Lawson Delta, the new Hunt: Showdown map that Crytek teased in October, is now live as part of the 3.0 beta update. The map is built around a prison, a fort, and a train station, and is designed to give players a better sense of location and direction than the previous map. 

The update also delivers a new skill-based matchmaking system, inspired by the Elo system used in chess, that "heavily weights player vs player skill in populating matches to create a fairer experience," and "anti-teaming" changes to player grouping that are intended to prevent pre-lobby teamups. Players will now experience inertia when they move to make it more difficult to dodge attacks—the patch notes state that players were "abusing the ADAD buttons."

"Some of the [movement] changes might feel a bit sluggish at first and will require players to get used to them over a couple of games," Crytek wrote in the patch notes. "We have tried to strike a good balance between the necessity of adding inertia to player movement, while at the same time keeping the feeling and walking speeds the same. Players can still perform the same trick jumps, quickly peak out of cover, or dash around the world as they are used to." 

Melee combat has also undergone some major changes intended "to improve internal consistency and better highlight each weapon's strengths and weaknesses," and downed Hunters will now drop their weapons on the ground, where they can be picked up by others. Looted weapons are marked as contraband if they're extracted from the mission, however, and cannot be sold in the store.  

Crytek also warned that entering a game may be a slower process requiring more steps following the update, but said that it's a temporary situation necessitated by the upcoming Quick Play mode. Quick Play will be an improved version of the Solo mode, which has been removed from the game; there's no word on when it will be rolled out by Crytek said it will be soon, "to make sure our solo players can get back into the game asap."

There are a multitude of other changes and bug fixes, and of course a handful of known issues, including a "default system texture" error when trying to load the game. If you hit that, make sure you've got the latest video drivers installed, grab the latest Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 redistributable, and if all else fails, contact support. The full lowdown on update 3.0 can be had on Steam. 

Hunt: Showdown is just incredible, said our Steven after being shown an early build of Crytek's latest at E3 2017. The multiplayer survival game has come some ways since—having improved on its optimisation, matchmaking and performance during this year alone. Today, it offers the teasiest of teasers for its second and much-anticipated map. Welcome to Lawson Delta: 

Set in post-Civil War Louisiana, developer Crytek says more on the new arena will be revealed at this month's TwitchCon—where it'll also be playable for the first time. The dev also says the map will go "live shortly after the event", which runs from October 26-28 in San Jose, California. 

Not much to go on beyond that at present, sadly, but expect full details at TwitchCon and to go hands-on yourself come November. In the meantime, this short paragraph from Steven's above-linked impressions is pretty powerful—particularly considering he was yet to play it for himself at the time. 

Anyone who has played DayZ or Playerunknown's Battlegrounds can tell you that survival games are often remarkably tense. But Hunt: Showdown's stunning lighting and festering bayous are stifling. I'm sitting in the Crytek booth at E3, watching a hands-off walkthrough of a multiplayer match, but even without a mouse and keyboard in my hands, I can feel the dread mounting with each step the hunters take. 

Be sure to read that in full. Hunt: Showdown is out now in Steam Early Access.

Hunt: Showdown is primarily a cooperative venture, but from today until September 6, players can opt to take on Solo contracts instead. The time-limited Solo Event pits up to 10 individual players against one another in a competition for a bloody bounty that only one can claim—and you know what that means. 

Alongside the usual rewards for collecting heads and getting out alive, the Solo Event will award 3500 in-game dollars to the top 50 DIY hunters at the end of the event; the top ten will get the money and a custom name for one of their characters; the top five players will get the cash, the handle, three weapons of their choice (one large, one medium, and one small), three consumables, three tools, and 50 trait points; and the top three will get all of the above plus one prestige level. Other rewards will be handed out during the event as well, but Crytek didn't get into the details on what they might be. 

To take part in the Hunt: Showdown Solo Event, just select "Solo" from the contracts screen. It runs until 7 am PT/10 am ET on September 6. 

Hunt: Showdown, Crytek's game of competitive supernatural big game hunting, is free to play for the weekend on Steam—and the weekend has already begun. 

It hasn't actually begun, obviously, this is only Thursday, but the Hunt: Showdown freebie is live now. Just pop over to the Steam page, click "Play Game" button, and... play the game. You've got until 10 am PT/1 pm ET on August 13 to squeeze in as much monster-hunting as you can, and collect some of the half-dozen new Steam trading cards, if that's your thing.   

The latest update to Hunt: Showdown, released earlier this week, also added new weapons, consumables, traits, and a new tool to the game, brought "accolades" to the Summary Screen, and made the usual array of fixes and changes. South American servers were rolled out at the same time, which should make things considerably better for gamers in that part of the world. 

Last but not least, Hunt: Showdown is on sale on Steam for 20 percent off—that's $24/£21/€24—until February 13.   

A piece of software called Red Shell that's used by game developers for marketing analysis has caused an uproar among gamers who are concerned by its ability to generate detailed "fingerprints" of users—in many cases without them knowing about it. 

"Imagine a game developer is running an ad on Facebook and working with a popular Twitch channel," the Red Shell website explains. "The developer wants to know which of those ads is doing a better job of showcasing the game. Red Shell is the tool they use to measure the effectiveness of each of those activities so they can continue to invest in the ones that are working and cut resources from the ones that aren't."

In other words, if you click a Red Shell tracking link and then launch the releated game, the developer is able to determine that the link led to a sale. The site states that Red Shell does not collect personal information about users, such as names, addresses, or emails. It doesn't track users across games, and the data it collects is not used for targeted ads. "Red Shell tracks information about devices. We collect information including operating system, browser version number, IP address (anonymized through one-way hashing), screen resolution, in-game user id, and font profiles," it says.   

"We have no interest in tracking people, just computers for the purposes of attribution. All of the data we do collect is hashed for an additional layer of protection." 

Those reassurances don't carry much weight in this Reddit thread, however, which begins by pointing out that users typically don't have a say in whether or not Red Shell is installed in the first place. Games using the software "may offer an opt-out for any type of data/analytics services they use," Red Shell says, but that places the responsibility for declining the software entirely on the user, and could be in violation of opt-in privacy laws—and that's assuming the developer makes the option available at all. 

The list of games found to be running Red Shell is surprisingly broad, and includes everything from indies like Holy Potatoes! We're In Space? and My Time At Portia to high-profile hits including Civilization 6, Kerbal Space Program, The Elder Scrolls Online, and Vermintide 2. Some developers have promised to remove the software, but there's also widespread insistence that there is nothing sinister or spyware-like about it. 

Vermintide developer Fatshark, for instance, described it as "no more than a tool we can use to improve our marketing campaigns in the same way a browser cookie might," while Total War studio Creative Assembly stated that it's ditching the software only because "it will be difficult" to reassure players that it's not being used for nefarious purposes. 

And some studios have said that they will continue to use the software despite the furor. ZeniMax Online, maker of The Elder Scrolls Online, said in a Reddit post that Red Shell was mistakenly added to a live build while it was still being tested. ZeniMax said it would remove the program, but added: "We are still investigating how to use this technology in the future to grow and sustain ESO more effectively. When/if we do so, we will give everyone a heads up with clear instructions as to what it is doing, how it is doing it, and how to opt-out should you so desire." 

Dire Wolf Digital, formerly of The Elder Scrolls: Legends, said something similar about the presence of Red Shell in its new project, Eternal: "Red Shell is not 'spyware'; that’s a scary-'Let’s-burn-the-witch!'-word that’s getting thrown around without a lot of information behind. No personally identifying information is collected anywhere in this process," it wrote. "That’s basically it; there’s nothing nefarious going on here, just some under-the-hood analytics that help us understand how our advertisements perform." 

Reddit's rundown games containing Red Shell as of June 18 is below, although I wouldn't be surprised to see more games added to it as people become aware of them—you'll probably want to check the thread if you want to be sure you're up to date. There's also a publicly-available Google spreadsheet that contains more detailed information on how each one was identified. For games that don't offer one, Red Shell maintains its own per-game opt-out option here.   

Update: Team17 contacted us on June 19, 2018, to say that Red Shell integration in My Time at Portia, The Escapists 2, Yoku’s Island Express and Raging Justice has been fully removed.

Update 2: On June 21, 2018, HypeTrain Digital contacted us to say that Red Shell has been removed from The Wild Eight and Desolate; CI Games informed us that Red Shell was no longer present in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3; and Gavra Games said that it had been removed from Warriors: Rise to Glory.

Games which used Redshell which removed or pledged to remove it (as of June 18, 2018):

• Elder Scrolls Online (Pledged to remove it )
• Conan Exiles (Pledged to remove it )
• Ylands (Removed it )
• Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space?! (Removed it )
• All Total War games (Pledged to remove it )
• Warhammer: Vermintide II (Pledged to remove it )
• Dead by Daylight (Pledged to remove it )
• Battlerite (Pledged to remove it )
• AER Memories of Old (Pledged to remove it )
• Magic the Gathering Arena (closed beta, not on Steam) (Pledged to remove it for now )
• Secret World Legends (Pledged to remove remains of it )
• Hunt: Showdown (Pledged to remove it )
• Omensight (Pledged to remove it )
• Ballistic Overkill (Pledged to remove it )

Games still using Redshell according to community reports (as of June 18, 2018): 

• Civilization VI
• Kerbal Space Program
• Guardians of Ember
• The Onion Knights
• Realm Grinder
• Heroine Anthem Zero
• Warhammer 40k Eternal Crusade
• Krosmaga
• Eternal Card Game
• Astro Boy: Edge of Time
• Cabals: Card Blitz
• CityBattle | Virtual Earth
• Doodle God
• Doodle God Blitz
• Dungeon Rushers
• Labyrinth
• My Free Farm 2
• NosTale
• RockShot
• Shadowverse
• SOS & SOS Classic
• SoulWorker
• Stonies
• Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
• War Robots
• Survived By
• Injustice 2
• Trailmakers
• Clone Drone in the Danger Zone
• Vaporum
• Robothorium
• League of Pirates
• Doodle God: Genesis Secrets
• Archangel: Hellfire
• Skyworld

Hunt: Showdown, our favorite game of E3 2017, is getting a nice package of new items, including an awful new monster. Just announced at the PC Gaming Show, here's everything the impending update includes:

The vintage crossbow: It's a crossbow! Nothing too surprising, but skilled, stealthy players will appreciate that it doesn't alert every monster and enemy player to your position. Bolts can be retrieved once fired, too.

Throwing knives: A new consumable item, throwing knives can be used for one match. Carried in addition to primary and secondary weapons, they're great for silent, close quarters kills. Knives can also be retrieved from corpses and surfaces once thrown. 

The hand crossbow: A small version of the vintage crossbow, but categorized as a pistol. It probably won't be as efficient over long distances as the vintage, but as a stealthy sidearm, it can make your hunter a bit more adaptable to different playstyles. Bolts retrievable, too. 

Stick explosive bombs: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Throw it, and it sticks to whatever it hits. Based on close scrutiny of the trailer, it appears they also explode. Curious. 

The Water Devil: Hunt is getting a new monster in the Water Devil, a wormy, tentacled thing that attacks players in swamps and bayous. It is gross. I do not like it. 

We're still without a time and day for the update, but we'd expect it sometime this summer. Hunt: Showdown is available in Early Access now, and while the performance could still use some work and there are plenty of bugs to fix, we like it a lot. 

The first major content update for the supernatural safari game Hunt: Showdown is now live on Steam, and the "major" descriptor is apt: The patch makes a large number of changes and bug fixes, adds new equipment and gameplay features, and throws $4000 of in-game cash into everyone's account to make up for the technical problems that have previously cropped up. 

Highlights include five new sniper weapon variants with long, medium, and short-range scopes, Flash Bomb and Poison Bomb tactical grenades, 11 new outfits and 12 new traits, improvements to the map, changes to inventory slots and footstep audio, fall damage implementation, and an updated Bloodline progression screen. 

The update also takes aim at campers. As we described in our E3 preview last year, it's not enough to simply kill the target of the hunt: Teams must banish them back to Hell and then escape with the bounty in order to claim victory. That presents opportunities for other hunting teams to let other players do all the heavy lifting, and then jump in and swipe the loot for themselves—all of the reward, with none of the risk. 

That will still be a viable strategy, but the update will make it a tougher trick to pull off. Compound layouts have been changed to provide more defensive cover, making it easier to hold out against enemies once the banishment has begun, and players who successfully banish a downed enemy will have their health fully restored (and boosted, if there's room on the health bar). Successfully killing, banishing, and extracting with at least one Bounty token will also now earn hunters a "Clean Sweep" bonus, which makes doing the job yourself more lucrative than simply screwing someone over at the last minute. 

Another potentially big change for the Early Access phase of development should help prevent the loss of Hunters (and the frustration that results) because of unintentional disconnections from the game. Hunters will now be returned to a "pre-match state if certain conditions (maintenance, server crashes, invalid anti-cheat kicks, client crash mid-mission and during loading, etc.) apply." 

Crytek said the full update notes are literally too big to fit into a single Steam update announcement (it really is a major update), so you can get the full lowdown on the changes here, and the bug fixes and known issues here. If video is your thing, you can dive into that below.

Hunt: Showdown is a competitive multiplayer shooter, and inevitably that means that some players are going to cheat. Developer Crytek dove into the matter today with an update discussing the steps it's taking to deal with rule-breakers, and also describing some elements of the game that might look like cheating, but actually aren't. 

Crytek didn't get into the nitty-gritty of its anti-cheat efforts "to avoid revealing anything which cheaters and cheat program developers may take advantage of." But the short version is that Hunt's primary protection comes by way of Easy Anti-Cheat, which relies in part on user-reported cheating: "When a report is received, we forward it to EAC for further investigation, and if it is legit, you can be sure that anyone using it will be caught pretty soon after the fact," Crytek explained. 

Not every report is acted upon, because not every reported incident is caused by cheating. Hunt: Showdown is an Early Access game, which is another term for "it's not finished," so bugs, much like cheating, are bound to happen. Walls sometimes won't render properly, exposing anyone behind it—functionally the same as a wallhack, but the result of a bug rather than intentional tampering. Players may appear unarmed when they kill you, or maybe you don't hear the shot—also the result of bugs (or possibly a silenced weapon). Connectivity issues can cause warping or missed shots, and objects will sometimes pop in and out of view, which can be inconvenient when you're hiding behind them. 

"Anti-cheat is an ever-changing, constantly growing system, and it needs constant upkeep. Going forward, we will be looking at further ways to keep cheaters out of the game," Crytek said. "This will include looking into to more ways to detect players who prefer to circumvent the fair rules of the game, as well as looking at removing those that cheat from our leaderboard. This will be an ongoing process that we will keep you updated on in the future." 

If you encounter what you believe to be a cheat, either in the game or elswhere online, you can (and should) report it at huntshowdown.kayako.com.   

Crytek has released the first "performance patch" for Hunt: Showdown, and says it should address "most of the severe performance issues" that players have reported so far. Some players may see a big jump in framerate but the studio said the goal with this update is to improve overall performance for everyone so all players have "a more stable and stutter-free experience." 

CPU-heavy processes have been optimized, according to the patch notes, which should be of particular help on low-end hardware, and the "overall memory footprint" has been reduced as well. Servers should be more reliable, and upgrades to the backend technology "pave the way for further improvements to debugging user-reported issues." I'm the honest sort so I'll admit that I'm not entirely clear on what a lot of that stuff means, but on the whole it sounds like good things are happening. 

There are also a number of bug fixes in the update, again with a focus on addressing "stalls" (Crytek noted that the term is used rather loosely to describe three separate situations), and a handful of known issues including a potentially large stall that can actually cause you to be disconnected from the servers (that one is on the priority list) and FPS drops caused by inventory switching or the mini-map. 

Hunt: Showdown went into Early Access on Steam in February,  and reviews are currently "mixed," with many negative user reviews citing bugs and performance issues as the reason for the thumbs down. One review that I particularly enjoyed likens the game to a tasty milkshake that's so thick, you just can't get it through the straw. 

"But every now and then you'll get a little tiny sip that makes you wanna keep trying," it says. "Eventually you just set the shake down and wait. That's what this game is." 

Hunt: Showdown doesn't have a full release date, by Crytek said it expects to keep the game in Early Access for at least a year. A video of lead design director Chris Auty, lead rendering engineer Theodor Mader, and technical director Sebastian Laurent discussing the update and answering a few community questions is down below. 

Hunt: Showdown, the competitive supernatural bounty hunting game that we like very much (even though it suffers from a few issues) is now available to everyone on Steam Early Access. The game enables up to ten players, solo or in teams of two, to hunt monsters (and each other) for money across four missions set in "handcrafted sandbox" swamps of Louisiana.

Every mission follows the same basic path—find it, kill it, banish it, haul ass—but the game world promises to enable a great variety of play. The map features 16 unique locations "steeped in history and lore," with a day/night cycle, special sound cues, and "28 sandbox features to use strategically to distract or attract enemies." There are two boss targets to hunt in the Early Access release—the Spider and the Butcher—plus four AI enemies and randomly-generated "grunts," who you'll deal with using 33 unique pieces of equipment, with 17 variants. 

Players will advance through three different types of progression: Hunter, which levels up individual character health and traits that are lost if that character dies; Bloodline, an account-wide progression line that unlocks gear, traits, higher-tier hunters, and in-game currency rewards; and Bloodline Prestige, which enables players to reset their Bloodline after reaching the maximum rank of 100. Stats will be tracked on leaderboards, and new stats, lore, and other features will be added as the Early Access period unfolds. 

"Hunt: Showdown is an Early Access title, and players should note that they will experience crashes, as well as optimization, performance, and balancing issues," Crytek said. "We are dedicated to fixing major issues as quickly as possible, and to optimizing performance and balance. But some of these things will take time, and we ask for your patience as we continue to develop the game." 

Hunt: Showdown is available on Steam for $30/£26/€30, and is expected to remain in Early Access for at least a year. Crytek warned that the price will "most likely" increase when it goes into full launch. System requirements for the Early Access release have also been updated.