Could this week be better for Monster Hunter: World news? Capcom announced a new jumbo expansion, Iceborne, for 2019, and then tossed in that The Witcher's Geralt will bring his monster hunting skills into the game in a crossover next year, too. Both announcements pale in comparison to what I have to share with you today, however. The most infamous Skyrim dragon has been modded into Monster Hunter: World. That's right: Thomas the Tank Engine is here.

The mod, Thomas the Eater of Elder Dragons, replaces MHW's big bad elder dragon Nergigante with the favorite train of children everywhere. He may look more innocent, but I assure you that's only because his face doesn't animate, so it's hard to see the murderous rage trapped inside. In fact, none of him animates, and his hitboxes are exactly the same as Nergigante's, making what's already a fairly challenging fight likely nightmarish and baffling. 

So much the better. Who says Thomas should be easy to kill, or should have sensible hitboxes or readable attack animations? You're doing important work, modder UberGrainy, and I appreciate you.

At this point, we're one Macho Man Randy Savage mod away from never having a good reason to play Skyrim instead of Monster Hunter ever again.

With the above Tweet Capcom has announced Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, which will add "[a] new quest rank, monsters, locales, moves, and equipment" in Autumn 2019.

Where Rathalos goes, hunters must follow. Monster Hunter: World has been updated regularly with new monsters, events and gear, but this promises to be a much bigger affair set in an icy new region.

The store will be set after the events of the main game, which hopefully means no more Zorah Magdaros missions. I'm looking forward to seeing how the devs use snow and ice as environmental hazards.

In other Monster Hunter: World news, famously competent monster slayer Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher series will turn up in the game in early 2019. Geralt was surprisingly good in Soulcalibur 6 earlier this year, so this is a crossover I can get behind.

Update: CD Projekt Red's press release does shed more light on when Geralt will arrive in the PC version—after the console releases. "The Witcher-inspired content is coming to Monster Hunter: World on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in early 2019 as a free title update, with the PC release to follow soon."

Doug Cockle reprises his role as Geralt, and the character's combat style will be reflected in-game. The quests aim to blend both games' styles. 

Original story: Geralt of Rivia will appear as part of Monster Hunter: World's next big collaboration with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The trailer above shows a little sample of what to expect. Capcom promises that you'll be able to 'step into the shoes' of Geralt, making the most of his legendary monster hunting skills, and participate in a unique quest line. 

This comes as part of a free update to the game that will be arriving in early 2019—there's no more specific date than that. The information released doesn't go into specifics on the PC version, so hopefully it'll just land at the same time as the event on consoles. I imagine for fans of both series, though, which include a bunch of PC Gamer's editors, this is a bit of a dream come true. This looks like more than just a throwaway team-up, since Geralt is fully voiced. Hopefully it'll be a pretty elaborate addition to Capcom's massive-selling game.

This isn't the only big news around Monster Hunter: World to break today—a brand new expansion, Iceborne, is on the way too. 

Capcom has released a roadmap for the PC version of Monster Hunter World, and it includes much-requested support for 21:9 ultra wide monitors. That's coming in either January or February next year as part of Title Update 5.1, but there is one caveat: cutscenes won't display at 21:9.

That's a nice quality-of-life addition – the rest of what's coming is mostly monster-related, as you might expect. Coming in December is a Universal Studios Japan Collaboration which includes new quests, weapons, armor and Palico gear, but there's also a new Arch-Tempered Vaal Hazak coming. Meanwhile, the long-awaited Final Fantasy XIV collaboration will roll out with Title Update 5.0, which ushers in the FF-themed Behemoth monster.

As for the future: expect lots of new Arch-Tempered monsters to hunt. These include a Teostra and Kushala Daora in 5.1, but later in 2019 there will be an Arch-Tempered Lunastra, Zorah and Xeno'jiiva – all accompanied by associated quests and loot.

Here's the full rundown:

The first pictures to come out of the Monster Hunter film adaptation were not particularly reassuring, with Milla Jovovich posting Monster Hunter set photos of her hanging out with fellow cast members decked out military uniforms. There wasn’t an oversized sword in sight. The latest photo, however, couldn’t come from anything other than Monster Hunter. 

It shows Jovovich as Natalie Artemis, this time no longer decked out in modern military gear, accompanied by Tony Jaa, who looks almost exactly like Monster Hunter: World’s Field Team Leader, right down to the ridiculous Giant Jawblade.

Artemis’ gear is equally inspired by Monster Hunter World, and you might recognise the swirly pattern on her top from the Odogaron chest piece, specifically the male version, from the game. And yes, that’s a slinger that she’s got strapped to her arm. She’s not wearing a specific armour set, instead opting for a mix, obviously going for the pieces with the best stats. 

The desert they’re running through, South Africa’s Atlantis Dunes, is meant to evoke Wildspire Wastes. Artemis will be traipsing across more than just the desert, however, and will visit different locations that might look familiar to players. 

So, at least it looks the part, which puts it well in front of a lot of terrible video game adaptations. Check out the synopsis below. 

Behind our world, there is another: a world of dangerous and powerful monsters that rule their domain with deadly ferocity. When Lt. Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and her loyal soldiers are transported from our world to the new world, the unflappable lieutenant receives the shock of her life. In her desperate battle for survival against enormous enemies with incredible powers and unstoppable, revolting attacks, Artemis will team up with a mysterious man who has found a way to fight back.

Cheers, IGN.

Black Friday is still a week away, but not in Monster Hunter: World. Who has time to look at a calendar when there are gargantuan beasties waiting to be pummeled? To get the ball rolling early, Fanatical has discounted the massive monster-slaying game by 33 percent. 

Both editions of Monster Hunter: World are 33 percent off, starting today at 4pm GMT and running until the same time on November 19. It’s the biggest discount the game has received yet on PC. 

The first Monster Hunter to come to PC also happens to be one of the best. Take a gander at James’ Monster Hunter: World review. He’s pretty fond of it. 

Like your character, Monster Hunter: World dresses its breathless combat in every assortment of the most arbitrarily complicated garb, all in the name of variety. It is an abyss of 'replayabilty’, an exercise in patience and observation for the ultimate payoff: an infinite black sea of invigorating dragon murder. And a new hat. 

Hitman 2, which Fanatical discounted last week, has also had its sale extended. If you fancy dressing up and murdering people, it’s 25% off until November 20, 5pm GMT. Use the HITMAN225 code to get the full discount. It applies to every edition of the game.

That should keep you up to your neck in murder this weekend.

Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info. 

Capcom does not want you, or I, or anyone else to stop hunting monsters for one damn second. On November 16, it's launching Monster Hunter: World's special crossover event with Devil May Cry, which will last for two weeks and includes a number of special items, including a Dante-themed sword and armor set. At the same time, Capcom's also going to be running another event, with a new Elder Dragon to fight: Lunastra. Both events come hot on the heels of the Halloween Harvest update, which had its own bevy of special armor and weapons, and a special 16-player raid against one of the game's biggest monsters, Kulve Taroth, which is actually still ongoing. 

For players who want to devote time to monster hunting nearly every single day, World's PC event schedule has been fantastic—maybe even a bit overwhelming. Our version of the game is playing catch-up with the console version, which launched almost seven months earlier. That's meant an accelerated, or at least reorganized, collection of these special one-off events. For example, the Devil May Cry crossover happened on consoles about three months after release, just like it is on PC. But the Kulve Taroth siege actually hit consoles in August, way after release. On PC, it came within three months.

Here's the timeline of Monster Hunter: World PC events for the rest of November.

Kulve Taroth Siege ends on November 22 at 23:59 UTC

• A 16-player fight against the big golden dragon Kulve Taroth
• Time's running out to get those unique weapons and Kulve Taroth parts
• Correction: Originally meant to end on November 15, but the event has been extended for a week due to networking issues for some players.

Devil May Cry collaboration event runs from November 16 at 0:00 UTC to November 29 at 23:59 UTC

• From the Steam update: This quest includes a new weapon, 'Dante's Devil Sword' (a charge blade), and the 'Dante α' armor set
• Beginning with the event, and continuing after, you'll be able to purchase new DLC: the Devil May Cry Dual Guns gesture and Devil May Cry sticker set

Lunastra arrives November 22

• From the Steam update: Lunastra is the blue mate of the fiery Elder Dragon Teostra. Her materials can be used to create new weapons, a unique armor set, and Palico armor.
• A new specialized tool will be added: the Temporal Mantle. This garment nullifies damage from powerful attacks by automatically evading.

There are still months of events to come down the pipe, and they're all free, which feels almost ridiculous. No big expansions or season pass of DLC—just a steady stream of new monsters to hunt, new weapons to learn how to fight with, and new armor to collect the parts for.

As a regular player, I'm also happy to see that Capcom is still making improvements to the PC version of the game, which was quite demanding on release and had a few bad crashing and connection issues. As far as I know, those crash bugs were quickly fixed, and I rarely have connection issues, though judging by the game's recent Steam updates, some players started having problems after a recent patch. Getting disconnected is frustrating in a game that's all about playing with a group, but Capcom at least seems diligent about fixing those problems. And it's still improving the PC version in other ways, too. World's getting a few nice new PC options on November 22, which include:

• "DOF (Depth of Field)" will be added to the Advanced Graphics Settings. This feature allows you to enable/disable the functionality to adjust focus by changing the camera distance.
• "Vignette Effects" will be added to the Advanced Graphics Settings. This feature allows you to enable/disable shading of screen edges by adjusting the brightness between the center and peripheral areas.
• A preset function will be added to the Keyboard Settings, allowing you to save changes you made to the key configuration.

If you haven't played much Monster Hunter: World since launch, November's going to be a great time to jump back in. Go stab Kulve Taroth in the face a few times.

The Monster Hunter series is all about hunting supernatural monsters in strange fantasy lands. The Monster Hunter film, which boasts a $60 million budget, will depart from this theme a fair bit, if early images from the set are anything to go by.

Milla Jovovich, who will star in the film, posted a series of images from the set on Instagram earlier this month, and they look more like a Call of Duty or Battlefield set than they do a Monster Hunter one. But that's not entirely unexpected: if you've been following the project closely, you'll know that the film revolves around a United Nations military team who enter a portal into a different dimension. Presumably this different dimension will have monsters in it. And hopefully some environments similar to the ones in Monster Hunter World.

The film went into production in September and is directed by Resident Evil movie director Paul W.S. Anderson. Check out the photos below:

If you're a Monster Hunter: World veteran, you've likely been waiting a long time for Kulve Taroth to appear in the PC version. This golden Elder Dragon first stomped onto consoles back in April, before the PC version was even released, and hasn't returned since. Requiring a full team of 16 hunters to fight, Kulve Taroth is a boss unlike anything else in Monster Hunter: World. And, until recently, PC players had no clue when they'd get the chance to fight Kulve Taroth.

Thanks to a post on Monster Hunter: World's Steam blog by Capcom, we now know that the Kulve Taroth Siege quest will be available to fight for a limited time on PC starting November 2 at 5PM PT until November 15 at 4:59PM PT.

During that time, hunters will be able to form a group of 16 players and embark on a mission to break Kulve Taroth's horns. You won't actually be hunting alongside all 16 players, but the raid will be broken up into groups of four each working together to complete the same objectives. Doing so will reward you with new 'Appraisal Weapons' and materials to forge and upgrade new equipment for you and your Palico sidekick.

Hunting Kulve Taroth won't be easy. You'll need to be HR16, which requires fully beating the main campaign (but that's not the hard part). Kulve Taroth is a real bastard to fight. Fortunately, Monster Hunter pro Arekks Gaming has a great step-by-step video guide you can follow.

This quest will come packaged as part of the third title update, which arrives earlier on October 30. This update includes some bug fixes, a new HDR mode, and some updates to the keyboard control scheme to make it a bit more intuitive.

PC players have had to wait quite a bit, so hopefully the rewards will be worth it when Kulve Taroth Siege opens on November 2.

I love Monster Hunter World's Palicos. My feline companion rides with me into battle, heals me when I need healing (sometimes), and occasionally even puts a monster to sleep. He looks like kind of a smarmy wise-ass, as most cats are. But I still know in my heart of hearts that dogs are the superior pets, and I love that someone went to great lengths to replace Monster Hunter's palicos with pups in the Canine Palico mod "for those who prefer dogs. Now with sounds!"

There are three things I love about this mod.

1. I can't stop laughing at this picture of a bunch of dogs in armor. Adorable.

2. The earnestness with which modder UberGrainy explains this mod's creation: "I'm not particularly a cat or dog fan, but I know some people wanted a dog partner instead of a cat, so I wanted to see if this kind of MOD is possible. I was trying to make it look like a Shiba dog, but I think the neck needs to be a lot fatter, which causes clipping with most armor. So I reverted the neck to a thinner version."

3. The fact that the dogs still kind of look like cats, which just makes the whole thing even funnier.

Check out our full guide to the best Monster Hunter World mods here, which are mostly more practical additions. (But also less cute.)