J4MES OX4D

This is the first ever Call of Duty I wont be buying and I'm not going to miss it in the slightest. Even though I've had all the current gen iterations which includes Infinite Warfare; I haven't enjoyed the franchise since Black Ops 2 and the way it is going with supply drops; it's only going to get worse. They only have one good developer left in Treyarch and I'm not even sure if they can deliver an experience I'm looking for especially with Activision running and ruining the show more than ever. It's a combination of the genre, format and franchise going stale compounded with greed, lower quality games and it being a complete rip-off now. I don't even view it as Call of Dutty anymore and even though it's 'back to its roots' with WWII; the game still feels like a clunky reskin of Advanced Warfare minus the exos and it's only a matter of time until we see people with lime green and pink weapoins in the trenches with their P2W weapons. I played MW2 the other day which was still an immensely enjoyable and a glorious experience. I wouldn't even touch this POS if it was free.

A couple of great videos that really explore the realism elements in detail:-

People are selling vitual coats for nearly $600 and if you look at the buy orders; they are willing to spend $400 so if someone lists their item that meets a buy order; it sells immediately http://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/578080/PLAYERUNKNOWN'S Trenchcoat This case is listed for $1800 http://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/578080/PLAYERUNKNOWN SET with buy orders of $1700 at the time of writing this. The developers can easily make $50-200 on one transaction like this for simply receiving a cut. It's insane really but this is what gaming has become. I can't complain entirely as I am able to make a few quid a week on vitual crap and it's just purely cosmetics but at the same time I find it pretty ludicrous.

Plus keeping traffic on the PC allows them to grow the Steam community marketplace which the XB1 and PS4 doesn't offer. I've already sold about 80 quid's worth of virtual clothing which has paid for the game and given me a huge profit and seen Bluehole and Valve take a cut too. I don't like cases but when you earn them for free by playing the game and have some idiots willing to spend hundreds on looking like further idiots in-game; I'll gladly take their money for my Steam wallet!

Played a few hours so far and it is highly impressive. The aesthetics and music is spot on and the mechanics are flawless. It's a tough game though which can frustrate and although each level is only roughly a minute thirty long; it can take a lot longer due to the amount of retries. The only real disappointment with it is the gameplay is more of the trial and error nature rather than skill in the first instance. For example; it may take 10+ attempts to do a level but this is achieved more through learning through deaths rather than being good outright which can dimish the feeling when you are successful completing a level on the Xth attempt.

Here's the PL equivalent

Loot crates for cosmetics is one thing and now widely accepted but loot crates for things like progression making the game pay to play is another level of BS. This is thread isn't really about earning loot boxes in-game by playing as this concept is the norm for many games and isn't a major issue - the ones that are weeding their way into single player games and are forcing people to buy them due to deliberately stifled progression systems that have been deliberately engineered; that is more what I'm getting at.

I cannot believe how bad this has got in the industry especially now these 'loot crates' are even appearing in single player games. Shadow of War has them and even has the main ending locked behind a paywall. Forza 7 encourages you instead of actually playing the game as intended by competing in races; you buy crates to unlock car mods which expire but are essential to winning races. You can't compete without them in the first place so you pretty much have to start coughing up right away and you must keep earning in game else you lose your mods and then have to buy more crates for credits. NBA 2K17 had something similar where your character was so bad attribute-wise; it was impossible and highly unenjoyable to improve unless you bough a load of 'VC' (virtual credits) just to get going and improve your player once again by not actually playing the game! Even seasoned career gamers were having to spend $hundreds just to get going on top of buying the most expensive version of the base game. After the Battlefront 2 beta; many suggested that game would be pay to win and Call of Duty is already flaunting Supply Drops for WWII and encouraging users to buy and open them by this new phone app crap plus you can also open them with your buddies in-game where they can watch and win prizes themselves which mimic that of case openings. I'm beginning to get sick of this F2P/mobile style economy in full price AAA games with season passes and other DLC and now they are creeping into single player games; it's more like pay to play and pay more as you do so. What the fuck happened to this industry.

Gave this a go last night and it's pretty decent particularly as it doesn't cost a penny although for a BR game, it really does lack the tension, difficulty and atmosphere that you'd associate with the genre. Just a bit too casual, cartoony and bland for me but I can see why people have taken to it. Certainly is more welcoming than PUBG and is less buggy than the likes of KOTK. I think it's a good alternative in the growing genre and it nice to see developers have such a nice foundation in place but I don't think I'll play it in its early access phase again.

England win again but seriously sack Southgate!! Some of the performances have been bloody atrocious in this campaign and we only qualified thanks to jammy last minute goals in a few matches. Scotland miss out again - last time they qualified for a major tournament, Henry VIII was on the throne.

Played a few matches on the beta and it is certainly better than the first but ultimately nothing special for me. Visually it looks great but it really does feel like a reskin of Battlefield with more casual mechanics thanks to ranged hipfire, bigger hitboxes and minimal zoom ADS. The ground based playlist was a combination of the payload mode from Overwatch which then turned into a capture based one whilst avoiding ticket bleed. It was reasonable fun but nothing I haven't seen before and done better elsewhere too. I also tried the Starfighter Assault mode which was the flying one and found that to be quite boring actually. The controls weren't great either and it felt a little slow. Both modes were also affected by crippling rubber-banding which is a concern but should be fixed before release. There was also Arcade which can be played agains the AI - it's kinda like a wave-based mode. Another content filler feature and something that wont appeal to users looking for an MP experience or a SP one with meat. They deseperately incorporated this into the original but it's not needed in this one thanks to the campaign. Like the first, I think this game will probably appeal more towards Star Wars fans rather than season FPS players. I think fans of the franchise will enjoy the game but fans of the genre will find it nothing too special and certainly nothing that hasn't been seen a million times over. As a fan of both the genre and Star Wars, I still see this as an average game because of my experience with other FPS games and the Star Wars branding can't really save it especially when it feels so much like a simplified Battlefield with lasers. That's another £40 saved for me

Fortnite looks a bit too cartoony for my liking. Does seem polished but I prefer the military backdrop of PUBG. Currently just gone 9am in the UK and there's 1.46m in PUBG with 478k in DOTA 2 as the next best. Bear in mind that this is off-peak time in Europe too. Crazy figures. Considering this is a full price early access game that is quite demanding to run also; this could be heading as one of the biggest brands in gaming right now and it's not slowing down.

Not really microtransactions but fully fledged expansions which stink of withheld content. Thankfully there is enough meat in the campaign this time around with four very diverse races each with two different campaigns within. There's also the Mortal Campaign which combines the New and Old Worlds and over 170 races which will be free to all owners of this and the original which is amazing. The first game was very threadbare but this one is a vast improvement but DLC expansions will no doubt follow but they wont be as essential to the overall experience as the first one.

Bought this yesterday. Haven't started it yet but it looks amazing and could be a real challenge to finish.

You've posted the artwork to the original Battlefront 2 game which has reminded me that Disney in response to EA have re-introduced mulitplayer support back into the original game which is excellent news! I will probably try the beta for Battlefront 2 2017 or however they are differenciating it from the classic but I'd now rather play the latter now it's back rather than the new one.

Played a few hours today and it's amazing! A great review here:-

Just played a couple of games on the PC beta and uninstalled it soon after. Simply awful I thought with clunky controls, horrible class system, terrible spawns, claustrophobic maps, bad bullet detection and just stale gameplay. That's £40 saved and will be the first Call of Duty that I don't own. This is all without supply drops too.

I have the first Original Sin but never got round to even starting it but this game seems largely a standalone with an entirely new story that isn't connected to the past Divinity games so it's great for newcomers. You can still read-up on any lingering lore anyway but the excellcent story is pretty fresh and easy to understand so you can jump right in.

Crumbled and pre-ordered Warhammer 2 for £32 on Bundlestars. The reviews are coming in and the game is outright amazing and a major improvement on the first. The combined campaign also releases in the coming months for owners of the first two games and should be an incredible experience. Seems that the base game is outstanding too and each race is vastly different and great to play.

A perfect and rare 10/10 on Gamespot I'm 20 hours in and barely scratched the surface.

Picked it up the other day and it is definitely as good as they say. Superb narrative, fantastic gameplay and so much depth. A very well-made game and the co-op is implemented superbly. It's so refreshing to play a popular game that doesn't had microtransacitons or a season pass attached to it. It's gonna be a very successful game and one of the best of the year I reckon.

New vehicle on the way

This game is getting some amazing reviews. Looks a fantastic solo/co-op RPG that shits on Diablo

Outlast and the Whistleblower DLC currently free on Humble Bundle for a limited time https://www.humblebundle.com/store/outlast-deluxe