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.

Damn it. I was geting close to the £25 voucher, and now I need to grind even more. Which they've made even harder so this combined with the nerf to points gain has made all rewards FAR more expensive.

Sad to see. I've enjoyed a couple of their shows over the years. Though that they're owned by Warner Bros Discovery shows why it's shutting down. It's a real dumpster fire of a company and an insult to its legacy.

@MaddieTian Oh yeah their current systems have always been two or three steps behind the hackers. That and hit registration issues are the two things they've never been able to address properly.

That sounds really good. The Mouse and Keyboard feature is particularly welcome as so many games support it on Xbox, but only a tiny minority of people have M&K plugged into their console, but it's NOT supported on Xcloud on PC where 99.99% of people have M&K.

This could mean I could even play games on my lunch break at work

@MaddieTian They've had anti-cheat systems in the game since the start, but are moving to a different "off the shelf" option with EAC so, ideally, they won't need to spend as much dev time on it and it could work better.

I think adding anti-cheat to the game goes against the spirit. Pirates should be allowed to cheat and steal all they want to!

I haven't played the first one, but I've played a couple of Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games, and enjoyed those ones. So maybe I'll keep an eye out for this one.

Good to see Control back on, and the Ultimate edition too with the extra stuff. Damn good game.

Spongebob may be good for a bit of fun platforming.

Double the disks means you're getting double the physicalness!

This looks funky, but I think Xbox should release these kind of things in those removable wraparound skins they brought out last year. That way you can customise your existing console, and even have a couple to swap out.

I'll definitely be giving this one a try when it comes to GP. I'm a bit hit and miss with these kind of shooters, but worth a try at least, and looks like some good fun for a weekend.

I really enjoyed Control, and it's storytelling (imagine SCP, Twin Peaks, X files, and Warehouse 13 all put in a blender) so I'm interested in seeing more of this universe. I'd rather more single player focused narrative games than a multiplayer shooter though.

I guess we'll just have to re-play "Bounty Hunter".

I'll likely get them on sale later down the line rather than day 1. I had great fun with these on PS2 and PSP, and do re-play them every now and again on PC.

I suppose that means that the Playstation division must have made a loss in 2023 then.

Ok this looks interesting. I want something to scratch the WWII shooter itch.

I tried "Hell let loose", and died ten times in a row without ever seeing an enemy or firing an effective shot. So probably a bit TOO realistic for me.

I didn't get an XbOne until late in the console's life so I didn't play TF1, but I did hear a lot of good things, and it's a shame the franchise didn't pan out (Apex Legends doesn't count). Though as I recall that's partially due to EA cannibalising TF2's launch and marketing.

As it's MP only I won't be playing it when there's TF2's awesome single player campaign to go through instead.

I bet that the "expectations" would be set so high no matter. It does seem that the longer a game is in development the expectations behind the scenes just go up and up so even if it's a success it's not good enough.

@Banjo- It has to be magic. Though I guess if there's a 30 fps limit then maybe there is the original code being emulated when you switch. It could be that it's ALWAYS being emulated in the background, and only renders when you swap.

Though this is all above my level of expertise.

@Kezelpaso Ok. I would have thought that the "Classic Mode" would actually be the same basic code as the other mode, but with different textures/geometry/lighting to ape the old versions rather than actually running the old code in emulation lockstep with the new code.

"30FPS-only for the classic graphics option is disappointing if understandable"

Why is this understandable? If the new graphics runs at 60fps why shouldn't the other mode? I don't understand how this is understandable.

Ah great. This'll be good for those really big games (and they're only going to get bigger) so you're not having to leave the Xbox idle while they download.

I know there's a whole "Ready to Play" thing where you play a game while it's still installing, but I've had several times where the game will crash or glitch out if you do that so I always wait until it's 100% finished.

I'll wait for reviews and probably a sale before considering. The original games may be good, but there could still be issues with the remake.

I wasn't in the console space at that time, but while I know it didn't have the best reputation for quality, and "Hardcore gamers" didn't like it the Kinect sold like gangbusters, and it's not surprising they kept it going for the XBone.

My uncle works at Microsoft, and he says they're going to sell their gaming division to Sony, and they'll come round your house and take your Xbox away.

So Epic laid off loads of fortnite dev team members, and then launched their most popular season ever while unprepared, and then more big expansions, and now this. I'm sure SOME of that $1.5bn and all the money they made from the OG season could have gone to keeping those jobs.

The way development works we'll be seeing the effects of these layoffs in the game quality slowly as content slows down, and reduces in quality. We've already seen a few things...

Interesting. I only really get CoD titles many years after they come out as I don't care about the multiplayer, and I'm not paying the high price for a campaign you finish in 2-3 reasonable sessions.
I doubt it'll be Far Cry levels of open world campaign, but at least they're not just going to treat the campaign as an afterthought.

I hope we see more multi platform titles and cross play for sure. This way hardware manufacturers can compete more on performance and prices rather than relying on software to shift units, and similarly allow great exclusive games to reach a wider audience.

I hear kids are really into vaping and bright colours now so I'm sure these'll sell well.

Great to see some new ones. I've been sticking to the purple space one I got with my controller, but I'll give these a try.