There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, the Big Bang Unreal & Unity (and Godot) Asset Humble Bundle. This massive bundle contains a ton of 3D environments, props, SFX and characters for Unreal, Unity and a few for Godot as well. You can also transfer assets from one game engine to another using the guides we provide below. In addition to this new Humble Bundle there are several other game asset bundles for these game engine by Leartes running over on GumRoad: Space Nova Unreal Bundle (Use code SN70) Star Nova Unreal Bundle (Use Code SN40) Unity Space Nova Bundle (Use Code SN70) Unity Star Nova Bundle (Use Code SN40) Godot Star Nova Bundle (Use Code SN40) The Big Bang Unreal & Unity (and Godot) Asset Humble Bundle is organized into the following tiers: 1$ Tier Military Boat SFX CyberpunkZBrush: Beginner to Advanced Course on Three MiniaturesVFX Smoke (Unreal Engine)Water VFX (Unreal Engine)Object Distribution Tool (Unreal Engine)500+ Fantasy IconsCosmos One Month Free SubscriptionCosmos 50% Discount CodeMedian Tier Ultimate Lighting and Camera Tool ( ULCT ) Feudal Japanese CastleStylized Desert BazaarStylized Medieval HouseStylized Magical Haunted VillageThe Gas StationFantasy Mystic VillageMilitary Barriers PackSUV 02 DriveableSFX WinterVFX Dust (Unreal Engine)Substance 3D Painter: A Complete Guide for BeginnersSFX 3 Police Station (SFX)Modeling TutorialPost Apocalyptic Melee Weapons VOL.2Material Assignment Tool (Unreal Engine)Police Character / NPC (Unreal Engine)1950s Mafia Character / NPC / RiggedCyberpunk Holograms / Neon Set ( Set of 33 Holograms )Cyberpunk Street Lights (Unreal Engine)Driveable / Animated Retro Cyberpunk Hover Car 0220$ Tier Miami Club Megapack Ancient Cathedral EnvironmentThe Grand Egyptian TempleThe Carnival EnvironmentUnderwater Sunken ShipHaunted HouseThe Fantastic HillsThe Ancient Library EnvironmentPirate Tavern EnvironmentChinese Alley EnvironmentUltimate Level Art Tool – ULATThe Rally Point EnvironmentJapanese TempleFeudal Japan WarroomStylized House Along RiverModular Stylized Cyberpunk StreetStylized Ice Dragon VillageStylized Perched ChurchStylized Desert MineStylized Sci-Fi Modern CityRetropunk Saloon Environment (Unreal Engine)Cyberpunk Kyiv Street EnvironmentChurch / Cathedral InteriorGothic Street1950s BusinessmanCyberpunk Billboards / Signs Set / 35 Unique Pieces ( Cyberpunk Billboards )Military Exterior PackClassic Sport Car 01Classic Car 02Classic Car 03SUV 03 DriveableFPS 4K Western Guns – VOL.3FPS 4K Custom Modern Handguns – VOL.4SFX Cyberpunk GunsVFX Explosion (Unreal Engine)Creating an Industrial Concept Art in Blender / PhotoshopCreating Abandoned Church 3D Environment in Unreal Engine 5Unreal Engine 5, Blender – Creating a Classroom EnvironmentSFX 1 Warzone (SFX)SFX 2 Soulslike (SFX)VFX 1 Warzone (VFX)Post Apocalyptic Melee Weapons VOL.1FPS 4K Custom Modern Shotguns – VOL.2FPS 4K Western Guns – VOL.2 (Unreal Engine)Stable EnvironmentIf you are looking at using the Unreal or Unity assets in another game engine, be sure to check out the following conversion guides: You can learn more about the Big Bang Unreal & Unity (and Godot) Asset Humble Bundle in the video below. Using links on this page helps support GFS (and thank you very much if you do!)

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is less than four weeks out from launch, with Kojima Productions hosting a Game Premiere Event on June 8th. Of course, the development team has already revealed several details, like how it redesigned the gameplay loop to accommodate different playstyles. The title’s official PlayStation page provides a few more details, including how Sam Porter Bridges can use “long-ranged gear” alongside the previously confirmed “decoy holograms” (potentially referencing the B.T. hologram grenades) and silent takedowns. We’ve seen weapons like assault rifles and bolas launchers, but players will also utilize machine guns, shotguns, and grenade launchers. Of course, with the Automated Porter Assistant System, you can improve Traits in four different categories. According to the page, these include reduced movement speed for stealth and enhanced fire rates for weapons. You’ll need to consume Memories for the same, and they’re limited. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach launches on June 26th for PS5. Head here for some extensive gameplay showcasing the new B.T.s and tactics.

Start SlideshowStart SlideshowImage: FromSoftware / CD Projekt Red / Bethesda / KotakuWith this weekend comes the close of another month in 2025. We’ve had a few ups and downs this past week. For us fans of CD Projekt Red’s adaptation of Cyberpunk, we just got a little bit closer to its sequel. That’s exciting! But, if you were eagerly anticipating the Black Panther video game, sadly that project’s been killed and the studio has been closed. Awful stuff. But on a more positive note, there’s a new console out next week! The Switch 2 arrives on June 5, but we’ve already seen consoles hanging out in Target aisles while unboxing videos have sprung up on the internet. We even had a chat with someone who got his hands on a unit already. Until the Switch 2 arrives, however, all of us are stuck with our old consoles and PCs. Luckily, those still work, so we’ll be playing some games this weekend. If you’re looking for a few recommendations to fill up your next couple of days, why don’t you have a look?Previous SlideNext Slide2 / 8List slidesCyberpunk 2077List slidesCyberpunk 2077Image: CD Projekt RedPlay it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Verified”) and soon, Switch 2Current goal: See if Night City can seduce meGenerally, here in the Weekend Guide, we write about games we already know that we like, that we’re looking forward to spending more time with, and that we can enthusiastically recommend. But this weekend, what I’ll be doing is enthusiastically revisiting, with fresh eyes, a game I didn’t care for much the first time I finished it: Cyberpunk 2077. That experience was back around launch, and though I’ve returned to CDPR’s much-revised open-world role-playing game a few times in the years since then to replay its excellent first few hours, and I even visited the new district of Dogtown when the Phantom Liberty expansion arrived, I have not actually given the full game another proper chance. What’s compelling me to do this now, of all times? Well, the fact that it’s landing on Switch 2 next week alongside the console itself, in a version that looks mighty impressive for running on handheld hardware. There’s little doubt that Mario Kart World will absorb the bulk of my time on the new device in those first few weeks after launch, but I also have an itch to pick up another impressive game or two. And I do greatly appreciate that Cyberpunk 2077’s physical release will be an actual cart with the game on it, none of this “Game-Key Card” nonsense. But before I shell out another $70 for a game I already own elsewhere just so I have something else to play on my shiny new console, I want to be sure I actually feel Night City calling to me. There was some mystery and poetry to be found on its streets at launch, but also a lot I didn’t care for, and I don’t just mean glitches and other technical issues. Still, I’m open to being seduced by the game after all these years, and I think revisiting a game years later can often be an immensely fascinating and rewarding experience. So if you’re looking for me this weekend, look no further than The Afterlife. — Carolyn Petit Previous SlideNext Slide3 / 8List slidesElden Ring NightreignList slidesElden Ring NightreignImage: FromSoftwarePlay it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: Playable)Current goal: Defeat the Gaping JawI’m prepping for a gaming all-nighter with the boys tonight. I somehow convinced my Rocket League crew to go all-in on Elden Ring Nightreign, and after trying to insulate them as much as possible from all of the current criticisms swirling around about FromSoftware’s messy new multiplayer experiment, they have it installed and ready to go. It’s the first time in years we’ve managed to get everyone together for a new multiplayer launch. Even though I’ve been playing the game for review prior to release I’m excited to finally experience the magic of navigating its battle-royale-infused Elden Ring horrors with the proper level of laughter, anguish, and friendly negging. Despite its flaws, I feel an incredible rush every time I drop into a new Nightreign run, and the boss fights have the aura at times of mini-raids. I can’t wait to play it all weekend. I will not let my crew abandon Limveld before our work is done. — Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide4 / 8List slidesBalatroList slidesBalatroImage: LocalThunkPlay it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Verified”), MobileCurrent goal: Break 1 billion in a single handI’ve fallen back into Balatro hard. Almost every night this week I’ve snuck in a run or two before bed. Encouraged by the card-playing prowess of PS5 architect Mark Cerny I’ve decided to try to go for the platinum trophy now that it’s free with PS Plus. Progress has been decent so far. I’ve been able to complete most decks in a single run, though Ante 12 when things quickly scale into the hundreds of millions continues to elude me. Things were going decent the other night when I got a deck full of Kings, a Barron Joker that gives 1.5X for each one held, and the Blueprint Joker that mimics that effect a second time. Unfortunately, some critical miss plays left me unable to break 500,000,000 for the small blind. But the constant churn of new unlocks and achievements has me, for now at least, feeling buoyed by my obsession. — Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide5 / 8List slidesProject Warlock IIList slidesProject Warlock IIImage: Buckshot SoftwarePlay it on: Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Playable”)Current goal: Complete more levels and get more powerfulProject Warlock II is a boomer shooter that recently left early access. It is also a retro-inspired FPS that feels like it’s always terrified that you might get bored and stop playing. So the fast-paced shooter is filled with weapons to find, achievements to earn, collectibles, big fights, power-ups, stats to boost, perks to unlock, challenges to complete, things to upgrade, and much more. And I’m here for it. The combat in Warlock is punchy and satisfying, while moving around levels feels smooth and buttery. There’s something really wonderful about killing a giant horde of imps and skeletons using two super shotguns. Or mowing down a giant pig demon with a machine gun. I’m not sure Project Warlock II is going to land on my game of the year list, but I’m diggin’ it. – Zack Zwiezen Previous SlideNext Slide6 / 8List slidesBorderlands 3List slidesBorderlands 3Image: Gearbox SoftwarePlay it on: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: Playable)Current goal: Replay the campaign ahead of Borderlands 4Yeah, yeah, I know some people don’t like Borderlands 3 as much as 2, but I’m not one of those people. I agree that 2’s Handsome Jack is a much better villain, but I prefer basically everything else in Borderlands 3 over the earlier sequel. Combat is better, moving around the world feels nicer, and the larger levels and various planets provide perfect places to explore and loot. My wife and I have jumped back in and are running through the game with new characters ahead of Borderlands 4’s arrival. I’m curious to see how many of the jokes land, and I will be very curious to see how the upcoming sequel compares. If we finish this entry with enough time, we might go back and play Pre-Sequel, which is one of my favorite games in the series. — Zack Zwiezen Previous SlideNext Slide7 / 8List slidesThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion RemasteredList slidesThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion RemasteredDid you know the horses smile??Screenshot: Bethesda / Claire Jackson / KotakuPlay it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Verified”)Current goal: Avoid violenceYou know, the problem I have with Bethesda games is that I usually take the premise of “play however you want” a bit further than the games are actually designed to support. Such was the case when I tried to resist violence in Starfield. While I enjoy rolling the dice on these games by developing a unique character concept and trying to see just where adhering to it will take me, the games are typically designed in favor of violent playthroughs, which means my less violently inclined characters have a really rough time. It’s a shame when an open-world game promises so much, but then it turns out I can’t just chill there and experience things other than swinging swords and using explosive spells.Apparently not having learned my lesson, I’m gonna try for yet another low-combat Bethesda run, this time in Oblivion, knowing full well that violence will show up whether I want it to or not. Maybe it’ll work in a narratively satisfying way for me this time around. Whether I’ll pivot my existing Oblivion character to this or just make a new one, I’m not sure, but the plan is to roleplay as either an alchemist or some kind of really obsessed botanist. I just wanna stroll through these fantasy landscapes, collecting herbs that I’ll use to brew potions and sometimes even sell back at market. But I’m sure there’ll be some damn dog, or fish, or demon from hell that’ll show up to wreck my day. Maybe I’ll have enough potions to make it through the forests alive. In any case, as frustrating as it can be, that challenge of trying to resist what a game wants me to do often makes it worth playing all on its own. — Claire JacksonAnd that wraps our picks. Happy gaming!

"AI is inevitable."That's a phrase that's rattled around my head for a month. Not willingly mind you. It's taken up lodging in my grey matter after hearing it in meetings, reading it in emails, and seeing it buffeted back and forth across Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Discord.It's not a convincing phrase. If you hear it from AI boosters it's easy to brush off as raw hype, and if you hear it from doomsayers it can lull you into a sense of fatalism. But as the philosopher Natasha Bedingfield told us in 2004, today is where the book begins, the rest is still unwritten. Nothing, for better or worse, is inevitable.But in those various calls another phrase—one you may have heard at your studio—has slipped past more unnoticed: "AI is just a tool. It can be used for good or evil, like any other tool."After all this is a business where we use tools for good or evil, right and wrong, correctly and incorrectly. We debate the effectiveness of Unity, Unreal, or Godot. We agonize over whether to use procedural versus hand-crafted content. We debate and discuss the topic so much that Game Developers Conference has a whole Tools Summit dedicated to craft of making game development software.Viewing generative AI through the neutral lens of tool assessment is natural—and I'll go so far as to say admirable—for our community. It's a method we use to get past hype and bombast, to try and take technology on its own terms and see how it fits our purposes. And as the 2025 GDC State of the Industry report tells us, some developers are adopting generative AI, plenty of them not bought in on the hype but through the act of seeking the right tool for the job.Related:But looking at generative AI as 'just a tool' is a deeply flawed lens. That phrase betrays a quiet cynicism (one we hear often from opponents of firearm regulation in the United Stats). Because nothing—not generative AI, not a firearm, not even a hammer—is "just a tool."The function of tools is influenced by their formConsider two tools found in many American households: the claw hammer and the handgun.Normally Game Developer restricts itself to the craft of making video games but I promise this is relevant. Guns are another tool where neutralizing rhetoric is deployed to downplay a tool's negative effects. I grew up in a gun-owning house in a gun-owning neighborhood in suburban Maryland. There were probably four handguns sitting in lockboxes across two rooms, a few rifles and shotguns in a vault in the basement, and one questionably legal World War I firearm tucked away in a closet. The NRA's mantra of "guns don't kill people, people kill people" was commonplace. A neighbor of mine laughed when I advocated for stronger regulations on gun ownership on the basis of "guns are meant to kill." "Guns aren't meant to kill," I recall him saying. "Cars can kill people. Does that mean cars are meant for killing?"His point boils down to this: The outcome of the tool's use is not worth considering when discussing regulation, only its potential use. A gun is a tool and the user has control over a tool is used.Cars are already tightly regulated and cost thousands of dollars, making his point moot, so we'll break down the construction of the claw hammer instead. We generally refer to hammers as being used to pound nails into wood, but I mainly use mine for hammering anchors into drywall because I'm a theater kid and was taught in crew to trust screws.In either case, the physical shape of the claw hammer dictates its most common purpose. The handle extends into a metal object that is blunt at one end, and clawed on the other. The design follows the swing of the human arm, transferring kinetic energy generated by the bicep, down the elbow, through the wrist, and into the blunt end.We also know that claw hammers are not useful for every form of transferring this energy. Variations on hammer design like the ball-peen hammer show how this basic purpose needs to be altered for different tasks. The shape and the material changes depending on the purpose. To sell more hammers, companies invest in better materials and affordances like rubber grips to make their use more comfortable.Like a firearm, hammers can be used as weapons. That same transference of force can be used to harm another living being. Video games sometimes place hammers in a players' loadout alongside guns, grenades, and weapons of war.Neither the hammer nor the firearm is "just" a tool. They are tools that are optimized for a purpose. We can study that purpose, and cast judgements about a tool's safety, merits, and need to be regulated based on that.But. The shape of the hammer is not an efficient way to inflict harm. This is supported by data from the FBI Crime Statistics survey, which gathers data filed by police departments that participate in assembling data. "Handgun" is the most common weapon used in homicides, and "knife/cutting instrument" ranks higher than "blunt objects." That's because handguns are an incredibly efficient means of wounding living beings.Let's break down the handgun the way we did the hammer. Handguns are assembled from an assortment of components that transfer the squeeze of a trigger into the strike of a hammer against a firing pin, which strikes the primer of a bullet's cartridge and sends it propelling out of the tube. Though some bullets seen in larger firearms are meant to penetrate metal, a handgun's bullet is envisioned and designed to cut through flesh.Image via Adobe Stock.These constraints make handguns efficient at few other tasks. In a pinch you could use the butt of a handgun as a hammer. I can't find any data about them being used for that purpose. I can only wander onto a construction site and count the number of firearms in toolboxes as a general sample size.Neither the hammer nor the firearm is "just" a tool. They are tools that are optimized for a purpose. We can study that purpose, and cast judgements about a tool's safety, merits, and need to be regulated based on that. Firearm advocates oppose this process through neutralizing language because it's difficult to dispute the correlation between the number of guns versus the number of murders and assaults with guns in a geographic area.Generative AI proponents sometimes regurgitate that language when defending this new technology. Because like the gun lobby, they don't want the purpose of generative AI decided by its outcomes, only its potential.What is that purpose? It may be the death of truth itself.Generative AI is broadly used to deceive through mimicryGenerative AI is a tool for deception.That's not what its biggest backers will tell you. It's broadly pitched as a tool for efficiency. But efficiency is hard to measure and easy to game. Deception is loud and obvious. Students are using it to cheat on papers. Scam calls with AI-generated voices are on the rise. The Department Human Health and Services published a study citing secretary Kennedy's unfounded health views that cites nonexistent studies, likely generated through AI. There was that cadre of YouTubers creating AI-generated fake movie trailers to attract clicks and make money off people who don't follow entertainment use. Apple marketed Apple Intelligence with advertisements showing people deceiving their neighbors, family, and coworkers. Activision Blizzard used generative AI to advertise games that don't exist.Now here's the rub: games—and all of entertainment—are also a form of deception. We use the phrase "magic circle" to describe how we attract players into our worlds. We use camera tricks, rendering technology, and even VO barks to simulate digital worlds. People engage with games, film, TV, books, and especially magic shows because on some level they want to be not just deceived, but lied to. AI has also been sold as technology that will let every player make their own perfect experience tailored for them by generating worlds, visual assets, and audio on the fly. But the best pitches I've heard for AI tend to "hide" the presence of the LLM, only mildly asking the player for prompts in order to accomplish behind-the-scenes computing tasks. These lies can make shared realities, not wholly distinct ones.That is the difference between telling lies to make virtual worlds and and telling lies to shape the real one. Lies in virtual worlds create shared realities. Lies in the real world tear them down.How appropriate that one such "shared reality," the Star Wars show Andor, recently warned us about the price we pay with treating AI as "just a tool." "The loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous," said the character Mon Mothma in a climactic speech decrying the whitewashing of a carefully executed genocide."When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest."Game Developers Conference and Game Developer are sibling organizations under Informa.

This article contains some Mission: Impossible – The Final reckoning spoilers. In the most recent and supposedly final Mission: Impossible film, Ethan Hunt receives his briefing on a VHS cassette tape. That is a marvelous wink to the era in whichMission: Impossible, but these films have remained consistently at the zenith of quality blockbuster cinema. And through it all remains Tom Cruise, running, gunning, and smoldering with his various, luxuriant haircuts. Indeed, the first M:I picture was also Cruise’s first as a producer, made under the banner of Cruise/Wagner productions. Perhaps for that reason, he has stayed committed to what was once viewed as simply a “television adaptation.” It might have begun as TV IP, but in Cruise’s hands it has become a cinematic magnum opus that sequel after sequel, and decade after decade, has blossomed into one of the most inventive and satisfying spectacles ever produced in the Hollywood system. The final decade of the series’ run in particular has been groundbreaking. After five movies with five very different directors, aesthetics, and sensibilities, Christopher McQuarrie stuck around—alongside stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood. Together with Cruise, they turned the series into an old-fashioned, in-camera spectacle that harkens back to the earliest days of cinema. In the process, Cruise has added another chapter to his career, that of an onscreen daredevil like Harold Lloyd or Douglas Fairbanks. It’s been an amazing run, and honestly it’s a bit arbitrary to quantify it with any sort of ranking. But if we were going to do such a thing, here is how it should go… 8. Mission: Impossible II (2000) It’s hardly controversial to put John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II dead last. From its overabundance of slow-mo action—complete with Woo’s signature flying doves—to its use of Limp Bizkit, and even that nonsensical plot about manmade viruses that still doesn’t feel timely on the other side of 2020, MI:-2 is a relic of late ‘90s Hollywood excess. On the one hand, it’s kind of marvelous that Cruise let Woo completely tear down and rebuild a successful franchise-starter in the Hong Kong filmmaker’s own image. On the other, it’s perhaps telling of where Cruise’s ego was at that time since Woo used this opportunity to transform the original all-American Ethan Hunt into a god of celluloid marble. And make no mistake, there is something godlike to how Woo’s camera fetishizes Cruise’s sunglasses and new, luxuriant mane of jet black hair during Hunt’s big introduction where he is seen free-climbing across a rock face without rope. It would come to work as metaphor for the rest of the movie where, despite ostensibly being the leader of a team, Ethan is mostly going it alone as he does ridiculous things like have a medieval duel against his evil doppelgänger (Dougray Scott), only both men now ride motorcycles instead of horses. The onscreen team, meanwhile, stares slack-jawed as Ethan finds his inner-Arnold Schwarzenegger and massacres entire scores of faceless mercenaries in multiple shootouts. While gunplay has always been an element of modern spy thrillers, the Mission: Impossible movies work best when the characters use their wits (and the stunt team’s ingenuity) to escape elaborate, tricky situations. So there’s something banal about the way M:I-2 resembles any other late ‘90s and early ‘00s actioner that might’ve starred Nicolas Cage or Bruce Willis. Technically the plot, which involves Ethan’s reluctance to send new flame Nyah Hall (Thandiwe Newton) into the lion’s den as an informant, has classical pedigree. The movie remakes Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) in all but name. However, the movie is so in love with its movie star deity that even the supposedly central romance is cast in ambivalent shadow. 7. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) Yes, we admit to also being surprised that what is allegedly intended to be the last Mission: Impossible movie is finishing near the very bottom of this list. Which is not to say that The Final Reckoning is a bad movie. It’s just a messy one—and disappointing too. Perhaps the expectations were too high for a film with “final” in the title. Also its reportedly eye-popping $400 million only fueled the hype. But whereas the three previous Mission films directed by Christopher McQuarrie, including Dead Reckoning, had a light playfulness about them, The Final Reckoning gets lost in its own self-importance and grandiosity. Once again we have a Mission flick determined to deify Ethan Hunt with McQuarrie’s “gambler” from the last couple movies taking on the imagery of the messiah. Now the AI fate of the world lies in his literal hands. This approach leads to many long expository sequences where characters blather endlessly about the motivations of an abstract artificial intelligence. Meanwhile far too little time is spent on the sweet spot for this series: Cruise’s chemistry with co-stars when he isn’t hanging from some death-defying height. In fact, Ethan goes it pretty much alone in this one, staring down generals, submarine captains, and American presidents—fools all to think for one instance Ethan isn’t the guy sent to redeem them for their sins. The action sequences are still jaw-dropping when they finally come, and it is always good to see co-stars Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, and an all too briefly used Ving Rhames again, but this feels less like a finale than a breaking point. If Mission does come back, it will have to be as something wildly different (and presumably less expensive). 6. Mission: Impossible III (2006) Before he transformed Star Trek and Star Wars into remarkably similar franchises, writer-director J.J. Abrams made his big screen debut by doing much the same to the Mission: Impossible franchise. With his emphasis on extreme close-ups, heavy expository dialogue dumps, and intentionally vague motivations for his villains that seem to always have something to do with the War on Terror, Abrams remade the M:I franchise in the image of his TV shows, particularly Alias. This included turning Woo’s Übermensch from the last movie into the kind of suburban everyman who scores well with the Nielsen ratings and who has a sweet girl-next-door fiancée (Michelle Monaghan). Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Your mileage may vary with this approach, but personally we found M:I-3 to be too much of a piece with mid-2000s television and lacking in a certain degree of movie magic. With that said, the movie has two fantastic aces up its sleeve. The first and most significant is a deliciously boorish performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as the franchise’s scariest villain. Abrams’ signature monologues have never been more chilling as when Hoffman cuts through Cruise’s matinee heroics like a knife and unsettles the protagonist and the audience with an unblinking declaration of ill-intent. Perhaps more impressively, during one of the franchise’s famed “mask” sequences where Ethan disguises himself as Hoffman’s baddie, the character actor subtly and convincingly mimics Cruise’s leading man charisma. That, plus introducing fan favorite Simon Pegg as Benji to the series (if in little more than a cameo), makes the movie worth a watch if not a regular revisit. According to more than a few critics in 2023, the then-newest installment in the series was also the best one. I respectfully disagree. The first half of writer-director Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise’s Dead Reckoning In terms of old school spectacle and breakneck pacing, Dead Reckoning is easily the most entertaining action movie of summer 2023’s offerings. However, when compared to the best entries in the M:I franchise, Dead Reckoning leaves something be desired. While McQuarrie’s counterintuitive instinct to script the scenes after designing the set pieces, and essentially make it up as they went along, paid off in dividends in Fallout, the narrative of Dead Reckoning’s first half is shaggy and muddled. The second act is especially disjointed when the film arrives in Venice, and the actors seem as uncertain as the script is over what exactly the film’s nefarious A.I. villain, codename: “The Entity,” wants. That this is the portion of the film which also thanklessly kills off fan favorite Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) does the movie no favors. Elsewhere in the film, Hayley Atwell proves a fantastic addition in her own right as Grace—essentially a civilian and audience surrogate who gets wrapped up in the M:I series’ craziness long enough to stare at Cruise in incredulity—but the inference that she is here to simply interchangeably replace Ilsa gives the film a sour subtext. Still, Atwell’s Grace is great, Cruise’s Ethan is as mad as ever with his stunts, and even as the rest of the ensemble feels underutilized, seeing the team back together makes this a good time—while the unexpected return of Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge is downright great. 4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) There are many fans who will tell you that the Mission: Impossible franchise as we know it really started with this Brad Bird entry at the beginning of the 2010s, and it’s easy to see why. As the first installment made with a newly chastened Cruise—who Paramount Pictures had just spent years trying to fire from the series—it’s also the installment where the movie star remade his persona as a modern day Douglas Fairbanks. Here he becomes the guy you could count on to commit the most absurdly dangerous and ridiculous stunts for our entertainment. What a mensch. And in terms of set pieces, nothing in the series may top this movie’s second act where Cruise is asked to become a real-life Spider-Man and wall-crawl—as well as swing and skip—along the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s a genuine showstopper that looms over the rest of the movie. Not that there isn’t a lot to enjoy elsewhere as Bird brings a slightly more sci-fi and cartoonish cheek to the proceedings with amusing gadgets like those aforementioned “blue means glue” Spidey gloves. Even more amusingly, the damn things never seem to work properly. This is also the first Mission: Impossible movie where the whole team feels vital to the success of the adventure, including a now proper sidekick in the returning Pegg and some solid support from Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner. For a certain breed of fan that makes this the best, but we would argue the team dynamics were fleshed out a little better down the road, and in movies that have more than one stunning set piece to their name. 3. Mission: Impossible (1996) The last four entries of the series have been so good that it’s become common for folks to overlook the movie that started it all, Brian De Palma’s endlessly stylish Mission: Impossible. That’s a shame since there’s something admirably blasphemous to this day about a movie that would take an ancient pop culture property and throw the fundamentals out the window. In this case, that meant turning the original show’s hero, Jim Phelps (played by Jon Voight here), into the villain while completely rewriting the rulebook about what the concept of “Mission: Impossible” is. It’s the bold kind of creative move studios would never dare make now, but that’s what opened up the space to transform a novelty of ‘60s spymania TV into a ‘90s action classic, complete with heavy emphasis on techno espionage babble and post-Cold War politics. The movie can at times appear dated given the emphasis on floppy disks and AOL email accounts, but it’s also got a brisk energy that never goes out of style thanks to De Palma’s ability to frame a knotty script by David Koepp and Robert Towne (the latter of whom penned Chinatown) into a breathlessly paced thriller filled with paranoia, double crosses, femme fatales, and horrifying dream sequences. In other words, it’s a De Palma special! The filmmaker and Cruise also craft a series of set pieces that would become the series’ defining trademark. The finale with a fistfight atop a speeding train beneath the English Channel is great, but the quiet as a church mouse midpoint where Cruise’s hero dangles over the pressure-sensitive floor of a CIA vault—and with a drop of sweat dripping just out of reach!—is the stuff of popcorn myth. It’s how M:I also became as much a great heist series as shoot ‘em up. Plus, this movie gave us Ving Rhames’ stealth MVP hacker, Luther Stickell. 2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) In retrospect there is something faintly low-key about Rogue Nation, as ludicrous as that might be to say about a movie that begins with its star literally clinging for dear life to the outside of a plane at take off. Yet given how grand newcomer director Christopher McQuarrie would take things in the following three Mission films, his more restrained first iteration seems charmingly small scale in comparison. Even so, it remains an action marvel in its own right, as well as the most balanced and well-structured adventure in the series. It’s the one where the project of making Ethan Hunt a tangible character began. Rightly assessing Ethan to be a “gambler” based on his inconsistent yet continuously deranged earlier appearances, McQuarrie spins a web where Hunt’s dicey lifestyle comes back to haunt him when facing a villain who turns those showboat instincts in on themselves, and which pairs Ethan for the first time against the best supporting character in the series, Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. There’s a reason Ferguson’s MI6 double (triple, quadruple?) agent was the first leading lady in the series to become a recurring character. She gives a star-making turn as a woman who is in every way Ethan’s equal while keeping him and the audience on their toes. She, alongside a returning Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, solidify the definitive Mission team, all while McQuarrie crafts elegant set pieces with classical flair, including a night at the opera that homages and one-ups Alfred Hitchcock’s influential sequence from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), as well as a Casablanca chase between Ethan and Ilsa that’s the best motorcycle sequence in the series (if only they stopped by Rick’s). Also McQuarrie’s script ultimately figures out who Ethan Hunt truly is by letting all those around him realize he’s a madman. And Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley gets this gem of a line to sums the series up in total: “Hunt is uniquely trained and highly motivated, a specialist without equal, immune to any countermeasures. There is no secret he cannot extract, no security he cannot breach, no person he cannot become. He has most likely anticipated this very conversation and is waiting to strike in whatever direction we move. Sir, Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny—and he has made you his mission.” 1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) If one were to rank these movies simply by virtue of set pieces and stunts, pound for pound it’s impossible to top Mission: Impossible – Fallout (forgive the pun). A virtuoso showcase in action movie bliss, there are too many giddy mic drop moments to list, but among our favorites are: Tom Cruise doing a real HALO jump out of a plane at 25,000 feet and which was captured by camera operator Craig O’Brien, who had an IMAX camera strapped to his head; the extended fight sequence between Cruise, Henry Cavill, and Liam Yang in a bathroom where the music completely drops out so we can hear every punch, kick, and that surreal moment where Cavill needs to reload his biceps like they’re shotguns; and did you see Cruise’s ankle bend the wrong way in that building to building jump?! For action junkies, there was no better adrenaline kick out of Hollywood in the 2010s than this flick, and that is in large part a credit to writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. As the first filmmaker to helm more than one M:I movie, McQuarrie had the seemingly counterintuitive innovation to meticulously hammer out all of the above action sequences as well as others—such as a motorcycle chase across the cobblestones of Paris and a helicopter climax where Cruise is really flying his chopper at low altitudes—with stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood and Cruise, and then retroactively pen a surprisingly tight and satisfying screenplay that continues to deconstruct the Ethan Hunt archetype into a man of flesh and blood. McQuarrie also reunites all the best supporting players in the series—Rhames, Pegg, and his own additions of Rebecca Ferguson as the ambiguous Ilsa Faust and Sean Harris as the dastardly Solomon Lane—into a yarn that is as zippy and sharp as you might expect from the screenwriter of The Usual Suspects, but which lets each action sequence unfurl with all the pageantry of an old school Gene Kelly musical number. Many will call this the best Mission: Impossible movie, and we won’t quibble the point.

We're glad to see everyone enjoying Apocalypse Rising! It's been three weeks since release and this marks our first major balance pass! We are also releasing the modding SDK so users can look into our tools for custom projects! Posted by FRAYDO on May 16th, 2025 We are glad to see everyone playing and enjoying Apocalypse Rising so far! It has been three week since release and this update marks our first major balance pass. The initial feedback has reported that the "Allies are overpowered", and we aim to address that notion with this major patch. This post will include patches 0.9.0.1 through 0.9.0.5 in descending order to describe everything that has been adjusted since our release. At the bottom of this post, after all of the patch notes, we are also including information on the release of our Modding SDK! Patches 0.9.0.3 - 0.9.0.5 There are three patches here because we ran internal testing before settling on the final build (0.9.0.5) Based on game experience and player feedback, it was identified that the Allies were winning the majority of the games. This patch brings the Soviets up to compensate whilst also nerfing some key Allied units. Soviet will now have more of a chance in the face of the Allied teamwork machine. Bug Fixes Fixed several crashes reported by players via crash dumps (thank you!) Fixed Nvidia App "game filters" crashing the game Keyboard keys no longer get stuck when the window loses focus (e.g. Alt+Tab would leave Alt stuck) Less hitching when units spawn Fixed an issue relating to Chrono Miner Objective Markers Performance has been improved by optimizing some game objects General Changes Team remixing/rebalancing logic was re-implemented to improve team variety for players from match to match Players can no longer refill when in combat. Players can now set max FPS to any value instead of an arbitrary selection Bots can path their way out of buildings now (mostly) Mesh optimizations have been applied to the War Factories and Refineries. The legacy "Battlefield Key Success Tips" document has been removed from the game. Several PT icons have been updated Reinforcement Bays are no longer targetable by enemies. Kill messages: Grand Cannon kill strings no longer fill the feed on FreezingStraits. Added crushed kill string. Revolver kill string has been added to the nagant. Shotgun kill string has been added to the shotguns. Map Changes Fort Bradley: Fixed a bunch of buildings, improving performance and removing ngons Adjusted some of the building roofs to prevent degenerate gameplay FreezingStraits: Added visible boundary stripes. The hills behind the bases are now considered out of bounds. Removed a chunk of terrain sticking into the Radar Tower basement. LittleBigLake: Fixed a floating rock on the cliff behind the Allied base. SnowBound: The cliff to the northwest of the Allied base is now considered out-of-bounds. Fixed a couple texture seams at the main road north of the Allied base. Updated the screenshot on loading screen. Updated the overhead map. Dune Patrol: Adjusted out of bounds area to prevent degenerate gameplay General Balance Changes The targeting ranges of several weapons were increased by 3m in order to for units to be able to target enemies a little way before they are actually in range. Lock-on untrack time increased: 1.25s -> 1.75s Prevented some map objects from being locked onto (i.e. Bridge repair Huts) Deployed Infantry Damage Resistance Reduced: 50%->40% Damage from Explosions now affects Mines, C4 and Dynamite Infantry that are crushed by vehicles now register on the kill feed Proximity Mines are now placed at the player's feet. This is in order to prevent mines from being placed on walls and in other weird places. All thrown cooldown-based weapons now autoswap back to the unit's Primary after being used. i.e. After using Molotovs, the Conscript will switch back to it's PPSH automatically Dogs can now reload their bite and bark weapons whilst sprinting. Allies Guardian GI Secondary Fire now shoots a missile that does not lock-on Rocketeer Jetpack Cooldown increased 1s->2s Projectile Damage Reduced: 25->20 Projectile Explosion Damage Outer Radius Increased: 3m->3.25m Projectile Explosion Damage Inner Radius Increased: 1.5m->2m Sniper Projectile Range Decreased: 350m -> 220m Corrected Damage Falloff Range (Within the last 50m of range, the damage falls off by around half) Navy SEAL Projectile Warhead changed: Bullet -> Bullet Anti Infantry This change nerfs the MP5N vs armoured targets Primary Projectile Damage: 15->14 Primary Projectile Spray angle Increased: 0.24°->0.75° Secondary Projectile Damage: 15->14 Secondary Projectile Burst Delay time: 0.12s->0.15s Secondary Projectile Spray angle Increased: 0.1°->0.5° C4 Inventory Count Reduced: 2->1 C4 Explosion Damage Increased: 60->90 Tanya Projectile Damage Increased: 20->22 Projectile Rate of Fire Increased: 6->12 Weapon now fires in 2 round bursts Weapon Clip Sized Increased 18->36 Tanya is supposed to be holding two pistols, so this new clip size aims to reflect that C4 Range: 5m->10m IFV Guardian GI Range Decreased: 120->115 Seal Damage Increased 12->14 Rate of Fire Increased 14->16 Range Increased 95m->115m Sniper Changed Warhead form Bullet_AV to Bullet_AI Projectile Damage: 102 -> 100 Projectile Range: 300 -> 275 Corrected Damage Falloff Range (Within the last 50m of range, the damage falls off by around half) Mirage Tank Range Decreased: 115->110 Prism Tank Projectile Range Increased 145m->150m Tank Destroyer Projectile Range Decreased: 135m->120m Cost Increased: 900->1000 Howitzer Adjusted the model so that it looks less like the Tank Destroyer Harrier Projectile Range Decreased: 130m->120m Black Eagle Projectile Velocity Decreased: 120->100 Projectile Range Decreased: 130m->120m Soviets Crazy Ivan Grenade Launcher Explosion Damage Increased: 50->75 Large Dynamite Inventory Count Reduced: 2->1 Large Dynamite Explosion Damage Increased: 60->90 Terrorist Self Explosion Damage Inner Radius Increased: 4m->6m Weapons are now hidden when not being held. Boris Airtsrike Timer Reduced: 15s->12s Terror Drone The physics have been altered for better handling and cliff climbing performance Jump Height Increased: 12->15 Flak Track Has a new model! Weapon Reload Time: 1.5s ->1.25s Primary Projectile Damage Decreased 33->30 Secondary Projectile Velocity Increased: 400->500 V3 Rocket Launcher Projectile Velocity Decreased: 112->90 Projectile Gravity Increased: 7.0->3.75 Projectile Extension Adjusted Explosion Damage Inner Radius Increased: 10m->12m ***TOTAL RANGE IS AROUND 230m*** Tesla Tank: Weapon handling adjusted to reduce the arc of fire overall Demo Truck Cost Reduced: 1500->1400 Explosion Damage Increased: 400->500 Radiation Radius Increased: 24m->30m Apocalypse Tank Cannon Velocity Increased 250m/s->275m/s Missile Range Increased 135m->140m Missile Lock-on Time Decreased: 1.25->2 Missile Turn Rate increased: 350°/s->420°/s Siege Chopper Model updated with Rotor Blur Cameras re-worked Physics altered to make the controls more responsive Projectile Explosion Damage Outer Radius Increased: 1.5m->2.5m Projectile Explosion Damage Inner Radius Increased: 1m->1.85m Kirov Airship The Kirov now takes half as much damage from all non-AA weapons Points Given on Death: 200 -> 175 MG Damage Increased: 10->11 MG Spray Decreased: 1°->0.9° Bomb Impact Damage Increased: 110->125 Explosion Damage Increased: 100->110 Patch 0.9.0.2 This patch introduced more fixes and altered the balance of some of the most egregious units ingame. Bug Fixes Fixed a crash when spotting a disguised Mirage Tank as an Attack Dog, Tentatively fixed an exploit where GIs and GGIs could become invincible after using a parachute General Changes Added Siege Chopper Weapon Strings, Removed a Projectile Blocker from the doors of the Allied Power Plant Elm and Aca trees now have less upper branch projectile collision Fixed Allied Supply Truck and Siege Chopper entry/exit zones Fixed Shotgun Scaling Terror Drones and Robot Tanks now tell the pilot that the vehicle will be killed if they leave it Added a missing texture fron the loading screen AI turrets on the Battle Fortress and War Miner will now search for targets Terror Drone now has an attack sound Desolator Weapons no longer leave black marks everywhere New Soviet Technician PT Icon Re-ordered the infantry purchase list When using Artillery Auto-Aim feature when out of range, the auto aim will now adopt the max weapon elevation Updated the Credits Map Changes Little Big Lake: Fixed a hole in the ground by the Allied base. Adjusted pathfinding for Harvesters. Dune Patrol: Removed out-of-bounds lines in the small infantry tunnel next to the Soviet base. Snowbound: Added more ground clutter New terrain textures Added some rocks Fort Bradley: Fixed a bunch of NGons on the Urban Buildings Balance Changes The Attack Dog's Bark can now pierce through multiple targets Engineer + IFV Repair Reduced: 0.65 -> 0.6 Technician + IFV Repair Reduced: 0.32 -> 0.3 Technician IFv Self Healing Halved Deployed Infantry now take 50% less incoming damage from all sources (was inconsistent beforehand) AA Flak Damage vs Helicopters Increased Sniper IFV Laser now uses the correct range Patch 0.9.0.1 Released shortly after the game launched, this patch contained key fixes to the game. Bug Fixes Fixed a Server Crash that was sometimes occurring when a player added a vehicle to the queue and then left the server Siege Chopper can no longer deploy in mid-air Siege Chopper animation has been fixed Fixed an issue with Fort Bradley where Allies were getting 500 free points at the start of the match Fixed some graphical issues with Fort Bradley General Changes Added Siege Cameras to the V3 Launcher and Howitzer Added Encyclopaedia entries for the weapons and infantry Ricardo Engineer credit to Scorched Earth! Check out his RA2 and Apocalypse Rising videos on his YouTube channel! Youtube.com Over the course of these past few weeks, we have heard several requests from our players to release the tools for the game so they can make mods, dive into unit statistics, and translate the game into various languages. We are proud to announce we've made the modding SDK available here: Gitlab.com Whenever we release we will aim to update the tools to match the latest public version, much like we do with the server (also found here: Gitlab.com). If you're looking for tutorials and documentation, we have a wealth of info in our Tutorials forum but also on Tacitus, which is our documentation resource. Links below the image. Tacitus: Documentation Tutorials: W3D Tutorials Over time we will aim to add more to these tools, like pieces of example content and maps for you guy to dissect. In the meantime though, we can't wait to see what you'll all end up making and if you need any help creating things, please feel free to reach out to us over Discord! Found here: Discord.gg Keep 'Em Coming! That's all for now. Please feel free to leave your feedback and report bugs in our Discord and on our forums. We've got eyes on both platforms, so we'll make sure that every point gets a fair shake. Thanks again for supporting the game and our community! - The W3D Hub Team

“What. Is. THAT?” At Remedy HQ, me and two other writers getting a first hands-on with the forthcoming FBC: Firebreak have hit a problem. Namely, a strange, ever-changing black-grey mass, aimlessly and unnervingly stuttering around the Quarry we’re currently exploring. We have no idea what it is until we get close enough to recognize it—an Astral Spike from Firebreak’s ‘prequel,’ Control. But by then, it’s too late. Our screams that soon follow confirm it’s still just as deadly as ever. It’s not the only surprise I encountered in my extensive playthrough of the already slick and utterly engaging first-person squad-based shooter, launching June 17 on PlayStation 5. Here’s what I discovered from a fair few rounds of firefighting a paranatural invasion in the Oldest House. Live as a team or die alone repeatedly The focus on creating a team of three for the game’s player vs. environment (PvE) set-up is to hone in on the three classes of the game, known as Crisis Kits. I plumped for the Jump Kit, which specializes in crowd control and power management, while my two teammates went for the Fix Kit (a repair and tech expert) and Splash Kit (a water dealer and status support for other players). These Kits are designed to complement and collaborate in tasks and attacks, so trying to be a maverick only leads to death, likely yours. Communication is absolutely essential – especially as it’s easy to get caught in friendly fire – and taking full advantage of the Kits’ tools is the only way to survive the endless supply of rampaging hordes. And given that you possess a limited number of respawns between your team, reviving each other on the field is the best way to stay in the game, not always easy when dozens of Hiss beasties surround you. Crafting the perfect loadout In addition to the expected rifles, shotguns, and pistols, each Kit consists of three types of equipment: a tool, augment, and item. My Jump Kit’s initial loadout features an Electro-Kinetic Charge Impactor tool for shocking enemies, powering up generators, and even jumping long distances, and a BOOMbox item that distracts enemies once it’s charged. The systemic subtleties of each Kit’s equipment is where the teamwork comes into play. My Splash Kit comrade-in-arms uses his Crank-Operated Fluidic Ejector tool to wet the beasts, which maximizes my electrocution attack on them. At the same time, our Fix Kit buddy utilizes his Swivel Turret item that automatically tracks and unleashes a volley of rounds at any stragglers. Like the best co-op shooters, FBC: Firebreak encourages you to improvise under increasingly difficult odds, while not being afraid of the hilarity that comes with the chaos. There’s a mischievous glee from the Remedy staff when they unlock our Kits’ augments, and I soon see why. Once charged, my augment – named the AI19 Garden Gnome – fired out an unassuming gnome that unleashed a massive electrical storm that was far too close to my entire team and got us all electrocuted. My bad. Playing with piggy banks and paper Of course, it’s not all just fighting (or accidentally maiming your teammates) with things like the enemy igniting AI44 Teapot or the incredibly significant damage of the ‘break on contact but reforming’ AI16 Piggy Bank. FBC’s director and Control’s protagonist, Jesse Faden, has given you specific tasks to ensure the invasion of Hiss is contained. In this build of the game, I have access to three of the five Jobs that will be present at launch. Hot Fix challenges you to repair a number of heat fans and ultimately reseal the Maintenance Sector’s paranatural Furnace. Paper Chase requires the destruction of a set number of sticky notes, as well as surviving the shuffling sticky note monsters. Ground Control drops you into Black Rock Quarry to kill Astral Leeches in order to uncover irradiated pearls that need to be collected into a shuttle and launched into orbit. Each well-designed level offers opportunities to use the Kits’ different abilities, such as the Fix Kit’s wrench providing quick repairs to broken fans that lets you sidestep the button matching sub-game other Kits might need to perform, or the Splash Kit’s Humidifier spraying healing water to wash off radiation. But the Jobs also bring their fair share of downright terrifying moments, such as the confrontation with the literally giant sticky note boss monster, Sticky Ricky, which requires you to power up surrounding generators before you can hurt it. Or the aforementioned nightmare-inducing Astral Spikes that haunt the Quarry. ​​ Customization and corruption keep you guessing With its satisfying gunplay and smooth controls that feel at home on the DualSense wireless controller, there’s a lot to look forward to with FBC: Firebreak. Plenty of extra tantalizing elements will be expanded for launch, too, such as the many unlockable customizable gears and cosmetics for weapons, equipment, armor, or level unlock perks, such as the chance for electrified bullets or the ability to shake off radiation or fire by jumping up and down. There’s even a Corruption Level modifier that introduces Corrupted Items that cause additional hazards, such as low gravity or—the horrifying one I encountered, which led to many deaths—super fast enemies. It’s all designed to make the most of movement and character status-based systems, creating unpredictable results that set up FBC: Firebreak to be a compelling and ever-evolving experience. The doors to the Oldest House reopen when FBC: Firebreak shoots onto PS5 on June 17, with day one availability for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members as part of PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. And for anyone who still has any doubts, don’t worry – Remedy has this all under Control.

Minutes into my mission, I'm having second thoughts. Gunning down a dozen zombie-like enemies is a lot for a lowly office worker in the Federal Bureau of Control. At first, it's hard to have faith in my gear -- a backpack water jug with a cannon for drenching enemies. But then my fellow FBC squad mate (a secretary or middle manager, I forget which) uses his kit to zap all the soaked foes at once. With our third coworker slamming their wrench into anything that moves, we barely manage to fix up some broken fans before sprinting for the elevator as the doors close on the enemy horde.Welcome to FBC Firebreak. Media got a chance to play the game for a few hours in an online preview ahead of its release on June 17. Six in-game years after the events of Remedy Entertainment's seminal 2019 game Control, the FBC headquarters is still partially occupied by the otherworldly Hiss invaders. But the brave workforce of the FBC has stepped up, and as one of the agency's rangers or secretaries or middle managers, it's up to players to drive them out of the offices. FBC Firebeak is a departure for Remedy as its first game built to be multiplayer rather than its decades of single-player adventures. But the studio's newest title is a smaller-scope "AA" game, unlike the flagship AAA releases like Alan Wake II, Control and its other prior hits. However, Firebreak's $40 price tag (or $50 for the deluxe edition) that matches its more modest scope will be welcome to players reeling from the sticker shock of $80 games coming from Nintendo and Microsoft.In my preview, I could see how Remedy is attempting to blend its signature style of weird, funky gunplay into a multiplayer setting, and mostly succeeds. There's a lot of character to the world it's built, and players will likely enjoy taking on the role of supernatural emergency responders as a change of pace from the gunplay-heavy squad shooters they know. But diehard fans of the studio's storytelling-heavy approach will have to adjust to the new game's fast co-op pace.And they'll have to get used to its difficulty, because FBC Firebreak is hard.I'll give you an example: My two squad mates -- one of whom was CNET video editor Sean Booker --  and I dropped into one of the three missions available to us. We each picked a gun and one of three equipment backpacks, each offering unique tools that work best when combined -- a key way the game encourages teamwork. We set the mission to normal difficulty, and out we went. Remedy EntertainmentThe mission (or "job" in Firebreak talk) we chose was Paper Chase, wherein our squad is tasked with cleaning up a plague of supernatural Post-it notes. Like other areas of FBC headquarters, the offices we explored -- faithfully recreated with '60s shag rugs and retro decor from 2019's Control -- had been warped by the invading Hiss, making things even stranger. That meant we weren't just fighting Hiss-possessed FBC workers clawing and shooting at us -- we also had to gun down humanoid golems made of Post-its.Our third squad mate dropped out due to GPU compatibility issues, so our CNET twosome cleared out gobs of Post-its haunting the office floor, all while getting slammed with unending hordes of enemies. We ran out of bullets pretty quickly. My colleague Booker had a mechanic's kit with a mean wrench he could swing around -- it also let him repair gadgets scattered around the level faster. Meanwhile, my backpack water blaster did little more than stagger enemies, relying on a one-two combo with the shock kit carried by our now-dropped-out squad mate.With my weak melee and frequent deaths, Booker and I barely made it back to the elevator to finish the job. For the rest of our preview, we stuck to the easiest difficulty. The equipment kits, called Crisis Kits, come in three varieties (left to right): Jump Kit with shock area attacks, Fix Kit with a wrench and deployable turret and Splash Kit with a water cannon and healing humidifier. Remedy EntertainmentSquad up or die tryingTechnically, you can drop into a "job" all by your lonesome, but I wouldn't recommend it. They're built to be challenging for three people, and I can attest how it's a difficult enough experience with two, even on an easier setting. Four-person squads just weren't balanced, as Remedy developers previously told me, which made sense as I fought tooth-and-nail through narrow hallways, roomy offices and spacious mines that would've felt crowded with more than two other teammates.There are other tools at your disposal to take into jobs, like grenades, deployable equipment to use with your backpack kit and a rechargeable super ability (which we didn't get far enough along to tinker with) -- all gradually unlocked as you level up. Decked out in more gear, we stood a better chance of withstanding hordes of enemies. When I slammed down a jug filled by my water backpack that sprayed healing in a radius around it, we withstood waves of foes that had previously wiped us out.But we still weren't eager to tip the difficulty back up to normal, and how much players struggle may be a make-or-break point for Firebreak's player experience. It's a balance that could be tweaked in many ways before the game comes out in June, from enemy health and behavior to kit effectiveness and ammo availability. Remedy reinforced that the preview we saw was a work in progress, so I'd expect some tinkering to come, but the game walks a tricky line in encouraging (and borderline requiring) cooperation through its unique mechanics and tasks while allowing player flexibility -- after all, the strangers filling your online co-op squad will come in a variety of skill levels and attitudes.In its current state, getting swamped by wave after wave of Hiss while feeling my kit's inadequacy is a bit worrisome. The game shows promise with its unique setting, gameplay and niche in the multiplayer shooter space -- one that favors weirdness and intriguing mechanics over sweaty gunplay. Remedy EntertainmentCo-op in the Alan Wake universeAs the FBC Firebreak developers explained in our briefing before the preview, the game was designed with three core pillars. The most obvious of those was on display when we booted up the game: there should be as little standing between players booting up the game and getting to the action. No cutscenes, plot diversions or dense dialogue to get in the way of jumping into a job.That leads to the game's second pillar: every player gets the same content -- no progression roadblocks or paid DLC to split up a squad. For the $40 entry fee, players will get whatever the Firebreak developers introduce to the game -- which at the moment are two additional jobs coming sometime after the game's launch. This ties into one of my main annoyances during the preview: progression felt too slow to unlock enough items that made me feel effective in the field. It makes sense if Remedy wants a longer progression runway to keep players coming back -- for new equipment, better weapons and more cosmetics to outfit their Firebreak workers.The last pillar was the one I saw the least of -- mainly because we didn't see much of the game: that FBC Firebreak delivers action and moments found "only in Control." From the preview, this bore out in the reliance on kit equipment over guns -- even without my third squad mate following up with an electricity blast, I discovered my water gun could stagger enemies when charged up, leaving my other squad mate to batter them with his wrench. This mixes in a dose of absurdity with the frenetic terror of Hiss hordes. Remedy EntertainmentIn practice, FBC Firebreak feels like a mixture of Left 4 Dead and Ghostbusters, which is a fun and funky blend that shakes up the tired squad shooter genre. But its focus on quickly moving players in and out of jobs leaves little room for the kind of secret-hunting and lore-digging that defined past Remedy games. To that end, it's tough to imagine whether the studio's diehard fans will embrace Firebreak's loops running the same missions without heavy storytelling, let alone standout moments like Control's Ashtray Maze or Alan Wake II's We Sing musical sequence. Firebreak's developers previously told me they don't believe those memorable moments really fit in a multiplayer game, especially if it means forcing players to relive them repeatedly. They're probably right, but it means the new game will need to rely on emergent moments born from unpredictable, often ridiculous situations -- the kind of had-to-be-there memories that help a game stand out.With no more of FBC director Jesse Faden's story until Control 2, and no required story content in Firebreak, the new game seems poised to truly stand on its own. And without any detail on how Firebreak ties into the greater Remedyverse storyline shared across the studio's games, or how much lore it has tucked away waiting for players to discover, Firebreak will sink or swim based on how fun it is to run around as an office drone saving your workplace with wild gadgets and guns. A lot of that remains to be seen.  Watch this: I Attended the Public Nintendo Switch 2 Experience