GeeEssEff

Scalebound looked good. It did not look good enough for us to still be talking about it nearly a decade later though.

@Mr-Cage I don’t know enough about game development or marketing to comment on the right or wrong way but I’m guessing they just haven’t been ready to show stuff until now. If anything, the hype around GTA means they need to get timing and marketing perfect because if they show gameplay that looks like janky dog mess they are going to put a lot of people off.

Look at ES6…that game was announced in 2018, four years before GTA6 and we still haven’t even had a cinematic trailer let alone gameplay. I don’t think it’s secrecy or hype building they just aren’t ready to show us anything and I imagine when they do it will be pretty close to release which seems to happen much more nowadays.

@Mr-Cage While I see what you’re saying about the Netflix deal it was only for 6 hours. I could understand the frustrations if it was permanently locked behind a Netflix sub but if someone is signing up to Netflix because they can’t wait 6 - 12 hours to watch a 30 min trailer that’s surely on them. As far as I’m aware streamers were still allowed to post it the moment it hit Netflix as well so there was still ways to watch it within the hour. I don’t necessarily agree with the approach but I also wouldn’t have lost any sleep having to wait till it appears on YouTube. It’s basically free money to Rockstar for the sake of 6 hours and it’s rare you will find a business that passes up free money in favour of taking the moral high ground.

This was the most exciting game this month for me so I am glad it’s reviewing well. Can’t wait to play tomorrow.

@Fiendish-Beaver Agreed but 2025 was a particularly good year for GPU which automatically makes this one look worse by comparison. By this point in 2025 we had Avowed, Sniper Elite Resistance, South of Midnight, Oblivion Remastered, Atomfall, Expedition 33, Wuchang and THPS 3+4 with Outerworlds 2, Ninja Gaiden 4 and Black Ops 7 on the horizon. That's not even taking into account all the great indies that went on. Considering it costs more right now than it did Aug 2025 it has been pretty lacklustre for day one overall.

The crimson one is very cool but I wouldn’t dream of spending £85 on a standard controller no matter how good it looks.

Having basically no hype for E Day I was surprised to come away from the beta pretty excited for the full release. I’m a fan of the new movement as I feel like I have more direct control of the character. I like the new horde mode because I can extract and don’t have to dedicate an hour to the same game which, due to my awful attention span, I used to find quite tedious. I only played a couple of death match games on MP but I enjoyed what I played so all in all it’s gone from a months GPU sub for the campaign to a likely purchase for me.

I have been looking forward to this for a while so glad it’s reviewing well. Will buy on Steam next week when I have some free time.

The first which was also the first game I played on my 360! Happy memories

@kungfumongoose I’m with you on this. I played the trilogy to death on 360 but by 4 and 5 I was burnt out on the formula. I’m actually more excited for E-Day after the previews knowing it’s not just the same old Gears we have been playing for the last 20 years.

@BacklogBrad I can see them making it open with hefty caveats. I reckon either it’s going to be ridiculously priced so they can make a profit on units sold or they lock other storefronts behind a subscription fee. It’s never made sense to have competing stores on your first party device, especially when one of those stores is Steam which beats out your platform in nearly every single way.

@RadioHedgeFund I feel they all added new mechanics to the genre, some more successfully than others and games like Deus Ex can be completed without barely shooting a gun. What I don’t understand is how the FPS genre can progress without at least some shooting…it’s in the name. Isn’t that like saying the Sim Racer hasn’t evolved since Gran Turismo because they are just about driving cars around? There’s trying something new and then just inventing a completely different genre. The moment you take all shooting out of an FPS it’s just an FP I guess.

Man you gotta give me Titanfall at least 😅…the parkour might be inspired by other games (Mirrors Edge actually another example) but If dropping and piloting a 12 foot mech into the battlefield during a game of Domination doesn’t differentiate itself from Perfect Dark I don’t know what will.

@RadioHedgeFund I respectfully disagree there has been no experimentation or innovation in FPS since 2000. Just a few examples

Titanfall - Mechs (woo) and parkour traversal
Rainbow Six Vegas - proper cover system and team commands
Ready or not - Takes Rainbows team commands/milsim style and ramps it up to 100
Bulletstorm - Made the way you killed enemies matter with a style system
Team fortress 2 - laid the ground work for pretty much every hero shooter clone
Red Faction - Introduced destructible environments which were insane for the time
Roboquest - not the first I don’t think but in general FPS roguelikes have become their own massive sub genre
Escape from Tarkov - popularised(ish) the extraction shooter as a standalone genre.
Superhot - completely turns the shooter on its head with a brilliant time mechanic
Deus Ex / Dishonoured / Prey / Deathloop / Bioshock - immersive sim style games that let you tackle objectives in different ways aside from just run and gun (although still an option)

Id argue there’s been a ridiculous amount of innovation taken place to varying degrees of commercial success. Even more if you’re willing to include games on the FPS periphery like Portal and Powerwash Simulator.

@awp69 bit hypocritical moaning about off topic convos when you dragged studio canal into this discussion. Hookshot has receipts!

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/06/sony-will-continue-to-chase-live-service-dream-despite-mostly-disastrous-execution-to-date

@shiny-enzo I know Asha Sharma has said it and therefore you have to toe the line and agree with it but come on this is dumb. Over 10% OF THE WORLD playing an Xbox game every day. 25% of the world don’t even have running water ffs. This would mean they draw in more players than every other platform combined: Steam, GoG, Epic, PlayStation, Nintendo, Luna…everything. This is roughly the equivalent number of every man, woman and child in USA and Europe all playing daily. It would be stupid if any gaming platform made this claim but Xbox in the midst of one of the biggest layoff events in gaming history saying it is just hilarious.

@CallMeDuraSouka They have already monetised the hell out of Minecraft It has an entire marketplace and several types of paid subscriptions which never existed before Mojang was acquired.

An 8th of the worlds population playing an xbox game every day is such a bonkers objective its almost commendable. That puts it close to MS Office daily usage figures. Factor in the 2 billion odd people who don't have an internet connection and she is looking to have 15% of the developed world. The exact kind of arrogant unrealistic nonsense I have come to expect from an Xbox exec.....100mil Gamepass subscribers anyone?

I bought the most 360 games by a long shot and they are either in my parents attic or have been given to charity. I bought maybe 5-10 on Xbox one and my single Series X disk is Forza Horizon 5 which came bundled with my console.

I can see them potentially teaming up with someone to offer a proprietary optional disc drive but I’m not even sure why they would do this outside of backward compatibility. They have been pulling away from physical media for the entirety of this generation to the point where some of their own first party games have physical editions for PS5 and not Series. As much as people here might love a massive f*&k you to Sony it makes zero business sense and would just drive up the cost of the console even more than it’s already going to be.

The fact of the matter is if PS6 isn’t physical, then in all likelihood game disks die with it. Publishers aren’t going to waste resources producing them for a console with a much smaller user base, many of which opt for Gamepass over buying games anyway.

I play Cod every year but usually get bored within a couple of months so it being on gamepass was perfect for me. Like @oopsiezz I am somewhat surprised that everyone kind of just rolled over and accepted this, if not applauded it after years of “Every Xbox game day one” marketing. Unless you love Fortnite and old Ubisoft games GPU is a worse deal now than it was 12 months ago. I appreciate everything is going up in price across every entertainment platform but I am struggling to think of a promise Xbox made during the FTC trial which they have actually kept, day one cod and no degradation of the product or price changes being some of the core ones.

Arkane do fantastic work and this closure would be the biggest blow for me from the growing graveyard. I remember hearing Xbox bought Bethesda to stop Sony tying up 12 month exclusivity deals after Deathloop….well if this closure is true congrats Xbox you succeeded in your mission. Nothing screams winning the console war more than sitting on a bunch of dormant IP you had no hand in creating and won’t do anything with. Creatively bankrupt idiots.

Dunno how the Xbox defence force gets up every morning for another day of mental gymnastics and justification. Must be getting on for a full time job for some of them.

@betterthings as a massive fan of I think you should leave I really enjoyed this 😂

All seems a bit rich complaining about the rising cost of components when parent company Microsoft are one of the biggest spenders on AI centric data centres. The whole thing reeks of hypocrisy.

@Swandivetotheasphalt Amazon gift vouchers seems to be sold out in the UK but you can redeem for Argos, Curry’s, Tesco, Asda, Deliveroo and many more….you should definitely look into it because that’s about £75 worth of vouchers.

Personally I am saving my reward points for whatever comes first out of Clockwork Revolution or Fable. Unless they announce GTA6 will be Play Anywhere for the eventual PC release I will be buying it on PS5.

@FraserG it would be absolutely bonkers although I do wonder if they are planning to position this as a limited edition luxury device aimed only at the type of gamers who have a spare couple of thousand knocking about. Oh well time will tell, have a great weekend mate

@FraserG I read when it was announced that you can only buy this as part of a bundle with the AR glasses which squashed all my interest. Do you know if that’s actually the case? If so there is absolutely no chance it’s coming in at less than a grand.

I picked up 007 a few days ago and tbh I’m struggling a bit to get into it. Hopefully it will all click this weekend. Aside from that it will be more FH6, some Crimson Desert and back on Marathon. I am loving the increase in third party Play Anywhere titles this year though. I have bought more on Xbox in the last 3 months than the last three years combined.

@GamingGod Same, I loved tuning into E3 especially on a console announcement year. I genuinely like Geoff Keighley and have nothing against the length of the show it’s more that it feels padded. I may be looking back with rose tinted glasses but E3 used to feel more focused.

SGF for me but I do wish they would cut down on the cheesy fluff and interviews. That show absolutely does not need to be 2 hours long.

It looks cool, I’ll be keeping an eye on this. I’m also very intrigued by what Gavin Raeburn has been cooking up with his new studio.

As someone who lives in a semi rural area which suffers at least 3 full power outages per year this is a terrifying prospect. No FH during storms for me.

@FarmDog08 I would take the 12 month thing with a rather large pinch of salt. They said the exact same thing in the June 2022 showcase. 3 of the 5 first party games were delayed, Stalker 2 took 2 years, Silksong took another 3 and we still don’t have a release date for Ark 2 in 2026.

Edit: notice I’m late to the party and @Markatron84 beat me to it!

The TMR sticks are a very welcome addition and will hopefully set the standard moving forward. Last thing you need on a handheld is stick drift. If the price isn’t too obscene I might be tempted to sell my Steamdeck for this.

There is going to be lots of soaking up the sunshine in the garden with the Steam Deck but when I am indoors I will be on FH6.

It’s a brilliant achievement from Playground, they absolutely deserve all the plaudits they are getting. Every spare minute I can find has been spent on FH6 the last few days….I cannot wait for the weekend to really get stuck in.

@Skinny-Pete Not yet. I was planning on giving it a whirl over the weekend but expect to get fully battered when I do. Have you tried it?

@Skinny-Pete Some series races would be fun. I can’t remember if they have existed in previous Horizon games or not but would definitely be a nice addition. Have a good one!

@Skinny-Pete Yeh I realised this last night. I was mainly focusing on the campaign races to unlock wrist bands but you can use the super cars in the street races which don’t give you campaign points. My mistake

@Titntin I was playing for about 45 minutes before I thought it’s ever so slightly jittery for 60fps and then I looked in the settings to find I was in quality mode…probably the smoothest quality mode I have seen in a game. Insane optimisation and I can confirm it works beautifully in performance as well.

I’d say deffo give it another shot. Apart from the legacy rewards it doesn’t give you ridiculous cars before you’re ready for them unless you get super lucky on a wheel spin. I’m a massive FH fan and this is shaping up to be my favourite so far!

@Titntin It throws the previous Forza gift cars at you early but you can’t use them for races until you have progressed quite a lot of the campaign. They are useful for getting from A to B faster and completing the danger sign/speed camera activities but progression overall is handled way better than 5 where you’re racing in Bugattis after 15 minutes.

I love it so far, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel and the dialogue is still offensively cringe but it’s such a joy to play and there’s so much to do.

I have looked in the account settings mentioned and under personalised Ads the options are to either get them tailored to you or just random ads. It literally says “You will still see ads, but they may be less relevant”…so at least in the UK it appears you can’t fully disable them just choose whether to let MS farm your data or see stuff you don’t care about.

I really want turn off the full screen popups. Earlier I logged into Xbox PC app and I had one suggesting I upgrade my FH6 pre order to the ultimate edition so I can play today. Like I have already bought the game stop with the hard sell Xbox, it comes across as desperate and needy.

I had problems with the home button registering on my Elite Series 2 within 6 months of purchase but it didn't affect games so I didn't mind all that much. The RB button completely stopping working within 2 years was the dealbreaker for me so I definitely won't be buying any more "Elite" controllers from Xbox.

I love Hitman but lukewarm on Bond. I will see how it reviews and then decide but being play anywhere would make it an Xbox purchase if I do pull the trigger

Yess glad it turned out well. Not that I had any doubts Playground would deliver but still wanted confirmation before pre ordering. Bring on Tuesday!

@Nexozi Yep I’m more than happy with the standard edition. I don’t need early access and don’t want to pay up front for mystery DLC. I’m sorry I’m really confused about the overall point you’re making here. If you’re happy paying for the upgrade then you do you it’s just not my cup of tea.

@Nexozi I mean that’s literally what I said I am doing in my first comment?

@Nexozi If it’s the only game I want to play then yep it is tough!

Paying £60 upfront and then a further £11-£17 each month I want to play a game is such a wild concept to me but fair enough if it works for some people. I will be buying the standard edition with my saved up reward points. Can’t wait.

Considering Microsoft have played their own massive part in the component crisis you would think they are better placed to make predictions on where things will be in the next 18 months but I still very much doubt they have a concrete plan in place. Even if they can account for components they can’t predict the whims of Donald.