Hallo and welcome to my little space to complain about a game that has just caused me to rage quit by basic game design.

I previously made a forum post on Batman: Arkham Knight for the PC in which pretty much every turn in that game pissed me off to no end and yet the basic core Arkham serise mechanics made me want to play it despite the new additions (namely the answers to 90% of the game was USE THE BATMOBILE!) and so there was many moment to rage at that game, this is going to be fairly short compared to my anger toward Arkham.

Today the game that has made me irate is Ubisoft's "The Crew" which most people know is not a stellar game and happily forgot about it despite the break out unveiling at E3 many years ago, I am one of those who got it free and you would think I should not complain...except I will.

Ubisoft gave it away free for Ubisoft 30 years anniversary a few weeks back and I was always interested, I played the beta/demo before release and thought it was "neat" and never bought it. Now with two weeks off work I decided to let myself fall into the shameless collectathon that is a modern Ubisoft game and let it just meditate me, this has worked with Assassin creed games before, Far Cry 3 (which reminds me I should install and play Far cry 4 to fill this void, why I bought it in a sale months ago.) and so it seemed like a sound thought, I am whore for customisation and car's why not?

Playing for 5 hours I found out why not.... the very basics of the game do satisfy me in a similar vein that Burnout Paradise City does, however whenever I see a goal to attain in the sense "oh I want that!" in the form of a car I am blocked, not by level I am blocked by paying money...not in game money...real money. Yes I did get this game for free, yet I could have paid for this with my real money and still be blocked from well...the main fact of the game. The main fact is cars! I WANT CARS IN MY CAR GAME! CAN I HAVE THAT CAR!? YES?! OK HOW MUCH GAME MUST I PLAY TO GET THAT CAR IN THE GAME?! None?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN NONE!? Oh.....real money....as in...do not play this game...just give you money, sorry I thought you wanted people to play and enjoy your game. You are a game publisher and developer Ubisoft...I got this in the 30th anniversary deal so you have been in this business for a LOOOONG time, I would assume you knew what a game was and the point of it which is one provide entertainment and two be sold for a profit, these are two facts of game industry that is held up most of the time.

Why is it that you have putting the money in front of gameplay? Yes Ubisoft I know is one half of the point of video games as I just said...yet it in theory I already put the money down to buy the game and to PLAY IT not BUY MORE OF IT.

Ok fine...fine....The Crew this is how it works...fiiiiiiiine, Ok I will not aim to try and get these cars because you are supposed to put real money to them....what about this car? Oh I can buy with "Crew points" sure lets see.....OH FUCK OFF! JUST FUCK OFF!...it took me to a menu to buy thousands of crew points for...REAL MONEY AGAIN! I did not realise my desktop pc was a smartphone for mobile game. My laptop is because it has Windows 10 installed on it and it just fucking is a giant smart phone at this point, I regret it does not have a touch screen because I feel thats how your supposed to use Windows 10.

Right ok ok ok ok! FINE FINE! I WONT HAVE THE FAIRLADY Z! Which you have to buy the season pass to get... which that does not sting so much despite how much I would want to try and go for it. I continue my gameplay..,sorry "gameplay" by how Ubisoft treats it. A small little....."reminder" sits in the middle of the screen as I am on the minimap "reminding" me I could press X and buy the expansion "The Crew: Wild Runs." that's ok, it is honestly fine DLC expansions are like that and this all could be one big spin to sell the expansion, the "reminder" is a little intrusive...like a free to play game's reminders.

I am urged to play this special little mission and I do so because it is nearby I start it up and it says basicly "YOU A MONSTER TRUCK DO STUNTS AND UNLOCK THE ABILITY TO TURN YOUR CARS INTO MONSTER TRUCKS!" OH COOL! I AM EXCITED!! Sure I will need a shit ton of ingame money to buy these however that sound like gameplay and I will play it to do so. I do the mission have a little bit of fun then I am quickly ushered into a new thing, a Drag race with a custom Drag race car also saying "DO THIS AND GET TO MAKE DRAG RACER CARS!" again "COOL!!!" is my reaction, I spend the next while doing and learning how to drag race and fine it fun, next step "YOU CAN MAKE DRIFT CARS!" I thought "Waaaait.....that is realy cool....however I am feeling this is somthing else...if this fucking game asks me to buy this shit after pay walling me so much in the last 20 minutes?!"........HEY GUYS! IT PAY WALLED ME!

Turns out it was all a "Demo" for Wild Runs the cool fun whacky expansion to Ubisofts Crew!! Pay real money now and you can....fuck off...fuck off...fuuuuuuuck off Ubisoft...nope done....uninstalled fuck off......I am done. You did not even cock block me you simply put a chastity belt on me and told me if I want to get to have any fun pay money, is that not an issue that should not be an issue.

I have sat for the last month playing Star Trek Timelines a free to play mobile game, it is a weird sorta card game weird thing about Star Trek, sure it wants to get money out of you yet if you put time in you can get buy without money...and it is not fun...yet compelling. Another mobile game I have also been playing Dragon Ball Dokkan Battle, much the same concept as a Card collecting game with weird game mechanics and yet I am compelled to play it as I do find fun in it. I played a stupid amount of WWE Card Battles untill I just gave up.

These are examples of how easily amused I can be in collecting and upgrading things, seeing little numbers tick over with small boosts to gameplay. Then why is it Ubisoft cannot do this with a game THAT I SHOULD HAVE PAID REAL MONEY FOR ALREADY! INSTEAD ASSUME I DID NOT PAY IT THEN FORCE ME TO PAY FOR MORE AT EVERY STEP IF I WANT PROGRESSION!?

Oh good in the time it took me to remind myself to play Far cry 4 set it up to install and now come to a finish to my angry ambling annoyed accusations...I will stop now. It is now installed and may it not become my next "Akyho's Angered Assessment"....AWWW FUCK.....the fucking eagles.....can I mod them out of the came? Surely I could....and it is an Ubisoft game surley after the last Asscreed game and The Crew they did not microtransaction Far cry 4 to shit, time to find out.

PS FUCK OFF THE CREW!

I have just gotten back from the cinema after watching Pacific Rim. It was a very good film some cheesy moments, yet even in the face of this it came out alot less camp and cliche than if it was in the hands of what most Hollywood summer blockbuster directors seem to do.

So lets me explain as I watched P.R (as it will be refer to from now on.) I couldn't help but think alot about Evangelion(from now will be known as Eva), which is why as I type this up I am on Episode 1 of the anime that I have already watched over 10 times.

I am not going to dissect the movie in great detail or even spoilers beyond "Giant mechs vs Giant monsters" more so the comparison of the 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. This is by no means a slamming of Pacific Rim for lifting ideas and atmosphere from Eva. More so how much of an influence anime was a good influenced on it.

Eva is about the last fate of mankind resting the shoulders of a secret super weapon to defeat giant monsters that are known to be arriving at any time.

This is the same as a lot of "Monster of the week" Japanese programs such as Ultra man and such.

The biggest similarities come when its the explanation of how the mech's work. P.R has two pilots synched to the mech via a mind meld, using motion and mind to control the mech. They talk alot about synching and staying in synch in order to control the mechs.

The conversations sounded alot like Eva. As they are piloted by a single pilot partly hooked up to controls and partly hooked up by brain waves. Using the two to control the mech.

Another great thing that P.R did was not make the mechs invulnerable. Eva middled up and down on this, it had 26 episodes cant just blow up mechs willy nilly. However battles didnt always go to plan and more so the pilots never came away unharmed. They may have won flawlessly....however they are just 14 year old kids.....did I forget to mention that part?

P.R did a good job of letting your get to know the pilots in strengths and in flaws. So in both mechs and their pilots were just as beaten up, allowing for some honest peril to occur.

There was also the great sense of scale, allowing you to understand these are giant mechs and not always allowed them to move effortlessly. One way of allowing this all to be understood to us normal humans that has never seen such goliaths. Is the human on the ground view, not like Transformers...were it was always looking at the humans instead of what they were looking at.

The best way it actually allowed you to understand size scale and the situation. Both allowed for on the ground logistic to be seen, you've just killed a giant monsters!....who cleans it up? Someone has too.

In the actual story not much of the two cross beyond the basis of the idea. Both have stoic commanders in charge of this very desperate effort. The way the mechs are stored and delivered, they way everything looks have a certain similarity to the facilities in Eva. While Eva is more clinical and clean the shapes are much the same.

How many times do we watch films or tv shows and realise we are being shuffled the same stuff with almost no alterations? I am a big anime fan and have watched alot of mecha anime, I simply cannot put my finger on any other anime that bears such a similarity.

If anything can be said....while a lot of it is very similar and the more iconic ideas of Eva are used in P.R. It all was done in a very different way P.R is very much its own thing.

This is what I want, I know that ultimately there are no more new ideas. Everything is a based from something else, this does not mean you can't make it different.

There even has been talk and plans for a live action Eva movie years ago, which has been dead in the water for years. I could only imagine the visuals being done the same as P.R just not story.

I just want to see more of this, more of something new and less of this corporate money grabbing and actors egos fighting for awards.

I became a PC gamer in 2001, that was when I first got a pc at home.

Back then it wasn't uncommon to walk into a normal franchise game store in my case it was the UK "GAME" and often pay as little as £5 or even less for a PC title of only a year or two's age.

I would look upon the shelves and see the latest games priced at £30, with £15 for other games littered around them. PC games come out in the UK at full price at £30 in most cases still to this day.

Playsation 2 came out and consoles games were £40 the same as they are now, which for Americans is $60 and what they have been used to for 10 years.

2004

2004 comes and the Xbox original is out for a while and I buy that to make up for my failing pc.

At this same time Valve creates steam. Half life 2 is released on it.

So naturally It was easier to buy some random PC game. So come 2005 I have a stack of Jewel cases of pc games, this is the time they shifted to more console like boxes. I have also acquired a stack of PS2 games, mostly with pre owned stickers on them.

New computer and now I am acquiring a stack of Console like cases for pc along my side wall. Still mostly snagging them from anything between 99p to full price £30. I put my jewel cases in the cupboard.

At this time I have 150 odd pc games, vs my 40 PS2 and 20 Xbox games. PC games have been super cheap to buy finding some weird and cool gems.

My friends have found out about mods (I know late to the party) so we exchange PC gamer discs to get the mod to play Team Fortress 1. I have Half life 1 why not, do it and have a blast and explore more mods.

2006

My computer wouldn't run the demo so I never looked at Half life 2 for years. It was till about 2006 that my friends jump from Day fo defeat and Counter strike to the source versions.

I was first introduced to steam this way. I bought Day of defeat and Counter strike on disc after messing around trying to use the one copy of Half life 2 my friend had and learned about how CD keys worked Installed on steam and played away happily.

2008

2008 comes and I have not used steam aside from playing DOD CS or Half life 1 mods. I am walking into game shops and hunting for PC games, they are getting rarer and rare.

I am still buying PC games from 99p to £30 and ps2 games from £5 to £40.

I get a 360 and it then becomes my main game platform....as my pc has died.

Without a pc for 3 years I devoted to the xbox of course. Buying games from £40 to £45 until used games for it are more common so its more like £15 to £40.

2010

I raised the money and bought a new pc in late 2010. I then started my old raids on game shops hoping Pc games were more common there wasn't any aside from the top 10 new releases.

I was introduced to what Steam since the start of 2011 to today. I have 185 pc games on my steam library I have 60 odd console cased pc games in my cupboard with 150 jewel cases. Paying anything between 99p to £30. I look in shops and find only the latest pc games that are not on the shelf for long.

My dad want Shogun total war 2. I could just download from steam but Game has some preorder deals and I decided to snag that for my dad. My dad also is pretty against Steam as he wants his own account and not use mine. So I buy it on disc get home have him install it.

As usual Cd key and stuff.....except...it says "install steam." I then take over the install process and we realise the only way to install it is to hook it to steam. We do so and my dad isnt too happy he has played 300 hours of Shogun 2 since....so in the end he is happy.

My dad sees me playing mount and blade warband, we played and enjoyed the first Mount and Blade. So he buys the game himself as he rather not use steam and installs it.....enter Cd Key into steam to use the install.

It is now the stage that any pc game we buy you MUST use steam.

PC games in store is dead. Why? because shops even stopped stocking them before steam. and consoles NEED discs. Stores are the ONLY place to get them. So stores sacrificed PC games for consoles and its worked for them. PC had been fighting piracy for so long (the commadore 64 and Dos had you enter codes only found in manuals meaning no manual no game) so its not impossible to deal in used games.

Due to retailers apparent dislike for PC games sitting around at all I snagged BF3 premium edition for £10 since the store just wanted rid of it. Even now Origin has the whole package for £40

360 has 3 more years of life till the Xbox one. In that time I have bought games primarily at the prices of £15 to £60 with £40 being normal prices.

2013

So we come to today. Microsoft has denounced its DRM plans and the Xbox one has became a viable option to a lot of people. Steam is doing early access and greenlight with the same sales in between it all.

We have Green man gaming, we have Good old games, we have origin, we have ubisoft. We have dev fighting this all and only selling on their site at comparable prices.

People who were onboard with Microsoft before this are now shouting at those who rallied for DRM to be destroyed for killing the progressive stuff Microsoft was working on. Game sharing, digital trading.

That sounds cool and it would be.....we could trust Microsoft not to rip us off.

The same people cite steam as the example on how it would work......it wont work that way....this is consoles.

Closed system is how the console operates, console game prices dont change all that much unless it was a flop. Even then it can still be full price years after release, its mainly only used games that have the larger discount to them.

I have been buying all manner of quality in PC games from as little 99p to £30 for the last decade. I have not had the same even with used games on consoles.

Consoles and PC's this gen may be the closest they have been to being the same in hardware......but not in how they operate. They are still massively different.

Since Rab "Robert" Florence stirred up the Hornets nest on PR and Game Reviewers last week, with Laure Wainright causing a Streisand effect (Were hiding something makes people look for it...and find it.) a lot of things were let out.

Now this is not about PR and flying them around the world first class and what not. If you listen to the Bombcast the GB crew often and openly talk (and make fun) of it, so it wasn't news to us.

This is about my observations with first hand account of people involved in Game press and media. Mainly Twitter was my experience while following Rab "Robert" Florence and the whole story. I would freaking loved to use tweets as back up evidence however complying them......that is a task.

What I want to talk about is "Trust" It is a very big thing when listening to someone's opinion and deciding on taking their advice. This can be gained and lost in many ways. One thing I have found is how you Identify yourself. So lets go through them.

Game Reviewers: Review and advise us on game purchases. Simple. E.G Jeff ,Ryan, Brad.

Game Journalist: Investigates about the industry and games. Again simple. E.G Patrick.

Games Writer: Writes about games..... This is the tricky part. To give an example...is everyone on the GB crew, Vinny, Drew and Dave (since maby not Vinny, they have written at least one review.) as well to an extent all of us realy. This this means there is another title created.

Games Enthusiast: Some one that is enthusiastic about games. Well that slots ALL of us including Vinny, Drew and Dave.

This also puts a new definition on Games Writer : Someone that is a qualified writer who writes about games.

What is news to me, is a number of "Games Reviewers" who do not actually associate themselves as Game Reviewers, nor Game Journalists, and some even are not classified as not Game Writers.

A number of Game Writers that defended or expressed they didn't care about "Game Journalists" comprising their integrity with tweeting hashtags advertising a game on their Twitter feeds to win a PS3. They said such things as "Oh another scandal about Games Journalism and it being compromised....these happen...what? Every six months. Wake me up when it is over."

Stephen Totilo Kotaku Editor-in-Cheif was one of these people when Users were asking him why they hadn't covered the Eurogamer stuff. He has since wrote and editorial talking about why he said such things and apologizing in the same go.

These people that were rolling their eyes or defending Wainright. They complained about the word "Games Journalist" "Games Writer", defining themselves are Writers.

That is it....Writer. A number of them also said such things as "Its just games. It nothing serious. Can we move on.", These comments didn't make me angry or such, they are right. To me and to a lot of people it is, more so to me as this whole thing isn't about Games it is also about Journalism. Something that I have developed a interest in since my Media and Communication course in college, Id love to pursue it as demonstrated here, however I am too Dyslexic to go beyond these forums posts that can be freely ignored.

So I envy these people, I envy their mastery of the written English language and to a degree of their position with games. Yet they dont identify themselves as anything to do with Games. What I can figure is they are simply Writers. They will write about anything just pay them.

THAT DOES NOT MAKE ME TRUST THEM!

Lauren Wainright has been doing a number things that are unethical, even if the original suspicions is 100% untrue ( I am certain they are not true). So to me and a lot of people her credibility is gone. Except these other Writers brazenly just say such things.

Now this is were we go back to definitions. Jeff would describe himself as Game's Reviewer, Kevin VanOrd of Gamespot would describe himself as a Games Reviewer (I think...), most people in the Gamespot building who review games should probably say they are Game Reviewers.

These Game journalist reviewers...whatever 's seem to not be part of the larger websites. Instead magazines, newspapers and certain websites. Even if they are game centered, ii becomes hit or miss on the people that care about Games Journalism and Games Writing the further from the top you go.

Which is actually a lot of sources. So it makes me realy wary of listening to anyone outside the top. To be honest I am wary of everyone except GB and I always have been. I never trusted Gamespot I never trusted IGN. Why? because I didn't know the reviewers, even if I read all their reviews and articles to get an idea of what they are like. I dont know them in the same vain as GB crew. Yeah I am not their buddy, however If I met one Id know how to treat them more than if I met Kevin VanOrd or Jim Sterling.

I admittedly was one of the people who often would complain about reviewers not "Getting it" or throwing around "They have been paid off!" not in the comments, simply to myself. Hell Kayne and Lynch 1 I read Jeff's review at the time and slammed it, when he was fired said "good". I was young(er) shut up.... I played Kayne and lynch. Its fucking terrible and no wonder Jeff had to admit he didn't complete it. So once that all sunk in the rumors of the Marketing/PR people fired him, since I too chuckled at the low score and the website caked in Kayne and Lynch skins.

So Gamespot lost ALL credibility for me and every other websites as well. As PR/Marketing pulled strings. So it was not till GB was introduced to me I trusted again. Gamespot certainly wins back more respect after Jeff assured us its fine and times have changed.

This new series of events has made me not trust outside of GB now. Despite now having a better understanding of individual reviewers.

Yet it dosnt stop!!

I am already dismayed at these Writers opinion's. More so when they defend Wainright. Describing her as "Games Enthusiast." and then calling Rab a "Games Enthusiast" Rab by all means is a definition of a Writer and a Games Enthusiast, he writes Scottish Comedy shows and is a Games enthusiast that wrote for Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun It isn't his full time job.

Now you may be saying "Well she is enthusiastic about games...Tomb Raider being one." Yes and you would be right...except! these people used it when people said that Wainright was a writer or review.

Wainright...IT IS HER FULL TIME JOB! To write and review games, yet she is called a "Games Enthusiast." You know who is a Game Enthusiast? These guys!

To normal guys with normal job during the day and film game reviews on the weekend. These are Game Enthusiasts, Angry Video Game Nerd, Happy Console Gamer, Jontron are all Game Enthusiasts, people who are well enthusiastic about games and making their own little things. A number are pulling a living from their Game Enthusiasm, however they are not heralded as "professionals".

That is the distinction between Writer and Enthusiastic. One is professional the other is not. Going by what Writers have said I am beginning to think that Enthusiast's are more professional in their honest amature attempts, than people being employed to do so.

This dosnt extend to everyone, GB crew are certainly passionate and love games, they share more qualities with Game Enthusiasts than some other writers.

As someone I read or heard from in amongst all my research of the Eurogamer story. Said "Pick someone you trust and stick with them. When they move from publication to another. YOU follow them. Because YOU trust them, it is not about the publication, it is about YOU."

It is true, and I dont know were to go if GB crumbled.

A lot of discussion has pointed out that a lot of Writers simply use it as a stepping point to go into...PR....some were I expect to see Wainright in, after this if she dosnt go back to "Enthusiasm" on other subjects that are not Video games.

Its just hard to take alot of stuff that has come to light, alot I knew...however there is the Writers and their definition of themselves, behavior, up and coming reviewers/writers being put into hard place and its up to them to make a decision. Bad habits being formed due to them and....it has basically destroyed my perception of Game journalism of all sorts below the top line as reliable.

Something that the basic story would never have done, if Lauren Wainright had not brought attention to it and alot of First hand experience of how Writers perceive themselves, with the window of Twitter.

What does any of you make of these definitions and trusting people who dont seem to hold much regard to their job?

So I am here to just tell of my woes with headset/headphones. If I could get some advice it would be grand if not I need to just vent.

So today I was enjoying my PC, wearing my Turtle Beaches Z2 I bought the other month there. It I needed them since my 2 year old TB's X11's connection inside the headset was loose. So I spent £50 (EST, $75) on the realy fantastic Z2. I was going to go better except I didnt have a HD Soundcard for the most expensive TB's.

So everything was great until last week. They broke on the headband part. The part you adjust and extend to fit you head. I was dismayed by that fact however splinted it with cardboard and taped it up. All the weight (of a hefty headseat as is) was now on my ear. Oh well Ill wear at hat to pad it out. Ok everything's fine.

Untill today. fucking wire connection is broken inside the cable at a point that isnt great to cut open. I could maby splice it. However I am unsure how well that would work and more so, how long that solution would last. So I am very pretty fucking bummed out most of the day cos of that. I bought them off amazon its been two months. There is no way I could even try and fuck around with guarantee. They are just dead.

So I switch to my wireless X31's I use them exclusively for my xbox. Until now. They are fine and about a year old. Still fine.

Watching the youtube and zup....batteries dead. I have to recharge the batteries. Feeling lazy. I pick up my broken X11's as my family taped them up to work fine, however I bought the better and newer Z2 until it died. So my family was using it today since the X2 is dead. So I pick them up and what do I see?

My already broken pair. IS BROKEN EXACTLY THE FUCKING SAME AS THE Z2 HAD LAST WEEK!!! It just feels like a fucking knife being placed back into the wound that was already healing.

Its the head band extender that snapped in the same way. I just cant beleave it. Its like I am being taunted.

And I know what people are going to say "You bought Turtle Beaches? There is your problem." No TB's or not this shit all ways fucking happen to me.

I have 3 other headphones broken around the house. 4 others that were thrown out. Those were cheap and some were very cheap, I do not mourn that lose. However my expensive ones meet the same fate and It just feels like bullshit. I can accept the headband snapping, I can accept more physical damage.

A fucking broken wire? ugh it feels so cheap to be fucked up by that. I may take the plunge once I accept they are dead unless I do somthing E.G splice the wire. However its not a perfect solution, there is none.

I hate how I view Headphones/Headsets as perishables. They dont last long. I knew this and yet I tempted fate and went for expensive perfect pair. I knew the risks however wasn't prepared for when the risks were cashed in.

Any advice? Or is it a simple case of "That life."?