J4MES OX4D

I see so many of these adverts now - mostly trading apps but I haven't tried them myself. Like Lee, I wouldn't really know where to start with it all. The circus surrounding Gametop and the accessibility of being able to do this just leaves me thinking it could turn very unstable and saturated although could be fun and profitable in the short term. I may take a deeper look sometime but the only thing I understand is cold hard cash!

Sorry Phil, couldn't resist😎

Unfortunately most of the people who bitch and whine about such things on Twitter like this incident are the ones that actually have a Prime subscription and are avid users of such services which includes Twitch. They don't seem very vocal in their virtue signalling when it comes to important matters so they latch onto stupid things like this. It's all fake rage really for social media brownie points. Kinda reminds me about the modern slavery situation against BooHoo in Leicester where the very people that were furious about it were the very ones still happily shopping with them months later. I saw an Amazon advert the other day showcasing a fleet of pristine electric vans whilst my poor old courier turns up in a rustbucket 1996 Ford Transit😂

Over 5,000,000 copies sold now!

I cannot believe people go so triggered over this People were literally having meltdowns and threatening to 'boycott' Amazon and their services for life if they didn't amend their 'Nazi-inspired' logo😅

I just want a Call of Duty where we don't get 8 maps at launch and then the rest of the withheld content that should've been in the game in the first place, spoonfed to us over the duration of months under the illusion that it's FREE updates. In Cold War, we got 40% of a game and not only are they giving out decade old recycled content to make up part of the other 60, they are even resorting to giving us 'new' scorestreaks that have been in the franchise a decade and were located in the game files during the beta. Give us a game with 15 maps and then another 15-20 to follow. They make billions out of thin air on coloured guns yet we don't get anything back like we used to in terms of new maps because we aren't directly paying for them. There is no incentive for the devs to deliver 4 map packs so we just accept getting new content when it comes under this bullshit season model that's adopted into all this shitty live service titles. The big problem is the eSport meta and SBMM which is the norm now. I don't think I will ever truly enjoy or play COD like I used to because of how connection-based matchmaking and lobby balancing has been replaced with artificial crap such as ping manipulation, monetized matchmaking and the very sweaty nature of the mechanics. Casual COD is dead and it's replaced by a carefully crafted algorithmic framework to benefit player retention and customer spend for Activision. I do think the franchise is completely exhausted and deathmatch as a whole heavily saturated now and whilst I did have fun on Cold War at times, it's a tired format on a threadbare product. MW2019 now with all the content is where a COD game should be at launch - jam packed of content with tonnes to do right off the bat. Activision doesn't seem to get that player retention is a factor on content so rather than alienating players and focusing on the dedicated open-wallet ones, they should try and satisfy all fans. As I said in another thread, I cannot understand why they haven't released a universal game like COD Online or COD mobile which contains stacks of content all rolled into one. Keep that updated and you'll keep people happy for years and they wont need to spend all that money concocting a whole new game where 50% of people immediately don't like the era. Having this with the battle royale and then you've got two rolling products. Microtransactions now outweigh money made through sales so a brand new game from a tiresome franchise may not be the answer each year.

Let's not forget this is the same company who's PR extended to calling lootboxes 'surprise mechanics'. GameInformer is a bullshit publication designed to promote publishers rather than report gaming news - they have had secret deals with Activision over the years regarding backdoor marketing dressed up as hit-pieces. Looks like EA have bought their way in the doors now just as GI need the money and 6 months before Activision get their next circus slot. EA were, are and will always be pieces of utter shit to developers and consumers. Any publication that gives them the time of day can piss right off. Them removing the live service for Dragon Age 4 which is a single player game is nothing to celebrate. Everything else said is general PR fluff.

The FF7 Remake is a shock inclusion and what makes it better is the PS5 version releasing in June is a free upgrade for existing owners so I'm gonna grab one month and get the game that way and then just play through the new version in the summer. Brilliant stuff! *Edit apparently it says in the blog you cannot upgrade if you get the PSN version even though any other digital or disc copy can upgrade - this contradicts the state of play trailer big time. Damn, knew it would be too good to be true! I'll try and pick up a disc version on the cheap and upgrade that way then.

Feels a bit off and like a cheapo version of The Division which is essentially what it is The devs really need to start selling the concept and what differentiates it from that game.

Very stylish trailer that oozes Dishonored, No One Lives Forever and James Bond. Made by Arkane and published by Bethesda so definitely one to watch:-

Glad they cancelled it - literally the BioWare team left are largely ones that didn't even make the game so it would be asking a lot of them to reboot it when not even the original experienced staff knew what they were doing. The game was essentially dead after a month anyway. Hard to believe this was in development for as long as Red Dead Redemption 2 but Anthem clearly had no concise identity of what it wanted to be - it probably started off as an RPG and then they chased a multitude of trends through development and what ultimately dropped was a half-baked concoction in what was then a saturated genre where better alternatives existed that were built as intended from the ground up. I hate EA but I don't think they were even the ones to blame here - they gave BioWare a lot of funding and a lot of time too but the devs just made a meal of it. They didn't even have anything other than a few ideas on paper after 2 years. The only thing the publishers were guilty of was not keeping a closer eye on the project. Nice to see EA get partly ridiculed thanks to their existing reputation though. BioWare should now focus on Dragon Age 4 solely and I hear that they are dropping all live service features (why the fuck would these be in the game anyway) and keeping it single player which is good. Another studio completely ruined by a failed game but this was so poor on many levels, it was inevitable. It's practically a new team now so let's see what they do with DA4.

If your budget is £800-1000 right now I would probably leave it for the time being. For around £1400 you will likely be able to land a high-end 1440p build that could easily support 4K when 3070's are back in stock. Where you are positioned right now, it's like having £250 at hand and then toying with buying a PS4 Slim when the PS5 is out but you can't quite afford that - it's just not viable or worth spending that money on especially for just a bit more you can get something that will keep you going for 5-7 years rather than getting something dated right off the bat. A £1000 1440p build could probably play most pre-2018 titles to a decent standard but you give yourself no scope moving forward and every new release will be a strain. Within 2 years you'll have to buy an entirely new device or downgrade to 1080p to maintain a satisfactory experience as upgrading would replace everything in the system. If you opt for 1080p, you'll need a new monitor as your current one will make things intolerably blurry so that would be a further cost. I'd definitely see if you can scrape together some extra funds over the course of the year and once the GPU's get restocked, the market should settle down.

RPG shooter for 1-3 players coming out April 1st. Demo currently available on PC and console

I see they're still drip-feeding scorestreaks that have been in the franchise for over a decade🤣 Just imagine when Black Ops 12 comes out and we have to wait until Season 3 before the main menu drops😎

I got given a PS5 for free last week as a belated Christmas present. Still haven’t taken it out the box - probably open it in 6 months to find its full of bricks and books😂

Yeah I mentioned that in the third post.

Looks good https://thumbs.gfycat.com/RipeThisAdouri-mobile.mp4

Napster - now that's a name I haven't heard in about 20 years😂 I suppose Metallica are seen as the OG's of DMCA's as that was probably the first notable lawsuit filed of this nature - prior to that it was burning discs and copying tapes pretty much! The performance went fine on YouTube so I wonder if this was one of Twitch's automated triggers where any music that isn't in a recommended free playlist is detected and censored. Either that or someone pulled the plug deliberately or with some nostalgic irony. You would've thought Activision Blizzard, Twitch and Metallica themselves would've possibly anticipated this or planned better. Definitely shows Twitch's no nonsense approach and why stremers are treading on eggshells. You can literally get DMCA'd if music is detected playing on a TV, outside or even via your ringtone - it's crazy! You have to stream in absolute silence pretty much.

..to avoid being copyright struck by Metallica!? Another absolute comedy shit show from Twitch🤣

Resurrected will cost £34.99/$39.99 https://eu.shop.battle.net/en-us/product/diablo_ii_resurrected

Codemasters aren't quite as prominent as they used to be in the industry so this move may help in that respect whilst also taking the sting out of the cost of licences. These official racing games aren't cheap to produce so if they fail to sell well like a few of their recent games then it's a big problem. Hopefully EA will keep their money-grabbing mitts out of the gameplay by trying to monetize aspects of it and let the games run themselves as designed by the developers.

Liverpool's title defence is the worst ever and Klopp must be on thin ice. Cannot believe it really! They'll have to win the Champions League again else they may not even make the Europa League. Is that 4 defeats in a row at home too?