Campaign News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Sweet mother of Joel, Helldivers 2's Automatons have returned in force after being temporarily vanquished, and that means the new Major Order is to sort them out - again.

As players continue exploring the PTR, the massive itemization changes coming to Diablo 4 in Season 4 are at the forefront of everyone's minds, but here's something you may have missed — Gems have received a refresh in preparation for the upcoming season!Amethyst, Emerald, Sapphire, and Topaz will now grant Primary Stats when socketed into Armor, boosting Strength, Dexterity, Willpower, and Intelligence respectively. Additionally, nearly all Gem effects have been buffed across the board. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the old effects and their upcoming changes:

Kingdom Death: Monster, among the highest-earning crowdfunded board games of all time, is a rare beast in part because of its price point, which currently stands at $420. It’s also because of production issues, meaning that the game has been out of print for long periods of time ever since its first run in 2015. But if you get the chance to actually play it, as I have, you’ll find the mechanics are quite literally to die for. The base game features complex monsters and elaborate turn-based battles, a potent crafting system, and a fascinating take on colony simulation. Beloved characters will die horribly and often, potentially putting an end to your campaign after scores of hours. Add to that mix dozens of the industry’s most gorgeous multi-part plastic miniatures and you can see why I once called it “the Everest of board games.”

Several trophies in Helldivers 2 require the Automatons, but they've been reduced to scrap metal as the community wiped them off the face of the Galactic Map.

is a turn-based RPG where players can travel the realm with their unlocked party members to overcome a great evil, in the name of the King. While some characters can be unlocked through purchase from the Lore store immediately, others must be unlocked through story progress.

Many players in the Diablo community have expressed their fondness for the Tree of Whispers as a «town hub», even if it is not considered a town by conventional means. The Diablo 4 Patch 1.4.0 PTR added a Jeweler NPC to the Tree of Whispers, making the hub even more useful now! Diablo 4 PTR Overview Diablo 4 PTR Patch Notes All that is missing now is an Alchemist and a Gambling NPC, which are some of the lesser-used NPCs in your everyday Diablo 4 life. To change the appearance of your character or your horse you are still required to visit another town. What is your favorite town hub in Diablo 4? Let us know in the comments below!

Zoos have an important role to play in the modern world. While their roots might be in the collecting of exotic creatures to show off a ruler or nation’s power and influence, the modern zoo has turned toward education and science, to preservation and even trying to reverse the thoughtless and destructive repercussions of hundreds of years of human expansion. When it comes to Planet Zoo the foundations are still those serious ecological issues, but Frontier has crafted a fun and enjoyable park management experience within them. Following the game’s launch on PC in 2019, the animal parks are now finally opening to console owners as well.

From April 6 to 13, the popular mobile puzzle RPG Monster Strike dives into an epic collaboration with the hit anime Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. Frieren, Fern, and Stark join you as you battle fearsome foes and acquire exclusive characters and rewards! Monster Strike x Farewell Freelen collaboration marks the game’s eighth throughout its ten years of operation.

Throughout 's campaign, players will have to make several choices, which can have major repercussions for their character and the fate of Japan in the game. These can be through general dialogue options — of which more are unlocked if players acquire the correct skills — along with choosing to work with certain characters, or simply through a prompt to pick between two set actions.

Helldivers 2 players are currently fully committed to Operation Swift Disassembly, a surgical campaign to eradicate the Automaton threat once and for all. The situation on the ground remains extremely fluid; following the successful liberation of Malevelon Creek, a symbolic victory for the forces of Super Earth, developer Arrowhead updated the game, which was apparently the signal for Automaton forces to unleash fresh hell, as some extras not listed in the patch notes began to make their presence known.

At GDC 2024, Canadian developer Piranha Games showcased new info and footage of MechWarrior 5: Clans, a standalone game and the first in a very long time to be narrative-focused in this franchise. As suggested by the game's title, this will be a Clan Invasion story (the first since 1995's MechWarrior 2), diving into the period that changed the politics of the Inner Sphere for good. According to the developers, this will be an ideal entry point for series newcomers, too.

Blizzard is looking at feedback regarding high Veiled Crystal costs associated with the new Codex of Power in the Diablo 4 PTR, and could be reducing costs in the future. While many materials have received changes in the PTR, in some cases completely overhauling their systems, Veiled Crystal have become a pain point — what was once an incredibly common material has now become much rarer, and high costs are eating through lowered supplies. Blizzard has not committed to a firm change yet, however they've noted that the feedback regarding these Crystals is common.

Star Trek producer Alex Kurtzman has revealed that he is ready to greenlight one of the follow-up series to Star Trek: Picard if he had the authority to do that.

This week's shutdown of Ubisoft racing game The Crew has prompted the launch of a concerted effort to mount political and legal challenges to the increasingly common occurence of games you've bought becoming unplayable.

 In a whirlwind of anticipation, Nothing is dropping hints about its upcoming earbuds launch, alongside revelations of two new phone models slated for release later this year. Today, the company sent a surprise through social media with a teaser announcing an April 18th launch date for its latest product. The teaser, featuring a playful "Play Date" theme, showcases a whimsical yellow frog eyeing a beetle. Observers speculate this signals the imminent arrival of Nothing Ear (3), as the company cleverly hints at a forthcoming ‘Play Date.'

One of two new crafting systems coming with Diablo 4's Season 4, the Tempering system, includes the hunt for so-called Temper Manuals. These manuals feature up to 4 different affixes available for crafting at the Blacksmith — but only once you've found the actual manual! Below you can find an extensive list of most Temper Manuals currently available on the Diablo 4 Season 4 PTR. These Temper Manuals may have several ranks — for those that do, only the Legendary Rank Manual is listed, as it has the highest rolls available.Disclaimer: This is not a complete list of all Temper Manuals coming with Diablo 4 Season 4. Our data set is also based on PTR data, so everything below is subject to change.

You died. That much is obvious in the opening moments of Astra: Knights of Veda, which drops you straight into a war, clashing swords with strangers in suits of armor. Suddenly, just as it starts to seem like this will be another standard medieval hack-and-slash, the warriors around you fall to their knees and transform into grisly, undead versions of their former selves. The zombie-infested battlefield that eventually kills you does a good job of teasing the mystery about to unfold, setting the stage nicely for your resurrection into this tragedy-stricken kingdom. But while Knights of Veda’s detailed world, heart-racing drama, and challenging combat show promise, its overly aggressive grind and unnecessarily complex progression systems dampen the charm.

Black Desert Mobile is rolling out a new campaign, called the Black Pearl Return Campaign. The name isn’t just for show; they’re actually giving you back every Black Pearl you may have spent till now. And they’ve also dropped a new server that’s quite the leveller.

For players who have entered the Public Test Realm for Patch 1.4.0, an issue has been discovered that causes the Codex of Power to be reset, removing any progress made by players. After boosting a character to level 100 via the NPC in Kyovashad, the Codex of Power upgrade process will reset to zero. This means that if you have upgraded various Aspects in the Codex and made another character, boosting that character to level 100 will then wipe the Codex to its original state for all characters. Before boosting a character to level 100 vs after boosting a character to level 100. The only way to work around this currently if you wish to have numerous characters is to make all of your alt characters and boost them to level 100 before you start to upgrade Aspects in the Codex of Power. This will prevent a new character from accidentally removing all your progress as you battle your way through the Diablo 4 PTR.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Blizzard has revealed the drop tables for the 11 new Unique items coming in Season 4. You can check out these items on the Diablo 4 PTR and also experiment with them in our new Season 4 Build Planner! Season 4 Build Planner

Wowhead's Build Planner is updated with PTR data, allowing you to theorycraft your builds for Patch 1.4.0! We've added PTR data for Season 4 to our Build Planner, so dive in and get started theorycrafting builds with all the updated skills, uniques, and aspects for each class. This not only allows players to prepare for and plan out the builds they'd like to test and experiment with the now-live PTR, but it will also remain after the PTR has closed, so keep it in mind when you're struck with an idea two weeks from now about which Aspects interact best with the Season 4 class updates and uniques! While the Build Planner does not currently showcase Greater and Tempered Affixes, we are currently working tirelessly to implement this functionality for our readers, and they will be available shortly. So, stay tuned! To use our fully interactive Build Planner for each class, click here! Looking for more information on the Season 4 PTR Datamining? Check out the links below:

Blizzard has hotfixed the PTR for Diablo 4, allowing new characters to skip the campaign without completing the prologue first. The most highly-requested feature of the PTR so far, Blizzard stated earlier today that they were working on deploying a fix. Players should now be able to immediately skip the campaign upon creating a new character.

Blizzard has hotfixed the PTR for Diablo 4, allowing new characters to skip the campaign without completing the prologue first. The most highly-requested feature of the PTR so far, Blizzard stated earlier today that they were working on deploying a fix. Players should now be able to immediately skip the campaign upon creating a new character.

Helldiver's 2's latest, most relentless campaign continues as «Operation Swift Disassembly» develops. This time, the mission objective is nothing less than the complete eradication of the Automatons for good. And while the war is still far from over, lovers of liberty can sleep soundly tonight, comforted by the joyous news that Malevelon Creek is finally free of the machine menace.

Targeting a PS5 release at some point this year, MechWarrior 5: Clans has a clear goal in mind: to expand its audience beyond the hardcore fans of this long-running series. Indeed, MechWarrior has always been a fairly demanding franchise — which has largely stuck to PC — but Clans is built to be the most accessible entry to date (and the best-looking entry, thanks to Unreal Engine 5).

Young Horses, the studio behind the PS5 launch title Bugsnax, has announced it's turning the indie hit into a card game. The developer requires $15,000 of funding on Kickstarter to make it a reality, with orders currently being accepted from the USA. The team plans to begin shipping the card game in October 2024 for those supporting the campaign, and then international orders will be accepted roughly one month later.

PS Stars, or PlayStation Stars, is a free loyalty program for PS5 and PS4 which enables you to earn PS Store credit, free games, and Digital Collectibles. If you're a PS Plus subscriber, then you'll earn additional Points based on each PS Store purchase you make.

Nightmare Kart, which was known as Bloodborne Kart until its creator scrubbed the branding in 2024, officially has a release date.

After a last-minute delay to "scrub the branding off," the PS1-style racer Bloodborne Kart is now known as Nightmare Kart, and it's finally set to launch in May.

While I can’t honestly call myself a diehard MechWarrior fan – I’ve never played the pen-and-paper roleplaying game, for instance – I have enjoyed many of the video games over the years, from MechWarrior 3 to both MechAssault games on Xbox. I skipped the original version of MechWarrior 5 because, while it was by most accounts a good game, its content was all procedurally generated. It wasn’t narrative-driven. And I love a good story-first MechWarrior campaign.

Hello, PlayStation Stars members – this April, get ready for an array of Campaigns. From post-apocalyptic adventures to virtual reality titles and relaxing cozy games, we’ve got a diverse lineup. Explore intriguing puzzle games, unlock Digital Collectibles, and experience new challenges. Let’s dive into the details.

Eden's Guardian is an upcoming Metroidvania that immediately had me hooked with its hand-drawn pixel art and teleporting action, but it seems I wasn't alone, as its Kickstarter campaign has been smashing its funding goals.

Planet Zoo is at its best when things are going well. Some park building games thrive when they turn into disaster management sims and you're forced to frantically resolve crises before the whole thing comes crashing down like a house of cards. Planet Zoo ain't that.

An encrypted message has come down from Super Earth High Command (developer Arrowhead Game Studios), ordering all available Helldivers 2 players to immediately embark on a «defensive annihilation» campaign against the Automatons' homeworlds. It's all or nothing; the objective this time is to destroy the murderous machines once and for all.

Helldivers 2 players are now fully committed to the assault on the Automaton homeworlds in a preemptive campaign of «defensive annihilation». The first waves met stiff resistance from the machines, and the entire situation was at risk of becoming a dangerous quagmire for the forces of Freedom. Thankfully, seeing the situation developing, Super Earth is bringing out the big guns, unlocking two new Support Strategems to provide the power needed to punch through all that armour.

The heroic fantasy adventures of rely on many rules and subsystems, but the game is also full of magical items, spells, and class features that let players ignore some of those rules entirely. Some rules that are a major concern in low-level games are easily trivialized at higher levels, effectively removing them from play. Ranged attacks normally have a Disadvantage if the attacker is engaged in melee, but the Crossbow Expert feat removes this penalty entirely. In the same way, this combat rule has an exception: magic can remove worries about encumbrance, tracking rations, and much more.

Two months ago, Square Enix dropped the news that Nier Reincarnation would be shutting down in April. They’ve scheduled the big goodbye for April 29, and they’re sending it off with one final tribute. The last chapter Act III: Transmigration is now out for all players.

Activision is reportedly in the midst of investigating a hacking campaign that's stealing login credentials from people playing its games. According to TechCrunch, bad actors have been successfully installing malware onto victims' computers and using their access to steal logins for their gaming accounts and even their crypto wallets. The video game publisher has apparently been helping victims remove the malware and regain control of their accounts, but it doesn't have enough information at the moment to say how the malware is spreading.

Video game giant Activision is investigating a hacking campaign that’s targeting players with the goal of stealing their credentials, TechCrunch has learned.

Wargaming has an impressive lineup of naval combat and strategic ship warfare games like World of Warships Blitz War and World of Tanks Blitz. Now, they’ve added another to that list, World of Warships: Legends. It’s free to play and is up for grabs on Android now.

Brandon Sanderson is one of the most successful and prolific fantasy and science fiction authors of all time, with a devoted following that funded the most successful Kickstarter campaign to date and has pledged over $20 million on Backerkit for his latest crowdfunding effort. His expansive bibliography can make it difficult to figure out where to start if you want to jump into his many worlds and series, so we’ve put together a primer to help guide you through the Cosmere and beyond.

GamesReview is always excited when we are considered for Kickstarter preview coverage, but we still only choose to preview games we think we will enjoy. The trouble with doing preview work is you walk that fine line between being a marketing tool and actually providing solid coverage on a game. Thankfully, I’ve been having a blast with Welcome to Meeple Beach from the Table Golf Association, so everything you are about to read is my legitimate thoughts!

The figurative sandbox of freedom that is your weekend approaches, so it's time to fill your inventory with stuff to do. Personally, I'm leaning pretty heavily into buying that 87% off Far Cry 6 twice—the plan being to gift one to a mate and then take advantage of the stellar co-op campaign. Self-serving presents aside, I'm still all about Dragon's Dogma 2, even though I'm on the other side of the credits. Game of the month for me.

Glass Cannon Unplugged have just launched their Kickstarter campaign funding Don’t Starve: The Board Game.   We've seen plenty of the best board games come out in the past few years but Kickstarter-funded tabletop adaptations of video games are really having a moment right now. It was just last month that Glass Cannon Unplugged announced they were working on Dying Light: The Board Game, adding that to their expansive portfolio of board games like This War of Mine: The Board Game and Apex Legends: The Board Game (which we were very fond of when we previewed it). Gameplay wise, Don't Starve: The Board Game promises to be chock-full of "mechanics highlighting player choice, dynamic combat, and open-world exploration in night and day conditions". From the looks of the game’s box art and promotional materials, it also keeps that charming Tim Burton-esque art style that players have come to know and love. Turns out that expansions and add-ons are already on the cards too.

The original Fight Crab answered a question I never even knew I needed the answer to: what if someone made an an anime arena fighter with hilariously unreliable individual-limb controls, and also every character was a crab? It’s a ridiculously stupid combo, but in the best kind of way – it’s the sort of irreverent, dumb fun that throws every rule of video games out the window for the sake of making you grin from ear to ear. Fight Crab 2 ups the ante with not only with a wider variety of selectable shelled warriors and ridiculous weaponry, but also a new kind of campaign mode that answers an even sillier question: what if it was also like Monster Rancher too?

A successor to The Falconeer, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles is the second of three games to be set in universe created by developer Tomas Sala. Where you might expect it to follow in The Falconeer’s slipstream as an aerial combat game, Bulwark takes a much steadier approach, revisiting the vast watery expanse of the Ursee for a more sedate city builder.

If you’ve been following the website and my YouTube channel, you know how excited we have been about Mythwind. While there are definitely aspects we don’t love, we quickly put in dozens of hours and now cannot wait for new content to drop for this game. And guess what everyone – if you missed out on the first campaign, this is also a big reprint, so you can get everything you missed out on!

Mid-March, Blizzard revealed 12 new Hero Talent Trees in a sneak peek at the new system coming with the The War Within expansion. Our Restoration Shaman guide writer, Theun, offers an early review of the Farseer Shaman Hero Talents that call upon the ancestors to aid you and your allies, but what does an ancestor exactly do and why aren't there more ties to existing ancestral spells?

Long ago in Diablo 2, Andariel was introduced to Sanctuary as the Daughter of Lilith. While that was changed with the release of The Book of Cain, this lesser evil remained a fan favorite and an iconic boss fight.

Ostia Pirates on Kickstarter is in its final 24 hours and the campaign has done incredibly well. With over 400,000 CAD raised, it’s further proof that even lesser known publishers can make a big impact on the board game space, and highlights how important Kickstarter and GameFound are.

Baldur's Gate 3 is getting new endings, with director Swen Vincke describing them as "really evil".

Larian Studios may not be working on full-fledged Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC, but there are at least more evil endings on the way – and founder Swen Vincke says “they’re really evil.”

During a lengthy developer update livestream, Grinding Gear Games announced some Path of Exile 2 news. To start with, the studio based in New Zealand announced a delay in the beta test that was previously slated for June. While the content is in place, the team disclosed the need for more time to properly polish Path of Exile 2. As such, the beta test will now take place at some point in late 2024. However, it's not just bad news, as an Alpha test will still be conducted in June.

With only one week to go, your chances to back Ostia Pirates is slowly fading away. Listen folks, take it from me, if you want to pick up a game from UCHIBACOYA you do not want to wait. These games generally will not hit retaliers in the West, and I’ve already disappointed myself by missing out on their games multiple times. Yes, the price might be a bit concerning, but these are games that hold their value and will be something you are happy to have in your board game collection!

When highly regarded games see a remaster, the quality tends to fluctuate between two extremes. You have the disastrous launches akin to Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — Definitive Edition, or you get the lovingly crafted, impressive remasters like we saw with Quake and Quake 2. Aspyr has been working its way through the back catalog of classic Star Wars titles from the IP’s gaming golden age, and the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection is the latest of such releases. And unfortunately, this re-release is more GTA than Quake.

When Overwatch 2 was announced at BlizzCon 2019, Blizzard made a big deal of the brand new PvE component, which would have been comprised of Story Missions and Hero Missions.

A newbie Dungeon Master, I was attracted to Dungeons & Dragons by the opportunity to spend my free time making delightful experiences for my players. And delighted they were when I plopped a giant canvas map of the Sword Coast region onto my dining room table. I looked at my nephews and my wife, all with some TTRPG experience under their belts, and then to the odd man out: my nearly 70-year-old father who has zero previous experience with role-playing games.

VOID Interactive's first game Ready or Not was a chart topper, garnering 1.5 million views on Twitch during the first 24 hours after launch. It wasn't a fluke. The small remote team at VOID Interactive had many factors working against them but a successful creator launch campaign propelled their game to become one of the most watched titles in the world last year.

Yes, it happened - Chris Roberts, the man behind the unique gaming phenomenon called Star Citizen, has mentioned version 1.0 in his latest 'Letter from the Chairman' blog post.

Masters of the Air tells the story of the Eighth Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, also known as the Bloody Hundredth, which used its fleet of B-17 heavy bombers to cut a swathe of destruction from the English Channel to Berlin during World War II. The nine-part Apple TV Plus miniseries, which airs its final episode Friday, is basically everything that baby Charlie — his nose pressed against the pages of obscure history books all throughout middle school — could’ve ever hoped for. But, now that it’s over, I think I’ve found a way to extend the experience just a little further thanks to B-17 Flying Fortress Leader, an excellent solitaire board game from Dan Verssen Games.

Monster Hunter World has sold 25 million units, making it responsible for over 25% of the 20-year-old action RPG series' total sales. 

Two decades on from its original launch, Star Wars Battlefront is suffering a disaster of a re-release. Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection, a compilation featuring the first two games in the series, is a messier than a Jawa that swallowed a thermal detonator thanks to server problems, bugs, and more. What was at first a highly-anticipated re-release has become the target of overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam.

Thank your own personal deity—possibly Akatosh—it's Friday! Let's keep this intro brief because I'd rather earmark you mad savings rather than chew your ear off with non-essential words. If you've been waiting for a good entrypoint price for Baldur's Gate 3, today's is probably the best you'll see for a while—it's an amazing game that almost never sees a drop. My other personal picks include a sub-three-buck deal for Titanfall 2 with its surprisingly excellent FPS campaign. And that's the same absurd price range for Hotline Miami, the toe-tappingest, top-down 2D murderfest ever.

Great news for fans of sci-fi violence; third-person co-op shooter Helldivers 2 has introduced a brand new Major Order, representing the next stage in the massive online co-operative campaign. 

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Aspyr is releasing the Star Wars Battlefront: Classic Collection today (Thursday 14th March), and a certain sort of player will be heading straight for the list of trophies/achievements.

Helldiver 2's Malevelon Creek is now so renowned that the player-driven campaign to retake the planet now has its own movie parody trailer, and it has the approval of the game's director to boot.

A new fan petition to bring back Insomniac’s canceled multiplayer game has been gathering thousands signatures as enthusiasts are exposed to leaked trailers of the title that has been fully discarded. The game that was being developed for PlayStation consoles was abruptly canceled and the leaked footage online sparked outrage among fans who wanted to experience a bit of the in an interactive medium. The information about the canceled was obtained as part of the giant Insomniac leaks in late 2023.

One Btn Bosses is a clever boss rush game for PC from developer Midnight Munchies that gives you exactly what the name promises: bosses that can be fought and defeated with just one button. But you're going to have to be smart about it. Check out the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.

Helldivers 2 has a brand new Major Order focusing on quarantining the Terminid threat, but players will need to rapidly liberate four players to clear the objective.

Zweihander: Grim and Perilous RPG, the original tabletop system at the core of groundbreaking titles like Flames of Freedom and Blackbirds, is back on the market. A new crowdfunding campaign for the game’s second iteration, dubbed Zweihander Reforged Edition, launches today. Polygon sat down with creator Daniel D. Fox to learn more — including how things almost went completely off the rails back in 2022.