PhileasFragg

Hopefully near the end of the story it'll all get burned down to show that even cosy idyllic rural backwaters aren't spared the terrors of war.

Festival is a fun mode, and it's great to see there's new controllers for it, but I hope that they'll keep supporting the mode. It's sort of an "add on" along with Rocket Racing and LEGO rather than a stand alone thing. Still they just released a Billie Eilish themed "Festival Pass" so that's good.

I didn't play all of it, but I had good fun for sure. They've really refined the formula over the years. I can totally see why when someone wants to play a LEGO Star Wars game then this would be the one they pick up.

Not going to vote as I've only played it a bit yesterday, and it's only getting going so I can't comment overall. though I've liked what I've played so far with some interesting characters and a great setting. Looking forward to putting more time in this week.

As much as I'd like to hear talking about old games I'm more interested in preservation of current and future games.

I'd like to know what measures are going to be taken to preserve games that rely on online services and downloads going forward; so if I buy a game now how are they going to ensure that I can enjoy it in 20-30 years time.

I'd hope that this team will be working with publishers as well to help ensure thought is given to preservation and continuity during development. Perhaps have a set of guidelines publishers have to follow before they can release a game on Xbox? It's much easier to preserve games when you keep that in mind from the start.

Little Kitty, Big City looks like good fun.

Those are quite some special editions! I played it back in the day and didn't really rate it. I started right after FC3, and just didn't like it. It was dark and dull, and the neon gimmick was too much of a gimmick from the pretty grounded FC3. Maybe if I try it again it'll be better?

Maybe Microsoft should look at cloud solutions for PC games to be playable on consoles like how the reverse is true?

This is cool. It's a shame these Hallmark ornaments aren't as easy to get in the UK as they make some really fun stuff, and some high quality Star Trek ones too.

I'm looking forward to playing Harold Halibut. I tried Grounded a while back, but I was too creeped out by the giant bugs I didn't play much.

Interested to try out Harold Halibut. Sounds like a very interesting game that'll be a good novelty at the very least.

Sad news. There was a push to ban these kind of contracts years back, but sadly they're still about. I hope these people can find new jobs elsewhere.

@CutchuSlow You can't start a storefront, and just sell digital games from there. There needs to be a distribution agreement in place to allow you to sell them. So now MS has bought Activision they have the distribution rights to sell ActiBlizz games on the Xbox store.

I'm not a horror fan so not too worried about these for the most part. I tried B4B when it came out, and it was decent, but my friends just still prefer to play L4D2.

I'll wait for the massive price drop in a year or so.

@BleedingDreamer I use it all the time as I'll be playing a game on my Xbox, and others will be using PC, Playstation, etc. and this way you can use the same voice chat platform without needing to deal with any in-game chat functionality.

@BBB Reading the original source interview I see that I got the wrong impression. When he says he doesn't want to sell the game for $70, but worries the audience will see that as an indication of lower quality I took that to mean that they were going to sell it at $70 so it doesn't get those comparisons.

So the CEO of the developer and publisher doesn't think that the game should be sold at $70, but they are anyway? Then why should anyone buy it at that price then?

This seems to come up regularly where someone will say a certain price, or microtransactions, or a season pass is too much EXCEPT for our games where it's totally worth it and justified.

Indies are my favourite part of GP. It means you can try out smaller titles with nothing to lose but a little bit of your time.

I agree with the sentiment that the indie scene needs only a fraction of the money AAA productions need to keep going, but with a much better return on investment for the industry as a whole to develop the industry as a whole and the talent. It's like Art grants; you're not going to end up with 1000 Picassos (or even one), but there needs to be an art industry and community there to allow those special people to get a start.

Probably Black Ops (the first one), or World at War. I had WaW back on PS3 which was fun (though not as groundbreaking as MW), but I've never played any of the Black Ops series.

These both sound interesting. Glad that Game Pass is serving up a steady stream of stuff to play.

@Greenbasilisk I suppose Pure Xbox's crystal ball must be in the shop for a service then. Why else would they describe these as the lowest prices they've ever been when they know for a fact that in the future they will cost less.

If you're a Star Trek fan then Resurgence is a great buy for this price. It's a narrative adventure game made by former Telltale Games staff in the style of those games. It's like you're playing an episode of the shows.

Well considering some of the historical leaps we've seen I think this is a bit of hyperbole. There's been very little noticeable difference from this generation from the past one really. Particularly when so many games are on previous gen consoles too. Unless you put them side by side it's hard for the untrained eye to tell the difference.

I'm glad they're considering this. All big publishers should be pretty much required to have teams dedicated to archiving their work. So much of the work is done, basically illegally, by fans with less and less access to the data. Unless some employee saves some code at home when the company shuts down loads of games will/have been lost forever.

Suicide Squad is 50% off barely 2 months from release? Oof.

I like short games. Big games often overstay their welcome and end up dragging things out to pad the runtime. I'd rather play a 2-5hr indie game than a 20-50hr one.

Hellblade is a good example where it's based strongly on a story and moving through different environments. If it goes on for too long then there's definitely the risk of the player losing interest in the story if it's too dragged out.

Also for the poll is missing the option that you think 8hr is too long.

So does "Next Gen" mean the generation we've had for 3 years now, or is this the generation after that? Because I've not really seen much that's made this gen stand out as anything but the smallest increase over what we've had before.

I suppose that's what happens when the industry focusses on the "Live service" model. You get a stagnation of big hitters, and anything new (including new live services) are starved out. All those games except for Starfield (and Minecraft to a lesser degree) focus on providing continuous new content and microtransactions.

So basically you end up stuck in a cycle of companies spending ungodly sums on making the next big service, failing, and putting developers out of jobs when they could all be making new fun games you play for a bit and then play something new.

Looking forward to Mind Control Delete, and Harold Halibut. Hopefully get some time this month to give them a good go.

I wonder if this had an impact on the Nvidia and Microsoft stock prices? Someone could have made/lost a lot of money over this...

This is one I've been looking forward to as it looked really interesting. As it's on GP I might still give it a go as perhaps I'll enjoy the narrative a bit more.

This is a bit of a bone thrown, but MS rewards aren't what they used to be sadly. More grinding to get points, and they just aren't worth what they used to be.

I'm glad to see it. This was really a feature that was missing when you've got a PC, but no controller. Helps with the "Play Anywhere" nature for sure.

While D&D is deep in the game's DNA it's not what made it such a big success. It could have been its own IP, and still use the whole "tabletop inspired" gimmick as WotC doesn't own the rules to D&D.
I think WotC should be paying THEM as I think D&D would have got the promotional boost out of this.

I have an X, and no external storage as it's too expensive. I'm at around 70-80% most of the time, and cycle out large games to make room for new ones wherever I can. Unfortunately as games are getting bigger and bigger it makes it tough. I've started playing Flight Simulator on Xcloud instead to save space.

Looking forward to trying out Open Roads. It's been quite a wait it seems.
I'll keep an eye out on South Park: Snow day. the two previous RPGs were REALLY good and showed how you can make a licensed game true to a show. This new one is something totally different, and I'm just hoping it's not a return to the lazy crap from back in the 90's.

A new Simon the Sorcerer game?! I wasn't expecting that.

@Lup That's crazy. Is is not available on disc?

Since it's been forever since I played Max Payne 1 and 2 I'm interested in a remake as they were games I rented (remember that?), but didn't ever finish so it'd be a pretty fresh experience.

I've been playing SoT off and on since the year it launched, and I'm happy it's being constantly updated with new stories and features.

Glad it's not been totally forgotten, but I doubt Red Dead Online is the cash cow they were hoping it would be after GTA Online.

Still I wish I had a couple friends to play it with and live out my cowboy fantasies in a big hat.

The whole thing's been gutted over the past year to make it much harder, and less fun, to earn points as well as increasing the cost of rewards. I've got £25 worth of points which I'll cash out and put towards BGIII or something.

If they do come out with a refresh, or "Pro" or whatever I won't get it. I just finished paying off my Series X so am in no rush to upgrade for a marginal performance boost unless Microsoft allows you to trade in and upgrade for a small sum (which they'd never do).

Oh this would be awesome if they made and "Xbox Mini" that could play some of the classic games, but in that form factor.

Yet another great lesson as to why you should never Pre-order a game. Always wait at least a day to a week.

Looks interesting. I'll keep an eye out for this one. I love me some "Noir". It's my favourite French colour (second place being Rosé).

This sounds interesting. I'm going to look into it more. I tried Hell Let Loose, but it was all too complex and tough for me.

I got both of the OG games on Xbox already when they were on Games With Gold so I'll be waiting to see if this is worth getting or not, and at how much.

I'm interested to see what kind of reception it gets when it comes back. I like the idea of a game like this getting a pre-release beta, but then actually shutting down so the devs can put the work in without needing to build the plane as it's in the air. Of course the risk is that it'll have lost the momentum and player base.