J4MES OX4D

Where did I say it was a bad release? I've praised Sledgehammer for their efforts under difficult circumstances and for the amount of original content they have produced (in another thread) when compared to Treyarch and their Cold War. Franchise fatigue is mostly why I'm not buying the game along with it being a bit on the safe/generic side but it certainly isn't a bad release by any means (not that I said that) even though it hasn't been widely well-received and zombies is woeful. I'd even take this over Battlefield right now any day of the week right now but with a choice, I choose neither because it's not worth £50 and I don't think it has the legs.

Warhammer Vermintide FREE on Fanatical

An interesting watch

Sniper rifle destroys tank faster than anti-tank rocket launcher🤣 Battlefield 2042's only anti-tank rocket launcher is so poor, it's beaten by a sniper rifle WWW.VG247.COM A comparison between various ways to take down a tank in Battlefield 2042 leaves the M5 in the dust. Nice Dice

Another one bites the dust and this time it's a big one - BioWare's senior creative director of 23 years who was instrumental to DA4 is leaving. Dragon Age 4's senior creative director has left BioWare | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM His exit was "mutually agreed." They are now unrecognisable as a studio other than name.

Many of the points may look like nitpicking in quantity but they all add up and a lot of the omissions are actual staples of the series that should be there day one. The naval complaint should have been directed rather at no naval maps IMO - a Battlefield game without a naval map is like a salad without lettuce. The Battlefield music is also absolutely iconic for the series so for them to produce something a YouTuber could knock up on their mobile phone using a 99p synth app from Indonesia is just dreadful. It doesn't feel like any real effort has been made especially when the studio used to travel the globe sourcing orchestras. OG's will never forget 1942 or Bad Company 2 and the work that went into those scores. It's a £50/$60 game so I can understand why people aren't as forgiving and are incredibly frustrated especially with less content and features than what the series was offering 10 years ago when the games released finished by definition. If patch notes can have 300 lines of fixes then I'm sure DICE can live with 100 of critique and if we get one thousand hotfixes then this 'nitpicking' would have been justified across the board. Feedback is far more detailed now than just 'Yer mapz suckz make butter onez' so people producing swathes of lines is now industry standard for feedback.

I legit cannot tell if those are bots or absolute retards🤣

Tempted to pick this up around Christmas or before. Not sure how it'll handle with mouse and keyboard so I may grab it for PS5 or try it with my old Xbox One controller on PC. AAA gaming has disappointed once again this year so it looks like it'll be a quantity of quality indies I will grab instead.

Both games are absolute shit in all reality but there's probably some fun to be had on either. Vanguard was always destined to struggle but 2042 is a monumental disappointment and all-round shambles. Neither one really deserves the money though, but Battlefield is probably one of the most shameful releases ever with its lack of core content and laundry list of missing features. The 'big patch' is just PR bullshit to stem the flow of refund requests and I'd estimate the game will probably be in a beta-like state come March at the earliest but it'll probably take 12-18 months to actually finish the game to the most basic standard. The compiled dump of issues in Battlefield 2042 can be found here so I'd definitely read that before taking the plunge. For Vanguard, I'd wait for a Black Friday or after price drop which will be inevitable. Core Features No single-player story/campaign mode No standard server browser Fewer standardized game modes (Can't even play TDM or smaller scale modes without relying on community servers. Really?) No standard hardcore mode No persistent lobbies (seriously why do I have to matchmake after EVERY round?) Fewer in-game assignments No class system Less character customization options (than BF5) No profile progress/stats page in the menu No battle log/stats tracker for other players No global leader boards No dog tags (they still sort of exist I guess?) No custom emblems No cross-game profile screen (BF 4, HL, 1, and V were all linked by a menu if you owned them digitally, was a neat feature.) No spectator mode No permanent community servers (would be useful for clans and events) No Central US servers No test range (this one is sort of compensated for with single payer servers vs bots) Infantry Gameplay Fewer guns (even including all the portal guns, BF4 still had more at launch) Fewer infantry gadgets No manual leaning No diving while swimming No high wall vaulting No crouch sprinting No backwards prone No explosion knockback No rolling after falling from heights No ammo or health pickup off teammates No scope zeroing No tiered reloads/paused reloads No melee weapon choices No thermal optics No indirect fire gadgets Less anti-tank launchers (Come on man only one?) No lock-on launchers (The M5 works with the SOFLAM but that requires 2 people) No AP mines/claymores No suppression mechanic (This one I don't mind but I'm including everything) No first person takedown animations (whether this is a downgrade is up for debate, but I think it is) Vehicles Fewer vehicle types (and separate vehicle progression per faction even though they are functionally identical... why???) No naval vehicles (Except I guess the hovercraft technically) Cannot spawn in a passenger seat in transports at round start. No vehicle gunner direction indicator No lock on direction indicator No unoccupied seat indicator on friendly vehicles No vehicle enter/exit animations No tank turret decoupling (This was so great in BF4!) Less vehicle driver/pilot customization options No tank zoom customization options No tank gunner customization options No heli gunner secondary weapons No separate heli/fixed-wing controls No rocket aiming reticle for helictopters No control input while looking behind/free looking in aircraft (BF1 and V pilots, this one is gonna absolutely suck for you guys) No joystick/non-generic gamepad support General consensus seems to be that the helicopter and fixed wing flight models are a step down from BF4. No behemoths Scoring System No squad wipe scoring No player damage points No vehicle damage points No vehicle kill assist points No laser designation kill assist points No headshot bonus No long-range kill bonus No assist counts as kill bonus No multi-kill bonus No killstreak stopped bonus No comeback bonus No squad objective play bonus Oversimplified teamplay scoring (i.e. healing a teammate always gives you a flat +5xp rather than being based on how much you heal them) Squad and Teamwork No commander No special squad call-in abilities No squad field upgrades No in-game VOIP (coming soonTM) Fewer factions (with almost nothing to give the 2 factions any distinction) No cross-team chat No team changing No "create new squad" option No self protmot to squad lead using "request order" No clans/platoons (coming soonTM) No view of squadmates while in the spawn screen Smaller squad size No "Medic incoming" indicator in downed state (coming soonTM) No rank names/icons, just a number. Maps Lack of persistent servers means poor map rotation (I played for 10 hours and never saw Kaleidescope, Orbital, or Breakaway) Fewer base game maps (not including portal maps) No static weapon emplacements Fewer destructible buildings Very poor balance between vehicle and infantry gameplay No infantry focused maps No game changing levolution Absolutely zero cover between capture zones Poor spawn points (Constantly spawning in the open/visible to enemies) No fortification building (given how open all the maps are, this could have been super useful) Fewer urban areas No naval maps UI and Quality of Life Less control customization options Less UI customization options No HUD/icon opacity customization No HUD scaling customization options No gunsight reticle customization options No network performance graph No individual player scoreboard No ability to zoom in on the spawn map Less ultrawide monitor support (hud ratio is locked in at 16:9) Very poor friend joining system (Lack of server browser makes playing with more than 4 friends completely impossible) Poor console aim assist (big fat fuck you to console players there, dice. Hopefully this will come with the D1 patch) No in game crossplay toggle option (you have to change your global console settings) Audio General consensus seems to be the audio design is bad, especially compared to both BF3 and BF1. 3D soundscape is almost non-exsistent Less impactful soundtrack (menu music is very dull and repetitive) End of round music is dull and uninteresting (compared to BF1 and V this is a big downgrade) End of round voicelines are just so tone-deaf and awful. I can't describe how much I hate them.

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Watford 4-1 Man Utd Oliver still at the wheel!

Interesting article resurfaced from 10 years ago talking about DICE's research on player counts and the typical Battlefield experience https://gamerant.com/battlefield-3-multiplayer-64-player-limit/ That was the golden age of DICE and their design philosophy. Feels like now they think bigger automatically equates to better as they try and emulate the battle royale numbers and map sizes without consideration on how it affects the core gameplay and general flow of matches. The technical and asset sacrifices are another factor. 64 really is the sweet spot - any larger population persistence and it gets way too messy. 128 IMO is a mistake.

This game actually looks way better than Battlefield now🤣 I may see if I can grab it around or after Christmas for £25 and just play through the campaign and offline bots to scratch my shooter itch. Not in the mood for any sweaty stuff and didn't enjoy the beta but this game for all its issues probably isn't all that tragic especially after seeing the state of 2042.

Jackfrags has received his cheque from EA so he can now be honest for a change. Pretty good video actually but shame it didn't come before the game launched

What a relief! Game currently sitting at 22% positive on Steam and bear in mind this is made up largely of pre-release shill reviews. I didn't expect much after the beta and after hearing early feedback, but this was easily one of the worst gaming experiences I have ever had.

Top level sport will always protect itself sadly. This racism flavour of the week story for the media is nothing new and Is just one portion of problems within the industry not just from the people that govern it, but also the ones that participate too. Discrimination is also commonplace in many other sectors so it's important that there are internal support available as well as independent outside bodies at hand. Sometimes people don't have the courage to report things due to being scared, not believed or being concerned about the career impact, but then again they may also be culpable of things that could come back to bite them. The core issue really needs to be tackled at the top though and organisations should be held accountable from a legal standpoint rather than them dictating the standards. Cricket may appear as a gentleman's sport but it is plagued by some of the worst behavior imaginable. The Rafiq public inquiry was also a rushed-job and very one-dimensional. Although it highlighted and exposed some key stuff associated with the ECB, there was way too much broader stuff untouched which was a missed opportunity overall. Now we'll have to wait years for a full public inquiry if it ever materialises at a huge taxpayer cost.

I've already requested a refund. I literally cannot bare to play another minute of this tripe. I can't be arsed to go through all the problems so I poached these points from a review which briefly nails just a few major issues with the game No campaignNo classesNo scoreboardNo all chatNo VOIPNo server browserNo medic nearby indicatorNo squad switchingNo team switchingNo stats pageLesser destructionPoor optimizationTons of bugsHitboxes are brokenA small number of gunsLack of game modesCringe voice linesHazard zone is a jokeThe spotting system is brokenMaps are way too big even for 128 playersGame UI is horriblePoor audio design For all the bad COD games and the broken BF titles previous, this by far is the worst FPS I have ever played from a technical and conceptual standpoint.

100 turn demo now available.

Oh dear, this was inevitable Azeem Rafiq apologises for antisemitic comments made in 2011 message exchange WWW.SKYSPORTS.COM Azeem Rafiq: I am ashamed of this exchange and have now deleted it so as not to cause further offence. I was 19... There is a lot more dirt on this guy apparently - much more recent and horrendous than this. No excuse for racism in any sport but it is sickening when all these disgusting clowns try and seek sympathy for the very thing they’ve done themselves and worse. Hypocrisy just discredits and puts things like this back to square one. Sports like cricket and rugby are plagued with some terrible things happening from all nationalities, races and ages. Sadly the bodies behind them are more hell-bent on protecting their respective sports and there is just too much money involved too. If all the big sports were investigated and people came forward for things that happened in the last 20 years, there would be some shocking disclosures. Nothing will really change though and I'd go as far to say that the people involved in these sports now are probably worse than what they were back then - it's only their false online social media image that makes them look good.

Many thanks everybody!!

Anyone watch Stockport 5-3 Bolton last night? Absolutely amazing cup tie!

I've buckled and bought the game with some Steam funds gifted for my birthday - only really bought it because otherwise I'd probably not play anything new until Elden Ring arrives and that's 3 months away. Basically just gonna go in with the mentality that this is the worst Battlefield ever and a mediocre game at best. I wont be disappointed that way and at least things can only get better. Angry Joe's video was absolutely telling and hits hard with no shill bullshit. Some fantastic points and issues highlighted.