LegendOfPeach

I was super looking forward to this, but they just took too darn long. I just have so many games right now, I know if I buy it on release day I'll play for an hour or two but won't have time to delve into it for months. I'll wait for a sale. My excitement just isn't there like it was.

Just a note - my understanding is that the "three lives" feature is only in the deluxe version to start with - apparently, you can unlock it later, though, I believe after your first play-through.

I was/am pretty excited about this game, but I've decided against it for now, I think. I could easily cash in MS rewards to get it, but I'm playing Evil Dead pretty steadily right now, and it would likely be a few weeks at least until I got to this - and I know in a couple of months it will be half the price.

I used it all the time. But...when we lost it, I just bought a 2nd TV. So I don't need it any more personally. I love being able to stream something to watch while playing a game at the same time. Plus, with two screens now, multiplayer is even better.

Ugh, I was really holding out for Series 3. And hoping that the horrible build quality was going to get better.

Bought a 1TB at launch with my Series X. Actually got a decent deal on it because I had some coupons - $180, and I don't regret it at all. Has kept me from ever worrying about storage. I'm also glad I didn't have to mess with waiting around for them on PS5, and having to buy third-party heat sinks, and all that jazz. I'm just fine with how XBOX Series X did it, it is the definition of plug and play.

It's great and all, though since most of the games I play regularly i have to still connect online, it isn't a "WOW OMG" feature for me. The real star of the show with Series X for me is the almost non-existent load times to begin with. Games that used to take me 3-4 minutes just to load up now do so in ten or twenty seconds. Even with connecting to online servers, I can click on a game icon and be boots on the ground playing in 45 seconds - now that's a game changer.

Anyone who is serious about watching 4K UHD discs can tell you, the XBOX is just terrible at it. To begin with, it doesn't even offer Dolby Vision for discs like it does streaming - if your TV has Dolby Vision and you aren't using it on discs that have it (the majority of new ones - only really Disney doesn't use it), you are already missing out. Then the laundry list of issues goes on down from there.

If you are just using it occasionally, it's passable - but if you are actually investing money in 4K discs and watching them regularly, as much as I hate to say it (because otherwise I think the Series X is nearly perfect), you are wasting your money on the discs if you don't get yourself a stand-alone player.

I've preordered the Deluxe Edition of Aliens, and thanks to MS Rewards, it was free.

It looks great - and I have found I really enjoy co-op PvE.

Can't wait to give it a try - it's the first new release I've been excited about for many, many months.

@JetmanUK The problem isn't that the UI doesn't look good enough - you are totally right, 1080p is plenty sufficient for that. The issue for a lot of us is that the constant switching between the 1080p of the UI and the 4K resolution of games/streaming/etc. can really mess with some equipment. Particularly if you have any type of AV switcher or receiver.

I too am a bit worried that they didn't say "4K" - I was so excited when I saw this headline. This is honestly the only gripe I have with the Series X - it's a beautiful machine, I love everything else - but the constant resolution switching is a PITA.

The Sony version reminds me of people who change their own oil in their cars. Unless you do a lot of car work, for the average person, it's a huge PITA, you still have to buy all the oil and filters, and then spend half the afternoon futzing, then you still have to dispose of the old oil.

Or, you spend $15 or $20 bucks more, and just have it done for you at a garage.

I got my Series X expansion card at launch for $180 bucks, deals can be had - and in any case, I'd rather have the plug and play, guaranteed to work version I've gotten, than if I saved a few dollars to get a 3rd party one. I mean, having to (possibly?) attach a heat sink? All that uncertainty, and you don't even know if it's gong to work or not?

Yeah, I'm glad I'm an XBOX player on this one. I haven't regretted my Expansion purchase for a moment, and I'm glad I don't have to deal with the mess on the PS5 side.

I couldn't be more excited. This is the first new game I have been looking forward to for a long time. It looks a lot like the Co-op mode in Battlefront II, which I love. I'm also really pleased it is a 3rd person title. From what I can gather, I think this will be a really fun game to pop on and play a few rounds, have some fun, but not be something you need to sit and play for six hours at a time to get anything out of it.

The only thing keeping me from preordering it is that I am always nervous that a Rewards punch card will come up and I'll miss out on it.

Hint for the Grounded one: You don't need to let your stamina totally rebuild before you start using it again. Once I realized this, I just kept mashing on the RT against a plant over and over. This way, as soon as the meter starts to refresh, you are spending it, triggering the achievement. Took about 3 minutes once I figured this out.

I miss it very much. I realize it seemed that many folks didn't use it (or even know about it) but I found it extremely useful. I was definitely bummed it wasn't included in the Series X - but I've since added a 4K switcher which does the job.

What I really miss the most is the IR blaster. Being able to send IR signals to devices worked so much better than the CEC stuff.

Glad for those that make this work - personally, I don't see the appeal. The point amounts are so low, and you have to burn through so much in order to do it. All those easy achievements are a resource that I can get much more points from in the long run, from dailies and punch cards, etc.

I guess it is about priorities. I wouldn't give up my launch day Series X for anything. Even without new console-specific games, it's totally changed my gaming life. The speed of the system in loading has completely altered how I game. Now, when I only have 15-20 minutes, I can still jump into a multiplayer game and play a match or two. Before, I'd spend nearly that long waiting for freaking loading screens, and it wasn't worth playing for just a few minutes.

So I'm totally looking forward to next (current?) gen games, but I also am already completely satisfied with my purchase and the value I've gotten out of it. My time is the most valuable thing to me, and the Series X saves me from wasting what I do have.

I have the one that came with my Series X, and I bought the blue one when I got a good deal - but that's all for me, until they do an Elite Controller 3. By then I should have enough MS Rewards to pay for one, LOL.

Finally. Was holding off on buying the Switch one waiting for the XBOX version. I can wait it out until June. Have a lot of memories of playing this on Genesis as a kid, and being terrible at it. Hopefully, some three decades later, I'll finally get to finish it.

This looks like a really fun selection of games. I've never heard of several of them, but for the first month in awhile, I plan on checking them all out. I always trigger the download so I "own" them, but usually cancel/delete most them. Looking forward to trying out some new stuff (at least new to me).

These seem like some really great titles, even if I haven't heard of most of them. I'll definitely give all of them a try.

The only one that I want more is "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer"...and of course it's sequel, "Chaos Bleeds". But I'd settle just for the first one. It's a crime that more people don't know about what is really a revolutionary title.

I've been surprised more people haven't caught on to this. I've been doing it for awhile, and I'm topped off right now until March 2024, the 3-year max. I've marked my calendar to remember to register another one this summer.

I have not played a baseball game since Baseball and Bases Loaded on NES. That said, I'm totally downloading this day one. The fact that GPU is making me even mildly interested in a sports game is quite impressive indeed.

I'm thrilled. There are no new games for awhile that I am interested in, so I am very happy to pony up for the DLC.

Big bummer for me. The one game I was most looking forward to. Obviously, more dev time is going to make for a better game, so that's good - still stings a little, though. Hopefully the Aliens game will still come out this summer, to play in the meantime.

@Mr-Fuggles777 Yeah, it's...strange. I have been on a Marvel binge lately, so I finally caved and bought a copy - on physical disc, my first XBOX physical purchase since like 2014, because it was on sale and I had an additional discount, so I got it for less than 20 bucks. I've put a few hours in at this point, and the game basically teases you with playing the Avengers for brief bursts, but mainly it's just this child character I know nothing about. The character has some neat powers, and is OK to play, it just wasn't what I was expecting at all, so far. I mostly wish they had used the movie likenesses for the Avengers - that's the biggest weird thing about the game so far - after seeing the films so much, it's just odd, and the characters faces especially just seem annoyingly designed to explicitly not look like them.

These are the weeks I love! Easy and fun. Love any chance to go back to Gotham, so that's my favorite 200pts so far.

Max was pretty easy - the platforming is fun, but the drawing thing really turned me off. Felt way too Wii for me, LOL. Still, glad to try out the game, and tiny download.

Also very easy achievement for anyone who needs it for the weekly - you just need to "draw" 25 times. Since you can keep destroying and redrawing the same object, I just did this after the Weekly Quest popped to the next object I saw. I had already done like 16 just getting that far - drew, destroyed, repeated 9 more times and the achievement popped.

Wow, just yesterday I was all - gee, if this would go on sale again, I would totally buy it. I regretted not doing it when it was 1/2 price on digital a few weeks back. With this news? Nah, I have enough games to play, I don't want one intentionally more grindy.

I really wish the digital would go on sale again for half price, like the physical version is on Amazon right now. At this point, I'd buy it. Regretting not picking it up when it was on sale, and I have some expiring MS Rewards burning a hole in my pocket.

@Zochmenos This. That new headset looks amazing, and at a really decent price - but I just don't need a headset, I just need a chat mic. I have a full 7.1 surround system, I don't want to listen to a game through headphones. Currently I just use the cheap one-ear Turtle Beach model (the "air traffic controller" one LOL) - but I would love a simple over-single-ear wireless option.

Nah, I'm fine. I'm so happy with my Series X and there are already so many games out there, from ones I never played before to ones that I'm revisiting because the Series X plays them so much better, and most importantly - faster. There are a bunch of games that I didn't put much time in to because just loading the game and getting into it took 10 minutes, so when I only have 15-20 minutes to play, it wasn't worth it. Now, with everything so nearly instant, it's a whole different experience.

Given that so many people still can't even get a Series X/S console at this point, it is probably a good thing that they aren't hyping up new games. That, and as I think the entire gaming industry is starting to learn - and was pointed out in the article - developers are wary of building hype for games that are nowhere near completion. This is a good thing.

Injustice was really easy - you can even do those auto-play multiplayer matches and they count.

Will be interested to see the guide for We Happy Few - I already had the game on my system, but hadn't gotten around to playing yet. I booted it up and tried to do it in Sandbox mode (the only way I could find to start with a weapon) and after killing 100 folks, I realized it wasn't gonna trigger that way. Was fun running around electrocuting everyone, though, LOL.

EDIT: I got the We Happy Few one to pop with the new guide posted, using "the night watch" mode, but just to add - you have to FIND a weapon since you don't start with one. I just ran around until I found a shovel on someone's doorstep and stole it.

This looks awesome. This is a perfect game for co-op.

@Secryt Same here (day one Segate expansion) - I think the reason that it doesn't treat it as more unified if because of the hot-swap feature. Technically you could have multiple expansion cards and swap them in and out seamlessly while the system is on. The 2TB total is good for me now - it's enough that I don't have to think about storage, which is how I like it best. I could see myself replacing it with a 2TB card (for a total of 3TB) if they ever did one at a reasonable price.

@KilloWertz I agree, this is the only part of GamePass that feels a bit lacking to me. Maybe it is just because I don't follow these games, but it always seems like the same ones and nothing I know about or play. I would really like to see a larger variety of offers.

Thanks for this thread, always appreciated.

Additional hints about Dishonored 2 this week:

• You can actually do it with less reloading, there is a 2nd guard who is walking away that you can kill as he is going down the stairs, getting you two kills per reload.
• There are two super-easy achievements here. One you can get if you keep reloading the same save you use to finish the quest. If you hit 20 stealth kills, you get an achievement (doing 2 at a time, you need to do it 10 times - took me about 3 minutes on a Series X). Then, if you proceed down the stairs and follow the quest marker to the Throne room, you can easily kill the 3 guys there (though not stealthy). Loot the guy in red and getting your ring back from him will also trigger an achievement. Two achievements and a weekly quest done in 10 minutes.

@themightyant to build on what @scenes said...

Keep in mind I am in the US. At Level 2, you get $10 for 9300, and you can use auto-redeem to get $10 once a month for 8750. So basically, 18,050 a month gets you $20.

Looking over that list, I feel like I don't even do all of that (I don't get the emails for instance, and I don't bother to look up the answers to the quizzes, so I don't always get full score for those, definitely don't get an achievement daily, etc.), but I also feel like it is missing some stuff - the 1000 point charity things, and other offers.

Also like @scene , I did get two 6,000 punch cards (and secondary ones after, I want to say for 500 each?) for games I bought, which I was going to buy anyway. With rewards, I got one $30 off and one $20 off (plus the 6000 points earned for the purchase). That's where my $20-30 estimate comes from - on months I've bought games I've gotten $30, on regular months I get $20 without spending.

I'm kind of amazed about it. It really isn't that much effort on my end - I work at a PC all day so the PC daily stuff is easy, takes me probably an average of 2 minutes a day when I am waiting for something else to finish. The dailies on my XBOX take another 1 minute, when I'm using it anyway. Once a week on Tuesdays I go through the weekly game pass stuff, and usually that is just downloading a game or two in the background and following the guide here. Usually they are easy - I don't bother with any that aren't. Plus, it's actually fun to try a new game or two, even if I don't keep it.

I think that is why you saw differing opinions when the +5 game pass app daily was missing - some of us were overjoyed, because frankly - that is the most annoying thing I have to do with rewards because the iOS app makes you restart/reboot it every time. It's just something you have to do in order to get the bigger monthly rewards, so I was happy to see it go. Others, however, clearly felt differently.

@Scenes Same. Been doing it since the Series X came out, and I'm getting between $20-30 a month. I'm on the higher-end now, with all the points you get for GamePass/etc., I wasn't even doing all the searches up until this month when I figured out the tricks to get them done in a few seconds each day.

It looks like a great design, and the functionality sounds impressive. I just wish they would do a chat-only wireless version. I have zero need to hear game audio as I have a 7.1 surround system with real speakers. I would like a nicer option to use when I do need to game chat.

@vyseofhr Absolutely agreed. I'm fine with what we have now in terms of visual design, I just really want them to upgrade the Home/UI to 4K for the same reason. It isn't about looks, it's about function. The only complaint whatsoever I have with the Series X is the constant handshaking that has to happen going back and forth from 1080p to 4K. It wreaks havoc on switchers/receivers especially. I have to get up and reset my switcher at least once a day because the constant handshaking loses sync.