Nag

I didn't realize until earlier that Fahz had lost a leg... Durr.

Agreed, you could apparently take your Xbox offline when all this shit was happening in the campaign and it would play fine... but then achievements don't unlock and that's bollocks too.

I've been keeping an eye on their Twitter account, they've rolled out multiple server side fixes over the last 12 hours. I restarted the campaign today as lost collectables and other stuff not tracking was winding me up, I've just made it up to getting the Skiff and the more open world segment and so far it's behaved itself perfectly. The servers may get hammered again tomorrow as the standard edition of the game releases but I'd say after today's performance go for it.?

I really like these, it kind of reminds me of the combat in Mass Effect where you could you use your teammates special abilities. I'm playing on experienced and up until today wasn't having a bad time... that changed when I met the Matriarch.?

I take back what I said, I've been hit with this multiple times today... It's really put a damper on the experience. I'm pretty certain it's a server side issue but it's having the effect of fucking up the collectable tracking and other stuff. Such a shame as I'm really enjoying the story and the game itself. They've come up with a nice way to get to fight some enemies that haven't been seen in a while... and if you look closely some of them are slightly different in a way that makes loads of sense. I'm on to Act Three but I'm in two minds as to whether I want to restart now as all these lost collectables are really leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Didn't manage to put any time in to multiplayer today either.?

So far I've had no problems whatsoever in the campaign... I'll tell you about multiplayer tomorrow.?

Yeah, that's a fair point.?

I dunno, that still kind've sounds negative, like you're only doing it cuz there's nothing better to do. I'll admit that gaming is far and away the biggest hobby in my life, it's what I go to when I have the spare time to allow it... If you can't put things like this down when there's real life things to deal with then it's progressed to something a little less healthy. I think I'm still on the right side of things, I'm sure the Missus would have something to say if I strayed too far the other way.?

I know what you mean there @Maf as recently I realized I was in the same boat... I think the the process of a games announcement and the lead up to release is actually more exciting than playing the games nowadays. Take Gears 5, now I'm having fun and can tell it's a great game... Am I excited for it? No, I don't think I am. The same can be said about pretty much any game I've bought recently. I think the last game I had a genuine "oh my god, it's here and I'm playing it" moment was Resident Evil 2... I also think the next time I'm actually going to get that is if the rumoured Resident Evil 3 remake is announced to be real...

I was the same once, but having Game Pass and them recently giving away Gears 4 on GwG (so I could revert to the digital license) has made me realize how nice being a lazy cunt can be.

I honestly have no idea... if that is the case, sweet.

I'll buy a physical copy when it leaves Game Pass... I'll be interested to see when that actually is.

You may have mentioned it @Manicm...? I must've put in over eight hours today on various modes, mostly campaign but I've had an hour or two with KotH and Arcade mode multiplayer. So far it's the story that's doing it for me, I'm loving how it's directly tied back to the previous games with locations and characters, found out a bit of back story with Anya which was something that really bugged me in the last game... And they're really painting JD in bad way here, the COG are definitely not the good guys. I'm only up to act 2 (got the skiff) and just sailing around seeing what I can see at the moment. Unfortunately my multiplayer time wasn't quite as enjoyable, it seems a little flakey at the minute with an awful lot of people dropping out during matchmaking which causes the lobby to restart. Hopefully this'll get better with time... And I need time to adjust to the speed of this, it seems way faster than 4 ever did.

I think I'd got up to Mission 7 before going off and concentrating on side missions... Those threw up three boss battles and those are the only thing that's tested my patience so far. I'll go back and see the end at some point but God knows when that'll be.

The very quickest of impressions as I've only gone through bootcamp (which I did in the beta) and played less than an hour of the campaign (as fucking work was calling) Obviously the game looks stunning, Gears was always an Xbox showpiece and this is no different and on the X it sings... 60fps in campaign means it feels a little more spritely in movement too. The first act has you controlling JD making your way through a destroyed Azura (from Gears 3) complex searching for a way to bring the Hammer of Dawn back online. It's a by the books start to the game... It's apparently chapter 2 where the differences kick in. Shooting feels tweaked but still has that weight behind it and we still have the best headshot in gaming.? I'm hoping this turns out to be an ode to Gears, I know we're returning to past area's, I know past characters are returning... I want lore from this game and answers. Old man Marcus is such a badass. I have a eight hour night shift that finishes at 7am, the missus will be leaving for work at 8am... You'd better fucking believe I'll be staying up until God knows when playing this tomorrow.?

I'm a majority single player mode type of gamer myself and to narrow this down is all but impossible... there's been far too many over the year's. The early RE games, Metal Gear Solid, FFVIII, Dead Space 1&2, The Last of Us... I could go on and on.

I'd get that checked mate....

I prefer to be a glass half full type of man.?

Not necessarily true, The Last of Us has multiplayer and is probably one of the best story driven single player experiences you can have, same with Dead Space 2.

There's been nothing particularly hard in the time I've put in so far... Just keep moving during combat.

I've no idea what that is... I'm on Mission Six (been doing side stuff and whatnot)... And unless something happens quickly I'm about ready to write the story off. I enjoyed the stories of Alan Wake and Quantum Break but this is leaving me cold for some reason. I do enjoy the combat though, which although there's only a select few enemy types generally remains fun... Looking around at the area's you just fought in brings up a surprising amount of structural damage to which is pretty impressive. I will also say I would not like to be playing this on either base console... Even on the X I'm getting a few too many performance issues.

I expect next year to be reasonably quite to be honest, depending on how Sony and MS go about their system launches and whether games released will be patched or have entirely new releases for those systems... Cyberpunk for certain will get something for the more powerful consoles.

Apart from Gears 5 I'd probably have to go with Doom : Eternal for this year, I was going to go with CoD but playing through Modern Warfare again has kind of taken the excitement for that down. Next year is a toss up between Cyberpunk and FF VII....