We've known for some time now that things are going to meaningfully change for Destiny 2 in Year 11, with the start of what is currently known as Frontiers. A recent leak, however, alleges some hugely unpopular changes for Destiny 2's content model, and players are already skeptical of it.

These leaks about Destiny 2 came about very recently, alleging that Bungie is moving the game away from the current model (one yearly DLC with 3-4 seasons/episodes) to something lighter and easier to maintain. It would purportedly consist of two smaller DLCs and two seasons per year, with a lessened focus on narrative progression in lieu of activities, loot, and pure gameplay. This is too little information to go on - even if it is true - but the players are already a fair bit worried about what it might mean about Destiny's future.

If the leaked plans for Destiny 2 are true, players won't be happy about it

The biggest source of concern for the community is the leaker's claim that there will be no more "week-to-week story beats or story released all at once." Instead, we'd be getting only "one intro mission explaining the 'why' of the Season. That's it," they claim. "Only thing other than that is traditional character banter throughout the [seasonal] activity." A non-insignificant number of players are extremely unhappy about this potentially being true.

Some players, specifically, believe that Bungie is attempting to turn Destiny 2 into a "lobby simulator" such as Fortnite and/or Apex Legends. This, presumably, refers to the fact that these games don't put any meaningful emphasis on their lore and story development, opting instead to go all-in on gameplay. It's not a decision without practical merit, to be sure, as keeping the Destiny story going is no mean feat. Yet, the story was a crucial reason as to why some players kept coming back to the game in the first place. I, myself, find the leaks worrying, if they're true.

It is, perhaps, surprising just how many Destiny 2 players have chimed in on this thread saying that they're still playing the game almost exclusively due to the story. Then again, Bungie's had a serious knack for out-there narrative developments for decades now, from Pathways Into Darkness onwards, and there's potential here for the studio to alienate its oldest fans if Destiny 2 does end up turning into a "lobby simulator" in the end.

Now, to be perfectly fair, it wouldn't be the first time that we've seen a wildly popular Destiny 2 leak end up being a total wash in the end. Moreover, even if these leaks are all true, Bungie could end up injecting enough Grimoire-style content every season that the narrative ends up trucking along at a reasonable pace.

Personally, I feel the bigger problem is that Bungie has lost a full third of its staff very recently, including some key veteran staff such as Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy. The studio claims that this won't affect Destiny 2 in the slightest, but I find that very hard to believe. The fact of the matter is that Bungie hasn't told us virtually anything about Frontiers yet, and so it's not hard to see why the community might be worried about it, given what's been happening as of late. It's an uncertain time to be a Destiny fan, that's for sure.

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With the Creation Kit and Year 2 DLC already in tow, it's obvious that Starfield isn't going anywhere anytime soon. However, if you've been keeping track of its Nexus page, you may have noticed that it's not that impressive. As it turns out, Bethesda's own Creations interface might be responsible.

Historically, mainline Bethesda games have proliferated on the Nexus Mods website, where the vast majority of their respective mods were hosted and freely accessible for anyone to install. Skyrim and Fallout 4's Bethesda modding platform, Creations, were often overlooked in lieu of Nexus to the point of effective irrelevance on PC. With Starfield, however, the situation appears to be quite the opposite, as modders themselves chimed in on this Reddit thread explaining how the tides have turned.

Modders confirm: Starfield Creations is way more popular than Nexus

According to modders Nosism123, tjacayne, and Cole-train99, Creations is absolutely the place to be if you're a Starfield modder. They all responded to KrabbitNL's Reddit thread explaining that, while Nexus downloads are surprisingly low for Starfield, they're all getting way more downloads from Bethesda's official Creations platform.

The differences between Nexus and Creations are remarkable, though they do make way more sense when you consider that Creations is also available on Xbox, while Nexus is a dedicated PC platform through-and-through.

It's not that it doesn't make sense that there'd be such a stark difference between Creations and Nexus, either. It's just that it's historically unprecedented, and this is the first time that a first-party in-game modding platform has beaten Nexus proper when it comes to mainline Bethesda game mod downloads.

Now, to be perfectly fair, even though Creations is a powerful modding platform in its own right, Nexus remains the go-to spot for the modding community on PC. Notably, Creations does not have a proper forum or even a way to discuss specific mods with other users, and the Creations' implementation of Script Extender mods can be quite iffy.

To that end, PC players interested in modding Starfield will want to step out of Creations every so often, at the very least. For example, even though powerful mods such as "Ship Vendor Framework" did make their way onto Creations, the arguably more important POI randomizer "Bedlam" isn't there just yet, and there's no telling if it'll drop in anytime soon.

So, ideally, you'll be using both of these platforms anyhow, but keep in mind that Creations is the more mainstream solution for the time being. Funny, how these things sometimes work out!

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Bungie is going through a rough patch as of late (again), and it's important to remember just how good Destiny 2: The Final Shape was. The introduction of Luzaku, the friendly Lucent Hive, stands out in particular, and the person responsible was caught by the latest round of layoffs.

Featured as part of the excellent Destined Heroes questline in The Final Shape, Luzaku was a Lucent Hive wizard who the Guardian comes across while exploring the Blooming Deep lost sector of the Pale Heart. Whereas Lucent Hive are usually extremely hostile towards Guardians and other aligned forces, Luzaku goes in the opposite direction, and we can thank Bungie's former narrative designer Robert Brookes for this experience. Brookes joined forces with The Final Shape's activity designer Sang Kim to come up with something wholly original for a particular lost sector.

As per Brookes' recent thread on Twitter - which was graciously posted in full on Reddit by Ryan_WXH - he "immediately realized [Luzaku] could be a Mithrax moment" for the DLC. Mithrax, too, first made an appearance in the original Red War campaign of Destiny 2 as a tenuous potential ally on Titan.

A former Destiny 2 narrative designer explains how Luzaku came to be

"First problem was Luzaku was an acolyte and not a wizard, but a wizard is what worked for the gameplay space. So being a good partner to design I found a way to make Sang's idea work by revisiting the idea of hive morphs," Brooks explains. "Having Luzaku be changed from an acolyte to a wizard after the ship she was infiltrating passed through the threshold into the Pale Heart felt like a further exploration of the concepts of identity and transformation we explore with the Traveler."

In other words, Brookes quickly connected the dots between what was necessary for The Final Shape gameplay and lore-wise, and what was present in Destiny 2's prior, established canon. Extrapolating Luzaku's presence from that point onwards was just a matter of scope, and Brooks almost had to stop at having a "Lucent Hive wizard with a nameplate" in the campaign.

Thankfully, Brooks saw an opportunity to incorporate some extra voice-work into the DLC almost by accident, and the only thing he had to figure out was who could voice Luzaku in the first place.

"So in came Kirstin Potter (Mara Sov) who we've never had play another character. She was THRILLED to take on a new role, especially a weird role! I created an identity for Luzaku, a unique manner of speech to differentiate her from other Hive and the rest is history," explains Brookes.

Brooks also gave shout-outs to the original creator of Luzaku (via the Lucent Tales lore book from Witch Queen), Crystal Frasier, as well as audio designer Matt Vankleeck. The latter, as Brookes explains, was laid off alongside him during Bungie's recent firing spree.

If you're even remotely interested in learning more about Luzaku and, indeed, Lucent Hive and Destiny lore in general, it may be good to hit up Robert Brookes on Twitter, as he's very personable and interested in engaging with the fans of the game. He's been discussing the Season of the Seraph as well, and his responses are just an absolute treasure-trove for a fan of Destiny at large.

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Even though Starfield's had absolutely no shortage of mods from day one onwards, the game hasn't had an official modding toolkit up, until its official release now. Bethesda has finally released its in-game Creations platform alongside the Shattered Space DLC showcase, and the Creation Kit is available as well.

What this means, in effect, is that Starfield is now a full-featured sandbox modding platform in much the same way as Skyrim and Fallout 4 are. Dedicated modders now have access to a far more substantial range of tools and features allowing them to work on substantially more complicated mods. The fact that we've already had a major Starfield revamp mod months ago should help illustrate what sort of stuff is now on the horizon, I feel. But, of course, that's just the start of it.

Starfield's Creation Kit should open the modding floodgates at last

The official modding toolkit for Starfield is available for anyone to peruse via Steam. It's part of a surprise content update for Starfield that's been a very long time coming, as this is the longest a mainline Bethesda sandbox RPG has gone without an official modding toolkit out and about.

Up until now, modders couldn't access the full breadth of customization and game-building features that were used to make Starfield in the first place. The release of the Creation Kit means this is no longer the case, however, and it should now be substantially easier to integrate complex, game-changing mods into the game.

This brings us to the second major aspect of the Creation Kit's release, of course: the in-game Creations modding platform. While the majority of modders are bound to continue using services such as the Nexus mod hosting website, many will also use the Creations interface nestled within Starfield itself. This service allows modders to collaborate with Bethesda to sell mods for real-world currency, which is either neat or devious, depending on how you look at things.

The most important feature of Creations, however, is the fact that it's also accessible on consoles, which means Xbox players can now install a more curated selection of mods in much the same way as PC players can. The gulf between Creations mods and Nexus mods is bound to grow wider as time goes on, mind, as Creations offerings do not get to use the Starfield Script Extender and other important modding tools, but that's just how these things go.

Whatever the case may be, the modding floodgates are now fully open for Starfield, and who knows what type of player-made content might be on the horizon now.

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Destiny 2's all-new The Final Shape DLC is, in many ways, a showcase of everything this franchise could be at its absolute best. Some of its new systems, however, are still rather untested, with players being unsure what to make of them. Take the new Pathfinder system, for example.

After you've taken down the big bad of the DLC (for the first time) and begun engaging with The Final Shape's post-campaign progression systems, you will inevitably come across one of the several new Pathfinder interfaces strewn across the Director UI. Pathfinder is a one-size-fits-all Bounty replacement, providing a clear and pointed look at certain loot and currency items to prioritize. As shown in the screenshot below, it's a neat and traditionally beautiful interface that sadly still needs work to truly come into its own. Here's a brief rundown on why, and more of an in-depth look at how The Final Shape's Pathfinder loot system works.

The Finale Shape's Pathfinder loot system explained

Destiny 2's new Pathfinder feature gives you a wide overview of how to progress through your active Season Pass, earn a fair chunk of snazzy loot, and a non-insignificant amount of currency. You do so by completing your randomized array of objectives from left to right, and depending on which Pathfinder you open up, you'll either be looking at location-specific objectives (i.e. Pale Heart missions) or activity-based ones, instead.

The good news is that Pathfinder saddles you with an impressively large number of different objectives. the Pale Heart Pathfinder specifically, for example, will send you off to take down world bosses, complete Lost Sectors, take down enemies in a particular way, help Ghosts in their plight, and a whole roster of other missions. It's all good fun, especially when you can just complete one objective after the other without leaving the location at all.

The bad news, however, is that the activity Pathfinder handles this insistence on variety in a different way, and you'll often need to jump from one playlist to the other to clear your tasks. In effect, this means you'll often have to play PvP and/or Gambit PvPvE matches to actually unlock your Pathfinder Engrams.

Another slight downside to the Pathfinder loot system is that it's not immediately obvious where to find it. Each interface is located in a different spot on the UI, so the Pale Heart's Pathfinder is found in the upper left corner of the Pale Heart's Director map, while the activity Pathfinder is in the Vanguard Director UI.

At the time of writing, only the Pale Heart and the core playlist activities have their own respective Pathfinders, but the system seems too comprehensive not to be applied to most major content releases moving forward. I recommend getting used to it, with that in mind. As outlined in the featured Reddit post, many players are still unsure how to feel about Pathfinder as a whole, but Bungie is bound to tune it up as time goes on, so improvements should be coming down the line.

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The days when Helldivers 2's player base was mainly concerned with spooky in-game events and surprise content drops are now—at least temporarily—in the past. These in-universe problems have been replaced by more substantial problems, and the sheer quality and usability of new content is one of them.

To be more specific, Helldivers 2 is still reeling from the recent PlayStation Network account situation, which left the community fragmented and the game unpurchasable in almost 200 countries. Even Arrowhead Games CEO Johan Pilestedt believes that Helldivers 2's balancing is now in a spot of bother, saying that he understands why players might feel like "every time someone finds something fun, the fun is removed."

These problems, when put together, don't paint an awfully pretty picture. In some respects, the situation is fairly dire, albeit one would still be hard-pressed to call it unfixable. Arrowhead will need to respond to the community's concerns sooner or later, however, and it's obvious which option would be preferable.

Arrowhead Games may be trying to do too much with Helldivers 2's content pipeline

Right off the bat, it should be obvious that we've got no direct hands-on insight into Arrowhead Games' production pipeline, and anything stated in the next couple of sections is essentially informed conjecture. However, I cannot shake the feeling that Arrowhead is simply trying to juggle too many balls at the same time.

Premium Warbonds are coming in at a brisk pace: one a month, containing almost half a dozen weapons and gear that often come with all-new features and functionality. In between, Arrowhead has also maintained a steady supply of engaging stealth releases, including mechs, mutated enemies, and new Stratagems, with the end result being a live-service experience where there's always something new going on. Worst-case scenario, the community "only" gets a Major Order to contend with, with an enemy mutator thrown in for good measure.

Obviously, this whole schtick is a non-trivial development setup. Pushing so much content live so often is absolutely taking a toll on the developers, this way or the other, and the community is all but certain that this is why the subjective quality of the recent content releases hasn't been stellar.

It's entirely possible that the studio has prepared dozens of weapons, armor sets, Stratagems, and features in the years preceding Helldivers 2's release, and it's only now going through the motions pushing it all live. Even if this really is the case, though, the brisk release pipeline is having an effect on Helldivers 2's community through a death by a thousand cuts. The latest Polar Patriot Warbond, for example, is overall a disappointment outside of the new incendiary contact grenade and a new sidearm. There's reason to believe that some of its offerings were balanced for an entirely different combat sandbox.

I'll concede that this may be the wrong takeaway, depending on how Arrowhead is handling balancing in the backend, but the surface-level conclusion is that the combat sandbox grew too plentiful and varied in too short a time for the balancing team to keep up with everything in an appropriate manner. This, in turn, has resulted in a situation where there's a massive disconnect between Arrowhead and the Helldivers 2 community when it comes to balance, in particular.

Balancing has become a sore topic in the Helldivers 2 community. In fact, there's been a non-insignificant amount of friction between vocal players and Arrowhead developers on the game's Discord. As of right now, it's not clear what the studio will do next and whether it aims to alleviate the onset of issues in the short term at all.

Pilestedt's apparent agreement with Helldivers 2 players that the studio has taken things too far is a good sign, at the very least. None of the problems so far are beyond fixing. Slowing down the release of new content and polishing things up would be a major boon to the game at large, from a layperson's point of view. The vast majority of Helldivers 2's currently underperforming gear could be tweaked back into relevance relatively easily, even without touching its literal damage output. Pilestedt himself said this is the way to go.

The question we should all be asking is whether this is an option for Arrowhead from the perspective of contractual obligations with Sony, the publisher. It's entirely possible that Arrowhead has to keep pushing out monthly Premium Warbonds. If that's the case, balancing will only become more problematic as we receive 3-4 all-new weapons every single month.

Just to put that into perspective, if Helldivers 2 keeps up its currently established content scheduling, this means the game will have received all of the following items in a single year of live-service support:

• 48 new weapons
• 12 new grenades
• 12 new Boosters

It's just short of mind-boggling, really. Is this level of continued support feasible if Arrowhead wants to keep all of these items fair, fun to use, and relatively balanced among each other?

For what it's worth, it's all but obvious that Arrowhead Games knows this can't go on as it currently stands. Something is going to have to give, and either the community continues to grow more unhappy as new items are released in a subpar state, or the studio takes a step back to slow things down and focus more on quality rather than quantity.

There's another layer to this problem, too: can a live-service title afford to slow down or postpone its content pipeline? Is the community going to stick around if a Warbond misses its scheduled release date once, twice, or thrice? Or is everyone going to move on to the next flavor of the month?

I do feel that Helldivers 2 has more staying power than that. The game could easily support a more forgiving content release pipeline, with a substantially larger balancing buffer than just a month's worth of attention. Arrowhead Games certainly has what it takes to keep this game on the straight and narrow, but it's going to take some rethinking of how to deal with it as it balloons to its true, gargantuan proportions.

The post Is Helldivers 2 pushing forward too quickly for its own good? appeared first on Destructoid.

From ontological weapons to physics-defying magic, Destiny 2 has always had a penchant for weird, exotic armaments. It is a tad funny, then, that the famed Gjallarhorn is one of the franchise's most sought-after items: a seemingly regular rocket launcher, except that it blows things up real good.

Though it was exclusive to Destiny 1 for years, the Exotic rocket launcher Gjallarhorn eventually made its way into Destiny 2 proper as part of Bungie's 30th anniversary. So, yes, you can get the Gjallarhorn in Destiny 2, and it's no less potent than it was in the original game. As with most of the truly rare Destiny 2 Exotics, though, unlocking the Gjallarhorn requires some elbow grease via the 30th anniversary Dares of Eternity activity.

Getting the Gjallarhorn in Destiny 2

As you might imagine, the first order of business in getting the Gjallarhorn in Destiny 2 is to purchase the Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack DLC. The $24,99 DLC goes on sale rather often, granted, and you do get a fairly impressive roster of cosmetics to chase, Exotic quests - including the Gjallarhorn itself - and one of the game's very best dungeons: Grasp of Avarice.

After you've gotten your hands on the Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack DLC, you'll need to play your first match of the Dares of Eternity activity. This activity, keep in mind, is available to all players for free, but you obviously won't be able to even begin the Gjallarhorn quest without the DLC license. After you've done a round of Dares, you'll want to head on over to Xûr's Treasure Hoard and speak to the creature.

Specifically, you want to get the "And Out Fly The Wolves" Exotic quest, which will set you onto the path of actually getting the rocket launcher.

When you've begun the appropriate quest, the first official step to unlocking the Gjallarhorn will be to visit Shaw Han in the Cosmodrome, who will report some strange happenings taking place around Destiny's original loot cave. That's your cue to complete the Grasp of Avarice dungeon, which is effectively a tongue-in-cheek reference to the loot cave itself.

After you've completed the Grasp of Avarice at least once and gone back to Han, having uncovered a single one of Gjallarhorn's infamous Wolfpack Rounds along the way, Han will direct you to take down some of the local Fallen gang leaders via Lost Sectors, collecting a handful of other Wolfpack Rounds along the way.

Upon completing the pertinent objective, Han will inform you that he, too, had been assembling some useful bits and bobs, going so far as to collect enough parts for Banshee-44 to outright rebuild the Exotic rocket launcher, which was once thought impossible due to it being destroyed during the Red War.

So, go back to the Tower, talk to Banshee, and he'll direct you to play one more Lost Sector - Exodus Garden 2A - to get a few more of the missing tidbits. With that done and all the necessary parts in tow, head back to Shaw Han in the Cosmodrome and use the workbench in his living accommodations (just behind the spawn location) to craft your Gjallarhorn proper.

From that point onwards, you can work towards unlocking the Gjallarhorn's Catalyst to make it even more beneficial to your fireteam or get the unique Hraesveglur ornament!

The Gjallarhorn isn't the only oddly familiar Exotic you'll come across while playing Destiny 2's 30th Bungie anniversary DLC, mind. Be sure to follow the Strange Key item if you'd like to get a delightfully punchy reference to Halo, for example, with an Exotic perk that outright replaces your grenade ability when fully charged. Along the way, too, you'll stock up on a variety of gear from classic Bungie properties, such as the Pathways Into Darkness's break-action grenade launcher, or Marathon's lever-action shotgun.

All in all, the Dares of Eternity and other 30th anniversary goodies are an excellent choice for any Bungie connoisseur, with the Gjallarhorn being the cherry on top of the proverbial cake.

The post How to get the Gjallarhorn Destiny 2 exotic rocket launcher appeared first on Destructoid.

Fallout 4 (and other franchise entries from Bethesda) are currently enjoying an unexpected surge in popularity thanks to the Fallout TV show. As modding is a key part of the Fallout experience on PC, it should come as no surprise that Nexus Mods, too, is buckling under pressure.

Notably, Nexus Mods is one of the biggest mod-hosting websites on the Internet, and it's been struggling with the sudden influx of Fallout traffic for days now. As per Nexus Mods' own report, the site has been experiencing "much more traffic than usual due to the popularity of the Fallout TV series." The announcement explains that the site has already deployed additional resources and monitoring to keep up with the demand, but the problems are persisting still.

Nexus Mods is having trouble keeping up with Fallout 4's new burst of popularity

The Nexus Mods' status tracker page reports that all of the following site features are currently experiencing problems with degraded performance: the website itself, the Nexus Mods API, the CDN, and the forums. In other words, if you're trying to download some mods for your burgeoning build of Fallout 4, the odds are good that you're having trouble.

The first report of problems was posted on Friday, April 19, and Nexus Mods staff is still dealing with the fallout, if you'd excuse the pun. "We are continuing to investigate this issue," says the update posted earlier today, on April 22.

The Fallout TV series isn't the only one to blame for this, keep in mind. Following the series' launch on Amazon Prime, Bethesda was quick to announce that a "next-gen" update for Fallout 4 would be dropping soon. On PC, specifically, this means support for ultra-wide resolutions (21:9 aspect ratio) and some additional Creation Kit goodies. Arguably, the biggest "feature" of the update is the fact that it's bound to break a bunch of mods. Mods that are now being aggressively downloaded by PC Fallout fans.

It's not all grim, mind. Bethesda claims that it's worked to "minimize impact to the majority community mods." We don't know yet what that means, exactly, but it's better than nothing. Not that it helps the situation with one of the biggest Fallout 4 mods we've seen yet: Fallout: London, the release of which was postponed following Bethesda's next-gen update announcement. It'll be an interesting couple of weeks for the Fallout 4 modding community, that's for sure, as while many modders are sure to update their releases to accommodate for the new game update, others may leave them behind entirely, causing problems with legacy support and beyond.

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Though the first major update for Helldivers 2 focused mainly on weapon and Stratagem rebalancing, the player base has known for some time now that Arrowhead Studios is gearing up for the release of mechs and assorted vehicles. Now, out of the blue, some Helldivers have come across these mechs.

More specifically, the ongoing push and pull between Super Earth and the opposing factions has now focused on the planet of Tien Kwan. If that name sounds familiar, that's because this is where Super Earth's mecha production factories are located, and the Automatons have mounted an assault on the planet. Now, with the community focused mainly on beating back Automaton forces, particularly lucky players have begun reporting usable mechs just waiting around for someone to jump into them to wreak some havoc.

Helldivers 2 is setting things up for the release of mechs

Reports of people coming across mechs have been coming in ever since the onslaught on Tien Kwan began, but it took a bit until someone posted actual proof of finding them in the first place. The most popular of these reports come from Reddit users MrLawbreaker and Ameer589, both of whom have shown off videos and screenshots of the Super Earth mecha.

As per the players' reports, mechs seemingly often appear away from any meaningful points of interest or objectives, though this isn't a given as Ameer589's footage shows. Further, it's not guaranteed that a mech will spawn in any given mission, as Arrowhead Studios appears to have intended these encounters as occasional bonuses, rather than something a Helldiver could count on.

Obviously, this implies that the mechs are bound to be released sometime soon. Perhaps as soon as Tien Kwan is defended from the Automaton onslaught, as luck would have it. Of course, the game's next Warbond is also slated to release on March 14, so it's possible that Arrowhead intends to release driveable mechs as part of that content drop.

For the time being, these counters are just random goodies peppered randomly throughout some battlefields. For those who do come across Super Earth mecha, though, the good news is that these powerful weapon platforms come fully loaded for combat, allowing you to dish out some serious punishment before leaving it behind.

The post Abandoned, usable mechs now spawn on Helldivers 2’s Tien Kwan appeared first on Destructoid.

Despite mostly going under the radar before it came out, Helldivers 2 proved that it's got what it takes to reach the top charts. With a concurrent player cap of 700,000 players, Helldivers 2 has now revealed that it's got a veritable "Game Master" coordinating its war efforts.

Notably, it's plain as day that Helldivers 2's galactic war efforts are not just a randomized series of combat scenarios thrown together by an algorithm. A prime example of this being the case was the rapid onslaught of Automaton forces after Super Earth won its first clash against the Terminid. Not only can Arrowhead Studios thus create a custom "campaign" for the entire community to participate in, though, but there's a developer whose job is specifically to spice things up in the live game. That developer's name, as per Arrowhead Studios' recent interview, is Joel.

Arrowhead Studios' Joel is Helldivers 2's Game Master

In his recent talk with PC Gamer, Arrowhead Studios' CEO Johan Pilestedt said that "[Arrowhead] has actual person with the job title of Game Master," Pilestedt told PC Gamer in an interview today. His name is Joel, and he takes his job very seriously."

As per Pilestedt's comments, the Game Master "has a lot of control over the play experience. It's something that we're continuously evolving based on what's happening in the game, and as part of the roadmap, there are things that we want to keep secret because we want to surprise and delight." The upcoming combat mechs are, presumably, one of these future delights.

"There have been some sudden moments where maybe one planet was too easy or one was too hard and [Joel] had to get up in the middle of the night to give the Automatons a bit of reinforcements so the players don't take [the planet] too quickly," Pilestedt explained. Another example of the Game Master's influence on the war effort is the random Stratagems that Helldivers suddenly get access to every so often. Unlimited access to railguns and incendiary mines are just two examples of Joel intervening on behalf of the Helldivers.

According to Pilestedt, Arrowhead Studios does have a broad, general idea of how it wants the galactic war campaign to go, going so far as to devise future "setpieces" for Helldivers to experience. That said, however, the campaign is set to change depending on how Helldiver forces and Super Earth at large perform in action, so everything is on the table from the looks of it.

Further, Pilestedt has also said that Arrowhead is looking at ways to make certain planets more interesting and significant as the campaign continues. Malevelon Creek, for one, is sure to pop back up sometime down the line, and Arrowhead plans to "reconsider [certain important] planets to become more of a character going forward."

Helldivers fans have got much to look forward to however you look at it. Even from an outsider's point of view, Super Earth's fight to spread "democracy" is sure to entertain, and who knows what else Joel might have in store for us.

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Helldivers 2's ongoing galactic war campaign could be positively filled with unexpected twists and turns, from the looks of it. After the unexpected Automaton onslaught immediately after the Terminid clash, the community is theorizing that the omnicidal bots might not be going after Super Earth, but Cyberstan instead.

Amidst all the wacky hijinks that the Helldivers are up to, there's a fairly interesting narrative developing in the background of the galactic war. More specifically, after Malevelon Creek (i.e. robot Vietnam) fell, players expected that the Automaton forces would resume their assault one system node closer to Super Earth in an attempt to crush managed democracy in its nest.

Instead, the bots moved one node upwards. It didn't take long for the community to figure out that this may suggest Automatons could have an entirely different goal in mind: the planet of Cyberstan, which is where the original Helldivers game's Cyborg faction is enslaved.

Automaton forces might be after Cyberstan in Helldivers 2

It was back in 2021 that Arrowhead Studios' Helldivers account posted a series of cryptic binary Tweets, seemingly out of the blue. At the time, it didn't take long for the community to translate them into Super Earth language. As per MDHX, the Tweets said: "We, the collective from Cyberstan, unanimously assert our independence from Super Earth. We have the right to defend our home from the brainwashed Helldivers. Our children, the automaton, will not suffer as we have under the oppression of Super Earth!"

When put side-by-side with the recent events on the galactic war map, it seems all but certain that the Automatons will attempt to liberate Cyberstan from Super Earth control, which could be a fascinating (and unexpected) development.

Now that Helldivers 2's early server issues are mostly resolved, Arrowhead Studios is free to proceed with its original plan for the game's galactic war campaign and the post-launch content schedule. Automatons' aggressive pivot towards the planet of Cyberstan feels too conspicuous to have been random, and it's taken the community by surprise.

Who knows what else the future might hold for Helldivers 2. Of course, Helldiver forces may be able to stop Automaton forces from reaching Cyberstan in time. Keeping the fall of Malevelon Creek in mind, though, this is about as far from being a safe bet as one gets.

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Very, very few games have managed to nail the gist and feel of Half-Life so compellingly as ADACA has. The really interesting bit, though, is that this little-known low-poly first-person shooter - arguably Half-Life’s best copycat - has just received its Episode Three, believe it or not.

It’s fairly apparent that neither Half-Life 2: Episode 3 nor Half-Life 3 proper are on the horizon right now. While Half-Life: Alyx and the wide variety of mods and bonus materials from Valve are a good way to keep the general vibe of the franchise alive, ADACA accomplishes a similar job while still successfully eking out its own dedicated niche. The fact that it’s just received its very own Episode Three is quite funny in its own right, on top of being a compelling piece of new content.

ADACA’s campaign mode is now content-complete with Episode Three

Episode Three is, essentially, ADACA’s final big content pack. The developer, SirisTheDragon, has confirmed that their plans for ADACA’s future now consist of minor patches and hotfixes, where needed, and that players now have access to the game’s full suite of content.

In moment-to-moment gameplay, ADACA feels like a compelling mixture of Half-Life and Halo, though it certainly leans more heavily towards the former. It’s a linear, albeit free-form single-player adventure that sends the protagonist through several platoons’ worth of mind-washed soldiers, mutated monstrosities, and mysterious cultists. The atmosphere and the feel of the admittedly low-poly world of ADACA are unmistakably similar to Valve’s seminal hit, but the game has plenty of its own compelling ideas.

For example, though the three-episode campaign is plenty exciting in its own right, ADACA’s Zone Patrol mode is even more interesting. Here, the game takes more cues from games such as STALKER, tasking players with exploration, survival, and meticulous collection of resources in an increasingly hostile environment. In that sense, you’re getting two games wrapped up into one title, and as long as you can get over ADACA’s visual style, you’re in for a good time.

You can find ADACA on Steam here.

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