RiverGenie

Glad I ignored the internet chatter that was prevalent when this was released as I enjoyed my time with Avowed.

Perfect example of a good game that doesn't go out of its way to push any envelopes just for the sake of it and just concentrates on being a fun experience.

Will certainly go back for the NG+ & look forward to seeing what other extras get added.

I don't think i will ever buy the game but I am curious to look at it unfiltered so to speak so I might give the trial a spin at least.

I haven't tried it on Xbox but gave it a try on PS5 but I just got a bit bored with it and had other games I was more excited to play. It wasn't a bad game and it might pick up story wise if a put more time into it but I just don't have any great excitement for it.

Might be one I will give a second chance if I am stuck for something to play. Right now though I have literally more games i am excited for than I have time to play

Getting stuck into The Stalker 2 again. This game just keeps getting better & adding to the immersion that keeps me totally enrgrossed in the game play. One of the best games of the current gen imo.

I have actual new games I would rather play instead.

Not that I think RDR is bad its just that a fresh coat of paint / more fps isn't that exciting to me. I am sure I will get round to a play through eventually but see no real reason to rush to play it.

@Pigrotto Sacred 2 was always a bit wonky but that was part of its charm so I was prepared for that.

Crashes not so much & its not like they were niche cases either, talk to shop npc in 1st town- Crash, look at inventory - Crash with many other cases of just playing normally making it crash.

Its a shame because it genuinely looks much better, when its not crashing runs well & I was looking forward to playing it. Maybe if they patch it I might buy it in a future sale on a deep discount but yeah shouldn't have been released in this state.

I am trying to figure out how to make trains run efficiently in Satisfactory and working on completing my current phase tasks.

I am also playing Sacred 2, the Xbox 360 version not the recently released Remaster (I tried it but it was so bad it became the first game I ever refunded on Xbox. Wonky I can put up with but constant crashes I wont tolerate.)

Speaking of wonky I am also considering restarting my current Stalker 2 play through so I can try to complete a full master difficulty run which was added in the 1.7 patch.

I think those 3 games will keep me busy well into the New Year.

I only game on my console in front of my tv so the feature is a complete waste of time for me personally.

I don't have a 360 but I am playing a game via backwards compatibility, Sacred 2.

I was all set and excited to play the Sacred 2 Remaster but they really shouldn't have released it. I can put up with a lot of wonky stuff with games if I have fun but having a game constantly crash is not one of those things I will tolerate.

So the Sacred 2 Remaster became the only game I have ever refunded on Xbox.

Luckily for me I do have the original 360 version of Sacred 2. One of the few I have purchased out of nostalgia of my time playing it on pc. You know what despite it's age I am still having a great time (& no crashes)

@Lup the tencent money needs to hit their bank account first

@Chip-Douglas I don't know what you mean about the value has left when Pigeon Simulator is a part of the service. 🙃

Nothing for me really in the list.

I have tried Banishers on PS5 via plus and its a decent looking game but I lost interest in the story so never finished it.

While I am not generally a fan of open world racing these days I have to say Motorfest isn't really competition to Forza Horizon 5.

Motorfest isn't as polished as FH5 , the ai is terrible and the way the cars drive just feels wrong to me. To its credit it does have a ton of content to plow through and in general looks pretty decent.

I suppose you could have fun but for me it just doesn't hit the spot with more negatives than positive so its not something i will be rushing to play.

Folks like to dog pile on this stuff and in a lot of cases its because someone on the socials told them to.

I am with @themightyant in that its not a simple ai good or ai bad. You have to evaluate how its used on a game by game basis & if it helps or hinders the game creation process.

Its easy to see bad use but I would bet there has been many more instances that AI has been used to speed up certain aspects of the creation process. These uses are either well integrated in the final product so you can't tell or has been used at a conceptual stage to help finalise plans for the finished game.

Personally if something cuts development time without affecting the quality of the final product then I am all for it.

One of my top 3 games of the current generation. A excellent experience that I enjoyed immensely even while it was buggy.

I am excited to see what will be happening in the future for this game.

Done this with a few games in the past that I was excited for but I certainly won't be for CoD.

I doubt I will even download it for the campaign as I am just not interested in that sort of game anymore.

GT7 is pretty much the reason i got a PS5 and I dont regret it one bit. I am interested in the dlc they announced as well as the free spec III update too. Fun times ahead.

I enjoyed Forza Motorsport and it was sad to see it go down the way it did. It seemed to me folks were starting to be positive about FM after the most recent updates then Microsoft took it for a walk behind the shed while holding a shotgun.

I hope we see them try again with the franchise but I doubt that it will be for many many years.

AI is just a tool that can help productivity and it all depends on how each individual dev team uses said tool whether that is good or not for the creative process. To say its just out right bad regardless of how its used is a poor position to take in my opinion.

Its like saying all shovels are bad and shouldn't be used no matter how appropriate they are for a job because someone hit someone with a shovel & killed them.

In terms of Xbox stuff not a lot going on for me and the only thing that really made me take a closer look on the PS5 side was the news on the paid dlc for GT7. Might be interested if they are sensible with the price.

@Tasuki that would only work on a pc version as it uses the script extender to function. Script extender simply doesnt work on console and never will

@BleedingDreamer The creations bundle i believe. Personally i am not going the bother as i am not seeing anything in the creation club content that is adding much i am interested in.

List of included creation content can be found on this page > https://bethesda.net/en/article/3IN7gxAs893fv09b7ZJ3I0/fallout-4-anniversary-edition-now-available#:~:text=The%20following%20%E2%80%9CBethesda%20Themed%E2%80%9D%20Creation,and%20the%20Fantasy%20Hero%20Set.

I have no history with this franchise & I played maybe a couple of hours NG4. It wasn't bad though not really something I would ever buy but a servicable gamepass offering.

The problem it has is I have many many other games that I would rather play and are way more enjoyable to me. Put it this way if no other games were ever made from this point forward it would still be years before I even thought of trying to complete Ninja Gaiden 4.

Silent Hill is one of those franchises that I just can't get into and find it more boring than scary.

I recently gave the SH2 remaster a go on PS5 via plus and it didn't change my mind on the franchise. I think my main problem is I don't care about the characters so the story lost me and its all but done for me at that point as the game play wasn't all that engaging for me either.

I hope folks who are into this franchise more than me enjoy this release but yeah nope not for me.

Too many games & not enough time.

I really wish I didn't buy Satisfactory not because its a bad game but it seems to have come with a built in time machine that transports you to 2-3 am.

The game is essentially a huge puzzle in a factory wrapper that keeps adding to the puzzle complexity while giving you more & more tools to solve things. Its really making me think, prioritise & trouble shoot problems but its still been a lot of fun at the same time.

When I haven't been time travelling I am continuing on with my second run of The Outer Worlds 2 which is still fun & I am still finding new things i missed the first go around.

Also trying to find some time to look at Voidtrain & also hop into Minecraft to check some new vibrant visuals stuff.

I haven't even watched the GTA6 trailer at this point & I am not convinced the new date won't be pushed back again. An anniversary event for a brand isn't something I would care about either.

Both of these things are not something I care about at the moment. That may change for GTA6 nearer the time but right now meh!

@FraserG when did the 360 first release?

The train now approaching platform Xbox is the service to the void. Please stand well clear of the edge of the platform to ensure no unexpected dismemberment and / or death.

(I have this downloaded as it looks fun but I have no idea when I will have time to play. So many good releases & not enough time.)

I enjoyed Avowed a lot but I hope we see a similar jump in the scope & depth of the actual rpg mechanics that we saw between the two Outer World game.

Whatever the case I imagine that it will be a day one purchase as I am happy to play pretty much anything Obsidian release.

@Fiendish-Beaver from what i understand of the development of this game its more a small iterative progress rather than dlc. A quick google tells me there is 80-150 hours of game play which for 35 quid seem good value to me.

I will say the game won't be for everyone and I imagine some folks will get frustrated by it. Still i am enjoying puzzling through the game and figuring out how stuff works together even if I am not always sure why I am doing things. Kind of reminds me of No Mans Sky story & progress in that you get set tasks to complete but its often a bit vague on the why as you do them.

Still I can understand wanting to wait till you have time to give it a good look. I am about on my limit right now with the various games I have on the go and don't expect to start anything else for a couple of weeks.

@Fiendish-Beaver heh know that feeling.

With that in mind don't buy Satisfactory as it's a time machine that transports you into the future in a "oh god it's 3am" sort of way.

Don't get me wrong it's an awesome game that I am finding extremely challenging & fun but boy does it eat your time.

As I have said before this is the easy phase for this game (& BF6). If they can keep the same buzz & excitement in the months ahead then that will be a proper reflection of those review scores & show they deserved them.

Can you even call it a schedule at this point? In the other article only two of the games had confirmed dates and only one of those was an xbox game with everything else marked as TBD.

Until confirmed release dates are given I am not thinking about any of these games. Even then I try not to be hyped until a month or so before said date.

Too many missed release dates and delays in the past for me to not learn my lesson.

I would enjoy a New Vegas remake as much as anyone else but if its not something the dev team is passionate or enthusiastic about doing that will reflect in the final quality. I would much prefer it done well & with respect to the original than it being half arsed so the opportunity is wasted.

Obsidian the hardest working dev team Xbox have so I say let them cook. I mean Avowed & The Outer Worlds 2 are among my favourite games of the current gen with the Grounded franchise being well received by a lot of folks too.

(They are even beta testing a new update for the original Pillars of Eternity at the moment.)

I played it for a bit and can see its a visual treat but beyond that it didn't offer me much else. I won't be returning to finish it so I won't put a vote in.

WoW I am so grateful for the Ultimate price increase so we can have access to Pigeon Simulator. I am not sure how they could have put this on gamepass without it.

/sarcasm (just so there are no misunderstandings.)

I put in a single vote for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. I didn't see two other games I played or enjoyed enough from the remaining ones to make up a top 3 as it asks for on the website.

I don't think I would play it even if it was released on to series consoles.

It's old news at this point and WoW just doesn't have the pull it used to (there is a good reason Blizzard stopped reporting player numbers years ago.) That is without taking into account it's a subscription based game.

Yeah I burned that bridge a long time ago and have no desire to rebuild it on any platform.

@Jenkinss cross play is a thing between consoles so xbox & playstation players can play together but pc will remain its own thing (for now).

Mods are one of the reasons and it would apparently need a lot of back end infrastructure work that would delay other feature releases for the game.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/1nx2pgr/we_answered_the_most_common_questions_about/

Here is a radical thought why not make an actual new game based on The Simpsons instead of (or as well as) recycling the old ones. Things have moved on since Hit & Run so surely someone could do something a bit more involved game play wise in 2025.

@Romans12 you are entitled to your opinion but I have had lots of fun with 3 of those games & the only one I didn't really get on with was Redfall.

Not every game will be for everyone and that is fine. If we all liked the same thing we would all be playing Fortnite and the world would be incredibly boring. 🙂

Really hoping this has been properly optimised for consoles and doesn't run into performance issues. I am waiting on reviews but assuming no problems I expect I will get this and not see day light for a little while. 😉

@GeeEssEff I assume you are checking for ammo recipes at vendor machines / vendors? Most basic ammo is fairly easy to craft as you need at a workbench more so with using certain traits to increase craft yields. There is also a flaw called wasteful that will make all killed enemies drop ammo (but it also increases vendor prices.)

Two handed melee weapons are good early on first planet without any skill investment to save ammo for boss fights. Will obviously need skill point investment to keep using on other planets.

Started my second play through this past weekend (have plans for a 3rd run too.)

Excellent rpg that works best if you actually lean into the rpg aspect. Choose your role and work with the consequences of your actions both good and bad.

I scored it a 9 as its not perfect (no game ever is) but its still an excellent rpg with many options on how you play it.

Satisfactory is looking good but I am waiting on reviews. Its a game that can make a decent pc beg for mercy so I want to be sure about its performance on series x.

The other big game for me this month is Project Motor Racing. Really excited for this for the multiplayer mostly but I have been quite impressed with what I have seen of the solo campaign

Basically you get some starter cash, pick a starter car and then everything you do after that will depend on your race results & winnings. So all car repairs costs, upgrades costs, new cars & so on need to be earned which should add some depth as well as tension to the races.

(Also like the look of Rennsport but I think that will be a future sale purchase.)

Non of the gamepass releases look very interesting to me.

I have dipped into ubi premium for the odd month to play a new release like AC Shadows but not at all interested in subbing for a year no matter cost.

With Ubisoft games being on sale so often its usually just better to be patient to buy them outright.

Stalker 2 is certainly one of my top 5 games of the current gen consoles.

I am looking forward to the PS5 release not that I intend to buy that version as I already own the ultimate edition on xbox. My hope is that we will see the game engine update with the PS5 release and then maybe they will start to concentrate of the story dlc content.

@Fiendish-Beaver yup i jumped in with the premium edition and had nothing else planned for a few days so was able to put in the extra time.

Apparently you can still finish the game even if you become a murder hobo and slaughter everyone you meet so I wouldn't worry too much if you do that again.

I know I made some choices in my first run that in hindsight were not good ones and made some parts harder. Still actions & consequences are part of what I enjoy in these sort of games so being held accountable for those choices just adds to the fun.

@Fiendish-Beaver First play through was just on normal but i will up the difficulty up for my future runs now I have an idea of what i am going to face.

Even on normal some of the boss fights were tough for me. A lot of that difficulty came from being a stealth melee build which is pretty op generally but in most boss fights you can't stealth them. Once the stealth advantage goes away things can get real dicey real quick.

My current idea for my very hard run is to try and do a pacifist run with a focus on talking my way through encounters or letting my companions do the dirty work when that isn't possible. Not sure if it will work but it will be fun to try.

For reference it took me just over 50 hours on normal. I know I missed stuff simply by not meeting certain skill checks or locking myself out of some faction stuff with the choices I made.

I won't tell you how many other places you will visit but you have a lot of fun ahead of you.

The Outer Worlds 2. Completed my first play through and have plans for at least two more with different builds / faction choices. Then I have two story dlc to look forward to as well in the future.

That said I am also enjoying Powerwash Sim 2. This game just tickles the be chill and happy part of my brain so its a nice change of pace.

Game certainly seems to be generating a buzz but most games like this generally do at launch. The hard part is keeping that buzz going so folks stick around long term. It will be interesting to see how this one does over the next few months.

Personally I wont be playing as I have no interest in extraction shooters.

I finished my first play through of The Outer Worlds 2, enjoyed myself a lot and didn't have any issues that spoiled my experience.

Having a short break to play Powerwash Sim 2 and will be back for a 2nd run by the weekend with a different build (leaning towards a science / melee but not fully decided yet.)