"We're aware that some players are unable to join a game- please bear with us while we look into servers and matchmaking!" reads a tweet sent Tuesday from the official XDefiant Twitter account. A few hours later, the account shared an update reading: "We are seeing progress on the matchmaking servers. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you updated."

Meanwhile, Ubisoft's live feed of news and known issues acknowledges, "an issue affecting our online services for the game," "problems with connecting to the servers," and "high latency and disconnections."

We've been through this, folks. Big new online video game releases, servers struggle under the weight of bloated launch day player numbers, players report long queues and connection issues, studio says it's on it, etc. etc.

You could take the above headline, swap out XDefiant for pretty much any major online game released in the last five years, and a Google search would probably pull up a bunch of stories from that game's launch just like this one. I'm biased, but one of my favorite written explorations of this phenomenon is a GR+ piece from 2019, and it's just as relevant today as it ever has been.

Anyway, that's all just to say, this isn't anything unusual. More than likely, Ubisoft will get servers under control within the next few days and you'll be able to get into matches in a more timely manner. Until then, Ubisoft has guides on how to troubleshoot XDefiant connectivity issues and technical troubleshooting for XDefiant on PC. Check those out and make sure the issue isn't related to something on your system's side, and if it doesn't resolve anything, it's just a waiting game, but thankfully usually a pretty short one.

While you wait for a match, why not check out our list of the best online games to play right now?

As Gematsu noted, the studio's official Twitter account recently put out a call for programmers, 2D animators, and background designers to help with "a new fantasy action RPG" that's seemingly been in the works since at least last year. Details are thin on the ground, and it doesn't help that the link for the new job listings currently leads to an error page. But a new Vanillaware game is always cause for celebration, and with the studio returning to action combat after proving its tactics chops, I'm breaking out the good wine for the party. 

The attached promo art seems to hint at the art direction and character design for the game. Not that it needed to; wondering if Vanillaware will nail its art direction is like wondering if FromSoftware will nail its orchestral music. 

Despite its reputation for teetering over bankruptcy after every release, Vanillaware hasn't released a single bad game in its history. Hell, it hasn't released a less-than-amazing game, with the possible exception of the MMO Fantasy Earth back when the studio was still called Puraguru. 

That said, it's been on an especially hot streak the last few years. Unicorn Overlord, its most recent release and my new all-time favorite strategy RPG, passed 500,000 copies sold in under a month. Its previous game, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, was also warmly received for splicing side-scrolling with RTS elements and an unreasonably good, patently unhinged story. 

We then get to Dragon's Crown, likely the studio's best-known game and easily the most relevant point of reference with a new action RPG in mind. Even the teaser art smacks of Dragon's Crown, to the point that I have to wonder if it's actually just a general display of the studio's style and the Sorceress reference is deliberate. It remains to be seen whether this mystery RPG will follow the same 2D style, but it's a pretty safe bet after other Vanillaware games like Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. 

Here are the 25 best RPGs you can play right now. 

For some context, Manor Lords players have been crying for help after unwittingly spawning out-of-control armies of sheep due to the fact that the game's breeding mechanic increases exponentially. Several reports have surfaced over the last few weeks showing villages and cities absolutely overrun by sheep, leading to markets flooded with sheep and wool with nowhere to keep the excess, not to mention all the land for the sheep themselves. Well, the latest Manor Lords patch fixes all of that by simply capping the sheep spawning rate to one new calf per 10 days, max.

Halting the sheep's plan for world domination is only one small part of the massive Manor Lords update, which is getting a test run on the game's new experimental branch before hitting the full game. Elsewhere in the full changelog are a myriad of gameplay and balance tweaks, minor changes to various systems, and a ton of fixes for bugs and crashes. 

Oh, there is also a handful of visual improvements, including: "Tuned field dirt UV wiggle to make those huge vegetable gardens players were making less wavy." You heard it here first, folks: less wavy vegetable gardens. In hindsight, now that players don't have to worry about the wee calf they bred taking over their whole town, maybe they can appreciate the little things. 

Meanwhile, one Manor Lords player built a city so big that "the game is no longer really playable" and even the developer himself was "impressed".

This comes from the official Helldivers Discord channel, in which community manager Twinbeard was asked when the latest patch will drop. "When it's done," Twinbeard replied.

There's been a pervading sentiment from inside Arrowhead that the developers have struggled since launch to keep up with the game's explosive success, and it seems now the studio is keen to give itself some breathing room when it comes to releasing new updates.

"We want to take some more time for this one and potentially between future patches since we feel cadence has probably been a bit too high to be able to maintain the quality standard we want and you deserve," Twinbeard said.

Just yesterday, Twinbeard was asked about the ongoing issue of weapons balancing in Helldivers 2 and said simply that Arrowhead needs "more time," adding, "We're cooking." Today's messaging from Twinbeard, while similar in tone, appears to be related to Helldivers 2's update release cadence more generally.

"Patching a lot risks can easily disrupt work flow and takes more resources than you might think; it needs planning, implementing, monitoring, possible tweaking in hotfixes etc," Twinbeard said. "For this one we prefer to stretch it out a little, hopefully with a good result."

Asked whether new updates will be released bi-weekly or monthly going forward, Twinbeard said that has yet to be decided. "I'd say it's [something] we have to try out and get a feel for. ATM we feel a slightly lower cadence overall will benefit both us, you and the game."

Following a string of generally poorly received balance updates, Arrowhead recently confirmed it's looking into test servers to allow for some player feedback before patches are deployed to the full game. That, combined with a slower release cadence, will ideally keep players happy and ensure the folks at Arrowhead aren't burning themselves out.

Helldivers 2 CEO wants the galactic war to last "forever" even if Arrowhead has to "sunset" the game in the far future and the devs have to make an AI game master.

"I just got DCed," Twitter user XC_omoroid said. "I'm surprised that I somehow managed to beat the record set by the Noble 14 with the game known to have the worst netcode on Wii U?" Thankfully, they confirmed in a follow-up post that they "somehow managed to quickly beat all the online exclusives before getting kicked off the server," so at least their save file is functionally content complete. 

XC_omoroid has been fighting the good fight since the April 8 shutdown, and as they mentioned in their tweet, this puts their online record ahead of the famous "Noble 14," a group of players who clung to the Halo 2 servers for weeks after the original Xbox Live shutdown over a decade ago. 

"The worst netcode on Wii U" is maybe pushing it, but the multiplayer in Xenoblade Chronicles X, a stupidly large JRPG that was well-received back in 2015 and which is now crying out for a Nintendo Switch re-release louder than ever, was indeed notoriously janky. It was also cool and kind of endearing conceptually. Up to 32 players could form a large Squad for online communication via the Blade Report, or a smaller squad for simple four-player online Squad Missions. 

Somewhat like Dragon's Dogma's Pawn system, you could also sign up to have your avatar added to the Blade pool where it could be scouted by other players, passively earning resources for contributing to their adventures. Naturally, you could enlist other players' avatars as well. All of this multiplayer stuff is fortunately non-essential apart from true completionist runs, and frankly it didn't work very well even when the servers were still alive, but it did add some spice to XCX's oddball world.

In addition to widespread player efforts, this server shutdown prompted the formation of dedicated watchdogs like Nintendo Network After Hours, whose most recent count reckons there are now just three known players still connected to the defunct servers: Fishguy6564 in Mario Kart 7, SlitherySheep in Mario Maker, and Lcd101 in Splatoon. This stuff can be difficult to track and validate, but this figure lines up with our ongoing coverage of the shutdown's aftermath. 

The last Pokemon player has made the ultimate sign-off as 6 survivors hang on to keep the Wii U and 3DS servers alive.

Kingmakers introduced itself to the world in February with a trailer that initially obscured its true nature. After an opening 23 seconds that look like a quintessential medieval strategy game - think something like Mount & Blade with a touch of Age of Empires - it gave way to some DeLorean-style time-travel and a lone ranger carving through a medieval army with a rifle. It still has to be seen to be believed.

Now, Kingmakers is back with a new trailer that puts its initial effort to shame. Kicking off with a series of drive-by motorbike shootings that would put even the cast of GTA to shame, it only gets more bombastic from there, when our well-armed hero takes his grenade launcher to a nearby building.

The destruction physics on display are not bad, especially for a game that's clearly having to keep a large number of NPCs moving around it's map at any given time, but once again, Kingmakers continues to dial up the stakes. Clearly having lacked firepower up until this point, your return to the field in a fully kitted-out modern tank, against which your opponents' wooden architecture doesn't hold up for very long.

If the Three Little Pigs taught me anything, it's that if the house made of sticks didn't offer enough protection, the house made of bricks should. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of Kingmakers, the house made of bricks wasn't going up against the explosive power of a modern-day tank, which is bad news for the castle at the edge of this battlefield. With each long-distance shot, another tower crumbles to the ground, implying that this siege might be somewhat short-lived.

Kingmakers is set to release into Steam Early Access later this year, but there's no firm release date yet. As I said back in February, I will be there from day one.

We'd better be making some room on our list of the best strategy games.

Publisher Gryphline has been pretty quiet about Endfield since that technical test, though it did separately find the time to release the equally surprising sci-fantasy RPG Ex Astris, a rare and darn fun $10 premium mobile game. As we await the next test period and still-unannounced release date, I reached out to the studio to ask about what makes Endfield tick, how it's building on the foundations of Arknights proper, and whether we should call this thing an RPG, a base builder, or something else entirely. (For the record, I also asked about monetization and how it compares to Arknights, but Gryphline didn't provide an answer as the game is still in flux.)

Responses lightly edited for clarity and length.

GamesRadar+: What motivated you to add an in-depth base builder mode to what already seems like an expansive RPG?

Arknights: Endfield dev team: Our core creative team had a strong vision even during early brainstorming about how we should make Arknights: Endfield. We want the gameplay to stand out and feature its own special charms. That's why the time we spent exploring and experimenting with the Arknights: Endfield's gameplay was just as long as that for Arknights.

We believe that the base builder mode in the current Arknights: Endfield build is a gameplay system that deserves deep engagement. It’s our belief that players will receive a stronger sense of accomplishment as they get deeper and master a core gameplay mechanic.

Although such gameplay designs may be risky, we think they're definitely worth a try. After all, players are always looking for new and different types of gaming experiences and a lot of them will get tired of repetitive content. There will come a time when players run out of content or get tired of the gameplay. These are challenges all game developers have to face, but we think taking on such game design challenges is exciting and fun.

And if we succeed in making something awesome, we hope players will get a special joy from Arknights: Endfield they won't get from in other games. This is something we’re still figuring out. Furthermore, the base builder mode itself overlaps with our earliest world-building designs, and this only strengthened our resolve to get this mode into Arknights: Endfield.

What's been the greatest challenge in turning the Arknights universe into a world of this scale with action combat?

In terms of genre, Arknights: Endfield is quite different compared to Arknights. We have a new approach to artistic presentation, which means, we are having to develop it using different technologies, pipelines, and designs. Though this has proved to be quite a challenge for us, we’re pretty excited that we can finally interpret our original universe in an all-new perspective.

Was the focus on more strategic combat that's less action-heavy an extension of Arknights being known for strategic gameplay? 

There's some truth to that. The complete Arknights: Endfield experience includes factory management and base building. Gameplay would focus more on tactics and strategies without being too demanding on combat actions and reflexes. We hope this design can improve the overall gameplay consistency.

It’s important to keep in mind that Arknights: Endfield is currently under development and what we see in the current build does not represent the final gaming experience.

The closest comparison in my mind is the factory sim Factorio. Were you taking inspiration from any particular games with the industrial side of the game? Do you see games like Factorio, or perhaps PC-focused base builders like Satisfactory or Astroneer, as direct competitors?

Factorio and Satisfactory are both well-known for their automation and simulation management, while Astroneer emphasizes terraforming and survival exploration.These titles already offer gameplay experiences that are distinct from one another. They are influential and enlightening, which give promise that more titles of the genre will appear in the future. 

Though we're impressed by these amazing works, Arknights: Endfield will be quite different. Our gameplay features more combat, RPG elements, and adventuring. In Arknights: Endfield, factory management and base building serve roles in supporting character progression, narration, and world exploration.

Do you see this game as more of an open-world RPG, or mostly a factory sim and base builder? How do you expect most players to divide their time between these two gameplay modes?

A persistent world might be more fitting for Arknights: Endfield. The core gameplay of Arknights: Endfield leans towards an RPG in a persistent world. The game has a lot of narrative elements and we focus heavily on immersive experiences in character progression and adventure. Role playing is an essential experience for our game. 

Factory elements will serve to support this main theme as an extremely important system in supporting and diversifying the Arknights: Endfield experience. Some players may not be familiar with factory building or are not fans of this specific genre. Thus, we are hoping to introduce this game mode at a comfortable pace. The last thing we want is to have a sudden difficulty spike that dissuades our players from mastering the factory sim. Our aim is to have players slowly learn, master, and fall in love with the Arknights: Endfield factory-play as they explore the world and make new discoveries. 

As for players' time commitment, we are trying to achieve a 50:50 ratio between the RPG elements and the factory portion. But players are free to adjust this ratio for their own Arknights: Endfield experience.

What would you call this side of the game, actually: a base builder, a factory sim, or something else? 

The thing is, since we’re still under development, we have the opportunity to change things, so we don’t want to get in a situation where we’re now forced to make that part of Arknights: Endfield a base builder or factory sim, and so on. Or, have players expect one thing and get another.

I'm also wondering about the benefits of having a nicely made and efficient base at the end game. What are the long-term advantages of really mastering how to manage those resources?

First, having an efficient base can quickly satisfy demands for certain in-game resources. Such bases are capable of supplying players with progression, adventure, or factory building items more quickly. Players will need to build up their bases if they want better items as well.

We strongly encourage every Arknights: Endfield player to have a go at building their bases. Our general approach to designing the Arknights: Endfield factory sim is to avoid making it too difficult or demanding to master. It is our sincere wish that most players will make the attempt and learn how to build a base capable of supplying their basic resource needs in the game.

Nevertheless, we're still fine-tuning the proportion and impact of base-manufactured progression items. Since Arknights: Endfield is still under development, we can't really describe our work accurately. So we may have to wait for a future build for the exact details.

What sort of content will you be adding via post-launch support? I'm assuming new characters and gear, new areas to explore, and more elements for the base building side. What will be the cadence or schedule for those updates? 

Updates will come with a variety of content and characters are core to the Arknights: Endfield experience. General essentials will include new maps, stories, and characters. Gameplay systems may also get certain updates as well.

As Arknights: Endfield expands with new maps, base building may receive things like new products, formulas, and facilities. It is still too early to give an exact picture for the cadence and schedule of future updates. We are making plans but they’re not ready to disclose yet. A future build may be where our players can try these things out, once we have something solid.

One thing I didn't get a feel for in the technical test was the grind to obtain and upgrade new characters, especially at end game levels. In this regard, how does Arknights: Endfield compare to the original Arknights?

We are still working on this and making changes as we go. This aspect of Arknights: Endfield has not been fully showcased since we're still in the testing phase. Some of the things you see in the demo are placeholder mechanics that do not represent the finalized build.

An incredible roguelike and fighting game pushed one of the biggest companies in vtubing to make its own game publisher, and now hololive's buried in over 50 ideas.

While Marvel and NetEase Games' Overwatch-esque FPS title isn't quite here just yet, fans have already been traversing its alpha build for over a week now. With more than a dozen iconic superheroes to choose from and chaotic comic-book combat galore, it comes as no surprise that people are cheesing mechanics in the game's pre-release version. In fact, they're avoiding mechanics altogether. If you know about Doctor Strange's portal-wielding abilities and think, "Those sound like they'd be overpowered in a multiplayer game," you're correct - in fact, they're not so much 'overpowered' as dowright ridiculous, since you can use them to spawn-kill entire enemy teams at once.

I'm immediately reminded of the original Overwatch, Symmetra's infamous teleporter, and how much agony it caused. In clips showcasing Doctor Strange's portal loop power, players strategically place one end of a portal outside the enemy spawne and then the other where said foes will either immediately die or simply be blocked from leaving their starting area. For example, you can place both portals in front of enemy spawn doors, or you can place one at the enemy team's spawn and another off the edge of a map as shown below. Pulling either manoeuvre off doesn't look very difficult either..

The exploit hasn't been formally addressed by developers yet, but with such clips garnering more and more attention, it seems pretty likely they'll nerf Doctor Strange's portal loop ability before a beta or public build launches. I'd wager that the devs are going to change the range for portal placements and limit it to Doctor Strange's immediate vicinity, or they may make it impossible to place portals right outside of an enemy spawn point. Regardless of how the studio alters its 39-character roster and fixes the game-breaking feature in the future, lucky alpha players can at least rest assured that the superpowered sorcerer's ability has a lengthy three-minute cooldown.

Looking forward to playing? Check out our new games 2024 guide for more upcoming titles. 

Senua's Saga Hellblade 2 is not available on PS5

Hellblade 2 is not available on PS5 right now. The only platforms you can play Hellblade 2 on are Xbox Series X and PC via the Windows Store and Steam. If you've got PC or Xbox Game Pass, you can play it as part of your subscription too. The game is an Xbox console-exclusive because developer Ninja Theory is owned by Microsoft, having been acquired less than a year after the PS4 console-exclusive launch of Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice.

No plans to bring Hellblade 2 to other platforms have been announced, although given that several Xbox Games Studios titles have launched on PS5 over the last few months (Sea of Thieves, HiFi Rush, and more), it's entirely possible that Hellblade 2 could see a wider platform release, though probably not for at least a year. Speaking on the change in Xbox's strategy in February, 2024, Phil Spencer said that some of the recent games that went to PS5 were "smaller games that were never really meant to be built as platform exclusives with all the fanfare that goes around that, but games that our teams really wanted to build."

The short Hellblade 2 length means it certainly is a smaller game from a small, niche team, so it does somewhat fit the bill here. The game is already selling well on Steam at the time of writing, so it could be a prime candidate for porting to Sony and even Nintendo's platforms in time, though – again – nothing official has been said and it almost certainly won't happen for a while, if at all.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Where is the Shifting City dungeon in Diablo 4?

As you can see on the map above, the Diablo 4 Shifting City dungeon can be found on the south side of the Dry Steppes region, within the Qara-Yisu area which is directly north of Zarbinzet in Hawezar. However, it won't appear there immediately, as you first need to enter that area from the southwest and clear The Ruins of Qara-Yisu stronghold. This involves destroying three Infernal Spires, before heading to the mine area and slaying Utulku, The Voice Below boss, then rekindling the Wanderer's Shrine to conquer Qara-Yisu. You'll now see the dungeon icon for Shifting City at the north end of this area.

Diablo 4 Shifting City walkthrough

After entering the Diablo 4 Shifting City dungeon, your first objective is to find the two Ancients Statues and return them to the Pedestals. The first statue is on the ground near the entrance, so grab that and take it with you then fight through the monsters until you reach the central area with the Pedestals. Note that you can only carry one statue at a time, so deposit that on one of the Pedestals then continue east via either route until you find the other Ancients Statue at the far end of the dungeon. Bring that back and place it on the other Pedestal to unseal the door so you can move on.

In the next area, you need to collect Animus from Animus Carriers by slaying Elite enemies and the walking through the glowing orbs they drop. Once you've filled up the objective bar, head to the north end of this area and interact with the Animus Urn to deposit Animus and unseal the door to the dungeon boss.

The Tomb Lord is the final boss in the Shifting City dungeon, though they're not too difficult to defeat as long as you keep moving to avoid their AoE attacks. The other thing to watch out for is the Bone Wall they summon around you, as this can explode and deal significant damage if you're close, so either blast your way out or use an ability that quickly switches your position. Once defeated, you can get your rewards then teleport out of the dungeon to continue your adventure.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.