I was going to make this video sooner but I wanted to give Season 3 of Warzone 2.0 a real chance to make an impression on me. And while that was happening, it goes without saying, this Season has been the most destructive update the CoD community has ever seen. You've probably seen the comments swirling around Twitter and YouTube — the CoD community has a right to be angry. Even the CoD shills and influencers are sensing the changing winds — apologies and pivots are being lobbed left and right. No one can spin this update as good — especially considering the hype surrounding it. https://twitter.com/ModernWarzone/status/1646229799105331208 https://twitter.com/charlieINTEL/status/1646556919752949761 Streamers are dropping this game from their rotations or resorting to farming content through spectating and reacting to other players — no one seems to want to play. Warzone 2.0 is so down bad right now, Activision is rushing another "free week of multiplayer" promo to pump those numbers. https://twitter.com/charlieINTEL/status/1648371071031164954 They're also pushing out a tone-deaf survey which can be summed up as, "Do you guys really think movement is a problem?" https://twitter.com/ModernWarzone/status/1648454334185865218 How is it so difficult to understand the CoD community's Warzone 2.0 critiques? The first Warzone captured both the hardcore and casual player bases. The new Warzone has lost the hardcore and casual player bases. It turns out the hardcore community was right. It's not all bad though. There's a phrase floating around the CoD sphere that I think gives Season 3 its props. "Steps in the right direction." It can't be denied that Infinity Ward and the cabal are tweaking Call of Duty's movement in the right direction. It's a painful drip feed, but they are trying. After letting Season 3 of Warzone 2.0 breathe, a lot of the hate it's getting is justified. But there is hope. The game doesn't feel worse. That's the greatest compliment I can give right now. The update accelerated the dolphin dive and slide timings, and while I've seen the video comparisons, I rarely use those mechanics when I play. The overall movement doesn't feel any faster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-9_8NwlD8c The biggest change in Season 3 had nothing to do with movement directly, in my opinion. In Season 2, they gave us more Buy Stations which gave us more UAVs. In this latest update, they added UAV towers. And just like with Season 2, the encounter frequency has definitely gone up. The game's pacing feels faster. I'm starting to see one of the telltale signs of a well-developed battle royale — third-partying. Warzone 2.0 is starting to feel like a Call of Duty game that happens to be a battle royale again. As for shooting, I don't think anyone can ever have any solid opinions on the weapons in any direction — better or worse. There will never be a consistent TTK in this game. Not like other arcade shooters where you can predict when an opponent should go down from muscle memory alone. The attachments, weapon damaging, and effective ranges are never going to feel accurate as long as the servers remain dog water and the alleged EOMM (engagement optimized matchmaking) is messing with real-time damage modeling. The best the CoD community can do is search for, and copy, the meta every month. #gameplay #gaming #fps #fpsgames #newgameplay #gamer #firstpersonshooter #gamingvideos #gamingcommunity #videogames #gamingclips #gamedev #gamedevelopment #warzone #warzone2 #warzoneclips #warzonegameplay #warzone2gameplay #warzonehighlights #warzone2funny #callofdutywarzone2 #codwarzone #callofdutywarzone #callofduty #callofdutymobile #codmobile #fps #fpsgames #newgameplay #gamer #firstpersonshooter #gamingvideos #gamingcommunity #videogames #gamingclips #gamingchannel

I finally got a chance to hop into XDefiant after suffering through YouTubers talking vaguely about it over generic footage for months thanks to Ubisoft's NDA.

And while everyone is debating whether or not it's the next Call of Duty killer — a phrase as old as the 2000s, the game apart from those wild expectations has a lot of potential.

XDefiant went closed beta last week with a huge Twitch event lasting through to the 23rd of April.

My initial reaction to the presentation after coming from Call of Duty was refreshing. XDefiant's UI and UX are clean, casual, and intuitive. It's great to have a UI that behaves like a video game menu and not a Netflix dashboard.

The color, contrast, and art design are simple and clean and do what every arcade shooter should — streamlines the booting up, queueing in, and fragging down pipeline.

That same philosophy — focusing and facilitating gameplay above all else — is carried over to my favorite part of XDefiant right now...

Its maps.

You've probably heard this by now, but XDefiant's map design gives off serious Black Ops II vibes.

The map design is completely reminiscent of the 3-lane, traditional, and tight adrenaline fests we all fell in love with back in the day.

Like the UI and UX, the maps are clutter-free, bright, and geared toward gameplay.

A lot of modern first-person shooters have picked up the very bad habit of equating complexity with progress, and progress with positive. You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about more doors and floors — enough angles and verticality to induce terminal camping syndrome.

XDefiant doesn't suffer from these problems. Its simple maps are quick to memorize but offer enough complexity to give you ways to flank, hold, and mix up competitors. It really is a breath of fresh air to have maps designed for gunfights first and foremost.

And like the presentation and map design, XDefiant is doing everything it can to please the arcade shooter community by giving us red dots, map voting, and SBMM-free casual playlists...

Up to this point, this game just feels good to play. It's not without its faults though.

The gameplay in XDefiant is nothing remarkable — and that's a great thing.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of big budgets, A-list voice acting, powerful storytelling, and "innovation" in the gaming space. The industry has been struggling to get the basics right for forever and that's led to a fun deficit.

I think you'll agree, in 2023, just producing a competent arcade shooter is a revolutionary act.

And that's what XDefiant feels like.

The biggest hurdle to XDefiant's success is going to be its lack of identity.

They left behind the Tom Clancy name, but the Heroes come from Ubisoft titles like Far Cry, Splinter Cell, and Watch Dogs. It's an IP mish-mash — like Super Smash Bros. — but without the character recognition.

Unique lore would have done this game wonders, but that's not what we're going to get and that might lead to players abandoning it.

Here's hoping Ubisoft has some very strong roadmaps in the future that can carve out a unique brand for this game.

We arcade shooter fans need this game to succeed.

See you on the battlefield and as always, stay cool, gentlemen.

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The Call of Duty Season 3 Roadmap is out and here's what I have to say... We've been here a million times before. Haven't these hype phases worn off for you? It's all the same marketing push — the bumping music... the quick cuts... the rugged vibes... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C04Oj2yEynY But where has that led us every single time? Nowhere. Do me a favor, put all the dumb content aside. Of course, they're going to advertise skins and guns and maps... but we all know content isn’t the problem right now — at least with Warzone players. There is a strong argument that content can do a lot to shore up the dwindling player base. For real, Modern Warfare has become the neglected step-child in the Call of Duty family. But if we're being honest, the problem is systemic. It's not the lack of maps that has the player base collapsing. It's not the lack of guns and skins that has streamers taking CoD out of their rotations. It's not the lack of new operators that has the CoD community on Twitter more negative than ever. It's Call of Duty developers being allergic to fun. Modern Warfare isn't fun. Warzone isn't fun. But we all know how to bring it back. Take a look at the Season 3 Roadmap. We know that the solution to all of Call of Duty's woes right now lies in the mechanics — not content, but the way the games play on a fundamental level. The Roadmaps have become useless to the CoD community. That's not where our issues are going to be addressed. Do you guys feel like Redeploy Drones, Deployable Buy Stations, or UAV Towers tweak the movement in Warzone 2.0? The moment-to-moment movement is still chalked. Will tempered plate carriers slow the TTK in any significant way? We're all still getting laser-beamed. How about on the Modern Warfare side? No mention of any equipment or perks that move the needle in the direction the game needs. I'll say it again, Content can't save these games. When a game sucks to play, it sucks to play. Here's the hopium, though. The CoD developer cabal doesn't broadcast what we want to see changed in Season 3 in their Roadmaps — that stuff gets dished out in the patch notes. And just like we saw changes made to the plating system in Season 2… … I think we're going to see movement changes in Season 3. There are rumors of one-shot snipers and tweaks to the dolphin dive and it makes complete sense. https://twitter.com/ModernWarzone/status/1644393499045789722 Now is the time for these developers to pull out all the stops to save these dying games. If they don't, the player base isn't getting any larger. And we know they're desperate because they had to bring out the old, "Recruit a Friend" scheme to try and pump the numbers. https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/1644037758715940865 Conclusion I'm not hyped about this Season — or any other season going forward. I'm just waiting for the patch notes. See you April 12th and as always, stay cool, gentlemen. Go check us out on: 🔵Twitter: @giantnerdco 🌐 Website: www.giantnerd.co 📧 Email: ben@giantnerd.co #warzone #warzone2 #warzoneclips #warzonegameplay #warzone2gameplay #warzonehighlights #warzone2funny #callofdutywarzone2 #codwarzone #callofdutywarzone #callofduty #callofdutymobile #codmobile #fps #fpsgames #newgameplay #gamer #mw2 #modernwarfare2 #modernwarfare #firstpersonshooter #gamingvideos #gamingcommunity #videogames #gamingclips #gamingchannel

Call of Duty's Ricochet Team just announced some interesting developments in their hunt for cheaters. One of the announcements sounds like it's going to rock the community. Another has me scratching my head. And another has my sus-meter going off. You had to have heard the news by now, Ricochet's biggest Season 3 announcement was their answer to the Cronus question. Ricochet is finally taking on the controller cheater crowd with an update that detects the third-party device. This is a huge W for casual and pro players alike. Call of Duty has the strongest aim-assist in the first-person shooter market. If controller players can't win fights against other 'rollers or mouse-and-key players, it truly is a skill issue. Cronus users are going to get a fair warning in the Call of Duty Dashboard's notification system so it won't be an instant ban — kind of a shame. At least with non-hardware cheats, you can make the argument that you didn't know the software was on your hard drive when you bought the PC from Craigslist. How do you accidentally buy a physical device... plug it in... update the firmware... and download scripts... It should be an instant ban. But Ricochet's solution is a good compromise. The biggest implication of Cronus detection though, is the Call of Duty influencer question. It can only be speculated because there's no way Activision would admit to unethical or illegal behavior, but popular CoD streamers are likely on a Ricochet whitelist (allegedly). This would explain why certain streamers can routinely put up sus gameplay without an iota of negative consequence. Will streamers like that be put on a Ricochet Cronus detection whitelist? Here's your answer: Money talks. So if the whitelist rumor is true, then it's going to be a hard "Yes." This Richochet Season 3 announcement had me cocking my head to the side. The Ricochet team told the world that they had, "deployed a new Replay investigation tool to help protect the integrity of Modern Warfare II multiplayer and Warzone 2.0." Just to jog your memories quickly, do you know how Street Fighter V and Call of Duty Killcams work? If you think the games record gameplay, you'd be wrong. They record the gameplay data and reconstruct the gameplay moment later. So if Call of Duty Killcams have been a thing since forever and Ricochet is just now announcing their Replay Investigation Tool, what's been happening to all the cheaters and exploiters we've been reporting for years? How was the anti-cheat team reviewing players who reached report thresholds in the past? Whatever the answer is and whatever's going on over at Activision, I hope this tool gives them more power to ban more cheaters. Like a lot of people, I believe that Activision lies... a lot. Do you really believe the "3000 developers, 3 years" marketing point? It doesn't pass the sniff test. You know what else smelled sus? Ricochet. It's either not working at all or it's not working to the degree they're advertising. In the Season 3 announcement, Ricochet released 3 "In-Game Mitigation" videos showing how their anti-cheat system was treating real-time cheaters. This included cloaking players, disarming cheaters, or giving players god mode.

The weird thing is that Ricochet said these punishments, "represent previously revealed mitigations." If these mitigations have been in effect for some time and cheaters have been cheating, how effective is Ricochet? And how effective will their other "unannounced surprises" be? Have you guys noticed a rise or dip in cheaters over the past few months? Conclusion These new Ricochet anti-cheater measures better work, especially for the incoming Warzone 2 Ranked playlist. Here's hoping and as always, stay cool, gentlemen. Go check us out on: 🔵Twitter: @giantnerdco 🌐 Website: www.giantnerd.co 📧 Email: ben@giantnerd.co #gameplay #gaming #fps #fpsgames #newgameplay #gamer #firstpersonshooter #gamingvideos #gamingcommunity #videogames #gamingclips

You've seen it all around YouTube and it's not just big streamers doing the same old same old. The CoD community is going in on it too and I think everyone's serious. The community is journeying back to a game that unironically looks like the proper sequel to Warzone 2... Warzone Caldera. Let's put this into perspective because I see a lot of revisionism going on in the Call of Duty community right now. I'm seeing a lot of people heaping praise on Warzone's Verdansk and while it's a million times better than what we have now, am I the only one who remembers the community's feelings at the time? Al Mazrah sucks, sure, but I recall the fatigue and mind-numbing boredom the player base was having at the end of Verdansk's life cycle. They couldn't wait for a new map. That next map turned out to be Caldera — the urine-colored climb-fest — and the community quickly wanted the old map back. So while I understand everyone wanting Verdansk now that we have the putrid taste of Caldera and Al Mazrah on our tongues, let's not cap and pretend we weren't shitting on Verdansk. All of this mess created by incompetent, diversity-hire devs just proves the old sayings true, "You don't know what you miss until it's gone." And, "The grass isn't always greener on the other side." What surprised me though — and it shouldn't have — is that the community is actually going back to Warzone Caldera. The streamers are hopping on because it's easier to make content for their channels and streams. https://twitter.com/Swagg/status/1641172696502358016 The community is reinstalling because Warzone legitimately plays better than Warzone 2. And if that's not enough, players who for some reason or another didn't play Caldera when it came out, are trying to get in on the genuine Warzone experience. How do I know? Take a look at the comments section on, "How to install Warzone Caldera" tutorials. Activision is intentionally making it difficult to play the previous Warzone: 1. You can't install Warzone Caldera through Steam — Battlenet only. 2. You can't install Warzone Caldera unless you've previously played it. If you haven't, you'll need to fork over $70 to buy Modern Warfare 2019 first. Essentially making Warzone Caldera a full-priced game. 3. There are rumors that a certain company is hiring hackers to grief the Caldera player base. This is probably bs but I wouldn't put anything past Activision. Conclusion You know Call of Duty is down bad when we're all running back to one of the worst maps in battle royale history just to get a decent FPS arcade experience. But that's what it's come to for a lot of the Warzone player base. We have tone-deaf arrogant developers celebrating as their ship sinks. I'll see you guys in Caldera and as always, stay cool, gentlemen. Go check us out on: 🔵Twitter: @giantnerdco 🌐 Website: www.giantnerd.co 📧 Email: ben@giantnerd.co #warzone #warzone2 #warzoneclips #warzonegameplay #warzone2gameplay #warzonehighlights #warzone2funny #callofdutywarzone2 #codwarzone #callofdutywarzone #callofduty #callofdutymobile #codmobile #fps #fpsgames #newgameplay #gamer #firstpersonshooter #gamingvideos #gamingcommunity #videogames #gamingclips #gamingchannel

Season 3 of Warzone 2 Is Going to Be Big — Here’s Why (Infinity Ward is getting humbled) Speculation is starting on Season 3 of Warzone 2 as usual... but this time it's different. The Season 2 update was proof of what we all suspected — Infinity Ward and Activision are on the ropes because their games are dying. That's why the rumors for Season 3 are looking more and more solid. The Call of Duty community's grievances resulted in more mechanics getting fixed in Season 2 than at any other point over the past four CoD titles combined. Don't give the devs any credit though. The only reason they listened was because they're not seeing the usual banger numbers. It's not humility that's kicking their ass, it's desperation. Season 2 of Warzone 2 lacked content but that's because its main purpose was quality of life improvements. In other words, taking the game back to Warzone's roots — a Call of Duty shooter that happens to be a battle royale. Raven knocked off the clunky gulag setup, the two-tiered shield system, and the painfully slow plating speed. And if you're being honest with yourself, the game feels ten times better because of these small changes. But remember, the steady walk back to the Warzone 1 formula isn't being done voluntarily. The CoD community finally growing a pair and checking out of the game is. Personally, I went back to maining Apex Legends until Warzone 2 sorts its stuff out. So that's where we need to keep Infinity Ward, Activision, and the rest of them — in desperation.  @Iampetey  over on Twitter recently made a post about streamer  @JoeWo  making remarks about some very good news for Warzone 1 fans. In the spirit of Season 2, it looks like Raven Software is considering movement buffs and one-shot snipers. For those of us who played during the St. Patrick's Day event, a one-shot sniper was introduced into the game — you could find it at the end of the rainbow. So we know for a fact that it already exists in the game. Look forward to a one-shot in Season 3. Now, how credible is the movement buff rumor? To start, JoeWo alluded to "movement fluidity" getting a serious examination. He references 'dolphin diving' being smoothed out — specifically the transition between running and diving. To me, that fix sounds so minor it may as well be true. Is anyone really losing gunfights because of a clunky 'dolphin dive'? There's not much else JoeWo reveals on the movement side but let's be honest, the chances of Raven tweaking more than dives is extremely high. We know the Warzone 2 numbers suck. We know they flinched in Season 2. And we can assume they're adding a one-shot sniper in Season 3. At Warzone 2's current pace, one-shot snipers would be game-breaking. In Warzone 2 pre-Season 2, the low TTK was making it a nightmare to heal on the fly — walking while plating killed any cat-and-mouse gameplay. Raven solved this problem by buffing movement speed while plating. Perfect. I'd say there's a very strong chance we get a movement buff to compensate for the one-shot sniper. Raven could increase overall player speed but I don't think Infinity Ward is ready to admit defeat. Instead, look for minor tweaks in Season 3 first. Raven is likely going to target the slide or tactical sprint. A more fluid and faster slide could bring back some form of slide canceling — though that wouldn't solve the problem for casuals. Or a longer and faster tactical sprint would give us the illusion of a global player speed increase. Either way, look forward to Warzone 2 feeling more arcadey in a couple of months. Conclusion Season 3 of Warzone 2 is not going to disappoint. The trajectory of the game was set in Season 2 and it looks like the CoD community was right. See you on the battlefield and as always, stay cool, gentlemen. Go check us out on: 🔵Twitter: @giantnerdco 🟠Instagram: @giantnerd.co ⚫Facebook: @giantnerd.co 🌐 Website: www.giantnerd.co 📧 Email: ben@giantnerd.co

Dead Island makes a comeback...

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A quick gameplay review of Embark Studios' THE FINALS closed beta.  

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