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Yep, here’s a third part of the news:

The United Nations asked Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead if it'd give a talk on psychological manipulation: ‘Could we brainwash an entire community to fight for a fascist state? … Would we be okay with that? Turns out, yeah’
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/the-united-nations-asked-helldivers-2-studio-arrowhead-if-itd-give-a-talk-on-psychological-manipulation-could-we-brainwash-an-entire-community-to-fight-for-a-fascist-state-would-we-be-okay-with-that-turns-out-yeah/
If you’ve played Helldivers 2 for more than about 15 seconds, you’re probably well-acquainted with the game’s wry sense of humor. A la Starship Troopers, the game sees players dying in droves as disposable soldiers in the name of a theoretical democratic utopia—not that they’d ever see it, as they’re all too busy getting torn apart by giant bugs and landing supply drops on each other’s heads.
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But it wasn’t just players whose heads were turned by Helldivers sardonic spin on imperial warfare; they also garnered the attention of a little organization you might have heard of before called the United Nations.
"Actually, we got a message from the UN asking if we want to talk, in some form, about psychological defense against manipulation," added Pilestedt. This might all sound like the game is getting a little too real, but he said the key was in finding the right tone and using the imagery in an almost educational way: "We do it all in fun and good spirits, and we actually try to get people to recognize the science of what is a totalitarian state. If you start wearing the same uniform as everybody else and do salutes constantly, you might be in a totalitarian regime."

Helldivers 2's Johan Pilestedt says developers need to start taking more risks: 'Safe bets are a death sentence for the studios that try to make them'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/helldivers-2s-johan-pilestedt-says-developers-need-to-start-taking-more-risks-safe-bets-are-a-death-sentence-for-the-studios-that-try-to-make-them/
Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt says the game industry has a "convergence problem" because everyone is chasing the same "big next thing," a type of risk aversion he believes has the industry "caught in a vicious circle of death and rebirth."
Speaking at a Game Developers Conference panel attended by PC Gamer, Pilestedt pointed the finger at the rise of live service games, particularly battle royales, as symptomatic of a bigger problem for the industry: Developers all start trying to "compete for the same niche" when the next big trend kicks off, which leaves behind countless numbers of gamers who want to play other things, and are willing to spend money on them, but don't have the opportunity.
>> Another bit of advice: don’t skip pre-production. That made the development of Helldivers 2 take 4 more years.

Arrowhead’s CEO got a call from PlayStation when he said players could save their money and wait to buy Helldivers 2 until the servers were fixed: They ‘asked me what the f*** I’m smoking’
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/arrowheads-ceo-got-a-call-from-playstation-when-he-said-players-could-save-their-money-and-wait-to-buy-helldivers-2-until-the-servers-were-fixed-they-asked-me-what-the-f-im-smoking/
Helldivers 2 certainly had no trouble selling, torpedoing the series into one of the biggest co-op sensations around and an overnight hit for PlayStation as its fastest-selling game ever. Arrowhead had never made a game so monumental before, and any who were there for its anarchic first year remember the growing pains it felt along the way—particularly in regard to its servers, which buckled under the weight of an unexpectedly massive playerbase.
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After seeing that the game was selling unimaginably fast and the problems that created for anyone trying to keep it online, Pilestedt cautioned anyone who was wary of the game’s issues that they didn’t actually have to buy it this second in a post on X, saying "If you have no cash, get it later. While we made a really fun game it's worth waiting until the servers can support the capacity."
In his GDC talk, he reiterated his point: "If you spend your last dollar to be stuck in server queues, I’d be heartbroken." Seems pretty reasonable, right? Well, he went on to say that the suits at PlayStation immediately swooped in and set the record straight.

Over 110 players and 10,000 units clash as this free RTS celebrates its growing multiplayer scene with some of the biggest multiplayer battles ever fought
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/over-110-players-and-10-000-units-clash-as-this-free-rts-celebrates-its-growing-multiplayer-scene-with-some-of-the-biggest-multiplayer-battles-ever-fought/
What’s the largest match you’ve ever played in an RTS? 4v4 battles can be pretty big. 16 or even 32 players are pushing into the realm of the absurd. But how about 110 players trading artillery fire and nuclear missiles? That’s just unreasonable, and a fitting showcase for Beyond All Reason, an increasingly popular free indie RTS inspired by mega-scale mech war classics Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. If you want to see a truly absurd number of robots exploding, you’ve come to the right place.
Normally, matches aren’t allowed to get this big in the game (mostly due to anything but a seriously high-end gaming rig buckling under the strain), but the developers behind this community passion project decided to celebrate their community Discord hitting 40,000 users by going large, and hosting a series of mega-scale battles last month, with a theoretical limit of 160 player matches with over 15,000 units shared between them.

It's turtle time: Endless Legend 2's first faction is the fortification-loving Kin of Sheredyn
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/its-turtle-time-endless-legend-2s-first-faction-is-the-fortification-loving-kin-of-sheredyn/
I am not a brave man. It's one of the reasons I have a ferocious cockapoo protecting me night and day. With that in mind, Endless Legend 2's first faction reveal is exactly my kinda thing. The Kin of Sheredyn is a faction for turtlers. "I think they are custom made for you," says game director Derek Paxton, who I spoke with recently to get the lowdown on the 4X's first empire.

'A developer who actually listens': Marvel Rivals' devs fix accidental Peni Parker nerf just 9 short hours after saying they would
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/a-developer-who-actually-listens-marvel-rivals-devs-fix-accidental-peni-parker-nerf-just-9-short-hours-after-saying-they-would/
One of the most recent bugs to appear in Marvel Rivals is a small issue involving Peni Parker and her Arachno-Mines, fortunately, the devs spotted the issue and began working on a fix straight away.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows sneakily tones down the mess players can make across Japan’s religious sites in its day one patch
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/assassins-creed/assassins-creed-shadows-sneakily-tones-down-the-mess-players-can-make-across-japans-religious-sites-in-its-day-one-patch/
Even the rowdiest of samurai knows when and where to not make a mess, it seems. Accompanying its launch today, Ubisoft have rolled out a small initial patch for the hotly debated sneaky sandbox Assassin’s Creed Shadows. While some of the changes are obvious and important fixes (such as players no longer getting stuck inside movable objects), the full patch notes—provided to IGN—and not included in any other public facing fashion thus far include some unusual tweaks to limit the amount of havoc players can wreak on Japan’s historical sites of worship.