Helldivers 2 and Nightingale expose the issues all live service games face

Following its release on February 8, took the world by storm and achieved an unimaginable gaming feat. The sequel to the 2015 game delivered a cooperative experience like none other in the gaming space, encouraging an unprecedented amount of teamwork and collaboration. Although playing solo is an option in, it requires a very specific build and presents a much greater challenge than diving in with other players.

Dune: Part Two has taken theaters by storm after a relatively quiet start to the 2024 box office. It’s getting even more people into this franchise, which is the grandfather of a lot of modern sci-fi stories. Dune also has a more storied history with video games than you may think. If you’re in the mood to return to Arrakis and experience more entertainment set within the Dune universe, you don’t have to wait for Dune: Awakening.

Though some of the weapons in may be considered trash, they may not be as bad as they seem at face value. As the game has increased its player base, the weapons available to Helldivers have been placed into a community hierarchy. Though some guns may be marginally better than others, every weapon has its strengths and is viable for any mission. This flexibility, which transfers to most aspects of, has helped propel the game to success along with its chaotically fun gameplay.

Helldivers 2 has turned out to be something of an anomaly, not only because it’s become a far bigger success than Sony or developer Arrowhead Game Studios had anticipated, but also because it’s selling at a rate that is unprecedented for the overwhelming majority of major new releases.

The director of Helldivers 2 says that he doesn't want fans to compare the Arrowhead shooter to Halo or any other games, as the world needs "less rivalry." 

Helldivers 2 creative director has hit back at fans pitting the Helldivers 2 franchise against Halo, saying we «need more compassion and union in the world, and less rivalry.»

In the face of ongoing conversations about which weapons are the best in the game, Helldivers 2's director has advised players to just "use the one you like the most" because there are so many stats players can't see anyhow.

Addressing the Helldivers 2 meta while leaning into the game's winking fascist veneer, CEO Johan Pilestedt of developer Arrowhead Game Studios advised veterans to treat new players kindly by showering them in heavy armaments, not fascism.

As players fight tooth and nail to reclaim planets overrun by Terminids and Automatons, developer Arrowhead reveals that the intergalactic war is managed by only a single person. While the core loop involves running around alien planets and gunning down various enemies, there's a much larger scale meta-game at play that sees the community fighting to take control of several endangered planets. Given that opposing factions seemingly respond to player-led pushes, many assumed it was simply an automatic difficulty setting to make the experience more challenging.

The timing couldn’t be better. Just days after the Helldivers 2 community mourned the loss of fan-favourite map Malevelon Creek, it has emerged there is a single developer at Arrowhead pulling the strings of the galactic war like a D&D dungeon master.

Remedy Entertainment, the developer behind 2019’s Control and critically acclaimed games like Alan Wake 2, now fully owns the rights to the Control franchise. That means the Finnish studio now has full, for the lack of a better word, control over the future of this series, including its sequel and multiplayer spin-off.

In most survival crafting games, there’s one large world filled with multiple biomes for players to explore. That’s not the case with Nightingale. While there are procedurally generated realms to explore, players are the ones who craft them with an innovative Realm Card system. Anytime players feel like they’ve amply explored the realm they are in or feel like they need to go to a new one to gather resources, a portal must be found or built.