'I don't think players expect this': Warhammer 40K: Darktide is adding RPG-style skill trees full of new abilities to its 4 classes

Cyberpunk 2077's first and only story expansion, Phantom Liberty, is fast approaching. For some time, we've known it will launch alongside a version 2.0 patch, adding in some of the new features free of charge. However, we now know exactly what improvements will be exclusive to Phantom Liberty, and it includes some long-requested changes.

Earlier this week I attended a hands-off preview for Owlcat's forthcoming CRPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, which is shaping up nicely, inasmuch as there's anything "nice" about a Warhammer 40,000 game. Rogue Trader is a party-based affair in which you play a sort of Warhammer East Indies Company, tasked with flipping outlying worlds to the Imperium. In order to carry out this goal, you're granted a lot more individual license than most human residents of the 40K universe. You can, for instance, recruit ungodly xenos to your grimdark troupe, operate a private armada, and even colonise planets and turn them into your own personal piggybank. Just watch you don't push the whole "heresy" thing too far.

An essential PSA is spreading through the Armored Core 6 community, and it's even more important than the one about doing your dang training missions. The short version is that you owe it to yourself to play Armored Core 6 New Game+ and even NG++ if you really want to see the whole story. 

A whole host of new units, including Space Marine Warhammer 40K reinforcements and a new addition to the upcoming Old World game, have just been unveiled at the Nova Open event in Washington DC. 

A Star Citizen player is pointing out to disappointed Starfield fans that planet exploration isn't all its made out to be.

The setting of Warhammer 40,000 is known for two things: being grim and being big. It’s a galaxy of massive scale and scope, inhabited by the dystopian Imperium of Man, dozens of deadly alien Xenos, and countless worlds under siege. This is a setting where humanity often dwells in hive cities, urban sprawls that consume entire worlds and contain billions and billions of poor souls. Space Marine 2, due out later this year, looks like it embraces the sheer size and scope of 40K, taking the player through the infrastructure of the Imperium.

We still don’t know when we’ll be able to play the unexpected - but welcome - Warhammer 40k Gears of War-a-like sequel Space Marine 2, but we can at least get a look at who we’ll be shooting in the face when it arrives. 10 minutes of extended gameplay footage have teased the appearance of Chaos marines in the upcoming shooter, along with lots of slow, stompy walking through its grimdark universe.

Publisher Focus Interactive will host a special livestream next week, focusing on «extended gameplay presentations» for both Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. The two titles have shown promise in previous trailers, with Space Marine 2 in particular attracting some positive previews at Gamescom.

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 has looked pretty damn promising in every gameplay snippet we've seen so far, and now it feels like the hype for this long-awaited sequel has just reached new heights. Previews from Gamescom are starting to trickle online, and based on everything we've read, there's real reason to be excited.

Careful out there, Genshin Impact players – the China server is awash with reports of hackers permanently «bricking» some players' progress.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide features fun, grisly, co-op combat, but at launch was criticised for live service cruft - from an incomplete crafting system to meagre progression rewards. Some criticism also fell upon its four classes, who lacked the 'career' subclasses of its developer's previous game, Vermintide 2.

Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 is playable on the Gamescom 2023 showfloor. If you're not in Cologne, though, IGN has shared the official 14-minute-long gameplay video in glorious 4K resolution.