Closing in on that sweet 1:1 K:D

 Maybe not an achievement for the chad gamers of the world but for us old fart gamers getting to a 1:1 K:D in games like Battlefield 2042 is an achievement.  I was at 1:1 for a period but I've had some terrible  rounds after coming back from a hiatus.

 Also I am finding myself pretty terrible at some of the original maps (they suck compared to Spearhead IMHO) and feel like I am either getting spawn killed or getting shot in the back because I don't know where to expect enemies from.

 Anyways here is my progress:

Ranting at the end of the world: The Last Of Us Episode 5 (Show + Podcast)

 I can't stop watching the The Last of Us show on HBO Max or listening to the companion podcast after each episode.  I also can't turn my brain off long enough to just enjoy the show.  I need to rant.  Need. To. Rant. 

 Episode 5 was a trainwreck in pacing and the writers missed a great opportunity to explain the world and how it collapsed so quickly after the fungi-demic.

 Reminder: I have never played the games. 

 Spoilers... duh.

 First I am going to rant about pacing.  The pacing of this episode was not great.  A slow roll into a chaotic ending.  The swap between the two paces failed to build any tension.  Instead of getting an impending sense of doom building through the episode we go from safe and cozy to end of the world.  End of the world through a complete happenstance event of a truck crashing into a house in the exact spot to open a hole into an underground tunnel system... the same tunnel system that somehow the main characters exited well before this point even though clearly the tunnel system went exactly to the point where they needed to go!?

 What could have been done differently?  First off why is there ZERO build up about the rampaging horde?  Where are the clickers watching the characters from the sewer grates?  Where is more rippling ground like we saw in the previous episode?  It is so dumb that the entire scene hinges on a truck happening to crash into the right spot on a building to then open the ground to a swarming mass of infected.

 Also the entire sniper scene is anti-climatic.  The sniper takes shots at Joel as he makes his way in his direction so knows he is coming for him; yet acts totally surprised when he gets there?  Why not build some tension here?  They could have shown Joel making his way to the sniper, brought in the radio traffic to the sniper earlier, showed the militia making progress more, and hinted at the infected lurking just below the surface.  Instead it all just burps itself onto screen and makes for a complete "what?" turn of events.

 Next let me rant about this show's problem with character plot armor.  In the chaotic end fight scene we see human after human get obliterated by the infected; all except the main characters even though positioning and decision-making wise are in terrible positions.  Let's not even talk about the scene before then where the militia has the main characters surrounded and could easily walk around the car to face them, but instead bumble their way through the scene until the infected blob explodes out of the ground.  

 Of course even being surrounded by militia and with infected about to rampage over the area the main characters never feel like they are in danger.  Henry, who Kathleen so wanted to kill without question, somehow inexplicably remains standing while Kathleen decides it is better not to pull the trigger and instead turn around to watch a truck slowly sink into the ground.  Then Joel's expert sniper skill dropping running headshots like the bad ass he is, Ellie randomly finding an escape route, and the convenient "hide under this car" trick for Henry and Sam.  

 Combined with the lack of risk building up through the episode at no point was I worried about any characters other than the throw away Kansas City militia and you damn well knew they were going to suffer some gruesome deaths.  Bloater got him some head!

 Oh but that plot armor was only there momentarily so we could get a cliche ending.  Oops the kid got bit and clearly Joel's survival instincts are gone as no one thinks to check the kids to see if they were injured in the rampage.  They may have discovered Sam's leg is bleeding profusely and ruined our unexpected ending.  

 Then shocker.  Bang. Oh, bang two! Wow! Edgy television here folks!  How about this instead; Joel sees Sam getting dragged away and has to off him with the sniper rifle as a mercy?  That would of made way more sense and fit PERFECTLY with Kathleen's quote “Well kids die, Henry. They die all the time."

 Most egregious to me though was the missed opportunity with the underground community that was found.   In the podcast it is explained that in the game players can take their time reading notes left around that explains what happened further but said that wouldn't work in the show.  Maybe not reading notes, but this set was so cool and offered so many intriguing chances to explain what happened after infection day zero.

 For a show that goes out of its way to ham in the backstory it really, really, really, really freaking missed a great chance to spend the better part of an episode exploring this mini lost society.  It was the perfect backdrop for some flashbacks; way better than the other options used thus far.

 I want to know so much more about what happened in this underground society but instead all I got was a poorly executed anti-climatic and chaotic scene followed by an edgy mega downer of an ending.  This show is so good its bad.

How to add the "Inside Battlefield" podcast to Pocket Casts

 I have used Pockets Casts as my podcast manager as long as I've owned an Android phone.  One of the things that happens from time to time is a new podcast is launched and you just can't find it on the Discover tab of Pocket Casts.  The recently launched "Inside Battlefield" podcast from EA/Dice is one such example, but I got around the issue and was able to subscribe to it via Pocket Casts.  Here are the steps.

 In Pocket Casts go to the Discover tab.

 Searching by Inside Battlefield or EA or any search term will not work.  Instead enter the URL for the Apple iTunes page:

https://podcasts.apple.com/se/podcast/inside-battlefield/id1589510289?l=en

 Searching by that URL in Discover should bring up the podcast and allow you to subscribe.  Note: this does not work for all iTunes podcasts so I am sure there is more to why it works for this one and not others.

 Hope this finds someone in need and solves the same problem I had.  Enjoy!

Fewer Chests For You!

 Some fun times in the community with the New World update.  

Removed a total of 28 Sarcophagi and Large Chests throughout Brimstone Sands to address global economy concerns.

 Community reaction is as expected and summed up as "WTF?".

 A developer responded in the forums with the classic "it was too good so we nerfed it"

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am sure this will calm everyone down.

Not Impressed with The Last of Us (TV)

 I hate to admit it but I am not impressed with The Last of Us TV show.  I had high hopes after seeing the Rotten Tomatoes scores and acclaim the series was getting, but I was not impressed.  Here are some thoughts rants from someone that never played the games but did watch episodes 1-3 of the TV show.

Spoiler warning.

 First, I want to say that the show is well produced.  Visually it is stellar and there is a distinct sense of a post-apocalyptic world.  Actors, individually, are great.  I do enjoy watching the show.

 With that said my brain is really struggling to not scream out loud about this show.  

 The biggest issue I have is the lack of chemistry between characters.  Joel and Ellie really do not click and the story telling does not help.  The relationship is forced; almost to the point of being too forced.  Ellie dropping f bombs every two seconds just does not help and then having her read a letter and articulate mother f'rs when the character that wrote the letter at no point gives the vibe of dropping mother f'rs (but I get it; who doesn't love Nick Offerman dropping the "not today you new world mother f'rs" line).  Bill and Frank of episode 3 also... just... nothing clicking between those actors.

 Also there is so little exposition.  Characters just jump right to the key piece of whatever they need. Ellie walks into a room, grabs a 1,000 page book, and flips to the exact page where the note she needs is stashed.  Then a second later she figures out its a secret code instead of just random notes on a piece of paper. Every single scene is this way; characters just fall right into where and what they need.  Plot armor is on high alert!

 Honestly I would be lost on some things if I wasn't listening to the companion podcast.  The podcast does a much better job of explaining character motivations and key moments than the actual show.  One particular one is where Joel flinches at one point touching Ellie after knowing she is infected yet numerous times before that.  In the show I barely remembered it because Joel is grabbing her without flinching in every other scene before and after that moment.  It wasn't until the podcast that I reconciled why he flinched in that one scene.  In retrospect the flinch was contrived and forced.

 Then there is the mechanics of how the world and it's fungus infection works.  It has made me go "what?" so many times.  Maybe it works in the games better than it does here?  The infection can be gotten from spores?  Or by getting bitten?  But not by being scratched or having an open head wound like Joel did fighting the clickers?  It was in the food supply and went global in one day?  And if you can catch it from spores why do the characters literally not care about climbing around mushroomed dead bodies everywhere?  Why are they eating their lunch surrounded by the stuff? Why do they pick up dead infected bodies to burn without a care in the world?  You would think any single encounter with an infected, dead or alive, or any of the tendrils growing from one would send folks into a panic.  

 Let's not even get into how the fungus becomes octopus like and able to move it's tendrils about and therefore has zero resemblance to the concept of the fungus causing it's host to do something vs the fungus becoming sentient.  On top of that it only has these special powers in scenes where the visual effects budget allows for it.

 Also a single gun shot takes out an infected but being crushed in rubble doesn't?  Why do some die so fast and why are others found years later?  The one liners trying to cover this and the flashback at the start of episode two fall woefully short of making any sense to me.  It feels like the show tries way to hard to explain the situation and just comes up short.  

 I really, really struggle with the world building here.  I literally do not want to hear about it anymore.  Just make the world dangerous and don't bother trying to over explain it to me.  Bad shit happened and the world is what it is.  Now take off the plot armor on the characters and work on chemistry between characters.  Also stop giving them freaking chicken sandwiches.  No one is eating bread in this world if the worldwide outbreak was caused by flour being contaminated.

It was the best of Battlefield 2042 games until...

 I've been AFK for a bit but got a chance to jump into the most recent Battlefield 2042 update and I was having the best of games (like seriously; it is rare that I hit the top of the board) and all I'll have to show for it is these two screenshots as the round ended suddenly with "all players disconnected".  Oh well!

Five minutes in and crushing the revives and getting a few kills.

 

More kills and revives; still the top!

Personally I count it as a first place win.  Ignore the other team and their super K:Ds; my team was rubbish.

Call of the Wild the Angler guide for Golden Ridge

 Not much content out there for CotW the Angler so when I saw this guide for Golden Ridge I had to share.  Very thorough and well done.  Enjoy!

Dark and Darker - looks interesting - free next week

 Dark and Darker is coming to Steam soon (next week?) and is a PvPvE hardcore FPS something fantasy dungeon game something.

An unforgiving hardcore fantasy FPS dungeon PvPvE adventure. Band together with your friends and use your courage, wits, and cunning to uncover mythical treasures, defeat gruesome monsters, while staying one step ahead of the other devious treasure-hunters. 

Honestly they had me at PvPvE.  Looks interesting.

New World Community Q&A Thoughts

 A little tardy (business travel), but here are my thoughts from the New World community Q&A earlier this month.

 I want to give the team kudos for tackling community feedback about the speed at which "critical community asks" are worked.  Basically: it's hard.  As someone who manages a software development lifecycle at work I totally get it, but this message probably falls flat on the community.  Still; kudos to the team for being willing to engage in the conversation and even follow it up in another video (where they mention "the door problem" which is very good at illustrating the point).

 Back to the community video; bots were discussed.  Bots are not the problem in New World anymore that they once were.  Sure bots are still out there but it has been pretty clean for a while.  I can't remember the last time I ran into a clear bot or felt like the market was dominated by bots dumping 0.01 materials 24/7.

 Armor types were discussed and we know balance changes are coming soon.  It is good to hear the team confirm they know light armor is too strong currently and needs a change.  They seem to be focused on making light armor more risky which I think is a good approach since light armor has such good bonuses compared to the others but has very little draw back.  It sounds like light will be a lot less versatile with defensive perks and thus be more of that "higher risk for higher damage" that it should have been all along.

 Greatsword and Musket balance... being worked on.  Duh.

 Zone revamps were mentioned and it was confirmed that zones will continue to be updated as the main story quest gets revamped.  While I wasn't sold on the revamps done already (I personally feel like they don't fit thematically) it is good to see games breath life into old areas.  I was a big fan when World of Warcraft redid most of their world and really liked when Guild Wars 2 chose to burn one of the main capitals, Lion's Arch, to the ground and then rebuild it.  Change is good for MMOs.

 Corruption portals are also on the revamp list: less frequent but more eventful/challenging.  I look forward to seeing them be more meaningful.

 The conversation wrapped up with a discussion on PvE vs PvP weapon and gear balancing.  "It's a hard problem" is a correct statement, but the team also mentioned there is already things like PvP only perks and PvE only perks so they've been working on this since the game launched.  I personally think they do a really good job of balancing across the modes.

 And last but not least they confirmed hippos are coming to New World, but only after we get monkeys.

 

Lost Ark or Lost Bots?

 While I only briefly tried out Lost Ark (it wasn't

for me at the time compared to current offerings such as New World) the game has been interesting to follow.  Lost Ark was drawing massive concurrent player numbers on Steam for it's North American playerbase and as a fan of MMORPGs seeing a game regularly cruising at 300,000+ concurrent players is what I want to see for the genre.  Also of interest was how this game, already two years old in other parts of the world where it launched before, would manage when so much about the game was already known.  

 One key aspect of that is how bots would shape the game.  Bots a problem for all online games and Lost Ark, booming in popularity, seemed like it had its fair share of bots.  At time I heard jokes about "50% of players are bots" and some brave enough to say 50% was lowballing it.  Well now we have a pretty good idea that it was probably 50%+ bot population.

 Using Steam DB charts like the unscientific tool they are we can see the sharp drop in player numbers immediately after the massive bot ban wave in early January.  The game is just now recovering to 100,000+ player peaks and right after the ban wave the peak numbers were just a meager 50-60,000.  The game literally cratered from 300,000+ peak concurrent players to less than 100,000 which gives good evidence some 200,000+ players at peak concurrency were bots.  Holy freakin' crap.

 Lost Ark... neigh!  Lost Bots!  Hopefully the Lost Ark faithful, the actual players, are enjoying the freedom from bots.  I doubt all bots are gone but a good chunk appear to be.