I bought Alan Wake Remastered. I've played it for a bit, but not sure if I'll stick with it or not.

I look forward to experiencing these changes when it goes on sale for 50% off next year, or gets added to Game Pass.

This is really good to see. That Cloud was limited to Game Pass (and a couple others like Fortnite) was such a hindrance. I hope that more games are added in time.

I'd love to be able to play Star Trek Online on the go as it's a game with a lot of daily missions that you can miss if you're travelling or out and about.

Yet another reason why you should never pre-order or pay extra for early access (though not the case here).

I'll wait until the weekend to try it out and hopefully things will have died down by then. Saturday is supposed to be a big storm so a perfect day for a chill sim game.

Looking forward to trying this out. The smaller size is welcome as my Series X is almost full to bursting. Though I just deleted Black Ops 6 which was 120gb just for the campaign!

It does suck that as we move away from physical releases you won't be able to buy these games any more when licenses run out.

I'm in the same boat where it comes to not getting a code for FH4, but it says they're not going to finish handing them out until 2026. So you could, in theory, get the code, and then only have a very short window of time to redeem it. How do they even send out the codes? e-mail, message on the console?

Alan Wake Remastered is on sale for 75% off for £6.24 which is good as I've been wanting to get that for a while now. I can finally see what the fuss is all about. I hope it's not too spooky though.

Good for them. Microsoft is a gigantic company with a LOT of power. The only way employees are going to get any recognition is through collective action. MS' actions in closing studios, outsourcing work, etc. shows that they most certainly prioritise short term profits over employee wellbeing.

I saw some reports of the pre-release build that it streams a LOT of data over the network constantly compared to the last game to keep the install size small. Has there been any news on that being true in the final build?

They've removed the developer from the credits? What a scummy move. If they made the game then they should still get the credit for it.

Ooh. I saw this in a store recently, and was tempted to buy, but I had a feeling we'd see this eventually on Game Pass.

I do hate that QR seems to have so many issues with a bunch of popular games (especially online ones) that have never been fixed. Microsoft need to give you the option of turning it off on a game by game basis as a default console feature.

Well considering that we were in a global pandemic, and stuck in our houses worrying for our future and that of our loved ones I'm not particularly nostalgic no. The release of a new console didn't really seem all that important at the time.

When it comes to the consoles themselves it was more of an upgrade than a new generation. There were no "next gen" titles at launch, or for a while later. The best we had was probably Flight Simulator.

In some ways the Series X was a downgrade for me as the disc drive is prone to issues, we lost the cable TV integration functions, and other media controls don't work with my TV that did with my One S.

This has been rumoured for ages so I'll believe it when I see it. Will it actually happen? I don't know as they were going to do a set top cloud console, but scrapped that, and I can see them scrapping this too.

I'm most looking forward to trying Indiana Jones as it's a franchise I really like, and the developer seems like a good fit.

Though Flight Sim 24 is a close second as I enjoyed the last entry, but the lack of structure was a bit of a downside for a casual player. More focus on missions might make me want to play it more often than just flying around places.

So when they say "gaming revenue growing by 43% "including 43 points of net impact from the Activision acquisition" " does that mean that their core revenue didn't grow at all, and all their gaming growth came from the company they just paid billions for?

Sounds like fun. I'm interested to see how this works out as the franchise is a great setting for this kind of adventure.

I hope he's not holding too much in MS stock as I have a feeling it'll be taking a dip next year unless they can get AI to actually make money.

@Vordus As the ship has sailed for Blops6 maybe next year we'll see something from them.

If the licencing terms are such that it's not worth their while to actually do it then it's a worthless concession.

Has there been any word about these coming out on a Ubisoft cloud service? I thought they were forced to have a non-exclusive license agreement for all CoD games as part of the merger agreement?

@Fiendish-Beaver Thanks. I don't understand why people would be upset more people are playing the game, but that explains the relevance at least.

I didn't realise there was a backlash about the Indiana Jones game. What's wrong with it?

It's not even out yet, and the developers have a decent track record with story heavy FPS games.

Rather than a 21+ restriction it should be strictly 17-23 as anyone older than that has more sense and taste.

Damn. I was going to buy ten of these (one per room, and another for the car), but now it's useless without the green grill.

Crossplay is pretty much the standard when I'm playing online games with friends. The multiplayer games I play the most (Fortnite and Sea of Thieves) most of my friends play on other platforms so Crossplay is a must.

I think it needs to be a standard feature as it's really annoying when you can't play games with people because of restrictions. I even had a problem on PC where my friends were all playing a game, also on PC, but I couldn't join them as they had it on Steam, and I bought from the Microsoft Store.

Good to see another game set in the Control universe, but I wish it wasn't a multiplayer shooter. It's a bit of a kick in the teeth like how Apex Legends is set in the Titanfall universe. I just want Control 2

This looks interesting. I'll wait for reviews to see how it actually shakes out, but my interest is piqued due to my love of that era of cartoons.

Also isn't' it interesting that an FPS with decidedly non-realistic graphics is drawing attention almost solely on visuals? Almost as if what people wany is strong artistic direction rather than the fidelity of the protagonist's armpit hairs...

Donut County is a really fun and charming short puzzle game. I'd highly recommend it as it's great to play on a wet Sunday afternoon where you want to chill a bit.

@BleedingDreamer Yeah the drive isn't the best sadly. I've had issues with some 4K discs just not working. For example I've tried 2 different copies of Matrix Resurrections, and neither would play in my Series X. I hope it's something that can be fixed, but could be a hardware or deep firmware issue sadly.

Makes sense they'd take this opportunity to make a few changes internally after lesson learned from 4-5 years of real world usage and manufacturing. When you're really into old consoles and home computers you'll find that there's often a fair bit of difference on the inside of some models over time to cut costs, etc. even if it looks identical on the outside.

Power and noise improvements are good as it actually saves you money.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I do wonder if this was an "astroturf" group funded by a competitor to try and throw another wrench in the works, and have just settled as it became pointless.

I agree with these people though, and in a few years time we'll see what a bad deal this was for consumers and the industry as a whole.

Just make another "James Bond Jr." game you cowards. That's an IP that's just sitting there ripe for a reboot. People love nostalgic cartoon reboots these days.

A really fun game. Even better if you're a fan of South Park as it's probably the most faithful licensed title ever.

They really fumbled the ball not continuing this series and instead going for that 3D snow day action game.

This'd be good to get for sure. I really hope it's something that can be super easily added to games (like the publisher just need to tick a box), as there's older games I'd love to see added to cloud where the developers have moved to other projects, etc.

It's been crap. They paid an unfathomable sum, and in the time they've cried poverty and so have been "forced" to close a bunch of studios and raise prices despite still making profits (even ignoring Microsoft in general). Maybe those billions they spent could have come in handy.

When the deal went through they rebuffed claims that it would lead to redundancies, price rises, reduced competition for gamers and developers, and a toxic work environment and corporate structure. Since then we've seen all of those things come to pass to some degree, and I think it'll just get worse.

I'm afraid that Microsoft as a wider company is going to be in trouble as they're in DEEP with AI, but their products (like Copilot) just aren't selling, or are actively unwanted. When that bubble bursts when they realise nobody is seeing a return on their billions MS will be forced to cut costs, and Xbox won't be spared.

I thought they weren't allowed to put new Call of Duty (or other ActiBliz titles) on Cloud gaming though. They sold the rights to Ubisoft. Is this just another example of MS just bulshitting their way through anti-monopoly rules?

@Ricky-Spanish This is about Cloud gaming not Game Pass though. So soon you'll be able to play Warzone through the Cloud on mobile, Samsung TVs, old laptops, etc.

They did the same with Fortnite, and I've found that useful as it gives you much better graphical quality than other methods like Nvidia and mobile apps.

Looking forward to trying out Flight Sim 2024. I wasn't big into the current one, but like to chill out with it now and again. A real "next gen" technical marvel.

Looks pretty sleek! I can see these being a good choice for some people with a bit of a saving over the full model.

When it comes to games I'm pretty much all digital now as modern physical games are little more than shelf candy, but I use the Series X disk drive to watch DVDs, Blu Rays, etc on a regular basis.

@Scummbuddy Well at least with $1m in cash you can use that money to pay any taxes, and you're still left with a lot of money. The trouble with winning GP for life is that (despite what scammers will tell you) the IRS doesn't accept payments in Game Pass gift cards.

Here's hoping Apple is next, same as in the EU, and other countries will follow.

It feels good to have governments finally care about monopolies after decades of not doing anything and letting a half dozen companies control the internet and mobile market.

That's a weird choice, but I do like older licensed games getting re-released so good on. I wonder if "Star Wars: Demolition" will get a re-release too?

Yikes. Let's hope this isn't the case, and can just install what you need rather than the whole ballgame. Such as getting rid of the single/multiplayer when you're not playing it.

OOh. I usually like these customised consoles and controllers as they look impressive, but this is the first I'd really want to actually own and play on. Partially as I'm an Indy fan, but it just looks cool and shiny.

Maybe I should see if there's anyone out there who specialises in gold leaf and send my Xbox in

I mean it's a thousand times better than the old version, but it's basic at best. I've found it to be slow and very awkward to use with a controller, and issues when it comes to things like pop out windows or other tabs.

The biggest issue is that the Xbox doesn't allow for you to use a standard Bluetooth keyboard so typing anything more than a word or two is like pulling teeth. That one change would make browsing FAR better.

I'm not too bothered with a wireless headset since the controller has a 3.5mm port so I just plug a wired headset into that, and don't need to bother with a wire trailing to the console.

What'd also have been nice is to see all the old games put on GP by now. I hope they're waiting until this one has been released so as to maybe not cannibalise players???

They're already available digitally and compatible so I don't see any major roadblock there besides a business reason.

Let's just say that 30fps is more cinematic, and closer to the Western movie roots and be done with it.

I was surprised how much Spec OPs: the Line was. It was only £15 compared to some on there, but that seemed like a bit for what I thought was a common game. I suppose it being de-listed from digital stores pushed the price up.

@EVIL-C I played the Simpsons arcade machine a couple weeks ago, and it's so fun. It definitely needs a release on modern consoles with couch co-op and online multiplayer.