Elbow

@Nenoeil You're right for the most part, but my specific argument was for the future. Ten years from now, what's it going to look like? Will I be able to still download games to an Xbox console or handheld, or will they have been phased out completely? Will future purchases after a certain date be cloud streaming only? OD is going to be the start of a precedent for Xbox, since it's a confirmed streaming only game.

Something I can do now, downloading a game I've purchased, may not even be possible. Accessing said games might be locked to streaming only, behind the Ultimate/streaming tier. So I'll have paid them just to pay them more, even though none of this was even a consideration for years. And yeah I get the argument "ten years is so far away, do you really care?"

Ferris Bueller is haunting my dreams because I still vividly remember summer nights in 2008 playing Gears with friends and smacking the side of my 360 to get it to read the disc. And life has already shot two decades ahead to digital libraries and discs no longer being a thing Xbox even produces for their consoles now.

@Utena-mobile I don't think the purchases will be twice. I think you'll have to keep paying monthly (or bimonthly or whatever plan you select etc) to access them. I don't remember how it worked for Stadia, I know you had to purchase the games but I don't know if they were held captive behind a monthly pay wall, too.

And the problem is that it's way too early to make claims, but it's so easy to see where this leads even a gaming journalist could immediately find it.

@Scirius I'm feeling very doomer today I admit. Saw the negatives instead of the positives immediately.

And this is how they will monetize your digital library. It'll be held hostage behind a monthly fee once they stop selling hardware, which is "no longer profitable" as they sell their games to other platforms.

If the plan wasn't so blatant I wouldn't be so bothered.

(This working is cool, but I immediately thought to where this will lead 10 years from now.)

@DonkeyKongBigBoy

lol. I unironically enjoy Garfield Kart.

I'm not a big racing fan. Kart racers are typically the beginning and end of where my vehicular interests lie. Would FH4 appeal to me in any way? I'm just weighing the options since I won't have another chance soon.

@UserTK-421 Uh, I'm not sure if you're aware but Overwatch 2 is free to play.. you don't even need gamepass to play online since it's a free2play game.

Woah. Wait a minute, Xbox allowed a game to be Series X only? Even temporarily? That's wild.

@Arcticpandapopz Unfortunately no. It's also on GamePass since it's a first-party Xbox exclusive... not that you'd know it. It was the first game that came out from their shopping spree six years ago, and they were eager to bury it.

Most likely, the community has withered up. I love the game but I probably cannot recommend buying it unless you know you have other friends who would also grab it to try some matches against each other.

I already own it but I'm glad more people are playing it. More eyes on Crash and Spyro hopefully leads to more Crash and Spyro games...

Isn't it crazy to think Xbox owns so much of the 3D platformer heavyweights? I seriously expect them just to randomly pick up Argonaut and Croc out of the blue just to spite the genre even more.

@smoreon I used to have a boxed copy of Conker. My brother took it and that was the last time I ever saw that. I remember getting Hydro Thunder through GWG years ago, but I will thank you for others who are unaware of the sacrifice! 😄

Oh man, to see Bleeding Edge on this sale list... I adored that game but it fizzled out SO fast. Microsoft was almost eager for it to die instead of nurturing it, it was exactly what they always try to get: Online multiplayer PvP.

Seeing the characters use the twitter-like app on the main menu after a patch and them talking in-character about the buff/nerfs or even the healer begging everyone to leave him alone only for every character to reply in a huge chain of "no" was great. Gah, I'm just venting now. Was a fun time.

Some of these sales are truly nuts, EA just tossing some of the Battlefield games for $1.99? Jeez

@Nintendo4Sonic I've been keeping an eye out for it on sale, but it's the weirdest thing. Microsoft just refuses to put some of their BC games on sale. Conker Reloaded and Blinx are a few examples. But I have that feeling that if I FINALLY just buy it, THEN they'll put it on sale. So I'm constantly thinking "just wait it out for one more sale..."

I remember really really wanting an Xbox as a kid... not for Halo. Blinx caught my eye. 😄

To this day I STILL haven't played Blinx, but I remember that strange childhood hype for it. Tabby cats, man. Love 'em.

@FraserG @Beetlebum91

Thank you! I wasn't home yesterday and had limited mobile access so I had a mini panic of "uh oh how long do I have??"

Much appreciated. Thank you both again!

Anyone know how long this sale runs? Unless I missed it but I double checked to be sure

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I mean with COD being 70 USD, that's a little under three months worth of gamepass ultimate. And with Xbox also adding extra tiers with bad naming and making it confusing, it's very easy to see PC players deciding its not worth the headache, plus they'll play it over the coming year to make the purchase worth it compared to subbing to gamepass monthly for the one game.

This can all be traced back to two core issues:

No games. This gen has only received Hi-Fi Rush, Starfield, Redfall and Pentament as true exclusives. At least they all started that way, and it took three years into the consoles life to reach that. There's some irony that Redfall will likely be the ONLY game that is Xbox exclusive by the end of this, which is amusingly prophetic. (I do not count Infinite or Grounded as they released on Xbox One)

#2: No one wants GamePass. Before you get mad, I'm not talking about us. I'm talking about rival platforms. Sony doesn't want it, Nintendo doesn't want it. That immediately put two giant holes in the Good Ship Gamepass, leaving them to lean towards mobile devices and PC/anywhere else they can advertise and sell gamepass subscriptions.

This plan will continue to lead towards an accelerated hardware death, but I guess that's what they want. The only problem I see is them getting enough gamepass subs from other areas, as their one-time target audience flees the sinking ship, to not only make up for the inevitable losses but INCREASE the numbers drastically.

I dunno. The big focus on mobile phones are an Xbox is stupid, but they clearly don't believe they can go the Nintendo route at this point of actually having exclusives to sell the hardware.

Oh boy these comments got passionate. I just want to see the combat improve. Her attacks looked and felt lifeless in the reveal gameplay.

Hoping that's been improved.

I remember seeing an ad in Modern Family with Phil (a character on the show, not Spencer) excitedly playing Halo MCC at one point. I don't know how or why MCC started so wrong but I'm glad they didn't just throw it aside and let it wither away. I'm really not even a Halo fan and I still ended up grabbing it on both PC and Xbox just because of how well supported the game has been.

For reasons I cannot fathom, Grove Street Games (previously War Drum Studios) have been given multiple opportunities and fumbled every port they've ever done to consoles. Every. One.

They were the ones that ported the absolutely atrocious GTA: SA port for Xbox 360. That alone blows my MIND on how exactly they landed the job of porting the entire trilogy. They were also guilty of porting a nearly unplayable, buggy and crash-happy version of Ghostbusters The Video Game from Wii to PS2 (the one with visuals based on the cartoon.) — and that has all the exact same Wardrum/Grove Street crashes and terrible porting work like all their other disasterpieces.

They have to have blackmail on someone at Take 2. I can't fathom why else the living embodiment of incompetency could get so many high-profile jobs.

Edit: I'm glad that apparently some other studio has taken the reigns on updating this game. Should've been that way from the start.

Faster than I expected for another Activision game! Which is a good thing. Still drip-feeding but the level above snails pace.

I get $50 off from $500 is a proper deal but those console prices are still eye watering! Also notable to remember this generation is in the declining stage of life and limping towards the end...

At least that's what I'm telling myself so I don't feel bad missing out.

@Lofty1985 I truly believe the plan is to add all, or as many, Activiion games to gamepass as possible. But not all at once.

Once quarterly, or every three months. Crash Trilogy earlier this year, COD now, something else probably in January/February.

d r i p f e e d

I stopped playing Darksiders 2 back in 2018 for a reason that I can't remember... so I started playing it again a few days back and just finished it up. Great game.

I've been playing Cat Quest 2 as well, silly little game that's way more charming than it has any right to be. Typically I'd probably have probably a few more games I'd be tackling at once, but eh. Way more relaxed weekend than normal for me. Cats 'n' the Reaper.

@Stoned_Patrol I genuinely think most people overlooked it because the initial showing was in that smaller window because they made the main showcase include the deaf/hard of hearing sign language translator. Harder to see unless you went back specifically to find the game itself in a later upload.

@jedinite I believe Sony is publishing DS2, so they're still funding it or at least involved in some meaningful way, so it's probably gonna be a good few years.

@Markatron84 It's the worst, but at least they're not restarting it for the Switch 2. I bet that caused a lot of the business side of the company to start frothing at the mouth and screaming in panic.

I just need to see that combat has been improved. It looked like the main character had all the weight and oomph of a plastic bag in a windstorm, the way her attacks kind of just... happened. That's the only concern I had with this game, but it's a major one.

I have no doubt it's all intentional dripfeed. Why drop everything in a giant flurry when they can glacially add things over years? Easy gamepass fodder plan, add a new permanent title to the service every quarter inbetween all the third party stuff, AND with the COD tax they just bolted on to the damn thing.

I assume it will eventually, there's without a doubt some timed period of exclusivity. Maybe two, three, or five years. With Sony, it could be longer than a normal year or two.

On the flipside, I think this confirms OD will also hit multiplat eventually. Less of a surprise there with Xbox as of late though. Only thing I wonder, if it gets a multiplat release on next gen consoles, will it still need to be "streaming only"?

@Markatron84 ROCK ON FOR THE MEGA SLUSH!

@UnusedBabyWipes I hope the Xbox hologram is Banjo-Kazooie doing the Talon Trot.

Did WB even really advertise the relaunch of MultiVersus? It kind of just came back with a tweet announcing the return and that was all. At least, that's all I saw and I was going out of my way to find out info on the return.

BTW: Put MEGAS XLR in the game and you're going to get me to unwisely dump tons of money in for it. Coop/Jamie/Kiva voice acting included. I've NEVER stopped loving that show.

There are some shockingly decent (and not common) games on deep discount here. I've had my eye on Violett, Hard Reset, Panzer Dragoon and Lone Wolf for awhile. And that's only listing particular games I spotted. This is so weird, in a good way.

I still have an Xbox One, havent made the next gen jump since this generation felt massively stagnant, but I agree the hype and buzz around the Series consoles (albeit there was some setback with the poor names that are easily confused with the One models...) felt like it was the Xbox 360 generation again for a short time.

We know how it turned out, turns out a slow trickle of games doesn't carry that kind of momentum. But it was a very cool period of time.

Pretty reassuring to see at least one Xbox dev not getting chopped down as of late, but they also make it sound like SoD3 has barely got off the ground...

It might just be the wording. I hope.

@themightyant I know both statements can be true at once and I don't doubt Prey (arkane) is good. I've heard a lot of praise for it, and it's something I plan to actually play someday. It's not a "I'll never play it" situation, just somr lingering annoyance at Bethesda being Bethesda

There's a good few other games on sale too, not that I blame you for not including each one. This seems like a much more modest sale this week, which is probably for the best. Easier on abused wallets before.... the winter sales approach.

This is one of the... concerns I've had with specialized studios. Eat breathe and sleep Halo or Gears for so long, you're going to get sick of it. Even giving them the smallest chance to try something else even if that's a small tiny little IP of a new game inbetween endless sequels seems like such a no brainer.

So it makes sense UL would like to do more than just make zombie survival games forever, even if said type of game will always be their priority. I dunno. I personally wish 343 and Coalition had this kind of opportunity, too.

Variety is the spice of life. Also I would've loved to play whatever the hell Black Tusk (now coalition) was working on pre-Gears transformation.

@everynowandben it's moreso Bethesda screwing over other devs. It's all a pretty sore point. I loved Prey, and was so excited for Prey 2, only for Bethesda to ruin things. And then they slap the name of the IP on something completely unrelated without a care in the world.

I know, or at least am fairly certain, Arkane wasn't guilty of this incident and it was Bethesda higher ups. I plan to play it someday, I just haven't got over the annoyance of the whole situation to finally put money down on it.

@Balaam_ Same here. Raven and Beenox being freed from the COD mines gave me so much hype, then I realized it was just lip service to fuel the merger hype and nothing else.

Ah well. You know the saying; death, taxes, and CoD.

@Arkz I am. I grew up with an N64 and had easy access to most of the platformer heavy hitters, but I was still jealous of Crash, Spyro, and Croc players.

Rented a PS1 once and had Croc and the original Spider-Man Neversoft game with it. I loved Croc despite the controls not being what I expected at the time, and Spider Man BLEW MY MIND having so much voice acting and cutscenes compared to the N64 version. Point is, yes, even while sitting in the green fields of platformer utopia that was N64, I still wanted Croc! (..and Crash and Spyro naturally)

@BigRedPaper I've still not so much as given new Prey a sideways glance. Prey is the 2006 game, Prey is Tommy. Not whatever the corporate suits wants it to be.

We're trading off the online multiplayer for the rest of the improvements. I am surprised it didn't get an Xbox port, though, but I guess that would give them justification to just silently kill the MP servers for the original.

I do use the Xbox app but it's had problems for years. I made the mistake of wanting to install Halo MCC once, and for the next three years the Xbox app repeatedly tried to force install if I had the AUDACITY to uninstall, or notify me of DLC it wasnt installing for some reason. No matter what I tried the app was hellbent on ensuring that, no, you WILL have Halo installed. I dread to think of how much SSD life that shredded.

I sure hope these improvements aren't just UI related.

This game still handles and feels like a Unity demo. I have no idea what the devs have been doing with all the money from the game but I've sure not seen any go back into it.

I was REALLY excited for this game and I ended up being underwhelmed. When I realized the damage modifier basically tuned your output to 0 when you weren't skating on a wire and that that was mandatory to do anything to enemies... really soured it for me. The dialogue of some NPCs was also grating but that's minor in comparison.

@Ryne-Gaia good lord you are B U S Y. I gotta say though as a fellow fan of FF14 and Suda51, I try to replay Shadows of the Damned every Halloween too. Nice to see someone else shares that tradition!

I'll eventually get to this CoD.. my backlog is growing miles wider every time I turn around. I still need to finish CoD3, picked that up in June!

Suicide Squad already at 80% discount. WB desperate to make anything off that mess.