Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club - Rise of the Tomb Raider (May)

I completed a couple of levels yesterday and I am enjoying the game. I've just got passed the flat pack town area. Decent game altough I'm not a fan of the wall running or I'm not great at the game.

I'm dropping out for this month, took me way too long to grind through and beat Ash and I hated the game by the end of that mission.

Its definitely fun on lower difficulties but master is an exercise I'm frustration that I'm just not equipped to deal with - especially when It's just for an achievement.

Will see you next Month for Alan Wake (looking at the voting so far)

@LtSarge I hated running up that vertical town wall 😂

Next level is very cool though. Made me think of the Medium in since ways!

@cracked_seal Yeah I did that level yesterday and it was so trippy, I thoroughly enjoyed it! It's stuff like that that makes a game incredibly memorable.

Finally finished Titanfall 2! I have to say that the final couple of levels were such an epic conclusion to the story. It was the culmination of everything we've done throughout the game up until that point and I love that. This might honestly be one of the best campaigns of any military shooter title that I've played. Maybe not story-wise, but at least in terms of gameplay since there was so much variety besides just shooting. Not to mention that at the end of the game, I genuinely felt like a badass, just sprinting through areas, taking down all the enemies quickly with the excellent shotguns and then jumping into a titan and blowing everything up. It felt so different playing this game compared to others similar to it.

I do hope Respawn will make Titanfall 3 and focus even more on the narrative side, as well as extend the campaign by a couple of more hours at least. It was really good but I just wanted more!

@LtSarge congratulations on finishing the game. I really enjoyed the story and like you said the controls, gunplay and abilities were really enjoyable. I'm still enjoying the multilayer and considering playing the campaign on a harder difficulty and trying to get some achievements....not something i do but...it was good.

@Krzzystuff Thanks mate! Yeah I think it'd definitely be fun going through the campaign once again on a harder difficulty and grab some leftover achievements. It was crazy though how many were popping up during that last hour or so, lol. But yeah, at first I definitely didn't want to replay the game on a higher difficulty at all since the boss fight against Viper was unnecessarily hard for me because I kept using the rocket launcher loadout, which I learned the hard way is probably the worst one to use against him. So I switched over to the first one with the machine gun and I immediately beat him on my first try with that loadout, lol. So as long you can utilise each weapon effectively, I don't think playing through the campaign on a harder difficulty will prove much trouble.

I've been keeping up with all your thoughts on the game, very interesting to read! Well done everyone on your progression in and/or completion of the game!

I just had a quick go on Max The Curse of the Brotherhood for a game pass quest. I don't think I'll get around to playing it properly any time soon but it seems like a decent game. Could be a good choice for May's game of the month? I won't count any votes for it now if you express interest, I'll stick it down as an option when we start voting in April

@ralphdibny Max is a very fun game. I've already played it but if you and others would like to play it then I don't mind it being the game for May.

Also, has it been decided now that we'll be playing Alan Wake in April?

@LtSarge fair enough, I'll get around to it some day anyway if there's not much interest in it being a game club game!

It's looking that way at the moment but I guess more votes could come in and change it!

Speaking of which, now that Microsoft has added more Bethesda games on Game Pass, are people interested in playing some of them on Game Club? Obviously not games like Skyrim or Fallout since they are so long, but I have some that I would actually love to play on Game Club now:

• Dishonored
• DOOM 64 and DOOM 3
• The Evil Within (although maybe this one is too long? 16 hours according to HLTB)
• Prey (maybe too long like Evil Within as well?)

I would also love to play Rage 2 (and it's around 10 hours long) but I still need to get through Rage 1 first.

@LtSarge Doom 3 is 16 hours and about 26 hours (dlc1=8 hours and dlc2= 2 hours) if you include both DLCs, well worth playing though if you can stick it out! Is rage 1 on game pass? I saw rage 2 but I'd be less inclined to play it if I couldn't play number 1

Personally, with a month long schedule, I'm not too fussed if a game is around 16 hours. I'm not keen on 40 hour games though

@ralphdibny Oh wow, really? The older DOOM games used to be fairly short but maybe that trend was broken with DOOM 3. Regarding Rage 1, I don't think it has been added yet to Game Pass but I'm sure it will eventually get added. I'd definitely love to play it, it seems like an interesting series.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, we're still in the beginning of March and most of us have already finished Titanfall 2, so we'll have to wait several weeks before the next game. We did actually play Resident Evil Remake and Bloodstained, which were 15-20 hour games, back when we first started Game Club on PushSquare and that worked out fine.

@LtSarge the first 2 and 64 are a bit weird, I imagine if you know the games inside out then you can beat them very quickly. I spent a fair amount of time on them when I played them last year. I made a lot of use out of the quicksave though and I was reluctant to progress in the game unless I had a decent amount of health and ammo to see me through - I think that's just how n00bs like me play though 😂. I also made multiple saves so I could see all the secret levels and also did the semi official mega wads like Sigil and (I think?) Hell on earth. I was a bit Doomed out though so I didn't do the Final Doom mega wads TNT Evilution and the Plutonia experiment. I'll probably return to them at a later date.

I'm sure Doom 3 is more of an outlier in terms of its length though. Doom 2016 didn't feel as long as Doom 3. Doom VFR is thankfully very short too - I finished it in shortish bursts of gaming over 3 vomit inducing days 😅. I'm curious about Doom 3 VR but I don't think I can spend 26 hours in the headset!

I'm definitely up for 10+ hour games if they get suggested. I think the mileage may vary though, I'd be more willing to stick out a game I am enjoying less for 6-8 hours just to finish it rather than 16-20 hours. Not to mention difficulty affecting it, like Bloodstained is supposed to be 14 hours but I could already tell by the first boss that it was going to take me way longer to do it due to my inexperience with the genre so I had to duck out before I invested any more time in it.

It's not something worth thinking about when choosing the games though, it's obvious that some will be hits and some will be misses and frankly we as individuals won't know if we like a game until we try it!

I'm planning on jumping back into Doom Eternal after I'm done with Fallen Order to clear up some much needed SSD space and then i was thinking of trying out Wolfenstein. It's just over 10 hours apperently so I'll throw that into the hat for May.

I've just downloaded Doom 3 and Prey to play this weekend in work - I'm on night sits so if the guy I'm looking after sleeps, I can get 8 hours of gaming in a night (and get paid for it ).
Does anyone know if there's any unlimited mats glitches left on Prey after the older ones got patched out?

@Krzzystuff I've been waiting for all the DLC to come out before I play Doom Eternal, should be any time now though so I'm keen to get started!

@Mr-Fuggles777 I'd love to be able to game on any nightshifts I do, I rarely do them any more though because they mess me up too much. Probably wouldn't get enough downtime to make much progress in a game anyway. Are you a carer or a nurse or something?

@ralphdibny I was the manager of a training academy for Nurses and Care workers but Covid wasn't kind and the Academy ended up folding.
Luckily I wasn't out of work long as I was able to go back to my roots, and currently work as a palliative (end of life) carer until things settle back down.

@Mr-Fuggles777 yeah this covid rubbish has been crap for businesses, sucks that it's affected yours so much. Hopefully you can get it back up and running once this is all over if that's what you want to do. Sounds like the vaccines are rolling out pretty quickly but I think I'm still near the back of the line (in my early 30s) so I doubt I'll feel safe to go back to work properly for a few months.

Good on you for being a carer though, I am sure it's a challenging job. I helped my mum to look after my grandad for the past ten years, it's been unpleasant at times but obviously still really nice to spend time with him. He had a carer come to our house to help him wash in the mornings for a couple years but he had to go to a care home in the end because it became far too much to deal with personally for us. He's been there since before the pandemic hit which has been hard for him because he's not totally with it and I don't think he really understands that there is a pandemic preventing us from spending more time with him. We can visit but it's one visitor at a time, through the window which they've mic'd and speakered up so you can hear eachother. It's a lot better than what some other care homes are offering but I just think it's difficult for him to comprehend.

@ralphdibny people have had it worse than me so I can't complain.
It's actually been nice working the front lines throughout the pandemic rather than sitting in an office (apart from catching Covid and being stuck with Long Covid symptoms for over 4 months)
I've worked in the sector for 15 years climbing the ladder, but getting back hands on has made me realise why I love the industry and the difference good care workers can make - just a shame that social carers don't get more recognition - they definitely deserve it.

Sorry to hear about your Grandad, sounds like he's in a good home though if they have put measures like that into place.