BacklogBrad

I plan on playing mindseye when it is in the bargain bin (like $5). I usually end up wondering why everyone hated the game so much when I buy in at that price.

Hopefully the docked experience is better than the launch version of rog ally. If you ever want to raise your blood pressure and get extremely annoyed/frustrated try to play a rog ally docked.

It's my one major complaint with the OG device. Windows in handheld is totally manageable with room for improvement. Docked mode is a nightmare that needs major improvement.

@Martsmall getting the rewards points for not doing anything has been nice. But I might start getting wellness checks since it looks I've been playing grounded 2 for the last 200 hours.

1.3 million downloads is still only 3 to 4% of gamepass users. I dont know how successful it is if the game is essentially free to those 30+ million people who already pay for gamepass and less than 5 percent are downloading it launch week.

I made the same argument about hi fi rush, 3 million players when 30+ million have "free" access to play the game of the year contender is not very good. Then if you look at the fall off rate of achievements unlocked, a very small fraction of those 3 million are actually playing a substantial amount of a relatively short game. (30% unlocked achievement for beating track 2 of 12)

Maybe its a symptom of gamepass but player counts and download counts are not very impressive to me. I wonder how many are like me and have gears reloaded downloaded but haven't played it yet. I am also only looking to get a taste of the improvements made before bouncing off (unless I am wowed by the improvements). I feel like counting me as player or one of the downloads isn't really representing an actual player.

I am really excited for outer worlds 2 but keeper is a wildcard for me. I love double fine and there is a real possibility that anything they make will be a 10 in my book.

The bug i have been seeing for more than a week is the xbox app saying I'm still playing the last game I played when it is not running. When I boot up my pc, I get the reward points for playing a pc game and a gamepass game without opening the xbox app or a game. It also adds to the time played for that game whenever the pc is on.

The positive takeaway is that xbox still values the IP enough to keep it and is likely to try again someday. Hopefully the next attempt won't have the rocky, bloated dev cycle.

I'm looking forward to this one. My young nephew loves these "play with large machinery" games and I have grown to appreciate them as well. This looks fun.

The call of duty license is clearly just for name value. I bet they had a military movie all lined up and someone in marketing suggested sticking a licensed ip on it. There really isn't a call of duty story that demands the movie treatment.

This is why we need low spec systems to remain popular. We need developers to be targeting those rigs and let the higher end pcs and consoles run the games really well.

"Pushing" the high spec systems to their limits is not beneficial even to those who own the high end systems.

AAA exclusives are no longer sustainable. Sony was openly complaining about the cost of their big titles like Spiderman vs the revenue they make. Xbox showed that multiplatform works without harming the brand at all, if anything it boosts the brand.

"I saw some analysis or estimate of one same franchise released during PS4 era and PS5 era generation double the budget, and that has reached... the point that we cannot recoup this investment. So this generation, PS5 generation, I think is the first time that the industry really, truly believes that you know there has to be something that has to be done," Shuhei Yoshida

It would be interesting to see how many of these are gamepass users. With 30+ million having access to this game, I would expect higher totals than we have seen.

Peak player count on steam is under 5,000. It's safe to say it didn't sell squat on that platform. I would be surprised if playstation has much more than 100k sold.

1 million player count could also be seen as less than 3% of gamepass users even booted this up in the first week.

I wouldn't read too much into everwild. It's a game that just never came together. They shouldn't have even teased it. There probably isn't any crazy stories there or wild details, it just didn't work out. The craziest thing will always be giving it a slot at a showcase when it didn't have a concept for what it would be.

I think Rare has a long future of sea of thieves development and more live service games.

Haven't tried it yet but I notice that it is still sitting as "mixed" on steam user reviews. 740 positive versus 636 negative.

If I have time, I might boot it up on gamepass but there is no way I would pay $40 for this.

Kudos to xbox for not delisting the previous remaster or original game though.

Ue5 has shown to be a very good engine in the right hands.

Hopefully their solutions will make it easier to get to where we know it can be.

I have a rare 3 day weekend with very few responsibilities. I am prioritizing finishing spiderman 2. I have struggled to get into it and have dragged it out for months now. Hopefully I can get through it.

I will also probably sneak in some Advanced Wars 2, dragon age veilgard, and nascar heat 5.

Dragon age and heretic/hexen were easily the best for me. Little bit of a slower month.

I am much more likely to buy/play DLC when I am playing the game for the first time. Since I am done with the original story I have thoroughly moved on for now.

If/when I replay the original story I will consider buying the dlc but for now I am not buying it. I typically wait for the game+dlc package to be on sale.

Categorized as "Mixed" on steam 549 negative reviews versus 525 positive.

Definitely not going well for some, the mixed outlet scores seem to reflect the community on this one.

I can absolutely see hating the $40 price tag on the second remaster of a 19 year old game. Glad I got gamepass, but will still probably buy it when it gets to $9.99.

It's hard to stay optimistic about tomb raiders future under embracer's crystal dynamics.

Hopefully it gets revealed soon to get a sense of what it will look like.

I dont mind the crossover skins (I also dont buy them). It doesn't make it any less fun for me, if anything it is a net positive for me. It helps me to identify different players. If I realize the person with the rhea Ripley skin is killing me often, I can spot them easily and play them differently. I can also assume that the people buying skins are playing the game more and likely good players.

I prefer this model to just having the generic character models that have little to no difference between them. That is boring and just adds to the monotony of fps multiplayers.

Need for speed rivals might get better without server support. The always online aspect is the worst thing about that game. I have been playing this over the last couple weeks and it seems like I have to migrate hosts a couple times per session (always mid race).

Plus other players seem to only want to wreck other human players even when there is no reason to. For example, I was a cop and they were a cop and there is no reason to ever wreck another cop. They just wanted me to have the worst experience with the game possible.

One of the worst need for speed games I have played but closing the server and switching to an offline mode would actually fix a few of the biggest issues I have with it.

He is right. The performance increase will be microscopic but the price will be astronomical. Plus, the popularity of the low spec Nintendo products will keep the majority of games well within the current gen's range. Convincing people that a $700-$900 xbox or ps6 is necessary when the ps4/xb1 could run most new games will be a really hard sell.

There is also the likelihood that streaming will continue to improve and get nearer to perfect performance.

This might be the last true generation as we have known them. The next xbox will live alongside the series s and x instead of replacing them. There won't be any effort to force you off the current devices.

Have some confidence in your game. If you need to get 2.5 months out of the way of a single indie game from a different genre then you probably realize your game isn't that good.

Does early November somehow make a better window? Literally all the holiday games will be coming out or already in players hands. Way less players will have free time in November than early september.

Seems like a bs excuse and they needed an actual delay.

I probably won't play much of either but its cool to see sony ditching exclusivity.

I have heckdivers 2 on pc already and have recently replayed all the gears games.

I'm passing on this one. It would be redundant to buy another handheld pc. I'm waiting on the next generation to come around.

It will be interesting to see what the docked situation is like. The current ally docked experience is brutal. Easily the worst thing about the device.

Grounded 2, Ghost recon wildlands, splatoon 3, spiderman 2, and need for speed rivals

Has to be around 10 times.

I'm not sure if I will do a full playthrough when it launches. I might just play for a few hours and move on. I'm not expecting to be blown away by any improvements but im still curious. The 360 version still holds up and the ultimate remaster is great.

Tropico 7 is an exciting addition. I love that series. I will definitely dive into that the second it becomes available.

Very niche product. The handheld pc market is small, and this is another iteration of a rog ally (not a new generation). I know the discourse will be around sales estimates being low but we should not be surprised when this sells well below 1 million units. The steam deck is the runaway leader in this small market with under 4 million.

They aren't planning on this thing selling "well" relative to traditional consoles. It's a proof of concept that windows can be portable and rival steam's os and a proof of concept for the "xbox on pc" experience or whatever they are calling it.

I will wait for the recap articles and check out the trailers that sound interesting.

Some studios have to close because their games were only okay while others intentionally release bad games. What an industry.

Not much for me. Maybe Antarctica 88 or Shantae Advance

Valkyria chronicles 1, splatoon 3, forza motorsports, and need for speed rivals.

Deleted battlefield 6 for space. I doubt I will check back in on that this weekend.

I prefer the aa option. I usually run rechargeables and switch them to a fresh set before each session. I'm like a racing pit crew if I ever have to change mid session. Sometimes I use the battery packs but rechargeable aa has been the go to.

I love having the options. My ps3 controllers last like 30-45 minutes now and a ps4 controller is starting to be noticeably worse too. Xbox is easily the preferred option for anything that will let me (pc, tv, phone, etc.)

I'm passing on this one. I already have the rog ally and steam deck. Maybe I will upgrade to an iteration of this somewhere down the line but it doesn't sound much better than what is currently out there, especially at the price.

I do plan to get the new version of windows or xbox os on my rog ally when that becomes available.

Keep in mind we have no idea when the 10 year commitment was to take effect. This doesn't mean we are 3 years into it, that surely is not how the deal was structured. Making ports takes time.

At some point there will be 10 years of call of duty support on xbox. Doesn't sound like BO7 will be the start of it. It will be interesting to see if they try for the whole 150gb app or just do some kind of a war zone only title.

Should also mention all the great Halo Infinite content in the latest update last week. That game is incredible.

Doesn't look like something I would enjoy. Maybe when it hits bargin bin prices I will give it a try.

@GuyinPA75

to reiterate, these games being successful on their own in no way invalidates gamepass. Xbox would have to pay an insane amount to get grand theft auto into gamepass on day 1. There is no benefit for xbox to do this at that high cost just like there is no benefit for the biggest videogame franchise of all time to launch into a subscription. It would be a lose-lose for both parties.

This doesn't mean that major publishers dont benefit from gamepass. Sega and others have had success putting newer franchises day 1 into gamepass. Gamepass is a fantastic service for developers in certain circumstances. It doesn't need to apply to every game. Gamepass and GTA5 are both major successes and the industry can easily handle subscription models and pay to own.

The music comparison of "people dont buy music anymore" is pretty bad too. There are few people in the entire world that want to consume music by purchasing each individual song or album but collecting vinyl is a decent market right now( i happen to be one that collects cds). How many artists would you have never heard of before if you had to buy your first listen? Building a music library of 3 minute songs is way different than buying something that typically takes someone weeks or months to get through the main story or play multiplayer for the better part of a year.

This guy is the music executive that would be reaping the money from the artists work in that analogy.

@GuyinPA75

"If game pass is such a great, wonderful thing, why isn't GTA and Battlefield launching Day One on game pass?"

Hopefully you realize the irony of choosing two games that rely heavily on the shark card/battlepass model as the two games that "disprove" the gamepass model. Aren't they their own version of a subscription?

Plus, the whole point of gamepass is not to boost the biggest videogames of all time (gta5) but to let you, the player, experience games from every genre for one much lower monthly cost.

It should be obvious that massive third party games like elden ring aren't going to look at day 1 gamepass deals. That is not what gamepass is designed for. Xbox has no interest in paying the money required to get those games.

Gamepass is one thing that xbox has absolutely nailed from the very beginning. It is an all around success.

@KITG_Group_BrunoB

hot wheels unleashed is great. I wouldn't really trust this one by gamemill though. They seem to slap low-effort licensed games together as quickly as possible.

I think the hot wheels unleashed franchise is one of the best arcade racers out there. It has hundreds of cars. The tracks are not limiting or "on rails" at all. They actually have some of the best track design out there. You can even create your own or play user created tracks giving you endless possibilities.

Release the next gen xbox with pc integration.

My expectations are pretty low for the show. I dont expect anything too crazy to be revealed. This seems like a good spot for previously revealed games, indie/AA or those titles that are somewhere between AA and the marquee AAA games.

I would welcome another entry in Sniper Ghost Warrior, Valkyria Chronicles, etc. My hail mary is pumpkin jack 2. I play the first one every Halloween and a new one in time for Halloween would be sweet.

I am also waiting to get a look at the new tomb raider but not sure if that would be here. I really want to know what direction it takes.

It could be good fit for a TV show. Its easy to see the new season - new cast/location premise being hit and miss each time. They better hit on season 1.

I hope not, both are great. Both serve very different means. Both games are kind of stuck in their formulaic gameplay though. I'm worried about the future of both of them.

IRacing has kind of taken over the Sim racing world as the clear leader. Forza horizon has changed very little even from the fifth iteration all the way to the original. It is still fun but each time a little less so.

I liked the dragon age games but I dont think I would be interested in replaying them all in a remaster collection.

It's one of those cases where any remaster wouldnt be enough of an upgrade to justify a repurchase at full price. The originals hold up just fine and can be had at $1.99 - $3.99.

My feelings were kind of mixed on the beta. I will play it some more in the next beta but right now I'm leaning towards passing on battlefield 6 at launch.