But it's not even a cool product placement car
Don't force your singlespeed bikes up steep hills you've went up on mountain bikes, people
If Xbox games are terrible, then how am I still playing Gears ~~of War~~ 5 after 4 years?
Jokes aside, Halo and Gears of War simply aren't what they used to be in the 2000s and 2010s. Halo feels like it has been cut up and reassembled like three times since Bungie already, and while Gears of War still manages feels like Gears of War, turns out that's just not enough for most people outside of a small diehard fanbase.
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I'll still keep drinking that garbage
This was in Microsoft's Minecraft launcher, so probably whenever that got introduced. I've only got the Java version though.
Back when I played multiplayer games on the Xbox 360 I had my voice chat volume permanently turned down to zero because I didn't see how hearing obscenities yelled into those horribly low quality Xbox microphones added to the experience.
When the Master Chief Collection and Gears of War 5 launched on PC I ended up leaving the voice chat on because I became deeply amused and fascinated by the Xbox players I crossplayed with. People noisily munching Doritos into the void, middle-aged parent gamers talking to their children in between callouts, people who have really loud music blasting in their living room, groups of friends who like to play and chat together but for some godforsaken reason don't just use Xbox parties or Discord.
Naturally, there have also been horribly racist moments, like the one time some -brained gamer started being racist to a black person on the same team from the moment he heard his voice, at one point telling him that his ancestors were building aqueducts while the black person's ancestors lived in mud huts
In response, the black guy just made fun of how nerdy the white guy's voice sounded and how badly he was playing. I kept dying in that match because the absurd banter had me dying in real life
I've been playing Gears 5's multiplayer since it came out, and I've honestly had more fun with it since they stopped updating the game. No more stress from trying to complete the current Season before the content in it gets vaulted, playing modes I don't want and trying to do specific feats in matches. I just jump in for a few games and shoot people for the pure joy of shooting people, just like multiplayer games used to be
FOMO is real though, looking back on the game I haven't used 98 percent of the skins, characters, banners, etc I unlocked even once but I still felt compelled to complete every season. Still, at least I wasn't big enough of a chump to spend real money in the store
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Kinda miss playing Horde with friends though
No single player DLC for you
It looks like they instead tried to repeat the GTA Online model with Red Dead Online but it failed to gain enough traction so they just gave up on the whole game. It's frustrating to see how much time and money they put into multiplayer updates, each one has several cutscenes with new characters, cutscenes and celebrity cameos and all you can think of is how cool it would've been if they had used those resources for another Undead Nightmare or GTA IV-style expansions.
From what I understand rotating developers seem like a standard practice at Microsoft-owned game studios. Like they only contract you for a set period and then you're out. Back when Gears 5 was still actively updated it seemed like every single community-facing developer got rotated out and all of them seemed to say something about their two years or whatever being up in their farewell messages.
Take the Nether for example, many biomes are absolutely crawling with Hoglins and Piglins that can and will gang up to kill you if you're not careful. However, when it comes to the Hoglins, their aggro ranges are not unmanageable, they make plenty of noise alerting you to their presence and you can even ward them off with warped fungus. The Piglins will mostly ignore you if you wear at least one piece of golden armor (at least until you open a chest or try to mine gold) and they also avoid soul torches. With the addition of the gold bartering system, the piglins are probably the most interesting mob in the game, simultaneously dangerous and helpful. I like how they feel like intelligent beings that kind of tolerate you showing up on their turf if you behave.
I hadn't played much with the big Nether update and I really enjoy the mobs and mechanics it introduced. By comparison, most of these hostile mobs just fly up to you from a continent away and kill you in three hits
It's a giant worm! THEY'RE SINKING CITIES WITH A GIANT WORM
I used to buy bundles back when those first became a big thing just to get one thing I really wanted, but I eventually started feeling annoyed and slightly guilty about all this stuff I'd never play cluttering my library.
I feel like it trivializes the effort and labor put into making these things when they're not even being experienced or enjoyed.
I found a sprouted pepper seed growing out of my sink drain![emoji pog-fish pog-fish](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/c553f23d-7e3a-4c59-926c-34b4aefc3dbb.png)