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Valor Mortis, the first-person action game set in an alt-history version of the Napoleonic wars, was announced earlier this year at Gamescom Opening Night Live. In its announcement and subsequent marketing, the developers have been clear about one big element of Valor Mortis: it’s a soulslike. Sure, it’s a first-person game, which automatically makes it look radically different from any FromSoftware game or even the 2D soulslikes such as Hollow Knight, Nine Sols, and Blasphemous. But speaking to me at the Game Industry Conference in Poznań, Wielkopolska, game director Radosław Ratusznik was hyperaware of the expectations that such a bold declaration would immediately attach to Valor Mortis. And he’s determined to do right by players while remaining committed to the perspective shift. Valor Mortis is being developed by One More Level, the studio behind 2020’s Ghostrunner. Ratusznik tells me that the studio is largely made up of Souls game fans who badly wanted to tackle the genre, but knew they needed more development experience as a group first. This, he says, is what led to Ghostrunner, which is a first-person action game that, at least by our own estimation, was pretty great. With one success under their belt, One More Level turned to Valor Mortis. Ratusznik says that the idea for gameplay came before the game’s setting – the team wanted something that would let them mix melee combat and firearms with the more magical mutant abilities. It just so happened that the game’s lead concept artist was also an historian with a lot of knowledge on Napoleonic Europe. Which is how Valor Mortis ended up set during the Napoleonic Wars, featuring a monstrous Napoleon raising an army of undead mutants to rampage across Europe. “I think, for many players, the Napoleonic era sounds really to be like... I don't want to say unattractive, but with this silly uniform, something like that, they're not treating it like something that is maybe attractive for them, and we wanted to change that a little bit,” Ratusznik says. “We think that this is a significant part of our history here in Europe, Napoleon as the emperor, and we want to tell the story, our own version about it. It's not historically accurate. So we don't want to educate players, of course, about the history, but we think that it's something unique, something new for the players to play, to explore.” You play as William, a British soldier who initially joined Napoleon’s army wooed by promises of a free Europe, but who is gradually coming to the realization that war is far from rosy. Unlike his fellow soldiers, William can control the nephtoglobin, the substance that prompts the undead mutation, and is able to retain his sanity while making use of its powers and fighting his way through the gruesome, warped battlefields left in Napoleon’s wake. “The theme of horror is very important for us,” Ratusznik explains. “So it's not even just these monsters that you are fighting. We are also telling the story about the war and how there are no winners, no true winners at war. That we are in the middle of this conflict, we will learn about each side of the conflict. So this is a story about the foreign soldier in the foreign army, in the foreign land, because we are exploring the eastern parts of Europe. We are not telling if it's Poland or is it some other country. So it's more like a universal story about soldiers in the war.” Having played quite a bit of Valor Mortis at GIC, I can confirm that despite how silly the premise seemed to me initially, One More Level has indeed made something pretty unsettling. An image permanently burned into my memory is of a soldier in uniform, on all fours, leaping out at me like a dog from behind a pile of bodies. But instead of looking at me with his face, his head was contorted downward to put his large, ridiculous, fuzzy wig-hat out front, which had opened down the middle into a mouth full of teeth and was snarling at me as it attacked. Weird, startling, and very effective. But whatever you think of the setting, the gameplay is fundamentally very souls. There’s a stamina meter to manage, poise meters on enemies to break with attacks and well-timed parries. When you die, you of course drop all the currency you’ve collected from enemies as you go and have to fetch it back, or lose it forever. And there are bonfires (in this case, lanterns) that serve as safe spots and checkpoints to restart from with each death. Valor Mortis is also quite difficult. I won’t pretend to be the best Souls player around (I’m decidedly middling) but I spent a good long while running up against the game’s first (I think) boss, which had two phases, summoned smaller enemies, and had an enormous attack radius. I died. A lot. And yet, Ratusznik is on the defensive about whether his game qualifies as a Soulslike or not, in part because of the first-person perspective, but also because of the high expectations put on any game that purports to hail from that tradition by its many fans. “I think that the genre is such a demanding thing that if you want to create a good thing for this demanding community, you need to be very well prepared,” Ratusznik says. “And we wanted to communicate it this way. We are telling people, ‘We are a Soulslike. And If you are not sure about it, you can challenge us. You can ask us why we think it's Soulslike.’ And we are perfectly fine with that. And we know that players after the playtest, after showing the game at Gamescom, at TGS, we were also on PAX in Seattle, and all the players who are playing, they are telling us, ‘I was doubtful about it that you can manage to make a Soulslike in first-person, but after playing it, I believe you. It's true. It's a Soulslike in first-person.’ So that's what's very cool for me. I mean, personally, as a fan of the genre, that we managed to deliver the game in the genre, it's something amazing.” We are a Soulslike. And If you are not sure about it, you can challenge us. You can ask us why we think it's Soulslike. So I ask Ratusznik, what does it mean to be a Soulslike? What are the defining characteristics, to him, that Valor Mortis just had to embody? “Well there is always a debate, how many features from the FromSoft games should game have to be a Soulslike?” he says. “So in our example is, of course, a stamina-based combat system. So that's the first thing. Then we have the checkpoints that are kind of similar to the bonfires in Soulslike. In our game this is a lantern. So you have to reach the lantern to save, make your checkpoints. When you die, you will start from this place. You can then rest, the enemies will come back to life. So this kind of thing is present. But also the exploration is very important, I think, for the Soulslike in this kind of Metroidvania approach in the level structure. “In our game we even push it further. So we also have these elements of Metroidvania, such as abilities that you are gathering that you can use on previously visited levels to unlock some alternative paths. Also the shortcuts are very important, so you need to explore to find the shortcuts to get faster to the safe point, to these checkpoints or something. So there is a lot of that. And also, the boss fights as the true challenges, very demanding. So I think, yeah, I mean these elements are there for sure, but it's not like we are taking all of it blindly. We are thinking about each of this and how it'll fit our vision for this game and also the first-person perspective, which is kind of tricky.” The perspective switch really is a difference maker for Valor Mortis, as it transforms how combat plays out, how parries and dodges and swings need to be timed and directed, and how boss mechanics can be tuned for challenge. But given the popularity of the Soulslike genre, I’m surprised that there aren’t more first-person Souls games out there – most people just follow in either the Dark Souls tradition or the Hollow Knight one. Why is that? “I think it's not easy to make it happen, to be honest,” Ratusznik says. “I mean we did Ghostrunner, so we learned how to make first-person melee combat. And even for us, it was not easy to make the melee combat in first-person satisfying and not confusing. But in Poland we can do it because we have Dying Light, Cyberpunk is also with first-person combat. And we have our games, so Ghostrunner and now Valor Mortis. So it's a bit tricky. “You need to make at least a few tricks to somehow help players to get better feedback from each of the actions that they are taking. So for example, when we attack the enemies, we have some kind of a system that is in the action fighting games where you are snapped to the enemy, pulled to the enemy somehow. So we are attacking and the system is assisting you in getting closer to the enemies. Because it's hard to tell the distance. Both the collider of your weapon is a little bit ******* than you expect just to feel that you hit it. So we need to set it up properly. There are a lot of small things that you have to add to make this combat feel juicy but also satisfying for the players. Of course on top of that there are proper animations, proper animation of the enemies, of the reactions of the enemies. Sound design is very important. Also…there needs to be some additional assets, like some arrows, some indicators that are telling you that if someone is behind you, these kinds of things.” When we need to optimize our game for Xbox Series S, then the PC players also get a more optimized game. Valor Mortis is planned for a 2026 release on PC, PS5, and Xbox. I ask Ratusznik how it’s been developing for consoles this generation, and he gives me a rather surprising take: he really likes the Xbox Series S. “Each generation is easier, the certification process is easier and also the knowledge of the hardware is ******* among the developers,” he says. “So I think also the fact that you have to optimize for all consoles is beneficial for all the players, right? So when we need to optimize our game for Xbox Series S, then the PC players also get a more optimized game, right? “I know a lot of players who really love, for example, one genre or one type of game. They are only playing, I don’t know, Call Duty or Gears of War, so they don't have to buy the newest stuff to play their games. So they have the Series S. And if you try to make a PC for the same cost, for example, it won't be possible, right? So if we manage to optimize the game for the S, I know that a lot of developers are struggling with it, but I think it's more like a challenge that you should handle to make the game optimized for players.” But there is one console conspicuously missing from the lineup. Where’s the Nintendo Switch 2? “I mean I would love that one day,” Ratusznik says. “So we are considering it. It's not like that we are announcing anything, but personally I would love to bring this game to Switch 2. I think that it would be nice to see this type of game on this console.” We also spoke to Ratusznik at GIC about Soulslike difficulty, and why the game might have an easy mode, but won't have a bunch of other difficulty settings. You can read our conversation right here. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article

ARC Raiders is the new hotness in town and thanks to Embark Studios enabling Proton support for Easy Anti-Cheat, I've been putting hour after hour into it. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Age of Empires continues to be one of the strongest forces in the strategy world, and it's been a particularly exciting year for Age of Empires 4. Not only has it reached new shores with its PlayStation debut, but it's also shipped two massive DLCs - the latest, and biggest, has just arrived. Dynasties of the East, as the name suggests, focuses on Asia, with four fresh civilization variants, eight new maps, and some extremely diverse biomes. While that would likely be enough to satiate AoE 4 fans, there's one more addition that, in my eyes, trumps the rest: its new The Crucible game mode, which puts a roguelite twist on one of the best RTS games around. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Best RTS games on PC 2025 Boasting millions of players, the newest Age of Empires game is now coming to PC After years of waiting, beloved RTS Age of Empires 4 is finally super cheap View the full article

The Major's Footlocker quest in ARC Raiders requires you to find memorabilia in the ruins, and knowing the correct location is going to make your life easier. Received from Tian Wen, The Major's Footlocker quest is relatively simple. This guide will provide you with all the information, along with a list of the rewards you'll get for your grind. Table of contentsARC Raiders The Major's Footlocker quest walkthroughThe Major's Footlocker quest rewards in ARC RaidersARC Raiders The Major's Footlocker quest walkthrough The Major's Footlocker quest can be broken down into two parts. Search for Major Aiva's Mementos in the apartments northwest of The DamDeliver Major Aiva's Mementos to Tian Wen To find the mementos, we will have to reach Ruby Residence in Dam Battlegrounds. This is one of the most valuable locations in the game, as plenty of rare keys spawn at this location. First, go to the leftmost building of Ruby Residence. Screenshot and Remix by Destructoid Head inside, take the stairs, and reach the top floor. The room we are looking for is on the top floor, but don't go on the roof. If you are on the roof, come down one level, and you'll face the room right by the stairs (zoomed-in picture below to help your search). Screenshot via Embark Head inside and take the first left.Go straight (don't take the room on your left), and you'll come into a room with a broken balcony. Turn left, go to the next room, and the memento (a memorabilia) is on a table in the corner. Screenshot via Embark First, interact with the memorabilia and wait for the quest to update. Once it updates, you can add the memorabilia to your inventory. Extract safely with the item, and speak with Tian Wen in Speranza to complete The Major's Footlocker quest. The Major's Footlocker quest rewards in ARC Raiders The Major's Footlocker rewards you with a Hullcracker Blueprint, which is one of the strongest guns inside the game. You can consume the Blueprint and craft the weapon by using the required resources. If you're looking to complete more quests, check out our guide on Unexpected Initiatives. The post How to complete The Major’s Footlocker in ARC Raiders appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

After two years of anticipation, Football Manager 26 is finally out, but it seems to be struggling to satisfy fans, with Steam reviews currently sitting at Mostly Negative. In contrast, Football Manager 26's predecessor, FM24, holds a Very Positive average user review on Valve's storefront, suggesting that developer Sports Interactive might be in a difficult spot this time. View the full article

Bethesda has outlined the patch notes for Fallout 4 ahead of the release of the Creations Menu update and Anniversary Edition. During the recent Fallout Day broadcast, Bethesda announced Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition, due out across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on November 10, 2025. Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition — designed to coincide with the post-apocalyptic role-playing game’s 10th anniversary — contains the six official add-ons and over 150 pieces of Creation Club content. Creations (user created content) arrive in Fallout 4 via a brand new in-game Creations menu, which will make it easy for players to find and download the new content on PC and console. Now, Bethesda has detailed Fallout 4’s Creation Menu update, due out on November 10 alongside the release of the Anniversary Edition, and it includes more than expected. However, Bethesda issued a warning to mod users. Fallout 4 mods will undergo maintenance November 6-10, and during this time, Fallout 4 mods and Creation Club will be offline. This means you won’t be able to download or upload any new content (you’ll still have access to change your mod load order and play the game). Bethesda asked players to disable any mods that change the main menu before the November 10 update (which requires changes to the main menu screen). If you don’t, the mods may break with the patch. “Thank you for your patience as we work to roll these changes out and lay the groundwork for things like additional storage for Creations,” Bethesda said in a post on Steam. Meanwhile, the Fallout 4 patch notes reveal some surprising but welcome gameplay and performance improvements. VATS Accuracy should now be fixed so hit chances are consistent across platforms and no longer drop to 0% or show incorrect values (this has been a problem for some time). Targeting enemies through walls without the Penetrator perk is no longer possible, too. There’s also improved Ultrawide and Super Ultrawide Support, and Resolution Detection (Autodetect now sets supported display resolutions, preventing crashes on launch). Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition Creation Club content includes unique weapons, power armor, Pip Boy paint jobs, and more. During Fallout Day, Bethesda teased some of the Creations in the works, including one that will bring a "slice of the Mojave Desert" to the Commonwealth, an escape room experience, and even a mind's eye version of your spouse voiced by the original actors you can interact with. The six official expansions included are the Far Harbor, Automatron, and Nuka-World story add-ons, and the Contraptions, Vault-Tec, and Wasteland Workshop add-ons. Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition will be available on Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam and PC. It’s coming to Nintendo Switch 2 at some point in 2026, marking the first time Fallout 4 will be available on a Nintendo console. Patch notes are below. Fallout 4 - Creations Menu Update November 10 patch notes:Creations Menu: A new in-game Creations menu has been added, making it easier than ever to discover, download and enjoy content from professional developers and passionate enthusiasts alike. Gameplay & Performance VATS Accuracy: VATS hit chances are now consistent across platforms and no longer drop to 0% or show incorrect values. Targeting enemies through walls without the Penetrator perk is no longer possible. NPC Visual Creations: Fixed stuttering and hitching caused by Creations that edit NPC visuals. Performance is improved when using such Creations. Stability & Crashes BNET Connectivity: Better handling when there is a [Hidden Content] outage Crafting Station ******: Interacting with crafting stations or the workshop on ultrawide monitors no longer causes crashes. Ultrawide & Super Ultrawide Support UI & HUD Scaling: UI elements, HUD backgrounds, and item previews now scale correctly for 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratios. Menus, quest updates, tutorials, workshops, and inspected objects are no longer stretched or squished. Pip-Boy Map: Players can now place markers, fast travel, and pan the map to the right side in the Pip-Boy when using ultrawide resolutions. Save Preview Images: Save preview images are now letterboxed to avoid looking squished on ultrawide monitors. Miscellaneous Resolution Detection: Autodetect now sets supported display resolutions, preventing crashes on launch. Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

It’s been 6,496 days since the original release of Burnout Paradise, not that I’m counting. With the Burnout series clearly consigned to the same storage cupboard EA has been hiding the corpses of Westwood, ****** Box, Pandemic, and all the other studios it shut down over the years, I completely understand the motivation for developer Three Fields Entertainment to craft Wreckreation. It’s an unapologetic Burnout Paradise clone in a stack of very clear ways, built for a ravenous audience that's been starved of one of arcade racing’s heaviest hitters for too long. After all, if you want something done, sometimes you need to do it yourself. Unfortunately, the one core component of its spiritual ancestor that Wreckreation couldn’t recapture was its overall quality, and the result is a janky, unrefined, and often unsatisfying racer that I don’t have much desire to keep playing. Wreckreation’s resemblance to Burnout Paradise runs surprisingly deep, even for an independent studio that’s spearheaded by former Criterion Games bigwigs – the home of the Burnout series. In fact, there are times when it borders on self-plagiarism, such are the similarities – from the digital information ticker at the base of the screen to the familiar tone of a successful takedown. As such, Wreckreation often seems more concerned with recreating entire segments of Burnout Paradise’s identity than establishing its own unique one. I’m conscious it’s trying to do this with a fraction of the budget and a sliver of the staff of Criterion’s classic, and that’s admirable in its own way, but comparisons are unavoidable when the parallels are this blatant. Crashing Out From the opening race it was evident things were awry, from the framerate stutters when I hooked into a drift to the actual sliding itself – which feels a little more cumbersome than I typically like. Arcade racers live and die on their handling, and Wreckreation’s driving dynamics aren’t the best by any stretch. Its brake-to-drift brand of handling is straightforward enough, but it’s not the type of drifting that lets you effectively alter your angle throughout a powerslide. It’s almost as if the throttle has no real impact on your drift angle once you’re sideways. I became accustomed to the handling, but I certainly can’t say I ever warmed to it. I especially dislike its idiosyncrasies, like the fact that cars will screech to a quick halt when braking in a straight line, but stomp on the brakes mid-drift and your car will simply continue to hurtle onwards – even if you’re completely off the accelerator. There are also occasional moments of severe understeer, but I can’t figure out what’s triggering it. It may well be a combination of road surface and car type, but there were times when I just craved more responsiveness and needed my cars to snap back into a drift, and they wouldn’t. There's definitely a lag to the steering that blunts that zippy, arcade feel. There's definitely a lag to the steering that blunts that zippy, arcade feel. After a brief race across Wreckreation’s elevated stunt tracks, the next event was a stunt challenge, where I was required to accumulate a certain amount of points within a very basic arena of jumps and loops. Unfortunately, while my car could easily make it around the skinny loops during free roam, the moment I tried to take them on during the stunt challenge my car was instantly wrecked for no apparent reason. This wasn’t a one-off thing; it was consistently repeatable and happened every time I tried to drive the loops during the challenge. That’s a bad bug to hit five minutes in. Pivoting my approach, I stuck to the jumps in order to build up the points I needed to progress. It wasn’t particularly challenging – and the simplistic approach to auto-leveling cars in the air means the stunting is all rather superficial and shallow compared to something like Wreckfest or Hot Wheels Unleashed – but nonetheless I’d earnt more than six times the necessary score when the time limit expired. At this point I… failed the challenge. I had, in fact, scored zero points – because points don’t automatically bank at the end of the session if you’re still accumulating them in a combo. They just vanish. This sort of thing leaves a terrible first impression, and nothing I subsequently encountered was strong enough to affect a course correction. Wreck Yourself Before You Check Yourself After the stunt-centric opening minutes, Wreckreation quickly settles down into its largely Burnout-inspired groove. The bulk of what’s on offer here are standard races (where the goal is to finish first), ‘Takedown’ races (where the goal is to wreck a set number of vehicles), plus the occasional time trial and ‘Shutdown’ event (where you must perform a takedown on a special, marked car while exploring the open world, in order to add it to your garage – sound familiar?). You can progress through all this content however you see fit, hitting events in any order as you uncover new ones around the huge map. Unfortunately, this flexibility doesn’t disguise how familiar every race rapidly becomes. The size of Wreckreation’s massive map is almost certainly a major culprit in this. At a reported 450 square kilometres, it’s an environment larger than a lot of contemporary open-world racing games. It makes for a great bullet point, but the reality is that this huge size brings with it major caveats. Its primary problem is that it’s extremely generic. It’s a large, square island, with no towns or cities. It’s just ribbons of tarmac and dirt draped over vanilla countryside, where one side of the map feels no different than the other. There are no obstacle-filled alleys or bustling urban centres; it’s just a big green slab with a lot of trees and rocks. I haven’t encountered any memorable races, because there are no memorable areas. There’s very little to distinguish one race from another, so ticking them off became tedious pretty quickly. There’s also a bug I encountered semi-regularly when selecting “restart race” from the pause menu that removed most of the HUD and made it impossible to open the map. The only fix was to restart the game, which was equally tiresome. There’s very little to distinguish one race from another, so ticking them off became tedious pretty quickly. Races occur against just five other opponents, which is low by modern standards, and rely on some pretty egregious catch-up AI to stay tense – but they’re better than the Takedown races and Shutdowns. Takedown races began as a major frustration, with awful AI spawns that placed fresh takedown victims too far ahead. Unlike Burnout’s Road Rage events, which effectively inject opposition around you at all times to smash and bash, Wreckreation messed up massively by making other cars a total chore to catch within the slim time limits. Hell, sometimes they were impossible to catch because they spawned on an adjacent road you couldn’t reach thanks to the guardrails. A patch released this week addressed this, and now opponents quickly streak into the picture from behind – just as they do in Burnout (although they still occasionally spawn on nearby roads you can’t get to). But I have to wonder how it was released in its previous state at all? How thoroughly was this game tested? At any rate, I’ve always maintained that the Burnout series fumbled when it added time limits for Road Rage events in Burnout Revenge. Burnout 3: Takedown was better without them, with the limiting factor simply being how much damage your car could take. I wish Wreckreation had cribbed from the latter in this instance. Wreckreation also introduces a new spin on its off-brand Road Rage mode, which adds cars you’re not supposed to take down, lest you receive a time penalty. I don’t find this is a fun twist, and I actively dislike competing in these. The penalty cars don’t just chop precious seconds off your time limit – they don’t even count as takedowns if you shunt one off the road accidentally. The worst penalty takedown events have two marked penalty cars you can’t ****** into, meaning every batch of opponents will only have two cars to take down. It makes chasing some of the high takedown totals extremely frustrating, and doubly so when it’s being stingy with attributing them to you in the first place. I lost track of the times multiple AI cars crashed out during a slo-mo takedown clip, but I was only rewarded for one of them. Chasing the unfairly overpowered AI during Shutdown attempts is also extremely frustrating. That is, being barely able to catch a pickup that was supernaturally staying out of my grasp by perfectly matching my top speed is a cheap trick. I know speed stats are a bit of a meaningless metric in arcade racers with rubberband AI, but discovering this truck was actually doing at least 40km/h more than what it’s literally listed as being capable of was pretty annoying after chasing it across the map for 10 minutes. Temu Trackmania As close as Wreckreation sticks to its Burnout family roots, it admittedly does bring a whole new pillar of play to the party in the form of its customisation and creation tools, dubbed Live Mix. This gives us the ability to do everything from renaming vehicles, to changing the weather and traffic density, to even plonking down massive track pieces to create huge, skybound stunt courses. The track creation suite should speak to me. 1990’s Stunts from Distinctive Software, with its pioneering track building tools, is one of the most formative racing games I’ve ever played and I’ve adored this sort of thing ever since. However, Wreckreation’s track builder has completely failed to inspire me. There are some elements here that I find quite neat. I admire how most of the track modules automatically generate the necessary support structures beneath them to secure them to the ground, regardless of their elevation. It gives the tracks a feeling of physical presence, like the skyscraper-sized feats of engineering something like this would be. There are some clever considerations baked in here too, like how the scaffolding will handily delete itself if you place new track pieces beneath established ones. However, after clipping together a whole bunch of track segments (and one complete game ****** as I tried to add the last piece), the net result is that they’re nowhere near as thrilling to drive on as they look. It just feels significantly out of date compared to the incredible depth and fine tuning available via the track builder in, say, the Hot Wheels Unleashed series. Live Mix ultimately proved handy on occasion for dropping down a jump or platform in the right place to reach a smashable billboard, although I’ve since wound back on that. Tracking down and crashing through the many collectables quickly became rather dull thanks to the fact the world just isn’t very interesting to explore. This is a non-insignificant hurdle considering a lot of these collectables are additional pieces and modules for the stunt tracks. It’s hard to argue the juice is worth the squeeze here. I’d say Wreckreation’s residents would be happy to see fewer obstacles strewn all over the roads, but they simply clip straight through them in a shower of sparks, anyway – like the props are invisible. View the full article

Europa Universalis5 is blowing up on Steam, rapidly climbing the sales charts, and breaking concurrent player records. The franchise by Paradox Interactive has long been a major name in the grand strategy genre, with a loyal cult following dating back to the early 2000s. But it's still noteworthy that Europa Universalis 5, the sixth installment in the popular series,is doing so incredibly well at launch. View the full article

The Back on Top quest in ARC Raiders is one of those peculiar missions where you have to travel to different regions. To complete Back on Top, you'll have to visit specific areas across all four regions. Naturally, completing all the tasks can take a fair amount of time, and it will largely depend on where you're spawning. This guide will provide you with the key locations on all four maps where you have to visit and spray the wall. Table of contentsARC Raiders Back on Top quest walkthroughPattern House locationTower overlooking Warehouse Complex locationSouth Trench Tower locationBuilding with a mural in the Buried Properties locationBack on Top quest rewards in ARC RaidersARC Raiders Back on Top quest walkthrough The Back on Top quest can be divided into four different parts. On Dam Battlegrounds, mark the Pattern HouseOn The Blue Gate, mark the white lookout tower south of the Warehouse ComplexOn Spaceport, mark the South Trench TowerOn Buried City, mark the building with the mural in the Buried PropertiesPattern House location Screenshot and Remix by Destructoid Pattern House is located in the northern part of the map (as marked on the map above). You have to approach the wall to spray on it and complete the quest. The exact spot on the wall for this part, and for the next three, doesn't matter. Just spray, and the quest will automatically update. Tower overlooking Warehouse Complex location Screenshot and Remix by Destructoid The location of the Lookout tower can be slightly confusing, but I have marked it on the map above. It's located south of the Warehouse complex. You'll have to approach the white-colored tower to spray and leave your mark, which will complete this task. South Trench Tower location Screenshot and Remix by Destructoid Located in the northern part of Spaceport, the South Trench Tower is easy to locate and hard to miss. Be at the location marked on the map, and spray any part of the building's wall to complete the quest. Building with a mural in the Buried Properties location Screenshot and Remix by Destructoid This can be the most confusing location of the lot. You'll have to go north in the Buried Properties region to reach the position marked on the map above (just be at the spot and you'll directly face the house with murals on its walls). You'll come across a wall with murals on it, where you'll have to spray and finish your mission. Screenshot via Embark Back on Top quest rewards in ARC Raiders Here's the complete list of rewards you obtain by completing the Back on Top quest. One Renegade IOne Stable Stock IIIEighty Medium Ammo If you're looking to complete other quests from Tian Wen, Unexpected Initiatives and Industrial Espionage are good choices in terms of the rewards they offer. The post How to complete Back on Top in ARC Raiders appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Российская студия с сербской штаб-квартирой GFA Games объявила о старте в сервисе цифровой дистрибуции Steam долгожданного открытого бета-тестирования своего ролевого MMO-шутера Pioner.View the full article

"Open world game that doesn't need or particularly want to be an open world game" feels like a niche subgenre, but I guess it's a niche big enough to contain L.A. Noire and several ****** games—and now MindsEye as well... Read more.View the full article

A new set of Honkai: Star Rail 3.8 leaks has emerged, revealing extra details about a new boss that players will encounter, and it may represent a major lore bomb for one of the game’s most beloved characters. Version 3.8’s beta tests have already started, even before the arrival of the contents planned for Version 3.7, like the end of the Amphoreus story arc or the introduction of Cyrene in Honkai: Star Rail. View the full article

People Magazine has just chosen Jonathan Bailey as the sexiest man alive in the year 2025. Them not going for the most boring and outdated pick imaginable is surprising enough already, but this choice in particular is great news for a few very different groups of people. [Hidden Content] Bailey shot to stardom after playing Fiyero in the Wicked movie adaptation, then solidified that with a major role in the latest Jurassic World: Rebirth. Those are likely the main reasons for his award. Still, the truly important thing here is that he also played G'raha Tia, the Crystal Exarch, a Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn mage who got so popular that he got ******* roles in Shadowbringers and Dawntrail. Bailey also did voice work for games such as Anthem and Forza Horizon 2 before exploding in the live-action scene, but I'm guessing those probably didn't factor much into the result. So, remember when gaming, anime, and especially the unholy cross between their two aesthetics got shunned by society at large as "unsexy"? Well, that's over. Or maybe the people at People magazine weren't thorough enough to realize Jonathan Bailey also played one of the most thirsted-over characters in Final Fantasy history, who also happens to be a cat boy. Either way, that door can no longer be closed now. On a more serious note, this is actually a great pick for two main reasons. The first being that we're looking at the first openly gay man to win the prize. The second, as one wise Twitter user remarks, is how this is one of the few dudes to win the award while they're still sexy. [Hidden Content] People has been dealing with this sort of criticism for a long time, and it's not about how older men cannot be sexy, but rather about how the magazine fails to react to trends and often ends up giving the award to guys no one under 50 cares much for anymore. And sure, this is a silly contest. You can easily argue that sexiness is in the eye of the beholder. You can even more easily argue that the eyes of the people who'd picked Blake Shelton, or that guy who plays Jim in the office and shills for the CIA, and even late-stage Johnny Depp aren't beholding much. Still, I'm willing to turn a blind eye to all that for once. Let's celebrate Jonathan Bailey's Battle Royale victory against all other sexy men in this historic day for gamers, the LGBTQ community, and all lovers of cat-related stuff out there. The post Final Fantasy cat boy is People’s sexiest man alive 2025 appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

The Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army demo is out now on Steam and coming to PS5 and Switch 2 at 9 PM PT. View the full article

Developer and publisher Embark Studios is insistent on calling ARC Raiders an extraction adventure, rather than its more commonly used categorization as an extraction shooter. You do plenty of shooting – the latter is not misconstrued by any means – but the former does hew closer to what ARC Raiders actually is. While you're ostensibly doing the same thing repeatedly, the experience is so varied and unpredictable that ARC Raiders immediately proves itself to be an anecdote machine, a game that is at once awe-inspiring, terrifying, meditative, frustrating, and humanity-affirming. View the full article

Borderlands 4 players currently have one brand-new SHiFT code to redeem until November 11. The latest Borderlands 4SHiFT code can be redeemed either on the SHiFT website or in-game for three Golden Keys. View the full article

ARC Raiders has a plethora of worthwhile quests for you to grind through as you progress through the ranks and down deadlier autonomous threats, but some can be a bit trickier to complete than others. While it sounds simple on paper, the 'Greasing Her Palms' quest offered by Celeste requires you to visit some highly contested and downright confusing locations to unlock its rewards. View the full article

80s-inspired action RPG Kingdom of the Night gets a new trailer alongside its December 2 release date reveal for PC. View the full article

Издатель Activision совместно с разработчиками из Treyarch и Raven Software представил технические особенности и окончательные системные требования ПК-версии своего военного шутера Call of Duty: ****** Ops 7.View the full article

Minecraft's Dragon Ball Z DLC is out nowView the full article

Valve has added a new feature to the Steam Deck, allowing owners to download games with the screen off. While the option is brand-new, Steam Deck enthusiasts have been asking for this ability for a very long time. View the full article

A new Final Fantasy VII Rebirth PC update adds DLSS Multi Frame Generation support and more for Steam and Epic Games Store. View the full article

"It's kawaii when toby is worried about if it's good enough"View the full article

If you're looking for a power bank that can handle the demands of even the latest and most power hungry gaming handhelds at a great price, check out this early ****** Friday deal. Amazon is offering the Baseus 20,800mAh Power Bank with 145W of Power Delivery for just $45 shipped after applying coupon code "GHNNKVYZ". You don't need to be a Prime member. Baseus makes good power banks and I recommend them as a less expensive alternative to Anker. Baseus 20,800mAh 145W Power Bank for $45 The Baseus power bank has a 20,800mAh or 77Whr battery capacity. Factoring in a roughly 80% power efficiency rating (which is about standard for power banks), this power bank will charge a Steam Deck (40Whr) or Asus ROG Ally (40Whr) from empty to completely full 1.5 times, an Xbox Ally X (80Whr) 0.8 times, a Legion Go S (55Whr) about 1.1 times, and a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 (20Whr) about 3 times. You can see why a smaller 10,000mAh power bank might be fine for the Switch but is insufficient for the more power hungry handheld gaming PCs. The power bank is equipped with four ports: two USB Type-A ports that can deliver 33W each and two USB Type-C ports that can deliver 100W each. The power bank supports a total maximum output of 145W. So, for example, if you were using both USB-C ports, one port could deliver 100W and the other power would then be capped at 45W. The 100W of maximum power output is more than enough for every handheld gaming PC released so far. The Steam Deck supports up to 45W of charging, the Asus ROG Ally up to 65W, the Xbox Ally X and Legion Go 2 up to 100W, and the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 between 20W and 30W. You should be able to charge all of these gaming handhelds at their fastest rate while you're playing games at the same time, even on Turbo settings. How to Follow IGN Deals Recommendations The IGN Deals team has over 30 years of combined experience finding the best discounts and preorders available online. If you want the latest updates from our trusted team, here’s how to follow our coverage: Sign up for our IGN Deals NewsletterSet IGN as a preferred source in GoogleFollow us on social mediaIGN Deals on XIGN Deals on InstagramIGN Deals on FacebookIGN Deals on Tiktok[/url] Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time. View the full article

Представители AdHoc Studio объявили о том, что реальные продажи эпизодической игры Dispatch преодолели отметку в миллион копий. На это студии понадобилось 10 дней. View the full article