August 2025 In Review

 August has come and gone and so has Blaugust 2025.  I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve for Blaugust so let's take a look back at the August that was.

The Blog

Blogger recorded visits for July: 326,819

In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target:  31 (to meet the Blaugust goal of once a day)
• Posted: 17
• Difference: -14
• I fell off the Blaugust horse early and never got back on it.  My Blaugust plans to talk about blogging and blogging platforms never materialized. I'll get a Blaugust recap out here in the next few days.
•  Search Trends
• Search trends changed in June and that trend continued in July:
• "battlefield secure boot" "secure boot required battlefield" - Secure Boot being required to play the Battlefield 6 beta was a hot topic and I shared my own experience in a post which netted the most Google clicks of any posts this month.
•  "deadlock invite pending" - this search skyrocketed around the time of the Deadlock update (which I posted about here).  Honestly surprised Valve has continued with the invite system for the open test; seems like at this point they'd be better off just letting anyone try that wants to.
• "arc raiders countdown" - this actually trended way, way down this month which is expected as we are at the midpoint between Tech Test 2 hype and the October release date for ARC Raiders. 
• In "things I observed in search console":
• Image searches for "minecraft mountain base" is my top result for images.  It's neat to see many years later that my Minecraft adventure from 2010 (15 years ago!) is hopefully inspiring new builders.  The post: Minecraft Mountain Base
• "bf2042 iwo jima" netted a small number of  visits which was nice to see as BF2042 enjoyed a resurgence in interest thanks to Battlefield 6.  The new Iwo Jima map has been a blast to play in 2042.

What I Played

 My friends and I have been sticking with Dune Awakening, but honestly, it’s pushing me to the edge of rage quitting more often than not. The combat is rough, and PvP ends up being a frustrating mess. Losing in PvP can set you back hours of progress, especially if your opponents decide to thumper your thopter — sending it to a worm and deleting it permanently.

 Normally, I wouldn’t mind setbacks like that, but the combat feels so bad that I never feel like I have a fair chance. Ground fights are plagued with stagger locks that stop you from dodging, activating skills, or even moving. Then you add in tactics like players gliding in silently on a thopter, pocketing it mid-air, and dropping right behind you… it just leaves you feeling powerless. More often than not, you have to resign yourself to being ganked repeatedly, even when you’re actively looking for a fight.

 So yes, I’m still begrudgingly playing Dune Awakening with my friends, but the PvP endgame just isn’t fun. There’s only so much building and gathering I can do to distract myself from that.

 Later in August, I jumped on the No Man’s Sky bandwagon after the Voyagers update. I’ve been really enjoying my early exploration of the galaxy. There’s something refreshing about a game with so many possibilities. The fact that I can take off in my ship from a planet, fly into space, head to another world, and never hit a loading screen still amazes me. Add in space stations, the anomaly, space pirates, and more than I can list, and it’s clear this game is going to steal a serious chunk of my gaming time. And I haven’t even touched on the multiplayer yet!

 On top of that, my sons and I have been continuing our Minecraft adventures. I need to get us set up on a realm, especially after we lost progress when a local save reset on us. It’s also tough that our current setup isn’t persistent, so if we’re not all playing at the same time, no one can move the world forward. A realm would solve most of that and make our sessions much smoother.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

 August 2024 was a wonderful Blaugust experience and my wrap up can be read here.

 Also in August of 2024 we got a first look at Dune Awakening's gameplay.   It was clear in the video that combat wasn't going to be great and sure enough a year later and combat isn't great.  I guess it's a positive that the initial video look we got back then was what the actual game turned out to be.

 August of 2024 also brought us Deadlock's initial beta test.  This was the hottest game since sliced bread at the time.  A year later and the game has pretty much dropped in interest and is still in a test phase.  Player activity is down from hundreds of thousands peak players to just tens of thousands.  It's possible the game peaked before ever making it to release.

5 Years Ago

 In August of 2020 we were enjoying the Crowfall Beta. At the time I thought this was the next big game for me.  I was going to lose hundreds, if not thousands, of hours to it. Fast forward to today and Crowfall has already been shut down.  But the Crowfall Beta does hold a special place in my nonexistent heart because it was through the beta community that I found out about this other game called New World and little did I know at the time but New World would be the game where I lost thousands of hours (4,000+ and counting!).

10 Years Ago

 August of 2015 existed in the time of no blogging for me.

15 Years Ago

 August of 2010 was marked by my purchase of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.  15 years later and he has delivered five books in this amazing series!  Now if only George RR Martin could deliver at such a pace.

 Another interesting post and article to look back on was this one: MMO Developers: Read this, learn from it .  Now 15 years later I'd of expected more MMOs to have been developed around the single server design.  And while we have mega servers in many MMOs we really haven't gotten another single server MMO like EVE Online.

20 Years Ago

 In August of 2005 I was complaining about Alterac Valley in World of Warcraft and how it needed to be rebuilt.  I really miss those days.  Alterac Valley was such a fun experience at the time and I dearly miss those simpler days where I had hours and hours to devote to a singe map game mode and write such long winded change requests for it!

 Speaking of WoW battleground design suggestions I also suggested they should be cross server.  At the time it was a foreign thought to have cross server activities. Fast forward to modern MMOs and it's hearsay if they launch without cross server capabilities.  Oh how times change!

 I made a Battlefield 2 video and uploaded it to Google Video.  Sadly it's been lost to history at this point as I didn't opt to migrate it to YouTube.  Not even the Wayback Machine has a copy of the video even though it did archive the page at one point.  Another sign of "oh how times change"!  Note: it is possible I have a copy on my old hard drives sitting on the shelves; I just haven't spent the time to dig through them.

 

Some Random Friday Thoughts

 

Credit: ChatGPT generating an image to go with the blog post.

 It's been a tough work week and I've found myself juggling trying to play four different games: New World Aeternum, Dune Awakening, Battlefield 2042, and as of yesterday No Man's Sky.  On top of that I've gotten back to keeping on top of updates for other games: NASCAR 25, ARC Raiders, Battlefield 6, Ashes of Creation and Star Citizen to name a few.  And then my youngest son is starting into his first year of kid's activities of which I always volunteer.  All of that to say things are busy and blogging is on the bottom of the stack.  But it's Friday and I just have some thoughts to throw out there.

Magic the Gathering Arena

I tend to always catch various Magic the Gathering posts, specifically about Arena, on Reddit and get myself tangled up in the comments.  I really do miss playing this game but the financial commitment was something I couldn't keep up with (and it's even worse now with the pace of sets being released).  But I still miss it.  I still want to log in and cook up a deck or two; maybe throw down in Brawl (Arena's version of commander).  No action I am taking here; just sharing the thought out loud.

NASCAR

 I've gotten myself into NASCAR again lately.  I sort of take a pass at the sport once every five or so years.  I grew up in the Earnhardt days and still to this day find his legacy and story fascinating (seriously; I watched the recent Earnhardt documentary multiple times now).  The racing career of his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and now what Jr does to represent the sport is equally fascinating.  I have also always dabbled in racing games; more of the Wreckfests of the genre than NASCAR games but there is a promising NASCAR 25 game coming out this year from the iRacing devs that seems promising.  I am probably going all out for it with steering wheel and pedals.

ARC Raiders

 Holy freaking heck do I want this game to be here already.  That's all I wanted to share.

No Man's Sky

 I will likely have more posts on this but it is shaping up very nice to be a filler game for me between now and ARC Raiders releasing.  New World Aeternum is the loser here as time for that game is going to No Man's Sky for now.  No Man's Sky is just scratching the right itch.  It also helped that I felt like my $24 spent on the game was a direct donation to HelloGames work on Light No Fire which I can't wait for more information on!

Ashes of Creation

 This game occupies way too much of my thought cycles.  I want the game to be everything that I think it will be but also want it to dull the edge on the potential toxic aspects like always on PvP and the idea of "red" player killers.  Just give us a good MMO and cut the toxic gameplay aspects.  Players cannot freaking help themselves these days so it will never go the way that is expected.

New World Aeternum

 The current loser in the game of "what will heartlessgamer play today".  Still waiting for the big news of Season 10's changes but as that lines up close to when ARC Raiders will land it's hard to know where I am going to be with gaming time.  Also Dune Awakening isn't letting up as my friends and I are still pulling some fun out of that game (even if it feels like pulling teeth most of the time... Drak and Moist would know what I mean... and Drak and Moist you know who you are and who I am and why I am saying this).

Starting a new journey in No Man's Sky

 No Man's Sky released a massive update yesterday, and it has not only the No Man's Sky community buzzing but also catching the attention of the MMORPG community. In the update deep-dive video, the game's creator hints that the changes to No Man's Sky are also being applied to their unreleased MMO known as Light No Fire. While the MMO news is cool, the update to No Man's Sky is just as exciting—and so cool that I bought the game to give it a whirl.

 First, you need to watch the update video to get a sense of what has been brought to No Man's Sky:

 The big takeaway is that spaceships can now be turned into mobile homes—if mobile homes could zoom through space. Interiors of spaceships are now able to be customized and explored. Previously, players would either be in the pilot seat or outside of the ship. Now, players can get out of their pilot seat and walk around inside larger ships. They can place crafting stations and other decorations. Players can even open the door midflight and jump out!

 For some players, this means they are packing up their bases and investing into large ships that take their place—true mobile homes!

 It is kind of amazing to look back at all of No Man's Sky's updates. Launched to a ton of fanfare, the game initially struggled as it did not live up to the hype. Since then, the game has released update after update after update and never asked players for another penny. The developers have won a ton of goodwill with the community.

 Combine that community sentiment with what appears to be a groundbreaking update for the game, and my interest was piqued. The game was also on sale for $23, which seemed like a reasonable price for me to jump in. So off I set on my adventure.

 I had played free trials and weekends before, so this isn't my first rodeo. The start of my normal-mode adventure felt familiar, and I was quickly up and flying my spaceship. The UI and the number of actions that can be taken at any given time takes some adjustment, but once I started getting the hang of it, it felt more and more natural. I'd still like some more hotkeys to specific endpoints, so I’ll have to spend some time figuring out if there are any settings I can tweak.

 Unlike previous trials, I am more hooked this time around. I have an endgame in mind with building my own custom ship, and I now have a journey to get there. For now, it’s just about learning the game and the various systems. I documented my starting journey with some screenshots.

A new world... a new adventure

The scream of engines overhead was constant.  A mystery for now on who these pilots and ships may be.

A snowy planet; dang it's cold here.

Blast off!  Here... we... go!

 

Surprise Event: CHOAM Salvage Rights

 A surprise event dropped in Dune Awakening today.  It is called CHOAM Salvage Rights.  Hagga Basin is filled with the sound of turret fire and crashing ships as CHOAM cargo vessels are shot down across the zones.  Shai-Hulud is busy filling his gullet with the remains.  Players can race to collect the cargo before Shai-Hulud appears!

 A new vendor is available at various trading posts and new contracts are being issued to collect the shot down ship's cargo.  On the new vendor are multiple weapon/armor skins and the ability to get a turret as a decoration in your base.

 A video of the action:

  I am secretly hopeful the turrets will become a fully functional base feature in the future as it'd be awesome to be able to build a base in the PvP portion of the DD and set up air defense turrets.  That is the sort of exciting change this game needs! 

Are we losing faith in Ashes of Creation?

 Ashes of Creation has reached a noteworthy milestone—launching Phase III of its second alpha test. This update expands the world significantly, introduces new playable races, brings in a new archetype, enhances the initial player experience, tweaks guild systems, and advances the node progression system—among other improvements.

 Yet, community sentiment seems divided, and some players are expressing growing frustration.

 I came across a video from content creator Jamie Kaos expressing discouragement with the game's current pace. In the clip, Jamie appears disillusioned—indicating he may no longer have the time or interest to continue investing in Ashes testing. He even hints that his guild, formed around the game, is losing momentum—a tone best described as “disappointment.”

 I’ve navigated these waters before—especially during the “Narc” controversy, where community members took sides. Initially, I leaned toward Narc, but later recognized the nuance and re-centered my perspective. At that time, Narc voiced frustration over delayed updates that didn’t match his expectations.

 Now, Jamie echoes similar concerns, though with a more level head than Narc. He questions whether the development team can deliver the scale and frequency of updates being promised—and whether the team is moving in a direction that aligns with his expectations.

 While Jamie suggests the game might be targeting a younger audience and not the "old guard" I think that’s misguided. The average MMO or PC gamer is getting older; current surveys place that average in the mid-to-late 30s (around 36–38 years old), not younger. So, if anything, Ashes is being built for “us”—the seasoned MMO veterans. Even Steven Sharif (creative director) is in his 40s or 50s and has crafted this game as a passion project. It's the “old guard” who are most likely to carry it forward.

 Another factor at play is content creator fatigue. When updates come slowly or are thin in scope, creators struggle to stay engaged. Jamie—much like Narc—faces the challenge of producing content when testing is grind-heavy and lacks fresh hooks. It’s only natural that he’d compare it to established games like World of Warcraft, which regularly provides new content and consistent deliveries.

 All this brings me back to my own stance post-Narc: the most impactful statement I can make about Ashes is whether I choose to participate in the Alpha. Right now, I haven’t. That speaks louder than any number of words I've put on page here.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.   

All in the Name: Reaper Actual

 Minecraft.  A game where you mine and then craft.  World of Warcraft. A game where you explore the world behind the Warcraft universe.  Everquest. A game where you quest ever on.  Battlefield.  A game where you fight on a battlefield.  Reaper Actual.  A game.  Err; wait... what actual reaping is being done?

 John Smedley, of SOE and Daybreak fame (or not-fame), is up to new things in an MMOFPS game going by the title of Reaper Actual.  Per their Steam page:

Reaper Actual is an Open-World Persistent Shooter where hundreds of players engage in FPS combat against each other and 5 NPC Factions on the massive war-torn island of Marova. 

 Terrible name aside I am always interested in new MMOs; especially MMOFPS.  Even more interested considering Matt Higby, creative director of Planetside 2, is involved in the project.  I lost many a good hour in Planetside 2 and would play a modern day version of it in a heartbeat.

 There are some concerns to get out of the way first.  The game is intending to feature NFTs in the versions of the game.  Fortunately NFTs won't be included in the Steam and Epic Game Store versions.  However, it remains to be seen what NFTs will impact since the game is an MMO and while my version may not have NFTs if someone elses version does that impacts me. Also someone should tell them they are a couple years late to capitalize on the NFT fad... lol.

 Secondly there is plans to use generative AI in the game.  Think ChatGPT generating a sidequest for players.  For some gamers this is a dealbreaker.  For me, I'm still on the fence with AI but tend to be an optimist for it's use in games.  Technology aside; the important thing is how the game plays and if it plays well then I don't care about if AI is being used.

 The game intends to be a full "drop loot on death" game and Smedley compared it to extraction shooters like Escape from Tarkov.  The promise being if you get killed and looted that you will be able to track down your killer and get a shot at getting the loot back.  This includes possibly raiding their base.

 Yes, the game will supposedly have player bases that can be raided.  Group together with friends and bigger and badder bases can built.  Bigger and badder bases means bigger base raids and battles.  Up to 200-player base raids apparently will be supported. Apparently and supposedly because, well, we all know Smedley's history.

 My interest is piqued and I'll keep tabs on the game.  It may be worth a few cycles worth of play when it eventually lands.

Hideouts and Raider Dens

Raider dens are coming to ARC Raiders!

 A pair of game updates came across my plate in the last few days that I wanted to share.  Valve has made updates to Deadlock and added a social lobby they are calling the Hideout where players can hang out before and in between games.  Then, much to my excitement, ARC Raiders announced they are adding Raider Den's which will be apartments that player's adorn with items as they progress in the game.  Hideouts and Raider Dens add a layer on top of the core game underneath; a layer that makes the games feel a little more like home than just a game and I'm all for it.

 Deadlock's update was shared in their latest post: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/669466707009471267?l=english

 Welcome to the Hideout! The Hideout replaces the existing Dashboard UI and is your personal area to play around in while waiting for a match. You can invite friends to your hideout, or join them in theirs. We hope it will be a fun place to spend time as well as provide future opportunities for personalization, achievements, and events.

 ARC Raiders update was hosted in Discord so I copied the text below:

We’re making room for you in Speranza, quite literally! Here’s an update from the team on what to expect when it comes to lodging:

As every experienced Raider knows, the abandoned wilderness of the Rust Belt is vast and unforgiving. Missions Topside are necessary, but even the tireless Raider needs a place to lay their bruised head - and all their souvenirs - after a long day of gunning down ARC.

Enter, the Raider Den. Shani will be kind enough to lend you a cozy bedroom to call your own. Well, “cozy” might be stretching it. “Bedroom,” too. When you arrive, you’ll be greeted by a metal cot, peeling decorations, and a door frame with a notable lack of door. But hey, it’s better than living Topside! 

Fortunately, you won’t have to live in squalor forever. As you progress through ARC Raiders, your Den will progress with you. As players ourselves, we know how rewarding it is for you to visually see the progress your Raider is making, and the loot they’re accumulating, so our intention with the Den is to do just that. Trinkets you find Topside will litter the floors and the shelves of your den. Your best guns will be proudly displayed on the walls. 

Your Raider Den screen will be a living representation of your progress. Your highest-value items will be proudly displayed on your shelves. (Even if the most valuable thing you own at the moment is fifteen rubber ducks.) Think of the Den as a bird’s nest for all your trinkets, old world oddities, guns, and fancy weapon attachments.

We plan to continue refining the Den. We’ll also try to get some of those mystery stains off the walls before you get here… 

 Of the two updates; I think Deadlock's is the most promising as it allows players to enter and interact in the space where as ARC Raider's is described as a "screen" which indicates you won't set foot in it with your character and likely more have a static view similar to what we saw in Tech Test 2 for the workshop.  Hopefully over time Embark will improve on the concept for ARC Raiders.  There is no doubt Valve will continue to iterate on the Hideout.

 For anyone that followed my posts about ARC Raiders they will know one of my biggest requests was to add a social hub for us to interact in.  Raider Dens is a step in that direction and I was excited to see this update for the game.  October can't get here soon enough so I can check it out!

 

Battlefield 2042 is FUN

 

We're back on Iwo Jima in Battlefield 2042!

 With the Battlefield 6 open beta behind us and its release imminent, EA/DICE has decided to have one last hurrah in Battlefield 2042 with a special event that brings the famed Iwo Jima map from past Battlefields into the specialist-laden 2042. And boy, is it fun.

 First, the size of Iwo Jima puts everything in Battlefield 6 to shame. If someone told me you could fit all of the BF6 maps into Iwo Jima in 2042, I would believe it. That’s how big the map feels and plays. The map features everything from a naval fleet offshore—where the attackers launch from—all the way up to a volcano riddled with a maze of caves (as was common on Japanese-held islands during WWII). Everything about the map screams “this is Battlefield.”

 Another winning aspect of 2042 compared to 6 is the presence of tons of vehicles. Iwo Jima, for example, features upwards of 17 vehicles fighting it out. Helicopters are constantly overhead, tanks and IFVs are always pushing forward, and boats come rushing through the water during the initial sea deployment. A moment rarely goes by without a vehicle causing havoc, and it creates the glorious Battlefield experience I expect. Compare that to BF6, where the largest beta map featured, at most, four vehicles. Vehicles you rarely saw, either because they were paper-thin or—like jets—spent their time a mile away from the actual map thanks to the tiny ground area compared to the vast overhead airspace.

 You might think that with 2042’s vehicle count, the infantry experience would be miserable, but that’s far from the truth. Infantry gameplay is really solid on Iwo Jima. While it’s a big map, there are numerous compact points of interest with good fortifications that let infantry dodge and weave incoming vehicle fire and fight it out for final control of the points. On top of that, the map’s size allows anti-air players to step back from the frontline and focus on harassing air targets.

 Then there are the specialists, which many Battlefield players felt were a huge misstep for 2042, pushing it closer to a hero shooter than a Battlefield title. While that may have been the case at launch when there was no corresponding class system, that’s no longer true. Specialists now fit neatly into the class system and offer a ton of fun gameplay options thanks to their unique gadgets. Honestly, I’m a little sad they’re missing in BF6. I don’t think they were absolutely necessary, but in terms of fun, specialists add a lot of variety. In their current state in 2042, they complement the Battlefield classes really well.

 Overall, I’m having a blast jumping back into 2042. I’m not even performing well—I’ve placed in the bottom half of the scoreboard each match, my K:D ratio is below 1, and I’ve been on the losing side more often than not. In fact, I was doing much better in the Battlefield 6 beta, where I had close to a 2:1 K:D ratio and regularly topped the scoreboard. Yet I wasn’t having fun in 6, while I’m having an absolute blast in 2042.

 2042 just has so much more to offer thanks to the maps, specialist shenanigans, and the vehicle-vs-infantry balance. All of that to say: if you want a FUN Battlefield experience, jump into 2042 and skip 6’s launch. Maybe BF6 will turn things around, and years from now, we’ll be having the same comeback discussion about it—just like we’re having now about 2042, years after its launch.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI (ChatGPT). The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness and em dashes (—) are the AI.   

Battlefield 6's Trailer Was A Lie

 Battlefield 6 just wrapped its second beta weekend and the community is divided. Some players swear it’s the next big thing, but I walked away shaking my head. This wasn’t the Battlefield I grew up on. Instead of sprawling, all-out-warfare, we got jammed into tiny, overcrowded maps that felt more like that other shooter. And after rewatching that first reveal trailer, I can say it outright: it was a lie.

 I grabbed some screen grabs from that original trailer (which you can view on YouTube here).  Comments are added in the caption of each image.  Where, oh where, are these epic Battlefields we see in the trailer because they certainly were not in the open beta weekends.

There is in fact no vehicles, let alone helicopters, on this map.  The bridge as well is not part of the map.  This could have been such a cool experience if the bridge and adjoining housing area were all part of the map.  But nope; instead we get a couple blocks of murder tunnel buildings.

 

Remember Gulf of Oman?  Heartlessgamer does.  This clip from the video led me to believe maybe we'd be heading back to that classic map.  Maybe it'll be included upon release?

Multiple vehicles!? Tanks no less!  Sign me up.  Oh wait; sorry the best the Battlefield 6 beta could offer is two vehicles and zero open spaced on the map.

An army running off to fight?  Not in Battlefield 6 beta where most matches felt like a couple squads.  Battlefield 6 also did the rare thing in the series and took a step back on max player count on a map.  Apparently 128 was too many so we have to go back to 64.  I guess that's fine since they also made tiny little maps instead of sprawling battlefields.

This image is the heart breaker because what is shown here would be an amazing start to a Gulf of Oman style map made in a modern Battlefield game.  None of the maps have anything close to this image. How the hell did they put this in the trailer and miss that this, THIS, is what we expect of Battlefield games?

See; they were trying to warn us in the trailer.  The trailer, in fact, wasn't anywhere close to the actual game we were going to get.

Dune Awakening Patches Just Don't Go Well

 

 Dune Awakening is having a rough patch day.  While the most recent patch brings a slew of improvements to the game and makes the end game deep desert more approachable for players not interested in PvP it also has brought a host of issues.

 The biggest issue players seem to be facing are crashes or being stuck on the entering server screen.  Players are reporting that when pressing "continue" to enter a server they get stuck on the loading/entering server screen for several minutes.  Others are reporting they are just crashing at this step.  No workaround is known as of this posting.

 Next; it seems like a new dupe has been likely introduced (while old dupes were fixed in the patch).  This time instead of naked players sacrificing themselves at the auction house in the capital cities we have naked players sacrificing themselves a the public thopter transport stations.  At this point in Dune Awakening it is assumed any naked players using respawn anywhere is some form of exploit to dupe items.

 The patch brought us the coveted "depost/extract all water" feature which will save millions of clicks for players.  Also full water containers can now be sold.  However, the change also seems to have brought the ability for players to enter other players bases and steal their water.  Players are logging in to find their cisterns drained.

 And not necessarily on the "bug" front but the community seems torn on the changes to the Deep Desert.  Previously players had to venture far into the PvP region of the desert to find Tier 6 resource nodes to harvest.  A bit of risk for a big reward.  Now the PvE area of the desert is loaded with Tier 6 resources and there is a mad scramble to lock in those safe PvE areas for harvesting.  Personally I see it as a good change but understand the community feedback that it takes away from the risk/reward that the PvP deep desert provided.

 I am still playing the game and will check out the patch some more.  

Camelot Unchained Video

 I did something I rarely do: I watched a YouTube video at normal speed. Why?  Because Camelot Unchained has a new video out and I needed to evaluate the game at normal speed.  You can watch the video below and then read on for my thoughts. 

 For a bit of catch up; Camelot Unchained is a crowd funded MMO piloted by Mark Jacobs of Dark Ages of Camelot (DAoC) and Mythic Entertainment fame.  It has been in development now for 13 years since it was first kick started in the heyday of Kickstarer.  The supposed "beta 1" has been ongoing for at least 7 years at this point.  To say it's been a long time coming is being polite.

 So what did we get for 13 years of development? To be honest: a game that looks like it was being released 13 years ago.  The graphics are antiquated, the UI is yesterday, and the player movement/combat looks dated.

 But, and I mean this as a big but, it looks playable and visuals aside I can at least see myself being interested in giving the game a try should it ever make an open beta or release.  While everything felt slow in the video and polish is missing (damage numbers going to the 8th decimal point for example) I still got a sense for what they were aiming for and I got some DAoC vibes when they were on 

 There are some other details we could squabble about such as it seems range play dominates the combat as we see almost no melee range combat in the video.  The archer that is featured seems to have a very, very long range.  Also the PvE featured is pretty generic; pull a mob and kill it before it can get to you then run away if it does get to you.

 Anyways I'm not here to squabble.  I am just excited to see a game from this team.  Yes, I know there is a bunch of controversy around Mark Jacobs and how he has run things but I'd be lying if I said there isn't drama around every crowd funded MMO at this point.  Just get me the game so I can get the bit of value my Kickstarter dollars I invested.

Battlefield 6 Open Beta Thoughts

Here we go.... again

 The Battlefield 6 open beta opened it's doors early this week and lots of players are jumping in; me included.  I have some thoughts and I am going to come right out and say it: I am not sure what this is but it isn't Battlefield.

 I've never swung so far from hype to disappointment with a game in my entire gaming career.  Coming off an extremely well executed multiplayer reveal event it felt like EA / Dice had everything headed in the right direction for Battlefield 6.  We were back to Battlefield baby!

 How wrong I was now that I am getting a taste of the beta.  It is hard to put into words but the feel of the game is closer to Call of Duty (CoD) than it is Battlefield.  Maps feel claustrophobic, gunplay is sloppy, movement is filled with slides, and I have no idea what they are doing with classes.  How hard was it to just stick with the classic assault, medic, support, and engineer?  Why does everything have to get mixed up and why are weapons not locked to classes?

A dusty street; wonder where the enemy is hiding

 The visuals and sounds of the game are amazing, but the visual clutter (smoke, dust, stuff flying around, etc) makes it very difficult to figure out what is going on.  Enemies that are inside buildings are basically invisible.  It is nearly impossible to look and know where you should expect enemies and where you should not.  It doesn't help that, at least in the beta, the maps feel like they are more corridor shooters than they are battlefields.  Players are just constantly funneled into meat grinders.

 I had hoped with the return of destruction that we'd be able to get some creative ways to get around the meat grinders, but it seems like maps are designed in a way that you can destroy everything around the meat grinder but not the actual meat grinder itself.  Players have to go through them.

 Another area I can't eloquently describe in words, but I'll try is a quote I'll take from my son: "TTK is high but TTD is low".  Basically the amount of time it takes to kill a target feels high but the time it takes you to die is low.  I have had so many encounters where I empty my magazine but haven't landed the kill so have to change to a sidearm to finish it off which then puts me at a disadvantage if there is another player in the fight.  Yet at the same time if I stick my head out around a corner I'm ending up dead instantly.  There has also been times, even when watching the recorded video back, where the damage log in game shows me taking 5 distinct damage but all I can tell is the enemy pulled the trigger one time.  I am assuming there is some desync going on between server and client but it's hard to tell.

Vehicles feel grounded and powerful

 The moment to moment gameplay also offers no downtime or rest.  It is constant action in every mode I've tried; whether conquest or breakthrough.  I can't even count how many times I've broken through enemy lines where I felt like I could take a moment to get my bearings only to have yet another player appear right next to me from some hidden alleyway; they being as surprised to see me as I am to see them.  That constant fight or flight feeling is more a CoD thing than it has ever been a Battlefield thing.

 It is also telling when CoD fans are out there claiming "CoD is dead!" after playing BF6.  This clearly shows 6 is catering towards the CoD fans.  There are numerous CoD streamers that are binging the beta and loving every minute of it. So it really does seem like Battlefield 6 was catering to that segment.

"Large scale battles" minus the "large scale"

 

 With that said there is still vehicles and larger scale fights to be had in Battlefield 6, but they are a lot harder to find than I'd of expected. If someone told me I was playing the next Call of Duty I'd of believed them.  Even the UI feels closer to CoD than it does to Battlefield.  It's a damn shame. Honestly if I want a Battlefield fix I am going back to 2042. For all of it's flaws at least 2042 feels like a Battlefield game. 

Blogging Medium

 I promised as part of Blaugust 2025 that I would talk about and maybe search for a new blogging platform.  I've been on Google's Blogger (aka Blogspot) for over 20 years now and it hasn't had a major update of any sort in several years.  Before I get to exploration of entirely new platforms I do want to talk about a couple that I did already try.  The first one up is Medium and I have some thoughts.

 First, you can visit my experiment on Medium here:  https://medium.com/@heartlessgamer 

 What I liked about Medium is it's clean design. Black text, white background, and no effort to make that simple and clean template become a reality.  Also attractive at the time I tried it was the fact it can import Blogger posts with just a couple clicks so it was easy to port in content for testing purposes.

 A couple features I liked but didn't get to experience were the ability for visitors to leave me private messages as well as the ability to add a "tip the author" option on posts.  I could do the tip thing via any number of services with my blogger blog but that'd take extra effort vs the integrated option with Medium. 

 What I didn't like was that Medium felt like an ecosystem where I was just another cog in the grand scheme.  It felt like I was just putting my posts into a social media platform vs running my own blog.  I also dislike that Medium, like other platforms I investigated, require a cost to use your own custom domain.  It is hard to beat the fact that Blogger supports your own domain at no cost.

 Ultimately Medium didn't hook me and I gave up on it shortly after starting. I wouldn't say it is "off the list" because the member fee is only $5 a month which is not terrible compared to other platforms I'll talk more about in the coming days.

Dune Awakening Has Me Thinking About Ashes of Creation

 

 I haven't posted about Ashes of Creation in a while as I made a decision to try and avoid getting myself to intertwined in it's affairs after the whole situation with Narc went down.  Yet the more I play Dune Awakening and follow the community reaction to it's mechanics the more I think back to what Steven Sharif has planned for Ashes of Creation.

Ashes of Creation, like Dune Awakening, envisions an end game centered on PvP and player conflict for limited resources.  In Dune that is the Deep Desert zone and in Ashes it will be more traditional fantasy RPG contention over dungeons and zones.  Throughout each game players have ways of interacting with each other; both positive and negative.

 It is the negative interactions that worry me the most as the general experience in Dune has shown the worse side of gamers.  If there is some way the game allows a player to do something to another player in Dune it is being done and often done in a way to avoid the consequence of the action.  

 Blocking a player ship so they can't take off?  Unfortunately happens too often in the safe zones.  Purposely causing the worm to appear faster near a player risking all of their gear getting destroyed?  Happens.  Training NPCs to destroy powered down bases?  It's a new national pastime in Dune Awakening and while a powered down base is likely from an inactive player there is no doubt a player that stepped away for a vacation that will come back to a very rude awakening.

 And it is those sorts of crappy player interactions that worry me when it comes to games like Ashes of Creation and Steven's intent for the game to be full PvP with only a reputation system as a guard rail.  Kill players too frequently and your player killer character will be banished from society and weakened.  Of course as we are hearing from the Ashes open alpha testing this just means players find ways to get around this by training NPCs over players or tricking players into attacking them first so they can retaliate.  The sort of crappy player behaviors that adapt to code changes designed to stop them faster than the developers like to admit.

 I want Ashes of Creation to bring back that big open world idea we all want out of an MMORPG.  I want there to be freedom and surprises to find in how players interact together.  I am just worried that Dune Awakening is proving to me that us as players can't be trusted in the virtual world. 

Battlefield 6 Fixing Secure Boot Required

 Oh boy!  Battlefield 6, including the open beta tests, will require that your PC has Secure Boot enabled.  This will mean you must have a motherboard and BIOS version that supports it!  Fortunately most motherboards these days support secure boot and Windows 11 is forcing the issue for many so if you've already upgraded to 11 then you are probably good to go.  Unfortunately if you are in a spot like me still running Windows 10 and never went through the steps to get ready for Secure Boot then it will take some work!

 What is secure boot? "Secure Boot is a security standard in modern computers that ensures only trusted and digitally signed software is allowed to run during the system startup process."  Basically it stops bad stuff from running when your computer runs up.

 Why are games requiring it all of a sudden? Because of cheaters.  Cheaters ruin everything.  Secure Boot helps game's anitcheat verify the system's integrity since many cheats start up and then hide themselves during the boot up process.  Secure Boot reduces the chances of cheater's software being able to hide itself.

 What does this mean for the upcoming Battlefield 6 open beta weekend? We are going to hear a lot about Secure Boot!  So in the interest of sharing for this fine Blaugust let me walk through the steps I had to take on for my own situation.  The good news is the open beta client is available now to preload and while you can't play the actual game you can boot it up to verify your secure boot is good to go.

Note: this situation will be very context dependent on your Windows version and PC hardware.  My details are below.

• Windows: Windows 10 Pro
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE 

 The first challenge I ran into was figuring out how with the Gigabyte BIOS to get Secure Boot options.  This required for me to first disable CSM Support.  Once CSM Support was disabled I then had to reboot and enter BIOS set up again.  Secure Boot was then available but it would not let me set it to enabled.  This seems to be a bug with the BIOS and I had to switch the mode option from Standard to Custom and then back to Standard.  Once done Secure Boot was enabled.

 However, after booting up my PC refused to boot into Windows.  It turns out that my boot drive was still running with an MBR (Master Boot Record) instead of the GPT (GUID Partition Table) which is required by Secure Boot.  This was likely a hangover from when I originally upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10.  Fortunately Microsoft has a tool, MBR2GPT, that is a safe and effective way to transition your boot drive.  

 When I tried to run the command (via command prompt) mbr2gpt /validate I got an error: ERROR: MBR2GPT can only be used from the Windows Preinstallation Environment. Use /allowFullOS to override.  It turns out that MBR2GPT is meant to be run in the Windows Preinstallation Environment which takes a lot of hassle to get access to.  Instead I researched if it was safe to use the /allowFullOS option and reports indicate it was safe.

  After running mbr2gpt /validate /allowFullOS the utility ran and verified my drive was running an MBR.  So I ran the mbr2gpt /convert /allowFullOS command and a short time later the process finished and my MBR had been converted to GPT.

 I rebooted my computer and entered the BIOS again and walked through the steps to disable CSM Support and enable Secure Boot.  I saved the changes and when the PC booted it booted into Windows as expected and once navigating to system settings I could see that Secure Boot was enabled.  Success!

 The real test was then to boot up the Battlefield 6 open beta client and I was rewarded with....

 

Voila!  I hope your Secure Boot journey is simpler than mine. 

Monday Screenshots: Carrier in Dune Awakening

 Blaugust 2025 rolls on and I realized today that it has been a while since I posted a Monday Screenshots post so what better time to resurrect a blogging prompt than during Blaugust!  My friends and I hit a goal we set for ourselves in Dune Awakening: we finished building our first carrier.  Then we took it out for a spin in Hagga Basin and had a hilarious time.

We had to expand the base to fit Big Bertha; even then the wings don't fit!

Getting dropped off in Sheol's radiation zone; not in frame is our mining buggy

Inventory full, buggy tucked safely underneath, and heading back to base.

Unrelated screenshot; just a cool shot to end the night harvesting spice out in the Deep Desert.

 

July 2025 In Review

July 2025 has come and gone and Blaugust 2025 is here!  But before we can jump into my Blaugust activities we need to look back at July.

The Blog

Blogger recorded visits for July: 50,824 (don't ask me why the chart doesn't match the number)

In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target:  n/a (been unmotivated lately to blog so every post is a bonus in July)
• Posted: 7
• Difference: +7
•  Search Trends
• Search trends changed in June and that trend continued in July:
• "arc raiders news" - everyone still wants Arc Raiders news and they aren't going to find it on this blog because there isn't much news coming out.
• "arc raiders countdown" - I don't know why people keep searching for this but they do and they end up on the blog here.
• In "things I observed in search console":
• Two of my posts about Call of the Wild: the Angler continue to be top pages visited from Google.  The game has ended development but it seems people still are looking for information.
• Bottom Fishing in the Angler 
• the Angler Multiplyer Woes
•  My thoughts on Once Human's end game are also a frequent flier for Google searchers.
• End Game Thoughts on Once Human

What I Played

My friends and I continued to play Dune Awakening.  We briefly joined a guild but the guild folded shortly after; which was OK because they let us take a bunch of supplies from the guild base.  We changed sietches and started a new base which is more well organized.  By end of month we had progressed to the end game in the Deep Desert and most of our playtime now is either going into the Deep Desert to shoot rockets from our thopters or doing crafting/gathering so that we can go into the Deep Desert to shoot rockets.

New World drew me back in to complete the Season 8 pass before the season ended in late July.  I didn't do much more than grind the pass so not much to share. 

We also had a spat of internet outages in July which meant I put some more time into my career mode in Wreckfest which continues to be my go to offline

My youngest son is also big time into Minecraft now and at the age where we can start carefully playing in survival mode.  That has been fun to get the youngest (6) and oldest (16) and myself (old) into a shared world building and playing together.  We've done a bunch of creative mode but survival is a much more engaging experience so is worth mentioning here.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

July 2024 brought a surprise hit to my gaming PC in Once Human.  As my post on the subject indicates: Once Human Has No Right To Be This Popular.  The game was a janky buggy mess but boy was it fun.  It is very similar in nature to Dune Awakening but Dune has been much less fun in comparison.  The fun didn't last as my group and I gave up Once Human after the first seasonal reset.

We also got to test Throne and Liberty's global version.  The beta impressed enough for my friends and I to give it a go later in 2024.  

5 Years Ago

July 2020 featured no blog posts.

10 Years Ago

In July of 2015 I wasn't blogging much, but between June and July I was enjoying the game Town of Salem.  It is a hidden role game similar in nature to One Night Werewolf for anyone familiar with it.  And since I made a blog post about it during a time I was not blogging much at all it must have made an impression on me!

15 Years Ago

In July of 2010 I declared Amalur as a failure.  This was well before it became the infamous failure along with it's developer, 38 Studios.  Maybe I am MMO gaming's version of Nostradamus? 

We were also getting ready for Guild Wars 2 in July 2010.  I had posted reasons why it was going to succeed and reasons why it was going to fail. The big argument back then was MMOs with the number 2 in the title were a bad idea and the genre was littered with failed games (AC2, UO2,EQ2).  Guild Wars 2 was also causing some drama by removing dedicated healers from the game as players all focused on their own self healing.  Folks back then were very attached to their roles in the "holy trinity" (healer/DPS/tank).

Fast forward 15 years later and Guild Wars 2 is still going strong and proved the market wrong about MMOs with the number 2 in their title.  Also folks ended up not too concerned about not having a traditional healer role and more "support" type roles emerged while everyone basically got to contribute to DPS.  Guild Wars 2 is also regarded as a "top MMO" in the market these days so obviously did something right.

15 years ago we all thought MMO websites were going to be BIG BUSINESS as a flurry of activity around them resulted in website owners making bank.  Oh how wrong we were.  With that said if anyone want's to drop me a cool million for this little slice of the internet hit me up! 

20 Years Ago

In July of 2005 I was really into PvP in World of Warcraft.  I was also wrapping up my four part review for the game. 

Based on my recollection of my summer vacation in 2005 apparently you still collected bugs on your car during long road trips.  Fast forward 20 years later and I can't remember the last time my car was plastered with dead insects after a road trip; even after a 30+ hour road trip in 2024 there was barely a bug smear. 

 

My Blaugust 2025 Plan

 

 Blaugust is once again upon us.  What is Blaugust you ask?  It's a celebration of blogging in the month of August!  Entering its twelfth year there are some adjustments this year.  First, our standard Blaugust host Belghast has other areas to focus this year so Krikket (of Nerd Girl Thoughts) is stepping in to run the show.  It will be my third year participating and I have a little bit different plan for this year.

 In the past two Blaugusts I followed the Blaugust plan and worked towards the different objectives.  I ensured I hit the daily posting target and went down the list of provided Blaugust weekly targets. This resulted in some different style posts as I blogged about areas that I didn't normally blog about.

 For Blaugust 2025 my intent is to go a different route and since I never got around to my "wow I've been blogging for 20 years" post earlier this year I can use part of Blaugust to take a look back at those 20 years.

 Additionally I've debated numerous times over the last few years about shaking up what blogging platform I use.  This blog has existed on Google's Blogger for it's entire 20+ year run and it has served me well, but feature-rich it is not.  Google has basically done nothing with the platform.  As part of Blaugust I want to talk out loud about making a change of platforms and maybe even blog my way through that experience if I do decide to change.  At minimum I will be taking the time to freshen up the blogger version here; starting with getting rid of Disqus comments that are riddling my site with unwanted ads. 

 Check back in on 8/1 for the start of this great Blaugust 2025 adventure!