J4MES OX4D

Yeah it's a huge GOTY contender and sits Overwhelmingly positive on Steam with almost 15,000 reviews. Came out in March and is very popular. I think it's an excellent game with relaxing mechanics and a nice gameplay format. Highly addictive and lots of gameplay and adventure on offer.

DREDGE

Believe it or not, this is the completed Twitter rebrand😂 This could very well be the worst and least appropriate branding I have ever seen. ‘X’ was bad enough but this tagline is the icing on the cake for pure ludicrousness! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer site though so let the meltdown commence/continue..

Thought I'd make a thread of games that are popular and/or widely regarded yet for some reason, you just don't like them for whatever reasons or think they warrant their plaudits. Here's my top 5:- 1. Doom Eternal - shocking departure from the standard Doom formula that was carried through even to the 2016 reboot. Instead of going in all guns blazing, you now have to conserve ammo and trickle-shoot as much as possible due to the lack of available. Firefights are predictable and largely occur in arena environments and the amount of chain-sawing and glory kills you have to pull off literally negates the whole shooting element especially with the ammo reductions. It begins to feel like a rhythm shooter with dance-off mechanics and the inclusion of platforming is dreadful and painfully implemented - also an excuse to condense levels and divide them into battle arenas. It's a beautiful game but I will never understand why the took this direction. They also devalued and destroyed glory kills into an horrendously repetitive and predictable aspect. 2. Max Payne 3 - the first two games were noir masterpieces by Sam Lake and his small Remedy team. These titles were produced for $3m and $8m back in the day. Rockstar bought the rights with Max Payne fan Dan Houser leading the writing. This game removes everything that made the original games iconic and instead Rockstar placed their own DNA design philosophy on it. We now have cover shooting, slow, cumbersome mechanics and the writing is absolutely ghastly with Payne delivering persistent monologue waffles that mean nothing and also don't take into account his past. 40% of the game is cutscenes and the flow is persistently interrupted - you'll be lucky if you can walk 30ft without a 5 minute video beginning. The comic book panels have also been replaced by nauseating cutscenes with outrageous post-processing effects and distortions. It's literally GTA without the cars and Payne himself doesn't even look, sound or behave like how he used to. Dan Houser absolutely destroyed this series in one go and at a cost of $105m making it the most expensive game ever at the time. 3. Control - this time it's a Remedy game that didn't sit right with me. Game feels like a tech demo and whilst it looks impressive, the visuals look rather washed and weird. The story isn't anywhere near as intriguing as it sets out to be and the mechanics don't feel very refined. Not what you'd expect from the OG creators of Max Payne. There is only one gun in the game and although this can be upgraded, combat becomes stale within the first 30 minutes because every shot feels the same. The environment is also the same old office with lots of backtracking or warped sci-fi based levels. You can literally see all this game has to offer within the first 10 minutes. 4. Zelda: Breath of the Wild - definitely a good game but extremely overrated IMO and the media are way too forgiving for Nintendo products where other ones are criticised. After about 20 hours, this game becomes exhastingly repetitive with some annoying mechanics, a largely empty world and a gameplay design not too dissimilar from previous Ubisoft titles. It's finished, it is polished but either I've outgrown this series or I am burned on open world titles. However, since then I returned to Ocarina of Time and found that to be a far better experience aesthetically and with its sublimely charming music. Weapon degradation, tiresome travelling and bloody radio towers really soured this for me but like many Nintendo fans, if you don't play other multi-platform games including open world ones then this will be one of the best ever. For me, it's nothing I haven't seen a million times over in recent memory. Tears of the Kingdom does worry me with its even bigger size but the world and mechanics seem way more entertaining. BOTW was just too much and the Shrine bloat became unbearable. 5. Elden Ring - I think this is a great game but just not a good Souls entry. The open world is far too barren and the highly championed exploration wasn't quite as interesting as I thought especially when it came to the tedious dungeons which mimicked the chalice ones from Bloodborne. Bosses rely on invisible walls and invincibility frames which is completely unacceptable for a game of this nature and hasn't been since seen Dark Souls 2. They also have extreme move-sets which cannot be telegraphed and these moves cannot be broken past certain fames so all you can do is sit back, get one hit in and then avoid another 9 step attack. I really prefer the linear design of Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro and the open world in Elden Ring does the whole game a disservice especially from the replayability factor. Boss bloat is also horrendous with so many copy and pasted even in the overworld. I still think this game is better than what most developers put out but for me, some of the negative factors are too significant and quite surprising. I sincerely hope this new open world design doesn't become the norm in future From Software titles.

I visited San Francisco back in 2004 and was checking out a few videos to see how it has changed over the years and I cannot believe what a shithole it has become. Crime literally decriminalised, businesses leaving in droves, junkies galore and utterly absurd tax rates. The amount of homeless is also only matched by that of LA. What also shocked me in the few videos I saw is just how much of a ghost town the city has become. It was so vibrant back in the day. This kinda sums it up but there's plenty of hard-hitting vlogs and documentaries about what has happened and the ludicrous thing is people actually voted for it!

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More Half Life 2: Episode Two

My morals would certainly go out the window for £700k a week😎

I am so impressed with how far AI has come of late and seemingly so quickly but it's gonna put a lot of people out of work. I am already sick of automated shit on phones and AI will just add more dynamics and replace humans. It's also causing pure havoc with people cheating their exams and some AI programs can actually harvest people's voices which has also caused hell as people have been blackmailed, framed and even scammed. As per usual, regulation will be 10 years off the pace and rather than control how this is implemented, companies will be racing to cash in and others for dodgy means. Could be interesting for gaming though as seen with this However developers have already been caught out using AI to cheat development in some aspects of their games which has not gone down too well.

These are very similar but less forgiving IMO. If you like Desperados (great series) you'll definitely like Commandos although the second one is the best by an absolute mile so I highly recommend playing that. Each mission is about one and a half to 2 hours long and you control a squad each with different skills so you have to manage each character and work them together tactically. The backdrops are fantastic and the music is iconic. If you intend grabbing these on PC, they are currently on sale til the 31st.

Snoop is a fucking legend who has been playing Call of Duty 16 years now and actually plays games. I mean Nicki Minaj has never owned a games console and isn't even relevant any more even in the music industry - that's my point. It's like the PR department is ran by a bunch of out of touch 30 year olds. There's plenty of celebrities out there who are gamers that could represent the brand far more effectively - just look at how many big names CSGO draws in and Valve don't even need to market goofy shit to pander in response. They are just trying to replicate Fornite but in a painfully desperate way - that game at least knows how to strike while the iron is hot and how to keep people properly engaged in ingenious ways. Activision just repeating what they were doing in 2013 and with the same old faces too🤣

Half Life 2: Episode Two (2007)

God this franchise really embarrasses itself sometimes. Always starts of as a serious but casual military themed shooter and by the end its almost a cartoon as they fish for any business they can get. If they are gonna go down the nauseating influencer/celeb route then why not get ones that actually play the bloody game!

Looks to be a surprise hit! I didn't get the original as it came out off the back of many 3rd person-type games and it seemed a bit generic despite being mechanically solid. The sequel seems to have some notable improvements across the board and looks quite exceptional really. The part-procedurally generated environments also seem impressive and more fleshed out this time and the gunplay along with movement is probably as good as you could get with a game of this nature. Really considering picking it up and the co-op is supposed to be very good also. This also being a £40 game and not a broken and unfinished £60 is making it even more tempting..

I don't mind this - give Sledgehammer a crack at Modern Warfare, wind the series up for good and then IW can move onto something else next time with a bit of luck. Hopefully we wont see MW4 and that they keep dragging it out as painful as Black Ops has become. Just hope it isn't glorified DLC disguised as a full priced game - it's risky them doing back to back sequels but Activision have backed themselves into a strategic calamity with this release. Sledgehammer do try their best and are heavily under-resourced compared to the other developers and have a pretty extreme turnover of staff so I don't think they have too much to lose especially being put under so much pressure. Not sure if I'll get this one though - really depends on the other releases this year and whether there's enough in it. Baldur's Gate 3 next week which is massive and then all eyes on Starfield before the Metal Gear Solid Collection. If it's just a watered-down expansion then it will be a real shame and ultimately pave the way for MW4 in 2025.

Things are not going well for Overwatch 2 and they are looking to turn things around by bringing the game to Steam on August 10th Overwatch 2 Engagement and Player Investment Is Declining, Activision Blizzard Admits - IGN WWW.IGN.COM Activision Blizzard admits in its recent earnings report that the engagement and player investment in Overwatch 2 is declining. Other Blizzard games may follow in due course especially with Microsoft coming in and this game will be a good one to test the water. Pity you will need to double-DRM with Bnet still.

Absolute bellends Your Ubisoft account can be suspended and subsequently permanently deleted for 'inactivity,' taking your games library with it | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM I have no idea when I last logged into my Ubisoft account. Maybe if they made some decent fucking games once in a long while, it would give gamers an incentive to actually login and use their shitty services.

Found this incredible compilation of all the levolution events and destruction in Battlefield games since 2011. Some of these still look absolutely spectacular especially the BF4 ones a decade on. Remarkably impressive technically even now and they look and sound incredible! Got a bit limited since BF1 and really started to feel flat up to 2042. Despite the silly terminology, these destructible elements added so much and even radically changed maps on the fly. DICE were really at their peak with things like this and I think it was taken for granted a bit back in the day and largely went unappreciated because we assumed that this is how gaming should be and where it expected to be now. Battlefield 2042 even after all the work still remains soulless and bland in this respect and it’s levolution events amount of mere inconvenience most of the time. I really hope the next Battlefield game goes back to these roots. No more WW2 titles or gimmick futuristic ones. BF3 and 4 just oozed unmatched atmosphere and detail.

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Metal Gear Solid fans will immediately recognise this

PES 3, 4, 5 and 6 were absolutely legendary! Even the original and its sequel were amazing because they were perfect captures of the PS1 ISS originals with vastly improved visuals and smoother gameplay. 3-6 really brought in the realism as it shifted away from its more arcade-roots. PES going to shit after the 360 launched was so devastating and really surprising and despite rejuvenating around 2015, they still didn't get anywhere near where they once were IMO. PS2 + PES, GTA and MGS = great days!

Commandos 2 HD Remaster

This is what pisses me off about EA and Konami - they spent so many years working on things like ball physics, animations, AI and trying to create the most authentic football experience possible and they threw that all away by chasing easy money instead. PES brickwalled itself once the Fox Engine went as far as they could push it and EA stopped innovating when UT really really printing money daily. I used to love seeing FIFA improve around 2008-13 - EA were so passionate about the game back then and they really pressed home their advantage over the faltering PES back then and every new release was an improvement that strived to only get better as the next gen loomed. Instead of the usual PR shite we see today, the devs really understood football and did their best with the limitations. Other brands don't stand a chance now because of the required development and huge licencing costs. eFootball proved that something as simple as an engine change can set a company back 15 years and 3 years on, that game is still total horseshit compared to the final PES game. It's such a travesty these two still control the market and no real credible competitor is out there and probably never will be. The FIFA licence going up for grabs was massive and not one single publisher took it on which just shows there is not an alternative dev that can make a football game in the next 5 years and no publisher is willing to pay up and take a chance. People expected 2K to jump in sometime in the past 10 years and they didn't even dip their toes in despite dominating sports many years ago. They went the same way as EA too and their basketball games are horrifying. FIFA should be so much better than what it is right now. I honestly don't think we'll see a proper football simulator ever again or anything remotely close.