Is there some sort of real world benefit to achievement points? I know you can convert quest points but that doesn't just rely on achievements to obtain.

I mean it seems comparable to people bragging they are rich....in monopoly money.

Sony got a few big titles to release early and now seems to have little left in the pipeline. Meanwhile, Xbox started slow with a steady build up. I'm telling you guys MS is on the right track. If they can hold the course they will continue to reclaim market share.

People still buy discs? Really? Most don't even include the full game anyway. We all knew this was coming. The fact it took this long is the real surprise.

I think the deal will eventually go thru but by the time it does, will it really matter? ACB is clearly all in. Even if it were to get denied, I'd expect lots of "synergy" agreements between them. MS is already focusing on next steps.

@Darylb88 I guess since I finished it today, including all the side missions that was a fluke? 🤣

Fundamentally broken....🙄🙄🙄

I'm with the consensus of "no". Just another greedy tactic to rip off consumers. Ubisoft seems to go out of their way to alienate gamers these days.

It feels like a last gen console release. I guess I'm not up in arms because it's on GP and I'm not out any money. I think the price increase on a game churned out quickly is the real complaint. It was sold as a triple-A title and it's clearly not. People feel cheated.

@Darylb88 the game is not fundamentally broken. Seriously, did you even play it? It's buggy for sure but nowhere near as many bugs as No Man's Sky or Cyberpunk when they were released. And that's jus two recent games. NMS was virtually unplayable due to several game breaking bugs.

The XOne was an example of pure greed. People seem to forget Sony was planning much the same path. They did an about face a few months before their release and caught MS completely off guard. It was a savvy switch and Sony gobbled up market share.

It's ironic to see the rules somewhat reversed now. MS is maneuvering to leap frog over Sony if they don't get it together. GP is still better than Sony's terrible and very frustrating "tiered" system (and cheaper). Xcloud/streaming access is paving the way for multiple 3rd party mobile consoles without spending a dime of MS revenue. Sony's "remote play" is practically unusable. MS only needs to bring in a few more powerhouse games and they will truly eat up market share. (Clearly the Activision acquisition was part of that goal)

MS is definitely playing the long game. If they can keep it up, they'll surpass Sony in the next generation.

The puzzles are a bit excessive but otherwise thoroughly enjoying it. The swirling pit boss was a pain in the *as. 😂

@NEStalgia Naw. Sony's PS plus premium is $2 more a month than game pass ultimate

As long as they added more 3rd party games I'd likely stay. I never joined GP for exclusives so it isn't a deal breaker. They'd probably have to lower the price to continue enticing people to join though.

One has only to look at Sony's ridiculous tier system and mostly "old" exclusive titles to see how not to do a subscription service.

So....has there been any actual improvement to the clunky fight mechanics?

Ridiculous cash grab, but they really have nothing to lose by trying it. It is still a definite "no" from me.

So basically he is saying," don't do to us what we did to you". 😂 Oh the irony. Forgetting CoD is not their only moneymaker.or exclusive, I almost want MS to screw with them now. What a maroon!

It's now one of those games I can pick up when I want to play something but not sure what. You can hop back into it and feel right at home within a few minutes.

The Dev should get tons of credit for all the work they've put into this game. It's gone from broken dud to a solid mainstay game. Highly recommend.

Seems like a nice hand off from the recent and current sales of 360 titles. I don't really play many old 360 games but even I was tempted with some of the sale prices

And now that people are pretty confident the merger is going to happen I'm sure many might want to catch up on the old games before the newest comes to GP.

OT: I simply could not find my rhythm with this game. After multiple calibrations, I finally just gave up. I liked that initial storyline. Curious to hear others feedback.

I applaud MS. If Sony wants to take the obstructionist route I think they'll find MS will eat their lunch.

Sony has clearly realized thy have been out maneuvered in this fight and is basically now just throwing a tantrum. Their own anti-competitive actions are coming back to bite them in the @ss.

We all knew it was grandstanding. Funny how the EU didn't care when Sony was busted paying devs not to work with MS...

I like the CoD campaigns. I avoid the multiplayer like the plague. Be nice to play the most recent one on GP.

I'd love to see Death Stranding come to Xbox. Kojima has a history of doing things his way because he has vision. The DS franchise could easily be expanded into an endless game with cloud gaming. Cloud offers so many options not available to standard console games.

We've become so accustomed to being milked dry on games that we see faults with a developer trying to continuously deliver a better game with ever improving content. HG has come along way on this game. It went from literally busted to a widely played game with a ridiculous amount of free content.

Maybe knowing how bad they bombed the first time and being a small dev, they are focused on making it bigger and better for a smaller profit margin. I'd say they have the right approach. I certainly hope they don't get bought out and turned into another MTX game factory.

Would anyone have faulted them for charging even a small fee for the most recent expedition after so much free content?

I thoroughly enjoyed it and was surprised it wasn't more popular. It offers a variety of puzzles as well as FPS action with increasing difficulty. I often wondered if it did poor because there was no option to play an easy or hard mode.

I'd love a 2nd one.

This article reminds me why people say opinions are like ass**les.....

@J_Mo_Money agreed. I'm here with popcorn. 🤣

@shoeses that was a miserable attempt at sarcasm.

@shoeses some games will still be available via the regular store. You can always redownload games you own. If you have not purchased a 360 game by now, that's on you. It isn't reasonable to think MS would host a separate store front for old console games forever, regardless of compatibility. Nowhere did I read it was shutting down complete access to backwards compatible games, just the storefront for new sales.

360 was literally 2 console generations ago. Is anyone really surprised they'd end support for 360 games sales?

MS is playing the long game. After the terrible XOne release and new leadership, they are making the right moves to rebrand and build back a lost customer base.

GP is doing so well even Sony had to upgrade their own meager offering, even though it still sucks. The tier system is a total joke. Xcloud makes GP an even better deal with play anywhere for a large % of GP games. Sony's remote play is terrible. Oh yeah, and and unlike Sony, MS doesn't pay developers to not develop games for Sony.

Frankly I don't want MS to pull into 1st place. By always being slightly behind it encourages them to keep focus on making gamers happy instead of shareholders.

I had the peeling rubber issue with the 1st Elite. The 2nd one has held up quite nice. I like the heft and feel of the Elite over conventional, but I don't use the paddles. Picked up a custom Elite 2 for Xmas. The battery life is definitely a plus. Really missing the share button though.

My current PS5 controller is already drifting and I don't play much on PS, so that is a disappointment. It is nice to see Sony finally update the shape of their controllers, but 'm not upgrading to the Edge due to the ridiculous price.

I wanted to like this game. I too walked away towards the end. The terrible combat mechanics really ruined it. The story was a bit weak but
still detailed enough to give you an outline. One would expect a deeper dive into the story in the 2nd game should it happen. My hunch is this was the plan.

Sadly, the game really failed to deliver on the hype.

If you buy gold for the year and GP monthly, it works out to the same price as paying for UGP monthly for the same year anyway.

Gold offerings have been pretty lame for a long time. It's one of the areas where MS truly fails to even compete with Sony, much less excel. Either beef it up or ditch it and reduce the price for "online access".

I wanted to like MGS: Survive, but it was just terrible. I have very low expectations of a new one.

All things considered, B+. It's been a long hard road with near constant chip shortages, suppliers closed or shutdown, and oh yeah COVID. (It's like people don't even remember the whole world being affected.) I'm eager to see what they have up their sleeve for 2023.

Callisto Protocol, High on Life, No Man's Sky, and eventually I'll get back to finishing God of War.

This suit will likely die quickly. 1) These fools do not have the deep pockets to drag out the suit and 2) they don't really have standing. Frankly, I think attorneys are just screwing them for the money.

It's not mind blowing or anything that most will probably play more than once. It's just a funny and fun game. Sometimes that's enough.

I've really been enjoying it. If the gun chatter gets annoying you can lower the amount in the settings. Some of the mechanics can be confusing to master on the boss fights but overall, it's fun. This isn't a game you'll play over and over but it's definitely worth playing thru once.

@Notoriousmakavel it doesn't seem to work against the two headed bosa.

I played last night after the patch. The health regen is definitely faster but the random over the top fight scenes are still incredibly challenging, even on minimum mode, especially with the odd auto save points. That said, love the game overall.

I FINALLY got past the massive fight on the underground tram transfer.

@Notoriousmakavel you're actually paying attention! Lol Everyone else seems to have completely missed the subtlety of this post.

And now we see their master plan for the poor showing recently. Perfect strategy! This gave me deep belly laughs! Oh MS, you sneaky b*st*rd!

I guess we should change the meaning of FTC to Failure To Comprehend....

I'd rather they put out teasers when games are truly close to release. Don't try to tease me for months on end for a game clearly not ready yet.

I'd like to think they learned to wait and not over promise.

I came for the comment and was not disappointed! 😂

Sony isn't going anywhere, no matter how much the try to play the poor cousins. MS is looking past exclusives to the future of streaming. Meanwhile, Sony is desperate to hold onto their cash cow of "exclusives."

I want Sony and MS competing by offering better products and services, not by trying to hoard content. Competition is good for the gamers, aka us. MS being forced to make CoD cross platform for 10 years is all but a guarantee it will remain so. MS won't want to cut off a larger profit margin for the sake of the console war when GP is performing so spectacularly.

Sony has gotten used to coasting to success on exclusives. That ship is sailing fast. High profile gamers/Streamers talking smack about Xbox aren't putting games in front of players. Maybe now Sony can try to compete with a better console, platform, AND services. Currently, the consoles are all but identical in power and speed. MS is eating Sony's lunch in the subscription model.

I look forward to the day when we can play with whomever we want regardless of console.

My previous comment is bearing fruit. Lol Poor FTC, so useless.

@theduckofdeath agreed.

Funny how they made themselves look irrelevant after the Valve/Nintendo announcement. More grandstanding.

@StylesT after multiple recalibrations I finally gave up and uninstalled.

The only reason it looks better is because Sony devs and tools were used to make the game.

Funny how Sony is whining avoid CoD but has no problem with this.

I agree with the majority it will go thru. The US is a slam dunk. The UK might require some more restrictions, but only because the regulatory body has expressed their own personal bias in favor of Sony.

As long as MS agrees to let CoD stay on Sony indefinitely, they will give in. It's all pretty much grandstanding at this point to see how many concessions they can get. The Nintendo deal much sealed it.

Sony is in no danger of going out of business because of the loss of one franchise, no matter how popular. 🙄

@themightyant yeah that controller is just a little too extra. The console is hot! Would love it.