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Bought this last night, already level 14. Literally played it all day today. This is the best game I've played in ages, and is the Destiny replacement I've been wanting for months or even years. I even cancelled my WoW sub. The maps are absolutely superb, lots of good colours, nice and rich with terrain and fauna, and a very busy atmosphere, unlike some games which just go on for miles and miles and there's no action. This game will have you in the thick of it within seconds of loading in. The controls are slick, my only gripe is that there's no auto reloading (that I know of) and on a few occasions I've been in the middle of a fight and I press reload, only to open a door / use a zipline / whatever. Not a game breaker by any means, but when you're in the middle of a tense fight and it gets you killed, it can be quite frustrating. The PvE dudes are excellent. The difficulty is spot on. Not too hard to kill, but they will overwhelm you if you don't stay on top of them. At first some of the huge dudes can be very intimidating, but once you figure them out and play tactically, they're not too hard. That said, you can't just load in and take them on, you need to come prepared. They require specific weapons and will soak up tons of ammo so play with intent. The range of baddies is excellent too. From little rolly polly bastards that set you on fire to massive stomping spiders about 20 stories tall and everything inbetween. A genuine variety and they all suit their appearance in terms of combat. No silly bullet sponges a la the Division. The looting is good too, if slightly cumbersome. It can take a few seconds to loot stuff which is both great for slowing things down a bit, but it sucks in combat. I've already used a few skill points to speed it up a bit which helps. The crafting, looting, economy, all very good too. The inventory is rather limited so you have to be quite ruthless which I really like. The game isn't designed around who has the best guns or most loot, I've killed some massive spider things (leapers) with the most basic marksman rifle. I suspect it'll go quicker with the fancy stuff, but I managed it fine. Everything is achievable with the lowest level stuff, but crafting/buying/unlocking the heavier kit just makes it easier and quicker. There's no gatekeeping here, only more efficiency. The PvP element is one of the best things in this game. There's so much going on that every encounter feels slightly tense, but nothing like DayZ. Lose all your shit and you're back in in seconds with a default class (which is all random kit so you get to try out everything, really nice touch) collecting stuff to make better kit. Normally with games like this I's suffer tremendously from gear fear, but I've lost some pretty good kit and just shrugged it off, as I can reacquire it quite easily. That said, collecting loads of mats and then using them to build an absolute baller loadout is extremely satisfying. I love going hunting for the bigger stuff like this. Most of the players are friendly and will help each other out, but as with any game of this nature you always come across the true PVPers. I was busy with a quest earlier and this dude was camping a beacon thingy. I clocked him from a while back as the robots were quite intense around that building and quite a bit of commotion was taking place. I snuck up on him and he stuck a shotgun up my arse. So I loaded in with a default class, snuck up on him and killed him. Then completed my quest, extracted, loaded in again and killed him again. I did this four times and on the last occasion he turned on his mic and it was some teeny little Spanish kid crying. Fuck you. Bitch. Left him alone after that. I think the thing I love the most about this game is the complete lack of direction. Wanna load in with a default class and just go loot shit for loads of xp and materials? Have at it. Wanna build a monster class and go hunting huge robots? That'll do too. Wanna load in with 100 bandages and play a medic? Crack on. You get the idea. Don't get me wrong, there are a few little niggles but on the whole this is the game I've been waiting a very long time for. Can't wait to play it again tomorrow. This is exactly what I needed for the dark winter evenings.

Well, its international break again and good time to take stock. Prem wise not sure how Sunderland have managed it, but they keep on flying high. Home form is so crucial and its a very intimidating place to go. So many teams having a stutter. Man City a small resurgence, Liverpool free falling. For once it does keep it very interesting week to week for sure. Can't see Wolves or Burnley staying up currently. Not enough in their teams for me. I'm loving watching Moyes take Everton up the table though. Decent team, some good English talent in them. I hope they make Europe. Championship...ahh, well i'm trying hard not to think about it. Blackburn are in a sorry state, on and off the pitch. I don't know how the next few years will go tbh. I was probably hoping we could somehow be forgotten and sneak up the table. You never know as its far too early. Frank Lampard's Coventry City (IYKYK 😉) have been excellent upfront. Unless they start to bottle it, they should be now clear favourites...although their defence really haven't been tested and are pretty poor back there. I fancy Middlesborough still. Losing a Manager and still winning, thats tremendous value for money. A very good squad too. I think everyone else maybe in false positions. Lots of teams aren't performing well but have gathered points. I still wouldn't have put Sheff Utd, Southampton and a few other big names down the bottom though. Maybe Sheff Weds could pull off the unthinkable and stay up?

PS3? £32.99 is not a bad price for a decent game and the videos look good - I'll have to give this serious consideration

I grabbed this and have really enjoyed it so far. Really refined game that looks great and runs incredibly well. I've done just under 5 hours so far with 7 successful extractions in 8 attempts. I've only killed one human so far and have mostly just been focused on obtaining essential loot and doing a few quests. Unlocked the second location this evening and am currently level 6. The action can be really tense at times but the most scariest thing about this game is the tumbleweed🤣

Fine.... Once things calm down over here, I will grab this... we need more farm games with guns.

Console and Deck... YES Please!! The rest... no thank you The specs are nice, if there is a way to sideload an app to it (Plex or Jellyfin), then I am all over this! Models 512GB model and 2TB model Steam Machine will ship in a bundle with Steam Controller and will also be available standalone Specs CPU: Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP GPU: Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs 45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP Supports 4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR Ray tracing supported Over 6x more powerful than Steam Deck 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM 512 GB & 2 TB SSD models micro SD card slot for expanded storage/ portable catalog Internal power supply, AC power 110-240V I/O DisplayPort 1.4 Up to 4K @ 240Hz or 8K@60Hz Supports HDR, FreeSync, and daisychaining HDMI 2.0 Up to 4K @ 120Hz Supports HDR, FreeSync, and CEC Ethernet 1 Gbps USB-C 10 Gbps, 3.2 Gen 2 4x Type USB-A ports 2x USB 3 in the front 2x USB 2 in the rear 2×2 Wi-Fi 6E, dedicated BT antenna Integrated Steam Controller 2.4GHz radio Other features Works with other controllers, accessories,and PC peripherals Wake with Steam Controller Runs SteamOS Familiar, gaming first user experience Fast suspend / resume Steam cloud saves, and all the other Steam features you’d expect Customizable LED bar Personalize with colors and animation Reflect system status (e.g. downloads, booting, updating)

I have played a few solo runs and quite enjoying it, the PvP will nark me I think but we will see. For now though I have just been pottering about doing my missions and picking up anything not nailed down! It looks great and the maps are good. Every moment you come across a player can be tense, almost mexican standoff esque until someone does something as you have no idea who you can trust and who you can't.

Everyone's loving that voip interaction 🤣

I kind of feel like Blackburn have turned a corner, at least on the pitch, I'm pretty ignorant about the rest. As for the Prem, I did not foresee LFC having some major issues, it's definitely been a more interesting league the last couple of years. Just waiting for the Arse to bottle it again 🤭 Please.

So, after 7/8 years in early access Tarkov 1.0 gets released in just over a week. Finally releases on Steam too. Apparently there's going to be a storyline, they've been keeping things close to their chest so don't know much more than that. To experience the full version means I will have to wipe my character, which will be a fucker but I'll definitely be doing it.

I checked and my Gamepass subscription for December increased to £22.99. I have now cancelled the subscription and I doubt I'll ever own another Microsoft console ever again. Xbox 360 was a great console and experience, and they have completely fumbled the ball since then.

This is a decent look at the console/PC offering.

Wait... you gotta feed chickens in this game? Farming with guns? maybe I will check it out

Game looks and runs great! I think I paid £27 for this which is a total bargain. In contrast, Fallout 4 Anniversary is £52.99 and the upgrade alone for existing users is £35. This is stupidly good value.

Ok so I've hit level 20, been playing every night since I bought it on Saturday. This game is basically e-crack. Anyway, I've learned quite a bit, some of it isn't in any of the millions of Youtube videos and I had to figure it out myself so I'll drop those pearls of wisdom all over bones' mum the thread. Firstly, and this is imo one of the three biggest things to know about this game, is that you can drop in for any reason you want. Sometimes I'll just grab a free loadout, hoarde as much shit as I can and then extract. This is howI strongly suggest everyone start, as picking fights WILL lead to some of the most hilarious, devastating and embarrassing deaths. These robots are out to kill, and kill you they will. For your first hour or two, the free loadout will be your friend. You have nothing to lose so can go balls-to-the-wall with it, and if you die, nothing lost. Secondly is the attitude towards loot. Loot is everywhere in this game. Find a building? Full of loot. Find a car? Could have loot. Kill a robot? Full of loot. Kill a dude? Full of loot. It's everywhere, and habit says that you need to hoarde as much as you can. Whilst this is good when you're running low on resources, you can also end up collecting a load of shit which isn't useful at that point in time. You'll also suffer from "gear fear", ie. dropping in and then getting killed, losing all your shit in the process. This hurts the first few times, but once you adjust your mentatlity to realise that you can hustle up most of that stuff again in a few rounds with a free loadout and it's all gravy. Don't be too precious about loot, you're gonna lose it anyway. Thirdly is the unlocks and upgrades. Stuff like workbench upgrades, Scrappy upgrades, skills, etc are all permanent. These are your focus, the gear and loot is merely a way of getting there. Fourth is don't pick fights randomly. These robots are absolutely ruthless and WILL fuck you up if you're caught off guard or aggro then when you're not prepared. Even the tiny ones can be a pain in the ass and many will also call for backup, so make sure you're prepared before engaging. Rule no. 1 is never, ever engage out in the open, as they'll retaliate and your peace will be shattered in to a small little skirmish of death. Make sure you've got cover, make sure you've cleared out the room you're using as cover, and be aware of your surroundings. I've got shitloads more but I'll leave it at this for now. There are also tons of third party resources which help a ton, I'll link to them later. Get on this game. It's bloody good and bloody entertaining. Often hilarious.

I'll stick to the maps in this thread, cos its the thread for it 😄 I can definitely see some of those concerns coming through on specific maps. New Sobek City - This one has the most vertical issues. Like you said, the fact people can find cubby holes on sides of buildings with no standard stairs you ropes to get you there is very odd. I think thats where obviously vehicles, well, helicopters I mean, get you there but also having an Assault class with deployable ladders. I still don't think thats a good enough answer though as you should be able to have stairs to 95% of all high openings. This desert map is nearly as bad as Operation Firestorm. Also, the vertical issue compounds the problem by way of allowing people way higher to also control the point. I don't think that is a good design at all. Operation Firestorm - Way too open. Far too wide for snipers to take you out. New Oilfields Map - Like Matt says, ridges around but too vast of an area wide open and no cover. Lighting also not great. On the flip side, I do find these enjoyable so far: Manhattan Bridge - Great point (usually C) on top of building. Can be blown up quite abit and can change the way a game flows given the advantage point but also can easily focus too hard on it. Middle 4 way point very good with lots of ways to attack it. One of the further points, E, can have different fights, given the pipes that are destructible but give good cover, and the zip line across the top of the point but doesn't allow you to control the point. Iberian Offensive - Nice lanes to flank teams across both sides. Tanks can make differences at both end points and at D but its good that 3-4 points aren't affected so a change of how you tackle each point must be taken into consideration. Spawn Beacons can really help on this map, possibly underused so nice to see how it can flip a game and area. C can have great cover points, but also largely destructible which can change how you play attack/defence on this. Liberation Peak - Large peak that separates E from B,C,D definitely adds something to this game and how different ways you can approach winning the game. Vehicles can help change a game but also a good defence strategy across either the bottom control points, or capturing high end grounds D, E and F. Snipers can make a difference on the Peak when C and D matter in whatever game mode you're playing. Theres obviously more, but just wanted to highlight some bits I really don't like on maps, and some that I do.

@GazzaGarratt asked me last night what it was I am disliking about the game at the moment and I had a think about it after I came off last night and I have swung towards the same thinking as you. The maps are just bad. The things I picked out about them:- - The maps just feel very chaotic and without any real structure to them, in some instances you can have snipers shooting people in spawn sat up on a mountain, in others you can have tanks not even leaving their spawn and being able to take out people across the whole map. - Moving from one objective point to another generally see's you having to run across open spaces leaving you completely exposed to anyone sitting around waiting for you. - A number of the maps have high rise buildings that you can only reach the top via flying over in a helicopter and ditching it. Now I am no builder or architect but I don't recall many buildings in the world where they have been built without fekking stairs to the top! So many times I have been killed on this battlefield game by people sitting on top of a point that is not reachable by any means so unless you snipe back you can not counter them. Before Lee say's it, camping by snipers has always been in Battlefield but there has always been a way to fight back i.e. cover to sprint between to get to the sniper and such. Unfortunately we can't scale walls in this one. Even on the smaller skyscrapers you find there are sometimes no route up which to me is a futile attempt to make the assault class worth playing with it's ladders. - The maps are smaller than historically, operation firestorm compared to almost every other map demonstrates this. Then the space within the maps is not utilised well at all. Think of all the routes through from one side of the map to the other on Cairo for example, there are no choke points or tactical routes which removes any tactical element of the map. - Then where we have bigger maps they are far too open and all of the objectives seem to be placed centrally leaving swathes of the map empty. - The new oilfields map is atrocious, it's like someone created an empty map, put some ridges in and then dropped in random geometry from the generic battlefield library and that's what we got. There are genuinely way better maps already in the community area. - Spawns are dreadful, the number of times I spawned on a point yesterday and I was being shot before I even moved anywhere. Oh on the game play side of it (we should just have 1 thread on this game) has anyone noticed that when you move from one lobby to another you can sometimes find yourself spawn in and start playing but other times you spawn in and the opposite team have already captured the first 2 bases before your side really get going? Like they load a number of players into the lobby at a time or something?

ARC Raiders

COD Poster-child and Activsion shill Fazz Swagg got banned on the first day. He's been banned from every COD title in recent years and has been caught cheating numerous times on several accounts whilst streaming. Also cheated during the Battlefield preview event and Activision famously paid him and his friends to provide fake trailer reactions It was also funny to see so many big streamers struggle yesterday because their Cronus software hasn't been released yet and no cheats have bypassed the secure boot yet.

Hi everyone, casual gamer here. Hopefully get some games of Arc Raiders going with some of you

Watched Transformers again as its been a while with my lad. Can honestly say that the early films that added some CGI like this have not aged at all. In fact they are miles better than recently used CGI films, by a long way. Started watching Dark of the Moon after it (3rd film) as I know the second was a little bit of a letdown. The detail on Sentinel Primes face and also how they made Megatron's head show he's still very much wounded is a nice little touch.

So thinking of downloading this today (Friday). Fairly new to PVP type extraction games, so don't really know what to expect, but I am finding a lot of games stale and too formulaic at the moment, so need something different. Will probably be a weekend game with some week nights due to working patterns. Ps5 player, using a Steelseries headset and possibly in the future a dual sense edge (just for thr custom button profiles mainly) Edit: Played for a couple of hours this afternoon, loving it!!

Did not expect something like this but its early access release is imminent Assetto Corsa Rally on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM Assetto Corsa Rally is a high-fidelity rally sim built for precision and challenge. With 3D laser-scanned stages and cars, professional co-driver support, and dynamic conditions, it delivers a demanding...

yea, thats where I am at as well. Especially once the Steam console/ pc comes out. Shit I might even sell all of my 40k stuff to get that thing sooner. I could put it in the living room and then the wife and I can game again

Just when you thought Bethesda couldn't sink any further, they've just released Fallout 4 Anniversary for £53/$60 and in the process broken the majority of established mods. They are also now offering 'their' own paid mods for an extra £20. So basically they have repackaged something you could've bought for £14.99 a month ago, butchered every mod in the process - some of which had 6+ years of work on them so they can reintroduce their paid mod fetish which has failed 3 times already. This company is beyond being creatively and morally bankrupt. I can't see how they will survive beyond 2030 even with a new Elder Scrolls game. Microsoft also need to shoulder a huge portion of the blame as they've done nothing for the studio who still rely on outdated tech and concepts.

If they do, they'll probably demand £39.99 for it!

So, theprice of the Steam version is live and quite surprisingly there's a discount on it for the next 48 hours. 32 quid for the standard edition is decent. £19 to add the co-op PVE mode. Still, i won't hold my breath on anyone picking it up 🙃 Save 25% on Escape from Tarkov on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM Escape from Tarkov is the original extraction FPS where every raid is a gamble with death. Prep your raid...

Jokers. Its been 14 years now since the last Elder Scrolls and at this point I wouldn't trust Bethesda with boiling an egg 🙈

Jimmy Broadband did a video on it recently, looks ok i suppose but early access can get to fuck : )

Patch notes for the update today ARC Raiders - NORTH LINE - November Update 1.2.0 Patch Notes - Steam News STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM The North Line Train has arrived, prepare for extraction.

I've had about 4/4 successful extractions this evening but the last one was absolutely chaotic - I only went in to the Dam location to see if I can get some apricots for the chicken as part of the challenge but I ended up getting in several firefights. I downed a couple in a 3 way battle after craftily springing on the wounded ones and then evaded about 3 other battles in and around the water treatment extraction elevator which was very tense and I don't think anyone there wanted to lose their gear so we seemed to exit one at a time🤣 The experience is more chilled the earlier in the day but come the evening it's very PVP-heavy and nobody can be trusted.

Yay, I'm in A&E atm, hoping to be home in a couple of hours. Looking forward to it Big D, been far too long!

Downloading.....

PS5 for me Dave. If you fancy giving it a shot let me know, I'd love to team up and show you some of the basics!

Grey Zone was released far too early, it will come good in my opinion. I can't really play it properly until they work on optimisation as my PC really struggles with it. As far Tarkov, these days it runs like a dream and my old 1080ti has zero problems. But I think they're going to make it an expensive game to buy when it goes 1.0 in four days. It's not for everyone, it really is a hardcore shooter like no other and really you do have to be slightly masochistic to enjoy it 😅

They are basically using the same 20hz tick rate servers COD Warzone adopted in 2022 which is why the experience feels garbage. MW3 from 2023 uses 60hz servers which is why it's infinitely smoother and more responsive. BF4 had the same issues at launch along with the ropey netcode and invisible wall glitches but many private ranked servers on PC since then use up to 90hz servers and the difference is absolutely nuts. Many players in BF6 are just using casual servers now because they are better quality despite halved progression rates. In some cases you can have a better experience joining a server in Chile from Eastern Europe than playing on a DICE server in Paris. EA cheapskating it to the max.

It's server de-sync. It was a problem in the beta and it looks like they still haven't fixed the issue.

We've played a bunch of multiplayer games over the past week and must admit, the gunplay still feels seriously good and I'm really enjoying playing escalation. We don't win every game, but definitely win more than we lose and I do think it brings out the strategy in some maps on what we need to do to turn a game around. So many Escalation games finished 3-2 and they also swing backwards and forwards a hell of a lot. Its a shame some older fans of the game aren't feeling it, but I really don't feel the same (currently), and I'm enjoying the Support role a hell of a lot. Its nice to see us balance the overall squad whoever is on as some play engineer alot to combat the tanks. I hope the player base doesn't just drop off a cliff, sometimes some patience as whilst its defo not perfect, its really solid for a BF game. I'd go as far to say that its the best BF game I've played (I didn't play BF3 and a few before that).

Fuck, well I appreciate the honesty here man. I debated on buying it because I love BF3 and BF4, but damn. I honestly dont think any franchise is decent anymore if its from a major studio. They've all been infested with venture capitalists that don't know anything but cash

I've been playing for 75 or so hours, reached level 70, done the campaign, played the BR and overall, this game is just a pile of shit and so far below the standards we deserve it is truly laughable. This is far worse than the WW3 game from a few years ago that flopped. I've uninstalled BF6 and will probably just go back to either BF4 or BF1 which are both vastly superior games in every sense. Terrible map design, desync galore, completely broken challenges, conflicted design philosophy and just a general lack of refinement across the board. It feels like a Chinese knock-off published by Tencent or something. Season One offering of the worst map in Battlefield history along with 50% challenges related to the BR has just killed it. The battle pass is utterly miserable and devoid of any worthwhile content and they've shifted to low-budget servers since the second week which has butchered the experience further. The campaign is a joke - feels like a lame tacked-on narrative from 2008 but rather than have a highly cinematic and polished spectacle like Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, it feels like you're just doing generic missions on multiplayer maps with boring objectives like surviving waves and activating/destroying points. The story is totally predictable and the main villain you only see about 3 times and don't even know what their motive is. This game is also in a far worse state in terms of the netcode than Battlefield 4 was but it just isn't as noticeable and gamers are used to being served games of such mediocre technical quality so it's become the norm now. It would've been absolutely horrific 10-12 years ago and likely killed the game after a fortnight. Even Call of Duty at its worst should comfortably beat this. It's barely an improvement on how BF2042 ended.

If any of you are playing on PC....

I'm gonna give this a go. BF6 wasn't really my cup of tea, but I dig the 3rd person gameplay. It's giving me Division dark zone vibes from some vids I've seen. Reviews have been positive as well. I think I need to get back to some FG game nights, ya know?

I may finally grab it on Steam but it all depends on the price and the state of the game. It feels a bit late in the day to be releasing it on Steam but I can still see it doing well, certainly better than that Gray Zone Warfare.

Arse vs Sunderland It was either this or NWSL, and man that shit is boring over here

Sorry @Luseth can't make tonight after all, forgot i'm at a birthday drink 🙈

People are genuinely angry about this delay and I find it quite amusing. It's just a game. They're acting like it's the end of the world 🤣

You are right, putting that up as a straight snip does not show so well so I will put it in the post manually how we did 🙂

Man...now you've made me look back at my early article posts....those days....❤️🖤

Its been around for some years as this is what I really tried hard to use right at the start before switching to manual ways of collecting the stats each week. EA actually stopped Pro Clubs Head from getting the data for a while in the API, which was a real shame but I think back then it was also because it would only keep the last 5 or 10 games we'd played and it would wipe previous games. I still used it for the team names we played back in the day (if you see some of the early articles stats pictures, the names were cut from there so we'd get the badges and full score 🙂).