Markatron84

I haven't played in a while, but I'm jumping back in on Tuesday to help the new recruits protect managed democracy. Time for a cup of liber-tea!

I really enjoyed Pac-Man World Re-Pac. You could also probably blow through it over the weekend. It took me 9-10 hours to finish and mop up some extras.

@Lup I've been meaning to look into that, as I loved Dead Cells. The Rogue Prince of Persia looks like more of that.

On the upside, when it comes to verifying compatibility it shouldn't take as long to go through the games on the Xbox PC store as it's taking to go through the games on Steam 👍

I partly judge these things based on how many games I end up wishlisting along the way. There was one game I wishlisted (Moonlighter 2) and that's only because I forgot to already do it last time it showed up somewhere.

To be fair, I will go back through the announcements in case I missed something.

@UltimateKGB You should also buy it because it's brilliant.

I already have a Switch OLED, Switch 2 and Steam Deck - all of which i already use a hell of a lot - so I'm not really in the market for another handheld, especially at the current rumoured price points.

If they don't support AA batteries going forward, then they at least need to make it so that the controller's battery can be easily replaced.

@Sindayl it really is. It's so simple, yet so much fun.

🎶Hot Wheels! Let's race! 🎶

Good God, kill me now. 🤣

If the remake of the first Halo game is real, I hope it's an actual remake and not just the original version with better visuals. That game has some seriously tedious and repetitive level design, to the point where it drags the entire experience down.

And if Microsoft is going to put the game on PlayStation 5, having people endure too many levels that involve slogging through the same identical hallways and rooms doesn't seem like the best way to introduce millions of new players to the franchise.

Also, f**k it, dream announcements time:
1. Banjo-Kazooie
2. Midtown Madness
3. Hexic, but like Tetris 99

@Kaloudz @Kezelpaso there's also more/higher detailed ground foliage in the new-gen screenshot.

Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master! being delisted is probably because of expiring music rights. Plus, there is a newer game (Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival) which has a lot more DLC, has a subscription service attached to it and is available on more platforms and storefronts. Makes sense that they would delist The Drum Master! to try and push potential buyers towards Rhythm Festival, where there are more opportunities for extra income.

@Gabrie that's easy. They're calling it an Xbox because everything is an Xbox. 👍

Yep.

Obligatory "make the comment long enough so that Pure Xbox let's me post it" words.

It's really ugly, but I think only because the case is completely transparent and not coloured in any way. If the case were coloured and a bit more opaque - think the green and crystal original Xboxes, or the different N64 colours - it would look a lot better.

@Ricky-Spanish I'm with you there. The last time I played an NG game was Ninja Gaiden II on Xbox 360 and everything was just too fast for me. And that was with me (and my reflexes) being 15 years younger 🤣

I played a few hours of the first Hellblade but never finished it. At the time, as a visual showcase it was almost peerless, and the story's (and sound design's) focus on Senua's mental health was really well done. However, I can't help but feel that I would have enjoyed the game more if it were a full-on "walking simulator"; done away with the combat entirely (and probably the puzzles as well, to be honest) and fully leaned into the story as a purely narrative experience. The actual game-y bits are the absolute worst part of Hellblade and detract a lot from what its strengths are.

@Kaloudz it was being published and I assume funded by Microsoft, but developed by Avalanche.

@cragis0001 at this point, I would be surprised if PS5 even got Fairgames.

@Balaam_ it's the angle. The top of the unit is tilted back. Microsoft and ASUS are clearly too cowardly to invent a new screen shape and ratio. 😜

I thought the studio name sounded familiar. RedOctane was the original publisher of Guitar Hero before it was bought out by Activision in 2006 (and closed in 2010).

Worryingly, this new RedOctane is part of Embracer Group, so I wouldn't put too much stock in anything they say/do for now. Might be worth pointing out @FraserG

Downloaded, preloaded, Reloaded. How much loaded can a person handle?!

@Romans12 if someone were interested in it, why wouldn't they download it now?

Don't kid yourself @Ricky-Spanish. Given the chance, it would kill you and everyone you care about.

@dreadful it could be. What t-shirts has Phil Spencer been wearing lately?

@Kaloudz sometime between 7th and 10th of August.

As with amy game, I'm not buying it day one and I'm certainly not pre-ordering it. CDKeys does have the Steam version up for pre-order for £31.99 though so, barring disastrous reviews, I'll happily pay that.

@HardRockGamer oh I did, believe me 🤣

@Kaloudz it's possible. On Dreamcast I did play a lot of Quake III Arena (and Worms World Party) online...with that 56K connection, which made WWP the more bearable option.

@Kaloudz I have to respectfully disagree. It was a comfortable controller, for sure. But good for FPSs? I had Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament and Outtrigger, and playing any of them with that controller was an absolute ball ache. 🤣🤣

@Kaloudz I had Quake III on the Dreamcast. That controller is terrible for FPSs, sorry 🤣

@Kaloudz if 1047 meant what they said when they claimed they wanted to make first-person shooters good again with Splitgate 2, Quake III is exactly the game they should have chosen to ape, instead of shouting "FPSs suck now, so here's a battle royale mode!" like a bunch of idiots.

I do wonder how much of an audience Quake III will garner, though. Single-player FPSs aren't nearly as prevalent as they once were, so Quake and Quake II were kind of a breath of fresh air when the remasters came around. But Splitgate 2 showed for the thousandth time that multiplayer FPSs face stiff competition and most of them just don't take off. Maybe Quake IV does make more sense.

@Fiendish-Beaver Good. I thought I was being really, really stupid for a moment there. I mean, given the context of the story, the headline saying "don't get your hopes up"? That should go without saying. Jumping to the conclusion of "OMGZ XBOX DAYS GONE PORT!!!" just because someone from Sony Bend tweeted "🧐"? That's pretty damn moronic.

Anthem in a way was a proof of concept for how an Iron Man game should play. But, y'know, make it good.

My absolute dream game based on a Disney IP would be Daredevil. Something that plays similar to the Spider-Man games by Insomniac but with a lot more tragedy and brooding 🤣

I'm sorry, but am I missing something here? How exactly does posting 🧐 with no words and no context equate to hinting at an Xbox port of Days Gone? Am I being dense or what?

@somnambulance fifty quid says it is.

@Fiendish-Beaver mate 🤣

Absolutely not. Microsoft has enough trouble selling hardware as it is - hence the multi-platform strategy - without pouring more resources into limited edition consoles that even fewer people will buy and will be overpriced compared to the standard editions. They should concentrate their efforts on making good games and maybe even keeping people employed and their studios open, if it's not too much trouble.

@Ricky-Spanish cheers my guy. 😁 19 years together today, 14 years married tomorrow. And still gaming together 👌

@Ricky-Spanish it's one of the things that we initially clicked over. 19 years ago today, in fact.

@Ricky-Spanish I didn't play the DLCs, but since I played the main game, my wife really got into first person shooters so I did end up watching her play them.

@Scrubchub @Ricky-Spanish Bioshock Infinite seems to be looked back on less than fondly nowadays, which I personally don't understand. Yeah, there are hints throughout at what could have been - a larger scope, for one thing - but it's still a really good game with a bonkers story, good gameplay and a cool aesthetic.

@Kezelpaso when Bioshock 4 eventually comes out and PX reviews it, if it's not great you can title the review Bioshock 4 Review - Plas-Mid. You're welcome.

@Balaam_ the same reason almost every article on Pure Xbox has either 'Xbox", "Game Pass" or "Xbox Game Pass" in the title: search engine optimisation. You'll also notice how that's not nearly as prevalent on Push Square and Nintendo Life, and I assume that's because PlayStation and Nintendo platforms have a userbase that dwarfs that of Xbox, so those sites don't need to be quite so heavy handed with the SEO.

WWE 2K25 has a free weekend on Steam, so I've been messing with that. I haven't gelled with a wrestling game before but for some reason this one's clicking. I might even buy it.

Rumours about Xbox and PlayStation games coming to their competitors' platforms are 2025's Activision Blizzard buyout news cycle. We're getting almost non-stop rumours, reports and "updates".

I can't wait until this situation is the new normal, so we just hear when a game is actually announced, instead of every rumour or report. I mean, for god's sake, this report doesn't even mention specific games; just "yeah, they might be coming".

I have almost no interest in either game. Not because I think they'll be bad - they'll cater to who they need to - but because I'm over trying to get into online FPSs. I don't have people to play them with, so I'm just sat there in silence, being s**t 🤣

Nadella should ask AI how to read the f**king room 🙄

I'm so in. Unless EA borks it up with micro-transactions and its usual ******t, of course.

This PC Is An Xbox™

@Kaloudz Admittedly I only have second-hand experience with Bloober Team's games; I've watched my wife play Layers of Fear 1 and 2, Blair Witch, The Medium and Silent Hill 2. Until Silent Hill 2, I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly, but that game seemed to catapult Bloober onto a different level, like given the time and budget they are capable of truly great things. Whether they're actually past their sporadic output era remains to be seen, but I think that they're now definitely a developer to watch.

Putting out its games on PlayStation is probably the most sound business decision Xbox has made since 2013.

@Ricky-Spanish it's for the exact reason that @Philly and @themightyant said: to inflate player engagement numbers. It's the same reason why PlayStation were once so adamant about their PC ports - even single-player only titles - requiring a mandatory PSN sign-in. It wasn't for "safety" or whatever other nonsense they spouted at the time; it was so they could turn to shareholders and say 'look at these engagement numbers'.

Longtime player of Destiny here, who stopped back in October 2024.

Don't.

It was bad back when I stopped and from everything I've seen/read recently, it's even worse now. Bungie only keeps Destiny 2 going because they've got nothing to fall back on. If (and that's a big if) Marathon or whatever else they've got in development ever takes off, mark my words Bungie will drop Destiny 2 like a sack of sh*t.