I was wrong. ARC Raiders was not shadow-dropped at Summer Game Fest last week, as many of us had hoped. That was probably for the best, considering I lost internet for most of the weekend. What we did get was a new trailer and a release date: October 30th. After that deflating announcement—like my internet—the hype dropped for ARC Raiders.
Am I less interested in playing ARC Raiders? No. I'm still looking forward to the game. I'll just have to wait a little longer. The game will likely be better for it, with extra time to add content and smooth out technical issues. It was unrealistic to expect a shadow drop. Shame on me.
But I can’t stand here and say I’m not irritated about how things went down—especially considering this is the second year in a row I’ve had my excitement for a game crushed by a lackluster Summer Game Fest announcement. Last year, it was New World and their “big announcement,” and in a shockingly similar series of events, ARC Raiders followed suit this year. Maybe it's Summer Game Fest?
Last year, I was able to shift my perspective and stay interested in what New World's announcement meant for the game. I expect to do the same with ARC Raiders the game. Just like then, I'm sitting here every day checking news feeds, waiting for the next bit of info about the game.
While I’m still excited for the game, I have to admit I’ve lost a bit of respect for Embark Studios. I really thought they were a different kind of developer—one that could actually surprise gamers. They built and fueled the hype after Tech Test 2: the hidden game files with the secret countdown timer, the bleeped troll video, the Summer Game Fest teaser featuring Scrappy the rooster. All of it now feels unwarranted, considering all they delivered was a ho-hum trailer and a release date. Basically, we had a secret countdown timer... to another countdown timer. That’s a fat L on Embark’s part.
With that said, Embark did issue an apology (see image below post)—and it seemed genuine. My main concern, though, is that they had to see this coming. They had to know the level of hype and the tactics they used didn’t justify what they were actually delivering. If they didn’t... oof. That wouldn’t reflect well on their marketing and community teams. If they did... oof.
I’ll hold onto my own dumb hope that Embark wanted to shadow-drop the game and just came up short. In my odd little gamer mind, that’s the only explanation that makes sense for revving the hype engine up as much as they did.
So, Embark takes a few steps back on my developer list. ARC Raiders stays at the top of my “want to play” list. Now I just need to figure out what to play until October 30th.
Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness is the AI.
Today (6/6/2025) is Summer Game Fest, and just like last year, I find myself waiting for yet another BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. Last year ended in tragedy with New World's nothing-burger news after hyping the announcement to the moon. Once again, a year later, many of us in the gaming community are waiting on bated breath for what's next for ARC Raiders, developed by Embark Studios.
They better have a banger of an update for June, otherwise this video will likely be forever held up as the moment "remember when New World died?"
The same could be said for Embark Studios and ARC Raiders. The hype for ARC is unprecedented, and Embark has a specific history that supercharges it. Embark's first game, The Finals, "shadow dropped" 32 days after it held a closed beta. No one expected the game to launch—and yet, BOOM, there The Finals was in all its glory. It was a very well-received launch.
Now we sit exactly 32 days from the last ARC Raiders tech test, which received universal praise and is responsible for everyone's excitement. Embark has left clue after clue about something BIG on 6/6. There was the secret game update pushed to Steam that teased 6/6. There's the counting of letters in the ARC Raiders slogan "Enlist. Resist."—6 and 6. And of course, there’s the aforementioned bleep video.
If this announcement isn't a banger, I will sincerely be worried that I’m cursed to follow games made by flunkies with poor taste in how to deliver a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. So what do I think we're going to get later today?
Realistically? A new trailer, a release date, and a beta test announcement.
But I'm not known for staying within the bounds of reality in these situations, so here’s what I think is going to happen: Embark Studios is going to shadow drop ARC Raiders. By end of day, we’ll be playing it live. The buzz will be insane.
Why do I think it will be shadow dropped? I’ll spare you links to all the theoretical supporting evidence—like major streamers hinting at an undisclosed game they’ll be streaming tonight. For me, it comes down to my faith in Embark Studios. They are not your average dev studio. They feel very much like a "game-and-gamer-first, business-second" developer.
The Finals, while not as popular now as it was at launch, was an unexpected gem. Embark shadow dropped it to wild success. They can and will do the same for ARC Raiders—but this time, the hype is on another level. I’m also hopeful that Embark wants to maintain a reputation as a developer willing to surprise gamers. Again, that "game-and-gamer-first" vibe I get from them.
They will drop ARC Raiders today. See y’all on the surface.
Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness is the AI.
May 2025 has come and gone and with it so has 20 years since I started blogging! And as is expected with this blog I am woefully behind getting to posting anything of merit to celebrate that 20 year mark. Worry not dear reader for I am working on something that will be released.... sometime... soon... maybe. In the interim let's take a look back at May.
The Blog
Blogger stats for April: 41,137 (note: below graph includes some June dates and is missing May dates)
In other metrics:
Posts:
Target: 2 (I've been posting less these days so was honest with myself; post April review and post about 20 years; so 2 posts was the target)
Posted: 8
Difference: +6
Search Trends
This past month had some shakeups to some long standing search trends. Battlefield related search results dropped off the list while some old Once Human and some new New World searches popped in.
"once human end game" and similiar searches hit the top spot and drove visitors to my completely out of date post: End Game Thoughts on Once Human
I am sure there is some sort of patch change that brought interest to this unique round shield in the game; which I am not even sure can be obtained anymore even with the guide I posted.
"new world wispy spritz" was the next New World related search trend which coincides with the Springtide Bloom event coming back with the recent Season 8 patch. Searchers were probably disapointed to find my post just complaining about the cost of the crafting recipe... Why New World! Why!?
And poking around lower in the list of search trends I found "heartless 2012 game" climbing along with "heartless game"; my assumption is searchers first try "heartless game" and are confused when they end up on my blog so they go back and try the 2012 search only to wind up back here. Oh well!
What I Played
May marks the end of school for my kids and thus our annual beach trip so blogging and gaming were both limited. I did get some time to play New World Aeternum and shared my thoughts on the start of Season 8 here.
Honestly I am just buying time currently waiting for ARC Raiders to have another beta test OR more hopefully just shadow dropping after June 6th and Summer Games Fest!
Frozen Synapse also launched in May of 2010 and to this day I still have fond memories of the game. I especially liked the "publish to YouTube" feature of the game that automated recordings of games for easy publishing.
ARC Raiders includes gadget-like items such as binoculars, which have useful but relatively low-value functions. However, since they take up a full inventory slot, they're often among the first things discarded—or not even considered in the first place.
If the game added a dedicated gadget slot for items like binoculars, it would increase their value and usability. These items would no longer compete for valuable loot slots, allowing players to enjoy their benefits without sacrifice. Ideally, this slot would remain limited to simple gadgets like binoculars, and not include rare or powerful gear.
Idea 2: Let Us Upgrade Our Crowbar
One of the signature items every Raider carries is their crowbar. Doors, probes, fallen ARC robots, lockers, chests, electrical cabinets—you name it, and Raiders are busting it open with their crowbar (other Raiders' skulls included). The crowbar is so important that you always have it on you by default, without needing to equip it. You also don’t lose it when you die—a rare design decision in an extraction shooter.
There are even skills in the trees that affect how fast you can loot and break into things. It feels like a missed opportunity that these effects weren’t moved into an upgrade system for the crowbar instead. If crowbars could be upgraded, and those upgrades dropped on death like other gear, it would add an extra layer of risk and reward.
Idea 3: Let Us Bring Scrappy With Us
I love the concept of Scrappy—the lovable, loot-gathering chicken who’s become the de facto mascot of ARC Raiders. He passively collects materials and lets players retrieve them through the workshop menu. This system ensures players always have a cache of basic materials (and rarer ones as Scrappy levels up).
But wouldn’t it be awesome if you could switch Scrappy to an active mode where he follows you around on raids and gathers items at a faster rate? Imagine walking into a room and seeing another raider’s Scrappy picking through scraps. Upon spotting you, he squawks a loud BAWK and scrambles off, alerting you to where his owner might be but also having alerted everyone else to your arrival.
Once he’s loaded up, you could send Scrappy off to extract, even as you continue exploring. But if another Raider catches him before extraction, they could pop him like a loot pinata. Or maybe that Scrappy is just bait. Part alarm system, part loot chicken, and maybe even a clever trap—it’s honestly a brilliant concept.
Idea 4: A Shared Social Hub
Currently, everything in Speranza—the underground home of the Raiders—is accessed through menus. Visiting your workshop? Menu. Visiting traders? Menu. Forming a group? Menu. Meanwhile, in the background of the main menu, there's a beautiful, animated scene of a bar or shop with characters walking around, announcements playing, and life happening. It hints at a real depth of character in Speranza.
So why not let us explore it? Turn Speranza into a shared social hub and housing area!
I get that some players just want to jump from one raid to the next, and might get bored walking from one crafting station to another. But for those of us who enjoy social connections and showing off our accomplishments, a shared space would be fantastic.
In fact, I’d argue that adding housing or a social hub could take ARC Raiders to the next level—which would be impressive, considering the buzz it's already generating. Plus, this is an extraction game. What’s better than extracting with an amazing reward you can permanently display to other players?
And seriously—who looks at the stunning background of the main menu and doesn’t want to walk into that world and interact with the characters? Who watches the pre-raid “walking” loading screen and doesn’t wish they could walk there themselves?
Maybe it’s just the MMORPG player in me wanting more from the game than just the raids—but I truly believe ARC Raiders would be even more awesome if Speranza were a place we could explore.
Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness is the AI. Curious what edits were made? See ChatGPT's explanation below.
Explanation of Edits from ChatGPT
Here are the main types of edits I made:
Punctuation and Sentence Structure
Replaced semicolons and misplaced commas with proper punctuation to clarify sentence flow.
Broke up run-on sentences for easier readability.
Used em dashes (—) to emphasize interruptions or thoughts for a conversational tone.
Grammar and Word Choice
Corrected small grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement and verb tense.
Refined wordiness in places (e.g., “the higher level you upgrade Scrappy” → “as Scrappy levels up”).
Clarity and Consistency
Clarified ambiguous phrasing like “they are getting the benefits from them” to something cleaner like “allowing players to enjoy their benefits.”
Made style consistent (e.g., italicizing game titles like ARC Raiders).
Tone Preservation
Maintained your enthusiastic, personal voice. You use rhetorical questions and humor effectively, so I left those intact while improving grammar around them.
I recently participated in the Tech Test 2 for ARC Raiders, and I walked away wanting more. I haven’t had a game ignite a desire to keep playing like this since I picked up New World years ago. ARC Raiders is something different!
ARC Raiders is an extraction shooter where you play as a raider entering a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by ARC—robots hellbent on killing you—with the goal of scavenging items and returning (i.e., extracting) to your underground home. Of course, ARC robots aren’t your only concern; other players are also hunting for loot, and what better source than your dead body? If you die, you lose your stuff—both equipped gear and any loot. Thus goes the loop of an extraction shooter: loot and extract, or die.
ARC Raiders makes some changes to the formula to soften the sting of death. In standard play, you have a number of safe pockets in your pack. Anything stored in those safe pockets will be retained, regardless of whether you extract successfully. This ensures you can walk away with something, even if the run goes sideways.
Secondly, ARC Raiders offers the concept of “free loadouts.” When you opt for a freebie, you load into the world with a random set of basic gear: a gun, some bullets, and a few consumables like bandages. This lets you jump in and play even if you’re out of resources—or if you just want a quick run without risking valuable gear. I found this mode especially helpful after a bad string of deaths. It let me rebuild my supplies so I could gear back up for more serious raids. It’s also a great option if you only have a few minutes to play and want a shot at some loot. Worst case, you lose a little time—but at zero resource cost.
The resources you extract from a raid can be used in crafting stations or traded with vendors. Items can also be recycled into other materials or sold for coin. Crafting stations are upgradeable, which of course requires increasingly better materials at each level. Vendors sell a variety of items for coin. Whether you craft your way there or trade your way there, resources let you gear up for your next raid. Sadly, there is no player-to-player trading.
You might think other players are your biggest concern, but the ARC robots are no joke. Every ARC enemy needs to be approached thoughtfully. For example, the Snitch may seem harmless—until you miss your shot and it has time to call in backup. Now you’re fighting multiple ARCs. Ignored that skittering noise in the next room? Now you’ve got a face-hugging Tick to deal with!
The ARC robots also get big. The Queen was the ultimate boss of the tech test—a giant, spider-like machine that required coordination and often multiple groups of raiders to bring down (that is, assuming players could resist killing each other long enough to cooperate). There are even rumors of a bigger threat—the King—awaiting players in the launch version. If you paid attention on the Buried City map, you could see massive walker ARCs off in the distance just outside the map's boundary.
As should be obvious, care must be taken every step of the way during a raid. Make too much noise, and you’ll attract ARCs—or worse, alert other players. Got a quest to collect parts from a fallen ARC? You’ll need a plan for how to take one down and loot the components safely. Then you’ll need an extraction plan.
Extracting in ARC Raiders is a tense sequence of events. First, you press a button to call an elevator or train. Next comes an excruciating wait for it to arrive. Then you have to board and activate it. To ratchet up the intensity, alarms and announcements blare across the area, alerting other players and ARCs to the extraction attempt. Escaping by the skin of your teeth is an amazing feeling! Just watch this video where my teammate escapes with 0:00 left on the clock among a very chaotic extraction point! It was in that moment I knew ARC Raiders was a game worth waiting for.
Fortunately, just like the free loadouts and safe pockets, there’s another mechanic that reduces some of the pressure typical in extraction phase: raider hatches. These are scattered across the map and can be accessed if you have a raider hatch key. Since they’re less frequented and require a key, there’s a better chance of using one without attracting attention. Only once did I run into another player trying to use the same raider hatch as my team—while nearly every normal extraction via elevator or train was contested.
Extractions aren’t the only source of tension during a raid. Every sound is a clue. Cracking open a locker? The metallic crunch will echo down the hallway. Jump on a zipline? That ziiiipppp will travel far. If it’s raining, footsteps are muffled and harder to hear. The scream of a probe crash-landing will get your attention—and that of nearby players. Most ARCs announce their presence with distinctive sounds. There’s no mistaking when certain ARCs are nearby. The brrrrtttt of the Bastion’s chain guns is as unforgettable as it is terrifying.
Visuals add to the tension, too. Flocks of birds will scatter when you walk by, revealing your location. Puffs of dust rise from the sand near corners. When a raider goes down, a flare shoots skyward—or ricochets around indoors. ARC robots often wear armor that visually flies off as you damage them, exposing weak points. Shoot one of the Wasp’s four rotors and it will careen wildly, trying to regain balance on the remaining three.
Visuals also serve as escape tools. You can literally vanish into brush or shadows. The game looks amazing at every step, and every visual plays a role in the immersion. The look and feel of this game are stunning. To go with that performance was buttery smooth for me the entire test (consistent 100+ FPS with no issues).
Amazing visuals and sound design set the table, and the combat and gunplay serve the main course. The game is a third-person, over-the-shoulder shooter similar to Battlefront 2 or Once Human. I personally prefer this to first-person shooters. This perspective lets you peek around corners and spot threats like those annoying Tick ARCs sneaking up on you. When you loot something, you aren’t locked into staring at a wall—you can stay aware of your surroundings. All of this helps soften the sting of ARC Raiders being an extraction shooter where you could lose everything at any moment.
A lot of attention to detail has gone into ARC Raiders, and it all comes together in an incredible experience. For a tech test, I was blown away. It felt more like a complete, functional game—one I’d argue is ready for release. I’d play the heck out of it with just the maps, modes, and gear available in the test.
Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own. The grammatical correctness is the AI.
I have more thoughts I want to share on my experience in the recent ARC Raiders tech test, but now that the test is over it has me waiting... waiting bad. I am going to love the heck out of this game at it's launch.
I've been playing the ARC Raiders tech test for the last day and loving every moment of it (well almost every moment). In a this-memory-will-stay-with-me moment I witnessed a teammate who barely missed our first extraction hit the afterburner and hustle his way to the final extraction point and make it, literally, with zero seconds left. And since the game is kind enough to let teammates spectate I was able to capture the event in this video.
April has come and gone and we are rapidly approaching this blog's 20 year anniversary later in May! But before we look forward let's check back in on April.
The Blog
Blogger stats for April: 33,990 (note: below graph includes May dates and is missing Apr dates)
In other metrics:
Posts:
Target: 0
Posted: 4
Difference: +4 (Have been doing other stuff than gaming or blogging so 4 is a win)
Search Trends
"Discord Install Failed: Can't find PresentationCore 4.0.0.0" and my post in regards to my trials and tribulations with this Discord install bug gained traction in April so I assume there was some sort of Discord issue (I also noticed my Reddit post on the bug gained some new comments). Read more about it: Discord Install Failed
"new world frigid dawn" and related searches continued for my heavy armor flamethrower build for New World: Frigid Inferno build page
"best
battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games","what is the best battlefield game" continues to stay strong driving traffic to my post Best Battlefield!?
"once human end game" was also a top click getter this month even though I've not posted or played Once Human anytime recently (nor do I have any plans to return)
What I Played
I didn't play New World at all in April. Actually I didn't play any game in April until the ARC Raiders tech test came out on April 30th. So really I didn't play anything in April.
With that said; I freaking loved my time in the ARC Raiders tech test so expect more blog content on it in the near future!
Years Ago
1 Year Ago
In April of 2024 I was testing Pax Dei in it's Wilderness Alpha phase. I enjoyed my time in the test but the game was a long, long ways away from being a game worth considering. Unfortunately it still launched into a form of early access and it has all but died off as a game of interest for me.
I started blogging in 2005 but not until May so come back in May for the big 2 0 extravaganza. Oh wait; it's MAY 20 FREAKING 25! OMG! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
