First Enchantment The Sims 4 Enchanted by Nature gets an official reveal trailer confirming that fairies are so back As promised, Maxis has dropped the first trailer for the next major expansion to The Sims 4, coming this July. Image credit: EA / Maxis News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Additional contributions by Rebecca Jones Published on June 12, 2025 Our first look at Enchanted by Nature, the new expansion coming to The Sims 4 next month, has officially arrived. Maxis and EA previously confirmed that the first trailer would be dropping today, before we get a deep look at gameplay on June 26. This is the game’s first major expansion since Businesses & Hobbies arrived in March, and as the name suggests, adds nature-inspired content. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The major reveal, of course, is the long-anticipated return of fairies to The Sims, and it looks as though plenty of notes have been taken from their extremely well-received debut as a playable occult type back in The Sims 3. We all kind of saw that one coming though, since EA are surely too canny to blatantly tease Simmers with a popular returning feature only to pull the rug out. More unexpectedly, it seems that your Sims will soon be able to reject indoor life entirely by foraging for their meals, wild bathing, and sleeping out under the stars. All fun and games until they run afoul of one of several new and interesting ailments being introduced in the pack; fortunately, treating said ailments with traditional remedies also seems to have a big role to play as part of the new Apothecary... crafting type? Skill? Career? We'll surely find out more in that gameplay trailer, due out later this month. All of this takes place the new world of Innisgreen, which is partially inspired by Ireland, but only if you squint through a heavy layer of folklore and fantasy theming. It's definitely more Hobbiton than 21st century hometown for the most part, unless our Irish cousins have started living in whimsical treehouses and neglected to tell us; although one neighbourhood does seem to be based on the more down-to-earth setting of Cobh, County Cork — home of the famous "Deck of Cards" painted houses. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Enchanted by Nature is part of a larger nature-themed season for The Sims 4. Though the expansion itself doesn’t arrive until July 10, the limited-time event, Nature’s Calling, kicks off June 24 to set the scene for what’s to come. Then, on July 1, the game’s next update will arrive, bringing with it more nature-themed skins and other customisation options. This is all part of The Sims 4’s June-August roadmap, which developer Maxis outlined just last week. The roadmap also revealed another major update is scheduled for August 19, itself adding even more customisation options to the game. Next up, of course, is the proper Enchanted by Nature gameplay reveal, which takes place just two weeks from now, on Thursday, June 26.

A Discount, You Say? inZOI is on sale for the first time to celebrate the big June update If you recently felt an itch to check in on inZOI, but never actually bought it, Krafton has a deal for you. Image credit: Krafton News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on June 13, 2025 It seems like things are getting exciting in the world of inZOI once again, after what felt like months of no comms and some patch delays. Earlier this week, the team behind the life sim finally announced a release date for its next update. What was initially billed as the May update missed that window by quite a margin, but was officially given a proper release date - in June - just a few days ago. Update v0.2.0 arrives today, and with it, a discount that could maybe tempt those who have yet to jump in. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This is inZOI’s first-ever discount since its release back in March. It’s part of a larger sale for publisher Krafton, which also happens to be the company’s first publisher sale on Steam. 17 titles from the publisher’s catalogue are on sale from now until Thursday, June 26. Sale percentages vary, and in inZOI’s case, the discount is a bit meagre, slashing the price by just 10%. Now, the game is still in Early Access, and never had the price of a AAA title to begin with, so it’s not exactly the sort of thing to get a bigger 20-30% off - at least not quite yet. Watch on YouTube The latest inZOI patch introduces official mod support to the game in the form of ModKit, adds same-sex relationships, the ability for Zois to have - and adopt - children, and much more besides. Things are popping off elsewhere in the world of life sims and The Sims-likes, too. Paralives, a highly-anticipated, long-in-development Sims-like, recently set a release date for its Steam Early Access launch. The Sims 4 itself just dropped the first trailer for Enchanted by Nature, the game’s next expansion which is set to arrive in July.

Until Death Silent Hill revival is far from over, with the original 1999 cult classic finally being remade After a stellar success with the Silent Hill 2 Remake, Bloober Team and Konami are working together to make a remake of the original game a nightmarish reality. Image credit: Konami/Bloober Team News by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer Published on June 13, 2025 Off the back of the success of the Silent Hill 2 Remake – a remake that blew my initial low expectations out of the water completely – Konami has announced that it is working with Bloober Team once more to remake the original Silent Hill from 1999. We don’t yet have a release window, however, with the game being announced as ‘in development’ from Bloober Team and Konami, with no additional details. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This reveal isn’t exactly surprising, given that Bloober Team announced it would be working with the publisher again in future not long after Silent Hill 2 Remake’s release. This led many, including myself, to believe that remakes of Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 would be on the cards. After all, Bloober Team did such a good job of faithfully remaking Silent Hill 2, so it would be a damned shame to not give the studio another shot at remaking more cult classic entries in the series. Fortunately, it’s clear that Konami has thought the same, and Silent Hill fans can now look forward to returning to the foggy, disturbing town of Silent Hill once more. Rather than being introduced to James Sunderland and his less-than-pleasant trauma surrounding his late wife, Silent Hill puts players into the shoes of single father Harry Mason as he and his adopted daughter set off on holiday to the town, in an attempt to seek some respite after the passing of Harry’s wife. Ok, that might seem a little similar to Silent Hill 2, but hear me out. On the way to Silent Hill, Harry and Cheryl wind up in a car crash, and when Harry wakes up, his daughter is nowhere to be found. The story then ensues with Harry desperately trying to find his daughter and meeting all manner of terrifying creatures and kooky characters along the way. This still sounds similar to Silent Hill 2, but believe me, there’s a lot more going on here than the likes of Harry Mason’s psyche that I dare not spoil for folk whose first experience of the story will be this remake. Bloober Team has its work cut out for it remaking yet another Silent Hill game. It’s a lot of pressure to be put on any developer’s shoulders. That said, after just how well Silent Hill 2 was executed and how much well-deserved praise it garnered, I personally have pretty high hopes for anything Silent Hill that has Bloober’s name attached to it. What do you think?

Not Ready Resident Evil 9 is real, arriving next year, and it's looking like it'll be amping up the horror once more Everyone hoped that Summer Game Fest would see the next Resident Evil finally revealed, and the show sure delivered. Image credit: Capcom/Summer Game Fest News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Updated on June 6, 2025 The impending announcement of Resident Evil 9 has been sort of hovering around for what felt like months. Insiders have been claiming for a while that we were about to see it at this or that show, but it somehow never materialised - and it looks like today's the day that's finally changed. During today’s Summer Game Fest kick-off showcase, Capcom delivered a brief message about the upcoming sequel in the legendary horror series. In a short video, Jun Takeuchi thanked fans for their support of the Resident Evil series and stated that there'll be more news soon, when the developer is ready. This lead most to believe that we wouldn't be seeing Resident Evil 9 today, but as the show closed, everyone was surprised. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. A horrifying brief trailer, Resident Evil 9 is being dubbed Resident Evil Requiem, and looks to be inviting players into a much scarier experience - akin to Resident Evil Biohazard - this time around. The better news? It'll be playable as of February 27, 2026. The game has actually been teased by Capcom in recent videos from the publisher, such as the one published to celebrate Resident Evil 4 selling 10 million copies. It was so subtle, however, you may not have spotted it. Resident Evil 9 is being said to represent a big step forward for the series, though maybe not quite to the degree earlier reports have made it out to be; time will only tell. There’s obviously plenty we still do not know, including how much of the final game will resemble those leaks. Either way, Capcom have been doing this a while now, and it'll no doubt be the survival horror-action romp all Resi fans have been waiting for. As it’s often the case, however, more will certainly be revealed between now Resident Evil 9’s launch next year. The game is in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

When we first got confirmation of this week’s State of Play, Sony’s official description provided little to go on. PlayStation’s first-party output is quite slim this year, but some of us expected the company’s biggest game in 2025 - Ghost of Yotei - to make some sort of appearance. Read more

PERFORMANCE ART With technical improvements, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are utterly transformed on Nintendo Switch 2 What a difference a frame rate makes. On more powerful hardware, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are practically different games Article by Alex Donaldson Assistant Editor Published on June 4, 2025 I can scarcely think of a game as hampered by its performance as the original Nintendo Switch release of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. I can think of loads of games that perform worse, of course - broken, shattered releases - but I struggle to think of a great game so thoroughly compromised just from how it runs. That was the log behind my 2022 review of the games, where I called the games a “super-effective new vision” for the series but bemoaned how it ran. The game became famous for stop-motion windmills and distant cliffsides that looked like they’d fallen out of a Nintendo 64 game. The truth is, Scarlet & Violet’s brilliant design and peppy attitude deserved better. Now, three years on from release, Scarlet & Violet is about to get better with a Switch 2 update that I’m going to go ahead and call a total I was invited by The Pokemon Company to take an early look at the patched Switch 2 version of the game - which is always a sign of confidence, given I was quite a noisy detractor of the original game’s performance. I’m honestly not sure what to say other than: wow, what a difference. It is absolute night and day stuff. To the sort of people who say that frame rate doesn’t really matter, I challenge them to play Scarlet & Violet on Switch 2 and then go back to the original. I dare you. As friend of the site Joe says in Serebii's video preview embedded below, it ain’t doable. Watch on YouTube With a crisp presentation at a higher resolution and with a frame rate that as far as I can tell sits at a rock solid 60fps for the vast majority of the time, this is a world apart from the stomach-turning rollercoaster highs and lows of the original release. Distant Pokemon and world elements are no longer slideshows - yes, those infamous windmills are fixed! This isn’t just about technical bragging rights. The difference in how this game now runs is profound enough that it changes the flow and feel of the game. Scarlet & Violet were by design the most footloose and expansive Pokemon games of all time, channeling the open world chops of everything from Skyrim to Breath of the Wild into a Pokemon setting and setup. The performance was a drag on that - if the frame rate tanks every time you whip the camera around to see a nearby approaching threat or take in a distant vista, you’re ripped right out of the game. By stabilising everything, the performance is utterly transformed. Aside from the nebulous concept of ‘game feel’ being improved by the technical advancements, there are also real boons in terms of gameplay. Wild Pokemon spawn in and swarm across the rolling fields and the like in greater numbers. The subtle delay that you’d perceive, that hitch when encountering a wild Pokemon, is eliminated. Menus that were sluggish are now snappier and more responsive. Pokemon Box sprite icons now spring to life instantly. These are small quality of life changes that add up to something greater. Perhaps most importantly battles are now less plodding in their pace, which was frequently obliterated by certain move animations could send the frame rate crashing. It has to be said, it’s not all perfect. The level of detail settings remain pretty aggressive - which means as you’re galloping along at a glorious 60 frames atop your trusty Poke-steed, flowers and other micro detail pop in around you. It’s not ideal. Also, to be honest, the game now being technically accomplished does help to expose the art style for what it is - which is in need of a bit of tightening, I feel. The addition of HDR does really help the colorful exuberance of Paldea to shine, though. In all it’s a triumph, anyway. This is the game Scarlet & Violet should’ve been. Moreover, it feels like the most technically accomplished main-line Pokemon game… possibly ever? Certainly of the 3D era. As with 120fps mouselook Metroid, playing 3D Pokemon at 60fps feels like you’re doing something illegal, frankly. But this is now the way to play these excellent games - and with good-performing Pokemon games now on the table, my excitement for this year’s Pokemon Legends Z-A has skyrocketed.

Nioh 3 Cometh Nioh 3 officially revealed - and it's not a PlayStation exclusive, even if there's a demo you can only play on PS5 Out of nowhere, Team Ninja took the Sony State of Play showcase by storm to deliver more than just the reveal of Nioh 3. Image credit: Team Ninja, Koei Tecmo. News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on June 5, 2025 As part of the PlayStation State of Play, we got treated to the surprise reveal of the next game in the Nioh action RPG series. It’s simply titled Nioh 3, and it’s going to be changing so much of what we know about Nioh. Nioh 2 is set for release in early 2026. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. First, the game is not a timed PlayStation-exclusive, which is great to see (and a first for Nioh). It will be available on PC and PS5 simultaneously when it arrives next year. The even more surprising news is that there’s a demo available right now, though sadly only on PS5. This is the alpha demo, which implies there’s going to be at least one more demo - beta - prior to launch, if Team Ninja’s history with Nioh is anything to go by. The demo is available only until Wednesday, June 18 Nioh 3 takes place in Japan’s Sengoku period, and stars a new protagonist; a young warrior (Tokugawa) set to be the next Shogun. Obviously Yokai are in the mix here right alongside human enemies. Nioh 3 is described as an “open field” game, which is a major change for the series. It’s interesting that Team Ninja didn’t call it outright open world, though perhaps the negative criticisms Rise of the Ronin drew for its open-world structure may have had a hand in that. Regardless, gameplay areas look to be more open than past Nioh games, even if the trailer doesn’t show much of that. Watch on YouTube Perhaps the most interesting detail was made in this PlayStation Blog post, where Nioh 3 general producer Fumihiko Yasuda revealed that combat has two main styles: Samurai, and Ninja. Both styles can be switched between on the fly. The Samurai style is described as the most similar to other Nioh games, though stances weren’t mentioned in the breakdown. The Samurai style also comes with new additions, so it’s not entirely similar.The post mentions Arts Proficiency, which boosts the power of martial arts - an area that’s typically been neglected in Nioh games. There’s also Deflect, which is effectively a parry system. Then there’s the Ninja style, which has faster movements, and unlocks a host of aerial actions. This is where the Ninjitsu techniques now sit, and some of the abilities discussed include leaving behind a clone after attacking. Nioh 3 looks to be a big step forward for the series, so we’ll have to wait until we get our hands on it to find out whether Team Ninja has been successful at evolving its formula this time around.

How Many 0s? 007 First Light officially revealed as the title for Hitman dev's James Bond game, and we'll see it in action later this week This week is IO Interactive's big 007 coming out party, as the studio's next James Bond game has been officially unveiled - or at least its title has been. Image credit: IO Interactive News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on June 3, 2025 IO Interactive has officially dropped the first real news on its in-development James Bond game since it was initially announced back in 2020. The game is called 007 First Light, and IO revealed it with nothing but a single piece of art on Twitter. The good news is that we won’t have to wait too long to actually see more, because IO is planning some big events this week. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Alongside this teaser, the developer also announced its first-ever showcase. Dubbed IOI Showcase, the event is being held in person in Los Angeles this Friday, June 6. It’s also going ot be livestreamed, of course, kicking off at 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am UK. As you may have already realised, that’s a few hours after Summer Game Fest’s kick-off show, which will be going live 2pm PT on the same day. It’s very likely that Geoff Keighley’s show will bring a first-look teaser that directs viewers towards the showcase taking place a couple of hours afterwards. The IOI Showcase will deliver our first look at gameplay, but it’s also going to offer some updates on IOI Partners games such as the upcoming MindsEye, as well as some Hitman news for good measure. 007 First Light does not have a release target, and though it was initially announced as a multi-platform title (and the start of a trilogy), the only officially confirmed one of those is the upcoming Switch 2. The game will very likely also be released day-and-date on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Friday’s event will no doubt clear all that up for us, and maybe even provide a proper release date for one of the most mysterious games currently in development. 007 First Light is an origin story with an original character that’s not based on any existing Bond portrayal in the films. It stars a young James Bond with his own stories in a separate canon.

Just Dodge Elden Ring Nightreign update offers solo players a helping hand not even 24-hours after launch because cowards cried too loud What happened to the game that I loved, to the spirit of persevering through adversity? Image credit: Bandai Namco News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 30, 2025 Elden Ring Nightreign hasn't even been out for 24 hours, and already the game has been made easier for solo players. Those tackling solo runs will get one free revive during the Nightlord fight that's part of the run, and will get increased rune aquisition the entire time. A solo run, which is already scaled so that bosses have less health and offers a purchasable revive before the Nightlord fight for a measly 10,000 runes, was added for those who enjoy the challenge of taking on a game intended for group play on their lonesome. Fair play, y'know. It's not how I best enjoyed the game but godspeed captain, take the wheel. For those who were actually excited to take on the game this way with all its struggle and in the name of fufilment through overcoming adversity, however, their dreams have been hampered by the wails and moans of wittle babies who want the solo experience to be easier. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. They want their warm bottle, a little bib, and for the process of actually overcoming the challenge present in Nightreign to be lowered so they don't have to work as hard to succeed. Was I able to solo every boss during the review period? No. I did like four of 'em. Was I looking forward to improving and doing so over the next few weeks? Absolutely. This journey has been stolen from me and likeminded adults by the feeble among us. "But Connor, what if these people are struggling to beat bosses on their own and need help?", you may ask. Here's a hot tip. Go and ask your dad if you can use the internet, shake the gent's hand, then take the on the boss online. Once you've cracked that with the help of other people, and are better at the game, then try it solo. You'll find that it's easier than before. Wow! It's almost as though that playing the game more and with other people (the way the game is intended to be played) helps make these challenges less daunting. It's almost as though that's a major theme of the game itself. You are meant to ride a bike with your hands on the handle bars. You can ride without doing so, but it's harder. If you try riding a bike without touching the handle bars and wipe out on the pavement, you don't ask for stabilizers to be put on, right? You practice riding your bike normally until you can crack it. The worst part isn't even the revive - you can just take your hands off the controller on your first death and welcome the game over if you want a real "deathless run" - it's the rune aquisition boost. In my opinion it taints the whole thing. There are relics that give rune aquisition boosts but you have to earn them. The game gets easier as you play, as in all games like this. I do understand why this change has happened from From Software's perspective - the company wants all the people playing it to have a good time and not bail out after a few too many frustrating losses. Totally get it. But why not leave it a week so the sickos can claim their laurels? Then, provide this olive branch for everyone else. Maybe I'm an jaded 27 year old but I remember a From Software community that would cheer and pop bottles upon hearing that a new game was really hard as a solo player, and would smash their heads against it like rabid animals until they managed to beat it. These people still exist I'm sure, they are likely as disapointed as I am that the game has already had part of it neutered, but it's too late now. At least with Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree regular players had a few days to soldier on before the early hours of it were made easier. Whatever, enjoy your pram. Elden Ring Nightreign is out now, and is doing really well on Steam at the moment. So, there's a solid chance a lot of you playing it right now are having a good time, which is swell.

It's over. Well, for about ten minutes. Helldivers 2's battle for Super Earth has ended, with the Helldivers emerging from the siege victorious and seeing off the Illuminate. For now. Read more

Unity The battle to play Borderlands Online continues, as dedicated archivists ask for help in pursuit of the long lost MMO The team working on bringing this game back is now asking for help from experts to get the game playable. Image credit: 2K China News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 30, 2025 The Borderlands Online archival saga continues, with the small group of people hoping to get the game playable putting out a call-to-action for those with coding experience (specifically with software like DNSpy and Unity Ripper) in order to break through the game's character selection screen. Previously, we covered YouTuber, game designer, and dataminer EpicNNG managing to get to the game's class selection screen, but it seems he and his small team working on the archival project have hit a brick wall. Not in terms of skill, but in terms of time. They have a version of the game at their finger tips, they just need more hands to get the build working. He states: "Number 1: We know that we have the full game, we have confirmed we have the full game. Number 2: We know that we can get in eventually, it is just a matter of when." To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In this call-to-action, a lengthy video detailing the journey so far, EpicNNG showed the perilous task as his small team went through old Chinese Borderlands Online websites in the search for a way to actually play the game. Doing so, they found ghost links and viruses, so it's worth emphasising here that you should only really help out with this effort if you know what you're doing. The video is covered in statements making it clear that this is purely for archival purposes, and that he nor his team are looking to infringe on 2K's intelectual property as to avoid the possibility of a cease and desist. However, it's made equally clear that this project may be nearing a dead end thanks to the release of Borderlands 4 and the potential actions of 2K's legal team, unless it gets more people on board to help. It's worth noting that this article was only written following an exchange of DMs with EpicNNG, in which he stated that he understood the potential risks of this call-to-action being further publicised and was happy with it being covered nonetheless. In the video, EpicNNG acknowledges that time is of the essence here, pointing to Activision's take down of the H2M Call of Duty mod in fears it would suck attention away from the next Call of Duty. The worry is that, unless the team gets the game working soon, 2K would fear a similar thing with Borderlands 4 and send out a Cease and Desist. This archival project, if successful, would be somewhat of a white whale for the video game archival scene. Not only is archiving any game difficult, Borderlands Online is a Chinese-only MMORPG that has been dead for years. Getting it working is an admirable goal. Here's hoping that folks that can help see it and lend a hand before it's too late. Though, if you're a greenthumb when it comes to Unity or video game software in general, maybe it's best to leave it with the experts and wish them luck.

Boy, that escalated quickly. Elden Ring Nightreign, as I write this, has been out less than a day. So, of course someone's already put out a video demonstrating a duos mod for it. Read more

A Rising Tide The studio behind Atomic Heart is kicking up a publishing arm, looking to help get more "big and bold" games made With Atomic Heart selling over 10 million copies, Mundfish is widening to support other devs achieve similar success. News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 30, 2025 Mundfish, the studio behind Atomic Heart, has announced it's opening up a publishing arm it's calling Mundfish Powerhouse. This comes alongside the studio's celebratory declaration that Atomic Heart has sold over 10 million copies. Speaking to Analogue Stick Gaming CEO and founder of Mundfish Robert Bagratuni stated, "For quite some time, studios and investors have been approaching us seeking support [...] We’ve decided to make this direction official. Powerhouse will only partner with projects where we see great potential to make noise. Not just a handful of indie hits, but big and bold games that can set a new standard for quality and creative risk.” To see this content please enable targeting cookies. According to the article, Mundfish Powerhouse will be offering developers it works with "deep production expertise and high-end tools, a proven, scalable development pipeline, hands-on support from concept to launch and a focus on fewer, bigger, bolder games, built to shake up the industry". As for Atomic Heart's 10 million sales milestone, Bagratuni gave the following statement, "What started as a dream has become a reality beyond anything we imagined. Thanks to our team’s relentless dedication, bold vision, and unwavering focus on quality, we’ve achieved something truly special. We’re incredibly grateful to our players for their passion and support - it’s their enthusiasm that brought Atomic Heart to life". Atomic Heart stands out to me as one of those lesser-talked-about games that launched to its own healthy audience, and has continued trucking away as the months flew by. We've seen a decent chunk of these sorts of games from smaller studios as of late, a sign of changing tides in the industry as massive companies struggle to hit the astronomical targets set for the developers working there, while these smaller studios with clear vision manage to sneak through the gaps. What do you think of this news? Let us know below!

The Witcher 3. It's a decade old now. CD Projekt's well on its way with The Witcher 4. However, in a really cool turn of events, the studio's now realed it'll be putting out one more patch for TW3 later this year, finally bringing mods for it to consoles. Read more

BUTTPEACH Quantum Witch is a story of religious oppression, queer emancipation, and a dancing skeleton that hopes to popularise the ‘plotformer’ genre We spoke to Quantum Witch’s lone developer – NikkiJay – about how her experiences as part of a religious cult shaped the development of her game, an 80s-style ‘plotformer’ about finding your lost flock of faer. Image credit: NikkiJay Article by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer Published on May 29, 2025 You might not have heard of Quantum Witch, but if you’ve an affinity for pixel-art platformers with engaging story-beats, meta-narratives, and an array of kooky characters, then you should be all over it. To just call Quantum Witch a colourful platformer with a strong narrative (read: ‘plotformer’) is to do it a disservice, though. Quantum Witch is so much more than its vibrant pixels; it is NikkiJay’s personal story of fleeing a religious cult, embracing her LGBTQ+ identity, and seeking solace in video games. There’s a dark undercurrent, but ultimately, Nikki chooses to tell her story – and a story that many others will no doubt see themselves in – with humour and pride. To get a better idea of exactly what informed Quantum Witch and how the indie ‘plotformer’ came together, VG247 sat down with NikkiJay to ask how growing up in a religious cult led to the development of the game and what she hopes audiences will get from it. The below interview discusses religious trauma, coercive control, and the abuse of power. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. VG247: I’m aware that Quantum Witch is largely informed by your own personal experiences of fleeing a religious cult; would you mind sharing some more about your experience, and how it has informed Quantum Witch’s story and characters? Nikki: I was born into the group and my family on both sides were third generation. Age 10, I needed my tonsils out and I had to tell the surgeon that I would rather die than accept certain medical treatments. As a 10-year-old, it's one of the questions they ask when you go for CPTSD diagnosis: “did you at any point honestly really believe you were going to die?” Yeah, I was told I had to be prepared for that. I had to die for God if that was the option that was presented to me. Either take this medical treatment that God said I couldn't have or die. I had to choose death. This cult literally kills kids for God. A lot of people stayed because the alternative was to lose your entire support structure and social network. You were literally by yourself with nothing, which was the option I chose in the end. It’s high coercive control. This way, they say that you have the personality God wants you to have. Religious control and abuse of that power is the biggest theme that made it into Quantum Witch. It is very much again about urgency and choice: I think if people have been through similar things, it's going to resonate with them. VG247: During the demo, I got the impression that Ren is largely not interested in the religious beliefs shared with her by others in Quantum Witch, but she still appears to have a fascination with the Old Gods. I have two questions about this: is Ren on the fence, so to speak, about her beliefs? Does this align with any of your thoughts and feelings about religion now? Nikki: Yeah, I am agnostic. I am a skeptic. I have to be open to the possibilities. A skeptic who isn't open to possibilities isn’t a skeptic. They're a cynic, and Ren is very much a skeptic. The majority of the characters in the game are just aspects of me that I've made into a character, it's just a little piece of me that I've enhanced without turning it into a stereotype as far as I can. Tyra [Ren’s partner] is more cynical: ‘come on, it's nonsense’. And Ren’s like, ‘no, let's go find out’. Her desire to go explore is going to lead her into things that she shouldn't have explored in the way that she's going to. But yeah, she is definitely that part of me who would like for there to be magic. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: Quantum Witch’s marketplace – which features unnamed characters that bear uncanny resemblances to some iconic video game mascots – is what I assume to be a representation of some of your favourite games. The game itself regularly reminded me of themes and mechanics from Undertale, The Binding of Isaac, and even Stardew Valley. What other games or pieces of media helped inspire Quantum Witch, and how? Nikki: I love Undertale. What I loved about Undertale is the mixture of all those styles and then you'd be talking to a character and suddenly you have to play a really fast reaction game. I can't do that. I'm too old. But it was a big inspiration in the style of game I wanted to create. As for the reason why the video game characters are there in the plot of [Quantum Witch’s] story; they do tie into the plot and there's a little hint that they say. And I just loved putting in my alternate takes on who these characters were. You might know Paul Rose from Digitizer. At the very beginning of the project, I had all my story beats worked out. This is what's going to happen. This is how it's all going to interact, but I could not – for the life of me – start it. I couldn't build the bridges between these beats and Rose helped me a lot. He did a script treatment and some of the dialogue in the marketplace is directly from him; [one of the characters you meet is] talking about pills and I was like, ‘that that just fits in perfectly because there is a character later on who might need that pill’. It’s also a bit of a cue for me to have the characters talk about medication. . I also wanted to add some queer flavor to them, so Princess Nectarine – who is similar to but legally distinct from a certain Nintendo character – is in a polycule with Bowser and Mario and they like to roleplay kidnapping. I did not set out to make a queer game. It's turned out that way because I can't help it, but it's not all these characters are. VG247: I know you’re a solo developer and this is a largely solo project, but I’m aware you’ve received some help with the whole endeavour. You mentioned Paul Rose. So could you tell me more about the people who have helped you with creating Quantum Witch and what they did? Nikki: I must absolutely shout out Jerden Cooke for the music. We composed a lot of it together, [with] me mostly on the ukulele which you can hear in Ren's theme. I don't know if you've seen the video clip of David Lynch helping compose Laura's Theme from Twin Peaks. Working with him is like that. I got some fantastic music which was like the music I could hear in my head when I started playing on the ukulele. He was able to put it down, basically extract it from my head, and put it into a word file. And Paul Rose; I knew him through Digitizer meetups. We just got talking on Twitter one day and met up. He's a great guy and things came about quite naturally because it was when Covid hit and a lot of TV work got cancelled. I said to him, look, you should get yourself on Fiverr. Put your writing services out there because people should be paying for this. I will be your first customer, and so I was! Without his help, this would have still been a collection of little story beats that I would have had no idea how to wire together. And I've always wanted to work with Stephanie Sterling. What if I just ping her on Bluesky and say, "Hey, want to write a chapter of this game? It's got a dancing skeleton in it." She said, "Yeah, I'm in." She said that when she started to do it, she wasn't entirely sure whether it would be the right project because she just saw a [dancing] skeleton. The more she wrote for [Quantum Witch] and the more she played the game, she went, "Yeah, this is my wheelhouse,” and she poured her religious trauma into it, which happened to just fit absolutely perfectly. It's like I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with, and this is kind of what I want to say to indie developers who are solo. You're not alone. You might just want one name on the credit, but it takes a village to raise a child. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: I was taken aback by just how cosy the game is. Admittedly, even with the subject matter, I didn’t expect – largely given the art style – for this to be all doom and gloom, but I definitely didn’t expect something so jovial and honestly, straight-up funny. How did you decide that this was the approach you wanted to take when creating Ren’s story? Nikki: [Stardew Valley], Chrono Trigger and Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door are my three most played games. I love the style of Stardew Valley and I love that there's some darkness hidden in Stardew Valley. I really liked the humor in it. I mean, if you thought I shouldn't be laughing at this, but I am, then that’s an achievement. That's exactly what I wanted. My main coping mechanism is humor. I'm not saying it's a healthy coping mechanism, but it kind of works. And I mean, I was heavily influenced by reading a lot of Douglas Adams. and he was able to find humor in the most bleak situations. And the graphical style… When I started this, I couldn't draw a convincing stick figure. I look at the art that I did four years ago when I started messing about with this idea and it's just embarrassing. Objectively terrible, but my main influences were Stardew Valley and The Darkside Detective. I loved the low-resolution style art, but there was so much character in them. So, I took a pixel art course on Udemy and a color theory course and… then just found, hey, I can do this now. That's weird. VG247: While looking into Quantum Witch and yourself, I found a lovely quote of yours from The Guardian: “A lot of religion is about giving up autonomy to some mystical power that you’ve never seen, heard or met. Over the course of the game, Ren takes that agency back… It’s a queer emancipation story.” Could you expand on this? Nikki: The consequence of being yourself in a group that says ‘no, being yourself is wrong’ is that you just get thrown out. It's weird because I think of my experiences as unique, but the themes they really do seem to be universal. Stephanie Sterling from The Jimquisition: she wrote a chapter of the later part of the game. I originally said to her, can you write these three scenes? She came back and said “I couldn't stop writing. I just love this universe” It's weird, because you wouldn't know it was a different author. The religious oppression of queer people is the same wherever you go. I'm really hoping just that I've got that balance right between a game that's fun and cozy and humorous, – that there is a dancing skeleton who can see through time – but also has that deeper meaning and that message that you take back control. A lot of people would look at this and think ‘you must be anti-religion’ and I'm 100% for freedom of religion, but that also means I'm 100% for freedom from religion. Whether you've got faith or not, nobody wants somebody else's faith forced on you. You can't have freedom of religion without freedom from religion. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: How long is Quantum Witch set to be, and how many endings will there be? I know you also mentioned some side quests having various conclusions, as well as the game’s main endings being different depending on your decisions. Nikki: I watched a tester play from beginning to end. It took him about three and a half hours, and he got my second favorite ending. He had questions about the lore and I said, "play it again and make different choices, and you'll get a different ending, which will probably answer that for you." It's difficult to say how many endings there are. There's three definite categories of endings. There's bleak. There's interesting, where you kind of get a bittersweet ending, and then there's the super happy ending, and there are variations on each of those. [These depend] on the characters you've helped. There's also little puzzles that you can go and solve which can enhance the happy ending. It's kind of like an open-world choose-your-own adventure book, but in pixel format. If I'm going to do a full playthrough of all choices and all stories, I will easily put aside six or seven hours to do it and I wrote it. So, I'm not trying to discover it. I think it's like The Stanley Parable in that sense. VG247: I also learned that Quantum Witch could have been a novel. It could have initially started out that way and you then obviously decided to turn this into a game. How did that come about? Nikki: One of my friends was doing the National Novel Writing November. I thought, I've got this story in my head which might fit, so I started writing it. I don't know if anybody's realized this, [but video games] are quite difficult to make, and novels are very easy because you just type... I was wrong and I really did not enjoy writing it. I decided, thinking back on my childhood, I want to make this into a game. I want to make this interactive. Choice is a big theme. I want to give the player a choice. And it did end up as a point and click [game] for a while, rather than a plotformer. No matter what you do, it is a valid choice. There are no game over screens in Quantum Witch. Anything you do is just a part of the story and the game is over when you get the credits. Quantum Witch is a surprisingly cosy and jovial take on topics of religious trauma and queer identities, but if your curiosity about this game is piqued, it’s up to you to find out all of its secrets. NikkiJay stresses that there’s so much to discover for those who are eager to explore the game and discover all of its various paths, endings, and dialogue. For those who want to try Quantum Witch out, you can find a demo for the game on Steam, and it’ll also be participating in Steam’s Next Fest during June.

Time must fly when you're having fun. Or at least when you're defending Super Earth from a huge Illuminate invasio. Helldivers 2's latest major order is the "final phase" of the battle for the divers' home planet that's been raging since the Heart of Democracy update dropped on May 20. I must admit, I thought the Galactic War twist that's brought the biggest number of Helldivers back to the game of any update it's gotten so far would last a bit longer than three MOs. Then again, this is Helldivers 2 - the war ain't anywhere close to over while there are still troops on the march and enemies to surf on. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. First of all, the last major order, which expired earlier today, was a proper heartbreaker. After casually killing 2.5 billion Illuminate in the first stage of Super Earth's defense, players weren't quite able to successfully extract from missions against the Illuminate 20 million times. They got damn close, though. So, with that, while the divers have worn the Illuminate fleet's strength down to an estimated "24% of its original operating power", only four of Super Earth's seven Mega Cities are left standing. Yep, two more have joined the brilliantly-named Eagleopolis as smouldering wrecks. Cue Arrowhead's latest order, which declares the third phase of Super Earth's defense to be the final one. "High Command anticipates an all-out assault to take the final four Mega Cities," the studio wrote, "The Illuminate have spent a century preparing for this invasion; they will hold back nothing. What has come before was the preamble; this is the endgame...The Helldivers have their orders: HOLD Super Earth." To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In order to do that, players'll need to dig in on Super Earth against the squids, while also scrapping 200 million Automatons so they can bring the Democracy Space Station back online to aid that first bit. As of writing, nearly 98 million bots have already been bashed in since the order debuted this morning. Folks are seemingly going all out, no doubt buoyed by the fact today's little Helldivers 2 patch - 01.003.003 - made a very popular change to the Reinforced Epaulettes passive that comes with the armour sets from the recently deployed Masters of Ceremony Warbond. As well as making your limbs less likely to snap like twigs, you'll now be able to reload your primary weapon 30% faster and do 50% more melee damage when rocking the Parade Commander and Honorary Guard sets. Cue celebrations on Reddit. Are you planning on jumping in to help out with this final phase of Super Earth saving? Let us know below!

Akuma, huh Monster Hunter Wilds' Street Fighter collaboration is all about Akuma The first Monster Hunter Wilds Capcom collaboration is close, and it brings an unlikely friend from the world of Street Fighter. Image credit: Capcom News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on May 23, 2025 Capcom has officially announced that, yes, in case all the teasers weren’t clear enough, the first Monster Hunter Wilds collaboration event will be with none other than Street Fighter. Collaboration events provide an opportunity for Capcom to bring elements and characters from other games into Wilds. The Monster Hunter series certainly isn’t a stranger to that sort of thing, and this one appears to be following in the same footsteps. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. First things first, the Monster Hunter Wild x Street Fighter event kicks off next week, on Wednesday, May 28. It’s going to arrive alongside a free patch, version 1.011 - though Capcom didn’t say what else we can expect from the update itself. As for the Street Fighter event, it’s going to introduce Akuma to Wilds. The update will add a new side mission, completing which earns you materials that allow you to craft gear from the collaboration event. The side mission will be available at Hunter Rank 21 and beyond, so it’s pretty accessible to most players. You’ll be able to pick it up from Quinn at the Oilwell Basin Base Camp. There are three sets of rewards you can expect to craft as part of this collaboration. Watch on YouTube There’s the Akuma full armor set and lawyered equipment, as well as a Blanka-Chan full armor set and layered equipment for your Palico. There’s also a hunter profile background, nameplate, pose and titles - all sporting new designs. The mission itself will also unlock two new Arena Quests: Demonic Strength and True Strength, which will offer more ways for you to earn the materials required to craft all that gear. It wouldn’t be a collab without some paid cosmetics, of course, and so you can look forward to some new DLC in the store. It’s all Street Fighter 6-themed, and includes two outfits for Alma that change her look to that of Chun-Li or Cammy, three gestures - Hadoken, Shoryuken, Tatsumaki Senpu-kyaku - a sticker set, and a Blanka-Chan Doll pendant.

Thrempshs npmopw apnn Oblmpmphon Rmphstrpmshrd mphd aphmt etmphing rshks. Sorry, I've finished chewing. There's now an Oblivion Remastered mod that lets you, the almighty Hero of Kvatch and saviour of the empire (well, in the short-term), eat rocks. Leave room for dessert - there are gemstones too. Read more

Bad To The Bravil “What if I was the bad guy?” Oblivion Remastered’s best new faction quests so far exist because a modder was doing evil stuff, and they’re now teasing “a secret project” Also, it’ll take some work for the remaster’s modding scene to get to the next level without Bethesda helping "grease the wheels". Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 Article by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 23, 2025 If there’s one thing us folks who love a good RPG can never have enough of, it’s quests. Oblivion Remastered has plenty in its base form - The Elder Scrolls 4 not being short on stuff to do - but of course modders were always going to add to that. We’re still at a pretty early stage in terms of folks digging underneath the Unreal Engine second skin Virtuos has cocooned the classic game in and seeing what they can accomplish by pushing the boundaries. However, there’ve been plenty of mods that have already come out and had everyone going full Uriel Septim ‘I’ve seen you in my dreams’ mode. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The latest of these, in my case, had been modder ColdTyrant’s “Infinitum” series, a bunch of mods released in rapid succession that overhaul Oblivion’s already pretty stellar faction questlines by adding in new infinitely accessible radiant quests and systems. They offer nice rewards in return for your character doing more of the job they signed up for - be it assassin, warrior, thief, gladiator, or mage - in a way that’s perfect for roleplaying. So, having also been intrigued by his earliest works that made it possible to join the Mythic Dawn and become a necromancer in Oblivion Remastered, I decided earlier this week to reach out to ColdTyrant. We chatted about how the quest mods he's created so far came together, what the next steps in Oblivion Remastered modding might require, and what his future modding plans are. Here’s that conversation: VG247: What drew you to modding Oblivion Remastered, and has your previous modding experience come in handy when getting up to speed with it? ColdTyrant: I've been playing Oblivion since I was a kid, in 2007 on the PS3. At that age I was absolutely astounded that I could do whatever I wanted, go wherever I wanted, fight, kill, or help whoever I wanted - the game absolutely blew me away and had a fundamental effect on myself and my creativity. I've been modding Bethesda games ever since my dad first let me play on his PC, and I was able to download the Construction Set for Oblivion and start poking around to see how things work and what I could make. I had been following the rumors of an 'Oblivion Remake' since January of this year leading up to its eventual shadow drop, and was absolutely floored by the incredible visuals and gameplay overhauls made by the extremely talented team at Virtuos. They breathed new life into one of my all-time favorite video games, and it's been so exciting to see everyone playing and talking about Oblivion again just like when I was a kid. Naturally, after I'd already sunken about 100 or so hours into Remaster, I started feeling that itch to get back into the Construction Set. People were (and still are) pumping out mods, tweaks, and tools for Oblivion Remastered like crazy, and I really wanted to sort of get on that wave and see if I could contribute my own content to help enrich players' experiences further. Being back in Cyrodiil can do that to a guy. | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 VG247: How did you go about creating your first couple of quest/faction expansion mods, Mythic Dawn Rising and Dark Path of The Necromancer? Was it a case of wanting more evil options and finding out what was possible, or did you go in with a set vision? ColdTyrant: When I decided it was time to start modding Remastered, I really wasn't sure where to start. I've always been fascinated with the villains Bethesda has created, and I know many players (including myself) have a desire to explore the idea - what if *I* was the bad guy? I started re-learning Oblivion's scripting and quest system, and ultimately decided I wanted to create an alternate path to the Main Quest, where the player could decide to explore what it would be like to actually be a member of Mehrunes Dagon's Mythic Dawn cult. This mod was sort of a test of what I could get away with mechanically - a proof of concept to myself, and it's a bit light on content and needs a big update (I'm working on this!). After I released Mythic Dawn Rising, I just kept playing around with scripts and variables and seeing what could be done. When I discovered the different types of systems I'd be able to create with what I'd discovered, my ideas really began to run wild. Dark Path of the Necromancer started as just a mod that would add an alternative way for players to create Black Soul Gems, but as I'd finish one feature I'd think of another, then get to work on it - then another, then another. It quickly sort of snowballed into this big project with multiple necromantic-centered systems, and I really love how it turned out. Sort of accidentally, I'd wound up creating another mod that allowed the player to explore membership with another previously forbidden faction. Who wouldn't want to join a group of folks who can cast armour illusions this cool? | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 VG247: I’ve noticed that in both of those mods’ descriptions you note that you’re hoping to add more to them once more advanced Oblivion Remastered modding tools are out there. What kinds of tools are you most keen to see emerge going forwards and can you paint me a picture of what the ‘ideal versions’ of those mods might look like? ColdTyrant: So, with modding the original Oblivion, it's a lot simpler - anything you put into the game world will just be there when you load up the mod. No requirements, no difficult installation instructions, just plug and play. If I dropped a new NPC named Bob the Mage into Anvil, he'd just be there! Oblivion Remastered is a bit more complicated. Virtuos has created an incredibly remarkable hybrid engine that combines both Gamebryo (an earlier version of Creation Engine) and Unreal Engine 5. Gamebryo handles the scripts, quests, and gameplay mechanics, while Unreal Engine 5 handles all rendering - meshes, textures, menus, lighting, shadows, effects, lines of text, pretty much anything and everything the player sees on their screen. What this means in layman's terms is that if I dropped Bob the Mage into Anvil in Remastered using the Gamebryo Oblivion Construction Set, well... that's not enough to make him show up. At best, a visit to Anvil will result in him being completely invisible, and at worst, a game crash. This is because Gamebryo no longer handles rendering. Unreal Engine needs to be told by Gamebryo via strings what actually exists and what to render into the game. Everything needs a table string entry that connects back to Unreal, or you'll have problems. Fortunately, some incredibly talented modders (I like referring to them as engineers) have created tools like TesSyncMapInjector or the Fix & Port Script for xEdit that do this job for us - so Bob the Mage can exist in Oblivion Remastered. Ok, so this particular mage isn't called Bob, but you get the picture. | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 However, this means players will be required to install these tools on their end to experience mods that add new items and systems to Oblivion Remastered, and it can be frustrating for new people that want to get into modding their games, but feel intimidated by all these requirements and specific installation instructions. So ideally, we'll get to a point where either Bethesda/Virtuos release official modding tools for the remaster or talented mod engineers are able to create tool(s) that make mods fully compatible with Unreal, without the end user needing to install extra requirements. For the ‘Oldblivion’ versions of my mods, they are all plug and play - no requirements. But for Remastered - for now - you'll always need UE4SS and TesSyncMapInjector. VG247: What inspired you to take on your Infinitum series, how was it putting together each of the radiant quest systems and deciding on the unique twists you were going to give each faction’s system? One of the things I found most interesting about the Dark Brotherhood one was the gacha-style Dark Token reward system, so how did the idea for that specifically come about? ColdTyrant: The ‘radiant quest system’ I've designed was actually initially a side feature in another currently unnamed mod project regarding the Blackwood Company, as my original intention was to continue the ‘join and play evil factions’ genre of mods I'd released so far. When I discovered during testing how much fun I was having just doing infinite quests, I thought to myself - I need to adapt this to the main factions. From there, once again, my ideas started to kind of run wild. I ‘extracted’ the radiant quest system from my Blackwood project, ported it into a new project, and reworked it for the Dark Brotherhood. I think a lot of people feel this way, but Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood is by far my favorite questline in the game, and I say that while really loving all of the major factions. I wanted to be able to take contracts to assassinate people forever, and I hoped others would too. In the end, Dark Brotherhood - Infinitum was born, and the series kicked off. Creeper, gacha master of the Dark Brotherhood. | Image credit: Bethesda/ColdTyrant As far as the ‘gacha reward system’, I wanted to create a unique way for the player to get random rewards, but also be able to choose what type of reward they're interested in. Creating a gacha that may or may not give the player something good for their Dark Tokens I thought would be a fantastic way to motivate the player to keep doing infinite contracts besides just the fun of sneak killing and gold. If the popularity of certain gacha games is any indicator, people really love being able to take their chances and roll for rewards, even if the odds are stacked against them. Fortunately, however, Creeper does NOT charge the player any real-world money! Some players complained that Creeper being in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary is not immersive (hence my 'No Creeper' optional version), and I totally get it - but I love Morrowind just as much as Oblivion and Skyrim, and I'm sure any Morrowind player is aware of the "meme" of selling Creeper hundreds of sets of Dark Brotherhood armor. Why wouldn't he show up? He wants more of that stuff! It was just a fun reference in the end, and I was hoping people would get a kick out of it! VG247: What are your personal plans and general hopes for Oblivion Remastered modding going forwards, especially when it comes to quest mods - are there any complex ideas you've not tried yet that you’re keen to give a go once the tech’s there and do you think there’s a high ceiling in terms of what people might eventually pull off? ColdTyrant: Similar to what I mentioned earlier, the ideal situation for Oblivion Remastered modding will be the release of official modding tools to ‘grease the wheels’ on the mod development process - but given the complexity of the hybrid engine, I'm not sure if this will happen. It would be really nice, though, so our friends playing on console can hop on the hype wave of Remastered modding too. As far as my plans - the next (and final, for the major factions) mod in the Infinitum series will be Mages Guild - Infinitum. This mod will feature an endless Creature Research system, a brand new Elixir-crafting system separate from regular Alchemy, and radiant quests to deliver those Elixirs to the various Mages Guild Halls. Additionally there will be an endlessly-available staff-crafting system. Since we had our chat, ColdTyrant's released his Mages Guild mod, so you can try it right after you're done reading. | Image credit: Bethesda/ColdTyrant Since the Mages Guild is a bit different, and focused more on scholarly endeavors and magical power, I'm hoping people really enjoy it! Once the main Infinitum Series is complete, I'll likely shift my focus to a big Mythic Dawn Rising update, and a secret project I've been writing up, that I think people will really love! As far as whether or not I've tried certain ideas due to current limitations (I consider Remastered modding to currently be in its infancy), there are certainly a few. I try not to lean *too* heavily into NPC dialogue, for example, since we can't use custom voice files yet, or have an elegant solution like ‘Elys Universal Silent Voice’ which exists for Oldblivion. I think there is a high ceiling for learning and getting into more complex scripting if you've never done it before, but really, the sky is the limit when it comes to Bethesda modding - there are hundreds and hundreds of mod authors far more talented than myself that have created incredible content for all of Bethesda's single-player masterpieces. As time marches on, I'm really excited to see the things people continue to pump out for Oblivion Remastered. It's really exciting to see what people can come up with!

Sad Eagle Scream Eagleopolis has fallen despite Helldivers 2 players slapping up 2.5 billion squids for an opening victory in the battle for Super Earth, leaving six Mega Cities to defend "To unleash the flames of Justice and triumph over Tyranny, we must battle through the inferno before us." Image credit: Arrowhead News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 23, 2025 Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, good news, Helldivers 2 managed to win the first major order of the battle for Super Earth by slaughtering over two billion Illuminate. The bad news? It's not stopped Eagleopolis from falling. As it turns out, not even the biggest number of Helldivers the game's had since last spring diving in to help try and hold off the invasion of fresh Illuminate baddies was enough to stop one of Super Earth's seven Mega Cities being reduced to ruins. It's ok, don't cry. Hug your SEAF buddy and watch a clip of someone surfing on a Leviathan if that'll help. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The previous major order, which was the Helldivers' initial defense of Super Earth after the Illuminate invasion of their home planet began with the arrival of the Heart of Democracy update, ended this morning. Things looked good, the goal of casually killing 2.5 billion Illuminate had been achieved. Let the good times roll right? Nope, said Arrowhead. "Eagleopolis, a venerable stronghold of Managed Democracy since time immemorial, lies in ruins," the studio informed us all via its latest MO briefing, "Its tattered shopping centers stand in warning as to the fate that awaits the rest of Super Earth, should our mission fail." So, that's one of the seven Mega Cities which make up Super Earth destroyed, but there's still a long way to go in the battle for Super Earth, and that win has seen folks make some progress towards wiping out the entire Illuminate fleet or forcing it to retreat. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Illuminate Fleet Strength currently stands at 49%," Arrowhead continued, "Six Mega Cities remain standing. The Helldivers must dig in, alongside their SEAF allies, and continue to fight, day and night, to defend the heart of our Federation. The surviving Mega Cities must be defended at all costs. The Helldivers must deploy to the Mega Cities as Illuminate pressure shifts among them to prevent them from falling. Once they fall, they cannot be reclaimed." Hence the latest order's goal - successfull extract from missions against the Illuminate 20 million times, in order to strike a further blow to the fleet's big invisible health bar. And, of course, to avenge Eagleopolis, which I'm sure people on the game's subreddit would be cut up about if they weren't too busy post fan art about loving their SEAF trooper buddies in a fashion that totally isn't getting a bit creepy. Are you shedding super tears for Eagleopolis? Let us know below!