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  • “Protec the lil’ uns!” As Helldivers 2’s CEO takes a victory lap around the latrines, players have already fallen in love with their new SEAF buddies

    “Protec the lil’ uns!” As Helldivers 2’s CEO takes a victory lap around the latrines, players have already fallen in love with their new SEAF buddies


    Helldivers 2‘s Galactic War arrived on Super Earth earlier today, with the Heart of Democracy update deploying the divers on their first missions to defend the mega cities of their home planet. So far, it’s all going down well with players, especially one new feature – the AI SEAF squads.

    To be fair, you can see why. With the latest major order requiring folks to casually kill 2.5 billion Illuminate as they work to activate the cannons they’ll need to see off the squids’ invasion of the planet, every helping hand on Super Earth’s side is a welcome addition.

    Before we get into all the SEAF love, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani has made it clear this was the thing he was talking about when he teased something was coming to the game that would lead players to defecate in their drawers. Sticking his head above the pulpit in Helldivers 2’s Discord server not long after the update went live, the exec simply asked: “What’s the pant situation soldiers????”

    “Evaporated” was one of the first responses he got.

    Shams Jorjani asking what the Helldivers 2 community's pant situation is like.
    Image credit: VG247

    Naturally, it’s the new biomes and big war twist that’ve done a lot of that evaportating, but if you take a look at the game’s subreddit right, you’ll find the AI SEAF squads folks can run into as they run ops on Super Earth getting a load of love.

    Basically, they’re members of the Super Earth Armed forces you can find running around the streets and enlist to help you take on the Illuminate of you chuck out the right emotes. Naturally, if you drop a salute, they’ll salute back, and they can even be persuaded to follow you around. Depending on who you ask, they’re either surprisingly effective in combat – below is a clip on one helping someone take down an Illuminate Fleshmob – or just cannon fodder.

    Players like them so much that there are already calls for Arrowhead to give us the ability to arm the SEAFers with support weapons, become bunker door opening buddies with them, and drop a Warbond that lets folks dress in their trademark blue armour.

    As one player with the handle Excelsus328 put it: “I don’t care if they showed the SEAF dying to friendly fire in the trailer, anyone who shoots these soldiers gets the kick”. “Oh god, now I want an emote to sing [the] Super Earth anthem and have them sing it with us like in Earth Defense Force,” added another going by Deathzeis.

    Has Helldivers 2’s Heart of Democracy update filled your breeches with something super stinky yet, or are you waiting on tenterhooks to dive in later? Let us know below!





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  • How to use the new Cart Cannon and Cart Laser in R.E.P.O.

    How to use the new Cart Cannon and Cart Laser in R.E.P.O.


    Image via The Escapist

    Having cemented its place as one of this year’s breakout successes, indie game R.E.P.O., celebrated for its chaotic physics-based mechanics and the unpredictable (often comical) moments, is pushing the experience even further with the game’s first big update. 

    Available on Beta via Steam, this update debuts the ‘Overcharge’ feature, delivers a mass of bug fixes, along with a number of new items and weapons. Two of which are the ‘Cart Cannon’ and ‘Cart Laser’. The are heavy-duty weapons that can turn your cart from a simple floating basket to an armed tank ready to one-shot some of the game’s toughest enemies. They increase the firepower you and your team can use to protect yourselves while tending to your Semibot’s repossession duties.

    REPO Cart Cannon
    Image via The Escapist

    How to use the Cart Cannon and Cart Laser

    Like all weapons and upgrades in R.E.P.O., the new cart weapons are found in the Service Station, which you arrive at after the successful completion of each level. Due to the prices of these new items, they may not be attainable until later levels after more money has been earned. As of now, both weapons appear in the store for anywhere between 40-50k.

    Both the cannon and laser will automatically attach to the C.A.R.T. once lifted and placed inside. When it’s ready to go, the light will change from red to green. Placing the weapons at the far end of the cart allows your teammate to push you around while you keep an eye out for enemies

    The normal ‘E’ function is used to activate the items; however, each version of this superpowered weapon has a very different firing style, adding a unique twist to your combat strategy. 

    Cart Cannon

    REPO Cannon Ball
    Image via The Escapist

    When fully charged, the cannon can deliver up to four shots that deal 500 damage per hit. Incredibly, this is enough to take out the slow but tough Trudge, so it is important to make every shot count. It should be noted, however, that the cannon is so powerful that it has the ability to push the cart itself backwards. While this isn’t by much, using the Cart Cannon near a hole or on a ledge isn’t recommended. Your teammates probably don’t want to search for your head after you’ve saved the day.

    Cart Laser

    REPO Cart Laser
    Image via The Escapist

    When fully charged, the laser has four pulse beams which deliver 65 damage every second it fires. Aim and time it right, and this will be enough to take out the biggest enemies, despite it not being able to one-shot like the cannon. An advantage of the laser over the cannon is the wide breadth of damage it delivers. Like the Clown’s nose beam, you can manoeuvre the laser to hit many targets, opposed to the cannons’ very specific area. However, be cautious of your surroundings. You wouldn’t want to take out your team with a stray laser beam. Consider your playstyle and the situation you’re in to decide which weapon is best for you. 

    This recent update from Semiwork showcases that so much more is to come in R.E.P.O. If the newest weapons and level items are anything to go by, they have some large plans for the future.

    R.E.P.O. is available now on Steam


    The Escapist is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy



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  • League of Legends hits pause on new skins to rework disappointing Black Rose set

    League of Legends hits pause on new skins to rework disappointing Black Rose set


    It’s update day in League of Legends, and while patch 25.10 is now live and the patch notes are out in the wild, it’s actually news about 25.11 that’s caught my attention. With 25.11 heading to the PBE, Riot has revealed that for the first time in a long while, there will be no new skins on the test server to uncover, and thus no new skins when the update drops later this month. The reason? Riot’s put most of its energy into reworking its underwhelming and controversial Masque of the Black Rose skin series.

    The start of the year was a rough one for League of Legends, and one of several contributing factors was the fact that premium, high-cost skins were just not hitting the quality mark. One of the very first skin lines to drop in 2025, the Masque of the Black Rose set suffered from this mediocrity as well despite featuring in the battle pass, and Riot is now trying to make good with some extensive overhauls. Featuring Elise, Ezreal, Renata Glasc, Samira, Vladimir, and a Prestige Katarina, the splash arts for this set looked stunning. It also explored a really cool theme, with the Black Rose being a shady secret society in LoL’s universe.

    However, when fans of the MOBA actually saw these skins on the Rift, it was a different story. There were criticisms of bland and basic designs that felt underwhelming given the money needed to acquire some of them and the expectations the splashes had set.

    In 25.11, reworks for the skin line will arrive, and with the update now on the PBE you can check out the transformations for yourself. Masque of the Black Rose Elise, Renata, Samira, and Vladimir are the champion skins benefitting from enhanced visuals. The video below from SkinSpotlights is a brilliant before and after comparison.

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    However, the work needed to overhaul the Black Rose skins has come at a cost. “We hit pause on skins that would’ve normally dropped in this upcoming window so we could go back and give the Black Rose skins a little extra love; a mix of updates across models, textures, and VFX,” Riot reveals in the patch notes for today’s 25.10 update. So, that means that 25.11 will have no new skins to speak of. Wild.

    It’s unclear from Riot’s use of the phrase “upcoming window” whether we may actually see more than one patch without new skins, but I’m assuming it’s just referring to 25.11 – we couldn’t see back-to-back skinless updates, could we? Getting just one is pretty unheard of.

    LoL patch 25.11 should roll out on Wednesday, May 28 according to Riot’s update schedule.

    For more, check out what’s in the LoL Mythic Shop right now, or consult our LoL tier list to find out which champions are dominating the meta right now.

    You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.



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  • XCOM and Hunt Showdown inspire new strategy game and extraction shooter hybrid

    XCOM and Hunt Showdown inspire new strategy game and extraction shooter hybrid


    Ice Code Games, creator of Hard West 2 and last year’s Rogue Waters, has made a niche for itself in mashing up tactical combat design with supernaturally-infused historical settings. Hard West and its sequel take place in a 19th-century American West haunted by demonic creatures whereas Rogue Waters offers strategic pirate swashbuckling in monster-filled seas. Now, the studio is continuing in a similar vein with the announcement of its latest project, a blend of Hunt Showdown and XCOM 2 called Nightmare Frontier.

    Nightmare Frontier looks, at first blush, like a spiritual successor to the Hard West games. It, too, is a kind of strategy game set in the American West, where players have to contend with bloodthirsty monsters. From this foundation on up, though, it takes a pretty different approach, adding a risk-reward focused style of design to Hard West’s formula.

    In Nightmare Frontier, players control a group of desperate scavengers in a mission to find and collect loot in a town regularly attacked by creatures called Dreadweavers. As in extraction shooters like Hunt Showdown, the scavengers have to decide how long to fight off enemies, gathering increasing rewards as the danger grows, before it’s time to escape or risk losing what they’ve gained. When the player isn’t fighting, they’ll need to craft and upgrade their gear from the resources they’ve gathered and unlock new skills in preparation for their next round of combat.

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    Nightmare Frontier is set to launch in Early Access on Steam this summer. Wishlist it or find more information on its Steam page right here.

    Otherwise, you can bide the time between now and Nightmare Frontier’s launch by taking a look at our picks for the best horror games and best action-adventure games already out on PC.

    You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.



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  • New automation sandbox game Icaria fuses Minecraft and Factorio together

    New automation sandbox game Icaria fuses Minecraft and Factorio together


    Back in the early heyday of Minecraft, what really kept me coming back were the mods that dramatically opened up the sandbox game’s building potential. Tekkit, and later Feed the Beast, introduced me to a world of pipe networks and automation long before I ever got into the likes of Satisfactory and Factorio. Now, new indie game Icaria combines the iconic blocky look of Minecraft with the ability to lay out intricate factory networks and program helpers to handle all your tasks, and it’s out now on Steam with a playable demo.

    Much like Minecraft, starting a new game of Icaria drops you into a small section of a procedurally generated alien world, although developer Blindsight Games’ creations are more alien in nature than those of Mojang. From your initial spawn, you’ll gradually explore outwards, building out a radio network to give you a better perspective of the world around you.

    Like all the best sandbox games, you must gather materials to start constructing, upgrading, and expanding your base, but your labor is just the beginning. Described by Blindsight as a “single-player colony builder,” Icaria really comes into its own as you learn to automate your factories and program robotic helpers. Anything you can do yourself can also be accomplished by your workers, and the bigger your base grows, the more important that becomes.

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    Using a clean set of visual tools to make programming approachable to anyone, and ways to quickly share your scripts with other players, you’ll be able to set up your workers and facilities to act exactly how you wish. Terraform the landscape, lay down power networks, assign trucks to transport materials across your ever-expanding colony, and unlock more ways to engage with the world.

    Icaria is out now on Steam in early access, with a 15% launch discount meaning you’ll pay $21.24 / £17.84 if you buy it by Monday May 12. There’s also a free demo you can download and try before you commit. Blindsight Games is aiming for the early access period to last for “around a year,” but says it will extend that “if that seems like the best way to deliver a satisfying and complete game.”

    Can’t get enough construction in your day? Here are the best building games on PC. If it’s the organization aspects that appeal most, we’ve picked out the best management games to play in 2025 as well.

    You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.



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  • God Save Birmingham just became my most anticipated new zombie game

    God Save Birmingham just became my most anticipated new zombie game


    If you know the British Isles as well as I do, you’ll know that the fine city of Birmingham doesn’t exactly scream ‘potential videogame location.’ But what about if you take things back to the 14th century? And fill it with zombies. Now it’s got a chance. That’s exactly what God Save Birmingham is looking to do, and after watching around eight minutes of new gameplay footage, it’s just shot to the top of my ‘most anticipated zombie games’ list.

    Now, I’ll admit that I usually prefer my zombie games to be co-op affairs that are full of massive, dynamic hordes and ludicrous weapons. Call of Duty Zombies. Dead Island 2. You know the vibe. For that reason, the likes of Killing Floor 3 and the concerningly silent John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando have been way up on my list of upcoming PC games that I’m looking forward to. However, I think God Save Birmingham just surpassed them.

    This isn’t some co-op horde blaster where you can smack shamblers with an electrified baseball bat or suck zombies up into a portable jet turbine. I’ve seen snippets of gameplay before, but looking at the new extended trailer posted by IGN, it actually comes across as very The Last of Us-y with its third-person sneaking and meaty takedown animations. I doubt the narrative juice will be quite as potent in God Saves Birmingham, but when it comes to taking down zombs, it’s definitely got that TLOU flavor.

    There’s also a big focus on using and reacting to the environment around you. Furniture can be moved to block doorways. Ladders can be repurposed as bridges for crossing gaps. Standing on chairs can help you jump up to ledges that would typically be too high. Everything (including you and the zombies) has realistic and reactive physics, and looks like a really fun sandbox.

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    The new trailer also shows just how deep its survival game mechanics go. Meters for hunger, thirst, fatigue, and panic can be seen. Trying to replenish these with items in your inventory will require real-time actions and menu scanning – there’s no pausing the action and instantly eating a loaf of bread here. Falling from a height inflicts a leg injury, which then hampers your movement speed. Objects can be disassembled for raw materials. There’s a proper cooking system too.

    I think it all looks marvelous, and the medieval setting feels like a novel one for a zombie survival experience. God Save Birmingham is currently without a release date, but an early access launch is on the cards for it.

    Be sure to check out our list of the best medieval games if, like me, you’re loving ye olde vibes of God Save Birmingham. Our upcoming PC games list is also on hand to show you what else is on the way in the near and distant future.

    You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.



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  • New Star Citizen free event is the perfect chance to play big MMO and space game

    New Star Citizen free event is the perfect chance to play big MMO and space game


    Star Citizen has taken on almost mythic proportions over the years. Its creator, eager to outdo the visions of outer space offered by games like Eve Online, No Man’s Sky, and Starfield, has been working on fleshing out a wildly ambitious MMO simulation for more than a decade now, even as other projects in its wheelhouse come and go. Given how long the game has been in active production, though, it can be hard for interested players to know when to give Star Citizen a shot. Luckily, there’s no better time than now, since a current ‘free fly’ event makes it easier than ever to give the game a look.

    Star Citizen can be a bit daunting to approach, especially given how dense its take on the space game genre has become over time. The ideal way to dip into it is through one of its free trial events, which not only provide missions for new players to situate themselves in its sprawling world, but don’t cost anything to try.

    The current free fly event allows anyone to check out Star Citizen by signing up for an account and downloading the game for free. After completing its introductory missions, players can sample some of the activities available in the massively multiplayer space sim, piloting a roster of six different ships or heading out on foot to explore the game’s far future setting. It’s a great opportunity for anyone curious to see what the space sim is all about, or to check in on how it’s been coming along over the many years it’s been available to the public.

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    Star Citizen’s current free event runs until next Monday April 28. You can sign up to take part in it at the official website right here.

    Otherwise, you can find more to play with our lists of the best simulation games and best multiplayer games on PC.

    You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.



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  • New RPG Erenshor looks like classic MMOs, but there’s no grind and you play solo

    New RPG Erenshor looks like classic MMOs, but there’s no grind and you play solo


    What if you could play an MMO completely on your schedule? That’s the central thesis of new RPG Erenshor. It takes the style of Old School Runescape and the lived-in feeling of World of Warcraft, but flips these persistent virtual lands completely on their heads. Erenshor certainly looks like a classic MMORPG, with hundreds of ‘players’ questing and battling alongside you, but they’re not real people. Instead, this is a single-player game made to emulate the joys of ’90s MMOs, and it’s out now.

    As someone who’s spent hundreds of hours in Final Fantasy 14, Erenshor immediately caught my eye. It looks like OSRS at a glance thanks to the vast open world, dungeons, and ostensible players scurrying about, but it couldn’t be more different. Instead of playing with actual people, you’re accompanied by what developer Burgee Media calls ‘Simplayers.’ These NPCs progress independently, persistently exist in the world, and group up alongside you just as MMO players would – but they’re not actual players.

    You hunt monsters, complete quests, and earn mountains of gold just like WoW or Guild Wars, but it’s not in service of the grind. Instead, you’ll build a character just as you would in a single-player RPG.

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    The first day you start up Erenshor and begin the tutorial (a right of passage in any MMO), that’s when the ‘server’ becomes ‘live.’ The NPCs will progress right alongside you, all in pursuit of growth. So if you find some armor or weapons you don’t need, you can give them to the NPCs to help them become more powerful. When you come to a particularly difficult raid or dungeon, you can then recruit these characters to fight alongside you, that gear still slumped over their shoulders or in their hands.

    Becoming part of the world in an MMO also means putting your quest to save the world aside, and Erenshor embraces this with open arms. If you want to simply explore, dig into the world’s history, or hunt for loot, you can do that. Burgee Media wants you to reexperience the feeling of playing a classic MMO, but without that same level of commitment.

    Burgee Media has launched Erenshor in Steam Early Access now, with a demo also available. You can get involved right here.

    If you’re looking for more, we’ve got all the new MMOs to watch out for, alongside the best multiplayer games to dive into with some friends.

    You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.



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  • “Shut Up & Sit Down Presents” Incredible New Games with Play to Z

    “Shut Up & Sit Down Presents” Incredible New Games with Play to Z


    SU&SD

    Shut Up & Sit Down is delighted to announce a partnership with Play to Z to hunt down the board game treasures that we think belong in every collection.

    SU&SD Presents” is a brand new line of titles that places a spotlight on some of the very best titles in modern board games. We’ve hand selected a fresh crop of exciting designs, helped to polish them to perfection, and P2Z will publish these incredible games for worldwide distribution.

    It’s our goal that every game in the line could be your new favourite game.

    We’ve got our first two games arriving next year, with a new title releasing annually thereafter!

    First up is a brand new design from the king of co-op himself, Matt Leacock (Pandemic, Pandemic: Legacy, Daybreak, Forbidden Island). Matt has teamed up with Lisa Towell – a real world animal rescuer – to create Animal Rescue Team. You and your friends will puzzle out the perfect rescues of creatures big and small. One game might have you arriving just in time to save a coop of distressed chickens, and another may have you fruitlessly trying to rescue a cow with a motorcycle, or cursing yourselves for ‘unfortunate horse logistics’. The game will be crowdfunded in early 2025, and should find its way to your local game shop by October 2025.

    The second in the “SU&SD Presents” line is a remastering of one of our all-time favourites, Dogs of War, from legendary designer Paolo Mori (Ethnos, Libertalia, Blitzkrieg!). This game has been out of print for far too long, so it is not only exciting to see it back, but also with a SU&SD spin on it, packing more punch in a smaller box, at a lower price. This will be the definitive version of a certified classic with a sumptuous new lick of paint by Edu Valls (Bitoku, Redwood, 3 Ring Circus). Dogs of War will be coming to retail in late 2025.

    About Play To Z:
    Play To Z was founded in 2023 by a group of hobby game industry veterans. Zev Shlasinger, a 27 year game industry veteran who founded Z-Man Games in 1999, is President of Play To Z. Zev has published nearly 400 games in his career for Z-Man Games and WizKids, including huge hits such as Pandemic, Agricola, Fantasy Realms, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Merchants & Marauders, Super Skill Pinball, and many more. With its slogan “Games For All Gamers”, Play To Z publishes a wide spectrum of games, including Ascending Empires, YRO, Lynx, King’s Coalition, and more coming soon.

    About Shut Up & Sit Down:
    Shut Up & Sit Down has been talking about board games since 2011. With our trademark blend of comedy and critical analysis, we have become one of the largest board game YouTube channels and podcasts. Find all of our work on ShutUpAndSitDown.com.



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