@darylb24 They've only got two staff members, so they seem to be stretched thin at the best of times. Likely have to pick and choose what they decide to review (besides the obligatory Xbox-published games) while juggling the rest of their duties for the site. Which I appreciate, but worth noting.

@LordDieALot Overtake the wind itself! Make the very wind itself your... well, I can't say that last part but you know where it's leading.

Also, just want to say thank you to @FraserG (been doing that a lot lately) for highlighting the game here even if not reviewing it. I don't know if the game will get much attention overall, but I LOVE Grasshopper dearly so I appreciate even smaller posts like this to help spotlight it a little bit.

...Granted I know a few of us have been pretty vocal about it (cough me a bit cough)... but still! Appreciated!

I was at my brother's last week, playing a gamepass title through cloud streaming, and popped a rare achievement. No sound, no special rare achievement jingle, and it just appeared on screen like an ad pop up before vanishing the same way. It was kind of funny, and jarring, to see. PC Xbox is kind of the same, underwhelming when they appear.

So I hope this is the start of them improving that, though granted it's not like this is very important..

@Daffy-Duck Gotcha, welcome to PX! My gamertag is uh-- actually are we allowed to share them here? I didn't see anything about it in the community rules, but, my GT is "Soup Can Sam652"

Hour one purchase for me! Grasshopper for life!
@LordDieALot NMH3 is 90% off on xbox right now if you wanted to revisit...

@Daffy-Duck Hey unrelated, did you change your name from Ricky-Spanish? I hope you're the same guy. Always liked seeing his (your) comments and it's kinda like seeing a friendly/familiar face.

...If you're not the same person then this is gonna look weird lol

I REALLY like the art style. Very cool. Does seem like a modestly priced title, so might have to temper expectations but I think this will be a neat one to check out.

@Jenkinss I gotcha, thanks for the edit. I did think at first my comment mightve come off hostile too when I didn't intend for it to come off that way. I got hooked at first by Atomfall's setup with the mystery and it ending up as a kind of Deus Ex-lite immersive sim. But I can see it being sterile, it definitely suffers due to limited scope/budget.

I'm skeptical. Justin Roiland carried that game on his back, so I'm not at all convinced a followup that lacks him in its entirety will live up.

That said, I imagine the gameplay will be way better. That was definitely the weakest part of the first game, playing it was a bit of a chore.

(Humor is subjective of course so it could end up being fantastic. We shall see!)

@Jenkinss Could it be due to it being more of an immersive sim/slower paced? Lots of running around while also discouraging combat early on.

Thank you for breaking down the sales in a very easy to read format. I think I've said it before, but looking at other sites they have just a jumbled mess, but you take the time to really format them in an easy-to-read way. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Also No More Heroes 3... I already 100%'d it while it was on gamepass but I might just buy it... a third time. I bought a Switch for it. I bought it on Steam.... I guess the trinity is about to be complete. Luv me some Travis.

(I just wish Marvelous would put the Windows/Xbox PC store version on sale. It's never been and it has its own separate achievement list. HINT, HINT, MARVELOUS.)

@nomither6 Haven't seen the changes to reloaded, Gears 5 honestly put me off the series. (..And Gears was the reason I got into Xbox back in the 360 era.)

Great PFP btw, Sonic rules.

@Fiendish-Beaver Gears Reloaded just took Ultimate Edition and gave it some touch-ups. The other games would likely take way longer, since those have to be remade completely.

Funny they're reverting to OW. The large new roster is crazy though, I can't say I've really been hooked by hero shooters outside of TF2.... but Jetpack Cat is the exact kind of pandering to get my attention. Dammit.

Good on them. I've read they have money until April to stay open, so I hope this goes farther in helping them. Next sale they have I'll grab it for sure.

Starsand, Soulslinger, and Crisol are definitely on my list. These look really good.

I haven't played it yet. Originally I was thinking about buying it, but was going to wait for a huge sale. Now I wonder if I should just go for it on game pass when the new update drops.

@LordDieALot I might take you up on 2 & 3 horde! Sounds like fun, I just hope my years of not playing means I don't suck at it now

Total Chaos, an unfortunately generic title for a really unique game. It was built in the gzDoom engine and then basically ported to the Unity engine with extra content. One of the few games that really emphasizes the SURVIVAL in survival horror. Food, health, weight, bleed, and an underlying sanity meter. It's not at all as overwhelming as it might sound, the game gives you just enough at all times so long as you're playing safely.

Also, I've been playing it (and other things like Fortnite, and my 200th replay of Shredder's Revenge) through the Cloud. I've been with my brother lately, who has some health issues. His internet is amazing so I've been able to play most things flawlessly. Even did a 4 hour Sea of Thieves session last week with no issue!

As a devout follower of Suda51, Romeo Is A Dead Man is a day one purchase for me. Grasshopper games are about the only ones I happily buy day one.

Unlikely, but I hope Travis has a cameo...

I played a few matches and wasn't too impressed, I'm not really into hero shooters, and the gameplay felt.. kinda weak. Personal taste of course.

I will say that I LOVE the environmental art and detail. The trees, the view of the distance off the map, the way the grass sways; I think the world detail is beautiful. Not enough to keep playing, but I like that aspect.

I don't think so. This is the most underutilized generation. It needs to go another two years at least.

About to play it and give it a go. Not surprised at Steam reviews, they'd be negative regardless of quality due to hivemind perception of the game.

@FraserG I've seen a good few of these and it didn't even register in my mind they are exactly what I was asking about, I'm an idiot. I did completely miss Escape From Ever After, though, so that's going on my wishlist right now!

I feel like I have a decent touch on the pulse of indies and this one totally escaped my notice. Thank you for sharing this @FraserG

A neat idea for a series could be to spotlight cool unheard of games like these. I'm sure the devs would appreciate it!

@N00BiSH Double Fine does have multiple teams, I believe. The only question I have is why has it taken so long for these, but at least they're finally starting to release games.

@dreadful They have to try to see. Shooters and MMOs and the like were all once unproven gambles. I don't think this game is going to light the world on fire, and I'm not even sure I'm that interested but I will at least play it to see if I enjoy it or not.

I wouldn't be surprised if they delay, but if it does drop on the intended date I will give it a try. It didn't give off a great first impression but I want to see if the game is actually good and the trailer was just bad.

Beast of Reincarnation because Game Freak is known for lowest effort garbage that barely runs, so how is THIS a game from them? It's so day and night from Pokémon that I don't understand how it could possibly be from the same company.

@Tasuki Was playing it for ages before I jumped back on COD lmao

Oh yeah. I remember this.. huh. Good on them for changing it up at least.

@Tasuki Those two collabs are genuinely why I played Black Ops 6 at all. Haven't touched 7.

I kind of cracked myself up thinking that when I get my Series X on Wednesday, THESE are the first games I could play. (Not really, that's gonna be Death Stranding or RE4 Remake.) ...but it's funny to think about.

@Coletrain I already bought a lot of the FF games, and Kingdom Hearts, on Xbox. Put my money where my mouth was late last generation when we were trying to get Square to port their games to Xbox. Just haven't played a lot of them, and I can start on the Pixel Remaster series.... which for some reason isn't on Xbone, when those really easily could've been lol.

Well.. I just bought a Series X yesterday. Finally upgrading my old Xbone. I know it's VERY late in the game to do so, but GTA 6 and rising costs means this thing is probably going to be relevant just as long as the previous generation was.

So my resolution is to catch up on my Xbox backlog and also play a lot of Final Fantasy. Lots of FF.

@NeoRatt oh man, I'm so sorry. I hope your dad and your wife are resting easy now. That's awful, and I completely agree with you.

Jesus... cancer is bad enough. My brother is a 3x cancer survivor.

To leave a family behind makes something awful even worse, somehow. Rest in peace. I hope he has peace and that his family will be okay.

Happy New Year to everyone here. Regardless of everything going on I hope everyone's 2026 is a great year.

...and that prices don't rise again. yeesh!

Obsidian is the one team that has been consistently pumping out, not just new updates but new GAMES at a breakneck pace. Easily-- and I'm only going by output here-- Xbox's best purchase. No wonder Obsidian has been safe from layoffs (...that I know of.*)

*Also yes it goes without saying devs getting laid off from any company from Xbox sucks and that's an Xbox problem.

@TheGameThrifter Sorry I thought you were talking about Clockwork revolution I lost track of the convo, but that said even though it's insanely likely GTA will sweep everything I still want to wait to play it before saying anything definitively.

@TheGameThrifter I don't know about GOTY claims, it's not even out yet. It looks absolutely incredible though.

@TheGameThrifter IF it really releases next year. With how ambitious GTA 6 is, wouldn't be surprised if we get yet another delay

@Balaam_ Clockwork looks bad? Did we see the same game? That was the only thing at Xbox's E3 summer event that got my attention. Honestly, it looked incredible.

....The guy in the image is cosplaying as Shrek. I don't really have anything else to add.

@Brigurugi There are earlier years where it's 100% clear they already had winners picked before the event, but I don't think this update is. This one can easily be argued as a goodwill update for Christmas that happened to coincide with the award.

There were earlier years, I think when it was on Spike TV, where they had characters "in-game" (mocapped and all in a cutscene basically) accept the award and talk about it and everything (it was one of the Black Ops games, but I don't know which. 1 or 2 for sure.) The amount of dev resources and time it would take to do something like that is 100% not something they'd do if it was just a "maybe" to get the award.

TGA absolutely is rigged/pre-determined, that's not up for discussion, but this update can definitely just have lucky timing.

@themightyant Unironically, if those in charge just talked like that and were honest, I'd respect them so much more. Phil Spencer revealing their internal yes-man butt kissing review setup for Redfall and how internally it reviewed well was insane, but refreshing to see the honesty.

I'd love more of that. Humility is way more appealing than drooling PR speak.

@bert0503 Mega Man Legends was pretty good, I think that worked. Also I love your cat

E33 cleaned house. Haven't played it yet, been waiting for a big sale, but wow.

Did anyone else think Dan Houser coming out was going to be related to his Absurd Ventures works? Didn't expect him just to show up for the best story award/E33 and dip.

Also a moment to throw out that Dan Houser has a comic book he's writing with Lazlow Jones (yes, that Lazlow from the GTA games) called American Caper. Not quite GTA, but not far away from it either.

Better than expected. Though I have to dock as many points as humanly possible for putting the mental image of Geoff Keighley and Miss Piggy having a romantic mattress mambo in my head.

Six years of therapy undone in a few minutes.

I actually thought this was a big shiny HD remake of Racer on the N64/PS1/Dreamcast at first. Some segments looked familiar, but to be fair "giant frozen racetrack" isn't very original. I hope it has some levels from that first game included.

Not really a Star Wars guy but that game was amazing. Keeping my eye on this one.