Currently Playing

[Snowy]

Special mention to Hardspace: Shipbreaker. If you want to completely zone out and get zen with dismantling spaceships in zero G, it is a surprisingly absorbing pastime. Available on Gamepass, really good little game.

I gave it a go, I'll be honest the control scheme turned me off of it during the tutorial...

OK I am going to upgrade this to excellent. I am not sure what is so compelling about floating about in zero G dismantling spaceships but it has its hooks into me. There are some real dangers to watch now, with fuel lines and tanks, reactors, pressurised pockets within ships etc that mean you have to be careful. I love the satisfaction of wriggling in between bulkheads to cut away some of the retainers on outer panels, launching them into their respective recycling mechanisms as you peel it all back, exposing and carefully detaching the reactor, the only sound being your avatar's breathing ratcheting up a few levels as you pull the reactor free. The story has me intrigued too.

Yeah, great game, really like it.

[Lenny Solidus]

Call of Duty: Vanguard - Arms Race
Forget Warzone this is my thing. What I love about this much more compact and concentrated version is how much it takes me back to the good old days of playing RTCW multiplayer, capturing and defending randomly marked bases, fortifying gates spawning tanks and an entire fun bag of other equipment to decimate the enemy. Got picked off by a lone camp sniper at the edges of the map? Drop a fucking bomb on his head. Capturing the nebula case adds another element as both sides scrap to grab it to destroy any remaining bases one by one, bringing everything down to an ultimate base grab to win as your team parachute in during the desperate final minutes.

I hope more maps are on the way for what I consider to be the games crowning mode.

[Animalmother]

Sniper Elite 5
Just loving this at the moment. It's a huge improvement over the previous games in both gameplay and visuals. The levels are massive with some epic opportunities for head popping at long range. The x-ray mechanic has been upgraded to an eye watering level of detail, a high velocity bullet impacting a face is brutal to behold. The levels themselves are just gorgeous in places..

A huge portion of that massive building and the surrounding town is explorable and I had a blast sneaking around and shanking unsuspecting Jerries. You also now have workbenches where you can upgrade your weapons. A 1911 pistol with scope, stock and suppressor can see you through most of the game if needs be.

It still has some problems though, the enemy AI can be dumb as a brick one second and the next every fucker on the level knows exactly where you are, it can be frustrating. Also tried the MP which was utter trash. There is an option to jump into another players campaign game and hunt them down as a German sniper but I couldn't find a single game of this after multiple tries.

If you enjoy a slow paced stealth game with great sniping and exploration this is definitely worth a look. Apparently great on co-op as well.

[Raid]

Snowy and I have been playing through it in co-op; we're about two thirds of the way through. I pretty much agree with all of that, including the bit about the AI being an issue. What I'm tempted to do is play around with the extremely configurable difficulty settings; making the AI a little less aware by default; I don't think we've made it through a level yet without killing every single German soldier on the map, at least partially because we try to take them out before they spot us, which triggers a cascade of murder. It'd be nice to have more of a chance at stealth. Obviously that won't fix the fact that occasionally I stumble into a German who fails to notice me despite not being in cover just a few feet away.

[ManBearSquid]

What's piqued my interest in this game, having only ever played the 2nd, is that it's been likened to Hitman with its level replayability. Any agreement on this?

[Raid]

I don't think the game offers the variation in objectives that you get in Hitman. There aren't alternative targets or objectives so far as I'm aware. You can choose one of three starting locations (that you have to unlock by playing the level), and a lot of the levels have a ton of places that you may not see on one playthrough (the Spy Academy level in particular is absolutely enormous), but I think you'd have to add the variation yourself by playing differently - the game doesn't force it on you.

[Animalmother]

Closer to a WW2 Splinter Cell or Ass Creed maybe?

[Raid]

I'd say it has the gameplay of Splinter Cell with the level design of the newer Hitmans.

[ManBearSquid]

Sold.

[Raid]

It's worth subscribing to a month of gamepass for, certainly. I'm not sure how much longevity it'd have.

[ManBearSquid]

My pace with games these days is fairly glacial. I'll wait until it's on a reasonable sale.

Tbh, I'm not really one for the subscription model, too much choice would just annoy me. I don't find it quite as bad with Netflix etc because there's already fewer things of interest for me, compared to gaming, but even then there's the odd evening of more time spent looking through what's on offer than actually watching something.

Basically, I like having limits.

[Raid]

My point was that while I think it's a great game, I don't think it's worth £45.

[ManBearSquid]

Oh aye, I took your meaning, and I would agree.

[Lenny Solidus]

My pace with games these days is fairly glacial. I'll wait until it's on a reasonable sale.

Do as I did pick up the previous outing in the meantime, I'm about halfway through it myself at the moment and having a great experience. All yours for £7.99.

https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/sniper- ... eam-cd-key

Includes the following dlc

Sniper Elite 4 - Season Pass
Sniper Elite 4 - Target Führer
Sniper Elite 4 - Camouflage Rifles Skin Pack
Sniper Elite 4 - Silent Warfare Weapons Pack
Sniper Elite 4 - Covert Heroes Character Pack
Sniper Elite 4 - Allied Forces Rifle Pack
Sniper Elite 4 - Deathstorm Part 1: Inception
Sniper Elite 4 - Night Fighter Expansion Pack
Sniper Elite 4 - Deathstorm Part 2: Infiltration
Sniper Elite 4 - Urban Assault Expansion Pack
Sniper Elite 4 - Cold Warfare Winter Expansion Pack

[ManBearSquid]

That is a reasonable price. Cheers for the heads up!

Edit: daft phone typo.