MrBiron

They don't put them in as they don't want people to know how many people are playing the game. It's why we no longer see a player count.

I'm definitely interested to see who was behind all the shitty monetization and locking off content behind a pay-wall  in the first 2 games.
People seem keen to blame Activision but apparently Bungie did the same thing with the Halo games.
Unlike @GazzaGarratt I'm not in love with Bungie and Destiny as a game so I'll call them out on any bullshit.

I'm definitely interested to see who was behind all the shitty monetization and locking off content behind a pay-wall  in the first 2 games.
People seem keen to blame Activision but apparently Bungie did the same thing with the Halo games.
Unlike @GazzaGarratt I'm not in love with Bungie and Destiny as a game so I'll call them out on any bullshit.

That looks dull as dishwater. Plus I can't help but notice that it's had a massive graphical downgrade since the E3 showing.

I've got this ordered. This was probably my favourite RE game on the PS.

At the end of the day - and as everybody knows - COD needs a massive overhaul and some serious investment.
They need to bin it off for a few years, buy an actual new game engine, sort their studios out and the release a proper new COD on the next generation of consoles. But we all know they'll just continue to milk the franchise like they have been doing for years.

Too late now IMO. This should've happened in the early 2010's like we saw with Frostbite. The dated technology has really held the franchise back as has the dated multiplayer format. BO4 was a big overhaul for the series but despite poaching all ideas from other hugely successful titles, they still manged to screw it up somehow.  COD used to be the lead innovator and now its languishing.  
Activision have very little to fall back on with Destiny, Rockband and Tony Hawk as their key brands and with 3 major studios to fund; they need the income that COD delivers just to remain sustainable. They'd probably be better off selling the brand altogether and probably IW, SHG and 3arc with it. I can see someone buying COD but certainly not wanting the studios on top. Activision have taken it as far as they can and they are paying the ultimate price for their lack of investment and greed. 
I think they'll milk it until they kill it if they don't look to sell up. It's failed as an eSport, it's failing on Twitch even with Blackout, the sales are 'disappointing' and the only thing keeping it in the green is in-game purchases and even that's fading.  Activision's lack of foresight and grasp of the market compared to Epic, Ubisoft and even scum like EA is truly shocking. They got so comfortable with supply drops and people buying COD and season passes every year that they didn't plan an exit or the possibility of a decline. 

At the end of the day - and as everybody knows - COD needs a massive overhaul and some serious investment.
They need to bin it off for a few years, buy an actual new game engine, sort their studios out and the release a proper new COD on the next generation of consoles. But we all know they'll just continue to milk the franchise like they have been doing for years.

At the end of the day - and as everybody knows - COD needs a massive overhaul and some serious investment.
They need to bin it off for a few years, buy an actual new game engine, sort their studios out and the release a proper new COD on the next generation of consoles. But we all know they'll just continue to milk the franchise like they have been doing for years.

At the end of the day - and as everybody knows - COD needs a massive overhaul and some serious investment.
They need to bin it off for a few years, buy an actual new game engine, sort their studios out and the release a proper new COD on the next generation of consoles. But we all know they'll just continue to milk the franchise like they have been doing for years.

I actually didn't mind Ghosts. The campaign was solid and I quite enjoyed the MP.
Some of the maps were huge and it seemed like the game was supposed to be 9v9 but they couldn't get it to work. Siege(mentioned above) was actually a decent map but it was just a bit too big. Same with Stormfront.
I'd rather have Ghosts 2 as the game ended on a cliffhanger. But we'll get MW4 as there is no originality left in COD any more.

I'd be up for this but I can only really play on Sunday or Monday nights.

I'd be up for this but I can only really play on Sunday or Monday nights.

I think it's more because the rumours of them having to bin everything and start again were true and they're now playing catch up to get the game working how they want it to.

Hopefully they won't fuck this up and make the Black Market even more grindy to get the weapons. But we'll see.

Here are my thoughts on the matter:
 
My thoughts on D1 are clear, it started off shit with a shit story and the studio couldn't get their act together so we ended up with a butchered mess which over time and many payments, they managed to mould in to a bit of a decent game. We all enjoyed it, it brought the community together and it was probably the highest FG has ever been in terms of co-operation and parties. 
 
Then D2 came out and we naturally all started comparing it to D1 at the end of its life. We admitted that D1 had two extra years of development and progress so we turned a blind eye to the sub-par game we were fed because... you know... Bungie will fix it. The game was a complete mess, but we all tolerated it because we remembered the days when we all played D1 together and that's what we wanted. Yes, we were enjoying it but there was a constant underlying feeling that I was playing a shit game, and only playing it because of the company rather than the quality of the game. Then they started putting out DLCs, and we paid. Then we paid more. Then we paid more. And now we're expected to pay again. On top of this there's Eververse which is yet another cash grab. I wouldn't be surprised if Bungie announced a subscription model at some point. 
 
The game itself isn't bad. I enjoy playing it because it's easy, it runs fairly well, it brings the people I enjoy playing with together, but let's not kid ourselves: Compared to some other titles, it's a load of shit. The amount of content on release was fuck all, and they've drip fed us more stuff over time and each time we're expected to pay for it. Fine, yet again I turn a blind eye and pay because I enjoy playing with you lot but there's still that constant, unshakable underlying feeling that I'm giving money to people who don't care about the happiness and satisfaction of their customer base. All they want is money and will do the absolute bare minimum to get it. If that means recycling content? Fine. Same guns as we had in D1? Fine. Same enemies? Fine. Same missions? Fine. They have the audacity to brag about new content all the time when in reality I'd say at least 80% of it is a copy and paste job.
 
I used to write games when I was a wee lad, granted they were more like Snake than Destiny but during that phase I learned a hell of a lot about what goes on behind the scenes. When you start paying attention to the behaviour of bad guys and notice that many of them share the same traits, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they're simply copy and paste jobs with different skins stuck on them. Maybe tweak a bit here, increase the jump a bit there, in the hope that nobody notices but the fact of the matter is that I do notice, and I notice it a lot. 
 
The weapons we're all supposed to be so excited about are all copy and paste jobs. The enemies we're supposed to kill are all copy and paste jobs. The missions we do are all the same ones over and over. Bungie figured out that people don't mind grinding so they're milking it, and they're doing a bloody good job. So we're using the same weapons we've been using for 4 years to kill the same enemies we've been killing for 4 years in the same missions we've been doing for 2 years. Sure, they'll add a few multipliers or whatever to make it trickier, or if they're feeling particularly adventurous maybe they'll flip the mission on its head so we do it back to front. Ground breaking stuff.
 
Apart from end game content, their answer to everything is "more bad guys". Every mission. More bad guys. Not "aha, suddenly something new appears for free as a nice gesture towards the community that have spent literally billions on this game" - nope, copy and paste more bad guys. But if you kill them you get a shader. Or a gun you paid for 4 years ago.
 
And that's the thing with Destiny for me and the reason i don't care for it any more. I was in denial for ages telling myself it was a decent game but the constant laziness behind the scenes just got too much for me. The fact that Bungie has the balls to charge people for content that is so sloppily and lazily put together is testament to how stupid and blind us gamers have become, and having now been reminded of what quality game development looks like and how much content you can get for your money thanks to RDR2, I won't be spending another penny on Destiny. They've milked me enough for the absolute minimum effort and content and I'm done with it. 
 
I'll still be on for Banana or whatever but I'm not spending any more money on it. 

😂

The base engine is actually from 1998 so you could say it's 20 years old and even predates the original Call of Duty! They've 'improved' aspects of it but at the end of the day it was dated even on the PS3/360 and had huge limitations back then. Destiny 2 also uses a build from Halo 3 so Activision are just plodding along with old tech just like Bethesda. Not sure how long they can continue really.  Even the textures for the engine are really showing their age now.

SMGs are supposed to be close range. The fact that you still get beaten by ARs up close is just stupid. And shotguns are totally useless in this game.

I gotta admit that I'm getting a bit bored of normal MP. I think there are a few reasons why.
 
1) It feels a similar to BO3. And I played a lot of that game.
 
2) 4 of the maps are old maps that I've played 100's of games on already. And I seem to play Firing Range and Jungle more than any other map.
 
3) Lack of challenges and no skins to unlock for the Specialists means I just use the same couple of Specialists. Which gets a bit boring.

I gotta admit that I'm getting a bit bored of normal MP. I think there are a few reasons why.
 
1) It feels a similar to BO3. And I played a lot of that game.
 
2) 4 of the maps are old maps that I've played 100's of games on already. And I seem to play Firing Range and Jungle more than any other map.
 
3) Lack of challenges and no skins to unlock for the Specialists means I just use the same couple of Specialists. Which gets a bit boring.

I know I said I might struggle to get some done....but here's a little taster for Saturday. For our first one it should be a little moment for us all to savour and be thankful for having awesome mates at FG.

We'll do our best to stream the section where we have a small get together in the Arcade Club. We'll try and direct you all to FG Streams when are likely to go live.

2 MORE DAYS!!!

I've already got this on order. Should have it today.

People always moan about publishers being greedy but I always say that games are a business and their number one purpose is to make money. If people are going to spend money on something then they're going to keep putting that sort of shit in their game.
 
I'm not saying I support this sort of shit. Cosmetic only micro-transactions don't bother me that much but they keep carving away at things that were free in previous games to sell back to us. In BO3 you could earn skins for operators just by using them. Now you have to grind for them or buy them. And you just fucking KNOW that weapons are coming. That's what REALLY fucks me off; turning a £60 game into a pay-to-win game.

Can't wait to play my favourite game of "back out of every single lobby when Nuketown is picked". Again. For the fucking fourth time! God I fucking HATE this piece of shit map.