ARC Raiders Week 11 Trials Live: Snowballs vs Bastions & Epic Rewards Await!

 

Raiders, 2026 is off to a explosive start in ARC Raiders! Embark Studios just dropped the first Trials challenges of the year—Week 11 (January 5-12)—right after Season 2's big Expedition reset wiped our progress for fresh hunts Topside. If you're new from the Winter Sale, Trials are weekly score-based quests for Uncommon, Rare, and Epic loot drops at 1000, 2500, and 4000 points per challenge. Perfect for solo grinders, squads, or anyone chasing leaderboard glory in this thrilling extraction shooter.  

Week 11 Trials Lineup: Your Path to 3 StarsGrab those snowballs—last week's Rocketeer tosses were wild, and now Bastions are in the crosshairs! Challenges refresh every Monday, points track per best run (no stacking), and map modifiers like Cold Snap or Night Raid double XP for max efficiency. Here's the hit list:

• Damage Snitches: Aerial pests everywhere—Spaceport or Blue Gate spawn hordes; Night Raids boost numbers.
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• Throw Snowballs at Bastions: Stock up in Cold Snap, stun with Showstopper grenades, unload! Risky but hilarious on Buried City, Blue Gate, Dam Battlegrounds, Spaceport, Stella Montis.
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• Damage Bastions: High ARC armor pen weapons for legs/rear canister; pairs perfectly with snowball spam (5k-10k XP per kill).
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• Search Supply Drops: Hit call stations (Dam Battlegrounds/Buried City hotspots)—interact to flare-drop loot.
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• Harvest Plants: Easy mode—Mushrooms, Agave, Great Mullein, Moss. Spaceport shines; Buried City routes for solos.
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 Pro Tips: Dominate Like a Hotshot

• Snowball Strategy: Full inventory first (Cold Snap mandatory), stun Bastion, pelt from cover. Trios farm/refill while one throws—aim for 100k+ scores like Rocketeer runs.
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• Map Picks: Blue Gate/Dam for Bastions/Snitches; extract safely to lock points.
• Boosters: Night Raid (more ARCs), Electromagnetic Storm (double XP)—perfect for diverse playstyles, from chill farmers to aggressive PvP hunters. 

 

These mix-ups combat repitition complaints, keeping every raid fresh and welcoming for all skill levels.

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Patch Hype: Balance Incoming January 6Embark's back from break with 2026's first update tomorrow—Trigger Nade nerf confirmed (bye, OP spam!), plus Kettle macro exploits targeted. No new content yet, but expect roadmap teases soon. This keeps the meta fair for everyone grinding these latest gaming updates. 

Season 2's Trials are ramping up—climb divisions, snag cosmetics, and gear up for bigger threats. I'm pumped; these snowball twists add pure chaos! Which challenge are you 3-starring first? Snowballs or Snitches? Share your strats and scores in the comments below! 

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Breaking: Rainbow Six Siege Hacked AGAIN – 67-Day Bans Hit Players with Epic Meme Troll!

 

Hey gamers, if you're firing up Rainbow Six Siege for some tactical action right now, you might want to hold off. Ubisoft's blockbuster multiplayer shooter has been hit by yet another hack, with players across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox reporting bogus 67-day bans for "Harassment Offense." This chaotic twist drops just days after servers came back online from a massive December 27 breach – and yes, that infamous "6 7" meme is front and center in the latest gaming news.

The 67-Day Ban Wave: Hackers' Meme-Fueled RevengePlayers logging in are slamming into ban screens citing "Harassment Offense" for exactly 67 days – a blatant nod to the viral "Six Seven" meme that's inescapable in Siege communities. This isn't random; it's hackers flexing backend access, hitting even streamers live on air. Ubisoft's server status page backs it up: degraded connectivity everywhere, with Authentication, In-Game Store, and Matchmaking fully down across all platforms. "Synchronization failed" errors are popping up too, locking folks out cold.

• Scale of the Chaos: Affects PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X|S – no platform spared.
• Meme Confirmation: 67 days screams hack; normal bans don't align like this.
• Player Impact: Innocent accounts frozen, missing daily challenges and rewards.

Flashback: The December 27 Hack That Started It AllThis isn't isolated. On December 27, 2025, hackers infiltrated the game's marketplace, dumping billions of R6 Credits and Renown into accounts – worth trillions in virtual value. Developer-only skins like Glaciers flooded inventories, and random bans/unbans spammed the ticker with jabs at Ubisoft. Servers went dark, transactions rolled back (no bans for spenders), and full restoration hit December 28-29 amid login queues. A pleasant surprise turned nightmare, but they bounced back... until now.

Perfect Storm: New Content Meets Server WoesTiming couldn't be worse. Ubisoft just dropped an Attack on Titan crossover in Operation Tenfold Pursuit, letting players kit Amaru as Mikasa Ackerman (complete with Garra Hook flair) and snag rewards like Roister and Great Consequence via dailies. With over 50,000 concurrent Steam players in this 10-year esports titan, banned victims are sidelined from the hype – fueling demands for swift fixes and rollbacks. 

 Ubisoft's Response – And What It Means for Live-Service SecurityNo official word yet on this round, but expect server shutdowns, ban lifts, and audits like last time. Back-to-back hits spotlight server vulnerabilities in a game that's thrived on its massive community. For diverse players – from casual squads to ranked grinders and esports hopefuls – this erodes trust, but Siege's resilience shines through.

 

I think Ubisoft's got the tools to lock it down; these incidents test their mettle in the evolving world of latest gaming updates.  

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Key takeaways: Stay offline if affected, watch for rollbacks, and push for transparency. This could spark beefed-up security across multiplayer titles. Have you been hit by the 67-day ban? Played through the Attack on Titan event yet? Share your Siege stories and predictions in the comments below!Written by Alex the Gamer, your go-to source for the latest gaming updates, video game releases, and esports news. 

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Toby Fox Issues Official Statement on the Deltarune Chapter 5 Release Date

As of January 2, 2026, Toby Fox has officially confirmed that Deltarune Chapter 5 is on track to release later this year. Following the massive success of the paid release of Chapters 3 and 4 in June 2025, the developer took to social media to wish fans a happy new year and provide a concrete update on the next stage of the saga.

The "On Track" Confirmation

In his New Year's statement, Fox clarified that while Chapter 5 is still "several months away," the heavy lifting of development is largely complete.

• Translation Underway: Localization has officially begun. Toby shared snippets from the translation sheet, noting that he is currently annotating text for the translators to ensure his specific brand of humor and lore translates correctly.

• Console Porting: Starting in January 2026, the team will begin examining how Chapter 5 operates on consoles (PS5 and Switch 2), a process that typically signals the final stretch of development.

• Standalone Release: Unlike the simultaneous drop of Chapters 3 and 4, Chapter 5 is expected to launch as a standalone update for those who already own the game.

   

Teased Lore: Shadow Crystals and the "Annoying Dog"

The translation snippets provided a rare glimpse into the narrative weight of the upcoming chapter.

• Seam and the Crystals: One leaked line features Seam discussing the Shadow Crystals (the items earned from defeating secret bosses like Jevil and Spamton). Seam suggests these crystals hold a "distinct power" often referred to as "Will," potentially linking the Dark World mechanics to the "Determination" of the Undertale universe.

• The Annoying Dog: Toby humorously teased that the "Annoying Dog" (his in-game avatar) will be "deployed at some point" in Chapter 5. Fans are already theorizing if the dog will appear as a weapon, a random encounter, or a meta-narrative obstacle.

Deltarune Roadmap: 2026 and Beyond

Chapter	Status	Release Window
Chapter 5	Localization & Bug Testing	Late 2026
Chapter 6	Preliminary Development	2027 (Estimate)
Chapter 7	Concept / Prototyping	2028+

 

My Take on It

The pace of development has clearly accelerated since Toby expanded the team. Releasing a full chapter just a year after the previous dual-drop is a huge win for the community, especially given the multi-year gaps we saw earlier in the project. The mention of Shadow Crystal lore is particularly exciting; it suggests we are moving out of the "introductory" phase of the story and finally heading into the heart of the game's grander mystery.

Are you planning to go back and finish the secret boss fights from Chapters 3 and 4 to make sure you have enough Shadow Crystals for Seam in Chapter 5?

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Metroid Prime 4: Beyond — The Controversy Behind the "Dated" Hub World

As of January 3, 2026, the dust is finally settling on the launch of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which released on December 4, 2025. While the game has been praised for its atmosphere and visuals (running at a crisp 120fps on the Switch 2), it currently holds a Metacritic score of 78–81, making it the lowest-rated mainline entry in the series.

A recent Famitsu interview with the development team has finally explained why one of the game's most criticized features—the semi-open Sol Valley hub world—feels like a relic of 2017.

The "Development Hell" Compromise

The interview reveals that the hub-based design was a direct consequence of the project's reboot. When the game was originally announced in 2017, the team was heavily influenced by the "Open World" fever sparked by Breath of the Wild.

• The Vision: Nintendo wanted to meet fan demand for an "Open World Metroid" but feared that total freedom would break the series' signature "ability-gated" progression.

• The Compromise: They settled on a central, semi-open hub area where Samus can ride the Vi-O-La vehicle (alien bike), which connects to more traditional, linear Metroid zones.

• The "Out of the Question" Moment: By the time development shifted to Retro Studios in 2019, Nintendo realized that player expectations for open worlds had evolved significantly. However, because the project had already been "restarted from scratch" once, the team felt that backtracking to redesign the core world structure again was out of the question.

"We recognized that completing the game took longer than expected and that players' impressions of open-world games had changed... but we couldn't imagine going back even further on a project we'd already reset once." — Nintendo Development Team, Famitsu (Jan 2026)

 

Critique: A One-Way Nostalgia Trip?

Reviewers and fans on Reddit have noted that while the game is "thoroughly excellent" in its basic mechanics, it feels "divorced from the changing of times."

• The Pacing: The team admitted they consciously chose not to match the faster movement speed of modern shooters (like Doom Eternal or Apex Legends) to preserve the "tempo of an adventure game."

• The Hub: Critics have called the desert hub "bland" and "aimless," suggesting it serves more as a loading zone for the bike mechanics than a meaningful exploration space.

• The Companions: A secondary point of contention has been the chatty Galactic Federation NPCs, specifically Myles MacKenzie. Nintendo clarified that they included these characters to create a sense of "conflict" and "protection," a major departure from the series' traditional isolation.

The Future: Metroid Prime 5 Rumors

With Beyond now in the hands of players, rumors are already swirling about what’s next for Samus.

Project	Status / Rumor
Metroid Prime 5	Rumored to be in development at Retro Studios; leaks suggest it may reuse Beyond's engine to hit a 2028 release window.
Metroid 6 (2D)	Rumors suggest MercurySteam is working on a direct sequel to Metroid Dread for a late 2026/2027 launch.
Prime 2 & 3 HD	Multiple insiders reiterate that Remasters for Echoes and Corruption are finished and being held for a "gap year" release in 2026.

 

My Take on It

It’s fascinating to see a developer be this honest about "settling" for an older design. While the hub world might feel a bit static by 2026 standards, there is something to be said for the "Ma" (the Japanese concept of space and pause) that the team emphasized. It might be the lowest-rated Prime, but in an era of overwhelming map-marker-bloat, a "linear adventure" might be exactly what some purists were looking for.

Are you finding the Sol Valley hub to be a welcome breather between missions, or do you agree with the critics that it feels a decade out of date?

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The Witcher 3: Rumored 2026 Expansion "Bridge to the Future"

It is officially January 2, 2026, and the gaming world is buzzing with what might be the most unexpected comeback in RPG history. After months of "vibrations" and leaks, it now seems almost certain that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will receive a third major expansion this year—a full decade after Blood and Wine supposedly closed the book on Geralt of Rivia.

While CD Projekt Red (CDPR) remains tight-lipped, a combination of financial reports and analyst leaks has painted a very clear picture of what’s coming. 

The "Smoking Gun": CDPR’s Earnings Call

The turning point came during a recent financial report where CDPR's CFO, Piotr Nielubowicz, made a remarkably candid statement. He noted that "new content hinted upon in recent calls and reports may see release in the coming year," explicitly mentioning that this content would have a meaningful impact on the company’s 2026 financial results.

Combined with CEO Michał Nowakowski mentioning an "other project" being handled by Fool's Theory (the studio also remaking The Witcher 1), the dots have effectively been connected.

 

The Leaked Details: Price, Date, and Scope

Polish analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski of Noble Securities recently published a report that has set the community on fire. According to his data:

• Expected Release: May 2026 (coinciding with the game’s 11th anniversary).

• Price Point: $30.00—suggesting a substantial expansion on par with Hearts of Stone or Blood and Wine.

• Sales Forecast: Analysts expect it to sell 11 million copies within its first year.

• The "Bridge" Strategy: The DLC is reportedly designed to serve as a narrative bridge to The Witcher 4 (Project Polaris), which is currently projected for a Q4 2027 release.

 

Will Ciri Be the Protagonist?

The most popular theory among fans is that this expansion will shift the perspective to Ciri.

• Narrative Setup: Since Geralt’s story ended so perfectly in Toussaint, a "prequel" or "interquel" following Ciri would allow CDPR to set up her role as the lead in the new trilogy without disturbing Geralt’s retirement.

• The Power Problem: Some speculate the DLC will show how Ciri "lost" or "stabilized" her Elder Blood powers, explaining why she won't be completely invincible when The Witcher 4 begins.

Technical Hurdles

The most interesting challenge is the engine. CDPR has moved all future projects to Unreal Engine 5, but The Witcher 3 runs on the aging REDengine 3.

• Fool's Theory to the Rescue: The studio's head, Jakub Rokosz, was a senior quest designer on the original Witcher 3, making his team the perfect choice to return to the old tools for one last ride. 

What We Know is Confirmed for 2026

Even if the story DLC remains a "rumor" for a few more weeks, CDPR has officially confirmed one final technical update for The Witcher 3 arriving in 2026:

• Cross-Platform Mod Support: This update (via mod.io) will allow console players (PS5/Xbox Series X) to download and play many of the massive community-created mods previously exclusive to PC.

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Are you ready to pay $30 for a new chapter in a 10-year-old game, or should Geralt stay retired in the sunshine of Toussaint? Let us know in the comments!

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