Surprise attack! After a short hiatus spent shoring up its forces and launching targeted strikes on planets with a weaponized black hole, the Illuminates have launched a new campaign in Helldivers 2's galactic war. The cunning beasts are marching closer to Super Earth than ever before.

Players suspect the latest offensive will culminate in a new named update arriving sometime next week, the first since December's Omen of Tyranny, but a patch released yesterday sets the stage. The Illuminates have reinforced their frontlines with three enemy types:

• Fleshmobs: large, meaty brutes made up of mangled zombie citizens
• Crescent Overseers: Cannoneers who attack from the backline, launching mortars across the battlefront from the safety of cover
• Stingrays: Fighter jets that target helldivers with periodic strafing runs

The galaxy-wide emergency inspired me to dust off my helldiving helmet and get back in the fight, and it only took 30 seconds to remember how friggin' excellent this game is. That's how long it took to run into my first Fleshmob, a creature that I didn't know existed because I hadn't read the patch notes closely.

Yuck. Arrowhead is already going in surprising directions with its third faction, which debuted last December with noticeably fewer enemy types than the Automatons and Terminids. I expected another tier of armored soldiers who shoot rockets or carry miniguns, but Fleshmobs are like smaller, nimbler Chargers: They rush toward helldivers, flailing a bouquet of limbs for big damage. They're all meat, so bullets can tear through them no problem, but unlike Chargers, Fleshmobs can spawn in groups of two or three.

They're a gloriously grotesque shot in the arm for Helldivers 2's urban Illuminate missions, as are those Stingray jets. These are a rough equivalent of the Automaton's gunships, but Stingrays don't hover over the battlefield asking to catch a rocket in the engine. Instead they circle the fight, staying out of reach before executing a Top Gun strafing run that reliably kills all players in its path. The brief window where it flies near the surface is a chance to take it down, and nailing a shot feels as amazing as it looks.

Helldivers 2's urban biome is finally coming into its own. The jets and mortar squids feel tailor-made around the claustrophobic streets of colony planets. This time last year, I wondered how Arrowhead could introduce a faction distinct from the bots and bugs when they already cover long and close-range combat so well, but the Illuminates' role is coming into focus: Unrelenting waves, crowded killzones, and archetypes that can overwhelm the frontline while also laying waste from a distance.

How will Super Earth counter? If what we're hearing of "mega city" maps on Super Earth itself is true, I hope it's finally time for that armored APC from last year's leaks to hit the streets.

I didn't mess with the other major feature of yesterday's patch, weapon customization. Arrowhead's added a new progression path for (almost) all primary weapons with unlockable sights, grips, and underbarrels to fine-tune a gun's handling. The Call of Duty gunsmith-lite approach is a nice start, but they don't seem like exciting enough sidegrades to justify another 100 hours of grinding.

That said, I'm absolutely slapping a holographic sight on my beloved Eruptor, which just got another buff to its explosive damage.

The dark web doesn't have your Steam account on it, Valve has confirmed in a news post after a report on LinkedIn claimed there was a massive data breach of more than 89 million users.

"You may have seen reports of leaks of older text messages that had previously been sent to Steam customers," Valve wrote. "We have examined the leak sample and have determined this was NOT a breach of Steam systems."

The original report happened a few days ago by LinkedIn user Underdark.ai and was picked up by X user Mellow_Online1 today. Underdark.ai's post said a dark web forum user claimed to have a dataset of over 89 million Steam accounts that they were selling for $5,000. They said the user had "sample data" for proof and a Telegram number to call if anyone was interested in buying them.

According to Valve, what they actually had was logs of text messages that come with a 2FA code to enter when you log into Steam. Those codes are only active for 15 minutes and aren't tied to your Steam account, password, payment information, or any other personal data. The only thing they do include is a phone number.

"Old text messages cannot be used to breach the security of your Steam account, and whenever a code is used to change your Steam email or password using SMS, you will receive a confirmation via email and/or Steam secure messages," Valve wrote. "You do not need to change your passwords or phone numbers as a result of this event."

Now that we can all breathe again, it's worth remembering how important it is to keep your Steam account secure. I've got the entire Sam & Max series on mine—as well as hundreds of other games—so you should join me in keeping that library locked up tight. Valve recommends checking the authorized devices page on Steam regularly to make sure nobody else is accessing your account and to have the Steam Mobile Authenticator set up.

And If I could add one more tip: Get a password manager like 1Password. It's worth it for the security of having complex passwords and the convenience of not having to type "6Zm#vR&LUVH%#B" from memory.

A new item in Marvel Rivals' latest event has broken the idea many players had about its ranked mode—namely that it's an accurate way to measure your skill at the game. One loss is no longer necessarily weighed the same as another: The Galacta's Gift event lets you earn up to eight free Chrono Shield Cards which can be used to avoid the penalty of losing a match.

Unsurprisingly, this hasn't gone over well with players who think this will be the nail in the coffin for the hero shooter's competitive integrity. The problem most people see coming is that the game won't be able to properly adjust players' rank when they lose, disrupting the entire system.

"Why do I even play ranked? This rank means nothing, it's just whoever plays the most every season!" streamer Eskay wrote on X.

"Basically inviting trolls to go into eight matches and throw on purpose," Reddit user Snowi5 wrote on the game's subreddit.

Marvel Rivals' competitive mode already has a system in place to prevent you from going on loss streaks called the Chrono Shield. It automatically activates when you're about to get hit with a demotion to give you a chance to climb back to where you were. This new item, however, gives you direct control on what counts or not.

Players have already been skeptical of how accurately rank reflects your skill level in Rivals. When it's not Netease dropping everyone down a few ranks every season, it's highly ranked players finding themselves in matches with people way lower than them. Netease has loosened up on the aggressive rank resets, but people are still convinced the key to success is just to play a lot (and not because practice makes perfect).

The Chrono Shield Cards aren't helping the perception that Rivals ranked is more casual than competitive. Letting players decide when they don't want to lose rank—even in a limited capacity—can't be a good thing for a system that is supposedly built to group players of similar skill levels together. At some point, it won't be all that different from Quick Match.

The last time this many people were upset about a change to Rivals, Netease did a complete reversal on its plans. I wouldn't be surprised if that happens again given the response.

With its newly acquired Volition collection – which contains everything from game builds to, seemingly, office floorplans – The Strong National Museum of Play can knit together the moth-eaten scraps of the Saints Row developer's 30-year history, illuminating forgotten details about forgotten games, including a Batman stealth title that never saw the light of day.

As I watched The Strong's director of digital preservation Andrew Borman boot up the unreleased demo in front of me this week, I couldn't understand what I was seeing, at first. A video of the demo (which you can watch below) made its way online last year, but, supposedly Volition wasn't able to save a playable version after parent company Embracer abruptly shut it down in 2023.

"So here is a playable version of Batman," Borman told me.

The quick demo – whose files were last touched on September 29, 2003 – was created approximately around the same time Volition's idea for a British open-world heist game called Underground was officially canceled. Though Underground was in production for a year, Volition staff told Game Informer in 2011 the game about being "a lowlife thief" didn't resonate with its marketing team, who felt the new GTA 3 pulverized it.

"If you walk by a car, you have to be able to hijack the car and drive," Volition co-founder Mike Kulas said to Game Informer.

It seems that, at some point, Volition began wondering if Underground's bones – sneaking, tiptoeing, strategizing your way to glory – might look better on the World's Greatest Detective Batman; the footage that exists of Underground online is nearly a perfect copy of Volition's Batman demo, except, instead of a Hitman-looking Brit with a sole patch pirouetting down from the ceiling, the demo features a miraculously buff Batman with his eyes turned to slits.

The playable version I saw looked remarkable for a game from the PS2 era – the smoky Gotham rooftop it's set in seemed ghostly and wet, and the 3AM tension of the setting was nearly thick enough to hide how dumb Batman looked while hucking his Batarang.

Like the primordial soup for Batman: Arkham – and, let's remember, Rocksteady's transformative games didn't start coming out until 2009 – Volition's Batman demo gave the Caped Crusader an arsenal of clever tools to work with, including binoculars, grenades, a grappling hook, and slots for more. He even had to proficiently pick locks by solving puzzles – similar to those found in 2015 game Arkham Knight's remote hacking ability.

Though, the demo's enemies don't seem easily impressed by any of it. After Borman guides Batman up a utility box to take a security guard down from above, the superhero's pleather cape glowing faintly under the night sky, it becomes impossible to Batarang the guy from such a big distance. So Borman hops down right next to him – an action that shows off Batman's surely anatomically incorrect array of back muscles – and beams him in the head without any protest.

Hey, listen, I said it was like a primordial Batman: Arkham installment. And it appeared imperfect – even with a clean shot to the back of a guard's head, Borman's Batarang flew around with the unpredictability of a fruit fly before ultimately connecting with someone's skull.

But "it's a pretty cool little prototype," Borman tells me, "and not one that they ever announced, because it didn't get picked up." It's only disappointing that Volition was so ahead of its time.

A zillion years before Hogwarts Legacy, pre-Saints Row Volition was making a Baldur's Gate-style Harry Potter RPG and "it's never been seen by the public before."