J4MES OX4D

Finally had Armada Strike come around on the rotation and it's basically the Ground War map using the central ship only. No boats. It's pretty decent - a symmetrical sort of map with decent visibility. Some of the upper areas reached by ladders can provide a big advantage though.

Sounds like you need to obtain a Casus Belli through the courts to declare war. Rather than be able to attack anyone at will, CK uses certain political processes to carry out such actions. There's people who play hundreds of hours of these games and still they are discovering new things or don't entirely know how certain aspects work. Thankfully CK3 has simplified and explained a lot of things but 2 is massively complex.

Played a handful of matches so far including three of the 4 new maps. Checkmate seems a pretty decent map - it's indoors in a large hangar with a plane in the middle and it's got a really neat layout. Garrison is actually quite similar in terms of size and the layout except the spawn areas are outside. Bit early to judge this one but it seems perfectly acceptable. Crossroads Strike this the other one and this is basically a scaled down version of the ground war map which I absolutely loathed. This one however is really good and I think it will prove popular. Apparently the one I haven't played a shrunken version of Armada but if it's as good as Crossroads then it'll be highly welcome. Haven't even had this one show in the rotation yet. No Miami so far which is a plus though! This is definitely a good game but it's success over the next few weeks will be dependent on the content. Gameplay is definitely a lot of fun and it's nice to have a more casual experience than what we got with MW which was door/claymore heavy. I'll probably start the campaign in the next couple of days also.

I'm not really sure what they'll do with this game going forward but their biggest mistake was going down the live service route - had they done a movie-like full campaign similar to the Spiderman or Batman games, it would have been a huge hit and they wouldn't have had to make the gameplay format so generic. Seems Square Enix bit off more than they could chew and tried to recoup the expensive licencing with the live service element but it just doesn't work in a game like this. A costly lesson for all involved.

I had a look around the Beyond Light content which seemed pretty good but I haven't bought the full campaign expansion yet. I'm gonna wait a couple of weeks to see how it shapes up first.

I've disgraced myself - I have pre-ordered and pre-loaded. I didn't have any intentions in getting the game up until this evening but the money is there, discount on top plus I don't really have anything else to play right now through lockdown. I just hope the stuff I do like about the game is enough to keep me engaged and that it doesn't get stale. If it keeps me going until Cyberpunk then I'll be happy. Great post! This bit I think is a significant factor - Activision are chasing the battle royale money and the traditional COD experience has suffered tremendously with neglect. IW did try and salvage the core COD experience but only after Warzone was fully established. Too late in the day for many people. Treyarch neglected the hell out of Black Ops 4 MP and zombies - people even paid for a blind season pass and got barely any worthwhile content in return as David Vonderhaar was solely focused on Blackout. I am worried that Treyarch will once again turn all their attentions to milking the battle royale and the multiplayer will be left to rot along with zombies. Not sure if Warzone will retain its own dedicated team or if there is some sort of handover to 3arc where some of their staff will join the BR team but either way, they have to support everything in the package properly this time. In Activision's eyes, free content doesn't make them money and people playing MP means they aren't spending cash in Warzone.

You've just highlighted my exact concern - Modern Warfare had a pretty limited map pool at launch hence why the same maps kept popping up. It's gonna be even more limited in Cold War plus the maps we've seen already (half of the final count) weren't exactly great either. Other COD's definitely weren't as bad as this - MW2 and BO1 both had way more off the bat which were all 6v6 appropriate and were designed to accommodate all the other modes on offer. It was a fine and varied selection. Nowadays the devs are not only giving us less content at launch, the maps that are there are split based on the playlist type so there may only be six 6v6 maps in Cold War. We should really be getting at least 12-15 original 6v6 maps for starters and if the playlist modes do split the maps then there should be 6 or so ground war on top - 2 is just lame really. Off the top of my head:- MW2 had Afghan, Terminal, Highrise, Karachi, Underpass, Estate, Derail, Quarry, Favela, Skidrow, Sub Base, Invasion, Rust, Rundown, Scrapyard, Wasteland - that's 16 off the top of my head in the base game and I've probably missed a couple. Black Ops had Jungle, Summit, Firing Range, Nukertown, Array, Crisis, Cracked, Hanoi, Havana, Radiation, Villa, Grid, WMD and Launch. I've probably missed one there too but that's about 14. A poxy 8 maps for a premium multiplayer FPS game in 2020 is pretty disgraceful really and we already know recycled content is coming once again.

I read a YouTube comment last night that said something along the lines of 'the second beta releases Friday'. To be honest, that's not too far from the truth. The final game has 4 more maps, 5 more guns and 6 less scorestreaks and that's it. I still haven't bought the game and this could be the first Call of Duty I don't ever ever get. It certainly will be the first one I don't have at launch. If I don't pick it up today I probably never will. I really enjoyed the beta but the lack of content off the bat is disgraceful really. Surely you want to keep people engaged right off the bat rather than dangling one extra map in the next 5 weeks that may or may not be a remake. Treyarch also really piss me off these days - I still regard the original Black Ops one of the best games I have ever played and BO2 was an exceptional package. They are lazy as fuck now and completely out of ideas - all their new maps are shite and in such few quantity, they then have to relentlessly recycle old content. People will probably blame the pandemic and in some cases it has impacted development but let's not forget they had 3 clear years with BO4 and we didn't even get a campaign, only got 12 maps for MP in which 4 were recycled and the zombies community were shafted up the ass for Blackout. If Nuketown is finished already, why the hell don't they give it to us now? Holding out paid content to ransom is a joke! Infinity Ward were churning out MP, gunfight, FFA and GW maps all year and Treyarch seem to be toying with when to release Jungle for the 39th time in the last decade. COD YouTubers are at it again too - one minute they are conveying their concerns about the lack of content and how disappointing the game will likely be on release and then 8 hours later they publish a brand new video saying 'OMG NEW PATCH NOETS IN AND TREEARCH R LISTENING TO US' and '2 WEOPANS BUFFED AND DORK MATTER CAMO IS BACK - THIS GAME IS AMAZzzING YO' and then everything is forgiven even though that doesn't change anything about the lack of maps. I will have to make a choice by this evening - either pay £45, get about 40 hours out of it until Cyberpunk drops and just take what's there or save the money and vote with my wallet. I'll probably have nothing much to play but it'll be a principled move.

Not even this will be here tomorrow

Ouch!

CK2's tutorial is probably the worst ever created in a game plus the UI in that one is very unfriendly. CK3 has the same level of depth but a far cleaner interface and is not as overwhelming. Definitely YouTube videos are the best way especially with experienced players.

Found a video leak showing the other two maps available - Checkmate (0:47) and Garrison (5:32) plus there is a bit of Dead Ops and Zombies in there along with menu screens. Potato quality as with many videos of this nature though

It was the same story pretty much with WW2 which released with just 9 MP maps. We played 3 of those to death during the beta and out of the other 6, three were absolutely dreadful leaving 3 which were borderline acceptable. There were 3 other maps in that overwatch-type mode but that's no excuse to shrink the map pool of the core multiplayer especially when a lot of people had no interest in playing it. The minimum amount of entry maps for 6v6 should be at the very least 12 new ones regardless of how many other modes they are supporting with specifically designed maps. I think 15 would be ideal and I wouldn't care if no new ones came out for 3 months - they should focus on retaining as many people as possible. I got burned on the beta after about 6 hours as the maps got old but I wasn't expecting this to make up about 40% of the final game!

Sitting at 9% positive LOL! The original is £1.99 too

They are basically cutting content intended for the base game and then drip feeding it to us under the illusion that they're giving free stuff. It was bad enough in the past with withheld content being sold as DLC but now they are holding to ransom content we've essentially already paid for. 3 more maps are supposed to arrive for season one but we don't know if that's 3 gunfight ones, 3 6v6 or 3 ground war - it may even be one map for each mode. Embarrassingly shit either way. Treyarch will probably blame the pandemic but even on a 3 year cycle with BO4, they couldn't even concoct a campaign, 60% of the game was recycled form the BO3 SDK and the MP and zombies was unsupported and on life support after Christmas. It kinda puts into perspective how well IW supported MW post-launch - they gave us new maps in every mode and the game was content-laden in the end on top of Warzone. Treyarch have seemingly removed 6 scorestreaks too...

Seems the remake is disappointing according to a few early reviews which is a shame. I've watched quite a bit of gameplay and I can safely irrespective of anything else that this game has the worst screen tearing I have ever seen in a videogame. Almost every scene is plagued with it and this review shows it well Here's some prime examples

Was reading feedback from the zombie community last night - here's the gist:- Treyarch: ''Cold War zombies is our biggest and most groundbreaking Call of Duty zombies experience to date'' Community: ''YOU'RE GIVING US ONE FUCKING MAP WTF'' This may end up being a repeat of Black Ops 4 where Treyarch did fuck all to support the core multiplayer and zombies experiences post-launch and put all their eggs in one basket with the battle royale. They'll probably change the time of day/weather on some of the base maps and then pretend it's sufficient 'new' content.

Thankfully I was lucky enough to pick up the entire collection when it was on Humble Bundle for $12 - it really was a once in a lifetime deal. Thankfully CK3 has a a lot of those features already in the game that appeared throughout the CK2 DLC and is much more user friendly.

What a hole in one!

Credible rumours going around that Cold War will only have 8 playable maps at launch with Nuketown following a couple of weeks later. If this is true then it’s a travesty regardless of how many are drip-fed in the coming months. Those will probably be rehashed ones (Jungle, Summit, Firing Range) too. What’s worse is that barely any can accommodate 6v6. I really hope this isn’t true because it could be a devastating dealbreaker for me. We should be getting at least 15 6v6 maps right off the bat. Seems they are just supporting too many modes which have their own specific maps. A full list can be found in a few articles but this one lays it out nicely All COD Black Ops Cold War MAPS (2020) | Full List of Call of Duty Cold War Multiplayer Maps including Fireteam WWW.GAMESATLAS.COM Full list of multiplayer maps in COD Black Ops Cold War including additional Season DLC maps, Fireteam modes...

Haven't got the expansion yet but I've done the introductory mission and had a mooch around the land. Seems decent from what I've seen although I'm rusty as hell! Enemies seem to be more challenging and the world looks great. Not sure if it's varied or grand enough in relation to the content that has been removed but it's too early for me to judge after my brief experience with it. Very tough decision I'll have to make in the next couple of days because it's a toss up between this, Cold War and Valhalla. I'll definitely have a deeper look tomorrow though. Game looks stunning right off the bat Anyone else been on yet? Took a good 3 hours to get into the game because of the server issues and then queue!

CK2 is now free to play I believe.

It's more of a strategy/RPG surrounding the creation and expansion of your dynasty with characters. CIV is more of a land-based conquer game.

What a pathetic, pointless and embarrassing article The Xbox Series X Is Triggering My Trypophobia KOTAKU.COM As reviews for the Xbox Series X arrive, I’m here to talk about one aspect of... and they wonder why modern videogame journalism is in the gutter and a complete laughing stock among almost all gamers! Next up ‘’PS5 is so white it’s borderline racist’’