If you’ve been following the classic scene, you’ve definitely noticed that private servers are making a big comeback as the major way to play the game and it’s really easy to see why. 

What Are Private Servers?

People love classic fresh and Blizzard’s been way too slow rolling out Season of Mastery 2. But if you’re an official Server Andy Detected, you may not realize what these servers are doing and why they’re so popular. 

I’ve been researching as much as I can and I’ve been talking to friends who love these servers, so I can tell you the five reasons why private servers are the future classic at least unless Blizzard gets their act together. 

Private Servers Are Better At Classic Plus

*First up, private servers are just doing the plus experience better. If you’ve been looking for the Classic Plus experience with new Zones quests and Dungeons. Servers like Turtle WoW are just doing it better and faster than Blizzard.

My personal favorite Classic Plus system might just be the glyph (Glyph of War) system. That system enables distinct challenges, like the hardcore mode where your character actually gets deleted if you die and we might see that we get some small tweaks here and there on classic servers, we’ll never get Classic Plus the level of Turtle WoW.

*Private server developers have so much more freedom to innovate and actually do what people want and that’s one thing private servers are just doing so much better right now - Innovation.

Innovation In WoW Classic

Isn’t it weird that every made major private server aims to improve and innovate to make the classic experience better? Getting a really simple feature like cross realm battlegrounds took nearly four years from Blizzard and while the popular Cataclysm server Whiteman already offers new features like cross-faction gameplay, Solo Arena Queue and even a PVP Spectator Mode.

And Turtle WoW offers new dungeons that perfectly fit into the leveling experience and that’s on top of the new zones, professions, titles and even music. The simple features like dual spec are no-brainers for Turtle WoW while Blizzard might think about adding them in some sex and this complete lack of short-term innovation is really going to hurt Blizzard long term. Think about how much more interesting Classic Cataclysm would be if Blizzard was committed to innovation as much as they were back in 2004.

Players Are Calling The shots

*But that leads to my third point with private servers. Actually, players are making all the decisions. 

If you’re looking to maximize profit, it’s really easy to lose sight of what’s good for the players. Unfortunately, private servers have really exposed how out of balance things have gotten. Things like the massively imbalanced servers leading to the paid faction transfers and, of course, there’s been the massive rising popularity of GDKP.

Even though I do run a few and I personally suspect they left the about wrath racial, just so they could sell a few race transfers. But on the other hand, you can easily find private servers like Maelstrom where GDKP is banned. Racial can be swapped in an NPC and the idea of a Pay to Win cash shop is absolutely laughable.

*Really, just imagine how fun classic could be if you could implement Turtle Wow’s Turtle mode. It all comes down to the fact that these new private servers have developers like Turtle WoW Shang, a long-time fan of Hardcore WoW and a classic WoW addict.

I played hardcore for three months straight in Season of Mastery and all I got was an icon. But since the developers of Turtle WoW love hardcore, they implemented a title, a tablet and a mount for hitting 60. And having long time WoW fans like Shang as your administrators helps a whole lot with the sense of community.

Related: WoW: What Blizzard Should Do To Make Season of Mastery 2 A Successful Launch?

*I see somewhere along the way Blizzard forgot how passionate GMs’ excellent support is and events can make the in-game experience so much more special.

If you read the pitches from recent and upcoming private servers, there’re no coincidences community. It’s all about how there are real humans that will assist you with your issues within 24 hours. If you make a mistake getting the wrong item, they’ll help you. If you’re hosting a big server event, GMs will actually help you to spawn mobs and objects in the game and turtle wow even offers custom Guild Housing if your Guild’s been active for at least three months.

Blizzard has left some massive holes where private servers are taking over. The private server community has happily gone ahead with new expansions and even new game modes. And servers like Turtle WoW thriving with the Classic Plus model peaking at over 4,700 players. Within the next few years, if you want to play Classic Plus, you’ll have to play it on a private server and that’s why unless something changes, private servers are the future of Classic WoW. Though the short-term future of Classic WoW is Season of Mastery 2.

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I’m playing on the Turtle WoW, a vanilla + private server and having a blast leveling up my Shaman Raid Tank, which is a thing on Turtle WoW and the servers has been crazy now, with a server population hitting hundreds of thousands of players online on weekends.

While leveling, I’ve been thinking a lot about what would the ideal Classic Era timeline would even look like? What and when should Blizzard release - things like official hardcore servers, classic + or vanilla + servers, classic cataclysm? And more importantly, what do we as a community even want to see? Because now’s the time to let Blizzard know what we want from them. So, today I thought we can talk about what the timeline for Classic Era and WoW could end up being in the next few years.

Classic Era has been exploding the last few months, we have Classic Era Hardcore getting super popular, there’s even Hardcore PVE Races now, like real Competitions with actual prize pools, we have Classic Era servers growing month after month, WotLK Classic is well... It’s currently in between major patches, then there’s classic vanilla + servers like Turtle WoW and Duskhaven reaching all-time high populations.

Recently, there’s been rumors that Blizzard is releasing dedicated Hardcore Servers for Classic Era, and we just don’t know what form these servers are going to take, what the rule set is going to be, how integrated the achievements are going to be, is the server rule set going to be more like the original solo hardcore challenge we are all familiar with, or will Blizzard go for a more fun, group oriented hardcore experience like Turtle WoW.

Will there be titles, mounts for any rewards? Will the hardcore experience last past 60? These are all questions that need to be answered and quickly. I think Blizzard needs to release these hardcore servers as soon as possible, as the demand for them is only continuing to grow,

And it’s these hardcore challenges that are probably the main reason why we have seen a revitalization of the classic era servers. It’s not the only reason, of course. Vanilla has always held a special place in my heart just like a lot of people, and I think there will always be a population of players willing to play on classic era servers, but let’s be honest, if Blizzard released FRESH Classic Era Servers, that progressed from vanilla, to TBC to WotLK Classic all over again, 10,000s of people would dive into Classic Era again.

And I could see Blizzard doing just this at the end of WotLK Classic. Which brings us to what Blizzard should do after WotLK Classic ends. For me, it’s a no brainier that Blizzard is going to add classic cataclysm. But, it is a big decision point. I don’t think WotLK is that popular in terms of numbers, there just isn’t that much to do, it’s essentially an ICC waiting room. So, it’s possible Blizzard might just think the hype is over and move into a Classic, TBC, WotLK Classic maintenance mode.

But from a business perspective I think cataclysms success is already baked in, most of the Classic WoW player base is already expecting the classic experience to last until mists of pandaria and will happily sub just to enjoy the PVP alone as the two expansions are largely regarded as some of the best Arena ever, as well as some of the hardest most challenging classic PVE, at least in cata with some of the introductory raids being well… impossible for most guilds.

I know this would split the classic player base, but I think Blizzard should release a classic era fresh, that progresses all the way to WotLK Classic and beyond, and release Classic Cataclysm at the end of WOTLK. It’s unfortunate, but only from the perspective that fewer people might be playing in Cataclysm, so who cares, people will play classic era, they will play cata, they will pay, retail season of mastery, and hardcore, and private servers, let’s be honest, it’s all a bit of a mess for Blizzard right now.

So, just release it all and let the players decide where they want to play. After Cataclysm and a potential Mysts of pandaria, Blizzard needs to seriously consider a classic + server. The success or private servers like Turtle WoW, and Duskhaven has shown that the demand for classic + is very real and it’s doesn’t take a while a lot of effort to add basic things like new quests, items, zones. Duskhaven is being developed by literally ONE person and has dozens of awesome changes. Blizzard just needs to hand over development to a group of passionate creative people, that can make some changes and keep Classic WoW fresh.

Blizzard could even release the initial changes in a Season of Mastery style server to test and see the reaction of the player base. If they don’t release something like Classic +, Classic Era will eventually fade into irreverence and worse, go down in history as being one of the biggest wastes of an excellent opportunity in history.

In short, blizzard should first release a dedicated hardcore server as soon as possible, and with the end of Classic WOTLK, release classic cataclysm while offering FRESH Classic Era Servers, later develop classic +, even if it ends up being in a season of mastery style server.

I fully expect something like this to unfold over the next 4 years. It’s a very exciting time to be a World of WarCraft player, never before has the player base been so divided because there has never been so much different content, but that’s a good thing, Blizzard should embrace this fact, and not be afraid to release even more.

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Animal Crossing Pocket Camp on Smart Devices is of course still going strong 5 years on… But something pretty big is affecting the gaming industry right now in Austria, and if the history of Animal Crossing is anything to go by, Pocket Camp could be in trouble, and could potentially be Banned or Removed from the App Stores altogether, at least in parts of Europe…

Now, something pretty significant has just happened in Austria surrounding Sony and FIFA… Don’t worry, this will completely loop back round to Animal Crossing, I promise, just bear with me. In the last couple of weeks, in a case against Sony, regarding FIFA, courts have decided that Loot Boxes, in one form or another, violate the Gambling Laws in Austria.

This is essentially because in certain instances, players are of course paying (such as spending money to get more FUT 23 Coins) for random drops and not necessarily knowing the outcome, or what they’re actually purchasing. Specifically, I believe where certain rewards hold a monetary value, and therefore almost certainly fall under the gambling umbrella.

Anyway, the court ruled in favour of FIFA players, and to cut a long story short, have ordered Sony, the Platform, rather than EA, the publishers of FIFA, to pay out these claims, and pay back Loot Box charges to the Players. It’s a pretty complex issue, so if you want to learn more about that specific case, definitely google it.

Now, despite this specific case affecting FIFA and PlayStation, it’s likely going to have an impact on Loot Boxes and gaming in general, as it’s set a new precedent in Austria, surrounding this type of monetisation.

Anyway, I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, but Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, which is still played by millions all around the world, including a Loot Box mechanic very similar to this. If you head to the Market Place in Pocket Camp, you can, of course, spend Leaf Tickets, which is Pocket Camp’s Premium Currency on a Fortune Cookie, that once opened awards a random ACNH Items.

In many instances, players can even spend real-life money to obtain these Fortune Cookies. Now whether or not, new laws come in (because of the Sony Case) to prevent this type of monetisation surrounding Loot Boxes and alleged gambling violations, it’s likely to become a bigger issue in Austria and surrounding regions and create a bit of a grey area for games like Pocket Camp.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo are already looking into this further… With this in mind, there’s every possibility that Pocket Camp, or any game that includes Gacha Mechanics or Loot Boxes like Fortune Cookies, could be banned in European Regions. And even if they don’t, Nintendo could decide they don’t want to risk it, and pull the game down anyway and remove it from App Stores…

Now, I know what you’re thinking, this is all speculation, I’m jumping to conclusions, and leaping to the worst-case scenario… Now whilst I am speculating here, we have seen this exact situation occur in the past in Belgium in 2019, again in Europe, when Nintendo literally removed both Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes from the App Stores in that region.

This happened when Belgium introduced anti-gambling laws, creating a grey area for Loot Boxes in video games, and then led to new laws being passed that banned Loot Boxes altogether in video games. Interestingly enough, Belgium’s governing bodies at the time, also ordered the likes of FIFA to removed Loot Boxes from their games in the Region… which I believe they did, with the understanding that if they didn’t they’d face millions in fines and even prison time.

However, even now, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp cannot be downloaded or played legitimately in Belgium and some neighbouring counties. And rather than removing the Fortune Cookies when this happened in 2019, Nintendo removed the entire game.

So, with new headlines surrounding Loot Boxes in Austria, with all eyes on Loot Boxes in a new region, and the likely hood of new laws coming in, it’s possible it’s only a matter of time until history literally repeats itself 4 years later, in another European country, and Pocket Camp is removed. Of course, this is a worst-case scenario.

There’s every chance Nintendo would simply remove Fortune Cookies this time around, rather than the whole game, especially now the game includes even more Monetisation models, but who knows, maybe this particular issues starts and ends on PlayStation, and Pocket Camp continues to thrive.

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In this article, I want to talk about the current state of Official Hardcore Servers in WoW Classic. Before I get started, I must stress that I am personally very supportive of Blizzard developing them.

Besides, I will also explain to you why this is not a priority for Blizzard, nor will it ever probably be a priority, and there is a slight chance we never get Official Hardcore Servers, no matter how much we really want them to happen, and that will be explained in this article. 

What Classic Hardcore Is?

Before we start though, I just want to do a quick recap on what Classic Hardcore is, as there is a chance someone has no idea what the term “hardcore” even refers to

Basically, Classic Hardcore is a No-Death leveling challenge in Classic WoW that is taking part mostly in the Classic Era Servers, with thousands of active players every single day. The goal of the challenge is to make it to level 60 without dying, and if you die and want to keep playing in the challenge, you have to start over from level 1 again. By the way, if you want to solve this problem, maybe you can use WOTLK Classic Gold to equip yourself.

When we talk about Official Hardcore Servers, this refers to Blizzard embracing the Classic Hardcore Gameplay & Community and supporting the movement by adding official Hardcore-type of servers, where if you die you can’t resurrect or you have to delete your character, basically permanent one-life servers. 

Pros Of Having Official Hardcore Servers

So, now that we are all caught up to speed, let me highlight some of the positive aspects of having Official Hardcore Servers. Before I introduce, some people might consider me being negative or just overall pessimistic, but it’s really me looking at the idea of Classic Hardcore Servers with an objective point of view and realizing that Blizzard is a business after all. 

Here are positive aspects of having Official Hardcore Servers:

#1

There’s an obvious demand for them. I did some player scans recently, showing exactly how many people were online at the same time on the Classic Era Hardcore Server for Europe, and there’s literally between 2 and 3 thousand people playing at the same time on a regular Monday evening. 

#2

Having Official Blizzard-Supported Hardcore Servers would make it way more appealing to everyone. First, you would have way fewer grievers, like playing on the current Classic Era Servers, there’ are a lot of grievers, because they can level to level 60 and just grieve anyone else playing Hardcore, without playing Hardcore themselves. 

If we’re on an official hardcore server, grieving will be a lot more risky and a lot more difficult, because first of all the grievers have to level themselves up in a hardcore environment, and then if they decide to grief, they actually have more risk involved because they are playing hardcore themselves. 

Less grieving equals to more fun gameplay and more appealing to quite literally everyone. Right now, playing on Classic Era, you have to deal with some people playing Hardcore, and some people not playing Hardcore, and it’s actually quite messy. 

For example, if you as a non-hardcore player want to do a somewhat difficult quest or kill a named mob, and you try to group up with a hardcore player do the same thing, that hardcore player is literally not allowed to group up with you, which might cause you to get annoyed at the hardcore player because you’re killing the same mobs and could have helped each other, and if you don’t know he’s doing the hardcore challenge, he looks like a complete jackass, so it’s quite messy.

Related: WoW: What Blizzard Should Do To Make Season of Mastery 2 A Successful Launch?

#3

It makes it a lot more convenient & easy to try out. Right now, in order to play Hardcore, you first need to find out which serves the hardcore community is playing on, then you need to download a Hardcore addon. But if we had official hardcore servers, you eliminate having to find out which server to play because they’re already public, and we wouldn’t need the hardcore addon. 

And by the way, the Hardcore Addon has over 200,000 installs, so once again there’s obviously a demand for this.

Why Blizzard Haven’t Implemented Official Hardcore Servers?

Now, let’s think about the idea of Official Hardcore Servers from an objective point of view, and think about why Blizzard hasn’t implemented them yet, if there is such an obvious demand? Actually, it’s all about money. 

Blizzard is a company, they like making money. When they came out with Classic WoW, they tried to keep it as similar to Vanilla WoW as possible, which they said was a “love letter to their community”. 

But I will bet you right now: They always had the intention of coming out with the level 58 boost and the TBC Deluxe Editions for TBC Classic. Classic WoW was just them earning your trust, for then to profit from that trust later on, they 100% thought that through before even beginning to work on Classic WoW. 

My Opinion

So, let’s continue to Hardcore Servers. Here’s how I see it: 

Everyone that is currently playing Classic Hardcore, is playing on Classic Era. 99% of people that know what Classic Hardcore is, are currently playing on Classic Era. In essence, what this means is that 99% of people that would play on Official Hardcore Servers are already playing the game and are already giving Blizzard their monthly subscription revenue. 

Blizzard needs a financial incentive to make Official Hardcore Servers, and to be honest, I simply don’t think it is quite there yet. For the people that know about Classic Hardcore, it’s a fantastic idea, but then again, most of us are already paying & playing on Classic Era, why would Blizzard spend their time & resources on implementing new types of servers for us, when it’s obvious that we are still playing and having fun on the Classic Era Servers? 

In the long run, sure, it could bring more people back to Classic WoW by offering something new & fresh, and it has been successful for some other games in the past, but is the financial incentive really there right now? 

I really do think, and I’m not motivating anyone to do this, but I think in order to get Official Hardcore Servers anytime soon, we would quite literally have to organize a gamer strike or an era boycott to actually give Blizzard a financial incentive for these Hardcore Servers, because that way we are sending the message: “If you want our money, give us what we want”, while right now, we are giving them the money either way and begging them to pet us on the head and say “good boy”. 

Diving even deeper into the financial incentive hole, I can’t help but think: What would Official Hardcore Servers actually look like: Judging by how Classic WoW went, it started off great, really authentic & vanilla-like, at least in most ways, and then when the expansion came out, they capitalized by introducing boosts & deluxe editions. What if a potential Official Hardcore Server follows the same trend? 

They give us exactly what to ask for, in the beginning, but then they start adding random things to milk us for every penny we have, first we would get cosmetics which people would be somewhat okay with, then we would get mounts which again people would be somewhat okay with, but then imagine if they went the extra mile and offered Paid Resurrections? 

For Official Hardcore Servers, I want to say “Death = Delete”. But if you pay $50, you can resurrect your character and keep playing! Or maybe they would make like a Chronoboon Displacer item that costs $50 and allows you to travel 1 minute back in time. So if your character is ever about to die, you can use that item. Or, maybe they would introduce a Light of Elune type of item into the cash-shop, allowing anyone to bubble-hearth, essentially. 

This is just me speculating on how many ways Blizzard could potentially screw up these servers, but I really wanted to highlight the financial incentive aspect of this conversation, as it’s something that isn’t being talked about enough. As players, we care about having fun while playing the game. As a company, Blizzard cares about making money. When you want something to happen, you have to consider both these things.

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In this article, we're going to be discussing which class is right for you in the upcoming open beta this March. If you're excited to get your hands on Diablo 4 and you want to know somethings about each class some things maybe you don't know then watch on to find out.

Diablo IV's beta will feature all five classes namely the Barbarian, Sorceress, Rogue, Druid and Necromancer. Each of them focuses on distinct damage type, specific playstyle stats and attributes as well as unique class mechanics, all of which we'll discuss in this guide.

Barbarian Class

The Barbarian class issuitable for players, who wish to deal massive destruction melee range while being able to seamlessly switch from one weapon type to the next. They're much more physical damage oriented than any other class in Diablo 4 and are pretty straightforward when it comes to dishing out offensive and defensive moves.

Due to their unique class mechanic, which is known as the arsenal system, Barbarians can equip and swap about four weapons at a time, allowing for better customization. These include the main hand, off hand, bludgeoning and slashing weapons. Doing so allows you to freely assign specific equipment to certain skills based on your needs.

For instance, bash, which lets you stun and heavily damage targets is well suited using a bludgeoning weapon. But if you wish to raise this ability's stun duration even more then you should opt to switch to a two-handed bludgeoning weapon instead. It's also worth noting that upon the skills activation, you'll instantly equip the best weapon in your loadout. By the way, if you don't have enough Diablo 4 Gold to equip yourself , you can click this link to have a look.

Furthermore, every weapon the Barbarian uses has a corresponding expertise stat thereby leveling up their ranks accordingly. For example, if you wish to boost your Critical Strike chance, then wielding a one-handed ax will come in handy. Because of this, it's highly recommended to collect and prepare a wide variety of melee weapons in order to take advantage of this class's build diversity and itemization progression.

In terms of stats, you'll mainly want to invest in Strength, Amplify Damage, Willpower for improved Fury generation and Dexterity to increase the chances of Landing Critical Hits.

Sorceress Class

The Sorceress is your typical high-risk high reward type of class because although they are very fragile, they deal excellent Elemental Damage by casting fire, cold and lightning spells.

Fire spell synergize well with the burning status effect when click damage overtime, but beyond this, they aren't able to control the battlefield as effectively in the early game.

The same couldn't be said for cold spells where crowd control abilities shine the most. What you have here is a variety of skills that will either chill or completely freeze your enemies making it exceptionally potent against bosses. Not only will you slow them down but you can potentially freeze them in place when enough Stacks are accumulated.

Finally, you have lightning spells that are well balanced in terms of dealing a decent amount of damage and controlling encounters to your advantage. Some abilities that are attacked as crackling energy leave behind a ball of energy that either inflicts damage against enemies or replenishes your own Mana.

When it comes to stats, you'll want to allocate points into intelligence to boost the damage of your spells dexterity to raise mana recovery and lastly willpower to improve your critical chance.

The Sorceress's unique class mechanic called the enchantment system changes how a skill works. In total, there are several active abilities slotted together with dedicated enchantment slots. Should you decide to place a skill in an enchantment slot? It can no longer be activated and will instead transform into a secondary passive bonus. For instance, you're able to trigger meteor to blast multiple targets with heavyfire damage while momentarily setting the ground on fire.

Rogue Class

The Rogue is a stealthy assassin, who's adept at moving swiftly, so they can choose to reposition themselves to gain the upper hand in combat or retreat when things get too precarious.

Unlike Barbarians, they can quickly switch between melee and ranged weapons, such as dagger's swords and foes making them extremely versatile. Although at the start bows don't deal as much damage, they will allow you to stay at a safer distance with respect to your foes thereby lowering the chances off requently getting hit. You can think of Diablo 4's Rogue as a combination of Diablo 2 and Diablo 3's Amazon and Demon Hunter respectively.

Your primary stats for this class include dexterity to amplify skill damage and improve dodge ability, strength to enhance your energy regeneration rate and intelligence to improve your critical chance and overall assistance.

The Rogue's unique mechanic is known as talent specializations, which are divided into combo points intersight and preparation, each with its own questline.

Remember though that there is no confirmation yet, if you can activate all three specializations simultaneously or if they can only be used one at a time. Additionally, preparation hasn't been tested since it becomes available upon reaching level 30 and the max level for the beta is level 25.

Combo points are accumulated by activating basic Rogue skills. You'll then be able to consume these points with core skills to trigger additional effects. Meanwhile, intersight allows you to fill up a gauge by attacking marked enemies. Doing so will allow you to make use of unlimited energy for a brief period of time and has proven to be effective against bosses.

The Rogue's versatility doesn't end here however since they can also imbue other attacks with specific effects, such as Poison, Shadow and Coal. These are usually applied to core skills and abilities that deal damage against multiple enemies, such as Rapid Fire.

Druid Class

The next class we're going to take a look at is the Druid, who has the Uncanny ability to change their physical form from a human to that of a werebear or wearable.

Compared to Druids and Diablo 2 Druids can now instantly transform when using their beast themed skills prior to executing the corresponding actions.

Do note that your new form will only last for a short duration until you execute another move. Moreover, this class is also an adept wielder of magic except that they specialize in casting Earth and Storm Spells to disable enemies while slaying the forces of evil. For instance, you're able to execute crushing below to damage a target by a certain percentage of their total light.

Unlike Diablo 2, Druids have companions that do not need to be summoned but are automatically called out to attack on their behalf. However, they do have respective attack companion skills to deal damage on certain targets.

In terms of stats, not much is currently known for this class as well as the Necromancer. Initial information suggests that the Druid's unique class mechanic is tied to requiring special loot, which should be offered to spirit animals.

Doing so will grant different passive bonuses based on the spirit's type. It hasn't been revealed how many types are available, but each of them will grant up to six offensive and defensive passive effects.

Necromancer Class

Final class in Diablo 4 is the Necromancer, who is a renowned Summoner often resurrecting corpses to fight with him in battle.

Like Barbarians and Rogues, a wide variety of weapons are available to them, such as swords, daggers, wands and more importantly sides, which only they can wield.

Diablo 4's Necromancer will remind veterans of the Necromancer in Diablo 3 because of the essence resource to activate potent skills.

Another useful resource is corpses, which are created from the remains of Fallen enemies or other spell effects. In fact you can even make use of the fan favorite corpse explosion.

Necromancers have four distinct played styles, namely Bone, Darkness, Blood and the Army. Bone skills primarily focus on dealing physical damage while consuming the Essence resource. One of the most notable spells is Bone Prison, which ensnares multiple enemies that can be used in conjunction with offensive based skills.

Next is Darkness that makes use of dealing damage over time making it the ideal choice for those, who intend to torture foes who dare to fight them.

Next is Blood, which allows the Necromancer to become a bloodthirsty vampire to restore their own life. One notable spell is Blood Surge, which not only absorbs the HP of enemies but also gains their strength an explosion will soon follow to deal additional damage.

And last but not least is the Army, which lets you bring skeletons back to life as well as constructed Golems. The necromancer's unique class mechanic is the Book of the Dead. This lets them further customize their Undead armies, such as Skeleton Warriors, Skeleton Mages and Golems.

For instance, Skeleton Warriors can become Skirmishers, who deal greater damage, but at the expense of maintaining a lower health pool or Defenders, who inflict lesser damage but are expert tanks.

What's more is that you can choose to sacrifice a specific minion to gain a permanent buff to further improve your build.

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Why don’t you get sent to Azkaban in Hogwarts Legacy for using the Unforgivable Curses? That’s the whole point of them calling them unforgivable. You go straight to Azkaban one-stop trip. Also, why can’t you go to Azkaban at all unless you’re playing as a Hufflepuff?

It seems strange the developers would make these kinds of decisions, seeing as though they go so against the in-universe lore. We saw that all throughout the Harry Potter series, anytime, an unforgivable curse is used. It’s a direct trip to Azkaban, so why isn’t that the case in Hogwarts Legacy?

There is only one mission in the game which allows you to go to Azkaban and to go there you need to be playing as a Hufflepuff, which is a kind of funny seeing as though Hufflepuff are the least violent and most pushover house. It’s almost like a reward for playing as a Hufflepuff. It’s like you get the trip to Azkaban and no one else does.

But even when you get to go to Azkaban, there’s not really that much to do. You get to walk around a little to see some creepy people and some cells experience, such as a Patronus Spell, which you don’t even get to cast since casting a Patronus Spell is another thing you can’t do in Hogwarts Legacy.

As said by Professor Moody at the time in the Goblet of Fire, those three curses: Avada Kedavra, Imperio and Crucio are known as the unforgivable curses. Using any of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. These three dark arts curses were classified as unforgivable in the year 1717.

Now, Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the 1890s, meaning that by this point these curses are classified as unforgivable when you have already been using them and learning them or even you were supposed to be sent straight to Azkaban over in Hogwarts Legacy.

You can even use these spells in front of your professors, in front of your teachers, in front of your fellow peers, and there will be no consequence. Nothing will happen. You’ll cast a spell and everyone goes about their merry day.

Honestly, I don’t think this is an enormous problem from a gameplay perspective. But when it comes to an in-universe lore perspective, it completely screws everything up. The fact is that there is no consequence at all. You can basically learn the dark arts in Hogwarts Legacy at little to no cost. This completely goes against the lore of the dark arts and the entire purpose of Azkaban.

Now, I’m surprised that using these spells in the game has no consequence at all. There could be some GTA style wanted level where the Dementors potentially come after you. The more curses you use, they join the fight and you have to use a Patronus to fan them off.

I feel like the developers of Hogwarts Legacy are leaving this open to future DLC ideas. They’ve clearly built Azkaban as part of the story. It exists in some form in the game. You can go there even though it’s kind of brief and you don’t get to see much of the prison. But I feel like they’re leaving this open as an option for future DLC to go there as other houses to experience the prison first hand and to not have to replay the game as a Hufflepuff.

I think it’s likely that down the track they could also introduce the Patronus Spell just as the Quidditch field is still in the game. Even though there’s no Quidditch, that could be out of down the track as well. The same goes to the Great Lake, a giant open area in the game where there’s not really that much to do apart from flyover and swim. It’s possible in future they’re going to add DLC, which allows you to dive down and explore, potentially using Gilly Weed to breathe. Then, there’s also the chance.

The developers just ran out of time and resources. That’s why you can’t cast a Patronus. That’s why you can’t actually fight Dementors. That’s why there’s no Quidditch. That’s why there’s no explosion of the Great Lake. Because the game is already too big and there’s already way too much to do as fun as it is using the unforgivable curses. I know for some players this is immersion breaking. Being able to use these on other characters right in front of your professors just seems dumb.

Even if Hogwarts Legacy gets DLC, there’s likely never going to be any consequence for using these spells as that would change the way the game is built. But that said, I think we could make our way to Azkaban at some point, just like we’ll hopefully. Also, we could play Quidditch at some point.

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Torchlight Infinite is an amazing action RPG heavily inspired by Path of Exile. And one thing I noticed is that many players won’t even try it because they assume that since you can also play it on your phone, it will have an aggressive monetization and be absolutely Pay-to-Win. For that matter, I’m here today to expose the facts about Torchlight Infinite’s monetization and share my opinion.

You can reach your own verdict in Torchlight Infinite. We have two types of premium currency, the Jagged Primocryst and the Primocryst.

Jagged Primocryst

Let’s talk about the Jagged Primocryst since you can receive them for free.

Here’s a list of what you can purchase with Jagged Primocryst. First, we have the Revival Token. You can use it to not lose experience when you die.

Following, we have the Elixir of Oblivion. It works as an Orb Of Regret. You use it to respec your Talent Tree even though you can purchase them here. I don’t recommend using a Jagged Primocryst on this because you drop many of them while playing and you can reset your passive skill tree as much as you want totally for free until Level 80.

Another thing you can purchase is expansions for your inventory and stash. With Jagged Primocryst, you’ll also be able to summon Pact Spirits. But I’ll talk more about that later.

Every play you get many Jagged Primocryst while playing. You receive them on the Free Season Pass reaching Achievements as a compensation for every maintenance and getting the free package once a day in the shop.

However, you can get some more Jagged Primocryst if you pay for the Premium Season Pass or purchase the ticket to receive 60 Jagged Primocryst a day for 30 days.

Primocryst

Now, moving on to the other Premium Currencies, the Primocryst. This one you can only get by paying real money.

Primocryst can be used to purchase cosmetic items and expansions for your Auction House and early access to new Hero Traits.

Another thing you can purchase with real money is the Premium Season Pass. As any season pass, this one grants many rewards for completing question and earning points. Among those rewards, we have Revival Tokens, Elixir of Oblivion, Jagged Primocryst, cosmetic items and early access to the new character, Erika.

It’s good to remind that every player has access to the Free Season Pass that grants all those rewards mentioned before, except for the cosmetic items in Erika.

My Opinion

In order to express my opinion on the matter, I’m going to use a scale based on my experience with many games. This scale goes from 0 to 10, when 0 is not Pay-to-Win at all and 10 is absolutely Pay-to-Win.

As an example of 0, we have the game Dota 2, where you can put as much money as you want and you won’t have any advantage at all. As an example of 10, we have Diablo Immortal that we all know that is aggressively Pay-to-Win. Using this scale, I would place Path of Exile as 1 because even though money won’t grant you power, any player that wants to take POE seriously must purchase at least a few Stash Tabs. Torchlight Infinite, however, I would place as a 2, because of Pack Spirits.

Now, it’s time to talk about them. Torchlight Infinite has a feature called Pact System. On the Pact Tree, we can find basic nodes. Those are attack defense and magic find nodes. You can use Pact Spirits to change those nodes. This way, you can mold the tree your way. For instance, you can transform your defense nodes into attack nodes using an offensive spirit.

The thing is, you’ll be able to summon many Pact Spirits for free or even purchase more using the Jagged Primocryst you also get for free. However, if you purchase a premium season pass or the ticket that grants the daily Jagged Primocryst or even the limited package that comes with 5 Summons.

You get more spirits, making it easier for them to level up. High level Spirits grant some bonuses to the nodes on your Pack Tree, thus making your character slightly stronger.

With all of that in mind, I wouldn’t characterize Torchlight Infinite as Pay to Win because spending lots of money would make you roughly stronger than other players since the Packed System is only one between many other Trees and ways to scale your damage on your character.

If you decide to spend some money on the game, I recommend you get in the Premium Season Pass. It has a great price for what it’s worth and grants you early access to the new character.

A new league started just a month ago, and it’s an amazing time to join now that you know all about the Torchlight Infinite monetization.

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Thinking about subscribing to ESO+, but you're not sure whether it's worth it? Well, you've come to the right place! With the recent ESO+ free trial coming to a close a week ago, I thought it might be helpful to provide a breakdown of all the benefits and drawbacks of the service, as well as some examples of when it might not be needed.

Now, if you're not familiar with ESO+, it's a subscription service offered on top of the basic price of the game. The subscription provides several perks that, if I'm being honest, I don't think I could live without at this point in my ESO career. With that said, I can see how some players wouldn't get enough use out of the features of the service to justify the cost.

Drawbacks Of Subscription

And that leads me into what I want to discuss first—the drawbacks of subscription, of which there is really only one—the cost. ESO+ is going to run you $14.99 per month, or $139.99 if you choose to pay annually. While some might not bat an eye at these prices, I know people who are on a tight budget and would have to cut something else out to afford the service. If you're in that boat, I hope my explanation of the benefits and use cases helps you make an informed decision about whether to pay.

Benefits Of Subscription

Next, I'll go over each of the benefits. There are several features of ESO+, but they come in varying degrees of relevance for the everyday player. The benefit that is probably the most valuable for most players is full access to all DLC packages. This doesn't include the most recent chapter, but all prior chapters and DLCs are included. The current chapter of my screen is High Isle, so that means that everything before High Isle is included with the subscription.

You could essentially buy a copy of the base game and, through ESO+, get access to everything up through Blackwood and its associated DLCs. You even get access to the most recent DLC, Firesong. We're talking about Imperial City, Wrothgar, Vvardenfell, Summerset, Murkmire, Northern and Southern Elsweyr, Western Skyrim, the Reach, Blackwood, the Deadlands, Galen, and everything in between. These storylines equate to hundreds and potentially even thousands of hours of playtime.

Additionally, you get access to all the sets introduced through the previous chapters and DLCs, which is a huge benefit. That means fantastic sets like Pillar of Nirn, Drake's Rush, False God's Devotion, Spell Power Cure, Elemental Catalyst, and the list goes on. While you can absolutely do just about anything in the base game without these sets, the added damage and survivability you'll get from some of these DLC sets can really make things a lot easier when you get to harder content.

Next up on the list of benefits, and one of those perks I couldn't live without in ESO, is the craft bag. The concept of the craft bag is pretty straightforward. It's a separate storage area outside of your regular inventory that holds all of your crafting materials.

Mats go directly into the craft bag when you gather them, and the bag's storage is infinite. The craft bag doesn't just store materials related to the crafting skill lines, it also holds all of your bait, furnishing materials, style materials, and trait items. Materials are accessible any time you need them, and you don't have to withdraw mats from the bag when crafting, as they automatically get used as you make items. You can also easily retrieve materials from the bag if you ever want to donate some mats to a friend or sell them in a trader.

If you like purchasing items from the crown store, you're in luck, as the ESO+ subscription also includes an allotment of crowns. You get 1650 per month if you pay the monthly pricing, or 19,800 per year if you pay annually. You also get periodic deals on various items in the crown store, as well as a free statuette or painting from time to time. If you're keeping score, you can buy 21,000 crowns for about $150.00, so the crown allotment you get with the subscription is worth the annual cost of ESO+ if you would end up buying the crowns, anyway.

One thing to note is that the annual allotment is deposited into your account all at once, so you'll need to have a bit of self-discipline if you want to have a few crowns leftover for anything you might be interested in later in your annual cycle. Next up on the list are the various increased storage perks that come with the subscription. You get double furnishing and collectible space in your player homes, double bank space, and double the currency cap for transmute crystals. I consider inventory management to be the bane of my existence, so these are a few more of the ESO+ benefits I personally cannot live without.

The penultimate perk of ESO+ is increased progression speed. Ten percent boosts to ESO Gold, XP, crafting inspiration, and research timer speeds don't seem like much, but they really make a difference. For example, your last traits on each piece of gear will take three days less to complete with ESO+ active.

And finally, the last benefit on the list, and the least useful from my perspective, is costume dying. I typically choose to dress my characters with styles from various motifs, so I get little use out of this feature myself, but I'm sure other players really love customizing the costumes they collect. It just goes to show that everything is a matter of perspective.

Why You Might Not Need ESO+?

Now that I've gone through all the benefits the subscription has to offer, I'll discuss some reasons you might not need ESO+. Maybe you're a brand new player and you're still trying to learn the ins and outs of ESO. The game can be a little overwhelming when you're just getting started, so you might not need access to all the DLC content while you get acclimated to ESO's core mechanics.

Also, if you've purchased a newer version of ESO, such as the High Isle chapter, for example, you'll get access to all previous chapters and the base game, anyway. That'll give you plenty to do even without DLC access. To this you might say, “but Trav, what if I want to learn to craft? Won't it be impossible without the craft bag?"

And to that, I say absolutely not! It will take a significant amount of additional effort, but you can be a successful crafter without the craft bag. Non-ESO+ crafters will typically max out their bank slots and inventory capacity, at least on their main character, then create several alternate characters on which they'll store all of their excess or less-used crafting materials. I've seen some players create a spreadsheet to keep track of which character has what materials.

Then, when the free trial of ESO+ comes along, which happens about every six months, you can offload all your mats into the craft bag for easy use after your trial is over. You can't put things into the bag after your subscription ends, but you can take items out and/or use the items as you wish. For non-crafting items, you'll definitely need to find ways to add storage to make up for the double bank capacity of ESO+. To achieve this goal, you have several options.

As mentioned earlier, a quick way to increase your storage is to max out your bank slots. You can buy bank upgrades with ESO Gold at any banker. Each upgrade is 10 slots, and the cost goes up every time you purchase. Maximizing your bank slots is quite expensive, with the total cost of all upgrades coming in at a whopping 769,200 ESO Gold. I'd recommend purchasing the slots gradually instead of all at once, as your storage needs will probably increase gradually as well. At the end of your bank upgrading journey, you'll have 240 slots to enable that inevitable hoarding habit that we all experience at some point in ESO.

Keep in mind that bank space is account-wide, so all of your characters will share those 240 slots. Increasing your character's inventory or bag space is another great way to add storage, especially if you can do so on several alternate characters. Similarly to bank slots, you can increase your bag space by 10 spaces per upgrade at increasingly expensive rates. The maximum 140 slots you can get to through a pack merchant will run you a total cost of 180,600 ESO Gold, but you can increase your space even further through mount training with the stablemaster.

The additional 60 slots from the stablemaster will only cost 15,000 ESO Gold, but it'll take you at least 50 days to get all the upgrades, even if you train your mount capacity every 20 hours on the dot. You can have up to 8 characters without purchasing additional character slots through the crown store, and up to 18 if you choose to buy those additional slots. Even with just the base 8 characters, once you get to the maximum of 200 carrying capacity on each, you'll have access to 1,600 inventory slots!

If that's still not enough for you, your last option, other than subscribing to ESO+ or buying additional character slots, is getting all the various coffers you can put in your player home. You can gain these coffers through completing master writs or by purchasing them in the crown store. To purchase all available storage coffers and have 330 storage.

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There's nothing quite like a first playthrough in a game. You enjoy time feels like it doesn't exist and nothing else matters, but the memories we make along the way.

The First Experience

So, why do we want to forget them so badly? It sounds absurd at first. But, wanting to erase memory of a game and replay it as one of the most common wishes you will find on the internet and it makes sense. There are so many different things coming together to make a first playthrough special that you just won't be able to match anywhere else and there are not a lot of games that did it as well as Elden Ring did.

The Community

I'm warning you it's gonna get nostalgic here. Elden Ring has been out for almost 1 year now. Most people have beaten the game at least once and an overwhelming majority of those people would call their first playthrough special.

There are thousands of reasons in these commons as to why this game was so unforgettable yet? All of them boil down to three major reasons. But what even is the point of trying to find out all of this? Well, for one it might help some people relieve that experience. But mainly, I want to figure out why this game left such a lasting impression on me and clearly a lot of other people, as well.

Guidance

Do you remember these things or maybe these chances are that after the first time you've never touched them again but in that first playthrough, they were exciting to find. I bring these up because Elden Ring has a thing for guiding the player. Be it the light from Graces or little details like these and such a vast and empty world. It's a pleasant surprise from time to time to have some form of force, wanting to guide you on your adventure. Similarly, walking into Caelid for the first time is just for a truck-sized dog. To turn you into a treat is a clear sign that you're supposed to go somewhere else.

All of this results in an unexplained yet guided adventure. You see those dogs and you want to get revenge, so it will be on your mind until you get strong enough to return. And this feeling is like you are not knowing what else that area has to offer or when you will be going back.

There leaves a lot of room for imagination. I still vividly remember being memeed on by the chest in Limgrave and ending up in Caelid's Crystal Cave just to see the empty rotten red swamp and these disgusting looking things all over the place. Walking through Caelid, I thought I had stumbled across some sort of alternate version of the lens between similar to the link to the past dark world. It felt mysterious and terrifying, but even without these magical moments of confusion, I would have loved every second of the game, because of how well the game handles quality and quantity.

Secrets and Discoveries

There's always something to do and it is always satisfying because the core gameplay is just so fleshed out by now. Stopping yourself from playing was generally the hardest challenge. All of this created a sort of childlike feeling as a kid. I had no idea about software and hardware limitations. I did not understand that NPCs have pre-written dialogue other worlds of borders. It was such a special thing, but sadly as I grew up that passion for games made me learn so much more about them that feeling mostly faded.

Elden Ring made me feel that way again. I wanted to stay awake all night, start playing as soon as I wake up and skip work for it. I can only imagine how much stronger that feeling would have been. Elden Ring had been my first souls game, so I didn't know what the weapons or items are good and what mechanics to use to make every item pickup special. Therefore, even finding out, for example, jumping can be to dodge attacks was mind-blowing to me.

None of these are really considered meta nowadays but to this day using them will always remind me of my struggles against Maliketh. I saw hundreds of new discoveries and secrets. I had no idea about how can it be so huge and filled with secrets. That's what she said. She said that even after hundreds of hours, I see and learn new things.

Circumstances

And lastly, an immersive and long game like this is a perfect way to escape many people headed rough and Elden Ring was their way of forgetting. And no matter which one of the other points applied nothing is as valuable as something to look forward to. The reason we crave to forget and relive this magical feeling is different for everyone, but I think most of us can agree that we hope the Elden Ring DLC will make us feel that way again.

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As an upstart in the Western game world in 2022, Lost Ark has made Western players fantastical, and its performance on Steam is even more impressive. Because of the great freedom of construction in the game and the different card sets that allow each player to give full play to their imagination, everyone's performance is also very different.

As the name suggests, in order to travel smoothly through “Lost Ark World”, each player needs to have the most capable person to pilot the ship. Lost Ark provides us with many crew members to choose from, and their respective specialties are different, and it is impossible to have only one crew member on a ship, such as The Estoque. So when we need to form a sailor team, we need to consider whether the players can have an appropriate chemical reaction. It will save us a lot of unnecessary troubles in the future journey.

1. Cals (Legendary)

In the minds of most Lost Ark players, Cals (Legendary) is the best Estoque crew. Cals Moronto came from a distinguished background and had reached the pinnacle of power at a young age, so he developed an aggressive attitude. When the stronghold appears, Cals will send supplies to the protagonist, and when we drive to Wavestrand Port, it's time for us to talk to Cals.

The Estoque will be more effective with the help of Cals (Legendary). Cals can increase the speed of 1.75 knots and the durability and flexibility of the ship itself, so the ship will be more guaranteed, and players don't have to worry too much about the ship's accidents due to various bad weather or other risks encountered on the way.

Price:

• 80,000 Pirate Coins in Punika Mercantile Ship

• 4,008 Arcturus Pieces in Yorn Spearship Hunting Guild Vessel

2. Cals (Epic)

When we use Cals (Epic), the speed of the ship is not as fast as when using Cals (Legendary), but the speed can also increase by 1.3 knots. While significantly increasing a ship's resilience against the Tempest Seas, it also increases its defenses against the Siren Seas and Cold Snap Seas.

At The Trusted Level in Wavestrand Port, you can exchange Cals Rapports for Epic Cals. As far as immunity goes, Cals (Epic) are pretty much invulnerable.

Cals (Epic) Attribute:

• -7 Defenses in Kelp Beds & -4 Defenses in Sandstorm Seas

• -4 resistance to Dead Waters

• +5 resistance to Cold Snap Seas

• +3 for the Siren Seas

• +8 for the Tempest Seas

Read More: Fun Lost Ark Gaming News - Go Ahead!

3. Pupuring (Relic)

He's the pistachio character who keeps weary crews and boring long voyages entertaining all the time. Pupuring (Relic) is always happy to share his interesting experiences with people and has a very amazing skill set himself. Pupuring (Relic) can provide a sailing speed of 1.3 knots, and ships with Pupuring (Relic) are almost superior to Siren Seas and Cold Snap Seas defense. It is precisely because the Pupuring (Relic) is the perfect blend of speed and resistance that it can be called one of the greatest Estoque sailors in Lost Ark.

Price: 1 Tear of the Abyss to the Mist Island Merchant

Pupuring (Relic) Attributes:

• -14 penalty to the Kelp Beds

• +10 bonus to the Cold Snap Seas

• +17 bonus to the Dead Waters

• -3 penalty to the Siren Seas

• +10 bonus to the Sandstorm Seas

• -3 immunity to the Tempest Seas

4. Pupuring (Epic)

Players using Pupuring (Epic) can increase the speed of their ships by 0.7 knots. Pupuring (Epic) improves the defense of the player's ship against the Tempest Seas and the Dead Waters.

Price: 2004 Gienah pieces in the Luterra Spearfish Hunting Guild Ship

Pupuring (Epic) Attributes:

• -8 in the Kelp Beds

• -5 in the Cold Snap Seas

• +6 in the Sandstorm Seas

• +11 to the Dead Waters

• -5 to the Siren Seas

• +6 to the Tempest Seas

5. Tasha (Rare)

Tasha (Rare) has a very tragic fate, but she has always maintained an optimistic and positive attitude. Although Tasha (Rare) can only increase the speed of the ship by 0.1 knots, she is also known as one of the most protective Estoque Crew Members due to her ability to increase resistance to various harmful waters.

Price: 6,000 Slime Coins in Atropos Laura or the Slime Island trader Yulia

Tasha (Rare) Attributes:

• +5 resistance to the kelp beds

• +5 resistance to the siren seas

• +5 resistance to the Dead Waters

• +5 is added to the area around the Sandstorm Seas

• +5 to the Cold Snap Seas

• +5 to the Tempest Seas

It's a pity that you can't directly spend Lost Ark Gold to get these Estoque Crew Members, but gold can be used as a cost to buy equipment suitable for their use. Players who are interested in this, please click here, there will be a surprise!

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This free game developed and published by Valve was officially released on October 10, 2007. The game supports 26 languages including Chinese. Although this game did not become a free game before, but with time over time, this game has been opened for free to play, and has received a favorable rate of close to 95% in all game reviews.

What kind of game can make players so popular? Today I will introduce a wave of Team Fortress 2 to you! Although this game has been around for more than ten years, the most important thing is that it has not stopped updating. This game is one of the most popular online action games over the years. It updates free upgrade patches again and again, and adds more maps, modes, as well as equipment. This is one of the few in all games.

Team Fortress 2 is well balanced. Although this game is not very accessible, it is definitely a good game for some players who want to try it. You don't need to spend money to buy items, because all you need is your own skills. There will be a large number of game modes for you to choose from in the game, and you can play according to your preferences. The most important point is that even if you don't know how to play, you can still be a support silently, attracting the firepower of others and you're done.

Game Screen

Although I don't know what the picture was like more than ten years ago, what is certain is that the current picture definitely has a picture quality experience comparable to that of third-person shooting games called Fortnite. These two games have similar cartoon character models, similar map structures, and weapon hitting effects, etc. And both of them have kept pace with the times, and will not affect the player's game experience at all because of the image quality.

Gameplay

Team Fortress 2 is a first-person perspective game. Although it is a multiplayer competitive game, it will not bring players the same frustration or poor experience as competitive games, nor will it make you lose your temper. Instead, its joyful game atmosphere can bring you a feeling of happiness. The game has nine modes: Payload, King of the hill, Control point, Capture the flag, Payload race, Attack defend, Special delivery, Random games and Mann versus Machine. No matter which mode you choose, you can spend your game time very happily. Of course, it would be even better if you bring your own friends.

Game Content

In addition to the above-mentioned game modes, the second is the equipment of the game and the costumes of the characters. Nine different types of arms have different combinations of combat capabilities and personalities, and also have different battlefield positioning. Players can play the game according to their preferences. Secondly, hundreds of weapon hats in the game allow players to collect, synthesize, purchase and trade by themselves. Of course, you can also use Metal directly to get these things.

In short, this game is very worthy of players to play, and the Metacritic evaluation of 92 points is enough to support the excellence of this game.

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The popularity of Among Us and Fall Guys has made Party Game a force that cannot be ignored in the game market in recent years. However, as previously reported by GameLook, for party games developed by small teams on Steam, due to the lack of publicity resources, whether they can become popular often requires some luck in addition to the hard power of the product itself.

Recently, a party game that has been online for more than a year has become the latest lucky guy on this track. According to data from SteamDB, this game named Goose Goose Duck has suddenly exploded after a year of innocence. Moreover, the number of online users of this game on Steam is temporarily ranked Top 17, becoming a masterpiece comparable to many FPS and MMO ultra-popular hot styles.

So, the question also arises, how fun is Goose Goose Duck?

An Upgraded Version Of Among Us?

Goose Goose Duck has a rather nonsensical setting: a group of geese made a spaceship ready to go to space, but mixed ducks and other birds into it. According to different camps, players need to work together with their allies to complete a series of tasks in order to win the victory for their camp.

Does this setting sound familiar? That's right, in various senses, Goose Goose Duck has many similarities with Among Us, the big hit among space werewolves. For example, similar space settings, similar character styles, and of course similar gameplay. However, if Goose Goose Duck is just a skinned version of Among Us, it is obviously impossible to be so popular. Simply put, Goose Goose Duck is more like an upgraded version of Among Us.

In the past, The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow products were often divided into two camps, good guys and bad guys. In the good guys camp, the largest number are generally ordinary villagers without special abilities. This can balance the difficulty caused by the different numbers of the two camps. However, for ordinary villagers, the game experience is often quite bad, and they are often killed by werewolves without any achievements.

In contrast, Goose Goose Duck has an astonishing 30 kinds of professions, although it also includes the most common goose, but obviously there are far more players with occupations than other products, which also ensures that the game experience of players is not too short boring. Of course, this also leads to a problem: if all members are ruthless, wouldn't it be difficult for the camp of bad guys who do not have the upper hand to win?

In order to solve this problem, Goose Goose Duck also changed the design of the camp. In addition to the "good and bad" camp in the traditional sense, there are also some third-party camps. For example, for the role of Dumbbird, its combat goal is to be voted out by the big geese as a bad duck to win. Therefore, the big geese need to beware of these players who deliberately show their "duck" feet, and the ducks can also use the self-explosive flow. The way of playing is pretending to be a dumb bird, disturbing the cognition of the big geese.

The addition of third-party camps not only significantly improves the balance between camps, but also makes the experience of the game itself extremely brain-burning. Since each game can have up to 16 players joining at the same time, the game process is often full of unexpected emergencies, and it is not difficult for players to be so superior. Some players even left a message on Steam saying, "Before playing the game, I felt quite normal, but after I finished playing, I was mentally retarded."

Free To Download And Experience

The success of Goose Goose Duck is also inseparable from its business model. Today, Among Us is still a buyout game on Steam, but Goose Goose Duck has chosen the same free and in-app purchase model as Fall Guys today. The business model that everyone can experience for free will undoubtedly attract more players to test the water.

In terms of internal purchases, the current main payment point for this product is the sale of skins and decorations. These payment elements will not affect the player's game experience. In addition, although there are some elements involving item charges, such as special pets that provide game currency bonuses, the impact on the value is also very weak.

It is worth mentioning that Goose Goose Duck is also a cross-platform product. In addition to PC (Steam) and Mac, this game also supports Android and iOS smartphones. Sensor Tower data shows that the mobile game version of this product has been downloaded millions of times on both platforms, but the revenue is relatively bleak. Players' willingness to pay for this type of product is still a problem that party games need to continue to explore .

Therefore, how long the Goose Goose Duck, which became popular overnight, will remain popular is still a topic worthy of continuous attention. But it is foreseeable that Goose Goose Duck will not be the last popular party game. This simple and joyful multiplayer social game category will still have a steady stream of new surprises in the future.

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