Elbow

@Deshalu I'll say, as a super casual COD player, that ever since they switched to characters with "personality" in multi-player instead of nameless grunts, all their unique operators/playable characters have been dreadfully boring. There's not a single one throughout Blops 6 or 7 I found interesting, and I don't even particularly want to play as any of them as they feel worse than the nameless grunts of World At War, for example, because they try too hard.

Each Operator is trying SO hard to look marketable and cool that they all feel like homogenized gruel, and even the joke characters are too stupid or lean too far into "ayy weed lmao" that Seth Rogan has probably wet himself and passed out from laughing at them.

So when they offer something actually unique, which is a crossover skin... kinda hard to turn my nose up at it.

A lot of these are finally at a good discount, 67% turns into $1.70 (roughly) for some of these smaller XBLA games. Not a bad deal.

The good first step part is a relief to hear. I genuinely wondered if they'd just sit back, arms crossed behind their heads, and say "we saved it!" without doing more.

Exclusives truly will show where they end up heading. If they stay multiplat, the console is clearly just being given some easy changes while they wind down hardware plans.

Wow. That's very sudden. They're eager to finally rid the shackles of the 8th gen, which is understandable... though also a little questionable since Switch 2 is just a PS4 pro spec wise, right?

Here's to another 10 years of PS5/Series support!

...ahaha, the world sucks right now.

The end of an era! Now maybe the Xbone and PS4 can finally rest.

My poor, poor wallet..

Unfortunately the only one that will move the needle is exclusives coming back. If they don't commit, there's no real way to come back in any large capacity.

@SpecialT How is Mixtape? I've heard conflicting things. Also, love the pfp. Ghostbusters 4 life!

Finally finishing Silent Hill 2's achievements, and playing Spray Paint Simulator because it's leaving gamepass soon and I didn't even know it was on the service 'till I saw the leaving soon warning.

Maybe Cronos The New Dawn tomorrow.

@DennisReynolds Huh?? What the hell happened then? That's wild.

These sales have shown me some wild indie games/lesser known games that never got so much as a light nudge in terms of marketing push. I never knew Azure Striker Gunvolt had multiple sequels, let alone a spinoff series.

I also appreciate these curated lists. I've said it before, navigating these sales on console can be a nightmare. Thank you, PX staff!

Good Lord. I dread to think what the file size was before the optimizing...

@WhiteRaven yeah I don't know why I'm doing that. Everything looks fine and when I check later it's like I've vomited word salad on the screen.

I'd be a little wary of Sweeney praise, as of late hes oversaw some massive fumbles. Still, so far so good with Asha.

I really hope in a years time we don't look back and say "if only we knew how bad things are about to get.."

So, staying optimistic, I want to believe she's got a huge list of things that Phil handed to her as a "these are things I WANTED to do before the AI reckoning hit us."

I also hope they are VERY careful with any purchases they may make in the future. Seriously. As much as Eidos Montreal or Remedy would fit as an Xbox studio, the corpses of some of their studios shut down recently are still lukewarm.

I won't forget or be thrilled for new purchases after something like that.

Playasia wants to keep selling physical games, of course they're going to rally against this. If the program is as explained, it wouldn't be the same as Nintendo horrid game key card system at all. Send disc for a digital code to redeem.

I probably won't do it myself for a good few of my games, I do have sentimental attachment to some. From a time and a place that I can look back on with the actual case in my hands, but I think this idea is good on paper.

The actual execution, if it gets that far, will be the important part.

@Stocksy So ill say they do make some good stuff. Or have published good stuff, but their problem is definitely on the corporate side (go figure lol).

Smaller games, less marketing, they've only really picked duds to market. They have put out good stuff, it's just not typically the big blockbuster stuff that gets attention. Coupled with their spending spree to receive funds that was based on a handshake agreement (idiotic), they're their own worst enemy.

I genuinely believed Embracer was great, still think their developers are. But wow, the corporate side is rancid. As are almost all corporate sides.

@NeoRatt She seemed nice, but yeah her plan for Xbox was doing more harm than good.

@NeoRatt You're right, and I shouldn't have worded it as "the 360 servers will probably die if the fee goes away..." since they absolutely would.

I'm still sore on them shuttering the Xbox 360 marketplace a year before the 20 year anniversary.

@Kingleo31 It's become apparent that Phil was being told what to do during the last few years. This is not to shield him from all criticism (which I have a lot of), but he definitely wasn't behind, or at least wasn't thrilled about, a lot of the choices being made. Him getting less vocal and up front about what was going on was telling. The Phil of the last two years is not the same one we knew years ago, who would've spoken so candidly like he did on the bizarre yes-man blunder that was Redfall. 2024 and on was a corporate clamp down.

So with that said, I'm still optimistic about Asha, since it seems the bean counters have finally let Xbox breathe again with her coming into the position; and them wisely jettisoning Sarah Bond's horrid marketing push.

9 hrs later: I was out of my mind when I first wrote this, because this was a borderline word salad. I have no idea what I was doing but I edited the post to be more readable. The same point is still made, now just without the "I wrote this while having a medical emergency" tinge it had.

This isn't the first time they've done this. Wasn't it some weird "& Friends" labeling they tried with publisher names? Now they're just piggybacking on the LotR branding? So weird.

I get the request for free online multi-player, but the problem everyone ignores is that it's going to be the kiss of death to Xbox 360 servers. And then, before long, a lot of smaller games from the Xbone and Series generations.

I really think the fee is why those are still around, and will be around, until the fee goes away.

So it's a really difficult balance..

Xbox games* should not be on PlayStation, though.

*Activision and Bethesda do not count, they stay multiplat. Multi-player games like Kiln stay multiplat. Fable and Gears should not be on PlayStation, unless Gears EDay gets a standalone MP version, but even that's kinda iffy.

@Tasuki Hmm. I might bite. I definitely don't think it's something I'd play online. I'm one of those people who forget how to do even basic combos (like a hadouken for example) when pressured.

It does my heart good to see TMNT get a specific mention. Splintered Fate is VERY good. Fantastic music, fun gameplay, great voice acting. There are some games in here I might pick up.

Is Mortal Kombat 1 beginner/incompetent fighting-game-player friendly? I suck at fighting games. Horrifically, absolutely, irredeemably bad at them. ...but with that said I also want to try to beat the snot out of people as Peacemaker.

I have Medium, haven't played it yet. How would you rate it? I used to depise Bloober, but SH2 genuinely turned things around as much that it's like a new company just using the old name.

@Lup I had to do a double take, I thought Wild was an RTS. I've tried hard to play that genre and just can't. (Anyone who can, I am in awe of you.)

That said, while I don't know if I'm buying it now I AM wishlisting it. Thank you for the recommendation

I think it's time I jump on Cronos. Haven't even finished my Silent Hill 2 playthroughs for all the endings, but, its calling to me.. if you told me a month ago I was going to actively be interested in Bloober games I'd have told you that you were insane...

Also, could the article be updated to include the date this sale ends? Thank you!

@Markatron84 Hey, in the beloved Garfield & Friends cartoon from the 80s, he was quite the active feline. Not willingly, mind you, but he was!

@shiningpikablu252 Nermal is a shoo-in for the nightmare level lol

Garfield is sort of a comfort character for me, so I'm definitely keeping an eye on this.

I do appreciate Xbox saying "just because you don't care for it, doesn't mean it's a bad game" - I feel that way about a good few games. I've never been able to get into Dark Souls, for example, but I would never say it's a bad game. I just can't get into it.

Not getting any of the actual useful parts of Nitro really sucks. I guess I'm not surprised, they weren't going to give that up for "free", but Discord is already incredibly stingy.

Wow. Wet being on the list is surprising! That game and Mirrors Edge were both the reasons I finally moved away from exclusively playing on Nintendo hardware. I've ended up gettijg 1000 and the Platinum Trophy on both 360 and PS3 for wet. Part of me still wants to document some of the oddities between versions, but.. seeing that listed, and so high no less, makes me happy.

Replaying Silent Hill 2 Remake for achievements and alternate endings. Slowly chipping away at Death Stranding again, and some Dead by Daylight inbetween.

@Markatron84 To be fair, just slotting in a "oh yeah we just canned the studio that made this but here's DLC, LOL" would be in poor taste.

Not that I'm defending Nacon. Pretty scummy of them.

I have an incredibly short list of developers I will buy games day one from, and that's basically just Grasshopper Manufacture.

Big publishers not only devalue their games not long after release- (for example, Silent Hill f is already 50% off and it released about 6 months ago? WTF)- but genuinely aren't worth the asking price at release when they're all but guaranteed to be miserably buggy.

It was already a hard sell to get me to buy games at $60- $70 is just guaranteeing I'm not bothering until a massive discount drops. That's also not even factoring in all the DLC. There's just no way that 99.999% of modern devs are going to get me to pay $90+ on a single game that's probably unfinished and without DLC as of the time of payment.

Thats interesting. I only just got used to the original Series X startup (got one at the end of December.)
I DO like the color scheme, easy on the eyes. Could they not add a variety of startup boot screens? Or does Sony have a patent for that? I'd love to boot up and see the original 360 boot screen from before NXE/ the eye straining disaster that was 2011's all white flashbang extravaganza.

Edit: Also, it seems the sound will be less jarring which will be nice when I boot it up at night-- it won't feel like the THX's little brother is trying to burst my speakers.

I tried to give copilot the benefit of the doubt, but when I asked it things it got them wrong almost every time. Useless in cases where the issue isn't a well discussed topic the bot can cherry pick from. Not that that is much of a surprise, but good riddance to the forced inclusion.

Even Cortana was better than that.

@Leopold It's a public speaking thing. I don't know exactly why, but Reggie Fils-Aime did the same thing and always had those 'crab claws'. I don't know if it's a learned thing and helps with public speaking, but it is notable. I guess if it helps though, more power to 'em. God knows I'd internally combust if I was put on stage to speak in front of tons of people, so anything that helps I'd take.

Although it shouldn't be surprising, it is almost kinda sad. With money getting tighter, it's harder and harder to justify a new console for a lot of people.

@SmokeEmAll It's genuinely not about 'half gamers'. It's a budget/price thing. Though yes, it is unfortunate that the Series S has kind of kneecapped this gen, it was also made for people that just can't afford the Series X. With that logic you could say anyone who bought the Switch 1 or 2 should stay away, since those are massively behind.

@Skinny-Pete I've had that on my list for ages! Might get to it after I wrap up Silent Hill 2 Remake.

It's such a long shot but I'm going to add Silent Hill Downpour to this list. It already is backwards compatible but Konami pulled it due to music licensing.

I dunno. It's still important to keep the game around. It might be a long shot to ask xbox to step in and help, but it is for the initiative...

@moodmatcha The problem with this is that servers for all games will have drastically shortened lifespans. The Xbox 360 servers would absolutely go as soon as the fee is removed, and from there older games would continually begin to pile up with server shutdowns on console, specifically Xbox.

Then, smaller games like Kiln and Bleeding Edge would very likely shut down within a few years of release, if they didn't set the world on fire.

What? What? Why. Wtf? Weren't they consistently putting out good stuff and selling well? What the hell?

If anyone from Xbox is listening: DO NOT BUY ANY MORE PUBLISHERS/DEVELOPERS JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE POPULAR.

Just-- if you are going to buy developers, buy the ones that work with you. I DON'T mean "work with you" as in those that release games on your platform, but actually help develop games for you. If you need an example: Eidos Montreal, who are helping you with both Grounded 2 and Fable.

Look at how Nintendo acquired Monolith (the japanese company; known for Xenoblade.) Monolith do a LOT of support work for other Nintendo-owned studios, but Nintendo also allows them to work on their own games. Monolith is honestly the secret weapon Nintendo has with just how much work they do for all of Nintendo's games.

Monolith Soft has done the heavy lifting on: Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Mario Kart World, on top of making their own games.

If you are going to buy studios, buy studios with THIS in mind. Those that you have GOOD history with, and can help with other projects AND can work on their own smaller-scale games in-between.

I'm not saying buy Eidos Montreal, I'm just saying THIS is the kind of thing you need to look at. Support studios, talent, established history and knowledge of how Xbox develops games, not just name recognition.

I am one of those people who complains about the oversaturation of hero shooters, so you'd think something like this was tailor made for me. Gotta be honest, the pots/overall teeming isn't really my kinda thing.

But, like with Highguard, I need to actually try it before saying anything for sure. I have this downloaded, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Bethesda and Acti games remain multiplat. MAYBE some exclusive games from them if it's a case where these games would not have been made without Xbox funding.

Big games need to stay exclusive. Multiplayer only games should be multiplat (Kiln, Helldivers 2-- only comparing them I'm the sense they're both multiplayer focused games with no real single player.)

Stuff like Forza... I dunno
It does well in both platforms.

Halo and Gears should stay console exclusive. So should single player focused big games like Fable.

OH! Thank you thank you thank you, I absolutely would have overlooked this. Metal Slug games are hypnotic, the detail in the animations and environments is insane. ...I absolutely suck at the games, but adore their styles still. Gonna grab all of these.

...This reminded me I also forgot to grab Metal Slug Tactics during the last sale-- though that's a different genre entirely to these.

This is really cool. Another bundle option for one of the Gamepass tiers, sure, but Asha has been doing a lot of cool stuff-- or, at the very least, been very vocal and upfront about things.

I'm sure the other shoe could drop at any moment and it'll get bad, so I'm trying to look at this with cautious optimism-- but jeez, this feels nice.

I remember her, I think... was she involved with the Halo rail shooter arcade game? She appeared at an Xbox showcase for something around that time..

Hope her next job is one she loves.

@SargeCassidy Is it really? Even on Win 10? I might reach out.

Good catch! I hope this extra spotlight helps get their attention. As someone who is fully on board preserving every game possible, stuff like this is huge. Now I just wish GFWL titles were still accessible... (it was inferior to Steam, yes, but I had progress in a few games with it. Would be nice to be ableto finish them up.)