Luseth

I think part of that is the spawns as well, I don't know if you have noticed but if you are capturing a base and people spawn in on said base they almost always spawn behind you. I think this is about trying to keep everything happening at a fast pace for players, you know the ADHD aspect of COD.

So I have been looking at these, I think it is difficult to say if the price is wrong or right as similar to the PC market there is such a wide range of price points based on the hardware and specs.
 
The base model puts it similar to the OLED steamdeck and looking at reviews performance wise I don't believe they are too far apart. Where you lose out with the screen though the screen is still meant to be decent but you then get access to all gaming librarys a bit easier and game pass which is a lot trickier with the steam deck. The more expensive model comes in a little more affordable than the premium options such as the Legion Go 2 and the onexplayer and such.
 
It has reviewed quite well and the Xbox ally X is an improvement on the Rog ally X that it was built upon. However the limiting factor seems to be the OS still, it's windows and it is just not optimised well enough. I am planning to upgrade my steamdeck (my brother is having it) and have my sights on the Lenovo Legion Go S. It is comparable to the base Xbox Ally specwise but performs much much better and by all accounts it is just down to the Steam OS and it's optimisation of games and such.

I'm glad you're enjoying it and people are playing together but while I have played it a fair bit I am still going to compare it to true battlefield games and on that score it's a little disappointing. 
As for the gunplay that's one aspect it really does do as well as Cod both are equally inconsistent 😉

Played the intro round and then a proper one, managed to not die. 
Runs well on my 1080ti, I'm getting 110 fps on medium settings which is just insane. Finally a new game that has proper optimisation for older cards 🥳

I think I am similar to James in that none really stand out apart from the god awful firestorm map, why they thought that was the one to bring back I have no idea and I think they really missed a trick in that they should have made the central tower fully destructable. I think I lean towards the siege of Cairo as my current favourite as the destruction is really good and there is plenty on that map.
 
On the point above I thought they had said they were already exploring naval maps or have them in mind for future release?
 
I will say if you compare them to maps in BF1 or V I think they still have a way to go with this game and you can certainly feel the COD elements that have been brought over with the current people in the design process, not necassarily to the benefit of the game either.

Given I have two kids, I have the following which I have streamlined now as used to have quite a few more over the years. I look out for the cheapest packages where possible.
- Netflix (Basic package with 2 screens and ads. £5.99)
- Disney Plus (Basic package with ads. £4.99)
- Spotify (Family package for all of us £19.99)
- Amazon (Prime for quick parcel deliveries which also gives you Prime Video. £8.99)
- Sky TV (This is luxury one. We have sports and movies as sports is on 24/7 virtually all the time and Dax will watch some movies with us. Currently £70. This depends on what they do for existing customers, although frustratingly gives new customers for about £30-40. Been with them for 17 years)
 
 
Its a funny one subscriptions. I really do dislike them, but what I try and do as you can see is play the system for what it is. Ads don't last long and we use them as loo breaks or to get a cuppa. £5 sometimes doesn't even get you a coffee in todays world. If I needed to, we'd drop Sky too if money became the most urgent issue in our house.
 
Playstation I don't class as a sub, even though it is. Always paid the annual basic one to play online. Anywhere between £40-60 once a year. We shouldn't need to, but at least I get my money's worth with this one too.

I played far fewer games the second weekend as I was away for most of it, I had a couple of games on the Sunday though, excuse the snippet but it would not save properly on my phone for some reason. 
 

I did give it a try and if you like tarkov I think you will quite enjoy this as it has the same sort of atmospheric vibe, it's great visually. Think my only downside is that the game is played in raids as far as I can see so you sort of start at a hub, buy things, craft things etc and then move into a round, find a load of stuff and leave again. The gameplay is great and some of the bots are genuinely scary to come up against.

I am having a lot of fun with this game, it's not quite old Battlefield but it's got some of the good aspects of it.
 
Firestorm is one of my least enjoyed maps purely because of the snipers sitting on the fekkin tower. I think they should increase the bullet drop on sniper's to add some more skill to them and that would probably help resolve my gripes with it.
 
Generally the maps are pretty good, I really like Manhattan with the bridge and generally the gameplay is pretty good, I am finishing in the top 4 or 5 spaces most matches so I haven't lost my edge with the Battlefield games which is always a plus. I have not used tanks as much as I did on the past few games either. I think you can see a lot of COD players on the game, the way they move, the lack of utilising the classes, videos online moaning about mines and such and there is often a lack of thinking about how you play, understanding that taking bases closer to enemy HQ in some game modes pulls enemies towards them allowing your team to recapture bases and such. 
 
In addition I have also been playing with map editor, it's a bit fiddly but I am getting used to it and despite it's crudeness in terms of just plonking objects down I had my first map published last night so I can now host it in portal. I have every intention to try and create some smaller COD influenced maps just for FG use and maybe we could get them going on FG Friday's if anyone's interested?

So I am giving this thread a nudge because spotify are increasing their price again, this is happening a lot with a lot of the streaming services at the moment, regular price increases and I don't think it will be long before we are being asked to pay £20 a month for music streaming.
 
At what point does it begin to become unviable for the average person? I could afford a number of subscriptions however I am at the point now where I am regining them back in because if I enjoy and rely on them too much now then in 10 years time it may be a whole lot more difficult to draw myself back when prices are higher.
 
So how many subscriptions do people have? Do you limit them to games or do you have games, music, multiple tv subscriptions too?

Subscriptions are unviable for both the consumer and the content publisher in most cases. I have zero and if I see something I want to watch, play or listen to, I will buy it outright if it's worth the money and that way everyone gets paid a fair price. The likes of Spotify have bloated in the music industry so much so, talent is becoming buried and some artists barely get paid £90 for 50,000 plays. Even top artists have reportedly only seen about $1500 after deductions whilst reaching 1m listens to a song. We already know what a shambles Microsoft have made of their Game Pass in killing most of their in-house developers and reducing income to laughable levels, all in the aim of trying to take a slice out of Sony. TV is probably the most attractive form of subscription but that's riddled with bloat between services and content. You can spend more time trying to find something to watch than actually watching. 
 
The Xbox subscription will cost $360 for a year next month and if people are also paying $150 for music and another $150-300 on TV and retail subscriptions then it tots up to huge levels of expenditure for consumable products you don't own and wont be able to revisit. I can't support streaming as a concept or the damage it does to the 'small people' aka developers and musicians who don't have much of a choice but to go down this route and see income potential crumbling to laughably low levels. The likes of Microsoft and Spotify will never reveal the income dividends which says it all. 

So I am giving this thread a nudge because spotify are increasing their price again, this is happening a lot with a lot of the streaming services at the moment, regular price increases and I don't think it will be long before we are being asked to pay £20 a month for music streaming.
 
At what point does it begin to become unviable for the average person? I could afford a number of subscriptions however I am at the point now where I am regining them back in because if I enjoy and rely on them too much now then in 10 years time it may be a whole lot more difficult to draw myself back when prices are higher.
 
So how many subscriptions do people have? Do you limit them to games or do you have games, music, multiple tv subscriptions too?

It looks great but again another remake / remaster and honestly I am a bit sick of it ^_^
 
So many triple A game's these day's are just remakes or remasters and for some reason everyone is happy to keep rebuying the same games and if this is the future of triple A gaming there is really going to be a point where it all comes crashing down.
 
Indie games seem to get things so right these day's it's a wonder that any major studio keep's managing to turn out a profit.

It should still be valid, I'll DM you the key

I have some random Steam keys going free, gimme a shout if there's one you're interested in.
 
Warhammer 40K: Boltgun
Aliens Dark Descent
Life is Strange: True Colors
LEGO 2K Drive (Awesome Edition)
Risk of Rain 2
Ghostrunner 2
Jusant
Persona 4 Golden
Immortals of Aveum
Diplomacy is Not an Option
Nobody Wants to Die
Wild Hearts (EA)
Naheulbeuk's Dungeon Master
Old World
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake
Steelrising
Scorn
Cat Quest III
Death’s Door
DAEMON X MACHINA

Putting this one here as though the Switch is handheld and we now have the Steamdeck the majority of handhelds are getting on a bit now.
 
In fact it seems like there is not much of a future for them considering the power we have in our tablets and mobile phones these days. That said I have quite a growing handheld collection with a nice white psp being added to the collection the past week and it got me thinking about which one's are my favourite.
 
We have the DS / 3DS consoles where there was an abundance of games and it was incredibly accessible for people, the PSP being Sony's first forray into handheld consoles and it being fairly successful to it's PS Vita offering which I think was maybe the best console but let down by Sony.
 
So do you have a favourite, do any of them still get a look in with modern consoles, steam decks, nintendo switches being available? Are there any games that bring back fond memories?
 
For me it is the PSP, partly because I had a PSP Go back when I used to work away and it was incredibly versatile, had an abundance of jrpg's that I loved (Jeanne D'Arc was brilliant as a tactics type game) and I used to sit at the top of 30m stacks just gaming and every now and again taking a reading. It was pretty great.

Fucking 8Thoughts! I'd rather get kicked in the balls than listen to that bellend.

I have a huge collection that's why I made a youtube channel to share it I am from the UK and I am learning Japanese

I won't lie that video is a hard watch, it's just some guy ranting about a game he does not like and complaining that people are enjoying it...
 
It was never going to be quite old school battlefield in part due to the people that have recently been employed to try and reboot the series and in part due to gamers wants being very different today. I think the biggest criticism currently for me is the maps, if you compare to old school Battlefield the maps are actually somewhat lacking. Operation firestorm (though I am not such a fan) is much more reminiscent of the series, plenty of infantry combat spaces but a larger map with scope for vehicles to really be utilised. They feel very COD esque generally but I understand why because of the people making the game and trying to lure in new fans.
 
Server browser was taken out during the last game wasn't it? Portal will help to mitigate that I suppose and the complaint around skill based matchmaking, it is there but games are not prioritised on that. Heck if it was I think Macca, Lee and I would have been bumped right up to the best players last night as we finished 1, 2 & 3 almost every match.
 
My only other gripe and I had a play with it last night trying to unlock the spawn beacon but the assault class is kind of pointless and the shotgun is stupidly overpowered but then there are always balancing issues when a game like this is first launched so we will see how it is in a few weeks.
 
I may give the single player a go at some point, I am after a meaty rpg to play at the moment but nothing is really jumping out at me currently.

Finally reached level 30 and I still got it😎

 
May have a look at the campaign tomorrow. 

I bought the digital copy because game share effectively halves the price.  Not played it yet, but looking forward to getting a regular squad.

I've seen Shipment is already up in Portal lol @Luseth
 
I've only been playing the campaign so far but I'll try multiplayer once I'm done with that.

I am having a lot of fun with this game, it's not quite old Battlefield but it's got some of the good aspects of it.
 
Firestorm is one of my least enjoyed maps purely because of the snipers sitting on the fekkin tower. I think they should increase the bullet drop on sniper's to add some more skill to them and that would probably help resolve my gripes with it.
 
Generally the maps are pretty good, I really like Manhattan with the bridge and generally the gameplay is pretty good, I am finishing in the top 4 or 5 spaces most matches so I haven't lost my edge with the Battlefield games which is always a plus. I have not used tanks as much as I did on the past few games either. I think you can see a lot of COD players on the game, the way they move, the lack of utilising the classes, videos online moaning about mines and such and there is often a lack of thinking about how you play, understanding that taking bases closer to enemy HQ in some game modes pulls enemies towards them allowing your team to recapture bases and such. 
 
In addition I have also been playing with map editor, it's a bit fiddly but I am getting used to it and despite it's crudeness in terms of just plonking objects down I had my first map published last night so I can now host it in portal. I have every intention to try and create some smaller COD influenced maps just for FG use and maybe we could get them going on FG Friday's if anyone's interested?

They are blaming the tarriff's, but they are made predominantly in China aren't they? So I get the arguement then for raising prices in the US but not elsewhere. I suspect this is more that they are not making as much money from the consoles as they had hoped, they don't seem to understand that it is solely their fault.
 
I mean everyone enjoys an era where games are more open and available on all consoles but the only first party stuff Microsoft has made since the launch of these consoles is flight simulator & Gears of war remastered remastered for a second time. There is no reason in today's world to buy an xbox console as far as I can see, to sell a product it still need's to have something that makes it stand out from competitors and they just don't have that.
 
They have completely bottle this era, I mean Sony have not done a good job but Microsoft just blew them out of the water.

You joke about it and whether or not it is another topic of conversation but I suspect we will see it go round full circle. Digital is great and conveniant and has been for some time however as prices of all these subscriptions increase and mount up they won't hold their appeal forever.
 
We are seeing it now with people returning to vinyl with music again, people also like to own things.