J4MES OX4D

Yep, they renewed the IWNet framework allowing for P2P matchmaking however users are already reporting accounts being wiped and massive security problems because although they fixed the matchmaking, they did fuck all to eradicate the modders, cheaters and malicious actors. I’d actually avoid it just like the high-risk PC versions.

Half Life 2

Because the existing games are usually on their last legs long before then and then further demanding people buy an expansion for a game they don't play at full price wouldn't see many people coming back especially at a premium. Would also start splitting the playerbase and leave departed players alienated and possibly not coming back. MW3 is an isolated case because Activision did not plan ahead adequately and I wouldn't expect them to repeat this again. If they wanted to do down this avenue, it should've been done years ago and done properly, however the series was too busy pissing around with boost jumping, wall running and going back to World War 2. I don't believe they've made a game that offers a confident foundation for them to build upon either but MW2019 would've been a good starting point and then they go and follow it up with a highly inferior game. It's definitely possible for this to happen - Siege, Fortnite, Apex and CS maintain strong playerbases and even grow still to this day but COD always struggles with this respect and until they produce a game that has lasting potential and a cemented design, then they will forever be releasing annually rinse and repeat. If only they released COD Online worldwide and supported that...

Talking of profits, the OG Xbox 360 version which can be played on the One and Series X/S right now costs $30 on Xbox Live yet the upcoming PS4 version directly ported by a third party studio will cost $50 in comparison. Not sure how Rockstar will get away with this especially as it wont have the multiplayer. Thankfully the reception has been met which extreme criticism but the game will no doubt be a top seller in a couple of weeks.

Another couple of quite annoying issues that people are blindly overlooking when giving it 11/10 scores is the pathing is broken for your companions - you can find a trap, swerve it and they'll walk over it. The other is a rather annoying pause every time you are given a dialogue choice. The camera moves to your character and then there's a 1-2 second awkward stop before the dialogue options appear. It sounds minimal but it actually affects the flow of conversation and looks absolutely fucking shite if I'm honest. Not sure if it's loading in dynamic algorithmic choices or if it's psyching you up for a choice option but when this happens 4-5 times in a single scene, it begins to annoy.

I think a lot will depend on them getting the movement right - MW2019 was slick and people really enjoyed it. Playing that at 150fps+ was incredibly satisfying even though the game had its issues. MWII took away all the fluidity along with slide/reload cancel and it was sluggish in comparison especially with how clunky Warzone felt. This could be the determining and major differentiating factor. Just seen it. Doesn't generate any excitement really. Franchise is feeling really tired now.

What the actual fuck - Red Dead Redemption is coming to the PS4 and Switch but nothing else? Red Dead Redemption Out on PS4 This Month, Not a Remaster WWW.PUSHSQUARE.COM Port costs $50 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Nwgd_T1-4&ab_channel=RockstarGames Rockstar Games has today announc... Rockstar charging $50 for the privilege too! This isn't a remaster and the door is still open for that but this is one of the strangest releases imaginable. The RPCS3/Xenia versions are in elite states right now so people are just gonna be pushed towards those - why pay £40-50 on a shitty port by a fringe developer when you can have the source scaled up to 4K at 100fps and supporting ratios up to 32:9. If they don't have a remaster planned then this is nothing more than a lazy cash grab for a market that doesn't really play games of this nature and another which is fizzling out.

This looks awesome - 3D Castlevania with N64 aesthetics. Only a fiver on Steam and is growing in popularity

So I’ve played a bit more since release day and it’s really nice to have a game that is complete, isn’t divided up into improvised seasons with garbage content, and has no season pass or microtransactions, plus can be played offline. However the more I play, the more apparent it becomes that this is just a hardcore version of Divinity Original Sin 3. It just doesn’t feel resemble Baldur’s Gate at all. The characters have layers of depth and deep interactions, yet I don’t feel much of a rapport between the party members. The combat system is also quite dull especially compared to something like Wasteland 2 and you can stumble into impossible encounters far too often. The writing isn’t as good as I was expecting from a narrator and dialogue standpoint and I also think the interface is hideous. Really not a fan of some of Larian’s aesthetics or general art style. Character creator and voice lines is extremely limited although the classes are riddled with depth. it’s a tough one - on the one hand this is a solid product that a lot of people will enjoy and on the other, it’s just another Larian RPG pretending to be a BG title that doesn’t ooze a personality or have the narrative to back it up. I found it to be amazing and intriguing at first but it’s beginning to stink in some areas and it’s shortcomings are obvious.

Maybe the spam bot was trying to tell people the game has shut down forever🤣Totally forgot it existed and every time I see this thread, I keep thinking is news on the new Masquerade game. Can't believe Paradox got their filthy mitts on that brand.

Decided to bite the bullet and picked it up - absolutely amazing game so far!

Today is the day and it's the biggest release of the year! Rare you see hype on a game this massive. I'm still undecided but only due to time constraints but looking forward to seeing how much has been accomplished in the final release.

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!

Homeworld Remastered Collection FREE on Epic https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/homeworld-remastered-collection

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)