Playtest Roundup: Heists, Towers, Pinks, and a Strange New Cascadia

I spent the weekend buried in playtests, and a few of them stuck with me hard. Before I dig in, the usual disclaimer: NDAs lock down a lot of details, and there are a couple of projects I can’t even name. That’s a shame, because a couple of the ones I can’t talk about were genuinely excellent. What I can share is still worth your attention.

Project Espresso

Third-person PvPvE competitive action with a clean, high-stakes fantasy: rival crews race into locked-down facilities, grab the cargo, and try to extract before everyone else does. It scratches a very specific itch, think Arc Raiders energy mixed with pure heist pressure. The matches feel tense and chaotic in the best way. I had a blast with it and I’m already impatient for the official announcement. It’s currently playable on PlayStation Network and Steam, grab a crew and jump in while you can.

Arkheron

I’ve been in earlier tests for this one, so seeing cross-play finally land was a real upgrade. Queue times dropped and the matches felt healthier immediately. The elevator pitch still holds up: fast-paced isometric PvP where every item you pick up rewrites how you fight mid-round. Drop in with two friends, climb the Tower, and pull off the kind of improvisational nonsense that only works when the systems actually support it. Official line:

“Arkheron is a fast-paced, isometric PvP where every item you grab rewrites how you play mid-fight. Take two friends up the Tower, pull off strats that shouldn’t work, and fight your way to the next floor.”

The creator campaign has already made this one hard to miss. If you haven’t tried it yet, the cross-play version is the best time to jump in.

Auto Legends

This one isn’t really my thing. It still feels like a mobile game that got stretched onto bigger screens, and the core loop didn’t click for me. That said, plenty of people live for car culture, tuning, and high-stakes drag racing, so don’t write it off just because it didn’t land for me.

“AUTO LEGENDS is a high-stakes drag racing game where skill, strategy, and car culture collide. Build, tune, and customize your ride, then race for cash, pinks, and glory as you climb the ranks to become a Legend.”

Worth a look if that pitch speaks to you.

Bellum

Tactical shooter set in 21st-century Africa. If you like Arma, you’ll feel right at home—the systems, the pacing, and the emphasis on planning over pure twitch all point in that direction. It essentially plays like a modernized take on that formula. Nothing revolutionary on the surface, but the foundation is solid if that style of military sim is your lane.

PUBG: DED.NET

This one isn’t open for public playtesting until October 9, but I got an early look and I’m genuinely curious to see how it lands. It’s not PUBG 2. Krafton is trying something different aimed at players in the U.S.: a multiplayer FPS that folds roguelite progression into the shooter loop. You run, adapt, experiment, and build your approach across attempts in a weird, unpredictable 1990s Cascadia.

“PUBG: DEDNET is a new multiplayer FPS that combines shooter gameplay with roguelite progression across runs, giving players new ways to experiment, adapt and build their own approach in the strange and unpredictable world of 1990’s Cascadia.”

Mark the date. This could be a real change of pace for the PUBG team.

That’s the public-facing slate from the weekend. A few of the quieter ones were the real highlights, but until the NDAs lift, this is what I can put on the record. Keep an eye on Project Espresso and Arkheron in particular, those two have the strongest “I need more of this” energy right now.