Category: Beta

Jumping in before the game goes viral

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Beautiful and Big

Escape the madness into Ghost Recon

I set my alarm for 1:30 am so I could have a dedicated Beta testing session with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

The environment is absolutely beautiful transporting to Bolivia. After running around like a n00b for half-an-hour I figured out how to join a session with friends.

The game feels like a hybrid of FarCry and The Division so it fails to deliver a jaw-dropping first-time experience.  However, the sheer scale of the map points towards an adventure with over 6 months of steady gameplay.

It was kinda interesting meeting fellow Beta testers in Live chats and game sessions, some of whom were paid handsomely to keep you playing the game.  Point being that the developers need as much player experience data as possible for the final release next month.

Final verdict:  80% chance that I’ll buy a physical copy on release, especially as I’ve just completed FarCry Primal.

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Global Gaming – Breaking into the African market

There are 54 countries in Africa yet the PlayStation Network is only available in 1 Africa country.

With an operating income of 2604 million U.S. dollars reported in 2016, one must beg to question why the Sony Corporation does not provide services for the other 53 African countries.

Let’s face it Africans do import PS4 Consoles personally and are avid gamers.

Bandwidth cost is no doubt a massive and dangerous problem and probably the root cause of the lack of availability on the continent.  If low-cost bandwidth was available to African gamers then the Sony Corporation would be jumping all over them with heavy marketing.

Here in Europe, to get the Ghost Recon Beta on my PS4 I ran into multiple regional account issues and my code simply did not work. 4 hours later I figured out a workaround using advanced Virtual Private Networking.

It will take 2 hours to download the Beta (25GB) even though I have a fairly decent 24.13 Mbps download speed at home for less than 50 Euros a month.

I can only imagine the frustration corporations are facing trying to figure out how to make money in the African market.  For now, only wealthy Africans will have access to games a 14-year old in Kentucky USA can buy in Wal-Mart with the family groceries.

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Boom shakalaka….I snagged a Closed Beta

I was getting ready to start watching my favourite streamers explore Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands this weekend and was thrilled to see a code for the Closed Beta in my inbox.

There’s no Non-disclosure in place so testers are free to stream and publish spoilers.

The actual game is not released to the public until March 7, 2017.

As a Tactical Shooter in an Open World environment, this should be just pure fun.

Anyhow, let’s hope I can download the 25GB without any issue.

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Open Betas, an industry on it’s own

Being amongst the first batch of gamers to jump into a new title is always good….especially when it’s free.

Beta releases, Open or Closed, are usually only available for a limited time to Elite players or pre-orders customers.

$23 Billion spent on Games in 2015

A win-win as the publishers get a chance to really test on the public and gamers get a fresh insider look.

I’ve signed up for Ghost Recon but it’s a bit of a lottery.

Last of Us 2 may not have an actual Beta but it tops as one of the Most Anticipated Games of 2017 so far.