THE SPIRIT LIFT is ready to launch! Join us in celebrating the announcement of the release date with our new trailer from today’s Indie Horror Showcase!






As big indie horror fans, we’re so honored to in this year’s show. Check out the rest of the Indie Horror Showcase presented by The MIX and DreadXP.

We’ve had the most daily players ever this week! And special thanks to those who have given feedback. Many of your notes have been added to our final game fix list!

We are working on a demo update as well, so stay tuned for more news on that. Perhaps sooner than you may think?

Hey, everyone.

Our last contact has been a while ago, in Build Update #060, when we released Patch V1035.1.

Although we usually reserve our Intel Reports for longer periods of quiet between major releases, Patch V1035.2 is taking a lot longer than initially anticipated, and we thought it was important to give everyone a quick heads-up on what’s going on behind the scenes.

🙌 Before we get into more detail, rest assured that GROUND BRANCH continues to be developed normally by the same folks you already know and love/hate, plus a few new faces! We're simply having to do some more refactoring to ensure longevity and consistency in our systems.

With that out of the way, let’s get into it.

As we continue development, we’ve made another difficult but crucial decision to refactor the game’s core logic—including all game modes/missions as well as much of the UI, the Mod Kit and more—away from Lua and into native C++ and UE4 Blueprint. This foundational change is the main source behind this delay, but we are confident it’s the right long-term path for GROUND BRANCH.

Our initial Lua-based systems ultimately proved unfit for purpose: over time, more and more critical logic was pushed into C++ and Blueprint to meet performance and complexity demands, which ironically negated Lua’s main benefit: rapid iteration. The system became redundant, and we simply lack the resources to properly develop and maintain two separate scripting environments.

💡 Though mods will also be affected and that is of course unfortunate, we have assessed that the vast majority of Lua-tagged mods are actually maps created in the Mission Editor, with only a tiny fraction being true Lua-based projects.

A proper map editor will ultimately provide more power and flexibility than the current Mission Editor + Lua combo could offer. The possibilities exposed by robust Blueprint support far outweigh what our current Lua systems can achieve, and it aligns with modern development practices. Also, new programmers joining the project are already familiar with UE4’s native C++ and Blueprint workflow, allowing them to become productive much faster.

While this transition means a much longer wait than we’d like, it paves the way for a more stable, performant, and moddable GROUND BRANCH for years to come. We appreciate your patience as we work to get this right!

Other updates and changes
One of the more popular PvP game modes in the game, Hostage Rescue, will finally return in Patch V1035.2 as all game modes are rebuilt with C++/Blueprint logic.

The update will also introduce a new Kit Restrictions system for server-side customization, a complete door rework to (among other things) hopefully resolve long-standing replication issues alongside new VFX and the return of frag and smoke grenade abilities for enemy AI.

On the gear front, you can expect new weapons like a stock (factory) G36K carbine, the AUG A1 and F88SA2 assault rifles, new Galil variants, as well as updated models for the HWS 553 (and a couple of new holo sights!), a remade ASR, revised M110 and M110K1 models to fix proportions, a new MS2000 IR strobe, and a cleanup of the Tan/Coyote Brown platforms and pouches, among other updates.

HWS 551 holo sight

Updated platforms and pouches in Coyote Brown (formerly Tan), as well as the new MS2000 strobe model and the HWS 552 holo sight on the M16A4 rifle

Galil SAR

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We hope to have Patch V1035.2 ready in a few weeks.

Stay tuned and thank you for sticking with us!

Find Eddie Velvet.

Private investigator Red Walker finds himself in Silver Pines, a place half-abandoned, half-forgotten, in the middle of nowhere on a job to track down Eddie Velvet. A musician who has vanished. As the case begins to reveal a dark past, Walker soon slips into a strange and nightmarish descent beyond his control.

The Kind of Moment That Lasts Forever

Embark on a journey filled with dread and atmosphere. Haunted by shadows of the past, Silver Pines is waiting to reveal its dark secrets.

Survival Horror Gameplay 

A love letter to classic survival horror. Fight or avoid the horrors of the town as you scavenge for resources and solutions to the puzzles blocking your way.

Metroidvania Navigation 

Filled with locked doors and hidden paths, every turn holds an uncovered clue, a resource, or something waiting in the dark. With better tools and weapons more and more of the town becomes accessible.

🌲 Discover the mysteries of Silver Pines

💀 Survive against nightmarish horrors

🧰 Manage scarce resources

🔦 Explore a haunting and surreal world

🧩 Solve a variety of engaging puzzles

Follow Silver Pines on X

Follow Silver Pines on TikTok

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2333000/Silver_Pines/

Patch 7

Hey Spankrs!

This patch has more of the usual small fixes and polish, but with a larger addition!

Introducing... the Abstractulator! This can now be found in your HQ and is a central spot to collect and view all the lore documents you find. Unfortunately you may need to go back to previous locations to collect the lore form the TVs and notes, but these are now counted as secrets and can be found on the map.

Another of the more important updates can be found in the Control Settings. You can turn on a setting to make the stick stiff to avoid too much movement, for those of you who requested a feature like this.

The final notable change is that I made the Old_Friends turret level slightly easier to help with getting the Guardian Angel achievement. You can now auto fire, the fire rate is faster, and the spawn rate is slightly reduced on the final wave.

• Added fire to hand in fireplaces in HQ,

• Added water splash to koi pond,

• Added water splash to water fountain in Greenhouse,

• Added water splash to Rabbit_Hole,

• Added water splash to Something_Amiss,

• Updated the scream in Something_Amiss,

• Fixed long pause if you skip dialog in Dont_Spank,

• Fixed typo in game shader compile message,

• Added new message option in Shader Compile screen,

• Added new fan art!,

• Added effect to help players see the surprise in Surprise,

• Added in special critical spank words,

• Removed Freecam unlock from demo, as Free_Cammin is now in the demo,

• Updated things in demo kitchen to be breakable/interactable,

• Added in whole new song hidden in the game in part of the upcoming ARG,

• Added setting to make the stick stiffer to avoid motion sickness from too much movement,

• Added some glitch effects to various locations in the game,

• Added autofire to the turret in Old_Friends,

• Increased fire rate by 25% in Old_Friends,

• Adjusted spawn rate to make things slightly easier in the final wave of Old_Friends,

• Updated the objectives in Dark_Maze to track reamining power crystals,

• Added the Abstractulator to the HQ. Now you can collect lore notes and see them all in one place! Unfortunately with the new system you'll need to go back to collect the notes, but they are marked as secrets on the map!,

• Added the start of a hidden ARG in the HQ

After hearing the community’s feedback, we’re happy to announce that the optimization process of Courier Bay is being rolled out in stages. Our goal is simple: lighter deliveries, smoother frames, and an even more vibrant city.

Courier Bay is a living ecosystem — with NPCs walking around, cars on the streets, and Leo racing against time — and we want everything to run smoothly for everyone.

In this update, we focused on something crucial: 🧠 The NPC system has been completely restructured! It was previously consuming too much memory and impacting performance. With the new optimizations, we’ve achieved a noticeable FPS boost.

This is just the first delivery (pun intended 😅) of many more to come. We’re preparing more improvements and optimizations to make every day in Courier Bay a better experience.

💬 Join us on Discord and share your feedback:

https://discord.gg/HXZFDTYZ

🚚💨 The journey of Courier Bay is just getting started.

It’s finally time to step into the dugout, with FM26 Advanced Access Beta now live and playable across Steam and the Epic Games Store.

If you’ve pre-purchased from a SEGA-approved digital retailer, the FM26 Advanced Access Beta is now fully playable*. You can kick-off a single-player career or battle for bragging rights in an Online Career. As with previous editions, any progress made in Career mode can be carried forward to full release from 4 November.

You can continue to pre-purchase FM26 with a 10% saving and gain entry to the Advanced Access Beta** until the game is fully launched.

Made with the Unity engine for the first time, FM26 sets new foundations for you to define your football destiny. 

You’ll step into a game that has been rebuilt for the future, where a revamped interface greets you, tailored to streamline exploration for all players - letting you access deeper details and features at your own pace. The UI has been completely reinvented and although it may take some more seasoned players time to become accustomed, we truly believe it will make your experience smoother and more enjoyable as you get used to it.

Immerse yourself fully in richer, more atmospheric match days, craft your footballing philosophy with In and Out of Possession formations and break new ground with the introduction of Women’s Football.

Please note that as this is a Beta version you may encounter some bugs and glitches that our developers will be working tirelessly to address in future updates.

Your feedback is essential to this process – if you find issues, please use the Report Bug button located in the bottom-right corner of every game screen. You can also log them on our community forums.

For a refresher on this year’s new additions, check out our Feature Blogs for a more detailed look.

Purchases from Steam

Simply quit and restart Steam and you’ll see that FM26 is available to install.

Purchases from Epic

Quit and restart the Epic Games Launcher and you’ll see that FM26 is available to install.

Purchases from any other participating digital retailer

Your retailer should have sent you a confirmation email with a code, or a link to redeem your code which can be activated on Steam by following the instructions below:

1. Launch the Steam client software and log into your Steam account or create a new, free account

2. Click the Games Menu

3. Choose Activate a Product on Steam

4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the activation process

* The Store, Steam Workshop and both the Pre and In-Game Editor are not available in the Advanced Access Beta but will follow at launch. 

**The Advanced Access Beta also contains information that is still under approval process by right holders and may contain data that does not, at this time, accurately reflect real world data. For context, some club and player assets may be absent during Advanced Access.

Drone Perspective is now available on your native language.

Kudos to our community members who made it possible:

• Burmese - Linn Htet Myat

• Chinese - PrinDaisynha

• French - Warrex

• Russian - \[REDACTED]

• Polish - Mateusz Łabuda

• Spanish - PrinDaisynha

• Ukranian - Volodymyr Snow Laptiev

You can change localization in Settings menu.

If you want to help with localization or you would like to see specific translation or you discovered a mistake - you are very welcome to join us on Discord.

Font style improved significantly across the whole game to preserve expressive consistency across all vailable languages.

Main story line:

HUD:

InGameFiles:

• Fixed characters skins in the last secret level.

• Added virtual cursor for systems without native mouse cursor.

Localization was the last mandatory feature before the shoft of focus on multiplayer and skirmish battles against more complex AI.

Your support matters and makes this possible.

If you enjoy this game remember to leave it a Steam Reveiw!

Always yours,

Demetri

It’s finally time to step into the dugout, with FM26 Advanced Access Beta now live and playable across Steam and the Epic Games Store.

If you’ve pre-purchased from a SEGA-approved digital retailer, the FM26 Advanced Access Beta is now fully playable*. You can kick-off a single-player career or battle for bragging rights in an Online Career. As with previous editions, any progress made in Career mode can be carried forward to full release from 4 November.

You can continue to pre-purchase FM26 with a 10% saving and gain entry to the Advanced Access Beta** until the game is fully launched.

Made with the Unity engine for the first time, FM26 sets new foundations for you to define your football destiny. 

You’ll step into a game that has been rebuilt for the future, where a revamped interface greets you, tailored to streamline exploration for all players - letting you access deeper details and features at your own pace. The UI has been completely reinvented and although it may take some more seasoned players time to become accustomed, we truly believe it will make your experience smoother and more enjoyable as you get used to it.

Immerse yourself fully in richer, more atmospheric match days, craft your footballing philosophy with In and Out of Possession formations and break new ground with the introduction of Women’s Football.

Please note that as this is a Beta version you may encounter some bugs and glitches that our developers will be working tirelessly to address in future updates.

Your feedback is essential to this process – if you find issues, please use the Report Bug button located in the bottom-right corner of every game screen. You can also log them on our community forums.

For a refresher on this year’s new additions, check out our Feature Blogs for a more detailed look.

Purchases from Steam

Simply quit and restart Steam and you’ll see that FM26 is available to install.

Purchases from Epic

Quit and restart the Epic Games Launcher and you’ll see that FM26 is available to install.

Purchases from any other participating digital retailer

Your retailer should have sent you a confirmation email with a code, or a link to redeem your code which can be activated on Steam by following the instructions below:

1. Launch the Steam client software and log into your Steam account or create a new, free account

2. Click the Games Menu

3. Choose Activate a Product on Steam

4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the activation process

* The Store, Steam Workshop and both the Pre and In-Game Editor are not available in the Advanced Access Beta but will follow at launch. 

**The Advanced Access Beta also contains information that is still under approval process by right holders and may contain data that does not, at this time, accurately reflect real world data. For context, some club and player assets may be absent during Advanced Access.

My next game is coming out November 6th 2025! That's very soon. We dropped a new trailer to celebrate which you can find on the Steam page.

As always - please also do wishlist while you're there. It really, really helps with discoverability!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3919530/It_Takes_a_War/

Fallout 76: Burning Springs takes players to a new region in one of its largest map expansions yet December 2. In this free update for all Fallout 76 players, explore post-nuclear Ohio, meet new characters and take on all-new Bounty Hunting missions featuring The Ghoul from Amazon’s Fallout television series, (voiced by actor Walton Goggins!)

• LEARN MORE

Enjoy discounts up to 75% off during the Fallout Day Sale! Find deals on the Fallout franchise including Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 - check below for specific platforms and dates:

• Steam: October 17 - October 24

• Xbox: October 21- October 27

• PlayStation: October 22 - November 5

For a limited time, players can also save up to 50% on the Appalachia Starter Bundle for Fallout 76 on Xbox, PlayStation, Microsoft Store and Steam. Collecting five Scrap Kits, five Repair Kits, 1,100 Atoms to spend in the Atomic Shop and the Piper’s Outfit and Cap cosmetic item, make a name for yourself in Appalachia with this nifty bundle!

Sample a selection of Fallout 76’s premium membership benefits for free during the Fallout 1st Limited Preview! From October 21 – October 28, Fallout 76 players can head over to the in-game Atomic Shop and pick up the Fallout 1st Limited Trial at no additional cost.

While the Limited Trial is active, players can enjoy perks such as access to the Scrapbox for storing unlimited crafting supplies, Aid Box for stashing your precious healing items, Survival Tent to pitch a quick place to rest (and fast travel!) on the road and even a 10% boost to S.C.O.R.E. earned during Fallout 76’s latest in-game Season.

Upgrade to a full Fallout 1st membership for even more premium benefits including exclusive cosmetic rewards, access to your own Private Adventure and Custom Worlds servers, a monthly gift of Atoms to spend at the Atomic Shop and much more!

• EXPLORE FALLOUT 1ST