J4MES OX4D

SIFU was my second favourite game from 2022, behind only God of War Ragnarok! 
 
I adored SIFU and it remains one of my proudest platinum trophies! Highly recommend people try it if you haven’t yet, now is the perfect time!! 

That’s more like it. I will definitely be adding all of these to my library!

Some more Max Payne 3

Episode 86 is LIVE!  The recent Helldivers 2 AFK kick patch has us hopeful we can actually log on and pay again.  We also touch on some classic movie franchise games that weren't so good, and talk about some really fun board games we enjoyed for Adrian's birthday. 
 
 

Episode 85 is LIVE!!  We talked about the rumored first party xbox games going multiplatform, as well as Diablo going to GP.  Bonus Wednesday episode, we all about the Disney/Epic games collab.
 
 

This has popped up as a nice surprise to watch this week!
 
 
 
Looks ace. I struggled to get into the game as it didn't itch me as much as Destiny did but the characters and story always seemed interesting. Sounds like they're pitching at the right sarcastic, action focused mark. Jack Black as Claptrap is a great choice. Lets hope the best bits aren't just in the trailer like some other films 😄 Any thoughts?

Max Payne 3 (2012)

Max Payne 3 (2012)

Some Hogwarts Legacy snaps whilst I work towards the platinum … 

HAHAHA!!  The first night I jumped into some games with @TigerBurge and @Jason I ended up killing Chris 3 times.  Lol.  He got me back in the end, but fuck was that fun.

Sony providing the online infrastructure in return for publication rights is the deal so it's on them and I'm not going to blame developers for this issue after they have created a game that has exceeded what Sony were likely expecting. Unlike Microsoft, they don't have the immediately idle-server infrastructure in place and with most of their exclusives being single player or local only, they don't have much of a track record supporting a big live service game like this. So it totally is their problem but at least it's a good starting point with a game like this and not one of their AAA exclusive range. 

I haven't been able to log on all week.  I didn't get a chance to try last night, post-patch.  I'm hoping to get some time in this weekend.  I really love this game.  

I support Red Alert and Generals: C&C, these are cult games that evoke nostalgia, it would be very cool to see them modernly remastered, given the new weapons and factions.

I could buy a server that hosts up to 1,000 players for the same price that hosts one. 10m slots is absolutely nothing these days especially on games where a player may use up 4 slots from the central server on data, world generation and save states. Palworld sold over 12m copies in the first 3 weeks so they were probably running at least 40m slots in early access in month one. Helldivers 2's growth and popularity will be harmed with such an embarrassingly low cap where either they underestimated the market or they have failed the paying customers. I'm sure it'll be rectified but this is a really disappointing situation that will only harm the game and frustrate players. 

I don’t buy that whatsoever and it sounds more like they are gatekeeping Sony in the most unintelligent way possible. I get they don’t want to throw their publishers under the bus that excuse seems incredibly weak. 
 
Palword had 2,000,000 players two weeks ago on Steam alone and that isn’t taking to account data servers, asset servers and seed servers. One player may use 4 slots so that’s 8m servers in operation to facilitate one session per player outside of co-op. Counter-Strike also houses 10+ players per server so it’s non comparable although Valve operate in excess of 1m servers alone which just hold streams and match replays. The FIFA games usually have several million games played each day too plus EA have several other games also live. Fortnite also had 45m players in one day last year. 
 
450,000 is ridiculous. The game shouldn’t have been published until the cap was increased and if they didn’t foresee more of this issue then that’s a gross underestimation of the industry today. If you have a successful game with endless growth potential then you plan ahead and Palworld is a prime example of how this should be done. It’s managing demand 101 and keeping the game flowing.

Sony simply have to invest in their online architecture to cope with the demand. They’ve ripped off gamers for a generation with their shambolic PS+ offering so it’s about time they gave something back with the huge revenues they make for this very purpose. 
 
Capping severs at 450,000 for a newly released AA multiplayer title is ridiculous especially considering how many are accessing through Steam alone. If you aren’t rolling with 10m slots for a live service then either you grossly underestimate the market or have no confidence in the game. Feel sorry for the devs. 

If folk are still playing it on a week or so, and everything has settled down I'll probably pick it up. Not a massive fan of 3rd person but if done right I'm ok. Gears and Division games were fine and I've heard the player movement is decent.
PS5 or PC though 🤔

Server situation is completely unacceptable right now. Was really hoping to pick it up but there were apparently hundreds of thousands of users who couldn't get in all weekend and the servers were also overwhelmed with AFKers clogging up the joint. Server capacity was also capped at 450,000 yet Steam had a peak of 330.000 accessing the services. If they are going to go down the live service route so they can attach their shitty microtransaction plague of a store then they really need to cope with the demand or keep the game local only with P2P and basic online service access. Servers in this day and age for a game of this nature should be expecting between 2-5m active players so capping at less than half a million is a joke and it's not like it's release weekend either. Very poor showing. 

Server situation is completely unacceptable right now. Was really hoping to pick it up but there were apparently hundreds of thousands of users who couldn't get in all weekend and the servers were also overwhelmed with AFKers clogging up the joint. Server capacity was also capped at 450,000 yet Steam had a peak of 330.000 accessing the services. If they are going to go down the live service route so they can attach their shitty microtransaction plague of a store then they really need to cope with the demand or keep the game local only with P2P and basic online service access. Servers in this day and age for a game of this nature should be expecting between 2-5m active players so capping at less than half a million is a joke and it's not like it's release weekend either. Very poor showing. 

Server situation is completely unacceptable right now. Was really hoping to pick it up but there were apparently hundreds of thousands of users who couldn't get in all weekend and the servers were also overwhelmed with AFKers clogging up the joint. Server capacity was also capped at 450,000 yet Steam had a peak of 330.000 accessing the services. If they are going to go down the live service route so they can attach their shitty microtransaction plague of a store then they really need to cope with the demand or keep the game local only with P2P and basic online service access. Servers in this day and age for a game of this nature should be expecting between 2-5m active players so capping at less than half a million is a joke and it's not like it's release weekend either. Very poor showing. 

Final snaps from my Alan Wake 2 playthrough! 

Such a shame. I'd like to go back to it but not really sure what i'd be doing other than just seeing the story through. Another game had thats stalled and gone backwards after sprinting ahead to the 50 metre point.

So far, my biggest issue with this is trying to get online, and the servers are full.  2 nights in a row for me in the EST timezone.  I hope they increase their server size soon.