Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club Double Bill - Banjo-Kazooie / Solar Ash (Apr)

@Balta666 very manageable IMO, bought the game on release and have absolutely zero regrets.

Some of the achievements take a bit more skill as you can imagine, but if you're not too bother by that combat is fine. Generous checkpoints too.

Started playing Guardians of the Galaxy today and managed to finish chapter 1. It's really good so far, it feels like I'm actually playing the movies even though the character designs and actors are different. The humour is on point, the combat is fun and the story is interesting thus far.

I've been playing the game through Cloud Gaming and sadly it's getting a lot of those "screen refreshes" both during gameplay and cut-scenes, so I'm going to install the Xbox One version and see if it performs well (since the Cloud version is the Series X one). I've heard the frame rate is more stable on XB1 than on PS4 so I'm hoping the experience will be smooth, otherwise I'll just play the Cloud version.

I have also played the first chapter of GotG and it has been a very good experience so far (got quite some loughs out of it and the game is gorgeous on series X).

The banter btw characters is absolutely top notch!

Hello all and welcome to the Pure Xbox Game Club's game for April, Guardians of the Galaxy!

I'm sure most of you have seen the films, I am sure less of you have played Marvel's Avengers and I suspect that the number of people here who have played Insomniac's Spider-Man games is somewhere in the middle.

Well I suppose none of that is relevant as this appears to be a fairly standalone game 😅. But some familiarity of the above may get you excited to play it anyway!

Here are some HLTB stats:

Main Story - 17 Hours

Main + Extras - 20 Hours

Completionist - 24½ Hours

From these numbers, it sounds like there is a fairly beefy campaign here even if there isn't a huge amount of replay value. I am sure we will see over the coming weeks anyway!

Hope you all enjoy!

Tag list (let me know if you want in or out!)

@Tothington91 @MAC26 @XBontendo @Justifier @LtSarge @Tjuz @nessisonett @crippyd @Krzzystuff @sib @Ryu_Niiyama @LeanerFasterStronger @cracked_seal @Mr-Fuggles777 @Mundaney @KilloWertz @Beagle @antifyre @Magabro @themightyant @ZeD @K1LLEGAL @Balta666 @Bmartin001 @Fran27 @Banjo- @R1spam @lookupmore @Dusk_Actual

Votes start from Zero again for May's choice of game:

A way out -
Brutal Legend -
Conker's Bad Fur Day/Live & Reloaded - 2 (balta, lkupmre,
Crysis -
Dead Space - 1 (lkupmre,
Fable Anniversary - 1 (lkupmre,
The Gunk - 2 (mghtynt, crippyd,
Hades -
Halo Wars -
It takes two -
Kameo: Elements of Power - 2 (krzystf, balta,
Life Is Strange: True Colours - 3 (klwtz, crkdsl, krzystf,
Maneater -
Mass Effect 1 LE -
Marvel Avengers - 1 (krzystf,
One step closer to Eden -
Ori and the Will of the Wisps - 1 (krzystf,
Perfect Dark -
Rage -
Sable - 1 (mghtynt,
Skul: The Hero Slayer - 1 (balta,
Telling Lies - 1 (mghtynt,
Tunic
Undertale -
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus -

I've played through chapter 1 and so far, the visuals are increadible and the writing has the snap of the MCU movies. However the gameplay hasn't really grabbed me yet. I just felt like I was spamming team abilities and the shooting didn't feel particularly satisfying. I'm still looking forward to playing some more though

Looking forward to playing this one. Heard great stuff about it and especially about the soundtrack.

For next month I'll go for Kameo, Ori and Avengers.

So to say this game grabbed is a understatement as I have finished...
Seriously good narrative with some depth to the caracteres that a couple of 2h movie cannot compete with. The gameplay is good enough even if not spectacular (at start I felt the controls a bit cumbersome but got used to it after a while) but have to say the game is very easy on the normal difficulty. I am missing 4 achievements and there is a new game plus so let's see if I go back for it (going back to dark souls for now)

My votes for next month are kameo, conker's and skul: the hero slayer

@ralphdibny I beat it a couple of days ago as well! Such a fantastic game, hope everyone enjoys.

@ralphdibny thanks as ever for organising.

Having initially proposed and regularly voted for The Forgotten City bit disappointed I never got round to it, but last month has been filled with huge AAA releases and it was hard to compete!

Though I also played Tunic, which slightly undoes that argument lol… but I had been waiting for it for years! Tunic is absolutely brilliant by the way, anyone that loved Death’s Door should give it a go. It’s a bit different but is wonderful in other ways. Not sure I’ve ever played a game with more secrets, it got better and better as it went on revealing layer after layer of brilliant design like a Russian doll. Highly recommended. Would be a good group game to discuss, and share little hints for anyone needing a little nudge.

Still planning to get to The Forgotten City soon now that crazy release season is slowing.

Looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy just finishing up a couple of other things they will be on it.

Oh and my votes for next month are Telling Lies, Sable & The Gunk. I finally played Her Story on a flight last month and absolutely loved it, so Telling Lies is firmly on my radar now.

I'll stick a vote in for The Gunk.

I'm almost done with RE8 and I'll give guardians a try and see what I think. My pal has played it and he recommended it too.

@themightyant cheers and no worries!

It is a shame about Forgotten city, even I was tempted to dive in but I really just didn't have the time in march as I was blitzing through the last few Kiryu saga Yakuza games on game pass. At least @R1spam seemed to enjoy it! Can still discuss it here if either us ever get around to it though Mighty Ant!

I'm away this week and I've still got the finale chapters and some substories to go on Yakuza 6 (will probably skip the cabaret club and baseball substories on it though) but I am sorta hoping I'll get some time to play through Guardians. Unfortunately I bought it on disc just before Xmas so I wasn't in any great hurry to play it as I will still have it whenever my game pass ends/it leaves the service but oh well! I still definitely Wana play avengers on game pass at some point!

@themightyant I've been playing some tunic and it's blood marvellous!! I'm already playing it but it might be a great game for a game club format for others @ralphdibny. Tons of secrets to find and notes to compare.

@ralphdibny thanks for organising again.
My votes for next month are Conker's Bad Fur Day, Dead Space and Fable Anniversary.

I intended to reach the other endings of The Forgotten City but I didn't get around to it even though I enjoyed my first play through. Although I did finally finished the Halo Infinite campaign and then Tunic came along which completely had all my attention. I think I'm at the final boss fight but there are so many secrets I can't be certain.
I'm going to try and start with Guardians tonight.

@R1spam Although I've played it i'd happily help with that! It really is a good game club game. There were a few secrets that were a bit too obtuse for me and I ended up looking them up which was a shame and the only guides I found told the whole thing. Would have much preferred a few hints like I did for Death's Door in post 1329 so that you can figure the rest out yourself after a little nudge.

My vote is for Life is Strange: True Colors now that it's coming to Game Pass.

@KilloWertz Ralphdibny will remember that 🙈 terrible joke, I'll see myself out

@R1spam Ok?

I'd vote for Life of Strange too.

Just finishing up with GOG, last 2 chapters - missed loads of collectibles and a couple combat related trophies sadly so won't be a 100% but I do think I'll go back for them at some point.