I am excited to try out the full version of Anno 1800. Having previewed it back in January, it was apparent that Ubisoft’s civilisation simulator had received improvements and additions that elevated it above its franchise predecessors. Up to this point, pre-orders have been open on both Uplay and Steam. Now that’s changing. On Friday, the game’s publisher announced that …

June 10 is when Ubisoft will hold their event at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, same procedure as every year James. And like every year before it, it’s probably going to be…weird.

Ubisoft wants to keep The Division 2’s servers full with a constant supply of fresh content that won’t take a whole year to get right. They’re planning to throw a few spanners into the game from as early as next week, when the first major update rolls out and ups the difficulty ante as the focus shifts towards the endgame space.

As a first step towards a future of more live service content, The Division 2 already feels amazingly complete. It works from day one, its various systems are staggeringly deep and its combat is in a class of its own. Everything else that’s still to come over the next couple of years? That’s a satisfying cherry on top of an already massive sundae of excellence.

Is there anything more reliable than a shotgun? It’s the jackhammer of video game weapons, able to carve a path forward with sheer brute force and always satisfying to load another round into its chamber with a satisfying pump of the barrel. In The Division 2, you’ll find plenty of these valuable corrider-cleaners, with the very best shotgun being the Exotic Sweet Dreams.

There’s no shortage of sidearms in The Division 2, but with all manner of SMGs, light machine guns and shotguns available to grab in the ruined streets of Washington DC, these little lifesavers and life-takers are often neglected. The Liberty Desert Eagle on the other hand, is a hell of a gun. With eight rounds and an RPM of 150 it might not sound like much, but it is able to unleash upwards of 30 000 damage in Tier 4 of The Division 2, which is holy smokes a lot for a sidearm.

I’m a big fan of SMGs in The Division 2. They’re nippy, able to offer quick reloads and more than capable of taking down a single enemy before you’ve spent every round in the magazine. Favouring an aggressive playstyle, they’re perfect for the type of player who enjoys closing a gap and getting up close and personal with their prey. One of the more agile SMGs that you can find in The Division 2? Easily the Exotic Chatterbox, which has a staggering 60 bullet magazine and a 700 RPM stat that will absolutely shred anything in front of you.

The cream of the rifle crop in The Division 2, belongs to the Merciless Exotic rifle. With thirty rounds in its clip and an RPM of 260, this beast can easily shoot the wings off of flies. And that's before we even get to its explosive priming and detonating rounds.