AverageJoseph

@kmtrain83 Definitely true. I think the idea behind game pass is that there is only a small slice of the market that doesn't play one of the top 5 forever games. They have to subsidize the production of the other games somehow, or else the entire industry is looking at collapse, and that's done by spreading the cost over millions of subscriptions.

It's never going to be one size fits all, and I realize I'm not typical. But no one is typical unless they're predominantly playing only one of those 5 games. We're largely not typical gamers on this site, and yet we all want different things from game pass, which is why if they want this to survive, they have to give people more choices, like I said above. I don't play Fortnite, or use cloud gaming, and Ubi Classics is not a huge addition for me either. If I could get PC, Xbox, and Day One without CoD, I'd be set.

@Fiendish-Beaver You've listed bad examples lmao. You've spent 600 and the only game that is rated higher than the "filler and fodder" is not on Xbox. Terminator Resistance? Really?

@awp69 I'll never understand the quality complaints. It's by and large had excellent curation since the beginning. Not everything is for everyone, but there should be SOMEthing for everyone.

It's always been a personal value proposition, can one get enough games they like and actually have the time to play them to justify the price. And the price increase forces reevaluation of that proposition for sure. There really should be a more granular approach to which features people can choose to opt into. But it will still provide what it always has, access to a huge library of quality games and the ability to always be playing something new.

The value is still there for me, but I play a lot, rarely if ever replay games, and enjoy all different types of games. From the link you provided I've played 11 games, with The Alters, Avowed, and Monster Train 2 the highlights for me, and Keeper, OW2, and Winter Burrow still high on my list to round out the year. I couldn't do that otherwise.

@Banjo- yeah it's a bit all over the place, so hard to tell, but Star Wars Outlaws is unlikely I take it. Trying to get the info from their site or random searching, and seems like they intentionally keep it vague.

I'm guessing that because these were added on the 1st that we'll have at least the rest October to play these games, and then we'll see.

I've downloaded Rayman, Lost Crown and Valiant Hearts. I never played FC Primal, and I read that it's fps boost on SX so probably give that a go too.

I still can't find any info on how they maintain the Ubi Classics catalogue. If it's like EA Play or not, if games drop in and out, if new games are added at a regular interval after launch, etc. Would be nice to know how this service functions to get an idea of its value and how long I have to play some of these umpteen games they added all at once.

@Medic_alert admittedly, I 100% the game in spite of myself. I'm not proud.

I mistakenly bought MS Rewards gift card for a pre order, having never done that before, and not realizing it would expire before the preorder was actually charged in June.

So I bought Hogwarts full price at launch and I absolutely loved the castle and Hogsmeade, but hated so much of the rest of it lol. Such a weird experience for me, but I felt I should get my Rewards points worth so I did it all.

I hope for the next game they refine the open world, or scrap it entirely, add quiditch, and either make it entirely action adventure, or make the rpg systems more meaningful and robust.

@Tomato_Goose yes, I don't want to be too harsh on it. I did like a lot about it, but it really missed the mark for me in some key areas. Not just open world, but the immersion into the student experience, and meaningful narrative choices was really lacking for me.

@Tomato_Goose it has the worst open world of any game I've ever played lol. Merlin doesn't think very highly of Hogwart's students.

So I asked in the other article, but you mention here that it's similar to EA Play back catalogue. How does it work for Ubi Classics? Is it a year after launch like EA Play? Do all their games get added like EA?

The last Ubi game I bought on sale was AC Valhalla and I regretted it at 14.99 lmao. So I've never played most of these. Still not sure I really want to though.

So for someone who doesn't know about Ubi Classics, are these 40 games what that looks like (minus Hogwarts ofc)? Is Ubi Classics updated with Ubi games at regular intervals like EA Play? New games a year later?

@awp69 yeah that 75+... I play a LOT of GP and I'm probably finishing 30-35 games a year. Considering about half are not my taste, maybe that 75+ seems about right though.

Evaluating in a few years when my sub expires is where I'm at too. The future is never certain, and certainly not pertaining to xbox. I really have no idea what to expect, but it's been a good 8-10 years with Rewards and GPU.

Standard/Premium will be the best deal it looks like, still get first party games but 1 year later, not a huge deal considering most games take 6 months to get into working order. But no CoD if you care about that, I don't. I don't really care about Fortnite Crew, or Ubi Classics either, would rather not pay extra for those. They mention flexibility, but that seems less flexible to me.

We'll see what the service and the console looks like when my GPU expires in 3 years. Not really too worried about this right now

Still no use for a handheld for me, but it's cool that it came out quality.

I've been using rewards since 2019. I've got GPU stacked until August 2028 because of that, and for a while there I was earning several $50 gift cards each year, extra.

I play games as my primary source of entertainment, like ten to one over books and series/movies, and this program will have given me a decade of high quality games for minimal effort. I know some of these changes are rough, and change is rarely welcome, but I can't get too upset about it all things considered.

@Markatron84 no thanks

@Markatron84 who?

@Ricky-Spanish who?

Deep Rock Galactic Survivors. Getting into the progression, it's pretty tough.

I'm really just waiting for Outer Worlds 2 at this point.

TGS is always the worst of the year

Can you play the game on mute?

That music... woof

Super Long Cat has the best trailer of all time

Working through Monster Train 2 Covenant 10 Titans crowns, 41/180 atm, already did all the non-Titans Covenant 10 crowns first. The first major patch added some really interesting twists with new cards and improvements to OG clans last week.

And Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor just diving in!

The thing I've liked so far about DRGS, with only about 3-4 hrs play tbf, is that there are actual objectives to each round, and there's always something to be mining or collecting. VS gets so damn boring to the point I just afk the last half of almost every run. You can't do that in this game and it's better for it, but I've got 100 or so hours in VS, so we'll see how this one holds up over time.

Also... every game should have 300 achievements

@Kezelpaso yeah it's true about getting in early this time. The launch SX is arguably the best console I've owned, going back to Intellivision. It's also maybe probably the last console with a disc drive, and the way cross-gen is now, I'm gonna hang onto it for a long time.

It's Double Fine, it's on game pass. That's all I need to know.

@GamerScore200K Because they don't make or own those games, they make deals for them to be on the service for a year or more usually. The idea of game pass is to offer subscribers games to play year round and for them to play many different games over time, which that yearlong deal on the service should offer plenty of time to do. Then if you really like it, buy the game, or the dlc at a discount. There's no problem with game pass.

@wildcat_kickz yeah that would be really cool. I liked The Alters a lot and it's the same studio right? This War of Mine too I think. So they seem to excel at telling the personal survival stories. It seems an odd choice for FP2.

I tried Frostpunk 2 on pc and I was kind of disappointed they had gone away from the personal style of the first game. I liked that I could place individual dwellings and assign specific people to jobs. Controlling the heat meant something more when you might be leaving someone with a name out in the cold. When someone got sick or injured I knew where they worked and where they lived. In FP2 it's just big hexagonal, impersonal, representative zones with lots of numbers instead of actual people.

TBF I only played the first level, so I'm going to give it another try on console. Maybe there's more meat to the gameplay that will hook me like the first did.

I have all the sea shanties on itunes. That's as much black flag as I need nowadays

The UI seems a bit blurry, but it's pretty fun so far. I finished my first dive and there's a LOT more going on during the run than Vampire Survivors. Much more engaging moment to moment gameplay.

Unlocked 9 achievements, only 291 to go!

@kmtrain83 sometimes it is happened. Try jumping repeatedly and eating all the plants you can find. Hunt down a mudcrab, take the meat from his cold dead shell, mix it with bread and a kwama egg, have a tasty snack. That will make you big and strong, then go back and punch him harder next time.

@kmtrain83 Good news everyone! You can play Morrowind right now on the Xbox! The GOTY Edition is available on Game Pass Ultimate at no extra charge!

Hehe 100% will be playing DRGS (With one vote...mine. Insomnia wins again!)

@somnambulance Don't put too much stock into what MS says as far as how a game is hitting their metrics. They like to fluff up everything to make it look like a success. It's just PR imo

Definitely agree they need to step in sometimes, during development, before Redfall gets released, and before Initiative spends 8 years doing nothing. Not every studio is Obsidian

@Stoned_Patrol Yeah, the ask on HFR2 might have been too much. Evil Within 1&2 and Ghostwire Tokyo all sold about the same too. Hi-Fi Rush was their best reviewed game but it was very niche, and Tango was a cult darling but they weren't massively successful.

I think the other consideration was the logistics of running a Japanese studio so far removed from the rest of their studios. We hear a lot about MS studios assisting each other, lending their expertise to polish up some area of another studio's game, for instance Coalition tutoring in UE5. That's not really possible, or not as easy, when Tango was so isolated.

As much as MS wanted to have a Japanese presence at the start of this gen, I think they realized it's just never going to happen. It doesn't help that Shinji Mikami left and now you've lost a lot of that identity with John Johanas as studio lead.

@Will46 it's action adventure with RPG elements. The term becomes meaningless if every game with alternate endings and a skill tree is labeled RPG. Especially when people say it's the best RPG of all time, which means that it defines the genre, and Witcher 3 most definitely does not.

You can't play the role of Geralt differently in any meaningful way, just like you can't play Master Chief as an outgoing party animal. If you replay the game, you can make different narrative choices, but you will always play the same Geralt. The narrative choices are also mostly an illusion anyway.

The same applies to character progression systems and the implementation of those systems as a determining factor in gameplay outcomes. He has largely the same spells and abilities no matter what you choose. Regardless of what school armor you're wearing, or what skills you've chosen, he plays almost exactly the same, and whether he succeeds in combat is based on player skill, not character build.

Witcher 3 is much like the Origins-Valhalla ACs. Maybe they should be called RPG-lite.

Outer Worlds 1 was the first time I remember a big game I was anticipating launched day one into game pass. It was also the reason I HAD to upgrade my One S to Series X at launch. Those load times almost broke me lol

This is a very good lineup, although NG4 is not for me, I'm super excited about Keeper, Double Fine is brain candy, and Ball x Pit looks kind of insane in a good way

@FarmDog08 Ichiban is the man! He achieved his goal by awakening the spirit of the Dragon Warrior in you lol

Such an endearing character with a great heart, and another proof that the old school formula for JRPGs can still make a great game

Avowed, The Alters, and Monster Train 2 are my top 3 so far this year

The Alters was the most unique game I've played in a long time

Honorable mention to the music from South Of Midnight

@FarmDog08 Nice! I'll have to get it at some point. DQ 1-3 (Warrior for me still) were some of my favorite games as a kid.

@andrewsqual that is some pathetic bait trying to turn this into console war bs lmao

@FarmDog08 yes Octopath is excellent as well. I haven't tried the DQ 3 remake but I'm holding out hope for those too. This DQ7 remake on the front page looks pretty good too

@FarmDog08 they completely forgot how to make a good FF about 25 years ago. FF7R is just a desperate attempt to cash in on the most popular entry in the series.

They need to get whoever made DQ11 and put them on FF17 asap

@Markatron84 velociraptor companions and motorcycles so I can live out my Jurassic World x Chris Pratt fanfic please

@Cakefish I really didn't like 5's story because of how much they rant and rave at you about nonsense religious/philosophical bs and you just sit there saying nothing.

It also has the worst railroading of any open world game ever. The way they magically teleport you into plot progressing cutscenes almost made me drop it. I got a region to the threshold and was somehow hit by a drugged dart that advanced the story... while flying... in a plane... I couldn't care about anything that was said in any of the following cutscenes.

Ironically the best choice in 5 is to just walk away right at the beginning.

5 did do a lot right though. It's an amazing murder simulator lol. Being able to have a grizzly bear and mountain lion as controllable companions is pretty great. The absolute chaos and mayhem, and the wacky characters are pretty fun most the time, if only you could just ignore the story.

@16BitHero Witcher 3 is not really an RPG

That's pretty cool!

I played it through 100% on GP, then bought both dlc and played the ng+ mode, which I rarely do, replays or dlc. I was very skeptical, with the development, and then feeling burned after buying DL2, so I'd say being able to play it on GP with no risks helped me a lot!

@GrapTops my experience too, except I stuck it out as a mage.

Can't understand what the hell they were thinking with 60 second cooldowns and 1 spell using the whole mana bar. Plus dodge, block, basically every move either stopped mana regen or used mana. It's obviously supposed to be like Mass Effect, except in ME I have a gun and short cooldowns, also I could control my squad. The combat gets much better but the first EIGHT HOURS sucked as a mage, just basic attack and dodge spam. I had chosen Mourn Watch Necromancer in character creation, but quickly realized that was pointless and I had to become a generic mage spellblade. Not a good RP experience. No idea why they give specialization choices at creation when you can't unlock them until level 20!

The game never seemed to care that I was a mage either. My character knew and understood nothing about magic in conversations. Right from the first cutscene where I "accidently" chose the "strong" dialogue option and then my diminutive female elf mage started headbutting and brawling all those goons into submission. I had to restart.

Really had a lot of similar design choices to Avowed but inferior in almost all aspects, companions, dialogue, lore, story, choices, roleplaying, combat, setting, exploration, etc. Veilguard is more polished, maybe prettier, that's it.

@Grodax55 agree, decent game, bad Dragon Age. I think it would have been better as a shorter, linear, action spinoff game.

@Fiendish-Beaver and if you play this one (or three) you still won't have played any Final Fantasy games

1-10 are available on the xbox right now. Start with the real ones imo

The first two entries of Mario Kart were the best anyway. I played newer versions of it on a friend's wii u and on my nephew's switch and they felt like cheap knockoffs anyway.

Now GET OFF MY LAWN!