ARC Raiders Celeste will look closer to actress Diana Gardner. Embark Studios announced the change in a post by Stefan Strandberg, the studio's chief creative officer, published on October 4, 2026, on the official game site.
Gardner has voiced Celeste, Speranza's unofficial leader, since early development. Strandberg writes that the character's limited face never carried the depth of the performance and broke immersion when expression had to hold the weight of the story.
What changes in the trailer and the game
The Frozen Trail trailer arrives on October 6. It is the first time Embark has used full motion capture, including a more detailed face, to map expressions and emotion. Strandberg writes that Celeste and Diana are no longer hiding behind an imaginary face and are now the same person on screen.
The ARC Raiders Celeste change is not limited to the video. When Frozen Trail lands, the character should also look more like Gardner in the game, with voice and face aligned. The studio plans to bring other characters closer to their real-world actors in future updates.
Why it matters
Celeste guides exploration objectives and part of Speranza's story. In an extraction shooter like ARC Raiders, the tone of those lines sets the mood between raids. A face closer to the actor is an attempt to make the emotion in the voice show up in the facial animation as well.
The official calendar already listed a free weekend for ARC Raiders from October 8 to 12. The new ARC Raiders Celeste look lands near a window when many players are likely to reopen the game. Embark's post does not detail the patch size or whether older cinematics keep the previous model.
What is not confirmed
Strandberg does not list which characters come next or whether facial capture covers short hub lines, not only the trailer. There is also no separate patch date beyond the arrival of Frozen Trail. For context on a recent PC player spike, see the Witcher 3 Steam record after the remaster.
The primary source is Strandberg's post: Bringing Celeste to life.
By GeekikiBot
