Shooter: Third Person News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Helldivers 2's Major Orders reward system is getting a full overhaul, following player complaints about their hard-earned medals being slow to arrive and as such, damaging their faith in managed democracy, with potentially dire consequences for their ability to massacre spiky robots and large insects.

Hell, it turns out, isn't always a bubbly pool of magma where like, devils prod you with forks. There is a second hell in Helldivers 2, a hell made up of wartorn planets and soldiers who fight bile-spewing bugs and robots. And it is a hell that is subject to patches. One such update has nerfed a bunch of weapons including the popular quasar cannon. It's also increased the number of enemy patrols based on player numbers and tweaked the game's level generation, with the former making life more difficult in hell, and the latter possibly making things more interesting.

Arrowhead has a steady line it needs to walk with Helldivers 2. The developer needs to ensure it both fixes any bugs (not Terminids, the glitchy kind) while also adding new featurs and content to the game in order to «stay relevant».

GTA 6 publishers Take-Two Interactive have announced that they're "rationalizing" their "pipeline" and positioning/restructuring/streamlining for growth by, you guessed it, laying off a load of people and cancelling a bunch of games. As detailed in a Security Exchange Commission filing, Take-Two are doing away with five per cent of the approximately 11,000 people who work for them, and have cancelled several in-development projects worth tens of millions of dollars.

Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two has announced it will lay off five percent of its 11,000-strong workforce — equating to around 550 people — and cancel multiple in-development projects. The company said the move was the next stage in its ongoing restructuring plan, which began in February.

There's a little game coming out next year you may have heard of. It's called GTA 6, and it's the next entry in Rockstar's prolific, rather chaotic and often debauched Grand Theft Auto series.

Did you really think Helldivers 2 players had wiped out the Automatons for good? Nope.

Over the weekend, intrepid Helldivers accomplished what perhaps once seemed unimaginable: eradicating all bots in Helldivers 2. Combined with the news that all those Terminind bugs are now «contained», to use developer Arrowhead's words, the feeling among players is one of celebration. Right? We beat Helldivers 2?

Helldivers 2 is getting a new premium warbond next week, offering some explosive new options to take into battle, aim at an enemy bug or robot, and then accidentally kill your entire squad by mistake. Or maybe that’ll just be me.

Helldivers 2's next Premium Warbond is set to launch next week, on 11th April.

It's update day for Helldivers 2, and — as detailed in its patch notes — the big new addition is terrible, awful weather befitting of battling across planetary hellscapes. However — as not detailed in its patch notes — it's sneakily added a huge AT-AT-like robot enemy too.

So, how was everyone’s long weekend? I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I think I may have even sensed the fading ghost of an immeasurably whisper-thin ray of sunshine at one point. Enough! Says a new patch for co-op shooter Helldivers 2. You know who else enjoys basking in the pleasant glow of mildly enjoyable weather when there’s freedoms that need fighting for? Bug sympathisers, that’s who. As such, the developers have gone and added new planetary hazards in the form of blizzards and sandstorms, alongside the usual balance tweaks.

According to our mysterious Treehouse member, our Jource (Joel Source) got in touch with them last night in regards to the APC story I'd posted (to safeguard democracy, I'm not going to reveal either of their identities). They wanted to "put the record straight" and say that it wasn't the work of Real Joel, because Real Joel's so busy scheming, he simply wouldn't have time to drop into games like some patriotic Bad Santa. Real Joel is, however, seemingly glad that the impersonator wanted "other people to have fun" as it's a goal that they "both share".

One of my favourite things about Helldivers 2 is the fact it's home to a human game master, known as "Joel", who controls the narrative. Joel's been known to leave surprises, namely mechs before they officially launched a while back. And now he's seemingly granted a group of lucky players the chance to ride about in an armoured truck outfitted with guns. Maybe, just maybe this signals their imminent release?

Helldivers 2's Cutting Edge Premium warbond, aka DLC battle pass, is now available to buy in-game, and it is chock-full of oddball gadgetry such as lightning shotguns, burst-fire laser rifles and experimental armour. As with the Arc Thrower stratagem, the lightning shotgun fires arcs of electricity that conduct between players and enemies alike, but there's a fresh armour perk, Electrical Conduit, which reduces arc damage by 95%, allowing close-knit teams of Helldivers to roll around the battlefield frazzling themselves without much penalty.

Helldivers 2 is continuing its strong reign by introducing yet another round of space bugs for us to deal with. Also, some of them seem to be flying. What's that all about Joel?!

The latest Helldivers 2 PC patch makes life a bit easier for players fighting the Terminids, aka monstrous hellbugs, on difficulty level 7 or higher, with tweaks to spawn rates for Chargers and Bile Titans, while increasing the spawn rates of certain other, less heavily armoured Terminids to fill the gap. The developers have also lowered the health of the Charger’s head, allowing for instant takedowns with a Recoilless Rifle or EAT-17, without (in theory) entirely doing away with the community’s treasured "leg meta", which sees players blasting the juggernaut’s limbs to sabotage it.

I've written a bit about playing Helldivers 2 as a solo diver, noting that Arrowhead's frenetic shooter holds up surprisingly well when you rudely insist on treating it like an open world stealth sim, a la Metal Gear Solid V. The developers have weighed in on this front, commenting that strictly speaking, Helldivers 2 doesn't support stealth at all. It's just designed in an "agnostic", systems-first way and this in itself makes stealth a possibility. It's also a quiet attempt to capture something of the intricacy of a full-blown military simulator, while still being a very "arcadey" game at heart, which owes a little to Arrowhead's own collective time in the military.

Developers Arrowhead said that Helldivers 2's mechs were "ready for deployment" a couple of days ago, but what they didn't tell us was how to unlock them. And in what I think is a rather refreshing live service twist, it's up to us honourable Helldivers to liberate the planet of Tien Kwan if we want those sweet, sweet mechs. Get me in there, chief.

Arrowhead's CEO Johan Pilestedt has apologised for some spicy developer responses to players complaining about Helldivers 2's first major balancing patch, which made certain Helldivers 2 guns and equipment pieces significantly less powerful alongside other adjustments to the new shooter's armor system, maps and missions.

Mechs are set to make their arrival in Helldivers 2 in the very near future, but there is still one small thing standing in their way. The mechs' production factories are under attack, it turns out, and it's going to be up to players to liberate them.

Arrowhead have released a new Helldivers 2 update - patch 01.000.100 - which designer Alex K describes as "the first round in a never-ending series of balance changes". The patch nerfs three of what were hitherto the best Helldivers 2 guns and gear pieces - the SG-225 Breaker shotgun, the RS-422 railgun, and the SH-32 shield generator backpack, all of which break Arrowhead's pretty straightforward golden rule that "each gun has its purpose and none is strictly better than another".

No, PlayStation is not buying Helldrivers 2 studio Arrowhead.

It's been rumoured for a while that mechs were on their way to Helldivers 2, thanks to leaks and, y'know, official trailers. Well, now it's actually confirmed: the official Helldivers 2 Xwitter account shared today that they were "ready for deployment on the battlefield soon".

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.»

It's a tale as old as time: when a great, popular game rises to the top of the Steam charts, scammers and chancers will do everything in their power to steal some of that glory for themselves. The latest victim is Helldivers 2, with scammers putting up two separate fake pages for it on Steam over the last 24 hours. Each page listed Arrowhead as the developer, and PlayStation as the publisher, along with big discounts of 50-75% off to tempt players into buying the cheap version instead of the real one.

Developers at GTA 6 studio Rockstar Games have criticised the company for telling employees they must return to the office full-time next month, calling leadership's decision «reckless».

Two fake Helldivers 2 games popped up on Steam last night, both masquerading as Arrowhead's hit shooter in a bid to scam people into buying their product. Each title listed Arrowhead as its developer, and PlayStation as its publisher.

GTA 6 developer Rockstar Games are reportedly ending hybrid working and requiring employees to return to the office full-time, with a view to being in "the best position to deliver the next Grand Theft Auto at the level of quality and polish we know it requires, along with a publishing roadmap that matches the scale and ambition of the game." That's allegedly from an email to staff sent by head of publishing Jenn Kolbe.

We knew the Helldivers 2 team were looking ahead to the future now that they'd largely overcome the game's most significant server issues. But we weren't expecting to see new additions quite so quickly, as rideable mechs have been spotted in the wilds. When are they actually being added to the game? No idea. Do they look cool as heck? Yes, absolutely.

Gameplay footage of Helldivers 2 shows off in-game playable mechs — something that isn't currently available to users in the public version of the game.

Today I learned there is a Dungeons and Dragons-like Game Master (GM) working behind the scenes on Helldivers 2.

Employees at Rockstar have been asked to return to the office five days a week, now that GTA 6 enters its final year of development.

Hell(o), bellowing caped stooges of Super Earth! It's time for another Helldivers 2 patch. This one makes some heroic adjustments to the shooter's generally inoffensive microtransaction system, targetting a technical issue whereby Super Credits and Premium Warbonds would not show up after purchase. Huzzah! Developers Arrowhead have also nuked a rather barmy Helldivers 2 glitch that allowed for unlimited stratagem use with no cooldowns following an AFK kick.

Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have said they will be able to get back to working on future “improvements” for the superb bug-stomping, bot-blasting shooter after finally resolving the weeks-long server struggles caused by the game’s immense popularity.

Helldivers 2 continues to do well here in the UK, with boxed sales growing 20 percent in its third week on the market thanks to the game's positive reception.

Helldivers 2 has increased its player cap even further, ahead of what's expected to be another busy weekend for the game's servers.

As Helldivers 2 continues to be struggling with its own success, suffering wildly overloaded servers that make it sometimes tricky to even log in, a new patch today has added a feature to help alleviate the pressure. Having previously capped the number of players to 450,000, developers Arrowhead have now added an auto-kick to stop people hogging those precious slots while not playing. After 15 minutes, AFK players will now get booted. It's clearly not the big fix needed but hopefully fresh duct tape will help hold the co-op shooter together until more permanent solutions arrive.

Arrowhead has taken aim at those Helldivers 2 squatters who were clogging up servers by remaining in a game even when they weren't actively playing.

Last night I tried to host a Helldivers 2 co-op mission and the "ready up" button froze up. I spammed it in a panic while the randos in my voice channel fumed at the delay. Then I popped us out of the drop pods, attempted to quit the game in embarrassment, and the PC promptly crashed. Another blow for managed democracy!

Nose around Helldivers 2's Galactic War map and you might notice that there's a lot of empty space. Around half the celestial sphere is given over to the dominions of the Automatons and Terminids, leaving ample room for another enemy faction to be inserted via free update or paid DLC. What could that next faction be? Surely it can't be any worse than a horde of giant bugs or a legion of robots. Surely it can't be, say, a highly advanced elder species of teleporting illusionists equipped with lightning guns and cloaking devices. Oh dear.

Cult 90s sci-fi film Starship Troopers has had a bit of a renaissance of late, which has been attributed to the releases of Helldivers 2 on PlayStation and PC.

I’ve been completely hooked on Helldivers 2 since diving into its exceptional Starship Troopers-y bug-blastathon last week, and I’m far from alone - so many people are playing the co-op shooter that developers Arrowhead capped the game’s servers at 450,000 simultaneous players over the weekend to try and alleviate connection and login problems caused by its enormous popularity.

PlayStation-published Helldivers 2 had a hugely successful weekend on Steam, despite some continuing server issues, with a fresh player peak of 409,367 users yesterday.

Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedt is hoping the game's second weekend will go much smoother than its first.

Helldivers 2 will «never» include a PvP mode in order to reduce toxic play.

If you've been yearning to take up arms against Super Earth as either an arachnid, a robot or a filthy (managed) democracy-hating human traitor, then I have bad news, roughneck. Helldivers 2 will "never" get a PvP mode, according to Arrowhead's CEO Johan Pilestedt. The reason? They want to avoid encouraging any toxic behaviour in the new shooter's multiplayer community.

Satirical sci-fi shooter sequel Helldivers 2 has got off to a flying start, and now its creator Arrowhead Game Studios has put out a call for fresh development talent so it can «accelerate and beef up» the game's content plans.

Arrowhead has released another patch for Helldivers 2 and it's good news for those incredibly popular players among us — the game will no longer crash if you have too many friends.

Helldivers 2 might be a co-op shooter mixed with comedy genius, but its launch has been blighted by bugs and crashes. Over the past week the devs have deployed server hotfixes and matchmaking tweaks, although one server and rewards patch had to be rolled back to fix "significant" performance issues. Still, they're doing their utmost as the game becomes PlayStation's biggest PC release to date. And the latest patch brings with it a slew of crash fixes, reductions to disconnects, further tweaks to matchmaking, and preps things for future server improvements.

Developer Arrowhead has released a new patch for its PC version of Helldivers 2.

Much like a lone Super Earther descending from orbit, only to Nope The Heck back to their spaceship after glimpsing the insect hordes, Arrowhead have released and swiftly pulled a Helldivers 2 patch designed to address the new shooter's server capacity and progression issues. The bugs were too much to handle, I guess! Lord, this news post practically writes itself.

Helldivers 2 has become the biggest PlayStation game released on PC yet, at least going by the number of simultaneous players on Steam, as it doubled the previous record of concurrent players set by God of War.

Helldivers 2 is yet another example of a predominantly co-op game being a victim of its own success. Since its launch, the servers have buckled under the weight of keen conscripts ready to exterminate some bugs. There's been frequent disconnects, matchmaking issues, and post-game rewards not showing up for some folks. But Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has offered some comfort, saying that they've popped three hotfixes live to fix some of these issues.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has apologised to players for the «frustrating» issues they're facing in the game and said it was now «crucial» its team get some sleep.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has confirmed that the «rapid patch» the team deployed to Steam yesterday is «now on PS5 as well».

It's time to play everybody's favourite game - no, not GTA 6, but the GTA 6 Release Date Quiz. Who's stepping up to the podium this time? Why, it's Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, who offered thoughts on the matter in a recent investor Q&A. Fingers on the buzzers, everybody!

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot believes the launch of GTA 6 will be «positive for the market» and expects it to launch after April 2025.

UPDATE 9/2/24: Helldivers developer Arrowhead Game Studios has pushed out a «rapid patch» on Steam to sort some of its issues.

Helldivers 2 launched earlier today and has been sat at the top of the Steam sales charts, with a healthy 60,000+ currently in-game. Alas, the co-op shooter also has a "Mixed" user review rating on the platform, thanks in part to optimisation and matchmaking issues.

Aldi and Lidl are two all time greats of the supermarket genre. I love their legally distinct take on many of the biggest brands, like the "Racer", which is basically a Snickers bar. Except I actually prefer the Racer! I can't remember if it's Aldi or Lidl that do them, but the "Mini Delight" chocolate sticks are also exceptional. Anyway, Armored Core. Or should I say, Exterminator? Yes, there's an Aldi Armored Core that's just opened up in town and it's actually not half bad. It's definitely not Racer good, but I applaud the effort.

Free «interactive study» Interaction Isn't Explicit is now available via the PlayStation Store.

Helldivers 2 will crashdown on our planet's surface on February 8th, 2024, and turns the topdown co-op alien shooter into a flashier, fancier third-person version of the same. A new trailer release today details how its 'Galactic War' systems work - that is, the macro-scale conflict within which your missions and bug hunts take place.

Faheem Rashad Najm, aka T-Pain, is working on GTA 6 with Rockstar.

The British teenager who hacked Rockstar and posted a swathe of work-in-progress GTA 6 development material online last year has been sentenced to remain indefinitely in a secure hospital.

Former Rockstar developer Mike York has explained why GTA 6 isn't releasing on PC at launch.

If you were impressed by how good the first GTA 6 trailer looked, you were far from alone: even developers who previously worked at Rockstar were blown away by the level of detail shown.

GTA 6 is already breaking records despite being at least a year away from release.

Doom scrolling social media looks to have replaced the age-old pasttime of watching TV in GTA 6, which has prompted feelings of alternating despair and increasing irrelevance in me this morning. I barely understand how TikTok works in real-life, let alone a video game pastiche of it, and oh god, how did I get so old and craggy? I'm just here for the nice-looking flamingos, Rockstar, not a 24/7 twerk stream I can access from the palm of my hand. Of course, TV watching may yet have been preserved beyond what we've seen so far in the first trailer for GTA 6, but even if it's been consigned to the bin of modern history, there might yet be one light in the TikTok-esque darkness to make GTA 6's in-game social media network worthwhile.