I'm ready for my next challenge in Arc Raiders. I may not have even killed a Bastion yet, and frankly, I have no clue what a Harvester is, but I'm still ready nevertheless. It's a good mentality to have, considering the latest challenge is almost upon us in the form of new map conditions.

"Things are changing in the Rust Belt," an official Arc Raiders social media post says. "Patch 1.1.0 hits topside today, bringing a variety of fixes and QOL updates. Keep a keen eye out for a new download on your platform of choice, and prepare yourself for the weekend as new Map Conditions become available."

The schedule has been changed so that come Saturday, Arc Raiders players will be able to check out the Hidden Bunker, a Night Raid on the Blue Gate map, and an Electromagnetic Storm. There have already been Night Raids on maps like Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, and Spaceport, so most will know what to expect for this: Better loot, more arcs, and likely hordes of greedy players.

Then there is, perhaps, a less familiar map condition, the Hidden Bunker. This is compatible only with the Spaceport map and is kind of like a race. After some unknown person tinkers with the Outskirts Bunker security, players need to find the four antenna dishes around the map and activate these to open the Bunker and find all the high-level treasure inside.

Like most Arc Raiders runs, you'll be facing trouble from arcs and other players. Once an antenna is activated, a swarm of Wasp and Hornet arcs will gather and attack nearby players. Then, after a short period of time, other players will be alerted that one less antenna is needed to open the Bunker, so you only have a small advantage window over other players who will be looking for the other antenna dishes. It'll likely get pretty bloody out there.

The last condition that players may not be aware of is the Electromagnetic Storms. Let me paint you a picture. Bolts of lightning are raining down from the dark sky, and a sheet of rain is obscuring your view. The lightning disturbs arc machines and can even electrocute poor unsuspecting raiders if you're caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's pure and utter cinematic chaos

It's certainly a more intense way to enjoy the maps, as the noises of angry arcs and thunder rumble through the landscape. Honestly, after seeing this during the server slam playtest, I now fully understand why humanity in Arc Raiders has retreated to living in underground sanctuaries.

It seems like every other day Discord is bugging me to watch a movie trailer or play a game for 15 minutes to buy profile decorations in its shop. I can put cat ears on my icon for $4.99 or dress it up like Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen. And according to some API digging by a popular Marvel Rivals dataminer, I'll be able to buy cosmetics for my favorite games soon too.

RivalsInfo on X recently found evidence that suggests Discord is preparing to sell Marvel Rivals skins in the shop. PC Gamer has verified that these text strings exist in the Discord API under the name "MR test" and will be giftable to other users just like profile decorations.

While you can't actually buy any of them yet, each entry includes prices in USD that roughly match the amount of premium currency they're available for in the game. The Jeff the Land Shark's Halloween skin, for example, is listed for $20.49 and is about $22 worth of premium currency in-game. RivalsInfo says buying the skins will grant them to the Marvel Rivals account you have linked to your Discord.

And that right there sounds like the kind of thing Discord would do now that it's pushing game developers to integrate its SDK for things like friends lists and voice chat. The chat app is already synonymous with gaming and now it wants to be the glue that keeps it all together.

Even if there's no details on how this is going to play out, or when, you can start to see how it could go. Discord has its own unique currency, Orbs, and lately all it wants me to do is watch ads to earn them. We might be headed toward a future where watching the trailer for the next Elder Scrolls will let me buy Discord-themed horse armor. Either way, Discord wants a cut of the pay where it can get it and skins are its next frontier.

I'll be curious to see if anyone will care about buying skins on Discord instead of in the actual games, especially if there's no real difference in price or availability. It's hard not to see it just becoming another little popup I have to close while I try to DM my friends in peace.

Discord already tried and failed to sell games on the platform and now it keeps rolling out more and more little features with a price tag. I guess the idea is that if it can't get anyone to buy a $20 game, it might be able to convince them to buy a $20 skin for the game they already own and regularly play. I'm just afraid that it's another move by the chat app that will make using it more annoying than it needs to be because the people in charge of it are desperate to make more money in any way possible.

For a permanently PvP-enabled zone, the Topside in Arc Raiders is surprisingly peaceful. Since launch, players—especially those in the solo queue—have been opting for nonaggression with respectable reliability, with our Morgan Park reporting that his first 20 hours of Arc Raiding consisted of more makeshift truces than wasteland murders.

Yet there are still, inevitably, those who would prey upon this tenuous peace. Arc Raiders' would-be highwaymen might soon find themselves with more of a fight than they bargained for, however, as some players are making it their mission to punish anyone bringing the fight to their fellow man instead of the robot foe.

Attention to all Top Side Sheriffs from r/ArcRaiders

Over on the Arc Raiders subreddit, the highest-rated thread of the day is from redditor Zarniwoooop, who said he'd "found the meaning of the raider's life" as a self-appointed Topside Sheriff and called on others to join his vigilante effort.

"I jump in. Listen for sounds, gun shoots, flares going up. I investigate. I’m here to help, fight the arcs. Any arcs. I’ll pick you up, patch you up. I’ll kill murderers, Judge Dredd style. No mercy for rats," Zarniwoooop said. "You can have the loot. My reward is justice."

While Judge Dredd maybe isn't the most reparative model we could've chosen for maintaining peaceful relations in our community, it seems Zarniwoooop has no shortage of likeminded lawmen.

"We have a name for what I've been doing? Perfect," one redditor replied. "I love chill solo lobbies, and will fight to keep them that way," said another. To honor these volunteer wardens of post-apocalyptic peace, user Waurdyn declared that they'd "gone Arc Raider to Arc Ranger."

And then they recited the lyrics to the Walker, Texas Ranger theme song, indicating Chuck Norris still somehow maintains a lingering foothold in our cultural awareness.

Based on the replies sharing stories of Topside justice they either dispensed or witnessed, however, it seems like some Arc Rangers don't have the best luck identifying who should be on the receiving end of their retribution. Redditor TurdPhysics said they were jumped by an attacker in a recent game while trying to hunt Arcs, only for a misguided good samaritan nearby to misidentify who'd been the aggressor.

"They down me and sheriff White Knightey initiates basic shooter console trash talking me," TurdPhysics said. "I respond with 'Your boy shot me first man' right as the first raider opens fire on his savior. Incredible vigilante scenario."

Perhaps there's a lesson here about volunteering for violent peacekeeping. But what do I know? I haven't even found the lemons and apricots for my rooster yet.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the game that put BioWare on the map for people who thought Baldur's Gate was the thing that kept Baldur's dog in Baldur's yard, has an incredible twist. Unfortunately, I knew about it ahead of time because of the internet, but if you haven't played it yet—it's an old game, but young people exist and not everyone has time for everything—then this is me warning you to play it before somebody spoils it for you.

(If you just want to know what it is, you can spoil it for yourself by reading the fourth slide in this article about PC gaming's greatest twists.)

Jennifer Hale, the voice actor playing Jedi Master Bastila Shan in Knights of the Old Republic, did not know the twist in advance. As is often the case in videogame recording, she didn't get to see the script until she was in the booth. "We never got our scripts ahead of time", Hale recently told Buzzfeed. "Most of the games I've ever done have been cold reading. I walk in, and I see the line. I do the line, and it goes to market."

And so she got to be as shocked as most players were when she got to the end. "I did not see the twist coming!" she said. "Knights of the Old Republic really showed me the level of writing, storytelling, and surprise that was possible in games. It was so adventurous and forward-thinking and incredible. It completely shocked me. I remember just being gobsmacked by this game so many times because I didn't see it ahead of time."

The other thing she didn't know is that her character could turn to the dark side. "This was my first experience with the light side and dark side", she said. "I first did all the light-side story, and I got to feel fantastic. I got to feel like the big hero, and it was so much fun. Then I came back in, and I was a little bit confused. I wasn't exactly sure what we were doing."

As would later be the case with Mass Effect's paragon and renegade paths, Hale essentially had to play two different characters so players had the freedom to choose how things would go. But unlike Mass Effect's tough-cop renegade, Bastila Shan can be a full-on villain. "Ginny McSwain and Darragh O'Farrell were our voice directors, and they told me, 'It's the same stuff, but you're doing it this way now.' I went, 'What? She what?' I almost felt personally betrayed."

In 2021, Aspyr announced it was working on a KOTOR remake. A year later, we heard it was indefinitely delayed, though as recently as March of 2025 there were signs of life. Fortunately, the original remains entirely playable today, though if you want to run it widescreen you can download Steam Superheater to help with that.