Cakefish

I just finished Keeper. It’s so strange, weird, and trippy but 100% worth experiencing! It’s cliche to just state that a game is a work of art, but this game deserves such praise more than most. So much care and love went into crafting this little gem. The gameplay actually evolves in quite clever and interesting ways as you progress, it’s well paced and never gets stale. A short but sweet adventure. I can’t say I completely understand what the hell that story was about, but I had an absolute blast playing anyway and it successfully made me very curious about this world and feel a variety of emotions throughout the narrative journey. Looking forward to the YouTube lore videos haha! It’s just a great time all around. Double Fine delivers the goods yet again!

I’ll mirror what I said yesterday though and note that the experience is definitely better on PC due to a much superior framerate. A few shader stutters here and there, but overall way, way smoother and more fluid than XSX. The lack of a performance mode on XSX is really my main complaint here.

Interesting device, but I already have a Switch 2 for handheld play. I simply don’t travel around away from home often enough to justify having two dedicated handheld devices.

Keeper

Amazing art style, wonderful soundtrack. The vibes and atmosphere are on point. Packed full of charming little details. The gameplay is basic sure, but this is clearly intended to be an audio-visual experience first and foremost.

My only real critique so far is poor framerate on XSX. I downloaded the PC version and it’s honestly night and day smoother. I think I’ll have to continue the rest of the game there instead. Hope they can patch the XSX version. It really suffers from having no performance mode. The fixed camera perspective helps to a certain extent but it becomes tiresome for the eyes after a certain point.

The actual core game though is great.

I love Double Fine ♥️

Looking forward to checking this out.

Art style looks gorgeous!

@FraserG probably for the best honestly. It’s less than a week old after all. They would really burn day 1 buyers (like myself) if they discounted it so ridiculously soon!

Battery life is rough, but it’s the nature of the beast. Switch 2 has similar battery longevity and obviously this is a lot more powerful than that system. It is what it is.

You having a laugh Bandai Namco? Little Nightmares 3 on sale less than one week after launch? Come on… I enjoyed the game but seriously… WTF?!!! 😑

@Banjo- it certainly seems to heading in that direction! They’re clearly trying to consolidate/simplify the offerings under these three main tiers that cover all devices. Yeah I agree that’s the most likely scenario to avoid uproar in the PC community. I wonder just how much life PC Game Pass has left, if next-gen is 2027 then there’s only two years left for Microsoft to complete this transition 🤔

@Banjo- yeah sorry I edited my comment when I spotted my mistake but you were too quick for me lol

@Banjo- Premium doesn’t actually get COD within a year. They made a specific exception for it in the small print. Just FYI. Edit: oops I see you knew that already and I just misread your comment, sorry!

Otherwise I’m in agreement with you. Pure Xbox definitely mentioned the additions to Essential and Premium in their coverage though, I just double checked.

@Feffster same for me! Weird bug

@Kezelpaso oh interesting, thanks for the tip! I’ll download tonight

@Banjo- in the case of PC/cloud being added to Essential and Premium not being discussed much online I think there’s two factors at play.

Firstly, most users online are enthusiasts on the Ultimate tier so it simply got overshadowed by the changes there. Secondly, most Essential and Premium users probably game on console only and don’t own gaming PCs so the addition of that is not very useful to them (else they’d be Ultimate or PC GP subscribers). Further to this, a lot of those Essential subs are probably legacy Gold users who primarily just have it simply for online multiplayer and so having a small subsection of the Game Pass library that they already don’t care much about available on cloud wouldn’t excite them either.

These changes do make a lot of sense given the context of the many prolific rumours for the upcoming merger of console and PC next-gen, but I don’t think it’s all too shocking that current subscribers of Essential and Premium aren’t too fussed about getting access to PC and cloud. I’m not saying they’re bad changes by the way, they obviously are good for consumers in the long term (though there is a obvious question remaining of whether Microsoft eventually plans to sunset PC Game Pass).

@themightyant the fact that COD is specifically excluded from the Premium tier really makes it look like the prime suspect for the latest Ultimate price rise.

@themightyant I’d add boasting how Hi-Fi Rush was an absolute success on every metric and then promptly selling off both the IP and dev studio to the list of egregious contradictions in recent years. Then they followed it up by immediately saying how they need more creative AA games that give them prestige and awards in their portfolio lol

@abe_hikura it’s funny how Tom’s comment mirrors our discussion in yesterday’s article comment section so closely!

Certain titles only. It's very circumstantial. It's a whole mix of factors like genre (soulslikes and platformers more likely to be replayed), game length (shorter more likely to be replayed), narrative linearity (games where there's loads of player choice in the story very rarely get replayed because I come to see my initial playthrough as 'canon' ), remasters being released (sometimes tempts me to replay a game), whether it gets ported to Switch (handheld novelty factor!), new game release schedule (I have more time to revisit old classics during dry spells), my own perception of my backlog (if I feel it's overwhelmingly long then I may feel 'guilty' for replaying games), my mood in any one month (sometimes I'm feeling nostalgic, sometimes I want new and shiny), direction of the prevailing wind etc.

I set the Keeper one the other day. Probs will keep it for a while (ah pun unintented). It’s gorgeous!

I wonder when the preloads will begin? Every time I check the store page it glitches out and tells me I need to upgrade to Ultimate. Need to fix this by the 17th!

@Banjo- yeah I think it’s largely avoiding making poorly thought out public statements that proceed to age like milk. So things like:“only 4 games on PlayStation, don’t expect floodgates to open”, “ABK won’t result in Game Pass price rises”, “Hi-Fi Rush is a huge success in every metric”, “we’re so happy with how Everwild is shaping up”, “if we just made you redundant consider using our AI to ease the emotional pain”, “everything is an Xbox now” etc.

Death by a thousand cuts.

@Grumblevolcano Yep, that’s precisely what I’m talking about! Their messaging has been so inconsistent over the past 5 years that the public are gradually losing trust in the brand. They keep changing their tune every 5 minutes, it’s hard to keep up.

> “The ABK buyout won’t result in game pass price rises”

> Proceeds to significantly raise prices three years in a row.

@abe_hikura yeah that’s the thing, the very fact that Xbox feels obligated to officially refute all these rumours prove they are reaching critical mass in the public realm outside of just the troll community. Such rumours very rarely gain so much traction amongst the masses for Nintendo and Sony because the overall public perception of these brands are healthier. That’s my thoughts on the whole situation. Half the battle for Xbox is that they keep botching the messaging!

@fatpunkslim I think there’s something to be said about the state of Xbox PR right now. Nintendo has also courted multiple controversies this year (Mario Kart World price hike, Game Key Cards, Welcome Tour being a paid product etc.), but they’ve weathered these storms much easier than Xbox has. The ***** merchants are targeting Xbox because they’re easy prey. They’re easy prey because Xbox is currently awful at maintaining positive, consistent messaging about their brand. It’s often been diluted, ambiguous, cryptic, misjudged, confused, tone-deaf, and/or poorly timed. They can’t seem to get it right for more than a few months straight before they stumble into yet another PR blunder.

Reminds me of Breath of the Wild.

I still think it’s such a shame all that work went to waste and Rare seemingly is doomed to be a one-trick pony (Sea of Thieves) forever more.

This should be setting off alarm bells at Xbox HQ, that they’re having to issue these public statements on a weekly basis. “We triple pinky promise we’re not doing a Sega”. Every. Single. Week. Can they not see that these rando trolls are only able to successfully light all these wildfires around camp Xbox because of declining public brand perception? People hosting negative opinions about the brand will more quickly latch onto the doomongering rumours as confirmation bias.

@el_pieablo yeah I just saw this tip shared on Reddit. Too late for me though, I’ve already redeemed all my points on the Xbox ones. Oh well 🥲

Thanks for the heads up! I just redeemed all my points on Xbox credit.

£63 total from ~70K points. Would’ve got more had I not just spent £35 worth of points on Little Nightmares 3 on Friday, but ah well, it was a fun game for the weekend!

Now I’m all set to buy Once Upon A Katamari 😁

Little Nightmares 3 (in co-op).

Why are these perks always so boring? I can’t even remember the last time there was anything remotely interesting in these.

Going against the grain here but I think 2027 is perfect timing personally. It matches up with the expected GPU/CPU refreshes on the PC side really nicely and seeing as this Xbox is supposed to be much more PC-like, well that just makes a lot of sense to me. The hardware spec has been set already, it’s locked in. Delaying to 2030 would only mean you get 5 year old hardware at launch (as is the case with Switch 2).

Personally, I want Xbox to provide cutting-edge hardware. They don’t have exclusives so can’t be as sleepy and relaxed about console specs as Nintendo are. I want great visuals at 60fps on my living room console (PC?). Next year games are expected to push the limits of these consoles with 30fps GTA 6 being an obvious prime example. If you want 60fps you gotta refresh hardware every now and then, we all have seen how heavy UE5 is and things aren’t gonna get any better over time!

Two years may seem like nothing to old folks like us, I get it, but keep in mind that XSX will still get the latest games for many years beyond that. Next gen is not the death of XSX, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it keeps getting games well into 2030 looking how long the XBO has lasted.

Split Fiction

Though Metroid Prime 4 might still have a chance at taking the crown, we’ll see.

I was always sceptical of those 2026 ‘we need to get a headstart on Sony’ rumours and look at that, the rumour tides have indeed changed direction.

I’d class it as more of an iteration than a novel invention, but okay.

Me likey. Me likey this lots. This is the correct path to take. Can’t survive vs PS6 by repeating the mistakes of XSX, which failed to differentiate itself enough. Needs to completely dominate PS6 in performance terms to successfully target the enthusiast crowd. Then you need to merge with the Windows development environment to ensure it retains support despite having a niche audience. Backwards compatibility is already confirmed, so happy days. Sensible thing to do would be to scrap the multiplayer paywall to somewhat compensate for the higher upfront hardware cost.

It’s nice and all but we know how this rolls. Cross-gen means most games won’t benefit fully from the hardware advancements for another decade from now, towards the end of that generation.

Well it’s not quite as high scoring as I’d ideally like, but I can use my rewards points so I think I’ll still get it. Then the rest can be spent on the new Katamari later in the month.

It’s got to be Psychonauts 2 for me. The original is great too, but I think the sequel is just that much more polished and refined - with a more in-depth and emotive story. My GOTY 2021 and easily my favourite modern era first party Xbox game!

I’ve built a digital games collection and all the hardware accessories so I really hope there is a new Xbox to migrate over to. I was really enthusiastic about the Xbox PC rumours, and still am, I think it sounds great. Though there’s still the elephant in the room of paid online multiplayer and how that would work with Steam/GOG and XSX backwards compatible games.

I need to milk it for all it’s worth while my Ultimate is still in date! It expires early March.

I’m hoping it starts before Little Nightmares 3 comes out on Friday, but looking less likely as each day passes. I want to preorder to get the remaster of the original bundled in so only have until Thursday to act!

Wow a surprisingly meaty update for such an old game. Well done Remedy!

Little Nightmares 3 looks good. Holding off preordering to see if that prophesied rewards gift card sale actually materialises this week 👀

The impact is dampened by the fact that half the games were already on Game Pass before this announcement. Most of the Far Cry and Assassin Creed games were at least. The games that weren’t are very old and could be picked up for cheap in seasonal sales. It’s not all that exciting.

At least it guarantees Star Wars Outlaws will come to Game Pass eventually, but my Ultimate will probably have expired by then - I only have it until March next year and then I plan to transition to Essential.

My brother ran out of money this month because of an unexpectedly high bill so no Borderlands 4 for me yet :’(

We’ll still be able to do Little Nightnares 3 next week thanks to the friend pass though!

My long work trip is over and I’m back home, so have access to the Xbox again. I’ll probably start Borderlands 4 in the next few days if my brother is available to play. Also looking forward to Little Nightmares 3 next week.

Ultimate stacked for another 5 months until March and then I’ll probably be sticking to Essential thereafter I think just for the online multiplayer.

@Fiendish-Beaver I remember many comments of yours in recent months questioning the profitability of Game Pass and predicting this significant price hike. So credit for reading the room correctly, but I think we can all agree that it kinda sucks that you were right in the end haha 😅

I completely failed in my prediction of no price rise until 2026. I didn’t think they’d be brazen enough to do another price rise for a third year in a row. They went above and beyond that though with such a steep price hike so soon!

Something doesn’t add up here. Essential is supposedly the same price as Core/Gold, but the conversion examples they give for the latter two are not 40%? They say 24 months Core/Gold converts to 6 months Ultimate. That’s 25%, not 40%? I don’t understand?

Will be moving down to Essential tier after my Ultimate expires in early March next year. I don’t use Game Pass enough to justify paying these prices.

Bit bummed that they’re keeping console multiplayer a paid feature. Wonder how they can possibly justify that with the next Xbox PC hybrid thingy that will also have Steam? No one will want to pay to play their Steam library online - PC gamers will revolt. I suppose we’re not there yet, but ominous warning signs here.

@OldGamer999 yeah mine lasts until early March ‘26 and I’m definitely downgrading to the Essential tier after that with these price rises. Oh well was good while it lasted!

But worried that the 12 month Essential (formerly Core) codes will be going away, there seems to be no mention of that? Will we still be able to buy annual codes from third party retailers as we can now? If not than that’s a colossal price jump at £7/month

Weird how Apple hasn’t been affected by tariffs (iPhone 17 £799 = $ 799) but Xbox has (Ally £499 = $599). Same is true for the other models but I’m not bothering to list them all. What is Apple’s secret? I guess smartphones are exempt where game devices aren’t?

I have a Switch 2 already and I don’t travel often enough to justify owning two handhelds 🤷‍♂️