GeeEssEff

@themightyant very good point. I tend to use a combination of Steam and Metacritic when I’m looking at buying games to try and get a complete picture but the percentage score on Steam deffo helps, particularly for smaller indie games that don’t often get full critic reviews.

The Outer Worlds 2 and THPS 3+4 for me.

@Fiendish-Beaver turns out I only got it half right. 500 reviews at 95% to be overwhelmingly positive but only 50 reviews at 80% needed for very positive. I was looking at steam store this evening and saw a very positive game with 280 reviews and immediately thought “I’ve just outright lied on Pure Xbox”

@Fiendish-Beaver It doesn’t completely help but for something to be “Very positive” or “Overwhelmingly positive” on Steam it needs at least 500 reviews. If a game only had 200 reviews for example it would just be “Positive” or “Negative”

I loved the first but didn’t get on as well with the second. Either I’m very much looking forward to seeing what they do next with the series!

@Chip-Douglas the ‘scale’ depends entirely on what games you are interested in. Highly acclaimed indies like Deep Rock Survivor, Mullet Madjack, Digging a hole, Supermarket Simulator and Back to the Dawn are going to be more interesting to a lot of people than Phantom Blade Zero which, for all we know, could be a steaming pile of 💩 when it releases.

You also don’t actually know any of the details about any of the deals in place. For all you know MS could spend more than Sony per year targeting indies for gamepass. Sony might not have even needed to pay for this game if the devs have no desire to release on Xbox or Switch. Absolutely pointless speculating on who is worse or who does what because at the end of the day it’s all part of business dealings we aren’t privy to. Enjoy the games where they release and if that’s not on your chosen platform either get a PC or cross your fingers for a future port 🤷‍♂️

@Chip-Douglas Well now you’re just moving the goalposts. Either third party exclusivity is bad or it isn’t. It can’t be fine when Xbox do it and bad when Sony do it.

@Chip-Douglas see my comment #28…that’s not the full list btw that is just some of the more popular games and all third party.

Friendly reminder that Xbox also has plenty of console/timed exclusives so if Sony are an evil moustache twirling villain then so are they. This year saw Mullet Madjack, Deep Rock Galactic Survivors, Routine, 33 Immortals, Dome Keeper, Cloverpit, Decenders Next, Mechabreak, Lonely Mountain Snow Riders, Void Train, Space Marine Remaster, A game about digging a hole, Back to the Dawn, and Super Market Simulator.

@Jenkinss Peak sarcasm 😂😂

I’m inclined to agree with them. KCD2 is my personal GOTY but sometimes a game comes along that just captures the hearts and minds of everyone and E33 did that this year.

I’m a big fan of the tv show so rooting for this to be good but it just looks so generic.

@Fiendish-Beaver I was also thinking it’s usually earlier because I remember watching some of it last year but I think it’s because it was on a Friday. Definitely not staying up for it on a work night!

Edit: I’m an idiot, it was on Friday in UK because it was past midnight. Either I am misremembering and watched a recap or I had Friday off

I played for a couple of hours last night and it kicked me straight in the Nostalgia. It doesn’t feel like Halo atall gameplay wise but I can see a bit of Halo in the environments.

I know I shouldn’t get my hopes up for a good modern carmageddon game but I am still going to get my hopes up for a good modern carmageddon game

Finally. Next step is giving us the option to force a cloud sync but at least they are going in the right direction.

@Jenkinss Yeh I have had 2.5 and a bit years of use out of mine and love it but won’t be getting another as the trust is gone. I took the plunge and ordered one of these SCUF Valor controllers as a little Christmas treat to myself. They are difficult to get in the UK so will basically be Christmas by the time it arrives from your neck of the woods!

Ohhh just in time. The RB on my Elite Series 2 has just gone. I’m going to try and fix it with some YouTube tutorials but if I mess it up this could be the replacement

I didn’t get my 360 at launch which meant I had some games to catchup on by the time I got one. Out of those it’s between Kameo and Amped for me.

@Titntin Good choice of games! Unicorn Overlord was one of my favourites from last year and BallxPit is addictive as sin!

Some of the best gaming memories of my life. I miss you 360, you flawed but wonderful beast.

If a game I want is play anywhere I would buy it on Xbox. Most of the games I want aren’t play anywhere so I buy them on Steam.

I have met many people over the years who have judged gamers and considered it a waste of time….Many of them religiously tune in to shows like love island, Made in Chelsea or I’m a celebrity and unironically see this as a higher form of entertainment.

There’s plenty more productive ways I could spend my free time but gaming is my favourite way to switch off, relax and unwind so I don’t see it as time wasted. I do sometimes feel a bit guilty about not doing stuff like learning a new skill instead though.

@Kezelpaso Yeh it doesn’t seem to have the universal appeal BO6 did. It’s weird for me as I tend to do really well on release and get worse as other players get more used to the guns and maps. My innate COD abilities are thoroughly failing me this year though and I’ve definitely seen my rage quit ratio increase as my E/D ratio drops 🙄

That hybrid perk speciality thing is a great addition over last year though to address the previous need to use perks you don’t like just for the bonus. Like you say there’s a good base and some smart tweaks but it’s just not going to keep me playing I don’t think.

@Kezelpaso I always appreciate your observations on COD. I’ve played every single mainline entry to at least prestige 1 and am getting ruined on this way more than usual. While aging reactions and a waning enthusiasm in general are no doubt playing a part I can’t help but feel that the gun balancing is a bit off. I usually love a sub machine gun but every single one I have tried (up to dravec as I’m lvl 32) feels like a pea shooter and even in close quarters I get melted by ARs. You had any of this?

I’m wondering if I don’t like this Cod or I’m over the franchise altogether but I just can’t get onboard with MP this year. Maybe I relied on SBMM more than I thought I did and have been shielded from the teenage sweats but I am getting absolutely rinsed here. I appreciate I can’t call a game bad because of my own skill issues but there have been countless times where I have shot first and riddled someone with bullets for them to 2 shot kill me in response. I will try hardcore before my GPU runs out to see if I enjoy that more but this will likely go down as my least played Cod in the series.

A dynamic theme and overpriced controller design

I moved to New Zealand yesterday as my GPU runs out in a matter of days so wanted to see if it’s worth buying on PC….its not. This is definitely a phone-it-in year which is a shame because Black Ops is my favourite series in the franchise but this game is just half baked. Half my multiplayer matches took place on 10 year old maps which haven’t even been reskinned but after playing some of the new maps I can see why people are voting for legacy ones…they are awful.

There was talk a few years ago of them stopping the yearly release schedule which I think they desperately need to do. It seems we get a quality COD every 2-3 years and everything in between is just a quick cash grab. This is not the Battlefield 6 challenger COD fans were hoping for.

GTA 5 released less than 3 months before Xbox One. I can’t see anyone caring all that much. If anything they will do exactly what they did with GTA 5 and use next gen as an excuse to sell a full price, upgraded version on the next gen consoles.

Nintendo has proven your average consumer does not care about power, they care about affordability, accessibility and good games which Steam has in abundance.

Well this was not the news I was expecting today. Very interested in how it develops!

Well deserved. I am new to extraction shooters but obsessed with Arc Raiders. The community is incredible and I have had some hilariously memorable moments with complete strangers. The gameplay loop is super addictive as well:
I fail to extract - I want to go back in to redeem myself.
I successfully extract - I go back in for more of that sweet sweet dopamine!!

10/10 experience….when I’m not playing it I’m thinking about it and I’ve not had that with a game in a good long time.

I would rather more Pillars of Eternity but can see how Avowed is more appealing to a larger audience.

@Fiendish-Beaver at least 20% of my steam library is a graveyard of games I have bought for dirt cheap and never played.

I will always be pumped for a new Forza Horizon
Cautiously optimistic about Gears
Super intrigued about Playground games attempt at Fable
Couldn’t care less about a Halo campaign remake

@Jenkinss Oh sound I didn’t know Valheim could get dedicated servers on consoles, that’s cool.

They might add server access in a future patch so never say never I guess. It’s a 10/10 game with or without mates though so I’d recommend giving it a go if it goes on sale if you aren’t willing to pay full price.

It’s been another great year for games. For me it’s KCD2, Expedition 33 and can’t pick a third between Donkey Kong, Yotei and Split Fiction.

@Fiendish-Beaver Yep exactly that. Basically the golden goose of multiplayer gaming for this type of game. I have put hours and hours into Minecraft with my cousin on Xbox back in the day and we always wished for a persistent shared world that we could hop in and out of without one of us needing to be in the game but ended up just having two worlds we would take turns in. We recently both got into Satisfactory on PC so I tried to set one up for free but it is a bit beyond my technical abilities. There are loads of third party server providers you can subscribe to but they can get costly and the moment you stop paying you lose your game. Pingplayers.com is a good example.

@Jenkinss Do any Xbox games allow you to host your own dedicated server? Even MS owned Minecraft doesn’t allow it on Xbox and tries to charge for it on PC.

@REALAIS ahhh right see I went to a couple of vending machines early on which sold just ammo, grenades and ammo recipes so assumed they would all be the same so haven’t looked into any more. I will check out the mod vending machines next time I play now I know that’s a thing so thanks. Consider my weapon mod gripe retracted (although i still maintain I should have found more dotted around in the wild)

I assure you though I’m not rushing…If I was just mainlining the story I would be way past the 2nd planet at 20 hours in. I have explored about 95% of first planet if for nothing else but to find those comics and I still have one missing.

@RiverGenie Yep but I feel the resource cost of crafting ammo to be quite high for what it is and I have swapped out Niles so I’m at the mercy of finding crafting benches which seem numerous in some areas and sparse in others. Either way for a game with gunplay as one of its core combat mechanics, I don’t particularly want to be stopping and crafting ammo after every couple of encounters. I will google that flaw though and see if I have missed it or can still get it so appreciate the tip!

@REALAIS my view of an RPG with builds and choices is that the game should adapt to my playstyle, not the other way round. I don’t want to be crafting various types of ammo every five minutes when I could just be picking up more of it off the bodies of the gun toting enemies I have just killed. I have had to adapt by putting skill points in melee and using that more but I am never a big fan of melee in these types of games. Also I’m well past Eden and a large portion through the story on Dorado and still not finding weapon mods. I noticed some at that black market planet but IRC they were super expensive and mostly for Assault Rifles which, at that point I hadn’t found any of.

It could be that I have just completely missed a load of early stuff and other people are having a different experience to me but I can only report on what I have found so far. Good game though, my gripes are minor in the grand scheme of things.

I would give it an 8/10 I think right now. The graphics are great, the missions are interesting and varied, I love the humour, the skills and perks are cool, the companions are interesting and I like the different ways to approach scenarios based on the skills/Perks you have.

My main gripes are that Ammo is scarce as hell. I am swapping my guns out regularly, not because I want to but because I am forced to select the guns I have ammo for. At nearly 20 hours I have found a tonne of armour mods but only 2 weapon mods which is annoying because I am pretty much using the same armour from the beginning of the game while changing weapons constantly. Performance has been iffy at times on both Series X and PC but tbf its been nowhere near as bad as some recent games. And finally, while I understand the reasons for not allowing a respec, I would have liked the option. I am second guessing all my skill and perk choices knowing how final they are, especially with the level 30 cap. I made some early errors in my allocation which are going to hamper me for the rest of my playthrough.

As a big fan of the Just Cause games I would have been interested to see how this unfolded but it is what it is.

I have bought all the gamepass games I wanted to play this month because I’m not renewing when it runs out in a few weeks. As much as I’m enjoying Outer worlds 2, Ball x Pit is my favourite game out of that list. It’s this year’s Balatro…pure addictive pick up and play gameplay loop.

@Fiendish-Beaver I reckon PC gamepass price increases are pretty much a given if they drop the requirement to pay for online play. If the Nextbox does everything people are expecting it to, then Xbox will miss out on several revenue streams that they have relied on in a closed console ecosystem. I can see a small price increase next year and a more significant one 6-12 months after it releases. The company who are probably most excited by all this is Valve….this will just be like printing money for them.

I am and it’s a lot of fun! Obsidian are rapidly becoming my favourite Xbox studio

Well done Obsidian. Looking forward to playing it. Just so I am fully familiar with the terminology, if a site giving a lower score is Xbox Tax, what is it when sites like XboxEra, Generacion Xbox, Windows Central, Mondo Xbox etc consistently give above average scores? Xbox Inflation?

@Titntin Makes sense to me. After all a Series S costs well over £1000

Console £350
Elite series 2 controller £150
Seagate 4tb expansion £400
Official wireless headset £100
Matching Series S toaster £25
Xbox mini fridge for gaming beers £60

@Questionable_Duck yep to mirror @dskatter, we asked and you delivered the sauce. I would say though that the polygon site does say something like “Sony are giving them out like candy” so while the full priced devkit probably does cost more than Xbox they still seem to offer accessible routes in for indies.

@Questionable_Duck Is there a source for the $2500 PS5 devkit? Only thing I can find is a post from Sony directly saying they offer a similar thing to ID@Xbox for new indie devs who sign up https://sonyinteractive.com/en/news/blog/complimentary-development-hardware/