One of my all time favourite youtubers returned after almost 3 years.
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Totally check out this amazing run of my contract… Ummm by me! 
The timing is brilliant on the targets
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Ahoy just came back from a near-1-year hiatus with this 1h40m retrospective on the original X-Com. Woohoo he’s back!
Ahoy is a great video essayist/documentarian of video game tropes and iconic vintage video games. (Also a side-series all about iconic war weapons in vidya g’s)
His graphics design skills are fantastic, unparalleled in the YT sphere.
Obligatory Chicken-o-meter plug
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i adored this game back in the day. i’ll give this a whirl.
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Just finished watching this video, very interesting stuff. As a Gerry Anderson fan, it was pretty awesome that his TV show UFO was such an influence on X-COM. Gerry Anderson seemed to just be one of those people were almost all of his projects were never massive financial or long term successes (I believe none of his TV shows ever last past 2 seasons), but seemed to wind up inspiring a ton of succesful creative types later down the line.
I haven’t played any of the older X-COM titles, and to be honest, probably ever will. But I did love the X-COM reboot. I really need to give X-COM 2 another chance, I really struggled with some gameplay elements, like the flying base around the map seemed so much harder to manage that the base in X-COM 1. Hostage missions often seemed incredibly difficult with those enemies that can disguise themselves as civilians. And I own Chimera Squad and really need to play it, I know it is an easier game that can be exploited easily, but honestly that is probably around my own skill level since I really struggle with strategy games.
Hope X-COM 3 materialises at some point, guess we need to see how Marvel’s Midnight Suns does. I do wonder if Chimera Squad was meant as a way of testing the future of the franchise. I mean the idea of a fully fledged X-COM game where you can assemble a team of human and aliens with unique powers seem like an interesting possibility. Who knows, maybe that can revive that Terror From the Deep concept of fighting an alien menace underwater, that seems like fun.
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Something I’ve discovered recently is an emerging genre of game people are calling “Extraction Shooters”. They’re kind of a twist on Battle Royales, RPG/MMO quest systems, and open-world-ish survival.
Sounds like a fascinating emerging genre that seems to fix a lot of the strict progression of Battle Royale, while allowing a lot more player agency and choice of objective.
A few videos I’ve found on the subject:
https://youtu.be/tTuhUu6x4WQ (22min)
https://youtu.be/QcNXPTD6fNU (14min)
Edit: these titles juxtapose each other, but they’re not related
Article on COD's new DMZ (Extraction) Mode
What is DMZ in Warzone 2.0? | ONE Esports
However, their objectives differ from their battle royale counterparts. Some DMZ contracts (and their icons on the map) include:
- Secure Intel / Geiger Search (Magnifying Glass): Find intel on hard drives, then go to the nearest radio tower to upload its data. Alternatively, it may task you to collect Uranium rods found with a Geiger Counter.
- Elimination (Crosshair): Assassinate an AI target guarded by multiple combatants, or at least confirm their death.
- Hostage (Handcuffs): Rescue a hostage within a locked building, then carry them to the nearest helicopter exfil location.
- Cargo Delivery / Shipment (Briefcase): Depending on the specific Contract, find a vehicle or boat with precious cargo for a drop-off at a marked location. Feel free to keep the vehicle after the drop-off!
- Hunt (Skull): Hunt an enemy Operator team marked as high-value targets (HVTs), due to their activity within the DMZ match.
- Destroy Supplies (Bomb): Locate and destroy two supply sites with planted bombs.
World activities are side objectives that also offer rewards like cash. Examples of activities include safes, which can be drilled open to obtain cash, and SAM sites, which feature anti-air turrets that can be used to shoot down plans carrying precious cargo.
This is also a hostile world — be wary of sandstorms that will force you to evacuate.
You will encounter other players in DMZ matches as well. You’re free to engage or avoid these other squads, but there is also the option to “assimilate” with other teams.
Proximity chat can be used to strike up an invaluable alliance — after all, there is safety in numbers, especially if everyone is trying to complete the same faction mission.
And if you’re worried about being betrayed, friendly fire is disabled on temporary squadmates.
Sidenote: I’ve heard of Tarkov, but never known what it was about.
Hitman Freelancer’s inventory management of bringing/leaving/losing items on a mission seems partly inspired by this new wave.
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This video describes Ubisoft’s mediocre reputation quite well, despite their continued “success”.
Was discussing with @/Silvereyes what I’ve been enjoying and not enjoying from Far Cry 5.
Particularly the lack of an overall progression system related to what you do in the world.
While completing outposts and missions should reward you XP to level up your character and get more powerful, it doesn’t.
The only way to get skill points and “level up” so to speak is by completing glorified check lists of miscellaneous tasks. Kill X people with Y weapon.
Catch 2 Fish of Y
Hunt 2 of Z animals
(And these challenges are one-and-done. You get 10 pistol kills to get 2 perk points and that’s all you’ll get with a pistol.)
It just makes much of the open-world content you care about like the missions and side missions feel a little worthless when you have to go out of your way to fulfill specific criteria in playstyles/content/gear you willingly don’t enjoy using just so you can upgrade yourself in ways you want.
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Yeah, I have fun with Far Cry 5, but it is a bit odd how it handles its skill system. It basically has no XP or levelling up, instead using perk points, which you gain, with most perks available from the start to purchase, with only a few locked behind barriers. On the one hand, it means you can get what you want early, but on the other, it doesn’t feel like you ever earn much, and by the half way point, you’ll have the skills you actually care about and the ones you don’t you’ll just aquire without much fanfare. Kindof a weird shift since I believe Far Cry 3 and 4 (which I did play years ago) did have XP systems and skill trees, and New Dawn and 6 (which I haven’t played yet) introduced more RPG mechanics, like guns and enemies actually having assigned levels.
Also to tie-in with me and @TheChicken talking to each other, a video about Ryan Reynold’s and Dwayne Johnson’s movie careers and how it ties in with the companies they own and promote.
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A very cool video I just saw tonight about this guy’s favourite uses of rain in video games, how it’s detailed, how it’s used depending on the game – and also largely a narrative analysis of The Last of Us Part 2 and how rain thematically ties into Ellie’s character!
(Which honestly is a neat point! I only ever saw the rain as a visual thing, but it makes sense!)
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That’s great news, Amazing Digital Circus first 2 episodes are really great. Will be nice if they get more mainstream exposure.
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FYI Elden Ring fans:
Here are some funny animation videos I found on YouTube:
Spoiler Warning and you will only understand if you have played the level/boss 
It’s a playlist - scroll to your favourite/challenging level/boss:
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