I could see them making a collection with the original trilogy + Judgement for this year, while also enhancing Gears 4 for Series S|X. Then announce Gears 6 for 2025.

That would be one hell of an announcement lol.

My copy is coming in the mail tomorrow. I got it from QVC for $40 and will be playing it this weekend. Looking forward to it!

Critic reviewed are mixed but just about everyone I see online or know says it’s amazing. My copy comes in a couple days.

The Game Awards for me. I just wasn’t interested in a whole lot from the Game Showcase and what did interest me, we saw very little of. For example, Star Wars Outlaws looks awesome but Ubisoft’s event showed over 10 minutes of actual gameplay while Xbox’s Showcase gave us a trailer with little to show.

The Game Awards surprised me with a lot of new announcements for games I am very excited for now.

This is fine to me… as long as a new Halo game is being worked on. I assume there is since they announced they’d be switching to Unreal Engine 5 back in January or so.

I went in expecting nothing. I didn’t watch it but just now caught up on the articles and trailers… And now there are 8 games I’m excited for:

Jurassic Park: Survival, Monster Hunter Wilds, Exodus, Marvel’s Blade, World of Goo 2, Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, and Jet Set Radio.

Easy A for me.

Looks promising. I feel like this will be something for 2025 but I’d love to see it come out next year (only in a complete state, of course).

Halo Infinite went from being a joke to probably one of the best online shooters. Some great free cosmetics, a ton of modes added, new maps… all good stuff.

Petition to get Tomb Raider Definitive Edition and Rise of the Tomb Raider Series X enhanced lol

For real, they are crazy good games. Might be time for a replay.

Incredible deals if you don’t have GamePass!

That was the most PR response I’ve ever read. Blindly ignoring what people are upset about and giving the most vague response back lol

Rise of the Tomb Raider is such an amazing game. I just wish it got Series X enhanced. But it still looks nice at 4K/30 or 1080p/60 with its One X enhancement.

Damn, good final month of the year. Baulder’s Gate 3, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and SteamWorld Build. A quality end to a quality year, for me at least.

I’ve been waiting to play Fallout 4 for this update. I also have a big backlog of games so that’s another reason 😂

Regardless, I’m guessing it’ll release sometime in Spring of next year. They seem to have most of their eggs in Starfield at the moment.

I think the max I had at one time was $35 worth of points. I usually use them on games when they go on sale or on DLC.

However I just cashed out my $35 to get the Stellar Shift controller and I traded in two of my old controllers at GameStop for $45. Love the new controller and now I have $45 credit for games next year.

Damn, I might have to give this game a go. Good review!

Any word on why GRID is leaving Gamepass/EA Play? Are online servers going down for that one too or did some licensing contract end? Is the game getting delisted?

I can find a ton of articles why the Battlefield games are leaving through a Google search but nothing about GRID.

For me it was Forza MotorSport 5. That said, I didn’t get my XBOX One until around September 2014. I think Assassins Creed IV I enjoyed a bit more but I played that on my Wii U a couple months after release, so I didn’t have an XBOX yet.

@somnambulance MCC launched in 2014, a year after the XBOX One launched (at least here in the States). It was bundled with a lot of systems though so it kind of seems like it was a launch title if you didn’t get one during the first 6 months or so.

Thanks for the heads up. I have 2K22 for Switch and although I haven’t played it in a while, I’ll go update the rosters soon to ensure it feels somewhat up-to-date in case I want to play through another season. I’m sure someone has made a 2023-2024 custom roster.

Looks like there are some good deals there. I’ll take a look at the full sale on my XBOX when I’m home tonight! I have about $30 in Microsoft Rewards to spend.

Thanks for the heads up!

I was between a B and a C. Ended up picking B.

It was a solid year but Hi-Fi Rush was the only real standout for me. Starfield and Forza are both great but not as good as previous games by their devs. Redfall was a joke at release but I heard is alright now. Age of Empires 4 coming to XBOX was nice and is a great game. Minecraft Legends is good as well.

Overall, not bad. Good games, just a bit underwhelming in some fronts.

I’m in no rush. The game looks great but I have some more games I want to tackle before I dedicate an insane amount of time into this title.

Hopefully a physical copy is released for consoles by the time I want to play it.

Forza Horizon 5 got robbed of a GOTY nominee in 2021. Halo could’ve also made it if it didn’t ship with its multiplayer underbaked.

Otherwise… I don’t think they’ve been robbed much since 2016 or so.

I’ll probably have to buy the DLC but I would love to go back and play World at War Zombies. I have a lot of fun memories playing those original maps with my friends and brothers growing up.

I’m still just rocking the Halo Infinite box art dynamic background. No other dynamic background has really caught my eye, but I appreciate them giving us more.

Forza wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped it would be but I still think it was my favorite game of the month. Granted, I haven’t gotten around to Dead Space yet.

I’m enjoying my time with the new Forza (through GamePass) but I wouldn’t have paid anymore than $40 for it. It actually kinda feels like a downgrade to MotorSport 7 it a lot of ways.

Sweet, I’ll check out Wild Hearts sometime this winter.

Persona 5 hurts. I was planning to play through it this winter. Guess I’ll just get it whenever it’s on sale and I have the rewards points to get it for free. Too many other games in my backlog to get it for any other reason.

@Wiiiiiiii Awesome, thanks!

Seems like it’s good but nothing crazy. Honestly, there are too many games trying to be “soulslikes” that none of them really interest me at all. I still have Monster Hunter World and Rise, plus Elden Ring in my backlog… that’s more than enough haha

@RentedPanda This. A new game but with all the old titles on GamePass. Not sure how likely that would be due to licensing with the songs but it would be amazing to see.

This might sound dumb but how do you access this stuff? Does the game show you when you load in?

I remember when the Anniversary Event released and I opened up the game and saw legit nothing. I was playing one of the expansions at that time so I didn’t go out of my way to look out for it tho.

I’ve only played an hour so far but it was really fun. Handling feels great, visuals look great, the career mode and car progression seem fun so far.

I’m enjoying it lol

Haven’t played it yet but I’ll give it a go soon. Despite the poor reception, the gameplay I’ve seen looks kinda fun. The 60fps and other fixes seem like a good reason to finally jump in and try it.

Awesome. I’ll be playing this after work and the gym. Looking forward to it… it’s been my most anticipated game on XBOX this year. I loved MotorSport 7 so I hope this reboot was worth the 6 year wait.

Gonna be real, the multiplayer is insanely good. I’ve been playing it a bit recently and it’s come so far since launch. More modes, a proper level-up system, forge, more free cosmetics… plus the game just looks and feels great.

Yes, it should’ve launched like this. But I mean… it’s a fun game now and I’m enjoying it. Looking forward to this new season. The content looks pretty good.

It’s good. Not amazing. I’d say it’s a 7.5.

If you’re really into the ship building and side-missions, then I can see how some people will get more mileage. But for me, it was a pretty good space game but not much else.

The only reason I'm interested in this whole thing is to see if Microsoft will have them prioritize other titles like Crash, Spyro, and Tony Hawk... and maybe bring back original-style Guitar Hero???

Oh, and also see what games they decide to bring to gamepass. If MW3 hits gamepass... Microsoft is going to have a huge step on Sony. Plus, I'm interested in playing the remade maps in MW3 but I refuse to pay anymore than $30ish for a new CoD.

Both look great. Both play great. Both are great options if you want a fun racing game.

I’ll give it a go if I’m not doing anything. I miss these days of the original MW2 maps. I like CoD but they’ve been too greedy with the battle passes, micro-transactions, and ads.

I’d be kinda surprised if it doesn’t come within the next month or so. They could’ve just been working on both and prioritized the PS5 version cause money.

Yikes!
(Sarcasm)

8 is still a great score and judging by the rest of the review, it seems like the problem is the content, which will be fixed over the next couple of months as they add new maps, cars, and events to go along with them.

But yeah… I hate how so many games these days adopt this live-service approach. This feels like a weird mix between a AAA game and a live service game. I’m super looking forward to it, regardless. I love me some Forza MotorSport.

That said, I still HATE the always online requirement, even for the single-player campaign mode. GT Sport servers are going down and since saving is tied to the servers in GT Sport, that game essentially become a demo. I’m worried this’ll suffer a similar fate once the next MotorSport title gets announced.

Thanks for the outline. I’ll toggle between the Performance and Performance RT modes for the first couple of races then settle on one of them. I’m guessing the Performance RT mode will be my preference but shall see next week.

Damn, that’s a nice looking controller. Im tempted but I already have 5 controllers (4 for my XBOX and 1 for my PC). Im going to try and refrain haha.

Gotham Knights and Forza for me. I’ll give Jusant a go, too. Cities Skylines 2 got delayed til Spring for XBOX so it’ll be a bit before I play that.

BONUS UPDATE:

Backup your recordings or they’ll be deleted lol

I don’t mind them adding content as time goes on, especially if it’s mostly free. I just hate the always-online requirement. It’s not a huge deal and I’m still going to play the heck out of the game.

Anyways, bring on October. This is my most hyped game of the year, with Spider-Man 2 and Mario Wonder right behind it!