ILuvGames

Hopefully they either have a surprise showing by Gears E Day or they announce it’s going to have its own deep dive down the road. A whole Gen without a new Gears is not my favorite thing. :-/

@Fiendish-Beaver I won’t give up hope just yet. But if it’s not at the Direct and shows up at the summer showcase that will probably mean it got delayed internally. Although they announced Halo for this year at the Halo championships and that’s not at the Direct so I have hopes.

@Fiendish-Beaver Where our boys Fenix and Dom?!?!?! 😭

@Fiendish-Beaver that’s awesome! I also have a chainsaw lancer replica, it sits next to my Halo Needler and Energy Sword. I also have the collectors editions of the games, hoping there is one for E-Day as well. I also have a ton of figure, pops, full comic lines and autographs, controllers etc. I never did grab any of the consoles though. Those still working? The ones that you have. I love seeing other Gears-heads out in the world. Just the other day while picking my daughter up from school I was wearing my old Gears hoodie (I even had my Gamertag thrown on the back from when I did a local Gears tourney) and a guy walked by and gave a Fenix shoutout. Man I hope E-Day melts our faces! We call all raise 🥃 to Dom and shed a tear haha

Hmmmm I was planning on buying a Steam Machine this year, I passed on the Ally X last year because I had just bought the Switch 2. Unless the new Xbox console gets announced for this year it will probably be just the Steam Machine for me. Especially if the Half Life 3 rumors are actually true this time lol

@RentedPanda hopefully see something this year, if not the direct than the summer showcase. Schafer said a couple years ago that he is working on something new since being acquired by Xbox. It’s been cooking for a while if that is to be believed.

@RentedPanda Keeper was the sub team project. Tim Schafer is leading a different, larger project as he was not involved in Keeper. Keeper was led by Lee Petty, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the surprise reveal is indeed Schafer’s project!

@Fiendish-Beaver I am looking forward to Gears 6 whenever that comes as well! I love all the games but the core three hold a place dear to my heart and I’m not even afraid to shy away from the fact that I teared up when the trailer first premiered and Dom grabbed Marcus’s hand and Mad World played. So many great times with the game with friends and family, one friend that has left this realm years ago due to a car accident, Gears was always our after work game. Grab some brews, Taco Bell and slay! I miss those days! Now my wife will play through with me and have to experience all the emotions I go through playing E-Day lol some of my old buddies are already planning on coming back as well for Horde. There will be many a good times ahead this year with E-Day and Combat Evolved, just so many good feels wrapped up with those two IPs for me.

@VeganH I don’t think it has to convince single player centric gamers there are so many that prefer MP games (majority of gamers really) but you are correct it will have to convince a lot of them to pull away from their current games which is always the battle. There is usually one or two games a year that can break into the GaaS market successfully it seems anymore. These companies are crazy but really I think gaming overall is high risk investment regardless if it’s SP or MP, especially with new IP.

Having the four pillars release in the same year for the first time in over a decade is very exciting. Hopefully Xbox can hold the line and not have any games slip into delay. The surprise game could be Double Fine, Keeper was not a Tim Schafer project and he has been teasing a new IP for a couple years now. I would also expect State of Decay 3 to show up or maybe Clockwork Revolution as they did say they were planning on releasing more games this year than 2025. Hopefully we get a set date for the Direct soon!

@Fiendish-Beaver I can not even put into words how excited I am for E-Day haha

@Fiendish-Beaver Matt Booty confirmed there would be a January Direct just didn’t give a specific date. Supposedly the biggest one they have done (7 titles). It’s why I am optimistic Fable is atleast, for now, slated for 2026.

Dragon Quest was the RPG to get me into the genre. I am currently working my way through 3, 1, 2 and will grab this one after, love this franchise been waiting for the new one for a long time but happy we are getting all these in the meantime.

@Fiendish-Beaver if it’s not featured during this month’s direct it will not come out this year but if it is on there that means they will have it slated for this year so we should have an idea this month. Now if it holds that 2026 date is another question as they keep delaying it.

@Fiendish-Beaver I just can’t see them delaying it AGAIN. See what they say at the direct but Phil did say he wanted the four Xbox pillars to release 2026 for the anniversary and Fable is one of them.

@Eejay I definitely went a little crazy this year lol I was mostly looking for new stuff for the wife and I to play together (Sunderfolk has been amazing for us!) but also walked away with a bunch of SP games just for me! 😅😅

@Darylb88 man they delay Fable another year back there might be an online riot 😂

Cronos, Silent Hill f, Sunderfolk, Painkiller, Tainted Grail, Indiana Jones DLC, Nightreign, Cybercorp, Deadlink, Blades of Fire, Hell is Us, Little Nightmares 3 on Xbox, AstroBot on PS5 and Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, Dragon Quest 1-3 HD remakes and Metroid Prime 4 on Switch 2. Metroid Prime 4 wasn’t on sale but I bought it in the mess of the sale because I love the series so much and it’s a fantastic game so far.

Backlog. Not to buy as many games day 1 because I’m sitting on like 20 games I bought on this last sales between Switch 2 and Xbox lol

Metroid Prime 4 on my Switch 2 and Cronos on my Series X. May finally get around to starting up ghost of Yotei. Haven’t turned my PS5 on in a bit, it needs some love.

Really depends on what it’s packing and if it’s more open on store fronts. If they allow us, the consumers, more options on where we spend our money I would be willing to spend more.

@Balaam_ I hope Fallout 3 Remaster is shadow dropped! I loved the Oblivion remaster and would drop everything again to give FO3 a playthrough with the same love.

I read somewhere that it leaked there would be 7 games so other than the big 4 that everybody knows about I am hoping State of Decay 3 and/or Clockwork Revolution are slated for this year as well. I bet Blade is next year so not expecting it until summer showcase. It’s been too long of a wait for State of Decay 3

Should hopefully be getting the Developer Direct date announcement soon so we can get some solid dates on Xbox games.

@Balaam_ correct. Wish I had read this before responding to them.

@dskatter it will be a MS PC/Console hybrid. The hybrid will be the part that allows console games to be brought forward as they will probably not be able to bring everybody’s entire game collection forward with Play Anywhere, they have been investing a ton in those two areas.

Also they have to get dev kits out to not only their own developers but to others. I have zero doubts in this console being made unless there is some major financial snafu.

@dskatter I don’t think you understand what I said, contracts being signed and production underway was for those parts. They paid for the parts, they start creating the parts. I didn’t say anything about the console production. But with the contract they are indeed creating the chips that Microsoft signed for. Reading comprehension is important when responding to a comment.

The next Xbox is coming, I don’t see why people are doubting this. Contracts are signed and production is well underway, but that isn’t until 2027 at the earliest anyways. 2026 is bringing us a new Gears! New GTA, new Fable and hopefully Halo getting back on track. Forza Horizon 6 will no doubt be the best racer and set the new standard as 5 did. Things are looking great!

Happy New Year everybody! I am sooooooo ready and excited for a new Gears game and hoping back on some Halo. Year looks great.

I’m looking forward to checking out Highguard. Yea it gets hate and some of the characters look generic but end of the day gameplay is king and the makers of that game know how to make a great playing game. It’s free as well so if it is not good, no sweat off my brow.

I voted

1. The Outer Worlds 2
2. Doom The Dark Ages
3. Avowed
4. Grounded 2
5. Oblivion Remaster

Doom The Dark Ages
Monster Hunter Wilds
Expedition 33
South of Midnight
Avowed
The Outer Worlds 2
Metal Eden
Sunderfolk
Oblivion Remastered
Mario Kart World
Metroid Prime 4
Donkey Kong Banaza
Borderlands 4
Ninja Gaiden 4
Keeper
Dying Light The Beast
Gears of War Reloaded
Abiotic Factor
Grounded 2
Split Fiction
Wanted: Dead
Assassins Creed Shadows
Mullet Madjack
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black

Might have Tainted Grail finished by the end of the year 🤷🏼‍♂️

The Outer Worlds 2 was my personal GOTY. I really enjoyed Avowed as well. Really anything obsidian is great.

@Fiendish-Beaver I am the same way. It’s on sale right now and the style appeals to me so I will probably buy it and put it on the ever growing backlog. Happy holidays!

My hidden gem of the year is Sunderfolk. I just can’t recommend that game enough

@Fiendish-Beaver how was The Thaumaturge? I been staring at that game for months. I’ve already bought a lot of games on the current sale and that one I might nab before it ends just to pile on the ole backlog.

I’ve bought a lot. Hell I bought 7 games alone on the recent sale 😂

I bought so many damn games on this countdown sale. Probably won’t be needing to buy any games until May anyways lol well besides Resident Evil 9. That one is a no brainer.

The wife and I have been playing Sunderfolk for the last few days. Picked it up on the Xbox sale and we are in love. Highly recommend the game.

Gears will be my GOTY no doubt but I don’t see any shooter being nominated for GOTY sadly. Forza Horizon 6 can be a solid 10/10 game like the last one and won’t get a nod either because it’s a racing game. Halo is a remake so probably not. Fable is the most likely one, fantasy games are the in thing right now.

@DeadSpace installed!

The Outer Worlds 2, Doom The Dark Ages and Avowed were 3 of my favorite games this year.

Cronos getting a discount is nice. Will be grabbing that for sure

@Balaam_ nope not trolling. A lot of those older Arkane Austin guys are spread all around. They also did some work on the upcoming Exodus (Archetype is based in Austin as well) before moving over to 2K.

@Shinato2024 I am friends with an ex Arkane Austin dev. They are working on a certain game at 2K now that wouldn’t SHOCK people if they saw their BIO.

Diablo 4 Paladin time!

1. The Outer Worlds 2
2. Doom The Dark Ages
3. Borderlands 4
4. Helldivers 2
5. Arc Raiders

Great article. I always feel like the Game Awards crowd are a little too nose in the air type of people. They like to think single player, narrative driven games are the only games worth making or caring about. I think Highguard looks like a good time personally.

Gears E-Day gameplay and release date!

Hell yea! Can not wait for some new Gears!

I would say B for the announcements. Some cool games there. Awards part I never really care about.

Disappointed in the lack of Gears Eday news but I suppose they are saving all that for their Direct next month

Looks like it could be fun. I wonder how big the teams are?