Battlefield 2042's player count hikes up to over 500% following the Battlefield 6 beta, as a new free Battle Pass awards BF6 items.
From battle passes to bloated campaigns, modern games increasingly demand labour rather than leisure. Jump Dash Roll asks: when did gaming stop being a way to unwind and start feeling like work?
The writer of this article seemed to come up with the answer that would make him feel better - to play more single player games that aren't overly long.
But then he basically just says that it's not achievable because there is only a "small selection" of them which isn't true. He even mentioned Mass Effect Legendary Edition as if it isn't 3 separate games. In general, he seems to only care about the high budget games which is a mistake.
In the same way that game designers have to stop players from optimising the fun out of a game, some people need to stop doing that with the entire hobby. It's not that serious.
I’ve been gaming for decades, and I have almost entirely shifted to classic gaming and/or 32-bit era titles. Modern games are exhausting to me and the recognition that I will have to put 20, 30, 50, or 100 hours into a game to complete it is completely daunting to me. Gaming for more than two hours at a time today tends to feel either wasteful, lazy, or drudging to me.
I miss the days of shorter 1-3 hour games that could be enjoyed on repeat play throughs… taxing you on your ability to hone skills, learn patterns, and memorize the best paths, with the ability to replay and sharpen those skills to a razor’s edge.
Barring a few examples today, many games don’t even get off the ground in the first hour, and by the time I reach hour 10, I’m usually hoping the game is almost over so that I can play something else.
Just the old musings of a TiredGamer.
Some gamers are wondering if the hobby of gaming is leaving them. In a sense yes. Same as music or movies, there will not always be a comfort era provided for you especially if you have an attachment to a different era of gaming and the philosophy behind that era's quality. Same with film. There was a time when I hated superhero movies, a time I loved them and now I hate watching them again. This happened to me with FPS games. I played MW2019 and Black Ops Cold War like a religion. And now BO7 puts me to sleep. We move on and/or mainstream gaming moves past us.
O'Dell Harmon Jr. writes: "Before we say goodbye to 2025, let’s take a look back and see what were the most downloaded games of the year. It was a great time for sports, shooters, and some new PlayStation VR2 games. Sports favorites topped the charts in US/Canada and EU, with NBA 2K26 and EA Sports FC26, respectively.
Juggernaut GTA V found a home in the top three for both regions, with new 2025 release Battlefield 6 claiming second place in the US. Fortnite took top place for free-to-play games, and Beat Saber continues its PS VR2 success."
I think it shows how shortsighted it was for Sony to let go of Evolution and not get them to make some sort of competitor (open world Driveclub?) 10 years ago.
After Driveclub's reception, hard to say it would have done well enough to compete. It's easy to dream of such a thing, but to make it happen? It's taken how long for CoD to be dethroned? And it was dethroned by Hogwart's Legacy and has gained it right back just the next year.
It’s funny to watch the only games EU and USA agree on was Minecraft and back ops 7 both regions on 6 and 7 spot respectively other than that FIFA rules EU
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I would like to see a list that has both free to play and paid games together, but at least we have this.
To this day GTA5 is a top downloaded game and it makes me wonder if the industry is really ready for GTA6. I imagine almost nothing else will sell during that game's release window.
Battlefield 6 Season 2 will start on February 17, as Season 1 has been extended with the Frostline Bonus Path.
I've been critical of 2042 since day one. Decided to work on the free battle pass and fell in LOVE with Iwo Jima Conquest/Breakthrough. I would have laughed if you had recommended 2042 a week ago... just give it a chance... it's amazing!
I’m one of those people. After playing COD 2.0 *cough* sorry, BF6. I’ve gone back to 2042 seeking proper BF sized maps. Managed to find out what was causing all my graphical, framerate and sound issues - bizarrely, Steel Series headphone drivers and software. Completely removed them and the game now runs flawlessly and looks great. Dare I say it, it’s not that bad!
I’ve owned it since launch and I’m only now unlocking attachments for my weapons etc. the vast majority of them are still stock level 1. I still don’t like the stupid hero shit. But it’s been extremely toned down and the whole game generally ironed out a bit. It was only a week ago I was slagging the game off. It’s not a great BF game but at least it still has a little BF DNA in its maps.
I mean the game is 3$ on steam why not lol
To all the people complaining about the map sizes. It was a BETA!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course they are not going to show you everything for the beta. We got some small to medium sized maps. I swear, all gamers do is complain now days. There will be bigger maps for the full release.
I haven't been into MP for awhile. Got sick of COD years ago and I always enjoyed BF more. I had a lot of fun with this. It took me a bit to get used to the movement and controls but then it just clicked. I had to slow down when trying to kill someone and be more patient. I love playing support and it really pays off when you play as a team. The game ran smooth and I love the destruction. It was really polished for a beta. I can't wait.
And I can't stand cheaters. All this who went on the rooftops, y'all can go ____ yourselves lol. I don't see the enjoyment but hey what do I know.
people would rather ride the BF6 hype wave and play the highly disliked Battlefield 2042 than give ANY attention to the COD dumpster fire