J4MES OX4D

I think this is probably the most disappointing mid-gen we've ever had in gaming. The PS4/XB1 era is notorious for being the weakest, yet by the midway stage we'd already had Horizon Zero Dawn, Overwatch, Persona 5, Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, Metal Gear Solid 5, The Witcher 3, The Last of Us Remastered, Fallout 4, Doom, Dishonored 2 plus many more. Also games like God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, Nier Automata and Spider Man, all of which were released around 2018 or before and concluded a very strong finale. Games evolved massively and really grew in ambition. Now the industry feels incredibly stagnated with few developers taking risks and everything feeling run of the mill. PS5's are turning into the ultimate dust collectors and Game Pass keeps stalling because people have played everything worth playing. Next two games I am playing are Age of Mythology 2 and Resident Evil 2 1999 and whilst Flight Sim 2024 looks promising and I may get BO6, it's not exactly anything revolutionary.

Resident Evil 2 will release on August 27th Original Resident Evil 2 Gets GOG PC Release Date - IGN WWW.IGN.COM The original Resident Evil 2 PC version now has a release date on GOG.

Game has risen to 2.2m players.

Game is out with 96% positive on Steam and so far a peak of 1,950,508 players which is 1,000,000 more than Elden Ring!

He's trying to make a comeback - don't think people are going to ignore how for several years he spun the narrative that he was banned for no reason. Now trying to brush everything under the carpet. Dr Disrespect says he's coming back soon, deletes his admission of inappropriately texting a minor: 'We have lots to talk about' | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM Yeah, you sure do.

Oxford 2-0 Norwich! What a start to the Championship and Dave will be delighted😎

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will let you climb out of your plane, walk a trail, and watch the sunset WWW.EUROGAMER.NET Microsoft Flight Simulator was already sounding pretty damned spectacular, but my excitement levels are now appropriate… I can't wait to walk around my back garden😎

Got a huge update on all platforms which existing owners can get for free

It's because of the broken engine which can be exploited but they leave half this shit in because the kids think its cool. Vanguard had near-flawless mechanics keeping it simple yet slick but every other game outside of MW2019 is a bit all over the place - either clunky or easily exploitable.

A decade too late IMO and it appears to be an absolute abomination currently sitting at 3%. An adaptation too far Borderlands | Rotten Tomatoes WWW.ROTTENTOMATOES.COM Lilith (Cate Blanchett), an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas...

I'm not going to link any article as all of them are full of corporate waffle but recently a large portion of Bungie's development staff were laid off and incorporated into Sony as part of a restructure. Around 220 staff were affected and although this only represents about 25% of the total on their books, there were some significant names transferring which leaves Bungie very light going forward and begs the question what will happen going forward. Although Destiny 3 was never acknowledged to be in development, a spin-off project has been cancelled and there are no other games reportedly in the works by the studio right now. Bungie is too big to and would be too expensive to simply shut down but Sony have definitely cherrypicked every ounce of value leaving them still stacked, but incredibly threadbare in key areas needed to release another major title. I'm not sure what the next stage is for the studio but they will be very expensive to maintain without a clear output in the near future. I can't believe Bungie have ended up this way but this is a consequence of them getting too big for their boots when on Activision's books and then being bailed out by a company who didn't know what to do with them. It's great that everyone still retains their jobs to a degree but I think many will be staying on just because Sony can't afford to offload them in one go. The ones incorporated at the only staff who are truly safe.

Classics that need no introduction

AOM Retold is out soon so get back on it people!

Half hour of leaked gameplay (re-upped)

Basically they will make a 'really good lasting mouse and give you free updates'. That's literally every mouse that's ever existed🤣

Seems Logitech are exploring making a 'forever mouse' which will have a subscription. Trying to turn peripherals into services is so needlessly stupid, I really hope it doesn't take off in any capacity. It's bad enough seeing people hilariously being unable to open fridges during the recent Microsoft outage because they required an internet connection to a cloud service but producing a quality product that is lasting under the guise of a subscription is another stupid cash grab. I get they want to make cheaper products so people will have to replace them more frequently now but they'd be far better off just making more premium and higher quality ones instead of going down a subscription route. My Logitech mouse has actually lasted years and whilst that's great for me, it's bad for them but that's how it should be. Logitech's 'forever mouse' could mean peripherals go the way of coffee beans, TVs, and printer ink by pushing a subscription | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM Could a mouse ever be timeless?

First one was excellent so this should be a great sequel

After almost two decades! Surprised it still was going on but it was a revolutionary platform for extra content, surprise game releases and low level microtransactions that were fun and original. Nowadays you're paying £30+ for cosmetic garbage and £110 'deluxe' editions. Xbox Fans Wave Goodbye to 360 Marketplace as Microsoft Shuts Down 19-Year-Old Storefront - IGN WWW.IGN.COM Xbox fans are waving goodbye to the Xbox 360 Marketplace, which shuts down today nearly 19 years after it launched.

I'd probably say Black Ops 1. I'd often get 32+ kills in TDM, went on a 50 game winning streak playing solo when I had horrendous flu, memorised every spawn imaginable and could read every match really well. It was a fun game to learn and couple of times I even manged 48 kills in TDM out of the 75 available. It feels like nothing now compared to what some gamers can achieve but back then I felt unstoppable on it.

Current build looks like a PS3 game in places

Out today finally! Can't be picked up free on GOG Fallout: London on GOG.com WWW.GOG.COM

I am giving that as an example - where users can pay up to $200 on the likes of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and not get a good return in titles for that value. The Pass has also been stale for about 8 months now and its growth has stalled once again. After a strong summer line up of games, they then put the price up with no real justification. Users are also being pushed into higher tier passes on all platforms as the likes of Microsoft deliberately make the the lower-end is so unattractive, it's hardly worth considering these days. Any fringe titles I am remotely interested in, I'd rather buy in the sale - at least the developers will get paid a proper cut rather than an install fee. Also having to pay to play online using external content services is absolutely insane in itself. £60 for a basic PSN is ridiculous. All platforms on PC are free to play online and that's how it should be for console. I actually think it's the other way around. If I were a developer who worked on a game for 3 years and found out that the publisher wanted it on a pass dwarfed by AAA games and a diminished install cut of the revenue, I'd feel really demoralised especially as the games 'success' could not be measured. The game could sell 1m copies at £10 a pop but instead the publisher accepted 75p an install rate and only 100,000 people played the game. Old established games don't really matter as it's just a tiny extra bit of revenue but when new in-house games go on and they bomb, then it's fatal and Microsoft already butchered 4 studios last year who's games were successful enough. Ones that don't perform in the future will just get culled especially if they are turning the Pass more premium with AAA games and slashing revenue potential for fringe titles. Developers who's games go onto such passes certainly aren't sitting comfortably and many wont have a chance to make another game after that if their already income-squeezed product doesn't get monumental traction.

Subscriptions are only good for short term value on consumable games but they are terrible in terms of ownership, plus the prices and tiers are so expensive and convoluted now, it's actually better to buy a game out right down the line in the sale. I get a headache just looking at the PS+/Now entitlement spreadsheet and the Microsoft Pass is becoming more unattractive by the month as they push people towards higher and more expensive tiers. You can spend £200 a year on a pass and ultimately not play £200's worth of games and come out of it at the end with nothing to show for it. I'd only say it's worth it if you wanted to jump into the likes of COD, play the campaign and hammer the MP for a month. Personally, I feel these passes are terrible for the industry anyway and shouldn't be encouraged. It's not even a successful model right now for mainline developers let alone third party ones and revenue cuts are only going to reduce further once Microsoft puts AAA games on their Game Pass. The average cut per install is about a dollar but if you have a pass with BO6 on it and 90% of people are playing that, then other games may be lucky to see 50 cents an install and that even goes for Microsoft's in-house developers who they've been throwing under the bus for years now. MS, Ubisoft and some others I think are trying to turn heads to ultimately revoke ownership and make things all digital, all streaming and all subscription. Fuck that.