Gaming News · Issue #80 · 26 October 2026

TL;DR

• FragPunk's Farlands turns a fading 5v5 hero shooter into a free PvPvE courier war on November 5.
• Active Matter passed 500,000 copies, and Gaijin says its first big update brings new maps and bosses.
• HUNGER's closed beta shuts today, and the studio says its progression won't lean on forced wipes.
• WARDOGS admits Season 2 moved too fast and now targets November 12 for Season 3.
• Phantom Blade Zero's reviews are in, and critics keep calling its combat the best of the year.

🎯 Extraction shooters

FragPunk Bets Its Comeback on Farlands, a Free PvPvE Courier Mode Where You Can Steal Other Players' Deliveries

Bad Guitar Studio's free-to-play hero shooter FragPunk gets a new mode called Farlands, entering early access on November 5. Insider Gaming's October 25 breakdown describes dozens of players sharing one big sandbox: scavenge, run delivery missions, haul resources home to upgrade your base, vehicle, and gear, or ambush another courier and take their package. FragPunk peaked at 113,946 concurrent players on Steam and sat around 700 when the piece ran.

Player impact: If you bounced off FragPunk's card-driven 5v5, November 5 is a free re-entry into an extraction-style mode. Watch whether robbing couriers pays better than delivering, because that decides if solo players survive.

Sources: Insider Gaming · FragPunk on Steam

Active Matter Passes 500,000 Copies, and Gaijin Says Its First Major Update Brings New Maps and Bosses

Gaijin Entertainment says Active Matter has sold more than 500,000 copies across Steam, the Gaijin.Net Store, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5, about six weeks after its September 15 launch. Co-founder Anton Yudintsev said sales have stayed steady since day one. The studio also confirmed its first major post-launch update is in development, with new maps, weapons, monsters, bosses, and visual upgrades. No date yet.

Player impact: Half a million sales on a hardcore extraction shooter means the servers stay up and the content keeps coming. If you shelved it after the first maps, this update is the reason to keep it installed.

Sources: Active Matter on Steam

VR Extraction Shooter ExfilZone Cuts .338 Damage by Up to 30 and Makes Top-Tier Armor Worth Wearing Again

Patch 1.7.2.0 for Contractors Showdown: ExfilZone, a VR extraction shooter on PC VR and Meta Quest, landed October 23. It lowers penetration on seven high-tier rounds (.338 LM AP drops from 7.7 to 6.7), cuts .338 flesh damage across the board (VT-X goes from 196 to 166), and makes non-penetrating rounds chew through armor faster. It also closes a safe-container item duplication exploit and a phone trick that let players clip through walls.

Player impact: Heavy armor now buys you real time against AP rounds, but it also wears down faster from cheap ammo. Dupe-stashed gear may get wiped, so spend it before anyone audits.

Sources: Contractors Showdown: ExfilZone on Steam

HUNGER's Closed Beta Shuts Today After a Sunday Server Slam, and Its Progression Avoids Forced Wipes

Good Fun Corporation's Napoleonic PvPvE extraction RPG HUNGER ends its closed beta on October 26 at 9:00 GMT (7pm AEST). The studio called a Server Slam for Sunday to fill servers and stress-test matchmaking and backend stability before early access. A developer update the same week laid out progression: Abilities, Masteries, crafting Professions, and a Prestige system built to support long-term progress without recurring forced global wipes.

Player impact: Today is your last shot at HUNGER before early access. If wipes are why you quit Tarkov-style games, the Prestige pitch is worth watching, because the open beta date is still unannounced.

Sources: HUNGER on Steam (Server Slam) · HUNGER on Steam (Missive XVI)

🔫 FPS

WARDOGS Says Season 2 Was 'a Huge Mistake' and Now Targets November 12 for Season 3

In a PCGamesN interview published October 25, Bulkhead's leads said WARDOGS Season 2 levelled players so fast it erased its own economy wipe, and that rushing new content ahead of fundamentals was "a huge mistake." Executive producer Joe Brammer said "that's where my leadership failed" and that the team reacted "too much" to feedback. Season 3 is currently targeting Thursday, November 12, less than a month after Season 2 launched on October 15.

Player impact: Season 2 progress has a short shelf life, so don't sink a weekend into ranks you'll lose in under three weeks. The real test is whether Season 3 slows the grind without making it miserable.

Sources: PCGamesN

Modern Warfare 4 Peaked at 227,434 on Steam, About 26% Below Black Ops 6

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 hit a launch-window peak of 227,434 concurrent players on Steam, per SteamDB figures reported by Game Rant on October 25. That trails Black Ops 6's roughly 306,460 peak from October 2024 by about 79,000, but more than doubles the roughly 100,000 Black Ops 7 drew on its launch weekend. The numbers come from Call of Duty's shared Steam app, which also counts Warzone players, so treat them as a rough read.

Player impact: PC lobbies are healthy, so queue times are no excuse this month. The question is whether MW4 holds that crowd through Season 1 or bleeds players the way Black Ops 7 did.

Sources: Game Rant

Overwatch's Stellar Blade Crossover Reportedly Lands November 3, With Eve as Widowmaker

Shift Up's Stellar Blade team confirmed an "Overwatch x EVE Protocol" collaboration on October 23, and the skin lineup surfaced on October 25. Per esports.gg, it launches November 3 (PST) with Eve as Widowmaker, Lily as D.Va, Tachy as Vendetta, Adam as Soldier: 76, and Raven as Freja. Blizzard hasn't announced prices. Some players are already pushing back on the deal because Shift Up's CEO posted an AI-generated Eve music video in July.

Player impact: Budget for another premium collab bundle in early November, since Overwatch crossover skins usually sell as paid sets. Widowmaker mains get the headline skin; everyone else gets to argue about the AI baggage.

Sources: esports.gg · OutputLag

🔜 Coming soon

Phantom Blade Zero's Reviews Are In, and Critics Keep Calling It the Best Action Game of the Year

S-Game's wuxia action RPG Phantom Blade Zero hit its review embargo on October 26, ahead of its October 28 launch on PS5 and Steam ($59.99). IGN praised its boss fights and combat after 50 hours but flagged a convoluted story and occasional performance issues. Push Square called it one of the generation's greatest action experiences, and GamesRadar and Dexerto both put it in game of the year territory. Eurogamer liked the swordplay but noted rough edges.

Player impact: If you want a parry-heavy action game that isn't another Soulslike, this is the week's pick. PC players should wait for performance impressions before preloading.

Sources: IGN · Push Square · Eurogamer

Shenmue 3 Enhanced Slips to Early 2027, Taking Its Stamina Toggle and New Camera With It

Ys Net and publisher ININ Games have pushed Shenmue 3 Enhanced, the upgraded re-release that was due in 2026, into early 2027. The confirmation came through a publisher newsletter reported by fansite Shenmue Dojo and covered by Push Square on October 25, saying "development is taking time to get everything right." The Enhanced version adds an optional stamina system and a revamped camera over the 2019 original.

Player impact: Anyone who pre-ordered the Collector's Edition is waiting into next year. If the stamina meter and camera put you off the original, these fixes are still coming, just later.

Sources: Push Square

🆓 Free to try

EscapeFromSeoul's Free Demo Is Out on Steam, With a Seoul Built From Text and a November 3 Launch

Solo developer yougong released a free Steam demo of EscapeFromSeoul on October 25, a top-down PvE extraction shooter set in a Seoul drawn from characters and symbols. The demo covers two areas, Yongsan Electronics Market and Guro Industrial Ruins, caps you at level 10, is single-player only, and has no playtime limit. The full game, with online co-op for up to 3 players, is planned for November 3 KST (November 2 in the Americas).

Player impact: Free to download on Steam, no end date announced, and your demo save carries into the full game, so time spent now isn't wasted. It's PvE only: a low-stress way to learn extraction loops.

Sources: EscapeFromSeoul on Steam

Mouthwashing and Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted Join Game Pass October 29, With The Seance of Blake Manor First

Microsoft has five more Game Pass additions lined up for the last week of October, per Pure Xbox on October 25, all on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud. Scramble Knights Online arrives October 26 and The Seance of Blake Manor on October 27. Mouthwashing, Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted, and Terrible Lizards follow on October 29, the same day as Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade.

Player impact: Mouthwashing is a short, nasty horror game that fits one Halloween night, and it costs nothing extra on Game Pass. PvZ Replanted is the easy co-op pick if your squad needs a break from shooters.

Sources: Pure Xbox

🕹️ Console specifics

Sony's PS5 Firmware 14.20 Reportedly Kills the Prolapse Jailbreak, as Hacked Consoles Start Running Steam Games

A new PS5 kernel exploit called Prolapse works on firmware 14.00 and 14.10, and hacker Jose Coixao says Sony's October 21 update to 14.20 patches the flaw, Notebookcheck reported on October 25. Separately, Tom's Hardware reports a tool called Playden now installs Steam games directly onto jailbroken PS5s as home-screen tiles. Push Square notes some new physical games now require the latest firmware, and PSN already blocks consoles below 14.10.

Player impact: If you want PSN and new disc games, you have to update and give up any jailbreak. Expect more frequent forced firmware updates before GTA 6 arrives on November 19.

Sources: Notebookcheck · Tom's Hardware · Push Square

🖥️ Hardware

SteamOS 3.9 Hits Stable With Better Steam Deck Battery Life at Idle and a Frame Limiter That Works With VRR

Valve pushed SteamOS 3.9.5 to the stable channel for all users on October 23, rebasing on the Linux 7.2 kernel and Plasma 6.7.3 for Desktop Mode. Player-facing fixes include lower idle power draw on Steam Deck when no audio is playing, the Disable Frame Limiter toggle now working with VRR (variable refresh rate), frame caps no longer dropping below target on some external displays, and fixed sleep on RDNA1 and RDNA2 graphics cards. Hibernation support exists but isn't enabled on Deck yet.

Player impact: Update your Deck or Steam Machine before your next session, especially if you play docked on a VRR monitor or leave the handheld idling on the menu. Legion Go 2 owners also get a Forza Horizon 6 crash fix.

Sources: Steam Deck on Steam (SteamOS 3.9) · GamingOnLinux

Modern Warfare 4 Looking Washed Out on PC? Players Blame Nvidia's New Shader Delivery Driver

PC players report washed-out textures, heavy chromatic aberration, and negative-looking colors in Modern Warfare 4 after Nvidia's latest driver added support for Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD), which ships precompiled shaders. MP1st's October 24 report, based on a Reddit thread and its own testing, says restarting shader preloading in settings and relaunching fixes it. If not, delete the shadercache folders inside the sp26 and cod26 game folders. Neither Activision nor Nvidia has commented.

Player impact: If MW4 suddenly looks like a bleached screenshot, clear its shader cache before blaming your monitor. Don't delete the whole sp26 or cod26 folders, or you're redownloading.

Sources: MP1st

📦 Other

The 'Save Mass Effect' Petition Passes 187,000 Signatures and Asks EA to License the Series Out

A Change.org petition started by Joe Smith passed 187,000 signatures within days of EA closing BioWare and cancelling the next Mass Effect, Eurogamer reported on October 25. It asks EA to fund and staff continued Mass Effect development or license the IP to another studio. GamesRadar put the count near 200,000 later that day. EA has not responded to the petition.

Player impact: Petitions rarely move publishers, but a licensing deal is the only realistic path to new Mass Effect anytime soon. Watch whether any studio publicly bids for the IP.

Sources: Eurogamer · GamesRadar

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15 stories in this issue. Same digest goes out in the Warhogy Discord — reply to this email if there is a story I missed.