Quick Hits

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's beta just got its first proper patch — Infinity Ward has added a new map and mode while toning down footstep audio and addressing weapon lethality after day-one feedback.
• Arc Raiders is pressing pause on Expeditions: Embark Studios says the fifth Expedition, opening next month, will be the last until early 2027 while the studio makes "major improvements" to the system.
• Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 launches August 27, 2026 on Switch 2 (and Switch), with Metal Gear Solid 4 finally making the jump — Nintendo Life already has a Switch 2 vs. PS5 vs. PS3 graphics comparison ready to pore over.
• The alleged GTA 6 leaker isn't slowing down: per IGN, 'CyberLeek' has released two more gameplay videos even as Take-Two subpoenas Microsoft and Discord for identifying information.
• Microsoft will no longer share sales data with analyst firm Circana, per Destructoid — another sign of tightening lips around industry numbers.

Call of Duty

If you jumped into the Modern Warfare 4 beta's opening day and got ruined by footstep audio, good news: Eurogamer reports Infinity Ward's first proper update is now live, adding a new map and a new mode while directly responding to complaints about footstep noise and weapon lethality — PC Gamer frames it as a rapid-response patch to beta feedback. And for the long game, Destructoid has a full rundown of every Modern Warfare 4 Mastery camo across Multiplayer, DMZ, and Warzone. The grind machine rolls on.

Arc Raiders

Bittersweet news for Raiders: Eurogamer confirms the fifth Expedition opens next month but will be the last players see until early 2027, with PC Gamer reporting the hiatus is so Embark can make "major improvements" to the system. Destructoid frames it as ARC Raiders players simply unable to "catch a break," since Expeditions are the endgame loop where you reset progress for goodies and fresh reasons to play — but a deliberate pause to overhaul a core system beats letting it go stale. Fingers crossed it comes back swinging.

Pokémon & Nintendo

• Snake season is here: Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 arrives August 27, 2026 on Switch 2 and Switch, and Nintendo Life's side-by-side comparison puts Metal Gear Solid 4 on Switch 2, PS5, and PS3 under the microscope. IGN, meanwhile, takes a retrospective swing at MGS4 as "the flawed masterpiece Kojima didn't want to make."
• TCG deal alert: IGN reports Pokémon Elite Trainer Boxes are surprisingly easy to grab on Amazon right now — genuinely notable when ETBs have been as hot as a Torkoal using Sunny Day on store shelves for months.
• Community corner is thriving: a fan group performed the stunning Obsidian Fieldlands theme from Pokémon Legends: Arceus live in concert as part of Pokémon 30th anniversary celebrations, artist insoffnio shared custom Gen 5-style overworld trainer sprites and animations, and one painter's adorable Noibat portrait comes with an open call for what to paint next.
• Also worth a click: Nintendo Life's picks from Nintendo's European 'Back To School' range (Peach pouches, Pikmin paperclips, Zelda "zatchels"), a Box Art Brawl duel for SimCity on SNES, and IGN's weekend deals — which include the Nintendo Switch 2 itself, plus Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Resident Evil Requiem, and Civilization VII.

Indie Games

The week's biggest indie bummer comes courtesy of Rock Paper Shotgun: Neverway, the hazy pixel-art horror farming sim and life-sim/RPG hybrid from one of the artists behind Celeste and the composer of Fez, has been pushed to 2027. The silver lining? A fresh look at some of the NPCs you'll be able to smooch when it finally arrives.

Steam & PC

• The GTA 6 leak saga keeps escalating: IGN reports 'CyberLeek' has dropped two further gameplay videos despite Take-Two's subpoenas requesting identifying information from Microsoft and Discord.
• Epic Games Store check-in: PC Gamer quotes a Newzoo analyst saying "I don't see how they can recover at this point" on whether the store can turn things around. Ouch.
• It's a two-betas, two-Steam-top-sellers weekend, per PC Gamer — Wardogs and Modern Warfare 4 charting simultaneously. Two very different shooters, same FOMO.
• In gloriously unhinged hardware news, someone got Zork running on a Steam Controller's internal hardware (PC Gamer calls it "risky business"), and a modder turned Grand Theft Auto 5 into Pokémon Go — "Don't tell Nintendo," they say. Our lips are sealed.

Gaming Roundup

• A surprise "legacy patch" will finally fix Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter's mistake-filled localization a year after launch — Kotaku says it should end a months-long debate between fans.
• Dave Bautista is officially the new Kratos for Amazon's God of War series, PC Gamer confirms.
• A lovely bit of FPS history from PC Gamer: the most profound objective in the Halo series was "spiritually inspired" by the nuke sequence in Modern Warfare 2.
• And GameSpot's "Cheap Week" is highlighting games you only need one copy of to play with friends — proof couch co-op still has some fight left in it.