J4MES OX4D

Very bad news and pretty unacceptable really Gotham Knights Will Only Run at 30 FPS and Will Offer No Performance Mode on Consoles - IGN WWW.IGN.COM When Gotham Knights arrives on consoles on October 21, it will do so with no performance mode and it will run at... Game hasn’t wowed much in the press builds either but this news could be the icing on the cake for the game to flop spectacularly. This is an instant no buy now for me.

I've had a brief look at what it offers and it seems to lack depth in key areas compared to other sports management games like FM and OOTP.

Some seriously mixed reviews with this one. Looks great and has an interesting atmosphere but the combat and mechanics seem a bit clunky plus the lack of a decent save system seems to be infuriating many. Seems if you die, you can be set back 10-20 minutes and have to redo some incredibly slow and frustrating moments. Not sure I have the desire to play something like this really.

Campaign releases this time next week. Still really unsure about picking this up although I would like to play the story.

There really isn't any good parties. Truss was voted in as a money-grabber because they know they will lose the next general election. Labour are in a strong position but that's more down to the Tories - this time last year Starmer was facing strong resignation calls and was the second most unpopular leader in the party's history. This recent rise is not much of his own doing but more down to the Tory downfall. Labour is still embroiled in racism, anti-seminism and misconduct and even though the media will neglect to run stories on most of this, it's still out there. 2 whips removed in 3 weeks, 7 more under investigation and about another 5 on suspension. Hardly encouraging opposition. The fringe parties are a joke and are only focused on their crusades and are anti-democratic to anything else - the Lib Dems certainly to not live up to the name. I think the whole government framework in the UK is outdated and it should be a one-party collective. Just like councils, it's all too fragmented.

She's sacked Kwasi Kwateng and done a full 180 on her budget🤣 What a pair of muppets! Still trying to fathom why they voted her in as this was widely predicted especially by Sunak.

I also completely forgot that my Gamestation back in the mid-2000's used to also sell some rare stuff in its cabinets - not sure where it was sourced from and I can't remember if it was all pre-owned or new stuff but there was some games and collectables that you just would not see anywhere at retail even at their main company GAME. Not sure if this was at every branch but it was certainly an eye opener away from the run of the mill usual stock.

Darkwood FREE on Epic https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/darkwood-fa73bd and this https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/toejam-and-earl-back-in-the-groove-cddc16 Until the 20th

I did think about putting Gamestation but it arrived late in my city and when it did, it was 2 doors away from GAME yet they were both owned by the same company😂 Here is the one and only pic of our one. Did buy some things from there around 2005ish and it did have a bumper selection but it was just weird with it being so close to GAME and less vibrant inside. I loved Blockbusters but didn't buy much in the way of games there because it was a bit risky - a couple of times I got burned with discs that didn't work properly and it was a nightmare to convince the staff that I wasn't pulling a fast one. Most of the 'second' hand games had probably gone through 10+ users before they went on sale for a pre-owned rate you could've got elsewhere at a similar price. They were godly for VHS and DVD's though!

I do really miss going into shops to buy games - cannot beat unwrapping a new title and that fresh new game smell! Also loved impulse purchasing and getting some good pre-owned deals over the years. Not many gaming shops left these days and the ones that remain like GAME are not cheap and they don't offer anything unique anymore. Here's some of my personal highlights of brands I used to use from the mid-to-late 90's until around 2012. Electronics Boutique - first exclusive one I remember and picked up Super Mario 64 pre-owned for £35 which was a steal at the time. Toys R Us - this was my local store and it served me well through the Gameboy, N64 and Dreamcast era. Also the game slips were just such a glorious shopping concept - cannot beat taking that ticket to the till and then collecting the sealed game from the desk. So oddly satisfying. HMV - not my typical videogame shop but still a good all-round electronic entertainment store. Sometimes they'd accidentally get in some great stock or sell way under the expected price particularly on PC games around the early 2000's. Comet - once sold me ISS Pro Evolution Soccer 2 but charged me for the original instead so I saved £20 on a new game just released. They will go down in some weird hall of fame just for that! Dixons - they always did a nice range of electronics but really neglected their gaming space and were very middle of the road. GAME - pretty much the most established on the high street at the last one standing. This was a fantastic brand from the early 2000's until around 2013 but digital gaming has really put the final nail in the coffin and it is quite surprising the company is still going. Many locations have shut down though and a few have even merged into concessions of other stores to reduce overheads but maintain a presence. There's only one left in my City which operates within a Sports Direct store on a shitty retail park on the outskirts. In its prime there was one in our major Town shopping centre and another sitting within a flagship Debenhams Store. Both were excellent and offered everything gamers wanted. Pre-owned was a big focus back then too. I last visited GAME in Bournemouth this year where it was hidden within a shopping arcade on its last legs along with Sports Direct and HMV and there was not one thing worth buying as it could all be got cheaper or online. Really struggle to see any future viability within the company. What stores did you used to shop at back in the day before digital took over completely? Also be interesting to hear from people outside of the UK.

Looks decent enough and hopefully we'll get a full match gameplay soon! People can relax a bit knowing the game is still in development after months of silence.

Nvidia RTX 4090 review | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM You're sure going to be glad you didn't buy an RTX 3090 Ti in the past seven months.

People that play Fortnite, Apex, Warzone and Overwatch would strongly disagree - these games have lifetime revenues of over £25bn and collectively they get probably close to 50m players each day still. Those games offer strong retention aspects, are constantly developed and are continuously giving people something to work towards. It's also better than players buying lootboxes or skins direct. Battle passes divided into seasons further gives people reason to continue or return and new stuff to work towards. Compare those highly successful games with Battlefield 2042 and Halo Inifnite which are both monumental brands with games that are absolutely dead and in crisis mode less than a year after releasing. These games offered no progression or things to keep people engaged with. It isn't 2009 still - many users these days especially younger gamers want more than to just rattle off 20 matches in a session and gain 7 levels like we all used to be happy with when COD was in its prime and deathmatch wasn't saturated. Overwatch when paid struck a great balance between gameplay and rewards which were an insanely popular progression factor but in the sequel, it may take months just to unlock one thing or cost £179 to complete the set which could've been earned for free when the game was paid. As Diablo Immortal proved, a game being free does not benefit the gamer - it just gives the illusion of generosity to hook people and then get a bigger ATV payoff on committed players who are future-paywalled. I'd rather have levels, unlocks and challenges plus more to focus on rather than just going from one disbanded lobby to another with sweatfest matchmaking. The more content the better and its a win for everybody. Epic know what they are doing 12 months in advance but companies like DICE, Blizzard and 343 just wing it and fall at the first hurdle.

Whether people like it or not, engagement features such as unlocks and challenges that equate to progression and gives rewards is what delivers retention and keeps games sustainable. Every deathmatch shooter that has failed to deliver this aspect in the last 10 years has been literally dead within a year. This isn’t 2012 where levelling is merely enough to satisfy longevity through core gameplay. If Fortnite didn’t offer it’s range of awards then it would be as dead as every other Battle Royale right now. Even Overwatch 2 premium owners are being shafted for content under the guise of the game being free which is a stark comparison to what the original offered throughout its entire duration. Games that fumble their monetisation model right off the bat also usually fail pitifully within the first 12 months. Just because something is free doesn’t make it a gesture to the gamers either - as always there is a far greater income model in place and it’s always at the true expense of gameplay or progression elements. I couldn’t give a toss about skins but a game needs to have elements that maintain interest especially in heavily saturated brands. COD games for the past 9 years have almost exclusively been on life support come January so there has to be more to games than just the gameplay itself as Halo Infinite has demonstrated.

Seems like they really killed the progression system in Overwatch 2 - this was the best part of the original game where not only did you play and enjoy the game, you had lots to work towards without spending a penny. Games these days are all just divided into seasons and purchasable battle passes for maximum profit. At least in COD there's still (just) enough meat in the game for standard owners but F2P users in OW2 may as well not even bother with what's on offer. Literally killed the very thing that oozed retention. Basic deathmatch with nothing much to play for does not wash these days and Halo Infinite proved if you have absolutely nothing more to offer outside the shooting in terms of progression and awards, you will lose 95% of your playerbase within 1 year and destroy you brand once and for all. I don't even Blizzard have done it to entice premium owners - it's just pure laziness on their part and a lack of forward planning. It will come to bite and this game will probably lose half its players come the end of he month.

Two new trailers

https://www.ign.com/articles/overwatch-2-phone-sms-protect-scrapped

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Definitely seems to be a huge talking point but hopefully it's a case of adapting rather than a conceptual misstep. It's amazing how in these MP games, removing or adding players can have a huge difference on how they play. No wonder BF2042 was a colossal cock up when they thought they could just make the maps twice as big and double the lobby size! Seems that developers think 5v5 is more tactical but I don't think this is the case.

Watched Tombstone last night from 1993 - great cast

Those yellow slips were legendary - really added to the buzz when getting a new game🤣

But good luck trying to play it You Can't Play Overwatch 2 Right Now Because It's Under Attack [Update] KOTAKU.COM Blizzard president Mike Ybarra says the external attack on Overwatch 2 servers is continuing on day 2 The release has been extremely flat. Kinda just feels like Blizzard have released an expansion pack or started up on the old game again rather than being a fresh sequel. I think most people have moved on and Blizzard as a whole only have themselves to blame after taking their eyes off the ball for years and thinking the brand would just remain consistently successful.