As big a map as 3 combined which you can sit on a bus / train to get around? Your cars have to fill with petrol? Spend time with another character?

It sounds like a right schlep and youll only just scratch the surface after 30 hours! Cheez...

@Grognard66 yep "soft redundancy" they call it. All American firms are at it. I work for a collasal American firm here in uk and were 5 days a week in office mandatory.

Truth is it really does increase productivity and collaboration.

You have to shrink to grow.

Steam machine is a seriously pricey little box with a massive identity crisis.

XH just needs to undercut it.

Yeah SoD 2 I enjoyed but it kind of fell off a cliff for me because the detailed and repetitive micro management of bases and resources got too monotonous.

I ballsed up a mission too with 2 of my strongest and skilled characters, they died and I could no longer be bothered with it....

That said I did have a good time with it.

Anyone know if its that dying breed of local split screen co-op?

@GuyinPA75 in this case though its been like a 3 year delay

@johnK wholeheartedly agree!! We must be of a similar age!! Add to that the plethora of choice with the likes of GP and its overwhelming.

What i don't get these days is the abundance of bland repetitive open worlds.massive time sink. Puts me right off. 15-20 hours in a game and that's me done i think

Still not bitter about the amazing atmosphere / graphics / sound but utterly bewildering difficulty of the ascent

I think its all really confusing for the person who hasn't got an xbox. What's "cloud gaming?" What's "remote play?" What's "play anywhere?" What are the differences between all those terms? Where does "Game Pass" fit into all this?

I love it. Its a cracking story with cool characters and some great music all over a reskinned prince of persia!

Hopefully its not as insanely and bafflingly difficult as The Ascent

Ill play Routine but I know ill just ***** myself, wuss out, then uninstall it

Massive half life everything fan here so still just Desperate to play half life alyx for the passed 5 years without spending like £1200-£1500.

Looks like, after months of anticipation from me, the steam frame won't do it on its own so not interested.

needs engineering works....geddit?

none. couldn't get passed that first beserker thing back in 2006 or whatever and then never ever ever ever played it again.

excellent. Rage uninstalled "The Ascent" the other day whose sound and visuals and level design i absolutely loved but it was just too dam difficult....This may fill that hole.

This is good cos I've loved pop since early nineties but I'm old so I'm confused about what roguelike / roguelite genres are...are they just buzzwords for "insanely difficult" and "massively frustraing"

looks like something, the thought of which would be awesome to play, but reality is i'll play it for 5 mins, be too sh*t scared and never play it again.

@Fiendish-Beaver i loved the atmosphere and the artwork of that game but it was just so so so so difficult. that ed-209 type thing, not far into it was just so dam difficult and I just deleted it in a rage!

that one with the dude from Game Of Thrones in I thought was most memberable from XBONE era.

@CaptainCluck - its probably already been pointed out to you in the numerous comments before this one - but just in case it hasn't - Ian Flemming, Bond's creator, always described Bond as having a scar down his right cheek.

@ZeD odd isn't it? I feel the same. It's hard to think that game passes phoenomal list of games within such a short space of time could be to MS's detriment....is there a critical mass...? There must be, surely

The idea of supplying an Xbox branded approved "steam machine" to play game pass games delivered through steam sounds like a brilliant strategy to me.

@Cakefish i wonder if its because it's xbox is positioning itself as a GAMES brand which could potentially be decoupled or at least take emphasis off the console side of things

It makes a huge difference to some. Seeing the vastness of an open world in a game is daunting, when you may only have about 5-8 gaming hours per week due to family / other commitements. There's nothing worse than spending ages travelling over long distances, having to do multiple side quests just to increase ability / skiills, etc.

Don't get me wrong open world has it's place, but it just seems to sometimes, be done for the sake of it.

So, with this new mafia game, it makes a massive difference to me, and i'm very happy it's a linear story.

what actual gameplay footage has been released though?

Anyone know if it's split screen co op?

@HelloCraigo bye and good luck!

(the best colour of the 4 behind you is top left, by the way - bit paler - the brown / orange is nicely subtle)

@GuyinPA75 Ghostbusters!

Christ alive the endless nights, circa 1999/2000; 6 or so of us huddled in one room..till bacon sandwich time at around 8am.

@GuyinPA75 go on then - you've twisted my arm. per-chased.

I'm expecing (hoping) for a surprise drop of BorderLands to coincide wth the film release.

hellooo. does this have a good campaign?

This 45 year old still loves gaming but my more creative hobbies are grabbing a bigger chunk of my spare time as i get older (guitar / piano playing).

Honestly I think the vastness of games these days overwhelms me and puts me off - build this, micromanage that, etc. Also, I gave up on the first puzzle of Hellblade 2 the other day - I just found it a bit too melodramatic and slow, so I installed "The Orange Box" Instead and relived a few memories on HL:2!

This is such an interesting question by the way - really enjoying reading the replies, and turns out a lot of you have the same sort of sentiment as me.

Replaced, Replaced where's Replaced?

which was the last one to have a good (i say good in relative CoD terms) single player campaign?

i wonder if my saves from my physical copy of control i had a while back (but sold) will magically reappear....? (feel free to answer, anyone who knows )

@Reptilio Amen to that.

what absolutley does my head in is that there's no xbox app for android based smart tvs or boxes like the shield TV, unless anyone out there knows any different...?

@ParsnipHero thats really where my frustration stems from! i'd love to do coop campaign with my 10 year old, so basically i've just assumed it doesn't exist in any guise in that game as a whole.

so yep - very grateful for the tip from @InterceptorAlpha - that makes up for lack of campaign coop in some part.

@InterceptorAlpha in that case i've been slow on the uptake. like REALLY slow...as in...REALLY REALLY slow.

Thanks.

split screen? no, course not.

@Tomato_Goose why can't you be excited for something you haven't seen yet? isn't that literally how excitement works?

@FraserG Completley missed that - thanks very much (said sarcastically)

REPLACED??!! I need a REPLACED Date!!

I do keep banging on about this. maybe it's possible but all I'd like to be able to do is locally stream my XSX in my house from one room to another it doesnt seem like it's a feature of say an android xbox app (on my android tv) or the samsung xbox app.

@Cashews Mate, they have cack-loads of cash, so why cant they spend it like "drunk sailors"

I'd wager the cash they paid for it wasnt to the detriment of any IP they have / had on their roadmap at the time!

same here. played it for 30mins on release day and was like...errr...nah.

fast forward to xmas 2022 period, started it again and was just captivated by the atmosphere. loved it. had to be in the right frame of mind though for the pace, etc. it just seemed to get better and better as I progressed...save for the wierd combat. as such it remains a massive gaming highlight of 2022 for me.

so I guess if you've "only tried it for 30mins" etc give it another go when you've the opportunity next.

@NEStalgia Cheers yeah. I guess what i mean is it's quite restrictive - I can't load up game pass app on my nvidia shield TV and start streaming - it seems to be mobile / portable devices only (not a mac user either)