J4MES OX4D

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.

Feels a lot like Doom 2016 in terms of pacing but not quite as frantic or exhausting as Eternal which is good.

If I wanted to, I could dust off the old PS4 from 2013 and run the new Modern Warfare to its fullest potential when it comes out this month on that. I ran the beta on a PC at ultra that is 4 years old too. These are all old gen games that are forward-ported and in terms of core design, there's nothing new or groundbreaking either. Even some of the PS5 'next gen' exclusives could actually run quite comfortably on older architecture - they were just built for the purpose of gaining early adoption rather than the consoles being merely seen as a straight continuation. The only credible current gen thing I have played is actually the Matrix Awakens tech demo - that was the true definition of next gen but the chances of any developers utlising the Unreal engine to that tune and also having greater gameplay ambitions is either years off or wishful thinking especially when you have dross like Ubisoft still churning out games that were stale a decade ago. That is the only time on my PS5 where I've been truly amazed and still now, there is absolutely sod all on the horizon that couldn't run on a PS4 or a 7 year old PC.

The original Xbox only sold about 25m units whereas the PS2 sold over 150m - even with a slightly better online infrastructure, Sony were streets ahead of Microsoft and that was off the back of the success of PS1 and an established catalogue with no comparable competition. Although the 360 and PS3 gens were only separated by a few million in favour of Playstation, the PS4 sold twice as many units than the Xbox One with a gulf of over 60m difference. Sony have basically dominated Xbox from day one but now Microsoft are making some strong statements with multi-platform publisher acquisitions and consumer-focused innovations and Sony doesn't seem to have anything you can put your finger on. Microsoft's recent dominance has already forced Sony to move into PC gaming - something they never wanted to do, and one or two more key acquisitions along with this persistent stock shortage will continue to drive people towards Xbox. If Microsoft landed a deal with Unreal that passed competition laws, Sony would be in a whole world of trouble. They really should have made a move for Square Enix and Konami when they had the chance. I'm not all that impressed with Xbox either so far but the groundwork is being laid for the next 3 years. I've had every Playstation and Xbox going but this is the first time ever that I've felt concerned about Sony. You can feel the panic with them coming to PC so desperately and apart from a few banked exclusives, they don't ooze much confidence and their store along with online infrastructure is horrendous.

Sony have done nothing really to evolve apart from rely on existing in-house developers who are capable of producing 1-2 top tier exclusives in a generation. They've also missed out on several acquisition opportunities to rival Xbox and their PS+ subscription service framework is an utter convoluted embarrassment. Microsoft are making some big moves and are trying to innovate with new ideas but aside from PSVR, Sony are just playing it safe and the only significant move they've made is put prices up. The console shortage and how they've allowed so many units to get into the wrong hands has also shaken in the industry from a consumer and even developer perspective where real gamers miss out and publishers don't have the guarantees of sales so they remain glued to the old gen. The gulf between Sony and Microsoft in the last gen was huge but the gap has closed significantly and now Microsoft have really turned the tide with innovative ideas than benefit both consumer and developers. With Activision's likely departure from Playstation on top of the potential impact Bethesda's departure could have when felt, Sony could be left in a very dangerously threadbare state. One or two big moves more from Microsoft that pass the competition scrutiny and it could be curtains for the Playstation brand just like Sega's overnight demise.

I've probably used my Playstation 5 three times in the last 6 months and two of those occasions was to do a system update and play a beta for a couple of hours. The most action it's seen is when I played Bloodborne on it back in August of last year. Anyone that's paid a scalper or dedicated days of their lives trying to buy one of these really needs their heads tested because there really isn't many reasons to own one at this time especially with many new games just being old gen titles anyway. I think it will take until 2025 before we really begin to see proper next gen titles but by then, I'll probably be too fed up to care about it. The PS4 did also get off to a slow start and the Xbox One was a pile of shite to start with but it amazes me how every generation transition, we seem to take steps back rather than build upon. Even these so-called next gen games don't really do anything new and that's because they are being held back by a lack of creativity and vision. Companies like Ubisoft will never make a masterpiece because they will forever play it safe and publishers like that only care about the bottom line and not pushing the industry forward. Sony have also made a complete shitshow of themselves with their lack of foresight in the PS+ service and whilst Microsoft start throwing money around to capture any game possible for their pass, they really aren't doing much to grow in-house studios. Google have probably set back streaming and caused incredible alienation because of their inability to captilatise on the hardware and service they created also. With Unreal 5 being widely accessible and impressing, hopefully some innovating devs will do something with that but for the next two years at least, it's more old gen titles and the same old shite. Fingers crossed for Forspoken and Harry Potter but even these could turn into generic flops.

Another one delayed into 2023 despite taking pre-orders and having a big marketing campaign leading up to what was supposed to be the release date. Feedback must have been shite and from what I saw of the game, I could see why. Company of Heroes 3 has been delayed to early next year | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM 'Our team has decided the game is not quite up to our players’ or our own high standards'.

Stumbled across this absolute gem in the Steam NextFest. Also has a demo available which I urge you to try that lasts about 30 minutes. Game has some serious potential especially if you're a fan of the Doom reboot

I love how Ubisoft are so shit and out of ideas they have to name about 7 games of the same series just to make up for all the ones they've cancelled🤣 They'll probably announced the next 3 Far Cry games in December at this rate! The way I see Ubisoft; if you're going to play it safe with your usual gameplay template and recycling of old shit, I wont buy your games. 10 years ago, they showed so much ambition with Watch Dogs, The Division and The Crew and now they are just farming out the same old tried and tested games whilst what's left of their original line-up is canned entirely.

His link-up play and pace is proving a huge threat and he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. He's shredding the Prem even harder than Germany so far which is pretty crazy! Be interesting to see if he can maintain this level along with City as a whole. Also hope England can get the best out of Foden for the World Cup.

Just tried it briefly and the attention to detail is really impressive. Insane zoom levels Interface needs some work and will take some getting used to but this game has a lot of promise.

This looks a brilliant medieval strategy game with a focus on city building, battles, economy management and society simulation. Demo has just gone live for a short time if you want to check it out Manor Lords on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord -- the seasons pass...

Prequel to the classic 2000 FPS game. Not holding out much hope about this one as it's gonna be a tough game to live up to and pull off conceptually these days but it's nice to see the brand being rejuvenated. The original was a slightly flawed but deeply challenging espionage game where you largely infiltrated guarded compounds and military areas and had to complete objectives. No saves, no checkpoints and no regenerating health. Weapon sounds and music were absolutely awesome and the varied environments looked amazing for the time. Bit janky in places and the second game was generic but the original was severely underrated and still has a huge cult following today. Still can't believe many of the videos have over 1m views.

Some really shocking situations outlined in this video - really hope developers can resolve and be reimbursed for their work.

Oof

Seen this a few times and still don't know what to make of it. Will definitely have to take a deeper look into it