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My copy of Legendary was waiting for me when I got in after Uni today :D This game friggin' rocks :woot:

Looking for somebody to play co-op with. Currently working my way through on heroic. As long as nobody talks about spoilers during co-op I don't mind who it is :p

Anybody up for some Neowin matches tonight too :D?

ok so can you guys fill me in ? is this the launch thread? was flying halfway around the world on the 24th and jetlagged most of the 25th...emerged later in the afternoon, went to an FYE, two bestbuys and a target and no lines? no manic panic? copies on shelves! what i gotta do eveything around here, don't you chumps slack off.

people at the store pointed to huge empty boxes and in all locations said i missed the early AM rush...so, any tales to tell from anyone?

Huzzar got my LE and....

This is probably the dullest SP game I've played in a long time. :(

MP is great but Christ what were bungie doing for the last 3 years? Tweaking netcode? :/

You seem to be the only one who thinks that, so no, that's not all Bungie was doing the last 3 years. That's too bad you're not enjoying it :(

-Spenser

You seem to be the only one who thinks that, so no, that's not all Bungie was doing the last 3 years. That's too bad you're not enjoying it :(

-Spenser

He actually might not be the only one. I only played Chapter 1 so far, so I am holding back on my thoughts until I get further along, but so far "not impressed" would be the best words to describe my feelings.

Again, I am going to play more, so my impression may indeed change, and I hope it does.

My Collectors edition was waiting for me when i got home and boy this game is freakin awesome, It had some faint scratches but nothing to get me worried I took some really cool screenshots of me messing around in offline custom games but my 360 wont connect to live for some reason :s

Will try and fix this soon..

I'm with Spookie. The SP is not fun for me at all. I love the MP, I can see myself playing it for a long time but I'm not even through Chapter 1 and I don't really feel like I want to play SP again. We'll see. I just remember Halo:CE being a lot more engaging.

As I'm slowly progressing through. It feels like bungie was on a tight timeline. Some of this story feels hugely disjointed at the moment. I won't spoil it but it feels like they didn't have time to finish the cut scenes!

Though the visuals are nice later on when it gets dark there is a distinct lack of AA.

On a happier note my brief blast in to Multiplayer with DrunknMunky & Co proves it can be a laugh but still not as engaging, I feel, as Team Fortress 2 at the moment.

I'm on level 2 and I'm loving the campaign so far. I love the detail on all the characters compared to H2, and the woodland areas are gorgeous. Love the subtle humor from all the characters, and there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of one liners from the marines and covenent alike. I found it funny when I killed a grunt, and another nearby grunt said something like "oh no, he was my friend!", then it ran off :)

He actually might not be the only one. I only played Chapter 1 so far, so I am holding back on my thoughts until I get further along, but so far "not impressed" would be the best words to describe my feelings.

Again, I am going to play more, so my impression may indeed change, and I hope it does.

I was going in the same "WTF" fashion for first 2 hrs or so but then it picked when you <spoiler> and start doing <spoiler>. :p So hang in there. It gets better. But I feel music is a big let down in Halo 3.

I dont think people are giving it a fair chance. The first level is the training and "get to know me" level. It's supposed to be like that to "ease" you into the game. Bungie themselves said so in a recent Weekly Report.

Besides, when a game gets 95%+ from nearly all reviews, it's not the games fault if you are not enjoying it.

On a happier note my brief blast in to Multiplayer with DrunknMunky & Co proves it can be a laugh but still not as engaging, I feel, as Team Fortress 2 at the moment.

Ah dude things are only just warming up :D Wait until there is a room full of Neowin members. It gets crazy!

I dont think people are giving it a fair chance. The first level is the training and "get to know me" level. It's supposed to be like that to "ease" you into the game. Bungie themselves said so in a recent Weekly Report.

Besides, when a game gets 95%+ from nearly all reviews, it's not the games fault if you are not enjoying it.

I am, it's simply not gripping me. It almost feels like I've played this before! :(

If feels less like Half Life to Half Life 2. But more like Doom 2 to Doom 3. That got rave reviews but the general consensus was that the game was quite poor.

I'm sure it's to do with that I've been playing PC shooters all my life and expect something more. I went in to this with an open mind with low expectations I still believe that Bungie can program but couldn't design a level to save their lives.

I found a quote which describes how I feel: "The game's far too reliant on old gameplay tricks and recycled levels, and it really lost its narrative power." - DailyGame

Ah dude things are only just warming up :D Wait until there is a room full of Neowin members. It gets crazy!

I'll hold you to that if I can peel my self away from Skate on Friday. :p

Edited by Spookie
Sums up with H2 did to me, but multiplayer evened the scales out just a bit. Enjoy it for what it is, not what the hype made it out to be.

I am trying, I guess once I get a few drinks down me and bring my IQ down to that of your average frat boy I'll enjoy it a bit more. :p

Single Player was a little short I think... Took me 7 hours straight to finish the game in normal mode. :p

However, I did enjoy the entire game as I read the books too, it enages me more into the game.

There's your problem :p AFAIK If you played the last 2 on Normal then Heroic's more your difficulty :)

haha, yeah, I've school though, gotta set my priorities straight, don't want to ruin my chance at University. So normal is fine for me, hehe.

do you guys realize that chapter 1 is just a training level? :rolleyes:

you start the game with two basic weapons, then you get the chance to move around freely to get used to the environment. then you get the first group of enemies to fight, after that you get a bigger group of enemies a you finally get access to grenades. the next thing is about strategy, up to this point you only have one path to follow. next you'll have the option to pick a path, you can go all out by facing the enemy one on one or you can try to flank them.

after this, you get access to long range and heavy weapons. chapter 1 is not about story, is about how you can get to know the game before you can even get engaged into the main plot of the game... :yes:

next time lets try to play a more than 1 chapter before you say the game is a let down. :no:

While I don't need anyone to give me an explanation that "Chapter 1 is just a training level", I can say without equivocation that the first "chapter" of BioShock did not feel this way. I kind of laughed at the beginning of H3 when the guy tells you to look up then look down. I mean, come on, we are way passed that point in games. And maybe the comparison of BioShock to Halo 3 is not fair but I digress.

Like I said earlier, Halo for me is all about the MP experience. Maybe I'm just bitter because none of my friends have 360s and if they do they don't have Live. So I have nobody to co-op with and yet I keep reading of how you guys are having a blast...<wheeps>

:)

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    • Weekend PC Game Deals: Steam Summer Sale 2026 Edition by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Weekend PC Game Deals is where the hottest gaming deals from all over the internet are gathered into one place every week for your consumption. So kick back, relax, and hold on to your wallets. The Epic Games Store's freebie offer brought two more games to keep this week too. What you can grab this time are copies of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition and Voidwrought. Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is an enhanced version of the classic title that comes with enhancements like widescreen and 1080p resolution support. Its two expansion packs are included here too. Meanwhile, Voidwrought is a 2D action-platformer with tight platforming and high-speed combat against cosmic horrors. The double giveaway is slated to last until July 2. On the same day, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream and River City Girls 2 will take the same freebie spot. The Humble Store introduced a couple of new game bundles earlier this week. The Going Rogue collection begins with Rogue Legacy, UnderMine, and None Shall Intrude in the starting tier for $5. If you pay the $10 it's asking to complete the bundle, you also get copies of Brutal Orchestra, Moros Protocol, Nightmare Reaper, Home Behind 2, and Lynked: Banner of the Spark. If it's fighting games you're looking for, the new Arc System Works Evo bundle is carrying plenty. The three tiers of this bundle that go up to $20 carry games like Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code, GUILTY GEAR Xrd REV 2, KILL la KILL - IF, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, Blazblue CentralFiction, and more. Big Deals One of the biggest sale events of the year, the Steam Summer Sale, has just kicked off, and that means almost every PC game available is now featuring discounts. We have plenty of games for you to look over in our special hand-picked big deals list for the weekend below: Baldur's Gate 3 – $44.99 on Steam Anno 117: Pax Romana – $41.99 on Steam S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl – $41.99 on Steam Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – $41.99 on Steam NINJA GAIDEN 4 – $41.99 on Steam Dying Light: The Beast – $39.59 on Steam Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR'S CUT – $35.99 on Steam Battlefield 6 – $34.99 on Steam Cities: Skylines II – $34.99 on Steam The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered – $34.99 on Steam The Outer Worlds 2 – $34.99 on Steam Borderlands 4 – $34.99 on Steam Sid Meier's Civilization VII – $34.99 on Steam Mafia: The Old Country – $34.99 on Steam Split Fiction – $32.49 on Steam Assassin’s Creed Shadows – $31.49 on Steam HELLDIVERS 2 – $29.99 on Steam Diablo IV – $29.99 on Steam ARC Raiders – $29.99 on Steam Forza Horizon 5 – $29.99 on Steam Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - GOTY Edition – $29.99 on Steam No Rest for the Wicked – $27.99 on Steam Metaphor: ReFantazio – $27.99 on Steam Ready or Not – $24.99 on Steam Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – $23.99 on Steam No Man's Sky – $23.99 on Steam Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered – $23.99 on Steam DOOM: The Dark Ages – $23.09 on Steam Mewgenics – $22.49 on Steam Persona 3 Reload – $20.99 on Steam Hades II – $20.99 on Steam Two Point Museum – $20.09 on Steam Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – $19.99 on Steam God of War – $19.99 on Steam Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader – $19.99 on Steam Returnal – $19.79 on Steam Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 – $17.99 on Steam Cyberpunk 2077 – $17.99 on Steam Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – $17.99 on Steam Star Wars Outlaws – $17.49 on Steam REPLACED – $15.99 on Steam Days Gone – $15.99 on Steam Age of Mythology: Retold – $14.99 on Steam Crusader Kings III – $14.99 on Steam Red Dead Redemption 2 – $14.99 on Steam Half-Life: Alyx – $14.99 on Steam Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced – $14.99 on Steam EA SPORTS FC 26 – $13.99 on Steam The Crew Motorfest – $13.99 on Steam Sea of Thieves: 2026 Edition – $13.99 on Steam Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition – $13.99 on Steam Dead Cells – $12.49 on Steam Schedule I – $11.99 on Steam BioShock: The Collection – $11.99 on Steam Fable Anniversary – $11.54 on Steam Hearts of Iron IV – $9.99 on Steam Kerbal Space Program – $9.99 on Steam Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands – $9.99 on Steam The Riftbreaker – $8.99 on Steam Stardew Valley – $8.99 on Steam Total War: WARHAMMER III – $8.99 on Steam Sons Of The Forest – $8.99 on Steam Assassin's Creed Origins – $8.99 on Steam Risk of Rain 2 – $8.24 on Steam Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 – $7.49 on Steam Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® II – $6.99 on Steam CONTROL Ultimate Edition – $5.99 on Steam Dead Space – $5.99 on Steam The Quarry – $5.99 on Steam RV There Yet? – $5.59 on Steam Euro Truck Simulator 2 – $4.99 on Steam Terraria – $4.99 on Steam PEAK – $4.95 on Steam Detroit: Become Human – $3.99 on Steam Far Cry 3 – $3.99 on Steam A Plague Tale: Innocence – $3.99 on Steam The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – $3.99 on Steam Assetto Corsa Competizione – $3.99 on Steam PAYDAY 2 – $2.99 on Steam Wreckfest – $2.99 on Steam Rain World – $2.49 on Steam Watch_Dogs 2 – $2.49 on Steam Planet Zoo – $2.24 on Steam Bendy and the Dark Revival – $1.99 on Steam CARRION – $1.99 on Steam The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth – $1.49 on Steam Plague Inc: Evolved – $1.49 on Steam Don't Starve Together – $1.49 on Steam Metro 2033 Redux – $0.99 on Steam Hotline Miami – $0.99 on Steam RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition – $0 on Epic Store Voidwrought – $0 on Epic Store DRM-free Specials The GOG store is in the middle of its own summer sale. Here are some highlights from the DRM-free store: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - $39.99 on GOG Hollow Knight: Silksong - $14.99 on GOG Resident Evil Bundle - $12.49 on GOG Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft - $11.99 on GOG Alpha Protocol - $9.99 on GOG Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™ - $9.99 on GOG Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition - $9.99 on GOG Disco Elysium - The Final Cut - $9.99 on GOG Dino Crisis Bundle - $8.49 on GOG Cold Fear - $8.25 on GOG Star Trek: Armada II - $7.49 on GOG Star Trek: Starfleet Command III - $7.49 on GOG Warhammer: Dark Omen - $7.49 on GOG Hollow Knight - $7.49 on GOG Mortal Kombat Trilogy - $6.49 on GOG Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition - $6.49 on GOG Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Complete - $4.99 on GOG SWAT 4: Gold Edition - $4.99 on GOG RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: Triple Thrill Pack - $4.99 on GOG Stranglehold - $4.99 on GOG ANSTOSS 3: Der Fußballmanager - $4.79 on GOG Firewatch - $3.99 on GOG Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom - $2.99 on GOG Myst Masterpiece Edition - $2.99 on GOG Settlers 3: Ultimate Collection - $2.49 on GOG World in Conflict: Complete Edition - $2.49 on GOG Keep in mind that availability and pricing for some deals could vary depending on the region. That's it for our pick of this weekend's PC game deals, and hopefully, some of you have enough self-restraint not to keep adding to your ever-growing backlogs. As always, there are an enormous number of other deals ready and waiting all over the interwebs, as well as on services you may already subscribe to if you comb through them, so keep your eyes open for those, and have a great weekend.
    • Yup, that's a doozy right there 😄
    • It's a bundle of tools created by a variety of people, so things can go wrong sometimes. It's a great addition to Windows, and I use a lot of the tools on a daily basis. Also, it's still a 0.**** release so quick updates are to be expected 😉
    • Oh, I did. And it's even worse than I was hoping! Besides a lot of techno-babble jargon (yes I understand 100% of it but it's still all just techno-babble) there's 2 key points that make me super-weary about even considering testing this out. -- By default, after installation, a relay is automatically set up, so you do not need to care about that. * Non-chatmail apps use email servers as a long-term message archive while chatmail clients use email servers for ephemeral instant message relay. * Supporting the full variety of classic email setups would require considerable development and maintenance efforts, and complicate making chatmail-based messaging more resilient, reliable and fast. -- Basically, the end-user device is the 'server' (relay) so there is NO ARCHIVING whatsoever because every message is necessarily ephemeral. Great for techno-paranoia (and for illicit activities preferring no tracks to cover) but terrible for everybody else. It's also ironically contradictory to engineering principles of redundancies besides the transport layers due to the explicit absence of any persistent storage. Instead of 'classic email address' retaining multi-GB messaging archives on its server, now every device must retain 100% of those storage demands. (Email messages were originally meant to be short correspondences, not the multi-MB attachments boondoggle that now exists with unlimited spam engines flooding every potential recipient.) Any device swap or reset (or loss) makes the entire message history go bye-bye forever... lest there's an off-device auto-archival "relay" mechanism that's really a separate server that holds onto all transported messages (an email server) that utilizes 'chatmail email address' identities (like an email server) and its own persistent storage archive (like an email server). But... this solution is hoping to exist alongside real-world email address identities (based on the email server relay pathway) but simply render messages in chat thread format in an ephemeral manner (with contents being encrypted, and messages auto-expiring) ... In the end, it's a chat app/experience for the Web3/P2P-at-all-costs zealots. (I have accts on all sorts of federated web3 services so I understand the technical and non-technical alike.) For any practical users, however, it's just another service to download/install, register, cross-share id cards/qr codes, but know that there's no history/archive whatsoever (by design) so no account/message recovery whatsoever... update the device, install a bummed update patch, or dare upgrade your device... all history, poof, gone. Ya gotta start everything over again like they're a brand new person.
    • You've tried DuckDuckGo and Brave Search, now get serious with SearXNG by Paul Hill Over the last decade, it has become quite trendy to dump Google Search in favor of privacy-preserving alternatives such as DuckDuckGo, Startpage, and Brave Search. These search engines have done a very good job at highlighting dodgy practices by Google, such as adjusting search results based on what it thinks you’ll like (filter bubble) and stalking you around the web to advertise to you. While these search engines are good starting points when compared to non-private services like Google, there are still quite a few issues with them. For example, both DuckDuckGo and Brave Search require running non-free JavaScript in your web browser, which is comparable to running proprietary software on your computer, meaning you can be sure about what it’s actually doing in the background. Another issue is that these search engines are hosted on the respective companies’ servers, and you are using a service that you don’t control. Finally, DuckDuckGo, while offering privacy features, relies heavily on Microsoft’s infrastructure for its results and, in the past, has permitted Microsoft tracking scripts. If you are looking for a more private search solution than DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, and Startpage, then I recommend taking a look at SearXNG. It is a privacy-respecting metasearch engine that can be used via different public instances, which is useful for mobile users, or you can install it on your computer or server and run it locally with maximum control. Unlike Google, Bing, or Brave Search, which crawl the web and have their own search indexes, SearXNG is a metasearch engine, meaning it taps other search engines, stripping your identifying data, such as IP address, user agent, and cookies, in the process. Your search query is sent to the other search engines you enable before aggregating the results. SearXNG has deployment flexibility. If you are a casual user or a mobile user and don’t want to run SearXNG locally, you can use a public instance that is hosted by someone else. The main problem with this is that you are putting trust in the maintainer of the instance regarding stuff like logs that they may keep; good hosts should have a privacy policy explaining their policies. If you are trying to use SearXNG, you can also install the software on your device and then head to 127.0.0.1:8080 in your browser and search from there. While you don’t have to worry about a third-party admin like the public instances, search engines could ultimately block your IP address if they frown on you pulling in their search results locally. If you want to run it locally, it’s a good idea to use proxies or VPNs to hide your actual IP. You don’t have to worry about this with a public instance, as search engines never see your IP address. The main privacy benefit of using SearXNG is that it isolates your identity from the underlying engines that it’s capable of searching, such as Google and Bing. These search engines will only see requests coming from a generic server, so they can’t profile you and create a bubble filter that influences what results you see. This also ensures that your search engine doesn’t turn into an echo chamber that prevents you from reading alternative points of view. As a free software project, you are allowed to inspect SearXNG to make sure there are no negative features bundled inside. This sets it apart from the privacy search engines mentioned earlier because you can’t check their source code. As a meta search engine, you are not restricted to getting results from one source. Due to the fact that it scrapes content from other websites, your SearXNG instance will periodically get blocked from different providers, so it’s good to select a range of sources as a backup. While enabling all of the services will give you great results, this can make searching slower. I am personally happy with slower searches for the best results, but you can always check which providers are slowing down your search from the search results page and disable them to speed things up. If you want decent results quickly, enable the main search providers such as Google, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Bing, and Yahoo. This way, you get wide coverage without the latency. On the Engines tab in Preferences, do note that there are different tabs, such as General, Images, and Videos, with their own providers that can be toggled and are not covered by "Enable all" while on the General tab, so be sure to dig into each. Just a note, if you want to enable everything, press "Enable all" in one tab, then hit save at the bottom of the page, then do the next tab, and so on. If you press "Enable all", then do that in each tab, and then save, nothing will stick. When I had just some of the search engines enabled, I searched “define nefarious” and results came back with the definition of “define” - obviously that was a sucky result. However, when I had everything enabled, it found dictionary pages for the word “nefarious” and even had an inline definition on the sidebar, which is quite nice too - that was delivered by WolframAlpha for anyone wondering! Probably the worst thing about this meta search engine is that the engines you select are saved with a cookie, so you must enable them on every new device you use SearXNG on, including if you decide to go into incognito mode with your web browser. Honestly, I would say this is the most annoying aspect, and perhaps if your browser lets you choose a separate private browsing search engine, then it would be best to use DuckDuckGo for this portion of your browsing. Another weakness of SearXNG is the random blocking of it by search providers. When you are on the results page, expand the “Response time” box, and it will show things like “Suspended: too many requests” or “access denied”. This is why it is good to enable several providers so that there is always a fallback to get results from. I won’t pretend SearXNG will be for everyone, however, if you enable all of the providers and put up with the slower response time, the results can be really amazing. Even if you don’t want to use it as your daily driver, keeping a bookmark handy that links to it is a good idea if you ever feel like doing a deep dive into a niche topic where other search engines are just failing to bring up any good result, due to the amount of sources it looks on. If you’re interested in radical user control over the software you use, installing SearXNG locally can also be a good idea, but be prepared to be temporarily blocked from sites if you trigger bot sensors without a VPN. Personally, I’ve opted to use a public instance, rather than install it myself. If you want to use it via a public instance, head over to searx.space to find a provider. Let us know in the comments if you have used SearXNG or its predecessor, Searx. What do you think about the quality of the results?
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