JPDunks4

I finished the first God of War. Wasn't too impressed at all, but trying to remember it was a 2005 game. I did start up God of War 2, but it seems to be damn near identical to the original in both combat, upgrades, animations, everything just about. I did just get to the part where you lose your powers, so maybe now that I am "reset" all new stuff opens up? So I think I maybe taking a break for another game first. Don't think I can do another back to back.

The Beta did enough to get me more excited for the game in a few weeks. Initially I wasn't too impressed after the intro and first few story missions. I had way more concerns than excitement. As I played more, learned the combat more, and kept pushing forward, it started to scratch the itch of the Loot Games I always enjoy. I'm not even a big Marvel fan, but playing the different characters was fun, and the prospect of additional characters constantly being added is a big plus in this game, as many times these Looter games start with limited classes, and hardly add to them. We will have to see how quickly they are added, and if they feel like worthy additions, or reskins of current characters. While not a fan of the way loot is handled, I do like they have all rarities drop at all levels. Too many games tie Legendary's or Exotics or whatever to only the highest Max Level Gear, and that's never fun in these games. I enjoy getting them throughout my leveling process. I do think they could add a bit more splash when loot does drop. Currently there's no real sound indication or anything that really makes it pop. I upped the difficulty to Brutal, and it seems like you can play Brutal Difficulty at anytime really, as it just ups the Levels of enemies to +10 of your current level. So if you're 1, they will be 11. Its definitely difficult, but still very doable, and it did feel like the rewards were quite a bit better, and made the combat more interesting as you had to think a bit more about encounters. I'm not sure if you will have a chance to change the LB/RB/Ult abilities each character has. I hope you can cause that will add a lot more customization to the characters. I still have some concerns on longevity, but still had enough fun with the beta to want to dive into it more with the full game.

Phil stated they learned a lot from the XB1 launch, and wouldn't be out of position on Price or Power again. So question is, does that mean it'll stay in line with console launches, at $400 or $500, or does it mean they have Lockhart to compete on price, X to compete on power.

For the record, these "Season/Battle Passes" are free. They basically just slowly unlock things per character as you play and do challenges each day/week. I don' t think there's any time limit on it either, which is why I don't think it's a Seasons Pass, but just a way to give each character a bunch of unlocks to work towards.

Maybe there are more systems not in the beta, but it seems like it follows just about every other popular game with a Battle Pass system from what I've seen in the beta. I'm guessing with each characters story arcs you can prob earn additional skins as well as rewards. I doubt the Skins in the Premium store will ever be attainable in game though as rewards. And most likely those will be some of the cooler more unique skins.

I'm not sure what exactly you can realistically earn. Each Character does have a "Battle Pass" of sorts to unlock a bunch of emotes, skins, and other things unique to their character. It's 40 Free unlocks, of which I think about 7-8 are skins, 3-5 emotes, and the rest Name Plates, resources, ect. My guess is all the good skins will be in the Premium store. It seems you can earn Premium Currency from just playing the game as well, so you can earn even those items just playing, but I'm not sure at what rate or how quickly that'll happen. You can't buy the currency in the beta so it's tough to judge the costs of the skins. If its 100 = $1, then the "Legendary" skins wil lbe going for $14ish a pop. Also wonder if they will have updates where current characters get new "Battle Passes" with new unlocks. Or if it's a one time thing per character.

They should have it set up like the Gulag in CoD, where those eliminated and spectating can throw or shoot little nerf darts at those competing.

After playing a little more, another thing struck me. There is no weapon loot in this game. As far as I can tell, its just 4 Slots for loot, 1 modifies Melee, 1 modifies Range, 1 Modifies Defense, and 1 modifies your Heroic (Ultimate) I know for Superheroes this makes sense, considering some don't use weapons. But it is such a miss. If you could find different blasters for Iron Man with different look and attack types. Different Hammers for Thor. Different guns for Widow. Different Shield variations for Captain America. Kamala would be the toughest, but make some kind of gloves or something that could go with her stretchy ability. Even Anthem that mostly followed the same concept of invisible loot and Cosmetics that weren't tied to loot, they still had Weapons that played differently, as well as the two different LB and RB items per character that changed the look of the character and how you played. I think the different attack types are tied to skills in this game, and thats fine. I am still early so ill have to see how it plays out. It just felt odd playing Widow with her guns and being like, wait, these never officially upgrade do they. You prob buff them up in skills and may get loot to improve their damage and other aspects of them, but you never actually find different guns to upgrade the look of these in the game. I don't think the Beta allows you to get deep enough into the game to really see all the varieties though.

There is a Monster Energy Drink promotion for Series X that leaked. Based on the value of the prize listed some are coming to the conclusion it's $600. The promo does include Halo Infinite though as well, and clearly states that the prize and the value are not in market and may change.

Now if only EA started releasing any games.

My impressions thus far... At first doing the opening sequence, I was pretty disappointed. The combat didn't feel tight and controlled, a bit too clunky and floaty. Hitting enemies didn't always pack that punch that you might hope a Thor hitting someone with his Hammer, or Hulk smashing someone, might have. The introduction to Iron Man in a flying on rails chase scene was pretty horrible and made me immediately feel like his character is gonna be a let down. Then it moved onto the other story missions. I wasn't too blown away by these area's as well. I was still learning combat as I went. I did put it on Hard, and did die a couple times as I learned move sets and how the combat worked. You can die pretty quick if you're not careful. After finishing off these story areas, you finally get to the Hub area, and then also can finally do a combat Tutorial area which shows a bit more of the nuances of combat. At this point I already basically knew all of it, but it was fun to use Iron man in a more free roam area, and I really loved his mobility here. Then me and @skillzdadirectadid some co-op. It's a little clunky in the way co-op works. I wish you could just team up in the Hub and stay as a team, but it seems once you join up together you can stay as a team and just jump mission to mission. We did 3 or 4 of the missions. They seemed to range form a quick 10 minute 1 quick objective encounter, so a slightly longer 20-30 minute multi objective mission. Each area has other side objectives you can tackle, like Elite Squads or Hidden Chests. As I played more and more, the combat grew on me. It's not just purely button mashing, at least on Hard. You need to learn patterns, time dodges, there are counters and blocks as well. In some areas we had to properly focus certain enemies to slowly clear them out. I enjoyed it enough. I do not like how the Loot is handled. I still haven't taken the time to learn the actual modifiers and perks on the loot, but right now, its basically just a matter of equipping whatever has the higher gear score. I kind of hate how so many games have incorporated a Gear Score on loot. I also hate how it doesn't change the look of your character at all, and its just the 1 flat skin to change the look of your hero. Injustice games have already shown us you can incorporate loot in a smart way for Superheroes to change their appearance. Wish they went that kind of route. I'm not totally blown away by the game, it has its issues, and is pretty buggy on Xbox. I hope it's an older build as I don't think they will be able to get it polished enough for launch. It's always hard to judge these kind of games until you get to the later more powerful gear, customized builds, different skill trees, ect. My biggest worries right now is the variety. So far, the majority of the enemies have felt pretty similar. There are a few different kinds, some ranged, melee, larger mechs, drones, but they don't feel all that different to fight. Destiny had the Vex, Hive, Cabal, and Fallen. All had at least a few aspects to differentiate the gameplay vs each of them. My worry is the enemy variety in this game may not be very diverse. Time will tell though.

No Forza car sim to be the eye candy for Series X, but we get a flight sim to be the eye candy.

$600 would be pushing it for sure. I think most have come to terms to accept both maybe $500. If rumors of MS wanting to undercut Sony, maybe $400. I'd doubt both are aiming for $400, as I think we'd have price by now if it they were going to be $400.

Epic just dgaf

And another article on the rumors. It's more and more people coming out about it. Jeff Grubbs never had said anything until yesterday. https://wccftech.com/ps5-development-troublesome-fake-4k-common/amp/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&__twitter_impression=true Also realize this is Playstaion news technically, but it's not mean to bash the PS5 or flame any console war shit. Just these rumors were floating around about 3rd party games potentially being significantly better on Xbox at launch, and that could mean something to some people, especially if its also cheaper.

How easy is it to become a part of Verizon Up as a Verizon Customer?

A little more to the rumor.

http://www.twitch.tv/garywhitta Phil Spencer bring interviewed in Animal Crossing.

All the content they cut from the game to release later as updates as exclusive PlayStation content.

A lot of Looter style games dont necessarily have the most compelling gameplay. Diablo for the most part was always just a point and click style of game, but the loot, skill trees, character classes, build diversity, ect made it an all time great. But watching someone play Diablo would never impress anyone. So hoping this game's full package of loot, leveling, character building, skill trees, ect sell me on it. The Gameplay looks good at times, mundane at times. Hard to totally judge just on watching.

When asked again. I don't think too many care about 4k personally, so that's not a big deal as I think most games will be using other techniques to look better. I don't think Xbox should be focused on 4k either. But if it's true that it's struggling with not much overhead and Xbox is running the mulitplats much more smoothly, I'd assume that means it should be able to handle better extra effects and graphical features as well.

I believe him talking about the Power differences he was hearing was in response to the fact Sony was buying up 3rd Party deals, and why they might be going so big on 3rd Party Deals. I just saw the firestorm on Twitter around it. Some other devs came on to say they think the differences are going to be marginal at best, and others came to agree with the Insider, saying they are hearing the gap in performance is more significant that some may think. Only way we'll know shit is when they both launch.

https://wccftech.com/ps5-to-cost-more-than-xsx-while-struggling-more-with-multiplatform-games-in-performance-says-insider/

Isn't it likely 505s bullshit? May not totally matter, as they picked the publisher, but it may have been out of their hands?