BuildKit Brief — Gaming & Tech — September 23, 2026
What changed this cycle across the games worth your time. Every claim sourced.
Every claim is sourced. Every item below is tied to a primary source with a freshness stamp. Rumors are labelled and never appear in the public edition. If we could not verify it, we did not publish it.
🔱Path of Exile 2
Your main ARPG. League state + balance patches move your build.
Path of Exile 2 Full Release Registration - New Reward Unlocked
The Soulflame Weapon Effect, a new milestone reward for signing up for Path of Exile 2 Full Release updates, has been unlocked! This means that everyone who registered will receive at least two exclusive cosmetic effects when Path of Exile 2 fully launches on December 11th.
Introducing The Way of the Stonefist Bundle and Other New Effects
More cosmetic options have arrived in Path of Exile 2! Shapeshift into a Polar Bear or Snow Leopard, explode your enemies into smithereens with various Grenade effects, and cast a hex on your enemies with the Chaosborn Occult Skills!
Fan Art Competition Runners-Up
Last week, we announced the winners of our Fan Art Competition. Today, we'd like to announce and highlight the runners-up. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participated in this competition! Click here to check out the runners-up!
⚔️Path of Exile
PoE1 events + league cycle (separate game from PoE2).
The Third Path of Exile 1 ExileCon Qualifier Is Going Live!
Will you be the next to join allexpleblord and imexile at ExileCon 2026? Join the third Path of Exile 1 Qualifier for your chance to earn a spot in the finale this November!
The Third Path of Exile 1 ExileCon Qualifier Begins Tomorrow - Earn Twitch Drops
Catch the third ExileCon Path of Exile 1 Qualifier tomorrow at 2 PM PDT on September 17, at Earn the Darkshard Helmet Attachment by watching the official broadcast or any Path of Exile 1 stream for 30 minutes.
Fan Art Competition Runners-Up
Last week, we announced the winners of our Fan Art Competition. Today, we'd like to announce and highlight the runners-up. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participated in this competition! Click here to check out the runners-up!
League check: Allflame is live
Current PoE1 challenge league: **Allflame**. Started Jul 24, 2026.
🔫Counter-Strike 2
Updates, map/economy changes, and the pro circuit.
Counter-Strike 2 Update
Updated the map selection process to give players more opportunities to play maps they've been learning. Map selection process: Team 1 picks one map Team 2 picks two maps Team 1 picks a final map. One of the four maps will be randomly selected and the match will begin.
- Updated the map selection process to give players more opportunities to play maps they've been learning.
- Map selection process:
- Team 1 picks one map
- Team 2 picks two maps
- Team 1 picks a final map.
- One of the four maps will be randomly selected and the match will begin.
Rush Hour
Put your foot on the gas and floor it. Welcome to Rush, a new fast-paced 3v3 queued mode for CS2. Experience the push and pull as you advance through a gauntlet of randomly-selected battle arenas, and dominate your opponent to win the match!
🕵️Deadlock
Valve's hero shooter — patch cadence + hero balance.
Minor Update - 09-16-2026
- Unstable Rift comeback resist max values now scale over the course of the game. Previously the max values were 35%.
Valve's nerf-happy new Deadlock update makes it harder to turn games around
Valve has just dropped a new Deadlock update ahead of its anticipated major overhaul, and it's filled with item nerfs and hero balancing. Read the full story on PCGamesN: Valve's nerf-happy new Deadlock update makes it harder to turn games around
🗺️Hearts of Iron IV
Grand strategy — dev diaries + version betas.
HOI IV Dev Corner | The Great Depression
Hey, folks! This is your friendly neighborhood ImaginedPanda, content designer on Heart of Iron, coming to you with today's Dev Corner. For our current iteration we will be talking about economic woes or how I stopped worrying and started to love The Great Depression.
HOI IV | Patch 1.19.3
Generals! With the weather becoming more gloomy and the summer on its way out, we bring the last “Summer” release. This will be the last patch that specifically targets Thunder at our Gates and brings a few additional pieces of content for the countries that were introduced with it.
- Add a tracking of total participation in a combat to award HQ capture to the most participating country.
- Halved supply usage for light/medium/heavy armored HQ's.
- Added supply usage to motorized army HQ battalions.
- SIA: Removed Production Efficiency Cap from Agrarian Economical Policy.
- SIA: Removed Research Speed and Factory Output from The Army of Siam.
- AST: Stretch the Fleet, Battle of the Ocean, Workers Educational Association and Equal Pay reduced to 35 days.
HOI IV Dev Corner | One if by Land, Two if by Sea, Three if by…Air?
Hi all, and welcome to the next installment of our 2026 Dev Corners. Your feedback on ideas in early development, including my prior ones on army quality and airborne troops, is very helpful to us. I hope I can benefit from your input once more.
- What are the limitations of the current system of air transport wings, and how they deliver airborne troops and supplies?
- How would you feel about not having to control all transport wings manually, and if they were more abstracted at a national level similar to naval convoys, d…
- Would it be interesting for you if there was a more specific, point-to-point connection between two airfields you controlled, that would allow air transport…
- Would using airborne troops Crete-style, to capture and hold an enemy airfield to use as a base of replenishment and remove the vulnerability of operating en…
🖥️PC Hardware & Your Wishlist
Part-price drops on your wishlist + hardware moves. Deep specs live on PC Bottleneck (we link, never duplicate).