PhileasFragg

@Tharsman Yeh it's unnecessary, but I think their view on this is it's aimed at new players to learn how the game works, and THEN you go to the main game with long grinds, PvP, and events. Captaincy is aimed at experienced players.

@Kaloudz I don't think it's like Ubi+. GTA+ is just a monthly sub for GTA Online perks so you get in game cash, and other benefits for people who play a lot. Now they're adding some games as an extra incentive.

Fortnite has something similar with their Crew Pack where you get in game stuff, and they recently added the Rocket League "Battle Pass" as an extra perk to sweeten the deal.

This is long overdue. As someone playing regularly since shortly after release there's times I'd liked to have played without the risk of other players interfering. Particularly with the story missions this'll be perfect as sometimes other players being there can ruin them.

My crew will likely still stick to the normal mode most of the time to get the rewards and such though.

@Syndrome "Captaining a ship" is a specific mechanic in SoT. Where you can buy, name, customise, and save a ship and earn rewards the more you use it. So in Safer Seas you'll be restricted to the default of getting a fresh ship each time you play.

Nice to see the price drop. It'd suck if they released it at full price.

Tempted by the physical version, but I actually tend not to buy games physically any more as you have to still download loads onto the console anyway. I bought The Avengers cheap physically, and you still need to have 120Gb installed on the hard drive

They're pretty much collectors shelf pieces, or a way to buy second hand a little cheaper outside of sales. I'm saying this as someone with a DVD/Blu Ray/4K collection of over 1000 titles by the way.

@ZuneTattooGuy It's this year so my money is on November/December.

So if this is out of date information about their plans why was it send to the FTC? Wouldn't they need to send their up to date information about what their current plans are?

I'm really glad they didn't merge. I hate this direction that games companies (and all big companies) HAVE to merge to collaborate.

Why would Microsoft need to by Nintendo for Mario Kart to come to Xbox, or Activision for Call of Duty on Game Pass? You can come to a mutual agreement without buying each other out.

Given how much Microsoft have invested in their cloud services (Azure is MASSIVE) it totally makes sense that they'd find ways to leverage that in their other divisions like gaming. I'm interested to see where this could go with consoles not doing all the heavy lifting themselves.

Guess I must have missed the Starfield DLC and Indiana Jones game released last year

I doubt the price will stay that way with costs going up, but it looks good. Particularly if it comes with the rechargeable (and replaceable) battery as standard.

No disk drive is a no buy for me. I like having an all in one device that can play digital and physical media, and the Series X is the only console that plays old games, DVDs, Blu Ray, 4k Blu ray, and CDs (the PS5 doesn't play CDs despite Sony co-developing the format).

Might look at the new controller though.

Oh I'm sure Microsoft would be totally fine with having to pay some random fees suddenly

This is like what Wizards of the Coast did when it suddenly wanted a piece of the action, and wanted to change the terms of previous deals. Unity is going to have to walk this back, and fast. Though the damage might have already been done.

I guess that's what happens when you hire an ex-EA executive.

Ok so seems to be a sort of "rose tinted" remaster where the textures and lighting are updated along with some quality of life tweaks so it plays like you remember it playing rather than how it actually was with all that PS1 texture warping.

@GamingFan4Lyf The Ultimate Talkie edition is great. When Sea of Thieves released their new Monkey Island crossover it got me to re-play the games. I played the UT version of Secret and I think it's the best way to play. You get the old school EGA visuals, music, and the voices which is much nicer than just the text.

@GamingFan4Lyf No Monkey Island?!

@CaptnDave In general if you've bought it you'll still be able to download it from your library whenever even if it's delisted. With Avengers it's also available physically.

A lot of these are really cheap second hand physically so maybe check prices on ebay, etc. before getting some of these.

Damn why couldn't they have Starfield for 97% off

Looks nice, but I got the metallic purple one earlier in the year, and it looks much better than this.

If you want an Xbox logo on your card you can just buy one of those custom made card stickers. It'd be far cheaper than signing up for an Xbox card to get some BS reward points in return for a probably over the odds interest rate, or monthly fee.

Plus with contactless payments my cards just stay in my wallet all the time, or even integrated into a phone or smartwatch so you don't even need to bring the cards.

The think is ESO and Fallout 76 are, basically, MMOs. Those are the kind of game where a company and developer are geared up for a long tail and expanding the game for many years.

Redfall was supposed to be a standard release so I doubt there's that many people still working on it. The devs would have moved onto another project, or been let go.

From the behind the scenes stuff I've read this is a classic mess of a mismanaged project.

A damned shame. I hope they find jobs again really quickly. Hopefully with a company that appreciates them.

That a developer can create a sucessful game series, and then get shut down, but not keep the rights to that series is something I hate about the games industry. It means publishers can scoop up valuable IPs but the people who make them are disposable.

I didn't pay for early access. If this is the kind of game that'll be fun to play for years to come then I'm not going to miss one week of not playing it, and certainly wouldn't want to pay for the privilege of playing it early. If it's done then just release it.

So next weekend I'll set it to download, and give it a try if I've got some free time.

I suppose it's good to have a nice range of stock controllers rather than people needing to spend the time and money on a custom one from the design lab.

they can see what's popular on the Design Lab, and it could be that Purple is a very popular colour, and so worth them making it a regular choice.

Personally I'm happy with the metallic purple one I got a while back, but I've been sorely tempted to get the old Sea of Thieves controller released back when that came out. A real beauty ❤️

This looks fun. May be a great one for a lazy Sunday gaming session.

I'm interested to hear more about ES6. Maybe after Starfield is out they'll start talking about it more.

Though in the, many, years since Skyrim I've discovered I don't really like these kind of massive sprawling games. I just don't have the time or patience to put hundreds of hours into any game. I've had much more fun with something I can complete in an afternoon.

Making the world's biggest pizza is impressive, but even I can get sick of eating nothing but pizza, and it's just going to go to waste.

I'm not one for RPGs. Particularly this kind of retro RPG, but if it's a 10/10 then maybe it'd be good enough for me to loverlook that.

Ooh that'd be awesome. I remember loving that game when it came out, and would be great to see an upgrade.

Though it did have a bunch of music videos in it that could be an issue when it comes to licensing. There was also cartoons and a movie, but I think those were public domain.

Is this the first time that a game will miss a feature on the S compared to X? Besides graphical settings I can't think of another title where a part of the gameplay has been removed.

Not a good sign as the S was all about offering the same experiences at a lower price

Looks pretty slick, but why wired? We've had wireless controllers for decades, and they've been the norm for three generations. Good to have wired as an option, and I use mine with a wire often to save battery power, but it should be standard on all but the budget options.

It'd be great to play Dark Forces again after all these years, and on the Xbox as well. I'll keep a good eye out for the release day.

I think Remedy REALLY want to make a 90's style FMV game, and I think that they should just let them so they can get it out of their system.

I enjoy Snowrunner so might check this one out.

@Targle And streaming (games and movies) services are in the same position being owned or backed by the rights holders, but they choose to not license things, or only provide exclusive licenses to one platform. Which only benefit the companies at the customers' expense.

A bit of a step in the right direction so titles would be available on other streaming platforms. When it comes to Game and TV/Movie streaming its so often a series of walled gardens where the consumer doesn't have a choice, but to pay a dozen monthly fees to access everything.

It should be like music streaming where almost everything is available on all services, and so they can compete on price and service rather than content.

Nice. There's been those Vinyl stickers you could put on, but they were so hard to get off again (and then couldn't be reapplied). So something that's not permanent and can be changed over easily is good. The price is a bit steep though.

How long before we stop calling it "Next Gen"? The Xbox One was about a third of the way through its run by this point.

Wow. I had pre-ordered two copies of each special edition for every console, but after seeing that menu screen I'm cancelling the lot. REALLY dodged a bullet there.

I have to go with GTA. Red Dead has only had two games in its franchise proper (with Revolver really being a completely different game), and they're really good, but GTA has so many great games, and is one of the most influential franchises out there where I'm not sure what the legacy of Red Dead will be.

Microsoft likes to make noise about preserving and backwards compatibility so why not commit to leaving their old storefronts up too?

I've still not played the first one so I'm in no rush anyway. So as long as it's released by 2036 I'll be getting around to it then

@Lightning720 I think it's sad there'll be digital only games that you can't get any more when it shuts down. In the past if you wanted to buy an old PS2 game you'd get one second hand, or from new old stock, but you can't do that legally with digital games.

Glad to see the backwards compatible games will still be there as not all were released physically. Though it's a shame to see games disappear. How many XBLA games that aren't compatible will be gone for purchase now?

We're in a sad time where games are disappearing, and it's up to, effectively, pirates to preserve them all and make them available for future generations.

It's a really good game, and worth playing. It's not too long so you can enjoy it in a couple of sessions.

125gb?! Looks like I'll have to make some room, or use Xcloud as I imagine it'll be on there too.

Love this idea of interactive documentaries. Sort of a hands on museum exhibit at home. I really need to pick up the Atari collection.

Mine has changed. I'd prefer it stayed as the library button, but I usually go to my library via the Xbox menu on the controller anyway so it doesn't make a difference to me.

I've played Immortality, but not finished it so I'll have to make sure to do that soon as I really like it.

Hooray for backwards compatibility. I wanted to play Monkey Island 2 last week, and found out that the 360 Special edition is backwards compatable, and it's cheaper to buy on Xbox than Steam or GoG.