Shout out to Embark for being the best studio out there 🙌🏻

To be honest, I didn't get to play Arc Raiders. I was out of town while it was live unfortunately. However, after watching hours on gameplay on YouTube, I can see this game has that same special sauce that makes the Finals so damn good.

Ever since the Finals was released, I've pretty much played nothing but that. So as a long term and dedicated player of the Finals, let me give you some expectations for how Arc Raiders is going to go.

1. Expect regular updates with amazing new features, cosmetics, and maps. Seasons in the finals last a few months, and give you plenty to do. At first they gave us weekly updates with constant balancing changes, but once things started to stabilize, they spread out the balancing updates. Now it's start of season and mid season balancing.

2. Expect them to make mistakes. However, when we talk to them about what is annoying or game breaking, they LISTEN. And then they make fun of themselves for ever making such a stupid decision.

In season 3 of the Finals, they scrapped the beloved ranked mode and replaced it with a mode no one liked. People complained all season, and now they regularly have the announcers in the game make fun of that decision. They brought back the normal ranked mode, made MASSIVE improvements to it, and kept the unliked mode as a quick play mode for the few people who did like it. They listen. They aren't afraid to admit their mistakes. But they are a small studio, and every decision won't be loved.

3. Expect the subreddit to be toxic as hell. I know it's all fun and exciting now, but that was also the case when the Finals was in Beta. After the release, more people joined, and now half the posts are people bullying the studio into making horrible changes. Thankfully, Embark does not listen to the trolls, and the community is strong enough to fight back. Just ignore the hate and work to make this a good online community.

People are still screaming that the Finals is dead, when it's definitely very alive. It's been in the top 100 steam shooters for a year straight. I'm guessing that Arc Raiders will actually have a larger fan base than the finals, and im very excited for that.

4. PLAY THE FINALS

It's the most next generation shooter I've ever seen. Everything you've ever wanted in an online shooter, it has. The reason people don't stick around is because it's very sweaty, and has a steep learning curve. The difference between what a new player can do and what a pro can do is insane, but that's okay. Play the objective. Help your team mates. Think outside the box. You can literally flatten an entire building to rubble, drop the objective through the floor. Set up goo walls. There are a billion ways to go about completing your objective. Play smart, and have fun.