Heading into Doom: The Dark Ages, I thought the game being a prequel to the 2016 series reboot would make a good entry point for the series. Despite enjoying high-octane first-person shooters, Doom and its 2020 sequel Doom Eternal somehow never landed on my radar (although I will defend the so-awful-it’s-good 2005 film and its first-person-shooter sequence). So I entered The Dark Ages, something of an origin story for the Doom guy and his crusade against the forces of Hell, ready to gorge the lore and push through the series. After completing its roughly 10-hour, 22-chapter campaign, I can definitively say: That shit doesn’t make any sense. And it doesn’t matter. We got demons to kill. The Dark Ages casts you as the Slayer, a remarkable soldier who’s so much better at murdering demons than any of the human rabble you come across. Why is he the best demon murderer? Shh, demons to kill. Doomguy is kept in reserve by some sort of alien group called the Maykrs (a tragedeigh pronounced like “makers”), chilling in a ship floating above the human-versus-demon battlefields. He’s almost like The Winter Soldier in that he’s kept as something of a prisoner in between being called upon for demon-slaying missions. In the early parts of the story, before he breaks free, he’s basically loaned out to techno-medieval humans as they battle against hordes of demons from Hell. Or are they aliens? Is this game set on Earth? Dude, there are demons to shotgun in the face. While on loan, Doomguy shows up everyone incapable of killing demons by slaying hundreds upon hundreds of them himself, sometimes just by jumping from really high up (so cool). He fights with some human kingdom in its quest to keep some MacGuffin away from some Big Bad Demon. The story takes the Slayer to Hell and also to an alien planet… maybe. Who really knows? You’ll be too busy parrying attacks with the chainsaw shield or piloting a mech suit to care. Its story won’t be receiving any honors come awards season, but Doom: The Dark Ages’ gameplay might. Parrying attacks and an emphasis on melee add welcome variety to the ways the Doom Slayer battles enemies, and by the end of the game, as you’ve upgraded his arsenal, you’ll truly feel like an unstoppable demon-killing machine, swapping between from the skullcrusher to the accelerator to more depending on what the situation calls for. Once the BFC — big fucking crossbow — winds up in your hands, it’s truly lights out for the demons. Though its plot may not matter (or make a lick of sense), by the end of The Dark Ages, you’ll at least understand the fear Doomguy instills in demons after you slaughter who knows how many of them, including their leader. Doomguy’s taken over the Maykr ship, now seemingly his base of operations for his demon-slaying exploits. He’s the demons’ nightmare, their eternal enemy, their John Wick after his puppy was killed. He’s unrelenting in his quest to rid the cosmos of demons. Why again does he need to kill demons? Hey man, just enjoy that sweet, sweet chainsaw shield.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Ultron is the newest Marvel Rivals hero who arrived on May 30. The new Strategist is a mid-season addition, which has turned out to be more powerful than players expected. There has been lots of controversy regarding his release, as he was initially deemed too weak. However, the tables have turned over the past 24 hours. The initial data from early access suggested that Ultron may be one of the game’s weakest heroes. Due to this, NetEase gave him a powerful buff, drastically enhancing his ultimate ability. Now, after one day of the new season, Ultron is not only the most popular character but also one of the strongest. What is Ultron’s win rate in Marvel Rivals? After one day of Season 2.5, Ultron ranks second in Quick Play win rate with 76.09%, trailing only Iron Man. In Competitive, the new hero ranks 15th with a 49.79% win rate. While this is certainly far from amazing, it’s important to note that he is the third most successful Strategist in the game, right behind Rocket Raccoon and Mantis. Ultron has been a far more effective Strategist than Luna Snow and Invisible Woman, who are among the 10 heroes with the lowest win rate in Marvel Rivals Season 2.5. Ultron’s win rate has been great so far in Season 2.5. Image by VideoGamer The latest update also brought new Team-Up abilities, and one of them involves Ultron. When paired with Iron Man, the flying Strategist gains a new ability that allows him to heal allies and damage enemies at the same time. This Team-Up has been incredible so far, winning 58.40% of games and ranking fifth among synergies. Although this data reflects only the first 24 hours of Season 2.5, Ultron is expected to maintain his dominance, especially alongside Iron Man. The buff he received on launch day has proven effective, and we expect further balance adjustments in June. Marvel Rivals Platform(s): macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X Genre(s): Fighting, Shooter Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Dyson has a death grip on the fancy vacuum market, and it’s for good reason. The company overengineers their floor-cleaning products in such a way that makes them way more exciting than a vacuum should be. It also makes them pricy. Right now, Walmart has very deep discounts on a ton of popular Dyson vacuums, some of which are down as low as $199. Many of these are the cheapest I’ve seen out there right now by a long shot, so grab the one you want before the deal ends or they sell out and keep your home grime-free. Dyson Big Ball Turbinehead Canister Vacuum | Yellow/Iron — $199 (was $349) The canister-style design adds flexibility. Dyson Battery-powered vacuums are great until they aren’t. I prefer a wired model like this canister-style cleaner for several reasons. First, you never have to worry about running out of juice before the job is done. Second, in my experience, they just provide more consistent suction power than their more portable counterparts. This canister vac has a long hose and a full-featured rotating brush head to give you all the cleaning power you’ll need for cleaning any surface. The interchangeable heads make easy work of all kinds of cleaning, even above the curtains where that spider has been chilling for the last two weeks. More deals on new Dyson vacuums Dyson V7 Advanced Cordless Vacuum Cleaner | Silver $229 (was $399) Dyson V8 Extra Cordless Vacuum Cleaner | Purple $299 (was $449) Dyson V12 Detect Slim Cordless Vacuum Cleaner | Nickel $479 (was $649) Dyson V8 Cordless Vacuum | Silver | New $389 (was $469) Dyson V15 Detect Vacuum | Nickel | New $644 (was $749) Dyson Ball Animal 3 Extra Upright Vacuum | Copper | New $399 (was $499) Restored Premium Dyson Ball Animal 3 Upright Vacuum | Nickel/Silver (Refurbished) — $199 (was $349) Dyson has one of the most rigorous refurbishing programs in the game. Dyson Some people aren’t keen on refurbished products, but Dyson does it right. These models have been totally checked over and brought back to like-new condition. You get a warranty and all the performance of a brand-new machine at a fraction of the cost. This is a version of the vacuum I have been using in my home for several years. My dog’s hair is brutal on vacuums, and the Animal Ball’s burly suction power and unstoppable revolving brushes make quick work of it. It’s a great option for both carpets and hardwood floors. Plus, it comes with all the extra accessories for reaching tough spaces, such as under the couch. Have you vacuumed under your couch recently? I didn’t think so. More deals on refurbished Dyson vacuums

This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2. Season 2 of The Last of Us was undeniably a huge swing, as was the video game it’s based on. The Last of Us Part II features the death of the first game’s protagonist early on and forces the player to play as his killer not only before the deed is done, but for about half of the game part way through the story. It’s a narrative about cycles of violence and the lengths that people will go to protect who they love, but it’s also an exercise in empathy. There’s a difference between embodying a character for hours at a time in a video game and watching a character do the same actions in a TV show. When you spend hours living and breathing and fighting for your life as a character, it’s easy to form an attachment to them, to prescribe our own ideas onto them as our morals inform theirs. Even though there’s not really anything the player can do to affect the overall outcome of the story in The Last of Us Part II, your playstyle is going to affect your experience. One player may try to sneak by the W.L.F. and Seraphite adversaries as Ellie, trying to kill as few people as possible. Another may go in knives and guns blazing, leaving an even larger trail of bodies in their wake. Neither method is “wrong,” but it is going to affect how you interpret the story and the characters as a player. Translating this story and its structure to television was never going to be easy. The first season of The Last of Us had the luxury of adapting a beginning, middle, and end from the story of the first game. Season 1 also had nine episodes to tell the story of a roughly 10-hour (give or take) game and its approximately two-hour DLC meaning that we got to spend close to the same amount of time with the characters in the show as players do in the game. Season 2, on the other hand, is only adapting part of a game that can take upwards of 24 hours to play through, and only had seven episodes to tell this part of the story.  A lot of criticisms people have shared surrounding season 2 of the show are valid. There are parts of the story, especially when Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) get to Seattle, that feel rushed. There are some character choices that are or may seem different from those that are made in the game. But arguably, the heart of The Last of Us Part II’s story is still here, even if this season missed the mark with some aspects. Of course Ellie’s Seattle arc is going to feel rushed when we only get three approximately hour-long episodes to cover it versus the close to eleven hours of gameplay Ellie’s Seattle arc gets in the game. We’re not going to be able to see how Ellie got all of the cuts and bruises that Dina is tending to in the season finale or watch her traverse Seattle in-depth – there’s simply not enough time.  It would have been great to get more time with Ellie and Dina in Seattle. But unfortunately, 13 or even 10 episodes for one season is a luxury that most studios don’t seem to want to afford in the streaming era. Even though The Last of Us co-showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have said that they chose to end the season at this specific point in the story and felt like seven episodes was enough to do so, I still don’t fault them entirely. Trying to do more with less feels more like a symptom of the state of TV and the industry as a whole than something to only blame The Last of Us writers for doing. At some point you get used to doing more with less and less. With the structure of season 2, Mazin says that they “considered everything.” They thought about interlacing the stories of Ellie and Abby, but ultimately realized that switching perspectives halfway through the story is “part of the genetics of how this story functions.” But now that means “we have to take risks as a television show, and HBO is backing us taking risks. But then again, we just did kill Pedro Pascal. Like [HBO] understands that this show is going to be a different show every season, which is a tricky thing to do when you’re a hit show. You keep asking people like, ‘I know you love this, we’re taking it away and giving you this now.’” Understandably not everyone has been on board with these changes. Season 2 of The Last of Us has a consistently lower IMDb score than season 1, and it’s hard to look through any form of social media without finding a mix of reactions from fans who are enjoying the story as it is and others who think that the writers have massacred their favorite characters. But at the same time, Mazin, Druckmann, and TLOU Part II co-writer Halley Gross clearly have a deep love for this story, even if their interpretation of certain character’s decisions doesn’t always align with the audience’s. The characters in the TV show are different than the characters in the game because they experience these events differently. In the show, Ellie has to sit in a hospital recovering for three months before she can even think about chasing Abby and her crew to Seattle. Setting aside that time for recovery is not necessarily something that a video game has to think about – a physical therapy level isn’t exactly something that players of a game like this are going to be excited about.  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! It’s not that this version of Ellie is less angry than she is in the game. She’s just had three months to practice burying her anger so it’s more palatable for others. She has to convince the hospital, and Gail (Catherine O’Hara), that she’s fit enough to be released. She has to try and convince the council that she’s fit enough to lead a group to Seattle for justice. She has to convince a pregnant Dina that no matter what happens while they’re in Seattle, that this is the morally right thing for them to do. Because we don’t spend 11-plus hours literally in Ellie’s shoes while watching the TV show, her grief has to be explored in different ways. It’s shown in the brief moment she plays the guitar while waiting for Dina to triangulate a route. Even though Ellie may not be throwing the guitar across the room, there’s still clearly anger mixed with the grief on her face as she plays her and Joel’s song. We see it when she lashes out at Jesse and chooses to go to the aquarium instead of following him to find Tommy. We see it when she screams out in pain in a hospital bed in Jackson. And we see it when Dina tends to her wounds. It’s not that she’s not angry or grieving, we just don’t get to see every single moment of it that we do in the game. And of course Ellie is going to tell Abby that she didn’t mean to hurt her friends and beg her to spare their lives. Abby just shot Jesse dead in front of her and is standing over Tommy with his life in her hands just as she did with Joel. Even if this isn’t exactly how Ellie reacts in the game, it’s a logical trauma response to finally seeing Abby again. Abby was able to kill Joel – someone Ellie looked up to and probably thought was unstoppable as most kids do with their parents in their youth. It makes sense that seeing her again would trigger this kind of response in Ellie too. It’s not that she doesn’t want to kill Abby in this moment – she’s just trying to keep her and her loved ones alive for as long as she can.  We saw her do something similar with David (Scott Shepherd) in season 1. She made herself as non-threatening as possible to get him to let his guard down and then proceeded to viciously attack him. Ellie isn’t a stranger to lying and manipulating to get what she wants, even in stressful circumstances. Why should this be any different? Mazin doesn’t deny that they took some risks with season 2, admitting to The Hollywood Reporter that “I don’t think television is supposed to work like this. We’re clearly breaking quite a few rules, and I love that. And I love it because that is the point. This is not something we’re doing as a gimmick.” Mazin argues that The Last of Us forces us to interrogate what we believe about heroes and villains and see the flaws in that kind of black and white thinking, and he knows that this is “a challenging thing to keep track of emotionally” and that people are going to feel provoked by it. “But part of this story,” he says, “is about examining why we’re so comfortable with following one person’s point of view about everything.” The Last of Us season 2 was never going to be exactly like the game, and that’s okay! When you’ve already made a story that resonates with so many people, it’s not going to be easy to recreate that story in another medium – especially in the streaming era when shows don’t always know if they’re going to be able to get all the seasons they want to tell the story. Time is a luxury that television doesn’t always have. The show may not have hit a home run with every swing they took, but overall the story still lands. The heart of the game and its story of grief and loss and love and violence are still there. Hopefully fans won’t give up on the show just yet and trust that the show’s writers really do care about this story enough to do it justice.

Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 37,943 In an interview with GamesMarkt, Omega Forcedirector and producer Tomohiko Sho – who produced this year's Dynasty Warriors: Origins – was asked how successful the series is in the West, given that most of the Steam user reviews for the game are written in Chinese. Sho replied that, in his view, Dynasty Warriors is not yet a successful series in the West, but that it's possible for this to change in the future. "I believe that the 'Dynasty Warriors' series is not yet in a position to be called a success in the West," Sho said. "On the contrary, I believe that there is a great potential for the series to gain many fans in the future. "With our latest title, Dynasty Warriors: Origins, we were able to attract new fans in addition to those we have had since the PlayStation 2 era. The Western market is very important, and I believe that if there is a next title, we will gain even more new fans." Click to expand... Click to shrink... Dynasty Warriors producer says the series still can’t be called a success in the West | VGC The latest game, Dynasty Warriors: Origins, has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide… www.videogameschronicle.com Origins was the first game in the series i played and i absolutely loved it so i hope it can continue to grow in the west.  --R Being sued right now, please help me find a lawyer Member Oct 25, 2017 15,658 Origins is a must play for everyone that likes action games. A masterpiece from beginning to end.   PlanetSmasher The Abominable Showman Member Oct 25, 2017 133,345 I think he's being modest more than anything else. This is less "the series is a failure" and more "I think we can do even better".   Glio Member Oct 27, 2017 27,882 Spain I honestly think what limits the franchise most in the West today is the setting of Three Kingdoms, not the gameplay. It's a fascinating historical period, but I don't think it'll be very popular here.  Dekuman Member Oct 27, 2017 21,144 Glio said: I honestly think what limits the franchise most in the West today is the setting of Three Kingdoms, not the gameplay. It's a fascinating historical period, but I don't think it'll be very popular here. Click to expand... Click to shrink... it's why spin offs of the formula like Hyrule Warriors do considerably better.   Richietto One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 26,133 North Carolina Glio said: I honestly think what limits the franchise most in the West today is the setting of Three Kingdoms, not the gameplay. It's a fascinating historical period, but I don't think it'll be very popular here. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Unfortunately this. Obviously it did really well on Steam and what not but there's a reason Hyrule Warrios can do so damn well on a single platform. It's the setting.   fiendcode Member Oct 26, 2017 26,412 We saw this from the CCUs tbh, overwhelmingly tilted towards Asia.   LAA One Winged Slayer Member Oct 28, 2017 3,264 Origins I haven't tried, more tempted seeing impressions here, but I read Steph Sterling's review on it and they weren't happy with realism essentially removing personality from it. I think the other thing that puts me off is they just seem very heavy handed with DLC too, and seemingly for pretty basic things, I want as complete of a game as possible. Really I'm kinda surprised they haven't done more collabs with more IPs. I think Hyrule Warriors was really the first I truly played and loved. Other collabs since I've enjoyed too like P5 Strikers. Berserker was fine. AOT I enjoyed too and that's actually very different from the others. I'd love a KH Musou eventually.. so many characters and abilities they could use, and enemies are pretty simplistically designed, and there's already been moments where you had to kill 1000+ Heartless, seems a perfect fit, ha.  PlanetSmasher The Abominable Showman Member Oct 25, 2017 133,345 Dekuman said: it's why spin offs of the formula like Hyrule Warriors do considerably better. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Do they really do that much better?  OP OP Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 37,943 Glio said: I honestly think what limits the franchise most in the West today is the setting of Three Kingdoms, not the gameplay. It's a fascinating historical period, but I don't think it'll be very popular here. Click to expand... Click to shrink... You're probably right but for me the three kingdoms setting made it even more interesting. Don't think a medieval europe or a more western fantasy approach would catch me in the same way.  Disco Stu Member Oct 27, 2017 2,557 Glio said: I honestly think what limits the franchise most in the West today is the setting of Three Kingdoms, not the gameplay. It's a fascinating historical period, but I don't think it'll be very popular here. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Totally agree and this is coming from someone seeks out other Three Kingdoms content because of KOEI. Someone the other day mentioned using the engine for an Avengers or Superman style game. I could see that catching on if done right.  Glio Member Oct 27, 2017 27,882 Spain PlanetSmasher said: Do they really do that much better? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not all of them, but some, yes. Age of Calamity is the best selling musou at 4M.  Rosebud Two Pieces Member Apr 16, 2018 51,357 I want Origins but still too pricey unfortunately. I love Samurai Warriors, Pirate Warriors, Persona 5 Strikers...   TheAggroCraig This guy are sick of the One Winged Slayer Member Nov 6, 2017 7,354 I'll show up for the franchise again when they bring back Dynasty Warriors Gundam   Dekuman Member Oct 27, 2017 21,144 PlanetSmasher said: Do they really do that much better? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Here's what i can find from the Nintendo million seller list Hyrule Warriors - Age of Calamity 4+ million units as of March 2021  MetalKhaos Member Oct 31, 2017 2,228 PlanetSmasher said: I think he's being modest more than anything else. This is less "the series is a failure" and more "I think we can do even better". Click to expand... Click to shrink... That's my take. Origins was first DW game I enjoyed in a really long time. Solid entry, and I feel a game like this is made all the better with this current gen due to how incredibly fast the loading times are.  SlasherMcGirk Member Oct 27, 2017 4,429 Cincinnati Glio said: I honestly think what limits the franchise most in the West today is the setting of Three Kingdoms, not the gameplay. It's a fascinating historical period, but I don't think it'll be very popular here. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's not even that I think its the fact that they have done the same setting and characters 20 times over. It's an interesting period and story with great characters but you can only add and stretch the same story so many times without diminishing returns.   PlanetSmasher The Abominable Showman Member Oct 25, 2017 133,345 SlasherMcGirk said: It's not even that I think its the fact that they have done the same setting and characters 20 times over. It's an interesting period and story with great characters but you can only add and stretch the same story so many times without diminishing returns. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I think the other problem is there aren't that many periods of time across history that can support this kind of game structure with such a heavy emphasis on specific heroes. Like, they tried Troy once and it didn't really catch on, nor did Bladestorm. For better and for worse, the Three Kingdoms and Sengoku eras are kind of the time periods that have A) a level of ubiquity in Asia that makes East Asian players interested in them and B) an emphasis on character substantial enough to support the Musou gameplay format. By comparison, I don't think a Musou game based on (for example) the American Revolution would sell particularly well outside of the US, and that war was A) not that long and B) took place in an era where firearms had largely supplanted melee combat so the movesets would wind up feeling very samey.  Ltn_Esteves Member Feb 4, 2021 213 Dekuman said: Here's what i can find from the Nintendo million seller list Hyrule Warriors - Age of Calamity 4+ million units as of March 2021 Click to expand... Click to shrink... And I think that is without japan sales, since Nintendo is only the publisher in the west   Astral Member Oct 27, 2017 33,463 TheAggroCraig said: I'll show up for the franchise again when they bring back Dynasty Warriors Gundam Click to expand... Click to shrink... Man I would love this. Did they stop for licensing reasons or something? Origins was amazing and I can't wait for what's next.  PlanetSmasher The Abominable Showman Member Oct 25, 2017 133,345 Astral said: Man I would love this. Did they stop for licensing reasons or something? Origins was amazing and I can't wait for what's next. Click to expand... Click to shrink... They stopped because the third game sold almost no copies. People got sick of the concept after the second game.  Glio Member Oct 27, 2017 27,882 Spain PlanetSmasher said: I think the other problem is there aren't that many periods of time across history that can support this kind of game structure with such a heavy emphasis on specific heroes. Like, they tried Troy once and it didn't really catch on, nor did Bladestorm. For better and for worse, the Three Kingdoms and Sengoku eras are kind of the time periods that have A) a level of ubiquity in Asia that makes East Asian players interested in them and B) an emphasis on character substantial enough to support the Musou gameplay format. By comparison, I don't think a Musou game based on (for example) the American Revolution would sell particularly well outside of the US, and that war was A) not that long and B) took place in an era where firearms had largely supplanted melee combat so the movesets would wind up feeling very samey. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It doesn't really need to be historical. There are One Piece, Zelda, Dragon Quest, Gundam... They could do something sci-fi or fantasy with their own setting and characters if they want. But, hey, if they like three kingdoms, they don't need to change it, but it's going to be very hard to grow in the West.   Dreamboum Member Oct 28, 2017 23,942 How are they gonna find an audience in the west when the game is 80 *euros* on all platforms? Their biggest discount is 64 euros. Come on man  MarvelousIntent Member Aug 13, 2019 3,936 LAA said: Origins I haven't tried, more tempted seeing impressions here, but I read Steph Sterling's review on it and they weren't happy with realism essentially removing personality from it. I think the other thing that puts me off is they just seem very heavy handed with DLC too, and seemingly for pretty basic things, I want as complete of a game as possible. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I'd recommend watching some gameplay to see how you feel about it. I understand Steph's gripes with Origins, but it is legitimately the best game in the series and it isn't even close. Like, the combat is actually good. Enemy officers actually put up a fight. Lu Bu is an actual boss fight and hard as hell to beat. Origins three greatest faults are where it chooses to end, the silent protagonist you can't customize, and that there are only like 9 weapons. The weapons issue also isn't that bad because each weapon has functions different and has plenty of abilities to choose from. It feels fantastic to play and blows every other game out of the water. Also, as far as I'm aware, Origins doesn't really have DLC. It had some pre-order bonuses, but thats it. As it is, the game is complete.  PlanetSmasher The Abominable Showman Member Oct 25, 2017 133,345 Glio said: It doesn't really need to be historical. There are One Piece, Zelda, Dragon Quest, Gundam... They could do something sci-fi or fantasy with their own setting and characters if they want. But, hey, if they like three kingdoms, they don't need to change it, but it's going to be very hard to grow in the West. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I don't think a bunch of anime Musou spinoffs are going to grow the franchise in the West. They've been doing anime spinoffs for 20 years and they just sell to people who are already Musou fans who happen to like that particular anime. It's a concept that only works on fanbase overlap. And I don't think an original setting is going to interest people who aren't already fans either.  General Tso Member Jan 10, 2018 540 Dynasty Warriors Origins was an excellent refresh, and I hope they continue to build off it (like they did DW2 through DW5), because the fundamentals are all there.   DontHateTheBacon Unshakable Resolve Member Oct 27, 2017 14,618 It was my first Dynasty Warriors game and I had a complete blast with it. I'm in if this is what they'll be like going forward. I hope the dust settles well for it in the west.   Dale Copper Member Apr 12, 2018 24,363 Glio said: Not all of them, but some, yes. Age of Calamity is the best selling musou at 4M. Click to expand... Click to shrink... One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 is also at 4 million sales. Spinoffs are more popular if they push them.  thewienke Member Oct 25, 2017 19,345 "If there is a next game" I hope they're being deliberately evasive there considering Origins ends half way through the story Although I do think the story is more interesting before the Three Kingdoms are established since there are more players and more going on  Pyro God help us the mods are making weekend threads Member Jul 30, 2018 18,900 United States Glio said: I honestly think what limits the franchise most in the West today is the setting of Three Kingdoms, not the gameplay. It's a fascinating historical period, but I don't think it'll be very popular here. Click to expand... Click to shrink... This is definitely part of it. I'm more into Samurai Warriors because the setting is more interesting to me.  LiquidDom Avenger Oct 27, 2017 2,729 I bought Origins on day one but have so much else on my plate. I'd like to get to it soon, might be a good palette cleanser after Death Stranding 2   OP OP Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 37,943 Dreamboum said: How are they gonna find an audience in the west when the game is 80 *euros* on all platforms? Their biggest discount is 64 euros. Come on man Click to expand... Click to shrink... I bought a key for like 43€ a few months ago so you can definitely get it cheaper if you're looking for it.   Kyrios Member Oct 27, 2017 19,152 --R said: Origins is a must play for everyone that likes action games. A masterpiece from beginning to end. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yup, still a frontrunner for my personal GOTY.  OP OP Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 37,943 Only thing i wished they would improve on really would be that the MC has more of a personality   DyCy Member Oct 25, 2017 587 I loved Origins as my first real DW (I played the first Hyrule Warriors) but as interesting as it was for a first timer I do wonder how much I'd want to revisit the Three Kingdoms story over and over again in sequels so I do think the setting is limiting the potential of the franchise. Would love a spin off based on Star Wars, Marvel or Final Fantasy though.  Astral Member Oct 27, 2017 33,463 PlanetSmasher said: They stopped because the third game sold almost no copies. People got sick of the concept after the second game. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Aw damn. I honestly didn't even know there was a third one. I think they have the potential of making a really good one with the current formula.   Glio Member Oct 27, 2017 27,882 Spain PlanetSmasher said: I don't think a bunch of anime Musou spinoffs are going to grow the franchise in the West. They've been doing anime spinoffs for 20 years and they just sell to people who are already Musou fans who happen to like that particular anime. It's a concept that only works on fanbase overlap. And I don't think an original setting is going to interest people who aren't already fans either. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I'm going to be cynical because it's an idea that doesn't appeal to me personally, but I'm pretty sure if they made a dark fantasy setting with fallen knights, ruined kingdoms and cursed battlefields; and marketed it as "the Dark Souls of musou," it would sell. And I feel almost dirty just proposing it.  PlanetSmasher The Abominable Showman Member Oct 25, 2017 133,345 Glio said: I'm going to be cynical because it's an idea that doesn't appeal to me personally, but I'm pretty sure if they made a dark fantasy setting with fallen knights, ruined kingdoms and cursed battlefields; and marketed it as "the Dark Souls of musou," it would sell. And I feel almost dirty just proposing it. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I don't...really think it would work? Like the entire fantasy of Musou is "being an unstoppable killing machine", trying to focus it around super-hardcore grimdark difficulty would kind of defeat the purpose of it being Musou at all. Dark fantasy doesn't just succeed by default, and I don't think audiences would be tricked by that either. The Berserk musou flopped catastrophically badly.  MaxAugust Member Jan 28, 2018 3,573 thewienke said: "If there is a next game" I hope they're being deliberately evasive there considering Origins ends half way through the story Although I do think the story is more interesting before the Three Kingdoms are established since there are more players and more going on Click to expand... Click to shrink... The secret is everyone throughout time has felt that the pre-Three Kingdoms phase of the Three Kingdoms is the interesting part. Pretty much every adaptation stalls out a bit after things solidify. Hard to make the decades long stalemate and then abrupt anticlimactic (although poetic in an "everyone fails" way) denouement satisfying as a conventional narrative.  

Acurast has raised $5.4 million to use smartphones to power a global decentralized cloud computing network. The company raised the money in a community led investment round by premier cryptocurrency launchpad CoinList. The sale concluded on May 22, 2025, with Acurast’s ACU token priced at nine cents, resulting in a fully diluted valuation of $90 million.“Most of the newly raised capital will be used to enhance our protocol, which continues proving that compute can be verifiable, confidential, energy-efficient, and truly decentralised, powered by the phones in our pockets,” said Alessandro De Carli, president of the board and cofounder of Acurast, in a statement.Acurast has raised $5.4 million. Acurast enables users to participate in confidential compute tasks, decentralized AI, and blockchain infrastructure, all while earning rewards by leveraging the processing power of smartphones. The protocol transforms everyday phones into secure, decentralized compute nodes, powering a global networkspanning over 130 countries.Acurast has onboarded over 72,000 smartphones, or “compute units,” worldwide onto its decentralized testnet with over 256 million transactions, making it the most decentralized and verifiable computenetwork available today, eliminating the need for centralized data centers. Acurast utilizes Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) of the mobile phones to ensure secure and scalable compute, while maintaining confidentiality without requiring trust in the device owner. “The ACU token lies at the heart of this economy. Acurast allows anyone and everyone to run compute with their mobile phones, providing real decentralisation, and become stakeholders in the networkpowering a secure, scalable and decentralised computer economy while incentivising activecollaboration and sustainable growth,” said De Carli.Over 300 websites and games were created on Acurast in the last 24 hours using just a prompt with Vibe Code and Deploy — live instantly on a decentralized network powered by phones. Acurast’s high-performance Proof of Stake blockchain orchestrates global demand and supply for secure decentralized compute, without centralized data centers. This chain verifies genuine hardware on-chain with Smartphone manufacture attestations and anchors confidential workloads, ensuring trustless and verifiable execution across billions of smartphones. Acurast’s Android and iOS apps offer end-to-end checks of each phone’s secure elements, delivering unstoppable trustless compute at scale. Acurast is creating a global decentralized cloud using smartphones in 130 countries. Acurast delivers a next-generation decentralized confidential compute platform, purpose-built for the demands of web3, AI, and beyond. Developers can seamlessly deploy and scale JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, and WASM workloads via a simple CLI, with access to thousands of NPM packages and deep integration across major ecosystems. Centered on openness, composability, and decentralization, Acurast forms the foundational layer for the decentralized compute economy, unlocking mass adoption and enabling unprecedented innovation for web3 and beyond. ACU tokens have a total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens at genesis with the token utility being around network fees, settlement layers, staking and governance. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Doom: The Dark Ages just launched on May 15. But it's already received "difficulty" balance changes "that have made the demons of Hell even more dangerous than ever," writes Windows Central: According to DOOM's official website Slayer's Club, these balance adjustments are focused on making the game harder, as players have been leaving feedback saying it felt too easy even on Nightmare Mode. As a result, enemies now hit harder, health and armor item pick-ups drop less often, and certain enemies punish you more severely for mistiming the parry mechanic. It reached three million players in just five days, which was seven times faster than 2020's Doom: Eternal," reports Wccftech (though according to analytics firm Ampere Analysis (via The Game Business), more than two million of those three million launch players were playing on Xbox, while only 500K were playing on PS5.") "id Software proves it can still reinvent the wheel," according to one reviewer, "shaking up numerous aspects of gameplay, exchanging elaborate platforming for brutal on-the-ground action, as well as the ability to soar on a dragon's back or stomp around in a giant mech." And the New York Times says the game "effectively reinvents the hellish shooter with a revamped movement system and deepened lore" in the medieval goth-themed game... Double jumping and dashing are ditched and replaced with an emphasis on raw power and slow, strategic melee combat. Doom Slayer's arsenal features a brand-new tool, the powerful Shield Saw, which Id Software made a point to showcase across its "Stand and Fight" trailers and advertisements. Used for absorbing damage at the expense of speed, the saw also allows players to bash enemies from afar and close the gap on chasms too wide to jump across. While previous titles allowed players to quickly worm their way through bullet hell, The Dark Ages expects you to meet foes head on. "If you were an F-22 fighter jet in Doom Eternal, this time around we wanted you to feel like an Abrams tank," Hugo Martin, the game's creative director, has told journalists. And Doom Slayer's beefy durability and unstoppable nature does make the gameplay a refreshing experience. The badassery is somehow ratcheted to new heights with the inclusion of a fully controllable mech, which has only a handful of attacks at its disposal, and actual dragons. Flight in a Doom game is entirely surprising and fluid, and the dragons feel relatively easy to maneuver through tight spots. They can also engage in combat more deliberately with the use of dodges and mounted cannons... One of my favorite additions is the skullcrusher pulverizer. Equal parts heinous nutcracker and demonic woodchipper, the gun lodges skulls into a grinder and sends shards of bones flying at enemies. The animation is both goofy and satisfying. Another special Times article notes that Doom's fans "resurrect the original game over and over again on progressively stranger pieces of hardware: a Mazda Miata, a NordicTrack treadmill, a French pharmacy sign." But what many hard-core tech hobbyists want to know is whether you can play it on a pregnancy test. The answer: positively yes. And for the first time, even New York Times readers can play Doom within The Times's site [after creating a free account]... None of this happened by accident, of course. Ports were not incidental to Doom's development. They were a core consideration. "Doom was developed in a really unique way that lent a high degree of portability to its code base," said John Romero, who programmed the game with John Carmack. (In our interview, he then reminisced about operating systems for the next 14 minutes.) Id had developed Wolfenstein 3D, the Nazi-killing predecessor to Doom, on PCs. To build Doom, Carmack and Romero used NeXT, the hardware and software company founded by Steve Jobs after his ouster from Apple in 1985. NeXT computers were powerful, selling for about $25,000 apiece in today's dollars. And any game designed on that system would require porting to the more humdrum PCs encountered by consumers at computer labs or office jobs. This turned out to be advantageous because Carmack had a special aptitude for ports. All of Id's founders met as colleagues at Softdisk, which had hired Carmack because of his ability to spin off multiple versions of a single game. The group decided to strike out on its own after Carmack created a near-perfect replica of the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3 — Nintendo's best-selling platformer — on a PC. It was a wonder of software engineering that compensated for limited processing power with clever workarounds. "This is the thing that everyone has," Romero said of PCs. "The fact that we could figure out how to make it become a game console was world changing...." Romero founded a series of game studios after leaving Id in 1996 and is working on a new first-person shooter, the genre he and Carmack practically invented. He has no illusions about how it may stack up. "I absolutely accept that Doom is the best game I'll ever make that has that kind of a reach," he said. "At some point you make the best thing." Thirty years on, people are still making it. And in related news, PC Gamer reports... As part of a new "FPS Fridays" series on Twitch, legendary shooter designer John Romero streamed New Blood's 2018 hit, Dusk, one of the first and most influential indie "boomer shooters" in the genre's recent revitalization. The short of it? Romero seems to have had a blast. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tom Cruise is taking on one last daring adventure in "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning," which pits Ethan Hunt against an evil AI that threatens to destroy the world.The actor has been the face of the franchise since the first movie in 1996, and has starred in eight films in total.The Impossible Mission Force (yes, really) first debuted in the "Mission: Impossible" TV series in 1966, which starred Steven Hill and Peter Graves and ran for six seasons until 1973, before it was revived for another two seasons on ABC in 1988.With the franchise set to end with "The Final Reckoning," here are all the "Mission: Impossible" movies, ranked. 8. "Mission: Impossible 2" (2000) Tom Cruise riding a motorbike in "Mission: Impossible 2." Paramount Pictures "Mission: Impossible 2" should be given way more love than it gets, mainly because the Hong Kong cinema legend John Woo helmed it. Yes, the "Hard Boiled" and "Bullet in the Head" director brought his signature bullet ballet style to the "Mission: Impossible" sequel, with all the slow-motion flair you could ask for.Is it cheesy? Sure. Does the script need some work? Definitely. Is there any smart subtext or meaning underneath all the action? Absolutely not. This is a peak 2000s action movie, and it knows it. "Mission: Impossible 2" is so over the top that once you've made peace with it, it's best to just go along for the ride. Come on, Tom Cruise and Dougray Scott play motorbike chicken with each other before a midair tackle sends them both crashing to the ground. What's not to love? It's the type of vehicular chaos that the "Fast & Furious" franchise's Dominic Toretto would be proud of.Even so, "Mission: Impossible 2" ranks at the bottom of the bunch. 7. "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011) Tom Cruise on the side of the Burj Khalifa in "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol." Paramount Pictures The 2011 film "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" takes the franchise into the modern era. It follows Hunt and his team as they're forced to go on the run when they're framed for bombing the Kremlin.It quickly becomes a race to stop the villainous Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who wants to start a nuclear war so that only the strongest members of humanity will survive. It's this plot that keeps "Ghost Protocol" from ascending the ranking, because, as spy thrillers go, stopping a nuclear war feels predictable, and the film fails to do anything unique with the premise. Plus, there's nothing particularly extraordinary about Hendricks as a baddie.But generic plot devices aside, the film features some brilliant fights and gripping set pieces. The stand-out moment is when Cruise's hero climbs the Burj Khalifa in Dubai with nothing but sticky gloves and rope.One of the most surprising elements of the film is Jeremy Renner's William Brandt, a disgraced former agent who's grappling with the guilt of failing Ethan on a former mission. That sub-plot works very well among the rest of the action, and it's a clever way of injecting a bit of heart into the mission. 6. "Mission: Impossible 3" (2006) Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Keri Russell as Lindsey Farris in "Mission: Impossible 3." Paramount Pictures Two words: JJ Abrams. The "Lost" and "Fringe" creator made his big screen debut in 2006 with "Mission: Impossible 3," which takes a mid-noughties approach to the Impossible Mission Force and gives it a brutal edge.The sequel pits Ethan, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Zhen Lei (Maggie Q), and Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) against a nefarious arms dealer played by the incomparable Phillip Seymour Hoffman.Part of what elevates "Mission: Impossible 3" from previous films is that it never actually explains what Ethan and the gang are chasing. It's known only by its mysterious codename, the Rabbit's Foot. It could be an infectious disease, a computer virus, a hard drive teeming with currency, or nuclear codes — and that's what makes it so compelling. It's also refreshing to see Ethan settled and in love with Michelle Monahan's Julia Meade. What does married life look like for a superspy? How does that complicate his responsibility to save the world? The sequel feels very busy, as Abrams packs a lot into a tight two-hour run time. And some parts don't quite work, like Ethan's dynamic with his young mentee Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell). But there are some stellar sequences throughout, like the ballistic shoot-out on the bridge, which is an eye-popping piece of action choreography. 5. "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" (2025) Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning." Skydance/Paramount Pictures "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" is the sequel to 2023's "Dead Reckoning," and sees Hunt race to stop an assassin known as Gabriel (Esai Morales) from controlling a sentient AI called the Entity. Just to raise the stakes, the Entity has already taken control of the world's nuclear weapons and plans to wipe out humanity.While the 2025 movie is billed as the final entry in the franchise, its story doesn't quite live up to the high expectations set by "Dead Reckoning." The first hour is bogged down by lengthy exposition and generic action movie silliness.That being said, as soon as the action picks up and Cruise embraces his adrenaline junkie persona once more, "The Final Reckoning" provides a breathtaking cinematic experience.Whether it's the suspenseful scuba dive into a wrecked submarine or how Hunt climbs between two biplanes in the sky to fight Gabriel, the film's ambitious sequences deserve to be seen on the big screen. 4. "Mission: Impossible" (1996) Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible." Paramount Pictures Taken from the 1966 TV series of the same name, 1996's "Mission: Impossible" introduces Cruise's Ethan Hunt, a field agent working for Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), the main character from the show. It has audiences instantly on their toes when Ethan's entire team, including Phelps, are assassinated by a double agent in the opening — forcing our hero to go on the run after being framed for their deaths."Mission: Impossible" earned itself a place in cinema history thanks to the brilliantly intense break-in scene, in which Cruise's Hunt hacks into a CIA mainframe computer while suspended on cables.And of course, the high-octane ending on top of a Channel Tunnel train is a pulse-pounding affair set to the iconic theme music. Cruise effortlessly brings Hunt to life alongside top-notch performances from Voight, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Ving Rhames, which really help sell the paranoid atmosphere of the film 3. "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015) Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust in "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation." Paramount Pictures "Rogue Nation" is where frequent Tom Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie properly put his stamp on the franchise. McQuarrie expands the world in a fascinating way with the introduction of the Syndicate, a vast organization made up of rogue agents from every intelligence agency on the planet.Their mission (should they choose to accept it) is to create disorder and chaos to destabilize the global intelligence community, although their true goals don't become apparent until 2018's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." Hunt is determined to root out the Syndicate, and its sinister leader, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris)."Rogue Nation" also introduces Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), an enigmatic British agent who has a delicious will-they-won't-they dynamic with Cruise's hero.A brawl in the rigging above an opera stage in Vienna is a stunning highlight, as is Cruise's underwater dive to retrieve a computer chip from a submerged safe. Cruise broke the world record for holding his breath for six minutes while completing that stunt in 2014. 2. "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023) Esai Morales as Gabriel and Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One." Paramount Pictures "Dead Reckoning Part One" sees Hunt's IMF team chasing a key that will lead them to an unstoppable AI that could wreak havoc on the world.And, of course, every government agency in the world wants to get their hands on it, so Hunt and his team are effectively on the run from everyone. "Dead Reckoning's" focus on AI gives it a grounding in the real world, but the film also continues to elevate the sheer scale of action that audiences have come to expect from the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. That jaw-dropping mountain jump at the movie's climax has to be seen to be believed, and it only gets more bonkers after that.It's a testament to Cruise and McQuarrie that the film feels fresh and new — even if the script does drag on at points. Then again, audiences are coming to see Cruise throw himself off a mountain, not to hear Oscar-winning dialogue. 1. "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018) Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." Paramount There's no question that McQuarrie's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" is the best movie in the franchise, which is impressive considering it's the sixth outing for Hunt and the gang. It continues the Syndicate storyline from "Rogue Nation" and dives further into Solomon Lane's scheme. He wants to destabilize the world by irradiating the Siachen Glacier, which supplies water to India, Pakistan, and China. This would kill off a third of the world's population and drastically change society in the process.  But most of the story revolves around a CIA and IMF mole who goes by the codename 'John Lark.'The hunt to find this rogue agent crosses the world, introducing the likes of Henry Cavill's CIA agent August Walker and Vanessa Kirby's underworld matriarch, Alanna Mitsopolis. The scope of McQuarrie's movie is massive, and its huge stunts mirror that size. A gobsmacking scene sees Hunt dive with Walker from a plane and parachute into Paris. Cruise shot the stunt alongside a cameraman to properly capture the chaotic dive. Then, of course, there's the film's exhilarating helicopter chase through a New Zealand mountain range — just another example of McQuarrie and Cruise's commitment to filming these stunts in the most jaw-dropping way possible."Fallout" is a thrilling chapter of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise that deepens the audience's understanding of Cruise's hero while delivering a stunning cinematic experience.

Doom: The Dark Ages excels at making players feel like an unstoppable tank, but developer Id Software is looking to make the game more challenging. What's interesting here is that Id will make use of what it calls "Tunables," a system that allows it to update parts of the game without needing to release a patch.While Tunables can't fix complex systemic, content, or code-related bugs, they can adjust parts of the new Doom game to create subtle but noticeable changes. Overall, players wanting to test their mettle on Nightmare difficulty can expect to start sweating, as enemies like the Cosmic Baron and Hellknight will start doing more damage. Id says that it wanted to increase the threat level of these enemies on Nightmare difficulty, and as an example, missing a parry on the Agaddon Hunter's overhead slash will break your shield and leave you vulnerable for a short period."There are systems under the hood that are designed to give players a better chance to survive when near death, and those systems were being too generous," Id explained. "Players were able to brute-force their way through situations that should've resulted in costing a Life Sigil or death, and we want to make sure we are keeping the player in check and asking for better tactical decisions. These changes will have an impact on player survivability and will be more noticeable the higher up the Damage Scale slider you go."Continue Reading at GameSpot

Saucycarpdog Member Oct 25, 2017 20,317 On Steam the game is reaching CCU numbers it hasn't gotten in years. Console is harder to see but the game is #22 on Xbox Most Played charts right behind Overwatch 2. It's usually out of the top 50. Crazy to see. I'm guessing it's the Andor effect?  giancarlo123x One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 28,002 The game still fucks. The game was in such a great spot with the anniversary update then they pulled the plug on content.   AgentOtaku Member Oct 27, 2017 4,586 Saucycarpdog said: On Steam the game is reaching CCU numbers it hasn't gotten in years. Console is harder to see but the game is #22 on Xbox Most Played charts right behind Overwatch 2. It's usually out of the top 50. Crazy to see. I'm guessing it's the Andor effect? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah, noticed it creeping up the last few weeks. Insane and probably the Andor effect.  ASleepingMonkey The Fallen Oct 26, 2017 4,579 Iowa This game is very, very popular among gen Z in particular. It is hard for me to scroll Instagram or TikTok without seeing a post about it. Younger people adore this game, particularly those who love the prequels.  Hella Member Oct 27, 2017 24,492 Guess it's time to reinstall Battlefront 2. Game is super fun Thank you for the PSA, OP.  HockeyBird Member Oct 27, 2017 13,798 You have friends everywhere when you play Battlefront II.   Neverx Prophet of Truth - One Winged Slayer Member Sep 17, 2020 3,854 Florida It's a perfect storm of the yearly May 4th resurgence, Revenge of the Sith rerelease and Andor S2. Been playing a bit recently and the game is still great, such a shame they pulled the plug. Really excited for Zero Company and Jedi 3 but we really need a new Battlefront.   Fuchsia Member Oct 28, 2017 7,249 It's honestly a fantastic game after all the work that was put into it post launch. It's still a blast to fire up today. Really sad that they basically killed support right when it was starting to become an all timer.  Nocturnowl Member Oct 25, 2017 28,294 It's all fun and games until the god players who have been playing eternally earn a hero like Yoda early on and the rest of the game becomes a slasher sim where your lil trooper or droid lives in constant terror of the unstoppable turbo speed lightsaber spam racing towards you Neat to see it have a resurgence though, not big on star wars these days but I did have a lot of fun playing this messy arse game with friends  JakeNoseIt Catch My Drift Verified Oct 27, 2017 4,751 Woah I don't watch Andor but I randomly redownloaded the game like a week ago and have been having fun poking around   Zebesian-X Member Dec 3, 2018 25,362 great game kneecapped by its monetization strategy. Sad that they abandoned it right as it was hitting its stride. Glad to see people playing! Shame we never got a third one   Prison_mike Banned Oct 26, 2017 1,676 Hell yeah I bet Fortnight is a reason too. I need to renew my online for this, dammit  DrScruffleton Member Oct 26, 2017 14,887 game was killed way too soon. Imagine all the crazy promotional stuff we couldve gotten over the years with show tie ins and stuff.   dodo Member Oct 27, 2017 4,293 I'm part of the wave!   Creed Bratton Member Aug 29, 2019 782 I jumped back in after playing the new Star Wars Fortnite content. It made me want a true SW experience.   Gleethor Member Oct 25, 2017 4,215 Dot Matrix with stereo sound Coulda had so much new content had they stuck with it. Or at least a third game to break the curse.   AgentOtaku Member Oct 27, 2017 4,586 ASleepingMonkey said: This game is very, very popular among gen Z in particular. It is hard for me to scroll Instagram or TikTok without seeing a post about it. Younger people adore this game, particularly those who love the prequels. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Haha, makes sense. Both my sons adored it. We really should have gotten another one :/  Parker Member Feb 5, 2018 698 Also, the people who got it for free on EGS   Lord Vatek Avenger Jan 18, 2018 24,748 Fortnite, May 4th, and Andor all likely play a part. I haven't checked, but I'd wager that Star Wars The Old Republic is seeing a similar bump.  dodo Member Oct 27, 2017 4,293 I'm still not a big fan of the card loadout system and I wish the vehicles were handled differently, but when it's hitting it has that DICE magic. Great visuals, amazing sound, loving attention to detail.   Corv Member Aug 5, 2022 645 Prison_mike said: Hell yeah I bet Fortnight is a reason too. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah the current Fortnite season made me want to boot it up   Forerunner Resetufologist The Fallen Oct 30, 2017 18,835 Dice dropping support of this right when all the new SW content was being released was weird, they could have added so much to it.   Strikerrr Member Oct 25, 2017 2,858 I've seen a big push from Arc Raiders fans who are suffering from tech test withdrawl. Even though they're very different games, there's some aspects about the movement and shooting which feel somewhat similar considering that a lot of the staff at DICE went to Embark after BF1/V. IIRC some devs who were at Motive during Battlefront 2's development commented that the initial Arc Raiders reveal when it was still a PvE game looked similar to some gameplay concepts that were originally pitched from Battlefront 2. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuftkDxjGT4 I could see this as built from a discarded Battlefront coop mode where you take down AT-ATs  OhhEldenRing Member Aug 14, 2024 2,860 The Jade Raymond effect. It's been in the news that was her last big release.   Santos Member Oct 25, 2017 1,376 Have they addressed hacking on PC? Tried play again on PC a couple of years ago and there were tons of hackers everywhere to the point they were removing map objectives lol.   Jona Basta Member May 13, 2025 27 Santos said: Have they addressed hacking on PC? Tried play again on PC a couple of years ago and there were tons of hackers everywhere to the point they were removing map objectives lol. Click to expand... Click to shrink... There's a New Project Called Kyber that fixes that + introduces a lot of new things, but they keep pushing back the release date on that while pushing their Patreon so I'm not feeling to hot on it personally.   Fuchsia Member Oct 28, 2017 7,249 Now, more than ever, I feel a new Battlefront would be so incredible. The issue is how do you feasibly make a game that would have enough content from each era of Star Wars to do it all justice? It would take so much manpower and time.   OP OP Saucycarpdog Member Oct 25, 2017 20,317 Also, if any of y'all have Insurgency Sandstorm on PC, you can try the new Star Wars Sagas mod. View: https://youtu.be/1qfHDopTd3k?si=W_vKAw-W4NWNK2ic   Cheesy Member Oct 30, 2017 2,564 Saucycarpdog said: Also, if any of y'all have Insurgency Sandstorm on PC, you can try the new Star Wars Sagas mod. View: https://youtu.be/1qfHDopTd3k?si=W_vKAw-W4NWNK2ic Click to expand... Click to shrink... Oh damn I didn't know that game got any mods that weren't just a bunch of really tacticool guns. I'll have to take a look.  Jona Basta Member May 13, 2025 27 Saucycarpdog said: Also, if any of y'all have Insurgency Sandstorm on PC, you can try the new Star Wars Sagas mod. View: https://youtu.be/1qfHDopTd3k?si=W_vKAw-W4NWNK2ic Click to expand... Click to shrink... there's also the fantastic Squad Mod Galactic Contention: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIgrE5Bhvxs  Prasino95 Member Feb 18, 2025 6 Such a shame they messed up the remaster of the original so bad, bet that would have got a surge too.   Mocha Joe Member Jun 2, 2021 13,433 I should reinstall. I never gave it an honest try after strongly disliking the first one. Spent $40 on basically a tech demo and I was a fucking idiot and bought the season pass. I never have bought a season pass since then   danhz Member Apr 20, 2018 3,539 Hopefully i can play sone games tomorrow, Game was fire 🔥🔥   luca Member Oct 25, 2017 19,417 Never mind. It's the fps Battlefront game. I loved the single player campaign.   tjh282 Member May 29, 2019 1,097 My youngest brother and his friends have this in their MP rotation and they're not even huge SW fans. Marketing campaign killed this on arrival, but I loved both of the new BFs   Dance Inferno Member Oct 29, 2017 2,739 Saucycarpdog said: Also, if any of y'all have Insurgency Sandstorm on PC, you can try the new Star Wars Sagas mod. View: https://youtu.be/1qfHDopTd3k?si=W_vKAw-W4NWNK2ic Click to expand... Click to shrink... Woah WTF how have I never heard of this? This looks dope, downloading this ASAP.  Richietto One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 26,052 North Carolina There's also a huge mod called Kyler that'll really bring life to the game.   Man Called Aerodynamics Member Oct 29, 2017 8,327 I'm not a fan of BF2 in particular (that campaign sucked) but it's always nice to see older games get rediscovered or retain popularity.   Papercuts Prophet of Truth Member Oct 25, 2017 12,726 Feel like this happened a few years back too, I remember actually picking it back up and having a surprisingly good time.   panic Member Oct 26, 2024 83 Last time I tried to play this my team was being completely obliterated on spawn by players using starfighters.   thediamondage Member Oct 25, 2017 13,613 i am jonesing hard for Star Wars after Andor so no surprise, rewatching movies now but i'll probably play Star Wars Outlaws next although Battlefront 2 isn't a bad idea, I loved that game in the first year. Its dumb as hell but it can be super fun too if you are just in it for vibes. Publishers should be discounting star wars games heavy right now, its an automatic impulse buy i think  ASleepingMonkey The Fallen Oct 26, 2017 4,579 Iowa AgentOtaku said: Haha, makes sense. Both my sons adored it. We really should have gotten another one :/ Click to expand... Click to shrink... I would like to see DICE give it another go after Battlefield 6. I assume no matter what, they're going to want to shake it up a bit after close to another decade of nothing but Battlefield and so long as Battlefield 6 is good, it can probably sustain itself for a while. Going back to Battlefront would be great. I just want a better campaign this time, taking some cues from Andor and placing you in the shoes of just an ordinary person in this galactic war would be a great starting point.  BrickArts295 GOTY Tracking Thread Master Member Oct 26, 2017 15,642 It's 100% Andor + Fortnite Star Wars Event /recent rerelease of Episode III. I caught the fever and even went back to get the platinum for Jedi Survivor cause I just wanted to play anything Star Wars. It's crazy how cursed Battlefront 3 is. Seems like both times we could have had the ultimate Star Wars game which would built up from their last 2 iterations. EA seems to be fine with working on Star Wars despite their latest stance on license titles, maybe DICE will be given one more go at it.  Javier23 Member Oct 28, 2017 3,230 I for one have been thinking about giving this a try because of Fortnite's current SW season.   wellpapp Member Aug 21, 2018 531 Gothenburg Wasnt the servers 100% broken by all the cheaters?   The Quentulated Mox Corrupted by Vengeance Member Jun 10, 2022 6,566 On the one hand, I love andor in large part because of how much it does different from the rest of the franchise and I think blending it in with all the rest of the stuff risks diluting it On the other hand, imagine a Ferrix map in battlefront. Imagine a Narkina 5 map. Imagine blasting a truck full of troopers on Mina-Rau from your tie avenger. Imagine switching Cassian's gun into sniper configuration. Imagine spinning your Fondor haulcraft a billion times and shredding everything around you. Need  BubbaKrumpz The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 3,849 Yay Area Papercuts said: Feel like this happened a few years back too, I remember actually picking it back up and having a surprisingly good time. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah, I went in with some of my buds and it was a great time. I've enjoyed the game since release though. I hav a friend who only plays battlefront 2 and most recently fortnite  Excelsior Member Oct 28, 2017 1,058 wellpapp said: Wasnt the servers 100% broken by all the cheaters? Click to expand... Click to shrink... This is what I heard too, is it playable?  Chromie Member Dec 4, 2017 5,742 AgentOtaku said: Yeah, noticed it creeping up the last few weeks. Insane and probably the Andor effect. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I will always love Star Wars but man, Andor has made Star Wars chatter online so positive that I jumped back into BF2.   Doctor Shatner The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 252 Lol I literally reinstalled this because of Andor (have had zero content creators mention it outside of watching old Giant Bomb E3 videos). So at least for me it was that! Funny to see such a weird hivemind esque effect going on there. Game is still fun but I have to pretend I'm a literal stormtrooper with my skill level. The number of crazyhigh ranks who fly around as vader/yoda, etc after a couple minutes into the match and insta gib me would drive me mad if I played seriously.