Vorp! With a simple sci-fi sound effect, BioWare tore apart the gleaming hull of the Normandy SR-1, scattered a great deal of what came before to the void, and split its burgeoning action-RPG series clean in two. Save files from 2007's Mass Effect might have brought with them an XP bonus or credit dump as well as the player's established continuity, but rarely before or since has the reset button been pressed so swiftly, or so heart-wrenchingly.

It was exactly what the series needed. One-time Xbox 360 exclusive Mass Effect had been a bright spot of promise for the console, buffed to a lens-flare-spilling sheen by being billed as a franchise that would move beyond binary morality and deliver a meaningful, ongoing space opera – one that wasn't Star Wars for a change. (Many studios now promise episodic gaming, but BioWare was crafting series-spanning narrative arcs long before that buzz-phrase was coined.) The opening part of the trilogy was certainly grandiose and epic in scope, yet somehow austere, a feeling compounded by a glut of anodyne shootouts and awkward driving filling the time away from its much-admired conversation wheel. It wasn't Star Wars, but nor had it found an identity among all its copious lore. As a concept piece, a pilot, it was tantalising enough, but more of the same would not do, especially when the world was then drowning in third-person cover shooters thanks to 2006's punchy, hyperviolent Gears of War.

Oh the horrors

And so millions watched the SR-1's malady in horror, took brief control of malleable returning protagonist Commander Shepard for a spot of eye-searingly beautiful Dead Space homage heroism, and then shaped a 4-billion-credit rebirth. This wasn't just a sequel, it was a reinvention, and BioWare made sure everyone knew it.

Even if the point hadn't been hammered home, returning players would have noticed from Shepard's first woozy steps across a Cerberus lab. The Commander, once stately and tank-like under the sticks, now moved with a fluidity uncommon in the recently deceased, sliding into cover across Teflon floors on Vaseline-smothered boots. Even your starting pistol could dominate early combat spaces with a snap, crackle, and mechhead pop that flash-vaporised expectations of another 20-plus hours of drab, feedbacklight gunplay.

But the real revelation would come when you fired up the power wheel for the first time and unleashed one of the new biotic or tech abilities. Mass Effect's array of buffs, debuffs, and crowd-control powers had hewed close to BioWare's RPG roots, though yoinking enemies out of cover and into the path of a sniper rifle was quite the trick in 2007. The sight of Shepard dashing across no man's land in a haze of roiling blue fire to explode into the enemy and shove a shotgun up their nostrils, however, promised a very different kind of combat interstitial between conversations. If Mass Effect games were Luc Besson movies, the original had been Lucy, all big ideas but little convincing peril, and 2 was The Fifth Element: an intergalactic excuse for daft, glorious carnage.

Daft, not stupid. Players didn't even have to wait for the introduction of creepy new Reaper lackeys, the Collectors, before they started having to manage enemy damage, with a separate bar each for tracking shields, barriers, armour and health. Of all the combat system's renovations, this was perhaps the most crucial, a gentle subversion of the RPG's long-in-the-tooth type-based attacks that meant the series could jettison the notion of a tough fight as one where health bars are hidden behind multiple blocks of blue shield and bullet-sponge powers. Mass Effect 2 wouldn't ask you to face ice monsters that were weak to fire, but shields did melt away under the sustained pressure of an SMG, while biotic power Reave stopped health regenerating so you could put down tough organics such as the Krogan or nightmare-imp newcomers, the Vorcha. And you'd have to control space as well as damage output, since enemies were as aggressive as you, flanking, setting up kill boxes, invading your personal space or flushing you out with flamethrowers.

BioWare could afford to bury the needle north of hectic, because any Shepard, regardless of gender or class, had a secret superpower: the ability to freeze time. While others have made entire games out of frozen moments, here they elegantly and invisibly support tactical play, as you let the stale air in your lungs seep from your lips, read the situation, and adapt. Yes, Shepard may have been able to make enemies hilariously pinwheel in slow motion through the air, then biotically dash them to oblivion – kudos to whoever worked out how to really get some use out of Unreal Engine 3's physics simulations – but on the higher difficulties, Mass Effect 2 became as much the thinking man's cover shooter as a heady power fantasy.

Whizz bang pop

The shooting brought the game in line with the best of its peers, but the series' newfound sense of personal drama is what makes it unforgettable today. BioWare's genius was to add a generous extra glug of soap opera to its po-faced space opera mix, producing something all its own as a result. Where else in games can you assemble a team that consists of a dying part-monk, part-hitman seeking absolution in your noble suicide mission, a none-too-stable tatted-up psychopath who looks like Natalie Portman circa V for Vendetta, and an unflappable sentient machine construct housing 1,183 digital minds, much less bicker with or seduce half that crew? You may have to put the old band back together, but damn if you haven't pulled in an orchestra's worth of exotic new instruments along the way.

Indeed, the reason Mass Effect 2 still stands as the high point of the series is that it is fundamentally a game about people, not concepts. Every Shepard is different, and so will their interactions be, but those are simply the filling between layers of rich character drama. Every principal cast member has something to say. Miranda has to deal with the pressures of being engineered for perfection, putting up an all-too-human wall of ice after years of dealing with a pushy father. Garrus and damp squib Jacob are takes on feeling ineffective in their work, though the former gets a chewy revenge subplot, too. The list is too long to recount here, and loyalty missions double down on the character development – success in the final act, where the entire galaxy is threatened, is dependent on solving personal crises, changing inner universes.

Forget fetch quests, strip mining and moon caches – helping Jack get some closure after her time as Subject Zero at the hands of Cerberus felt like it mattered. It is these stories, these little moments of pathos and reconciliation, where BioWare finally grounds its big questions about life. Gradually, you begin to feel as if it might be a tragedy to lose this universe, this diversity of damaged characters trying to find their way in the uncaring vacuum, to the Reapers. In providing robust inner lives for its alien-packed cast, BioWare finally found the window on humanity it had been seeking.

Shepard's uneasy alliance with Cerberus is the smouldering fuse that regularly threatens to detonate all of these volatile personalities, but it is also an excuse to let the player deviate from the virtuous Paragon path if they so wish. Anecdotal evidence suggests that when given the choice, many will opt for video game good over video game evil. But so often in games, the evil path is simply the stupid one where you act like a dick to others for no good reason. Human civilisation is founded on social imperatives, so it's little surprise many struggle to shrug off their conditioning without incentive. By casting Shepard not as the white knight of humanity trying to earn our place in the stars but as an agent of a pro-human terrorist group that cares more about results than ramifications, the Renegade options finally made a little more narrative sense.

Which isn't to say Mass Effect 2 delivered nuanced morality – that takes more tallying up good and bad actions on separate scales – but it did at least make roleplaying meatier. Would you taser an engineer to sabotage the gunship of a telegraphed later boss to make the fight easier? Or are you the sort of person who leaps in to defend a Quarian from racial harassment at the hands of a pompous Volus and a bent cop? You might feasibly be both, assuming you're not gaming the system to max out one type of conversation-wheel option. Getting the player involved in everyday strife as well as world-ending crises lent the series an intimacy it had lacked. Anyone can be a hero when the only criterion is that all the bad men are dead at the end, but how you played Mass Effect 2 had the power to say something about you as a person.

It's easy to forget, in the wake of Mass Effect 3's reductionistic endings, how much Mass Effect 2 felt like a realisation of the series' promise to respect your choices. Entire missions winked into existence or out of it based on your Mass Effect playthrough, old faces appeared in unexpected places, and you could alter the texture of the galaxy, even if the artifice involved meant the core structure had to be much the same. To replay Mass Effect 2 now is not just a chance to pursue new combat options and morality; it is a reminder of what the most ambitious ongoing saga in video games set out to achieve, and how choice-centred the universe it provided was, even when it fell short.

Perhaps most importantly, it is proof that just because something's a sequel, that doesn't mean it can't be a total reinvention, at least given a studio at the height of its powers and a silly sound effect.

This Mass Effect 2 article was first published in issue 273 of Edge Magazine. To get more like this delivered straight to your doorstep (or digital device) consider subscribing to Edge.

Cult classic indie game Katana Zero has pulled a Hollow Knight Silksong, sort of - the long, long awaited Katana Zero DLC is now sequel-sized, according to the game's lead developer Justin Stander.

Katana Zero first became a huge success more than seven years ago, thanks to its gorgeous pixel art and lightning speed action that felt like a mix between Hotline Miami's heart-thumping brutality and Sekiro's sword slashing parries. A cryptic story and banger soundtrack didn't hurt, either.

After several years, the promised Katana Zero DLC is still nowhere to be seen, but fret not. Justin Stander recently took to social media to tell folks he's "still working hard" on the project. It's just taking longer than expected because the DLC keeps ballooning in size… I wonder where I've heard that one before?

"We made it bigger. It's the size of a full sequel, plus a soundtrack of over 30+ new songs," Stander tweets. "More updates to come. Thanks for your continued support!"

One small but notable difference between this and Hollow Knight Silksong (which also started out as a modest expansion before expanding wildly) is that, for now, the Katana Zero DLC is still DLC, not a standalone sequel. This is far from the first time the project's multiplied in scope, however.

In 2020, the indie dev said the Katana Zero DLC had grown to three times its original size. As of last year, it was "nearly" as big as the base game. Now? It sounds like it could be even bigger.

Still no release date yet for Katana Zero's continuation, but we did receive a short and gorgeous trailer last year.

Be sure to check out the upcoming indie games for 2026 and beyond

A24 and Alex Garland's Elden Ring movie is supposedly the studio's most expensive production of all time with a reported budget of $200 million. FromSoftware's RPG adaptation ain't cheap.

The figure comes courtesy of a recent Wall Street Journal report that states A24 is spending "nearly $200 million" to adapt the landmark dark fantasy game, not including marketing costs, according to sources in the know. Earlier in the year, the reported figure was closer to $100 million - still A24's biggest movie at the time.

A $200 million budget would make Elden Ring far and away the studio's priciest feature yet. To put things into perspective, the arthouse company reportedly spent around $70 million on last year's Marty Supreme, starring Timothee Chalamet, which was previously its most expensive big screen flick. Before that, Alex Garland's Civil War carried a $50 million price tag.

A24 is essentially dropping blockbuster cash on one of its first major blockbuster bets - at $200 million, the cost of adapting Elden Ring is closer to the budget the Marvel Cinematic Universe normally plays around with.

But it's not necessarily a hugely risky bet. Elden Ring is one of the generation's most popular and defining games - analyst Rhys Elliott recently reported the game of the year winner had sold over 36 million copies, bringing in more than $2 billion in revenue. There's no guarantee that the Elden Ring movie can repeat the game's success - it still needs to be good first - but the name awareness could definitely help it become a box office hit.

The Elden Ring movie hits theatres on March 3, 2028. Kit Connor (Heartstopper) and Cailee Spaney (Beef, Alien Rombulus) are starring in the fantasy picture, which wrapped filming earlier this summer. George R.R. Martin is on board as a producer after helping FromSoftware create the game's lore.

"The biggest L From Soft has taken in a long time": Emergency Elden Ring patch stops players from getting the new $5 DLC items for free

Doug Cockle (of The Witcher fame) apparently recorded all of Geralt of Rivia's voice lines in only 8 days while working on the very first game in the series, and he landed a home run without ever being able to read the original source material.

Geralt's husky voice will forever be defined by Doug Cockle's performance, but the iconic role wasn't easy to get right. Speaking to Gameology, the actor remembered he simply "went to an audition" back in the day and met a developer from CD Projekt Red who described the character of Geralt.

Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher novels hadn't yet been translated into English, meaning Cockle "couldn't refer to them" when preparing to jump into the recording booth. Still, he was immediately on board.

"What I really liked about the concept of The Witcher when I was introduced to it was just this whole new fantasy world. I've always been a fan of Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Dragonriders of Pern, all those great fantasy novels - Conan the Barbarian. So, I've always always loved fantasy worlds, and this was a whole new one to explore," he explains.

When it came to actually recording the huge role-playing game, Cockle recalls he spent about eight days in total for The Witcher 1: "I think it was five days in a row and the voice was very low - very, very low in my register. And at the end of a long recording day - we were recording six, seven hours a day - my voice was wrecked. So I would go back to my hotel room and I would just sip peppermint tea all night, or lemon and ginger. Those are my two favorites. And then I'd go back the next day and do it all again. And then the game came out and people loved it." The rest is history.

Doug Cockle is confirmed to reprise his role when The Witcher 4 finally comes out, which is targeting a tentative 2028 release window. Developer CD Projekt Red recently said Geralt will "always have an important" role in the series, even when he's not actively in the spotlight.

The Witcher 3 Remastered's new patch has fans convinced they're playing a different RPG altogether with how "massively improved" its visuals are

New gameplay details from the canceled Mass Effect game have emerged, following developer BioWare's abrupt demise. Mass Effect Universe was reportedly set to feature a galactic Cold War between the galaxy's remaining factions, espionage mechanics likened to the Hitman series, and, of course, romance.

The new tidbits come from YouTuber Dantics, who was supposedly on the Mass Effect player council composed of community members and content creators who gave BioWare feedback during production. IGN has backed up some of his comments and even reports that "every major [alien] race" was working in an in-production build, citing an anonymous development source.

A leaked trailer for Mass Effect Universe already gave us a small taste of what could've been, but Dantics now has more concrete details. The game, set more than 600 years after the events of the original trilogy, would've had three major factions caught up in a Cold War conflict with a mysterious threat lurking in the background. The story would've been a departure from the Reapers and their galactic invasion.

As for how this Mass Effect Universe would play, BioWare apparently wanted players to step into the boots of an N7 agent who was a "cross between John Wick and James Bond" - think up-close melee takedowns, gadgets, hacking, experimental tech implants, and more potentially stealthy options. Instead of large open-world environments, the scrapped Mass Effect would've also featured handcrafted linear missions "with Hitman-style freedom in how you complete them."

Deep romance options and "squadmates who can clash with each other" are also said to have been in development. We had previously seen series mainstay Liara in the game's debut trailer, and with the passage of a few hundred years, she had reportedly become an "incredibly powerful Asari Matriarch."

"Not to rub salt in the wound, but they were a lot further in development than their statement suggested. and we were going to get something truly magical," Dantics claimed.

Mass Effect 5 was "something special", dev says – it was BioWare's response to what Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs "were bringing to the table"

The developers behind Peak have finally launched their viral co-op climbing game on consoles, but the long-awaited port also had the side effect of tripling the game's file size on Steam. Why? Well, Team Peak explains that it's because there's now 208 maps in rotation, rather than the usual 30.

More than a year after the game's swift ascent on PC, Peak has now - ahem - peaked on PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox PC. The new ports also introduced cross-play across all platforms, as well as a new 10GB update that brought the game's total size to about 15GB.

"Why is it so big? So, the way daily map rotations work is we upload about 30-ish new maps in a Steam patch, which means every few weeks we've had to keep patching just to swap out the game with new maps that we have to manually generate on our side every god damn time," Team Peak explains in a recent video.

"So, since we're wrapping up development on Peak, we wanted to make sure there was still re-playability for players. Instead of the same 30 daily maps rotating forever, you get 208 maps rotating forever. That's why the update was so big," the dev added.

As huge new updates begin to slowly wind down, it's understandable that joint developers Aggro Crab (Another's Crab's Treasure) and Landfall (TABS, Haste) wanted to somewhat future proof their 'friendslop' mainstay. Still, the devs are hard at work to clean up any remaining bugs.

"Steam specific users might also encounter a bug with joining lobbies where the lobby created is in a different region to you… We actually fixed this bug, so it's actually live right now… You don't even have to worry about it," the video continued. A Switch 2 bug that causes layers to clip through the floor when jumping too high is also being fixed, as are some reported framerate drops on Xbox.

Team Peak also warned that PlayStation players in different regions, such as Brazil, might be affected by unusually high regional pricing: "We're fixing that, so feel free to wait a few days before purchasing."

Peak co-dev says games like its iconic friendslop hit "wouldn't exist" if the studio tried to turn everything it makes "into the next Fortnite" with endless content updates

Arguably the biggest problem with Steam is that there are so many games being released on the platform every day that it can be difficult to keep track of the new titles that are actually cool and interesting. Last year, Valve introduced a beta for a new feature called Personal Calendars, and it instantly became the coolest tool Steam had for narrowing down the new release list. Now, finally, it's out for real.

"With today's Steam update, the Personal Calendar feature officially graduates from Steam Labs and is considered a full feature of the Steam Store," Valve explains in its announcement.

The actual Personal Calendar page is pretty self-explanatory. You get a calendar showcasing the next eight weeks of games Valve's algorithms think you might be interested in. You can choose how many games appear in the calendar view, and choose particular genre and theme tags if you want to narrow things down even further.

Even when it was still in testing, I've found the Personal Calendar to be the cleanest and most concise way to check out impending releases on Steam. I tend to be imminently distrustful of algorithm-based recommendation engines, but whatever filters Valve is building under the hood do cut out a lot of the noise, and have correctly pegged me as the type of person to be interested in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered and Stage Tour.

The recommendations are "based on games you play a lot," Valve says. "The system focuses on your playtime for games that you play the most. So, a few minutes trying out a new game or two won't have much impact on your recommendations, but sinking a bunch of time into a new favorite will."

The devs promise that there are no sponsored placements in the calendar, and they've done what they can to prevent you from "getting stuck in a filter bubble" where you're only recommended the same types of games over and over again. "It's unlikely that every day has a new game launching that is the same genre/theme as games you've been playing and is also a good recommendation for you," Valve explains, which helps keep the pool of genres appearing in your calendar more varied.

I'm often critical of Steam and Valve, in part because the platform's recommendation algorithms have often done little to clear the chaff from the wheat of new releases. (Steam's abysmal moderation history and wildly inconsistent enforcement of adult content policies are much broader issues.) But even I've got to admit that Valve's cooking with this one. Now excuse me, I've got to go audit my wishlist…

These are the best Steam games you can play right now.

After weeks of outcry, Blizzard has seemingly caved to pressure from the ever-vocal Diablo 4 community and increased stacking on Prime Evil Splinters from 1, which means no stacking, all the way up to 99, a 9900% increase. That's not just a compromise, that's a full-blown reversal seemingly based on feedback from the players.

"WE GOT A SPLINTER STACK SIZE INCREASE," reads an excited Reddit post featuring a screenshot from the latest Diablo 4 patch notes, which confirm, "The stack size for Prime Evil Splinters increased from 1 to 99" starting October 28. Unfortunately, the reaction at least on the Diablo 4 subreddit hasn't been as positive as Blizzard is probably hoping. In fact, the vast majority of comments, including those with the most upvotes, are from players who feel the change is too late, if not too little.

"Nice. Wait until the bulk of the playerbase has given up in disgust," reads the top comment on the post. I very much doubt "the bulk of the playerbase" has really given up on Diablo 4 because of this, and in fact I'd argue the majority of players don't give a damn about stackable Splinters, but it seems the subreddit is in agreement that it simply took Blizzard too long to make this change.

Season 15 has been out for a few weeks now, and this whole time the seasonal Prime Evil Splinters you use to grant yourself Prime Evil powers have been locked to one per inventory, meaning you could only have one of each type on you at any given time. Diablo 4's endgame grinders hated that so much that they came up with an incredibly fussy and demanding workaround, but now Blizzard has made that technique obsolete by letting you stack up to 99 of the suckers, which seems excessive to me.

Regardless, Diablo 4 players aren't letting Blizzard off the hook for this one.

"Too fuckin late," says another disgruntled denizen of Sanctuary.

"I’m good. Too little too late!" says another, and so on...

Although unstackable Splinters have been seen as a season 15 bug by many, I'm convinced Blizzard was being very intentional when it limited players to just one per type. The wording in the new patch notes to me suggests a reversal rather than a bug fix, which makes this yet another example of Blizzard's willingness to make significant design changes in response to feedback from players.

Diablo 4 PTR 3.3.0 confirms Season 16 is "carrying forward" some features by popular demand, and Blizzard is taking Druids back to school to address broken tags

Arc Raiders streamer aimkey wondered, in an October 20 Twitter post, "how am I not banned yet" as he posted a gameplay clip that some viewers interpreted as a sure sign of aimbotting given the unusually fast and accurate reticle work. Today, October 23, he confirmed that he has been hardware banned from Arc Raiders for aimbotting.

"I've been falsely banned from ARC Raiders for aimbotting," reads a recent post from aimkey. "I've dedicated my life to this game since release, streaming thousands of hours of my gameplay publicly. I'm willing to FLY OUT to Embark HQ and play in front of the developers to prove I'm 100% legitimate. My reputation and career are being destroyed, and I've even received death threats over this ban."

False positives do happen with anti-cheat systems, but for future reference, offering to play the same game on a different computer is not a great defense against cheating accusations. That's like an accused shoplifter saying, "Put any item in front of me right now and I won't steal it while you're watching, officer."

A shared message from Embark support agent Alan reads: "Our investigation has identified a consistent pattern of abnormal behaviors that are evidence of aimbotting, which constitutes a violation of Section V (Code of Conduct) in our Terms of Service and End User License Agreement."

On his Twitch stream, aimkey also shared a longer exchange with Embark that confirms he has been banned from Arc Raiders at the hardware level, preventing him from playing the game at all on his system.

Ahead of the game's big Frozen Trail update, which has brought a lot of life back to Arc Raiders after several dull months, Embark announced sweeping anti-cheat reforms which would see offenders permanently banned rather than slapped with temporary limitations or escalating warnings.

Over on the Arc Raiders subreddit, many players are celebrating as though the local house egger was finally caught, thrilled to at least see the new anti-cheat leading to decisive action. "With a name like aimkey... that's ironic," observes one user.

Arc Raiders TV and movie adaptations can do what the game doesn't: "We feel like we have created a world that's fertile ground to tell all kinds of different stories"

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney criticized Valve for continuing to mandate AI disclosures for games sold on Steam, calling the policy "abhorrent" following his company's full-throated endorsement of gen AI in game development.

"Forcing developers to write a political statement to be used against them by the hate mob they’re helping organize is abhorrent," says Sweeney.

Steam's AI disclosures require devs who use generative AI in their games to spell out how it was used. For example, the disclosure for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 reads, "Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets."

As early as November 2025, Sweeney was campaigning against AI disclosures for games and calling Valve's approach nonsensical in a world where "AI will be involved in nearly all future production."

This past June, he doubled down, comparing Steam's AI disclosures to a "Scarlet Letter" and insisting that they make it "much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success."

Sweeney's latest message was posted as a reply to a comment from Matt Workman, whose Twitter bio says he works in "Content & Vibes" at "generative media cloud" Fal. Workman argues that "the premise of an AI Generated Content Disclosure is ABSURD in 2026, truly embarrassing [for] Valve and Steam," and Sweeney is clearly in his corner.

This month, Epic Games and Sweeney have been especially vocal about generative AI in games and in game development. "We vibe coded the Epic Games Launcher," the company said of its reworked PC storefront last week.

Just yesterday, Epic announced an Unreal Engine game jam – an event where participants make games very quickly – that initially required AI usage and promised access to unlimited agentic support. Epic has walked that back, now saying, "you can use as little or as much AI as you want."

In the background, Steam users have been picking through a Steam Next Fest demo showcase that saw more AI-aided games than ever, and nearly double the total demo volume of the June 2026 event. Once Steam's recommendation algorithms kicked in, all the AI slop quickly sank to the bottom of the charts, but an influx of AI games has only made game stores more cluttered.

Meanwhile, some people are using AI to clone trending games in record time, with viral hits getting copied almost overnight and game developers canceling their own demos to make it harder to rip them off.

Sweeney's most recent comments have, predictably, kicked up two common counterarguments in the replies. If AI is so great, why do you want to hide it? And if the answer is, 'Because some people hate it,' why do they hate it?

This, I think, starts to color in the "hate mob" that Sweeney alludes to but does not define – at least not in a way that stops it from applying it to everyone opposed or resistant to AI. So, why would people push back on gen AI in games or want to see it called out in a store disclosure? Dozens of developers and experts have made the case to GamesRadar+.

Legally, it's a landmine. Creatively, it can hollow out essential processes. And ethically, AI providers have yet to address the tech's environmental impacts or the wealth of stolen material that their tools were trained on. To top it off, it's a famously unprofitable industry led by companies skirting by on outsized, speculative valuations in a top-heavy market that's just begging for a correction. So far, those companies have mostly succeeded in destroying the consumer market for a lot of hardware and poisoning the well for a lot of software, hurting peoples' leisure and hobbies during a cost of living crisis.

In games, much of the criticism of AI leans toward the generation of art, music, and similar assets. More developers seem to accept it as a programming boon, and AI is generally more accepted in Asian game markets than in the West (though many studios oppose it globally). Yet even if you want to argue that programming is just machine-assisted now – as even Valve co-founder Gabe Newell does, and then some – it's not hard to see why people want AI kept on a leash. (Deadlock devs are also using AI but, curiously, not nailing their entire brand to it.)

Heck, just look at Steam's updated AI disclosure terms, which read: "As an aside, AI in games is rapidly evolving and we want to get it right. Many artists and creators are rightfully concerned about exploitation and misuse. But we also realize that technology and tools are going to change a bunch over the years, and there are lots of creative game developers out there figuring out ways to ethically use AI to make great entertainment. If you plan to release a product on Steam and you think we're overlooking something important in regard to AI, we'd love to hear from you."

The backlash against gen AI in video games proves voting with your wallet works.

Factorio effectively created a genre with its lovable blend of base building, management, and survival, and it's been a Steam icon ever since it first hit early access way back in 2016. Even after a 1.0 release, a 2.0 update, and a major DLC expansion the devs have made good on their promise to never put the game on sale, and now we're here at yet another milestone with Factorio 2.1.

After months in testing, the 2.1 update has now been officially released, offering "a big collection of quality of life, small features, polish, and the things we wanted to do for 2.0 but didn't have time for," according to the announcement on Steam.

The full patch notes are stuffed with catnip for hardcore fans – "rockets can now carry multiple different items in one launch," "elevated rails can now be built over cargo bays," and "land mines can be used as tripwires and enemy detectors," for example – but arguably the most notable part is that this is likely to be the game's final milestone. The devs at Wube Software previously described it as the "last major update" they plan to create.

It's possible a few more minor patches for Factorio may land to clean up bugs and the like, but this update marks the end of an era. Factorio has been a staple on Steam, one that's earned over 234,000 positive Steam reviews, resulting in a 98% overwhelmingly positive rating. According to Steam250, that makes it the 35th best game on Valve's platform, just one step behind Elden Ring.

The game's sterling reputation and masses of players come despite the fact that, unlike pretty much every other game on Valve's platform, the devs resolutely refuse to put Factorio on sale. In fact, they actually raised the game's price in 2023 "to account for inflation."

"It isn't about visibility or sales," the devs said of their zero sale stance back in 2016, "it's about respecting the players who have already purchased the game. We don't want to reward the people who hold off on buying the game, the game is a price we find reasonable, and this is the deal. If you think it is priced too high, then it is your choice to not purchase, and we hope that with enough time, and extra development, we will be able to convince you of its value."

Clearly, a whole lot of people have been convinced of that value over the years, including a new console audience thanks to the game's releases on Switch and Switch 2. Back in 2025, the devs said they were already "laying some groundwork for what our next project could look like," and if it's anything like Factorio, it could be the stuff of indie gaming legends.

These are the best PC games you can play today.

Sadly, we learned this week that BioWare is being shut down by EA. The legendary studio was responsible for many beloved RPGs, including the Mass Effect series, for which a new installment was deep in development. In the aftermath, fans have been scurrying for ways to salvage the project, including courting Palworld developer Pocketpair.

No, seriously - and apparently this isn't the first time that's happened, either. "Soon after a game is canceled or a studio shuts down, we get a lot of comments and emails from fans saying 'You should buy this IP!'" John 'Bucky' Buckley, head of communications and publishing at Pocketpair, posted on Twitter.

"Then, as months go by, those comments turn into 'Why didn't you buy it? You have the money!'" he adds, before explaining the reality that buying and selling IP is complicated, and often the asking price is obscene compared to the potential value. He then points out that, yes, people have been bugging him about Mass Effect 5.

"I got close to 30 DMs/emails from fans about buying Mass Effect in the last day," he says in response to someone asking. He then jokes that Jade Empire would make him more keen.

Pocketpair saving the new Mass Effect would be a plot twist and a half on this whole debacle, but I suspect it's wishful thinking at best. Despite the fact the studio seems to be doing well, who knows if EA would even be open to conversations around selling the sci-fi property, and if it was, whether the amount wanted would make any kind of sense.

I'm not sure it's a great fit to fly BioWare's flag, either. Palworld and the spin-offs that have been revealed are very different to the expansive role-playing games that make up the home of Dragon Age's repertoire. You don't want just anyone making the next Mass Effect - you want a studio that'll honor the existing work and legacy.

Ultimately, those who could've given us a sequel worthy of the first trilogy have just been let go. Mourn what could've been, and let the bargaining stage pass. And then boot up the first Mass Effect yet again.

Mass Effect 5 lead says outpouring of support following BioWare closure "means so much to us," but is looking on the bright side: "At least I don't have to call in sick when GTA 6 comes out"

Final Fantasy Resonance – the first game in the series to be made in Square Enix's HD-2D style – is already the second-biggest Steam launch for any turn-based RPG title from the developer.

Square Enix has finally relented to years of suggestions and released a Final Fantasy game in the HD-2D style, with the latest spinoff in the series, Final Fantasy Resonance, dropping this week. Like last year's Octopath Traveler Zero, this HD-2D RPG adapts one of Square's previous mobile games – Final Fantasy Brave Exvius – into a full-blown console RPG.

Per SteamDB, the RPG has hit a peak of 27,933 players over the course of its first day available, which places it at the higher end of Square Enix's roster of turn-based RPGs on the platform. In fact, this number sees it narrowly overtake this year's Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, which peaked at 27,390. However, Dragon Quest isn't out just yet, as the peak of Square's turn-based player count goes to Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, which sits at an impressive 45,357 from its launch back in 2024.

Of course, this is only day one for Final Fantasy Resonance, and given that the majority of Steam games tend to peak on the first weekend after their release, there's still a chance for Resonance to steal the top spot. But at the very least, it's looking like a pretty successful launch for Square Enix, who will hopefully make a wholly original HD-2D Final Fantasy game in the future, rather than an adaptation of a mobile game.

Final Fantasy 14 players get 1 free day of game time after Square Enix lifts the MMO's PHP lockdown

The MW4 DMZ Police Stations are spread across the map, but if you can find their locations you can complete the Orders connected to them, as well as simply loot them for high value items. Police Stations have quickly become an easy point of reference in Modern Warfare 4 to get good loot, especially related to weapons and guns. If you want to know how to find them and loot them effectively, here's where to look, as well as how to get into the Police Armories.

For more help with the latest Call of Duty, check out all the MW4 DMZ best traits for your operators, or find out all the best weapons and guns in Modern Warfare 4!

Where to find all DMZ Police Stations in MW4

There are five Police Stations across the MW4 DMZ map, all shown above. They're easy enough to find, as they aren't hidden, and they are marked on the map by default with a sheriff Star symbol.

There's no major difference between the layout or contents of each of the DMZ police stations, though keep in mind that if you have an Armory key (see below) it will be specific to one station or another, described by its relation to major landmarks (such as "North of Wolves Stadium").

How to loot Police Stations and open the Armory

Police Stations are several floors (including a basement) with various randomized containers, similar to other buildings. However, what's of note is that there's an armory/evidence room in the basement of each building that holds high-level loot and requires a key to open. This room should be down the stairs on the right when you enter through the main doors.

Some have reported finding Armory keys within the Police Stations themselves (I have checked and have yet to be so lucky), but you can find them around the DMZ as random rare rewards, or through mission completion.

Still learning the particulars of MW4? if you've already got DMZ in front of you, find out how to uncover the Modern Warfare 4 Counting Room Vault location for an early source of great loot, or how to uncover the Modern Warfare 4 Dynamic Op Phone and complete the early challenges!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Modern Warfare 4 has received a much-needed update to stop people from UAV-hogging during DMZ matches.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is finally out today after what can – in the nicest way – be described as a unique launch rollout. Last week, players were able to access the game's campaign mode, and earlier this week, the DMZ mode became available to drop into. DMZ is Activision's take on the extraction shooter genre, letting 20 squads drop onto a massive map and play a dangerous version of Supermarket Sweep without the quizzing.

However, from what seemed like the moment DMZ launched, players found one element of it particularly frustrating. Namely, UAV towers are able to be taken over by players and expanded throughout a game, meaning that there are huge no-go zones unless you fancy being spotted the moment you walk in. This would cause a rush to UAV towers to get this benefit for yourself, with some going as far as to say this choice was a "mistake, and so oppressive you can't do anything."

This week Infinity Ward announced some new changes in a minor update for the game, with the magic words included "In DMZ, players can now steal back UAV Towers from enemy control." This change has naturally excited DMZ fans, with Call of Duty news account ModernWarzone saying the change was "so badly needed" and "Awesome to see that get fixed so quickly."

However, this was somewhat undercut about the other part of this update, which allows parties of four players to queue up into free-for-all bouts. Which, in theory, will allow squads to team up against everyone else in the all-for-one battlefields, with the replies to the update mostly consisting of players calling this change out.

Check out our Modern Warfare 4 review here!

My fiancee is in mourning for the canceled Mass Effect 5. She's been besotted with BioWare's sci-fi darling for only 6 years, but during that time, it's become a part of her. I even agreed to play the trilogy for the first time in 2022 so that she could live vicariously through me, experiencing the RPG with fresh eyes, intervening only to ensure I didn't kill Wrex at the end of the first game ("I will literally never forgive you for it!").

But as much as I loved every moment of my time as Commander Shepard, there's naturally a little more emotional distance between myself and Mass Effect. Professional curiosity also meant that my genuine sadness at the follow-up's cancelation – and the disbanding of one of the most prolific, talented developer teams in the history of video games – was chased by a desire to theorize. What would Mass Effect 5 have looked like, and how would it have gotten around the player's choice element that cemented Mass Effect 3 as one of the most satisfying conclusions to an RPG series I've ever seen?

A prequel seemed logical to me. Mass Effect: D-Day, perhaps, going right back to the First Contact War or the discovery of the Charon Relay. We could witness the moment humanity decided to leave Earth and colonize the planet, introducing alien races to the global population for the very first time and seeing the running theme of interspecies politics take root. But the leaked Mass Effect Universe trailer suggests BioWare was heading in the exact opposite direction on the spacetime continuum, and I find the prospect equally as tantalizing.

Name's Bond: Space Bond

Mass Effect Universe would have been one hell of a sexy space RPG. Gone are the militaristic uniforms of the Normandy's crew, the clunky cover shooter dynamics so emblematic of the original Mass Effect's contemporary. One look at the flashy action hero melee breaking out in the sleek alien night club, and Universe makes it clear: we're not in 2007 any more, Toto.

The trailer is only two minutes long, comprising pre-production assets as per a notice at the very start, but it's enough to have my full attention. In it, we get a brief rundown of who would have been our player character: an ex-soldier mercenary who turned his back on the spoils of war to do things on his own terms.

There's a James Bond quality about him as he flirts with an asari in the dimly-lit bar; he talks himself up, but just enough to titillate, stopping short of arrogance or braggery. Everything is looking rather steamy until the asari in question pulls an Uno reverse. His job is to put out fires, he says, but hers is to start them. A turian squares up behind the hero, indicating the brawl about to break out, when a familiar voice comes from behind the asari. It's Liara – Commander Shepard's asari companion-turned-criminal mastermind, who becomes the Shadow Broker in the Mass Effect trilogy – and she's on our side.

This, to me, is the biggest wow moment of the whole trailer. Not just because it's good to see Liara return after a brief cameo in Mass Effect Andromeda, but because of how much information her presence gives us about the game that never was.

Welcome back, Broker

As an asari, Liara's typical life span would be about 1,000 years. She's just over a hundred years old when Shepherd meets her in Mass Effect, incredibly young in the grand scheme of things.

But the leaked Mass Effect Universe trailer depicts her with visible signs of aging. She has actual wrinkles, for a start, and her voice is a touch deeper. Asari don't show their age physically until they reach 700 years old or so, indicating that Universe would have taken place many hundreds of years after Mass Effect 3 – closer to Andromeda on the timeline, itself set over 600 years later, though potentially sometime before, after, or even during.

By pitching us even further into the future with an ageing, 800 year-old-plus asari Shadow Broker as our companion (or at the very least, as an ally) BioWare seemed to have solved two problems at once. If it was intended to be set between Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda, Universe could have given us more exposition as to the immediate aftermath of the trilogy while making a stronger connection between it and the standalone title (especially since Liara is given that cursory nod in the latter). Set it one to two hundreds years after the fact, it could have brought up the question of Liara's successor; as the Matriarch draws closer to the end of her life, who will become the next Shadow Broker?

My guess is that Mass Effect Universe would have seen us, the player, as part of Liara's crew, possibly being groomed to take over her role as information warlord of the galaxy. An existing professional relationship is clearly established at the bar – "We know. That's why we're here," she says when the other asari's minions surround the protagonist – before the fight breaks out. And what better way to bring players back into the world of Mass Effect than seeing one of Shepard's beloved friends being a badass in her honor?

I would have loved to see Universe take us full circle, the companion becoming the big boss as we take on merc contracts across the galaxy in the name of the Shadow Broker. But with the game canceled, all of this is pure speculation. Unless the stars align, pigs fly up to dance among them, and EA sees fit to sell the IP on to a studio who actually wants to give it a shot, it's potentially useless speculation at that. Mass Effect Universe is no longer in development at the time of writing, but I am still thankful for this intriguing glimpse of what could have been.

As a more mature, high-octane, modern vision of the best sci-fi RPG of all time, Mass Effect Universe had the power to make the series make sense again in the 2020s. The fact that this trailer exists at all is a testament to the fact that BioWare did have a clear vision. It did have something to show for all these years of hard work. And I'm glad, at the very least, we had an opportunity to witness it for ourselves.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is just one of the best RPGs of all time, and there's plenty more to choose from.

The new Diablo 4 PTR period is right around the corner, and Blizzard's revealed what changes players can tinker with ahead of the full update. The druid class is receiving some significant tweaks, war plans are getting deeper and more intricate, and more.

"Some features from the Season of Hell's Legacy will be carrying forward into Season 16," the introduction says. "However, these will not be part of this PTR, as we want to focus on new features for testing."

The notes from the devs start with what's happening to war plans, and it's a good place to kick off. Firstly, there's a new progression system specifically for the endgame quests. Conveniently called War Plans Tactics, the notion is to make the missions you do and what you get out of them more specific.

"Earn points from completing War Plans activities, then invest these points into nodes to increase the chance of preferred activities or rewards appearing," the official description reads. "This allows you to tailor your War Plans more closely with both your goals and playstyle."

You can add up to three points into any given selection, which will increase the odds of it coming up for you as a potential choice, and you can do the same for the type of reward you'll get. On top of this, Marks of Wisdom, a currency for war plans, is being introduced.

These are what allow you to change nodes across your war plans and tactics skill trees. It's mentioned they're capped at 20, but I don't know if that's the amount you can carry or have in use - one to clarify once you're in the public test realm.

The druid rework is pretty hefty, and according to the dev team, it's based around two guiding principles. First, prevent druids from stacking tags as much, and second, to give resolve and fortify more pep in their step as builds.

They go about the former by removing Nature Shift and Shapeshifting tags from skill upgrades. Instead, either will simply be tied to the base ability, and if one or other was part of the tags on an ability, it'll now be removed.

The second is achieved more roundly through changes across how druids are built up. There's a lot to go through in terms of what Blizzard's changing, and I'd expect a lot of experimentation when this PTR arrives. It kicks off on October 27, and runs until November 3.

Diablo 4 players rally for a homebrew fix to a huge season 15 annoyance, but you'll need at least one very good friend

Clean Crew codes might not always provide any competitive advantage when it comes to upping your cleaning skills, but they can add a bit of color to your work day - literally. Whether it's stickers, colors to repaint your skin, or even lobby music, the cosmetic items offered for free thanks to these codes add some cheer to an otherwise dirty job.

Sometimes, you might even be lucky enough to get a handful of Mula from these promo codes. Though we haven't seen any in while, Clean Crew codes historically have granted a boost to your bank balance, so get cleaning and earn as many as you can in the Roblox simulation in the meantime.

If you're after some more general avatar rewards to use in all of your experiences, then we've got the current Roblox promo codes covered too.

All Clean Crew codes

These are the Clean Crew codes you can redeem right now:

• CrewAllOver - 'Crew All Over' color
• 4702 - 'The Grimp' sticker
• BUGFIX - 'Crazy Bug' sticker
• ECLIPSE - 'Baby Red' sticker
• BUDDYBOOGIE- Buddy Boogie special menu theme music

Clean Crew codes have more recently been leaning towards cosmetic rewards rather than currencies, but there's still no harm in collecting these exclusive items while you have the chance.

How to redeem Clean Crew codes

To redeem Clean Crew codes, simply select the Codes option from the main menu, which is located in the bottom left-hand corner. This open up the codes redemption screen, where you can enter a code into the Type Here box and click Redeem to claim your rewards.

Expired Clean Crew codes

• 10MIL- 25x Mula
• 20MILVISITS- 25x Mula

Previous Clean Crew codes have been for Mula, the in-game currency, which is a bit more valuable than those we've seen more recently. With any luck, this will return, but in the meantime, you should still redeem valid codes as soon as you see them to avoid missing out.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

After a wild week of security fears and login restrictions, Final Fantasy 14 went back up and open to the public yesterday – but Square Enix is well aware that subscribed players lost out on game time due to the situation… paid game time.

In case you're out of the loop, there was a major worldwide internet security scare earlier this week involving PHP, the programming language that powers various websites and more.

There were two serious security weaknesses, leading to many shutdowns – even the Steam store went down amid the issues – and Final Fantasy 14 was no exception, as Square Enix closed the game to new logins.

Following their work to maintain security on the MMO's servers despite the PHP shenanigans, the developers reopened Final Fantasy 14 (and, sadly, also announced that housing demolition would soon be back in effect as a result).

Lots of folks were left wondering if they'd get any money back in return for the day of time in-game they missed; however, with conversations taking off online – and it appears that the answer is yes, sort of.

According to a new announcement from Square Enix, subscribed players will receive "one day of game time" back for free starting October 28.

This applies as long as "the full version of Final Fantasy 14 has been registered to the service account" and "the service account had an active subscription" as of October 21, when logins were initially closed off.

Overall, fans seem pretty pleased with the update, too. Over on X, comments highlight as much, with players dubbing this a win and praising the devs for being so quick to pay back game time.

As one person writes, "W Square Enix." W indeed, anon. W indeed. It's a good sign that the studio is listening to us, even if I'm still a bit sad about the housing demolition news (look, I've just got severe anxiety about losing my cozy Lavender Beds plot, okay), and that the devs care.

It's especially welcome in the lead-up to Evercold, the MMO's upcoming expansion – one I personally can't wait for. It's safe to say that I'd be subscribed up until that point, free day of game time or not, honestly.

Final Fantasy 14 devs ask for the impossible, beg players to "take time to read" up on the MMO's options before Evercold is out

• With a reworked skill tree and stunning new visuals, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is the definitive way to play the RPG in 2026.

To answer the question I've seen all over the Internet: yes, The Witcher 3 Remastered really is that good. When I first learned of the remaster's existence at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026, I admit I was a little dubious. We'd gotten a snazzy update back in 2022 when the complete edition launched on current gen hardware, and after more My Chemical Romance album re-releases than I can count, I had to ask myself if The Witcher 3 really needed another facelift.

Well, here's your confirmation that the remaster is absolutely worth it. Not only is it absolutely free for all owners of the base game, this gorgeous update improves visual fidelity (lighting, colors, the works) as well as combat, Signs, and the notoriously complicated skill tree that has confounded many of us for years. There's a reason the GamesRadar+ RPG Club chose it for this month's topic; The Witcher 3 is still the best RPG of all time, and a total must-play in 2026.

Why play it today?

• The Witcher 3 Remastered's combat reworks make Sign and bomb-based builds noticeably more powerful and dynamic.

The combat enhancements are what I'm loving most about the new Witcher 3 remaster. I've always been an Igni diehard, but this is the first time I have built my entire character around both it and Yrden.

The remaster doesn't add all-new skills or alternate Sign forms, necessarily, but has reworked how strong each Sign is in tandem with both your current level and any other active abilities. The Firestream form of Igni, which releases a torrent of fire instead of a single short blast, feels even stronger now with the Melt Armor ability activated alongside it, while it has never been more satisfying to watch Supercharged Glyphs whittle enemy health down when they stand on a Yrden Sign.

The reworked skill tree makes it easier to understand how damage scaling works by removing the tedium and guesswork of the original version's "spend X to get Y" machinations. I never used to pay attention to how the different armor sets adapted to my playstyle, but I can feel the difference now depending on my gear; Sign damage output is noticeably bolstered when wearing the School of the Griffin armor, while activating some of the Manticore School genes alongside it means each of my bombs packs a devastating wallop. I love pairing Igni and Yrden with my beloved Grapeshot, a bomb that literally explodes some enemies in a single hit!

The combined effect makes for a meatier, more thoughtful combat system that has me being more inventive with my Signs and bombs rather than desperately hunting down swords all the time... Though I'm still partial to a pretty blade, especially now that we can transmog weapons in The Witcher 3.

Time commitment:

As is custom for the best open world RPGs, a typical playthrough of The Witcher 3 Remastered will take anywhere from 80 to 140+ hours to complete depending upon your playstyle and whether you have both DLCs. My first playthrough took around 135 hours, encompassing the base game, Hearts of Stone, and Blood and Wine, and I definitely left some stones unturned.

A true completionist run might take you a good 10-20 hours or more on top of that, especially if you love a bit of Gwent and the racing challenges. But since I am all about the missions, monster contracts, and treasure hunts, I don't tend to bother with the competing elements too much.

Play The Witcher 3 Remastered if you love...

Skip The Witcher 3 Remastered if you want:

One thing to know:

The Witcher 3 Remastered is a little bit buggy for some, with performance issues on PC causing some bizarre asset dropout (check out them bug eyes). Developer CDPR is on the case, however, with one hotfix already rolled out and another exclusively patching settings toggles for Series S players. I've not experienced anything game-breaking myself in over 50 hours of play so far (aside from the decade-old one where Geralt stubbornly refuses to dive underwater sometimes and I need to save and reload) so it's still worth checking the update out for yourself if you already have it on a current get console.

A moment you'll remember:

Finding Henry Cavill's Geralt armor set from The Witcher Netflix TV show in a Level 15 mission called In The Eternal Fire's Shadow. Added to the game in 2022, the (relatively) new secondary quest sees Geralt exploring an abandoned mine where plague victims were locked up and left to die some three hundred years prior. It's now haunted by the miserable spirits of those left to rot, making for some truly spine-chilling moments that feel even more frightening in the remaster edition's reworked fidelity, and features one of the toughest bosses in the whole game: The ghost of a fellow School of the Wolf witcher.

The final verdict:

11 years since The Witcher 3 took the world by storm, the Remastered Edition makes it feel brand new. In our The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered review, we even call it "an exceptional update that refines the rough edges to make a great RPG even better." It's easy to see why so many of us are still enamored with it to its day, with a heady blend of weighty narrative choices and malleable, exciting combat dynamics that make each player's Geralt feel entirely their own. I don't think I'll be able to pull myself away from The Path anytime soon, and at this rate, I'd be happy to call The Witcher 3 my game of the year all over again in 2026.

So, where can you play it?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is out now on Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. You can buy it new here, though current owners of the Complete Edition can simply download the update for free on current gen consoles.

Check out how I ranked the 7 best Witcher games, and yes, I included Gwent in there.

The Genshin Impact livestream 7.2 codes are the latest promos to drop in the long-running action RPG, providing plenty of Primogems to spend alongside a decent supply of Mystic Enhancement Ore, Hero’s Wit, and Mora. While the most recent special program gave us an insight into the new content arriving with version 7.2, it's the codes revealed during this regular developer presentation that are of most interest here. As always, they will expire in the near future, so here are the Genshin Impact livestream 7.2 codes and how to redeem them.

Genshin Impact livestream 7.2 codes

• HourofRuin - 100x Primogems, 10x Mystic Enhancement Ore
• ExpertMitya - 100x Primogems, 5x Hero's Wit
• PhotoTime - 100x Primogems, 50,000x Mora

The above promos were announced during the latest special program broadcast, and will be active until Sunday, October 25 at 9PM PDT, which is Monday, October 26 at 12AM EDT / 4AM GMT – so make sure that you redeem them as soon as you can to bank all of the rewards on offer.

How to redeem Genshin Impact livestream codes

In some versions of the game you can redeem Genshin Impact codes directly, by opening up the Account menu under Settings and then selecting the Redeem now prompt before entering the code.

You can also redeem Genshin Impact codes by visiting the gift redemption page on the game's official website. Once you're there, log in with your HoYoverse account and make sure the correct regional Server and Character Nickname are selected – these should be completed automatically once you've logged in. All you need to do then is type or copy/paste a promo into the Redemption Code box, before hitting Redeem to claim your rewards.

Either way, the rewards will be sent to you via the in-game mailbox, so head there next to pick them up. You don't have to do that immediately, but in-game mails usually have an expiry date of one month after sending, so don't leave it too long!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

If there's one thing the GamesRadar+ RPG Club has taught me, it's that you've never seen it all. Just when you think you know an RPG inside out, it goes ahead and surprises you 10 years later. See, I thought I'd experienced every original side quest and monster contract in The Witcher 3 – given my many, many playthroughs – but the remastered re-release turned out to prove me wrong. On the shores of Skellige, after completing a particular contract at a particular time, a series of rather unfortunate events landed me in a pokey prison. Having no recollection of getting caught up in this mess before, I had no idea how I was going to get the White Wolf out of this one.

But the very fact that I couldn't wait to find out, and felt fresh excitement in an adventure I've spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours with, speaks to the magic of CD Projekt Red's sweeping fantasy adventure. It's not only teeming with things to see, do, and discover, but it directly reacts to the order in which you do things, and a decision to complete a contract at a certain time made me stumble my way into a missable quest that now refuses to leave my mind.

Quest Log

Wraiths and fog

It all begins with the haunting of a lighthouse out on one of the far islets of Skellige. The contract, The Phantom of Eldberg, is pretty standard for an experienced Witcher like me: investigate the area and find out why wraiths are attached to the location. It's all going well, having found the person responsible for tying the ghostly apparitions to the lighthouse. With a trophy in hand, I return back to a quaint little tavern to get my payment from a local called Jorund.

Only, the tavern is housing some hostile patrons who are none too happy at my being there, and with civil tensions at their peak with the passing of the king, things take a drastic turn. Before I know it, I'm in a bout of fistcuffs that quickly evolves into a clashing of blades. Poor Jorund pays the ultimate price, and as a stranger in a strange land, I'm quickly hoisted into a prison in the compound of Madman Lugos. What a day for poor Geralt.

I'd done this contract before, but it'd never ended like this. On previous runs, I handed in my wraith trophy and Jorund sat happily in the tavern, living to see another day. But, as I discovered, it's all about when you do this contract. Completing it before you do the King's Gambit kicks off a missable quest chain that I had apparently always managed to skip… probably due to my affinity for the Possession quest, or because I'd simply never picked up the contract early enough.

Regardless of the reason, I love the fact that The Witcher 3 constantly takes stock of what I choose you to do, and when I choose to do it. It puts real tangible weight behind my decisions in this world – something I live for in RPGs. And on this occasion, the game rewards me with a wild quest called The Cave of Dreams. If you've experienced this before, you know what I'm in for, but by all of the howling winds does it feel extra magical to witness it through the lens of the remastered edition's enhanced graphics.

Naturally there will be spoilers ahead for the Cave of Dreams.

Face your fears

Indebted to Lugos for letting me out of my pokey prison, I'm tasked with helping out his son, Blueboy Lugos, who's ventured to a cave with some companions to overcome a challenge of legend. Tales tell that anyone who enters the cave will face their fears, which are brought on by taking a mixture of hallucinogenic herbs before you delve into its depths. I'm already drawn to the concept, eager to see what the often implacable monster slayer Geralt's innermost fears will conjure.

At once, things start to get surreal. The cave comes alive with a giant, glittering razorback whale swimming through the air above the heads of the White Wolf, Blueboy, and his crew. It's a sight to behold, as are the school of fish that decorate the cave roof further in. Damn. It sure does look incredibly pretty. Pure camera mode fodder.

The events that actually unfold during the quest are what make it so memorable, though. Through every section of the cave, a character's fear comes to life. For warrior Uve Jabberjaw, it's the deceased king. Having previously insulted the monarch, Uve drastically cut out his own tongue as penance, and the past event clearly still haunts him. Then, in a more chilling turn, Blueboy faces his own father, whose anger and disappointment sets him literally aflame.

When I finally reach the scene of Geralt's fear, I stop to take it in: I'm looking at Kaer Morhen covered in a blanket of white snow. The nightmares that have plagued the witcher throughout the story make manifest here, with the imposing figure of Eredin, King of the Wild Hunt, materializing. It hits hard, not because Geralt is afraid of Eredin, but because he fears for the person the king continues to threaten: Ciri. The short confrontation gets to the heart of what makes The Witcher 3's story so memorable. It's about found family, protecting those you love, and never giving up the fight to keep them safe, and it once again reiterates how deeply Geralt cares for his ward.

If I ever needed further proof as to why The Witcher 3 continues to endure as one of the best RPGs going, well, this quest and the way I finally stumbled upon it is further proof. Now, excuse me while I go and see what else awaits me in the Remaster.

Players of Elden Ring are built different, at least according to some analyst stats. FromSoftware's landmark action-RPG has sold pretty well since its 2022 release, and a significant portion of those buyers have accrued significant playtime in the fantasy juggernaut.

Rhys Elliott, head of market analytics at Alinea Analytics, posted some numbers on Twitter about what Elden Ring's managed to achieve to date. The topline figures are nothing surprising: FromSoftware's last epic has shifted approximately 36.4 million copies on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and it's brought in around $2 billion dollars in total revenue.

Those are the kind of numbers you get when you have people like Post Malone and multi-time WWE Champion Randy Orton openly talking about picking it up and becoming immersed in the struggle. It takes a certain kind of popularity to even grab their attention, and then they become part of the advertising by discussing it so publicly.

But the real revelation of Alinea's findings comes afterward. Around 9.8 million of those players have put over 100 hours into roaming the Lands Between. That's a pretty significant chunk of the community.

It's hard to compare these things through hard data, but I would be surprised if this wasn't quite rare across role-playing games. I suspect the portion of the audience for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, any of the Yakuza series, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, or whatever who manage something similar is a smaller minority.

What's more, Elliott says almost 3.5 million have gotten every achievement. These people have more patience and gumption than I do, that's for sure. I've never been a trophy hunter in games, and I definitely am not tempted by any of FromSoftware's fare.

If you're included in these portions of Elden Ring, I applaud you and hope you have healthy coping mechanisms for the frustration and intensity they entail. "By many accounts, including my own, Elden Ring is one of the best games of all time," Elliott writes. "It's an evergreen seller that will continue to be a cash cow for Bandai and FromSoftware for years to come."

Considering there's a movie coming in 2028, there's a good chance the fanbase will only get bigger, too. Long live Hidetaka Miyazaki.

New launcher for viral AI mash-ups of Elden Ring, Minecraft, and more emerges – with some very questionable terms of service, should you value your PC

Following the unpopular closure of BioWare and cancellation of Mass Effect 5, project director Mike Gamble has taken time to thank fans for their outpouring of support.

Taking to Twitter, Gamble says the support has been appreciated and has encouraged anyone hiring to look out for his team, which he says is full of "OGs" – perhaps in the off chance people doubt that some of the talent behind BioWare's greatest hits are still at the studio.

"I could probably scroll for hours and continue reading the words of support for the studio, the legacy, and the impact that BioWare has had on you," he says. "It means so much to us. There is so much talent on this team of OGs, so if you are aware of any roles, please send them. I will personally vouch for everyone in my crew."

Not content with ending on a somber note, Gamble offers some humor before signing off.

"At least I don't have to call in sick when GTA 6 comes out."

Earlier this week, the news broke that EA would cut 400 jobs following an acquisition by a private investment group led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

Sadly, BioWare was caught in that crossfire, with the studio shut down and work on Mass Effect 5 scrapped. Many developers across the industry have expressed sadness, and those who worked on Mass Effect 5 said it was "something special."

And special it looked. Not long after the news broke, rumors of a trailer surfaced, only for that very Mass Effect 5 trailer to leak online. What could have been, man.

BioWare veteran goes to bat for Dragon Age The Veilguard's dev team, says most of them "had little or no say in the things you disliked" about the RPG.

The best traits in MW4 DMZ mode are all about making sure that your operator has the best skill possible. As you play you'll level up and earn new trait points, capping out at 18, which isn't nearly enough to fill all three skill trees. With that in mind, you need to be certain that you're picking the best traits possible and ensuring that you're ready for a variety of circumstances. With that in mind, I'll lay out the optimum build for traits in Modern Warfare 4 below, so you know exactly what to choose when the time comes.

What are the best traits in DMZ for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4?

Here are the best traits in each skill tree in MW4 DMZ mode. If you're building up in each tree, make sure that you pick the traits mentioned below when given the option to do so.

• Warfighter
  • Equipment Professional: Slowly recharges equipped lethals and tacticals after use. Refills up to the max capacity of the slot.
  • Adrenaline Burst: Killing an enemy resets tactical sprint.
  • Possum: Allows a Self Revive into Last Stand from death, restoring health to maximum, once per match.
• Scout
  • Investor: Slightly increases cash amount extracted.
  • Auto Fill: Lethals and tacticals automatically replenish from Backpack.
  • UAV Upgrade: Increases the range and duration of UAVs. Also upgrades them to Advanced UAVs.
• Survivalist
  • Quick Knife: Replaces weapon bash melee attacks with knife attacks.
  • Metabolism: Slowly regenerate health lost via tourniquet.
  • Die Hard: Approaching an exfil while in Last Stand calls the exfil automatically. Also grants infinite bleed out time while in Last Stand.

These traits are largely based around universality and broad applicability in combat, as well as emphasizing those skills that are better in PvP than PvE (which tends to be tougher as a rule). I've also de-emphasized traits that increase reward yields and item stacking – not that there's anything wrong with those, but I think it's more important to survive missions than to risk your life on some small reward bonuses. After all, it doesn't matter if you have more loot than normal if you never make it home safely!

Operator Traits in Modern Warfare 4 DMZ explained

Traits in MW4 DMZ are skills that are unlocked when your Operator levels up. You'll get a trait point that can be invested in any of the three skill trees, granting that specific operator and character that skill, but only them! These don't apply to any other operators that you have unlocked.

Traits are picked from one of two or three options each time, and these choices are exclusive. For example, early in the Warfighter tree, you'll be able to pick between "Plate Pouch", "Bounty Hunter" and "Resupply". Whichever one you pick, it'll lock that Operator out of ever getting the other two, so pick carefully!

Operators can earn a total of 18 Traits before they max out, which is enough to completely work through two of the skill trees to the end. That restriction means that you have to think carefully about what you want to get, as you won't be able to get all of them.

If that operator is lost on a mission, you'll lose all progress you made with them. However, you can pay cash to rescue them. The amount of money it costs scales to their level – the more Traits they have, the more expensive it will be to bring them back.

Still learning the particulars of MW4? if you've already got DMZ in front of you, find out how to uncover the Modern Warfare 4 Counting Room Vault location for an early source of great loot, or how to uncover the Modern Warfare 4 Dynamic Op Phone and complete the early challenges!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Shigeru Miyamoto, the Nintendo representative director and executive fellow behind titles like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, sees AI – as controversial as it may be – as a natural progression of technology.

The Nintendo mastermind says as much during a press conference reported by GameWatch (later translated from Japanese by VGC), first recalling past technological advancements.

"Our generation lived through a period of rapid computer development – a time when tools were constantly evolving, moving from typewriters to word processors," he explains, using design – or more specifically, lettering – as an example.

"In the past, for instance, designers were taught in school how to create beautiful lettering for posters; possessing that skill alone was enough to be called a 'designer.' Alternatively, one could simply take a design that was trending abroad, give it a 'Japanese-style' twist, and be labeled a designer."

Then, "computers and technology advanced," as Miyamoto says, and "a designer's true individual capabilities… finally came to the fore."

That's when he mentions AI: "I believe generative AI represents a similar shift." Miyamoto then draws a line between "creating" and the "labor" that's involved while creating.

"When you set out to create, you first establish a broad structure, then begin the hands-on work: the tasks that follow, such as filling in gaps or refining the details. The tricky part is that this labor can actually be quite enjoyable."

Miyamoto doesn't think hard or lengthy labor means a good product, however – and there could be danger in folks wrongly believing it does. "While the act of creation is inherently satisfying, there's a danger: one might find satisfaction in the labor itself and mistakenly believe that a high-quality piece of work has been created."

In that regard, the Nintendo legend views AI as a potential asset rather than a liability. "In that sense, the more AI replaces these tasks, the more it provides an opportunity to reflect on what's really important, which I think is a positive thing," he says.

Rather than looking at the tech – which is, admittedly, quite controversial – Miyamoto sees benefits in using AI. He doesn't see it as a replacement for creatives or developers, either, as it works with and for people rather than instead of, in his mind.

"Looking back at past designs, there are some that were created merely by copying and pasting. Yet, such work rarely stands the test of time; it lacks the individual's particular design intention." AI doesn't, "because the process relies on an individual's intent, with the computer serving as an assistant for the labor."

And, again, Miyamoto doesn't believe that'll push actual human beings out of the picture, and that's precisely why.

"I believe that even as technology continues to evolve, and even if AI were to eventually handle everything, there will always be a role left for us to play," he concludes – and, while I'm not sure I completely agree myself, I suppose I can understand where he's coming from.

I don't see AI being able to pull off the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake or any other new games that have caught my eye, though… and I doubt I ever will.

Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto becomes first-ever dev to receive Japan's greatest cultural award, but he's crediting all of Nintendo: "These achievements were not the work of one person"

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold 8.7 million copies and generated $336 million in revenue since its launch last year, with the majority of sales on Steam despite being on PC Game Pass.

A post by Alinea Analytics breaks down how the last few Game of the Year award winners – Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Astro Bot, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – have sold across their various platforms.

As one of the biggest games ever made, Elden Ring naturally leads with $2 billion from 36.4 million copies sold, and Baldur's Gate 3 isn't too far behind with $1.2 billion from 23.2 million copies sold. Meanwhile Astro Bot made $291 million across 4.7 million copies sold, which is natural being an exclusive and being a sadly niche genre (bring back platformers being the top genre I beg you).

Then comes the most recent and most-awarded Game of the Year winner, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which matched the record set by Baldur's Gate 3 by winning all five major GOTY awards. While not quite near the Elden Ring or Baldur's Gate 3 numbers, the indie title has made $366 million through 8.7 million copies sold.

However, unlike the other three games, Clair Obscur was also available for 'free' to Xbox Game Pass subscribers until last week, and during that time it brought in 4.3 million players across Xbox consoles and PC Game Pass users. This naturally had an impact on Xbox sales through what Alinea calls "Game Pass cannibalization", with only 5.5% of sales coming from Xbox users, but this didn't really seem to affect PC sales too much, as 58.8% of sales came from Steam users.

Despite this "cannibalization," Clair Obscur creative director Guillaume Broche has been positive about Xbox Game Pass, and its impact on the game. He notes that the subscription "lowered that barrier of entry," especially when turn-based RPG's could "put people who prefer more real-time action games off."

Meanwhile, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella says the game is "a great example of a game where its sales potential was likely increased because of its inclusion in a subscription service."

As more people got to try the game with the subscription fee as the only barrier to entry, word of mouth will surely grow. So sure, 4.3 million people experienced the game without buying it, but that doesn't mean that 4.3 million people would buy the game outright otherwise.

Pokemon with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's combat sounds like a bonkers idea, but one fan's now given us a taste test.

To call Baldur's Gate 3 a success would be a gigantic understatement. Larian's fantasy-RPG took the industry by storm upon release in 2023, and new figures from an analyst give us some insight into how many copies have been sold and just how much money the adventure's generated. Spoilers: both are big numbers.

On Twitter, Rhys Elliott, the head of market analytics at Alinea Analytics, provided figures the firm has on the iconic game.

According to Alinea's stats, Baldur's Gate 3's lifetime sales now amount to 23.2 million copies across all platforms, and it's generated around $1.2 billion in revenue.

Those are chunky numbers. Managing to cross the 23 million threshold is astounding, really. That's almost triple the most recent figures on the business Final Fantasy 7 Remake's done, and it's more than Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and the Resident Evil 4 remake.

Baldur's Gate 3 is doing whatever the opposite of rookie numbers is. It places Larian's threequel in the realm of FromSoftware's behemoth Elden Ring, though with seven million still to go before it threatens to outdo that particular piece of swords and spells.

Just over 80% of these sales were through Steam on PC, while PS5 accounts for 12.7% and Xbox Series X is 6.8%. Elliott mentions that the PS5 and Xbox Series X releases came after the game went 1.0 on PC, contributing to this discrepancy.

According to what Alinea can see, Baldur's Gate 3's monthly active player-count hasn't dropped below two million since launch. That's real staying power. But the true diehards? The 1% who have over 500 hours clocked in this iteration of Faerûn.

I expect that percentage to increase dramatically over the remainder of the decade. Or at least until the new Divinity arrives.

Former Dragon Age lead says Baldur's Gate 3 studio Larian is taking a "risk" by making Divinity right after its 2023 RPG hit, but he applauds the devs for it

As you might've seen, the legendary RPG studio BioWare has been shut down by its parent company, Electronic Arts. No matter what you think of the studio and its games, layoffs suck, and so does the closure of a company behind some of the most beloved fantasy franchises of all time, which in BioWare's case includes Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect. But naturally, not everyone can behave appropriately in response to such an unequivocally horrible situation, nor can everyone simply keep their mouths shut as hundreds of people lose their livelihoods all at once. If a tweet from BioWare veteran and Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 creative director James Ohlen were a room, it wasn't being read.

In his initial response to the devastating news, Ohlen wrote a blank check of referral for the people who lost their jobs at BioWare this week, calling them "some of the best RPG developers in the world.

"If you're hiring writers, designers, artists or engineers, start with them. Former BioWare folks: if an intro from me would help, reach out," he wrote.

Good stuff. No complaints. But wait... the comments section! Surely it's filled with BioWare fans expressing their sympathy, appreciation, and support for the developers who lost their jobs so abruptly, right? ...Right? [Deep sigh], no, of course not, this is the internet in 2026, after all. I am not linking to Ohlen's original tweet, and I don't recommend reading the comments on it because it's a terribly unpleasant place to spend your time, but it's filled with hateful comments blaming The Veilguard developers for BioWare's downfall.

Ohlen clearly read those comments because he followed up with a new tweet today in which he goes to bat specifically for The Veilguard developers.

"A lot of you replied to my last post, so here are a few thoughts," he says. "The majority of people on a team the size of Veilguard’s had little or no say in the things you disliked about it. Right up to the end, BioWare still had many people who worked on the games you loved."

Ohlen adds that he has his "own issues with modern entertainment, especially when political messaging gets in the way of good storytelling," but ultimately was "responsible" for controversial stuff like Dragon Age Origins' Broodmothers and, uh, same-sex romance options for Zevran.

"What I'm trying to say is that it’s possible to hold views that don’t fit neatly into anyone’s political camp, and to love and respect people you disagree with. People are complicated. That includes the people who make the games you love or hate," Ohlen concludes.

While Dragon Age: The Veilguard received strong reviews from critics, a whole bunch of longtime Dragon Age fans have been seriously critical of some of BioWare's design decisions. Some of these complaints are perfectly sensible, but there's a vocal minority focused on the introduction of a nonbinary recruitable companion as proof that BioWare went "woke" and ruined the franchise forever. It seems to be those criticisms that Ohlen is responding to, even if he himself thinks political messaging can sometimes interfere with storytelling.

Regardless of Ohlen's views, I appreciate that he's showing support for the former BioWare devs in need of work and urging compassion even when those devs commit the cardinal sin of putting non-binary characters into video games.

EA killing BioWare could lead to Mass Effect and Dragon Age rights being sold, former lead says, but they could just as easily "bury them in the vault"

A clever social game quietly launched on Steam this month. Jono is the latest release from developer and publisher Part Time Monkey, which is actually original Angry Birds artist Tuomas Erikoinen's solo studio, and it's the first "massively singleplayer" game I've ever seen.

Jono is a pixel art 2D platformer with simple art and "deterministic physics," as Erikoinen puts it in a post-mortem Reddit post. The real hook lies outside the familiar gameplay of jumping over spikes and through portals: only one person can play Jono at a time, and only for one minute at a time, "then the next person in the queue takes over from exactly where you left off." Everyone else sits in a Twitch-like, in-game live stream overlay watching you play, waiting for their turn, or building levels for future players to complete.

"Cheer, advise, or complain in the chat. Spam emotes. Make the talking head say something stupid. Join the conga line," the game's Steam page reads.

"The game is the reason players come, and the chat is the reason they stay (I think)," Erikoinen says on Reddit. "They cheer when someone gets through a hard level, joke around, talk about off-topic stuff and so on."

The goal, Erikoinen says, is for players to collectively complete 1 million levels which are all totally unique. The Jono stream shows that they've currently cleared just over 87,600 levels, and died 114,200 times in the process. The top player has personally cleared over 7,500 levels.

Jono is free to download on Steam, where it's garnered 96% positive user reviews. When I first booted up the game, all I had to do was clear a short tutorial and suddenly I was fifth in the queue. On-screen leaderboards show how many rooms the best players have cleared, and customization options for the shared avatar live in the top-left corner by default.

An optional "Meat Grinder" mode collects player-made levels that were deemed too difficult for normal play, essentially quarantining the Kaizo challenges that are only for the real sickos. "One level maker died 1200+ times in the editor just to prove a single level could be done," says Erikoinen. "'DONT ASK HOW THE MEAT IS MADE' took 2627 deaths and almost 5 hours before anyone got through," he adds.

After clearing a whopping four levels in my debut run, I spoke to Erikoinen about Jono. He says it took about a month to make the launch version of the game, which has been expanded considerably since October 5.

Partly inspired by social games like Peter Molyneux's famously disastrous Curiosity – "but not at first to be honest, this idea sort of just came to be out of nowhere," Erikoinen says – the now-independent Angry Birds artist set out to make "something unique." (Jono reminds me a bit of VVVVVV from Terry Cavanagh, a beacon of unique games.)

"In this era of AI," Erikoinen says, "smaller games" can seem "'too easy to do' (exaggerating a little here, but especially valid for smaller games), so to succeed we now need something truly unique - which sparked up the idea of the queue. Once the queue was settled, I also wanted to have a looong goal for the community to work towards, hence came the 1M rooms."

Most of the rooms in Jono come from a procedural generation system that splices together different obstacles and modifiers. Player-made levels are reviewed and woven in more sporadically.

"When a player creates and verifies a level, they submit it," Erikoinen explains. "I check it in the editor with their replay and determine if it's casual enough for the game mode. If it's not, they can choose to put it in the Meat Grinder instead. If it does get approved, it gets put in the main room queue. The room number for it depends on how many player levels are already queued. Every room gets put 100-200 levels later than the previously approved player level."

Building on his point regarding small games in today's AI-colored age, he adds, "There's been tons of cases where some small game gets popular overnight and it gets replicated within hours, and clones appear on Steam instantly. There’s also been cases where someone posts a wip video of their game and that gets cloned instantly. Those are real problems especially for small games. So something like Jono, with a unique twist with not-so-easy to replicate implementations, may be what is needed now. It’s just a theory/idea, but I feel it carries some weight to it."

Devs are canceling their demos to stop AI users from stealing their games – creator of one of Steam's most-wishlisted is "concerned" it may be ripped off and beaten to its own launch.

In another totally jam-packed year of new video games, it feels like centuries since Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced released (it's really only been a few months), but completionists haven't stopped asking Ubisoft for a New Game Plus mode. Well, Ubisoft has rather casually confirmed the game's New Game Plus update is coming in an update "next week," silencing months of player requests in a 16-word tweet.

"Thank you everyone for your patience," reads a tweet from the official Assassin's Creed Twitter account, seemingly acknowledging the amount of time it's been since we've heard anything at all about Black Flag Resynced post-launch. "New Game+ is coming to Black Flag Resynced next week!"

I'll admit, even being the pirate game sicko I am and with Black Flag having been one of my most anticipated releases of the year, I fell off that game hard. Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous remake that manages to do the unlikely and actually improve on the original game, which has always been a 10/10 release for me. It's just that, for me, a remake is always going to have a hard time competing against brand-new games, and there have been some incredible ones this year from my presumptive GOTY The Blood of Dawnwalker to the best new horror game I've played in ages, Resident Evil Requiem.

But that's by the by. It's unclear if the Black Flag Resynced update containing the New Game Plus mode will have anything else bundled in, as again it's been a while since the game got any new content at all, but it's at least confirmed that you'll have a whole new way to play through the main campaign again.

We'll also be keeping an eye out for an exact release date, as so far it's just "next week," but either way it's certain we'll know more soon.

Here's how we ranked the best Assassin's Creed games ever.

Half-Life 3 rumor vessel HLX has once again been mentioned, this time by a veteran Valve designer at an official presentation digging into game audio.

A post on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit archives a recent talk from three Valve designers who attended the latest GameSoundCon, a convention dedicated to game audio and music.

Speaker Mike Morasky, a Valve composer and audio artist whose experience covers everything from Team Fortress 2 and the original Portal to Half-Life: Alyx, was joined by sound designers David Feise, a 17-year Valve veteran, and Carlye Nyte, a newer Valve hire with experience at Bungie and several other studios.

During the Q&A portion of a panel covering "Valve's Approach to an Open and Flexible Audio Engine," Morasky fielded a question about voice count. He brings up a group system within Valve's setup and how it folds into its HDR system.

"In fact, I think Deadlock has their own version of HDR," Morasky says, before casually adding, "HLX has its own version. So on and so forth."

In response, a barely audible Feise certainly seems to whisper "nice work" before cutting in. "Groups is its own one-hour talk, so come talk to us about that afterwards," Feise adds.

That sure is a Valve veteran saying "HLX" before seemingly being ribbed by his coworker. The jar of hopes for a new Half-Life game is so overstuffed that I hesitate to infer more than that, but it's hard not to read a little into this.

HLX has been rumored for years now, and Valve has actually mentioned it in passing before, but this might be the loudest and clearest nod yet. Heck, Morasky himself has hinted at its existence more than once: in a 2023 interview, he famously mentioned "both the Half-Life games" he's worked on before correcting that to "well, game." He's been at Valve for years, but for Half-Life, Morasky has actually only worked on Half-Life: Alyx officially, raising questions about that hastily corrected plural.

Morasky did, of course, stop short of promising an imminent new Half-Life game, but Valve sleuths have been hanging on three characters for years, so any mention of HLX will set tongues wagging. If people keep predicting an announcement from Valve every year, surely it will come true eventually.

Half-Life 3 "would register on a GDP level" as a Steam Machine launch title, but "Valve doesn't need a Half-Life-sized spectacle to sell hardware," analyst says.

Following the recent EA buyout, the sad news of BioWare's closure came to light yesterday, alongside a statement from the studio – one that notably doesn't mention Star Wars: The Old Republic, its nearly 15-year-old MMO.

The statement, which also details the end of Mass Effect 5, BioWare's never-released RPG, notes several titles that helped shape the company: Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Anthem.

It does not, however, bring Star Wars: The Old Republic up in any shape or form – and that's caught the attention of the MMO's lead writer, Caitlin Sullivan Kelly.

Replying to BioWare's goodbye message over on X, Kelly writes, "No mention of the game that's been going for almost fifteen years, that supported the studio and all of its projects with income and manpower and time (sometimes to our own detriment)," alluding to SWTOR. "Heartbreaking."

Her take here is understandable, considering the influence The Old Republic has had and how long it's persisted, too.

It still stands the test of time as a beloved MMO in many players' hearts, and it's also served as a massive narrative anchor for the Knights of the Old Republic timeline.

Heck, I've even seen fans alleging that it'll somehow "outlive" Star Wars as a whole – it's clearly not small potatoes by any means. And, seeing it press on after BioWare solidifies that, I suppose. A mention wouldn't have been out of place or out of line.

As for what the future holds for BioWare… Well, there's some hope that its shutdown could lead to Mass Effect and Dragon Age rights being sold, as studio veteran Mark Darrah stated – but EA could just as easily "bury them in the vault," so to speak. Mind you, if the alleged Mass Effect 5 trailer doing the rounds is real, that's just made it harder to do.

I do hope the former possibility somehow comes to fruition, although I'm not sure how or where it would. Only time will tell at this point.

Mass Effect 5 was "something special", dev says – it was BioWare's response to what Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs "were bringing to the table"

A trailer for Mass Effect 5, purportedly titled Mass Effect: Universe, has seemingly leaked online in the aftermath of developer BioWare's shutdown under EA.

The trailer, posted to the Mass Effect subreddit by a fresh Reddit user who describes their account as a "new burner," is just over two minutes long and completely gameplay-free.

Fans have already begun scouring it for generative AI markers, though it seems unlikely that something of this quality could've been slapped together within 24 hours of BioWare's shutdown.

While unverified, this trailer is turning heads in part because a self-described EA employee claimed, on October 21, that "there was a trailer ready for Mass Effect 5 that I saw a few months ago, so I’m puzzled as to how 'early' they were," referring to the early production stage described by EA leadership in a statement.

"Also for clarification, the Mass Effect group is about 50 devs from what I’ve seen," this source added. "The Austin studio has been a mix of people supporting different games for some years now. So the Austin office will remain open, just no more BioWare unfortunately"

The trailer was originally posted several hours ago in a reply to a post sharing that reported EA employee's message. "Ask and you shall receive," the mystery user wrote.

The video is convincing, and if legitimate, will likely be hit with a takedown notice of some kind soon enough. Of course, that would only add fuel to the fire online, and nothing every truly leaves the internet.

The least believable part of the trailer comes right at the end: "Coming soon." Soon is one of those words that's eternally misused by the games industry, but based on comments from EA and former BioWare employees, the next Mass Effect still needed plenty of time in the oven. Granted, this argument makes a lot of assumptions about the validity of the trailer and its intended release window.

Based on this supposed trailer, Mass Effect 5 would've paired recurring and visibly older character Liara T'Soni (that's the second blue alien girl to appear here, to be clear) with a new ex-military, human hero in place of longtime protagonist Shepard. A character of the same Turian race as fan-favorite character Garrus Vakarian appears around 1:31 in the trailer. The scenario feels like an ambush operation, which some fans have interpreted as a dip into corporate espionage from BioWare.

It's also worth noting that Mass Effect's annual day of celebration, N7 Day, was just a few weeks away. It's plausible BioWare could've trotted this trailer out on November 7, had EA not pulled the plug, but there's already enough wishful thinking going around.

"Man, I'm just so sad and angry," one Mass Effect fan writes in a reply to the trailer post.

"I know one of you BioWare developers are probably lurking in this sub, just want to say this looks fucking awesome. I’m so sorry this happened. Keep fighting," says another.

Mass Effect 5 was "something special", dev says – it was BioWare's response to what Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs "were bringing to the table."

The main mission added in Cyberpunk 2077 2.5 update is called Clampdown, designed to tie into the second season of Edgerunners. It's available to play for free for anybody who's downloaded the 2.5 patch for Cyberpunk 2077, but you'll need to walk through a few hoops to unlock it. If you want to play Clampdown, here's how to do just that and what you need to get given this new quest.

How to play the new Clampdown mission in Cyberpunk 2077

To unlock the Edgerunners Clampdown mission and get to play it in Cyberpunk's 2.5 patch, you need to complete the following milestones within the game:

1. Complete "The Heist" story mission, as well as the following quests: "Love Like Fire" and "Playing for Time". This will give you full access to the open world of Cyberpunk 2077.
2. Complete any two gigs for the fixer Wakako Okada (found in Westbrook's Japantown).

At this point you should (eventually) get a message from Wakako called "A Request from King". Have a quick text conversation with her, and you'll be given the Clampdown quest and be free to pursue it when ready. Pursuing the mission to its end will grant you various rewards related to Edgerunners Season 2, including both new outfits and weaponry themed around the characters in that show.

Enjoying a return to Night City? For more info on the 2.5 update, make sure you check out how to dual wield in Cyberpunk 2077!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Many Doors codes reward players with Knobs, the essential in-game currency that can be used during games to unlock life-saving items like lockpicks and vitamins. As you make your way through the daunting, eerie corridors of this deadly walking simulator, you'll need lockpicks, a flashlight, and other survival items, or you might not even make it past door 13.

Yes, you'll earn Knobs by making your way through as many doors as possible each time you take on this Roblox survival challenge, but buying items in the pre-game store can help you get further. That's why you should redeem the Doors codes below before your next run and spend them on some handy items, thus earning you even more Knobs in return.

If you're after some more general avatar rewards to use in all of your experiences, then we've got the current Roblox promo codes covered too.

All Doors codes

These are the Doors codes you can redeem right now:

• PROTOCOL - 20x Stardust
• ACCESS GRANTED - 150x Knobs
• ACCESS DENIED - 150x Knobs
• JUMP OVER THE BRICK - 1x Stardust
• PATHSWAP - 1x Stardust
• VOCAB HAVOC - 1x Stardust
• REPRESSED - 10x Stardust
• LAZYDEVS - 50x Knobs
• 3RD - 33x Knobs
• SCREECHSUCKS - 25x Knobs
• 8BITRYAN - 5x Knobs
• ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ - 5x Knobs
• BIJUU MIKE - 5x Knobs
• DANTDM - 5x Knobs
• FIND THE TROLLFACES - 5x Knobs
• ISHOWSPEED - 5x Knobs
• KREEKCRAFT - 5x Knobs
• KUBZ SCOUTS - 5x Knobs
• LORE - 5x Knobs
• PENGUINZ0 - 5x Knobs
• RAGDOLL MAYHEM - 5x Knobs
• RAGDOLL UNIVERSE - 5x Knobs
• THINKNOODLES - 5x Knobs
• W - 5x Knobs
• XQC - 5x Knobs
• 41 - 5x Knobs
• 54 - 5x Knobs
• 67 - 5x Knobs
• CHEDDAR BALLS - 1x Knobs
• /E FREE - 1x Knobs
• CRUSADERS - 5x Stardust

As you can see from the list of Doors codes above, all of the active promos are for Knobs or Stardust, since these are the two primary currencies in the game. Some last longer than others, and there's often no way of telling when codes will expire, so redeem new promos as soon as you see them.

How to redeem Doors codes

The easiest way to redeem Doors codes on Roblox is to click on the codes button from the bottom menu bar, which is indicated by three asterisks. You can also click on any of the menu buttons and scroll all the way to the end. Once on the codes screen, enter a code into the Enter Code Here box, then hit enter on your keyboard, A on Xbox, X on PlayStation, or touch the screen on mobile to claim your reward.

Doors codes aren't case-sensitive, so you only need to worry about getting the spelling right, but this in many cases includes spaces, so you should also make sure there are no stray spaces at the end of your code as this will prevent it from working.

Expired Doors codes

• TEST - 1x Knobs
• 100MVISITS - 100x Knobs, 1x Revive
• LOOKBEHINDYOU - 25x Knobs
• PSST - 25x Knobs
• 500MVISITS - 100x Knobs, 1x Revive
• ONEBILLIONVISITS - 100x Knobs, 1x Revive, 1x Knob Boost
• SORRYFORDELAY - 100x Knobs, 1x Revive
• SORRYBOUTTHAT- 100x Knobs, 1x Revive
• 2BILLIONVISITS - 100x Knobs, 1x Revive, 1x Knob Boost
• THREE - 133x Knobs, 1x Revive, 1x Knob Boost
• 4B - 144x Knobs, 1x Revive
• THEHUNT- 1x Revive
• 5B - 105x Knobs, 1x Revive
• SIX2025 - 100xKnobs, 1x Revive
• 1000 - 100x Knobs
• GULLIBLE - prank, no rewards
• 777- 7x Stardust, 777x Knobs, 1x Revive
• GRACE - 2x Knobs
• NO_DATA- 5x Knobs
• FE4R_RBX - 5x Knobs

Plenty of Doors codes have expired over the years the game has been live, and many more will surely follow, so be sure to redeem them as soon as you see them.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Arc Raiders support team under developer Embark Studios reportedly used ChatGPT to handle a player's inquiry and, in the process, mistakenly sent them multiple messages seemingly intended for several other players.

Reddit user a1vmp1 claims "Arc Raiders support chat just sent me a BUNCH of other people's messages accidentally" in chats marked by ChatGPT prompt and response exchanges.

"So if you can somehow push your way past the AI chat bots, you end up with a real employee using an AI chat bot. That's how you end up with mistakes like this happening," the player complains.

"Create a short response," says one apparent prompt given to the chatbot. "ChatGPT said: Writing," reads an interim response above the actual support message.

"Ask screenshot of current skill trees," reads another purported prompt. The response seemingly generated based on this prompt reads, in part, "Could you please provide a screenshot of your current skill tree showing your available skill points?"

This pattern repeats several times through the chain message, which seems to contain about 10 separate exchanges.

I've reached out to a1vmp1 for additional details, and to Embark for comment on its ChatGPT use, but have not heard back.

In a Reddit reply, a1vmp1 clarified that they are user 762 in the message chain. The support response to 762, who complained of losing a full loadout of gear "within 20 seconds of spawning because of a game issue," reads:

"We understand your frustration, and we're sorry that these repeated issues have cost you so much time and hard-earned gear. We appreciate you providing the recordings, and we understand your concerns about losing items due to circumstances beyond your control.

While we're unable to restore lost items or trial scores, we'll make sure your feedback regarding these issues is shared with the relevant team for further review.

Thank you for taking the time to report this and for your patience."

The reported prompt for this message was, again, "Create a short response." I ran this message through AI-generated text detection tools from Grammarly, Solvely, and GPTZero, and all of them rated it as 100% AI-made. The same goes for another message that I reviewed.

A large game studio using AI somewhere in its pipeline is no grand surprise, especially when Embark is known for using AI in many, and more game-facing, applications already. Rather, Arc Raiders players replying to the original Reddit post seem amused by the error and annoyed by the presentation, and like many people, are tired of talking to robots in support chats.

This feels like just another example of how difficult it can be to reach an actual person in today's web environment, but an especially ironic one given that Arc Raiders is fundamentally about robots displacing humans. Even canned, pasted messages selected and sent by a human could be preferable.

"Someone's getting fired," one player speculates (though that seems doubtful, as it seems no sensitive information was leaked as a result of this error).

"It feels particularly pernicious to have platitudes like 'we understand your frustration' when 'we' doesn't even exist here. There's no human that actually cares so the statement is worthless," complains another player. "I think I'd rather the minimum wage worker pretend to care than an LLM simulate it," they add.

Arc Raiders devs know PvE has been "polarizing," promise to prioritize the game's "overall health and enjoyability" when deciding what to do next.

Grand Theft Auto is not a roleplaying game. Even with its sprawling open world and all the painstaking technical details that have gone into protagonists Lucia and Jason's story, GTA 6 will never be among those we call the best RPGs. Some systems in the latest entry might hew close, but the way Jason and Lucia evolve are closer to being a sim than an RPG proper. More than that, there's a fundamental difference between how Rockstar and developers like CD Projekt Red view their respective games.

After adding full mod support to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered, the Polish developer surprised Cyberpunk 2077 fans by announcing a similar built-in client to the Night City adventure. Patch 2.5 comes with all the bells and whistles that speak to a truly flexible, personalized RPG experience – and it's the furthest thing away from what Rockstar has said about GTA 6 so far.

Yours, mine, ours

Patch 2.5, in its broadest strokes, is an RPG replayer's ultimate fantasy. Delivered in co-development with Virtuos Studios, the update brings new clothing items as well as long-awaited cyberware customization (courtesy of new NPC vendors called Glamdocs), and the opportunity to finally dual-wield any pistol or revolver combination.

There's also some "cozy" new missions to engage with as V learns more about the founding of Night City, and of course, plenty of connective tissue between the video game and Netflix's new season of spin-off anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Top it off with full mod support, and I can fully understand why CDPR skipped straight past a patch 2.4 update; This really is a two-in-one deal.

Speaking on the latest Redstreams, associate game director Pawel Sasko sounded incredibly enthusiastic about what this patch means for replayability. The team is fully supportive of fans getting creative to make their next playthrough more unique than ever. CDPR even welcomes story mods among the plethora of ways you can reshape the experience to suit your needs, something Rockstar has reiterated its vocal opposition to in its recent fair use reminder.

It's an outlier in that regard. A healthy modding community and a robust customization system are the hallmarks of almost every successful game or franchise of the last two decades. Cyberpunk 2077 (and The Witcher 3, by extension) is following the example set out by Skyrim, Baldur's Gate 3, Mass Effect, The Sims 4 (until recently), and countless others. It's a surefire way to keep players engaged and interested in a title long past its release year, offering countless ways to experience the same story through brand new eyes. But it seems that Rockstar thinks the Grand Theft Auto name is more than enough to justify bucking this particular trend.

Forgive the ice-cold take, but fostering a strong sense of community should be paramount to every game developer. When I see RPG developers like CDPR and Larian Studios going out of their way to not only engage with their communities but deliver long-awaited quality-of-life additions, it makes me look more critically at those who refuse to. Respect should go both ways. If Rockstar wants to keep its legions of loyal followers, why not adapt to their needs instead of give them a hiding before the game is even out?

Lone wolves

Then again, Rockstar is no stranger to doing things differently. Where some devs embrace the changing tides that dictate our ever-shortening attention spans, Rockstar can just buy the ocean from under Poseidon. After all, it ended up acquiring GTA Online mod developer FiveM, a team it once threatened with legal action, in order to at least profit off of its roleplaying servers.

This is a team that plays by very different rules, so if you're hoping that Rockstar might slacken its leash on modding once GTA 6 has been out for some time, I wouldn't hold my breath.

GTA 6 isn't an RPG, as any genre purist will rush to tell you. Neither in its format nor in the attitude with which it was created. Rockstar is selling a product, not a community – and that's fine by me. But, I wonder how many will agree when it's time for the next iteration of GTA Online to get the GTA 6 treatment.

While GTA 5's mode has always been an outlier, online communities in 2026 than they were in 2013. In the meantime, I'll take hot pink mantis blades, dual-wielding Jackie's golden pistols, and having cats in all of V's Night City apartments before Rockstar's precious new baby. Call me when Jason gets a gorilla arms mod (and don't tell Mommy on me).

Check out these games like GTA if you just can't wait for GTA 6!

Palworld lead Bucky wants to make sure everyone knows that Side by Side is simply update 1.1, not a sequel or a new spinoff game.

Earlier this week, Palworld announced "Side by Side," which may sound like a subtitle for a sequel or spinoff, but it's actually just the name of the next update for the game, set to release in Winter 2026. It even came with mysterious key art that clearly had some people thinking it was something huge, prompting Pocketpair head of publishing and communications John "Bucky" Buckley to set the record straight.

Over on Twitter, Bucky notes, "Palworld Side by Side is v1.1 by the way." He continues, "I thought that was pretty clear, but it seems quite a few people thought it was a new game announcement." So if you were expecting "Palworld 2 with terrain modification and underwater biomes" like one (joking) response, I'm afraid that's not happening.

So what does it involve? While we don't yet know, speaking to MP1st recently, Bucky explains that "we’re not quite ready to start teasing it just yet." However, he did reveal one note about what to expect from Palworld Side by Side's 1.1 update, saying, "1.1 isn’t a massive update," but that "we do think players will be pretty happy with it."

One thing you can rule out is Palworld Side by Side adding "100 new Pals," as Bucky said in the same interview that Pocketpair developers "try to add Pals in a meaningful way." We got 72 new pals in the massive 1.0 patch a few months back, so I don't expect we'll see many new additions – if any – this time around.

Palworld picks spin-offs over a Fortnite-style metaverse because "maximizing revenue as quickly as possible isn’t what drives our creative decisions," says Pocketpair lead

Dual-wielding in Cyberpunk 2077 is now possible with the 2.5 update with a skill that allows V to shoot two guns at the same time, akimbo/gunslinger style. It's a hell of an update that allows pistol users not to sacrifice damage output, but it's not something you'll be able to do off-the-bat without a bit of perk investment. If you want to dual-wield guns, I'll explain how to do that in Cyberpunk 2077 below.

How to dual wield in Cyberpunk 2077

To dual-wield guns in Cyberpunk 2077, players need to get the "Double Trouble" perk from the "Cool" Skill Tree, which unlocks when your Cool reaches level 9.

Once you've invested a Perk Point into Double Trouble, you'll be able to equip two pistols, but they both have to be Power Pistols or Power Revolvers. You can't dual-wield smart pistols, tech pistols, SMGs, shotguns, or anything else.

Once equipped, players can fire both guns simultaneously, though the weapons each have a 37.5% reduction in damage. If you invest two points into Double Trouble, you can unlock a special move called Heywood Hurricane, in which you rapidly fire both guns for one second and quickly refill ammo spent on successful shots.

There are also four perks tied to Double Trouble that further enhance it, which each improving Dual Wielding in some way - either reducing stamina costs, increasing accuracy, or buffing the Heywood Hurricane move.

If you're interested in guns, make sure you check out all the Cyberpunk 2077 best weapons! Or if you're getting back into the game with the 2.5 update, make sure you refresh your knowledge of all the most important Cyberpunk 2077 tips.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Final Fantasy 14 players have endured a chaotic 21 hours or so – nearly an entire day – as PHP troubles sparked security lockdowns on new logins from Square Enix… but we're so back, baby.

That's right, Final Fantasy 14 has finally reopened its pearly gates to the public after all the PHP anxieties, with Square Enix announcing the "resumption" of new logins earlier today.

The announcement came almost an entire day after the developers first closed the doors on folks chomping at the bit to enter the MMO, citing the need for some fresh "security enhancements" as the reason for temporarily halting new logins.

The devs also stated yesterday that "Following the suspension of new logins, the housing auto-demolition timer has been paused on all Worlds," and promised to "monitor developments and assess the situation before announcing when the timer will resume."

And, well, now that logins are picking back up, we've received word on when housing auto-demolition should return, too – and, sadly, the controversial feature is making its return next week.

"Security enhancement work related to the PHP programming language has been completed," an update on the housing situation from Square Enix reads. "The automatic housing demolition timer, which is currently suspended, will therefore resume on" – drumroll, please – October 26. Sigh.

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused." It do just be like that sometimes, I suppose. Use it or lose it and all that.

As for the PHP debacle itself, in case you're out of the loop, there was a major worldwide internet security scare yesterday, basically. It involved PHP, the tech and scripting language that powers a plethora of websites and more.

There were two serious security weaknesses, leading to a lot of shutdowns – heck, even the Steam store went down amid all the issues. It was a lot, but thankfully it seems things are slowly picking back up.

Final Fantasy 14 devs ask for the impossible, beg players to "take time to read" up on the MMO's options before Evercold is out

Dreamcast is rarely thought of as the start of anything. It was the full stop on Sega's reign as a hardware company, the console that died as PlayStation 2 thrived. But it was also, Rockstar says, the birthplace of the era's defining PlayStation game. You know, the one your mum heard was about killing prostitutes: Grand Theft Auto 3.

The story goes like this: GTA's developer, DMA Design, had just opened a new office in Edinburgh after a decade in Dundee. Change crackled in the air. The '90s were ending, and all around DMA the game industry was transitioning to three dimensions. The young team behind an early 3D game named Body Harvest believed they were ready to do the same with GTA.

Yet the studio's old guard was unconvinced. The team had already experimented with tilting the camera a little in GTA 2, but weren't sure it was possible to go further. A simulated city, navigated at breakneck speeds in whatever direction the player chose? Surely not in 3D.

"We had a bit of pushback from them," recalls Rockstar North co-studio head and art director Aaron Garbut. "So we did a tech demo of a city environment on the Dreamcast with cars driving around and characters walking the streets. We got it working over a period of weeks to the point where you could steal a car and drive it about, then we got it in front of Sam."

Sam Houser was the executive producer of Take-Two's new publishing label in New York, which had rather audaciously named itself Rockstar Games. He'd been a backer of GTA since its earliest days, egging its team on as they embraced player criminality and transgression. Now he was more than keen for the series to take its next revolutionary step.

"Sam has always been the voice of the player," Garbut says. "He has always encouraged us to go further, to take risks, to make every game our best yet and never to settle. He has also given us the support, the room, and the flexibility we've needed over the years to get things where they need to be. He's still that person for the team now."

The GTA 3 team were galvanised by the Dreamcast demo, basic though it was. It became a source of inspiration and a focal point for their ambitions. "We knew what we were doing in 3D and were young, arrogant, and naïve enough to feel like it was easy and exciting," Garbut says. "We just knew how far we could take things. We could see the impact of an urban environment in 3D and were filled with ideas first and foremost about how we could bring it alive. That was our initial focus – building the toys and playset, making a world that functioned as well as we could make it, a living, breathing city."

From the previous games came the premise: the arresting idea of being an antihero, a criminal who worked for even worse criminals. GTA had always had multiple mission-givers, albeit at the other end of a phone. And its developers had already invented Wanted levels, not to mention their antidote, the Pay And Spray shop. The formula was there.

Electric dreams

But the GTA 3 team consciously rejected the arcade-like elements that had come before – in particular, the running point total for destruction that Garbut describes as "pinball scoring". In an immersive 3D world, those abstract touches no longer seemed to fit. Conversely, DMA leaned into the natural sense of cinema and emotional connection that came with a 3D camera. "We didn't really approach it like a sequel," Garbut says. "We weren't slavishly looking at how the earlier GTAs had done things. We worked in broad strokes and without referring too much to them."

Some of GTA 3's greatest development challenges were the fundamentals we take for granted in open worlds today. As Garbut points out, DMA didn't have any contemporaries working with densely populated urban environments.

"The density was the difference," he says. "There were simpler games – driving games set in urban worlds but without too much interaction – that were designed to traverse at speed." Though Garbut doesn't name any, 1999's Driver springs to mind.

"Then there were denser games like Zelda that did amazing things but spread it out or split it across empty spaces and denser dungeons," he continues. "We didn't split things into nice manageable, loadable chunks, we didn't spread it out with empty areas, we didn't design it to only work at speed or to explore in detail on foot in small areas. We were trying to offer it all in one experience, and to make it feel as alive as possible."

Chop shop

Players of the time were gobsmacked by the way GTA 3's world was constantly streamed into being, just outside their vision. Well, except for the rare occasions when a wall only appeared in time to tear the bonnet from their Banshee. It's a system that Garbut clearly remains deeply proud of, all these years later.

"The art team broke the world apart by hand in the best way to squeeze all we could into memory while getting it off the drive fast enough," he says. "The code team built an elegant streaming system and we got as granular as writing the files to the DVD in specific orders to keep areas of the world together physically on the disk. It's a testament to the talent and ingenuity of the team that we made this work."

The decision represented a huge risk, but in the end the results spoke for themselves – Liberty City rendered at great distances, across moody bays and packed urban thoroughfares, and did so seamlessly, without long loading screens. "Getting it right effectively removed a lot of limitations for scale and detail," Garbut says. "We could build what we wanted as long as the area around the player would fit in memory and we could get it off the DVD drive fast enough."

If GTA 3 was a living world, then DMA Design was the hospital crash team tasked with keeping it breathing, against the odds. "You have to ensure the system can cope with a random pileup round the corner exploding at the same time you are also trying to run an intense mission," Garbut says. "It's all about managing the chaos and the competing systems rather than just focussing on what you see. Keeping the world alive and allowing real interaction with it is one of the big challenges with open world games."

New car smell

The making of GTA 3 established the methodology that Rockstar North, as the developer is known now, still uses today. The studio always begins with the place and then, once it's fit to live in, moves up one layer to the toys. In GTA 3's case, the toys were the cars – the aspect of the game players would spend more time with than anything else.

"Seeing the world come alive through these vehicles, that's when I remember starting to feel things come together," Garbut says. "Every so often a build comes along with a feature you've been discussing or planning forever – it's normally rough and only there when you squint a bit. But it's there. Everything shifts, the world you had been working in changes and now this new thing has made it better or worse. On some projects at some points, it feels like that happens every day. GTA 3 could be like that."

With the addition of cars, GTA 3 changed overwhelmingly for the better. The team imbued their vehicles with physics that were both buoyant and dramatic, making even downtime in Liberty City gripping.

"This was a long time ago so seeing cars behave physically was not the norm," Garbut says. "I remember spending a good few hours skidding the car around and watching its suspension bounce on kerbs. Seeing that in our world, then seeing the variation in tuning with trucks, sports cars, and the like, it was inspiring. We had the toys we needed."

Garbut evidently adores the process of making games, and in particular these moments of punctuation that spark ever more extraordinary feats – the single flaming car which triggers a cascade of explosions that eventually ends in the downing of a police helicopter.

"The work of one team changes, motivates, and pushes the next team to take it and run with it," he says. "It's a lovely whirlwind of creativity."

For Garbut's art team, the sprawling 3D city was a canvas on which to paint their vision of New York. This city wasn't the real-life home of Rockstar's producers in the US, but a semi-fictional place pieced together from afar.

"At this point I'd only been there a couple of times," Garbut says. "There was no internet in the studio at first, there was no Google Maps. I just had a little box of 35mm photos a couple of us had taken on a trip there."

Old York

Instead, DMA's reference material came from old films and television. Liberty City mimicked not the glamour but the gloomy mundanity of urban life – soggy streets, grey concrete, dark water, and litter. It was an approach that played to the strengths of PS2's limited fidelity, capturing mood rather than detail.

"We wanted to lean into the grime, the rain, the weather," Garbut says. "We had also made a call to add a dynamic weather system and time of day, and this helped leverage that. It felt right for the kind of story we had, the kind of characters we had, and the way we felt New York had to be from growing up watching it on screen."

It seems very likely that the whole GTA series owes its cartoonish satire – the warped prism through which it has long viewed America – to this literal and critical distance. While success has brought LA and New York within easy reach of Rockstar North's developers, the studio has carefully cultivated its unique perspective in Edinburgh.

"Right from GTA 3 our focus was always on creating the impression of the place we were building over the reality," Garbut says. "Back then there was far less connection in the world digitally – the sheer volume of content and accessibility these days has blurred the line so much that I don't really feel like a cultural outsider in the same way any more, but what it did I think was force us to rely on the US we knew from television and film. It was more about an exaggerated impression, the feeling of the place. It gave us more choices and more control in some ways, and I think it served us well."

Rockstar's storytelling has come a long way since the release of GTA 3, to the point where writer Dan Houser's departure last year felt like a serious blow to the company. But even Liberty City's Scorsese-style drama, while broad and daft, served an important purpose.

"It's quite simple compared to how we work these days," Garbut says. "It's lacking any real refinement, but there's a charm to it and a consistency. I'm proud of what it did. It let us figure out a lot of things, it taught us what we could do better and with Vice City we were already on the path to do that. There were certain choices – a silent main character, for example – that we moved away from quickly, but we have always been good I think at re-evaluating and moving forward."

Concrete tower

The story of Claude and Catalina was a blueprint. So, Garbut says, was GTA 3 as a whole. There's little in GTA Online today that can't somehow be traced back to this strange, grey game. Its foundations were so firm, in fact, that its sequel was released to critical acclaim just one year later. You might argue that Vice City is the most successful reskin of all time, though that description does a disservice to the power with which Garbut's art team evoked the '80s, using pitch-perfect costumes and coloured lighting.

"We are building on the path we started on GTA 3," he says. "We are building on that game and evolving it every day, to this day. We carry all that experience and expertise, the stuff that is impossible to replicate that is down to working together forever, to knowing the people you work with and what they know, what each person brings and how to get the best from them."

Long before Rockstar North was a household name, Garbut went to art college. There he studied fine art, and learned that drawing, painting and sculpting was all about 'roughing it in' – getting the basic structure right so that the artist can refine over the top. He sees GTA 3 in those terms.

"The 'squint a bit and it looks kind of finished' sort of idea," he says. "It's how I've always approached both building our game worlds and the games themselves. GTA 3 was as resolved as we could make it at the time, but for today's standards it's simple and rough. Things have come so incredibly far, the detail and depth and sophistication, the interplay of the complex systems we build these days. Squint a bit, though, and it's still the foundation we have built on and I love it for that."

Our GTA 6 guide details everything you need to know about the story, gameplay, and world so far! Or, check out our best GTA games list for what to play while you wait!

If you have an online account with Capcom, you may want to change your credentials. The developer and publisher of Resident Evil and Monster Hunter has suffered a cyberattack, and the information of a number of people has been compromised.

The attack occurred on October 19, according to a post from the company itself. "Capcom has determined that certain customer information associated with Capcom ID, an online membership account service operated by the company, was subject to unauthorized access by a third party," reads the statement.

"Capcom sincerely apologizes for the complications and concern this has caused its customers and other stakeholders," the studio adds.

Capcom ID is the overarching service for the online and live-service elements of the publisher's releases. If you've ever played any of the Monster Hunter or Street Fighter games online, you very likely have an account on there, even if it's not something you actively think about.

You need one to access various portals through, such as for the Resident Evil series, meaning you're probably registered even if you don't think you are. If you've played a Capcom game this decade, at the very least, I'd have a look at the information you may have provided here. Over 11,700,000 accounts are affected.

"Capcom has completed emergency response measures and has identified and addressed the attack method involved in this incident," the company's post on the matter adds. "Services that use Capcom ID, including games, remain available. Going forward, the company will begin contacting affected customers and has established dedicated customer-support channels for inquiries regarding this matter."

Expect an email in the coming days if you're directly impacted, then. I'd change your password just to be safe, though. Preventative measures are being assessed for the future.

Resident Evil Requiem's physical PS5 sales were nearly twice as large as its total Xbox sales, analyst finds

Mass Effect 5 is no more following the closure of BioWare after the EA buyout – but former developers believe it would've been an incredible RPG, had it come to fruition.

Tony de Waal, who acted as cinematic supervisor at BioWare and boasted some 29 years of experience at the studio, implies as much in a new LinkedIn post, explaining that he worked on everything from Mass Effect 2 to Dragon Age: The Veilguard – a game he says "was a herculean effort that tested the limits of even my workaholic mindset" – before Mass Effect 5.

"I believe we were making something special," he describes. "A level of autonomy and choice that no other game has been able to match."

The dev then references Baldur's Gate 3 team Larian Studios and CD Projekt Red, masterminds behind The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, recalling how BioWare looked to them: "We saw what Larian and CD Projekt were bringing to the table with their latest offerings, and started down a path to bring Mass Effect to the next level while remaining true to the Trilogy."

The cinematic mastermind closes by admitting "I'm sad you won't ever get to see what we were cooking" and paying tribute to his fellow devs, "some of the most talented people I've had the pleasure of working with throughout my career."

Interestingly, though, de Waal isn't the only BioWare veteran to reference Mass Effect 5 and how good it might've played had it been given the chance it deserved from EA to actually come to life.

Over on X, Derek Künsken, who introduces himself as both "a contract writer, and as a senior writer on staff" from BioWare, echoes this sentiment.

He isn't able to share too much aside from the fact that he was working on the new Mass Effect title and "what we were cooking was really cool," but that's got me wondering what could've been just as much as de Waal's own words do. I'm sure "really cool" is no understatement, after all.

It's disappointing to know that we won't get to experience what the devs had in store with Mass Effect 5 – and doubly so after hearing how amazing it may have been.

EA killing BioWare could lead to Mass Effect and Dragon Age rights being sold, former lead says, but they could just as easily "bury them in the vault"

In the early phases of Modern Warfare 4 DMZ you'll be told to collect a Dynamic Op Phone as part of the Payment Due orders, as well as earning $11,500 in cash from completing Dynamic Ops. Unfortunately, MW4 isn't particularly good at explaining what that means and what a Dynamic Op Phone is, but fortunately, I've found out the answer and can explain it to you below, as well as how to make the money you need.

How to collect a Dynamic Op Phone in Modern Warfare 4 DMZ mode

To collect a Dynamic Op phone in MW4 DMZ, you need to look on the map for the green radio-shaped icons, such as the one shown above. The actual symbol on each one will vary, but all of them count.

Follow the icon to its source to find a small radio/phone, which is the Dynamic Op phone. Interacting with it will trigger a small optional side mission that varies depending on the phone you've interacted with. You might have to hunt another player, kill an NPC target, or plant explosives somewhere. Either way, there'll be an icon to lead you to where you need to be.

To make the money, simply complete the quest. The amount of money earned will vary depending on the mission itself, but this goal to make $11,500 is one that will be done over multiple excursions and extractions, building up your earnings over time. Simply be patient.

For more info about the game, check out all the Modern Warfare 4 Mastery Camos, or find out the best weapons and guns in MW4! Or if you've already got DMZ in front of you, discover how to uncover the Modern Warfare 4 Counting Room Vault location for an early source of great loot!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Roblox The Hollow is a new event taking place in the nine days leading up to Halloween, giving players a chance to unlock some special spooky rewards while running from Roblox's most beloved horror characters.

Horror games are becoming more and more popular both in the wider gaming world and within Roblox, with newer games like 99 Nights in the Forest and Animal Hospital challenging long-standing icons like Piggy in popularity. So, what better time than Halloween to celebrate the booming genre? Here's everything you need to know about The Hollow and the games taking part.

Roblox The Hollow event details

Roblox The Hollow is an ongoing maze event taking place within Roblox as its own experience. When you enter the theater-inspired maze, you'll have to avoid terrifying enemies as you hunt for clues and collect rewards. Each day, the maze gains a new deadly foe who'll stalk you through the game's corridors, each of which are taken straight from Roblox's most beloved horror experiences.

These are the main characters that are appearing in The Hollow:

• Day 1: Seek from DOORS
• Day 2: Twisted Dandy from Dandy’s World
• Day 3: Biter from Demonology
• Day 4: The Deer from 99 Nights in the Forest
• Day 5: Hiachi from The Mimic
• Day 6: Mimic from Animal Hospital
• Day 7: The Inspector from Scary Shawarma Kiosk
• Day 8: The Overseer from Warden
• Day 9: Piggy from Piggy

The challenges are short, but you'll have to start again if you're caught by one of the monsters trailing you. Once you enter the maze, you'll have to find a puzzle room, complete the puzzle within, and retrieve a relic before making it back to the lobby in one piece. By doing so, you'll earn that day's reward, but don't worry if you can't play every day, as each day also has its own dedicated 'floor' in the theater, so you can complete them all whenever you have time (as long as it's before November 2).

All Roblox The Hollow items and rewards

Each day, you'll have the chance to earn a new badge and associated item, provided you complete that day's challenge within the maze. The Badges and items for each day are:

You can also buy these rewards using Tickets earned from participating in other games during the event, in case you don't want to participate in The Hollow itself. There are loads of games included in this list, even some family friendly options like Duck Duck and Fisch.

To earn tickets, you must complete specific quests in these games. Completing each one rewards players with 20 Tickets and an exclusive Badge. The games included in The Hollow event and their respective challenges are as follows:

• Grow a Garden
• Fisch
• +1 Speed Keyboard Escape
• Creatures of Sonaria
• Steal An Egg
• Royale High
• Murderers Vs Sheriffs
• Racket Rivals
• Murder Duels
• Clean All The Leaves
• Hunted
• Carve Wood!
• BasketBall Legends
• Sleep Paralysis
• Search For The Needle
• Prism Runway Show
• Moo Moo Mystery
• Guts and Blackpowder
• Duck Duck
• Welcome to Bloxburg
• Toons Universe
• Tower Defense Simulator
• Survive Overnight in a Mega Store
• Clean Crew
• Sell Lemons
• Paranormal

If you've already completed some of the quests above, for example defeating the Pumpkin Boss in Search for the Needle, you don't have to do it again. Simply teleport to Search for the Needle from within The Hollow, then return to The Hollow, and you'll be able to claim your tickets.

Some bonus items are also available for players with Roblox Plus: Quack-o'-lantern, Trick or Treat Tentacles, and The Spectral Skull of Nevermoor. The Quack-o'-lantern is already available and the other two will follow on days 3 and 6, respectively.

You should also make sure you've picked up the latest Roblox Promo codes for avatar items that you can use across experiences - although there are plenty of spooky customization items available during The Hollow, too.

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It's an especially sad week for the industry because BioWare revealed yesterday that it's closing down, affecting development on Mass Effect 5 and any other projects the team had underway. In response, one of the central figures at the outfit for several years has put together a reaction video explaining the likelihood that its franchises will move to another studio or publisher.

On YouTube, Mark Darrah, co-director of Dragon Age: Origins and a producer at BioWare for over 20 years, looked at whether EA might sell off the studio's IP since they're now effectively defunct. "There's nobody working on a [Mass Effect or Dragon Age] game or games within the EA organization, and chances are there never will be," he says.

"Which might make them more likely to sell off those IPs," he states. "But it might also make them more likely to try to forget that they ever existed and bury them in the vault."

You might be thinking that Mass Effect and Dragon Age are iconic and beloved, and that Electronic Arts surely knows this and wants to engage those communities. Sadly, corporations rarely think that way, and Darrah's right that neither outcome is inherently more likely than the other right now.

EA is shouldering a $20 billion debt after being acquired by a conglomerate that includes the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. Shopping around these franchises, and others like Jade Empire, could definitely generate a quick buck. But whether the energy is there for those negotiations is another question, and EA might just prefer not to spend any more money or thought power on BioWare generally.

The last ten years haven't been good for the team, either. Mass Effect: Andromeda got a mixed response, Anthem failed to really find its audience, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard truly ate dirt upon arrival two years ago.

It's all just sad, and reflects the industry's woes as a whole at the minute. I'd like to play a new Mass Effect one day, but I won't be holding my breath.

Former Mass Effect and Star Wars: KOTOR boss calls BioWare closure "sad," says the studio's "legacy will live on through those who were part of it"

Adventure Time RPG codes reward players with coins to spend in-game at Choose Goose's rotating market. Of course there are plenty of items in this RPG that require Robux to obtain, but the ever-changing market stall in the lobby has a wealth of valuable items up for sale, from skins and weapons to healing items and character essence, all available in exchange for coins.

While coins are predominantly earned by playing the Adventure Time-inspired Roblox RPG, it can never hurt to get a free bump in your earnings, so make sure you redeem the latest Adventure Time RPG codes so you don't miss out when something you really want pops up in the shop.

If you're after some more general avatar rewards to use in all of your experiences, then we've got the current Roblox promo codes covered too.

All Adventure Time RPG codes

These are the Adventure Time RPG codes you can redeem right now:

• COINS50 - 50x Coins

There has only been one Adventure Time RPG code so far since the game is pretty new, but it gives a nice boost of 50 coins to your balance, which is a decent chunk of many of the items available in Choose Goose's shop.

How to redeem Adventure Time RPG codes

To redeem Adventure Time RPG codes, you need to head to the Redeem Reward Code area in the lobby, which can be found in front of the training dummies. Walk into the zone to trigger the codes redemption box, enter a code from above into the box, and click Submit.

Adventure Time RPG codes are case-sensitive, so be sure to enter them exactly as they appear above. There is no 'invalid', 'expired', or 'already redeemed' message when redeeming codes in this game, you'll only know a code is successful when the reward appears on the screen, otherwise nothing will happen.

Expired Adventure Time RPG codes

• There are no expired Adventure Time RPG codes.

Adventure Time RPG hasn't been around long yet, so there are currently no expired promos. As soon as the codes at the top of the page run out, we'll move them down here to avoid any disappointment.

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EA has closed BioWare, canceled the next Mass Effect, and, most importantly, upended the lives of even more game developers in a tumultuous time for the industry. In response, developers are paying tribute to the legendary RPG studio online, with many calling its games pivotal to their own creative paths.

17-year BioWare veteran and longtime director Michael Gamble shared the studio's news post. "Your support has meant everything to me over the past 17 years at BioWare," he writes.

New Bungie head Josh Deane replied to Gamble's post, saying, "Thank you and to everyone at Bioware who has built worlds that have been such an important part of our lives." In a separate post, Deane adds, "This studio is magical and an existential part of my favorite gaming memories, I refuse to believe this..."

CD Projekt Red veteran Paweł Sasko, a face of the studio to many fans of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher, says "Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 shaped my imagination and the desire to create games. I would have never been here without BioWare igniting the fire in my heart. It inspired me, formed me, enriched my imagination, and for that I will be forever grateful. I will always remember you."

CDPR co-CEO Michał Nowakowski adds, "Bioware has been a massive part of CDPR history. We befriended them when localizing and selling Baldur's Gate games in Poland, Czech, and Slovakia. And later they were [a] great help when lending us their engine for Witcher 1, sharing their wisdom and even giving us a spot at their booth at E3.

"I had [the] pleasure to visit them a few times in Edmonton and also host them in our Warsaw office. Very sad for the people affected, but also sad to see a legendary brand go down. Not a great day in the games industry."

Gamble responded to Nowakowski's post, saying, "Thanks Michal. We've always been fans of you guys. Always will be."

InXile Entertainment head Brian Fargo also commented on the original Baldur's Gate games. "We saw the promise in what they could do," he says of BioWare's days on Shattered Steel, "and they went on to create Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and become legendary. A sad day indeed. My thoughts are with everyone there today."

Mortal Kombat's Ed Boon is of a similar mind. "Very sorry to hear. They made some amazing games," he says of BioWare's shutdown statement.

Comms director Thomas Puha of Control and Alan Waker studio Remedy sums up the thoughts of many: "RIP BioWare. This was coming but so sad to read. The growing problem for large publishers is that smaller AAA games won’t bring enough money so can’t take the risk on them, but not doing original games? We need those, need new franchises."

"Really sad outcome for a studio that helped define an entire genre," reckons Del Walker, an artist known for his work on The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Walker suggests the studio's closure is "the result of about 15 years of problems piling up," including consecutive commercial failures, mismanagement, and increased scrutiny from an EA team staring down billions in debt post-buyout.

Veteran games writer Emma Kidwell calls the shutdown "a massive fucking failure on EA's part."

"What a waste of skill and institutional knowledge. Mass Effect means so much to me personally, I wouldn't be a dev if I never played the trilogy. my heart goes out to everyone, we deserve better," she says.

"End of an era," says Caves of Qud's Brian Bucklew.

"Truly this is a terrible time," Xbox founder Seamus Blackley writes.

Original Mass Effect composer Sam Hulick was among the first to speak out. "Absolutely heartbroken over the end of an era," he says. "I hope all the talented and wonderful folks at BioWare land on their feet and keep working on incredible games. I loved every minute of working with you on the Mass Effect trilogy."

Many other former BioWare devs have also weighed in. Several of them are now at North Mist Studios, writing on Bluesky, "Very heavy news as our former studio, BioWare, closes its doors today. It was a formative place for many. However, many former BioWare devs are scattered around the industry. Find them, support them. Like, follow, comment and help us prove there is still support for the types of games we make!"

One current EA contractor, narrative designer Jarrett Poole of the Skate team, touched on the broader cuts at EA: "My contract will run its course, so I'm still employed. But seeing many of my amazing coworkers and friends shown the door today has been devastating. Each one deserves better than this. Every dev deserves better than this."

Standing on BioWare's grave, EA says "we should be proud" to be "the number one publisher in Western HD gaming."

The Splinters of Evil are some of Diablo 4 season 15's rarest drops, but once you get your hands on a specific type – Hatred, Terror, or Destruction – that's all you can hold of that type at once. Blizzard seems to have intentionally designed this specific seasonal drop to not stack, meaning you can only have one splinter of each type in your inventory at once. That might seem like a pretty niche problem applicable only to endgame players in the highest Torment tiers, and it is, but for those players it's a major issue precisely because splinters are so rare. Imagine having to walk away from one of the game's rarest drops simply because you already have one in your inventory, and then you can understand why endgame grinders have rallied for a homebrew solution, and found one.

As detailed in a new video from prolific Diablo creator Rob2628, there's a fairly simple – but tedious – workaround you can do if you really want duplicate splinters in your inventory. As Rob2628 points out, you'll need at least one friend who's leveled enough in Diablo 4 to access Torment tier 10 where you can farm Splinters of Evil from Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal.

Once you've successfully bribed your buddy with delivery pizza – ideally the good stuff from your local Italian joint and not just some fast-food slop – you'll need to invite them to your party once you've got your duplicate splinter to drop. Next, have them hang out near the splinter while you switch to another character that doesn't already have that same splinter in its inventory, and then have your friend invite your alt to the server with the dupe so that you can pick it up.

In Rob2628's words, your friend is essentially "holding the instance" so that the duplicate item doesn't despawn when you log out as your primary character, which makes it very important that they decline the prompt to return to their own world.

I haven't tested this trick out myself yet, and frankly I wouldn't be able to because I only have one character that can get into Torment 10, but I see no reason it wouldn't work. It's just bound by so many limitations and requirements tied to other players that I'd be much more likely to just close the game and play something else. Rob2628 adds in his video, "many of you don't have friends" anyway.

One of Diablo 2's most coveted items surprise-drops in Diablo 4, and it's just as overpowered as it was 25 years ago