Dawn of War IV Dev Doesn't See Total War: Warhammer 40,000 as Direct Competition, Reckons Fans Will Play Both Games

It’s a busy time for Warhammer 40,000 video games. The recent Warhammer Skulls showcase included a long list of reveals and updates, confirming that Warhammer 40,000 fans will have plenty to choose from in the coming year or so. Perhaps the two most-anticipated Warhammer 40,000 games are Dawn of War IV and Total War: Warhammer 40,000, both PC-focused strategy games that, while very different, share a common language and, to the casual observer, look similar. But with both Dawn of War IV developer King Art Games and Total War: Warhammer 40,000 developer Creative Assembly hoping for long-term success with their games and potentially years of DLC support, is there room for both?

I put that question to King Art Games creative director Jan Theysen and senior game designer Elliott Verbiest, who responded by insisting Total War: Warhammer 40,000 isn’t Dawn of War IV’s direct competition. On the contrary, the pair believe having another great Warhammer 40,000 video game out there can only help overall, and super fans will play both games anyway.

“We are happy the more good Warhammer 40K games are out there, because the more good games there are the more people care about it, the more people are interested in Warhammer in general,” Theysen said.

“And that also helps Dawn of War. We don't see them [Total War: Warhammer 40,000] as like direct competition. It's also not like players play the one game but not the other. I think many players will probably play both of them. And so for us it's more like, okay, cool if it's like a great game and brings more eyes to the franchise, all the better. And of course also we know and like the guys from Creative Assembly. And we want to play the game! So we are just happy that they do something cool with it. And in the end, I think most players will probably enjoy both of them.”

“Definitely a case of rising tide lifts all boats,” Verbiest added. “We're looking forward to playing it as well!”

Are Warhammer 40,000 fans faced with a difficult decision, or will they play both games, as Theysen suggests? Dawn of War IV goes first, with a confirmed release date of September 17, 2026 on PC via Steam. Total War: Warhammer 40,000, on the other hand, doesn’t have a release window yet. Could it launch later in 2026? That feels perhaps a little too close for me, but you never know.

Dig into each game, though, and you find they’re quite different. Dawn of War IV is a straight up RTS in the traditional sense, with resource gathering, base building, unit production, and plenty of action. Total War: Warhammer 40,000, like the other Total War games, fusing turn-based strategy with real-time tactics. Indeed, fans often debate the Total War games in terms of their genre, wondering how to make sense of all the types of gameplay on offer. Turn-based grand strategy with real-time tactical battles might do the trick. I’m not sure RTS does though.

Theysen believes Dawn of War IV will stand out from the crowd not just because it will be an entry point to the Warhammer 40,000 universe, as Relic Entertainment’s influential Dawn of War was over 20 years ago, but because it presents a manageable middle ground in terms of the scale of combat.

“It has this very special, unique size to it,” Theysen said of Dawn of War IV. “It's not like a Space Marine 2 where you're one, two or three guys. But it's also not hundreds and thousands of units in these super massive battles. It's in the middle.

“To me that feels very, very good because it gives you the feel of, okay, there's a lot of stuff going on and it's big battles, but at the same time, you can still manage what is going on, and it's not like you're losing the overview right away. So to me, I think that makes it interesting.”

Then there’s the campaign element. The Dawn of War games have always had fun story campaigns designed to offer the more casual RTS gamer plenty to sink their teeth into, and Dawn of War IV is no different. The game launches with a campaign for each of the four playable factions: Space Marines, Orks, Necrons, and Adeptus Mechanicus. Each gets their time to shine.

“I think it might be a good entry point for players who are maybe not super familiar with Warhammer 40K, because we try to tell stories that even without too much 40K deep knowledge still make sense and can still be enjoyed by players who are not that deep into it,” Theysen insisted.

“It's ridiculous how many people tell us that they came to 40K because of Dawn of War 1,” Theysen continued. “Basically every second person we talk to says, ‘Yeah, because of Dawn of War I’m a 40K fan.’ It would be awesome if we can do it again, be a nice entry point for players because it's maybe a little bit less intimidating than some of the other games out there.”

For more, check out IGN's interview in full with Dawn of War IV developer King Art Games.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

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Riot Games Says It 'Would Not and Cannot' Use Vanguard Anti-Cheat to Brick PCs After Rumors Spread

Riot Games has stepped in to squash rumors that it is using its Vanguard anti-cheat to "brick" the PCs of players who get caught cheating in its games.

Rumors that the League of Legends and Valorant developer was bringing a permanent end to cheaters spread late yesterday following an X/Twitter post from the company. In response to a separate post about its anti-cheat efforts, Riot posted an image showing a collection of hardware with the message "congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight."

It was a tongue-in-cheek crack at cheaters that rapidly evolved into rumors that the company had the power to render PCs useless. It took Riot less than a day to clear the air, confirming both that it "would not, and cannot, impact your PC's functionality" and that the paperweights it referred to were hardware used "explicitly for cheating." To put it plainly, Riot said, "Vanguard does not damage hardware or disable your devices."

congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight https://t.co/3rjZVQntrc pic.twitter.com/fS3JC0FL0p

— Riot Games (@riotgames) May 21, 2026

"The photo we posted is a picture of cheat hardware devices that are sold explicitly for cheating in VALORANT (not normal PCs or PC components)," Riot said. "Through our latest updates, Vanguard now makes those devices worthless for VAL, but does not in any way brick PCs or PC components or PC software.

"Our latest update enforces standard platform security features, like the Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU), on accounts identified as using Direct Memory Access (DMA) cheating devices. These protections are already part of modern systems and when enabled, they block DMA cheat devices (such as those shown in the photo) from accessing memory in downstream applications, like our games."

Riot continued, explaining that cheaters may run into hardware faults or instability if they continued cheat attempts. It added that "this is expected behavior," but if IOMMU is disabled, the cheating device should function as normal. Additionally, only those who use DMA-based cheats will be affected by the aforementioned issues.

"This means the cheat device won’t work with our games, but your PC isn’t 'bricked.' We would not, and cannot, impact your PC’s functionality in any other fashion," it continued.

"We’ll keep investing in anti-cheat to protect competitive integrity, and we’ll keep being as transparent as possible about how those systems work."

The League of Legends company further attempted to dodge controversy with a follow-up post. In it, Riot said that it "didn't" joke about bricking PCs, only about Valorant cheating devices. It even instructed cheaters on how to fix any paperweight-ing that may have occurred but says that, as long as they are using DMA cheats, they "won't be able to play our games."

Riot's latest attempt to quell fan outcry follows a similar conversation that sprouted up around Vanguard in 2024. At the time, players claimed that the developer was using anti-cheat to brick PCs before the company stepped in to say that it was unable to confirm any reports of bricking taking place.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

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Shards of Creation Trick-Taking Game Review

Among the events of Cosmere, the universe-spanning backdrop to a majority of Brandon Sanderson’s books, the Shattering of Adonalsium is perhaps the most important (so far). I won’t go into the hows and whys of that (go read the books), but the gist is that the Cosmere’s god, Adonalsium, was broken and split into 16 pieces. These Shards, which are pieces of the being, each embody a specific intent and include: Devotion, Dominion, Preservation, Ruin, Odium, Cultivation, Honor, Endowment, Autonomy, Ambition, Invention, Mercy, Valor, Whimsy, Virtuosity, and Reason. Why is this all important, you may be asking? Well, those very Shards, some anyway, are the “suits” in Brotherwise Games’ latest Cosmere-inspired trick-taking card game, aptly titled Shards of Creation.

Designed by Hayden Dillard, with some utterly breathtaking art by Medusa Dollmaker, Shards of Creation’s gameplay is similar to most other games in the trick-taking genre. Each round begins with a player setting a card and dictating the lead suit for that round, the suit that the other players must follow if they have a similarly suited card, with whoever places the highest-valued card of the lead suit taking the trick. A special “trump” suit can be played that will win out over whatever was led, at which point whoever has played the highest value of trump will take the win for that hand. Shards of Creation maintains all of that status quo but also throws some magic into the mix that makes this card game a bit more interesting than your typical trick-taker.

A game of Shards takes place over the course of three rounds, with 10 hands played per round. Before even dealing out your first hand of cards, you need to pick the Shards that will be in play, choosing four or five (depending on player count) from a possible pool of eight. These include Autonomy, Cultivation, Devotion, Dominion, Honor, Odium, Preservation, and Ruin, with nearly every one featuring unique powers when they are trump, card abilities, and even the possible values on their cards themselves (with a couple small exceptions — Honor is an old curmudgeon and doesn’t feature any abilities or powers).

Each round, a new Shard will be flipped and designated as trump, and its associated trump ability will be activated, such as Cultivation’s allowing players to draw additional cards and swap them out with other cards in their hands. Between this and the two unique abilities that each Shard’s cards can have, they turn a relatively basic trick-taker into something that feels unique and fresh, and also leaves me excited for possible expansions down the road. We only get half the possible Shards, after all, saying nothing about…other ones…that readers will be aware of but that I won’t spoil here.

The other aspect that I wasn’t expecting going into this game was that you don’t actually win by taking the most tricks, either. Instead, Shards of Creation is more of a set-collection game with a trick-taking lightweaving over top. Winning a trick will allow you to pick one of the cards in that trick and add it to your set row in front of you, with the winner of the game being based on whoever earns the most points. Points are gained from both the number of a single type of Shard you add to your pool and the number of complete sets of Shards that are in the game. As someone who grew up playing Euchre and has played my fair share of other games in the genre (check out our reviews of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game), this inclusion of having to not only plan out what cards to play in each trick but also what card to add to my row if I win made me realize how much I was enjoying it. I especially loved the fact that the Ruin Shard cards are worth negative points at the end of the game, requiring you to weigh the risks of loading your set up too much with them in an effort to earn more points.

Shards of Creation is a very approachable and quick game to pick up.

Even with those features, Shards of Creation is a very approachable and quick game to pick up. Full games you can get done in a half hour, making it a great option to bust out during lunch at work, at the bar with some friends, or just a nightcap before bed. You don’t need to be a diehard worldhopper to be able to enjoy Shards, and can be appreciated just for its fun mechanics.

For as solid as the gameplay is, the artwork of all the Shards is possibly my favorite aspect of the game. The vessels shown off on the cards (vessels being the term used for anyone who is currently in possession of one of Adonalsium’s Shards) are of those predating the books released so far, with Odium, for example, showcasing the menacing visage of Rayse as opposed to its successor, or Tanavast for Honor, with his long, flowing white hair. For diehard Cosmere fans, this game also marks the first official look we have gotten at Dominion and Devotion’s vessels, too! These have all been wonderfully captured by Dollmaker in their signature almost stained-glass-esque layout and use of color. I would eagerly throw my debit card at my computer if a large composition of them all were to come out for me to hang in my office and gawk at.

As someone who thoroughly enjoys Brandon Sanderson’s work (check out the Cosmere reading guide I put together here on IGN), just looking at the box, it is easy to see the expansion and growth potential that this game has. With less than half of the Shards featured currently with the others being added at a later date, I wouldn’t say that the game we got is light on content, it also left me wanting a bit more in a couple of small ways.

As I mentioned, I grew up playing Euchre, whether it was on scouting trips, in the cafeteria at lunch, or at home with my family, so I will always associate trick-taking games with team or semi-cooperative play. It’s a bit of a bummer that the rulebook doesn’t include an official team-based variant that would facilitate that, though it is easy enough to house-rule in. I also found myself let down by the implementation of Honor, specifically how rather bland it is. I get that it makes some sense from a narrative and lore standpoint, but it feels out of place gameplay-wise; it is just a letdown when it comes up. It was never fun or exciting to see “Honor has no trump ability” get flipped. It was like being forced to use the white crayon when drawing your picture or only being able to get vanilla ice cream in a shop full of tasty choices. I found myself often omitting Honor as a choice altogether.

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New Call of Duty Studio Heads on Redefining Infinity Ward’s DNA in 2026, Mourning Vince Zampella

Original Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward has new studio heads, but neither of them is new to the studio. Jack O’Hara, who came up in production, has been at Infinity Ward since 2012. Mark Grigsby, meanwhile, made his name in animation starting back in 2005, though he left for a stint at Respawn Entertainment (which, of course, was infamously started when a substantial number of team members followed IW cofounders Jason West and the late Vince Zampella out the door in 2010 following a royalties dispute) before returning in 2012. Both are insistent that the studio will remain true to the bold design that makes up its DNA.

“We actually have one person that does work here that was here from the beginning,” Grigsby said. “The DNA of that crew still lives in this studio.” He continued: “What we created back then, how the vibe was in the studio back then – it's still something that we push for [with] our employees here, and what we want the studio to generate. It was a vibe. It still is a vibe, right?

“Unfortunately, COVID kind of hurt us a little bit back in the day a couple of years ago,” Grigsby continued. “But we had a tremendous amount of like energy and fire and drive in 2019 and COVID kinda hit the world and messed things up a little bit, but we are still on that trajectory and we are still as passionate as we were back in 2003, 2005, it's still there.”

Infinity Ward’s new leaders are still wrestling with how to best honor Vince Zampella in their next game.

“I think that as the generations have gone on, we just keep accumulating very talented people that are very passionate,” O’Hara said. “Our culture is really about trying to make the best game possible, about being passionate about your craft and, and excellence in your craft, and making sure that we're, we're good at giving each other feedback and direct with each other about what needs to get better and, and how to improve the game, and to make sure we listen to feedback and have no egos in it and just make the best game possible.”

This year’s Call of Duty from Infinity Ward will mark the first series entry since Zampella tragically died in a car accident last December. It sounds like Infinity Ward’s new leaders are still wrestling with how to best honor him. IGN asked if the studio’s 2026 CoD would include an “in memory of Vince Zampella” in the credits, and O’Hara responded, “A lot of us knew Vince personally, so, when his tragic death happened, I think for a lot of us it, it hit home hard. We all had stories about Vince to remember him by and to share amongst ourselves. [So] we haven't finalized any plans for anything, at this point, mainly because a lot of us know his family and so we want to be very sensitive about what we do.”

2026's Call of Duty is likely to be announced on or before June 7, as that's when the Xbox Showcase takes place.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

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Forza Horizon 6 Players Are Using Exploits to Farm Easy Credits and Unlock Every Car

Forza Horizon 6 players are exploiting certain parts of the game so that they can quickly and easily unlock every vehicle in the game. As spotted by GamesRadar, YouTuber XMBWesley posted a guide on how to quickly rack up a bunch of credits and XP. For starters, you can use map code 121 812 769, equip the Impreza 22B-STI Version 1998 Subaru (you'll need to acquire this if you don't already have it), and then enable auto-steering and assisted braking. The game will essentially do all the work for you and ram your car into a bunch of objects. This will not only earn you credits at the end of the race, but give you skill points.

By investing the skill points back into your vehicle, you can unlock more wheel spins, bonuses, and more to help quickly earn additional credits. You can do this as much as you want, but there is also a second race that is just as lucrative. If you enter the map code 197 337 317, you can play another track with the same custom settings as the previous race. The race takes about 40 minutes to finish, so you can set your controller down and put something against the trigger to make your car accelerate while doing something else. Once you finish the race, you'll have 100,000 credits. You can do this over and over again.

Of course, this will hinder a sizable portion of Forza Horizon 6's progression if you do this. Although there are other forms of progression, earning credits and buying cars is one of the biggest parts of the game. This will also almost certainly be patched by Playground Games at some point, though it's unclear how long that might take. If you want to cheat the system, you'll want to act now, but be warned, it may ruin some of the fun for you.

So far, Forza Horizon 6 has been a massive hit for Xbox and Playground Games. Forza Horizon 6 has enjoyed high player counts since its early access launch last week and has only grown since the release of the standard edition on Tuesday. We also gave the game a 10 in our review, stating that it is a "new standard in open-world racing" and "unequivocally the best" of its genre.

Not only is the racing itself sharp, but it also has a wonderful sense of humor. Forza Horizon 6 features a cheeky reference to Pokémon, which has amused fans. Players are also decking out and modifying tiny cars like the Peel P50 to make it an unsuspecting yet absolutely absurd racing machine.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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The Powerful MSI Vector 16" RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Laptop Drops to $1399 for Memorial Day

Walmart is offering an outstanding gaming laptop deal that I haven't seen since Black Friday. As part of the Walmart Memorial Day Sale, you can pick up a powerful MSI Vector HX 16" Gaming Laptop for just $1,399.00 with free shipping. This laptop features an RTX 5070 Ti GPU with 140W TGP rating for impressive gaming performance.

MSI Vector HX 16" RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Laptop for $1,399

The MSI Vector HX laptop is equipped with a 16" 1920x1200 144Hz IPS display, Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD, and weighs in at about 6 pounds. Both the RAM and SSD are user-upgradeable. The Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX is a 20-core CPU with a max turbo frequency of 5.2GHz. This is a great processor for both gaming and multi-core tasking. A 1 year warranty is included.

The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti mobile GPU can handle the most demanding games

The RTX 5070 Ti mobile GPU performs about 20%-30% better than the RTX 5070. Compared to the previous generation, it's comparable in performance to the RTX 4080 and pulls ahead of it in games that support DLSS 4.5 and multi-frame generation. It's powerful enough to run just about any game on the display's FHD+ resolution. You can run even games like Pragmata, Crimson Desert, and Forza Horizon 6 at 60+fps with minimal tweaking. Check out Notebookcheck's Forza Horizon 6 benchmark results; an RTX 5070 Ti laptop is used as one of the test machines and it hits 60fps at 1080p.

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Walmart Still Has the Lowest Price on an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 12GB Graphics Card in 2026

If you're planning out a PC build and have been hoping to get one of the new Nvidia Blackwell graphics cards at a reasonable price, this might be the best opportunity you'll get in the near future. Walmart is offering a retail boxed PNY GeForce RTX 5070 12GB graphics card for just $599 shipped. Mind you this is still $50 over MSRP, but it's the best price I can find right now for a standalone 5070 GPU and the first time I've seen this card drop below $600 this year.

PNY GeForce RTX 5070 12GB OC Graphics Card for $599

The GeForce RTX 5070 GPU is an excellent choice for 1080p or 1440p gaming. Compared to the previous generation GPUs, the RTX 5070 offers a slight performance improvement over the RTX 4070 Super, which was and still is an excellent GPU. The fps gain is greater in games that support DLSS 4.5 with multi-frame generation. Read our RTX 5070 review for our hands-on impressions. This PNY model features a slim 2.4-slot triple-fan cooling system and a slight overclock.

Amazon has it for a bit more, but it includes a free game

Amazon's lowest price currently for an RTX 5070 card is the PNY Epic-X model for $630.70. Yes that's about $30 higher, but Amazon is also participating in the Nvidia promotion where you get the 007 First Light game for free (in the form of a download code) when it comes out on May 27. Walmart is not a participating retailer.

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