, enemies can lose track of you. You're able to reacquire stealth, even if they are still firing at your buddy, allowing you to do stealth kills in the middle of a firefight." Minkoff adds: "Crossfire is all about being stealth-forward, and being intelligent about how you analyze the environment."

GamesRadar+ will have more to share on Crossfire in the coming days, following our visit to That's No Moon's base of operations. But before I let you all go, I should flag that there's something that Taylor Kurosaki, chief creative officer, really wants you to know about Crossfire: "This is not a multiplayer game. There are no live-ops components to it. It's a single-player experience, made in the grand tradition of tentpole single-player experiences."

Kurosaki and Minkoff believe that Crossfire has the ability to challenge the way we think about third-person shooters. By leveraging a more adaptive approach to cover and firing, by embracing a sense of true lethality, and by using cutting-edge technology to increase player empathy with sharply-written characters, Crossfire can finally make a stand in a Western market that has so often overlooked the success it has achieved elsewhere around the globe.

Crossfire is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X but doesn't have a confirmed release window. Check back on GamesRadar+ in the days ahead for more insight from Kurosaki and Minkoff, and more detail on the game's ambitious systems.

May's GamesRadar Replay winners saw Leon discovering you can't play safely in traffic, and a one-man army taking down a Matriarch single handed in Arc Raiders. It's a mix of funny and impressive, meaning both take home a $/£250 Amazon Voucher.

Replay challenges you to send us your best, funniest, strangest stand-out clips every month for the chance to win one of two $/£250 Amazon vouchers - one for the best clip overall and one for the best Theme of the Month game, which for June is 007 First Light. We share all our favorite clips on on the site and our socials channels - so if you want the world to see your achievements, accidents or discoveries, let us know!

If you want a chance of winning the June prize then you can submit clips via the big orange button below. It could be anything, from general gameplay to a stream - a funny moment, an amazing clip, a weird bug, or just some good chat.

Remember, there are two $/£250 Amazon Vouchers to be won - one for the best video overall, and another for our 007 First Light Theme of the Month.

By submitting your clip, you agree to the Terms and Conditions.

If you need a helping hand, here's how to record gameplay on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch/Switch 2 to save your highlights

The June Winners!

This month's overall Replay winner is this perfectly timed traffic moment in Resident Evil Requiem.

While winner for the May theme of the month, Arc Raiders, is this impressive one man take down of a Matriarch in barely a minute. That's a lot of Wolfpacks.

If you want to see what the Replay community has contributed already, then take a look below:

Capcom is on a hot streak. With some slipups, the company has managed multiple consecutive years of excellent releases across several series, leading to record sales. On the heels of the likes of Resident Evil Requiem and Monster Hunter Stories 3 in 2026, the creators of Pragmata, a new IP that famously took four extra years in the oven, could feel the pressure. Nobody wanted to break the streak, and especially not Yonghee Cho, who made his directorial debut with Pragmata.

I spoke to Cho, and producer Naoto Oyama, about the making of Pragmata. A big focus was on the pre-release period, the calm before the storm. The night of April 16, even with strong positive reviews in hand, Cho was up late, anxious.

"It's my debut as a director in a game, so if this game didn't do well, that wouldn't be the best start for me as a director," he says (via interpreter). "But going beyond myself, I was also nervous for Capcom as a company. Capcom gave me a chance to do a new IP, so from that stance as well, I really wanted the game to succeed."

Cho says "I was so nervous I really couldn't sleep" the night before launch, so when positive user reviews began to roll in on April 17, he was thrilled and, like Oyama, relieved.

"Thinking back, there's so many points in time that are big steps," Cho and Oyama recall in joint comments. "First, media previews of the game came out, and we're happy to see how the media really liked the game. But in the back of our mind, we're like, we can't let our guard down. Because next is going to be reviews. Then reviews come out, and even if they're good, it's like, but the game's not out yet. We still have to wait for what the players actually think about the game. When we finally see the player score, that's the moment we actually feel, oh, we did it."

Cho compares Capcom's 2026 lineup to a baton race, with each new runner preparing to do their sprint and then pass the baton to the next teammate. "You don't want to be the one to trip and fall when it's your turn," he says.

In some ways, on top of heightened expectations or pressure, joining a sterling 2026 lineup also gave Pragmata a bit of a comfier position. Capcom already had momentum and internal morale was high; Pragmata didn't have to build things up, and it probably had more eyes on it than it would have in a weaker year.

"Because those were all positively received as well," Oyama says of Capcom's recent games, "[it's] not necessarily higher expectations, but we feel like we can add to that success when there's this instance where these games came out in a relatively short timeframe."

Capcom did not expect people to like the first Pragmata trailer so much, and like Todd Howard wincing at The Elder Scrolls 6, kind of regretted announcing it so early.

The war for democracy is going through an evolution. Progression across Helldivers 2 is getting revamped, changing how players level up and earn rewards on both personally and as a whole community.

"We have consistently received feedback around our endgame progression plans, with players asking about level cap increases and additional ship modules," Mikael Eriksson, game director, says in an official blog. "Simply put: we feel like previously seen progression elements, like raising the level cap in silo, aren’t enough and wouldn't address your feedback on a foundational level."

The first part he runs through involves Major Orders. Many of the greatest moments in Helldivers 2 come from players rallying together to serve Super Earth, but, as Eriksson puts it: "It's never been clear if the actions of the community actually lead to different outcomes, or if it's all just smoke and mirrors."

Likewise, where we are in any given objective can be hard to discern if you weren't there as soon as the latest battle started. Thus, Major Orders will become Galactic War Campaigns - these are one-to-three week long objectives, with a more easily readable breakdown of what's happening, what needs doing, and how you can jump in quicker.

Then, a feature Arrowhead wanted to implement at launch, Planet Warfronts, is now coming to the shooter. These are essentially territorial skirmishes, and they'll operate in three ways: Defend, Frontline War, and Behind Enemy Lines. Each will come with their particular struggles, and completing them will impact the complexion of whatever planet you're on.

But the idea is to make it more rewarding and fun to operate as a squad. For individual players, then, Personal Orders are becoming Personal Campaign Progression, a parallel pathway alongside the campaign goals. The level cap is going to 300 in tandem with this.

"The intent is for every Galactic War Campaign to come with a personal progression reward track," Eriksson writes. "That way, even if the community fails to reach a larger goal, players can still do their part toward their personal goals and get rewarded with cool things to mark their participation in various Campaigns. This change won't happen with the launch of Galactic War Campaigns, but we are planning to deploy it this year."

On top of all of this, ship customization is getting better as well. Arrowhead now has a dedicated team for your Super Destroyers, but that's still in flux for now. Liberation is about to get that much more efficient. Exciting times.

Helldivers 2 players say new performance patch made the game look worse between "awful" DLSS implementation and a visual bug that'll make your eyes burn

Arc Raiders seems to be finally getting a PvE mode to the delight of its least violent players, but it'll only be available in China. So, although they have a history of nonviolence, the rest of the players eager for PvE are seething.

Embark Studios' website for the Chinese version of its multiplayer game, which it co-develops with Chinese conglomerate Tencent, reveals a new safe zone mode, according to fan translations.

Arc Raiders fans in China will soon be able to opt into a map modifier where all players are friendly by default, though anyone can choose to defect from the group at the risk of becoming public enemy number one, revealed as a traitor by a red highlight That idea has seemingly also transferred to Arc Raiders' real-life audience, whose Chinese members have once again been marooned from everyone else.

Chinese gamers are sometimes known for especially severe Steam reviews – typically, both because internet restrictions in China give them few options for sharing their opinions, and because Chinese localization work can be uniquely awful. Tom Kaczmarczyk, CEO of business intelligence company IndieBI, touched on this phenomenon while talking to developers at a Digital Dragons 2026 panel recently attended by GamesRadar+, telling them that, "if the Chinese localization is bad," they can expect players "will roast you in the reviews."

Since Chinese players' problems can be so central to the fact that they live in China that global gamers have sometimes taken to dismissing their complaints as melodrama. To this attitude, an Arc Raiders player on Reddit who claims to have been invited to the new safe zone mode's closed beta test says, "Everyone used to mock Chinese gamers for giving bad reviews, but now it seems they genuinely have unique insights and design skills when it comes to games. Now, before buying a game, I check the simplified Chinese review sections."

This seems true here, as I can confirm that global reactions to the Chinese Arc Raiders' new modes are filled with yearning. They, too, want to opt out of PvP, which has always been a contentious aspect of Arc Raiders, and they'd like to try the new dual boss battleground also coming to China. That mode will see the Queen and Matriarch bosses appear at the same time, and, probably, block out all the light in the sky.

China is also getting fresh weapon and armor skins, one of which adds lopsided mouse ears to your helmet, so you can traverse Arc Raiders looking as pampered as a family sharing a big turkey leg at Disney World.

"There'll be some happy Era members if this mode comes to the global build," muses one reply in a discussion about Arc Raiders' exclusive PvE mechanism on ResetEra.

"Somehow China version got what a lot of PvE players have been asking for," says a more bitter comment in a Reddit thread on the topic.

The odds of this experimental mode coming to the mainline version of Arc Raiders are shaky. Embark has repeatedly gone to bat for a balance of PvP and PvE – it did, after all, pivot away from pure PvE to save the game from development hell – and the Chinese branch of the game is a bit wilder overall. But equally, the studio has been blown away by how many people like the peaceful life, and has discussed plans to lean into it outside matchmaking changes. Perhaps friendly raiders will get their wish.

Arc Raiders just knocked 2 million coins off the price of the new Expedition Vault slots because nobody was buying them.

This month June is all about James, with Replay's Theme of the Month focusing on 007 First Light. While you can send in any clips of any game for a chance to win a $/£250 Amazon voucher, there's a special separate prize for the best Bond video.

In case you've not seen it before, GamesRadar+ Replay is our community series where you can submit gaming clips or streams of anything you're playing for a chance to win $/£250 in Amazon vouchers - one for the best clip overall, and one for the best 007 First Light video.

All you need to do for a chance of winning is to submit your clips via the big orange button below. The winners will be then chosen by the GamerRadar+ team at the end of the month.

So, if you clip anything amazing, interesting or just plain weird, send it our way and you could win a $/£250 Amazon voucher to spend on whatever you want.

By submitting your clip, you agree to the Terms and Conditions.

If you need a helping hand, here's how to record gameplay on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch/Switch 2 to save your highlights

If we like your clip then we'll post it and share it so you can join the Replay ranks like the videos you can see below.

Oh dear. Helldivers 2's latest patch – rolled out with the sole purpose of optimization, tackling issues, and making the fight for Managed Democracy feel smoother than ever – has apparently had the exact opposite effect for some, with players reporting worsened graphics and some zany visual glitches after the update.

Today's Helldivers 2 patch – created by Arrowhead in collaboration with Nixxes Software – was supposed to be the devs' "opening salvo in an ongoing campaign to improve performance across the fleet," and looking at the patch notes, you'd think that's exactly what had been achieved. "From upscaling technologies and latency-reduction features to various optimizations and stability fixes, this patch is built to help you stay on target when the battlefield gets chaotic," the devs explained today. Support for FSR 3.1.5, DLSS 4.5, and XeSS 3.0 upscalers was added, amongst other things.

Alas, looking at players' reactions on social media, not everyone is impressed. "DLSS implementation is AWFUL!!!" one Reddit player writes, reporting that "on DLSS Performance (720p to 1440p) smoke dissolves into 'pixels,' sub-pixel details is completely lost, in distance everything is low quality and shimmery, everything is also shaky and shimmers A LOT."

Another player in the replies shares a screenshot comparing DLSS native and quality, and they're not happy: "Tested on 5080, can confirm DLSS is shit, and we waited 2 days for this bullshit."

Comment from r/Helldivers

A separate post shares similar concerns about DLSS. "Upscalers are not implemented correctly and are essentially unusable," they say, sharing a series of screenshots showing how crusty objects in the distance now look for them. "It looks like the actual Helldiver model gets upscaled correctly, while the rest of the world doesn't. This feels like they're forcing on a buggy VRS while it's disabled," they say of one of the shots.

Upscaler implemnetation is uhhhh. from r/Helldivers

Obviously, worsened visuals are nothing to be cheerful about, but it apparently, it could – and can – be worse. Since the patch, a number of players have also shared pictures of a wild visual glitch that can only be described as an unintentional festive mode. From what looks like colorful fairy lights decorating the Super Destroyer to one Illuminate world mission truly living up to its name, it's safe to say that, uh, Helldivers 2 isn't meant to look like this.

Ma eyes!!! from r/Helldivers

The Scary button of doom and despair from r/Helldivers

What's wrong with my game from r/Helldivers

Arrowhead hasn't yet addressed any of these issues, so it remains to be seen how long it'll take to fix them. Ironically, this very update was actually slightly delayed as the devs were "waiting on a fix from our platform partners so that we can submit the patch," but it seems like it could have done with a bit more time in the oven.

The next Helldivers 2 Legendary Warbond is Warhammer 40,000, which is kind of perfect.

Last week, Arrowhead Game Studios announced it was getting serious (again) about finally fixing Helldivers 2's long-standing technical issues with an update focused on stability, latency reduction, and the implementation of upscaling features. The developer has made good on that promise today with a big new patch.

"As the fight for Managed Democracy rages on, Super Earth's finest engineers have been hard at work making every drop into hostile territory smoother," the studio writes in its latest blog post. "Together with our friends at Nixxes Software, we've deployed an update with improvements across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. From upscaling technologies and latency-reduction features to various optimizations and stability fixes, this patch is built to help you stay on target when the battlefield gets chaotic."

The new patch implements various upscaling features depending on how souped up your ole personal computer is, alongside VRR support on PS5 and PS5 Pro and VRS implementation for supported machines. In the dev's words, VRS smooths performance by "reducing shading rates on certain areas of the image," which then lightens the load on GPUs.

There are a number of other tech-related improvements and solutions elsewhere in the patch notes - all console versions have increased resolutions when playing in performance mode, for example, so you should check out the full list of changes for yourself.

Arrowhead's dropped a number of bug fixes, too. One fix sorts out an issue where divers couldn't "manually climb small obstacles and ledges without auto-climb." Other fixes note that performance and image quality have been upped across all platforms more generally.

The developer previously said this big update was only the "opening salvo" in its ongoing efforts to buff Helldivers 2's creaky skeleton. Another tech-focused update is planned to come later this summer, and the studio's also keeping an eye on how this new patch goes down.

Despite High Command's best efforts to quell dissent, fans have been complaining about Helldivers 2's performance woes for more than a year now. Perhaps recruiting PlayStation's PC porting house will properly do the trick this time.

The next Helldivers 2 Legendary Warbond is Warhammer 40,000, which is kind of perfect

From early previews through to critic and user reviews, a common bit of feedback on Pragmata, Capcom's shooter-puzzle action game about dismantling rogue robots on the moon, is that it feels like something from a different era. Many people compared it to the tight, linear action games of the PS3 and Xbox 360, and I was delighted to see many people cite Platinum Games' Vanquish specifically (in part for its similar weapon system). Our Pragmata review is similarly positive.

Pragmata director Yonghee Cho and producer Naoto Oyama have clearly heard this feedback before. When I asked them about it in a recent interview, they both cracked a smile before my question was even relayed in Japanese via interpreter.

Simply put, I wanted to know how Cho and Oyama feel about the PS3-era comparisons, and how they look back on that era of gaming.

"The dev team has heard similar comments from both reviewers as well as players themselves," Cho begins. "Honestly, it's a huge compliment. I really enjoyed games during the PS3, Xbox 360 era, and games before that era as well, so to hear that it has a similar feel, that's basically an honor, a huge compliment, and I appreciate the sentiment."

Oyama focuses on where this feeling may have come from. Why did Pragmata scratch this specific itch for so many people?

"Maybe the reason people might feel that way is because, during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, a lot of different developers and publishers were experimenting with new types of games and just completely new games. Maybe that's what causes people to feel that way.

"Because the Pragmata dev team, as well, they put a lot of passion into creating something new, so perhaps that's what people feel, and it reminds them of that era when so many developers were jumping into new, different ideas."

This kind reception for Pragmata and games like it is, in some ways, arguably an indictment of the stagnation in today's games industry, particularly at the AAA level. I generally believe that games are better than ever if you know where to look, but a lot of companies have de-risked themselves into outright toothlessness, and experimental releases are definitely more common in indie circles nowadays. There are a lot of reasons for that, and I do think nostalgia is a force in these conversations, but there is something to be said for that particular console generation.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 ended up being one of the wilder cycles. It was arguably the last massive leap forward technologically – the jump to HD – as modern console generations yield smaller and smaller gains. I love the SSDs in my PS5 and Xbox Series X, but AAA games haven't changed a lot since the PS4 and Xbox One. You might even say we are still playing the exact same games, if only because two average AAA production cycles will last an entire console generation nowadays.

We also had more significant hardware differences between platforms 20 years ago, whereas today's systems all kind of orbit the same architecture, Nintendo's novel form factors and leaner processors notwithstanding. It's all just games running on computers in strangely shaped boxes at the end of the day, but I think there's something to be said for how hardware and the culture around it bleeds into software.

Though the consoles themselves may have helped set the stage for experimental games, the industry was also very different in the 2000s. The market was less mature. Games tended to be shorter, companies weren't facing the same forces of consolidation, development budgets hadn't ballooned so dramatically (even accounting for inflation), and the same 10 live service games weren't consuming so much of everyone's time and money. There are obviously a lot of other factors behind the past 20 years of industry sediment, but in short, the patterns that have emerged and settled today were much looser on the PS3 and 360, or just weren't there at all.

I actually spoke to Cho about the nature of scoping a game like this. "There's not really a single deciding factor on game scale in that sense," he reasons. "There's a lot of different elements that go into it.

"If you want a quick, rough overview, the director has kind of their idea of what they think would be a good scale for such a single-player game. And then from there they look into where they can place enemies, they go through level design, things like that, and see if that initial estimate is really the best length for their idea. Basically, it's a lot of trial and error, but that's the rough process."

"Of course" the director of Pragmata would love a sequel, but he's "not the only one who decides" that at Capcom.

You know the interview is good when PR is freaking out. I asked Pragmata director Yonghee Cho and producer Naoto Oyama if they hope to see Pragmata become a new franchise for Capcom, following up on remarks from Capcom USA COO Rob Dyer.

Oyama gives the expected response (via interpreter): "I honestly don't know what the future holds. Like you said, it's only been a month since Pragmata went on sale, so honestly, what I'm focused on is just trying to get as many people to experience Pragmata as I can. I'm focused on Pragmata itself."

So I asked again. This time, I put a different question to Cho directly. If he could snap his fingers and make it happen, would he want to make Pragmata 2?

"Of course I'd love to see a sequel," he says. "But I'm not the only one who decides, so unfortunately I can't really comment beyond that."

This was about 51 minutes into my interview with Cho and Oyama on Tuesday night, and this was the point that Capcom PR on the Japan side of the call really spoke up. You'd think Cho had dropped a live hand grenade in the room from the way everyone rushed to dive on his response.

Cho is quick to stress that this is just his "own personal opinion on the matter."

"Please don't take that line out of context," Oyama adds with a laugh.

Once again, PR says this is just Cho's thoughts, not an answer from Capcom the company.

So this is not an announcement for Pragmata 2, a game which does not exist. But as someone who really enjoyed Pragmata, it is exactly what I want to hear.

Pragmata marked Cho's directorial debut after well over a decade in games, and not only was it a critical success that sold 2 million copies in just over two weeks, it's a new IP, an extreme rarity among big publishers today. It's also a short, linear, single-player action game with genuinely novel gameplay – another rare breed outside indie circles. (Cho says he was actually pushing for a more "indie" spirit with the project.)

For my money, Pragmata is the kind of game we need more of. Echoing the likes of tower defense oddball Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, it's also the kind of risk I want to see Capcom take as it reclines in a bean bag chair full of Resident Evil and Monster Hunter bucks.

We'll have much more from Cho and Oyama in the days ahead, so stick around.

Capcom wants to "nurture" dormant game series like Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma with "sequels, remakes, ports," and more.

The latest Arc Raiders patch addresses how much you're paying to stash items for the Expedition. Now, the pricing doesn't stack, making it easier to put more of your favorite loot away once your character takes their caravan off into the great unknown.

In Arc Raiders, as you're likely aware, Ermal offers storage in the form of the Expedition Vault, for items you'd like your next character to access once this one goes. Previously, the five tiers increased in price the higher you went up, but Embark's changed it following insight from players - likely the part where people weren't investing due to how expnesive it was.

"After analyzing data and the early feedback since Ermal appeared in Speranza, we are adjusting the Expedition Vault pricing this week to encourage more trading," Embark says in the patch notes. "Tier one price will remain the same and all following levels will cost 200.000."

There are five tiers, and they went up in increments of 200,000, making the top a cool one million, and the whole lot costing someone two million to buy. Now, it's a fraction of that - a good alteration in theory, although players are skeptical.

"The expedition slots being priced flat is a bad change," says one commenter on Reddit, who suggests pricing should go up in 50,000 intervals. "The total price for all of them would remain the same (one million), but the early ones should be less expensive to make them at least somewhat realistic for casuals while keeping the later ones more expensive for the hardcore players."

Another fan on Reddit comments that it doesn't fix wider problems around the trader's presence. "The Trader was meant to give purpose to loot, as since the expedition changed stash value has no purpose," the player writes. "Instead it introduced a grind for specific materials most players wouldn't hoard in the first place, as all arc materials stack very poorly in the stash."

That's a deeper problem to handle, but likely something Embark is aware of. At least for now, players can make use of vaulting for cheaper.

Arc Raiders is getting a new "official" roadmap soon, Embark CEO says, and it'll feature even "more details than we've done in the past"

When you think of The Lord of the Rings, you likely think of bare-footed Hobbits, Gandalf's epic showdown against the Balrog, elves that speak in magical tongues, and rings that contain immense, corrupting power. You probably don't immediately picture hulking brutes in power armors that'd struggle getting through the average doorway, swarms of aliens, and massive guns. Nonetheless, a lead on the sci-fi shooter Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 thinks that the series' expansive, genre-hopping universe and the work of J.R.R Tolkien have more in common than you think.

Oliver Hollis-Leick, who serves as creative director on Space Marine 2, recently told Edge that he felt the IP was "up there with Tolkien." Hollis-Leick added, "Its vast history and story is just such a rich playground for any fantasy or quest, or whatever kind of journey you want to take someone on."

Hollis-Leick is, of course, gesturing at two things here. The first is the wider and more expansive world of Warhammer, not just the 40,000 sub-series in which Space Marine 2 is nestled. The 40K games (as they're often shortened to) are a sci-fi counterpart that was eventually developed to bring the appeal of Warhammer, a strategy tabletop role-playing game set in a fantasy world Edge calls "cheekily Tolkien-like," to a wider audience.

The second is the brand's immense flexibility, which Hollis-Leick discusses at length with Edge. He makes specific reference to Warhammer's ability to transform to meet the wants of its sizeable audience, whether that's into a deep single-player RPG like Rogue Trader, a first-person cooperative jaunt through fantasy or sci-fi settings like Vermintide and Darktide respectively, or a chunky third-person shooter like the Space Marine titles.

In this regard, Hollis-Leick's comments feel less pointed at The Lord of the Rings, the most famous of Tolkien's work. Instead, they feel more directed at the books' complementary texts, like the Silmarillion, which is a collection of stories that elaborate upon, among other things, the creation of the world in which Middle-earth is situated and its history and mythology over the course of several ages. These stories, as well as many of the incomplete works that Tolkien's son would eventually release, have taken all kinds of shapes, sizes, and, as such, adopted many perspectives. So too have a lot of adaptations of the source material.

In the world of video games alone, Tolkien's work has been shaped into countless forms: text adventures, action-oriented titles, real-time strategy games, open-world RPGs, an MMO, a poorly received stealth game, a procedurally generated survival game, a cozy farming sim, and more. Most recently, it was announced that Warhorse, the team behind the critically lauded Kingdom Come: Deliverance games, would be making a brand new RPG set in Middle-earth.

Perhaps, Hollis-Leick is onto something, and we ought to be treating Warhammer with more esteem than we've been giving it.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 studio confirms Lord of the Rings rumors, Warhorse is making an "open world Middle-earth RPG"

A new Helldivers 2 Legendary Warbond was announced at the big Warhammer Skulls fest today, and wouldn't you know it, Warhammer 40,000 reinforcements are stepping in to help with the galactic war.

Helldivers 2 game director Mikael Eriksson, who says developer Arrowhead is full of Warhammer nerds, shared the news. The Helldivers elevator pitch to "liberate the galaxy from evil, oppressive aliens threatening our way of life" via extreme violence is an oddly perfect match for Warhammer, which is no stranger to souped-up, death-dealing soldiers or alien extinction.

"We are beyond thrilled to see this Legendary Warbond come to life," Eriksson says. This presumably goes double for CEO Shams Jorjani, who said last year that Warhammer owner Games Workshop "would love a crossover," but that it had proven difficult to commit to one between other development responsibilities – not to mention former Arrowhead CEO and current creative lead Johan Pilestedt, who seems to spend roughly 95% of his income on Warhammer kits.

The contents of the Warbond are still under lock and key. The reveal trailer is a mix of standard Helldivers 2 footage and real-world Warhammer detailing, revealing extremely little about what new toys will be handed to Helldivers – unless those miniatures are quietly teasing Warbond rewards, after all.

Based on previous Legendary Warbonds, we can reasonably expect some Warhammer-inspired weaponry, armor, cosmetics, and potentially vehicles. I would personally love to see the iconic Warhammer space marine armor, hulking pauldrons and all, turned into some kind of exo suit for our tiny, squishy Helldivers to pilot.

Arrowhead says it will reveal more details on the Warhammer 40,000 Legendary Warbond this year. We also don't have a release date for it just yet – all we know is that it's "coming soon".

Helldivers 2 recruits PlayStation PC port studio for "opening salvo in an ongoing campaign to improve performance."

Helldivers 2 has long struggled to stabilize its rocky foundations, but Arrowhead Game Studios is now preparing to launch an "opening salvo" and blast away the game's performance issues like a colony of juicy bugs. And, encouragingly, it's recruited PlayStation's PC port studio for help.

Helldivers 2 players have been complaining about the game's questionable performance for well over a year, most recently in an uncensored Reddit AMA with creative lead and former CEO Johan Pilestedt where he promised clearer, more frequent communication with the community.

That promise manifested today in a new Steam blog revealing a new update coming on May 27. "In collaboration with our partners at Nixxes, this release brings a range of long-awaited updates across all platforms," the dev writes. "Every frame counts when the pressure is on. This update focuses on three primary pillars: stability, latency reduction, and advanced upscaling technologies - helping ensure performance stays consistent, even in the most demanding moments."

To balance visual clarity and performance, the studio is implementing FSR 3.1 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, PSSR 1 on PS5 Pro, and various upscaling solutions on PC depending on how buffed up your machine is.

Arrowhead is also looking to lighten the load on GPUs with VRS technology, and is adding DRS (dynamic resolution scaling) to all versions of the game to make sure the frame rate stays steady even in more intensive situations. You can read a list of changes in the studio's blog post now, but note there'll be "additional fixes" come next week, too.

This upcoming update is far from Arrowhead's last step in making everyone less mad. The developer calls it "just the opening salvo in an ongoing campaign to improve performance across the fleet" as it also promises to monitor the situation carefully from here on and deploy hotfixes when needed.

"We're also preparing a dedicated tech-focused update later this summer to push these improvements even further," it writes. "With our friends at Nixxes dropping onto the battlefield as our backup, we're committing to make diving with your friends better and better. And keep the feedback coming, Helldivers, it's the key to helping us shape the future of the game."

This is far from the first time Arrowhead's promised big changes to the way it updates and improves its best-selling shooter, which is otherwise a brilliant game, I should add, but Nixxes' involvement is a promising step forward this time. The PlayStation subsidiary is responsible for bringing several first-party games to PC (Marvel's Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima) with really solid ports.

Helldivers 2 will receive "core" improvements by summer as Arrowhead works on making the Galactic War "more reactive" with multi-week campaigns and better rewards

Arc Raiders will soon be getting a new roadmap outlining content that's on the way in more depth than ever before, Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund confirms.

Embark Studios's latest multiplayer hit has now been out for almost seven months, but in that time, the devs have completed everything they laid out in the Arc Raiders 2026 roadmap. After all, it only went up to April's big Riven Tides update, but it sounds like we'll be getting a new one soon.

Speaking on a new episode of The Fourth Curtain (below), Söderlund says Embark feels it owes it to players to give them "a lot more" content. "Because of the success of Arc Raiders, we have put ourselves in a position where I feel like we owe it to ourselves and to the people out there playing the game to make a lot more, you know, to just make sure that people have more to do," he begins.

Söderlund admits he recently "had to apologize" to the Arc Raiders leadership team because he "wasn't happy with the speed that we were building things and kind of feeding the community with," even though he acknowledges that "that's unfair towards the developers" who are "really working hard." He points to the work Embark has been putting into its anti-cheat measures, saying that "we've really gone hard after that problem" and are "trying everything we can to fix" it. Söderlund adds: "I think we've mitigated a lot of it. Maybe not all of it, but we're not going to give up until we feel like we're ahead of that curve."

He continues, saying it's the "same thing with bigger updates that [are] coming, new maps and things." He explains: "We're going to be publishing very shortly kind of [an] official roadmap of content to come so people know what they are waiting for, with more details than we've done in the past."

While Söderlund doesn't elaborate on what exactly he or the devs have in mind, he teases that "there's so much we can do with both the game itself, but also the lore, the fiction, new types of enemy. Like, there's so much you can do with that game." The devs at Embark have "a thousand ideas," he says.

Hopefully, then, we'll soon find out what Embark's plans are. What we do already know is that we won't be getting any more major updates until October, when we'll see the launch of Frozen Trail, the biggest Arc Raiders update yet. In general, major updates are now set to arrive twice a year, though "regular live updates" with balance changes and bug fixes will still come in between.

Based on when The Fourth Curtain's interview with Söderlund was published, it looks like there's a good chance it took place before the announcement of the new bi-annual update cadence took place, as Söderlund doesn't refer to the Frozen Trail update. I'm curious what a roadmap could actually look like for the game given that announcement – it certainly sounds like it'd be a more forward-looking thing, but it'd be nice to have more details about the October update and what comes after that.

"Defending yourself is no longer treated the same as starting a fight": Arc Raiders devs update matchmaking, explain how it really works, and shoot down player theories.

Clearing up months of speculation, Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios released a detailed breakdown of how the game's matchmaking works alongside an update packing two major changes to that system.

These matchmaking changes are "live now," and Embark will "keep tuning" as players respond to them.

Firstly, Embark says in a new post, "defending yourself is no longer treated the same as starting a fight." Until now, though Embark was able to track who shoots first, it appears the flow of an engagement was weighted in such a way that "your playstyle," as the system evaluates you, "didn't capture whether you started a PvP encounter or merely defended yourself."

"This meant cautious Raiders could be treated as more PvP-focused than they actually are," Embark says. "Now, the two are treated differently."

Secondly, "low-activity rounds carry less weight in your playstyle history." This seems aimed at the tactic of spawning in on free kits and instantly surrendering to bring down your perceived aggression rating (which Embark calls a misnomer). Looking at short runs in general, "reducing their weight helps the system reflect how you genuinely play when you're out there making choices," Embark says.

Your "playstyle" is the recurring theme of Embark's matchmaking explainer. The studio says it wanted to prioritize "fairness" and "enjoyment" with matches, and it found that "matching players based on playstyle drives enjoyment and reduces friction."

"We take multiple factors into account when forming a lobby," the devs explain. "One of the strongest is your playstyle across previous rounds, especially as it relates to how you engage with other Raiders. It's important to understand that playstyles aren't binary. This isn't 'friendly' vs. 'shoot on sight.' It's a continuous scale."

This is Embark once again dismantling the idea of friendly or PvP lobbies. "Our system tries to place you with players who sit closer to you on that scale, while still keeping Topside from becoming completely predictable," it says.

As such, you are more "likely" to be matched with players who are close to you on the playstyle distribution graph, which Embark visualizes using "cooperative, mixed, and PvP-focused" styles. If you're over in cooperative camp, the bloodthirsty PvP players are an "unlikely" but never impossible match.

Embark stresses that "your behavior shapes your future lobbies - gradually," not as a result of individual rounds or knee-jerk punishments. This sets up a list of myths, many of which still circulate among players, regarding matchmaking and ways to game it.

Here's the full list of Arc Raiders matchmaking myths that Embark has shut down.

• "There are not only two kinds of lobbies - friendly and aggressive"
• "One shot or kill does not immediately put you in 'PvP-focused' lobbies"
• "There are no 'PvE-only' lobbies/servers where other Raiders will never attack you"
• "Your end-of-round feedback does not affect matchmaking"
• "Your loadout does not affect matchmaking"
• "Patches and updates don't reset your matchmaking profile"
• "Looting knocked-out players doesn't affect your matchmaking"
• "We don't matchmake based only on the squad leader"
• "Turning crossplay on or off does not impact the level of cooperation / PvP in the round"

I know from experience that it's easy to fall into some of these theories, either because you unwittingly look for confirmation or you overestimate a string of coincidences. Turning off crossplay is (or certainly was) common advice among PC players looking to avoid the scourge of barbaric console players, for instance. It's also hilarious to me to have confirmation that my history of violence is, in fact, dragging my pacifist friend into a warzone when we play together, no matter who leads the squad.

The stated goal for Arc Raiders matchmaking is to avoid removing danger from lobbies, or making them too predictable, while also nudging like-minded players toward each other. As production director Caigo Braga told us last month, "players shouldn't feel fully safe," but they shouldn't all be dragged into intense firefights every match either.

Arc Raiders devs know everyone just uses the Survivor augment, so they're buffing "underperforming" options to make loadouts more interesting.

Voice acting can be a tricky thing to get right. Sometimes you just don't know if a performance is really what you're looking for until you hear it in context. In the case of two major roles in The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, developer Owlcat Games is recasting its original actor after a round of particularly poor feedback from players.

Owlcat Games reveals the change in an update one month into Osiris Reborn's current beta period. "While the voice actor for the male protagonist and [his identical twin] J put in a lot of good work, they felt less expressive than we wanted," the studio says. "Because of this, we are changing the voices of the male protagonist and J."

A press release indicates the casting process has already begun, stating "the team is looking for a new voice for both [J and the male protagonist]."

Our The Expanse: Osiris Reborn preview notes that the game's dialogue wasn't its strongest facet by any means. "The female character options fare better in their overall delivery, but dialogue generally can be painfully functional at best," we write.

Owlcat also notes that the character movement isn't where anyone would like it to be. "Our dev team is also working on the overall character animations, including both facial animation and body movement, to make them feel more natural and polished," the company says.

As the game isn't due out until mid-2027, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn devs have plenty of time to course-correct here. With any luck, the game's next beta will instill more confidence in the Mass Effect-inspired spin on 2023 adventure game The Expanse: A Telltale Series.

This is my favorite denial on the Citadel: Mass Effect showrunner says he was never told to rewrite the Amazon series for "non-gamers."

It didn't take long for Arc Raiders players to work out that the Survivor augment, which provides a comfy combination of shield options, inventory space, weight limit, and quick-use slots, is fantastic in basically every situation. That hasn't really changed since the game launched despite the introduction of other high-end augments (which do have use cases!), so developer Embark Studios has directly buffed a few options to help freshen up loadouts.

In a May 19 patch, Embark upgraded the Tactical Mk. 3 (Healing) augment considerably. Previously, this bag came with a fairly underwhelming healing cloud effect that triggered when you were revived. That cloud has been promoted to monsoon.

The healing cloud is now an AoE effect that heals for 45 points instead of the previous 20, with the only downside offsetting that change being an increase to its cooldown – up from 30 seconds to 45. That said, you hopefully won't be getting downed every 30 seconds anyway, so this change ought to provide a much more relevant chunk of instantaneous health after clutch revives during heated firefights.

The Combat Mk. 3 (Flanking) augment also got a large buff. It's a simple one, too: it can take medium shields now. No more paper-thin light shields on a purported combat augment.

"As mentioned in the patch notes for Patch 1.26, we continue to focus our sights on underperforming Augments," Embark says. "In this update, we are making the Tactical Mk.3 (Healing) Augment offer more utility in line with its place as a support-focused Augment. Now you can also heal your allies (and your enemies, if you're not careful) after being revived. We also increased the survivability potential of the Combat Mk.3 (Flanking) to make it more viable as a flanking combat Augment."

The best part of this change is arguably what didn't happen: the Survivor augment wasn't nerfed. Players have long feared that Embark would simply hammer down the nail that's sticking out. But one of the reasons the Survivor is so popular is that the other options, though they do have some applications (shout out to the infinite shield charger, in particular), often don't feel that great or impactful, so you just default to the comfy, neutral one.

The effect on the Survivor bag, which lets you regain health while downed, is handy for protracted escape attempts, but the bag is really just a pile of good stats more often than not. Compelling, unique effects could absolutely get me to swap to another augment – it just needs to solve a specific problem, enable or support a play style, or generally do something so well that I don't miss my gigantic inventory.

Arc Raiders dev admits durability changes were "too much," buffs a ton of guns to make up for it: "We will continue to listen to your feedback."

In record time, today's Arc Raiders update softened the divisive weapon durability changes recently introduced by developer Embark Studios as a way to promote weapon turnover and reduce player hoarding. The Renegade, a popular rifle held up by many as the biggest loser of the change, received the biggest durability buffs, but it's far from the only one affected.

"It's been clear that the durability changes in the last patch were felt too much on some weapons," Embark admits in the 1.29.0 patch notes. "For this update, we're targeting the worst offenders that seem to break too quickly, increasing their lifetime to bring them in line with other weapons."

Here's the full list of changes, detailing the effective durability increase for each gun (how many shots it takes to break them).

• Ferro - 18% (from 129 to 151 shots)
• Anvil - 25% (from 150 to 188)
• Canto - 18% (from 667 to 784)
• Osprey - 33% (from 111 to 148)
• Renegade - 54% (from 175 to 269)
• Torrente - 25% (from 890 to 1,113)
• Bettina - 25% (from 607 to 759)
• Jupiter - 33% (from 167 to 222)

You'll notice that low-rarity weapons like the Stitcher will still fall apart faster than cookies in milk, which is very much by design. Embark said it wants higher-rarity weapons to feel more solid, while lower-rarity options should come with downsides that encourage players to upgrade.

A durability-adjacent change to the photoelectric cloak was also softened. Originally, the cloak burned through energy at a rate of 2.5 points per second, giving it a long duration. In the durability patch, Embark quadrupled that to 10 per second, quartering the item's effective uptime and giving it limited use cases. Today, that was reduced to 5 points per second – a much more reasonable middle ground, I'd say.

Additionally, on top of its durability buff, the Bettina assault rifle received yet another targeted buff. Its fire rate has been increased from 235 to 250. The Bettina was widely called a brick when Arc Raiders first launched, but Embark has fed the thing so many freakin' buffs that it might just be a brick house. It was feeling pretty okay to me even before this fire rate buff.

These weapon changes come alongside the introduction of an all-new weapon: the Rascal grenade launcher. Think of it as a cheaper, weaker, breach-loaded Hullcracker. "A reliable side-arm for those who want anti-ARC firepower without the risk of lugging around a Hullcracker," Embark says. Naturally, it's also less durable than

Arc Raiders turns to Denuvo to finally squash the extraction shooter's cheating problem, but Embark won't use DRM and is "working to ensure minimal impact on performance".

The Arc Raiders Nomadic Envoys are traders led by the enigmatic Ermal, who each bring random weekly goods that players can buy with money or by trading in certain items. Some of the items sold by Envoys are superb game changers, but they are largely all very expensive, meaning that players need to bring huge amounts of coins or certain high level crafting materials to get this rotating stock, and to do so fast, as once an item is being sold by the Nomadic Envoys, there's no guarantee they're coming back around.

Below I'll lay out the latest on everything that the Envoys are selling this week, kept up to date, as well as lay out an explanation of how they work in the game.

What are the Nomadic Envoys selling this week in Arc Raiders?

This week (starting May 26th, 2026) the Nomadic Envoys are selling these goods in Arc Raiders:

• +12 Stash Expansion: 200,000 coins
• Expedition Vault slot: 200,000 coins
• Chap (outfit): 500,000 coins
• Can't Hear You (emote): 100,000 coins
• Soda Can (backpack charm): 100,000 coins
• Wolfpack blueprint: 500,000 coins
• Magnetic Accelerator (crafting material): Rubber duck (x1), Gentle Duck (x1), Doodly Duck (x1)
• Anvil Splitter (weapon mod): 100,000 coins
• Mushroom (consumable): 5,000 coins
• 25 Raider Tokens: 150,000 coins

This selection will rotate out each week (changing every Tuesday at 1PM UTC / 2PM BST / 9PM EDT / 6AM PDT). If you see something in the store that you want, make sure you get it before then!

What is an Arc Raiders Nomadic Envoy?

The Nomadic Envoys are new traders that have been added to the trader tab for players over level 25. Specifically it's a character called Ermal who can barter any high value Arc resources, rare weapons and basically anything valuable for a range of high level items. That can include:

• +12 Stash expansion slots
• UP to five Expedition stash slots to save items
• Progression items for current projects
• Blueprints
• Raider Tokens
• Cosmetics.

The catch is that none of this stuff is cheap, with prices ranging from 30,000 coins to a cool million. Obviously not all raiders have that sort of cash lying around so generally you'll be paying with a cash equivalent made up of valuable Arc parts, currently including these:

• Queen Reactor
• Matriarch Reactor
• Bombardier Cell
• Assessor Matrix
• Turbine Compressor
• Leaper Pulse Unit
• Bastion Cell
• Vaporizer Regulator
• Rocketeer Driver

Each item has a cash value, and you can add as many things as you need to make the price, in any combination. So, while it's not cheap there's enough variety there that you can probably farm the things easiest for you to get. Some items can also be bought with more general resources.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

A new Arc Raiders patch is taking aim at cheaters by implementing Denuvo's Anti-Cheat measures. But Embark Studios is already getting ahead of the backlash by promising folks it doesn't plan to use DRM and saying it's making sure the anti-cheat tech won't have a noticeable impact on performance.

Arc Raiders 1.29.0 patch notes are expansive and detail everything from a new trader to new weapons and balance tweaks. Buried at the bottom of the list is a note on the developer's ongoing battle against bad apples.

"We want to continue improving our anti-cheat solutions and more accurately detect foul play across the Rust Belt," the dev writes. "Following a positive rollout in The Finals, Denuvo Anti-Cheat will also come to ARC Raiders starting May 19th, initially to a limited player pool, with plans to expand after close monitoring."

Embark didn't specify exactly how it's lumping players together, but I'm guessing the anti-cheat tech will hit more aggressive players or accounts that have been reported first, before eventually spreading to everyone.

Even the mere mention of Denuvo is enough to scare droves of PC players, since the name is associated with a controversial, anti-piracy DRM service that often kneecaps performance, prompting the company to address the issue. Don't worry about it too much here, though.

"We will not be using Denuvo's Digital Rights Management (DRM) service, and are working to ensure minimal impact on performance," Embark adds. "With Denuvo Anti-Cheat and Anybrain, we are working to strengthen ARC Raiders' systems even further. Keep sending us reports of any information that you believe might help us do so, it's highly appreciated."

Cheating in Arc Raiders has been a recurring problem for months, and Embark has been testing various systems to detect and punish cheaters since at least January of this year. Here's hoping these newest changes can finally squash the extraction shooter's longest-running issue.

As Arc Raiders devs work on "reactivating" the 16 million people who bought the shooter, Embark Studios is early in development on two new games

Marvel Rivals test server players are discovering that Devil Dinosaur is already the silliest character in the game, thanks to his head being too big.

Earlier this week, Marvel Rivals confirmed the heroes coming to Season 8 of the multiplayer shooter. While Cyclops's arrival in the game may be the main event for a ton of Marvel fans, it also came with one of the most inspired choices for the game's already massive roster. Sure, there may not be Doctor Doom, Ghost Rider, or Ant-Man yet, but the devs have added Devil Dinosaur to the game, so who cares?

For those unaware, Devil Dinosaur is a giant red Tyrannosaurus Rex joining the roster of Tanks (or to use their Rivals-specific name, Vanguards) with abilities like shooting a giant laser beam from its mouth and – as expected from a dinosaur – the ability to let out a massive roar and chomp on your enemies.

Devil Dinosaur's head is too big D: from r/marvelrivals

Devil Dinosaur is best known in my house thanks to the Disney+ series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which I haven't watched, but features a great song from the former frontman of 1990s power pop group Jellyfish, Andy Sturmer. That song is called "Go Big," and in an unfortunate bit of irony, that advice has proved to be a downfall for the character.

Test server players have been showing off some of the new character, and as some players on Reddit have noticed, Devil Dinosaur is having trouble making it through some of the areas of the maps in Marvel Rivals. Naturally, this also has some players concerned, as many worry it locks Devil Dinosaur – who already has a giant hitbox – into just the main routes. Some players are reveling in how silly this is, with one Reddit user saying, "Honestly, I love it, I wanna play as a T. rex, a T. rex shouldn't fit through a normal hallway... IDK if this is balanced but all I know is I get to play as a Dinosaur in a Hero Shooter."

But that's not Devil Dinosaur's only quirk either, as streamer kayjii noticed live that the character isn't able to melee in front of him (on account of the small arms, I guess). Rather, Devil Dinosaur throws it back and whacks people with his tail, which only adds to the character's comedic value. I don't know how comp-viable he will be, but I will be playing the dinosaur, and you can't stop me.

Black Cat joins Marvel Rivals, says "good boy" in her reveal trailer, and it's all been downhill from there, folks: "I have never folded so fast in my LIFE."

Friendship-making-slash-ruining sim Arc Raiders is a big deal, that much we knew, but the extraction shooter has now surpassed 16 million copies sold. So Embark Studios is focusing on "reactivating" those raiders like robot-hunting sleeper agents, while the rest of the team makes two new mysterious games.

Publisher Nexon announced the sales milestone in its latest earnings report. The hit shooter might have come out and gone massively viral last year, but it's got legs fit for a marathon since Arc Raiders sold another 4.6 million units during the first three months of the year. More recently, its lifetime total reached 16 million copies.

"Extraordinary worldwide sales have made Arc Raiders the most successful new product release in company history, and demonstrated that Nexon can deliver games at scale across global markets," the publisher brags. "Six months after the launch, and driven by a steady stream of content updates, Arc Raiders surpassed 16 million unit sales worldwide and consistently ranked among the top games on Steam’s most-played chart. More than half of the active players have already spent over 100 hours in the game, totaling more than 1.5 billion hours - an exceptionally high level of engagement."

Nexon also notes how Embark Studios is working to keep the momentum going with the Frozen Trail update, coming in October. While that might seem too far out to feed the millions of players sustaining a live service game, Embark stressed the update would address long-term concerns and make more "transformative" changes.

The publisher itself reckons everything coming with The Frozen Trail - from new cosmetics to the largest map yet - will be "great for reactivating users who finished the original game, and for attracting all-new players." I wonder what the activation code is.

Then, buried way at the bottom of the financial report in a list of upcoming Nexon games, we get a small glimpse into the developer's future. "From Embark Studios: Two new games in the early stage of development." That's the only crumb of information we have about the two projects, but after how explosively successful Arc Raiders became, anything the dev touches should be worth keeping an eye on.

Arc Raiders will soon let you keep blueprints and buy more stash space because "very few of you are going on the Expedition"

Arc Raiders will introduce two heavily demanded features in a smaller but significant update coming the week of May 17, letting players expand their stash and carry key items like blueprints between Expeditions.

Developer Embark Studios announced the update today in the footnotes to a long explainer about the game's new release schedule, with major updates like the newly announced Frozen Trail coming twice a year (in this case, in October).

"Next week, we’re introducing a fresh mechanic designed for late-game players: a new Trader from a nomadic tribe of surface-dwellers," Embark says.

This trader is meant to solve a problem some experienced raiders have run into: they have too much stuff and nothing to do with it. With Expedition skill point payouts now tied to limited-time combat events, there's even less point to selling stuff to become a coin millionaire.

Additionally, "very few of you are going on the Expedition, either because it is not rewarding enough, or because it is too painful to part with your favorite items and Blueprints," Embark observes.

This trader, unlocked at level 25, is meant to help solve all of this, in addition to offering "unique rewards, rare items, and cosmetics in exchange for your high-value items." On a weekly rotation, you'll be able to barter for goods and answer requests for specific rare items.

Most importantly, the trader will let you purchase extra stash space, and a hotly requested way to "carry over up to five items across the Expedition, so you can set your new Raider up with your favorite items or blueprints." It sounds like you'll have to unlock all five slots incrementally, similar to earning bonus skill points, but that's just a guess.

Embark says "this is just one part of a broader set of improvements arriving later this year," seemingly alluding not just to Frozen Trail but also to the regular bug, balance, and quality-of-life updates coming in the interim.

For now, this sounds pretty darn good. More stash space is always welcome (though we don't know how much we're getting), the trader's exchanges could very well extend late-game progression, and a way to preserve blueprints ought to make the Expedition more appealing. Now the theorycrafting begins: what are the best blueprints to bring with you?

Arc Raiders preparing new kernel-level anti-cheat to blast cheaters out of the sky and "sharpen both detection and precision."

Just as Arc Raiders players began to wonder what's next after the Riven Tides update and the end of the game's early 2026 roadmap, developer Embark Studios has announced Frozen Trail, the game's "biggest update yet," alongside major changes to how those updates are rolled out.

In a May 13 blog post, Embark says "we planned to offer monthly updates" when Arc Raiders first launched. "But once the game was in players' hands, we saw that the kind of long-term experience we want to create for ARC Raiders requires more transformative updates," it adds.

"Over time, we’ve found that the pressure of a monthly cycle limits how impactful these updates can be. You feel it, and we feel it too. Running at that pace isn't sustainable, or compatible with the bigger ambitions we have for this game."

With that in mind, Arc Raiders will now receive "major" updates twice a year. Embark says these will be "larger in scale, more impactful, with the goal to genuinely change how you play the game," with "regular live updates" packing balance or bug fixes, as well as store refreshes, still arriving frequently.

Some players might balk at the idea of impactful updates coming less frequently compared to what's been released since launch, but Embark stresses that "this additional development space also allows us to invest more deeply in the health of ARC Raiders, from progression and economy balancing to fair play and anti-cheat efforts."

Carrying the banner of this new update schedule is Frozen Trail, which is set for October. "It's the largest we've released since launch," Embark says of the update, promising "to address the broader questions the community has been asking."

Here's the slightly condensed list of features and additions listed for Frozen Trail.

• "The largest map in the game" takes us to a "new landscape in the Rust Belt with layered design and new mysteries"
• New Arc "with fresh designs, and unique behaviors" appear in the "most ambitious ARC operation so far"
• "New systems of progression" introduce additional "goals and more ways to shape your Raider's progression," with a nod to players who have long since maxed their hideout and skill points
• The "origin of ARC" will be explored, finally diving into a major lore pillar
• An "improved skill tree" is coming, though it's not clear in what form
• New weapons, items, instruments, and cosmetics are also on the way

"We're refining core systems to support a more meaningful long-term experience – one you genuinely want to keep returning to. Frozen Trail is just the beginning of where we want to take ARC Raiders, and we’ll share more in the coming months," Embark reiterates.

Progression is a recurring focus in Embark's post. From Trials to the Expedition, core pursuits are going under the microscope. The studio's broadly pursuing "reasons to keep returning" to the game, which has become a hot topic among the game's maturing player base. Minor map conditions and a handful of blueprints have not kept some players as engaged now that they've done and seen it all, leaving some to wonder if it's just time to put the game down for a bit.

Waiting until October for a new major update might not be what those players were hoping to hear, but Embark is adamant that "the bi-annual cadence gives us the opportunity to develop to build future updates with more intention, ensuring that gameplay, progression, narrative, and the world itself all move forward together."

For now, we'll have to see what those not-major updates can do. Embark says it's got a hefty one out next week, adding a new trader to soak up hoarded resources and even letting players buy up to five slots to carry items over between Expeditions, including blueprints.

Arc Raiders Expedition breaks, leaving players without promised skill points and Embark "actively investigating" the problem.

Imagine, if you can, completing the Expedition in Arc Raiders. Getting everything together for your caravan, shipping off your character and then – to your horror – the numbers don't go up like they should. "The skill points, where are they?" you might exclaim to nobody in particular. Some are living this right now, but Embark is taking action.

The most recent Expedition period in the extraction shooter finishes today, May 11, and it appears players have been getting short-changed. Upon making sure they have everything necessary for their raider to disappear into the sunset, they've found the extra skill points didn't register, leaving them without one large incentive for participating.

Developer Embark Studios is not only aware, but on the case. "We're aware of the missing skill points issue after completing the expedition," Ossen, Arc Raiders community lead says in a post on the game's official Discord. "Our team is actively investigating and we'll keep you posted as soon as we have more information."

A hotfix should be coming relatively soon, but this is a tricky problem because triangulating the cause and the extent could be difficult. It all depends on how many players have been impacted, and what the reason behind this happening is.

My guess would be something to do with the change-up in how the points are earned. Previously, it was all about the overall value of your stash, but for this one, Embark decided to alter it to it being determined by how much damage you've administered during the Expedition period.

This made matches over the last while particularly hazardous when it came to PvP, but it could also be some part of why this bug has occurred. Whatever the case, we'll keep you informed on a remedy if you're eagerly awaiting your well-earned skill points.

Arc Raiders preparing new kernel-level anti-cheat to blast cheaters out of the sky and "sharpen both detection and precision."

Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead is hard at work on improvements to both the shooter itself and its transparency with players, just as current creative lead Johan Pilestedt promised it would in a grisly Reddit AMA session at the end of April.

At the time, Pilestedt told players disappointed with what they felt was infrequent communication from Arrowhead that the team would begin checking in "once every other week" – and the developer has now clocked in right on time with its new "Transmission from Super Earth Command" posted on Steam May 8.

Reinforcing Pilestedt's promise, Arrowhead writes in its update, "Helldivers 2 matters to all of us, and we want to be clearer about what we're working on and what’s coming next." So the company is sharing way ahead of time that it wants to deliver new content, plus improvements to "the core of the game - stability, progression, and the Galactic War" – starting soon.

"Updates to the Galactic War and its rewards are coming this summer," says Arrowhead. The developer seems to be laser-focusing on Helldivers 2's meta-progression and Galactic War, having already expanded the team dedicated to tinkering with those aspects of the game. It aims to introduce "more meaningful rewards and community progression systems," plus make Helldivers 2's Major Order objectives "into longer, multi-week themed 'Campaigns,'" and improve how reactive the game's narrative is to "player actions."

"We've seen the feedback around rewards, and we want them to feel more distinctive, more meaningful, and more worthy of the battles you're fighting," explains Arrowhead, highlighting "things like stratagem unlocks and more community-driven moments."

To accompany this symphony of tweaks, you can expect more beta test opportunities going forward, as Arrowhead says it's looking "to expand the footprint of our testing programs and bring more of the community into that process over time."

But, while Arrowhead has done a good job here of showering fans with clear, concise bullet points, some people are skeptical of its ability to deliver. The top reply on Steam, with, damningly, nearly 150 "100" emoji reactions, tells Arrowhead, "Stop ruining the game. Stop with the balancing updates."

"Shame what's happened to this game," says another reply, with only 42 "100" emoji reactions this time. I think this sentiment is a bit maudlin, but I don't disagree. Helldivers 2 has officially reached a Mostly Negative rating on Steam, and it's sad to see fans become disillusioned with something they once desperately loved.

It's important to note, though, that this souring can happen when you don't really know what you want from a game. Since one faction of Helldivers 2's playerbase is demanding more change here, while the other wants Arrowhead to just leave Helldivers 2 alone, I think that might be what we're dealing with. You could call it the Galactic War.

"Live service is tricky as hell": Helldivers 2 boss says updates are "not an exact science" because the "community changes" constantly.

If you're getting tired of Arc Raiders players hitting you with eight consecutive headshots through smoke from 200 meters, or outright spawning escape hatches, developer Embark Studios has good news for you. It's preparing another level of anti-cheat protection that should catch more cheaters early and quickly.

In an anti-cheat blog post, Embark says it's testing "a new kernel-level solution that we expect will sharpen both detection and precision throughout Speranza and the Rust Belt." This will seemingly sit alongside or on top of the existing kernel-level Easy Anti-Cheat, as well as the game's broader machine learning-informed detection and "several additional layers" Embark won't explain for "operational security" reasons.

"Kernel-level detection is a necessity because most commercial cheats operate within that space," the studio adds. "Without it, we'd have little to no visibility into the tools doing the most damage."

Cheating in Arc Raiders has been a sticking point in the community almost since launch. The game was perfectly set up for cheating hurdles. A hugely popular multiplayer game is exactly what cheaters and cheat sellers look for, so Arc Raiders' enormous launch attracted a lot of them. Now that the game's out of the honeymoon phase and leveled out in daily active users, the player pool has gotten smaller, potentially putting you in proximity to more cheaters – though some cheaters have obviously left, too, and often via ban.

In over 300 hours, I could count the blatant cheaters I've encountered in Arc Raiders on one hand, and that's probably true for most people. But the problem undeniably persists in some capacity, and cheating is one of those issues that, even when encountered rarely, can really sour your experience with a game. And if you're a heavy PvP player, you're far more likely to encounter cheaters.

But as it escalates its assault on cheaters, Embark also has to be careful to avoid false bans. Multiple Arc Raiders players who have physical disabilities and rely on accessibility devices like mouth-operated controllers have reported being banned for no clear reason, suspecting their input device was flagged as suspicious. Embark says "managing accessibility devices is one of the harder problems in anti-cheat," as legitimate devices can also be used to mask or enable illegitimate play.

"The signal we care about is intent," the devs say. "Our systems analyze telemetry and communication patterns to distinguish legitimate accessibility use from abuse, so players who depend on these devices to play can keep playing. This is a process that continues to be refined, but we’re dedicated to the work and the results we’ve seen thus far."

Embark says it's "constantly expanding" its archive of recognized devices, so this issue should improve with time. Ban appeals, always "reviewed by a person on our team" and never "automated," remain the best solution to false bans, Embark stresses.

Arc Raiders devs "still learning" what to do with PvP, but Embark design director says PvE fights are doing their job: "They make the player interactions even more impactful."

This month's GamesRadar Replay winners are here, featuring the worst guard in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and a Starfield death that isn't any less fun even though you can see it coming a mile off.

Each month Replay challenges you to send us your funniest, weirdest, incredible or straight up surprising gaming clips for the chance to win one of two Amazon vouchers - one for the best clip overall and one for the best Theme of the month game, which for May is Arc Raiders. We also share chosen clips on on the site and all our socials - so if you want the world to see your achievements, accidents or discoveries, let us know!

If you want a chance of winning the May prize then you can submit clips via the big orange button below. It could be anything, from general gameplay to a stream - a funny moment, an amazing clip, a weird bug, or just some good chat.

There are two $/£250 Amazon Vouchers to be won - one for the best video overall, and another for our Arc Raiders Theme of the Month

By submitting your clip, you agree to the Terms and Conditions.

If you need a helping hand, here's how to record gameplay on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch/Switch 2 to save your highlights

The Winners!

This month's overall Replay winner is this impressively bad policing in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

While winner for last April's Theme of the Month, Starfield, is this brush with a metal death grinder. See if you can guess how it ends...

If you want to see what the Replay community has contributed already, then take a look below:

With the Escalation road map having reached its end, Arc Raiders is Replay's theme for this month. You can send in clips of any game you're playing for a chance to win a $/£250 Amazon voucher, but there's a special separate prize for the best Arc Raiders video.

GamesRadar+ Replay is our community series where you can submit any gaming clips or streams of anything you think is cool for a chance to win Amazon vouchers. You can send in anything, from any game, and if it's impressive, funny or interesting enough we'll host it on GamesRadar+ as well as all our socials, with credit.

All you need to do for a chance of winning is to submit your clips via the big orange button below. There's $/£500 to be won in total, with $/£250 for the best overall clip, and $/£250 for the best Arc Raiders clip (remember, you can send us anything, it doesn't have to be Arc). The winners will be chosen by the GamerRadar+ team at the end of the month.

So, if you clip anything amazing, interesting or just plain weird, send it our way and you could win a $/£250 Amazon voucher to spend on whatever you want.

By submitting your clip, you agree to the Terms and Conditions.

If you need a helping hand, here's how to record gameplay on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch/Switch 2 to save your highlights

The Steam rating for Helldivers 2 is taking a bit of a hammering at the minute. As of now, the sci-fi shooter's recent rating has gone down to Mostly Negative on Valve's store, due at least in part to reactions to the most recent wave of patches and updates.

The current Helldivers 2 theme is Machinery of Oppression, based around Super Earth taking on the mechanized forces of Cyberstan. This 'season' has had a number of incremental updates since it began, a set of hotfixes rolling out as recently as on May 6. But players are not happy, and they're voicing their distaste on Steam.

"I absolutely love this game," reads one review. "But I'm just so tired with Arrowhead with their infinite warbonds and zero balancing if is something not in the warbond just to make it more appealing for people to buy."

Three Warbonds have arrived since Machinery of Oppression started: Siege Breakers, Entrenched Division, and Exo Experts. Among the usual armor and weapons, the latter brought special exosuits that required buffs post-release. The emphasis on Warbonds over annoying bugs is a theme of current feedback on Steam.

"Heavily focused more on warbonds and pay to play updates, while ignoring core aspects of the game's basic functionality," a player writes. "This is a paid game yet they lock most progression behind lackluster expansion packs that you need many hours of grinding to unlock," another Steam reviewer states. "Most disappointing is that most of all development over these years is only these expansion packs."

Helldivers 2's been plagued by performance problems and issues for months now. Developer Arrowhead's previously been candid about 'feature decay,' wherein stacked patches have contributed to structural damage, and worked towards remedying the recurring flaws. Sadly, it seems members of the community feel the seesaw is now back the other way.

Data from SteamDB shows that Helldivers 2 saw a spike of over 14,700 negative reviews at the end of April, right on the heels of the Exosuit rebalance and the 6.2.2 patch. "Keep making the game unbearable with your buffs to the enemies. Meanwhile we get a $10 warbond that gives us a peashooter that does nothing to any of the enemies past level six," another Steam player writes.

Arrowhead has yet to comment on the recent Steam review drop, although creative lead Shams Jorjani recently promised improvements after a Reddit 'ask me anything' session that quickly filled with "painful to read" feedback.

"Live service is tricky as hell": Helldivers 2 boss says updates are "not an exact science" because the "community changes" constantly.

Arc Raiders fan debates, developer soul-searching, and subsequent patches about the multiplayer shooter's combination of PvP and PvE elements don't seem to ever end, but they still haven't led Embark Studios to its holy grail – the ideal blend of the two types of gameplay. But design director Virgil Watkins, per a recent interview with GamesRadar+, at least believes Embark is getting close.

Watkins says – as other Embark developers have alluded to before – PvP and PvE is "not a simple balance to get right. Something we've learned, and are still learning, is how to tune those PvP and PvE elements so that they feel fair, rewarding, and aligned with what players expect, while still staying true to the core vision of the game."

But, "One element I think we got pretty right is that the PvE elements command your attention and respect almost as much as other players do; maybe more sometimes," Watkins says. "When the PvE elements are genuinely compelling, they make the player interactions even more impactful."

Embark has gotten to this point by spending "a lot of time listening to the community and observing how people actually play, and that continues to shape how we evolve the experience," says Watkins.

Its developers need to be adaptable and agreeable, because one of their favorite qualities about PvP and PvE is the same reason the combination is so hard to work with: "unpredictability," says Watkins. "You're not just designing around AI encounters or player-versus-player competition in isolation but rather creating situations where those systems interact."

In-game, this is less messy than it sounds. Players are simply always able to "choose how they approach a situation, whether that's working together, avoiding conflict, or seeking it. That flexibility has been really important in creating those player-driven stories we've seen emerge," says Watkins.

Embark has nudged this over time, adding PvE hotspots like Close Scrutiny Arc salvos, and quietly making PvP more rewarding with recent weapon durability changes that make the guns you borrow from other raiders more valuable.

Craving more of this choose-your-own adventure, the director hopes other studios will soon take a similar route to Embark use PvP and PvE to provide their players with lots of bendy environments, "in no small part because I just love playing those types of games," Watkins says. As for Embark itself, the studio is maybe halfway to figuring out how it wants its own formula to behave.

"It's a slippery slope to try and build a game for an audience": Marathon, Arc Raiders, and Last Flag devs dig into the trend-bucking evolution of multiplayer shooters.

Exposed. That’s how I felt playing Riven Tides, the new Arc Raiders map set in an abandoned coastal resort. You know when you’re having a lovely day at the beach, realize the ocean has washed away your sunscreen, and you’re two or three miles from cover? That’s the vibe. Only instead of Earth’s nearest star bearing down on you, it’s a fleet of drones, a sniper turret, and players taking potshots from the pier.

It’s not so dangerous down by the waterline. There, at the end of a long, slow gradient, the sand is bare, and the electronic hum of Arc patrols is swapped for the susurrus of waves, lapping against the shore. Removed from it all, you have time to pursue Embark’s new missions. My teammate, GamesRadar+ alumnus Alex Avard, laid down a bird trap in the shadow of a big buoy – the first stage in an experiment to measure tremors with avian help. Then, we handled the odd jobs: patching up a pipe where the water shimmered with the telltale rainbow of spilled oil, and taking photos of cracks in the sea wall that runs the length of the harbor.

Alex remarked that it felt as if we were working for the local council, and I must admit, there was a municipal flavor to these tasks. But as a resident of Great Britain, where crumbling holiday towns are dotted up and down the island, it seemed fitting enough. A certain faded glamor goes hand in hand with places like these, even in a pre-apocalyptic world, and Arc has captured that sense of charming degradation beautifully. At one point, we waved hello to a friendly pair of detectorists, searching the sand for buried gold.

Stray slightly further inland, though, and things get sweatier. Behind the walls, the dried-out dock is a sniper’s sandpit, almost devoid of hiding places. We sprinted between beached ships and rusted cargo containers, pursued by Leapers, Rocketeers, and a fear we’d left any semblance of control back on the shore. Two chancers on the roof of the Port Authority Building took aim at anything that moved. When we tried to reason with them, they explained that their Expedition progress would be reset in a few days’ time anyway, so there was little incentive for them to dodge fights.

Seaside retreat

Embark has bigged up the presence of the Arc Turbine, a new enemy type that resembles a steel ice cream cone, decorated with chocolate chips (explosive mines) and streaks of bubblegum sauce (bolts of lightning). The Turbine’s defensive protocols see it land in out-of-reach spots away from raider threats - though we still managed to get close enough to anger the thing, and were treated to a terrifying display of shock and awe.

The magic of Arc’s enemies lies in their distinct behaviors; no matter how many hours you’ve pumped into the game, your first dance with a new opponent tends to find you tripping over your own feet and crashing into the champagne tower. So it was, too, with the Vaporizer - the enormous laser drone added to the game a month ago. It soon turned the dock into a horrifying hunting ground, draining our backpacks of bandages and shield rechargers.

The Vaporizer’s special screw-you comes from its ability to reposition while firing its laser. It’s a move that works against the expectations established by other videogame bosses, and inevitably ends with a white-hot beam hitting the small of your back. Trapped in a tiny booth on the Wharf, watching the flames climb the walls, we came to regret our decision to engage. Even if we did eventually burst the Vaporizer into chunks of metal above a rock pool.

You can find contrast to the dock’s wide-open spaces in the Panorama Azzurro, a hotel with a tennis court and a rooftop bar. Arc’s brutalist architecture has long been one of its calling cards, and here the concrete majesty of the Azzurro recalls the grey, tiered resorts of Gran Canaria. The map is pockmarked with keys for various locked doors, and with no concierge to be found, the hotel interior is often teeming with players looking for the right room numbers.

Thanks to the Azzurro’s open lobby and many balconies, noise travels easily between floors – creating cacophonies of footsteps that unnerve in similar fashion to Marathon’s Cryo Archive. Of course, in Marathon you’d never hear a hollered “Friendly!” echoing down the corridors. But the friends you make on holiday rarely stay that way, do they?

After a successful shootout in the empty swimming pool, Alex and I decided to celebrate by having a go on the long, undulating slide. “Go down the middle one,” he suggested. “It’s better.” By the time I’d made it halfway to the bottom on my bum, I saw his incoming molotov, and heard his cackle as I slid haplessly through the flames. Seriously: wear sunscreen. Those burns are no joke.

Arc Raiders dev thinks yesterday's niche "can become mainstream tomorrow," and today's extraction shooters are simply "easier to step into"

The Helldivers 2 Spore Burst strain of Terminids are now one of the toughest sub-factions to fight thanks to their explosive spores and ravenous attacks. Upon death, this bug subtype discharges an icky plume of spores, capable of partially blinding and harming brave Helldivers 2 players while also buffing the movement speed of nearby exoskeletal opposition. The speed boost is so extreme that it can obliterate Super-Earth’s finest in record time. Never fear, though, as our Spore Burst strain guide will detail the best tactics and weapons to deploy for your campaigns against this vicious variety of juiced-up creepy crawlies in Helldivers 2.

HELLDIVERS 2 SPORE BURST STRAIN WEAKNESSES AND ENEMY VARIANTS

The Spore Burst strain of bugs is a mutated form of the regular Terminds that has a chance of appearing on seemingly any Terminid-controlled planet - when hovering over a planet on the Galactic War map, you can see if the Spore Burst strain is present. Within this Helldivers 2 Terminid sub-faction, there are four special varieties to contend with: the meek Scavenger type, the agile Hunter type, the armoured Warrior type, and the fearsome Helldivers 2 Bile Titan type. Regular Bile Spewers, Hive Guards, and Commanders can appear too.

These Spore Burst variants function almost exactly the same as their regular counterparts, weaknesses and all, with one major exception – upon death, they excrete a plume of crimson bug-buffing spores. Not only does this devilish cloud obscure your vision and deal a little damage, but it also affects the surrounding Terminids by giving them a significant speed boost. Spore Burst Bile Titan vomit also applies the speed boost effect! However, if Spore Burst strain Terminids die by gas or fire, they do not release a spore cloud – ergo, no spores means no buffs.

As such, when crafting loadouts, it’s important to pack your arsenal with incendiary weapons, as well as a range of effective explosive Stratagems, like the Eagle 500kg Bomb, to clear out groups as quickly as possible.

BEST WEAPONS AND TIPS FOR HELLDIVERS 2 SPORE BURST STRAIN

The Spore Burst terminids are craggy bug-like beasts with spindly legs and a frankly broken posthumous AoE attack. Despite how impossible it may feel in action, these critters have a major weakness to exploit. Here’s how to counter them when out in the field:

• Keep your distance, and take your time: The closer you are to the bugs, whether they’re buffed or not, the lower your chances of survival are, particularly if you're getting hit by the spore burst explosions. Using medium-range Stratagems and weapons gives you the necessary wiggle room to adapt if your first assault plans don’t work out. It goes without saying, but if you’re on a team, communicating as soon as you get line-of-sight is integral to getting ahead of the swarm.
• Flame your enemies: The Torcher, Coyote, Breaker Incendiary, Flamethrower, and Cremator are brilliant weapon options that deal solid incendiary damage. Any combination of high-powered fire-forward weaponry should do the trick here. If you’re unsure of your loadout, our guides to the best Helldivers 2 primary weapons and the best Helldivers 2 support weapons rank each weapon by effectiveness against enemy type – just look for an S-Tier ranking next to the Terminids, in this case.
• Don’t be afraid to go scorched earth (literally): Opting for destructive Stratagems like the Eagle Napalm Strike and the Orbital Napalm Barrage can give you a major advantage in not only controlling the crowd, but also stopping a rogue Terminid from summoning a breach and ruining your day. Once you’ve dealt the major blow, pick off any outliers using a high fire rate weapon – bonus points if it has a spread that deals damage over time, which is particularly important if you’re aiming for an objective in an area teeming with them.
• Fight fire with fire: Where throwables are concerned, Gas Grenades are a brilliant choice as they temporarily slow down and blind enemies, delivering a bitter taste of their own evil insect medicine. It’s worth noting that you might want to wear armour with the Advanced Filtration passive to minimize self-damage. Additionally, the Vitality Enhancement Booster (from the Helldivers Mobilize Warbond) can help reduce the damage taken overall and keep you in the fight long enough to take out a horde.

If you’re light on firepower and haven’t invested in the Premium Warbonds system before, we’ve got a list of the best Helldivers 2 Warbonds ranked for you to peruse.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Extraction shooters are hotter than ever. What began as a niche subgenre with a single top dog (Escape from Tarkov) is thriving into an entire ecosystem that can seemingly sustain a bunch of similar games, including Arc Raiders, Marathon, and more. One Embark Studios developer reckons the once-niche is now booming because new entrants are designed to be "easier to step into."

In an interview with GamesRadar+ about the new slate of PvPvE extraction shooters, Arc Raiders' design director Virgil Watkins says multiplayer games "absolutely can be a difficult space to break into" because "the bar is extremely high" for live service titles. Players have already sunk sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours into a select few experiences, "so anything new really has to earn its place."

"At the same time, I think it's often a factor that often what's niche yesterday can become mainstream tomorrow," he explains. "It's often a question of opening up those experiences to be approachable to more players." Extraction shooters are a perfect example of a subgenre that previously had a pretty high barrier to entry that's now being lowered with something like Arc Raiders with its bigger emphasis on social elements and less punishing deaths.

"It allows them [players] to have the experiences that first thrilled those more niche players when it was harder to get into," Watkins adds. "That doesn't mean they lack depth, but they're designed in a way that's easier to step into, understand, and 'find the fun' a bit faster."

However, Embark Studios apparently didn't intend to break into the extraction shooter niche. The developer's focus was said to have been simply building a game the staff wanted to play, and Watkins thinks anything that "feels engaging, approachable, and has room for players to make it their own" can also carve out a space for itself alongside your evergreen, almost immortal live service mainstays.

"So it's probably less about a single shift, and more about a broader evolution in how these games are designed and who they're designed for," he says.

Arc Raiders players complain Riven Tides update took a hammer to weapon durability and their beloved anti-Arc cloak, giving me Helldivers 2 flashbacks

Carcosa, the mysterious planet setting of sci-fi shooter Saros, owes me answers. Why do its eclipses drive my stranded crewmates to violence? What's with all the hands? Who built the planet's vast alien structures, and why are they abandoned? Seriously, what's with all the hands?

Whenever protagonist Arjun activates an eclipse, spectral hands reach from pools of molten sunlight to grasp him. Hands are carved obsessively into the stonework of Carcosa, while the game's cover art shows a many-armed creature sprawled before the sun. Of the many mysteries that Housemarque lays out in Saros' opening hours, its handsy motif piques my interest the most – so when I had a chance to catch up with art director Simone Silvestri, Carcosa's noodly mitts had to come up eventually.

The hand(s) that feed

Silvestri pleads partial innocence. "I didn't set out to put so many hands in the game, but the more we were talking with the artists, the more it felt like a right fit," he says, pointing to Saros' "central" themes of greed.

"The game is about grasping for power, about having this immense greed for something more, and something that, sometimes, you can't have," Silvestri continues. Those themes extend to the architecture of Carcosa's forebears: many of their stone carvings begin eloquently before sprawling haphazardly upwards, eventually losing their shape – a mass of hands, all reaching for the sky.

The abandoned ruins of Carcosa offered Housemarque's art team a chance to show, not tell, the eclipse-worshipping civilization's relationship with the planet. "We coined this term called 'twisted enlightenment' which means that, yes, they are enlightening themselves by letting the eclipse in - literally by shredding their bodies sometimes - but that enlightenment is actually making you into a monster, rather than a wiser person.

"With that came the idea of the architecture," the director continues. "When we started I wanted to try neoclassicism, because it's an architecture of worship. It had this massive scale that works really well for our gameplay and this quiet detail and all of these shapes. But it was so soft and so friendly that it didn't work. We had [this idea of] violent beauty, so we wanted to have that violence. So we fused Italian futurism with the works of Sant'Elia and even painters like Depero, and together with the mega-structures of Etienne Louis Boulay, we created this language of alien fusion."

By this point, the hands were a part of something much grander. The resulting style created "very vertical, sharp, violent lines," which in turn fed into Saros' moment-to-moment action. "It works really well for gameplay because you move really fast, and it feels good to move through these lines," Silvestri adds. "So the more we pushed the theme, the more we realized this is what the gameplay is talking about. And the narrative was reinforcing all of this. To me, this is the trademark of good games: when these three disciplines are doing the same thing."

I had no idea that asking about hands would lead to such a fascinating glimpse into game development, but getting to hear how Saros' visual identity was born and iterated is a treat. Over 100 creatives had to align on one vision to create Saros, and at any point, a different decision could have led to it being unrecognizable to the one we're playing today. Games, huh? You've gotta hand it to 'em.

Saros directors say Housemarque's greatest influence is itself: "As much as we love other games, we wanted to do it our way"

Agave in Arc Raiders is a special plant you can find in certain maps, but it requires a certain amount of care to find, as well as some luck. Agave Plants are fairly common, but there's a certain amount of randomness as to which ones can be harvested, and you need to be the first one to get to them to do so. To help you out, I'll show you where to find Agave in Arc Raiders accordingly.

Agave farming locations in Arc Raiders

Agave in Arc Raiders is found in all maps, but it's most easily found and farmed in the Riven Tides map, specifically at the marked areas on the map above. The location Southeast of Custom house is especially good, with long rows of Agave plants framing the streets and dried river.

Agave plants are formed of large, spiky leaves, but remember - not every Agave plant can be harvested (it's random) and if another player has harvested it first, you can't do so yourself.

Agave can also be found in wicker containers in Nature areas around all maps, though this is purely luck of the draw.

Once you have Agave, it can be broken down into seeds, or used as part of the Arc Raiders Avian Alarm project, which challenges you to find 8 Agave for its fourth stage. If you've unlocked the In-Round Crafting skill, you can also pair it with an empty wine bottle to make Agave Juice, which does minor damage and then give you a 10 second boost to stamina regeneration.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Pragmata was never going to rival the sales successes of established Capcom franchises like Monster Hunter and Resident Evil, but 1 million sales in two days? That's nothing to sneeze at, especially for a brand-new IP. It seems Capcom itself is pretty happy with the game's performance, to the point where it's starting to see franchise potential.

That's according to Rob Dyer, chief operating officer of Capcom USA, speaking at the iicon conference in Las Vegas this week. As quoted by Game File, Dyer says of Pragmata: "We’re to a point now where we’ve got another IP that Capcom – and god bless them, has an arsenal – that we can continue to go down."

Don't take that as confirmation that a sequel is in development or anything, but now we've got reason to hope that Pragmata will be more than a one-and-done launch. I'm certainly curious where the story might go after the game's ending, and I can only imagine the expansions Capcom might make to the delightful hacking system, but those wonderings might not have to live only in my imagination forever.

It's nice to see Pragmata ultimately achieve success, if only because it's been such a long road to get here. It was first announced way back in 2020, ahead of the launch of PS5, so it spent at least six years in development – having been delayed multiple times – before it finally launched here in 2026.

Dyer apparently praised the game's Japanese development team for being willing to listen to feedback from Capcom's American division, taking advantage of focus tests, surveys, and demos to fine-tune the game's global appeal. After all that time in development, Dyer reckons, "it was worth the effort."

Pragmata "feels like a spiritual successor to the Xbox 360 and PS3 era of third-person action games," analyst says, and its "staggering" 1 million sales in 2 days come as no surprise.

Saros is putting so much pressure on my controller's right-trigger that it will likely turn into diamond before the credits roll. Surviving in this sci-fi shooter demands dividing your attention between dodging bullets, flinging them back, and hoping you don't back-pedal off a ledge. Yet – fitting to developer Housemarque's cosmic horror leanings – I can't resist sneaking glances at the forbidden knowledge that the planet of Carcosa teases in my peripheral.

Pillars of stone-carved hands reach for eclipsed heavens, while silver gates gleam incongruously in ancient alien ruins. Below, mineshafts carved by would-be colonizers sprawl into futuristic vaults. What does it all mean? Your guess is as good as mine – I'm only a few bosses into Saros at time of writing – but Carcosa feels skeletal yet still autophagic; devouring itself to excess.

With the back-to-back release of Returnal and now Saros, Housemarque has become one of the greatest modern storytellers in cosmic horror and weird fiction. Combined with its knack for compulsive arcade action and using looping roguelike conventions as narrative tools, few AAA studios seem as comfortable in their own skin as this PlayStation-owned developer.

Hoping to get a clearer sense of Housemarque's eclectic identity, I caught up with Saros' creative director Gregory Louden and art director Simone Silvestri. Certain shared influences go some way toward explaining the studio's arcade-arcademia formula – the works of H.P. Lovecraft and esoteric short story collection The King in Yellow were particular inspirations for Saros – but in truth, Housemarque's biggest inspiration is… Housemarque.

The Silver Key

Saros carries everything from Returnal but the name. Both games task the player with exploring a hostile alien planet, sidestepping bulbous neon bullets and steadily finding better gear before dying and starting another run anew. Both are roguelike-Metroidvanias, and while these conventions are remarkably fun as standalone elements, they're also used smartly to drip-feed gripping existential stories.

For most developers, making such a fluid continuation in Saros would warrant simpler signposting – IE 'Returnal 2' – but I get the sense that Housemarque prefers the freedom to play around with past ideas without boxing itself in. In doing so, the studio has honed its identity with each iteration – something Louden touches upon while explaining where Housemarque's signature weirdness comes from.

"The number one reference for Housemarque games are other Housemarque games. That was true of Returnal – when I joined, our biggest reference was Nex Machina. And it's true of people I've introduced to Saros, our biggest reference is Returnal. So there is almost this self-perpetuating reverence of our past, to really want to stay true to our DNA.

"The other thing is, we like to be bold," Louden continues. "In a lot of ways, we try to do something the Housemarque way. When I was the narrative director and the cinematic director on Returnal, as much as we love other games, we wanted to do it our way. We wanted to do a game where characters are discovered, not told. We wanted to have rules like 'play, don't show'. We love big cinematics and have them in Returnal and Saros, but they're always about reward. We want you to play a lot of it. This ethos that we follow is to try to create something really bold and exciting for players to get lost in, [with] this sort of reverence for what we've done. That way we stay true to our past, but we're also innovating and bold and trying to stand out in the future as well."

For Silvestri, who joined Housemarque after Returnal, the studio's interest in cosmic horror is the reason he joined Housemarque. "It's the last real frontier of human curiosity, right?"

In that regard, Saros doesn't disappoint. The game's story follows search efforts for a lost colony on Carcosa, a planet covered in the ruins of an ancient civilization and wracked by supernatural eclipses which corrupt life on the surface.

"When I started and Greg told me about the eclipse, I was like 'Yeah, we're going to cook with this one,'" recalls Silvestri. Heading into Returnal's follow-up, Housemarque wanted to recapture the same atmosphere, but couldn't "repeat the same tricks" – which meant no repeating color palette and taking a "much bolder" approach, for starters. Yet across all disciplines, both Silvestri and Louden say, there was a drive to not just meet that challenge but exceed it at an individual level.

"One thing I always say about art in Housemarque is that we live on the fringe," says Silvestri. "We have this spectrum of minimalistic to extreme, and we always tend to go towards the extreme side. One of our pillars was called radical escalation, which means whenever you're in doubt, go for maximum impact. Then, when you put the eclipse on, go [for] even more. We always try to find the maximum expression of the concept that we have. If it doesn't work, can we make it more extreme? And if you can't, then it means it's probably not the right thing in the game. But usually there's many more levels to go.

"I think our artists are so comfortable in this space, which is very unique to us, and it's very inspired by the narrative that we have," he adds. "The kind of stories that we tell are very old and different and rare – I would say fringe as well – and to me, that's really precious. It means I can give my best. And I have partners in gameplay and narrative who want to be as weird as I want to be. That's a legit term that we use!"

At a mechanical layer, Louden carried forward lessons learned from Returnal to ensure Saros could be enjoyed by more players without making compromises. A good example is in the game's opening run, which plunges you into the deep end against a boss you're unlikely to survive. Saros gets into the action far quicker – a delight for returning fans with itchy trigger-fingers – but compensates with the option to earn permanent upgrades at your hub. These upgrades take some time to feel powerful, with more dramatic boons locked to higher tiers of an unlock tree, but create a net for struggling players to still take something from dying.

"We wanted to allow more people to experience this game," says Louden. "And for people that haven't played a Housemarque game, this is a great one to start with."

Not-so tattered mantle

Indeed, 'come back stronger' is more than just Saros' tagline. It's been a "vision statement" for the team throughout development, Louden stresses, and I see it in action every time I'm stuck – each death offering a chance to grow, or less generously, callusing my head as I bang it repeatedly against the same boss fight.

It's a smart evolution of Returnal's own spin on the roguelike loop, which slowly eked out its mysterious story with each run. Saros is similarly well-paced, both as a story and roguelike. Upgrades and new areas unfurl often enough to keep the game fresh, while its story makes each run feel like coming back for another bite of a baited hook. It's the product of "iteration and a lot of playtesting," says Louden, who feels the result makes Saros hard to categorize as a roguelike. "As much as we love the genre, we almost feel like we're creating our own voice," he adds. "The only game that's quite similar is Returnal."

Louden and Silvestri have a tendency to make Saros sound more like a collaborator than creation. There's an undeniably intimate relationship between the studio and its games, and there lies Housemarque's true identity: a studio confident in its own artistry and ideas.

"It's a constant dance between what you think will work, and then what works," says Louden on the development process. "The game will tell you if it works. We just listen to the game."

Saros aims for bite-sized 30-minute runs, and the cool-off makes you "ready for another", its game designer tells me

I do not envy any developers working on a live-service game. Between planned updates and fixes based on feedback, the pressure is constant, and one need only look at the last two years for Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead Game Studios for a prime example, the head of which recently spoke about the foibles of keeping such a release moving.

"Sometimes we're more on target with an update, sometimes less. It's not an exact science," Shams Jorjani, Arrowhead CEO, said on the Helldivers 2 Discord following the release of a new patch. He's responding to someone who believes the team could stand to listen to players more, to which Jorjani explains the tricky nature of the environment they're in.

"We've had times when we've done tons of testing (internally and externally) and got OK feedback – only for it to be received much better than anticipated," he explains. "And the community changes as well – you like one thing when you've played ten hours vs 100 hours vs 1000 hours."

Anyone who's played any kind of multiplayer shooter or MMO knows this cycle well. An update comes out. People hate change, but then after a few dozen hours, they settle into it, and then the next alteration causes the same thing.

In the case of Helldivers 2, finding balance is the difficult part. You've got to keep new weapons coming, alongside fresh planets to liberate and enemies to destroy, but making sure the challenge is exactly as intended is a constant push-pull of nerfs and buffs.

The latest patch, for instance, rebalances the Exo Suit, and makes minor adjustments across several enemies. The need for such is just endless. Or, as Jorjani puts it: "Live service is tricky as hell."

Helldivers 2 lead promises "meaningful changes" after "painful to read" criticism of Arrowhead and the state of the game fills uncensored Reddit AMA.