J4MES OX4D

Following backlash, EA puts Battlefield 2042 Santa skin back in the sack | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM Santa Clause ain't coming to town.

This is before Warzone Pacific even being released and Vanguard being widely considered as a flop. There's not many other big games out there but when Farming SImulator 2022 has more than twice as many players, you know it's bad! The only positive is that Vince Zampella is now the head of DICE and 5 employees including the main development director have all left the company within two weeks of launch. He may not be able to turn this game around but it may salvage Battlefield long term. Hopefully Vince will be able to persuade EA to go back to its roots as he is probably the only person at the company who isn't grabbed by the balls and they usually leave him alone to his own creative devices. The good news is that the game will likely fail before DICE can implement any of their shitty ideas made pre-release.

This is tragic🤣 https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-12-02-battlefield-2042-is-getting-a-santa-claus-skin-and-players-hate-it

Hades - love the art style of this game!

Big patch with some decent improvements but still lots to do

I was following the game on BBC Sport website and literally every time I refreshed the scores page, a goal went in. It went from 14-0 to 19-0 and then when I did the final refresh expecting it to hit 20, it did🤣

85% possession 63 shots 30 on target 20 goals!

Looks pretty decent Call of Duty: Warzone's New Map Gets a Huge Reveal, Gameplay Changes Announced - IGN WWW.IGN.COM Here's a new (and huge) look at Call of Duty: Warzone's new map, set in the fictional Pacific island of Caldera.

That monitor only supports up to 1440p resolution - it's comparable 4K brother was about £2300 new when it first released and is not being produced any more. Big jump in price and tech. There are quite a few 4K monitors floating around but most are piss poor quality and low-end - they may seem good value but the Hz rate, panel and general image quality is sub-par compared to the upper market. 1440p (2K) isn't a bad way to go especially if you can grab a 144hz+ IPS model for under £500. Many 4K screens now are 31.5'' and above - there's not a lot of basic high-end 4K ones so it can be a bit of a headache trying to find the right one and getting the wrong one can be expensive and impact your experience going forward. You can even grab a 2K one and apply DSR which upscales the image on Nvidia cards. That's another benefit and the 1440p range is very extensive now and good value for money. You'll also be able to run all new games maxed out for probably the next 7 years. Anything with G-Sync and good HDR is a bonus. Even if you get a cheaper temporary monitor for a year or two, it's not a bad way to go. The 4K market is a bit wayward right now with companies trying to grab the console and living room gaming market so a lot of resources are being plunged into increasing size ranges rather than producing typical 28'' quality ones.

Also bear in mind that you will need a extreme-end monitor to get a true benefit - no point in splashing out £3,000 on a rig and then having a £249 monitor from Curry's that does just 60fps and has a poor panel. You may need to spend another £1000-£2200 on top if you're going the distance. Alternatively you can pick up a high-end 2K monitor, run most games at ultra and still have a 3 figure framerate in return. The image wont be as good but the difference is minimal and the price is significant. Chillblast also represent excellent quality and value - this is a great build https://www.chillblast.com/chillblast-next-day-zen-rtx-3080-gaming-pc.html?category_id=529

Grabbed the game yesterday and it's absolutely fantastic! Love the dynamic story and sublime art style. There's not many games that have this level of polish and the mechanics are really slick. Took me about 7 runs just to beat the first boss but it's great gradually unfolding new items and other power ups to aid each run. I really like the writing and the characters are brilliant!

Spurs lost to NS Mura of Slovenia😔 Although it was largely a weakened side, there was still some big names starting and that came on. Playing the majority of the game with 10 men didn't help but not getting a result was still inexcusable. There are some players in that side that shouldn't be playing and others that would struggle week in week out at Championship level. Conte really has his work cut out rebuilding and reshaping that team.

Plutonium should be reasonably safe as it's using the MW3 dedicated server architecture and file structure in Steam provided by Infinity Ward so only legit owners can extract the core files, install and run the client. The upcoming SM2 one which combines a host of COD games will likely be the one that gets nuked as that is too close to replicating COD Online and will likely have server-side copyright infringements. If IW5 does get nuked then they'll just roll out a new client and do it all again🤣

They've just added Skidrow, Favela, Nuketown and Highrise into the Plutonium MW3 Client which is epic!

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.