J4MES OX4D

I'm pretty sure Infinity Ward are more than capable of releasing a basic quantity of maps. My level of expectation is at least 16 original maps at launch with at least 4 per season and if they want to throw in a rehash as a bonus then that's a reasonable return. It's not like they have to concern themselves with Warzone or DMZ either. Instead they are busy fixing basic shite like the interface and pissing around with game modes. Really isn't too much to ask for £60 - even Vanguard managed to deliver a pretty respectable amount so fair play to Sledgehammer. If they can do it then why can't the highly experienced and massively funded IW do it? But releasing the same old maps over and over and over is not? 🤣 How the hell are you still comparing maps to modes - everyone is happy to play the staple modes - this was the case 10+ years ago and it'll be the same in 10 years time. Kill Confirmed is the only post COD4 mode that has stuck so people don't really give a monkey's toss on all the other failed attempts. Most new modes don't even last the duration and are never seen again. If a developer is to explore a new mode then it has to be something original and not some watered-down or illogical twist on an existing one to make it look like you're trying to innovate or produce original material. Praise for what? There is not one single positive the mode offers and people right from the get-go were very disappointed at its implementation. It's not like Infinity Ward completely overhauled the mode with justifiable means and created new skill-sets and gameplay styles - all they've done is make the most needless and unjustifiable changes imaginable. So? At least it's new content. If you don't like 3 of the launch maps then you don't like 33% of the maps available. New maps, more quantity is welcome even if the quality varies. You're basically saying 'don't release new maps because if they are bad people might complain'😂 That is complete and utter bollocks and I cannot fathom where or how you are coming to these conclusions. If they release poor maps then they can release new maps after which will hopefully be better. We've had bad maps before many times and we've also had failed modes which have been removed altogether. If you fuck up a mainline mode then you can alienate a huge portion of your playerbase and in this case, they've had to revert back to the familiar fan favouite format because it's perfect as it is and cannot be improved upon by design. It can only be worsened through negligent changes and this has been the case. I really don't even know where the argument has come from - it really isn't hard to expect more original content by now and failed modes should be replaced by proven concepts as they have done countless times previous anyway. There's probably upwards of 15 modes in 11 years that have been taken out the game or replaced so it's nothing new or offensive to the developers. I'd be full of praise for IW if they actually tried with Tier1 and justified their changes but just like the perk system, they haven't provided conclusive reasoning for their decision. People crying out for new modes has never really been a thing either. New maps however..

I played the Championship Manager series religiously from CM2 all the way until it split into FM/. CM04/05 was my last and I never really got into FM partly because of burnout and although it was made by the same people, it just felt a bit off. Haven't played one since. 01/02 was king because it was CM3 perfected after years of work and experience. CM4 was a bit of a change in terms of interface and the introduction of the 3D map but I quite liked it in the end. Cannot beat seeing your players with 20's all over their stats. My mate from school once played 144 seasons and ended up blowing his hard drive after going on an insane grind - ended up in the Hungarian league with Phil Scholes, Robbie Giggs and Thierry Harry as the algorithm was stretched to the max trying to generate new players. I didn't see him for the first 5 weeks of the holiday and I don't think he had a bath in that time either🤣 CM2 was a great introduction for me and I was often mesmerised by the background pictures. You can get the games from *cough *myabandonware for ease - I still think I have all mine boxed in storage.

Tier1 radically changes every aspect of the mode which is why it's proven so unpopular. It's literally turned into a blind sandbox and for no logical reason. You cannot praise something so fundamentally flawed by design that has literally alienated the community and driven them to even do a dramatic u-turn. There is not one key benefit, innovation or positive change they have made with Tier1. Like everybody else, I expect certain core and hardcore game modes as a franchise staple. Don't fix something if it ain't broken. What I don't expect is for one COD game to have 21 original maps on release and then another one having 7. Comparing COD game modes to map is an absurd viewpoint - that's like you expecting every COD game to have 12 new modes. When a game is released I expect it to have TDM, DOM, HC, KC, HP and HC and I expect every single Call of Duty for the next 10 years to have this standarised playlist. What I don't expect is having Nuketown and Shipment given every other year at the expense of other content on a game that has 9 maps at launch. It takes no skill or innovation to rehash modes so that is where the original content lies in terms of the maps and that is what should be fresh and original for every £60 release. I don't mind paying for the same old modes because it's ingrained in the franchise and has been for nearly two decades.

Keep on diggin! The Day Before developers now say the launch delay was planned before the Steam takedown | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM Fntastic initially blamed the eight month delay of The Day Before on a trademark dispute.

No, the overwhelming majority of the community including me are saying they don't want Hardcore in its current form (which IW accepts) and we are also not very tolerant of being issued with old rehashed maps on top of being starved of original content for our £60 purchase especially when compared to older titles and even Vanguard last year. You can't cherrypick two unrelated instances to form some sort of argument like this. Staple game modes dictate the framework of the game and is expected by the community as a minimum. Hardcore has a huge community and its own skillset and their Tier 1 interation was an needless and illogical change of a proven formula. This change is crucial to the game's sustainability going forward as is new original map content to bolster retention. Imagine if they changed TDM into a mode called 'Shooty Shooter Shoot' and instead of kills, you were given gold starts and the mimi map was removed along with perks. You can't then complain at users for wanting it reverted back and then further wanting new content to support the game because it's literally two different things.

Some very strong reviews going up which is great news! Currently 89% on Meta and still many to go. Probably won’t get it at full price but certainly down the line. Looks like they did a very good job on this almost to the standard of how Capcom have rebooted the classic RE titles.

16x the detail! Haven’t looked but it doesn’t seem Starfield had anything much. Rumours of a delay there too. Biggest highlight was that Hi-Fi rhythm game they realised yesterday out of nowhere.

There is a huge difference in bringing back old map content they have reused countless times before on a game that is absolutely starved of it, than delivering an inferior and pointless alternate to a staple mode with changes that detract from its very definition. In both cases, it’s bad for the community so I’m really not sure why or where you are drumming up this argument? Doesn’t make sense. That’s like them replacing kill confirmed with the same mode renamed, except that it doesn’t have denies as part of its format. It would be completely illogical and a step back with a needless change. It was a valid complaint in this instance in which IW have fully agreed with the community. This move should also not detract from completely different aspects of the game needing improvements and content too.

Control 007 Agent - Fuck that! Jungle wasn't easy either. When I played the leaked unreleased XBLA build with an Xbox controller, it felt good and authentic to what it was like with a 64 pad back in the day. I've played Perfect Dark with a mouse and keyboard and it just makes things a bit too easy so I'd definitely retain playing Goldeneye with a pad.

Lots of very positive feedback so far - not sure if it's my cuppa tea as I'm not a Harry Potter fan but it looks like they've done a very good job. If it scores well then I very well may grab it regardless Some great environment and detail gameplay

Even the lead moderator and most senior point of contact for the community on Steam, Discord and with the media doesn't even know if the game exists. Comical Good video as always from Bigfry covering this debacle

https://www.gamespot.com/amp-articles/the-day-before-delayed-to-november-2023-amid-trademark-dispute-and-legal-issues/1100-6510837/ LMAO! Biggest scam ever! Game pulled from Steam just as they were under immense pressure to show raw gameplay. This legal nonsense sounds like bullshit to buy more time.

I watched the demo from start to finish that has been out for over a month now plus the game was widely ridiculed for its vulgar and unnecessary expletives leading up to release which was even provided in the promotional material. This all after its woeful early marketing which questioned the games bizarre wayward tone and inconsistent maturity. A likable character for me is essential and I'm just not a fan of ones that have to be 'edgy' for no reason. Which ones are those then? Their more popular 'fringe' titles are actually ones the simply publish of behalf of developers to fill their void. Games like Babylons Fall which they had an active role in its creative development failed shamefully. They sold Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Thief for a pittance and mitigated that with local quantity which they have absolutely no input in other than planting it in their store. Sure they have safe brands which they don't have an active input in like Nier but what they do touch either fails miserably or is of highly inferior quality. They are also putting in a large amount of money in Disney titles and have failed to return a profit on every single title so far. Marvel Avengers has just been shut down after selling less than 3.5m copies after a budget of over $100m. There is just no creativity left in the company and no business brains either it seems. Another major AAA publisher that had so much potenial and deep pockets and just like Ubisoft, they make some awful decisions that are tone deaf and totally out of touch.

Square Enix basically pissed away their entire portfolio so they could fund NFT’s last year. 3 days after they invested, the market collapsed by 90% and they literally have nothing left apart from FF and some crappy fringe brands like this. Literally sold their entire 30-odd year history and soul for something that wiped out their money in 72 hours. Forspoken seems to have a relentless identity crisis in terms of its design and the writing looks like it was done by some immature student - some of the dialogue is absolutely mortifying, unnecessary and utterly embarrassing. It’s basically Horizon Zero Dawn from Wish.

You probably registered back in 2014 when it was due for release the following year🤣

Reviews are in and it's all rather mixed with some damning complaints such as generic, bland gameplay and god awful writing. Doesn't appear the PC keys were sent out as promised and with the outrageous system requirements in place, that sounds like it'll be an unoptimised mess on there

Tier 1 was a re-brand of Hardcore essentially and a needless one at that. It will likely be taken out of the game and replaced by the traditional one which should've been the case from day one when the game launched. I don't know what the devs were thinking with this - another pointless change on something that didn't need it and now they are back to square one with it. At least they've listened and hopefully this will extend to the perk system too.

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Close🤣

Todd Howard: ''fly anywhere do anything'' Meanwhile.... Starfield Doesn’t Let You Fly Seamlessly from Space to Planet: ‘That’s Really Just Not that Important’ - IGN WWW.IGN.COM Todd Howard has said that Starfield won't allow you to fly seamlessly from space to its 1,000 explorable planets, saying the feature is "really just not that important to the player" to justify the engineering work... That's a bit disappointing! Don't want to be greeted with loading screens as it'll kill the immersion. Definitely not easy to do technically especially if it's running on old architecture but I would've expected them to do some masking of sorts where it would feel like a landing experience even if it was the game simply loading in the back-end. Not sure how it'll be presented but if it's just a 'click to go to X planet' format then it'll really diminish the experience especially as their existing games are largely seamless in exploration.

It's not just 60 - that was a single example because you said you hadn't seen anything of it related to gaming (despite it being the biggest lay off of a first party studio ever and it being widely covered in the mass media all week) No, as already said, these are main-line developers - literally their entire development portfolio including the main project lead who was transferred back to Xbox Gaming. That's why it's caused such a ripple and put the entire future of the brand into doubt because they literally have no recognised devs left with a project that has 9 years left to run. 10k is just the headline - once again I am not attributing this all to gaming. With no many failed parts of the business and outdated aspects, mass-layoffs were bound to happen but it's just crazy to see them obliterate their only in-house studio instead of allocate them elsewhere especially when they have over $100bn invested in grabbing external companies so they don't sell their products on Playstation. Could've easily merged them into a new studio or elsewhere and that's one good thing about Activision - no matter how shite their studios perform, their staff will always be allocated to projects and have work available. That is the main point - not whether a few hundred from a call centre or Kinect got the boot. Microsoft have always needed first party games so for them to kill their only in-house team overnight is quite a big move especially if they will use any small savings as partial collateral to complete the AB merger to capture another tiny indie studio to stifle on the Game Pass.

60 for 343 is huge. Nobody is saying that 10,000 equates to Xbox entirely or their gaming division as a whole, but this level of layoffs in their first party gaming sector is significant especially considering the personnel that's departed and how it will affect Halo going forward. As it stands, it's the biggest layoff of an active studio in gaming history. If Activision came out tomorrow and said that MW2 performed so badly during the first 3 months, we're going to be sacking every developer involved at Infinity Ward; that in itself would cause a huge shock to the industry and for people that follow Halo and have supported 343 in the last 13 years, that's the impact this announcement has had. Unlike Call of Duty, they have no other studios to fall back on to carry the series forward so the brand's future is in serious doubt on a game that had a 10 year plan. There is also a massive sense of injustice from people affected, that most of the management associated with the project remain and are also sitting on huge bonuses.

I've followed this story for days and they certainly haven't been generic - 343 have had around 60 front line developers culled which puts the entire future of Halo into doubt. Some of the names that have departed are massive especially Joe Staten. This is Microsoft's flagship first party studio too https://metro.co.uk/2023/01/19/xbox-bethesda-hit-by-microsoft-layoffs-as-halo-campaign-team-gutted-18128386/ Halo had the biggest budget in gaming history and a 10 year roadmap set in stone.