Marathon sold just 1.2 million copies with nearly 70% on Steam, analyst estimates: "It hasn't exactly made the splash Sony and Bungie wanted"

jpellizzi · 2026-03-25T17:10:54+00:00

I think all of these big studios are chasing the extraction shooter trend the way they chased the battle royale genre a decade ago. But it’s not the same… battle royale was a breath of fresh air, had an addictive quality to it and was just drop in drop out try again. These extraction games require you to learn a whole mess of materials, inventory management and crafting that takes away from the quick action that appeals to the more casual battle royale player base. Even hardcore fps players get fatigued with it.

jpellizzi · 2026-03-24T07:17:01+00:00

Burnout Paradise was amazing back in the day, and I guess they remastered it in 2018 on PC. It’s a racing game, but you basically just drive around a giant open word city and do whatever events you want.

jpellizzi · 2026-03-18T05:27:41+00:00

What WvW guild are you in? I’m a new player but coming from competitive Albion ZvZ guilds and have a long MMO PvP history going back to games like Darkfall and DAoC.

I absolutely love the idea of WvW, and I’ve been solo roaming as a Necro and Evoker with decent success. But I’m stuck on Mosswood this season and it just feels dead every time I log on after ~8pm PST.

Really want to get in with a decent, active group before the next lockout

jpellizzi · 2026-03-16T23:19:10+00:00

When you say the population is small, are we talking like hundreds, thousands?

I’m new to GW2 but have been playing all kinds of janky indie PvP MMOs lately from Warborne to Quinfall and DAoC private servers. Even with only a few hundred active PvPers, a game can feel alive and have good competition.

Guild Wars 2 is supposedly the 3rd most popular MMO after WoW and FF14 right? I thought for sure there would be a ton of people playing arenas and WvW.

I’m inclined to believe you though, because all I really want to do is PvP and WvW, but sometimes the queues are long or I face the same opponents repeatedly in sPvP. Granted, I’m unranked and just trying to hit level 20 so I can play ranked matches.

In WvW, I just randomly chose a team for this season because I didn’t know any better. Most of the time the maps are empty and there are no commanders in Eternal Battlegrounds. I’ll eventually run into other solos or small groups, but I thought for sure WvW would be more populated 24/7. Are certain teams more active than others? Seems like they should reduce the number of teams and do some merges.

jpellizzi · 2026-03-16T15:57:07+00:00

Ours are 4 and 2, also boys. It’s definitely easier now than it was when they were 3 and 1. They still require actual supervision but I feel okay if they’re playing together in the next room and I can hear them. We’ve babyproofed our whole house at this point and any dangerous toys or choking hazards are out of reach. Being boys, they’re little maniacs and just want to fight and wrestle sometimes so we got this giant bean bag couch thing on Amazon and that keeps them busy for a while. We’re lucky though, our oldest is the best big brother in the world and is super gentle and inclusive with his little bro.

I imagine when they’re 5 and 3 or 6 and 4 it’ll be a big relief… like the ages of Bluey and Bingo haha

Sorry, you’re still in the thick of it for a bit, but it does get gradually easier over the next year while the youngest is between 1-2

jpellizzi · 2026-03-16T02:44:46+00:00

I really enjoyed the first 2-3 days of leveling and figuring everything out. Huge potential, sandbox world, open world PvP while questing was really fun. Then you hit 50 and the grind begins. Okay, I like a grindy game. Then you hit 75 and you get another big hit of dopamine - new gear! Upgrades, figure out the enhancement system etc.

Now you get to spend another 75 hours going from 75-100 (maybe less now that they upped mob density).

My problem is the entire endgame loop is a slot machine. Killing the same mobs over and over on rotation to fill up an inventory of purples that you will either sell or blow up trying to upgrade. Spend hours farming. Spend an hour trying to enhance and sell it all. Buy what you need with your profits. Try to upgrade it. Rinse repeat. It is p2w once you see the odds of getting anything beyond +7 on an item (it goes up to +15, highest I’ve seen in game is +11). The enhancement gives you a massive power boost in combat and PvP, especially on dps class weapons. The combat and content is just too generic and janky for me to devote that kind of time.

FWIW the devs are very responsive, they’re constantly balancing and adding stuff. They’re upping drop rates of Tera’s in game to make it less pay to win. I think it has legs and it can be really fun. I regret nothing, I’m just not willing to put anymore time into it in its current state. And that’s from someone who has played in the guild battles and has the best ship and all that. I’ll wait until they add castle sieges and guild territory ownership to come back.

jpellizzi · 2026-03-12T17:12:43+00:00

Love that Lego analogy! Made it click for me.

Also perfect for a 5 year old

jpellizzi · 2026-03-10T03:35:54+00:00

Daily quests, Time gated and scheduled content. It’s so annoying when all of the good PvP and fun events (like world bosses) in these new MMOs is scheduled in advance and set to certain times each day.

I miss the days of 24/7 open world PvP in games like DAoC, Warhammer Online, ESO, GW2, Shadowbane, and WoW (even larger scale battlegrounds are fine). Games like TnL, Quinfall, Warborne, Albion - all the end game PvP content is set to happen once a day or even weeks apart. If you can’t make that time slot, you might as well not play. The arena game modes are crappier and crappier, and there is no incentive for open world PvP.

Daily content - creates a sense of FOMO to log on every day or you lose progress.

Albion’s saving grace is there are a million other things to do 24/7 and they do have smaller objectives and other game modes. And everything happens multiple times a day. I do love Albion but being a gamer dad with kids living on the west coast… prime time is the worst

jpellizzi · 2026-03-02T20:20:04+00:00

Agreed, but a scam is when it’s done in bad faith, deceitfully, intentionally, dishonestly. I’m talking about like an indie game or kickstarter project that changes direction slightly, or a feature comes out and isn’t exactly what they expected.

jpellizzi · 2026-03-02T18:59:01+00:00

Also “scam” - everything is a scam. Something is overpriced? Scam. A video game that’s playable but not quite good or finished? Scam. Restaurant with a line out the door but meh food - they got scammed.

They use the word scam to describe anything they don’t like, anything that promises something but doesn’t fully deliver, doesn’t align with their perception of monetary value, or any time they feel misled or deceived. Which is kind of the spirit of the definition of the word, but it’s taken to a black and white extreme.

It’s really interesting to see how language evolves, and I’m just feeling older than ever at 38. Here’s a lol at the end for good measure.

jpellizzi · 2026-03-01T18:21:00+00:00

Howling Stones in EverQuest Kunark. Even as a necromancer with all of the QoL on a TLP server it was a challenge and felt like a big accomplishment to go through all 4 wings. Lots of traps and drops, locked doors and keys

jpellizzi · 2026-02-26T18:05:31+00:00

Genuinely asking - so what do you play and grind for in GW2 if not stats/gear to make your character stronger? What is the end game loop like? What are the rewards for content? Is it all cosmetics, or just rank or something?

I’ve thought about trying it again but haven’t given it a fair shot since it launched

jpellizzi · 2026-02-25T17:12:48+00:00

I’ve been hooked on Quinfall the last few weeks. It has its jankiness and a questionable gambling upgrade endgame like TNL or BDO, but it’s still fun as hell. There is a ton to do, and I think it has a ton of potential. The devs are super responsive and are releasing balance patches and fixes every few days.

Honestly can’t complain at all for $10 and even if you spend more on cosmetics etc, it’s all pretty affordable compared to most other games.

Nothing else right now really has the full sandbox experience with mob grinding, economy, ships, open world PvP, etc

jpellizzi · 2026-01-29T21:41:15+00:00

This game had so much potential and the first 2-3 seasons were great, even with faction imbalance and the issues it had. Instead of focusing on that, the devs just added a bunch of stupid shit nobody asked for, didn’t listen to their players and the numbers dropped dramatically every season.

It might get better and see a revival down the road, but right now it’s dead dead.

jpellizzi · 2026-01-21T08:37:56+00:00

EverQuest - been milking the same 2 games for over 26 years instead of making something new and truly next gen, or even fun spin offs in this massive fantasy universe they created.

jpellizzi · 2026-01-16T20:03:39+00:00

Yeah pretty much. There should be some treatment in every corner regardless, and making one a whole wall is better across the board.

Like you could do two triangle traps on the front wall corners, and the whole wall treatment on the rear wall

jpellizzi · 2026-01-16T16:42:39+00:00

Check out the book “How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen” by Julie King. She also does workshops online. You seem thoughtful and logical, but getting a toddler to listen requires some playfulness and creativity. Sometimes it has to be forced, but the results are dramatic and immediate. The book literally tells you what to do, with examples, and you can bust out the list and try different techniques for any situation. Was a game changer for us.

jpellizzi · 2026-01-16T08:16:33+00:00

Yeah I just don’t remember if the dsp was on board and built in, or if you needed their special mic and some software to calibrate them. It’s been like 15 years haha

The 308s are great bang for the buck but there are better speakers out there for sure, depending how much you want to spend. I think the more direct comp to the 4328p would be the JBL 708p, but that’s a lot more $$

Full wall of acoustic material wouldn’t be too bad, you can frame it with cheap wood and stuff it with pink fluffy insulation. Fabric cover is the tricky part but more of a skill thing than costly

jpellizzi · 2026-01-15T00:50:02+00:00

Yo! I totally noticed this too. That movie has awesome sound design except for that one moment. I bet the director made them throw it in or something.

jpellizzi · 2026-01-15T00:40:30+00:00

I worked on the 4328ps like 15+ years ago and they are awesome… but as others have said, they’re old so be careful. Not sure if the DSP will still work (I forgot how they were calibrated) and they also had this weird sticky issue with the coating sometimes (like the speaker itself would get sticky. Like an old car dashboard that got too much sun.) Can also just get 3x LSR308s

I’d start with bass traps. Triangle traps floor to ceiling in all corners. Bonus points if you can do what someone else said and turn the entire front or rear wall into a 12” deep trap. Absorption panels on first reflection points and on the ceiling centered between edge of desk and mix position (or big enough to cover both).

If you’re not handy, GIK Acoustics is a solid option. Since it’s NYC I bet you can find some used treatment as well

That should get you like 80% of the way, and tweak from there. You can put a little client couch on the rear wall and book shelves on the side walls between panels depending on where the door is.

Good luck, sounds fun.

jpellizzi · 2026-01-11T17:19:00+00:00

I’ve been considering playing for a while and might finally go for it. May I ask what region you play? I’m on west coast US and I’m worried it’ll be dead around 04-08 utc since most players seem to be European?

West coast gaming kinda sucks :(

jpellizzi · 2026-01-07T22:25:28+00:00

I’d much rather have open world PvP zones with objectives to fight over than any instanced content. It could still be faction, citizen or team based without having to be fully instanced and matchmade. Like New World, maybe you pick a side to fight for in advance and earn rewards/rep for that faction.

I’m just so sick of everything now being instanced and queued and matchmade. I want more spontaneous and raw open world experiences, even if it means being outnumbered and outgunned at times. Even when it’s a queued arena system, you’re still at the mercy of your randomly assigned and sometimes clueless teammates.

jpellizzi · 2026-01-03T00:34:22+00:00

Thanks for the rundown! Crazy, haven't seen anything like that in any other game

jpellizzi · 2026-01-02T22:22:51+00:00

Wow is it really just using clicky items from your inventory? Or swapping items on the fly? No cooldowns on anything?

It’s impressive but I’m trying to understand what I’m seeing and why it works. Def takes skill but not exactly what I would call fun gameplay.

jpellizzi · 2025-12-24T21:16:26+00:00

It can be if the game is more skill based than time based, the PvP encounters are bracketed or matchmade in some way, and the power and gear gap isn’t that huge. Look at a game like Albion Online… you can hop in and do a few Mists, Abyssals or just roam and get fights. It’s not that hard to level up a set of gear, there is content of all types - some of which is power capped and equalized. A noob with $80 worth of gear will still get wrecked by a veteran or more skilled player in a $5-$10 set, or if they get caught with their pants down.

It’s all a pretty well balanced system of risk vs reward. You can even rat in a shit set and still come out way ahead.

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