Valve's 16 October Team Fortress 2 update changes Holyhell and six Zombie Infection maps. The patch installs automatically when the game is restarted.

Holyhell's round timer is reduced to five minutes, with shorter respawn waves. The team that loses the middle point gains respawning spells on its side, while gargoyles now spawn near middle. The map also receives visual fixes and optimisation work.

Zombie Pyro's melee damage rises from 45 to 65. Sticky Spew applies a 20% movement slow, with another 20% while standing in its enlarged puddles. Pyro's death explosion now deals 50 damage and causes afterburn.

Zombie Sniper's Spit cooldown falls from nine seconds to six. Other fixes address invisible player models in DirectX 8, Zombie Engineer beacon placement, excessive Zombie Spy damage and slow movement after using abilities.

Source: Valve patch notes.

ESIC announced on 16 October that Palkovics "2xplayN" Tamas is banned for life from covered ESIC and member competitions in any capacity, replacing the three-year suspension imposed in the NOMERCY match-manipulation case.

The revised sanction follows public posts showing apparent cash alongside comments about the findings, betting payouts and a return to competition. ESIC found that his conduct during suspension constituted further integrity breaches. The lifetime ban removes his previously scheduled April 2029 return, with no cooperation-based reduction applied to the new sanction.

ESIC explicitly stated that the photographs alone do not establish that the money shown came from match-fixing. The commission also said it would refer the sanctioned conduct to Valve, government agencies and law enforcement.

Source: ESIC.

Valve has introduced achievement sets in the Steam client beta, allowing developers to group achievements for a game's base campaign, DLC, seasons or other content separately.

Each set tracks its own completion progress. In games that adopt the feature, additional DLC or seasonal achievements can sit outside the base-game set, so players can retain that set's 100% completion without earning every later addition.

The redesigned achievements page brings progress information together and allows direct comparisons with up to three friends at once. Support depends on developers organising their games' achievements into sets; the change does not automatically separate every game's existing list.

The feature is currently available through the Steam client beta.

Sources: Valve announcements, PC Gamer.

Bloodrun's 16 October build adds Slash as a playable gladiator, bringing Crouch Slide and Plasma Trail from her Quake Champions counterpart.

Holding crouch on landing starts a slide that preserves movement speed. Her active ability lays a damaging plasma trail, with three seconds to place it and another three seconds to trigger its explosion. Bots can also use both abilities.

The update refreshes four arenas and adds a HUD arc near the crosshair to show ability information, including Slash's slide charge and Angel's countdown to invisibility. A new Setup > Gladiators section provides ability effect settings.

Existing players can install the build through the Bloodrun launcher.

Sources: Bloodrun changelog, Plus Forward.

The US Doom and Quake Community will host a one-day QuakeWorld 2v2 tournament on Saturday, 24 October.

The format is double elimination, with best-of-one matches and a best-of-three grand final to keep the cup within one evening. Maps are assigned by round. The pool is Ultrav, ZTNDM3, Aerowalk, Bravado and DM2.

Signups are through the community's Discord; see the organiser's announcement for the signup link.

Source: US Doom and Quake Community announcement.

Church of Quake will run an online Quake Champions 4v4 Sacrifice Tournament Edition cup on Saturday, 24 October. Players sign up individually, then captains select teams through a snake draft. The advertised prize pool is $150.

The first 32 signups are guaranteed places, making eight teams. Further signups go on reserve unless the field reaches 64, allowing sixteen teams.

The bracket is double elimination. Upper-bracket matches and the lower final are best of three, other lower-bracket matches best of one, and the grand final best of five.

Players must join the Church of Quake Discord. Coverage is planned on the community's Twitch channel, and other casters are welcome to contact the organisers.

Links: Sign up, Twitch.

Source: Church of Quake, including Discord and current signup links.

Frontier One Map Cup #1 will take place in Quake Live on 24 October. The tournament uses one new map throughout, with its name and practice servers due to be released on 19 October so everyone has the same preparation time.

Registration is open on the Frontier website. The prize pool has not yet been announced. Cyber, Input and Steemorol are organising the event, with coverage planned on cyb3rway's Twitch channel.

Links: Registration, Twitch, Frontier Telegram.

Source: 250FPS.

Valve released a Steam client update on 13 October with improved startup performance and new options for Big Picture mode. The update downloads automatically.

Big Art Mode adds a larger artwork presentation to the home screen and can be enabled under Settings > Home. The Recommended tab also gains the Personal Calendar.

Big Picture now supports screensavers under Settings > Customization. The default slideshow can display artwork from recently played games and recent screenshots. A bouncing Steam logo is the other built-in option, and custom screensavers are supported too.

The update also changes startup behaviour so the Steam main window avoids taking focus if another window was activated during startup or login, and fixes the onscreen keyboard failing to work on its first desktop invocation.

Sources: Valve - Steam Client Update, October 13, PC Gamer.

The Thunderpick World Championship 2026 began in Malta on 14 October, with eight CS2 teams competing for a $1 million combined player and club prize pool. The event runs through 18 October.

All four opening series ended 2-0: 9z beat Aurora, Falcons beat Ninjas in Pyjamas, Legacy beat PARIVISION and FURIA beat BETBOOM.

On 15 October, Falcons beat 9z 2-1 to secure a playoff place. Aurora stayed alive by beating NIP 2-0, eliminating the Swedish organisation's team from the event.

The group stage uses two four-team double-elimination groups, with two teams from each advancing. Group matches and playoff semifinals are best of three; the grand final is best of five. The winners receive $500,000, split equally between player prize money and the club share.

Sources: HLTV event guide, opening-day results, Falcons qualify, NIP eliminated, Liquipedia, PR Newswire.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on 23 October as a separate purchase and will not be included with Game Pass at launch. Activision confirmed on 15 October that Game Pass availability is planned for Holiday 2027.

Digital pre-orders include campaign early access from 16 October and DMZ early access from 20 October. Existing Call of Duty titles, including Black Ops 7, Black Ops 6 and Modern Warfare III, remain available to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.

Sources: Activision, GamesRadar.

Epic released a preview of its rebuilt Epic Games Launcher on 14 October for Windows, macOS and, for the first time, Linux. It includes a redesigned library, connections to other PC game libraries and more detailed download management.

Epic describes the client as "vibe coded" and claims a cold start to the store is 46% faster than Steam. That is Epic's comparison, not an independent benchmark here. The client is still a preview with a limited feature set.

Fortnite is not available on Linux yet. Epic is rebuilding its anti-cheat implementation as EAC Linux v2 and working with distribution maintainers before bringing the game over. Fortnite will be the first pilot, with support for other developers to follow after validation.

The requirements include TPM 2.0, Secure Boot and signed kernels and modules. EAC Linux v2 uses existing kernel security features, eBPF and a service active during protected games, rather than installing its own kernel module. Steam Deck does not currently meet the requirements; Epic says it is talking with Valve about future support.

Sources: Epic Games Store, Epic Online Services, PC Gamer.

Richard "Levelord" Gray, the level designer known for Duke Nukem 3D, Quake: Scourge of Armagon and SiN, has died. Apogee Entertainment announced his death on 13 October.

Gray joined the Duke Nukem 3D team after making Doom maps. After Duke shipped in 1996, he co-founded Hipnotic Interactive, later renamed Ritual Entertainment. His subsequent credits included Star Trek: Elite Force II and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

Apogee founder Scott Miller recalled hiring Gray after seeing his Doom levels, and paid tribute to his talent, dedication and willingness to help other designers. John Romero was among the developers who also paid tribute.

Sources: Apogee Entertainment, PC Gamer.

AMD says FSR 4 will reach APUs, gaming laptops, and handhelds by the end of 2026. Jack Huynh, who runs the company's computing and graphics group, told Korean press, including The Elec, that the machine-learning upscaler is moving off discrete cards and onto the rest of the lineup.

The plan is two tracks. Existing APUs get a lighter model built for integrated graphics. New APUs, still not named, are meant to run FSR 4 natively. Huynh said the light model is aimed at image quality and low latency on chips that cannot carry the desktop version.

FSR 4 launched on RDNA 4 desktop cards. RDNA 3 desktop cards picked it up later. Official support for RDNA 2 desktop cards, the same generation as the Steam Deck, was already set for 2027, and this briefing did not say that date moved. Valve has talked about FSR 4 on the Steam Machine. It has not committed the Steam Deck.

Source: The Verge

Cloud Imperium Games put Squadron 42 on Steam on 10 October. Wishlists are open. The page lists a planned release of Q2 2027, and no price. Chris Roberts moved the target out of late 2026 so the single-player game would not land in the same window as Grand Theft Auto VI.

It is a standalone story in the Star Citizen setting, year 2945, on StarEngine. You enlist as a rookie in the UEE Navy, live on a capital ship, and the brief is space combat, fighting on foot, stealth, and time with the crew. The cast, on performance capture, includes Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Henry Cavill, Ben Mendelsohn, and Andy Serkis. The game has been in development for more than a decade.

The Steam minimum is Windows 11, a quad-core back to an Intel Sandy Bridge i7 or an AMD Bulldozer, 16 GB of RAM, a DirectX 11.1 card with 8 GB of VRAM, and 150 GB of disk. The recommended column only says a 64-bit processor and operating system.

Source: Steam and Eurogamer

Richard Garriott says the Ultima copyrights return to him in 2027. He sold Origin Systems, and the series with it, to Electronic Arts in 1992. The last mainline game was Ultima IX in 1999.

US copyright law lets an author terminate a transfer 35 years later. No money changes hands. The author has to give a year's notice. Garriott says he wrote to EA in April and told them he was taking the copyrights back. They wrote back that they know the law and will act accordingly. He says the two sides are now in active talks about whether there is anything to do together before the date.

What he says he could do, once the copyrights are his, is re-release the earlier Ultimas or make a sequel. Neither is a project yet. He has most of a year to decide what the return actually means.

Source: VGC

Photo: Richard Garriott at the 2018 Game Developers Conference, by Game Developers Conference, CC BY 2.5, resized. Wikimedia Commons.

A full playable build of Grand Theft Auto VI is not public. The person or group posting as Cyberleek says that can change.

On 10 October they posted an offer. If a memecoin tied to the name hits a $30 million market cap, "the build goes out - full story mode, played to the end, credits and all." Take-Two can stop it, the post says, with physical discs and a public apology. No outlet has the file, and Rockstar and Take-Two have not answered this one.

Footage under the same name has been out since 18 August. Rockstar called those clips heartbreaking on 26 August and kept the 19 November release. This week the account was credited with about 25 minutes more, including first-person driving and mission scenes. Rockstar has not said that newer cut is theirs.

The disc demand is aimed at a decision Rockstar already made. Boxed copies ship with a download code, not a disc. Strauss Zelnick has compared discs for a game this size to vinyl. Standard is $80, Ultimate is $100, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Preload starts 12 November.

Take-Two subpoenaed Microsoft, Discord, Google, and X in August while it looked for who had the footage.

Source: Forbes and GamesIndustry.biz

id Software will add a free Slaughter Mode to DOOM: The Dark Ages - Revelations in November. Game director Hugo Martin announced it on the 1 October Slayers Club Live. There is still no day inside the month. It is free for Revelations owners, and it is not in the base game.

A run is endless and single-player. Rounds escalate, and the demons, bosses, and arenas are randomized. The mode keeps a personal best by score and by round reached. id said it has no backend, so there is no global leaderboard.

Every ten rounds is a checkpoint, where you cash in skulls earned on the way there. Cosmetics unlock as you go, and weekly challenges add another score to chase. The stream pitched it as a place to keep using the Revelations combat, Chain Spear included, past a campaign replay or an Ultra Nightmare and Pandemonium run.

The base game already has the Ripatorium, the arena where you pick the demons yourself. Slaughter Mode deals the fight, and the run has no set end.

Source: Slayers Club Live (IGN)

It feels nice to finally lift a trophy.

250 FPS will run a 10-player Division 2 next to Season 6 Division 1. The field is the best qualifier finishers who miss a Division 1 slot and can play. Round robin, five matches played each week, then the top six in a double-elimination playoff.

The playoff pays $300: $120 / $80 / $60 / $40. First and second also get a Division 1 invite for next season. Division 1 stays at 12: eight invited from Season 5, four from the qualifiers. H3LLDOWN took the first. The other qualifiers are 4, 11 and 18 October. No group-stage start date.

Source: 250 FPS

I've been working on Dinoblast, a fast FPS that runs in the browser: no install, no account. dinoblast.net

Movement

• Movement inspired by QuakeWorld-style strafe jumping and bunny hopping
• Physics at a fixed 125 Hz, independent of your framerate
• An in-game bunny hop tutorial takes new players from 300 to 1500 u/s

Race mode (the current focus)

• Trackmania-style: you race against your own ghost and the ghosts of the top 5 players on each map
• World leaderboard per map, and every run is replayed on the server from its inputs before it's accepted, so there are no spoofed times
• 8 race maps so far, including a maze

Coming next

• More maze maps, each adding one twist: multiple floors, traps, water, teleporters
• New race map mechanics: moving platforms, swimming, laser gates, and a track along the back of a giant diplodocus
• Bots and FFA
• Online duel, if enough people are interested

It's a solo project, still rough around the edges. I'm looking for feedback from people who know how movement should feel: acceleration, air control, anything that feels off.

Discord link is on the site.

Reddit user deadmanwonderland_23 says a $1,099 Walmart order for one MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB arrived as four. They are the Frieren edition, listed at $1,259 on MSI's own store, so the four boxes are a bit over $5,000. The post shows four identical cartons. Walmart has not confirmed the shipment, and the buyer has not said whether the extra three were reported.

Source: Reddit

Modder gebdag has put path tracing on Grand Theft Auto 2, the 1999 top-down game. GTA2 RTX Remix, on Nvidia's RTX Remix, lets fires, explosions and gunfire cast light, adds a day-night cycle and 16:9, and aims frame generation at 60 fps. GTA 2 does not speak DirectX 9, so two DLLs translate. A copy of the game is still required. Rockstar gave version 9.6 away in 2004. Any GeForce RTX card can run it. A 4070 or faster is the suggestion.

Source: Tom's Hardware

Thieves in Fremont, California took two PlusAI trailers because they had Nvidia logos on them. They got about half a mile, then opened the doors. Each trailer held 20,000 pounds of sand, 40,000 pounds in all. PlusAI packs the trailers that way so its Nvidia-backed autonomous trucks can practice hauling freight. The computers were in the cabs, which stayed in the warehouse. Police recovered both trailers with the sand still in them. No arrests.

Source: Wired

Andrew Willis, a producer on Doom: The Dark Ages and its Revelations expansion, described the July id Software layoff call in an interview with Kiwi Talkz.

Staff were told not to come into the office. About 95 people then got a Teams invite. Cameras off, chat disabled, everyone muted except Marty Stratton.

I received a Microsoft Teams invite, there were about 95 of us, no cameras on with chat disabled, everyone muted except Marty Stratton. He took about 50 seconds to say that if you were on this call, your positions were eliminated. He said it wasn't a reflection on our performance.

He said that was the last direct word from id or Microsoft for many of them, and that people were not allowed back in to collect their things.

Source: Kiwi Talkz

Today’s update marks a new chapter for Quake Champions as we transition the game from a free-to-play service to a paid application on Steam. Along with 30 Seasons worth of content to enjoy, all Champions are now unlocked for everyone, and most vanity content is available to equip. Battle Passes and microtransactions have been removed. Quake Champions is now available for one low price on Steam. No additional content updates are planned at this time. If you previously played Quake Champions on Steam, the new version will appear in your Steam Library at no additional cost.

Adam "SyncError" Pyle told the official Quake Discord on 20 September that he is no longer working on Quake Champions updates. The four-week return that started 31 August, to finish 1.31, is over.

On 18 September he had stopped new code and was only answering QA tickets for features already in testing. This goes past that. A player suggested more changes for 1.31. He replied:

I'm no longer working on QC updates.

Asked whether to retire the Discord channel, he posted a farewell GIF and added:

Everyone's dad dies eventually. It's time for me to leave you.

He said the dad is dying. Turns out he was just dying to leave.

No replacement developer is named. He has not said whether 1.31 ships, or whether it is the last QC update. That build still drops the Store, Battle Pass, and paid currencies, and unlocks most vanity.

Source: Plus Forward