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Could xDefiant find success with classic Call of Duty game design? We should know later this week.

[Update] The next beta will be June 21-23, and it will be an open beta available to all. People who played the game during the closed beta will be able to start playing a day earlier on June 20th. The full game will be free to play, and will be released later this summer.

Aside from that, the developers have announced a roadmap for the game's first year. Every three months there will be three new maps, a new character class, and maybe a new game type now and then.

The COD community has been genuinely hyped for this game, and most COD you tubers have had some fairly positive things to say about it. It delivers classic COD multiplayer design in a way that the series hasn't managed to replicate in a long time, and it's arriving at a time when a lot of COD fans are fed up with Activision for a wide assortment of reasons.

Here's a basic overview on some of the recent announcements:







And here's the original thread:







Original thread:




Multiplayer fans are always saying that they hate battle royale. Will there be enough of them to make this a success? Will the gameplay be good enough? Ubisoft doesn't have the best track record with f2p titles, but will the ex-COD developer behind this game be able to pull it off? A closed beta will be starting towards the end of this week, and it will finally no longer be under an NDA, so expect to hear and see a lot more about this game soon.

For now, here's some Q&A info from their website, so you can see what I mean about classic COD game design:


How will skill-based match making be handled in matchmaking?

First, it’s important to note that we will have both Casual play and Ranked play. Ranked matchmaking will obviously be based on your rank, but in casual play matchmaking will be based on ping. There will be no SBMM in Casual.

Now to caveat that, when you first start the game there will be a Welcome playlist that you can only play in if you are under a certain level to let players ease in and get acclimated to the game. You will be able to play the other normal playlists as well if you want, but once you pass the level limit that playlist will disappear.

Now, in the future, we may create a secondary matchmaking pool for lesser skilled players. So, depending on what our skill curve looks like, those on the bottom of the curve (left on the bell curve) will prefer to matchmake against each other rather than the general pool. This should only be for a small group of people. Not the bottom half for instance, but rather, maybe just the bottom 10%.

One final point, we will be balancing teams based on a hidden MMR (Skill). So that each team in a match has a fair chance to win.


How are you going to handle cross-input matchmaking?


The plan for input-based matchmaking is to prefer the same input in matchmaking. Mouse and Keyboard will play with other Mouse and Keyboard players and Gamepad players will play with other Gamepad players regardless of platform. However, we don’t want to prevent friends from playing together just because they have different inputs, so we will still allow for friends to group up and play regardless of input.


Do lobbies disband after every match?

We are doing our best to give players the best experience possible when playing. If you pick a single game mode to play, let’s say Escort, then at the end of the match you will stay in a lobby with the other people that picked that mode as well. However, if you want, you can create your own custom play list with multiple modes. If you do that then you will re-matchmake after every match. Hopefully this gives players the best of both worlds.


How does the mini-map work?

The mini-map should be a useful way to boost a player’s situational awareness and help new players learn the map. Friendlies will be visible on the mini-map as team-colored directional arrows and as directional indicators if they are outside the view area of the mini-map.

Enemies will show up as enemy team-colored dots under certain circumstances. If a teammate has an enemy in line of sight, they will show up for as long as they are visible to that teammate. If an enemy player fires an un-suppressed weapon, then they will show up on the mini-map when they fire and for an amount of time after.

There are attachments that will reduce the time that the red dot from firing shows up and attachments that remove the dot from showing up on the mini-map altogether. The mini-map is always up and functionable unless you’ve been affected by a device, ability, or Ultra that would scramble your mini-map.


Will there be incentives for people to get a higher level and complete challenges?

Absolutely! We have a number of short, medium, and long-term objectives for people to challenge themselves on.
Additionally, because this is a live game, there will always be new content and new challenges that will be introduced to give players the incentives to play.


Is there a mastery skin if you complete all the challenges for a weapon?

We have a Weapon Mastery system that will allow players to unlock unique weapon skins that are only available via perfecting Weapon Mastery for each weapon.
This will be a long progression that will unlock multiple tiers of weapon skins.


What types of things can be bought in the store vs what is obtainable through grinding the game?

We’ll have more details on this coming soon, but we can confirm that anything that impacts gameplay can be unlocked for free.


Is there a final killcam or play of the game highlight system?

We are working on both killcam and final killcam.
It will take time to refine these systems, and we will update the community as it progresses.
 
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VN1X

Banned
Played it multiple times throughout the closed test periods and every time I tried it out I was left wondering what they had improved from the last test. The movement and gunplay are still far more clunky compared to something like CoD and the TTK (or perhaps server tickrate) is far too inconsistent. The VO is absolutely atrocious and some of the announcers need to be outright removed from the game. Visually it looks identical to every other Ubi game with far too much clutter and a lack of distinct elements in maps (it's all just a bunch of hallways connected by debris or some shit).

They're in for a steep uphill battle if they want to win over the CoD crowd. I'm a sucker for arena shooters but even XDefiant left me cold. Even the fuckin' install size is far too big for what it offers and I have no idea why it requires the 40-70GB (or more) for even the closed beta code. I'll gladly eat crow if this comes out and somehow wins over a ton of people though. We desperately need more arena style shooters in the vein of old-school CoD.
 
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ParaSeoul

Member
No SBMM at all sounds like a bad idea even for unranked,just means high rank players can end up in noob lobbies and stomp. Unranked modes in a lot of shooters normally have light SBMM to make sure it doesn't happen.
 
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Shut down within a year.
That's the easy money bet on any new f2p title. It's also what I'm sure a lot of people said about Apex Legends. That's not to defend this game, because it's true the odds are against any of these games.

Are there any f2p games being developed that you would guess will be a success? Is it the gameplay you doubt will be good, or do you just think there won't be a mass audience interest in a non-BR shooter that isn't COD?
 

ParaSeoul

Member
That's the easy money bet on any new f2p title. It's also what I'm sure a lot of people said about Apex Legends. That's not to defend this game, because it's true the odds are against any of these games.

Are there any f2p games being developed that you would guess will be a success? Is it the gameplay you doubt will be good, or do you just think there won't be a mass audience interest in a non-BR shooter that isn't COD?
Apex did fall off for a bit but came back when they started listening to their community and pro players feedback.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Game looks like shit though.

I don't know why but Ubisoft has a hard on for millennial cringe shit.

Im too old for that.

I want a more down to earth version of games.
I also hate all the pink skins etc in call of duty as well.

No game is worth 70 euro imo, but I doubt this game is even worth it for free.
 
No SBMM at all sounds like a bad idea even for unranked,just means high rank players can end up in noob lobbies and stomp. Unranked modes in a lot of shooters normally have light SBMM to make sure it doesn't happen.
That's how COD was for years, though. Or at least there was very minimal SBMM, and the game was still massively popular.
 

Spyxos

Gold Member
I played it a bit. It wasn't a total disaster, but it wasn't anything special either. And with so much competition, I don't think they have a chance. But the levels were quite interesting.
 

Rykan

Member
This is probably going to be an even bigger flop than the BR they shut down earlier. The game looks like an Xbox 360 game and the name xDefiant has “Hello fellow kids” written all over it.

Glad that you're making that game Mark, but I've got a feeling that you won't be in charge of making that game for much longer.
 
I played it a bit. It wasn't a total disaster, but it wasn't anything special either. And with so much competition, I don't think they have a chance. But the levels were quite interesting.
What competition are you thinking of? The only real competition (as in doing what they're doing, 6 vs 6 ftp PVP) that I can think of is Shatterline, and that game isn't even available on console yet. There's also COD, but it's been putting off players with "modern COD" design for a while now, multiplayer is not f2p, and most of the effort regarding new content seems to go into BR anyhow.

Then there's Overwatch, but that game has been around for a long while, and it was better in a lot of ways than it is now. It's also not exactly a traditional shooter, and doesn't offer the same sort of gameplay, especially when it comes to guns.

Destiny has been ignoring their PVP for a while now, and it's practically pay to win anyhow, with some of the best weapons almost always found in the latest paid DLC.

There's also Apex, but they really screwed up with their recent non-BR modes. You can only play with two friends, you're stuck with random teammates no matter what, and worst of all you have no choice over what game modes you play and when.


Ubisoft = Failure

The Finals will be the next big shooter.

Perhaps, but it's another 3 player game, and it sounds like there's a fair amount of downtime if you die. It's still an elimination game, rather than a traditional TDM. Outside of Shatterline, there's doesn't seem to be any serious contenders when it comes to ftp 6 vs 6 competitive shooters.
 

Spyxos

Gold Member
What competition are you thinking of? The only real competition (as in doing what they're doing, 6 vs 6 ftp PVP) that I can think of is Shatterline, and that game isn't even available on console yet. There's also COD, but it's been putting off players with "modern COD" design for a while now, multiplayer is not f2p, and most of the effort regarding new content seems to go into BR anyhow.

Then there's Overwatch, but that game has been around for a long while, and it was better in a lot of ways than it is now. It's also not exactly a traditional shooter, and doesn't offer the same sort of gameplay, especially when it comes to guns.

Destiny has been ignoring their PVP for a while now, and it's practically pay to win anyhow, with some of the best weapons almost always found in the latest paid DLC.

There's also Apex, but they really screwed up with their recent non-BR modes. You can only play with two friends, you're stuck with random teammates no matter what, and worst of all you have no choice over what game modes you play and when.




Perhaps, but it's another 3 player game, and it sounds like there's a fair amount of downtime if you die. It's still an elimination game, rather than a traditional TDM. Outside of Shatterline, there's doesn't seem to be any serious contenders when it comes to ftp 6 vs 6 competitive shooters.
I wasn't thinking of 6 vs 6 specifically but rather all the other f2p shooters. Rainbow Six Siege is also almost f2p. I think I paid 5 bucks for it.
 

Robb

Gold Member
Out of the 7(?) projects that Ubisoft axed recently I’m sure at least 4 of them would be more interesting than this.

I’m thinking this’ll come and go and then be shut down.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Doubt It Season 8 GIF by The Office
 
This game is dead before it is even released and I feel bad for these devs in the trenches.

Fucking Ubi, man. What the fuck are they doing? I wish Ubi would go back to doing their own thing instead of endlessly chasing the almighty multiplayer dollar.
Hard to believe Ubi once put out greats like Rayman, Beyond Good and Evil, Prince of Persia, etc.
 

nikos

Member
I've played it a few times along its development cycle. It's fun and has definitely improved over time. Didn't feel the frustration of CoD when I played but I suppose that could change.
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
Yeah, after such a smashing success of Hyper Scape and with The Division 2's developers currently being hard at work expanding the game with regular content updates, I have all the faith in the world that the powerhouse publisher Ubisoft will knock this one out of the park.


giphy.gif
 
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badblue

Member
Yeah, after such a smashing success of Hyper Scape and with The Division 2's developers currently being hard at work expanding the game with regular content updates, I have all the faith in the world that the powerhouse publisher Ubisoft will knock this one out of the park.


giphy.gif
futurama agree GIF
 

ParaSeoul

Member
Huh they're calling this an arena shooter and it made me think it was gonna be like quake arena or unreal tournament l,sad.
 

Valt7786

Member
Jackfrags has never actually had a real opinion on anything, he’s always walking a fine line not to rock the boat one way or another, I hope one day he finds his balls and actually has a real opinion.

He's a complete shill, can't trust much he says anymore, if ever. Everyone knows BF2042 sucked balls when it was released, I don't think he ever said anything like that though, wouldn't want to harm his contract with EA.
 
I am now in the camp of I am trying this game after hearing Jacks take on it and that Ubi wants to focus on gun play and not kill streaks.
Did you try it? I think I could play this for a long, long while if the issues with the game are addressed. Is it me, or does this really not seem like a consistent 60 FPS on PS5? Net code also needs work, although it sounds like that will be fixed before launch. Between the two issues, it makes it hard to aim properly.

It also really hurts things that PC users are being grouped with console players. I know the final game won't be like that, and they're only doing it to get the auto aim balance right, but that doesn't change the fact that it's actively harming first impressions.

A lot of potential here, but they aren't there yet.
 
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HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Did you try it? I think I could play this for a long, long while if the issues with the game are addressed. Is it me, or does this really not seem like a consistent 60 FPS on PS5? Net code also needs work, although it sounds like that will be fixed before launch.
Got it installed and going to try it here in a bit
 
Played a match, very average. Nothing that sets it apart from the crowd. Can’t see people flocking to this from whatever shooter they’re currently playing.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Did you try it? I think I could play this for a long, long while if the issues with the game are addressed. Is it me, or does this really not seem like a consistent 60 FPS on PS5? Net code also needs work, although it sounds like that will be fixed before launch. Between the two issues, it makes it hard to aim properly.

It also really hurts things that PC users are being grouped with console players. I know the final game won't be like that, and they're only doing it to get the auto aim balance right, but that doesn't change the fact that it's actively harming first impressions.

A lot of potential here, but they aren't there yet.
So put in a decent amount of time and got to level 14? I think and unlocked the ACR with long shots and that gun hits hard

Sadly have seen 2 people being totally invisible the whole game and the one I played against 3 times and he was just destroying people going something like 40-3 last match

All you could see of these people were their guns and he was invisible during the countdown and someone even said over chat hey I can't see you and he laughed just saying "I know"

So either a glitch or people already hacking it because both were on PC.

I hope they allow us to shut off crossplay on console or game will be doa to me there
 

DrFigs

Member
I was having a hard time getting into the beta, but even watching the twitch stream this did not seem impressive. somehow the graphics already look outdated and the gameplay seems very bland, even for a COD clone.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
I was having a hard time getting into the beta, but even watching the twitch stream this did not seem impressive. somehow the graphics already look outdated and the gameplay seems very bland, even for a COD clone.
I kind of enjoyed my time playing it but bland is a good description

Even being free I am not sure I could invest a lot of time into it as there are other games I would rather play
 
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