#Multiplayer

Team Fortress 2 Update Released With Scream Fortress XVIII Halloween Event

Valve released an update for Team Fortress 2 that launches the Scream Fortress XVIII Halloween event, running through November 7th, 2026. The event adds 5 community maps, the Haunted Hoard Case with 23 community-created cosmetic items, 5 community taunts and 21 new Unusual effects, and all players who launch the game receive a Soul Gargoyle. The update also reworks the Zombie mode with a new Zombie Spawn Picker and new abilities for several Zombie classes, alongside numerous community-reported fixes.

Gears of War: E-Day Devs Explain Missing Launch Features and Reveal Season Roadmap

Gears of War: E-Day launched on October 1 for players who bought early access to the new Xbox console exclusive. The developers said in a blog post that they built the entire gameplay sandbox from scratch on an empty hard drive, so legacy features like Meat Shields, Chainsaw Duels, select past weapons, Private Lobbies and leaderboards could not all be included at launch, though they are not gone from the franchise. Versus Ranked arrives October 13, Season 1 runs themed events through December 1, and later seasons are named Legacy and Beyond, Infiltration, Pendulum and Devotion.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 second anniversary update goes live, starting year three of support

Focus Entertainment and Saber Interactive announced that the second anniversary update for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is now live, opening the game's third year of post-launch support on PS5, Xbox Series and PC. Free patch 15 adds a Chaos-led Siege mode that lets players control Chaos Space Marines in PvE for the first time, plus the Crucible system, a one-handed Thunder Hammer and new weapon and armor variants. Season 3 pass holders get the Space Wolves Champion and Exorcists Chapter cosmetic DLC packs, and the full year-three roadmap was revealed during September's community update stream.

You Can Now Play Halo: Combat Evolved in a Web Browser, With Multiplayer

Developer Mitchell Hynes has got a build of the original Halo: Combat Evolved running in a web browser, built off Bnunu's decompilation project with mouse and keyboard support. It supports up to 128-player multiplayer and works on Windows, Linux, and Android, though there is no matchmaking—players share a room link and servers are peer-to-peer. Within five hours, the project saw almost 20,000 games across 115 countries.

March of Giants Preview: A MOBA That Wants to Turn the Arena Into a Battlefield

IGN previewed March of Giants, an in-development 4v4 MOBA whose lead designer says he wants to turn the arena into a battlefield, with players as towering giants commanding soldiers and placing battleworks. Matches are designed to run roughly 20 to 30 minutes, and none of the preview sessions went past 25; teams win by destroying two of the enemy's three final citadels. Some key developers also worked on Rainbow Six Siege, and the game keeps hardcore MOBA staples like separate skill leveling, complex itemization, and last hitting.

Invincible VS DLC character Angstrom Levy launches October 13 https://www.gematsu.com/2026/10/invincible-vs-dlc-character-angstrom-levy-l...

Aion 2's worldwide release nears as early access founders' packs outsell major games

Aion 2 is days away from its worldwide release, roughly a year after launching in Korea and Taiwan. Its founders' packs, which start at £18.49 and are currently required for early access, have earned more revenue this week than EA FC 27, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve and Gears of War: E-Day, topping Steam's Top Sellers list while the game sits at number nine on Steam's Most Played chart. The author has tried the character creator and main story, describing flight, pet collection and character building as fun, with combat between tab-target and Black Desert Online-style action.

Dune: Awakening Review - Only The Strong Survive

Game Informer reviews Dune: Awakening, saying the game succeeds in making Arrakis feel hostile at every turn. The review notes the game is set in its own timeline where House Atreides never falls, a War of Assassins begins between Harkonnen and Atreides, and the Fremen are all but dead. The author describes combat freedom through classes like Mentat and Trooper, says solo play never hit a wall, and points to the weekly-resetting Deep Desert endgame area playable in PvE or PvP.

Gears of War: E-Day Enters Early Access Today, Full Launch on October 6

Gears of War: E-Day begins Early Access on October 1 at 8:00 a.m. PT for Premium Edition players and Game Pass subscribers with the Premium Upgrade, with the full launch set for October 6 at 8:00 a.m. PT. The game is available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and Steam, with cloud gaming through Game Pass Ultimate and GeForce NOW. Built by The Coalition in Unreal Engine 5, it includes an origin-story campaign, the 4-player Horde Siege PvE mode, and 4v4 Versus PvP, with two-player split-screen on console only.

How Long Is Gears of War: E-Day - Mission List and Hours Played

Gears of War: E-Day's campaign takes roughly 10-14 hours on normal difficulty, and the author finished it in 11 hours while completing about 60% of the optional content. The game is primarily a linear cover-based shooter with semi-open environments between missions for collectibles, upgrades, and side missions, and a war journal tracks what was missed in each mission. After the credits, several multiplayer modes await, including Horde Siege, in which three teams of four players cooperate against waves of enemies.

Gears of War: E-Day Review: The Prequel Campaign and Horde Siege Multiplayer

IGN reviewed Gears of War: E-Day, with the author finishing the campaign in 15 to 18 hours and finding that the prequel still carries emotional weight even though players already know Marcus and Dom survive. The campaign adds a Weapon Mod and Tactical Gear system with four mod slots per weapon, unlocked through yellow Hard Cases and secondary objectives. The author notes ally AI sometimes fails to revive downed players, occasional framerate hitches on Xbox Series X Performance Mode, and that Horde Siege stands out in multiplayer while private matches are absent.

Escape from Playtime Preview: Co-op Extraction in the Poppy Playtime Universe

IGN played several rounds of Escape from Playtime ahead of its October 1 open playtest, a co-op extraction looter set in the Poppy Playtime universe where teams scavenge loot from a factory and return it to a cart named Barry. The author notes a four-slot inventory, items with utility such as glow sticks and an airhorn that reveals your position, no direct combat, and enemies including Boogie Bots, Cat Bees, and Miss Delight. Each shift raises the point quota and difficulty with a larger procedurally generated map, more hazards, and more enemies; the game supports solo play but offers only a contextless ping and proximity voice chat with no matchmaking. It enters Early Access on October 21.

Gears of War: E-Day Review In Progress

Game Informer's Brian Shea published a review in progress of Gears of War: E-Day, calling its campaign one of his favorites of 2026. He describes the fall of Kalona, a four-person squad led by Marcus and Dom, street exploration, sidequests, weapon mods, and disruptive minibosses. Multiplayer servers were not turned on before the embargo lifted, so the PvP and PvE modes were not yet played.

Gears of War: E-Day Will Miss Classic Features Like Meat Shields and Chainsaw Duels at Launch

The Coalition confirmed in a developer blog that Gears of War: E-Day will not include classic series features such as taking enemies hostage as meat shields or dueling with Lancer chainsaw attachments at launch, because the prequel's gameplay sandbox was built from scratch rather than on previous Gears titles. The studio said it is working to deliver these features, along with Private Lobbies and leaderboards, post-launch or in its next title. The first Season begins with Early Access today at 8am PT and runs eight weeks until December 1, including all launch maps, modes and cosmetics plus three seasonal events, with Ranked modes arriving October 13.

Marathon Game Director Reassures Fans Extraction Mode Isn't Going Anywhere

Marathon game director Del Chafe said on the Marathon Development Team Twitter account that Extraction remains a major part of the game and will continue to receive updates. The reassurance followed Bungie's roadmap reveal for PvE and experimental PvP modes coming in the December Symbiosis update, which raised fears the hardcore extraction mode would be neglected. Chafe also asked players for feedback on Extraction, with streamers citing spawn rushes and harsh death spirals as key issues.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 officially announces new Collateral multiplayer mode

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has officially announced a new multiplayer mode called Collateral, inspired by Counter-Strike. The mode adds an economy system on top of the familiar Search and Destroy formula, letting players buy gear with money earned during the match so that every death and purchase can have consequences.

Directive 8020 will add online co-op in October

Supermassive Games announced on X that online co-op for Directive 8020 will arrive this October, with no set date yet. The space horror game is the latest entry in the studio's choice-focused horror series, and its Movie Night mode supports up to 5 players making decisions for the cast, but it launched without an online option, so co-op required playing in person. The game was delayed from October 2025 to May 2026, and the studio held layoffs in July of last year and again in August, the latter affecting roughly 75 employees.

Stormgate: Wrath of the Veti expansion launches with the Veti faction and 11 missions

The Veti faction expansion Wrath of the Veti for Stormgate is now available, unlocking an 11-mission single-player campaign while the Veti faction is free to try in multiplayer. The Veti revolve around Awakened units, which can be sacrificed for buffs and are also needed for Ascension Pillars used in base building and upgrades. The expansion costs 83.99 yuan with a 10 percent discount in its first two weeks, bringing it to 75.59 yuan, alongside 50 percent off the base game and 35 percent off the Gold Edition.

《掘地求财：铲友齐上阵》正式公开，支持最多4人跨平台联机挖宝

Gravhounds – The First Hands-On Preview of an Intriguing Deep Rock Galactic-Like Extraction Shooter

Octopus Panic's PvE extraction shooter Gravhounds held an open playtest over the weekend ahead of its planned early access release later this fall. Up to four players take on human/canine hybrid roles, gathering resources on alien planets while fighting escalating enemy waves, with a pipeline network that automates resource delivery and can be grinded for fast traversal. The playtest offered four characters — Zane, Finn, Selene and Dozer — and shooting lacked punch, with tougher enemies feeling like damage sponges.

TAITO announces Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron is Back! Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Stardrop Mountain for February 25, 2027

TAITO announced Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron is Back! - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Stardrop Mountain, which will launch worldwide on February 25, 2027. Physical edition pre-orders are open via global publisher Clear River Games. The release adds the Stardrop Mountain expansion with new stages and villain Invaduh, includes the original 1986 arcade Bubble Bobble, supports up to four-player local co-op, and runs at 1920x1080 on Switch 2 with a Camera Play feature.

Deadlock's City Never Sleeps update arrives with a sweeping map visual overhaul

Valve released Deadlock's large City Never Sleeps update, adding six new characters unlocked by community vote, UI reworks, more voicelines, and a sweeping visual update to the map. The Hidden King and Arch Mother bases are unchanged, while three lanes and four new districts were reworked, including the industrial York, the central Broadway hub, and Greenwich. The four districts are the Theatre, Chinatown, Haunted Lot, and Plaza.

Monster Hunter Wilds runs at a stable 30FPS on Switch 2, but Capcom calls the port a painstaking process

Capcom producer Genki Sunano told Kotaku that the Switch 2 version of Monster Hunter Wilds was built around delivering a natural Wilds experience rather than a scaled-down port, describing it as a painstaking and at times seemingly endless process. The version launches on 5th December with all free DLC updates including new monsters and local co-op support, and runs at a solid 30FPS in handheld mode even during taxing multiplayer hunts. Capcom plans to apply what it learned to performance improvements for existing platforms ahead of Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance in 2027.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 3 Network Test Version Appears on SteamDB

A SteamDB page for "Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 3 Network Test Version" has been registered, though Bandai Namco has yet to announce Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 3 itself, let alone a network test. The predecessor, Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 2, is a free-to-play multiplayer battle action game available on PS5, PS4, and PC via Steam. Bandai Namco plans to hold a live stream around the end of October celebrating the 40th anniversary of Gundam games.

Minecraft Dungeons 2's First Reviews Arrive, Metacritic Average Edges Past the Original

Minecraft Dungeons 2 launches this Tuesday as the next Xbox first-party release, and early reviews are already out. Destructoid gave it 9/10, while Day One, CGM and TheSixthAxis each scored it 8.5/10, with GamesRadar at 3.5/5, GameSpot 7/10 and IGN 6/10. At the time of writing its Metacritic average sits at 76 for Xbox Series X and 74 for PC, compared with 70 on PC and 74 on Xbox One for the 2020 original; it costs £24.99 / $29.99 and is included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

NEIGHBORS: Suburban Warfare Now Available for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC

Developer Invisible Walls announced that NEIGHBORS: Suburban Warfare has left Early Access and is now available for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam. The free-to-play team-based PvP game first launched in Early Access for PC on April 17, 2025, priced at $9.99. It is a chaotic multiplayer party brawler where players use everyday items to destroy their neighbors' houses.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor launches on PS5, Switch 2, and Switch on October 7

Ghost Ship Publishing and developer Funday Games announced that Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor will launch on PS5, Switch 2, and Switch on October 7. The game previously entered Early Access on PC on February 14, 2024, fully released on Xbox Series and PC on September 17, 2025, and came to iOS and Android on November 12, 2025. The companies also announced the Knockout Expansion, which adds the Brawler class, the Sandblasted Corridors biome, and a high-risk mission with new objectives and a boss, with no release date given.

Dune Awakening's Creative Director on Copying Hollywood, In-Game Advertising, and Why Style Beats Photorealism

Funcom chief creative officer Joel Bylos said Dune Awakening's development required submitting content for approval to Legendary, which holds the adaptation rights, through Jira, and that director Denis Villeneuve once noted the game's title was a little too close to Star Wars. He also discussed the possibility of game companies adopting Hollywood's per-project financing model, noting that model works because of strong unions. Bylos is currently focused on the console launch of Dune Awakening alongside a major update that adds a single player mode and difficulty options.

Embark should've added a PvE mode to Arc Raiders a long time ago

Embark is finally testing a PvE mode for Arc Raiders, a change the author believes should have come much sooner. He recalls the fun of early co-op fights against high-value arcs, but says PvP lobbies later filled with liars, assholes, and cheaters. Embark has admitted a large chunk of the playerbase is PvE orientated, though there's no guarantee the test leads to a permanent addition.

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin gets a seamless co-op mod in alpha, supporting up to six players

Mod creator Yui has released an alpha version of a seamless co-op mod for Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, the only game in the trilogy that had gone years without one. The mod lets up to six players play from start to finish in a single session, removing progression blockers and keeping sessions in sync, and can be downloaded from NexusMods or GitHub. The alpha still has known issues such as enemy de-sync when a player dies, including against bosses like Velstadt and Sinh, and interactions such as doors and item pickups may not always sync.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 Review: A Cozier Co-op ARPG Built for Parents and Kids

Minecraft Dungeons 2 launched on September 29, and after playing it with his almost-12-year-old, the author says it keeps the original's kid-friendly co-op ARPG design while splitting armor into helmet, chest, leggings and boots and adding the explorable Brave Haven map plus rifts to the new dimension The Sift. In the pre-release Xbox build he hit bugs including unselectable inventory slots and characters vanishing when switching between online and offline play. The Sift is due to be added to Minecraft at some point in 2027.

Bandai Namco to End Synduality: Echo of Ada Service in 2027, With an Offline PvE Mode Planned

Bandai Namco announced this week that it will shut down the online servers for Synduality: Echo of Ada in 2027, just two years after the 2025 release. The PvPvE mecha game peaked at barely over 3,000 concurrent players on Steam, and the publisher has promised an offline PvE mode so players can keep exploring and fighting CPU opponents. Online operations will continue until May 2027, and all digital currency will be removed from sale starting December 17 of this year.

I perished in the flesh pipes of Darktide's Depths of the Damned update, and you will too

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has released the Depths of the Damned update, whose centerpiece is a new mission called Spillway set in Tertium's water treatment facility; the author calls it the biggest addition since the Skitarii arrived. Having played it once, the author says it still alternates fierce wave combat with quieter traversal but runs longer than Rolling Steel and No Man's Land, includes a graffiti memory puzzle, and can throw a traitor Captain at you. The update also adds two new weapons, the Thugshot and the Cruncher, which the author finds hard-hitting but slow.

Marvel Tokon Devs Reflect On Its Troubles And Hope Players Give It Another Shot

Nearly two months after Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls launched on PS5 and PC, Arc System Works producer Takeshi Yamanaka apologized for the PC version's many launch issues, saying they stemmed from multiple hardware environments rather than a single cause. Multiple patches and updates have since rolled out on both platforms, and the first DLC character, Phoenix Cyclops, is slated for Fall 2026.

Wardogs early access review

Co-op Simulation Game Shark Supermarket Demo Launches Today

Shark Supermarket, a co-op simulation game co-developed by stre1itzia and Andryash and published by polden, launched its free demo today. Players are sharks in dolphin masks running an underwater shop on the reef, using the honest business as cover for a secret basement kitchen where lured fish customers are cooked, all while avoiding fish police. The demo is available to download on its Steam store page, where the game can also be wishlisted.

Huge Deadlock Update Sends Valve's MOBA Hero Shooter Up the Steam Charts With a New Peak of Over 220,000 Concurrent Players

Valve released a large update for its in-development MOBA hero shooter Deadlock, reworking the map and adding six new heroes, new mobs, objectives, an updated HUD, healthbars and Shop, plus engine code moved to the latest version of Source 2. Deadlock peaked at over 220,000 concurrent players overnight, breaking its own record and making it the sixth most-played game on Steam last night. The game remains in early development with access limited to friend invites from Valve's playtesters, and there is still no release date or beta window.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 gets a Counter-Strike-inspired Collateral mode

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is adding a new series mode called Collateral, whose rules hew closer to the Bomb Defusal mode in Counter-Strike and Valorant. It uses an in-game cash economy with pre-made loadouts disabled, weapons and equipment lost on death while earned cash is kept, and no automatic health regeneration, respawning or Killstreaks except a team-bought UAV. The mode was revealed near the end of a blog post about the PC version's technology and features, with no indication it is PC-exclusive, and Modern Warfare 4 is set for release on 23rd October on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2.

Tencent's The Hidden Ones set for December launch, Monster Hunter Outlanders international version launches October 29

Tencent's 3D fighting game The Hidden Ones, developed by MoreFun, is set to launch in December with a final test on November 4, and has over 30 million pre-registrations. TiMi's Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch its international version on mobile on October 29, while the China server is expected in 2027, with over 20 million global pre-registrations.

Star Fox Version 1.2.0 Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Nintendo has released the free Version 1.2.0 update for Star Fox on Switch 2, adding three new Battle Mode stages — Katina, Sector X and Venom — plus four-player split-screen on a single console, with a controller required for each player. The update also brings changes across campaign, challenge, battle and training modes along with numerous bug fixes. Nintendo also added the game's soundtrack to its Nintendo Music app, featuring 62 songs totaling 2 hours and 17 minutes and requiring an active Switch Online subscription.