Tom Clancy's The Division 2

I too think there is no need to reduce NPC flanking as it provides a proper sense of necessity for situational awareness and team communication. They seem to have hugely nerfed enemy NPC in various way ranging from armor health, damage, skill cooldowns and general AI behavior. I'm worried this would water down higher difficulties too much since Hard difficulty in private beta felt like being at the right level in terms of challenging gameplay. I hope the nerfs are only for early game NPCs otherwise it would be too easy to be fun.

Some of the patch notes are hilarious though

- "Despite the meme potential (sorry, Reddit), Rushers do not curse as much while rushing the player anymore."
- "FIXED - Killing wildlife will no longer trigger skills. You monsters."


Also Year One content trailer came out today



As exciting as the contents seem to be I'm a bit bummed that story elements are broken into episodes and drip-fed to us over months, even years. That seriously breaks immersion. And from the phrasing of the trailer, story won't even be complete after three Year-One DLCs ?! (Exact word is "The third free episode will close the first chapter of The Division 2 storyline and pave the way for even more content to come." )They never wrapped up the story in the first game, I doubt they'll do it in the sequel. I'm really tired of incomplete full-price AAA titles upon release only to "have more contents in the future". I hope at least The Division 2 will be in a somewhat finished state at launch worthy of its $60+ price tag.



On a brighter note, according to the latest State of Game, you can even record video using in-game photo mode. That's definitely something I would spend a lot of time messing around with

Any of you in yet? I'll get to DC later tonight after my Anthem session. Damn but it feels good to be a gamer right now.

Yup, just rush to the new stuff. 😎

Mmmmm played TD1and The Private Beta and was just about to play some of the open beta and was just chatting to a friend re buying TD2 but the comment re story being drip fed really worries me.

I liked the story in TD1 but it never got finished and I really hoped TD2 would at the very least allude to how NY ended up and what happened to some of the main characters. If the story is going to take a back seat not sure I want to buy it just for the grind.

So played a bit of The Open Beta yesterday, just an hour and really just roamed around exploring and killing the Hyena gang members who interfered in my sightseeing. Wasn't in the mood to do the missions I had already done in the Private beta. Got caught in a huge thunder storm, that was interesting!!!!!

Checking in on the watch



Exploring Washington, never been there in RL.

Yeah will be interesting to see how the story plays out, I too was disappointed that there was no resolution to the Keener story in TD1 and had hoped that TD2 would finish it.

Even in the TD2 Beta I enjoyed finding the mobile devices scattered around (also found an Echo which was as gruesome as some of the TD1 ones), it was a good way to add depth to the story and provide extra info on exactly how things were going down during the crisis.

I am bit on the fence re the settlement stuff, I hope its a good way to make side missions more gratifying and not just a chore. 

Over the weekend i downloaded the Division 2 beta. I liked it so much that on Tuesday I bought the first game.

Absolutely brilliant move from Red storm/Massive.

I hated the dark zone, as a solo player.

It was not a fun experience as people would pretend to help you out then shoot you and take your gear. Also being "ganked" by 4 players in a group that you just helped and revived because I thought it was the nice thing to do, yeah not a fun experience. I just gave up on it unless I went in with friends and even then it was stressful.

Are you going to play the game solo or do Co-Op?

Yeah that's the way to do it, clear an area do the main mission and move on. Armour rating is your key stat if you haven't already figured it out and "Echo" is way useful soloing as is the turret especially when you can get it to shoot electricity bolts. It can be a brutal game, the AI of the enemies is pretty good and the roaming bosses (named enemies) in particular when soloing are quite tough. 

This map shows where the named guys roughly are but they roam in that area, they also drop better loot.

Last Survival session before The Division 2 drops. 2+ hours and 11 landmarks cleared in DZ solo.  I think I finally have had enough Survival for now. Can't wait for it to come back in Div 2.