These 10+ Games Are Coming To Xbox This Week (October 3-7)

I was a bit interested in Overwatch 2 but the whole required linking your account to a phone number killed that interest. Oh well plenty of other stuff to play

@BBB Wait what? That's a thing?

@Kaloudz yup also for CoD MW 2 accounts

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Overwatch 2, newly created Call of Duty: Modern Warfare accounts, require that you add a phone number to your Battle.net account."

Source: https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/262901

@BBB Ugh how bloody stupid is that. What the hell sort of fool came up with that ridiculous idea? Thanks for the clarity my man. Guess that's me not playing any of that lol.

@Kaloudz I think it's to do with reducing toxicity and cheating. I know people will still find a way to exploit this as they often do, but it's good to see efforts being made to try reduce it as it was infuriating to lose games because of your own team mates sitting still/quitting early on.

I still likely won't play it though, but that's more to do with the game seemingly leaning further towards microtransactions, moreso than the first.

@Kaloudz Agreed. I don't even sign up for accounts for games that require them I'm not adding a phone number to my bnet account. They can go shove it.

@Phantom_Anima I can get behind that, I mean if it's truly tried, tested and proven that a mobile phone number will deter cheaters, then I can understand its place. That said, I don't think cheaters will ever stop. They'll circumvent and find new ways to bypass blocks.

Personally I never thought there was an issue back in the Blops days where you could report behaviour in-game, and I know it worked because the lead anti-cheat guy (I think his name was Mattks) used to show how many caught his hammer over on Twitter.

Nonetheless, I'll certainly not be jumping in.

@InterceptorAlpha Lol ikr? I can't remember the last time I put my personal number into anything. I still to this day get hounded by Facebook. It's so anti-consumer it's unreal. Especially in a world where so many companies get data breached and have user info stolen. Nope, no way. Like you said, they can shove it.

@somnambulance the premise is to make ban evasion or creating multiple accounts harder by tying one phone number to one account. Get a ban for whatever reason you need to jump through more hoops to get a new account going.

It's a reactive measure not proactive prevention and wouldn't have helped your hacked account if I understand things correctly.

It's also a flawed premise as 5 minutes on Google will give you legal apps to circumvent it and allow you to tie burner numbers to your real one. So you are banned you just need to generate a new burner number.
And I am sure folks who frequently use cheats will have more options in that regard. (Some of the legal apps are subscription based for example.)

So as usual with these things it doesn't really add actual protection, is another point of failure and just adds an extra hoop to jump through for actual players for no real benefit.

Also as @Kaloudz mentions a lot of folks are wary about putting personal info into hands that are not always secure. So rather than jump through those hoops we just look elsewhere.

@BBB I swear mate, the amount of cold calls I get (and I rarely hand my number out) is daft lol. Everything from TalkTalk virus protection to dishwasher insurance, they just don't stop. Couldn't agree more with all you've said.

@BBB I wouldn't call it a point of failure exactly. It will deter a percentage, and it will also add more hoops for banned players to jump through, some of which may not have means to access additional phone numbers or access these legal apps (particularly those who do not have bank accounts).

As I say, people will always find a way to exploit the system, just as people will always have ways to exploit in crime. I'm just glad there are steps in place, and the current way may not be the right way, but it shows actions are being done to prevent online gaming being a centre of toxicity.

It won't do much help to me, as I've already lost hope in online gaming due to reasons I've mentioned, but hopefully if I do ever return, there will be better systems in place. For me, these new systems surely can't be any worse than before, as the way it was before has already driven me away from wanting to play online.

When do MS usually announce the game batch for GP?

Man, Game Pass here trying to make drop the game(s) I'm playing. I really want to try Medieval Dynasty but probably only to get a taste and come back later after Odyssey and Valhalla.

@FraserG Ah, thanks champ! Too many things on the old backlog but am always curious to see what comes over.

@BBB I was on the fence about playing Overwatch 2 anyway (haven’t played first one in years), but knowing I’d now have to give them my phone number has made my mind up…Not happening!

I sure would love a review of Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo.

Starting with the odd title, and how it is related to Hitchcock or Vertigo in any way...