J4MES OX4D

Looking good for next month

I just can't see any appeal sadly. Don't look a bad game by any means but it just doesn't entice me to want to even try it. Warframe has been doing this for nearly 6 years now and Anthem doesn't really bring anything new to the table that we haven't seen in that, or in other games this generation. The Division 2 looks a much safer bet a month later as a proven and established brand. BioWare haven't really convinced either especially after Andromeda and they've spent a large portion promoting this game by looking for excuses and saying how much they want to make a new Dragon Age and Mass Effect game instead of being solely focused on this. Doesn't ooze much confidence really.

Ironically they would've made more money and had more people playing if they scrapped the (season) pass altogether. If they gave away free maps and then charged £9.99 every operation for an optional battle pass with tiers and exclusive items; that would have enticed a lot more people than the outdated ripoff format they have right now. The fact it's £40 all or nothing as you can't buy the expansions separately further put people off. At least with the season pass you could choose expansions and if they went with a proper battle pass format, users could buy happily buy in if they wanted to without feeling like money was being wasted. Activision's greed and desperation to cash in as quickly as possible has seen them come unstuck this time.

A triangle icon started appearing in playlists against users who didn't own the Black Ops Pass. A lot of people think the inclusion was there to 'shame' users who don't own it whilst Treyarch have claimed it was merely 'a bug'. The issue is now fixed apparently. I'd probably be more shamed actually owning the pass and looking at the lobbies below, a larger portion don't compared to those that do own it. In the past, users would write something this off as just a bug but the amount of these 'bugs' this game has had along with the relentless bullshittery of Activision; it wouldn't surprise me if it was a deliberate psychological implementation gone bad. People don't seem to trust Treyarch like they used to either. You be the judge...

Game looks a bit flat in terms of atmosphere and immersion unlike the original. Looks more like DLC than an entirely new experience. Don't think the story or writing will be up to much either. I did enjoy the first game for its faults and it made some big improvements over time but I dunno if this game is going to be enough for me especially at full price.

Braveland free on Steam for 24 hours https://store.steampowered.com/app/285800/Braveland/

Oxford United's star player...... https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/gavin-whyte-video-oxford-united-northern-ireland-masturbating-street-leaked-footage-a8728356.html

I thought they just sold razors - WTF is this snowflake SJW shit got to do with beards? Bit insulting to their male demographic in all honesty and a terrible advert all round.

He lost his 'last' match. Looked a good game. Hopefully he'll bow out at Wimbledon instead even if he's on one of the outer courts as a wildcard. Maybe he'll be eligible to enter the wheelchair tournament instead😎

I got the Amazon Fire HD 8 or summat. Does the job and great value from a decent company. Better than splashing out hundreds more on an Apple iPad.

Sunless Sea is free with PC Gamer magazine this month.

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/activision-blizzards-new-cfo-is-getting-awards-worth-dollar15-million-for-taking-the-job/ That's where our microtransaction money is going. Fuck the games - it's all about bonuses.

Jeez, they'll be streaming food next! I prefer having games owned physically or at least have the licence bound to an online account. Streaming is unreliable, expensive and pretty needless in all honesty. I get that companies want to be trendy and all that shit but streaming games in their entirety is stupid.

If Man Utd win today, they'll certainly be closing in on a Europa League place😎

LOL have they seriously not put leaderboards in yet? Having said that though, I remember Infinite Warfare's didn't get put in until very late January - the game was unfinished and missing some key features too. The leaderboards were also crafted to disguise the player counts by only showing top 10k players. Either Treyarch are being lazy or they don't know how to implement them without raising too many eyebrows.

Demo was great!

That's an incredible game. I don't like the Epic Store but they are really pumping out some great deals for gamers.

It will be interesting to see how Bungie do on their own although I suspect they may get snapped up by the Epic Store as I can't see them being sustainable long-term without substantial outsider backing. I'm surprised they managed to stump up the cash to be bought out - either Activision let them go cheap or they had external help. The fact Activision let them walk suggests Destiny 3 is shaping up badly or it wont make revenues to justify the development and upkeep costs and to keep shareholders happy. I loathe Activision but they aren't entirely to blame in this situation if at all. They funded Bungie for nearly a decade and gave them reasonable development time yet Bungie twice delivered undercooked products that needed substantial extra work which ultimately affected the quality of the next title. Destiny 2 was threadbare and only until Forsaken did it improve and by then, most players had departed and unwilling to pay £35 to buy themselves back in. 3 years and they still delivered a shell of a game. I can only assume that Destiny 3 was struggling which is why Activision called it a day. Bungie are definitely a shadow of their former selves. - Bungie by name but not by nature and very few staff that worked on Halo still represent the company. It's Infinity Ward 2.0 pretty much. They pissed off a lot of the community on so many occasions and Activision just took a backseat because for once, they were largely not to blame for the problems within these games. I wish Bungie well and hope they can salvage something of the glory days but they will certainly need to re-evaluate as a studio because lightning has struck twice with them now and they are largely to blame for the issues rather than the people backing them.

A Story About My Uncle is free on Humble Right now for a limited time https://www.humblebundle.com/store/a-story-about-my-uncle

Was inevitable really especially with the tension between the developer and publisher. Kinda mimics exactly what happened when left split from Microsoft a decade ago. Almost deja vu to a tee. Bungie are probably in a in a worse situation now that what they were back then and they are expected to make a new game (probably mobile) with NetEase’s $100m investment from last summer. Doesn’t leave much left for Activision aside from CoD and even that’s on the ropes. Not sure how viable Bungie will be as a standalone but I hope they make something fresh and original instead.

It's all about Artifact now baby yeah!

Valve received a blow today after Ubisoft withdrew The Division 2 from the Steam Store meaning Valve wont receive their 30% starting cut for every copy sold, and instead it will appear on the Epic Store instead for around 12%. Valve also missed out on big grossing games like Destiny 2 and Black Ops 4 which went went to Battlenet. EA also have long left the platform. https://www.polygon.com/2019/1/9/18174375/division-2-pc-epic-games-store-steam What's worse for Valve is that this comes soon after they ammeded their revenue tiers were amended to be more favourable towards developers and big earners https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks#announcements/detail/1697191267930157838 Does serve Valve right IMO - they got very comfortable sitting on 30% as the games wheeled in and now the store is a bloated mess and publishers finding better deals elsewhere on less cluttered storefronts, they are going to miss out on possibly $billions in the long run.