PhileasFragg

@Ilyn I'm not surprised ActiBlizz are onto it. It's money for nothing, and so they must be giddy with excitement. It's even worse with multiplayer games as if your friends all play WoW, CoD, etc. and they get the early access your pressured into getting it as well. Not good for content creators too who all want to get stuff out there of the newest releases.

@Ilyn At least with Horse armour someone put work into making it. This is doing the same work, but 3 days later. It's LITERALLY cashing in on hype.

The same was done for Starfield and Kill the Justice League. The first one didn't live up to the hype and so you just got bored with it a couple days earlier, and the other one was KTJL so enough said.

If there is also a review embargo until release day on this game then I'll start to get a bit worried...

I just don't understand this "Early Access" stuff at all. It's not a beta test. They can release it then so just release it. Everyone else is getting the game late as they want to make an extra few bucks.

I'm always happy to see games get multi platform releases. More people get to play them, and more sales for a developer helps fund new titles, or more development resources in a live service like Sea of Thieves.

When you've not got people stuck on your platform because that's the only place to play one franchise then you actually have to work to improve the hardware, retail experience, and pricing.

With game sizes the way they are 1Tb and 2Tb should have been the base sizes. Even with a disk drive you still need to install the game to the hard drive (plus all the updates not on the disk).

I've heard so much about this game, but simultaneously know nothing about it.

As I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and storytelling of their Wolfenstein games I think Machine Games can pull off a good Indiana Jones game. So if it gets good reviews then I'll be sure to play it.

I'm interested in picking this up as I've never played it, and it's one of those classic point & click series like Sam & Max and Monkey Island. Though may wait for a sale or something.

I'm glad they give you this version at no extra charge if you had the previous one as I've bought DOOM enough times now

While I'm not the biggest fan of a lot of smart watches and other wearables [as after a few years the non-replaceable battery breaks and destroys your several hundred dollar gadget] it's good that there's more accessible healthcare tech out there that saves lives and helps people get treatment early before something more major happens. Wearing a Rolex is probably more of a RISK to your health.

Just finished it this weekend. A really enjoyable game that tells a good story, and keeps up the pace as it's not really an open world game so it's not packed with time consuming side missions, etc. Like I can hardly remember the plot of any GTA games since it's such a small part of the experience.

It also scratched the "genre" itch same as western games, or Sherlock Holmes detective games. It's nice to have something set in the 30s Gangster era that's a faded genre in modern pop culture.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to get my double breasted suit and fedora out of the wardrobe.

I played it on Game Pass, but weren't players supposed to get free codes before it's delisted? What's happing about that as I haven't gotten anything??

This is good news. I don't want to install another separate game from the one I want to play. If I want to install Warzone then I'll do that.

MWIII was 130gb for just the campaign mode, and I was dreading having to make even more space when Blops 6 came out.

Along with the announcement that Flight Sim 2024 will only be around 50gb (rather than potentially hundreds like FS2020) maybe developers are finally realising that customers having 500/1Tb hard drives doesn't mean that they're free to use all for themselves.

Damn finally getting some sales on games I've been wanting! I've been waiting for BG3 sale forever so now's the chance.

Is it worth getting the "Deluxe" edition, or just the base version? I generally stick to the base one, but I don't know if the in game extras are worth the extra £6.40. I don't care about the digital artbook or soundtrack that much.

It sucks for that guy to realise he's not got ten grand, but for the greater good that's for the best. The "vintage" game market is a ridiculous farce that has been manufactured over the past 5-10 years as an effort for professional investors, grading companies, and auction houses to make money as they can control a small market.

Copies of games that sold millions of copies are going for suspiciously large sums of money in shady deals. There is no universe in which ANY copy of Halo should sell for $13k. It's gone from collectors wanting the rarest and most obscure games (AKA awful games nobody wanted) to suddenly the most common titles are the most valuable.

The problem is that now retro collecting has become unaffordable for the normal fan.

This is sort of a side issue, but if you're having "Off the record" conversations with people then you shouldn't really talk about what was said (keeping the source anonymous or not).

I wouldn't want a MW2 remaster for the sole reason we've already got so many confusing versions of that series. There's MW, MW2, MW3, MW, MW Remastered, MWII, and MWIII!

I hope things are ok for TGW after this acquisition. The worry is that unlike someone buying an active studio when you pick up a closed one the terms aren't always that great for the studio

I played it a bit over the weekend and it was good fun, but at the end of the day I don't really like platform games as my reflexes just suck, and I'm not any good at them.

I'm paying top dollar for Xbox ultimate and they're still plastering ads on the home screen to get a few more bucks.

Announcing new games, etc. I'll live with, but for food, or breakdown insurance they can get lost.

I'm particularly happy about the install size there. Flight Sim is a game I like to play a little every now and again to relax, but it's such a gigantic hard drive hog that It's not worth keeping it installed. Thankfully it's on Xcloud so I just use that.

I know having Tb of files for a flight sim is par for the course for PC enthusiasts, but on console it's a big barrier.

It could be a good option, and having a lower internal resolution that's then upscaled is far from a new trick.

Depending on how the requirements work out this could be a good thing to implement in the rumoured "Xbox Handheld" to improve performance without needing to use as much power.

Awesome. I'm hoping to finiish the MWIII campaign mode this weekend, and then I can uninstall that for space for Crash and Mafia.

I played a little bit of Crash 1 when I rented it as a kid, but I'm looking forward to seeing how well it's held up.

I'm hoping they release the other PS1 platformer trilogy re-master, Spyro, onto Game Pass one day too.

@GuyinPA75 Didn't Microsoft let the copyright for that expire? Maybe we can make a new game ourselves!

OOh I hope so as this is a game I've been wanting to try. I had a good time with Snowrunner when that was on GP.

I think the description for Way of the Hunter has been cut short. It should read:
"Explore the enchanting beauty of Lintukoto Reserve, from winding rivers to dense forests, and encounter a variety of unique wildlife like the Lynx and Arctic Fox... and shoot them in the face."

That Sherlock Holmes bundle is a great deal. Three good games with "Chapter One" (a sort of prequel to Holmes' crime solving career) having quite a bit of content in a free roaming city. For less than £9 you can't go wrong.

I was really hoping for a BG3 savings with it being an "RPG sale"

Some good savings on Ubisoft games as is customary, and may look at the Far Cry 6 expansions.

Don't worry it'll be fine with all the BILLIONS Microsoft is inventing in AI tech soon they'll be able to release the greatest games of all time every day of the week with the push of a button, and thus be able to print infinite money and grow forever. All they need to do is invest just a couple billion dollars more, and THEN it'll finally work properly and make money.

Sounds like fun. I'll probably wait for the traditional Ubisoft 50% off in a year though.

There's so many really fun controllers out there, but I already have one I like, and I've only got one pair of hands so I can't justify buying more at these kind of prices.

@NEStalgia "If OpenAI goes belly up (ding dong the witch is dead!), with the billions invested in them, Microsoft will simply insert the extra cash and buy them to obtain their AI tech as proprietary. (Aww, sheet, here we go again.)"

If you look at the available details on the MS/OAI deal Microsoft has a REALLY sweetheart deal as they already have rights to a lot of OpenAI's tech and research already. If (or I believe when) the bubble bursts MS won't have much concrete losses, but they're so tied up in the hype the market will devalue them sharply.

We've seen what's been done to Microsoft studios when the company is making money hand over fist so god knows what'll happen when things are actually bad.

This sounds pretty good. Particularly the Discord Friends on Xbox bit as when I'm playing cross play games and using Discord to chat it's not as easy as an Xbox friend.

This isn't good news for gamers, and we'll have to see what happens with how the wider company does. Right now they're almost the biggest company in the world, and have so much money and resources they can finance Xbox with relative pocket change.

However my worry is what could happen to OpenAI. They're the tech sector's darling, and Microsoft is in DEEP with them. They've invested BILLIONS into them, and ChatGPT uses Microsoft servers and services. The problem is OpenAI are haemorrhaging money with no real sign of turning a profit any time soon.

So if they go belly up in the next year (which some say is likely) then Microsoft will feel the impact HARD as their stock valuation is linked to a lot of the AI hype, and they're a massive customer of their cloud services. When that happens MS executives will be looking to make big cuts in spending, and fast. In that case parts of the Xbox brand may be on the chopping block.

I'm a bit surprised they re-mastered this one as the Battlefronts were certified classics (same as Tomb Raider and some other recent efforts), but Bounty Hunter was a middle of the road action game that was popular due to it being a Star Wars game, but didn't really make an impact like BF did.

I had fun with this back in the day, but probably won't be buying it again.

I've wanted to play Mafia for years and years so this could finally be my chance to get back into the mob business since that Godfather game on PS3.

After hearing Venba was going I played it, and it was very enjoyable. Short and simple, but tells a good story effectively with some fun cooking minigames.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to order some Indian food, and call my mother.

Ooh that's cool to see. Sadly it's too rich for my blood, but would be great for a fan or collector.

Thanks for the guide. If you just go to install like other games you'll end up with a 300Gb download or something

I get what they're doing with the Hub though as if you play multiple CoD games (which share a lot of base engine code) you're not ending up with an extra 100Gb or so of duplicated data.

Looking forward to playing this tonight with my crew. They've been supporting the game for years, and while the support pace has waxed and waned I'm glad they're still adding more to do.

Great! This is one of the games I like to drop into every now and again through cloud gaming for some chill time.

@Acidangel111 Despite the time taken (which is a LOT longer than 4 minutes) there's a lot of people who have a download cap (or god forbid a metered connection), and an extra 70gb for no reason could mean you're paying more on your internet bill.

I might download it to play the story mode as they're usually good for a few hours of cinematic fun; I couldn't care less about multiplayer. Though I'm hoping that Vanguard gets added at some point as I prefer the WWII setting over the modern day.

I wonder if the whole series will get added at once, or bit by bit, or only a couple will make it to GP as they mightn't not really care about the older titles any more.

I ALMOST bought one. I spent ages tweaking the design with all the different options I wanted to get my perfect controller, and then when I went to checkout I found that hey had stopped taking Xbox store credit. So if you've got an Xbox Gift card, or money via MS rewards then you're out of luck buddy.

I ended up buying one of the special edition controllers from the MS store instead which I really like, but it's not the wacky rainbow design that I wanted

Ok I may give this a go if I have some time next weekend as I've been interested to play since it looks really fun.

Ooh this'll be good. I'd rather not have to download stuff for a multiplayer or single player mode if I'm not going to use it, etc. Of course that's only if developers portion these parts out to start with.

I've got the 90% discount offer, but I already have the Ultimate Add On pack so I'm hoping to get that free base game token people are talking about.

@shoeses Have a look on your Xbox store page as some people are able to get it for 90% off for some reason.

I think it'll stay cheap until it's de-listed, but 80% is pretty good for the ultimate edition, and unless money is super tight then perhaps just go for it so you can play it now rather than wait for a possible sale.

No sign of a saving on Baldur’s Gate