Hit the deck: a big, scary gun is coming in the next Rainbow Six Siege update.

The CSRX 300 is Siege's first bolt-action rifle. It can penetrate seven layers of 'soft' walls with a single shot. And its gadget can destroy almost any defensive gear sitting on the other side of a reinforced wall. 

This intimidating long gun will be held by Kali, a new attacker who's a mash-up of Glaz's sniping, Thatcher's disabling, and Ash's destruction-from-a-distance. For me, Kali is the most eyebrow-raising operator since the arrival of Clash's electrified shield (which later had to be temporarily taken out of Siege while exploits were fixed).

Kali exclusively carries the CSRX 300 as her primary weapon, making her just the second dedicated sniper in Siege after Glaz, who was part of the initial 2015 roster. Though her gun doesn't offer Glaz's thermal optics, Kali's rifle can zoom to 5X or 12X dynamically (compared to Glaz's 3X magnification), allowing her to operate at a significantly longer range than any other character in the game. It also damages differently.

Like every gun in Siege, the CSRX insta-kills on a headshot, but if you're shot in the body by it, you're instantly downed, and you automatically whirl around, prone, to face Kali. This does make her rifle the most lethal weapon in the game, but in practice this mechanic actually works in the defender's favor in some cases: if you're getting shot at through a window at a distance, automatically dropping prone will probably protect you from a follow-up killshot. When I spawn-peeked out from an elevated window on Consulate and got insta-downed by Kali, I was able to limp away out of view and get revived by a teammate.

The thing sitting underneath this rifle's barrel may be the bigger deal. Kali's gadget, the LV Explosive Lance, shoots like one of Ash's Breaching Rounds: they fling out with zero drop-off, burrow into any surface, and detonate after a short fuse expires. Kali carries three charges.

These explosive projectiles destroy almost anything on either side of any soft or reinforced wall they hit: barbed wire, deployable shields (including Goyo's Volcàn), Maestro's Evil Eye, Bandit's batteries, Kaid's Rtila, and other gear that happens to be in within 2.5 meters. It also deals a small amount of damage, should a defender be hiding on the other side of the wall. Mira's Black Mirrors are one of the only defensive gadgets not affected.

As a package, Kali will test the level design of every map in Siege: expect players to exploit her ability to punch through soft walls at insane distance. And with the ability to knock out a big range of gadgets, she becomes one of the most versatile attackers, one who can influence the objective room from farther than any other operator. Counterbalancing her a bit are the thick white tracers that hang in the air with every shot that leaves the CSRX, pointing a clear line to Kali's position.

Wamai, the new defender

Kali deserves lots of attention and scrutiny, but she'll be joined by Wamai, a new defender who will probably have a greater impact than Goyo and Warden, the two most recently-added defenders.

The MAG-NET snags enemy grenades out of the air from a distance of several meters. He's meant as an alternative to Jäger, the popular defender who typically sticks his grenade-zapping mini-turrets in the objective room and runs off to roam the rest of the round. But unlike Jäger, Wamai's magnetic frisbees don't destroy grenades. Once they're scooped up, their fuse is reset, after which they detonate normally and destroy the MAG-NET.

This mechanic opens up new, devious possibilities for using enemies' throwables against them. Pull a frag grenade into a Volcàn shield and light the floor on fire unexpectedly. Pull a smoke grenade away from a key chokepoint. Pull a Fuze puck back toward the ceiling, killing anyone unlucky enough to be standing above it.

MAG-NETs redirect a wider set of projectiles than Jäger's ADS—even Ying's Candela and Capitão's bolts are up for grabs. Hibana's X-KAIROS, which it doesn't target at all, is the main exception. Otherwise MAG-NETs can be thrown onto any surface and charges up on a timer like Lesion's Gu mines. 

Jäger's high pick rate motivated Ubisoft to build a character with a similar ability. Like Jäger, he doesn't carry an ACOG for either the MP5K or AUG A2. But as a two speed, two armor operator, he's more of an anchor than his German counterpart. It'll be interesting to see what creative MAG-NET positions players come up with—the gadget's long reach should make it viable at all skill levels, but Wamai players will have to place the gadget carefully to avoid Magneto-ing enemy grenades onto teammates.

Theme Park gets a renovation

The other thing coming in Shifting Tides will be a "surgical" rework of Theme Park. The map's upper floor trainyard has been cut, replaced with a new, segmented bombsite that sits between Initiation Room and Daycare. Although plenty of other exterior windows and doors have also been removed or altered, and the map has been brightened throughout, this is the main layout change, making Theme Park 2 far less of a transformation than Kafe, but one that should make the map competitively viable. Theme Park's train section took ages to clear and made attackers too vulnerable to flanks.

Led by Kali, I expect Shifting Tides to seriously impact the meta. Ubisoft hasn't announced when it'll go live, but says it should be playable on the test server soon.

Rainbow Six Siege is about to head into Year 4 Season 4 in what's been called Operation Shifting Tides. In accordance with tradition, this will introduce two new operators, and new operators means cool new gadgets to try out.

While we don't know a whole lot about the new operators yet, Ubisoft has gone ahead and given us a taste of the kits they'll be bringing to the field. The video above shows off a test chamber with both.

One of the gadgets is rifle round for the CSRX-300 which makes a basketball-sized hole in a couple normal walls. The round will be part of new operator Kali's loadout, along with a breaching charge fired from the underbarrel grenade launcher. This, it seems, can tunnel through reinforced walls, making Kali a new hard breacher.

The other new operator, Wamai, has a magnetic projectile interception system, which is an interesting piece of kit. This attaches to walls and can catch certain projectiles, freezing them in midair. 

We'll all find out more about the next Rainbow Six Siege season during the Pro League Finals November 10.

Ubisoft is working to install crossplay functionality in its PvP titles, the company's CEO Yves Guillemot said today. Speaking during an earnings call, the executive said that it's not just a pipe dream: it's already being worked on.

"Our goal is to put crossplay on all the PvP games we have, over time," he said (via Gamesindustry.biz). "That's well on the way."

While Guillemot stopped short of confirming which PvP games were getting the support, it's likely that Rainbow Six Siege and For Honor will be first cabs off the rank, given their multiplayer focus and enduring support. The publisher's Smash Bros-esque fighter Brawlhalla already supports crossplay between certain platforms.

Crossplay has been a point of contention this console generation: while Sony has long supported crossplay between PC and PS4, it was late to support the functionality with other consoles. Now it's formally supported on PS4, meaning it's up to developers whether to implement it or not. Overall, the days of being cordoned off according to your platform seem to be coming to an end.

That said, if I played Rainbow Six Siege on a console, I'm not sure I'd want to be competing with mouse and keyboard players. Some Fortnite players expressed disapproval when crossplay support was implemented across all devices.

Ubisoft has filed a lawsuit against the operators of a company called MizuSoft, which it claims has earned thousands of dollars monthly through the sale of Rainbow Six Siege cheat software. MizuSoft promised to help Siege cheaters get away with it by working in subtle ways, including boosting weapon damage, expanding the field of vision, revealing hidden enemies, and providing information on things like enemy location and health.

The cheat makers were charging serious bucks for their services, to the tune of €12 ($13) per day, €30 ($33) per week, or €70 ($77) per month. Despite that ridiculous price, "the Cheating Software has been downloaded and used by R6S players thousands of times," according to the lawsuit, available in full from Polygon. "Ubisoft is also informed and believes that Defendants have made hundreds of thousands of dollars from their distribution of, and sale of licenses to, the Cheating Software."

The suit accuses the defendants of trafficking in circumvention devices, interference with contractual relations, and unfair competition. It also makes a point of noting that the defendants were well aware that what they were doing is against the law, stating that one of them—a minor, and so only listed by the initials JVL—"recently bragged to the media that his Cheating Software ruins R6S for other players" and "readily admitted that if he were to be sued by Ubisoft he would have a 'tough time' defending his conduct."

That's apparently a reference to this BBC report on videogame cheats, which shows off the Rainbow Six Siege cheat in action. The report says the maker of the cheat pulls in nearly £1500 ($1926) per week, and was planning on expanding into other games. "As long as the customers keep coming and the games makers do nothing, his business and many others will keep on growing," the interviewer says at the end of the video.

Ubisoft is seeking a permanent shutdown of the cheat software and all related websites, restitution of "unlawful proceeds," statutory and punitive damages, legal fees, and whatever else the courts feel like piling on. It can already claim a win on one of those counts: the MizuSoft website now displays a single, forlorn line of text saying, "MizuSoft will be ceasing operations as of October 24, 2019."

Halloween has come to Rainbow Six Siege in the Doktor's Curse, a limited time event that went live today and will run until November 6. Set on a "spooky, reworked, Frankenstein version" of the Theme Park map, the mode will pit a team of five Exterminators against a squad of five Monsters, with special rewards for kills, wins, and one for just showing up.

Even though it remains a 5v5 contest of attack and defend, the gameplay promises to be considerably different from standard Six fare. The Exterminator team is composed of five Sledges, restricted to three unique hammers as weapons plus a trio of gadgets: Jackal's Eyenox Model III, Pulse's Hearbeat Sensor, and Lion's EE-ONE-D. The Monster team is made up of Lesion, Frost, Kapkan, Smoke, and Ela, who have no weapons at all—but they can deploy traps, move faster than the Exterminators, and even briefly turn invisible.

The goals are simple, and probably obvious: The attacking Exterminators must kill all the Monsters, while the defending Monsters need to survive the round in order to claim the win.

Players can pick up items from the Doktor's Curse Collection during the event, which includes skins and charms for Smoke, Kapkan, Frost, Lesion, Ela, Doc, and Bandit. A free Doktor's Curse Collection pack will be given to everyone who logs into the game while the event is live, and two more can be earned by racking up 20 kills on the event map and winning 13 rounds in the Doktor's Curse playlist. Packs are also available for direct purchase for 300 R6 credits or 12,500 Renown each, with a ten percent discount for owners of the Year 4 Pass.

More information about the Rainbow Six Siege: Doktor's Curse event is up at ubisoft.com, and you can get a closer look at all the sweet treats in the Doktor's Curse Collection in the video below.