RentedPanda

@Lup F.I.S.T. was still on last I checked. I downloaded and played a couple of hours, but it has been buried under the backlog for a while. Same with Indivisible for me.

I'm interested in Capes, but don't feel the need for day 1 purchase

We'll see. Another price increase might push me to drop it, like I dropped PS plus after their increase. Depends how they implement

I started with Series S. I really wanted to play Psychonauts 2, and a handful of indies I saw going to xbox (Deaths Door, The Gunk) and get a next generation system. At the time ps5 was unavailable, so I thought, I can get a Series S and gamepass (which was always running first month for a dollar at the time), check out Psychonauts 2, use gamepass as an indie arcade machine, and maybe check out all the back catalog I've heard so much about, like Gears.

And it has been great!

@hbkay Chants is new to gamepass. If it looks familiar you may be thinking of Sable, which had a similar art style Or from the screen shots of Chants, it seems to. I have not played Chants yet.

Chicory was great, introduces some fun mechanics over time and I liked the story. Also not very long, which I prize with so many demands on my time

@themightyant
That was pretty much my exact list of interest. Not sure I will have time to play them all.. Hauntii and Hellblade I will definitely play sooner rather than later

Is the reverse of review bomb, review mob? They've been review mobbed!

I hope MS at least continue to fund ID@xbox to put out some interesting things as a PR move / gamepass fodder while they concentrate on the huge cash cows from their studios. I fear for DoubleFine. I hope if it comes to it, DoubleFine get the opportunity to buy their independence again

Disgusting. Also, some of the ActiBlizz merger concerns about negatives of consolidation were proved correct - didn't MS say, don't worry, look, we essentially let Bethesda run themselves.... So disappointing. Similarly disgusted at Take2 shutting studios the other day as they continue to rake in cash from GTA5. Just makes me sad

I guess I need to quit or commit on F.I.S.T. I started it, got maybe 3 bosses and upgrades in, and haven't gone back. I also should start the second Shadowrun game if there is a chance it will leave. I have it loaded and ready.

I'm back into Lamplighters League, which I read has gotten its final patches. Great tactics game! If you like xcom, you will enjoy it! However, I am still hitting some bugs/crashes costing mission progress (about an hour of play) on Series S, so be warned. For me, the gameplay is worth the crash risk

Return to Grace and A Little To The Left are 2 short, enjoyable games I have played recently. I did not 100% them myself. For 100% achievements I think Grace still qualifies but Little would not, as 100% requires a hint free playthrough and daily play for 30 consecutive days (only a few minutes, but not in the spirit of quick and easy points)

Some really great looking stuff, most of which I was not aware of. Thanks for this article! My wishlist grows...

@RIghteousNixon oh, I see. yeah, if anyone is hyping ps 1st party output for this year, .... well, that's a tough position to take. I don't know about last year, I don't recall, but I know I did not buy any 1st party games from Sony if there were any (was there a TLOU remake/update, maybe?)

@RIghteousNixon one can argue that with exclusives like Stellar Blade, FF7 and Helldivers 2, there is less impact of a quiet year of true 1st party. they also have fewer overall 1st party studios, so that may buy them some slack - deserved or undeserved. But how much of the 3rd party to the rescue strategy was planning vs luck, I have no clue. I think these were all planned exclusive so there was some planning, but I do not expect, for example, Helldivers was ever projected to be the hit it became, while FF7 is reported as having disappointed SE with its sales. I have a PS but not interested in any of those 3, I'm spending my game time mostly on xbox.
Nothing leaps to mind being hyped for PS (2nd or 3rd party) in the 2nd half of the year, when all these huge games will drop for MS.

Is there any rumor on Flintlock release window? Is that still planned for 2024, or was that just a vague projection/prediction? Or maybe I am wrong and and it was never in the 2024 discussion.

I never did finish Supraland. That was a fun surprise, had never heard of it when it arrived, gave it a try and really liked it. I bounced off, cannot remember why, and never went back

I liked Pikuniku. I found Ravenlock ok, but never quite as good as I hoped. It was enjoyable enough for me over the short run time. Loot River did not click for me but it seemed cool

I never clicked with the one AC game I tried, but may give this Mirage preview a shot

I picked up Cult of the Lamb, and played through the main story mode (decided not to buy it just to backlog it). Great game, happy with the purchase!

Heist 2 is huge news, that is great!

I used to be conscious of file size due to limited space on the S. Since getting an expansion card, I am less concerned, but I do try to remove games after playing to keep it from becoming a problem again. Starfield is what pushed me to getting the card, speaking of large file sizes

I enjoyed the first, and look forward to this release.
It would be nice press for MS if this becomes a critical hit in the cinematic story telling arena, where God of War and Last of US tend to get all the attention. Although the preview comments about sword combat feeling hefty, etc. have me thinking combat will be improved.
If it doesn't hit for me, back to awaiting Avowed

I might grab Penny's Big Breakaway. Did not expect a sale price so soon.

If anyone has not tried Dredge, it is a really fun game

@Chaotic_Goat
I had the same thought. I wonder if the idea is to say, "hey Epic, hey Valve, etc. come develop a console storefront - you can make your own deals with devs and pubs to use your store to sell their xbox games" rather than just drop the existing storefronts on the xbox dash, which seems like it could not technically work.

I had been doing OK on my 512 Series S, juggling new games on as I finished and deleted others, but then Starfield came out with a huge storage footprint and my son started getting into rocket league, fall guys and eventually fortnight, which are bigger than what he had been playing, so I broke down and got internal storage expansion on sale, 1 TB. Now I am able to keep a variety of games ready to play and tend to run around 40 to 50 percent full

I was thinking about splurging, but got cold feet and may just hang with the backlog until I hear more and figure if this is really for me. The price does not bother me, seems like it would be entertaining enough to justify. Microtransactions don't bother me either. You can choose to ignore them, but the fact that some will buy maybe helps recoup cost and fund the next game. If there were more cosmetic and optional pkay accelerating microtransactions, maybe it would keep overall cost down, so games don't make the jump to 80 too soon

Maybe they were just waiting to see if CoD showed up on gamepass, so they could get it for their sub fee. That's what I do with a lot of games

@Banjo- I like that mapping system, will keep it in mind if I make the purchase

@GuyinPA75 I started the first DI, but never made it far. Enjoying my time with 2.

I'll have to check out Brotato. I saw it joining gamepass, but it wasn't on my short list to try. I just played through Return to Grace. It was entertaining for the short playthrough but more walking sim or visual novel, not much game play to it

Funny timing, I just played through this about 2 weeks ago. I had a good time but didn't love it enough to revisit. Good game to check out on GP, though

I'm thinking about FF15 Royal and Cult of the Lamb. I was tempted as they were both on sale on PS, and was trying to exercise some self control. But I have a gift card on xbox....

@GuyinPA75 snark was intended, but I was trying for overt, rather than passive aggressive I hear you, and there may be some games with issues in the future, but I don't see it
much so far, including, for example starfield, dead island 2, and revenant 2. But I am definitely not a graphical fidelity person, you are right. I'm happy with indie games with simple graphic style (solar ash, good recent example), although I am not into 8 bit, ironically, so I guess I have my limits.

@GuyinPA75 I must be pretty gullible, as I have apparently been fooling myself into thinking I had a nice little affordable entry point into "next gen" which I have been enjoying across dozens of games with no issues for the past few years. But I guess I was wrong

Too bad this particular game has performance issues, though, I had wanted to give it a try

Have not had a chance to watch but from the brief description I am really interested in Sleight of Hand and always glad to hear more cool new things coming to gamepass

@rustyduck cool, hopefully that will serve until the next batch is announced, and brings new hope. As others have said, Control has [really fun] shooting along with the various powers, but not sure if it's what you're looking for.

For shooters, I'm hoping for El Paso Elsewhere (I think). I've heard it is great, but hard, so I'd rather wait to see if it shows up than buy it and find it is not for me

@GamingFan4Lyf Like FIFA for quiddich? It would probably work. They could do a ton of cross marketing with other sports, or like Metaversus. Get LeBron as a seeker, wearing a Chief's jersey? The micro transactions just write themselves.

@abe_hikura am I remembering correctly that this game has some nice difficulty sliders including an invincibility mode? Might get you past a tough boss, unless your pride won't let you 😉 I recall finishing the game after struggling with some sections and then an update brought all the difficulty sliders afterwards

@HarmanSmith I have never played a NMH game. Does 3 require knowledge of 1 and 2 or stand well on its own?

It is the only game I'm thinking I will try from this batch, although Feb added a lot to my backlog, so not complaining.

@rustyduck Warhammer Boltgun arrived today. I have seen it described as a boomer shooter

Are they only featuring games with two names separated by a colon? It's not the worst event theme; I'll check it out

Actually playing The Last Case of Benedict Fox right now. I should finish it next time I play, believe I have completed everything up to the marked point of no return. I had fun with it, playing on the easiest mode

@ZuneTattooGuy I thought the reason for "looking into it" was that MS stated they were maintaining the acquisitions as independent companies (and FTC wanted this in the fantastical, wishful thinking on their part, scenario that the decision is reversed and they could unwind the deal), but then MS gave rationale for cuts as reducing redundancy, in direct contradiction.

Personally, I wish FTC would drop it at this point, seems like a waste of effort. But just commenting that it seems like a pretty different situation

As an aside, I wish there was some way to hold the execs accountable at all the companies laying off en masse (cough, Embracer), but it isn't going to happen

@Sanquine I don't have a link but it was reported (e.g., Triple Click podcast) that a Blizzard "survival" game was canceled and the entire team let go rather than reassigned to a new project. I think the narrative that the cuts were duplicate positions is corporate BS. Obviously, I have no transparency, but the number of cuts doesn't seem like redundant positions. Even the oft cited marketing and HR positions do not make sense to me. Unless MS had an army of people sitting on their thumbs, I find it hard to believe they simply take up all the new work at ActiBlizz. But no matter the reasons, it is awful for those cut, always sorry to hear

And sorry to hear about more layoffs across the industry at Sony and the other recent announcements. So many... : (

@GuyinPA75 I think different studios and games have different situations. Baldurs Gate 3 was in early access for years and the studio was well resourced. For some games and studios, it seems like GP functions like pre-ordering, giving them an up front guarantee payout. Some studios may need this to keep going, especially smaller games without support of big pubs (ie, for marketing) . These are the types of things I have read, anyway, I have no insight into the payment structures and contracts. But it seems like if this is truly the case, some studios will be able to maintain independence and get more pure sales while others take the GP model. Seems like a risk reward balance

@Lostitall it is an interesting question. I like to hope that my downloads and playtime contribute to the success of the games I play on GP, but I don't know if that is how the model works. Otherwise, the impact of my personal buying pattern change is probably nil, as for years I have usually waited for sales. I was a day 1 purchaser for very few games. But this year, GP access to Avowed may cost Dragon's Dogma 2 a full price purchase. Still may shell out for Star Wars Outlaws...

@EvilSilentFrame in the early game there is some reference to the first, but I don't think you need to have played it, from what I've seen. The plot seems self contained, from first couple hours

@Lostitall I am the same way. The last game I bought physical copy of was Dead Island 2, and last major release prior to that was Diablo 4. Both now announced for GP... I still buy some indies, mostly on switch

I love this. If you try hard enough, you can really get upset about anything