Between Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter: Rise you would think that World, the much older title, wouldn’t have such a resurgence. And yet, here may be why Monster Hunter: World is currently 4x more popular than Rise.
Monster Hunter: Rise is the currently latest released game in the Monster Hunter series. As a Monster Hunter game that was designed for the Switch, it doesn’t have the graphical quality of Worlds or Iceborn but what it lacked in fidelity it had in style. However, Rise elevated the classic Monster Hunter gameplay through several quality-of-life updates. New ways to play like the Palamute ridable dog, wire-bugs, wyvern riding, and the Rampage mode were mostly appreciated new features.
Image Source: Capcom
Meanwhile, Rise’s single expansion, Sunbreak, overhauled the wire-bug system, giving even more ability choices and gameplay flexibility to players. On top of a revamped companion system that allowed you to bring some of the game’s NPC characters with you during hunts. So why is it then that after the announcement of Monster Hunter: Wilds that Rise peaks at 25k players while World has grown to peak at 110k?
There are a few reasons that come to mind, but the biggest I feel is that Wilds is more likely to represent World than it is Rise. This is because of World’s intentionally slower pace and bigger size is something the MH community enjoys more on a whole over Rise’s quicker, more arcade-esque Monster encounters.
This is punctuated by the fact that in Monster Hunter: World you are actually hunting the monster through a process of finding its tracks and pinning down its location on the map. Which many find more involved and immersive to Monster Hunter: Rise’s streamlined “hunting” process of seeing the monster on the map and quickly traversing to it. Thankfully, it seems some aspects of Rise are making their way to Wilds, like how the Wilds trailer showcased a ridable mount very much like Rise’s Palamute.
Then, there are the visuals of World that are leaps and bounds ahead of the newer, released Rise. Even with expanded visuals for the PC port, the way the game was made for the Nintendo Switch’s aging hardware made Rise already visually dated on release. Wilds looks to be a return to graphical form for the Monster Hunter series with wide open expanses of traversable land that looks more open world than ever before.
Many players also found the wire bug mechanic of Rise to be too forgiving in the ways that the mechanic could help you immediately get out of harm’s way. This had the likely unintended consequence of making Rise one of the easiest Monster Hunter titles. And what is Monster Hunter without difficulty after all? The players have spoken, and they want the less forgiving, more punishing gameplay of World.
Image Source: Capcom
However, even I am surprised at how most prefer World when its co-op multiplayer was significantly less accessible. This is because World had cutscenes and missions that could only be experienced by yourself. So, if you had a friend who wasn’t as experienced with the game, and you wanted to help them, they had to get fairly deep into the overall story where these solo missions largely vanished. Luckily, I would bet that a lot of World’s returning players have already gotten far past those points of co-op limitation.
Ultimately, Monster Hunter: World exhibits more of what players want from a mainline Monster Hunter title. Capcom would be wise to notice this trend and develop Monster Hunter: Wilds to better cater to the majority of players who have shown what’s important to them with their collective time spent.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
I love city-building sims during every step of play — from laying down the foundations to planning a city grid, upgrading the complexity of buildings, and handling the bureaucratic elements of the late game. I’ve spent late nights playing Frostpunk and Timberborn, sucked into the fine balance of evading total town collapse. That said, if you had told me a week ago, “You’re going to spend about an hour making a settlement — and then you’re going to start over, again and again,” I’d have balked. But Against the Storm, the roguelite city builder that just came out of early access on Dec. 8, proves this formula is not only sensible, it’s fantastic.
To be clear, there are other games with this unconventional genre pairing. In Cult of the Lamb, there’s a home base that functions like a sim game where cultists work, worship, and obviously make live sacrifices. You can leave this base in order to partake in roguelike dungeon crawls. But Against the Storm doesn’t have that separation of mechanics. They’re perfectly married in a way that keeps things fresh while also empowering you to add complexity in each subsequent run. Fifteen hours in, I can hardly peel myself away.
In Against the Storm, you’re the queen’s viceroy in a land with cataclysmic weather events — you’ve been tasked with building settlements out from the capital, Smoldering City, toward a series of mysterious seals. You begin each “run” by selecting a tile on the game’s broody overworld map. You then pick your starting population out of a delightful fantasy lineup of lizards, beavers, humans, harpies, and more. Finally, you gather some basic supplies — stone, some edible mushrooms perhaps — before heading into the settlement site. Then it’s off to the races: At the site, you build shelters and basic structures, like a woodcutter to cut down trees, or sometimes even giant orchids. There’s a dark fantasy flavor to it all. Each site is full of hidden glades; reveal them and you might just find a poisonous flower that makes your food rot, or a cemetery that strikes fear in the hearts of your villagers.
Image: Eremite Games/Hooded Horse
From there the game turns into a resource puzzle. Each scenario gives you different choices for a series of “orders” to fulfill. You might need to deliver bags of crops, or enter a certain number of “dangerous glades” in a set amount of time. Completing these awards you with Reputation points. You typically need 14 points to win a scenario. All the while, you’re battling a capricious queen. The “Queen’s Impatience” meter only fills over time, and if it maxes out before reputation does, then you’ve lost the settlement.
This is the challenge and joy of the game: Creating a successful strategy as you go, before knowing what tools you’ll even have. Think of it like Hades, where Zagreus is presented with various boons from the gods — while all the options are fun, some can create awesome and unexpected synergies when fighting enemies. But in Against the Storm, you get options for building types, global perks, glades to discover, and orders to fulfill. You constantly have to finesse resource allocation: Your wood will be used for keeping the hearth warm, building new key buildings, and fulfilling a barrel order. And oh, by the way, don’t forget to make some food for your villagers. It’s so easy to screw yourself over at any step in Against the Storm.
Suffice it to say this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s worker “resolve” and “hostility” — each citizen excels at different work and simply must have certain luxuries. These are delightfully silly: Lizards love to eat jerky and work in cookhouses (they’re coldblooded and love warmth); beavers enjoy biscuits and are very good at cutting wood. There’s also a weather cycle that dictates the timing of the harvest and how angry all the workers get. It’s called Against the Storm, so I’ll let you guess how much these dudes like rain. (Spoiler: They hate it.)
Image: Eremite Games/Hooded Horse
It sounds complicated, but it’s actually very digestible. The game effectively drip feeds its complexities, which helps curb the overwhelming feeling that can come with these sorts of management sims that have a dozen menus and mechanics at play. There’s a perk tree you can unlock over the course of the game, which introduces new gameplay mechanics — win or lose, you’ll be able to buy some of these upgrades. You don’t really need to worry about trading early on, for example, but as you unlock more perks, it becomes a major force.
Against the Storm always has a new trick up its sleeve, and like any great roguelite, it’s encouraged me to make unusual, gutsy plays that I would never try in a more typical city builder. Knowing each run has a finite end means I can always start over if things don’t work out. And when they do — it’s even sweeter.
Against the Storm was released on Dec. 8 on Windows PC. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
The people behind Fortnite, the popular build-and-battle-royale game, have released a new, kid-friendly take on the game: Lego Fortnite. The game uses Lego bricks and characters to give players a different kind of experience that focuses on long-term survival, crafting, building, and online cooperation with friends. It’s a lot like another survival/crafting game, Minecraft, but powered by Lego bricks and familiar characters.
Lego Fortnite was a hit from day one; Millions of players are building and battling monsters together in online worlds full of characters to meet, creatures to slay, and mysteries to discover. It’s also free (unlike Minecraft), and co-developers Epic Games and The Lego Group have gone to great lengths to make it safe for kids to enjoy.
Here’s a quick rundown of what Lego Fortnite is, where to download it, and everything else you should need to know about Fortnite’s popular new spinoff.
What is Lego Fortnite?
While the popular version of Fortnite is a battle royale game where players fight each other to be the last player standing, Lego Fortnite isn’t a shooter or a battle royale at all. It’s a game of exploration, building with Lego bricks, and crafting items (like pickaxes and torches).
In Survival mode, players take on the role of a little Lego hero character. They’ll gather resources, build structures, tools, and weapons, and explore a huge open world. They’ll also interact with other Lego characters who will join their group and help them out with missions. There’s some combat too, but it’s mainly against Lego versions of skeletons, wolves, spiders, and other beasts. This mode is called Survival because players have to gather and craft what they need: food to stave off hunger, wood to build structures and craft tools, and other elements to create more complex items.
There’s also a non-violent Sandbox mode, where players can simply build whatever they want with Lego bricks to get creative and explore the world freely.
How to download Lego Fortnite
Playing and downloading Lego Fortnite is free. You’ll need an Epic Games account to play, which is also free. All you have to do is download the main Fortnite game client, and you’ll find Lego Fortnite on the main screen of a menu that looks like a Netflix library screen.
On game consoles like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X, you can download Fortnite by searching each platform’s store, or by using the links below from a web browser:
Note that if you find and download Lego Fortnite from one of the above online stores, you’re actually downloading the full Fortnite game client, through which you can play Lego Fortnite. Confusing, yes, but at least everything’s centralized.
How to get and activate an Epic Games account
To play Lego Fortnite (or any Fortnite game), you’ll need an Epic Games account. You can sign up for one using an email address at the Epic Games website, use an existing login from Apple, Facebook, Lego.com, or Google, or log in with an existing account from Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, or Steam.
You can also create a version of that account called a Cabined Account, which is intended for children 13 years old or younger. Players with Cabined Accounts can play Lego Fortnite, but they won’t be able to access features like voice chat or make in-game purchases with money until their parent or guardian provides consent. You can read more about parental controls in Fortnite games at Epic’s website.
How V-Bucks work with Lego Fortnite (and how to redeem them)
Epic Games’ virtual currency for Fortnite, known as V-Bucks, works in the core version of Fortnite and new experiences like Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival. V-Bucks can be spent on in-game items, like outfits and other virtual items.
If you (or your child) have spent V-Bucks in Fortnite battle royale, most of the cosmetics in that game carry over to Lego Fortnite. There are some exceptions, like characters in Fortnite who have guns as part of their design, but many cosmetics tied to a core Fortnite account can be used across games.
Lego Fortnite multiplayer and playing with friends
You can play Lego Fortnite with friends online. Up to eight players can play together cooperatively in the same game world.
But you can’t play Lego Fortnite (yet) in split-screen mode on the same platform. If you have multiple kids playing Lego Fortnite, they’ll all need their own console, tablet, or PC to play. Lego Fortnite supports cross-play across all platforms, so players on Switch, for example, can play with their friends on PlayStation 5, Android, PC, and anywhere else Fortnite is available.
Do you need a separate online subscription to play Lego Fortnite?
Lego Fortnite, like other Fortnite games, does not require an online subscription like Nintendo Switch Online, PlayStation Plus, or Xbox Live Gold/Xbox Game Pass to play.
Guides for Lego Fortnite
Lego Fortnite is new, but already pretty big. Here’s how to get started, with some answers to a few tricky questions:
It’s safe to say that 2023 was a mixed year for gamers. After all, for every Baldurs Gate 3, there was a Walking Dead: Destinies. As we enter a new year, however, it is time to look forward to the games to come. As such here are 10 of the most anticipated games of 2024.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth – January 26th
Image Credit: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sega via Twinfinite
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the latest title in Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios’ long-running Like A Dragon (formerly Yakuza) series. Infinite Wealth is the first game set outside of Japan, taking place in both the city of Yokohama and the island of Hawaii.
The game continues the franchise’s transition into a turn-based combat system first seen in 2020’s Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Infinite Wealth marks the return of that title’s protagonist Ichiban Kasuga, alongside franchise mainstay Kazuma Kiryu. However, with the popular anti-hero suffering from cancer, this could be the end of the road for the Dragon of Dojima.
Expect Like A Dragon’s usual blend of bizarre side missions, twist-filled conspiracies, and wild minigames as Ichiban and Kiryu search for Ichiban’s mother. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is published by SEGA and releases on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on January 26th.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League – February 2nd
Image Credit: Rocksteady Studios
Isn’t it crazy that we are getting a Triple-A Suicide Squad game before a big-budget Justice League title? Furthermore Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League sees the team of villains tasked with taking down the Justice League!
This game is a third-person shooter set in the same universe as the Batman: Arkham series, developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Games. Kill The Justice League is a multiplayer looter shooter with live service elements, not unlike Square Enix’s Marvel’s Avengers.
Starring DC Comics villains Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark; Kill The Justice League has the quartet facing off against a corrupted Justice League. Brainiac has taken control of Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Batman (voiced by the late Kevin Conroy in his final role), and only Wonder Woman and the Suicide Squad can stop Brainiac’s invasion.
After some delays and a lukewarm reception to marketing, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is still a hotly anticipated title that releases for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam on February 2nd, and then 5th March on the Epic Games Store.
Skull & Bones – February 16th
Image Credit: Ubisoft
At this point Ubisoft’s Skull & Bones is surely in the Development Hell Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Duke Nukem Forever and Dead Island 2. Starting life as an Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag expansion back in 2013, Skull & Bones is a swashbuckling adventure across the Indian Ocean.
Centered on bombastic ship combat, Skull & Bones will see players rise to infamy as they build an empire and become the pirate kingpin. As the scourge of the sea, players will sail and explore from the Coast of Africa to the East Indies with a range of unique ships; battling pirate hunters and the deadly weather to make it to the top.
If Skull & Bones can recapture the fun and sense of adventure in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag then the wait should be worth it. Skull & Bones releases on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and the Epic Games Store on February 16th.
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth – February 29th
Image Credit: Square Enix
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is the second entry in Square Enix’s bold retelling of the seminal RPG Final Fantasy VII. Rebirth continues the story of 2020’s Final Fantasy VII: Remake as mercenary Cloud Strife and the surviving members of eco-terrorist group Avalanche leave the mega-city of Midgard and journey across the planet Gaia.
Navigating new terrain both literally and narratively, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth will explore the game’s altered timeline while delving into Cloud and series antagonist Sephiroth’s shared past. New party members include Red XIII, Yuffie Kisaragi, and Cait Sith; but also Zack Flair.
Zack’s presence in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is one of the remake trilogy’s biggest narrative departures; as he originally died in the prequel game Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII (released in 2007). With his return, long-time fans will be eager to discover how he fits into the new story. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth releases on PlayStation 5 on February 29th.
Alone in the Dark – March 20th
Image Credit: THQ Nordic
The grandfather of survival horror, the Alone in the Dark franchise was a pioneer of the genre alongside Resident Evil and Silent Hill. However, while those two franchises have flourished in recent years, Alone in the Dark has struggled to maintain the same mainstream recognition. That’s why it is good to witness the series return with a reimagining of the 1992 original.
Developed by Pieces Interactive and published by THQ Nordic, Alone in the Dark stars David Harbour (Stranger Things) as private investigator Edward Carnby, and Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) as his employer Emily Hartwood. In this game, the pair journey to Louisiana psychiatric hospital Derceto Manor to find Emily’s missing uncle.
The survival horror genre has been on a good run recently, and here’s hoping Alone in the Dark lives up to its contemporaries. Alone in the Dark releases on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 on March 29th.
Princess Peach: Showtime! – March 22nd
Image Source: Nintendo
Princess Peach: Showtime! gives the titular ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom a chance to take center stage. Attending a theatre production in crisis, Peach assumes several roles to help defeat the wicked Grape and the Sour Bunch.
Princess Peach: Showtime! features a range of gameplay mechanics that see the princess participating in the Sparkle Theatre’s sold-out shows. Peach is equipped with a magic ribbon and the ability to transform into a range of future Super Smash Bros. skins.
Transformations such as Swordfighter Peach and Kung Fu Peach implement combat into the game, while Detective Peach will help her uncover clues to Grape’s plan, and Patisserie Peach which will help the princess… bake her way to victory. Princess Peach: Showtime! releases on Nintendo Switch on March 22nd.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl – Q1 2024
Image Credit: GSC Game World
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl has had a rough development as the war in Ukraine forced developer/publisher GSC Game World to pause development and delay the game multiple times.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stands for Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, and Robbers; and is the term used to describe the men and women exploring the radioactive remains of Chernobyl. This first-person immersive sim shooter is a big cult favorite on PC and the sequel will be the franchise’s console debut when it debuts on Xbox.
Built on Unreal Engine 5, The Heart of Chernobyl tells a non-linear story playable solo or in co-op and has official mod support. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is set for a Quarter 1 release on PC and Xbox Series X|S.
ARK 2 – Late 2024
Image Credit: Studio Wildcard
ARK 2 follows Fast & Furious actor Vin Diesel as Santiago, a primitive hunter on an alien world searching for his daughter Meeka (voiced by Moana‘s Auli’l Cravalho).
Like the first game, ARK: Survival Evolved, ARK 2 is a survival action adventure in which players craft weapons and shelters to survive in a harsh and deadly environment. From killer plants to ferocious dinosaurs, and the local tribe the Aralal, there are many threats for Santiago and the player to overcome.
To help, Studio Wildcard and Grove Street Games have created advanced traversal mechanics, a new upgrade tree, and an emphasis on Souls-like combat. The alien world in ARK 2 is full of new threats and hyper-intelligent dinosaurs to fight and tame. ARK 2 is being built on Unreal Engine 5 targeting a late 2024 release date, on Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Little Nightmares III – TBC
Images Credit: Bandai Namco
Little Nightmares III is the next instalment in Bandai Namco’s atmospheric horror puzzle platformer series. Supermassive Games have taken over development from Tarsier Studios (after working on Little Nightmares II Enhanced Edition), for a standalone sequel.
There is a heightened focus on co-op gameplay in Little Nightmares III as players team up with a friend or an AI companion. Playing as Low (the boy in a raven mask) and Alone (the girl with pigtails), players must work together to escape the Spiral, a disturbing, trippy world of ominous shadows and disgusting villains.
While this is a standalone game, it will be interesting to see if Little Nightmares III has any links to previous installments; including the fate of Six and her iconic yellow raincoat. Little Nightmares III has no release date yet beyond 2024 but is set to release on all platforms: PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Star Wars: Outlaws – TBC
Image Credit: Massive Entertainment
Star Wars video games are always hotly anticipated releases and, with Star Wars: Outlaws, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment are building the franchise’s first open-world game. The game is set between Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
Outlaws allows the player to step foot into the seedy underbelly of a galaxy far, far away as they control Kay Vess, an up-and-coming thief who has gotten on the wrong side of both the Empire and the galaxy’s deadliest crime syndicates. Joining Vess is her salamander-esque pet merqaal Nix, a sneaky animal that can distract guards and steal objects. There is also the droid ND-5 that becomes a bodyguard of sorts for Kay.
Among the planets players will be visiting are Tatooine and its hive of scum and villainy Mos Eisley, criminal haven Kijimi, and a new moon called Toshara. Star Wars: Outlaws should be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC sometime in 2024.
Narrowing down the list of games coming out in 2024 to only ten is a very tricky task. Feel free to let us know what games you’re looking forward to in the comments, and stay with Twinfinite for more on the latest releases.
About the author
Alex Johnson
Alex has been writing about games for over four years and if there is one thing he fears in life it is writing a bio. He studied film at the University of Lincoln, has a small obsession with Fortnite and hopes to actually finish a FromSoftware game one day.
At least once per year we’re treated to incremental upgrades in headset designs from manufacturers like Razer, Steelseries, and HyperX. These improvements typically touch on some of the more objective points of their peripherals, like audio quality and battery life. However, the latest headset model from Logitech, the Astro A50X, is offering something a bit more drastic.
In addition to the same outstanding audio quality we’ve come to expect from Logitech headsets, the docking station for the A50X effectively serves as an HDMI switch, which not only makes the headset universally compatible, but allows you to quickly swap between HDMI inputs with a dedicated button on the headset. But, at an eye-watering $379.99, it’s difficult to recommend this headset to all but the most frequent of users.
The dock is an integral part of the A50X, but can take a while to get set up properlyImage: Logitech
The docking station is fitted with a pair of HDMI and USB-C inputs that can be used with PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles. You’ll also find another USB-C port that provides power and can also connect the dock to your PC. The single HDMI 2.1 output is capable of full 4K 120Hz passthrough to your preferred screen.
Setting up the entire system and getting its myriad cables organized required significant time investment, but I ultimately felt that was a small price to pay for a single unified headset that also allowed me to swap between the inputs on my TV. This is a pretty neat trick — however, the console will need to be powered on via its respective controller before you make the switch, in order for this to work properly.
Of course, if you’d prefer to skip the docking station entirely, you can also pair the A50X with your phone, Switch, or PlayStation via Bluetooth instead. You won’t be able to swap inputs, though.
A single button on the rear of the A50X lets you swap between inputsImage: Logitech
The sound quality of the Astro A50X is amazing regardless of which platform you’re playing on, with no noticeable latency when operating on 2.4 Ghz wireless. I tested the A50X with a pair of rhythm games that have excellent soundtracks, Hi-Fi Rush and Metal: Hellsinger, on both PC and Xbox. The A50X had no issues matching the gameplay beat for beat, which is something my reliable noise-canceling earbuds just couldn’t match. The default sound profile is a little bass-heavy, but you can fine-tune everything from the Logitech G app on your phone or PC.
The Logitech G App is available on PC and Mobile platforms to fine-tune your audio profileImage: Logitech
The fit and finish of the Astro A50X will be familiar to anyone who’s used a headset from the Astro A50 or A40 series. The ear cushions and headband feature plush fabric, and the headset can lay flat around your neck when not in use. The surface of the right earcup allows you to adjust the balance between game and chat volume. Around the back of the right earcup, you’ll find a volume wheel, power and input switches, and a Bluetooth pairing button.
The aesthetics of the A50X aren’t quite as offensive as some more gamer-centric designs, but it still isn’t what I’d call a good-looking headset. A bit less plastic in the overall build, and the ability to remove the boom mic would’ve been welcome. Normally, these are annoyances that I’m willing to overlook, but for $380, I do expect more.
While Logitech’s designers have clearly gone to great lengths to expand the functionality of this headset, they haven’t done much to improve the fit and finish, which is disappointing given the massive price tag. At $380, small issues like the plastic-heavy design, and how the headset doesn’t always want to seat itself in the dock correctly, feel more glaring.
I applaud Logitech for producing a headset with features that genuinely improve user experience, but its high price and limited appeal make it extremely difficult to recommend. For a select subset of people who play games and chat regularly across multiple platforms that share the same screen, the A50X represents a sound investment, but for everyone else, a headset that costs a third of the price will do just fine.
There will be three more content updates for the current expansion, Dragonflight. While the expansion won’t continue the usual three-act structure, with a raid at the end of each chapter, we’ll still be seeing the aftermath of the story play out. Patch 10.2.6 is marked with a cheeky pirate skull, and not much else, so that’s a hint that we can likely expect some naval trouble soon. There will also be updates to Dragonflight’s existing dungeons and outdoor content.
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
In the spring and summer of 2024, players will be able to test the upcoming The War Within expansion. Blizzard has worked hard to make this expansion the start of a story that plays out over the game’s next three expansions in The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan, so it’s likely that the early War Within content will have hints and foreshadowing that will pay off down the road.
Blizzard is also continuing to develop World of Warcraft Classic, which allows players to experience past eras of World of Warcraft. Cataclysm Classic is on the way, but there’ll be new changes to the traditional gameplay styles. There’s already Hardcore Mode, which means if your character dies, they’re permanently dead. An upcoming “Self-Found” mode will restrict the player from acquiring gear or assistance from allies; it’s a one-person venture to the top.
Image: Blizzard Entertainmnt
These updates will play out throughout the course of the year, so we may see certain dates and events get shifted. However, it looks like Blizzard is dedicated to providing consistent updates to both version of its popular MMO. While Cataclysm wasn’t the most beloved expansion, the new changes to Classic modes has helped to revitalize player interest. We’ll have to see how the rest of Dragonflight plays out, and how it helps set the stage for the upcoming The War Within.
The many EPs of the Sims universe continue to keep the franchise alive, incorporating more content with each passing year. But with so many add-ons out there, it can be challenging to keep up with them all, especially when deciding on a new EP. So, to get the complete package, we’re here to rank all The Sims 4 expansion packs from worst to best.
15. Snowy Escape
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Although Snowy Escape is at the bottom of the list, it is by no means a bad Sims 4 expansion pack. One of its best qualities is the many decorative objects you can utilize in almost any world, showcasing a Japanese-inspired furniture collection. The pack is also just plain fun to explore, where you can take a trip down the snowy mountains and relax in the cozy rock garden.
But what makes Snowy Escape fall short is the fact that it feels more like a vacation spot rather than an actual expansion in gameplay. Yes, it can be perfect for those family outings, yet it doesn’t quite have any necessary attributes that others do.
14. Eco Lifestyle
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Eco Lifestyle promotes a positive message of keeping the world clean, using craftable projects and communal living. That means Simmers can establish their own electricity and water systems while planning out missions during the Neighborhood Action Plan events.
It can certainly be exciting to watch how the town evolves from a desolate land to an immaculate, energy-saving neighborhood. However, Eco Lifestyle feels more like a one-stop shop; it can be fun to play the pack the first time around, but there’s nothing much else to do outside of that. I personally haven’t used much of the Build Mode items in other worlds either, so it’s more or less catered to its designated world alone.
13. Island Living
Image Source: Maxis Studios
In hindsight, Island Living can feel like another vacation spot world, yet it’s so much more than that with its conservationist career and mermaid lifestyle. As a conservationist, you’ll be able to keep the beaches clean and study the wonders of the water. Or, if you are interested in another pathway, you can sink into fishing, diving, or even a lifeguard career.
Not to mention the enriching culture surrounding Sulani, where you can learn about the local folklore with the island ancestors. The expansion pack, unfortunately, doesn’t have much replay value beyond these factors due to its lack of content. Nevertheless, it can still provide you with some fun activities when you want to change up the pace.
12. Discover University
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Discover University was our first introduction to the college lifestyle in The Sims 4. Thus, instead of jumping into a career right away in the Young Adult stage, you’ll have the option to further your knowledge in a specific field of interest. On top of that, the world of Britechester just feels like any real-life college town, bringing in party-filled events and clubs for extracurricular activities.
But as much as I wanted to like the entirety of the Discover University pack, you can’t actually go into class (a concept that wasn’t introduced until High School Years.) It can also be extremely tough to handle a full-time schedule, forcing you to settle for a select few activities to avoid being overwhelmed. I understand that it’s meant to reflect the real world, but having that high amount of homework and studying deters you from everything else in the EP.
11. Cats & Dogs
Image Source: Maxis Studios
You may be surprised to see Cats and Dogs so low on this Sims 4 expansion pack ranking (especially since I’m a huge pet lover myself.) However, the gameplay side of the add-on can be pretty exhausting with the consistent needs of the animals. On some occasions, it made me feel like a terrible pet owner, where they’d get taken away just because I didn’t tend to them 24/7.
Don’t get me wrong; the Cats and Dogs expansion pack is still a necessary pack that I believe every animal lover should get. The EP brings out some of the most meaningful and heartfelt moments, whether it be through training sessions or simple family downtimes. Though, I suggest not going overboard with cats and dogs within the household so you can refrain from pulling your hair out with their constant need for attention.
10. Horse Ranch
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Compared to Cats and Dogs, I had a much easier time taking care of horses since they can, for the most part, tend to their needs in dire situations. It doesn’t require as much of that 24/7 attention with cats and dogs, so it feels a lot less hectic. Even more so, I truly enjoyed living on the land as a rancher, in which you craft Nectar recipes and look after small animals.
I would say that Horse Ranch feels more like a game pack than an expansion pack. It only does a little in terms of gameplay, with horses being the only main selling point. The world is also relatively smaller than other Sims 4 expansion packs despite having a new traveling system with horses.
9. Get to Work
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Although Get to Work can sometimes have a bad rap in the Sims community with its bugs and performance issues, it still is the first introduction to immersive jobs in the franchise. In previous games, careers only offered rabbithole activities, requiring you to wait around for your Sims to come home. That is until Get to Work finally allowed players to dive into their character’s work life as a Detective, Doctor, or Scientist.
Then, you can dabble in the pack’s retail side, featuring bookstores, boutiques, and bakeries. Get to Work has a lot to offer, and even if you don’t always go for those new career paths, it’s there for you to try out whenever you’re tired of those less-interactive jobs.
8. City Living
Image Source: Maxis Studios
City Living is another excellent Sims 4 expansion pack that ushers in apartments for this particular entry. Most worlds lean on a residential approach, but this EP can change up this dynamic with its upscale buildings and ongoing events. There’s always something to do in San Myshuno, from karaoke nights to cultural festivals.
When it’s time to go home, you’ll have to deal with everyday problems like leaky pipes or bug outbreaks, adding to The Sims 4’s realistic value. The only thing I will say is that the newest For Rent offers more of an apartment-style of living due to its multi-units, which was neglected in City Living.
7. High School Years
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Like Get to Work, High School Years finally brought an interactive experience specifically for the younger generation. Now, Simmers can get some insight into what the educational system is actually like while also having more control over their studies. Build Mode takes on a new form at the same time, creating expansive schools with a classroom-themed collection.
Teenagers in past Sim installments have been relatively neglected in content, so it’s nice to see them get more opportunities with prom and graduation. Plus, High School Years showcases a new social media system as a Simfluencer, where you can rise in popularity through the Trendi app.
6. Get Together
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Many Sims 4 expansion packs have come and gone over the years, and one that you may have forgotten is the communitive Get Together add-on. Although it has been quite some time since it was released, it proves its value as one of the largest worlds in the game. In comparison, the pack’s Windenburg features upwards of over 20 lots, while the latest For Rent only has 9.
Group activities make the pack feel much more meaningful, setting up hangouts and establishing clubs to meet new Sims. The franchise has always been about togetherness, and that’s exactly where this EP shines. Almost every part of this world has something going on, including battling it out on the dance floor and having a splash in the pool.
5. Get Famous
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Even though I love the realistic side of the Sims universe, it’s exciting to take a dip into a lavish lifestyle. Fortunately, the Get Famous expansion pack indulges in this way of living, making you feel like a true celebrity. You’ll see Sims fawning over your character and unlock a sparkling effect around them to enhance your affluence more. The acting career can also be fun to play through, and it will gradually get better the more you rise to fame. By the end of it, you’ll find yourself being the king or queen of the town where everyone wants to know your name.
4. For Rent
Image Source: Maxis Studios
The newest Sims 4 expansion pack, For Rent, introduced a much-awaited feature almost every Sim has asked for with multi-unit living. In all these years, homes have been restricted with a family-size limit, and now, you’ll be able to make a whole town using a single lot alone (maybe it’ll be squished together, but at least it’s possible.)
Tenants and Property Owners have joined alongside this new gameplay system, giving you more tasks to do around the house. We also can’t forget about the Southeast Asian-inspired content that For Rent brought to the table as the franchise expands to more cultures in an incredibly unique way.
3. Growing Together
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Everything from the Get Together pack was taken a step further in the Growing Together expansion, creating social dynamics within the family. Rather than having a strictly positive or negative relationship with someone, you’ll be able to trigger different companionships, such as Jokester, Close, and Strict.
In particular, if your Sims share a Jokester dyanimic, they’ll goof around whenever they are near each other, creating much more impactful moments between the household. Compatibilities and more social interactions were also added to the game for even more realism, which could either lead to a sentimental conversation or chaotic fight.
2. Seasons
Image Source: Maxis Studios
Seasons has basically become a must-have expansion pack that every Simmer needs. If you’ve solely played the base game, you’ll notice that many things stays the same, with the exception of Sim aging. On the other hand, Seasons changes the world around you regarding to weather, holiday content, and seasonal activities.
It’s much more satisfying when time moves along in this depiction, as opposed to the somewhat stand-still version in the base game. The pack will give you something to look forward to throughout the Sim years, and it also provides you with a Gardening career if you’ve got a green thumb.
1. Cottage Living
Image Source: Maxis Studios
If there’s one expansion pack that every Simmer agrees on, it would definitely be Cottage Living. It’s the true embodiment of living off the land using all the natural resources around Henford-on-Bagley. Coupled with that, the aesthetic of the world and the Build Mode items complement the environment very well, upping the coziness factor that the Sims franchise is known for.
Not only will you get lost in customization, but there’s also so much to do with the wide variety of content. Simmers will undoubtedly have more than enough to explore, from stitching to jam-making to gardening, especially when your hard work pays off.
But just when you think that’s all, Cottage Living has another bonus of animal care, adding in llamas, cows, and chickens. With all this in mind, you can see why it’s a stand-out pack through its abundance of content.
About the author
Haley MacLean
Video games are a true unification of art and technology, and Haley was amped to be able to write about them during her tenure at Twinfinite. A lover of all things Nintendo, obsessed with narrative driven games, and hopes the couch co-op genre makes a return soon. BA/BJ/MJ from University of King’s College, NS, Canada.
Haley was a Staff Writer for Twinfinite from 2016 to 2021 with a focus on covering all things The Sims and Nintendo.
Choosing the best ship in Starfield is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. It’s not just your means of fast travel through the Milky Way. It’s everything from your storage locker to your crew’s quarters to the thing that protects you from space pirates. Your ship, in other words, is your home.
It’s nigh impossible to get the single best ship in Starfield early on, thanks to prohibitively expensive sticker prices. Bear in mind, too, that to pilot ships higher than class A, you’ll need to invest points in the Piloting skill (which requires destroying enemy ships, which itself requires a better ship).
Still, in short order, you’ll get plenty of money and skill points in Starfield, which should soon open up your options. Without further ado, these are the best ships in Starfield, including the best class C ship, the best free ship, and the best ship to buy.
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
How to get it: Complete the “Mantis” side quest Cost: Free
Fairly early into your playthrough, you will likely pick up a note titled “Secret Outpost!” from a dead Spacer. I found it during the mission “The Old Neighborhood,” while searching for the whereabouts of Vanguard Moara. Head to the Secret Outpost on Denebola I-b, and you’ll begin a quest titled “Mantis.”
Spoilers aside, as it is one of the best side quests in Starfield, you’re rewarded with some immensely powerful armor, along with the Razorleaf — one of the best class A ships in the game for anyone who is a fairly low level. It has a cargo hold with room for 420kg of stuff, so a slight downgrade on the 495 offered by the Frontier, but with almost triple the fuel and 100 higher hull protection, along with more powerful weapons, it’s a no-brainer. Especially since it has a shielded cargo hold with a capacity of 160, essential for smuggling contraband.
Best free ship: Kepler R
How to get it: Complete the “Overdesigned” side quest Cost: Free
After the “Starborn” main mission, linger around Constellation headquarters and talk to Walter. You’ll get the “Overdesigned” side quest, which sends you to the Stroud-Eklund offices to consult the company’s staffers on designing its new spaceship. Instinct would suggest you pick and choose ideas based on what you think would be best in a ship. Don’t do that. Instead, affirm literally everyone’s ideas. That will reward you with the best free ship in the game. (Consult our video walkthrough above for the detailed quest steps to “Overdesigned.”)
If you do it right, you’ll get the Kepler R — a class C ship with truly bonkers stats: six crew, 28 LY jump range, 805 shield power, 3,500 cargo capacity, and some pretty solid weapons to boot. Yes, the Kepler R is ridiculous-looking and, no, it would never in a million years sell on a legitimate spaceship market. But with stats like these and a price point of 0 credits, who cares about aesthetics?
Best class A ship: Wanderwell
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
How to get it: Select the Kid Stuff trait Cost: Free
If you chose the Kid Stuff trait, your parents will be alive in the game and you can visit them, in exchange for 2% of your credits every week to support them (though that is capped at 500 each time). Give it enough time and, eventually, your dad will gift you the class A Wanderwell ship that he won while… gambling. Guess that’s what the cash you send home to help the family is going toward!
On the plus side, while it doesn’t have any Shielded Cargo like the Razorleaf, the Wanderwell does have a cargo capacity of 880, making it perfect for carrying all the resources you need to complete side missions. It only comes with two weapons by default rather than the standard three, so you’ll need to fork out a little to get it fully equipped, but with a jump range of 27 LY, it’s the next best upgrade after the Razorleaf.
Best class B ship: Shieldbreaker
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
How to get it: Buy from New Atlantis Ship Services Technician Cost: 265,443 credits
This class B bad boy costs a fair whack, but if you’ve prioritized both main story and faction affiliation missions (both of which pay more than most side quests) and sold literally everything you’ve seen, you probably have enough credits in the bank for the Shieldbreaker. Once you turn your attention to side activities, such as destroying the Crimson Fleet and hauling thousands of resources across the galaxy, this ship can do it all.
With a crew size of five and a cargo capacity of 2,280 (none of it shielded though, unfortunately), there’s a lot of room here. Living up to its name, it also has relatively powerful weapons, and comes with laser that automatically target enemy ships.
Best class C ship: Silent Runner
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
How to get it: Buy from HopeTech HQ Cost: 390,150 credits
Want to become a full time hauler? Look no further than the Silent Runner, a class C ship that’s essentially the Shieldbreaker’s older brother. While the Shieldbreaker is pretty good in combat, the Silent Runner is all about the cargo, with a whopping 6,060 cargo space. You can upgrade it further with weaponry of course, but this is the one to go for if you want to become a space trucker.
On top of the cargo space, it can grav jump up to 29 LY and has 1,164 hull, which is more than enough to hold off any Crimson Fleet or House Va’ruun members that come a-knocking. It’s also got 300 fuel capacity, which will get you almost anywhere in the charted galaxy.
Best ship for carrying cargo: Vanquisher
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
How to get it: Buy from Stroud-Eklund Showroom in Neon Cost: 335,655 credits
The Vanquisher is a solid class C all-rounder, with 4,120 cargo capacity, 1,100 fuel, and 908 hull. Where it especially shines is its missiles, which do 149 damage, along with its 730 shield. It leaves room to be desired (read: upgraded) in the other weapon categories, but when your missiles are dealing that much damage, it doesn’t matter too much. It also may not be the most aesthetically pleasing ship, but at the end of the day, you’ll mainly be looking at the interior anyway.
Best ship for combat: Abyss Trekker
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
How to get it: Buy from Ship Services Technician in Paradiso Cost: 347,230 credits
The Abyss Trekker is another class C ship that is by far your best bet if you plan on getting into plenty of dogfights in space. You won’t be carrying much loot with this as it only has 340 cargo capacity, but you will be able to take down any opponents you encounter thanks to the 100 missiles and 170 ballistics stats.
With a shield of 850 and hull of 1,031, it’ll take a lot to get this cyan-white ship out of the skies, but if you do need to get away, it has 950 fuel and can grav jump up to 25 LY.
Best ship to buy: Narwhal
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
How to get it: Buy from Taiyo Astroneering in Neon Cost: 432,620 credits
The Narwhal is arguably the best — and certainly one of the most expensive — ship in the entire game. Setting you back more than 400,000 credits, this class C blue beast is incredibly well-rounded and can jump up to 30 LY, so you can go wherever you like. It can have up to seven crew members aboard, has 560 fuel, 2,118 hull, and 1,760 cargo capacity.
As a result, it does the job for hauling lots of materials (though isn’t the best for that), but if you want one ship to do as much as possible rather than switching between ships depending on what the current task is, the Narwhal is for you. Special shout out to its 114 ballistics and 82 missiles too, as they pack a serious punch.
[Ed. note: Spoilers follow for the ending of Starfield.]
Best New Game Plus ship: Starborn Guardian
Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon
How to get it: Start New Game Plus Cost: Free
Minor spoiler warning for New Game Plus here, so if you want to go in without any knowledge at all, you’re safe to stop reading and go for one of the other ships in this guide. However, once you do finish the game, New Game Plus will reward you with the Starborn Guardian, a class A ship that cannot be bought or stolen during your first playthrough.
The Starborn Guardian is one of the fastest pre-made ships in the game, can grav jump up to 30 LY away, and has two unique weapons in the Solar Flare Beam and Gravity Torpedo. With a cargo capacity of 950 and a hull of 649, it’s one of the best ships in the entire game, especially since you earn an upgraded one each time you start new game plus again. Plus it looks incredible — you can’t create anything like this in the ship builder.
The Shard of Dawn Aspect is a brand new Legendary Power added in Diablo 4’s Midwinter Blight holiday event. It features a complex buff: Night’s Grasp.
This new power increases your movement speed and attack speed under certain conditions, but can be very difficult to understand when reading the tooltip. Thankfully, we’re here to help.
In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ll show you how to get the Shard of Dawn Aspect and explain how the Night’s Grasp buff works.
How to get the Shard of Dawn Aspect in Diablo 4
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
You can buy The Shard of Dawn Aspect from Gileon’s shop in Kyovashad in the Fractured Peaks for 10 Midwinter Proofs.
In order to get Midwinter Proofs, you’ll need to exchange one of three currencies at the Collection Table in town: Blighted Fragments, Lost Heirlooms, and Red-Cloaked Trophies.
You’ll find each of these currencies out in the world of the Fractured Peaks during the Midwinter Blight event. Hop onto your horse and ride around killing enemies (which typically drop Blighted Fragments) and destroying theFrigid Husk ice statues (which drop Lost Heirlooms).
The most efficient way to farm these items is in a new event called Blighted Revelry. As you ride around, look for an event where a bunch of little freaks are jumping around in a circle around a broken cart. Kill the little freaks and interact with the cart to start the event. Protect the cart until the fire gets large enough to unfreeze the Frigid Husks nearby. Use this method to destroy all five Frigid Husks to spawn the Red-Cloaked Horror. Defeat this big goat boss to finish the event, get some loot, and pick up the Red-Cloaked Trophy.
Back in town, you can convert 300 Blight Fragments, 30 Lost Heirlooms, or one Red-Cloaked Trophy into 1 Midwinter Proof. Once you have 10 Midwinter Proofs, you can buy the Shard of Dawn Aspect from Gileon.
If you need more Midwinter Proofs for cosmetics or if you don’t yet have enough for the Aspect, just head back out into the Fractured Peaks to explore (and maybe do the“Secret of the Spring” quest while you’re out there), kill monsters, and collect the currencies that you can exchange for more Proofs.
How Night’s Grasp works in Diablo 4
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
The Shard of Dawn Aspect reads like stereo instructions if you haven’t progressed far enough into the Midwinter Blight event. And even then, it’s hard to understand. Let’s break it down.
After 30 seconds of Night’s Grasp, gain Dawn’s Haste, increasing your Attack Speed by 25-35% and Movement Speed by 20% for 12 seconds. While empowered by the Midwinter Ward, killing an enemy reduces Night’s Grasp’s duration by 1 second.
There are three buffs mentioned in that description, but it only tells you what one of them does.
First, let’s talk about Night’s Grasp. This is a buff that appears on your character when you’re in combat and wielding the Shard of Dawn. However, it doesn’t do anything. All it’s there for is to denote that you don’t have the Dawn’s Haste buff currently active on you. But once you’ve had Night’s Grasp on you for 30 seconds, you’ll gain the benefits of Dawn’s Haste, which increases your attack speed and movement speed for 12 seconds. Once Dawn’s Haste ends, Night’s Grasp returns and the cycle starts over again.
Dawn’s Haste is a pretty slick buff, as attack speed is desirable for most generator/spender builds and movement speed is valuable for all builds. To wit, you want to lower that 30 second window if at all possible. That’s where the Midwinter’s Ward buff factors into the Shard of Dawn, as it reduces the 30-second cooldown between Night’s Grasp and Dawn’s Haste by 1 second each time you kill an enemy.
Midwinter’s Ward is a buff that you can acquire from a special totem inside Kyovashad, next to Gileon’s shop. However, you’ll need to upgrade your Midwinter Tribute level to Tier 3 before it even appears in town. To gain Tribute experience and level up, all you need to do is exchange the Midwinter Blight currencies for Midwinter Proofs at the Collection’s Table. Once you’ve leveled up all the way to Tier 3, you’ll be able to acquire the Midwinter Tribute buff, which lasts for about six minutes and also gives you some bonus damage against Blightfiends and the Red-Cloaked Horror.
Finally, it’s worth noting here that the Shard of Dawn Aspect does not appear in the Codex of Power. Instead, you’ll need to repurchase it for 10 Midwinter Proofs every time you want to apply it to a new piece of gear. So make sure you choose your gear piece carefully when applying the Aspect at the Occultist.
CD Projekt Red fulfilled a five-year promise last week when it added a fully functional metro system to Cyberpunk 2077. While the feature does wonders to make Night City feel more alive, I was surprised to learn just how little California’s public transportation infrastructure has improved in the game’s alternate-reality future.
Cyberpunk 2077 now includes five Night City Area Rapid Transit (NCART) rail lines servicing 19 stations. Every stop still functions as a fast travel point, but players can also use them to hop onto the subway and relocate, in real time, to other parts of the city. As movement is restricted while on the train, this is a mostly visual experience, providing folks with a new perspective on the sprawling mega-city as well as limited opportunities to chat with their fellow riders.
During one trip, I noticed a screen indicating the train’s speed was consistently hovering around 43 mph, which felt awfully slow for futuristic transportation. The average speeds of modern-day heavy-rail systems in the United States range from the high teens to the mid-30s, but they’re capable of reaching much higher maximums. And that’s not even accounting for more developed public transportation in Japan and China, whose magnetic levitation (maglev) bullet trains zoom through major cities at hundreds of miles per hour.
What the heck.Image: CD Projekt Red
This fits with what the first Cyberpunk rulebook had to say about then-future transportation in 1988:
Surprise, surprise. Contrary to expectations, the year 2000 has not yielded any staggering new developments in transportation. Years of economic strife and civil unrest have discouraged research into new ways to travel—in fact, the very act of travel has become very restricted. Expect the world of 2013 to be much like the 20th century—a network of crowded freeways, packed trains, and swarming airports.
A subsequent expansion, Welcome to Night City, indicates light-rail maglev trains with ground speeds of 200 mph existed in the eponymous metropolis as far back as 2013, the year the first Cyberpunk adventures were set. Every book since makes some mention maglev trains as a staple of Night City travel, and 2005’s Cyberpunk V3.0 even noted an improvement in their top speed to 300 mph despite the apparent destruction of the intercontinental maglev line during the Fourth Corporate War (which took place from 2021 to 2025 in-universe) between the world’s ruling megacorps.
(And just to cover my ass, 1990’s updated Cyberpunk 2020 rulebook makes it clear that NCART and the light-rail maglev trains are one and the same.)
It’s here that Cyberpunk 2077 does something clever by expanding the consequences of this conflict. Rather than only putting rail travel between continents in flux, the game describes the Fourth Corporate War as debilitating the entire maglev system, as explained by the following database entry:
Maglev trains cruised at high speeds via tunnels and on the surface thanks to the advent of electrodynamic suspension technology, allowing fast and comfortable travel from Night City to other cities, including Kansas City, St. Louis, Atlanta and Washington D.C. Unfortunately, this new era of transportation didn’t last long. The social unrest and armed conflict of the 4th Corporate War brought with it an economic crisis that soon crippled the entire system. Currently inoperational, the abandoned Maglev tunnels are used by the homeless and various gangs.
The destruction of the maglev system and the slow NCART speeds exhibited in-game lead me to assume the local government was forced to revert to pre-2013 tech to ensure NCART remained operational, a massive downgrade from the bullet trains that once transported residents through Night City and beyond.
Hurry up and wait.Image: CD Projekt Red
While researching this situation, I couldn’t help but see darkly hilarious parallels between the difficulties facing the fictional California depicted in Cyberpunk 2077 and the actual state in which I live.
Despite being one of the largest (both in terms of land and population) and richest states in the union, California has long struggled with plans to build public transportation on par with the bullet trains of eastern Asia. A lot of that is due to politics, as even ostensibly supportive legislators are wary of spending the billions of dollars necessary to complete the project. And let’s face it: Americans are just way too devoted to their cars.
All that said, there’s one very simple explanation for Night City metro’s relatively low speed: The developers didn’t want NCART rides to happen in the blink of an eye. What good would the long-awaited subway experience be if players didn’t actually, you know, experience it?
A trip taken at 300 mph wouldn’t provide any time to people watch Night City’s eccentric residents or take in the view of skyscrapers surrounding the bay outside the train’s windows. The entire point of the subway system — and a big part of why folks clamored for its inclusion all these years — is to give players new opportunities to role-play and experience the visual splendor of Cyberpunk 2077’s setting and its over-the-top aesthetics.
I find it hard to fault CD Projekt Red for playing a little loose with established Cyberpunk history if it makes for a better game in the end.
The best seeds in Lego Fortnite offer everything from rich resource deposits and exploration areas to easy access for early biomes. But if the possibilities are endless — and they essentially are — where do you start?
In our Lego Fortnite guide, we’ll show you the best seeds in Lego Fortnite, plus explain how to start a game on one of those seeds.
What are Lego Fortnite seeds?
A “seed” is the method of identifying a particular Lego Fortnite map. There are tons of player-generated and -created maps out there, each one different from the rest, and that figure is only going to get bigger as Lego Fortnite’s popularity grows. Seeds are paramount for identifying maps.
Whenever you’re in a Lego Fortnite map or realm, you can see the seed by looking directly at the bottom of the screen, where you’ll see the seed details in low-opacity text. In the screenshot just below for example, the seed is the string of numbers to the left, while your individual location on the particular map is the string of numbers to the right.
Image: Epic Games via Polygon
Additionally, you can manually set a seed combination when you’re first establishing your own map. When creating a map from the Lego Fortnite home screen, click on the option to “override” the world seed, and you can enter any combination of numbers you want, as long as that number hasn’t previously been taken by another user.
How to enter a Lego Fortnite seed
If you want to visit an existing Lego Fortnite seed, there are a few steps you need to take. Below, we’ve listed them out:
Access Lego Fortnite’s main menu
Press up on the D-pad to select a World
Click on “Create New World”
Click on either “New World Slot,” or save over an existing world in the list
Click on “Override World Seed” under the “Advanced Options” menu
Enter the seed code
Image: Epic Games via Polygon
The best seeds in Lego Fortnite
Before, we’ve listed our picks for the best Lego Fortnite seeds.
It’s important to mention here that we’re judging them by the resources they offer up, and the access they provide to other biomes like the desert and ice areas early on. It’s these factors that really dictate which map seeds stand out from the crowd.
If you’re specifically looking to find caves, every single Lego Fortnite world will always offer up at least some. Some, however, will hide their caves out of sight, or potentially even further away from the spawn point, meaning you’ve got a bigger trek to reach the caves for some quick resources. Our guide on where to find caves can show you some of the best seeds that have caves near the start.
Here are the best seeds in Lego Fortnite:
Best seed for beginners: 14191128
Image: Epic Games via Polygon
This is a really solid seed to head straight to if you’re after a starting area with all the resources you need early on in Lego Fortnite, including wood, granite, berries, pumpkins, and much more.
Best seed for easy resources: 0942418202
Image: Epic Games via Polygon
This seed, as discovered by content creator AciDic Blitzz, is a veritable treasure trove of very quick resources. Not only is there a cave immediately north of the spawn point, which can offer up knotroot and other rare resources, but there’s a house even further north, and a whole town to the northeast, both of which feature chests for more resources.
Best seed for chests: 542354756
Image: Epic Games via Polygon
Here’s a neat seed if you’re after some chests. From the spawn point, follow the map northwest, and you’ll see a watchtower. This tower contains two chests, and from the top floor, you’ll easily be able to see a house just a short distance away, which also happens to contain two chests.
Best seed for new biomes: 1264970744
Image: Epic Games via Polygon
As proclaimed by Ouranked on YouTube, this seed is great because it features the desert and ice biomes on opposite sides of the spawn point. Keep this map seed in mind if you need to go and rapidly grab any gear or crafting items that can only spawn in either of the biomes.
Best seed for exploration: 1820364159
Image: Epic Games via Polygon
As captured by 1brecci on TikTok, when you spawn into this map, head to the west immediately. Once you’re across the lake, you’ll find several ruined buildings ripe for exploration, and if you keep heading west along the border of the desert biome, you’ll find a watchtower complete with a chest for looting.
Mauga’s early access weekend was more than just a fun surprise for Overwatch fans; it was also a test for Blizzard. The tank hero was buffed, debugged, and tweaked in response to that hero preview, resulting in a more powerful (and hopefully balanced) addition to the game’s hero lineup.
Lead hero designer Alec Dawson said in an interview with Polygon ahead of Mauga’s release that the Overwatch development team hopes to do similar player tests with future heroes. Dawson also talked about some of the lessons learned during Mauga’s preview weekend, and how the Overwatch team is evolving its approach to adding new heroes to the game.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Polygon: For Mauga, you did a kind of unprecedented test of a new hero nearly a month in advance of their launch. Can you tell me about what led to the decision to do that?
Alec Dawson: If you look at the team overall, and how we’ve been trying to treat development over the course of the last [couple] years, it’s really been to open up a lot more of it, engage more with the community, and try to make sure that relationship is as transparent as possible. With Mauga in particular, we had an opportunity: BlizzCon was coming back. We wanted to do something big, especially for all the folks at home, and we thought it’d be a great time to show them Mauga early, and also collect feedback on Mauga before he actually gets launched as well.
We think it’s something that worked out really well, and we’re looking forward to do it in the future again with future heroes.
How did it go?
I think overall we were really happy with the weekend, and there were some things we wanted to tune up, especially around Mauga’s survivability. We saw when he gets in there, gets in close and is in the right situation, he can be incredibly lethal. We saw players utilizing his ult very well early on, too. But there were some things on the survivability front, in terms of his frontline presence — being a tank. So we upped that [survivability] before launch. There were even small bugs that we were able to catch, especially with how quickly he was setting enemies on fire. So we’re able to fix that and get that sorted. We also got to see that first-time user experience across millions of players [and] how they’re playing with Mauga, what were some of the shortcomings there.
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
One of the biggest things was Overrun, and players not feeling as capable with this ability where he runs at you and then he jumps up and does the big, big stomp.
When we look at it all, Mauga’s performance over the weekend, obviously it was in a very different structure than we’re used to. But we want to make sure that those [new hero] releases launch on the side of strong and making sure those launches can be as exciting as possible. Make sure they’re making up for some of the time that you may have on heroes that you’ve been playing for hundreds or thousands of hours, that your first-time experience isn’t gonna be something that’s detrimental to the rest of your team, something that you can pick up pretty quick.
Thinking about the addition of Lifeweaver in season 4 and how a lot of changes were rolled out, in terms of his healing and and damage output over the following weeks, it seems you’ve also really buffed Mauga quickly. When you put in a new hero like this, what’s your comfort level with where they are? You really don’t know millions of people are thrown at it, right?
I think in the past we’ve been conservative about certain things. And there are still things we’ll be conservative about, specifically gameplay mechanics. With the preview we were a little conservative on how much sustain we were giving Mauga, because too much sustain can just feel like, Hey, this character is never going to die. I think we’ll also be conservative in the future, if you know we’re making a second Widowmaker, for example — some sort of sniper, or one-shot mechanic. Things like that we’ll be a little softer on.
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
With Lifeweaver in particular, we knew there was a lot of healing in the kit, and we knew there were also things you’re taking away some player agency from your teammates [with Life Grip and Petal Platform]. Those are some of the things we’re a bit more conservative on at launch because we knew those are going to be some of the pain points. But overall we saw we could have gone a little bit more aggressive for Lifeweaver’s launch. Since then, we’ve learned a number of things about how we want to launch heroes and how we want to release them. Doing these previews is just another step in that learning.
Previously, the hero balance cadence was seasonal and midseason adjustments, and obviously you would patch things if there was something outstandingly broken. How how have you and the team adjusted your reaction window to balancing heroes?
I think with a hero launch, or even a hero rework, we want to be very active into that first week to two weeks. With Roadhog, it was by the end of the week we had buffs ready for Roadhog to go [out]. So we wanna be very responsive, and if there’s anything else that’s, like, outstanding, we’re gonna come in and make any adjustments that need to be made.
Speaking of BlizzCon, I know it’s early to talk about the next Overwatch hero, Venture, but I wanted to see what kind of feedback you got to that hero’s reveal and how you’ve been ingesting that in terms of continuing work.
A lot of work has happened since that video clip was recorded, so it’s really interesting to look back; that was a while ago when we did that playtest. But it’s just been exciting for the team. We saw fan art go up everywhere, and a lot of excitement around Venture, and just people talking about them as the next damage hero for 2024. That was really invigorating for the whole team.
Venture, a new damage hero coming in Overwatch 2 season 10Image: Blizzard Entertainment
What we showed of gameplay was so short, so there’s not necessarily a ton to take away from what people saw. At the same time we saw excitement, and that for us was really great to see, and makes us feel a lot better about how early we can show some of these things. Because I think it’s gonna be something that we continue to do as well.
Mauga obviously came with BlizzCon, but say you do a hero test for Venture. Do you have a sense of when you would roll that out?
We’re still figuring out the exact timeline for it. I think you can expect somewhere in that month beforehand, where it gives us enough time to make adjustments before the launch and is close enough where [it aligns with] other teams working on a hero. Those are still some conversations we’re having on the team [in] exactly how we want to execute on that. But we know we want to do it.
Games Workshop retail staff have a rough job, from low pay to consistent unreasonable targets from upper management, so it’s with all the love and respect that I tell you about the animated lad that my 14-year-old friends and I used to make fun of for liberal use of the phrase “If a Space Marine walked in here right now…” It was always accompanied by wildly enthusiastic gesticulation meant to convey the absolute unit-tude of said Space Marines (8 feet tall in Warhammer 40,000’s lore). I bring this up because it perfectly sums up the thorny issue behind marketing these yoked stormtroopers: Space Marines are very expensive for something so small, forcing Games Workshop to make the legend of these tiny plastic soldiers tower over the reality.
And what a legend it is. The Horus Heresy book series currently consists of over 60 fat paperbacks worth of lore. There’s far too much nuance to unpack here, but it’s fair to say that when writers spend that long exploring something, they have to take it quite seriously, especially if they want to keep their readers hooked. To be clear, 40K is a fascinating, fun, creative, vast, and often extremely clever setting. But it’s also — at least as recently as 2021, according to its parent company — explicitly, intentionally satirizing the very faction that the vast majority of its lore seems so fascinated with. “Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be,” wrote the novelist Dawn Powell. As 40K grows and grows, it’s becoming more difficult to deny that the portrayal of the Imperium is at least somewhat aspirational.
Image: Owlcat Games via Polygon
A quick primer: Humanity’s overwhelming presence in the 40K setting takes the shape of the Imperium of Man, where staunch xenophobia, mindless zealotry, and outright hostility toward social or technological progress are among the highest virtues — a literal “cult of tradition”. Ordinary folk live in cramped “Hives,” toiling away until death, at which point they’re repurposed as tasty, nutritious “corpse starch.” The Imperial Guard, humanity’s most numerous military force, is best known for employing the Zapp Brannigan maneuver, i.e., throwing endless bodies at a problem until it sorts itself out. As such, individual human life is less than worthless. Terra’s more elite military are the Space Marines. As 2000 AD’s Judge Dredd is to law enforcement, so are the Space Marines to the concept of the Ubermensch — a grimly satirical warning about the pursuit of perceived physical perfection and ultimate strength.
Of the 36 playable factions in 40K, around half (17) are of the Imperium in some capacity, with a further nine being their direct foil in Chaos, leaving just 10 to split between the multiple nonhuman species that populate this mind-bogglingly huge universe. Sci-fi can vary wildly in flavor, but a unifying thread is that great science fiction is almost insatiably curious. 40K absolutely shines when it mocks the staunch anti-curiosity of its human protagonists. But as the company has gradually grown to value sales over artistic intent, that lack of curiosity too often seems to be adopted by Games Workshop itself.
Image: Owlcat Games via Polygon
This fantastic look at the timeline of 40K, and how it moved from satire to something almost resembling celebration, puts it like this: “As the setting grew more mainstream, Space Marines’ [portrayal] as noble warrior monks became more and more prominent, resulting in a world where these abused, intolerant, mass-murdering child soldiers are only ever portrayed from the Imperium’s point of view,” and, in the vast majority of official artwork, “as genuine heroes.” Even the official website categorizes nonhuman armies as “the Xenos threat.” Look a little closer, and it’s easy to see the inherent satire in images of Primarch Roboute Guilliman with a Christ-like halo of light shining from the background. But unless you know what you’re looking for, this stuff looks suspiciously like the very propaganda that it’s making fun of.
This isn’t to say, of course, that modern-day Games Workshop has lost its sense of satire, and most certainly not its sense of humor. As we’ve seen time and time again in the games industry, shareholders misunderstanding or just straight-up not valuing the creative process is a depressingly prevailing theme — it’s easy for nuance to get crushed under the pursuit of easy profitability. The rule of cool sells plastic, not difficult themes. Plus, 40K is a wargame. In a setting that requires constant conflict, factions that think in absolutes become necessary. But that’s where video games like the recent, excellent CRPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader come in. It’d be a massive anticlimax to end a game of 40K with a conversation before it even starts, but as the setting is allowed to spread its wings in a new genre, some of that classic satire begins to flourish again.
Image: Owlcat Games via Polygon
40K is, above all else, ridiculous, and Rogue Trader hasfun with it without losing any of the campy grindhouse stuff that grimdark excels at. Characters speak in rich, baroque prose, at once excellently written and almost indecipherable to anyone not already indoctrinated into their bizarre religious neo-feudalism. You don’t even have to leave your own ship to encounter dehumanizing class structure, and each of your erstwhile associates is comically nefarious enough to be the main villain in any other setting. In Baldur’s Gate 3, for example, the evil path requires a deliberate, long attempt to stray into monstrous territory. Here, you can have several crew members executed in the first few hours without breaking character.
Rogue Trader isn’t even the first game to pull this off recently. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, despite a rocky launch, is shaping up as an excellent successor to the Vermintide series, and portrays the horrific satire of existence in 40K’s horrendous hive cities masterfully. Loading screen quotes are such pointed satire you’d have to have accidentally super-glued your eyes shut building models to miss them, with lines like “A small mind is a tidy mind,” “Blessed are the intolerant,” and “Duty is vital, understanding is not.” It seemed only a few short years ago that the glut of Warhammer games felt like a punchline. Now, the scope and breadth these games offer are starting to feel like a better medium to portray the most complete version of 40K than the tabletop game itself.
In Lego Fortnite, you’ll need marble to both upgrade your village and build better structures and tools.
Below we detail where to find marble in Lego Fortnite and what tools you’ll need to harvest it.
Where to find marble in Lego Fortnite
You can grab marble in caves, which are scattered about everywhere. Notably, they’re the same caves that have knotroot. As you walk around, you’ll see huge rocky cavern entrances popping out of the ground, which you can enter. Inside, you can see the marble jutting out of the walls, like in the image at the top of this post.
Note that you do need an uncommon pickaxe in order to harvest marble. To make an uncommon pickaxe, you’ll need to upgrade your workbench and grab bone and knotroot, the latter which you can harvest with a normal axe. Once you have knotroot, you’ll need to use a lumber mill to turn it into rods to make an uncommon pickaxe.
Some of the marble may be on the ceilings, so you’ll want to bring some regular wood into the cave with you. This way, you can build some easy stairs to reach all that marble.
Image: Epic Games via Polygon
Remember to be ready for potential battles when you enter the cave, too. Caves are teeming with skeletons and spiders and you don’t want to die while you’re in there.
Once you have marble, you can use it to build bigger chests and upgrade your Village Square.
Another month passes and a new first-person shooter is released to the masses. Except The Finals is actually something special. Let me tell you why.
The Finals, created by Embark Studios, is one of two games the company is currently working on. Made up of ex-DICE developers, Embark Studios have taken some of the best aspects of the best Battlefield games and integrated them into a virtual destructive game show. When you first boot up The Finals, you’re presented with making a character from one of three body types: Light, Medium, and Heavy.
Image Source: Embark Studios via Twinfinite
From there, you can customize the look of your character from an impressively variety of options. Options that range from face, hair, and eyes all the way to upper back, lower back, and wrist. It is safe to say that between the choices for face and body customization that visually standing out is easy and satisfying. But looking unique and distinct is only one part of The Finals’ bombastic package.
The other part of the game’s package revolves around your contestant’s build, specialization, weapon, and three gadgets. Each build, Light, Medium, and Heavy get their own unique choices for their loadouts. Light builds can use smgs, sniper rifles, turn invisible, and glitch grenades. Medium can use turrets, riot shields, jump pads, and zip lines. All while Heavy has access to shields you can shoot through, lmgs, C4, and RPGs. The build options each class has can easily create multiple interesting builds for players to experiment with and they can be unlocked as you play.
Now, the final part of The Finals lies in its more conventional shooter gameplay. These days, a lot of new shooters follow the trends of the industry. Before, it was the Battle Royale, and now it’s the Extraction Shooter. The Finals bucks these popular FPS sub-genre trends to deliver something that is immediately more conventional than the trailers would lead you to believe. That is, until you begin engaging with the game’s destruction.
And boy oh boy, does this game do destruction right. You can really feel the DICE pedigree as you learn how to blow through walls, floors, and everything else in between. This is because The Finals’ environments are far and away more destructive than any other shooter I’ve had the opportunity to experience. Walls don’t just break open and crumble into nothing as the geometry is replaced by particles that fall through the floor.
Image Source: Embark Studios via Twinfinite
Instead, they actually break apart and collapse realistically and remain in the game world. As you would expect, this creates piles of rubble that kick up lots of dust and smoke into the air reducing visibility in what was once a furnished hotel lobby or casino—it’s all so visually captivating. As you play, random map-wide events will occur, events like meteor showers that pierce buildings and do a lot of wall collapsing on their own.
It’s also quite visually refreshing to see the varied maps on rotation constantly have different times of day and different weather effects. And because the game runs on Unreal Engine 5, the textures, lighting, particles, ambient occlusion, and global illumination elevate The Final’s visuals to match its quirky style. But what good are varied, destructible maps without engaging objectives to tackle? Good news, The Finals has that too.
The main premise of The Finals is that you’re a participant in ‘the ultimate combat entertainment game show’. As such, each match comes with a couple of announcers that narrates the major events of each match, for better or worse. When it comes to objectives though, the three available modes give enough variety for competitive teams to flex their skills.
Because you’re playing within a game show of sorts, The Finals’ game modes revolve around earning cash from objectives or kills and cashing them out. The more cash your team as at the end determines your team’s rank amongst the match’s competition. In the mode, Cashout, your team of three will battle three other teams to find and earn money crates from “Vaults” randomly scattered around the map. You then take it to a deposit box and deposit the cash, unfortunately this takes a long time and other teams can make the deposit go to them, so you’ll need to defend it. First to reach the cash goal wins.
Meanwhile, the other casual mode, Bank-It, is a bit simpler. Killing opponents will make them drop all of their cash, plus $1,000 in the form of coins. You’ll also be opening vaults for $5,000 to $10,000 worth and taking all the cash you have on you to a cashout station. The first team to hit $40,000 wins!
Image Source: Embark Studios via Twinfinite
Finally, there are the game’s tournament modes with offer Ranked and Unranked. This isn’t something I haven’t seen before but in practice it works pretty well. 8 teams will battle over three rounds to qualify for the final round and the win. In tournaments, respawns are limited and team wipes will lose that team money.
Where Ranked differs is that there is a 4th round added, meaning 16 teams will fight it out to win. The mode also features league progression for the truly dedicated, so you know I’ll be trying to climb. There is a lot to love with The Finals, it looks good, plays good, even runs good thanks to multiple settings options. However, during my hands-on, there were some visual and mechanical bugs in a few places. With the worst bug being me or one of my teammates disconnecting during Tournament rounds, and we couldn’t reconnect without restarting the game, which meant a guaranteed loss.
Hopefully by the time you read this, these issues will be ironed out and the game can enjoy a successful launch. I’ll be frank, The Finals lives and dies by the quality of its lobbies and servers. The rest is good and compelling, even great in some areas, but the connections and matchmaking need to be fully functional for the rest to shine. Here’s hoping for the best.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
The Finals, one of the buzziest new shooters of 2023 despite only existing in beta, finally has a release date. It’s out… right now! Developer Embark Studios announced the news at the 2023 Game Awards.
Created by ex-Battlefield devs, The Finals is a free-to-play first-person shooter in which various teams of three shoot each other a bunch to see which team is the best at shooting the other teams. Embark Studios ran a closed beta in the spring and an open beta spanning from late October through early November that racked up 7.5 million players.
One of the huge draws of The Finals is that it’s not a battle royale. There’s no circle or storm or slowly encroaching safe zone. You also don’t really get punished when you get eliminated, save for a brief 20-second respawn timer. Matches last no longer than 15 minutes. It feels like a throwback to the deathmatch modes that dominated the mid-2000s, except it’s as gorgeous and technically impressive as any other modern shooter. Nostalgia for an earlier, arguably simpler era of gaming is no doubt a factor in The Finals’ popularity.
The other huge draw is that every single building can explode.
Last week, I got a chance to play The Finals during a closed media session meant to illustrate The Finals’ final state before its launch. I cannot express how frequently the thing I was standing on exploded.
Image: Embark Studios
For the most part, that tracks with Polygon’s more extensive preview of The Finals from earlier this year. The general concept is that you’re a contestant in some sort of shiny, violent, futuristic game show. Matches take place on maps like Monaco and Las Vegas. (Get it? Because gambling!) When you’re eliminated, you turn into a pile of coins. (Also because gambling.) Buildings, however, don’t suffer such a cartoonish fate. Shooting a wall or floor with an RPG causes it to collapse into a pile of rubble. When a building takes enough structural damage, the whole thing comes crashing down — even if you’re meticulously perched on the eaves, trying to get the drop on an opposing team.
You can choose from three classes, simply named “light,” “medium,” and “heavy,” each replete with all the gear and movement speed (or lack thereof) you’d expect from those barebones classifications. For the session, Embark paired attendees off into squads of three. We played two different quick-play modes: Quick Cash and Bank It. Both modes tally your score not by how many eliminations you have but by how much cash you can steal from opponents and deliver to various drop points. But I’ll be honest: The shooting in The Finals is so distractingly solid — so emblematic of the golden age of Battlefield — I couldn’t help but spend my time prioritizing spraying and praying over learning “rules” and “objectives.” You’re welcome, teammates!
Image: Embark Studios
The Finals also features a tournament component with higher stakes than the quick-play modes. If your squad doesn’t finish in the top two for your existing round, you’re eliminated from the bracket. (I’m not sure what happens after the first round, because our squad finished last. Twice.)
I’d be remiss not to mention our experience playing The Finals was marred by technical difficulties. Such things are generally excusable for a beta; that is, after all, the whole point of betas. Still, for roughly half the games we played, one or two players of our three-person squad would inexplicably fail to load in. When we’d successfully get into a match, for about half of those matches, one player would get dropped. Since The Finals does not have an option to rejoin an existing match, one party member getting kicked out meant we all had to quit. (Let the record reflect that we totally would’ve won all of those matches otherwise.)
Aside from those hiccups, which may very well not be present at all in today’s full release, The Finals is an energetic and competent multiplayer shooter I could see myself dipping into for a few rounds when Halo Infinite gets too frustrating. Players have by and large moved on from the sort of arena-style gameplay on display here, so sure, like the contest that defines this game’s minimalist lore, The Finals is ultimately a gamble. But it’s one I hope pays off.
The Finals is out now on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
Gone are the days of scrounging up loot at dilapidated taco joints and rusty playgrounds in Fortnite. Epic Games released a massive new update to the battle royale game this week as part of Chapter 5 Season 1. The patch literally blew up the OG map with a meteor, replacing it with an entirely new, much fancier map. Instead of rough locales like Greasy Groves or Tomato Temple, players now explore palatial manors like Lavish Lair or the manicured vineyards of Pleasant Piazza. Fortnite is basically a fancy European vacation now, and it feels a bit outside my personal budget.
Developers stuffed the new map with luxurious points of interest. Another example: Grand Glacier, a hotel nestled on a snow-capped mountain that looks like it’s straight out of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. If the mountains aren’t your thing, you can head over to the Ritzy Riviera, a picturesque shore-side town with villas nestled into a sloped hillside. At places like Classy Courts, decrypted playgrounds with broken concrete have been replaced with manicured hedges.
Image: Epic Games
Call me a traditionalist, but I like to do dumb shit in Fortnite. I personally play as Kakashi from Naruto, and style him with an Among Us backpack as I regale other players with emotes like the Gangnam Style dance. Part of what made me fall in love with Fortnite was the garishness of it all. It’s a bright, cartoony game where you can go fishing with Ariana Grande, then turn around and scuffle with Goku. In the new season, a lot of that whimsy is still there: Peter Griffin is now a skin, and appears as an NPC you can fight. But that tone doesn’t seem to be reflected in the map, which forms a central part of the game.
It isn’t that previous maps were lacking in high-end locations. Prior to the return of the OG map, Chapter 4 Season 4 added the cyberpunk-inspired Mega City and the sweeping Japanese estates of Kenjutsu Crossing. While Kenjutsu resembles the more elaborate locales in the current iteration of the game, some of those additions still evoked a sort of surrealism: Mega City’s sci-fi elements felt true to the less realistic elements of Fortnite.
All that said, locations are subject to change with each update. So it’s possible that further meteors or other ill fates might befall some of these fancy locales and bring back some of the good old Fortnite charm — rough hedges and all.
“In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.” That’s the tagline of Warhammer 40,000, one of the most over-the-top and brutal sci-fi settings around. But even in a merciless, brutal dystopia that grinds its people into dust, some get to enjoy being on the top of the food chain. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is about the perils and pleasures of being atop that particular hierarchy.
Rogue Traders in 40K are freelance explorers, scouting the far frontiers of the Imperium of Man. It’s a risky career, but it comes with luxurious rewards: agency, freedom, power, and a giant flagship. As the player, I explore a system of the Imperium with a loyal crew of companions, making impactful choices and determining the fate of those around me.
Rogue Trader is a computer role-playing game in the vein of Baldur’s Gate 3 or Pillars of Eternity. I create my custom protagonist, determining stats and bonuses based on my backstory, home world, and so on. I’m then thrust into a high-pressure job interview as a potential heir to a Rogue Trader aboard her flagship. Little do we know that there’s a coup in the works, and traitors aboard the ship. After a deadly struggle against heretics and demons, I ascend to the position of Rogue Trader. I’m the captain now, and I get to decide how to run my ship.
Image: Owlcat Games
This is a vast game, with tons of features you’d expect from a CRPG — companions (each with their own narrative paths and conversation trees), top-down strategic combat, and branching choices that impact the world around you. I get to make choices all day — in fact, that’s part of the gig of a Rogue Trader. Some are more important than others; whenever I get to specific points in the story, I can choose from one of three major paths. Dogmatic choices exult the God-Emperor and loathe the mutant and the witch, the Heretical options pursue corruptive power, and the Ionoclast path is the closest thing we have to modern-day “good guy” morality.
After the events of the tutorial, my beautiful voidship is run down and my staff is struggling. As the newly anointed Rogue Trader, I have to trek around the various planets of the Koronus Expanse to get a new Navigator, fix my ship up, and avoid any major diplomatic incidents with the locals. My voidship is the size of a modern city; I’m as much a governor as a captain, and I have to manage the ship, its cargo, and its many occupants.
In the process of getting back on my feet, I uncover a nefarious cult and a deep conspiracy. It’s not an easy job, but I’m blessed with a handful of companions from the Imperium to help me out. I can call on them to unlock doors or perform other environmental checks, but they come most in handy in combat.
When I meet opposition, it’s deeply satisfying to control my troops in a turn-based battle. Each fight takes place on a grid; it’s very similar to Baldur’s Gate 3 or even XCOM 2. Some positions provide cover, while others are out in the open. Friendly fire is also a very real concern. An arc of auto-fire from a bolter, or a Navigator’s third eye opening, can harm friend as well as foe. My Rogue Trader is a sniper, and she would be lost without her Senechal taking the front lines. There’s a lot of firepower at my disposal, and it’s mostly quite satisfying to use — even if I occasionally shred my poor Senechal with a devastating AOE.
Image: Owlcat Games
I can chat with the companions between battles, learning more about their pasts. Most of them have deep and dark secrets I can uncover with a little time or patience, and they have fascinating stories to tell. Abelard, my Senechal, is a guy who sucks morally but will back me to the absolute hilt. I grew to love hearing about his days in the Imperial Navy, and he was the one guy I felt like I could trust. Augusta, a Sister of Battle, starts as a one-note zealot, but cracks form in that facade when I learn about her past and doubts. Cassia and Pasqal both represent two sub-factions in 40K, and they have lots to share about the Navigators and Tech-Priests.
My absolute favorite companion is Marazhai Aezyrraesh, a dark space elf who feeds off the suffering of sentient beings. He’s cruel, depraved, and an absolute hoot. Yes, he may flay a few too many people for my tastes, but he’s the best companion to bring to a party.
In the grand scheme of things, this is one of the most complete and detailed explorations of the 40K universe you can find. The game is an homage to the Warhammer 40K RPGs from Fantasy Flight Games, including Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy. I spent years as a teenager and young adult poring over these sourcebooks (which Rogue Trader isinspired by), learning more about the tiny details of life in the Imperium. Developer Owlcat Games has paid the same attention to every detail of the Koronus Expanse. I delve into ancient facilities staffed by tech-priests of the Machine God, the hostile xenos city of Commorragh, or massive cities built to honor the God-Emperor of Mankind.
I love the characters, the environments, the writing, the lore, and the flow of battles. But I have concerns with the game’s pacing. By the end of the first chapter, I had leveled up 16 times. Each level offered marginal rewards, like being able to move slightly farther during the character’s turn in combat or having a higher parry chance when being attacked. A slow drip-feed system means each level feels less important, and even though I’m growing stronger, I don’t get that sense of long-term satisfaction.
Image: Owlcat Games
It’s especially frustrating to hit a roadblock like the one at the end of Act 1, where an incredibly tough boss rolls out of nowhere and spanks my crew — and I can’t leave to go grind experience somewhere else. I eventually found out a way to cheese the fight by focusing on my melee fighters’ positioning, but it took far too long banging my head against the wall. The victory tasted like ash in my mouth after all that frustration.
Voidship combat is another aspect that feels clunky and frustrating. Like the squad-based skirmishes, naval encounters are also turn-based, where positioning is ultra important. Space naval battles should feel tense, but instead, I’m mostly annoyed at having to continually rotate my ship and set up my zones of attack. I wish I could delegate these annoyances to my Senechal — to delegate the duties of character leveling and ship combat, the better to appreciate all of the things Rogue Trader is doing so well.
Rogue Trader is a dense, vast game, and much of it has clearly been crafted with love for the expansive lore of the 40K canon. While there are small annoyances and clunky features along the way, the political intrigue, cast of characters, and moral choices have me hooked. For 40K fans, this is a rare treat — a game that digs past the heroic facade of bolters and battles and taps into the grimdark dystopia that makes this particular sci-fi setting so damn compelling.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader will be released on Dec. 7 on Windows PC. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code provided by Owlcat Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
Ahamkara Bones are the collectible for the Warlord’s Ruin dungeon in Destiny 2, and are an essential part of the “In the Shadow of the Mountain” quest.
In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll go over how to find all of the sets of bones so you can complete the “In the Shadow of the Mountain” quest and the “Heed the Whispers, O Vengeance Mine” triumph, and boost the drop rate for your Buried Bloodlines Exotic sidearm.
If you’re having any trouble getting to the locations described herein, check out our guide on how to complete the Warlord’s Ruin dungeon in Destiny 2.
‘In the Shadow of the Mountain’ quest steps
Unlike previous dungeons, where you can get all of the collectibles in one run, the collectibles in Warlord’s Ruin must be collected across three different runs. Once you beat the dungeon for the first time, you’ll receive the “In the Shadow of the Mountain” quest, which will require you to get 30 Dark Ether Tinctures, 3 Blighted Wishing Glass, and four Ahamkara Bones.
How to get Dark Ether Tinctures in Destiny 2
You get Dark Ether Tinctures by killing special Screeb-like enemies called Thieving Wretches, which will spawn in three locations:
The first is on the bridge before the first encounter.
The second is found in the maze after defeating the first boss.
The third is found on the mountain side after defeating the second boss.
These enemies can respawn, so you can farm them to get enough Dark Ether Tinctures.
How to get Blighted Wishing Glass in Destiny 2
You get one Blighted Wishing Glass per encounter completion from the loot chest. Once you complete that quest step, you’ll have to collect the next 3 bones and more Dark Ether Tinctures and Blighted Wishing Glass. Once you complete that step, you’ll have to do it again until you collect all ten bones.
Ahamkara Bones 1 location
Across the bridge inside the first fort, before an arresting Knight assails you.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
The first set of Ahamkara Bones is found directly before the first boss. Once you enter the fort, continue forward. You’ll see a door where you must remove a corruption level one. Directly behind this door is the first set of bones.
Ahamkara Bones 2 location
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Across from imprisonment, after ascending through the ceiling.
After you escape the prison, continue forward until you jump through the ceiling into an orangely lit area. Walk forward, and the door blocked by corruption level one will be on your right. Remove the corruption and collect the second set of Ahamkara Bones.
Ahamkara Bones 3 location
Image: Bungie via Polygon
At the top of the summit, face back from the cliff and find shelter.
After the second encounter, make your way until you reach the outside again and see this view. Continue to the left, and instead of jumping down to the left to make your way to the room with the large Taken orb, continue straight.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Climb up until you see a small hallway in the left wall of the mountain. The third corruption level one door will be in the small hallway, and behind that door will be the third set of Ahamkara Bones.
Ahamkara Bones 4 location
Image: Bungie via Polygon
In the snowfallen maze, through the broken wall, seek the banner of Kings.
After you break out of the prison, make your way through until you reach a hole in the wall that you must walk through to progress.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Make a right (where you’ll have to jump over a stacked spike trap), then a left. The corruption level two door will be directly in front of you.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Remove the corruption and collect the fourth set of Ahamkara Bones.
Ahamkara Bones 5 location
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Cross into the Tempest, through the portcullis, at the sewer’s mouth.
Before the second encounter, get to the doorway where you find the first secret chest.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Turn to the right and follow the snowy path until you reach a sewer entrance. Right through the sewer grate is the next corruption level two door. Remove the corruption and collect the fifth set of Ahamkara Bones.
Ahamkara Bones 6 location
Image: Bungie via Polygon
At summits base, find shelter off the beaten path. Too far, and the Taken will descend upon you.
After defeating the second boss, progress forward until you reach a group of enemies as you start to head outside. It’ll look like the area pictured above.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
After you defeat the enemies, head into the cubby pictured above. There is where you’ll find the corruption level 2 door and the sixth set of Ahamkara Bones.
Ahamkara Bones 7 location
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Within the maze, stride panning a pitfall, light calls through the window.
After the prison section, get to the point where you see a pile of barrels below the hole that you must jump up through.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Jump up through the hole, exit the circle room, and take the left.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Head down to the end of the hall and dispel the corruption level three door to collect the seventh set of Ahamkara Bones.
Ahamkara Bones 8 location
Image: Bungie via Polygon
The Taken roil at cave’s bottom sends you to scurry over boulders into a ruined alcove.
Once you get to the room with the large Taken Blight, make your way through until you can look up and see the end. Below will be a platform that you’ll have to jump down to.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Once you jump down, dispel the corruption level three door and collect the eighth set of Ahamkara Bones.
Ahamkara Bones 9 location
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Within a tunnel on the broken cliffs, brace the Taken storm.
After the Taken Blight room, there will be a section where you’ll have to jump around a smaller Taken Blight. Make your way to the room highlighted in the image above. The final level three corruption door is in that hallway; dispel it and collect the ninth set of Ahamkara Bones.
Ahamkara Bones 10 location
Image: Bungie via Polygon
After defeating the final boss, this set of Ahamkara Bones is found directly beside the loot chest.
Whether 2023 is one of the best years for video games is up for debate. But it is certainly one of the best years for Christmas video games, thanks to a surprising number of festive, holiday-themed releases. That includes a video game sequel to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, starring Ebenezer Scrooge and made in the Metroidvania style.
While many live service games will drench themselves in Christmas and Hanukkah-themed cosmetics and map makeovers this month, not since Sega’s Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams… has there been such an eclectic mix of festive fare. Some are naughty, and some are nice. And at least one, a gory slasher that will appeal to fans of Rockstar Games’ murderous Manhunt, is definitely not for kids.
Here’s a look at 2023’s Christmas games.
Ebenezer and the Invisible World
Set after the events of Ebenezer Scrooge’s encounter with Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, Ebenezer and the Invisible World sees the once-miserly grump setting off on a new adventure. Invigorated by Christmas cheer, Ebenezer is enlisted by another ghost to help alter the destiny of evil industrialist and population-principle-believer Caspar Malthus. Aiding Ebenezer in his mission are many more ghosts — which are basically summonable familiars and power-ups that are heavily inspired by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. (Ebenezer even has Alucard’s back dash.)
Ebenezer and the Invisible World is an enjoyable action-adventure game with greater depth than you might think. The game’s hand-drawn graphics and wide array of characters and quests keep the whole thing moving along pleasantly; plus it’s just fun to see old Ebenezer wielding a giant ax or spinning a flaming spear. He’s very spry for his age!
Ebenezer and the Invisible World is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Lake: Seasons Greetings
The video game Lake is a cozy, narrative adventure set in the sleepy village of Providence Oaks, Oregon. Set in the year 1986, players stepped into the shoes of Meredith Weiss, a metropolitan, career-driven woman who returns home to temporarily take over her father’s postal route. Lake: Season’s Greetings delivers similar smalltown vibes, but this time, players tour the town as Thomas Weiss, Meredith’s father, as Christmastime approaches.
Lake: Season’s Greetings is a prequel to the original Lake, available as DLC for that game. These cozy, wintry vibes are available on PS4, PS5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Christmas Massacre
Make it a silent night, make it a deadly night with the stealth-slasher Christmas Massacre, which made its debut on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in November. (It’s been on PC since 2021.) Inspired by snuff game Manhunt, top-down shoot-’em-up Hotline Miami, and PlayStation 1-era aesthetics, Christmas Massacre lets you slay as Larry, a man who is clearly not well, because his Christmas tree is commanding him to kill.
Obviously, Christmas Massacre is probably not something you should play with the whole family, but if over-the-top violence and gore done super lo-fi is your thing, it’s a fun romp, as murder rampages go. You will be flamethrowing roomfuls of children and nuns, just as a heads up.
Christmas Massacre is available on PS4, PS5, and Windows PC via Steam.
The Grinch: Christmas Adventures
Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch stars in a 2D side-scrolling platform adventure game that may or may not be any good — I haven’t played it! But The Grinch: Christmas Adventures gives players control of The Grinch himself (and his dog Max, in two-player local co-op) on another Christmas-ruining mission. Like Ebenezer and the Invisible World, this is a one-year-later sequel to the original source material. And like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Grinch’s Christmas Adventures promise to teach him a “valuable lesson about the true spirit of the holiday.” Hopefully he learns for good this time!!
The Grinch: Christmas Adventures is out now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis: The Holy Flame’s Gift
Image: Square Enix
Square Enix’s mobile remake of the expanded Final Fantasy 7 franchise has a new holiday event, which isn’t a stand-alone game, but a new story that features two important elements.
One is a Christmasy new Tifa costume that is currently riling up Tifa fans worldwide. You can see that above.
The other is that the chief antagonist of Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis’ new holiday-themed story is a gingerbread Cactuar. Amazing!
Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis is currently available on Android and iOS devices, and is coming to PC via Steam on Dec. 7, Square Enix just announced. The game’s The Holy Flame’s Gift story is available now.
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