The Division (PS4, XBO, PC)

[QDRPHNC]

Thanks for the very thoughtful reply, Undercoverman. Ironically, just before you posted this, I hit level 30 and went into the DZ, and yes, got my ass kicked. I'm a casual player, and don't pretend to understand the mindset (or much of the vocabulary) used by hardcore types. It's a little disappointing, because I'm the single player / carbine / silencer / sneaking around type, and it would've been nice to have had an arena which catered to this style of play as well (ie. a little more breathing room to find vantage points, more effective means of covering your tracks or providing some protection around your position... Battlefront 3 did a good job of this by providing a little proximity alarm which would beep as enemies got closer), but still. Having a good time.

[Undercoverman]

Thanks man. I too wished that the game gave you more breathing space - it's damn stressful being in the DZ and, most of the time, the thought at the forefront of your mind is survival. There is, surprisingly, a rudimentary stealth mechanic and you can slip by many mobs without pulling aggro. On one of my first nights playing the game, me and a buddy journeyed up north, staying out of sight of the mobs... That was enjoyable and pretty frightening as the penalties for death in the DZ (pre-patch) were huge. Once you pull aggro, though, it's tough to engage without taking hits. Suppression and flanking are your best tools but those options aren't available for a solo player. Once one mob is aware, the rest follow and while they can lose sight of you mid-engagement, that's tough to pull off because they spread themselves so well. Often in The Division, you're not choosing targets but pulling crowd control... That's what it shares with RPG/battle arena games that often carry the sort of loot systems and buffs you can find in the game. Crowd control is important, especially as the enemies are very mobile. The LMB are particularly adept at covering one another and advancing on you.

I've found that getting geared and staying aware of the meta is the best way to survive, particularly if you want to run solo. There are so many exploits in this game - a truly shameful amount that remain unpatched - many people get ahead by knowing the tricks. There are bugs you can take advantage of that will render you much harder to kill. The rehabilitated mask bug, for example, so you get healed 2% every second indefinitely or the mobile cover exploit that lets you retain its damage mitigation without staying in cover. I don't partake, someone has to be the better man. Perhaps this is why being geared but alone is still an absolute nightmare. A bunch of rogues bearing down on you is the worst unless you're the one stalking them... Which is when it becomes empowering. Last night, I managed to hide in the DZ03 subway without aggro'ing the named boss down there. A group of 4 rogues started to attack the mobs down there from the stairs - I put myself in the firefighter outfit (closest I could get to the cleaners) and looped round behind the mobs. As they were getting flamed, I got in nice and close and got two of them with my Vector. They didn't know what the fuck happened, it was hilarious. Then I ran off, cackling through the proxy chat.

[QDRPHNC]

I extracted with a Midas! Now the DZ will pay.

[Undercoverman]

Sometimes I really despair at how some of the playerbase acts regarding exploits in this game.

Last Tuesday saw the 1.1 update, which provided a new raid-esque activity albeit for 4 players. Called an 'Incursion', it's a combination horde mode/wave fight with a boss which takes place in an underground facility - one giant room where there's really only one place to stand so as to be able to win. 'The Pit'. Me and my group got the right strategy and did it on 'Hard' last night but it was tough figuring out the mechanics and what to expect at each wave. Even so, it was an enjoyable experience and great to play something where communication is key. The rewards are new 'gear set' items that provide bonuses when certain combinations are equipped. It represents something of a push toward specialisation and a new group dynamic.

In the meantime, the usual fuckers who enjoy trying to break the game had found a means of being able to complete it on 'Challenge' (the hardest level, with ludicrous rewards) without even triggering the first wave. Said method takes as long - if not longer - than the legit method but doesn't expose anyone to danger and therefore requires none of the skill. It involved glitching through a wall near the entrance - the players then take upwards of 20 minutes doing the most repetitive, mind-numbing shit imaginable to slowly whittle down the boss' armour with sticky bombs. The worst part of this is that they'd also discovered a means of getting rewards which should only drop once every week every 20 minutes. The developers responded with a hotfix but within an hour a new method was found by the same exploiters. The result is now that the rewards for completing the incursion have been disabled for everyone. Nice going, cunts.

Two things happened while this was going on - the subreddit's a fucking cesspool anyway (as almost all subreddits are) but there really are some scumbags on there. There have been some spirited defences of exploitation which essentially amount to trying to legitimise burglary if the door is unlocked. When Massive indicated they might seek to punish exploiters, the indignation on display was so self-righteous it makes me sick just thinking about all these twats wandering around in the same game most of us are enjoying the right way. Legitimate players are being punished not just by cunts wandering around the DZ with ludicrous gear they obtained through exploits (which it will take the rest of us at least a month to acquire), but now there's a part of the game the rest of us can't play because of their fucked up attitude toward how they play it.

One of the most upvoted videos on the subreddit is how to do the exploit. The lowlife who's explaining it says that he's sharing it so that more people partake in the exploit as "they can't punish all of us". I'd love to see these scumbags banned.

[QDRPHNC]

I made the mistake of reading the subreddit. These people are describing a different game, where grinding for the numbers seems to be the point, as opposed to enjoying yourself.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

I lost interest in the game as soon as I realised that I didn't give a shit about the story or killing bullet sponge bosses and that I also had no interest in grinding for gear in order to kill those bullet sponge bosses.


I think I'm going to give these kinds of game a miss in the future.

[Pit-Pat]

I'm getting a free copy with my new PC on Saturday[nb]Touch wood[/nb]. Is there a way of avoiding other people or do you have to participate in a vaguely online world?

[QDRPHNC]

I'm getting a free copy with my new PC on Saturday[nb]Touch wood[/nb]. Is there a way of avoiding other people or do you have to participate in a vaguely online world?

The single-player experience is fantastic. And the multiplayer experience is fantastic on console, but on PC it's apparently a hacker-ridden mess. Still, even if you never enter the Dark Zone (...paging Replies from View...), you'll get your money's worth out of it.

Personally, I think I'm out. I had a lot of good times, but I'm at the point where I either have to grind like mad, or just accept getting killed in every confrontation in the DZ, for little or no reward.

[Pit-Pat]

Interesting... So in the single player do you have to encounter other players or is it cut off except for the Dark Zone?

[QDRPHNC]

Single player you can do alone and not encounter anyone, or matchmake so you can do missions with a team. DZ there's no choice, there will be others in there, and not knowing anyone's intentions is very fun.

[Neil]

I had a lot of fun with the initial ranking up, and the novelty of the Dark Zone, but sadly a title like this relies on end-game, and Massive fucked it. Even the incursion just seems to be a horde mode - which I usually love - but people figured it was going to be some kind of Destiny-like raid.

Really have to recommend Ubi's other title at the minute: Rainbow Six: Siege. Particularly if you want a "thinking mans shooter." Beautifully strategic and tense, and available nice and cheap now.

[Undercoverman]

If you're playing this alone, you're getting a substantial reduction on the amount of intrigue you can enjoy. Granted, some aspects of the game are, I expect, best experienced alone. The exploration and collection aspect of the wider NYC zone is something best attempted by oneself if your party aren't interested in the world/lore building - particularly if your compadres are talkative and insist on jabbering over the in-game audio. There are seldom few moments where one can really experience an urban ex vibe from this game but being alone and thus (in my experience) more capable of being immersed will help.

Otherwise, everything is better in a group, and I say this as someone who can comfortably solo two of the four challenge missions so far (I haven't attempted the others solo yet, or the incursion, though you only realistically stand a chance on that on hard). Granted, it depends on the group dynamic and you'll always run the risk of ending up with either one or a set of people you can't stand to play with for whatever reason, but the people I play regularly with and the vast majority of the randoms I've met have been thoroughly great. The Dark Zone, though... That seems to bring out the worst element of this game's playerbase.

I enjoy the Dark Zone. I say this as someone who ordinarily cannot stand being in a situation where there's the possibility I could easily be killed and be forced to watch the virtual equivalent of my corpse being spat upon. The idea of roaming packs of twats ruining my character progression sometimes just for shits and giggles would usually be a step too far from what I could enjoy from a game. The chances of this happening are massively reduced by running in a group, and as it's so easy to matchmake into a group in this game, you really have no excuse not to. You'll be denying yourself one of the strongest aspects of the game if you only ever work alone. It is perfectly possible to be the strong silent type in a pick up group if you want, and the experience of being a squadmate is one every bit as unique and interesting as being a leader or running alone. If you do lead, you'll have to open your mouth if you want to do it effectively but you can still do it without (although I'd have to wonder why you would). Even so, I can't recommend grouping and talking to other players enough. In the space of a fortnight, I guarantee you'll have a big pool of players who will add you as a friend and be up for running with at pretty much any time of the day.

What of the experience of running solo? The stress? The other day in DZ06 I popped my survivor link after rounding a corner because I accidentally caught the fact I was being tailed by 4 'non-hostile' agents when I swung the camera around. I then spent the following minute and half cowering behind a tent. Even so, the possibility that you could somehow turn it your way, or slip the noose at the last moment, is what makes the solo DZ experience what it is. The problem for a solo player arises where there's no possibility of escape or you cannot possibly win a fight. The former you can mitigate somewhat by having good awareness and knowledge of the DZ, the latter by grinding. Both take time. That said, you shouldn't be soloing in the DZ if you want to progress, you should only be doing it for the survival experience... If you want to grind, join a group. You'll do it 4x as fast. The only other reason to run solo is to experience perhaps the best thing in the DZ; when there's a manhunt on and you link up with other solo agents by chance on your way to kill them. There's vengeance in the air and this is magnified by talking to one another, it's just priceless.

I've found that a great many rogues are paper tigers but PC players had their DZ experience ruined over the last few weeks by the prevalence of cheats. Those possibilities I mentioned above? They're erased by cheaters. We're talking cheats which show where everyone who is in the DZ is located at all times, whether any DivTech crate is up, teleportation to a location of the cheater's choosing when they get to low health, infinite ammo and the ability to dump a mag in one shot... The works. Totally ruins it. Interestingly, the biggest victims of this were legit rogues who were being instantly killed by hackers once they hit manhunt status - although I experienced many occasions on which cheaters went rogue themselves and ruined the experience for entire servers. I've seen and sworn at more cheaters in the Division than I have in any other game, except perhaps GTAV. But! Shock twist! After a month of complaints from PC players, neverending vicious threads on the subreddit, stories in the gaming press and the Guardian for god's sake, the devs are stepping up their anti-cheating measures and have made their bans more severe (14 days first offence, ban thereafter). It is not more strict, it's been said, so as to comply with European law... although Ubisoft apparently apply a 'lowest common denominator' approach to the law in relation to their customers and this is thought to be the best that could be expected in line with that policy.

More bans have taken place in the last two days than have so far in the entire lifespan of the game. The ban wave is being felt in cheater communities and the subreddit has played host to the noise of them rattling their cages. It's also provided links to forums where cheaters are moaning about their fate, trying to justify their approach etc. Hilarious, this is mana to me and anyone else who had to put up with their shit in the DZ... and maybe it's all just grandstanding, and maybe it'll all go to shit again soon after, but last night in the DZ was cheater free and the atmosphere markedly improved. Here's hoping it continues.

[Undercoverman]

Another day, another run in the DZ. This time with some frenchmen, one of whom was making his best efforts to translate the squad's callouts for the benefit of me, the only englishman. Such effort deserves perseverance, such is the ease with which I could have found another group... But we worked well, and we had some protracted rogue fights. Extended rogue battles reveal the tricks particularly canny fucks can try to get away with - hiding a non-rogued, non-affiliated friend amongst the rogued group, waiting to put themselves in harm's way and turn the attackers rogue themselves. The benefit, they think, is that any attackers will turn their attention to those on a 19 or 90 second timer. Not so when the manhunt is on and everyone on the server is SEVERELY fucked off with the exploits of a bunch of dipshits who've been ganking players and trash talking over their bodies. 10 men gathered in the DZ06 subway, putting the coup de grace on the straggler who ran as best he could when the tide was turned, spitting insults when he could crawl no more. Not fair, right buddy? Just like when your group of 4 shit talks your latest victim? Back they came once again, the server's bad guys... The rewards were huge (I got a further 150k DZ creds just tonight), the fights lasted considerably longer than the blink-and-you'll-miss-it cheater duels (which have dramatically reduced!), fun was had.

But that's just it - the fun was for the sake of it. The benefits of play are not felt in the gear treadmill, which remains at a standstill for most players. 1.2, due out this month and currently in the testing phase, promises a generosity of loot yet unseen. A new tier of DZ (gear score +200) will hold some of the best loot in the game, but a spread of enemies from level 32 to 34. The idea is that the various tiers of DZ at level 30 (-163, +163 and +200) will represent a ladder whereby the drops are so far improved, one can progress in score and graduate to each. Right now, anything above a 182 item is unheard of in the DZ, the route to a 204 or 240 item being crafting or Incursion only. People don't kill enemies for a good drop - they kill for items to break down into crafting mats, and play the game to earn currency to then buy a blueprint. The possibility of a good drop is so remote, nobody looks for it. Part of this is due to the infrequency of getting something serviceable, the meta is still SMG/DMR, using a combination of strikers or sentry with a Reckless chestpiece and Savage gloves. Reckless is bugged (then 10% weakness to offset the 13% damage increase is bugged - you actually get 10% strength!), Savage providing the crit chance which is king when using a SMG.

1.2 should bring weapon balancing... The devs have stated they'll be adopting a 'boost, not nerf' approach. We should see benefits added to weapons other than SMGs such that they have passive benefits that are comparable to their massive crit chance boost. The subreddit's generated lots of good suggestions, the best ones being bleed chance or stagger on those weapons that should punish a player for being out of cover (i.e. LMGs). In truth, I just want an excuse to rock my M60 in same way I did while leveling up, but we all want something which can suppress players and make combat more ranged and protracted by forcing people into cover. The Division's at it's best when you've got room to breath and try some tactics, rather than simply working out the best way to roll up with your SMG. If they can get the balance right, and we can look forward to drops again, we should be looking at a lot of renewed interest in a game I still very much enjoy.

[Undercoverman]

This game's now been updated to 1.2, which brings new gear sets, new incursions, the new DZ bracket of 200+ (with plenty of rewards), daily and weekly 'High Value Target' missions in the open world and some rebalancing via nerfing of broken weapon talents.

The new incursion is available in hard mode only at the moment. It is substantially easier than the first incursion and can be completed inside of 10 minutes. I ran it for the first time with a group the other night and you can fly through it with relatively little trouble. Despite being a more varied gameplay experience than fighting the APC, it's underwhelming due to the ease with which it can be completed.

The dailies in the open world are a nice addition in so far as they give end game players a reason to get back out into the open world. They're fun for some mindless farming but light on challenge and reward. For that, the new DZ bracket is where you go. It's brutal and the higher zones should only be attempted with a group. As none of my regular group play this game anymore (everyone's lost interest), I've been running with pick up groups although I'm tired of being matched with middle aged sad cases with colossal egos and a child's grasp of what it means to work in a group. Paranoid, overgrown boys... Men who have dropped out of society and play this for hours on end. I can't take it any more! Is this a regular thing with games like this? I've played with many, many good people but the frequency with which I encounter cunts in this game is unparalleled.

I think I've just about had enough of this game myself, now. The new gear sets are supposed to encourage the use of weapons other than DMR/SMG but they don't go anywhere near far enough, plus the talents they offer are uniformly shit and nowhere near as good as the 4 introduced in the last patch. The biggest disappointment is the weapons. Everyone's known, for months now, what needs to be done to rebalance the weapons (i.e. introduce a passive benefit for each weapon type that lacks one) but we now have to wait for the next patch to see that. Everyone's bored of the meta.

As of right now, I don't think there's anything about the game I haven't seen or would want to see. I'll come back and check it out when the new patch drops but otherwise I think my time in the Division is over.

[QDRPHNC]

I feel the same way. It's enjoyable, but impossible for a casual player who doesn't want to grind for gear to keep up with the hardcore players. Even with 1.2, there is still just too much stick and not enough carrot.

It's a shame too, as they really did a tremendous job on the art direction and atmosphere. I want to play it a lot more than I am, but there just isn't a reason to return at this point.

Disagree with you on the new incursion though - maybe I'm just getting stuck with clueless groups, but we get slaughtered. Haven't finished it yet.

[Undercoverman]

There's a new patch coming out on Tuesday for PC and Xbone users, this one will be 1.3 and it coincides with the Underground expansion. Underground is essentially a semi-randomised PvE encounter mode which scales to group size (including solo play) and offers bonuses for differing difficulty levels attempted, with modifiers (such as limited ammo or no radar) to further challenge players. Unlike the Greater Rifts in Diablo 3, they are finite and can be extended to 3 'operations' per run, each operation taking something in the region of 15 minutes for (what I assume) the appropriate difficulty level. The objective per operation is one of the randomised elements, those revealed thus far seem to revolve around either killing a named boss, defending a JTF officer or obtaining intel. The layout of each operation is randomised but seemingly only to the extent that there are 'rooms' with connecting sections which are re-jigged per run. Apparently it successfully gives the impression of a new mission every time but we'll have to see how it stands up once released. Also included in the DLC are exclusive new weapons and gearsets which should hopefully refresh things a little bit.

Outside of the expansion, 1.3 brings various weapon balancing tweaks. A 25% damage buff to LMGs for targets out of cover, SMGs now have baked-in crit hit damage rather than chance (possibly a nerf, we'll see), shotguns get more stagger and a 30% damage increase, marksmen rifles are untouched and assault rifles get almost no love whatsoever, only a 30% bonus to armour damage on AI only. Coupled with this, the Sentry and Striker gear sets (the DPS sets) are getting nerfed such that their full benefit is now only obtained with 5 gear pieces rather than 4. This has almost everyone who's played the game since 1.3 absolutely apoplectic because the meta in the game is now the so-called 'tanktician'. Extremely high stamina, extremely high skill power. If you've been in the DZ lately you'll know that the rogue situation is the worst it's ever been because, combined with their high skill power for extremely quick healing, it's nearly impossible for even a well-geared group to put these guys down. All they do is run, roll and dodge until their skill power gives them their heal back, at which point they run, roll and dodge some more until their sticky bomb is back up and they can try to put you down. It has made much of the PvP combat in the DZ ever more ridiculous and has erased any enjoyment that was left.

Initial thoughts on the weapon balance tweaks to be included in the new patch is that they'll fail to combat this. It's widely acknowledged that the DZ is full of cunts at the level cap going rogue for no reason other than to make other people's lives worse. It is considerably more profitable for a player to instead gear themselves exclusively for PvP and kill someone else for their hard-earned loot now that the beefed up AI in the DZ take a longer time to kill. I don't say this as someone who gets routinely pasted by rogues but instead as someone who used to be able to give them their comeuppance. Now I don't even get close because I just can't put them down. It's infuriating because I have met some despicable cunts playing this game, people who desperately need to be knocked off their perch. Everyone knows that the DZ should provide the freedom to be an asshole, but lately it really seems like the game is facilitating it. There is a tremendously fucked up element in the player base for this game and the longer time goes on, the more it seems that the ratio between cunt and non-cunt is at tipping point. I played a mission last night with a pick-up group and, once the mission was complete and only after we'd all got our rewards, some Portuguese guy starts berating each of us over his mic, calling us all garbage. It particularly inexplicable because we'd had a smooth run and this guy wasn't anything special himself. The rest of us just laughed, went our separate ways and left the group but he then continued to 'whisper' me via the text chat (the in-game equivalent of a PM) coming out with mlg-tier burns like 'nice damage bro', 'l2p' and 'lel'. It's probably evident from how much I'm engaged with this game that I'm no slouch. Dude was a troll who I quickly blocked, but the impression I get is that the only people eventually left over in the player base for this game will be twats like that, in it for the trolling potential. Everyone else will just leave because they don't want to be anywhere near them.

The hope is that Underground provides a varied enough and comparably rewarding PvE only alternative to the DZ. I say this as someone who would otherwise be a big advocate for the game but even I'm sick of it now. People have been monitoring the Steam player numbers for this game and they have dropped off to a huge extent. If it carries on at the rate it has, this game will be widely regarded as one of the most disappointing wasted opportunities of recent times and the blame can exclusively be placed on the incompetence of the developers, who seem to be completely unable to balance the game. Every game has that one bit of gear that's OP and needs nerfing but it's absolutely astonishing how many times and in how many ways that this has happened in this game. Again, we all hope for improvement and some of us are still invested through the season pass (which I don't regret, because I got it dirt cheap) so we'll see how it goes once again.

[Undercoverman]

So, the new patch/DLC then. Any good?

Yes. Yes it is. It is a credible alternative to the Dark Zone in terms of PvE challenge and just about randomised enough to be consistently interesting. The gearing/loot potential is similar albeit the drops are restricted to mostly the DLC gearsets (not exclusively, though). The ability to tailor your 'op' in the underground through a series of difficulty modifiers of your choosing provides a degree of customisation that really does change the way you play. It looks lovely, too - the gorgeous layouts give you a pseudo-urban exploration vibe and the new intel/voice recordings to collect add to this. There was always a surprising level of attention to detail in the lore for this game and it's nice to see it continue in the DLC.

There is a pervasive sense of dread in the UG but it is entirely without the anxiety of the DZ. You advance at your own pace and that alone makes it great. Challenge mode presents a level of difficulty that is just about right for a well-geared team, Heroic providing you with marginally tougher enemies that hit a hell of a lot harder. I can imagine many getting frustrated with the fact that they're not already top of the tree but most of us look at it as a goal to aim for. Especially wonderful is the fact that you can play these modes solo. Not for progression - Challenge mode as a solo endeavour is entirely doable but rock hard - however it is still an enjoyable gameplay experience that highlights that this is as strong a cover-based shooter as any on the market. In particular, solo play against the dynamic and mobile AI squads is a fraught game of cat-and-mouse, breaking contact to pop back up and flank. Solo play allows one to enjoy the aspects of the game that often are ignored or not attended to purely because there is so much about the game that demands it elsewhere, not least other players. That said, a group fight in one of the busy and cluttered urban catacombs (such as a decrepit subway station or ravaged subterranean shopping centre), moving from cover to cover and calling out enemies is as a fun a squad-based co-op experience as you could ask for.

I recommend it. 1.3 has also brought a new Incursion (with a more traditional raid-esque mechanic at the end boss) which I found tremendous fun. Some story missions have received Heroic mode upgrades, some missions have had additional difficulty modes added. At end game, there's little reason to play these as they're nowhere near as challenging as Heroic UG ops or Incursions, except to try to solo them for bragging rights. The DZ has a new bracket but it remains, as ever, the DZ. The meta's shifted slightly. After getting heavily geared through UG ops, myself and one of our regular group journeyed into the new bracket for the first time. A couple of cautious extractions later, a group of two tankticians jumped us in DZ02 - we wasted them. What a great feeling to be back on an even footing, even just temporarily. Regular sorties in the DZ over the past week have revealed a faction of agents eagerly gearing up and leaving one another largely alone. We paired with a couple of Russians tonight for the best part of a couple of hours and enjoyed every minute. There is already an exploit in the form of a bug with the new Reclaimer gear set (using keybinds for consumables allows you to activate every single one at once for your whole group - it should be one at a time) but now with a good alternative to the DZ we can just retreat to the UG for a challenging activity, so nobody really gives a shit about catastrophic game-breaking oversights like that. We just go underground and wait for it to be fixed, which is how end game always should have been. There should always have been alternatives to the DZ.

[Undercoverman]

The Division is almost dead. It has lost around 95% of its player base, if the Steam user charts are anything to go by. It will remain now as an instruction to other developers on how badly one can fuck up the biggest new gaming IP launch in history. The community which remains are either the hardcore or those who only recently picked it up and are working their way through the core experience of levelling up to the cap (i.e. everything prior to end game activity, which is actually enjoyable for the 12-15 hours it lasts). There's nobody in between.

The developers are in crisis mode. They don't know where they went wrong and they're asking for help, soliciting suggestions. It all has the whiff of a PR move, as nothing short of a wholesale re-working of the game is going to tempt people back. They're claiming that they can do it – but those of us who have watched the succession of mistakes made in the 6 months since the game's release realise this is bullshit. They've also failed to address glaring, frustration-inducing bugs that have been around since day one. There is no semblance of balance, in either PvP or PvE. Every single aspect of the game is riddled with loopholes, tricks and exploits which are esoteric enough such that knowledge of them is exchanged by only the very most top-tier of players. The RNG (chance of getting good 'drops') is layered so many times that, when coupled with the fact that a tremendous amount of the loot you receive is dogshit, you can spend hours completing the hardest content of the game many times over to no beneficial effect. About half of the gear sets are a complete fucking joke that are instantly sold or deconstructed; you've just spent an hour doing the most difficult thing the game can throw at you and you still get something useless. Why?

However, if you do have the right gear set, the game becomes straight forward. In a group where several players have those gear sets, it becomes laughably easy. I know because I've done it. However, without that gear, it is bastard hard. The same goes for using the right skills, of which only a few are valuable, and the same is true for talents. If you know how to build the optimal character, everything else is so far behind it's ridiculous. In order to do that, you have to know exactly which stats to invest in are worthwhile – you have to work on your gear like it's the cure for cancer. Hour after hour after hour of poring over percentages so that you can survive. The armour cap, for example; the magic number to hit and so that you can then invest in other attributes. Why is such a vital thing to survivability so obscure?

Survive for what, exactly? There is always the nagging, persistent feeling that you're going to end up a victim in the DZ. You go in the DZ today and there's no doubt that you're stepping into the PvP zone. The only people left playing are gank squads blasting out appalling music over the VOIP as they exploit every trick in the game to grind you into the sidewalk. You will get shot in the back and insulted, trod upon by twitch-dwelling tossers showing off to their subs. To me, that environment now has its own attraction. I only go in the DZ these days to solo it as a survivalist. Me versus roaming packs of twats I have almost no chance of killing. You call in an extraction in the DZ and they inevitably show up, looking to kill you and steal your gear... Not because they want it, but just to steal it. I get some enjoyment from leading them on wild chases, calling in empty extractions, wasting their time, frustrating their efforts. I like to think I'm pulling them away from the odd under-geared group who are trying just to get their own loot out... But who am I kidding? They left the game months ago, and I don't blame them.

[Barry Admin]

An unexpected bump here, as The Division has just launched a great big free patch. I think I'll have a bash and see what it's like.

I loved Undercoverman's in depth reports on the game in this thread, great analysis of a game that should have been much better. It had so much going for it, but they messed it all up.

[BeardFaceMan]

I enjoyed the beta of this, I kinda wish I bought it. I keep eyeing it whenever it goes on sale, would it be worth getting now? is there enough of a player count to play it properly or is it just the hardcore players left who know the game inside out?

[QDRPHNC]

Yeah, it's worth getting. The progress to level 30 is fantastic. The problem is the end-game, which requires an absolutely brutal amount of grinding. But even that is bearable. If you can get it on sale, highly recommended.

[Barry Admin]

I did love it at the time, even though I was sceptical as I'm not a big fan of cover shooters. I definitely got my money's worth though. It's free to play this weekend, Beardy, and will be on sale, so give it a go. I'm too tied to really focus on it at the minute, but it seems like there's some nice new content. People seem pretty positive about it in general, although they do love an underdog like this or Infinite Warfare - mind you, these are two games that put in work to please the community, and spread positive word of mouth.

[Barry Admin]

That's the fee play days started now, including all DLC. On sale for £12, and the season pass is down to the same price. I'm gonna jump on now and see what the DLC is like. I am enjoying being back in that snowy world, and there's loads of new stuff to check out. I don't think I had even done daily and weekly stuff, and trying to solo them is quite challenging. Tempted to start a new character, give us a shout if you're looking to team up.

[Barry Admin]

I am loving this! I've given up on soloing the dailys for now, to try and get stuff done. Just trying out the DLC area. I just really enjoy how challenging it is, especially after returning from arcade shooters like CoD and GTA. I was in a firefight to open up this underground area, and could see fuck all because of the glare from fires and smoke. I just had to aim at the tag and hope for the best. There is real, actual recoil on the guns too. Really got to get back into the DZ, just gonna try out this underground stuff first.

It's so nice to be back! Where is Bullet King? I'm gonna fuck him up for old time's sake :-)

[QDRPHNC]

I have a free weekend coming up, maybe I'll download 1.8 and give it a whirl.

When I was into The Division, I was really into The Division, so I really don't want to go back to devoting all my time to it. But I do miss the environment and those mad firefights in the dark you're describing.