EvenStephen7

3 was the most important but I can’t say it’s the best — certainly not now. It took all of the lessons from 1 and 2 (and even offshoots like Instincts) and applied them for a game that took the series to a new level of success — especially on consoles. FC was poplar on PC but never found a big home on consoles until 3. But 4,5,6 and continually refined and perfected those mechanics, and spin-offs like Blood Dragon, New Dawn, and Primal put new and fun spins on them.

3 made the template for all future games and is responsible for the series being a sales juggernaut, and it’s worth the trip down nostalgia lane or for historical curiosity, but if you’re new I’d suggest checking out something 5 — which goes on sale often, has the modern mechanics and fidelity, and recently got a 60FPS patch. Heck, if you’re dying to play 3, most PCs can run it and you’d get both better fidelity and framerate together compared to the 360 port.

I’m completely absorbed into Tears of the Kingdom, leaving little room for anything else. I haven’t been this enthralled by a game in years — I love it significantly more than Breath of the Wild.

I dip in and out of the SF6 beta (though I admit on the PS5 side as I like my fighters over there) but it’s looking GREAT. I didn’t want to play too much ahead of its actual release though.

@Kaloudz Yea sorry, it’s an American thing and I forgot this is a more UK-centric site. Not everyone does it here but if you do it’s grades 6-8 (so ages 11-13). I think I first saw ST when I was about 11 or 12. Between that, Mimic, Species, Deep Rising, and a bunch of other gory science-fiction films from that era, I was convinced every R-rated movie was nothing but boobs and giant gory monster fights. 😂

@Kaloudz Whooooa with that take, lol. It’s an excellent, hilarious, eerily thoughtful satire. Every time I see it I catch something new. I still think it’s creepy how it accurately predicted the post-9/11 Iraqi War.

Highly recommend revisiting it sometime, as it sounds like you were younger when you saw it (my first time was in middle school and I too didn’t realize how clever it was at the time).

Switch: Zelda Zelda Zelda Zelda.
PS5: wrapping up Street Fighter 5’s story ahead of 6
Xbox: nothing this weekend.

@Wheatly You're right that it doesn't say it has to be as good, but it does compare by saying Starfield is the most likely to have "the sheer scale, scope and excitement that TOTK seems to be serving up." And then says Zelda is adding to the immense pressure on Starfield.

You'll find no argument from me though on the rest. I agree with your earlier comment as well; my PS5 and Switch get way more time lately, and that's due to the very strong cadence of must-play titles. I've been vocal for a long time that my Series X feels like a box of unfulfilled promises after all these years (and I'm still a little miffed that I bought 3 years of GPU on the promise that we'd get AAA first-party titles day-and-date...and then went over a whole year without any). Microsoft can't risk Starfield being anywhere near the mess Redfall was. It needs to be a quality game; a killer app/you-must-buy-an-Xbox-for-this game that MS has been needing all this time.

I'm just saying, at this point it feels like the pressure on Starfield is so immense that I question if it has any hope of meeting peoples' expectations. It's going to have to be a lot of great things to a lot of different (and demanding) expectations. I get why the pressure is there, but I still feel for the devs and designers who are probably sick with anxiety these days.

I get where this piece is coming from, I truly do. But honestly, I think stuff like this only hurts Starfield (and thus Xbox).

Starfield is not going to compete with The Legend of Zelda. Few games ever could. At this point, the pressure is SO great on Starfield that it can't be a 9 or even a 10 anymore; people are expecting a once-in-a-lifetime-genre-breaking event. And that's not fair, especially to Bethesda who isn't responsible for Xbox's missteps (outside of Redfall).

Again, I get why this is a "make it break it" moment for Xbox to some people. I'm sure Bethesda and Microsoft are terrified; even if you believe the game's great, who wouldn't be? I just don't think we need to make the pressure on these devs worse by comparing it to one of the best-reviewing games ever.

My, how things have changed since the early Xbox days. I remember when EA wouldn’t touch Xbox with a ten-foot pole (so we got, uh, NFL Fever instead of Madden).

@Wheatly 100% agree. I understand MS and shareholders will profit handsomely off it — especially since this is being pursued for the mobile division — but it feels like Xbox has been sandbagging their own brand for over a year to get this through. Now we’re looking at possibly another year and them possibly trying to look even weaker (is that possible?) to have the CMA overturn their ruling — the odds of which are already stacked against Microsoft.

I get the financial incentive to grow. I understand why people went Call of Duty games added to Gamepass . And of course some console warrior types just want to see Xbox “win” no matter what. But it seems like this is starting to do more harm than good. And honestly with the first-party output during this entire generation so far, I don’t know if adding even more studios to manage is a great thing for MS either when they’re clearly struggling to get the absurd amount already in their collection under control. Imagine if MS spent this money and focus on aggressively expanding market share?

Microsoft spend $68.7B to acquire Activision-Blizzard. But between the legal costs, the resources and attention, and the brand damage, the true cost is looking to be much, much steeper.

@Dezzy70 Not just the 360 days, the OG Xbox days were something to behold. They were super hungry to prove themselves and despite being backed by one of the world's largest corporations, they had this punk-rock scrappiness to them. They asked devs and gamers what they wanted and threw it in. Breakaway cords so your controllers or consoles don't get damaged from someone stepping on the cord? In. A hard drive to stream all your music and make your playlists for Tony Hawk 2X? You got it. The deals they signed, the games they put out, the risks they took. All of it just felt so special and wild and felt like a disruptor to gaming.

I kind of feel sad that there's a whole generation of Xbox gamers today that don't remember what it was like when Xbox showed upon the scene and worked to prove all the "the guys who make Office can't make videogames!" naysayers wrong.

Sadly a lot of that spirit is long gone. I guess like a lot of punk rockers themselves, Xbox eventually grew up to become part of the system they once fought against.

@GeeEssEff Glad you said something, I was really starting to get confused because I could have swept I already saw articles on this topic. Thought I was losing my mind. 😂

I want this to be good. Like really, really want this. But I've been burned enough by Xbox, these shows, and its marketing over the last few years that I'm keeping expectations basement-level until they prove otherwise.

But man I hope this time they're right.

@Gr81 Agreed, typically referral programs have some incentive for the referee. I’m not going to do a brand’s marketing work for them (and in this case, it seems like it’d just make more sense to cut out the referral program and have MS give out the 14-day trials themselves).

@Tharsman Sure, but Microsoft chose to let it get published and they have had Zenimax for two years now. They knew the state of the game. But more than that it's another disappointing big Xbox exclusive. I'm not happy about this; even though Redfall never looked like my cup of tea I was hoping against hope for a banger. Maybe even something to get me to change my mind and try it. I guess on the upside I don't have to worry about clearing SSD space on the Series X.

But otherwise agree with your comment about single-player games going forward (the live aspect was part of why I wasn't super excited about Redfall).

You have got to be kidding me. I'm sorry, but real talk — this is getting old. What the heck is going on over at Xbox HQ? It's really frustrating that in 2.5 years the best AAA exclusive is the fifth Forza Horizon game. I'm disappointed that my Series X just feels like so much untapped potential still. It just bums me out.

@JayJ I was a SNES kid but I wanted a Genesis and Sega Channel SO bad. Thanks for nothing, mom and dad.

@FraserG While I share a lot of TinTin's sentiments (I too care less and less about this stuff and just want to play games), I also want to take the opportunity to say thanks too. I know in a lot of ways this is an unenviable and thankless job. I also know you guys have your hands tied to a degree: you're a small staff and, being honest here, at the moment your news choices basically revolve around updates to existing games, news on 3rd-party games, or the Activision-Blizzard case. That's not a lot to work with, especially if you have a daily content quota. That's honestly why I love the weekend thought pieces that are broader in scope (I think Ben typically does these?); they're a great way to bring value and make the best of a slow news cycle. But I think you guys are killing it and have always come up with creative and interesting ways to keep me coming back.

So again, just wanted to say thanks for the effort and hard work from you and team. These things often go unsaid but they're not unnoticed.

Also I know I've brought this up before but I'll shoot my shot again: I'd still love for some crossover stuff from you guys and other Hookshot sites. As a console-agnostic gamer I feel that I kind of both belong everywhere and nowhere at the same time (especially in the comment sections at times!). Not sure if crossovers are forbidden by the higher-ups or what kind of red tape they'd entail, but it could be another great way to bring value and maybe a fun content series. I know I'm certainly not the only one who owns and plays on multiple consoles, especially here on Pure Xbox.

@JayJ PS+ launched in 2010. Xbox Games With Gold launched in 2013.

You’re right that Xbox Live Gold started earlier but they didn’t have “free” monthly games. Then again, PS2 was online a year before that already and Dreamcast had online games before both Xbox and PS2. Everyone iterates on one another.

Regardless, my original comment was obviously being silly and not meant to start some kind of debate. I just was having a laugh at how The Sega Channel was ahead of its time.

@JayJ to be fair, a lot of Gamepass built off what PS+ did — especially in its early days when it had a set library for several months. And PS+ was iterating on services that came before, going all the way back to The Sega Channel.

All roads lead back to how ahead of their time Sega always was.

(Tounge-in-comment aside, I totally think MS found a innovative way to market and position GP thanks to that massive warchest)

Not looking forward to seeing this dragged out even MORE (I was already getting sick of the story and all the speculation, honestly).

My question is how much more money is MS willing to sink into this, especially with a chance they lose again? And after a year and half (I think?) of sandbagging themselves, are they willing to spend another year or more continuing to downplay their successes — and I think let Sony gain a lot of ground — to try and get this deal done?

I guess it's an issue of how much brand damage they're willing to do to themselves over this. They obviously know where that line is more than me. But it seems riskier the longer this goes on. They might be holding on a little longer to see how another review or two goes, but I have to imagine they're reassessing the risk vs. reward.

@BrilliantBill It's funny, you read my mind. As soon as I wrote that, I wondered if all if this money would be repurposed back to the Xbox division anyway, or (more likely) spread throughout MS. It's obvious the big reason this check was cut was for the mobile division and, like you said, COD microtransactions. That's an insane ROI.

I'm a multiplat guy so I don't really care about COD going exclusive, but to your point MS has now purchased (or already had) a lot of IPs...I think at this point it's not an IP problem but a project management one. Looking forward to them shoring this up and getting some of these long-in-the-cooker exclusives (Perfect Dark, Fable, maybe a good Halo again someday) out the door.

See, this is why we broke off from the King and his tyranny to form America!

All kidding aside, I’m not going to lose sleep about rich people not getting richer. Would have been nice to have these games on Gamepass but maybe MS will take this stupid amount of money and sign deals to make the service more appealing (personally it has not been doing it for me for months). I’m not really interested in MS gobbling up more of the industry, but this is a LOT of money freed up to apply in other ways — and they’ve been sandbagging themselves during this whole thing to get the deal approved. Maybe this will get the gloves taken off.

Also screw Bobby Kotick. Maybe he doesn’t get as good of a golden parachute now.

It doesn’t look like my cup of tea, but I’ll probably check it out at some point (assuming I can clear room on the Series X).

Lots of great games here, but I couldn't care less what Aaron Greenberg thinks about....anything, really.

Ironically, Forza Horizon owes a lot to the Test Drive Unlimited series. Loved the TDU games and can’t wait to see the OG return. Hopefully it’s a great game both for it being fun to play and to give the Forza Horizon games a little motivation to step it up. I love the FH games but it’s clear lately they could use some competition.

Honestly, there’s nothing I’m excited for this month (yes that includes Redfall, though it’s not a frame rate thing — just not my bag). But that’s okay, it gives me time to chip away at the Forza Horizon 5 rally DLC backlog.

Aw, who am I kidding. I’ll be lost in Tears of the Kingdom like everyone else.

As a multiplat guy: Looking at the list, almost all of these are part of the Ubisoft selection in PS+.

As someone who tries to be price conscience: why would I spend $18 a month when almost all of these games have hit well below that price to buy and keep? The only caveat to that is new games hitting day and date, but those always drop like a rock in price fast too.

I’ll be curious if going forward Ubisoft stops steep sales on its brand new games to drive subscriptions.

“Xbox WHEN!?”

Not anytime soon. I’d temper expectations; this would probably make a Series X or PS5 catch fire.

@themightyant I’ve literally had the exact same debate here and gotten the same level of hostility. Porting a game between Xbox and PC takes more than a simple click of a button.

Selfishly I also have PS+, which has most of Ubisoft+ rolled in through anyway. So I’m voting EA Play.

Either way, Ubi prices drop like a rock shortly after launch. EA Play still seems like the better value.

Corporations are full of people, and some people burn bridges, sully relationships, and make bad decisions.

I know the knee-jerk reaction on fan sites can be to defend the brand, but I think this is as plausible as anything else.

As others have said, no console is going to “have it all.” Every console has great exclusives and if you don’t want to miss out, I encourage getting everything you can. In fact I remember when this was just an assumed principle of videogames; it’s weird to think how wanting a console to play everything would have looked like in the N64/PS1/Saturn days or the SNES/Genesis ones.

I admire the intent, but as others pointed out they've shot themselves in the foot by making it more expensive. Even if it was more expensive to produce with this new method, you'd hope that MS believes in its values enough to cut costs down somehow.

Time and time again, studies have shown that people 1) are very concerned about climate change and 2) will happily buy a eco-friendly product if it's the same price or cheaper --- but the vast majority draw the line at paying more.

@ZuneTattooGuy There's literally a 1TB Samsung SSD for PS5 on Amazon right now for $89.99........

They're not that expensive and they also go on sale frequently.

My Series X is always riding the 95% range which sucks.

Sony gets a lot of flak for their decisions this gen (and deservedly so), but this is one area where they got it right. I upgraded my PS5 with another 1TB SSD (so close to 2TB total) for $80. I’m not even bothering to upgrade my Series X until these prices come down.

Great, Gamepass making the same moves HBO Max is these days.

Uh-oh, here come the gamers who claim to understand game design better than the devs themselves....

@Moonglow "Disruptive" is almost always a very good thing in tech and I've rarely heard anyone not wear it as a badge of honor (I work in tech). Disruptive technologies change the ecosystem, shake up the status quo, and make everyone rethink what's possible which is exactly what Gamepass did.

Gamepass was a marketplace disruptor and the market is changing to accommodate (see PS+ following suit).

This a weird game of semantics. Just because it’s additive to consumers’ purchasing habits doesn’t mean it’s not disruptive; it has absolutely disrupted the marketplace (and that’s a good thing).

Seems like MS is doing everything they can to sound less impressive for regulators these days.

1) This is ultimately good for the industry and gamers.
2) Bobby Kotick is still a piece of trash and hearing him act pious about anything makes me want to hurl.

I'm honestly fine with a solid 6-7/10 game (some of my favorites are those). As long as expectations are set, I don't need every game to be an original masterpiece — and I wasn't expecting this game to be a GoTY contender.

It sounds like the biggest gripe so far is that other games do it better, which I kind of always expected. It's just that this had a unique setting, lots of style, and a tone that reminds me of what Saints Row used to be. As long as more reviews stay in this range or higher, I'll still be interested.

(Removing original comment)

And the crowd goes mild.

Makes sense, though I feel awful for anyone who just bought a bunch of Gold and was horrified to see this was quietly canceled.

I do think this is a precursor to the inevitable GPU price increase (especially after the Activision deal clears) which is going to make some people lose their minds.

Rockstar: No, you'll have to wait five more years. And it'll cost ya.

Side note, I can't believe it has been five years already. Holy cow. When I reflect back on my time with RDR2, it really feels like a place I visited. More than any other game I can think of. It's wild we're still finding out new details in the game.

This is probably not what people meant when they wished The Last of Us was on Xbox.

Infinite nearly tied with Reach and outperforming ODST is why we don’t have nice things.

This just reeks of WB’s doing; they seem so microtransaction-obsessed. They’ve even done it to my beloved Mortal Kombat with X and 11 (though MK9 was thankfully spared). Such a shame, and makes me concerned for other WB games.

Interesting move to drop on the same day as new Mario Kart 8 DLC.

As countless others said above, when it comes to Mario Kart — no one comes close. (Though I have enjoyed some of the Sonic racing games).

"You might be able to win one!"

No thank you.

@Fenbops 100% agree with all of this. The S doesn’t have to be dropped, but Xbox is going to suffer if there continues to be forced parity between its consoles.

Microsoft didn’t deceive anyone; any consumer who got an S agreed to a less powerful console in exchange for a cheaper price. I think that’s a fair trade-off for many players. But it’s also not reasonable for the S to dictate how MS plays this gen or let gamers on both consoles miss out on games.

I also think it’s incredibly unfair and a little ignorant of development for people to insist that devs are being “lazy” for not spreading themselves thinner than they already are.

The way I see it, your approach is reasonable: leave it up to the devs. Or better yet, let games launch on both but don’t force feature parity. Previous console gens had a checkbox on the back of the box that detailed how the game would run on the base console vs the mid-gen refresh; I could see something similar here with certain features.