Warframe's bonkers 1999 update sneaks out today: Y2K, dating, boy bands, motorbikes—it's gonna be a weird weekend

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Warframe's weirdest update is due out today, Digital Extremes announced at The Game Awards last night. And that's saying a lot, for a game that absolutely revels in the strange. But this time we've got an alternate history of the turn of the millennium, an old Earth city to explore, a bunch of new pals sporting prototype warframes to hang out with and date, eventually culminating in a fight with a '90s boy band next year.

The free-to-play shooter has been gearing up for this update for a while, and the Drifter's mission to figure out what the heck is going on in the far-flung future will soon take them back in time to an alt-history where Earth is on the cusp of the 21st century and dealing with the apocalyptic techrot.

While you're on your wee holiday, you'll encounter a new syndicate, the Hex, and a singleplayer quest where you'll get to know the protoframe members of the syndicate, all of them living inside an abandoned mall. Together you'll fight two new enemy factions, the Scaldra Army and Techrot Infestation, and search for the source of this end-of-days crisis in the city of Höllvania.

To get around the city, you'll be able to zip around on your new mount: the atomicycle, which is just a wee bit more agile than your typical motorbike. During your downtime, you'll also be able to chill out and chat with your new mates on IM, and eventually start to romance them. This isn't a one-off deal, either, as you'll be able to replay the campaign and make different choices.

And of course there's nothing more '90s than boy bands. In this alt-history, the biggest of the lot was On-lyne, and while you can listen to them now, either in-game or by checking out their tunes in the real world, you'll also need to fight them—or at least a corrupted version of them. This was teased earlier in the year, but the fight was delayed until 2025. Something to look forward to.

There's a heck of a lot of new stuff to get to grips with in addition to all the above. A side-scroller minigame you'll be able to play in the mall; fully voiced, customisable cosmetics in the form of the new Gemini skins, allowing you to change the look of Excalibur, Mag, Volt, Nyx, Trinity and the 59th warframe, Cyte-09, so that they match their 1999 appearance even when you're back in your own timeline; four new mission types, including the first ever PvPvE mode, Faceoff; and naturally a bunch of extra goodies available for purchase in the marketplace.

It's a good thing I'm going to be on holiday soon, because there's a lot to dig into.

Digital Extremes hasn't announced when exactly today the update will roll out today, but it's a Canadian dev, so expect it to come out a bit later in the day here in Blighty, likely in the early evening over here, or late morning/early afternoon EST.