J4MES OX4D

I finished Lightfall yesterday and was glad to put it to bed. I had to drop the difficulty to normal because it was no fun playing on legendary here unlike the Witch Queen. Firefights were just full on spongey spammy enemies and you would get obliterated from all directions in some battles. A couple of missions were enjoyable to a degree towards the end especially the tank one which reminded me of Halo but most were forgettable with boring objectives and predictable fights. The story was ok but written poorly and the likes of Nimbus and Osiris were both unbearable characters throughout. Worth finishing for the subclass and the story conclusion though. Completed the intro mission to The Final Shape which seems a much better location but I'm not sure if I'll start it yet.

I'm definitely more confident about this one especially as most people who made 2042 have long left the company and proper and proven developers were brought in instead. I knew instantly that 2042 would be a catastrophe because it had no campaign, no squad system, no voice chat, no scoreboard, 128 players, barely any guns, no server browser, no stat tracking, stupid specialists, map-changing levolution replaced with temporarily inconvenient weather effects, awful interface, no rush, TDM or dom, no progression, overly-large and empty maps and bot-filled lobbies. It was literally the most anti-Battlefield game imaginable and clear the developers didn't have a clue what the series was about or what they were doing. They were removing staples of the series and the genre without any logic. My only worry with BF6 is if it leans too far into COD. We desperately need these big BF4-style tactical maps.

That's a very strong offering. Lies of P also has just released some very impressive DLC too

I've done a few hours on Lightfall now and it feels really off and I'm not sure why. Definitely a step back over The Witch Queen in narrative terms along with mission design but the does look fantastic. Really not a fan of the characters or writing either. The Journey page is ideal as it lays out everything so much easier so you know what needs to be done and what you can do. Better than ducking in and out of the world map trying to find things haha!

So I've just begun Lightfall and this seems like an interesting location. However I've noticed the DLC has been appallingly received by many so I'm kinda dreading what I am walking into particularly on legendary. I did the first mission which felt like spongy busywork with an irritating boss that I had to cheese to a degree. Already not sold on the story or characters and it seems like a big step back from The Witch Queen. I'm still going to keep an open mind but I am expecting a tiresome and frustrating slog

Some new stable gameplay

This is brilliant and so true

The gameplay coming from the test environment looks very good especially from a mechanics standpoint. Looks quite refined now plus there's cool things like being able to drag and heal injured team mates for revive. Definitely seems much closer to BF4 and 2042 but I hope there are larger maps that aren't as chaotic and bloated with effects. Who would've thought that ex-COD developers would save Battlefield lol!

I did the Shadowkeep campaign earlier which took about 4 hours over a couple of days. I completely forgot about this back in the day as I did a lot of activities on the Moon but didn't actually buy into the expansion itself. Kinda glad I didn't pay full price for it when it released as it's largely just a load of busywork. The location is great but the story and quests are absolutely mediocre and progress being tied to bounties sucks. I can't complain too much as I got to experience it for free but this pales in comparison to the work and structure that The Witch Queen had. Beyond Light was even a solid step up although still lacking in some respects.

Reveal trailer coming later today. Looking at Call of Duty right now, this may be our last hope of a decent military shooter. This game must have a campaign though.

I'm really enjoying this campaign - just finished the Savathun's right hand mission which was bloody challenging on solo legendary and took me well over an hour. Beyond Light I seemed to fly through in about 6 hours even with 34 quest steps but this one you really seem to get bang for your buck as every mission seems detailed, challenging and lasts longer than 15 minutes.

Just done this mission on The Witch Queen campaign - step 4 I think. Did it on legendary, solo and with a power level below the required one, however it doesn't actually state the requirement. Absolutely hard as hell and probably took me well over an hour just like the previous mission. Pulsating stuff though and a fantastic challenge throughout. Machine guns are an absolute godsend against armoured elites and bosses. I can't actually believe how many enemies get thrown at you but you just have to thin the pack and chip away at anything and everything. Really makes a change because some campaigns the missions last 6-10 minutes and are so easy but this is a huge ramp up in action, length and difficulty.

I had a bit of a shock returning and my power level at zero. I'm just playing for the story now and not too worried about seeking out all the exotic gear and doing add these padded side quests. Beyond Light had a 34-step mission and then some extras at the end which was good enough and I saw all I needed to see. Just started The Witch Queen on legendary which seems a real step up in narrative and mission-depth terms. Not really sure how power level works these days or when things got reset. Seems a lot of back-end changes have been made with things removed and others added. I had to sift through and remove a lot of obsolete stuff in my inventory too. If I am still playing after finishing these campaigns then I'll happily buy into the new content at full price as what I have now is a steal!

I've started Beyond Light today which I never got around to buying all those years ago. It's not part of the Legacy Collection but the whole campaign is free within the game which is great. Once that's done, then I can focus on the newer expansions I got yesterday. Slowly finding my feet and getting back into the swing of things. Just done the Praksis mission which was good fun!

It's a shambles that they've had to censor the PC version just to get it on console. They spent years saying they would never do this and now they've bucked at every hurdle.

Bungie are having a sale right now and in which you can get 3 expansions plus other content for around £7. I thought I'd revisit the game after an almost 5 year absence and it's a bit overwhelming , but I think I am slowly finding my feet. There are lots of new things and quite a few old elements that I have forgotten about. I seem to be going through the New Light campaign for returning and new players which is a bit of a recap of sorts. Once that is out of the way I can have a look at the expansions I didn't stick around for. This game is definitely a convoluted mess for returning players, let alone newcomers, and I think Bungie have made a lot of things rather shambolic and bloated. Much of it is a result of sustained development even with the vaulted content, but others are through efforts to drive income particularly when they went solo away from Activision and it looks quite messy. The content included in the Legacy Collection (2025) are:- The Final Shape Standard Edition Lightfall Standard Edition The Witch Queen Standard Edition Beyond Light Pack Shadowkeep Pack Forsaken Pack 30th Anniversary Pack Pit of Heresy Dungeon Shattered Throne Dungeon Grasp of Avarice Dungeon I'm definitely going to look forward to working my way through this content and it may even lead me to purchase some of the newer expansions. I hope this bundle will get more people back to the game but it may be a little late in the day for many and I must say Destiny 2 is one of the least welcoming games for new players and even past veterans because of its approach and execution despite simple and enjoyable gameplay mechanics.

Microsoft use flawed AI image to advertise new jobs🤣

It's basically a Chinese Battlefield 2024 with an old trademark they purchased. I never bothered with it in the end but it's getting a lot of players. I imagine it's a lot from China and the majority are probably cheating🤣

The initial decline in the last few years originally stemmed from the knock-on effect from Covid. I'm not saying the advert is responsible solely for a 97% reduction in sales, but this rebrand has been in the works for some time and the figures are comparably shocking compared to other manufactures operating in the same climate and legislation. There is a huge quantity of new stock unsold at probably at 30% less than the typical entry rate and the rebrand is likely a huge factor in people not going out in droves and securing what is left before the new roll out. People are not solely queuing for their electric cars when the rest of the market is flowing with your typical diesel/petrol standard. My local VW sells between 9 and 10 new petrol cars a day still, yet Jaguar can't crack 50 up and down the country in a month, despite having an overflow of stock. My local dealer is like a car park. The cars are all for sale, about 40 of them are 24-25 plates and models that were £40,000 and going for under £30k comfortably. There's no firesale, there's no limitations, they just can't shift them. All these new cars coming out are practically outdated by design anyway, but when your flagship model is going for the same price in the luxury market as a Seat Leon and £3k less than a Polo, then questions have to be asked of how they got to this state. My guess is that the alienation of its customers and values after the turmoil of Covid had, and then the published rebrand reveal, is a huge factor and I'm willing to bet that they will struggle out of the gate and will likely have to sell off part of the company. The most likely explanation is customers that were awaiting the new range have seen it and have shopped elsewhere before they even land and haven't looked back, not even taking an XFR for £12k less. So if Jaguar re-launch and sell 20,000 new cars at £115,000 each then it will be a huge success but with the lack of interest in the last 5 years and new dead stock they can't even give away, I don't know where the market is.

Another major name in the industry has spoken out against the game pass and then own employer. It's good for consumers short-term when there's a game worth playing for but developers, it's a travesty and I would love to find out how many games have actually become profitable at less than $1 an install. Imagine working 4 years on a game and then being buried on the game pass and having just 30,000 play your game and your studio doesn't even break even. The same game could've easily achieved 300,000 sales at full price as a standalone and marketing. With Bethesda and Activision propping up the pass and driving prices up, smaller games and devs are going to be forgotten about which has already happened and ultimately MS makes no money. I don't think the Game Pass has seen growth in years either.

This poor guy got tortured but whoever did the Stan edit is legandary

I actually think he's worse than Don Mattrick now - he only butchered one console, but Spencer is literally playing Russian roulette with every decision they make and as you say, shamefully bragging about the success in literally the next paragraph after statementing a commercial travesty. Phil was popular because he was seen as more of a gamer than a corporate, but now he's immensely unpopular and can't even be seen as a scapegoat because it's all his doing. Huge acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision that wont even pay themselves off in my lifetime and having to penny-pinch against the very developers they proport to support to keep game pass relevant is just a total shit show to behold. The problem is they want desperately one console generation where they get ahead of Sony and they just can't come close and now everyone, from developers to the consumers is suffering. Sony ain't doing much better as they will likely burn a billion on dead live service projects in a decade at the expense of many exclusives but Microsoft are the ones that are gutting their gaming division to save money through bad choices they have made. How they fuck up so hard after the 360 I will never know.

Krafton as well this week sacked their entire leadership team from Subnautica 2 because the development into early access was 'going too slow' despite the team having two previous and highly successful projects on their books executed the same way and self-published. Just like Kerbal Space Program 2, the game will probably fail miserably and everyone will walk away. These scumbag publishers just ain't got a clue.

There is plenty of stock to sell - it's just not selling and to shift the blame on shipping and production is nothing more than a corporate cope. You can get a brand new pre-brand Jag cheaper than ever now but they aren't selling and people can bury their heads in the sand about the rebrand being not to blame, but that is clearly an aggravating factor. Jaguar was alienating its customers and brand identity long before the advert was published anyway, when a full compliment of stock was being manufactured and shipped, so it's clear this is a long-term problem and the rebranding is a culmination of everything in the last 18 months. At my dealership, you can get as 74 plate XFR for £24,995 brand new and it's not selling. Two years ago, the same vehicle was £36,000 and people would bite your hand off at that price. So despite a surplus of stock and a 25% markdown, there doesn't seem to be much demand and this is up and down the country. I very much doubt we'll see a 10,000% influx when the new range is available and I doubt that's what customers are waiting for.