J4MES OX4D

Yeah, and Theresa May is FHM top 100 material

I don't know how long the beta had to run but I uninstalled it last night. The loading screens are just too immersion breaking and you literally have to be holding hands with your team mates so one doesn't go adrift and then trigger a loading screen which means everyone else can't finish their battles or collect loot. I also died and it took about 4 minutes to respawn. If the final build is plagued by so many stop-start loading screens then it could prove an infuriating experience.

Does the PS4 version have director mode? If so, I found this which shows that the wanted status can be disabled so cops should theoretically be turned off or immune

Fuck em. I think 70% of Metro sales are on the PC so if they don't produce for the platform, they'd struggle with sales significantly. Another absolutely retarded developer that has probably destroyed many years worth of work and their entire future in less than a week. Blackmailing your community with threats isn't the way to do business.

There was an initial 10 year deal in place as that's how long the contract was regardless of the 'plan' but Activision stuck with them for at least half of it and gave them an exit whereas a company like EA will happily cut loose a studio if a brand has failed. My point being that BioWare, who are surely on thin ice as it is may not have an opportunity to turn it around if the game fails in the first instance unlike Bungie who were fortunate to be able to make a sequel after Destiny's initial disappointment.

AC Chronicles China free right now https://store.ubi.com/uk/assassin-s-creed--chronicles--china/56c4947f88a7e300458b4682.html

Latest rumours suggest it's called Apex Legends and will be out Monday. It's based in the Titanfall universe but wont have Titans in it.

If the game is poorly received, you have to wonder if BioWare will still be there to 'complete' it. EA would not hesitate to close the studio down if it flops and with the game already having 7 years of work and the generation coming to an end; I'm not sure the publisher would tolerate another 2-3 years of expense for a game that could be dead in the water right off the bat. Destiny was part of a 10 year plan and The Division was an in-house project on a huge scale but Anthem is just another one of EA's brands that they could easily cut loose if its not pulling in the money.

Pitch invader at the Everton game today

I'm not sure but you could possibly turn off cops or disable the wanted level in director mode. Haven't played in a very long time but if it's possible, this may be the way to do it.

Kholat free on Steam for a limited time https://store.steampowered.com/app/343710/Kholat/

I went into this game with an open mind despite a lot of concerns previous but having spent some time with the demo, the game seems even worse than I expected. I take note that this demo is an 'older build' that for some reason the developers have provided us with as a selling point but I can't see substantial enough changes that will improve the game dramatically towards release and beyond. The game is nowhere near on par with the likes of The Division or Destiny so staying with those is a much safer bet. They aren't groundbreaking either but at least they are content-laden and highly established brands. Anthem demo breakdown + Some impressive looking areas visually + Pretty solid combat mechanics - Horrible UI and menu functionality - Long loading screens - Loading screens triggered by other players ahead that interrupt your play - Enemies that stand still and/or disappear - Messy battles - Guns feel a bit tame - Flat atmosphere - Bland environments that are largely empty - Poor up close textures - Uninspired story and characters - Controls are a bit cumbersome off the ground - Fort Tarsis is devoid of things to do - Shallow foundation - Expensive - Endgame content concerns I think this game will probably need a serious amount of support post-release along with some significant content dropped regularly to keep it fresh. I am deeply worried that after seven years of work that this is the end product with such a seemingly limited package marred by fundamental flaws and shortcomings. Even Warframe seems to do a lot better across the board. The Division and Destiny despite their issues were highly immersive and very environmentally impressive but Anthem feels very lackluster and unspectacular.

So this is the one everyone on the XBOX One has been waiting for - 5 years in the making, multiple delays, way over budget and is supposed to push the Xbox One X to the absolute limits......yet it seems to look like a 2007 PS3 game..

RIP Clive Swift who died today

https://www.vg247.com/2019/01/31/ea-taking-a-beating-for-its-anthem-release-date-chart/ I love Jim Sterling's Tweet especially At least it's not as bad as Battlefield 5 where you pay £20 more to play 5 days early for an even more bug-ridden experience!

Well played Bethesda. Well played once again https://www.techradar.com/news/fallout-76s-latest-patch-brings-back-old-bugs

I actually think Publishers are just as dumb these days and they are more out of touch with their audiences than ever. So many iconic brands and so many legendary studios ruined overnight all for the sake of making a quick buck for that year end and to hell with any long-term consequences. Activision, EA, Blizzard and Bethesda have all had a miserable year attributed to quickfire greed and some other terrible business decisions. that will impact their future titles also. Thankfully more and more people are wising up to these miserable practices and finally it's began to hit the companies where it hurts.

Some from Resident Evil 2

I cannot believe this game has been in development since 2012 which is as long as Red Dead Redemption 2. Anthem was also in the works before the original Destiny apparently. The pressure on BioWare and EA for this to succeed has to be monumental. If the game fails to impress either financially or in terms of a media/player reception; it could have significant consequences particularly for the studio especially after Andromeda. It's too early to pass judgement and Anthem by no means looks terrible but it just doesn't look like an outstanding game that'll be played for years and revolutionize the genre or industry in the process. Could be an interesting couple of months for all involved.

Instead of posting from scratch, I'll use a couple of thoughts I had yesterday from a different thread that might be relevant here The fact that $BILLIONS of stock have been wiped off shareholder values just show that even with the lavish revenues the industry has made; all the big publishers have failed and that's purely down to past greed and not being able to keep up growth because of their reliance of previous practices which are now becoming obsolete or illegal like supply drops. I also don't understand why publishers are trying to pay off shareholders at the end of each year or ASAP - if you have a live service for a game or platform, why not make it a long term investment instead of a small annual payoff? GTA V made something like $6bn in 5 years making it the biggest entertainment product in history. It speaks volumes when the only stable AAA publisher left in the industry is UBISOFT of all people - they were lambasted back in 2013-14 for their dishonesty and poor quality products but after many years of brand establishment,. technological improvements and financial growth; they are the only ones who are in a strong position and their business practices aren't half as scummy as others. Rainbow Six Siege has been a tremendous success - under any other publisher, that game would've died after 6 months. When Ubi are the market leaders, that doesn't reflect well on others and companies like EA and Activision are desperately running out of revenue streams and have little to fall back on which could have dire consequences and deservedly so.

Chelsea are fucking shit.

I used to be satisfied with cosmetic items as it didn't affect core gameplay but it's becoming to be very prominent in games to the extent, it makes them look very tacky and with so much pressure on developers to create revenue streams with such content, it's also impacting the end-quality of these games and some are releasing very poorly or even incomplete. It may seem that I'm negative about a lot of these AAA games but it is these games that give me cause for complain. It's not like I'm moaning for the sake of it - I own practically all of them and simply echo the widespread complaints that these games have given their customers whether they are broken, unfinished, poor quality, built on greed etc... I don't think gaming has really evolved that much though - Anthem and The Division 2 don't do anything new we haven't seen since 2014. The only thing that has truly evolved in this industry is income based off of microtransactions which are peddled from live services. For example, Black Ops 4 MP probably has less features than Black Ops 1 yet it seems to have more because its just bloated with in-game purchases. I do think these MP focused live service games can provide value and entertainment but for me, they are not evolved enough and the F2P economies attached to these full priced games are something I find unacceptable and unnecessary greed. Anthem has been in development for 7 years which is as long as Red Dead Redemption 2. If it is anything short of incredible, I'd consider that an absolute disaster.

I just don't want to see a F2P economy in a full price game full stop. It's greedy, looks tacky and just oozes desperation to make money the easy way. Possibly £20 for a skin they could make in an hour which is 40% of the cost of the actual game is just outrageous even if it doesn't affect gameplay. If they have to have such aggressive monetization in play then they must have low projections and expectations for the game.