St0n3 won Blood Run: Red October on 25 October, recovering from a 0-2 winners-final loss to WiseGenie to beat him 3-2 in the grand final. St0n3 reached the rematch by defeating Keltz 2-0 in the lower final. Keltz placed third and PepCo fourth.

The rivalry has become a fixture: St0n3 and WiseGenie have met in four consecutive Blood Run finals and won two titles each. WiseGenie has reached the final at five straight events.

Arena and gameplay update

The tournament used the Bloodrun update released earlier that day, including revised versions of Tech Zone and Acid Base.

Tech Zone has wider routes around Mega Health and Lightning Gun, a higher ceiling above Mega Health, rebalanced lighting and a flatter teleporter corridor. Its remaining Quake III Arena sounds and jumppad assets have also been replaced.

Acid Base gets redesigned teleporters, more visible column detail, ambient sounds and acid in place of the neutral liquid. Players can no longer place totems above Red Armor. Both arenas also lose wall logos and receive texture adjustments.

Beyond the maps, Plasma Gun knockback drops from 100 to 75 ups. The UI adds support for password-protected servers and a vertical mouse-inversion option; resetting pitch now preserves inversion.

Sources: Results | Update details | Bloodrun PTS | Red October

maxter won NAQCL Duel Tournament #78 in Quake Champions on 25 October, beating Keltz 3-1 in the grand final. Thri11er finished third and Yup fourth.

It was a familiar ending: maxter had beaten Keltz 2-1 in the winners final, then repeated the same two scorelines from their Estoty #223 meetings two days earlier. Keltz had won their earlier NAQCL #76 final 3-0, so this was a useful turnaround for maxter.

Before the finals, maxter beat St0n3 and dramiS 2-0. Thri11er's lower-bracket run included wins over klyb, dramiS and Yup before Keltz stopped him 2-0 in the lower final.

The $100 prize pool was split $50 for maxter, $30 for Keltz and $20 for Thri11er.

Sources: Plus Forward | Bracket | NAQCL

250 FPS Quake Live League Season 6 has confirmed its ten-player Division 2 lineup and increased the prize pool from $300 to $400.

The field is st0n3, rell, swex, dem0n, el1k, sCoopY, mijkeee, Radist, WiseGenie and dazat0r. This is the league's first season with a second division.

The winner receives $200, the runner-up $100, and third and fourth place $50 each. The announcement also provisionally lists invitations to Season 7 Division 1 for the top two finishers; that promotion detail is still preliminary.

Players will arrange their matches individually rather than following Division 1's fixed match-day schedule. Opening pairings include st0n3 vs sCoopY, dem0n vs el1k, swex vs Radist, dem0n vs WiseGenie and el1k vs dazat0r.

Sources: 250 FPS | Plus Forward | Tournament | 250 FPS

k1llsen won EGB Three Map QL Cup #1 on 29 October without dropping a map, beating cherepoff 2-0 in both the winners final and grand final. He takes $40 of the $50 prize pool, with $10 going to cherepoff. dazator finished third and H3LLDOWN fourth.

The bigger surprises came earlier. cherepoff sent AGENT into the lower bracket, where a win over overqill bought him one more round before dazator ended his run in 7th-8th place. cYpheR lost to ARSENY and then H3LLDOWN, finishing 9th-11th.

k1llsen's route included wins over imijkeee and ARSENY before the two meetings with cherepoff. Meanwhile, cherepoff had to survive a 2-1 lower-final win over dazator to earn another shot at the title.

Sources: Plus Forward | Bracket | EGB

maxter won Estoty Duel Tournament #223 in Quake Champions on 23 October, beating Keltz 3-1 in the grand final. It is his 11th title in the series, putting him level with ZenAkU on the all-time winners list.

maxter beat Karwik 2-0 and Coffee by Tomo 2-0 before defeating Keltz 2-1 in the winners final. Keltz returned through the lower final with a 2-0 win over St0n3, but lost the rematch for the title.

St0n3 finished third after a lower-bracket run that ended with a win over Thri11er, who placed fourth. The event had a $100 prize pool.

This is maxter's second Estoty victory in four tournaments, following his win at #220.

Sources: Plus Forward report, results.

AGENT won the first Frontier One Map Cup in Quake Live on 24 October, coming through the lower bracket to beat k1llsen 2-0 in the grand final. ash finished third and dazator fourth.

ash sent AGENT down with a 2-1 win in the upper semifinals. AGENT then beat ARSENY and dazator before winning the rematch against ash 2-0 in the lower final. k1llsen had reached the final without losing a series, including 2-0 victories over dazator and ash, but lost both maps against AGENT.

The $500 prize pool paid $200 to AGENT, $100 to k1llsen and $60 to ash. The event began with groups followed by a double-elimination playoff, with every match played on Tortured - Frontier Edition. Players had five days to prepare after the map reveal.

Frontier's website also provides match replays and detailed statistics, including weapon use, item pickups and damage, alongside a 2D replay showing player movement around the arena.

Source: Plus Forward report and bracket.

Valve has rolled out a batch of updates across the Steam store, Remote Play and SteamOS. Personal Calendar has left Steam Labs, HDR streaming is getting more controls in the client beta, and SteamOS 3.9 is now on the stable channel.

Personal Calendar leaves Labs

Steam's Personal Calendar became a full store feature on 23 October, following its introduction as a Labs experiment in October 2025. It is available from the store homepage and the Personal Calendar page.

The calendar recommends recently released and upcoming games across an eight-week horizon. It uses the games you spend the most time playing to find players with similar habits, then looks at what those players have been playing or wishlisting. Briefly trying a game should have little effect; putting substantial time into a new favourite can change the recommendations.

The system is retrained daily. Filters and display options cover wishlisted games, Early Access titles and DLC, while developers can supply planned Early Access-to-1.0 dates. Valve says calendar placements are algorithmic and cannot be purchased.

Remote Play HDR overhaul in beta

The 22 October Steam client beta adds an advanced HDR setting with Automatic, On and Off options. Automatic follows whether HDR content is enabled; On keeps HDR active and allows increased brightness for SDR content. A brightness slider has also been added to the streaming overlay.

HDR capture now supports desktop Linux through PipeWire and streaming from macOS, alongside existing game and Windows desktop support. HDR streaming is enabled again on Steam Deck OLED, and Android phones running Android 15 or newer can use it through the beta Steam Link app.

These are Remote Play streaming changes in the beta client. Android users also need the Steam Link beta for the new HDR support.

SteamOS 3.9 reaches stable

Valve released build 3.9.5 to all users on 23 October. The release updates the Arch Linux base, moves Desktop Mode from KDE Plasma 6.4.3 to 6.7.3 and rebases the kernel on Linux 7.2.

For Steam Deck owners, Valve lists reduced idle power consumption when no audio is playing. Other fixes address hidden Wi-Fi networks failing to connect on the first attempt, the Disable Frame Limiter toggle failing with VRR enabled, and frame limits producing lower-than-intended FPS on some external displays.

The update improves Steam Frame wireless-adapter support and fixes Remote Play on Steam Machine when booting without an external display. It also revokes compromised eMudhra certificate-authority certificates.

Preliminary hibernation support is included, but is not exposed in Game Mode and remains disabled on Steam Deck because of an outstanding driver bug.

Sources: Steam News, Steam client beta, SteamOS release notes, Steam.

Update, 25 October: AGENT, Fog and k1llsen each won both of their matches on the opening day of 250 FPS Quake Live League Season 6 Division 1.

AGENT opened with a 2-0 win over fire_bot, then beat Nitrino 2-1. Fog also defeated fire_bot and Nitrino, both by 2-1 scores. k1llsen closed the day with a 2-0 win over cherepoff and a 2-1 victory over cYpheR.

Opening-day results

• AGENT 2-0 fire_bot
• Nitrino 1-2 AGENT
• Fog 2-1 fire_bot
• Nitrino 1-2 Fog
• k1llsen 2-0 cherepoff
• cYpheR 1-2 k1llsen

Match VODs are available through the tournament page, with English coverage from ShaftasticTV.

The 12-player Division 1 field is cYpheR, AGENT, ash, pavel, k1llsen, cherepoff, Spart1e, H3LLDOWN, ARSENY, Fog, Nitrino and fire_bot. fire_bot replaced baksteen after finishing runner-up in the second and fourth qualifiers.

The organisers have also been assembling Division 2, with a $300 prize pool and additional prizes supplied by Redragon.

Sources: results and VODs, opening schedule, lineup announcement.

Frontier Gaming has interviewed proZaC and baksteen ahead of its first Quake Live One Map Cup, with both discussing the format and the difficulty of bringing new players into arena FPS.

proZaC sees the short preparation window as a test of creativity and adaptation, but doubts that a new format can revive Quake Live given its demanding learning curve. His advice to newcomers is to find someone of similar ability, improve together and watch demos.

baksteen sees the cup as a chance to test maps for use in other leagues. He expects preparation time and the ability to learn quickly to decide the winners. On Quake's future, he argues that classic gameplay can still work with modern presentation, proper tutorials and matchmaking.

Both interviews were published on 21 October. Frontier One Map Cup #1 takes place on 24 October, with all matches played on Tortured - Frontier Edition.

Sources: proZaC, baksteen.

phaze won EGB QC Cup #12 in Quake Champions on 18 October, beating Keltz 3-0 in the grand final. The $75 prize pool paid $60 to phaze and $15 to Keltz.

phaze defeated k1llsen 2-1 and Yup 2-1 on the way to the winners final, where he beat Keltz 2-1. Keltz returned through the lower final with a 2-0 win over k1llsen, but could not take a map in the title rematch.

k1llsen finished third and Yup fourth in the 19-player online tournament.

Sources: results and bracket, Plus Forward report.

k1llsen won EGB Cup #72 in Quake Live on 17 October, returning from the lower bracket to beat ash 3-1 in the grand final.

ash had won their winners-final meeting 2-0. k1llsen then beat AGENT 2-1 in the lower final before taking the rematch against ash. AGENT finished third, with pavel fourth.

It is k1llsen's first victory in the regular EGB Quake Live duel series since Cup #51 on 2 May.

Sources: Plus Forward report and bracket.

Croteam and Devolver Digital have announced Serious Sam: The Third Encounter for PC, continuing directly from the events of The Second Encounter.

The new game sends Sam into Mental's forces across alien worlds, with returning weapons, new additions to the arsenal and large enemy hordes. Players can tackle it alone or in co-op; the Steam listing includes online co-op and shared/split-screen support.

The project is in early development. No release date has been announced, and wishlisting is available on Steam.

Sources: official Steam page, announcement coverage and teaser.

FURIA won the Thunderpick World Championship 2026 in Counter-Strike 2, defeating BetBoom 3-2 in the grand final on 18 October.

The eight-team event ran from 14 to 18 October at the BLAST Studio in Malta, with a $1 million combined player and club prize pool.

FURIA reached the final with a 2-0 semifinal win over Aurora. BetBoom beat Falcons 2-1 in the other semifinal, while Aurora took third place by defeating Falcons 2-1.

Sources: BLAST tournament results, Pichau Arena.

Valve's 16 October Team Fortress 2 update changes Holyhell and six Zombie Infection maps. The patch installs automatically when the game is restarted.

Holyhell's round timer is reduced to five minutes, with shorter respawn waves. The team that loses the middle point gains respawning spells on its side, while gargoyles now spawn near middle. The map also receives visual fixes and optimisation work.

Zombie Pyro's melee damage rises from 45 to 65. Sticky Spew applies a 20% movement slow, with another 20% while standing in its enlarged puddles. Pyro's death explosion now deals 50 damage and causes afterburn.

Zombie Sniper's Spit cooldown falls from nine seconds to six. Other fixes address invisible player models in DirectX 8, Zombie Engineer beacon placement, excessive Zombie Spy damage and slow movement after using abilities.

Source: Valve patch notes.

ESIC announced on 16 October that Palkovics "2xplayN" Tamas is banned for life from covered ESIC and member competitions in any capacity, replacing the three-year suspension imposed in the NOMERCY match-manipulation case.

The revised sanction follows public posts showing apparent cash alongside comments about the findings, betting payouts and a return to competition. ESIC found that his conduct during suspension constituted further integrity breaches. The lifetime ban removes his previously scheduled April 2029 return, with no cooperation-based reduction applied to the new sanction.

ESIC explicitly stated that the photographs alone do not establish that the money shown came from match-fixing. The commission also said it would refer the sanctioned conduct to Valve, government agencies and law enforcement.

Source: ESIC.

Valve has introduced achievement sets in the Steam client beta, allowing developers to group achievements for a game's base campaign, DLC, seasons or other content separately.

Each set tracks its own completion progress. In games that adopt the feature, additional DLC or seasonal achievements can sit outside the base-game set, so players can retain that set's 100% completion without earning every later addition.

The redesigned achievements page brings progress information together and allows direct comparisons with up to three friends at once. Support depends on developers organising their games' achievements into sets; the change does not automatically separate every game's existing list.

The feature is currently available through the Steam client beta.

Sources: Valve announcements, PC Gamer.

Bloodrun's 16 October build adds Slash as a playable gladiator, bringing Crouch Slide and Plasma Trail from her Quake Champions counterpart.

Holding crouch on landing starts a slide that preserves movement speed. Her active ability lays a damaging plasma trail, with three seconds to place it and another three seconds to trigger its explosion. Bots can also use both abilities.

The update refreshes four arenas and adds a HUD arc near the crosshair to show ability information, including Slash's slide charge and Angel's countdown to invisibility. A new Setup > Gladiators section provides ability effect settings.

Existing players can install the build through the Bloodrun launcher.

Sources: Bloodrun changelog, Plus Forward.

The US Doom and Quake Community will host a one-day QuakeWorld 2v2 tournament on Saturday, 24 October.

The format is double elimination, with best-of-one matches and a best-of-three grand final to keep the cup within one evening. Maps are assigned by round. The pool is Ultrav, ZTNDM3, Aerowalk, Bravado and DM2.

Signups are through the community's Discord; see the organiser's announcement for the signup link.

Source: US Doom and Quake Community announcement.

Church of Quake will run an online Quake Champions 4v4 Sacrifice Tournament Edition cup on Saturday, 24 October. Players sign up individually, then captains select teams through a snake draft. The advertised prize pool is $150.

The first 32 signups are guaranteed places, making eight teams. Further signups go on reserve unless the field reaches 64, allowing sixteen teams.

The bracket is double elimination. Upper-bracket matches and the lower final are best of three, other lower-bracket matches best of one, and the grand final best of five.

Players must join the Church of Quake Discord. Coverage is planned on the community's Twitch channel, and other casters are welcome to contact the organisers.

Links: Sign up, Twitch.

Source: Church of Quake, including Discord and current signup links.

Update, 22 October: Frontier has revealed Tortured - Frontier Edition as the map for One Map Cup #1 and confirmed a $500 prize pool. The Quake Live duel tournament takes place on Saturday, 24 October, with the event scheduled for 11:00-16:00 UTC.

Every match will be played on the same map. It was revealed on 19 October, giving entrants five days to prepare. Tortured - Frontier Edition adapts thefury's Quake III Arena map Tortured, originally released in 2010.

Download the map from the Steam Workshop.

Registration is open on the Frontier website. The tournament format will depend on the number of registered players. Cyber, Input and Steemorol are organising the event, with coverage planned on cyb3rway's Twitch channel.

Links: Registration, Twitch, Frontier Telegram.

Sources: Plus Forward map reveal, 250FPS.

Valve released a Steam client update on 13 October with improved startup performance and new options for Big Picture mode. The update downloads automatically.

Big Art Mode adds a larger artwork presentation to the home screen and can be enabled under Settings > Home. The Recommended tab also gains the Personal Calendar.

Big Picture now supports screensavers under Settings > Customization. The default slideshow can display artwork from recently played games and recent screenshots. A bouncing Steam logo is the other built-in option, and custom screensavers are supported too.

The update also changes startup behaviour so the Steam main window avoids taking focus if another window was activated during startup or login, and fixes the onscreen keyboard failing to work on its first desktop invocation.

Sources: Valve - Steam Client Update, October 13, PC Gamer.

The Thunderpick World Championship 2026 began in Malta on 14 October, with eight CS2 teams competing for a $1 million combined player and club prize pool. The event runs through 18 October.

All four opening series ended 2-0: 9z beat Aurora, Falcons beat Ninjas in Pyjamas, Legacy beat PARIVISION and FURIA beat BETBOOM.

On 15 October, Falcons beat 9z 2-1 to secure a playoff place. Aurora stayed alive by beating NIP 2-0, eliminating the Swedish organisation's team from the event.

The group stage uses two four-team double-elimination groups, with two teams from each advancing. Group matches and playoff semifinals are best of three; the grand final is best of five. The winners receive $500,000, split equally between player prize money and the club share.

Sources: HLTV event guide, opening-day results, Falcons qualify, NIP eliminated, Liquipedia, PR Newswire.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on 23 October as a separate purchase and will not be included with Game Pass at launch. Activision confirmed on 15 October that Game Pass availability is planned for Holiday 2027.

Digital pre-orders include campaign early access from 16 October and DMZ early access from 20 October. Existing Call of Duty titles, including Black Ops 7, Black Ops 6 and Modern Warfare III, remain available to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.

Sources: Activision, GamesRadar.

Epic released a preview of its rebuilt Epic Games Launcher on 14 October for Windows, macOS and, for the first time, Linux. It includes a redesigned library, connections to other PC game libraries and more detailed download management.

Epic describes the client as "vibe coded" and claims a cold start to the store is 46% faster than Steam. That is Epic's comparison, not an independent benchmark here. The client is still a preview with a limited feature set.

Fortnite is not available on Linux yet. Epic is rebuilding its anti-cheat implementation as EAC Linux v2 and working with distribution maintainers before bringing the game over. Fortnite will be the first pilot, with support for other developers to follow after validation.

The requirements include TPM 2.0, Secure Boot and signed kernels and modules. EAC Linux v2 uses existing kernel security features, eBPF and a service active during protected games, rather than installing its own kernel module. Steam Deck does not currently meet the requirements; Epic says it is talking with Valve about future support.

Sources: Epic Games Store, Epic Online Services, PC Gamer.

Richard "Levelord" Gray, the level designer known for Duke Nukem 3D, Quake: Scourge of Armagon and SiN, has died. Apogee Entertainment announced his death on 13 October.

Gray joined the Duke Nukem 3D team after making Doom maps. After Duke shipped in 1996, he co-founded Hipnotic Interactive, later renamed Ritual Entertainment. His subsequent credits included Star Trek: Elite Force II and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

Apogee founder Scott Miller recalled hiring Gray after seeing his Doom levels, and paid tribute to his talent, dedication and willingness to help other designers. John Romero was among the developers who also paid tribute.

Sources: Apogee Entertainment, PC Gamer.

AMD says FSR 4 will reach APUs, gaming laptops, and handhelds by the end of 2026. Jack Huynh, who runs the company's computing and graphics group, told Korean press, including The Elec, that the machine-learning upscaler is moving off discrete cards and onto the rest of the lineup.

The plan is two tracks. Existing APUs get a lighter model built for integrated graphics. New APUs, still not named, are meant to run FSR 4 natively. Huynh said the light model is aimed at image quality and low latency on chips that cannot carry the desktop version.

FSR 4 launched on RDNA 4 desktop cards. RDNA 3 desktop cards picked it up later. Official support for RDNA 2 desktop cards, the same generation as the Steam Deck, was already set for 2027, and this briefing did not say that date moved. Valve has talked about FSR 4 on the Steam Machine. It has not committed the Steam Deck.

Source: The Verge

Cloud Imperium Games put Squadron 42 on Steam on 10 October. Wishlists are open. The page lists a planned release of Q2 2027, and no price. Chris Roberts moved the target out of late 2026 so the single-player game would not land in the same window as Grand Theft Auto VI.

It is a standalone story in the Star Citizen setting, year 2945, on StarEngine. You enlist as a rookie in the UEE Navy, live on a capital ship, and the brief is space combat, fighting on foot, stealth, and time with the crew. The cast, on performance capture, includes Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Henry Cavill, Ben Mendelsohn, and Andy Serkis. The game has been in development for more than a decade.

The Steam minimum is Windows 11, a quad-core back to an Intel Sandy Bridge i7 or an AMD Bulldozer, 16 GB of RAM, a DirectX 11.1 card with 8 GB of VRAM, and 150 GB of disk. The recommended column only says a 64-bit processor and operating system.

Source: Steam and Eurogamer

Richard Garriott says the Ultima copyrights return to him in 2027. He sold Origin Systems, and the series with it, to Electronic Arts in 1992. The last mainline game was Ultima IX in 1999.

US copyright law lets an author terminate a transfer 35 years later. No money changes hands. The author has to give a year's notice. Garriott says he wrote to EA in April and told them he was taking the copyrights back. They wrote back that they know the law and will act accordingly. He says the two sides are now in active talks about whether there is anything to do together before the date.

What he says he could do, once the copyrights are his, is re-release the earlier Ultimas or make a sequel. Neither is a project yet. He has most of a year to decide what the return actually means.

Source: VGC

Photo: Richard Garriott at the 2018 Game Developers Conference, by Game Developers Conference, CC BY 2.5, resized. Wikimedia Commons.

A full playable build of Grand Theft Auto VI is not public. The person or group posting as Cyberleek says that can change.

On 10 October they posted an offer. If a memecoin tied to the name hits a $30 million market cap, "the build goes out - full story mode, played to the end, credits and all." Take-Two can stop it, the post says, with physical discs and a public apology. No outlet has the file, and Rockstar and Take-Two have not answered this one.

Footage under the same name has been out since 18 August. Rockstar called those clips heartbreaking on 26 August and kept the 19 November release. This week the account was credited with about 25 minutes more, including first-person driving and mission scenes. Rockstar has not said that newer cut is theirs.

The disc demand is aimed at a decision Rockstar already made. Boxed copies ship with a download code, not a disc. Strauss Zelnick has compared discs for a game this size to vinyl. Standard is $80, Ultimate is $100, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Preload starts 12 November.

Take-Two subpoenaed Microsoft, Discord, Google, and X in August while it looked for who had the footage.

Source: Forbes and GamesIndustry.biz

id Software will add a free Slaughter Mode to DOOM: The Dark Ages - Revelations in November. Game director Hugo Martin announced it on the 1 October Slayers Club Live. There is still no day inside the month. It is free for Revelations owners, and it is not in the base game.

A run is endless and single-player. Rounds escalate, and the demons, bosses, and arenas are randomized. The mode keeps a personal best by score and by round reached. id said it has no backend, so there is no global leaderboard.

Every ten rounds is a checkpoint, where you cash in skulls earned on the way there. Cosmetics unlock as you go, and weekly challenges add another score to chase. The stream pitched it as a place to keep using the Revelations combat, Chain Spear included, past a campaign replay or an Ultra Nightmare and Pandemonium run.

The base game already has the Ripatorium, the arena where you pick the demons yourself. Slaughter Mode deals the fight, and the run has no set end.

Source: Slayers Club Live (IGN)

It feels nice to finally lift a trophy.