JoyfulFire

Grabbed Rogue Legacy 2 at 45% off. Have been looking for another roguelite to fill the void after Dead Cells.

Watched this all the way through and absolutely blown away. It looks truly amazing.
I loved the original stalker game way back and this keeps the style and immersion just perfect.
The scenes when they were capturing body movement with actors was so good to watch.

Use adguard DNS. That space is then blank whenever an ad is supposed to be there. Windows Central has an article on how to use their DNS on Xbox.

I hope they have fixed the unity 50hz stutter that the current Xbox ports has.

Edit: they've gone over to the kex engine so imagine that issue will be fixed

Take my money, I'm up for the next gen.

This game is highlight of the year for me. Cannot wait.

To add, these aren't rumours, it was just Jez speculating on the podcast.

@CaptainCluck On that note, yes a positive thought. I do think it's going to be a good game, based on the recent previews on Youtube.
I'll take your point onboard. Complaining about complaining isn't a great look.

@CaptainCluck I haven't seen any reasons given other than "because it's Ubisoft". Seasonal passes for additional content are as old as the Titanic. AAA games on release with season passes bundled have always been expensive.
There's always the option to wait for sales and the game to be later patched up more, which I've always done. I just don't see the point in incessant whining about it. This is the model, it's not going to change because it evidently works.

This particular nerf has made me lose interest in bothering to put energy into getting the points. I was doing the daily quests, weekly and achieving the monthly quest. But the weekly console bonus was my main source of points. Dropping it by 100 points a week makes the whole thing a bigger grind than I can stand.

Crash 2 is the highlight of that game. Perfect balance of difficulty, platforming and gimmicky levels.

I see people complaining all over that it's not one of the older ones. This is the one Microsoft can monetize, it's still getting seasons, and the multiplayer is very well populated. So it was always obvious they would bring MWIII first.

I bought Forza horizon 4 ultimate since it's my favourite of the series and wanted to keep playing it after it gets delisted.

@Markatron84 The CoD hub contains a lot of assets (such as textures) shared between games such as Warzone, MWIII, MWII etc.

Picked up FH4 Ultimate Edition.
Interesting that Modern Warfare III is on sale on the PS Summer Sale, but not Xbox. I hope this is indication that it's about to go on Gamepass next week.

Other reviews have noted there's a few large spider bosses. So if arachnophobia is something you have (as I do) then proceed with caution on this title.

They are trying to increase the revenue from the game pass subscriptions, since the subs aren't growing as they'd like. This is just another way they are attacking that "problem".

Great, I'd really like to try the zombies mode in that game.

Dungeons of Hinterburg looks really good.

"Slimy platform stuff" - Phil was right. Sounds like Sony got an exclusivity deal.

It looks amazing. My most anticipated game of this year.

Nothing is free with a subscription, you're paying to access them. Definitely not free.

Played through it on the PS2. While it was a good game it was not something that was amazing enough to see again in 4k 60.

Even if true, it's only a target. Much more likely to be 2026. I'm happy for them take all the time over it they need to make it something amazing.

Looking forward to this game since the showcase earlier in the year.

Harry Potter mania seems to have passed me by. I never felt interested in the world, even long before the films and the games starting arriving.

How do EA play trials work on Game Pass? I thought EA play was included with GP?

@BBB Indeed I think CoD is still strong for now, but it is also in slow decline. The last releases weren't received that well, which hasn't helped. There are still a lot of people that will buy it every year for some time yet though.

The assertion is that there was internal conflict about what to do with CoD on Game Pass. There was never a report that it wasn't coming to Game Pass.
The price of GP could still raise to pay for CoD, we will have to wait and see on that one. But the news is good so far.

I feel sad that this got leaked. Did Tom Henderson really need to drop this? It's destroyed all the fun of finding out at the showcase.

Thanks for the roundup. Just picked up darktide on the Xbox sale ready for the content additions

Why only for 2 weeks? Sounds like it would be good as a permanent mode.

Just got a mouse and keyboard for the Series S so I can play Quake I+II with a little more accuracy. This list is invaluable, thanks for keeping it updated. I didn't know Warhammer 40k Boltgun had it until seeing this list too.
I wish Doom Eternal had mouse support!

@Dimey Other reviews are more positive. IGN is an 8, Eurogamer is a full five stars.
This is still a great review though, I'm liking how this is landing differently with each reviewer.

I have extreme arachnophobia. Was planning to get the game on Xbox when the expansion dropped. I'm really glad for this article as I had no idea there were spiders in the game. Saved me some money as I won't be getting it now I know.

@Lup this was what got me into Xbox in 2021. The price of the Series S was affordable and game pass was a no brainer. The series s is a good match for my 1080p TV too.

The right analog stick looks very low down. I think that would be uncomfortable to use for anything but short periods.

VATS is broken for me too. Constantly jumps from the correct chance to hit to zero percent. This only affects the 60fps target mode. It can be resolved by using the 30fps target mode. So it's a case of pick your poison.

I did some quick testing on both series S and X. On Series X it looks like visuals+30 hits 4k all the time. Visuals+60 is lower, probably between 1440p and 1800p, still looks fantastic.

On Series S visuals+30 looks like 1440p, while visuals+60 looks to hit about 1080p most of the time. It's noticeably more softer but still looks fine.

The visuals mode definitely works this time. Draw distance, shadow quality and foliage density are much improved on visuals mode across both consoles.

Take with a grain of salt, I'm no expert. This patch looks a real improvement though. At least it works.

I haven't tested VATS properly yet to see if that is fixed. (Edit: many people are saying VATS is still bugged)

I feel more like it's positive. I think they are referring to that rumoured Xbox handheld.

It's a bit late since finding the quality mode was broken I got it on Steam and have been playing on ultra settings there. Still it's good to hear they will probably fix the toggle and hopefully VATS on Xbox.

I will be a late Starfield adopter, since I thought it needed more time in the oven when it was released. Once the expansion is out later this year I'm all in on the premium edition.
On paper the new dialogue option doesn't sound an exciting change, but it's a QoL feature that really helps. The NPC staring blankly into your eyes thing has been a Bethesda staple for a long time and this will make conversations feel a bit less 'intense'.

If all Microsoft want to do is concentrate on the big IPs then we are going to see a lack of creativity from the first party studios. New ideas and novel games like Hi-Fi Rush will not get a chance to be developed.

305 votes on the poll and an exact three way split. I voted anniversary but I love them all. My favourite tomb raider games.

I would love more transparency with what is saved to the cloud in general. Currently the only option is to delete local data and/or cloud data for a game. It'd be good to be able to check on whether local data is currently being synced and what the progress is, and also to be able to roll back to a previous cloud save if there's a corruption problem. At the moment it's all "black box" and you just have to trust it without knowing what it's doing.

I'm one of those five million. Back into Fallout 4 with a new character and loving it so far.

AC Valhalla Complete Edition.

This looks amazing.