#truly this is the pvp campaign

[haleyusesherwords]

Brennan “I’ve been angling for PvP on this show for 20 seasons” Lee Mulligan really kicked off the campaign he created as a love letter to his wife by assigning another player to murder her

Truly no one is doing it like them

[lowpolynpixelated]

Echo Point Nova: Tribes Ascended

Echo Point Nova may be one of the best cases I've ever seen for people wanting to frag like its 2001. Today's gaming landscape, particularly the independent scene, is thriving with revivals of all sorts of proto-FPS genre shooters. From the singleplayer campaign driven "Boomer Shooter" games like Amid Evil and Zortch to those who long for the multiplayer days of Unreal Tournament with games like Splitgate or the squad tactics of Battlefield 2 with games Battlebit Remastered, these styles are certainly coming back into style. I want to talk about a very particular type of action that was lost long ago in a sea of games and buried revival promises, I want to talk about Tribes.

Releasing originally in 1998 as Starsiege: Tribes the game garnered its own following thanks to its fast paced movement centered approach to Deathmatch and Capture the Flag gameplay. Jetpacks combined with a physics engine bug that let you "ski" around maps a la sliding down slopes and ramping off hills made for incredible fun action packed fights. Three years later in 2001, Tribes 2 debuted making skiing an official form of gameplay, building on the fun of the previous title. The game fell somwhere in between quake arena and unreal tournament, with vehicles, large open maps, a bevy of scifi weaponry, and fast paced action. Though the series would go on all the way to 2012 with the free to play Tribes Ascend by HiRez Studios, the game has since been yet another title in an ever growing pile of "forgotten classics". Until now.

So what IS Echo Point Nova? Stay with me here, EPN (to save some time and typing) is a scifi action shooter where you explore an open world of floating islands with the help of a grappling hook, a hoverboard, and a momentum system that only slows down when you tell it to. EPN is in almost every way, a singleplayer/co-op successor to Tribes. Trading out the scifi weapons for a more modern military arsenal doesn't take away much of the fun. Zipping around and clearing out hordes with a .50 cal sniper rifle is just as fun as a railgun, and blasting mechs with an RPG is just as satisfying as a triple rocket launcher could be. The game WANTS you to feel fast, to feel dangerous, like only the best of the best could stop you. All it's missing is proper PVP, which the developer wants to add support for soon as of the writing of this article. Lets get more specific though.

Level Design:

One half of the puzzle is how EPN's world gives you truly unbridled freedom to explore at breakneck paces. If you thought the vistas and cliffs of breath of the wild being open was impressive, this puts that to shame handily. A massive world of floating island arenas awaits you, all you have to do is get there. As mentioned before the game provides you with a few modes of transit, a grappling hook, your hoverboard, and a set of supplementary equipment like air boost pads and grenades that you can use to gain height very quickly. Movement in the game is nothing short of gorgeous. Fast, fluid, and effortlessly smooth, you can glide and hop your way to just about everywhere.

Let's talk more about the hoverboard, arguably the games most shown off feature. Holding down what would traditionally be a sprint button allows you to speedily glide over any form of terrain the game can throw at you. Grass, snow, sand, lava, all of it. On top of this, touching any flat surface that isn't the ground or a floor with the hoverboard will allow you to grind across and up said surface, gaining you some sweet style points in the process. The game is VERY generous with the grinding, and lets you stay on unless the terrain itself is too uneven to glide over without launching yourself off. Using this you can scale entire mountains and grind circles around the poor enemies of the game, giving them little chance at keeping up with you. Combined with the grappling hook, which allows you to propel yourself in whatever direction you're aiming despite where you grappled on to, you can reach truly dizzying heights and speed with ease. All of this is to say that the game's level design allows for pure freedom of movement. Rarely will you find yourself not jumping or grinding your way around spacious combat arenas laden with half pipe ramps and grind rails. Verticality is KING in Echo Point Nova, and the world knows that. Vast desert expanses, rolling mountaintops, fractured shards of floating rock, its got it all and it is good.

Gameplay:

Though I already went over the gameplay a bit in the last section with the movement and traversal, I'd like to focus a bit more on the core shooting of EPN and just how good it feels to do so. The game gives you access to a decently sized array of pistols, SMGs, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles/DMRs, and explosives to do in the cyborg mercenary armies that oppose you. All of which feel incredible. Perhaps the only negative point I could give is that many weapons can often feel very fast and loose, but the game's projectile system more than makes up for it when allowing you to pepper entire areas with two entire glock magazines. Complimentary to the guns are the perks you earn from doing the game's core combat loop of arriving in an arena and spawning enemies until you've killed the requisite amount for that particular challenge. Perks can range from giving you more ramming speed on your hoverboard (oh yeah you can ram enemies with your hoverboard by the way) to the very first perk you gain, Adrenaline, slowing down time for a few seconds via a refillable meter you gain just for moving at high speeds.

Combat becomes a gravity defying dance of bullets and explosions. Ramping off enemies here, grappling them into them there, throwing out a grenade to pop a shield and riding the explosion shockwave up to the scifi quad-copter that's firing missiles down at you the entire time. Its a beautifully chaotic mess that relies on your mastery of the game's movement to be proficient in. Sure you could just run around Call of Duty style and pop cyborgs in the head, or you could send them into the endless abyss by slapping them with two and a half feet of hoverboard all the while sending a .50 cal round through two of his friends.

It is a joy to experience. The exploration is always rewarding leading you to new challenges that give you either new perks, a new gun, or a fun hat to wear over your character. If you played the dev team's previous game, Severed Steel, you know exactly how high energy and impressive the combat encounters can feel.

Story:

Honestly? It's nothing special. You crash land onto one of the many floating islands, a mysterious voice tells you to get your gear as comrades from whatever scientific group you're a part of tell you to also grab your gear and survey your surroundings. It's VERY loose, and it's perfect that way. The boss fight set pieces don't come bogged down with lengthy cutscenes or anything at all to break the pacing. Voice acting is kept to enemy shoutouts, and everything is told through text logs that you're guided to pretty steadily throughout the game. EPN's story is just what it needs to be and the devs know that. Severed Steel boasted an equally loose but compelling story following the game's protagonist rising up against her scifi imprisoners, and Echo Point Nova is just as short and sweet with its writing. Serviceable, short, and just right.

Soundtrack:

How could I ever talk about this game without mentioning the positively electrifying soundtrack. Composed by artist Floating Door the OST has a range of action driving Drum and Bass tracks that just make you want to go faster. Ethereal synths combined with strong pulsing bass tracks create an otherworldly feel as you grapple and hoverboard your way around the islands, picking up into heavier more chaotic tracks when enemies are found or an encounter is started. It reminds me so much of the more techno/trance inspired soundtracks of later PS1 and PS2 titles that I can't help but grin and nod my head as I zip around blasting things with an RPG. No notes, 10/10, it fits the game beautifully and is a strong set of tracks to listen to on their own. Give it a listen!

Conclusion and comments:

I got away from myself a little bit in this review, but I'd like to close by doubling back to that Tribes comparison. Does Echo Point Nova have EVERYTHING that tribes had? No. It's missing things like vehicles, structured modes of play, hell even proper PVP matchmaking, but that's not the point. The spirit is what lives on in EPN. That 2000s fast paced techno-shooter with weird movement and momentum. The rush of a movement shooter before that phrase was even considered to exist. I don't think this game is Titanfall+DOOM 2016 like a lot of other reviews like to say. What I WILL compare it to if I must, is Halo, Tribes, and just a hint of classic Call of Duty (think COD 4). It's wonderfully made with a clear amount of love and respect for old school shooters. Refined to a razor edge of fluid mobility and rock solid shooting. I really do think its a big step towards keeping the spirit of old games alive without just remaking them or making things that only exist as tributes to them. If I've gotten anything wrong, and the devs never played anything like Tribes before, then that's fine I've been wrong before and I will be again. But playing this game was like playing a love letter written in voxel landscapes and high speed firefights. One that I'd happily reread over and over, or at least listen to the music.

Check out Echo Point Nova here:

[tangent101]

Homeworld 3

25 years ago, I signed up for the beta test of a fascinating sounding game called Homeworld, which promised 3D space fleet combat between two groups, and with the hint of a fascinating storyline. When it came out, I had to buy a new computer to run it... and then I fell in love with the story and with the peoples described within.

While Homeworld 2 fell short of the mark, it was still a fun game and I was curious as to what would happen in the future. But after the falling out between game designer Relic and the IP rights owner Sierra (who then sold the rights elsewhere), it seemed likely that the game would never see a true sequel.

At least... until Gearbox got a hold of the rights and started a Fig crowdsourcing campaign (one of several they would do). And I jumped in early on, buying two keys - one for myself and one for a dear friend I would later marry.

Sadly my spouse didn't live long enough to play Homeworld 3. But I think they would truly love this game. And honestly, Homeworld 3 is a fascinating examination and continuation of the Homeworld Saga. For me, what was truly important about Homeworld wasn't the combat or matching wits with other players - I've never been big on PvP elements. No. I was here for the story. And what I've seen so far... they have gone down an interesting path here.

(In a way this almost feels like elements of the first and maybe third Mass Effect story, with the protagonist (Imogen S'jet) having visions akin to what Commander Shepard would face in their journey. This is a good thing, as it hints at the greater story within Homeworld rather than just giving pieces of the story like the first two Homeworlds did. In fact, I will admit that if Gearbox were to "reimagine" the first and/or second Homeworld games to use a similar mechanic for character examination and storytelling, I'd likely buy these remade games to see how and what was done in the stories.)

Anyway... Homeworld 3 is fun! They included the ability to scale difficulty so that those of us who are older or not as willing to drive ourselves to distraction trying to prevail against the story can still play and watch the story unfold... and also the ability to slow time, which is especially fun as I enjoy watching the enemies burn! Not to mention listening to radio chatter among pilots as they fight some truly horrific odds at times. So I recommend it. You don't even need to have played the older Homeworld games to know what's going on if you don't want to. :)

[cringefaecompilation]

Truly still seeing takes in December of 2024 of “Imogen will betray the party once she gets near Predathos and Laudna will go with her” is wild… like it would be simpler to say you stopped watching in 2022 and you’ve gotten all your information on this campaign from Reddit since episode 27.

i've gotten four other messages similar to this one with very specific wording (redditors that stopped watching the show as soon as laudna came back or right before it) that i really didn't know how to response to with anything other than "i agree" buuuuut since you mention it!

there is this sort of uneven treatment with most laudna and imogen haters that acts as if imogen is falling further and further into darkness from what's been going on and laudna... hasn't changed at all, somehow. she was just this bad all along and now revealing her true colors. because that's what a shocking amount of people took away from the bor'dor incident.

and likewise, a good chunk of fans assumed that marisha's plan since day 1 was to make her a delilah boss fight and close out the campaign with the first ever permanent pc pvp death. so upon her sealing delilah away both times, those fans concluded she was now a redundant, pointless character and that cr hastily made laudna a "boring" and "safe" lesbian to appease the marisha/laura shippers.

granted, the whole "they're gonna turn on the team!" accusations have hit everyone in this campaign hard, but for the guys is usually for angst purposes rather than "i hope xyz dude gets killed by my favorite character!". while i have seen some of these with outright hatred for the men, it's still like, only ever after wading through twelve anti-imogen rants

it WAS from a reddit crosspost i saw one of the first "c3 is bad for having an anti-god message" takes which was "off camera, ashton and laudna PROBABLY prayed to gods, so it's stupid to say that they never needed them or don't have any interest in saving them!". this was around... i wanna say episode 48-49, right before the solstice and party split. so if most reddit fans are still 70 fucking episodes behind in their character analysis, yikes.

(also that argument doesn't even make any sense. you could say any character probably did something off screen that accounts for the lore. me saying chetney's favorite food is probably ravioli because the mn were in wildemount and invented it when he was there holds about as much weight as that comment.)

[utilitycaster]

i am nourished by your hatred; what did you dislike about yu??

Question is academic for now but: essentially, I'm already pretty heavily biased against the "secretly a changeling" trope and always have been; it's always struck me as just kind of a cheap twist and rarely engages with the handful of interesting things about the changeling as a player choice. But I think the bigger part is just that they weren't very good at their job as an assassin, and Erika and Matt both expected the encounter in Imahara Joe's to go to PvP but it didn't, so it led to a scene that dragged on forever in which Yu was just trying to goad people into PvP and they were all like "SHUT UP," which, mood. And then, in a MacGuffin-heavy campaign, during The MacGuffin Arc (Treshi, a man who was really just the bouncing ball to follow through the Apogee Solstice Exposition Sing-along and yet it took 34 episodes to get through) Yu's entire deal was "looking for vaguely related MacGuffin." And now? Ira has the Moontide Crown so going after Bells Hells is a useless choice, so if Yu showed up they'd just be like "where's the Moontide Crown" and Bells Hells would be like "Ira has it, sending is broken, we don't know where the Calloways are either" and Yu...did not really have like, enough of a backstory or personality beyond that mission to make them interesting to me, but also left on hostile enough terms that I don't see the party working with them. There is literally no point to them coming back in this scenario, and I do not give a shit where the Moontide Crown is. Zathuda probably just stuck Yu in a mirror for failure or whatever, and good riddance. As said, anything to do with the Feywild can better be explored imo through Fearne. I mean if Yu shows up at a later date as a guest it will be fine, but I'm truly not interested unless Fearne is there - showing up for this arc specifically is pointless on several levels - and if we never see them again I won't be disappointed at all.

Now here's where the secretly a changeling trope backfires: I'd love for Erika to come back and play another more interesting character, and Aimee's just set a precedent for playing multiple characters as a guest within the same timeline. But if you've played a changeling in the campaign already, people are just going to be like BUT IT'S SECRETLY YU, RIGHT, which will be annoying as hell, hence me saying a new EXU season or the next installment in the Candela Obscura anthology might be better.

[luxlightly]

I talked about it with two different people lately and I really think that Quake as a series has the potential to be a far more popular franchise in today's market than it currently is, but if it is, it has to be from a shift in focus on the story and lore elements. 

Back when Quake came out, multiplayer games were not the norm. A built in arena mode at the scale Quake had was a huge draw. Now, not only is that the norm, it's completely consumed the market. People have tons of other multi-player shooters to choose from, out there. For many players interested in story and lore, it's even a turn off, suggesting that the devs might not care about their single player experience. 

I truly believe that the rich lore of the world of Quake is something that would be extremely appealing to modern audiences. Between the Lovecraftian old gods and the blending of the machine and the flesh with the Strogg, it has elements that are highly popular right now, more than ever. It’s truly “Call of Cthulhu meets Mass Effect”. This should be catnip to half the internet.

But the story and lore of Quake is fractured from a history fraught with leadership disputes, brand confusion, and passing back and forth between developers. It's a series in parts with no clear connection between them. Any benefit having two genres might provide is totally lost due to the fact there’s no attempts to organically blend them. There’s also not a lot of ways to really get at that lore, even in the single player campaigns that do exist. The protagonists are stiff and not fleshed out and focus on characters is largely nonexistent.

Now, obviously, the number of fanfictions something has on AO3 is not indicative of its success, but it is a way to gauge how much audiences are engaging with the story or world of a game. Quake, as a whole, has about 30, only a handful of which are actually centered on Quake itself. (For reference, Undertale has 62k) Despite the fascinating lore, people aren’t engaging with it.

If Quake is going to regain its cultural relevance and popularity, it has to be through a focus on story, characters, and the exploration of the lore and world building. And it has to do so in a space in which new players feel comfortable which, presently, it absolutely is not.

The retro fps/arena shooter genres are EXTREMELY hostile towards new players. All multiplayer games have toxic playerbases, but the retro fps/arena shooter genre is particularly bad. These games have been deified to the point where, for many, “protecting” what they see as the purity of those games is far more important than playing them. 

As much as I adore QC, it could never have achieved the mainstream popularity necessary to save the genre or franchise. A purely multiplayer game just reinforces the idea for prospective players that this isn't something that focuses on its non gameplay elements. Which, in fairness, it largely does not. It’s not meant to. But that’s exactly why it can’t do what the genre desperately needed it to. The depth of worldbuilding is there! A frankly shocking amount of consideration of worldbuilding went into every decision about mechanics and design, but it’s hidden in locked scrolls and character bios that take months of playing to unlock and have no real bearing on the game itself.

From there, the players who carried over from previous games are extremely experienced and aggressive towards people they see as entering “their” space. It can take weeks of playing before a new player is able to really engage in matches enough to fully enjoy them. And that time can be downright miserable.People don't want to put in that work for things they have no existing attachment to and the games continue to give them less and less to get attached to in pursuit of recapturing the feeling of being the one big pvp fps on campus, so to speak . 

This means that, with each iteration, it distills more and more into just the people who have been playing since the beginning and ignore or contribute to the toxicity, which further drives away more players. It's a cycle of decay that can't be broken without a huge refresh in the playerbase. New players need someone besides 30 year vets to play against and that only happens if there’s enough new players all at once. 

Since new players can’t get into the multiplayer aspects unless new players are already getting into the multiplayer, the initial interest has to be sparked from outside those elements. Which mean it has to come from a focus on cleaning up and heavily promoting the story aspects of the games. 

Solidify the timeline. Bridge the fantasy and sci-fi plotlines. Allow your protagonists to have personalities and engage meaningfully with other characters and the world around them. Give people characters and settings they can really care about. 

Give people a reason to believe they can get attached to these things without them being abandoned or discarded for the sake of multiplayer microtransactions. Give them something to think about, to write about, and to make art of, even when they're not playing. 

(And, on a personal note, please maybe not have the Strogg symbols be all literal nazi symbols; it makes it really hard to have a Strogg mug or t-shirt, etc.) 

Add single player content that actually translates to the multiplayer. Add some story objectives to multiplayer modes. Give new players something to do and to fall in love with before asking them to throw themselves into the arena. Make some tweaks to gameplay that allows newer players to not be hopelessly disadvantaged. 

Really, the main issue that the developers of Quake and all similar games face is that many existing fans will VEHEMENTLY oppose any changes to what they see as “their” games. They WILL see it as a betrayal from a game they've supported for 30 years. They no longer see these as artistic works belonging to the artists that created them. They see them as THEIRS. That those artists no longer have the right to make decisions that go against their interpretation of what they game is and they will aggressively protect that interpretation.

But the game they are “protecting” never existed. They are trying to preserve the feeling of being a child experiencing this genre for the first time. A version of the experience that only existed to them at that time because of who and where they were in their lives at that time. Ironically, by preventing kids like they were from doing the same, now.

If you made Quake, now, it would not match this perceived idea of what a Quake game should be, to them. If their childhood self started playing Quake, now, they would believe they did not belong there. In fairness, it wouldn't be Quake. Because part of what made it what it was was the fact it was unique. But setting the standard means that much of what made you unique then makes you run-of-the-mill, now.

Obviously, for true fans of the real experience of the genre and not just the nostalgia or “forum cred” of it, it’s expected and appreciated when things are done to keep the genre around and relevant as time passes. They want to have more people playing and enjoying the games more than they want to preserve their own status within a gatekept elite. But for a large number of these self appointed elites, it is more important to them to preserve that imagined version of the game and the status it grants them than it is for either the game or the genre itself to continue to exist.

As companies, the creators of these games will have to ask themselves if that's what's more important to them, too. And are they willing to risk losing what little fanbase they still have in order keep the franchises alive and to pursue their own artistic vision, as opposed to those of people 30 years ago? 

If not, then this spiral either ends with the total death of the genre, or with someone who is willing to take those risks taking the spot they once held, leaving them behind, and a beautiful part of the history of video games as an art form being lost in the pursuit of preserving it.

[cospinol]

TODAY’S EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Koku you amethyst time!!!!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 And it’s apparently the moment that the show’s staff have been waiting for just as eagerly as I have because it’s the best looking episode not just of this season but maybe… of the entire series since its inception…????!! I genuinely can’t think of another one that has Multiple dedicated cuts of detailed action in a row like the sequence from kyou kai snapping on the mountain road to the encounter between shin and kyou kai + rai do and koku’ou at kan ki’s camp, and certainly not one anywhere near as good looking, it’s such a treat…!!!!!!!

[quick aside, before I forget I want to add that rai do is addressing shin as ‘obocchan’ in the last cap above :DDD truly the gift that keeps on giving]

And anyways that’s without even touching on how good this sequence would be regardless of looks because it’s still Amethyst Plot time 🥰❤️💞❣️💓💍💘 Bi hei giving in to peer pressure in just the kind of moment of weakness that you can’t actually detest him for (of course you would want to believe him when he tells you it wasn’t a civilian village..), kyou kai absolutely fucking snapping, the cool head ten maintains between trying to hold shin back and immediately pivoting the hi shin unit to a defensive formation for the real possibility that shin and kyou kai actually start pvp against the kan ki army , and of course shin and kan ki putting their cards on the table :)))))

^ my favourite panel of him ever now animated!!!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 and my favourite moment in the exchange between them, shin’s is still yet to come (I think all his talk in this week’s episode about kan ki not being equipped to handle sei’s dream of unification *is* sweet and sincere but it’s also dumb and that’s why kan ki is able to refute him so easily; the point that really matters and where his moral stance becomes unassailable, for me, is in the fact that it’s all for hyou’s sake. there’s no counter-argument about what you may or may not be turning a blind eye to there, it’s the mandate made absolute and incorruptible instead…) but this is maybe my favourite line of kan ki’s ever… he’s just following through on the promise he made you; these are the rules you agreed to play by! 🥰🥰🥰 i don’t even need to go into the premium emycore aspect of ever part of this sequence lol, the indulgence of it all…

also I was pleasantly surprised to see that they preserved just about all all of the gore from the scenes covered in this week’s scenes; there are some minor changes (the zhao soldiers kan ki is having the saki clan interrogate early in the episode are shown a little less mutilated than they are in the manga, and there’s no nudity) but they really are minor which bodes pretty well for the saki clan artworks coming up soon :~) I think there’s a chance we might not see that scene until the week after next since next episode’s primary focus will of course be Bi Hei And The Hi Shin Unit as per the ep title, but i’m so curious to see what they do with it since the anime has *always* omitted saki and saki-adjacent activities in the past. but I won’t get ahead of myself when we still have all of bi hei’s crisis to savour first :D

also, in shin’s speech telling kan ki off, we got a little additional visual of ran dou from sanyou campaign! always on the lookout for scenes from s1-2 appearing in flashback in the current art style <3

and i really had forgotten what he looked like lol even though this is another scene I absolutely adore for similar reasons to the one in the camp in this episode - though there’s no mou ten around to step in and defend shin this time, of course… :)

[wowgamesonline]

World of War PC Game – The Ultimate Battle Experience

Gaming is a global passion, and war games are among the most popular genres. One standout is World of War, a game loved by players in the USA, UK, Japan, Canada, Korea, and France. With realistic combat, strategic gameplay, and intense action, this game offers a thrilling experience for all gamers.

If you’re a fan of war games, tactical missions, and adrenaline-filled battles, then World of War is a must-play. In this article, we’ll explore its gameplay, key features, and why it stands out from other crazy games.

What Is World of War?

World of War is a PC war game that immerses players in large-scale combat with realistic environments and intense missions. Whether you enjoy single-player campaigns or competitive multiplayer battles, this game will challenge your strategy, reflexes, and teamwork.

With diverse game modes, a vast arsenal of weapons, and lifelike graphics, World of War offers a truly immersive gaming experience. Players can upgrade their weapons, unlock advanced gear, and battle against players worldwide.

Why Gamers Love World of War

Here’s why World of War is a favorite among gamers:

1. Realistic Battlefield Experience

High-quality graphics, immersive sound effects, and dynamic physics create a true-to-life warzone.

Use advanced tactics like sniping, airstrikes, and artillery attacks to defeat your enemies.

2. Multiplayer Battles Full of Action

Compete in global PvP battles or team up with allies for cooperative gameplay.

Real-time combat ensures fast-paced and unpredictable matches.

3. Massive Arsenal of Weapons & Vehicles

Choose from a wide range of guns, grenades, and military equipment.

Command tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets to gain a tactical advantage.

4. Exciting Missions & Seasonal Events

Complete challenging missions to unlock upgrades and rewards.

Participate in seasonal events and special challenges to earn exclusive items.

How to Play World of War

Getting started with World of War is easy. Follow these steps:

Download & Install – Make sure your PC meets the game’s system requirements.

Create an Account – Sign up and log in.

Select a Game Mode – Choose between solo campaigns, multiplayer battles, or team missions.

Customize Your Loadout – Unlock and upgrade weapons to suit your playstyle.

Join a Clan – Work with other players in large-scale battles for greater rewards.

Other War Games to Check Out

If you enjoy World of War, try these other action-packed war games and crazy games:

Call of Duty: Warzone – Fast-paced battle royale gameplay.

Battlefield V – Large-scale warfare with immersive combat.

War Thunder – Control tanks, planes, and ships in epic battles.

Poki Games – Play a wide range of free online games, including war and shooting games.

Discover more at Poki Games, where you’ll find an extensive collection of crazy games, war simulators, and action-packed shooters.

Pro Tips to Win in World of War

Dominate the battlefield with these expert tips:

Learn Your Weapons – Understand the strengths and weaknesses of different guns.

Use Cover Wisely – Hide behind obstacles to avoid enemy fire.

Coordinate With Teammates – Work with your team to secure victory.

Upgrade Frequently – Keep your weapons and armor up to date.

Stay Aware – Watch enemy movements and adapt your tactics.

Conclusion

World of War stands out as one of the best PC war games, offering intense battles, realistic graphics, and strategic gameplay. Whether you prefer solo missions or multiplayer action, this game will keep you hooked.

For more exciting war and action games, visit Poki Games and explore a variety of crazy games, battle simulators, and shooters.

Get ready, enter the battlefield, and prove your skills in World of War!

VISIT HERE

[blackboxtheater]

I have once again voted for Mumpearl! I guess my prompt will be something to do with PvP, due to Mumbo's recent episodes

We tried team, but I don't think we will pull through for Mumpearl in the the Mumbo Jumbo ship bracket. We did still get 93 votes so that's not nothing.

But as my campaign stretches to an end, I share with you one final prompt....

So to be honest, the obvious plot of this where Mumbo and Pearl practice PVP or fight each other I just couldn't write because....well....I have a NSFW fic that's PVP related already half written and that was all I could think of. I won't dump porn into an anon ask response, but this ask did have me thinking about it again. So that might be coming soon as a separate fic...

But in the interim, I just wanted Mumbo and Pearl to be mace buddies. Sure precision and technique are important for PVP but have you considered "hitting you with giant hammer" as an alternative? Pearl has and she would love to spread the word.

The mace is just such a looney tunes ass weapons and watching both of them use it is hilarious. Also I imagine this as established relationship but you could read it as platonic.

⚔️ 💨 ⚔️

"Mumbo!" A familiar voice calls from above among his mountainside town. Or at least what he's finished of it so far.

It takes a second, picking over the tree roots and overgrowth of his forest floor, but eventually he can see Pearl's face peeking down from between the tree canopy above him. Everyone is right, he really should thin out the forest and put some more space between the trees. It would look better.

But the more pressing issue at the moment isn't the trees he needs to fix, it's the mischievous grin that Pearl is sporting, obvious from even this many blocks down.

"Pearl! Why are you- why are you lurking up there?"

"Where did you last set your spawn?"

"Right over there by the chests just in case I…Wait. I don't like that questions. Why do you want to know where I set my spawn? Pearl?"

But before he can inquire anymore about why Pearl wants to know about his spawn, or even protest the pretty obvious possibility that she is about to kill him, Pearl is, for lack of a better word, launching herself up in the air and plummeting towards him.

The next thing he knows he's starting up at the sky from his bed.

"You disintegrated!" Pearl is shouting, her absolutely giddy glee obvious not only in the way her voice bounces off the trees and boulders of his base, but also in the way she's practically jumping around, swinging a truly massive looking weapon.

"What was that for? And what on earth is that?"

"It's a mace!" Pearl says proudly, twirling the shimmering blue rod and the giant blunt object on the end of it towards him like it's nothing.

"I had on diamond armor! And it just, you obliterated me!"

He can still hear the shrill in his voice, his reaction sitting somewhere between shocked, baffled, and honestly maybe a little offended. He's not good at PVP but it's one thing to lose and another to be pulverized with all the gear from his inventory scattered….up in the trees?

"And why is my gear….everywhere?"

That knocks him solidly into the baffled and confused camp.

His gear should absolutely not be stuck up in a tree. Now that is odd.

"It's from the breeze rods! They send your stuff flying!"

"Pearl wait!"

But it's too late, she's already sent a wind charge out into the forest, rustling the leaves, spooking the birds, and sending the last of his gear tumbling towards the river.

After a quick scramble from both of them to grab the rest of Mumbo's items before they get swept away by the current, Pearl turns to him with the a positively buzzing, almost manic look in her eye.

"Do you want to try it?" She asks, twirling the weapon around again in her hands.

"The mace? What do you want me to try the mace on?"

"Me of course! I killed you, now you can kill me!"

The chipper way Pearl suggests he should just murder turns him into nothing but a sputtering mess.

"I can't kill- I mean I don’t want to be also, come on Pearl. You've seen my PVP skills. I doubt I would even be able to hit you."

"Naaaahhhh," she shrugs like his miserable PVP skills aren’t one of his most memorable qualities.

"Come on. It doesn't take much to get the hang of it, and if you're up high enough you only have to hit once. Come on. It's so fun, try it. Just once. Just try it once."

It should probably make Mumbo a little more worried that Pearl is using her pleading, puppy dog eyes on him to convince him to try to one-shot kill her from a cliff. But he's never been able to say no to that face, whether it's when she's asking him to give his utterly useless feedback on her builds or when she asks for help with her newest redstone ideas. But the end result of Mumbo saying yes to that look is usually just a long day trying to automate the inner working of Bin-Go or getting dragged to the Nether, not Pearl asking him to fail miserably at murdering her.

"Please? I promise its really fun…" she blinks at him, batting her eyelashes so dramatically its come back around to comical.

"I'll try but-"

"Yes!" she shouts, shoving the giant weapon into his hands.

"Now go climb the cliff, I'll reset my spawn!"

And before Mumbo can ask any further questions, Pearl is jumping over trickling streams and mushrooms along his forest floor to go set her spawn at his bed.

⚔️ 💨 ⚔️

"Just jump and aim for me!" Pearl calls up from the bottom of the cliff, staying perfectly still beneath him to make it the easiest shot possible.

"Okay. I'm going to do it. I'm going to jump. I'm really, I'm really going to go this time. Okay. One, two, three!"

Mumbo hurls himself off the edge of the cliff, plummeting towards the ground with the kind of speed he forgets about after wearing elytra for so many weeks. But shockingly, the mace swings down at the right time, and he makes contact with Pearl's armor for just enough time for him feel the resistance as it collides with her before Mumbo is thrown back into the air by what feels like an explosion in his hands.

In his shock, he lets go of the mace midair, but the weight of it pulls it to the ground right next to him as he lands flat on his ass on the forest floor.

"You did it! Isn't that so fun!" Pearl calls out, reappearing through the trees.

"That was easier that trying to hit someone with a sword. I just don't think I was expecting the kick back," he clarifies with a laugh, hauling the mace out of the dirt and shaking the leaves and debris from his pants as he stands up.

"Oh come on, that’s the fun part!" Pearl says, eagerly taking the mace as he offers it back to her.

"Want to go kill the rest of the hermits?" She asks, the mischievous look back in her eye as she smiles at him.

And well, Mumbo never has been good at saying no to Pearl.

⚔️ 💨 ⚔️

Mumbo knows he'll never be as good as Pearl at PVP. There are lots of things they have in common, lots of things they do together that they both enjoy, but he accepted a long time ago that PVP just wasn't going to be one of them. She would try to help him out and give him pointers if he needed them, but he was mostly a hopeless case. Always had been. He's good enough to kill creepers and phantoms and that's the best he'll probably ever be. So if Pearl wanted to really spend the day fighting, Mumbo knew he just simply wasn't going to be the person she did that with.

So this mace nonsense is a nice change.

It's nice that he can at least hold his own enough with the new weapon so that he can be the one Pearl wants to run around with on the server causing chaos. Maybe he wasn't her first choice, considering Joel or Gem or anyone else might have been more of a natural with the mace. But he hasn’t had this kind of chaotic, explosive fun since end crystals in season 8 and he has to say he missed it.

But speaking of Joel, Pearl is the one who spots him moving between buildings as they fly over his city, motioning for Mumbo to join her as she banks to land along the edge of his skyscrapers.

"You got this," she whispers, pulling the mace from her inventory to hand it to Mumbo.

"Pearl! I do not got this. I very much do not have this. I'm going to miss him and then he'll know we're here and ruin the whole surprise."

"But if you hit him, it will be hilarious," she counters, eyebrow raised at Mumbo as if daring him to say that it won't be fun to pulverize Joel.

"But Joel is good at this stuff," Mumbo mumbles even as he takes the mace from Pearl's hands, adjusting his grip around the smooth handle.

"He's just going to make fun of me if I miss," he continues, mostly joking because Joel will absolutely make fun of him for missing, but a little honest too because that's not exactly something Mumbo would look forward to experiencing.

"If he does that, I'll just obliterate him."

It's the simplicity of Pearl's statement that draws the bark of a laugh out of Mumbo. Because that does make it a little easier. If Joel tries to say Mumbo needs to work on his PVP skills then Pearl can bonk him once with the mace and he'll have to come all the way back from his spawn to yell at them.

Admittedly, he's really starting to see the appeal of this new weapon.

It takes another minute for Joel to get into the right position below them and miraculously he doesn’t move before Mumbo finally works up the courage to jump. When Mumbo makes contact again with the heavy core at the end of the mace, he can't stop his laugh from bursting out of him even as he gets thrown in the air once again.

Mumbo has to admit this is a pretty great way to sneak up on people. He gets a decent chance at killing them and he gets to watch them disintegrate? He gets why Pearl likes this new weapon even if he ends up tumbling backwards across the ground each time he lands a hit. 

Joel thankfully is nowhere to be found as Pearl slowly drifts down towards the ground.

"See, I told you that you had this!"

She almost sounds proud as she pulls a shulker from her inventory to start storing Joel's scattered items, tossing in a quick note in that if he wants to know what hit him he can come track Pearl and Mumbo down for a rematch.

"Come on," Pearl smiles, offering her hand to drag Mumbo along on the next phase of this adventure.

"Xisuma was talking about these heavy cores last week in the shopping district so I really want to go kill him too. I think he'd love it," Pearl says, and Mumbo can't help but smile back at her. He can't argue with that logic, now can he?

So he takes her hand, swings the mace over his shoulders, and followers her down and out of Joel's city as they take off across the sever in search of their unsuspecting admin.

⚔️ 💨 ⚔️

Of course, when Pearl crashes into an Xisuma a few minutes later, sending the admin's stuff flying off in every direction, she lands perfectly on her feet.

So maybe Mumbo was a little early in saying he was good as using the mace.

But it doesn’t change the hilariously startled noise Xisuma makes as he sits up in bed and looks at them with big excited eyes through his helmet, so Mumbo can’t complain that much. 

[alechanoura]

Satoshi Strike Force: The Future of Play-to-Earn FPS Gaming 🎮🚀

The gaming industry is evolving, and Satoshi Strike Force (SSF) is at the forefront of this transformation. By combining NFT-powered asset ownership, play-to-earn mechanics, and high-stakes FPS battles, SSF is revolutionizing how players interact with digital assets. Unlike traditional FPS games, where in-game items remain locked within centralized servers, SSF gives players full control over their digital assets, allowing them to trade, sell, and profit from their gaming achievements.

Traditional gaming has long kept players’ in-game efforts tied to proprietary platforms, leaving little room for transaction, exchange, or real ownership. Satoshi Strike Force disrupts this model by utilizing blockchain technology to ensure every in-game asset you earn or acquire is uniquely yours, stored securely as an NFT. This empowers players to truly own their gear, weaponry, and characters, transforming gameplay achievements into valuable, tradable assets.

Are you ready to compete, earn, and dominate in the world’s first blockchain-powered FPS?

🔥 Why SSF is the Ultimate Blockchain FPS? 🔥

🎮 Cyberpunk-Inspired Story Mode Step into a futuristic battleground and uncover the secrets of Satoshi Nakamoto in a high-intensity single-player campaign filled with hacking, espionage, and digital warfare.

⚔️ 5v5 Competitive Multiplayer Battles Engage in fast-paced PvP combat in arenas like Colosseum, Bastion, and Citadel, where strategy, precision, and teamwork lead to victory.

🛠 NFT-Powered Digital Ownership Every weapon, skin, and character in SSF is minted as an NFT, ensuring players have full ownership and can trade, sell, or stake them for real-world rewards.

💰 Play-to-Earn Economy SSF rewards players with $SSF tokens and exclusive NFTs through ranked matches, staking, and leaderboard achievements, turning game time into financial opportunity.

🤖 Cyberfunks vs. Mechanoids: Choose Your Faction

Cyberfunks – Tactical warriors using stealth, agility, and digital infiltration to outmaneuver their enemies.

Mechanoids – Heavy-armored warriors equipped with brute-force tactics and advanced firepower.

💎 The $SSF Token: Powering the SSF Ecosystem

The $SSF token is the foundation of the SSF gaming economy, enabling staking opportunities, NFT transactions, and in-game rewards.

💰 Total Supply – 100,000,000 SSF 🏆 Player Rewards – 16% allocated for in-game earnings 📈 Staking Incentives – Earn 18.18% APY for staking SSF tokens 🛍 NFT Marketplace – Buy, sell, and trade weapons, skins, and in-game assets with real-world value

🚀 SSF Roadmap: The Future of Blockchain Gaming

🎮 Beta Launch – January 22, 2025 – Get exclusive early access to SSF’s blockchain-integrated FPS experience. 📱 Multi-Platform Expansion – SSF will be available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS, and Android. 🔗 NFT Marketplace Launch – A decentralized trading platform where players can buy, sell, and enhance their in-game assets. 📢 Token Listings for $SSF – The $SSF token will soon be listed on major decentralized exchanges, ensuring liquidity and accessibility.

🚀 Join the SSF Gaming Revolution Today!

🌐 Official Website – Visit Here🚀 Follow for Updates – Twitter | Telegram 💰 Join the Token Sales – SSF Sales Page

🔥 Final Thoughts: Own, Earn, and Conquer the Future of Gaming

Satoshi Strike Force isn’t just another shooter—it’s the next evolution of blockchain gaming. With NFT-powered ownership, play-to-earn incentives, and high-intensity multiplayer combat, SSF is setting a new benchmark for FPS gaming.

💎 Don’t just play—own, earn, and dominate. Join Satoshi Strike Force today and be part of gaming’s next evolution! 🚀🎮

Solana wallet address:  GSXEF1F4e4nhEgVAZE6WiWzyzaydPQefZUeKNfXgxPpu

[anikagyar]

Satoshi Strike Force: The Play-to-Earn FPS That Puts You in Control 🎮🚀

The gaming world is on the brink of a paradigm shift, and Satoshi Strike Force (SSF) is at the forefront of this transformation. By combining the thrill of first-person shooter (FPS) gameplay with the groundbreaking potential of blockchain technology, SSF offers an unparalleled gaming experience where you are truly in control. In this revolutionary game, you don’t just play—you own, earn, and command your destiny like never before.

In traditional gaming, players invest countless hours, yet often find themselves with nothing to show for their efforts when all is said and done. With SSF, every action you take within the game translates into tangible rewards that have real-world value. This is not just about playing and having fun—it's about investing in a digital economy where your skills and strategies pay off in more ways than one.

Are you ready to compete, earn, and dominate in the world’s first blockchain-powered FPS?

🔥 Why SSF is the Future of FPS Gaming? 🔥

🎮 Cyberpunk-Inspired Story Mode Immerse yourself in a futuristic world of cyber warfare and uncover the secrets of Satoshi Nakamoto in a gripping single-player campaign filled with hacking, espionage, and combat.

⚔️ 5v5 Competitive Multiplayer Battles Engage in high-intensity PvP combat across legendary battle arenas like Colosseum, Bastion, and Citadel, where only the strongest teams will rise to the top.

🛠 NFT-Powered Digital Ownership Unlike traditional FPS games, SSF ensures true asset ownership—every weapon, skin, and character is minted as an NFT, meaning players can trade, sell, and stake them for real-world rewards.

💰 Play-to-Earn Economy SSF rewards players with $SSF tokens and exclusive NFTs through ranked matches, staking, and leaderboard achievements, transforming gameplay into financial opportunity.

🤖 Cyberfunks vs. Mechanoids: Choose Your Side

Cyberfunks – Tactical warriors who use stealth, agility, and digital infiltration to outmaneuver their enemies.

Mechanoids – Heavy-armored warriors equipped with brute-force tactics and advanced firepower.

💎 The $SSF Token: The Core of the SSF Economy

The $SSF token fuels the SSF gaming ecosystem, providing staking opportunities, NFT transactions, and in-game rewards.

💰 Total Supply – 100,000,000 SSF 🏆 Player Rewards – 16% allocated for in-game earnings 📈 Staking Incentives – Earn 18.18% APY for staking SSF tokens 🛍 NFT Marketplace – Buy, sell, and trade weapons, skins, and in-game assets for real-world value

🚀 SSF Roadmap: What’s Next?

🎮 Beta Launch – January 22, 2025 – Get exclusive early access to SSF’s blockchain-powered FPS experience. 📱 Multi-Platform Expansion – SSF will be available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS, and Android. 🔗 NFT Marketplace Launch – A decentralized marketplace where players can buy, sell, and enhance their in-game assets. 📢 Token Listings for $SSF – The $SSF token will soon be available on major decentralized exchanges, ensuring liquidity and accessibility.

🚀 Join the SSF Gaming Revolution Today!

🌐 Official Website – Visit Here🚀 Follow for Updates – Twitter | Telegram 💰 Join the Token Sales – SSF Sales Page

🔥 Final Thoughts: Own, Earn, and Dominate the Battlefield

Satoshi Strike Force isn’t just another shooter—it’s a revolution in blockchain gaming. With NFT-powered ownership, play-to-earn incentives, and high-intensity multiplayer combat, SSF is setting a new benchmark for the gaming industry.

💎 Don’t just play—own, earn, and dominate. Join Satoshi Strike Force today and be part of gaming’s next evolution! 🚀🎮

Solana wallet address: 9e1huULd31KfxRXRfFfSiSBKpj4oXNkzMCMkhchZyiNE

[donkuri]

extremely rambly post dawntrail thoughts. mega spoilers. I sound like such a hater, but i promise i'm not <3

90-95(ish)

For the most part I enjoyed the beginning half of the expansion, in all honesty there were (many) times that it all felt a bit naive and twee, someone referred to it as feeling a bit like an afterschool special and I couldn't agree more. For an expansion coming of the back of Endwalker and how it engaged with difficult subject matter in (in my opinion) a very thoughtful and meaningful way, Dawntrail felt a bit shallow in comparison. Which would not be a problem, I am in no way saying every expac has to have the same depth and Endwalker (far from it, that would be exhausting), but Dawntrail constantly feels like it's trying so very hard to be deep. A message is all well and good, but please don't expect me to be impressed with "don't hurt others ^_^ ever. ^_^" I realize also that the vibe was very likely exentuated to be 'subverted' (not really) in the second half of the story, but that didn't stop it from feeling patronizing and trite for the first chunk. I realize this sounds soo hatery and I really did enjoy the story, going into it i expected a lighter 'fun-adventure' vibe which we definitely got, However (😖) i thinkk the writing team is coming up against the one piece problem, mainly, there are too many characters and they don't know what to do with them. Frankly, it feels extremely weird to have the scions parsled out piece by piece into the msq, I realize in order to tell more stories other characters need to be introduced, which in turn can make the characters we know redundant. But, having estinien show up for literally what feels like about 5 total minutes of the expansion is baffling. Personally, I think the solution to this is more character moments, we got a couple with wuk lamat and company, but to me some of the best moments in endwalker were when we just get to hang out with our buddies, something like that could have gone a looong way for me to feel like they were actually part of the story. honestly, even having G'raha just be on continent would have been something, just have him bum around the city i don't know.. let me get skewers with estinien, let me go tidepooling with urianger, little character moments go a long way for making a story feel lived in, and i think dawntrail was slightly lacking in that regard. In the final cutscene erenville says the whole city partied for 3 days and 3 nights, let me go! let me get wine-drunk with y'shtola and have a taco eating contest with Alisaie. there was even a perfect break built in before the dawnservant ceremony, let me hang out with my pixelated friendsss orz...

95-100

In terms of the second half of the expansion, I enjoyed it as well, the general consensus seems to be that the second half is the stronger one, and I don't think I disagree. The theming is cool (r.i.p. to the people that hated the recent pvp gear...) and I'm glad soken has started to embrace his gift for making incredible techno music. But on the topic of music... what the hell is that theme man. I love ffxiv music, truly truly I do but, I cannot come up with anything but 'bad' to describe that fucking song. I've heard it described as disney, and like a song from a political ralley, i'll dare to combine the two and say it sounds like disney produced the campaign song for kamala harris 2028. When it first crops up during the coronation ceremony i was like "wow thats not good at all.." but during the train montage it literally made me laugh out loud, and during the ending credits i was just kinda bummed. The expansion theme itself (from the trailer) is fucking awesome though, no notes 👌

gulool ja- I truly truly adore him, i don't care if he's a marketable moeblob, that's my baby nephew, I do however have some thoughts.. First of all, I was honestly hoping for a failed/discarded clone reveal, personally that makes more sense to me considering Alexandria's technology instead of some random Mamool Ja woman also being stuck there deciding to bone down on zoraal ja, unless he can do asexual reproduction, in which case, slay. But I think a clone angle could have been an interesting entry point on a discussion of nature vs nurture, would zoraal ja raised away from the burden of expectation of the miracle son grow into the despot that he did? I do think it was insane that he just, stayed the boy king, literally a terrible idea considering it's heavily implied the burden of his father's legacy is what caused zoraal ja to break bad but okay... AND he shoulda moved to tural and gotten to play with the other mamool ja kids dammit 😣

the issue of Zoraal Ja- For all the knowledge we have he was ostensibly raised with a loving family, gulool ja ja seemed to be a good father on most if not all accounts, so why did Zoraal ja turn out like he did? was it an instance of that slimy advisor dude raising him like namikka did for wuk lamat? I think in general Zoraal ja wasn't afforded a lot of grace as a character, and generally treated as pretty wholly evil until his death-floor speech. I, personally don't find that very compelling, or even that it makes much sense. You never get an insight really as to *Why* he's doing what he's doing, 'he wants to surpass his father' ok, but why is world domination the only way he can think to do so? I had thought for a bit near the beginning of the expac that he'd have a similar character to Koana, on that while he may be outwardly cold towards his siblings, he'd still love and care for them, but those thoughts went out the window after the cook-off. I think he was underdeveloped and could have used a little more consideration when creating his motivation and personality. Or at least more of a backstory, a lot of Koana's personal beliefs were formed by his studying in sharlayan, did zoraal ja have a similar experience that shaped his worldview? give me something... anything...

I have heard a lot of criticism surrounding the villain of the expac (store brand metion) a lot of which I think is fair, but whats kind of funny to me is seemingly she didn't really do anything too heinous in my opinion... Sure, she participated in the initial invasion of tural, but that was absolutely gonna happen anyway, and her grand fusion plan didn't work (as near as I can tell) in the end anyway. I saw someone pissed that she got 'redeemed' but honestly, I don't think she had anything she needed to been redeemed for. In terms of her motivation, I personally found her interesting, But, I also realize that I find her interesting because of how I characterize my wol, instead of how she's actually written, so I don't think that can be used in her favor (sorry sphene, I don't think it should be a requirement to have 30k+ words of oc lore to enjoy a villain) But she really did feel like a knock-off metion, which really only was to her detriment. I think the expac hot of the heels of Endwalker (my favorite expac) should be doing all it can to avoid direct comparison between the two, and Sphene as a whole invites that.

but it was goood, right now I'd rank it at a solid #3

#1 Endwalker

#2 Shadowbringers

#3 Dawntrail

#4 Stormblood

#5 Heavensward

#6 ARR

I think I'm gonna new game plus and replay the other expacs this summer (yippie unemployment ♥️) so my opinion might change in hindsight, currently its pretty damn close with Stormblood imo

I hope everyone had just as much fun with Dawntrail as I did, and I'm excited to see where we go from here!

[thoughtsonargentdawn]

On the matter of "Faction Conflict" in roleplay.

Hello good readers one and all, it has been a bit of time. I have for the most part been simply busy RPing or generally engaging with that strange realm called 'real life'. I was given a drop about the latest weirdposting thread courtesy of Hatescale/Dargeus/Santern regarding his effusive praise, or some may say delusion, for Faction Conflict RP, or WarRP I suppose you could call it.

RP PvP has always been contentious on Argent Dawn, going as far back as the fabled on and off conflicts between the 'North' Rpers and whatever brand of Undead or Blood Elf roleplayers were present. It has been a source of more drama and discourse rather than actual character development and narrative storytelling. Don't let anyone otherwise tell you. It can be a fun distraction and has been the source of many hilarious memes over the long years of Argent Dawn's existence but it cannot seriously be considered on the same level as normal RP.

I noticed that some friends of mine have pointed out that WarRP is no better than other forms of roleplay that don't really fit with the setting. We're talking on the level of Witcher RP, GoT RP, Boardwalk Empire RP. That is certainly the case these days. The lore is an ever evolving and changing - for better or worse- thing. The era of BIG WAR has passed with Legion and BFA.

But there are a handful of groups - you know who I mean - who are adamant on remaining locked into this clown fiesta of an RP mode. Usually I am of the opinion as those who may have read previous posts I've made, that there's a balance to strike between anything goes and grounded in the setting. Lets not kid ourselves that the primary pursuers of RP PvP are after a power trip rather than actual RP interaction, the mechanics behind it entirely gear towards your standard toxic pvp bros who think that the only meaningful interaction is /duel. Why not settle your differences in Counterstrike? A far more balanced game mechanically.

Even that alone isn't truly the issue, strange players can do strange things as long as they're not infringing on anyone else as far as I care. What truly is the problem is that they elevate their - type - of RP as the sole and only true arbiter of RP, the litmus test for self-awareness, to quote Santern himself.

Had this been in Legion or BFA, sure I'd say WarRP has a place but it's time has long passed. It really started during WoD when the lack of actual expansion relevant material that players could engage in forced players to 'write' their own 'lore'. The results being that many lazy roleplayers got hooked on the quick fix of RP PvP campaigns and did no upkeep on their own guilds, only thriving from one campaign to the other and even recruiting non-roleplayers to make sure that they 'won' their fights.

So by all means engage in your WarRP, but you're no better than the 'Darkshire RPers' - whatever that is meant to mean - or any other niche community.

[linuxgamenews]

Men of War II real-time strategy just announced the Release Date

Men of War II WWII real-time strategy game now has a release date for Linux and Windows PC. Thanks thanks to the skilled team at Best Way for making it all happen. Due to makes its way onto both Steam and Humble Store soon. Big news, Men of War II WWII RTS is launching on Linux, May 15, 2024. It's been exactly ten years since the Men of War: Assault Squad 2 release. So this date is a special nod to long-time fans. After getting a lot of input from all of you during last year's playtests, the team at Best Way decided to take a bit more time to make sure everything in the new title works well. Thanks to your feedback, they've made a ton of technical upgrades, fixed bugs, and even enhanced the audio and visuals. They really went the extra mile! So, how does Men of War II highlight the details of WWII? Well, you'll get to play as one of three nations: the Soviets, American's, or the Third Reich. Each one has its own unique story campaign. There’s more, too – such as two historical campaigns, a dynamic Conquest campaign, and a Raid mode that's similar to skirmish. If you like teaming up with friends, you'll be happy to know that all the single-player content can be played in co-op with up to five players. Plus, there are tons of multiplayer options, whether you're into PvP or PvE, and even ranked matches across three different battle setups.

Men of War II | Release Date Reveal

The upcoming Men of War II really steps up its game in providing a deep WWII strategy experience. There’s a massive variety of units to command, all meticulously designed with historical accuracy. You’ll also find that the enemy AI is smarter, making for some truly challenging battles. The visuals and sound are better, which really pulls you into the action. And for those who like to tweak their playing experience, there are loads of customizable options and modes. Whether you’re a hardcore strategist or just looking to have some fun, there's something here for everyone. Men of War II real-time strategy game will launch on Linux and Windows PC on both Steam and Humble Store. It’s priced at $44.99 USD / £37.99 GBP / €44.99. Can't wait to dive in and see how these enhancements really change the way we play. Let me know in the comments what you’re most excited about!

[an-aussie-button-masher]

Who Needs PvP? Five of the Latest and Greatest Singleplayer Adventures

   What’s the most annoying aspect of modern gaming? Is it all the greedy battle passes and microtransactions? The incessant toxicity of online playerbases? Games demanding your endless interaction with constant daily or weekly challenges that guilt you for deciding to play anything else? It’s probably a combination of all of the above, really. Well, if you’re looking for a break from all that games-as-a-service online nonsense, seeking something a bit more casual, why not try these singleplayer adventures?   These are a handful of the latest and greatest solo games, all enjoyable offline with no toxicity or microtransactions in sight. Of course, while they’re increasingly outnumbered by online titles, there’s still far too many of these types of games to list here - so, I decided to gather a small yet diverse variety to show off here: a sprawling fantasy RPG with endless possibilities, an action-packed rhythm platformer, a creepy eldritch fishing game, a pantheon-slaying titan of storytelling, and a game where you play as a cat. Take a look for yourself!

Baldur’s Gate 3    Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you’ve definitely at least heard of this game - especially after it won 2023’s Game of the Year. Baldur’s Gate 3 is about as close as it gets to a full Dungeons & Dragons campaign on your PC or console - no need to organise all your friends to show up for a campaign session! In this massive RPG, you can play as a handful of pre-set characters, all with their own expansive stories and countless unique interactions, or make your own from a dozen different races and classes. Want to be a Fighter? A Wizard? Barbarian? Cleric? Bard? Some unholy mashup of everything? Perhaps you’ll play as a human, or an elf, or a gnome, half-orc, or dragonborn - there’s a practically endless list of possibilities, and that’s just in the character select screen!   Everything you do has some kind of impact on the hours of storytelling: who will you help, and who will you fight? Where will you go? What sides will you take in this absolute narrative feat? There’s an overarching plot, but the path you take through it is entirely yours to decide - for better or worse.

Hi-Fi Rush    Bethesda sneakily released this bumping rhythmic platformer early in 2023, and it quickly became a number-one hit. Play as Chai, a bit of a loser with ambitious dreams of becoming a rockstar - and when he accidentally gets his music player implanted into his heart and the whole world around him starts moving to the beat, those dreams start to literally become reality. Suddenly, Chai’s fighting off a dark corporate conspiracy with the power of music, friendship, and blunt force trauma with a sick guitar made of magnetised garbage. In this game, everything - everything - moves, jumps, flashes and swings to the rhythm of the music playing from Chai’s heart, and moving yourself and your attacks in time makes you stronger and earn higher scores.   Hi-Fi Rush is truly an earnest throwback to old-fashioned straightforward action platforming, with a linear level-after-level structure and no side quests or unnecessary padding to get in the way of the story or the rapid-tempo gameplay. It’s got a beautifully colourful and chaotic artstyle, genuinely entertaining characters and hilarious writing, and of course, a banging soundtrack to top it all off.

Dredge    Let’s take things down a notch for those looking for something a little more casual and slower-paced - assuming you can keep your anxiety in check, that is. Dredge is a chilling eldritch cosmic horror story, disguised as a simple little fishing game. Sail out in your little tugboat, pull up any fish you find (don’t worry about the increasingly-creepy and disfigured catches, it’s probably just your imagination) and make absolutely sure you return to port before dark - you’re not alone out there. You might catch glimpses of things much older and much bigger shifting just beneath the waves; how much of it is really there, and how much is just your paranoia getting the better of you? Are you willing to take the risk that there’s nothing really there…or that it didn’t see you?   Once you start collecting some decidedly-unnerving artefacts in the waters, a puzzling storyline begins to take shape, capped off with a stunning twist and a dangerous choice to make…or, you can just mind your own business and keep busy catching and selling all the fish from day to day, upgrading your boat and relaxing on the mostly-calm ocean. Just mind those lights in the fog - pretty sure that isn’t a town in the distance…

God of War: Ragnarök    Now, back to something a bit more blood-pumping with a true linear action titan - God of War: Ragnarök. Kratos, the former god-butchering Ghost of Sparta, is back, and (reluctantly) doing what he does best as he faces off the might of the Norse gods including Thor, Heimdall, and Odin himself, alongside his growing son Atreus. Between all the enemy-slaughtering and gallivanting across the Nine Realms, Ragnarök tells an emotional and engaging narrative of a father not wanting to lose his son, fighting against fate itself to protect his boy just a little longer. The game features graphics and visuals as gorgeous as its’ writing and acting is brilliant - it’s little wonder why Christopher Judge won 2022’s Best Performance as Kratos.   Besides the story is the fast-paced complex combat system God of War fans know and love, with Atreus joining his father as a playable character with his own array of skills and attacks; time to get that hand-eye coordination up! For returning players looking for a good reason to jump back into action, a recent DLC expansion adds a brand-new challenging mode if you’re after a true test of skill in the hallowed battlegrounds of Valhalla.

Stray    This is a game where you play as a cat. Need I say more? Well, if the feline gimmick isn’t enough to interest you, how about a surprisingly fascinating world and endearing characters? Stray pits the cutest protagonist in gaming against a dark, treacherous world that’s much, much bigger from the perspective of our tiny fuzzy hero. In this game, you’ll climb, jump and sneak across a neon-lit city populated entirely by robots, all carrying on with their jobs long after humanity is gone in a tale that explores questions of sentience and societal growth - and collapse.   Come for the adorable little kitty, but stay for the interesting story, beautifully haunting visual style, quirky robotic characters and some thought-provoking puzzles. How far can this cat go to reunite with its lost family? Will this unlikely hero be the key to helping its new mechanical friends find freedom from the massive locked-down city? What happened to humanity in the first place? There’s a lot of questions to answer, and yet you’re just a cat. Additionally, the game also features the best button prompt ever: Press O to Meow!

   Like I said, there’s plenty more solo adventure games to be found beyond these standout examples - which one is your favourite? Are there any more worthy additions to this list you know? Let’s hear it! Feedback, reblogs and likes are all much appreciated!   Thanks for reading!

An Aussie Button-Masher

[satoshi-mochida]

HARDCORE MECHA coming to Xbox One on December 14

Gematsu Source

Publisher E-Home Entertainment Development and developer RocketPunch Games will release an Xbox One version of side-scrolling action game HARDCORE MECHA via Microsoft Store on December 14 for $24.99, the companies announced. Pre-orders are available now at a discount price of $19.99.

HARDCORE MECHA is currently available for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

HARDCORE MECHA is a 2D platformer action focusing on a better handling. The Campaign mode offers rich gameplay and seamless in-game cut-scenes for an immersive experience. Choose your favorite mecha, experience the fast-paced hardcore competitive battle of steel in Multiplayer!

Story

A.D. 2221 Neo U.N. founded several permanent colonies on mars with the help of the natural wormhole WM-01. The industrial products and resources produced by these colonies have ensured the prosperity of the mankind after the civil war. Tarethur O’Connell is an ACE pilot for Hardcore Defense Corp. The company has undertaken the commission by the U.N.F. to search for the missing intelligence officer “A” in Mars. During the mission, Tarethur and his teammates gradually discovered that this seemingly simple mission has harbored an even greater crisis. The continuous battles and enemy with different goals are all coming at him. In this overwhelming conflicts and warfare, Tarethur starts to re-think about what he is fighting for…

Campaign Mode

Well-Polished Vivid Mecha World – The campaign mode includes eight chapters and 18 levels in total. As the story develops, you will encounter more than 50 types of enemy mechas with various designs and details in all kinds of scenes like mineshaft, underwater, urban, and space. Some levels even allow you to exit the mecha and infiltrate behind enemy line. Of course, you won’t just have one single personal ride, you may develop and customize various new gears and focus accessory in between the missions.

Seamless Story Immersion – The unique animations with the seamless transition between the 2D platform game scenes have a total duration of 40 minutes, the full-length voice acting provides a unique immersive storytelling experience.

Stunning Highly Polished 2D Animations – The detailed skeletal animation with a unique impression of power will fully showcase the characteristics of each mecha. The smooth and natural movements have also laid a good foundation for the fine handling experience. Natural 2D rotating animation, the use of visual deception like dislocation and timely switched elements have brought out a visual effect like 3D artwork.

Survival Simulation

Survive, Breakthrough, Challenge Yourself – Face endless enemies in these everchanging battlefields, acquire simulation points and gear chests.As the enemy waves goes up, there are even bosses coming in! Let them see what you are truly made of!

Develop, Reinforce, Equip Freely – Enhance every attribute of your beloved mechas using simulation points acquired in the battle. Enhance specific attributes to a certain level unlocks new mechas! Equip primary weapons and mods acquired in the battle, push your mechas beyond the enhancement limit. (Some special mechas can only equip mods but not primary weapons)

Research, Unlock, Rich Choices – Unlock and drive in total of 42 mechas with different designs by enhancing prior mechas or reaching certain waves. Try out their unique combat tactics! You ready? ACE pilots, come push yourself and your beloved mechas to the limit!

Multiplayer Mode

Various Mechas – American style, Japanese style, Super style, Realistic style, there are dozens of mechas of all kinds of styles available. Each mecha has its own unique tactical value, only the player who has completely grasped the features of each mecha can fully bring out their maximum combat effectiveness. What type of Mecha is the best? Prove it with your hands in PVP mode!

Challenge Against Mecha with Mortal Flesh – The pilot can be controlled to eject from the mecha and work alone in critical moment with proper strategy, it will absolutely be a force on the battlefield that cannot be underestimated.

Four Times the Fun – Apart from online player-versus-player battles, this game also enables users to play against each other with local split-screen. One purchase, four times the fun!

Watch a new trailer below.

Xbox One Announce Trailer