It’s been right around two weeks since Highguard launched, to less-than-glowing reviews. As I pointed out in the article about the game’s reception, there were some positive reviews, but the vast majority of the negative ones I found had rather legitimate and reasonable complaints.

Of course, legitimate or not, the real test of a game is whether people keep playing it. Particularly when we’re talking about competitive shooters that need people in them for the game to be any fun.

Based on the latest news, Highguard hasn’t passed that test. As a result, the company has begun laying people off. News of the layoffs broke yesterday when Wario64 on Twitter shared a LinkedIn post from a now-former Wildlight employee, Alex Graner, stating they’d been laid off “along with most of the team”. The post also goes on to state that “there was a lot of unreleased content” that the team had designed for players that they were looking forward to everyone seeing.

The layoffs were confirmed by Wildlight about an hour later in a statement on Twitter saying:

”Today, we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating and supporting the game.

”We’re proud of the team, talent, and the product we’ve created together. We’re also grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community.”

As is always the case in these situations, we hope that those laid off are picked up by other companies before too long – and that in the meantime, Wildlight is doing something to help with the transition.

The Finals is celebrating the Year of the Horse starting today. The Lunar New Year event brings the fan-favorite 12-player PvP mode ‘Bank It’ back to the free-to-play shooter. The mode pits three teams of four players against each other. The task is simple. Eliminate the enemy, collect coins, and take them to the vault to earn points. And yes, there are rewards, including free Legendary cosmetics.

During the event, which lasts until March 5, the game will feature Lunar New Year-themed versions of maps, including Faingwai City, Las Vegas, Monaco, Seoul, and Fortune Stadium. As for the game’s rewards, players will be able to unlock one reward of their choice daily over a period of 14 days, with a Legendary final set being unlocked at the end. Players need to collect 12 of the 14 rewards to earn the Legendary Set.

It’s been a while since we’ve covered Nexon’s zombie apocalypse survival game Nakwon: Last Paradise – almost a year, in fact. Before that, we covered the game’s pre-alpha test two years ago. Today, we’re here to let you know that you can sign up for the game’s closed alpha test, which will be available via Steam in March.

If you’re a fan of zombie games, Nakwon looks like it will be worth checking out. Of course, you’re killing zombies. That’s kind of the point. You’ll also be managing your own shelter – making it a bit homey – at least as homey as something can be when the undead are wandering around outside like a new type of wildlife that needs culling.

The new test will allow players to try out the improved survival action and life-simulation content. The housing system is also new.

To take part in the test, players need to visit the game’s Steam page. From there, just click “Request Access”. This is something you can do now. You’ll just have to wait for them to start sending invites out closer to the test to know if you got in.

Is it really time for another Genshin Impact Special Program? It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long yet. Either way, one is happening on Friday, and based on the key art, it seems we’re headed back to Mondstadt, or more Mondstatians are headed to Nod-Krai? I’m going with the former since we know Varka’s slowly been sending troops home with the intention of following them as soon as he handles some other business.

Of course, players of the free-to-play ARPG are going to see some familiar faces. Jean and Diluc. They both appear in the art with Varka, who will likely be the first banner in the new update. Two new faces appear as well. These two characters are also tied to Mondstadt. In fact, players will probably think the mask of one individual looks familiar if they pay close attention to the game’s artifact sets. It looks very much like the Bloodstained Iron Mask, which would make this character the Bloodstained Knight of Mondstadt and Nod-Krai lore. The other character is believed to be the Knights of Favonius’ Vice Captain of the 5 th Company, Lohen.

Either way, we’ll find out Friday morning. Of course, we’ll be watching. So we’ll fill you in on the important details later in the day.

Beginning today, Warframe players can start picking up some pretty fancy-looking items to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The developers of the free-to-play MMO shooter announced collections available to players until March 11. Specifically, Digital Extremes is offering players two collections: the Year of the Kaithe Collection and the Dagath Yfari Collection.

Year of the Kaithe includes the following items:

• Gynfas Kaithe Skin
• Lunar Renewal Horse Sigil
• Lunar Renewal Theme
• Lunar Renewal Kaithe Flourish (Emote)
• Tanau Sugatra
• 7-Day Affinity Booster
• 20,000 Kuva
• 200,000 Credits

Included in the Dagath Yfari Collection are:</p

• Dagath Yfari (Dagath Deluxe)
• Indomitable Kaithe Floof
• Malaen Ephemera
• 7-Day Resource Booster
• 7-Day Credit Booster
• 30,000 Kuva
• 300,000 Credits
• Zaw Riven Mod
• Kitgun Riven Mod

If you’d like both, then pick up the Lustrous Lunar Renewal Collection, which includes the Dagath Yfari Collection and the Year of the Kaithe Collection as well as the Rifle Riven Mod and the Melee Riven Mod. Other Lunar New Year-themed items can also be found on the game’s store.

There are plenty of characters to check out and play as you get into Deadlock. Whether this is your first MOBA title or one of many that you’ve gotten your hands on, there are guaranteed to be a few characters that mesh with your mindset and playstyle when you get into the game. There are a variety of roles in the game, with the Carry role in Deadlock rewarding a slow start with massive endgame potential. Here are some of the best carry characters you can choose when you start getting into Deadlock.

Victor

This character is one of the most unique characters in the game, along with Lady Geist. Victor’s health is a resource that you’re going to regularly use throughout the match, but early on, you’re going to be somewhat stalled on that growth in his health pool in order to be able to actively use it for a fight. In early gameplay, you’ll want to be very cautious, gradually increasing the aggression in his playstyle with the biggest swings coming in the mid- to late-game phases. He has very little range to his abilities aside from his weapon, so you need to plan to rush into fights headfirst in order to make the most of his kit. You’ll want to snag a few items to heal from using his abilities, but his growth comes full swing very quickly as the later portions of a match begin to approach. If you want to become a raid boss, you’ll most likely enjoy playing as Victor.

Lady Geist

You can’t talk about Victor without bringing up Lady Geist; both feature a similar gimmick but play it very differently. Where Victor uses his health to damage enemies in an aura surrounding him, Lady Geist uses her health to throw grenades and blood shards to harm her foes. She can sap enemy health, heal teammates, and even swap health with enemies when her ultimate is unlocked. Where Victor needs to get in close to use his abilities, Lady Geist can attack at a longer range and still deal some massive damage when properly tuned. She isn’t the weakest character in the early game, but far from the strongest, since her limited health at the start can hamper what abilities you get to use right away. As she is built up, she can become incredibly tanky and more aggressive in each stage of the game, allowing you to turn the tide of a battle almost instantly.

Silver

Silver can be considered a tank as well as a carry; she has a slower early game when items are a finite resource. However, once midgame rolls around, she can be an incredible character who can turn the tide of many team fights. With a variety of builds you can use that are centered around several playstyles, you’ll want to constantly be engaging with your enemies when you’ve unlocked her Werewolf form. She isn’t a standard carry character by any means, as she will become strong quickly with just some standard items. By the end of the match, she will become incredibly powerful and can decimate your foes.

Warden

In terms of how powerful a character is, Warden can be hit or miss, depending on a ton of factors. He is somewhat powerful in the starting phases, but gets noticeably weaker as everyone else gains more tools to fight back against him. By default, Warden can be quite slow, and this goes double when he is using his ultimate ability. You’ll need a nice build that will allow him to have high health, good gun damage, and high spirit damage output so that his ultimate can cause as much mayhem as possible. He’s always been one of the top carry characters who can double as a tank when built correctly.

Seven

Seven is another top-tier carry character that scales well with levels throughout the match, while also having a very all-around great kit to deal damage to your enemies. Out of all of the characters listed, Seven is the one that requires you to farm mobs and spawns throughout the map to begin building his kit. He uses a ball of lightning for area denial when someone tries to hide behind cover, stuns enemies, buffs his own weapon, and creates a massive AoE with his ultimate ability. He is a fantastic choice all around and can be built to be a gun carry or spirit carry character. If any character can be considered an all-rounder, it would be Seven. The match will usually start strong with him, but as it continues, you’ll need to work a bit harder to scale up and continue to do as much damage as possible to the enemy team with him.

Not every character is going to have the same overall set of rules you’ll need to follow, and enemy team compositions may not allow for the desired route you need to take. Many carry characters are going to force players out of their comfort zones if the playstyle isn’t what they’re used to. If you’re looking to get started, you’ll need to apply consistent pressure on your enemies in the early portion of the match, while also backing off often to farm for more levels and items to keep the pressure on in the later portions of the match. Some characters, like Silver, can get away with constant fights to gain more of the items they need.

As promised during a spotlight video last week, the Reign of Talon begins today. The year-long story has begun in Overwatch (formerly Overwatch 2). In addition to being the free-to-play team shooter’s first annual story arc, Season 1: Conquest is also hopping right into things by dropping five new Heroes at once – really getting things rolling to put out a total of ten Heroes before the end of the year. (Yes, that includes the cat.)

In this story, players are asked to choose sides in a five-week faction war. Do you wish to help Overwatch or Talon? The faction war will be affected by how players approach things. Complete missions to progress, unlock lore, and earn faction-specific cosmetics. It’s okay to be a traitor too and switch factions so you can get all the lore and the goodies.

When most people think of Valentine’s Day, they think of things like flowers and chocolate. When the Trove team thinks of it, it seems their mind goes immediately to bugs – specifically, Heckbugs. Once again, the critters have returned to the free-to-play voxel MMORPG, and it’s up to the players to deal with them.

In case you missed the notice, the annual Heckbug event is underway, and players have until February 17to participate. To get started in the Heckbugs in Love event, head to the Hub, where you’ll spot spaceships bringing H.E.C.K ambassadors. (If you’re wondering, the acronym stands for “Helpers of Exotic Creatures...for Karma!) The group is there to ask for assistance, and players can help out by talking with the leader, Hailey.

H.E.C.K wants to “preserve” the bugs, and players are able to help with this using treats, heated blankets, and other items. (I think the bugs are getting better treatment than the players.)

That said, players will also have to deal with the Heckbug Hunter, who isn’t exactly keen on the invasion.

You may or may not remember that about nine months ago, there were reports about a deal between Nexon and Blizzard granting Nexon the rights to create a new game using the StarCraft IP. At the time, reports were vague, and it seemed that the developer might be able to work on multiple StarCraft-related projects.

Whatever the case, it wasn’t outright confirmed what, if anything, Nexon was working on. Now, we may have some idea as to what’s in store. A report from the Korean news outlet Korea Economic Daily and shared by MassivelyOP, indicates that the company could be working on that StarCraft shooter players have been hoping for for…how long now?

According to the report, StarCraft modder Choi Jun-ho may be involved as the project lead. The report goes on to state that the “preliminary preparations” of putting together a team to work on the game have been completed. (Keep in mind, this is what Google Translate gave Massively.)

Of course, until Blizzard confirms or denies this – which they haven’t as of yet – it’s best to remain cautiously optimistic about the whole thing. It’s also worth remembering that if the report is accurate, Nexon is still in the early, early stages and hasn’t even begun development. So, at best, it will be a good while before we see anything.

Blizzard has announced the next Hearthstone update. Arriving in the free-to-play card game on March 17, the Cataclysm expansion asks the all-important question: “What would happen if Deathwing never fell?” In this expansion, Murozond destroyed the Hourglass of Time, opening a portal to a timeline where this is exactly what happened. Now Deathwing and his six Lieutenants are using the opportunity to create havoc once again.

To play this scenario out, the first-ever Deathwing Hero Card is being added to the game. New cards also include Colossal Minions and the five dragonflights. The former will aid Deathwing while the latter will fight on the side of heroes. Both make use of their own keywords, “Herald” for the Colossal minions, and “Shatter” for the five dragonflights.

Prior to the expansion drop, players can expect some free goodies and special events. To start with, simply logging into the game will earn players the Warmaster Blackhorn Legendary card. There’s also an online event, Rally the Dragonflights, which players can take part in to warn a free Legendary Ebyssian and two Signature copies of Envoy of the End. The event lasts until March 17.

As for in-game event, a two wave event has players fighting the Elemental Lords as well as Onyxia and Cho’gal to earn a selection of cards. Details on these events can be found in the patch notes.

The latest Duet Night Abyss update, “The Huaxu: The Wind Awakening”, is available, bringing with it some rather big new features. In addition to the stuff you’d usually expect, such as new characters, the update introduces the open-world ARPG’s mount system and an auto-battler mode.

The mount system had been teased on the game’s YouTube channel for a bit, with the developer rolling out videos highlighting different mount options. There are four different types to be had, including the “Mecha-Sable Bi’an” earned via completing in-game tasks.

Other additions include things like being able to send gifts to friends and a regional reward system. The system, known as “Rise to Fame,” offers rewards to players. Players can also earn rewards by taking part in Wishen’s Daring Adventures event.

As for the two new characters, both are Electro-element. The first is a merchant named Zhiliu, who is available now. The latter is the dragon-themed Yuming. They will be made available at a later point.

It’s time for another “Fest” on Steam. It seems a bit like we have one of those every month or so these days, but they’re a great way to introduce players to games they may have missed, and offer some deals too. This time, developers are taking part in the PvPFest, which kicked off today. I’m not even going to bother trying to count the number of games involved in this event, but it’s quite a few. Of course, the usual suspects are taking part…Overwatch, Marvel Rivals, and the like. And of course, a large portion of the games listed are buy-to-play.

But we’re here to talk about free-to-play games. So I decided to take a peek at the free-to-play listings. Luckily, Steam was kind enough to make a separate tab featuring games in the F2P category. So, I used that in the making of this list, which means anyone interested can just hit up the same tab on the event’s page.

Once perusing the F2P section, I narrowed things down by looking for games with a smaller number of but fairly positive reviews. I then cross-checked them against the Steam DB to make sure they’re not completely dead and just have a small audience. Some of these offerings I recognize from having written about them before – although it’s likely been a while. Others are new to me. Either way, if you’re looking for something a bit different to play, you might give some of them a go. As I’ve pointed out before. F2P games only cost you the download time and HD space to try out.

Strinova

Strinova is an anime-style third-person shooter that came out in 2024 and features a mechanic that allows players to switch between three-dimensional and two-dimensional forms to move around the map. This allows players to do things like squeeze between cracks in walls and maneuver through otherwise inaccessible spaces.

I don’t recall the game’s launch being all that big. And it certainly doesn’t have the number of reviews or players of other games. But based on SteamDB, the playerbase is fairly consistent, and the reviews on Steam are mostly positive.

Town of Salem 2

This cartoon-style social deduction game, designed for 7 to 15 players, is set in the town of Salem. You know…the one with the witches. The game features more than 50 playable roles, each with its own abilities and objectives.

Review-wise, Town of Salem 2 isn’t doing badly. That said, its player count isn’t all that high. It peaked at a little under 4,000 players around launch and now manages somewhere between 300 and 500 players on average. That’s not necessarily a sign the game is bad. It could just be that it came out around the same time as a lot of other social deduction games did. It’s still being supported and recently had a backend update.

Century: Age of Ashes

Co-op dragon battles and racing. That’s the game. Actually, it’s more than just that. Century: Age of Ashes features five different modes (4 PvP and 1 PvE). It also offers players their choice of class and the ability to customize their dragons.

Currently, the game is in its third season, which introduced the new rider class: “Rimeblood”, as well as a new map and story content, among other things

Admittedly, the problem with this game is player numbers. As of this writing, SteamDB states that there are 31 players in-game. Perhaps that will go up during PvP Fest.

Hades’ Star

We’ve gone from dragons to space and from team combat to strategy. Hades’ Star is a space strategy game in which players build their own empire in space. Players have an entire, evolving galaxy to work with: establishing a presence, planning out their economy, colonizing planets – all the things you do when you’re building an empire in space.

As far as PvP goes, the system features different types of stars that dictate gameplay. Blue Stars are stars that last for five minutes, during which time five players can send a battleship to take part in a short burst of combat and see who’s left standing.

This is another game with exceedingly low count numbers. But as it’s a strategy game mostly made up of solo-play, that’s probably not the worst thing. PvP only requires five players and last for a short time, so unless everyone’s just busy with the empire building portion of the game, it could easily work out.

Skillshot City

Skillshot City is another game with solid reviews and low player numbers. The PvP Roguelite (also described in the same blurb as a GTA-style battle royale with no queues or downtime) has been around since 2017. It’s still kicking, and there was even an update in January.

Unfortunately, the most consecutive players it’s seen in the last year was right around 60 about a week ago. That said, the game seems to offer some fun features and could be a good time for a bit for players looking for something different.

War Selection

As single-player RTS games with online PvP go, War Selection seems to be faring well enough. It boasts Very Positive reviews, and the concurrent players are somewhere between 300 and 1,000 on a regular basis. Considering the game’s all-time peak was around 2,000 players, it’s probably suffered the least as far as player loss goes.

Granted, RTS games typically appeal to a specific type of player. Interestingly, while the game is single-player, it seems the devs devoted more time to PvP content than a lot of other games in the same genre. The game features several modes, including survival, match, ranked battle, team match, tug of war, and more. Some of the modes are both single-player and PvP.

Unfortunate Spacemen

Look, I made a choice putting this one here. Unfortunate Spacemen isn’t exactly excelling right now. As I’m looking at SteamDB, there are only 8 players in game, and the 24-hour peak is 28. The thing is that the space-based deception game has a good rating, and even among the negative reviews, there wasn’t a lot to work with. One complaint is simply that no one is playing, and that, apparently, when there were a lot of players, people were toxic.

But, well, this post is about games you may have forgotten about. So, obviously, I make no guarantees as to quality.

Onmyoji

How about some turn-based fantasy strategy with PvP as an option? Honestly, looking at the game, I kind of imagine many who play Onmyoji just sticking to the PvE. That said, the game offers players the ability to engage in “semi-real-time battles” with each other by building a team and sending it into battle. Players also have the option to invite their friends to duels.

Blood of Steel

Blood of Steel is built for those players who are big into historical figures. Players take on the role of various generals and lead massive armies into combat. That said, there is a good bit of direct combat between the players’ characters as well. So everyone gets in on the mayhem.

Unfortunately, it may be hard to find players to compete against – unless you bring friends. At the moment, SteamDB is reporting 10 players online with a 156-person 24-hour peak.

Wheelchair Wizards

It seems that the moral of Wheelchair Wizards is that everyone is equal when armed with Wizard Powers. The 2-D platform battle game features 3 maps with 17+ levels, plenty of spells, and upgrades. This game is also the smallest game in the list, taking up 200 MB of space. So, it’ll be an easy one to try out with some friends.

If you are a fan of pirate-themed games, Sea of Remnants might have been on your radar since its announcement. This fantastical open-world RPG is looking to make its mark by going forward and combining the best parts of turn-based free-to-play games while still being something fresh and new. With the closed alpha officially setting sail, we got to experience what the game has to offer players down the line.

Setting Sail and Experiencing a New Tale

Right when you boot up Sea of Remnants, you’re given the perspective of a puppet, lost at sea. But this isn’t the sea that anyone would know, and as you continue sailing, cryptic scenery is slowly shown off. You find yourself waking up in a whole new world after seeing the moon reflected in a massive waterfall, with two other puppets near you in yet another unfamiliar place.

The game will then take you on a somewhat on-rails journey for a bit, allowing you to create your character and take on some brief combat tutorials to acclimate you to the gameplay loop. The character creation is quite well-designed and diverse for the most part. While some options are lacking (the ability to create a more muscular or leaner character isn't available), there are still many other options for customizing your character. You can truly create your own unique pirate that reflects your personality, even without the many options that other games have.

When you finally reach the stage of the game where you get your own ship, the game truly opens up for you to explore. You’re given the option to freely sail and explore some of the islands scattered throughout the world. While there aren’t many right away at this stage of the game, there was still plenty to explore and play around with to get a handle on all the systems offered. The scale of the game in this alpha test is already quite impressive and enjoyable. Players have the ability to sail around solving puzzles in the open ocean or go to an island to search for riches and treasure while taking down bosses. It is a common formula, but still very entertaining and worth your time if you’re interested in these games.

Familiar Combat and Premise

The premise in Sea of Remnants is also fairly familiar, with the main character you play as waking up from slumber and discovering that they are suffering from amnesia. While this isn’t anything new, the way it is handled is quite special in its own way. You’re discovering something new with your character, sailing into the unknown with the first companion you meet, RS. Speaking of RS, she is the token unhinged and free spirit character to your down-to-earth and somewhat normal main character. When you first meet, you see how carefree she really is while also learning that her story is tied to your own as well. The characters are two sides of the same coin, keeping each interaction fresh as you continue through the story offered.

Characters all have their own web of other NPCs that they interact with – 400 characters each with their own routines to perform throughout the day and social stats. Even if you aren’t interested in exploring the world of the NPCs, it is still quite impressive. While the NPCs of the world may not have the most vibrant designs, the playable characters all have a fantastic look to them. From their outfits, animations, and ultimate abilities, they all have something about them that reflects their personality and lore.

When going through the combat, you’ll most likely be surprised to hear that the game plays a lot like Honkai: Star Rail. Many folks might expect an action game from something that follows the story of pirates adventuring through the seas. But this unexpected turn-based combat is wonderful, and really takes the best parts of other games and runs with them. Each character has an ultimate ability, two abilities that depend on their class, and the option to defend themselves during their turn. The system isn’t as in-depth as something like Persona, for example, but it is still in line with what we’ve seen with some other free-to-play turn-based games. It is a fun system that does allow you to work with different characters and create a party of pirates that really work well together to secure more loot and levels.

Not many games stick with naval combat; there aren’t that many pirate games that commit to it. What might come to mind is something like Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag when you think of ship combat. The naval sections of Sea of Remnants take on a more arcade-style role, offering the ability to turn quickly and fire your cannons consistently. It isn’t bad, it isn’t amazing by any means, but it is still surprisingly enjoyable when you get to partake in these sections. Outrunning a Gorilla manning its own ship while hurling cannonballs your way isn’t something you’d ever imagine being in a game, but it is in this one, and it is hilarious and entertaining in its own way.

Characters also get upgrades as you continue playing. You’ll upgrade their various stats when you return to the main port town and give them even more ways to survive the high seas and dungeons you explore. You’re also able to choose subclasses for them, offering new ways to handle combat. For example, your main character can be an outright DPS character that shreds through enemies, or you can turn them into a tank that soaks damage and heals through taking big hits from your foes. There is a ton of variety, and you’re encouraged to play around with the systems and really learn what party composition and classes work best for you.

Vibrant and Unique World

The game is incredibly vibrant and fun to explore. One of the first dungeons you’ll find yourself in is going to be a cave, which shouldn’t be a colorful spot to go through. However, while the cave does lack in colors for the most part, you can find that it does fit the mood and themes that Sea of Remnants provides. Exploring hits many of the same notes as other games you may have played. You’ll run through each area, collect treasure from chests, and gather materials from the enemies you fight.

Another unexpected addition is the game's music. Where you might expect some sea shanties and pirate music in general, you will get the polar opposite. The music isn’t bad. It's all quite good in its own way. But it is almost whiplash when you expect one thing and get some pop music while watching two punk rock pirates engage in a bar fight. Expect the unexpected, as several genres of music are sprinkled into the game.

The game has an incredible amount of polish for something in the alpha test stage. There are some minor issues, many of which will be fixed as development goes on with the game. Placeholder text is used frequently, and some spelling errors appear in certain item descriptions. But these aren't major issues at this stage, and don’t take away from what is being shown off during this phase. What you can expect is a fun, over-the-top game about some pirates making their way through the world. Sea of Remnants is shaping up to be a heavy hitter, with amazing characters and wonderful visuals wrapped with a compelling story that looks to make the game shine.

It seems the next installment in the Aion franchise is still on track to launch this year. NCSoft revealed the latest development on the path to the game’s eventual release today, announcing that former Amazon Game Studios Regional Franchise Leader Mervin Lee Kwai is joining the company and will be overseeing the global launch of the upcoming MMORPG Aion 2. He will also take charge of existing titles like the original Aion, Blade & Soul, and Lineage II.

According to the press release for NCSoft, the CEO of NC America, Jeonghee “JJ” Jin, stated that Lee Kwai’s “particular blend of game industry executive skills and deep understanding of MMORPGs in the modern market make him the perfect candidate”. Lee Kwai worked on both Lost Ark and Throne and Liberty while at Amazon. The latter means NCSoft is already familiar with how Lee Kwai works.

Amazon isn’t the only MMO developer Lee Kwai has worked with. He’s also worked on projects at Sony Online Entertainment and Trion Worlds. During his time at Sony Online Entertainment, he was the Executive Producer for ArcheAge and Trove. At SOE, he held the positions of Project Manager Localization for Dragon’s Prophet, Wizardry Online, PlanetSide 2, and DC Universe Online, and Project Manager for Free Realms and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures.

Now that things seem to be moving along, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, is changed for the global version of the game. About four months ago, NCSoft announced the monetization plans for the game, which kind of boiled down to free-to-play with two optional subs. The plan wasn’t exactly met with excitement.

It’s been a couple of weeks now since Arknights: Endfield launched. Since that time, I’ve been playing the game on a fairly regular basis (if you don’t count the week we were without electricity because of a giant ice storm). I’m enjoying it. In some ways, it’s like my usual fare. In other ways, it’s not.

The big difference, of course, is the factory sim portion of the game. I play factory sims and enjoy them quite a bit. But I don’t typically play them as part of my anime wife-collecting RPG games. With Endfield, the factory sim portion of the game isn’t just a major part of the game; it’s necessary. You want to progress, you’re going to build and level factories in whatever region you happen to be in. You’re not going to get very far if you don’t. Want gear? Better make it. Meds? Same thing. Need money for something. Gotta manufacture items for refugees and help them build their settlements. You won’t be able to buy presents for your operators if you don’t.

Basically, you’re going to be spending a lot of time in your factories. And you’re going to hit points in the game’s story where you just kinda have to stop and go back to the factory (or Endfield’s giant ship, where even more production is taking place) in order to be able to progress.

Here’s the thing, though. You’re not doing it 100% alone. Yeah, you’re moving through the story as if you’re the only Endministrator out there. But when you’re out there exploring Talos-II, you’ll come across certain useful facilities set up by other players – mostly things like ziplines, turret weapons, and storage facilities. You can use these shared facilities to navigate your world. That doesn’t mean you can avoid putting down your own, as the ones that appear in your version of the game may change over time. So if you want a consistent system, you’ll have to put in the work. But it can make building out your systems easier.

Of course, this being a factory sim, facilities can wear out, be attacked by enemies or creatures, and just generally need repair. And you run across this a lot as well, including the shared facilities. Realistically, these facilities are not your problem. You didn’t build them. You could use them until your own are all in place and forget about them. But you do have the option to repair them for yourself and other users. And that’s something I find interesting.

Arknights: Endfield, like most gacha-style ARPGs, is a very minimally social game. Yeah, in any of these games: Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, Honkai: Star Rail, etc. You may have cause to do co-op with other players. In fact, some of the games are trying to encourage it more, adding events in which players need to team up to receive all their rewards and the like. But, for the most part, you can ignore them completely if you don’t mind not getting the goodies.

Even in MMORPGs, games that are built around the idea of being social and working together, players can choose to ignore each other or content that requires them to interact with others. Although, it’s easily argued that this isn’t the point of playing an MMORPG. Players ostensibly join these games to do things with other people.

But gacha games and factory sims are very often solo affairs. It’s for this reason I believe Arknights: Endfield and other solo games that allow players to interact with each other in subtle ways say some interesting things about the gaming community as a whole. The fact is, if I run across your zipline and it’s on its last legs, I don’t have to spend my materials to repair it. I could just walk past. I could build my own and maintain them. And players certainly don’t have to leave messages for each other explaining how to locate some difficult-to-find treasure or warn each other about danger. But they do.

For another, non-Arknights example: Genshin Impact’s Lantern Rite is underway. If you’re a Genshin player, it’s a pretty big deal. There’s a big quest that impacts the game’s lore, and there are activities typically in the form of mini-games. The quest is solo, and the mini-games may be a mix. And if there is social content, the game typically only requires players to do a small amount to reap all the rewards.

But then there’s the lanterns. It is Lantern Rite after all. So players are given Xiao Lanterns and the ability to use them to send messages to other players. Granted, HoYo’s not letting any of us write anything we want. If we want to be weird and creepy, we can just do that in co-op chat.

Instead, just as with the messages sent in Endfield, the game has set phrases that players can put together to create a message. And they’re all designed to fit the holiday. But as with all social things in the game, we don’t have to put that much effort into them. Drop five lanterns, and you’ve earned your rewards. Yet they give us 20 lanterns to use to drop messages around Liyue, and we can acquire more. Every time I log in, new messages are floating around the harbor waiting to be claimed.

Basically, players are just leaving nice messages for each other because they want to. It’s simply not a requirement to be social to progress in the game.

In Arknights, it benefits players a bit more to be social. There are things like clues that players can send each other, and a stock market-type system as well, that requires players to check their friends for the best buying and selling prices. So, again, in some ways, the game does require a bit of social activity – more than your standard gacha RPG. But there are things that aren’t required, that we choose to do anyway.

It may benefit us in some way, like repairing already existing ziplines. But mostly, I think players just do it because it feels like the good thing to do. I may stumble across that hidden treasure on my own over time. But the minute someone drops one of those notes, they’ve saved me a good bit of trouble.

I’ll be honest. I don’t even really use other people’s ziplines. The ones that appear often aren’t going where I’m heading. But if I run across them and they’re in need of repair, I do it. It just seems like the right thing to do. And it takes so little effort on my part – less effort than optimizing my own factories, for certain.

Speaking of optimizing factories, the game has a system that allows players to share blueprints of their factory setups with each other. This is another one of those things that requires effort (though not a lot) outside of the general gameplay. A player has to choose to create and share the blueprint. Just a couple of weeks in, there’s a site filled with blueprints for people to look through and use. I’ll probably never talk to the people whose blueprints I might decide to make use of. But they’re uploading them, anyway.

It reminds me that despite all the negativity and vitriol we may see around the gaming community, and that often breaks containment, gamers (like everyone else) can be very nice people. (Yes, even the gamers who sometimes seem to spend more time being negative about games they don’t play than playing the games they do.) Sometimes it’s easy to forget that. So here’s your reminder.

Everyone’s getting into the Lunar New Year spirit, and events are taking place in a lot of games. So, I probably shouldn’t be surprised that Super Animal Royale – a cute battle-royale game filled with cute but violent critters – would happily find a reason to spend almost a month on a holiday that features a new animal every year. As this is the Year of the Horse, the free-to-play game is hosting a “Year of the Super Horse” event.

Already underway, the event will last for three weeks, ending on February 27. During the event, a new Super Horse breed will drop on a weekly basis, beginning with the Super Red Hare based on the steed of Guan Yu. In addition, the SAW Shop is filled with Lunar New Year cosmetics, new emotes, and even a “Stable Boy Bundle”.

During the event, players will find Red Envelopes scattered throughout the island. These restore a bit of health and aid in advancing challenges. Bonus Red Envelopes are also available when matches are completed. There will also be Fireworks that can be found on the island as well. I’m sure you’ll know what to do with those.

The SAW Welcome Center fountain in the Social Hub currently features music for the Lunar New Year, and an event kiosk has the new Super Siamese Cat NPC, who will provide players more information about the Year of the Super Horse.

Players can also earn a selection of challenge rewards for completing different goals during the event. Collecting 1,000 Red Envelopes will earn players Lunar Aviators. Breaking 2 Firework Crates earns 1500 XP. A Lunar Outfit will be the reward for getting 12 kills. 750 Cart Coins is the reward for chopping 75 bamboo bushes. And Landing at the SAW Bamboo Resort will net players a Lunar Umbrella.

After a bit of a wait for players, HoYoverse finally aired the livestream for Honkai: Star Rail’s upcoming Version 4.0 update, “No Aha At Full Moon”. The team has been teasing the Ahaification of the free-to-play ARPG for a while now with crazy trailers and reveals of upcoming characters tied to the update – all of whom, it turns out, are vying for the chance to be Aha for a minute. It might be a little difficult to see what being Aha for a minute could do. But I imagine a god can get a lot done in that amount of time.

The update will take players to the world of Planarcadia, a world in which people survive by way of clout, like the kind you think of when you’re dealing with streamers and social media personalities. Being noticed is literally the only way to live.

Planarcadia also happens to be Himeko’s home world, where she rebuilt the Astral Express. (This might explain her obsession with awful coffee. Maybe that was her form of clout chasing when she lived there.) The planet was, apparently, a flat “World in a Canvas” at one point. But the IPC has long since taken control, and the place is overseen by one of the Ten Stonehearts – Madam Pearl. As such, it’s a pretty lively destination, and with the arrival of half the universe – including one of the generals of the Xianzhou and several of the Stelleron hunters, it’s about to get crazier. Of course, the Astral Express crew is there as well, and the Trailblazer will be representing them in the competition to be Ahaified.

As for new playable characters, 4.0 will introduce two Elation characters: the General of Xianzhou Alliance’s Yuque Yao Guang and Sparxie (who is not to be confused with Sparkle...it seems Sparkle may be a species?). If you’re not sure you remember Yao Guang, that’s probably because until this point, we’ve only heard her voice and seen a glyph representing her via comms on the Loufu.

On an additional note on the character front, the update also enhances Black Swan and the OG Sparkle. Oh, yes, and there will be new outfits. Players will be able to obtain a new skin for Ruan Mei as well as a 20-pull reward for logging in after the version launches on February 13. There are also new outfits and accessories for the Trailblazer. These are free, but they will require time and effort as the outfit and a headband are both obtained via the Gift of Stardust store. The outfits aren’t that different from the standard fit. It’s mostly color and pattern changes, as well as a different shirt. It makes a bit of sense, as the game’s lore pretty much tells you the Trailblazer just keeps a closet full of the same outfit.

Players can expect plenty of events and rewards as well, including plenty of chances to get their hands on more Stellar Jades. Another will allow players to pick a free 5-star character. Always a good thing.

For those of you who have been wondering how the delay of this update will impact the game’s cadence, the devs stated during the stream that things would be back on track by 4.2. That said, players can expect 4.1’s release timeline to be adjusted in order to allow for that.

As always, the livestream included redemption codes. These are AHAHAHAHAHAHA (I double-checked the number of “AHs”), QWQXDDLOLOMO, and HITLIKETOBEAHA.

A new free-to-play tactical shooter launched into early access on Steam Today. It’s even free-to-play early access – which is a bit refreshing with all the games out there that will eventually be F2P… After they’re done taking in money for the unfinished version of the game, that is.

The 5v5 shooter, PUBG: BLINDSPOT, is now available to download via Steam. As mentioned above, since this is early access, it’s an unfinished version of the game, but it is far enough along to let everyone in. That means that the devs are still seeking feedback.

The game is top-down, and as players move through rooms, they can get a glimpse of what’s happening in other places. Players need to find ways to take advantage of what can and can’t be seen in order to successfully beat their opponents. Of course, coordinating with team members is important as well – particularly since they may be able to see things you can't.

Alright folks, you know the drill. If you applied to tae part in the closed alpha test for Joker Studio's rather whimsical-looking puppet-pirate adventure, Sea of Remnants, you'll want to check your email -- if you already haven't. And don't forget to look in the spam folder. The test is live on PC and Steam today.

This means that would-be player can hop into the open-world RPG, take on the role of a "puppetfolk sailor", explore the vast ocean, fight strange creatures, and visit the pirate city of Orbtopia -- a city that will change over time based on player actions. In addition, players have more than 400 companion they can form bonds with, meaning they'll leave a real mark on the game's world. One of these companions was featured in a new trailer shared by Joker Studio and publisher NetEase today in honor of the CBT launch. The video can be viewed below.

Today, Kuro Games dropped Wuthering Waves' Version 3.1 update, bringing Rover back to Lahai-Roi to solve another mystery about the region and its silent protector, the Exostrider. This update finally brings Rover together with the mysterious Aemeath, offering the opportunity to get answers to a list of questions. We won't say which questions were answered here -- only that there are some big drops.

The update also includes quality-of-life changes intended to make live easier for players. No, I'm not talking about the bike. Although, I'm sure the new features are going to be of great use. Rather, these changes are intended to make progression easier with faster leveling and improved material farming. The update also implements performance improvements for the free-to-play open-world ARPG on PC and mobile devices and improve visuals as well.

Players can also expect free goodies when logging in. Some will come from a campaign that rewards players for in-game activity. Those who have been playing for a good while should be pleasantly surprised. And, of course, once players complete the new story, they'll receive the new school uniform skin for Rover.

Blizzard is taking a different approach when it comes to storytelling in the Overwatch universe this year. Today, Game Director Aaron Keller shared plans for the future of the free-to-play team shooter in a Spotlight video. The approximately half-hour-long video laid out plans for the game’s narrative, kicking off on February 10. The narrative is unique in Overwatch as it has a full arc that takes place in the span of a year (or six seasons) beginning with Season 1: Conquest.

Titled the "Reign of Talon", the story begins with the cinematic revealed at the beginning of the stream today, in which Vendetta makes her move to take back Talon. Even as someone who doesn’t play Overwatch, I have to say the short is pretty epic. The story will run across all six seasons, and a new story will begin with the first season of 2027.

The story will be told across a variety of media. Of course, there will be in-game content, including special events. And Blizzard is always big on the trailers. So there will be plenty of that as well. Players can also expect short stories and comics to help fill in the rest of the lore. The good news is that all of it will be available in the game. So you don’t have to go hunting for it on websites or elsewhere.

Blizzard is also rolling out all the stops since this year is the tenth anniversary of Overwatch. This starts with the fact that they’re upping the number of hero releases this year to ten. Half of those will drop with Season 1 – including some I know I’ve seen players theorizing about, such as Emre and Anran (Wuyang’s older sister), and some that might be a surprise, such as a fat orange cat with hover tech literally named Jetpack Cat. (I don’t know whether the cat will be a blessing or a curse for Overwatch. We all know about orange cats and their shared braincell.)

Season 1 will introduce sub-roles to the game. DPS will have four sub-roles, while Healer and Tank will have three each. This won’t be a case of picking a character and then deciding which sub-role you’d like to use. Instead, the character chosen determines the sub-role. So, players will want to think about what they want to do before choosing who to play. Each sub-role and its related characters are listed in the patch notes on the Overwatch site.

Oh, and there’ll be an Overwatch x Hello Kitty Collaboration available when Season 1 launches.

The update will also include a major overhaul of the game’s systems, intended to streamline things and address player complaints about things like moving around the menus. For instance, they’re creating a notification hub and the stadium to make things easier to find. There will also be a competitive reset featuring rewards related to Talon.

Finally, you’ll notice I haven’t referred to the game as Overwatch 2. That’s because there was an announcement during the livestream that Blizzard has decided to drop the “2” and will simply be referring to everything related to the Overwatch universe as simply Overwatch. (I’m pretty sure that’s what we were all calling it when we weren’t having to write about it formally anyway.)

A new update is available in Delta Force. Team Jade dropped the patch in the free-to-play shooter yesterday, introducing a new Support Operator by the name of Lina Van der Meer (Codename: Vlinder). Vlinder is a useful individual to have on the team, as just by being there, she extends the downed and dying times of her squadmates. She’s also able to track her allies’ HP status using her butterfly drones and special contact lenses. Speaking of butterflies, her “Flutter Rescue UAVs” can be used to deliver plasma injections to allies within 55 meters of their dispatch spot. Some drones track squadmates and heal them with medical dust. As for offensive abilities, she also utilizes a smoke grenade guided using a gesture-seeking device.

The update also introduced the Aftershock urban warfare map featuring full-scale destruction, several new modes, an Operations Expansion, with a new boss, and improvements requested by players. On the Operations Expansions front, Space City has new areas and introduces swimming mechanics. The new Operations boss is the Efficiency Director, Alonso Hudson, a member of Haavk’s radical faction.

As for the new modes, Flashpoint features a constantly shifting battlefield, and the Firey Owl Hunt in Operations lets players take on the role of the boss Saeed and his guards. A full rundown of these modes can be found on the Delta Force site, along with a list of changes and additions that are too numerous to list here.

Arknights: Endfield seems to be doing pretty okay since it launched. And that’s not just based on general observation – although I can say most of my core gaming group is playing it. Today, Gryphline posted a DEV Comm on the free-to-play RTS ARPG’s site and shared some in-game numbers with players. No, they didn’t give actual player numbers. (Does anyone really do that?) Instead, they dropped a few stats about the activity in-game, particularly around the RTS portion.

According to the post, players have been pretty busy laying power lines, and as of February 1, more than 42 million meters of line had been laid by all the players in the game. Of course, we’ve all been doing work since then, so that number’s gone up. We just don’t know how much. The post also notes that more than 23 million shared facilities (facilities that can be put down in one player’s game instance and be seen, used, and repaired by other players in their games) have been placed. Of those facilities, one in particular has received more than 4 million repairs. So, yeah. Players have been engaged and busy.

The post also informed players of an update that will be taking place tomorrow (February 5). The update features a series of optimizations for things like enemy stats, early game Operator progression support, AIC factory control optimizations, map improvements, and more. These improvements are intended to improve the early game and exploration experience. As a result, enemy levels for exploration levels 6 and 7 will be lowered by ten, but still drop the same loot, and players will receive items needed for crafting gear when hitting specific levels. These changes will obviously benefit those who didn’t push their way through before the update, but it’s still going to be a boon.

One thing that will benefit everyone is the Designation Selection Permit that players will receive for completing the main mission, Chapter I Process I: Break the Siege. This permit will be delivered via in-game mail and allow players to choose one of the six star Operators in the Basic Headhunting banner. That would be the Five Sparks. So, if, like me, you’ve been trying to get a specific character out of that banner and have been receiving anyone but that one, you’ll now be able to claim the one you actually want.

The Winter Wonder: Riffrocin’ New Year update dropped in Palia today, bringing a festive celebration to the free-to-play cozy open-world MMORPG. The update starts the celebration of the game’s “Luna New Year” with festivities at the Fairgrounds as players celebrate the Year of the Riffroc. The celebration includes festive lanterns, new décor, special rewards, and a variety of events – such as the skater activity “Path of the Shred”.

During the festivities, players will be able to find all kinds of goodies in the Maji Treasure Chests, earn rewards from stamp card achievements, and take part in the Hot Pot game. Of course, there’s an event bundle to be obtained as well and plenty of event-related décor, including harvest baskets, tea tins, and Riffroc items. (Yes, there’s a plush.)

The update also brings the Roli to the game. This little critter looks like an armadillo and is good at finding salt crystals that can be used in recipes.

Also introduced in this update is a newly official way to gather the Water Tower from the Players Ranch. This is apparently something players were doing on their own, and the devs decided to make it a thing, allowing players to gather without heading out of bounds.

Oh, and for the cooking fans out there, the 12-day community cooking event, Reth’s Soup-erb Bowl, will run from February 6 to February 18, during which time players will cook soups together in a Super Bowl-inspired event. Players will have to gather ingredients and do everything they can to keep the soup coming, all to meet a shared goal.

Yesterday, The First Descendant team hosted a new devstream introducing players to the game’s next update. Titled “Unveiled Truth,” Season 3 Episode 3 introduces the new Descendant Dia, who was revealed back in December. The new Descendant is a skill dealer who uses a lance, and she brings with her new, ice-related skills. She also brings new mysteries for players to solve.

The new update brings quite a bit of new content to the free-to-play shooter – enough to warrant a three-and-a-half-hour stream. Other content includes the ‘Exposed Undersea Base’ dungeon, which is a Vulgus base on the coast of Axion. The dungeon features an ‘Infiltration Operation’ with new enemy types and a new elite monster boss that provides benefits when a player successfully dodges attacks.

Players also have new weapons to acquire: the E-Buster and the Eye of the Storm. The former features the ability to increase electric skill power, while the latter is a beam rifle that switches between two modes: Typhoon and Storm. Typhoon attacks eight enemies at once. Storm inflicts heavy damage on a single enemy.

Players can also look forward to a selection of balance changes, a new battle pass, and more. The update will go live on February 5.

Today, ArenaNet dropped a new update in Guild Wars 2, adding to the free-to-play MMORPG’s sixth expansion, Visions of Eternity. What the biggest feature of this update is will likely depend on what kind of player you are. For the raiders among you, the introduction of Guardian’s Glade will be a big deal. The raid is designed for squads of 10 players who will fight against one of the Guardians of Castora. Raiders will have three weeks to spend with this before a new challenge mode is introduced.

Continuing with the subject of raiding, the new update introduces raid quickplay and a new overhaul of the raid system. Quickplay will allow players to be matched with nine other players in pre-selected raid encounters. The overhaul, on the other hand, will improve the raid system and introduce new achievements and rewards. Details on the raid system updates can be found in the video below.

For the more fashion-minded players, the new fashion templates might be the headliner feature of this update. These templates allow players to adjust and save the appearances of their gear using templates that can be swapped out on the fly. All playhers get two free template slots as well as free Transmutation Charges that they can use to try out the systems.

The update also updates the Wizard’s Vault with new rewards and objectives. And, as it is that time of year, the Lunar New Year festival is underway.

Heartopia is one of the most recent adorable new games in the life-sim genre, offering cozy gameplay where players can create their character, explore the world, discover new hobbies, design their dream home, make new friends, and more. However, if you’re looking to get started in Heartopia, there are a few beginner tips and tricks that you should know to help make your time in the free-to-play game easier. From build tips to handy details about NPCs and claimable rewards, these pieces of Heartopia knowledge will make all the difference as you stack up more hours of playtime in the game.

Complete Daily Requests

In Heartopia, you will need to increase your DG Member level in order to unlock each of the Hobbies within the game. These hobbies range from fishing and gardening all the way to adopting cats and dogs, so if you want access to these features ASAP, then you will have to do everything you can to grind out those levels as quickly as possible.

One of the best ways to do this is through the daily resident requests system. Daily and weekly challenges will refresh at 6 AM, with the weekly reset day being each Saturday. Uncompleted requests will not be kept, so you need to make sure that you’re clearing these challenges each day. Thankfully, most of them are relatively simple tasks, such as watering plants, collecting common resources and materials, or catching fish, for example.

Completing these quests awards Medals, and after you accumulate enough Medals, you will progress to the next DG Member level. Each level unlocks new features and hobbies such as co-op building, bug catching, plot expansions, and more.

Participate in Rare Weather Events & General Events

The weather can actually be a huge opportunity for players. Rare weather events tend to occur on a semi-regular basis, involving the likes of ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Meteor Shower’ weather. During these times, special conditions will take place around the world, including passive bonuses, special resources that can be discovered to help boost your proficiency during certain hobbies, and there are even special NPC shop items and locations that only happen during these weather events.

Players can plan ahead of time, too. By opening the weather on their watch, they will be able to see what weather events are planned for the current week, from rain and sun to spontaneous meteor showers!

In addition to weather events, other general events can be found in the ‘events’ tab (the planet-shaped icon within the toolbar on the top right of your screen). This lets players complete limited-time quests, earn special rewards, and more. Examples include the Pink Gacha Machine event, Festivals, Life Logs, and the Winter Season Prep event. Some events even introduce new mechanics and hobbies into the game, such as Ice Skating for the winter season, so players will want to make sure they make the most of each opportunity.

Map Waypoints

The minimap is useful for tracking important locations and generally helping you find your way from place A to place B without getting lost. However, there is also a very handy feature to utilize in custom map waypoints. If you discover a location of a rare item spawn that happens to be static, you can simply mark it on your map with a custom waypoint, letting you fast-track your way to that location each day to help you farm those rare resources with ease. It can also be a handy way to mark the specific locations in which rare fish or bugs can be found, if you are hunting for certain species.

Prioritize Making Gold

Gold is the main currency that you will use to buy almost everything, from new clothes to items, upgrades, and even using fast travel waypoints through the bus stop system. However, when you are getting started, making lots of gold can be a little bit tricky. Selling food can be one of the best ways to accumulate money. As you are starting out, you can get some cash by selling fresh fish that you catch. However, by cooking a Fish and Chips dish, you can bring in upwards of 300 Gold per plate, which makes it much more worthwhile. Jam is another good way to make money from food, with Raspberry Jam fetching the highest price per unit.

If you have Wishing Stars, you can use them to purchase some Fireworks. Albert is willing to pay a pretty penny for each bundle of Fireworks in your inventory, providing thousands of Gold at a time.

Unlock and Use Cooking ASAP

As mentioned above, cooking can be one of the best ways to quickly and consistently accumulate Gold in Heartopia. For this reason, you want to start utilizing the cooking hobby as soon as you unlock it. It is recommended to keep Gold aside for purchasing multiple stoves, this way you can cook multiple dishes at once and maximize your profits when you sell them all to town residents.

The best layout for cooking involves using four stoves, positioned around each side of one blank space in the middle. You can then jump into the middle, making managing the cooking of all four dishes an absolute breeze. This will also help you to quickly level up your cooking hobby, too, so it’s a relatively handy method to consider.

Check Your Mailbox & Claim Rewards Daily

Lastly, some new players may be neglecting their mailboxes! By checking your mailbox at your home plot on a daily basis, you can gain all sorts of different rewards for free. This can be from NPCs, gifts from friends, and even freebies/giveaways from the Heartopia devs for situations such as offline maintenance periods or limited-time events. You’ll be surprised by just how many free goodies you’ll find stacked up in your mailbox if you don’t check it daily, and considering they’re all claimed with a simple tap of a button, it’s a short but important stop to make during your daily session of gameplay.

A little later today – in about three hours as of this writing – Kuro Games’ post-apocalyptic action game, Punishing Gray Raven, will be launching on Steam. If you haven’t heard about this game before, it’s not completely new. It actually launched globally on mobile devices in 2021 and has been available on PC via its own launcher since 2023. That means it predates Kuro’s other popular free-to-play title, Wuthering Waves.

It’s not just the Steam launch that’s interesting about the PGR news, however. The Steam drop coincides with the release of a game-changing patch named Withering Crown. The update introduces the new Breaker class to the game, creating a new tank role that does more than just standing in the front and taking all the hits. This particular tank also focuses on wearing the enemy down so that the rest of the team can do real damage. Apparently, this will change the way a lot of players approach the game. Of course, this is a gacha game, so that new class comes in the form of a new character – or in PGR’s terminology: an S-rank Dark Construct named Rosetta: Arete.

Withering Crown also expands on core game systems, introducing a new memory set, kicking off a new companion story, adding a new boss, and more.

The Legacy of Phrecia has returned to Path of Exile, and things may feel a bit strange. During the event, all 19 of the ARPG’s Ascendancy classes are replaced with different ones. Players will be able to take on the role of a Servant of Arakaali to raise spiders – as one does. Or, they could become a Daughter of Oshabi and control the powers of nature, or become a Harbinger. As with the previous Legacy of Phrecia event, there are plenty of options to choose from.

If you participated in the previous version of this event, you’ll probably notice that a few things have changed. The latest version includes some balance changes. It also introduces a new set of modifiers for the Settlers League and Atlas Memories and completely disables modifiers for Breach. Players can mix and match mechanics to create an endgame experience they enjoy.

Other changes include the addition of mechanics players can’t control, such as each area having a random number of map modifiers, with the number increasing in relation to the area level. Campaign bosses also have some new mechanics of their own.

Of course, the event comes with rewards. Players receive rewards automatically for hitting levels 50 and 90 in the form of a Third Edict Mystery Box. Those who already have every item from that box will receive two Atlantis Mystery Boxes instead. (There’s no word as to what will happen if players happen to have everything from those boxes.)

As this is a returning event, Grinding Gear Games has elected to bring back the cosmetic bundles associated with it. So, if you missed out on those particular goodies before, you can pick them up now. There’s a good chance of the bundle containing a full armor set and extra effects, and players can expect a sizeable discount too.

While we wait for the next Honkai: Star Rail update, there are Trailblaze things happening in other places. One of those places is Epic Games’ free-to-play battle-royale Fortnite – a game known for hosting collaborations with just about.. well… everything. Over the weekend, the EGS Twitter account shared a post with an image of two swords, as seen above, and the test “Who’s trailblazing heir way to Fortnite?”.

This is one of those tricky things. If you’re a Honkai: Star Rail player, you know exactly what’s happening, and you recognize those two swords as belonging to two of our favorite Stellaron Hunters: Kafka and Blade. Those who aren’t familiar with the game, on the other hand, ended up making some pretty wild guesses. (And then there are those who are probably just guessing wildly to troll.)

Aside from the image of the two swords, we don’t really know what from Star Rail will be making its way to Fortnite. But, we can guess that the collaboration will include outfit skins – probably for the two characters and maybe for some others, art, voice packs, and maybe some music or other items. We’re sure to find out soon enough.

In fact, we may find out on Friday when HoYoverse hosts the Version 4.0 livestream that all Star Rail fans have been waiting on. If you’re looking for a canon reason for the Star Rail gang to visit Fortnite, just blame it on Aha. (That would be one of the gods in the game who lives for what THEY consider a good joke.)

Marvel Rivals had a pretty massive first year between 2024-2025. There was the addition of many new heroes, new game modes, limited-time events, and new features to enjoy along the way. However, as the free-to-play shooter heads into its second year from 2025 to the end of 2026, there are hundreds of ideas that fans would love to see the developers add. While not every concept can make it into the game, some ideas being discussed are quite popular among the community. Here are 10 things Marvel Rivals could add in 2026 to continue building on the success of the game.

More Villains

Marvel Rivals already has quite an extensive roster. However, only a tiny percent of this roster consists of villains. With a whole new year of character additions to come, a pivot to include a handful of villains throughout the year would satisfy a lot of fans. Plus, it would also add some really fun and interesting hero interactions, as well as the potential for some unique Team-Ups to come from the more antagonistic individuals across the franchise. Some of the most popular picks from the community for villains that they would like to see in the game include Thanos, Doctor Doom, Mystique, and Doc Ock, among others. As for if any of them will actually appear on the roster anytime soon...well, players will simply have to wait and see!

More Main Gameplay Mode Maps

Maps are a highly important aspect of the game. After all, things start to feel repetitive and boring if every match tends to take place in the same location. However, most recent new maps added to the game have been tied to new game modes, which are usually limited to arcade. Most recently, the one Resource Rumble map was removed entirely as of Season 6, due to being overwhelmingly unpopular with the community.

With seasonal map pool rotations, it can grow tiresome to have your match limited to just a handful of different locations every other season. There are just a few maps for each main Quick Play/Competitive gameplay mode, so it would be nice to see new maps roll out for these modes on a more regular basis, as opposed to being tied to arcade.

More Interactive Emotes & Universal Emotes

Emotes are a fun way for players to express themselves and get a laugh in-game, whether it be after making a play in your matches, or while hanging out in Times Square. Some of the most popular emotes to date have been the universal emotes and the interactive emotes. Universal emotes are dynamic poses or animations that can be added to any (or at least a large selection) of characters on the roster. Interactive emotes are emotes that two or more players can use in a combined action – such as the Emma Frost and Jeff the Land Shark cuddles emote, or the volleyball emote that came paired with the summer skins event a few seasons ago.

It would be great to see more emotes such as these, encouraging positive player interactions. There’s also quite literally endless potential for the stuff they could come up with – a Deadpool and Wolverine interactive emote, romantic gestures between some of the couples on the roster, silly universal dance emotes that can be used to craft the perfect Times Square dance mob...It’s often little things like this that bring a surprising amount of joy to players.

Optional Role Queue

One of the biggest divides between the Marvel Rivals community is whether the game should implement a Role Queue or not. Personally, I’m on the side where I don’t think this would improve the game, as it would alter queue times (as seen with Overwatch 2) and drastically affect many team comps and Team-Up abilities. The fact that you can flex your team as needed to work with Team-Ups is one of the unique aspects of Rivals, and Role Queue would limit how many Team-Ups could be put into play due to the 2-2-2 standard.

However, I do think a good in between would be to implement an optional role queue, where players can queue for a specific role, and if the matchmaking times take too long, it will automatically reassign them to the ‘flex’/regular queue, where they will be able to select any role as per usual. This would let players who really want to play Role Queue dive into some games, but also have less of a hindrance on the game as a whole, as things would ultimately need some serious changes and rebalancing if Role Queue was to arrive.

More Narrators/Announcers (Other Than Galacta)

Galacta is the Marvel Rivals match announcer always yapping on about the players getting on the payload or contesting the objective. Most Marvel Rivals players have become fed up with the classic “Another epic victory, biiiiiig win!” or in some unfortunate situations, repetitive instances “Well, you can’t win them all...”

If you’ve found yourself wishing there were other options to cycle through other than Galacta, you’re not alone. This could perhaps be on a per-map basis, or even additional unlockables that players could purchase with Accessory Points or yet another earnable currency. We’ve already seen that this is possible with the addition of Khonshu as the announcer for the Marvel Rivals zombies mode, so it really would be great to see some more options. Popular characters that fans have discussed wanting to see as in-game announcers include Galactus, Doctor Door, Khonshu (for non-zombies modes), Spider-Ham, and more.

More Interactive Team-Ups

When Marvel Rivals launched, the concept of Team-Ups was one of the biggest selling points of the game, letting players combine their hero picks to unlock new abilities or interactions that can be used in combat. However, as the seasons have progressed, Team-Ups have become more ‘anchor hero unlocks a new ability for the partner hero’, rather than introducing her interactive mechanics.

Some of the best Team-Ups in the game are ones in which characters interact with one another to perform an action or special move. Rather than continuing the pattern of ability-based Team-Ups such as Hela and Namor, or Cloak & Dagger and Hawkeye, it would be phenomenal to see more interactive Team-Ups making their way into the game, much like Hulk and Wolverine, Captain America and Winter Soldier, or Groot, Jeff, and Rocket’s Team-Ups involve both players actually interacting with one another and working together.

More Alternate Variation Skins (Lady Loki)

Lastly, Marvel Rivals players love a good skin. The sheer number of different skins that are available and released throughout each season truly does keep the community coming back for more. If there’s one skin of 2025 that truly shone, it would be the Lady Loki skin, the first of its kind to completely change a hero's 3D model and voice acting.

However, with the release of this skin, many fans have immediately started discussing whether this could open up the doors for other similar concepts to make their way into the game. For example, some possible additions could be She-Hulk for Hulk, Gwen/Ghost Spider for Spider-Man, Captain Carter for Captain America, and Kate Bishop for Hawkeye, among numerous other possibilities.

Today, HoYoverse revealed Zenless Zone Zero's Version 2.6 update, "Encore for an Old Dream". The update launches on February 6, taking the Proxies back home to Sixth Street just in time to take part in the annual Gilded Carrot Day fun and cheer on their friends, the Angels of Delusion as they kick off their idol career. Two of them, Sunna and Aria, will even join the free-to-play action RPG's roster of playable Agents. The group will perform at the 404 Error music venue on Sixth Street. Finally, we'll be able to get a look at the place that's been shuttered since we began our adventures.

In fact, players will be able to go backstage as supporting staff for the Angels, managing their schedules and social media, and taking part in rhythm-based gameplay. There will also be a new Marcel Adventure.

Speaking of new things, a new game mode, Operation Matrix, is being introduced. The mode features rotating themed stages where teams consisting of three primary agents, an auxiliary agent, and a Bangboo. There are also new Resonia and Gears that players will find useful.

Of course, it won't all be just celebrations and fun. While the city prepares for Gilded Carrot Day, Phaethon will take on a new commission involving an "illegal intelligent entity" that requires them to team up with Jane Doe. (I wonder if we're about to meet one of the other three super-intelligent AI like Fairy.)

As far as what else is available in the update, players will want to watch the most recent livestream to learn about it all.

A new update has hit The Finals, bringing with it bug fixes, general improvements, and tweaks to Point Break. Among these changes is the introduction of a new set of rules for players’ Embark ID Display Names intended to help eliminate problem players in the free-to-play shooter. This may result in automatic name changes for players who don’t fit the new rules.

The update also brings the new world tour event, “Orbital Breach”. The event has been enabled in the Arena and combines Hackout, which allows players to see opponents through walls, and orbital lasers. This means the players can easily target the enemy, and that anyone lingering in one place for too long is at risk of being taken out. So, it’s best to keep moving.

The update also introduces changes to the Point Break game mode, new weapons, new store items, and more. Information on all of these can be found in the announcement on The Finals Steam Page.

A new update is now available for Throne & Liberty. Update 3.19.0 introduces the randomly-generated “Tower of Greed” to the free-to-play MMORPG. The tower is a PvE activity designed for one to six players. It features rooms with unique mechanics and quests. Players can save their progress or form parties at checkpoints. To access the tower, players will need to complete a special quest first.

The update also brings the Lucky Mystic Portal to the game. During the event, which lasts until February 12, it offers daily login rewards that contain keys needed to unlock Mystic Portals, where players can hunt for treasure.

In addition, the update also revamps Amitoi Expeditions and housing. Details on these changes can be found in the patch notes on the game’s site.

If you’ve been hoping for more information on Wargaming’s upcoming free-to-play shooter World of Tanks: HEAT, the developer has announced the “Foundations” video series. The first episode of the series, titled “The Source of HEAT”, is already available.

The video provides a detailed look at HEAT’s alternative post-World War II timeline setting, as well as the game’s warfare. This means players will get a look at the world’s experimental tech and armored combat.

Players will also get a look at the game’s environments and core game modes. Currently, there are four modes to look at: the 10v10 Conquest mode and the 5v5 Kill Confirmed, Hardpoint, and Control modes.

Conquest has players fighting to capture and hold multiple zones. In Kill Confirmed teams, collect tokens from both eliminated enemies and allies. Hardpoint is a fight for control of a base. And, finally, in Control, players must secure uninterrupted control of a captured zone.

If Pokémon and Genshin Impact had a baby, it would look like Aniimo. That’s not to say that the free-to-play creature-collecting MMO from developer Pawprint Studio will ever be as big as either of those two franchises, but if you’re looking for something that combines creature-collecting with open-world exploration and puzzle-solving, Aniimo scratches that specific set of itches.

You begin the game as a beginner student for the Polaris Institute. After making it through the initial story and tutorial, you’ll be set loose in the world of Idyll to make your mark as a Pathfinder, catching and training Aniimo while exploring the world and discovering it secrets.

Out in the open world, you’re free to explore a vast area full of treasures, challenges, and other Aniimo to catch. In fine tradition, this is accomplished via throwing a tiny item at them – in this case, a cube called an Aniipod – and hoping to score the capture. You can sneak up behind an Aniimo, catch it while it’s sleeping, or weaken it in battle to increase your capture chance.

Fine twining

You always have an Aniimo at your side as you explore. You can direct it to use its attack on a target or “twine” with it to merge your forms and take control directly. I found that, in battle, it’s best to be untwined so your Aniimo could attack while you used special skills or attacked on your own, while puzzle-solving typically required the precision of twining to make sure you hit your mark. There are both basic Aniimo to fight and capture along with “alphas” that are more akin to boss battles that take time and skill to defeat.

Throughout the world, you’ll find various challenges that you’ll need your Aniimo to overcome. Each Aniimo has a special ability based on its element that you can use while twined to overcome obstacles. These can be as simple as a treasure chest covered in vines that you need to burn away with a flame attack, or places you have to burrow underground or float through the sky to reach. You can activate the abilities manually, though some, like gliding and swimming, are automatically enabled when you need them, which is a convenient touch.

There are also sanctums, closed-off “dungeons” where you have to use your Aniimo’s special abilities to reach the end. At least in the early part of the game that I experience, they’re pretty simple – mostly “burn this to progress” – but I can see the potential for working in more complex puzzles using a wide variety of Aniimo as the game progresses.

Creature comforts

I’m impressed with the level of detail that went into creating the game’s 88 Aniimos, or at least the ones I encountered. They’re all distinctive and show personality in their idle animations to the point that I found myself saying “awww” more than a few times. It’s probably too late for them to become household names like Pokémon, but if you’re not picky about brands, you’ll probably be able to pick out a favorite or two.

I spent my time in the game’s first zone, Nimbus Fields, and even this low-level area was enough to show promise. There’s enough to do even in this small of an area that I was entertained, and the addictive nature of battling and capturing and leveling up your little creatures is as strong as ever, so good job by the devs in nailing that aspect of the game. Later gameplay elements include an RV for socializing and travel and a “homeland” where you can set up crops and an amusement park for your Aniimo.

Aniimo plays less like an MMORPG and more like an RPG with optional multiplayer. You’ll only discover new players in outposts or if you take someone with you out into the world. This is probably for the best, as you likely don’t want other players stomping around when you’re trying to capture a particular Aniimo, but don’t go into the game expecting to see lots of players wandering the world. Even if you treat it as a single-player RPG with no multiplayer elements, it’s enjoyable enough.

Aniimo brings with it several of what I feel are the downsides of the new wave of gacha-inspired games, though I’ll admit to having something of an antiquated opinion regarding that sort of thing. You’ll get achievements galore that will flood you with plenty of currencies that you’ll likely have no idea what to do with early in the game. It’s not as bad as others in the genre, but it can still be a little overwhelming.

Speaking of currencies, the cash shop doesn’t seem to be implemented yet, so I can’t give any impression of how that will go. I have to believe that it won’t be egregious in making it so you can buy rare Aniimo rather than catching them in the field, since that’s the entire purpose for the game’s existence. The currencies I did accumulate let me buy various cosmetics for my Pathfinder or Aniimo, so I’m hopeful that will be the limit when the game finally launches, though I could see the rarer, more powerful, Aniipods being offered.

While Aniimo does have many elements copied from other games, there’s also enough charm and originality to make it stand out. I’m always skeptical of perceived “copycat” games, and while Aniimo certainly borrows from other titles, I think it’s got enough to stand on its own furry four legs. I didn’t expect much when I booted it up, but it was unexpectedly pleasant enough to make me want to check it out later when it launches for real.

That will be later in 2026 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and mobile devices. For now, you can sign up for the closed beta at aniimo.com.

EverQuest and EverQuest 2 players have noticed something missing and weren’t pleased with the response when they asked where they were at. The missing items in question are the 2026 roadmaps for the free-to-play MMORPGs.

When players began to inquire as to the status of the roadmaps, a senior community manager took to the forums to explain, letting players know their questions had been seen and that the team has “chosen to forgo a roadmap this year” as they “would like to knock out the redundancy in posting the same information repeatedly and would much prefer to post articles closer to when things will be occurring”.

As you might expect, player response was less than positive, with many pointing out that less communication isn’t better. Others noted that many players don’t bother with individual updates and that the roadmap was the only way they know what’s up with the game.

This prompted studio head Jenn Chan to add a post to the games’ forums sharing some plans for the year. This includes two game updates for EQ2, new content on the Origin servers, and various quality-of-life updates. Based on the post, it seems things aren’t as dire as players were imagining. Although they’re probably right about not keeping up with regular news posts on the games’ sites.

Fans of Cryptic Studios’ games will be interested to know that a familiar face is returning to the company. The developer of popular free-to-play MMORPGs like Star Trek Online, Champions Online, and Neverwinter announced the return of Jack Emmert as the company’s new CEO. Emmert is intimately familiar with all of these projects, having led the studio during their creation.

Emmert’s goal upon returning to Cryptic is to “recapture the spirit and ambition that once made the studio a genre-defining force”. His plans are to focus on Cryptic’s legacy and “restore the studio to its full potential”.

To share his plans with players, Emmert will be hosting a live Q&A session on Cryptic’s Twitch channel. The stream is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, February 3 at 11:00 am Pacific time. In addition, he will also host AMAs on the Neverwinter and Star Trek Online subreddits. The first will begin at 9:00 am Pacific time on February 4. The second will be held the same day, beginning at 11:00 am Pacific time.

Yesterday, SEGA hosted the first NGS Headline Wave of 2026, offering Phantasy Star Online: New Genesis players a look at their plans for the free-to-play MMORPG. The stream details content updates coming to the game, including a level cap raise to 115 and new mini-episodes.

The mini-episodes will drop on February 4 and will feature companions sharing their feelings following the battle with Vael. Some episodes will feature Nadereh and Manon discussing music found in the Nameless City.

Speaking of the Nameless City, players can look forward to a new exploration quest in the region. Specifically, players will explore the district of the Neon City, where they will gather as many exploration points as they can in a specific amount of time.

The stream covered several other bits of content coming to the game as well. Those interested can find more details in the VOD below.

WEBZEN is preparing to launch a new MU Online speed server in February. At the same time, they will be dropping the renewed Rune Mage class. To prepare players of the free-to-play MMORPG for both, the developer is hosting a “pre-event”.

The event will provide new players as well as those who have been away for a while with useful items intended to give them a bit of a head start when the server launches. This includes login rewards such as Golden Channel Tickets, Bless of Light, and boosters. Other items are earned by reaching various milestones.

In addition, special gifts such as the Rune Mage Character Card will be given to players who pre-register. This item will help players get started with the renewed Rune Mage class. More details can be found on the MU Online site.

Yesterday, Wildlight Entertainment released its PvP raid shooter, Highguard. Since then, the game has accumulated more than 15,000 reviews on Steam, and things are not looking good.

Don’t get us wrong. There are some positive reviews for the free-to-play game. And since the game is free-to-play, it won’t hurt you to try it if you really want to.

That said, more than 60% of the game’s reviews are negative, with most of them having legitimate complaints. These include the size of the game’s map, which is too big for 3v3 play, connectivity issues, and that the game is simply boring. That last one makes sense if the map is too big to meet other players on.

Other complaints include blurry visuals and “surface-level gameplay” with a lack of things (or NPCs) to interact with. One reviewer even stated that they “mostly just feel bad for the devs”, as they believe the game wasn’t intended "for this level of scrutiny".

The question now is what the developers plan to do in response to the fallout, or if they can do anything that will matter at this point. As of now, it seems players feel like they’ve been delivered an incomplete game. That’s a bit difficult to overcome.

The arrival of Marvel Rivals Season 6 has seen the introduction of Deadpool to the free-to-play game's hero roster. As the first ever character in the game who is playable on all three roles, Deadpool certainly is one of the most unique roster additions to date. If you’re looking to get started with playing this hero, knowing how his abilities work across the roles will certainly come in handy. Luckily, this guide covers everything you need to know about Deadpool’s hero kit, team-ups, and gameplay tips for Marvel Rivals.

Deadpool’s Hero Kit & Abilities, Explained

Deadpool is the first ‘flex’ hero to join the game, being playable on any of the three roles. Depending on whether you choose Vanguard Deadpool, Duelist Deadpool, or Strategist Deadpool, the character will have slight ability variations from his primary kit.

In addition to this, Deadpool can gain charge during gameplay that can then be used to open his book and upgrade abilities. To gain charge, you will need to deal damage to the enemy, secure kills, or accumulate heals on your teammates. Each upgrade will strengthen one ability of your choice from Deadpool’s kit into a stronger variation, meaning you get rewarded with power-ups when executing his kit/playstyle well.

Some of Deadpool's abilities are also shared across all three of his kits. Here is a breakdown of every ability that remains the same, or almost the same, on all three roles:

Hazardous Hijinks – Secondary Fire

Dash to an enemy, knocking them down on a hit. On a successful hit, refresh the ability up to 2 times, for three Hazardous Hijinks hits in total. On Support Deadpool, Hazardous Hijinks also applies 45 heal.

Upgrade! – F ability

Deadpool accumulates XP by healing his allies, hitting enemies, and securing kills. He can then use that XP to level up abilities through his upgrade book. In addition to this, whenever Deadpool lands a kill on an enemy, he has the potential to strike a selfie with their corpse. Deadpool can become immune for a couple of seconds when taking a selfie with the enemy, which makes it incredibly valuable for surviving certain ultimates. However, in order to take a selfie, you must kill an enemy player and secure the final hit, resulting in their death. Upon doing so, the F prompt will appear over their body.

Deadpool in Your Area – E Ability

Apply a taunt to enemies, applying Deadpool-themed visual clutter to their screen, and apply chip damage to their health. During this phase, Deadpool's swords and pistols go 'turbo', applying increased firing rate/higher damage output as a result.

Bunny Bounce / Healing Hop – Space

Deadpool can perform a double jump in midair and spring off walls. During the Big Test ultimate, he can also bounce off enemy or ally heals, or walls to reset the ability cooldown. On Strategist Deadpool, this ability becomes Healing Hop, and also applies healing and transforms the next katana base attack to a Stab.

Healing Factor – Passive Ability

When Deadpool has been out of combat for 5 seconds, Healing Factor will kick in, restoring 25 health per second. If Deadpool takes more than 200 damage within a two-second window, his Healing Factor is immediately activated with a boosted heal rate of 50 health per second.

Maximum Flair – Passive Ability

The ultimate ability can be unleashed after reaching an S rating. The rating is cleared if Deadpool is defeated. Deadpool accumulates his Ultimate purely through style points. Each time you land an ability on an enemy, you gain style points, which raise the rank of your Ultimate ability. After reaching an S rating, you can unleash the Ultimate on everyone. However, if you die, the rating will be restarted.

Deadpool Vanguard Abilities

Here is a complete breakdown of each one of Deadpool’s abilities when he is being played on the Vanguard role:

Dual-Desert Eagles: Vanguard – Primary Fire

Rapid-fire projectile, 30 ammunition, 36 damage per round.

Kickass Katana – Primary Fire

Melee weapon, 30 damage per hit.

Magical Unicorn Shield – Secondary Fire

Deploy a plushie that releases a safety bubble to block incoming damage around a selected area.

Deadpool Duelist Abilities

Here is a complete breakdown of each one of Deadpool’s abilities when he is being played on the Duelist role:

Dual-Desert Eagles: Duelist – Primary Fire

Rapid-fire projectile, 38 damage per hit, 30 ammo, 2.5 rounds per second.

Kickass Katana – Primary Fire

Melee, 40 dmg per hit.

Headshot! Duelist – Secondary Fire

Deadpool casts out a projectile that goes through enemies, applying damage, before returning to his location. It has a delayed impact and also generates a spell field, dealing damage both when being sent out and on the return.

Deadpool Strategist Abilities

Here is a complete breakdown of each one of Deadpool’s abilities when he is being played on the Strategist role:

Dual-Desert Eagles: Strategist – Primary Fire

Rapid-fire projectile, 2.5 rounds per second with 30 ammo. 25 damage per round on enemies, 45 healing per round on allies.

Kickass Katana – Primary Fire

Melee, 30 damage per hit, 32 healing.

Bouncing Bobblehead – Secondary Fire

Send out a single-cast projectile that also generates a spell field. The projectile damages enemies and heals allies it connects with. Projectile damage 20 on cast and return, projectile healing 40 on cast and return. Spell field damage is 10/s, whilst spell field healing is 40/s.

Deadpool’s Ultimate Abilities, Explained

Unlike other heroes, Deadpool does not accumulate his Ultimate through regular Ult. Charge. Instead, he gains his Ultimate by raising the level in combat. For healing done, hits delivered, and kills secured, Deadpool builds up XP, which will raise the letter grade. This can be seen on his Ultimate button. Once you reach S, Deadpool can unleash his Ultimate.

There are a few important things to consider. Firstly, Deadpool’s Ultimate works on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis, meaning that if you die, you will need to restart your XP grind. However, on the upside, if you continue to stay alive, you can continuously farm your Ult. For multiple uses per life.

In addition to this, Deadpool has two different Ultimates for each Role – one for his pistols and one for his katanas. This means that in total, he has six different Ultimate abilities, each with slightly differing side effects. A complete summary of them has been included below

The Ban Hammer – Vanguard Pistol Ultimate

Deadpool places a Taunt on one person, gaining bonus HP and healing. If the target misses their abilities, they take 80 damage per missed shot/ability, and Deadpool gains bonus HP.

The Big Test – Vanguard Katana Ultimate

Gains speed and healing buffs, as well as bonus Hazardous Hijinks dashes and bonus HP for himself and all nearby allies. If you apply enough hits to enemies, you will unlock 'mega' speed and healing, as well as reset the cooldown for Healing Factor.

Skill Issue – Duelist Pistol Ultimate

Pick an enemy and apply a taunt. If the enemy misses an ability/shot, they get hit for 60 damage per ability/shot missed.

Pop Quiz! – Duelist Katana Ultimate

Boost your speed and healing output upon using Pop Quiz! Then, hit enough abilities on enemies/allies within the timeframe to unlock bonus speed and healing. The challenge lasts 12 seconds, with the maximum boost lasting 6 seconds from challenge completion.

Pwnage Pound – Strategist Pistol Ultimate

Deadpool gets bonus HP and healing after applying a taunt to an enemy. If the enemy misses their abilities or shots, they take 80 damage per missed ability or shot, and Deadpool gains bonus HP.

Final Exam – Strategist Katana Ultimate

Deadpool gains bonus Healing Hijinks charges, bonus healing output, bonus speed, and applies bonus HP to himself and allies within range. If he hits enough enemies and allies within the challenge period (12s from Ultimate use), he gains a bonus speed and healing for 6s following this.

Deadpool Team-Up Abilities

Mr. Pool’s Interdimensional Toolbix / Commical Chaos – Deadpool + Jeff the Land Shark

Deadpool provides Jeff the Land Shark with a new 'plushie' ability to use. Jeff can cast this plushie on the map, causing an AOE healing field for allies, and apply Deadpool-themed visual clutter to the screen of enemies. Deadpool gains 5% healing bonus on Strategist, 5% damage boost on Duelist, or +50 Max Health on Vanguard

Deadpool Tips & Tricks

• Deadpool’s Photo Mode can be used to sustain massive amounts of damage for a short time, which makes it perfect for living through/’tanking’ certain Ultimates. This includes Magneto, Namor, Iron Man, Phoenix, and more.
• Learning when to swap between Deadpool’s weapon types is key. This enables you to create different combos as you dash in and out of the mid-close range. His pistols are great for applying pressure from poke behind cover or taking out flyers, while his katanas are brilliant for dashing in and finishing off kills.
• Vanguard Deadpool can improve his firing rate with weapons after hitting his E ability, which enables him to temporarily apply even more pressure to the enemies for a while.
• While each team can only select one Deadpool role to play, whoever is playing Deadpool is free to switch between any of his three roles at any given point of the match. This lets you adjust your team comp as needed, whilst keeping the same sort of ability kit in play

Warframe’s got a busy couple of months ahead if today’s announcements are anything to go by. Not only is the new update, “The Shadowgrapher,” planned to release in March, but the game will be dropping on Android on February 18, and new ways to experience the game on Switch 2 will be hitting sometime in Q1. In addition to that, the devs are busy scheduling convention appearances, kicking things off at PAX East, which will also include a celebration of the game’s 13th anniversary. This will be followed by the first -ever TennoVIP community event in São Paulo, Brazil, on May 1 and TennoCon in July. The TennoCon tickets will go on sale on February 27. As we said, they’re busy.

Today, Digital Extremes covered the details on all of this in the January Devsteam. The important things to know about the Android Warframe launch, aside from the date, are that Canadian residents can get in early via a region-specific soft launch on February 11 and that the game is compatible with devices running 64-bit Android on an ARM4 processor with Android OS 12.0 or higher.

As for the upcoming “The Shadowgrapher” update, it will introduce the free-to-play sci-fi shooter's 64th Warframe, the inkblot-inspired Follie. The update will also introduce a new game mode in a haunted painting, as well as graphical improvements.

Full details on the update and the Android drop, as well as everything you need to know about all the upcoming conventions and other events, can be found in the stream embedded below.

Today, Kuro Games hosted the Version 3.1 Special Program for its free-to-play anime-style action RPG, Wuthering Waves. The program detailed what’s to come in the game’s next update and offered players a look at improvements and optimizations coming to the game as well.

Following the conclusion of the last update, Lahai-Roi now has a new sun in the form of the Helios, but the Fractidus is still up to its shenanigans, and the Spacetrek Collective needs to inspect the fallen Reactor Drive. Of course, while we may have forgotten about it with everything else that’s been going on, Rover still has to figure out what’s stealing their Frequency. And then there’s the question of the Exostrider – Lahai-Roi’s non-sentinel sentinel – and the mysterious pink-haired girl Aemeath.

The 3.1 update will begin with the new main quest titled “The Star that Voyages Far” on February 5. The story will take Rover into the Frostlands and answer questions about Aemeath, the Exostrider, and this region’s Threnodian. Of course, the Fractidus will be attempting to execute their own plans as well. Following that, we’ll get an afterstory titled “All that Sunlight Touches,” which will delve into the past of Startorch Academy’s resident doctor, Luuk Herssen. That story will be available on February 26.

Aemeath and Luuk are the two new five-star Resonators being introduced in Version 3.1. Aemeath is a Fusion Sword wielder who also happens to be the chosen Resonator of the Extostrider. She uses mechs and music in battle, and as the Exostrider’s Resonator has the ability to switch between states, one of which is “digital ghost”. The other is the “Exostrider Armament”, which can also be deployed separately. She’s also capable of flight in the Armament state. And her ultimate summons the Exostrider itself – or at least a version of it.

The other five-star Resonator, Luuk, is a Spectro Gauntlet user. He literally wields his own blood in combat. Or rather, he uses the Ichor that’s been infused into his body over time to create weapons, specifically a scalpel that can be detonated from a distance and scythe forms named Dissection and Resection. The scythes are mid-air abilities.

Rover will be traveling to the Roya Frostlands with both Aemeath and Luuk. Luuk is on his way there for work, but as it’s the same direction, he’ll serve as Rover’s guide on the journey. The Frostlands are above Lahai-Roi and used to be a forest, but the Lament changed the climate. As a result, players will have to contend with the dangerous weather patterns when visiting. To get there, players will be taking the massive vertical track found in the Research Institute.

As we’re visiting a frosty new zone, the bike will be getting an upgrade – specifically one that will allow us to drive on open water. This should improve exploration. The update will also introduce a new All-Terrain Tactics module. It will offer several benefits, such as snow tires increasing driving speed when using the Glacier Track.

The update will also introduce new gameplay modes and events. Some familiar events will be returning as well. As for this update’s Convenes, the first one will feature Aemeath, Chisa, Lupa, and their related weapons simultaneously. The second will feature Luuk Herssen, Galbrena, and their related weapons.

As an added surprise, the livestream also showed off some new cosmetics for Rover. Players can get a new crystal crown (Although, I’m not removing my birthday crown.), and when players complete the 3.1 story, they’ll also earn a new outfit, which is effectively Rover’s uniform for the Spacetrek Academy. Players will also receive 1,600 Astrites just for logging into the game between February 17 and March 19.

Of course, the stream included several reward codes. These can be redeemed via the game’s menu and are: PAPERPLANE, WARMSUNGLIGHT, and JOURNEYWELL.

While we still don’t have a solid launch date for Pawprint Studio’s upcoming open-world creature-catching game, Aniimo (other than sometime this year), we know we’re a step closer. Today, the developer kicked off the game’s second beta test, offering everyone a look at the game. Yes, even those who didn’t get in. There’s no NDA, so chances are you can find a streamer you enjoy playing it.

If you signed up for the test but haven’t received an email and aren’t sure if you got in, there’s an easy way to check. Simply head to the Aniimo site and click the “Am I In?” button on the bottom right-hand side. Fill in your email address, and it will give you the answer.

If you were lucky enough to get in, know that what device you can play on will be determined by what level of access you have to the game. If you have iOS TestFlight access, you can play on iOS and PC. However, if you don’t, then you’ll be going PC only. A full FAQ and guide can be found on the game’s site as well.

If you missed out on the early days of Nexon’s classic 2D anime MMORPG MapleStory. Well, that’s what MapleStory Classic World is for. When the game launches, it’ll offer players a taste of 2026 MapleStory. To give players an idea as to what that’s going to be like, Nexon recently posted a short video titled “MapleStory Classic World Origins” offering a look at the game in action. In the two-minute video (I know, it’s not very long.), players get a peek at the game’s market, community features, character creation, and gameplay elements like combat.

On an additional note, if you happen to be anywhere near Los Angeles, you can sign up for an in-person, limited-time public test. The event is already underway and will run until Friday, February 13. Players can book their spot via the Nexon site.

Skate. has faced a bit of a bumpy road since releasing in Early Access back in September 2025. It's a hit with some players, but many fans of the previous entries believe it falls flat in comparison. However, with the game only being in Early Access, there are a series of changes that could still be made throughout the rest of development. Keeping that in mind, here are 9 things Skate could add to improve the game throughout 2026.

Clothing Marketplace / Design Your Own Clothing

Skate. has a variety of different clothing options that can be acquired by players through various methods. Some are tied to completing challenges, some are earned through loot boxes purchased with earnable in-game currency, and some are only available through the in-game Skate Shop with real-world currencies. Additionally, there are also occasional event clothing items that can be obtained by spending event currency, earned by completing seasonal challenges.

However, some players aren’t satisfied with the clothing options currently available in Skate. Others have suggested they’d like to see a marketplace of sorts, where players can design their own clothing items. These items could then be sold to others for in-game currency, letting players make a profit that they can then go on and spend on other clothes that take their interest. Alternatively, some fans have also stated that a more frequent and consistent variety of Skate. collaborations could be enough to satisfy them in terms of cosmetics.

Design Your Own Challenges

Taking things a step further from clothing customization, players have also felt some frustrations towards the lack of new challenges in the game. To remedy this, a mode where players can create challenges could be a very interesting move for the devs to make. Imagine being able to set up your own challenges and goals, and then share them with your friends and the community. A leaderboard system would add a fun sense of competitiveness to the challenges among players and would bring more gameplay customization to the hands of players.

Custom Parks – Make Your Own Park

Technically, custom parks/design your own skate park features have already been somewhat confirmed for the game. However, the devs have stated that this is to come in “Season 3, or beyond”, with no definitive information on just when this addition may arrive. As this is the most highly anticipated content addition for Skate. among the community, it makes sense that players are currently trying not to get their hopes up. Instead, if this feature were simply to arrive within 2026, many would feel that it is a win, rather than “beyond” continuing to stretch further and further onwards without any more updates.

New Expansions & Areas to Skate

The Skate. map already has four main divisions that you can skate within San Van, each containing their own skate parks and different challenges to uncover. However, some players have reported that after extensive time on the game, the city of San Van can feel a little dull and repetitive. Of course, certain updates, such as the Season 2 lighting changes, bring some nice little breaths of fresh air into the game, but players are seeking more. Seeing new suburbs or areas being added to the San Van map throughout 2026 would be one of the more exciting gameplay changes that could be made, or perhaps, if we want to dream big, eventually, additional maps featuring entirely different cities to skate through.

Tags/Sprays

This one is a minor addition, but perhaps that means it's more realistic than bigger concepts on this list. Players love a sense of customization, so being able to unlock and collect different graffiti tags or sprays would be a fun little way for players to leave their mark around the city. They could also make decent rewards for limited-time events and Battle Pass tiers. Eventually being able to customize or design your own sprays would also be interesting, similar to the concept of a clothing marketplace.

More Limited-Time Events With Earnable Rewards

Skate. has only launched a small handful of limited-time events, such as the Halloween and Winter seasonal events. These enable players to complete event challenges and earn limited-time currencies. These currencies can then be used to purchase special items from a section of the Skate. Shop. However, these events often have limited or unappealing items compared to the premium options, which cost San Van Bucks. It would be nice to see more regular limited-time events, even if they are for random themes or celebrations rather than annual seasonal conditions. This way, there will be more event challenges and more themed items up for grabs, which will give players a reason to jump back into the game and complete some challenges.

Spotify Link & Custom Playlist Sharing

There are some absolute hidden gems on the Skate. in-game playlists. However, while players are free to listen to these mixes as they’d like, favorite tracks, and shuffle their playlists, some players wish they had more control over the music they are listening to while they skate around. Simply put, not everyone will have the same taste, so why not let players listen to their own stuff? Spotify integration would be a nice little feature for Skate., enabling players to import their Spotify playlists to use in-game, potentially even sharing their own skate mixes with the community.

More Ways to Earn Tix & Unlock Battle Pass Rewards

One of the biggest complaints from the community about the game currently is how few rewards are given out for seasonal tasks. Tix are the currency used to purchase Battle Passes (‘Skate. Pass’), as well as all rewards and tiers within each pass. Unfortunately, they are also quite grindy to complete, with each set of daily tasks providing a limited amount of Tix. In order to complete the Skate. Pass each season, players must spend quite a consistent amount of time in the game completing challenges on a daily and weekly basis. If they made the pass a little less grindy and Tix easier to earn, it would ultimately feel more satisfying to the player.

Better Challenge Rewards

Touching on the above, while making Tix easier to obtain would be a step in the right direction, challenge rewards in general could do with a bit of tweaking. Each challenge completed only gives a handful of Rip Chips, which players then use to unlock loot boxes from the shop. However, the game could either do with additional ways to earn Rip Chips or provide more Rip Chips for challenges. Sometimes, players just want to free skate around the city or take on their friends in Throwdowns. If additional ways of earning Rip Chips could be added to these functions, this would be a positive change for the game. Perhaps players could gain a small amount of Rip Chips when discovering hidden locations for the first time, or additional Rip Chips when placing well in Throwdowns.

If you haven’t played the anime-style MMORPG Crystal of Atlan recently, you may have missed the recent drop of the “Sandstorm Journey” update, which kicked off a new adventure in the main quest chapter “Floating Settlement” and introduced a new co-op dungeon for players to explore. The update also raised the player level cap to 70, once players complete a level breakthrough quest, of course.

The new questline “Floating Settlement” begins with players trying to solve Navigator Yudora’s disappearance and find the Kraken Key. Along the way, players will experience new stories, Elite Dungeons, and new exploration areas, among other things.

There’s also the level 70 Epic co-op dungeon, “Duskfeather Lair”. The dungeon comes in Solo, Story, Elite, and Legend modes, and clearing any of them will earn players rare rewards, including Level 65 Epic gear.

Since the update’s launch, a login event has been underway. The good news is that if you haven’t been in the game recently, you can still take advantage of it. It doesn’t end until March 12. During that time, players can claim Level 60 Advancer’s Resources and a Level 60 Epic Gear box just by logging in.

It’s that time. Arknights: Endfield has officially launched, and it’s time to enter the world of Talos-II to begin our journey in the free-to-play RTS ARPG. Take on the role of the Endiministrator of Endfield Industries and, with the help of the Five Sparks – and a whole lot of other Operators, work to expand humanity’s presence beyond the Civilization Band.

With the game’s launch, the “Scars of the Forge” character banner is live, offering players a rate-up on their first six-star Operator, Laevatain. A limited-time sign-in event also accompanies the launch, granting players rewards for signing in across multiple days.

Those who played in the Arknights: Endfield tests will also notice a variety of changes. These include improvements to leveling and the weapons and gear system. New story content has been introduced, along with new gameplay features like the “Clue Collection”. A full list of changes can be found in the game’s launch notes.

If you pre-registered for the game, you’ll be receiving your rewards in-game via mail. Also note that if you’re taking part in the Final Prep Orders event on the game’s site, you can claim rewards from it as well. That being said, the event is still running, and as of this writing, there’s at least one more collection opportunity. As you can only select a few of the items from the draws to take into the game, it might be best to wait until you complete all the draws to decide.

As Darkpaw works toward rolling out the Frostreaver server in EverQuest, they’re really taking what players of the free-to-play MMORPG want into account. As a result, when the new server launches, it will have a set of rules determined by the players in a series of polls. Last week, the devs shared the results of those polls, which covered three main topics: expansion unlocks, special rules, and bonuses.

The expansion unlocks cover what will be available at server launch, whether or not the server should stop unlocking expansions, standard unlock periods, and more. For those wondering, Standard - Scars of Velious Launch will be available when the server opens, and expansion unlocks will continue until the server catches up with the live version of the game. In addition, expansions will unlock every 8 weeks.

As for special rules, the server will not have Truebox, and clients per computer will be unrestricted. The server will not have open PvP and will have Encounter Locking. Experience gain will be as fast as possible, and levels will not be locked. Players also voted to have evolving bonuses, randomized loot, challenge achievements, and more.