People who pre-ordered Wolfenstein: The New Order have been blasting their way around Doom’s closed beta since March 31. Soon everyone will be able to join them: open beta falls April 15-18, no codes required.

For the duration, you’ll be able to play Team Deathmatch and Warpath (a moving king of the hill mode) on the Heatwave and Infernal maps.

Three DLC packs will follow launch on May 13 and, depending on how Bethesda handles matchmaking between owners and non-owners, their contents may not be well received. The first pack which goes live in summer includes:

… Three new maps
… One new weapon
… One new playable demon
… One new armour set
… One new piece of equipment
… New hack modules and taunts
… New customization colours and patterns

Each DLC pack will cost $14.99 (£11.99 [UK]), or you can get them all at a discount with the Season Pass for $39.99 (£29.99 [UK]).

Despite how some received the beta, The Division seems to have been mostly well-received so far. However, like all new games it has some issues to work out, and some of those are being solved through patch 1.02, the first major one since release.

Among other things it does a number of things to discourage combat logging. Firstly the disconnect timer has been increased to 30 seconds to stop people logging out to avoid fights they were losing against another player. At the same time the rewards for taking down a rogue player and surviving a rogue status have been increased, as well the the XP and DZ penalties upon death being decreased slightly.

The other notable change is the that stun upgrade to turrets have been nerfed to stop the occurrence of PvP encounters being entirely stunlocked for periods of time.

The full list of changes can be found here.

The in-game economy of GTA Online is giving into March Madness this week as several of the stores are offering up to 75% off the customisation options they offer.

The Lowriders Custom Classics week also offers double GTA$ and RP opportunities for anyone jumping into the various events dotted about Los Santos until next Friday. You’ll be able to pick up a Lowrider custom chassis or bodykit from Benny’s and there’s 75% off Bobbleheads, Custom Gear Shifts and Plaques. Ammunation is having a 50% off sale on the ammo for shotguns and rifles and across the map there’s also 25% off motorbikes. And in case you need more storage space for those vehicles, Dynasty 8 is offering 10-car garage properties for 25% off.

There’s also a Snapmatic competition running through the week with a cool GTA$1m up for grabs. All you need to do is a take a cool hot shot and upload it to Social Club with the hashtag #customclassics to enter.

The first Escalation missions for the new Hitman game have finally landed, extending the life of the game’s first episode with missions that see you asked to take out new targets in specific ways. And each successful attempt sees you unlock a more difficult version of the mission. Sounds good if you’re a challenge-seeker.

The first of the new Contracts is called “The Holmwood Disturbance” and sees players head to an attic, wear they will don a magician’s outfit and then eliminate target Faustin D’Aoust with a bullet. I’m assuming they mean shot from a gun of some sort, although I guess if it’s possible to choke them with it, that’d be accepted too. Each time you pass the mission, you’ll get more restrictions and obstacles added including extra security cameras, an additional target, disallowed pacifications, and forcing you to escape by speedboat.

The second new Escalation is “The Mandelbulb Requiem” and has Agent 47 eliminating target Michel Charest while dressed as a Palace Staffer. More difficult versions of it will ask you to hack a laptop, contend with extra security measures, and even use a different disguise to get to your target.

Of course, Escalation Contracts also don’t allow you to save during the mission, so it forces you to think on your feet a little more. If you get something wrong you need to figure out a way to get past it and continue your mission – or adapt and change your plan. In a way that’s a little bit more realistic and probably a bit more fun too unless you prefer to see your plans go like clockwork.

The second episode of the game should also be hitting sometime in the next month too, so prepare yourself for that.

The DLCs were announced a few weeks ago, and now we finally have the trailer for the first DLC public.

Automatron will release on March 22nd and will pit you against the mysterious Mechanist who has assembled an army of hostile robots and released them into the Commonwealth to cause havoc. You will be able to find these robots, destroy them and take their parts to construct your own robotic companions to fight back against the enemies of the Commonwealth. The trailer showed off the construction screen as well as many different scenes that resemble what I imagine Robot Wars would look like in the Wasteland. This content will be available to purchasers once they get their character to Level 15, which means you’re not going to meet a mechnical death machine just outside of Vault 111 with your fresh character.

Either way, I’m looking forward to making my own robotic companion. If you’re not so much, then maybe the following two months’ DLC packs – Wasteland Workshop in April, and Far Harbor in May – will be more up your street.