The Division is getting a huge upgrade in its 1.8 update.

1.8 is being touted as the largest free update The Division has received since it launched, and that seems about right – it’s a genuinely huge update that adds a whole new area, among other things. We first heard about this update back in August, but now it’s nearly upon us.

In the Resistance update, all of your enemies have joined forces and headed to a new area – the West Side Pier – to try and take you down once and for all. This is a huge new section of map to play on, with a new base of operations (Camp Clinton) and several new activities to take part in.

The eponymous new Resistance mode that has been added for 1.8 is basically a horde mode. You and your team hunker down and take on waves of enemies, building defense mechanisms between rounds – it’s the same mode that every shooter post-Gears of War 2 has eventually gotten, but it should be fun regardless. Skirmish mode is being added too, which is essentially a 4 on 4 team deathmatch mode. These are genre staples that The Division avoided at launch, but now that the game is getting on a bit it’s looking to win players back with new content.

There are new guns coming too, as well as updated engagement rules for the Dark Zone (the trailer refers to this as ‘Dark Zone 2.0) and upgrades to Underground mode, which has added checkpoints and thrown in some ‘hunter’ enemy types.

All told, it’s a pretty major update. It launches December 5 (tomorrow) in the US – the same day as Destiny 2 gets its first expansion, which is a tad cheeky of them.

To celebrate, the game will also get a free weekend from December 6 to December 10, so you can check out the game and see how it feels these days.

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The Division has dropped off in popularity since launch, but it’s a game many of us have fond memories of – it might be worth jumping back in to see if this update is as major as it seems.