I'm with others that disagree. Just because other games have had serious issues (Call of Duty far from the struggles of Battlefield and Halo) doesn't excuse 343 and Microsoft from releasing a game that was clearly not even close to being done. Combine that with the fact that things that should be much better, like matchmaking. Not saying it's not still fun, as it seems like it was the bit I played early on (I'm not really a multiplayer gamer anymore, but I have still followed along to know what's going on). It's just a shame it seems like this is another thing Xbox has struggled to manage right now.
Again, other people's failures do not excuse your own.
@BAMozzy It's a bit different when a person leaves in the middle of a game being developed and when a person gets pouched after the fact.
Still, you could be right that most of his job was already done. I doubt it was completely as I doubt it's much different than making a movie where the director's job is not actually done until the movie is completely finished.
In the end, we'll see what happens with Perfect Dark. This doesn't mean that Perfect Dark won't end up being pretty good. The main concern is how it seems like some of Xbox's internal studios are a mess (excluding Turn 10, Playground, and The Coalition), and that is concerning from a gamer's perspective if they have trouble managing their own studios that they didn't just buy. Again, obviously we'll see how it all ends up.
@StarWarsBoom My thoughts exactly. While games have turned out to be really good even with troubled development like Perfect Dark has had so far, this is never a good sign. It's also a bad sign that Microsoft can't keep people at the development studio they put together themselves.
@XxEvilAshxX Thanks for all that info. Knowing that, it makes more sense then. It would kind of suck for people who want to 100% every release to have to essentially play similar games multiple times, but since I'm not one of those, having the extra content is not a bad thing. I'll likely only play the "best" version of each of the games included, but still, it's good to have options.
Wait, 13 games, but several of them are just the same ones that were released and different consoles? Maybe I'm just being dumb, but that wouldn't really be 13 games then.
It could be because I'm looking at this on a computer screen, as colors aren't always accurate, but at least to me they do realize that Grogu is not green like Yoda, right?
@Bartig While I actually kind of liked it, it was still a massive disappointment. Regardless, this is a completely different developer that Microsoft put together. It's a big release if only to prove that The Initiative is a new AAA-caliber developer, which Microsoft needs regardless of how many companies they buy.
If they can prove that they can build their own quality development companies and not just buy them, that would go a long way in building confidence with people who might not believe that they won't just squander all of this potential like they did after the 360 generation (technically during that as their reliance on a few franchises started later that generation).
@Krzzystuff We're still losing plenty of points as well since they took away the daily quest for logging in to the Game Pass mobile app, so along with that and dropping the Play a Game Pass Game from 5 to 3 (seriously, really, 2 points a day breaks them?), that will be 7 points a day lost, which is anywhere from 210 to 217 a month (except February), and well over 2000 points lost a year.
Like you said, it's still good, but there's no reason to downgrade their biggest strength over PlayStation. Yes, I realize they don't have to do Rewards at all, but downgrading their biggest strength regardless (Game Pass) isn't very ideal.
Of course I'm looking forward to Avowed. Their western RPG dominance this gen after their acquisitions is a big reason why I have a Series X.
Can't disagree with @Chaudy though. While 2023 could be the year Xbox finally starts delivering on the potential of these acquisitions. Not to discount the last quarter of 2021, but the rest of the year wasn't good and neither is a lot of 2022 shaping up to be very good yet as their only major AAA release coming is Starfield. If they have a couple of surprises for this year, then things will come around, as one major game late in the year isn't enough.
Horizon Forbidden West on my PS5 and then more Horizon Forbidden West.
Might continue a bit of The Artful Escape on my Series X if I feel the need to take a short break, but it's all about my most anticipated game of this console generation so far.
Honestly, none of them, but if the reviews end up being pretty good I'll give Edge of Eternity a shot sometime down the road. I'm skeptical on CrossfireX as well even though it's Remedy. I guess basically a wait and see approach on them all, but I'm already busy with games for several months regardless.
Guardians of the Galaxy on my PS5. Started it up yesterday and I'm having a blast with it so far. They nailed it, which is great to see after the borderline disaster that was Marvel's Avengers.
@themightyant Who else would it have been? Since it's not canon, Mrs. Chief?
My initial reaction to seeing her wasn't exactly positive, but looking at it again it doesn't help that she's in front of a blue background. It's possible she'll look a bit different during the actual show in regular scenes. They got Jen to play the part, which is the most important thing anyways.
The Life is Strange comparison makes sense, but the art style/animation is unique and obviously it's a different story. Even if it was even more similar, I'd be up for it as this kind of a game isn't very common still.
Since it's an Xbox published title, hopefully it's a cut above some of the small titles that flood Game Pass. It's working for a lot of people, but for me not very many of them have stood out recently screaming to be played immediately. This looks to have the potential to stand out a bit. I'm hoping for the best whenever it comes out.
Well, they are because it continues to be crap. You do get the occasional solid game like Tropico 5 recently, but honestly it's usually just a bunch of old games nobody cares about. Even when they are quality games, they are usually games people beyond the hardcore gamers had no idea they even existed, so they automatically get shrugged off too. Usually even they are really old games.
PS Plus is not perfect either, but at least you get some modern games more often than not. I'd rather they did this than phasing Games with Gold out completely as even just a couple of worthwhile games a year are better than nothing, but the monthly criticism is justified when it continues to be more games from 10 years ago nobody remembers than anything else.
So far just Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Generations. Had to finally get both now that they are FPS boosted. Considering getting Max Payne 1-3, The Darkness 2, and maybe one or two more. Only issue is I may or may not be able to play some of these as I already have a lot of other unplayed games.
It's about time they had a substantial sale for backwards compatible games. Most of the recent sales just had a handful of BC games here and there, and mostly the same ones. I'll probably pick up Sonic Generations and Sonic Unleashed at the very least since I never did given the prices after they were both FPS boosted.
It would be great if they included some DLC in this like they used to. It's how I got some for just a couple of dollars for games like Dragon Age: Origins and Fallout: New Vegas.
Finishing up my 2nd playthrough of Horizon Zero Dawn on my PS5 and then I will likely continue The Gunk on my Series X if I have time. I played it for a bit last night and enjoyed it. Seems like it's a fairly simply but solid game, which is not a knock of course.
@FraserG Whether it was a mess up or intended, all the comments from the rumor article have been deleted now then since you did the re-direct. I would say not that big of a deal, but I had 3 responses to my post show up in the notifications while I was at work and now i have no way to know what they were.
@Dezzy70 You should have been concerned about Starfield actually making it's release date the moment after they revealed the date being in 2022 at all. I honestly give that about a 5% chance of making it's release date, especially since they announced it roughly a year and a half before it's supposed to release.
I'm really looking forward to it too, but like God of War Ragnarok last year, a delay is pretty much a given. The plus about that is it won't be disappointing when it happens since it's expected. Maybe everybody will be surprised, but a delay there like Stalker 2 will likely get as well is expected by many.
@Dezzy70 The likelihood of them pulling out is extremely slim. As others have said, the time they could have pulled out was back when this article was talking about. If the Series consoles weren't selling and Game Pass wasn't succeeding like they had hoped, then maybe, but neither is true. The PS5 is outselling them, but it's not like the last generation either where Xbox was getting their asses kicked. Even though you're not wrong that they could pull out anytime they wanted and be just fine as a company, there's 0 reason to worry about that in my opinion.
As for Game Pass, it's great, but I'm only subscribed to it because you can subscribe to 3 years of Xbox Live Gold and then convert it to Game Pass. If I had to pay $15 a month for it like what any other normal service would be like, then I wouldn't even though it technically would still be a good value. If I was an Xbox only gamer, maybe it would be different, but I'm not.
Continuing my 2nd playthrough of Horizon Zero Dawn on my PS5, and then I will also likely finally finish Halo CE. I still believe it's aged horribly, but at least the last couple of missions are actually pretty solid after randomly playing the game again. If the game didn't get better again, I likely wouldn't have ever finished it, as crazy as that sounds considering how much of a big deal the original is.
Nothing much as I would only consider exclusives for this type of "poll", and I think there's about a 5% chance at best of Starfield actually releasing this year. It'd be that obviously otherwise. Exclusives other than that though, I'd say nothing really.
@Shigurui Well, I guess technically I'm not entirely wrong since I said for as long as I can remember and I never knew it was free when it first went up on the BC list.
It has been a while though as I did buy it a little over 2 years ago, as I finally looked it up. In the end, not a big deal really. It was free and it's not anymore.
@Shigurui That hasn't been free for as long as I can remember. I bought it at least a year or two ago.
As for the choices, I doubt I'll actually ever play any of these since there's so much else to play and only so much time, but I still claimed Crackdown 1 & 2 along with Too Human.
@Ichiban On paper, it should have been a no brainer slam dunk of a purchase. They were one of the best developers for the genres they were making, but ever since they got bought by Microsoft, they've been a shell of themselves at best. Horribly mismanaged by Microsoft, which is unfortunate obviously since they should have been able to provide some much needed variety when Xbox had very little.
If they were bought now, I believe things would have went much differently. As is, I doubt we will ever get a return to their glory days like @Cherip-the-Ripper mentioned as they seem unlikely to ever get back to their Nintendo level. Sea of Thieves is solid from what people say (not my thing), but that's been one of the few positive things they've put out in well over a decade. Again, I blame Microsoft and not Rare for their state. Honestly, they probably would have found a way to screw up Ninja Theory, Obsidian, and most of the ZeniMax/Bethesda studios back then.
All well and good, but maybe they should just focus on their own games like Alan Wake 2 and whatever else they are doing with Control rather than jump in to these other games like this and CrossFireX. I'm a Remedy fan, which is probably why I'd rather they focused on their own stuff.
On one hand, it's great to see two solid Xbox 360 games, especially from what I just read about Radiant Silvergun, but the other two are laughable.
I hate to be the one to do it, but compared to the excellent start to 2022 for PS Plus, this can either be taken as a joke or a slap in the face. We're numb to it at this point, but still, they could at least make the Series X/Xbox One games ones we've heard of more often than not. They don't even have to be new releases to be an improvement. At least December had Tropico 5, something that's solid and from a known series.
I was half tempted to buy one since it looks great, even having it sitting at the checkout page to see if they even had any left, but ultimately declined as I don't want to go through the hassle of trying to sell my Series X I already have. I've yet to not have problems selling any big ticket item on eBay. No matter what, something always happens. Probably for the best anyways as I like the regular Series X too.
Still, it was good to see them last quite a while, so I'm sure a lot of people were happy last night.
@BlueOcean I've seen it off and on in reviews on YouTube and such, especially before Psychonauts 2, Forza Horizon 5, and Halo Infinite came out when they had very little in the way of exclusives. It doesn't really matter in the end, and I don't agree since there's always plenty to play thanks to the backwards compatibility.
Sounds like they might be turning into what Rare should have been allowed to back in the day. A shot at their past, but obviously a big positive for their future.
Still making my way through Dragon Age 2 and then Halo CE on the side. Still really enjoying Dragon Age 2, but Halo CE is really showing that it's a 20 year old game, especially once you get to the middle missions that are really repetitive.
@Alan_cartridge_ Honestly, it wouldn't be a surprise. I thought the same thing right after reading the article. You never know, maybe they'll surprise, but it also wouldn't be surprising if they snuck them in later. It wouldn't be the first time. We'll see, but it's at least good news for now.
I never doubted it was actually gameplay, just without a hud. It all remained consistently beautiful throughout the trailer rather than there being a mix of CGI to make the trailer seem "cooler". You can tell when a trailer is obviously CGI.
As for whether it was on Series X or not, they could have said whether it was, but there's also reason to believe the system can't produce a game that looks that good. The vast majority of the games so far have been cross-gen, and new hardware is very rarely ever pushed very far initially. To have a game developed specifically for the Series consoles that has been in development for a long enough time should be able to leap ahead anything that has been put out before it.
@Richnj You are right that we don't know how things would have went even if GTA3 was an Xbox exclusive. It still would have been interesting to find out though.
Yeah, it seems like Xbox knows how to manage things a lot better than they did before. They could have had the greatest developers in the world and they would have found some way to screw them up eventually back then, evident by the already mentioned Rare who should have been a slam dunk fantastic acquisition if anybody else was managing them but Microsoft at the time.
It'll be interesting to see how things go over the next few years. Obviously Ninja Theory looks to be in pretty good shape with Hellblade 2's great trailer last week. Obsidian seems to be working on several games, so obviously that's a good sign as well. The Initiative is the really wild card, as it's a bunch of really good talent put together by Microsoft. If Microsoft can keep them on track and Perfect Dark turns out to be really good, then nobody should be able to doubt that Microsoft finally knows how to manage their first party studios for the first time in well over a decade.
@Richnj Whether it would have been a timed exclusive or not is something we will probably never know, but regardless of whether it would have been or not, it still would have been a big deal to have the best selling game of 2001 as an exclusive. Obviously things would still be the same today where Xbox screwed everything up and almost left the gaming industry, causing them to have play catchup still to this day. Still, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if GTA3 was an exclusive back then.
@Ihavenomouthandimust There's still Ghostwire Tokyo in 2022 on PS5, but it's easy to forget it since it keeps disappearing after it gets brought up occasionally. Once that comes out at some point next year, I'm assuming it's the last Xbox Game Studios game to come out on PS5. There's nothing else I can think of.
@Ihavenomouthandimust It's not funny. It's a fact. It doesn't matter if a game has been on there for a while. If they are games that people consider really good, losing them is a loss. Not everybody has been on the service for a long time. I'm sure there's new subscribers every week, and it's always a good thing to have as many good and recognizable games on the service as possible when you are marketing a service to people and trying to get people to stick around.
Is it the end of the world? No, but again, Microsoft should want to keep as many recognizable good titles on the service as possible, and it's never exactly a good thing when they leave the service. Once again, it's also not funny if people are just pointing out facts. It is a negative against the service if it can only keep a handful of these kind of titles on the service, no matter how good of a value Game Pass is in general.
@Ashadelo You still did ok buying MK11 Ultimate since the edition that will be on Game Pass very likely won't have all the DLC that comes with the Ultimate Edition. I'm still going to consider buying it when it gets really cheap again even though it'll be on Game Pass because I want the DLC and eventually (likely a year) the game will be off of Game Pass anyways like a lot of others.
Not quite sure how this turned out to be a PS5 sucks and they have no games to play on it discussion. Couldn't be further from the truth, especially if you have a backlog from the PS4, but anyways I'll have to look into some of these games as I have no idea what any of them are outside of MK11 and The Gunk.
Really looking forward to The Gunk though. I've had it pre-loaded since the weekend, but I likely won't get to try it out for a little while. Hopefully it turns out to be good.
Comments 493
Re: Soapbox: Live Service Expectations Are The Issue, Not Halo Infinite
I'm with others that disagree. Just because other games have had serious issues (Call of Duty far from the struggles of Battlefield and Halo) doesn't excuse 343 and Microsoft from releasing a game that was clearly not even close to being done. Combine that with the fact that things that should be much better, like matchmaking. Not saying it's not still fun, as it seems like it was the bit I played early on (I'm not really a multiplayer gamer anymore, but I have still followed along to know what's going on). It's just a shame it seems like this is another thing Xbox has struggled to manage right now.
Again, other people's failures do not excuse your own.
Re: Perfect Dark's Game Director Appears To Have Left The Initiative
@BAMozzy It's a bit different when a person leaves in the middle of a game being developed and when a person gets pouched after the fact.
Still, you could be right that most of his job was already done. I doubt it was completely as I doubt it's much different than making a movie where the director's job is not actually done until the movie is completely finished.
In the end, we'll see what happens with Perfect Dark. This doesn't mean that Perfect Dark won't end up being pretty good. The main concern is how it seems like some of Xbox's internal studios are a mess (excluding Turn 10, Playground, and The Coalition), and that is concerning from a gamer's perspective if they have trouble managing their own studios that they didn't just buy. Again, obviously we'll see how it all ends up.
Re: Perfect Dark's Game Director Appears To Have Left The Initiative
@StarWarsBoom My thoughts exactly. While games have turned out to be really good even with troubled development like Perfect Dark has had so far, this is never a good sign. It's also a bad sign that Microsoft can't keep people at the development studio they put together themselves.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 12-13)
As usual, Horizon Forbidden West on my PS5. If I have time, I'll also give the demo for Final Fantasy Origin a try on my PS5.
Re: Konami Is Releasing TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection On Xbox
@XxEvilAshxX Thanks for all that info. Knowing that, it makes more sense then. It would kind of suck for people who want to 100% every release to have to essentially play similar games multiple times, but since I'm not one of those, having the extra content is not a bad thing. I'll likely only play the "best" version of each of the games included, but still, it's good to have options.
Re: Konami Is Releasing TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection On Xbox
Wait, 13 games, but several of them are just the same ones that were released and different consoles? Maybe I'm just being dumb, but that wouldn't really be 13 games then.
Re: LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga DLC Includes The Mandalorian Add-Ons
@Shinnos Honestly, I always thought of Grogu as gray, but obviously I'm wrong. I am slightly color blind, so there's that.
Re: LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga DLC Includes The Mandalorian Add-On
It could be because I'm looking at this on a computer screen, as colors aren't always accurate, but at least to me they do realize that Grogu is not green like Yoda, right?
Re: Perfect Dark And Avowed 'Probably' Coming In 2023, Says Jeff Grubb
@Bartig While I actually kind of liked it, it was still a massive disappointment. Regardless, this is a completely different developer that Microsoft put together. It's a big release if only to prove that The Initiative is a new AAA-caliber developer, which Microsoft needs regardless of how many companies they buy.
If they can prove that they can build their own quality development companies and not just buy them, that would go a long way in building confidence with people who might not believe that they won't just squander all of this potential like they did after the 360 generation (technically during that as their reliance on a few franchises started later that generation).
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 5-6)
Plenty of Horizon Forbidden West on my PS5 as usual. May continue The Artful Escape on my Series X for a little bit of a change of pace.
Re: How To Complete All Xbox Game Pass Quests In 2022
@Krzzystuff We're still losing plenty of points as well since they took away the daily quest for logging in to the Game Pass mobile app, so along with that and dropping the Play a Game Pass Game from 5 to 3 (seriously, really, 2 points a day breaks them?), that will be 7 points a day lost, which is anywhere from 210 to 217 a month (except February), and well over 2000 points lost a year.
Like you said, it's still good, but there's no reason to downgrade their biggest strength over PlayStation. Yes, I realize they don't have to do Rewards at all, but downgrading their biggest strength regardless (Game Pass) isn't very ideal.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 26-27)
Horizon Forbidden West on my PS5... for now and many weekends ahead.
Re: Three Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (February 24)
Super Mega Baseball 3 at some point. I'm busy with other games at the moment, but I will definitely download this eventually.
Re: Xbox RPG Avowed Reportedly Targeting Early 2023 Release Date
Of course I'm looking forward to Avowed. Their western RPG dominance this gen after their acquisitions is a big reason why I have a Series X.
Can't disagree with @Chaudy though. While 2023 could be the year Xbox finally starts delivering on the potential of these acquisitions. Not to discount the last quarter of 2021, but the rest of the year wasn't good and neither is a lot of 2022 shaping up to be very good yet as their only major AAA release coming is Starfield. If they have a couple of surprises for this year, then things will come around, as one major game late in the year isn't enough.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 19-20)
Horizon Forbidden West on my PS5 and then more Horizon Forbidden West.
Might continue a bit of The Artful Escape on my Series X if I feel the need to take a short break, but it's all about my most anticipated game of this console generation so far.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 12-13)
@pip_muzz That explains why it got removed from Game Pass. I didn't know why since initial reactions killed any interest I had in the game for now.
As for what I'm playing this weekend, Guardians of the Galaxy on my PS5. It's been great so far. Only 4 chapters to go.
Re: Pick One: Which Of Next Week's Game Pass Games Are You Most Excited For?
Honestly, none of them, but if the reviews end up being pretty good I'll give Edge of Eternity a shot sometime down the road. I'm skeptical on CrossfireX as well even though it's Remedy. I guess basically a wait and see approach on them all, but I'm already busy with games for several months regardless.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 5-6)
Guardians of the Galaxy on my PS5. Started it up yesterday and I'm having a blast with it so far. They nailed it, which is great to see after the borderline disaster that was Marvel's Avengers.
Re: How To Buy 'Delisted' Backwards Compatible Games On Xbox
@joey302 I meant the first one.
Re: A Halo Fan Thinks They've 'Fixed' Cortana's Live-Action Model
@themightyant Who else would it have been? Since it's not canon, Mrs. Chief?
My initial reaction to seeing her wasn't exactly positive, but looking at it again it doesn't help that she's in front of a blue background. It's possible she'll look a bit different during the actual show in regular scenes. They got Jen to play the part, which is the most important thing anyways.
Re: Xbox Exclusive 'As Dusk Falls' Gets ESRB Rating Ahead Of Game Pass Release
The Life is Strange comparison makes sense, but the art style/animation is unique and obviously it's a different story. Even if it was even more similar, I'd be up for it as this kind of a game isn't very common still.
Since it's an Xbox published title, hopefully it's a cut above some of the small titles that flood Game Pass. It's working for a lot of people, but for me not very many of them have stood out recently screaming to be played immediately. This looks to have the potential to stand out a bit. I'm hoping for the best whenever it comes out.
Re: Guess What, Everyone's Criticising Xbox Games With Gold Again
Well, they are because it continues to be crap. You do get the occasional solid game like Tropico 5 recently, but honestly it's usually just a bunch of old games nobody cares about. Even when they are quality games, they are usually games people beyond the hardcore gamers had no idea they even existed, so they automatically get shrugged off too. Usually even they are really old games.
PS Plus is not perfect either, but at least you get some modern games more often than not. I'd rather they did this than phasing Games with Gold out completely as even just a couple of worthwhile games a year are better than nothing, but the monthly criticism is justified when it continues to be more games from 10 years ago nobody remembers than anything else.
Re: Two More Indies Announced For Xbox Game Pass In February 2022
Not a fan of roguelike games at all, so it's a shame Dreamscaper is one since it looks pretty cool otherwise. Oh well.
I guess I'll have to be the one to say this though... Is this Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 in another dimension?
Re: Talking Point: What Have You Bought In The Xbox Backwards Compatibility Sale?
So far just Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Generations. Had to finally get both now that they are FPS boosted. Considering getting Max Payne 1-3, The Darkness 2, and maybe one or two more. Only issue is I may or may not be able to play some of these as I already have a lot of other unplayed games.
Re: Deals: Xbox Is Having A Massive Backwards Compatibility Sale This Week
It's about time they had a substantial sale for backwards compatible games. Most of the recent sales just had a handful of BC games here and there, and mostly the same ones. I'll probably pick up Sonic Generations and Sonic Unleashed at the very least since I never did given the prices after they were both FPS boosted.
It would be great if they included some DLC in this like they used to. It's how I got some for just a couple of dollars for games like Dragon Age: Origins and Fallout: New Vegas.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 15-16)
Finishing up my 2nd playthrough of Horizon Zero Dawn on my PS5 and then I will likely continue The Gunk on my Series X if I have time. I played it for a bit last night and enjoyed it. Seems like it's a fairly simply but solid game, which is not a knock of course.
Re: Bad News, Stalker 2 Has Been Delayed To December 2022
@FraserG Whether it was a mess up or intended, all the comments from the rumor article have been deleted now then since you did the re-direct. I would say not that big of a deal, but I had 3 responses to my post show up in the notifications while I was at work and now i have no way to know what they were.
Re: Rumour Suggests Stalker 2 Is Being Delayed To Late 2022, GSC Game World Responds
@Dezzy70 You should have been concerned about Starfield actually making it's release date the moment after they revealed the date being in 2022 at all. I honestly give that about a 5% chance of making it's release date, especially since they announced it roughly a year and a half before it's supposed to release.
I'm really looking forward to it too, but like God of War Ragnarok last year, a delay is pretty much a given. The plus about that is it won't be disappointing when it happens since it's expected. Maybe everybody will be surprised, but a delay there like Stalker 2 will likely get as well is expected by many.
Re: OG Xbox Creator 'Feared It Was All Over' At The Xbox One Launch
@Dezzy70 The likelihood of them pulling out is extremely slim. As others have said, the time they could have pulled out was back when this article was talking about. If the Series consoles weren't selling and Game Pass wasn't succeeding like they had hoped, then maybe, but neither is true. The PS5 is outselling them, but it's not like the last generation either where Xbox was getting their asses kicked. Even though you're not wrong that they could pull out anytime they wanted and be just fine as a company, there's 0 reason to worry about that in my opinion.
As for Game Pass, it's great, but I'm only subscribed to it because you can subscribe to 3 years of Xbox Live Gold and then convert it to Game Pass. If I had to pay $15 a month for it like what any other normal service would be like, then I wouldn't even though it technically would still be a good value. If I was an Xbox only gamer, maybe it would be different, but I'm not.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 8-9)
Continuing my 2nd playthrough of Horizon Zero Dawn on my PS5, and then I will also likely finally finish Halo CE. I still believe it's aged horribly, but at least the last couple of missions are actually pretty solid after randomly playing the game again. If the game didn't get better again, I likely wouldn't have ever finished it, as crazy as that sounds considering how much of a big deal the original is.
Re: Talking Point: What Xbox Game Are You Most Excited For In 2022?
Nothing much as I would only consider exclusives for this type of "poll", and I think there's about a 5% chance at best of Starfield actually releasing this year. It'd be that obviously otherwise. Exclusives other than that though, I'd say nothing really.
Re: PSA: These 10+ Games Are Completely Free To Claim On Xbox One, Series X & Series S
@Shigurui It's all good. The drugs aren't catching up to you yet.
Re: PSA: These 10+ Games Are Completely Free To Claim On Xbox One, Series X & Series S
@Shigurui Well, I guess technically I'm not entirely wrong since I said for as long as I can remember and I never knew it was free when it first went up on the BC list.
It has been a while though as I did buy it a little over 2 years ago, as I finally looked it up. In the end, not a big deal really. It was free and it's not anymore.
Re: PSA: These 10+ Games Are Completely Free To Claim On Xbox One, Series X & Series S
@Shigurui That hasn't been free for as long as I can remember. I bought it at least a year or two ago.
As for the choices, I doubt I'll actually ever play any of these since there's so much else to play and only so much time, but I still claimed Crackdown 1 & 2 along with Too Human.
Re: Roundup: Here's What's Coming To Xbox In January 2022
"Ready for Extraction?" Not in the slightest. Wrote that game off a long time ago.
Re: Rare's Everwild Is Reportedly 'A Real Mess', Still Being Figured Out
@Ichiban On paper, it should have been a no brainer slam dunk of a purchase. They were one of the best developers for the genres they were making, but ever since they got bought by Microsoft, they've been a shell of themselves at best. Horribly mismanaged by Microsoft, which is unfortunate obviously since they should have been able to provide some much needed variety when Xbox had very little.
If they were bought now, I believe things would have went much differently. As is, I doubt we will ever get a return to their glory days like @Cherip-the-Ripper mentioned as they seem unlikely to ever get back to their Nintendo level. Sea of Thieves is solid from what people say (not my thing), but that's been one of the few positive things they've put out in well over a decade. Again, I blame Microsoft and not Rare for their state. Honestly, they probably would have found a way to screw up Ninja Theory, Obsidian, and most of the ZeniMax/Bethesda studios back then.
Re: Remedy Partners With Tencent For New Free-To-Play Shooter, 'Vanguard'
All well and good, but maybe they should just focus on their own games like Alan Wake 2 and whatever else they are doing with Control rather than jump in to these other games like this and CrossFireX. I'm a Remedy fan, which is probably why I'd rather they focused on their own stuff.
Re: Rumour: Here Are Your Xbox Games With Gold For January 2022
On one hand, it's great to see two solid Xbox 360 games, especially from what I just read about Radiant Silvergun, but the other two are laughable.
I hate to be the one to do it, but compared to the excellent start to 2022 for PS Plus, this can either be taken as a joke or a slap in the face. We're numb to it at this point, but still, they could at least make the Series X/Xbox One games ones we've heard of more often than not. They don't even have to be new releases to be an improvement. At least December had Tropico 5, something that's solid and from a known series.
Re: Invites To Buy The Halo Xbox Sent Out To Select Microsoft Customers
I was half tempted to buy one since it looks great, even having it sitting at the checkout page to see if they even had any left, but ultimately declined as I don't want to go through the hassle of trying to sell my Series X I already have. I've yet to not have problems selling any big ticket item on eBay. No matter what, something always happens. Probably for the best anyways as I like the regular Series X too.
Still, it was good to see them last quite a while, so I'm sure a lot of people were happy last night.
Re: Amazon UK Gets Significantly More Stock Of Xbox Series X Consoles
@BlueOcean I've seen it off and on in reviews on YouTube and such, especially before Psychonauts 2, Forza Horizon 5, and Halo Infinite came out when they had very little in the way of exclusives. It doesn't really matter in the end, and I don't agree since there's always plenty to play thanks to the backwards compatibility.
Re: Amazon UK Gets Significantly More Stock Of Xbox Series X Consoles
Good luck to anybody else who can get one. Some may say there's not much to play on it, but that's not true, and it's a beast of a console.
Re: Psychonauts 2 Developer Already Working On Multiple New Projects
Sounds like they might be turning into what Rare should have been allowed to back in the day. A shot at their past, but obviously a big positive for their future.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 18-19)
Still making my way through Dragon Age 2 and then Halo CE on the side. Still really enjoying Dragon Age 2, but Halo CE is really showing that it's a 20 year old game, especially once you get to the middle missions that are really repetitive.
Re: Stalker 2 Cancels NFTs, Interests Of Fans And Players Is 'Top Priority' For The Team
@Alan_cartridge_ Honestly, it wouldn't be a surprise. I thought the same thing right after reading the article. You never know, maybe they'll surprise, but it also wouldn't be surprising if they snuck them in later. It wouldn't be the first time. We'll see, but it's at least good news for now.
Re: Hellblade 2 Dev Confirms There Were 'No Tricks' In The Gameplay Reveal
I never doubted it was actually gameplay, just without a hud. It all remained consistently beautiful throughout the trailer rather than there being a mix of CGI to make the trailer seem "cooler". You can tell when a trailer is obviously CGI.
As for whether it was on Series X or not, they could have said whether it was, but there's also reason to believe the system can't produce a game that looks that good. The vast majority of the games so far have been cross-gen, and new hardware is very rarely ever pushed very far initially. To have a game developed specifically for the Series consoles that has been in development for a long enough time should be able to leap ahead anything that has been put out before it.
Re: Xbox 'Rejected' GTA 3 In 2001, Didn't Think It Would Be Successful
@Richnj You are right that we don't know how things would have went even if GTA3 was an Xbox exclusive. It still would have been interesting to find out though.
Yeah, it seems like Xbox knows how to manage things a lot better than they did before. They could have had the greatest developers in the world and they would have found some way to screw them up eventually back then, evident by the already mentioned Rare who should have been a slam dunk fantastic acquisition if anybody else was managing them but Microsoft at the time.
It'll be interesting to see how things go over the next few years. Obviously Ninja Theory looks to be in pretty good shape with Hellblade 2's great trailer last week. Obsidian seems to be working on several games, so obviously that's a good sign as well. The Initiative is the really wild card, as it's a bunch of really good talent put together by Microsoft. If Microsoft can keep them on track and Perfect Dark turns out to be really good, then nobody should be able to doubt that Microsoft finally knows how to manage their first party studios for the first time in well over a decade.
Re: Xbox 'Rejected' GTA 3 In 2001, Didn't Think It Would Be Successful
@Richnj Whether it would have been a timed exclusive or not is something we will probably never know, but regardless of whether it would have been or not, it still would have been a big deal to have the best selling game of 2001 as an exclusive. Obviously things would still be the same today where Xbox screwed everything up and almost left the gaming industry, causing them to have play catchup still to this day. Still, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if GTA3 was an exclusive back then.
@Ihavenomouthandimust There's still Ghostwire Tokyo in 2022 on PS5, but it's easy to forget it since it keeps disappearing after it gets brought up occasionally. Once that comes out at some point next year, I'm assuming it's the last Xbox Game Studios game to come out on PS5. There's nothing else I can think of.
Re: Another Five Games Will Leave Xbox Game Pass Soon (December 31)
@Ihavenomouthandimust It's not funny. It's a fact. It doesn't matter if a game has been on there for a while. If they are games that people consider really good, losing them is a loss. Not everybody has been on the service for a long time. I'm sure there's new subscribers every week, and it's always a good thing to have as many good and recognizable games on the service as possible when you are marketing a service to people and trying to get people to stick around.
Is it the end of the world? No, but again, Microsoft should want to keep as many recognizable good titles on the service as possible, and it's never exactly a good thing when they leave the service. Once again, it's also not funny if people are just pointing out facts. It is a negative against the service if it can only keep a handful of these kind of titles on the service, no matter how good of a value Game Pass is in general.
Re: Ten More Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass This Thursday
@Ashadelo You still did ok buying MK11 Ultimate since the edition that will be on Game Pass very likely won't have all the DLC that comes with the Ultimate Edition. I'm still going to consider buying it when it gets really cheap again even though it'll be on Game Pass because I want the DLC and eventually (likely a year) the game will be off of Game Pass anyways like a lot of others.
Re: Nine More Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass This Thursday
Not quite sure how this turned out to be a PS5 sucks and they have no games to play on it discussion. Couldn't be further from the truth, especially if you have a backlog from the PS4, but anyways I'll have to look into some of these games as I have no idea what any of them are outside of MK11 and The Gunk.
Really looking forward to The Gunk though. I've had it pre-loaded since the weekend, but I likely won't get to try it out for a little while. Hopefully it turns out to be good.