Generik

The fact that Microsoft socials and YouTube immediately blasted out the list of all the games coming to Xbox and released Xbox branded trailers was genius. I personally forgot the Showcase was happening and got my first notification of Alan Wake 2 and MGS3 from the Xbox Twitter account.

Most of the show was basically mid. Some reveals I thought were terrible, such as Foamstars and whatever the game from Haven was. There were some nice looking indies but likely not ones I personally will be interested in. At the end of the day I was only interested in
Spiderman 2
AC Mirage
Alan Wake 2
MGS3
Destiny (got me with Cayde-6 /sigh)
Intrigued by Marathon, cool trailer, but need to know a ton more.

Everything else is likely a pass for me.

Keep debating on whether I should spring for Code Vein. 85% off is pretty legit. Just worry I'll play it only for the character creator LOL

I actually do check the Xbox store reviews and find them often useful. I usually will stumble on some obscure game on sale and the reviews can give a quick insight into whether it's worth looking closer at the game. As an example there was one small game that looked interesting until I noticed over half the reviews mentioned the game was broken at a certain point.

With that said, I'm not using those reviews as the end all be all. Just a quick glance direct from the console.

@Halucigens my thoughts exactly. $15/mo is steep and I'd honestly only be interested in a couple games. I'm better off buying a game or 2 of theirs after they've been out a while instead.

I'll probably wind up picking this bundle up. $10 more than I'd like to pay but the idea of how annoyed folks will be getting killed by a pink cat eared spartan is pretty entertaining. I've also redeemed $180 worth of MS Rewards this year so 1 frivolous thing doesn't make me feel too bad.

@GASEOUS They stated there are 4 days added to the end for people that can't play everyday. There's very little downside here.

After a couple hours playing Halo campaign I started getting messages on my Series X that the memory cache was almost full and could delay achievements. Then I got messages saying it was full and they would be delayed. Never seen that before tonight.

Other that that, game played great.

@Broosh That completely makes sense. It already feels like progression is better, so not worth paying ~$20 to skip some levels.

Can anyone say if it is worth getting the full premium battle pass bundle? I've held of on getting the standard BP as it's not clear if you can add in the premium after.

I'm a bit new to the F2P genre... Also kind of a sucker for cosmetics.

I loved what they showed last year. Hopefully they can make this into something awesome.

@PhhhCough I was just thinking the same thing. I've got Series X and a buddy has a 1X. I'm sure they set this up to avoid 1 purchase feeding 2 gamers 😅

@InterceptorAlpha read a Reddit thread about just that earlier this week. The more people dump points into the contests, the more value for those that keep them for real rewards. If everyone stopped dumping points into the sweepstakes, the amounts needed for gift cards would likely go up.

I redeemed $100 last week from my points. Only started actively saving points earlier this year. MS clearly doesn't want tons of people like me LOL

@ymo1965 I just redeemed 91,000 last week for $100 on the Microsoft store. Made the Astro A40 headset purchase a lot more palatable.

Weird that they are hyping this about as heavily as E3 a few months ago but claim nothing major will be there.

Really thinking I may snag a pair of these. Haven't done a lot of multiplayer for the past year or so but plan to dive all the way back in with BF2042. I had been using a set of Sony Wireless Gold plugged in which has obviously been an imperfect match on Xbox.

Been really wanting Scarlet Nexus so may have to pull the trigger. But got sooo many games queued up

Interesting that the actual resolution isn't revealed. Is it 4K? Will it stop the screen flicker when transitioning between a game and the dash? So many questions right now LOL

@Beagle absolutely. The constant hold B for 2-4 seconds is truly unnecessary.

Personally I just want streaming direct to the Xbox. That would at least help determine if a game is worth downloading. I'd also be more likely to commit effort to some of the specific game quests that way.

@TheOGChemperor That's great to know. I'm going to be travelling out of town next week and may see if I can get this to work in the hotel. 😁

Having just tried streaming from my Series X to my old Surface Pro for the first time yesterday, I was impressed how well that worked. I'd think a VR game running on the console but streaming to the headset would work pretty slick.

From what's been shown so far, I'm not sure what to think of this game. The very first reveal looked intriguing but then last year's updated reveal looked like a mess to me. Hoping this gives them time to really make something special.

It's laughable how this feature was essentially mocked most of last summer and now watching PS5 users twisting in the breeze trying to access previous gen saves while Xbox players just load up the game. I've seen numerous people on Twitter talk about firing up an Xbox 360 game on their Series X and finding a 10 year old cloud save waiting on them

So yeah... "It just works" 🤣

Really getting hard to juggle hard drive space on my Series X. I need to buckle down and finish a couple games LOL! Both of these sound good, and then The Ascent. July is killing me 🤣

@StonyKL I'd wager there is a decent return on investment for being the console mentioned in all ads. I watch a good amount of MLB baseball and see ads for MLB The Show all the time. For those not in the know, you'd honestly think it was an Xbox game as it includes mention of GamePass and ends with available on Xbox. Furthermore static ads seen in background during game specifically promote the Xbox edition with no PS logo at all.

Yesterday I heard MLB The Show is the 2nd best selling sports game all time on Xbox. Don't have verifiable source on that claim but Phil Spencer was on the IGN Unlocked podcast yesterday and did state the game had done tremendously well on Xbox.

All this is to say I think if the marketing really leans into Xbox, it could drive better adoption on that platform. That 2042 reveal trailer broke the internet for gamers and Xbox immediately after had the gameplay reveal. The game feels solidly Xbox to me now, even knowing it will be cross platform.

@themightyant The argument that it will impact sales falls a bit flat for Sony, who already allows EA Play on Playstation. They've essentially already opened that door. MS would clearly have to strip all the 3rd party titles out of GamePass on Playstation for a true apples to apples comparison with EA Play,

Fair point regarding some of the games utilizing streaming on Switch. I played Control on my X1X and bought ultimate edition to get the next gen upgrade for my Series X. I've heard mostly positives about how that worked out for Switch but just haven't tried 'taxing' games on that system. With that said, I'm in the camp that would never pick a native Switch version of a game like Witcher 3 or Skyrim, for example. I'd much prefer those games streaming off higher end hardware delivering the full experience the devs designed. But I totally understand not wanting to be tied to streaming.

@themightyant I think what MS would need to do is offer full GamePass experience on Xbox/PC. Essentially everything it already is right now. For Nintendo/Sony GamePass could be modified to only include Microsoft 1st party titles with maybe a few deals for exclusive 3rd party games.

That sidesteps the issue of Sony or Nintendo losing sales in their stores for 3rd party games that are in GamePass. MS gets access to a large potential subscriber pool and everyone gets access to all MS games. Literally everyone wins.

Imagine xCloud working on Nintendo Switch. Nintendo users getting access to full versions of games, not ports stripped to run on limited hardware. /Drool

@themightyant if you're a Sony or Nintendo player, you should be pressuring those platforms to allow GamePass. Solves the problem immediately.

Observation was pretty good. Should have checked it out after it got the Series X update to see how it was improved.

I really liked Man of Medan. Need to give it another run with different choices. Haven't played Little Hope, but got the impression it wasn't as well received. Interesting to see the author of the article imply the reverse. Need to grab it and give it a try.

@Xenomorph_79 I kind of chuckled reading the line about seeing Cole Phelps in a sequel.

@OliverOwen out of curiosity, why would you want things like a class locked behind a pre-order? I completely get cosmetic enhancements or a special item or XP booster. Just not sure I can get behind the idea of essentially punishing future players who buy the game post launch. It's literally a core part of the game.

I started with BF2 on PC and have great memories of that game. In console I definitely had the most fun with Bad Company 2. Fun campaign an HD multiplayer was amazing with literally everything fully destructible..
BF3 and 4 were great. Loved the "Levolution" system in those games.

I dig em.. curious how much they will cost.

I've heard good things about this game. Been wanting to check it out, especially with Rutger Hauer in it.

It's great to see this. A clear sign that Xbox has taken massive strides and it's paying off. Things like this or seeing 3rd party games like Yakuza finally releasing to Xbox indicate this isn't going to be a generation dominated by only Sony.

It's funny that just yesterday I was trying to remember the name of this game and couldn't. I expect this will get some buzz for a week if it's on GamePass, but I wouldn't pay for it personally.

Couple of these look pretty interesting. Might check out Kursk.

@Krzzystuff I loved the footage from last year. Gameplay looked super slick and very fun. The only real complaint I had was seeing cloud textures pop in at one point.

With that said, I'm glad they delayed to really get it right. Hopefully it lives up to the hype.

@Krzzystuff As a Yankees fan, I'm not a fan of the up and coming Blue Jays. They are in same division, so in my mind they are at least kind of rivals.
Side note - my son has gotten pitching training from a former MLBer of the old Montreal Expos. I got to a game there decades ago.. it was odd to watch a live baseball game and the stadium announcer was speaking French 🤣

@S1ayeR74 Not only would Sony be years behind, I honestly don't think they have the finances to build our their own ground up infrastructure. Microsoft has invested billions and has data centers all over the world. It wouldn't be impossible but... Probably?

@S1ayeR74 As an administrator for MS Azure and Office 365 for over 35k users... Yes and sometimes no. Lots of weird outages happen with Azure that maybe don't bring the entire infrastructure down, but cause headaches for swathes of users.
Honestly I couldn't wait to migrate to the cloud. There are days I miss being on premise for everything 🤣

I'm certainly going to be in the minority but I'm honestly underwhelmed. Disappointed that this trilogy wasn't really brought all the way to modern standards.

I've been playing solo and find it crazy how much 1 tier can increase the difficulty. Love that you can easily adjust to get through a tough fight then swap back when just dealing with grunts.

Maybe I need to consider spending some points on these sweepstakes...

Both Deliver Us The Moon and Gato Roboto are excellent. They also are relatively short.

@everynowandben I love Control. When I get done with my current Witcher 3 play through I'm looking forward to checking out the next gen updates for Control as well as the DLC.

I really need to finish this. Was playing it in my One X right before getting Series X and haven't gone back yet.

Honestly thought this game looked kind lame when it was first shown. Tried it on GamePass and it's pretty great.

Insert Elon Musk "Funding secured" joke here