Escape from Tarkov hotfix finally lets Scav players load into Streets again

Tremendous news for anyone who enjoys playing as a Scav in Escape from Tarkov raids - your problems loading in will now (hopefully) be no more.

Escape from Tarkov’s latest technical update went live yesterday (Tuesday, 5 September), and while it’s by no means an enormous patch, it’s rolled out some crucial fixes. Not only have some pesky stuttering animations seen on both players and bots in a number of different locations been ironed out, but “problems with loading into raids for Scavs in some cases” have also been fixed.

As noted in the update announcement, this issue was particularly noticeable in the Streets of Tarkov map, so Scav players no longer need to dread attempting to load in there. While many Twitter users have expressed their relief at the change, some have also reported that they're continuing to face issues even after the update, so it’s not clear if the fix has been entirely successful.  

In related news, more details have now been revealed about the upcoming standalone session-based FPS project, Escape from Tarkov: Arena. The director of both regular Tarkov and Arena (and the head of Battlestate Games), Nikita Buyanov, has described Arena as “mediocre”, and said it will be “some mid-core game that increases attention, and will lead to more players playing, and being familiarized with Escape from Tarkov”. The hope is that Arena will “have as many players as possible”.

Escape from Tarkov: Arena will be available at no extra cost for those who’ve bought the most expensive version of Tarkov, Escape from Tarkov: Edge of Darkness Limited Edition. If that’s not you, Arena is available to pre-order separately now, and it comes with Ryzhy’s gear preset from the Chronicles of Ryzhy series as an added bonus. 

For more games like Escape from Tarkov, be sure to take a look at our recommendations for the very best FPS games. If you’re an avid PC gamer, you can check out even more titles to play on our best PC games list.