Cakefish

My hype level is surprisingly low given that Elden Ring is my favourite game of all time. It’s the frustrating three player rule, why they couldn’t add an option for two players I just can’t fathom. I can organise game time with one of my brothers easily enough, but each extra brother you add makes it exponentially more tricky to schedule around our free time. It’s just a really restrictive requirement. I’m not even sure if I’ll buy at launch because of this reason. Singleplayer doesn’t feel like it would provide the full experience as this has been designed from ground up for co-op, so I’m hesitant to go down that route. The lack of crossplay for a multiplayer focused game is also a bugbear. I’m very interested still, but I feel like this could’ve been handled better.

I’d appreciate something from Double Fine if they’re ready to provide and just where on earth is Everwild?

@chesheer I think you can bounce off a game and yet still respect the quality of the craftsmanship behind it. Whether that’s because it’s not in a genre that you enjoy or just that you’re not in the right mood for that kind of experience at the time.

I bounced off Breath of the Wild fairly quickly for example, but I don’t think it’s a bad game at all, it just didn’t click with me at the time (I intend to give it another try on Switch 2).

Maybe the Game Pass factor is that there’s so many options that it can easily overwhelm you with decision paralysis and FOMO. Maybe that’s why you stuck with South of Midnight because you already knew it was a shorter experience and just wanted the satisfaction of completing a game.

@oopsiezz if you buy every Game Pass game that you end up having an interest in playing then that defeats the entire point of the service in the first place!

Having said that I did eventually buy Psychonauts 2 once it went on sale, so that I could keep it forever in my library whether I keep Ultimate or downgrade to Core in future. I also recently bought Lies of P after it left the catalogue so that I can play Overture DLC when that releases.

Planet of Lana is very good. It plays like Inside and has great artwork.

So will Fable arrive before the giant GTA black hole or after? I could see it Q1 as it was originally targeted at 2025 but maybe it won’t arrive until late 2026 now.

May and June 2026 are going to be really quiet months for Game Pass and gaming in general. Barren deserts.

Finally we should start seeing some more late 2025 release dates being announced. It’s been a complete void up until now with the sole exception of Borderlands 4.

Need release dates for Lies of P: Overture, Little Nightmares 3, Reanimal, and also Metroid Prime 4 on the Nintendo side.

Also I wonder how this will impact Tides of Annihilation? I’ve assumed that’s a 2026 game so I’m guessing it won’t arrive until late 2026 now, which is a shame as it looks amazing.

@Jenkinss pretty intense drop off there. I’d be shocked if Series sold more than 40 million in total by end of generation at the rate sales are declining.

@OldGamer999 I’m absolutely with you there on the frustration of UK seemingly partially subsidising US tariffs. The day after Xbox boasts about making record revenue last quarter too, it’s a real slap in the face!

The UK pricing is not coming out favourably for Microsoft, but the US pricing comparison is absolutely brutal oof.

@FuzzieGinge88 the thing is we know Xbox are doing fine financially, they literally boasted just yesterday that their last quarter was the best revenue in their entire history. They’re doing just fine raking in the money. Okay so they need to increase prices to keep the gravy train flowing in the USA despite the tariffs, but that fails to justify the price rises in UK/EUR/AUS etc.

@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, I just prefer playing on sofa with a controller on my TV. Firstly it’s just more comfortable than my desk setup and secondly a fair amount of my work is on a computer (sometimes at home too) so consoles provide more of a mental separation between work and play. Then Quick Resume is a neat trick that my PC can’t do and Microsoft Rewards is a massive value win in Xbox’s favour (even after the recent points downgrades). I’m still a massive Steam fan, but I’ve become more of a console user over the past 4 years since getting XSX for these reasons.

@K1LLEGAL that’s partly because prices already rose once before in UK. Original 2020 pricing was £450 for 1TB Series X. So a +£50 price rise since then, which converts to $67. Not quite the +$100 the US now ‘enjoys’, but not as much of a gap as if just exclusively looking at today’s price rises in a bubble.

The notion that these price rises are to partially offset US tariffs is pretty galling to me. I do not enjoy the thought of subsidising the US market at all. Shows how little we’re valued by these US megacorps, they really only care about their domestic market. I’m using plurals here because PlayStation is also headquartered in USA these days and it shows because they also raised PS5 prices last month in every country but USA. Ugh

@Titntin I’m in a similar boat. I have a PC with RTX 3080 and i9-9900K and yet play more often on XSX. Even though my PC can offer better visuals and performance (though I draw the line firmly at 30fps console games - I play those on PC instead). So my PC has been relegated to mostly exclusives that I can’t play on Xbox, typically Sony published games or indie games like REPO.

@Fiendish-Beaver I’m definitely keeping my XSX for the remainder of the generation, so I’m considering downgrading to Core as I honestly find myself unable to really make full use of Ultimate because my time is too often spent on games that aren’t included in the catalogue, whether that’s on Xbox or Steam/Switch. So my Game Pass backlog is just endlessly growing and kinda feels out of control by this point! Another price rise would definitely make me lean towards Core even more so than I already am!

@abe_hikura Switch 2 games are £67 on the eShop which is probably a better comparison as most games on Xbox are sold digitally these days. Though this is below the £70 standard that we already have on Xbox. Unfortunately I predict £80 games for UK.

Game Pass pricing will inevitably rise too at some point. If not later this year then probably sometime next year.

I’m currently set with Ultimate until March 2026 and extending beyond that will probably depend if the prices have risen again by that point.

@Neither_scene yeah and Nintendo games rarely go on sale and only small discounts when they do, so they’re certainly not off the hook here. The $1=£1 pricing for Xbox games is starting to look pretty greedy is all. Same for Sony too of course.

They literally saw Sony raise prices last month and said ‘we can go further!’. Digital and disc editions of Series X both +£20 more expensive than the PS5 equivalents. Do they even want to sell consoles anymore?

Baffling how they think XSX can compete with PS5 at these prices. Its whole point of existence is value for money since they gave up on having exclusive games and yet here they are partially throwing that selling point away.

No news on what the $80 game prices converts to for other currencies. What’s the bet it’ll be £80? Of course it will, who am I kidding? Ironically, despite taking the flak for being the first to raise game prices, Nintendo’s selling premium Switch 2 games for £67 in UK - so less than the £70 Microsoft are already charging before this latest announced price rise! Really poor look for Microsoft here, their currency conversions are utter crap.

Curse of Series S strikes again. The initial marketing was so misleading, it’s astonishingly deceitful when you look back at it. I don’t regret upgrading to Series X for a second. I’m not saying Series S is a bad console, it’s just not at all what Microsoft originally promised.

I don’t! It’s why I think I may just go for Core when my Ultimate expires in March. Too many games to keep on top of, I just don’t have time to play them all. If I downgrade to Core at least I’ll have a much better chance at shrinking my backlog.

I still haven’t played Indiana Jones or even HiFi Rush yet, they are on the backlog. Clair Obscur will probably suffer the same fate unfortunately. I won’t play The Dark Ages either as I have yet to finish the original 2016 Doom, let alone Eternal.

The main problem with Game Pass is this lack of time. And I have a lot more time for games than most!

By the way the poll says March instead of April!

For my personal tastes Psychonauts 2 and Lies of P were better months, but those are just my preferred genres.

@GuyinPA75 funnily enough Gearbox are actually owned by Take Two, so they will have insider knowledge on when GTA 6 is releasing! At least the people responsible for publishing Borderlands 4 will. So it could be moving to make room for GTA later in the season.

Hmmm I’m going to need more than -40% Life is Strange if I’m going to buy you. The mixed critical and user reception has me spooked, too risky paying £30.

@BacklogBrad yeah it’s been going since 2017, rapidly approaching a decade old. If it weren’t viable Microsoft would’ve binned it ages ago. Look how quickly they pivoted on Xbox having exclusives, they didn’t even wait until the end of the XSX generation to change that! Microsoft would kill Game Pass in the blink of an eye if it weren’t profitable, they wouldn’t hesitate.

Well of course it cannibalises sales on Xbox (and PC to a lesser extent), that’s the entire point of Game Pass existing in the first place. It’s the whole USP of the service, to avoid paying full price for games included in the catalogue at launch. At the end of the day the developers wouldn’t have signed up for a deal if they weren’t happy with the payment that Microsoft were offering.

I’m working offshore around then so I won’t benefit from the release date change. At least hopefully this means more bugs will be patched by the time I do get to play.

Credit to Ubisoft for updating such old games, I wish others were a little more willing to show some TLC to their back catalogue too. So many games never enjoyed the FPS Boost treatment and stuck in 30fps mediocrity.

Very interested in this one, my most anticipated Game Pass release of the year in fact. I hope it can live up to those lofty hopes.

I’m also wondering where Lies of P: Overture will land, it has a tentative summer release window. With Stellar Blade on Steam in June, this summer is shaping up good for action RPG fans!

Nothing yet. I’ve been tempted by a few things on my wishlist, but don’t plan on getting anything too meaty in this sale as I’m still trying to shrink my backlog some more!

I still remember the original marketing for Series S. It was supposed to offer the same experience as Series X, just at a lower resolution. Extremely misleading marketing with the benefit of hindsight.

Don’t tell Microsoft, they’ve put all their eggs in the Game Pass basket! Xbox lives and dies by Game Pass.

(Xbox the platform, not the publisher over on Steam/PlayStation/Switch obviously.)

I still feel the need to keep the Split Fiction one for a little while longer.

I finished Pumpkin Jack. I can’t really recommend it unfortunately. Softlocks meant I had to replay the last level 3 times over. Fun game otherwise as long as you go in with reasonable expectations as it’s very much indie. But those progression breaking bugs ultimately left me a bit frustrated with the whole thing sadly.

The main thing keeping me on Xbox now is pre-existing sunk costs in terms of console, accessories, and digital games library as well as cheaper access to games via Microsoft Rewards scheme, games being sold on third party key sites, and the Core-to-Ultimate prepaid conversion offer for Game Pass. If they mess about with any of these things or raise prices too much they will lose me to Steam. That’s just the way it is now. By contrast Nintendo have raised prices with Switch 2, but they retain my loyalty because they have exclusive experiences I can’t legitimately experience elsewhere. Microsoft have given up on that sort of loyalty and focused solely on value for money and so value for money is what I shall demand from them going forwards.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I was going to comment exactly the same! The Series S is the only one that's actually been reliably available in 2025. Finding a Series X (in both flavours) actually in stock is a real rarity.

Oh nice. Will have to add this onto the backlog then.

I finished South of Midnight yesterday. It was decent but not spectacular. Gameplay and level structure was pretty basic stuff. It reminded me of Kena Bridge of Spirits, except worse in every way. Great art design, nice soundtrack, and good voice acting kept me invested. The ending felt a bit rushed though, not really sure what that was about as it stuck out a bit compared to the pacing of the rest of the story. My favourite character was the catfish and he only gets one single line of dialogue in the post credit scene - shame! Overall I say 7/10.

Microsoft doesn’t love me

It’s great that they’ve continued to update it so extensively. I do commend that dedication to improving their product.

I’m a little cheesed off that the narrative has completely changed around the game though. A lot of revised history going on online. “This game was underrated”. Sorry, I vehemently disagree. You had to be there at launch to understand just how utterly broken this game was back then. It was reviewed poorly for very legitimate reasons. By the time it was added to Game Pass it had already been extensively patched, but for muppets like me who trusted the company to deliver a playable game at launch and preordered the damn thing it was a disaster. Worst launch of a game I’ve ever had to endure.

It was still so bad on Xbox even months after launch I actually repurchased on Steam. Because I still had deluded faith the game was a gem underneath all the bugs. I was wrong. When I eventually got to play it ended up a 7/10, not bad but certainly nothing remarkable and underwhelming after the long wait and £60 (XSX) + £26 (Steam) price tag. It certainly is no Lies of P, which instantly became an absolute classic in the genre and launched on Game Pass. I’ll always have a bitter taste in my mouth surrounding this game for that reason.

I’m curious to try the game again after this patch. Maybe it’s improved enough to justify a playthrough on Xbox and I can finally get my money’s worth.

Well they lock online multiplayer behind the Game Pass paywall so yeah, it is a necessity in my eyes.

This PS5 Digital price hike aligns it with XSX Digital - with both being £430 now. So Microsoft would be foolish to raise prices again, just as Sony has voluntarily thrown away their price advantage. Though then again not sure that it matters because XSX Digital never seems to be in stock…

I’ll probably start South of Midnight this evening.

Alice: Madness Returns is my easy pick

Ah you lost me at ‘free to play’. That’s not really a genre I’m into - what with the microtransactions and all.

I’ll play it this weekend, on a work trip currently so away from my Xbox.

Definitely Split Fiction so far. 10/10 game.

Eh each to their own. I have one on preorder for the 7th June thanks to a friend lending me their spare Amazon invite slot. I’m super excited to play Metroid Prime 4 on it. That’s the power of having exclusive games I guess, not something that anyone working in Xbox could ever comprehend. 120Hz VRR display is super cool for a handheld, helps soften the blow of no OLED - even the mighty Steam Deck lacks VRR so this is a big revolution for gaming handhelds.

Yay, I was cautiously optimistic about this one. Glad to hear it’s safely landed on its feet, so to speak. I’ll play it once I’m back from a work trip.

Hmmm so £5 more than the £70 that has become standard on Xbox/PlayStation. Could’ve been worse, could’ve been £80 I suppose. At least they aren’t doing a $1:£1 conversion ratio unlike Microsoft and Sony. Though it is close. The catch, of course, is that Nintendo first party games pretty much never get discounted by more than 33% on the eShop - which would be £50 (same price as original Switch games funnily enough).