Diddums

https://youtu.be/GeyyrAEsoXs

PS5, but the crossplay works really well. Add friends and voila, you can make lobbies.

Level Cap is still one of the best reviewers out there imo. High praise from him is high praise indeed. https://youtu.be/G0ailgZMIXo

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!

New map coming out tomorrow already. https://www.ign.com/articles/arc-raiders-first-major-update-north-line-goes-live-tomorrow-heres-what-to-expect

Honestly this one's worth it imo. I've recommended shitloads of games in the past which I've stopped playing after a few days but I reckon this one's a keeper. The fact that the devs have a clear (and realistic) 10 year plan really helps too. Let me know if you buy it, I'll hop on this evening.

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!

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'm surprised at the lack of uptake on this tbh. This game is absolutely mental. Can all of you who have it pls pop your names in here and I'll see if I can organize an FG Friday on it.

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.

Bought it. Watched a few vids and have hit level two or three so far. Didn't realise quite how ruthless the Arc are, they really go for it. I've not extracted once yet, just been messing around and learning the mechanics, will have another go shortly. France vs SA rugby is on so it'll hafta wait an hour or so.

"May" have kids to sort? How does that work then? Do they suddenly turn up on random days unnanounced? Also, how much is this and what are you playing on? Yes I could read the thread and yes I could google the answers but... yanno... I'm me.

NEW CONTENT EVERYBODY! Funny this should pop up, I've been wondering about going back, as whether you like to admit it or not, Density provided some of the most epic nights in gaming we've ever had. I've genuinely been wanting to shoulder charge some noobs again for a while now, could the be the resurgence we secretly all want?

I was gonna stick something in the WhatsApp group but as it's his 40th I thought I'd treat him to a forum post, so happy birthday Lee @GazzaGarratt, thanks for all you do around here and I hope you're having an amazing day dude!