Here are some better recommendations for games that aren’t owned by EA.
Operation Harsh Doorstop - free and moddable tactical shooter with big maps and vehicles, vanilla gameplay is fairly realistic but there are mods that totally change up the gameplay like Casualfield. This game has a dedicated group of youtube content creators who hate on this game… I don’t get it… because the gunplay is fantastic and the mechanics are an elegant evolution of Project Reality type squad spawns and player built basic infrastructure. Sniping is also a BLAST. Singleplayer is in heavy development but multiplayer is where it is at now with the game. It is in early access and is definitely rough around the edges, but the core gameplay is just straight up better than 99% of fps games I have played so I don’t really care lol.
Easy Red 2 - Really fantastic WW2 tactical shooter with big maps and LOTS of different period accurate vehicles and a quickly growing population of players. The general interest this game has in portraying WW2 beyond the tired and boring moments that are usually portrayed is very cool and the gameplay is ROCK solid. This game is extremely affordable for the amount of scenarios, weapons vehicles and historical context that is brought into the game design in a clearly thoughtful way and I recommend ALL of the DLC even as an impulse buy when you purchase the base game. It is worth it, Easy Red 2 is an absurdly easy recommendation at its price point.
Angels Fall First - A superb Battlefront-like/Battlefield 2048 that is first person. This game is in early access and has a small playerbase but the core gameplay is polished, locked in and very very fun. Weapons feel great, vehicles are easy to jump in and start using but clearly have a lot of skill depth to them… Overall the menu and UI is FANTASTIC, at the deploy screen the game will prompt you if a vehicle is available to take and let you spawn directly into it, you can also see a cue of vehicles that are going to spawn for your team soon… Check it out! Even with the low playerbase it is a great bot bashing game, the AI is fun to play against and uses vehicles.
Also, for kicks and giggles I am gonna recommend Empires Mod an old source engine multiplayer RTS/FPS team based hybrid that is actually still in development which is super cool. By now the UI has lots and lots of quality of life additions and tooltips and the whole thing is very impressive even if the age of the source engine and various components going into the experience are obviously very dated, Empires Mod is legitimately still an awesome game and it deserves way more players! There is a discord you can check out to find out when games are happening.
Ok I had to add another oldie but goodie that has an open source project around it now!! That game is Enemy Territory and if you know that game you likely have fond memories of spending hours playing it like I do. No vehicles but the teamplay is very objective based a lot like payload in Team Fortress 2 (which is TF2s best mode by far so…).
Some more obscure recommendations that didn’t quite make my main list of team based objective games with a lot of depth to them but also lots of action…
Unvanquished is a spiritual successor to Tremulous, I haven’t played it so I don’t want to recommend it in the main list but the idea of a team of alien monsters and space marines fighting asymmetrically is super cool and riffs on games like Empires Mod in a cool way.
Renegade X is a fan re-make of C&C Renegade a FPS/RTS hybrid game that was quite fun back in the day, the mod is still pretty rough around the edges so I didn’t want to put it on main list with others. The same developers also are making another game called Firestorm which is based on a different time period in the C&C universe. These developers are not employees of EA or making money off this I believe, you can see the developers really had fun making Renegade-X from my brief experience.
Hey, it benefits me when more people play these awesome indie multiplayer games!
It pains me when people put up with insane amounts of nonsense when they just want a battlefield like experience, they don’t want lootcrates, popups that distract you when you open the game… skins… casinos… battlepasses…
If that is your jam, great, but it is alarming how little indie big map multiplayer vehicle shooters there are for the health of the genre as a whole, I have made long rants about how EA fucked over the genre by dropping mod support after Battlefield 2 ughhh.
Because of that I get a lot of joy sharing these games because I know most people like me until fairly recently hadn’t heard of some of these gems and they are the perfect anodyne to all the AAA enshittification nonsense happening in multiplayer big map competitive shooters that actually have good vehicle gameplay.
Did Operation Harsh Doorstop add anti-cheat? I played it when it first was playable on Steam and the amount of cheating was so obnoxious I uninstalled the game.
Its not fun having your entire team have explosions spawned at your location when you spawn because one idiot decided to ruin the game for everyone.
While I like the sentiment… most of those are just fuel for “This is why I only buy name brand stuff” and is right up there with “Linux is super easy. Just start from arch and…”.
Operation Harsh Doorstep: Fun as a proof of concept but I would barely call this playable as it is in VERY VERY early beta. And, scale wise, I would actually say it is more like Insurgency than a BF. Yeah, player/bot counts can get high but the actual objectives and mechanics feel a lot more like Insurgency if it embraced PvE.
Angels Fall First: Amazing back in the day. Deader than 2042 these days with a one week peak of 18 players. And the bots… aren’t great
ET Legacy: You are inherently going into a game that the players have been playing for 20 years but it is a REAL good game and I find you can still get a decent server
Of those, the only one I would even consider recommending as a BF Alternative is Easy Red 2. That game is AWESOME and it reminds me a lot of playing the SP campaigns of old Battlefront. I do think there are serious balance issues with AT infantry versus armor but… I also think armor in general is too powerful (it should not take three AP rounds to the engine to disable something…). That said, I can’t speak to it as an actual MP game since I haven’t actually tried.
Honestly? It gets a lot of crap but I would actually say to check out Battlebit Remastered if someone wants a multiplayer Battlefield that isn’t EA. Regularly still hits 750+ concurrents and I still genuinely can’t tell why the entire internet turned on it. I come back maybe once every few months for a couple of games and usually feel like I am contributing which is more than if I play ET Legacy or Tribes 2 online these days.
Even in the pretty generic realm of military fps trailers, this one lacked the tiniest ambition of standing out. It almost dips into the realm of satire in it’s choice of themes and presentation which are all so obviously just lame rehashes of things we’ve all seen dozens of times before.
Ross Scott is an absolute treasure, and I’m kinda sad that he has never made more than €63k euros in a given year. He deserves more for all the work he has put in.
I’m not European, so if you are, please do what you can to encourage your reps to support this.
If this trailer references some plot point from the actual game, I’d be interested in learning why she reached out for the ancient puzzlebox in the middle of couple’s bathing.
A youtuber/streamer I really like who plays a lot of Vintage Story and has created themselves and shown off a lot of other Vintage Story builders work is Ashantin.
What I like about Ashantin is the vibe, they really understand the game but are super relaxed and chill in their playstyle. As in… Ashantin gives off the moment to moment vibes of a very casual player but they understand the game really well at the same time and it is a really pleasant combination that makes good background watching.
If you are curious about Vintage Story it is also a great way to get an idea of what the gameplay is like (I HIGHLY recommend Vintage Story!!!).
Makes me sad. I login through my account (through the app) and do a search and can’t find it. This isn’t the first time their search has failed me (even if the game clearly exists).
The good news is that they are scared. First, they ignored it. Next they tried to debate, well lie, their way out of it.
No one is buying their story or is feeling sorry for those greedy bastards. So they take the other route, attack the opponent and question their intentions/ credibility.
Maybe. All I read is that he was QA. That can mean anything from game tester to someone who tests internal tooling. I haven’t seen an actual description of his role.
I honestly don’t know, but since he ended up in cyber security, I’m guessing it wasn’t games testing, but probably internal tooling. Orgs like Blizzard have a lot of non-gaming related tech, like websites, databases, etc.
I haven’t seen any disclosure about what his role was, just that he started as QA and ended up doing cyber security, both of which likely didn’t involve any coding.
He did technically end up in cybersecurity, but basically yeah, a role that involves almost zero actual technical skill.
He did social engineering, aka, worming his way into people’s emails and texts and social circles, sending fake ‘your account has been comprimised, send me your user name and password to fix’ type shit.
Ironically, social engineering is quite a fitting uh, subclass, for a low technical skill, high charisma narcissist to slot into.
He thought hacking and DEFCON was the coolest convention to go to, so him and some buddies… won the scavenger hunt badge, I believe thats more or less running around the Con with your network analyzer open on your phone, to find wifi/bluetooth enabled hidden scavenger hunt items, maybe with a couple extra steps.
Its literally a gimmick badge, its not really anything to do with actual pentesting, nothing like developing a totally novel exploit.
EDIT: Like, I am reasonably confident I know more about ethical hacking than he does, just having futzed around with tryhackme and some other free online sort of, ‘basics of hacking’ tutorials with simulated demonstrations on VMs, for a few years in my spare time.
Ask him what SYN, SYN-ACK and ACK are, and why they are important, and I’m guessing he would have to look it up, whilst making it look like he is not looking it up.
It’s also probably the most common type of breach. It’s way easier to compromise tech support than find a vulnerability, so it makes a ton of sense for a company like Blizzard to have an auditing team to test the various attack vectors.
A lot of roles like QA and cyber security sound glamorous, but that’s because people like glamorous titles. If you’ve spent even a tiny amount of time working in a relevant industry (in this case, anything touching computers), you should be able to read between the lines. That “sanitation engineer” is probably just a janitor or garbage truck driver, not the person in charge of the city water filtration services or something.
scavenger hunt badge
I haven’t been, but yeah, that sounds likely. Things like that are to get people new to the industry excited, not to actually challenge hardcore hackers.
I’ve attended and even spoken at some tech conferences, and they’re like 90% entry level stuff with a handful of interesting events and talks that actually break some new ground. I’m in senior level position now, and conferences are something I’d send my juniors to for networking and to get an idea of how they want to grow their career, but I don’t really attend anymore. I imagine cyber security conferences are similar.
Ask him what SYN, SYN-ACK and ACK are
Lol, that’s basic TCP stack stuff, I doubt he would’ve gone that low level at a company like Blizzard. You get to that level when you’re looking for amplification attacks at a place like Cloudflare or the military.
At Blizzard, they most likely want to make sure they’re up to date on security patches, their tech support is following the proper scripts, and IT isn’t getting lazy reviewing reports and whatnot. Basically, liability coverage in case there’s a real breach so their insurance can cover any losses.
But yeah, streamers like to appear like they know their stuff because that’s what gets people to watch.
It’s also probably the most common type of breach. It’s way easier to compromise tech support than find a vulnerability, so it makes a ton of sense for a company like Blizzard to have an auditing team to test the various attack vectors.
Yep, absolutely.
The uh, funniest one that sticks in my memory was the hack of basically an early build of GTA 6.
Somebody social engineered their way into someone at Rockstar who had some level of admin acces, I think via fake / intercepted and reformed 2FA auths to the target’s phone, along with some spear phishing.
Then, they were proficient enough to exploit thier way throughout the intranet… but not smart enough to cover all their tracks.
A lot of roles like QA and cyber security sound glamorous, but that’s because people like glamorous titles. If you’ve spent even a tiny amount of time working in a relevant industry (in this case, anything touching computers), you should be able to read between the lines.
You would think this, but everywhere I have worked in the industry… most people cannot infact read between the lines.
I’ve attended and even spoken at some tech conferences, and they’re like 90% entry level stuff with a handful of interesting events and talks that actually break some new ground.
Impressive!
I’ve been to some, never spoken though… also, not DEFCON though.
I imagine cyber security conferences are similar. (mostly exist for networking)
I agree.
But yeah, streamers like to appear like they know their stuff because that’s what gets people to watch.
Yeah, but Thor takes it to an uncommon point of basically being a conman, with his so much of his reputation built, by himself, on vastly overstated credentials.
Its like getting a 2 year nursing assistant degrer and then acting as if you can safely perform a brain surgery.
ve been to some, never spoken though… also, not DEFCON though.
Yeah, I’ve spoken at local JS and Go confs with several hundred to a couple thousand attendees (my sessions were small, like 30 people), and attended a couple others.
DEFCON is much larger, but looking at the schedule, it seems pretty similar, a mix of relatively entry level stuff and more advanced topics. So someone attending doesn’t say much other than that they’re interested in cyber security.
Its like getting a 2 year nursing assistant degrer and then acting as if you can safely perform a brain surgery.
Interesting. I haven’t watched enough of his stuff to know what claims he’s made.
Interesting. I haven’t watched enough of his stuff to know what claims he’s made.
As you seem to be an actual serious person who generally values their time:
Probably don’t bother lol, unless you want to just watch multiple hours of youtubers going through his … literal decades long history of hyping himself up, lying or manipulating the context of what he says and does.
I can best summarize it all as: He is a malignant narcissist sociopath, akin to a cult leader in terms of how charismatically skilled he is and how intricate his fabrications are.
Specifically as it refers to his coding abilities, now, a number of other coders on youtube have done exhaustive breakdowns of his sloppy code, and also shown that he often acts like a seasoned expert in specific technical concepts that he is at best only vaguely familiar with at the level of a sky high overview.
I was looking forward to some conversation regarding this subject in the comments, instead all we’ve got is people talking about text vs video, and drawing any attention away from actually discussing the video.
I think it’s interesting that people have to attach their names and prove they’re real to sign this, but serious complaints can be filed anonymously. I’m not European, so does this mean anyone random can file complaints? Or it’s done somehow officially, just shows up anonymously?
I’m asking to understand how this works because this could not be the industry entirely.
tl;dr: it’s far from perfect, but it is a decent compromise.
what you’re talking about are government applications, which can take many different forms.
some can be filled out anonymously (often things like complaints, sometimes even lawsuits, etc.), and some need to have a verifiable identity attached (for example petitions, like SKG).
the reason the latter needs proof of identity is to prevent spam and unlawful influence campaign: if there was no verification, how could you know that it is actually citizens filing these requests, and not bad and/or foreign actors?
what if you had a European Citizens Initiative called “let’s join the russian federation” that got to 50 Million signatures overnight?
obviously seems fishy…so how would you verify wether it was actually supported by your own citizens?
this is why you need verification: it’s simply not an option to have this sort of thing filed anonymously.
there are some ideas on how to do this digitally, mostly focused on pseudonymization, which would be mostly great, but the current system is pretty decent.
there’s a tradeoff happening, and it’s one that has to be extremely carefully considered:
on the one hand, you’d want citizens to be free to support whatever campaigns they want without fear of repercussions, social or otherwise.
on the other hand, it’s also a good thing when people can’t hide behind anonymity when voicing their support. with the recent rise of nazis, that’s certainly a prudent state of affairs.
both ways of doing things have advantages and disadvantages.
the current system of public support tends to favor quite conservative (as in traditionalistic and broadly accepted socially, not as in the “conservative politics”) initiatives over more reformative ones, but it also suppresses utterly unhinged Initiatives of the right wing factions.
as much as i understand that many groups would prefer a more anonymous approach, i honestly think the current approach, under the current state of affairs, offers much needed protection against nazi influence campaigns.
i think people underestimate how much more comfortable nazis get, when they can hide behind anonymity.
they are cowards be default, and anonymity helps them find a whole lot more acceptance than having their names out in the open…
as for why complaints can be filed anonymously… probably the same reasoning, but in reverse:
protecting people from repercussions is more important when it is about reporting current misgivings, than it is when petitioning for change.
think whistleblowers: they NEED anonymity.
without anonymity, a lot remains unreported, because many people tend to shoot the messenger first, ask questions later or never…so protections are required, mostly in form of anonymity, otherwise no one ever finds out about things going wrong…
The anonymous complaint system aids whistleblowers.
But it also means that the complaints can come from less than reputable sources.
The upshot of this is that the complaint doesn’t get as much traction and is vetted more closely.
This complaint amounts to the condiment on a nothingburger.
Trying to stop the petition based on a technicality that someone is working too hard seems a bit unhinged. Anyone that stands to be hurt enough by the movement would have had lawyers on retainer to handle things like this.
It’s also possible that someone supporting the movement used it as a false flag to get more attention, but there’s 1.4+ million eyes on it. I don’t see that being an advantageous path either.
Either way, the complaint is bunk and will end up being ignored with a moment’s scrutiny.
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