Runex2121

Not that much of a loss to be honest. Regardless of the reason, the original release was not very good. (It was on xbox then, and I made the poor decision of buying it)

Love fighting games, but some should remain buried in the sands of time.

I love that its on game pass, but its a crap game for my use. I only like the campaigns and this one is terrible. Its so bad they even buried it in the menu system to avoid people finding it.

Really hoping gor a solid return in blops6

@somnambulance

As a top tier family nso subscriber and a gpu subscriber(and ps+ premium), id still say gpu is the best value. Nintendos online itself is garbage. There is no way to justify paying anything over what we do for it. My daughter has to use facetime while playing minecraft with her friends to talk. (Ie. An ipad) The classic roms are nice, but they came st the expense of killing the old virtual store. And the packs you get for splatoon and animal crossing are essentially one offs that are not expensive.

Sony and ms have equal online these days, but the day 1 inclusions and pc games create more value. Also being able to login and go from pretty much any device at any time with the same save data rocks.

No code yet here and i bought pretty much all the dlc, ill wait a week or so and then just buy the $11 version.

I fully expect an ad tier, and wouldnt have an issue with it as an offering to be honest. If it was cheap enough, id sub to it for my 8 year old daughter in lieu of a family sub. (Which I wish was a thing) Keeping an ad free membership for myself of course.

Ive said this many times, but as long as it remains a value, I dont see an issue with a price increase. Currently, assuming you play online at all, the price per year with the updated pricing is $170. ($20 per month x 12 months - ($70)xb live basic cost which is sunk)

@$70 per new release AAA title, thats ~2.5 titles per year. Or with budget titles at say $30, ~6 titles. Assume a mix of products and you get your value out of 1 full AAA game at $70 and 4 indie games over the course of a year. I easily get that value out of gamepass. Especially when you consider that game rentals dont really exist anymore, so you have to rely on limited demo releases(super rare) or other people's or critics feedback(which is less reliable than ever before)

Everyone will have their own threshold for what is valuable, but as someone born in the late 70s who has seen the industry really grow, and bought lots of games in the early 90s at a much higher rate of cost than todays games, I see great value still in the gamepass option. (PS Premium has its value too, but not as much to me)

Understand the change, and it does impact me since i do 3 months rewards one month pay in that cycle, but I understand the change.

Will review the new options when they come out. I stand by gpu being a great value at $20 a month. However, ill assess it with each change.

In this instance ill probably just convert the points to movie rentals and non gp game purchases since i get about 10-12k a month just doing normal activities. (Ie no grinding)

Having skipped the first one completely, i went into it recently with little expectation outside of a pretty game. So for me, no hype, but excellent game.

It made me want to go play part 1, which is unusual for me since i usually look forwars, not backward.

I dont preorder anything unless it is a game I know I will buy and you get early access for doing so. Even then, Ill buy it the day before the early access starts.

Since I only buy digital, and have a very fast connection, there just isnt a reason to preorder. Only games I can think of that I preorder or the forza games, which I buy the super pack add on for since I have gamepass. (I buy the full games when they are set to expire and are on sale)

Heard the campaign was trash so i skipped this version. Been waiting for it to appear on gp to try it out. Hopefully the leak is true.

@theduckofdeath They already have ports available. Update and modernize it but keep the core gameplay and general art theme.

Nice, Hopefully it turns out well and isnt a 69.99 title.

This increase is neither surprising nor troubling. It is still a great value.

I remember paying $5 for 2-3 days at blockbuster in the 90s. That was for just 1 game. We get hundreds now, including day 1 aaa games for ~$5 a week. If we factor in inflation and income, people are spoiled today. (I earned 3.75/hr at my job in 1994, took an hour and a half to rent a game)

@UltraGuy I know quite a few people who sunk a lot of time into it. Dont let my aa comment be misleading, lots of solid non aaa games out there. This is just one that disnt click with me

I buy all the consoles and have a gaming pc(and a steamdeck), but my goto is always the xbox. Its just a more streamlined platform. Gamepass ultimate is a great choice for me because i get 2 for 1 with pc and xbox.

MS will continue to make consoles until it doesnt make sense to do so. I dont need a box under my tv if streaming to a handheld or tv is an equivalent experience. The keyword is equivilant though. Not there yet, but getting close.

As for hellblade 2, its a solid if not short game. Played it via gamepass, never would have bought it outright but now im intrigued by the game and will play the first.

Side note, the ps portal is where i play 99% of my ps5 games. Its so convienent when you have a family and a demanding job, but love games.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I get 10k a month with no grinding. I just use bing for my normal searches, and play games as I would normally.

I do the two daily quizzes, but those are super short and fun since i do sometimes learn things.

I use it exclusively to fund my gamepass sub. I get about 10k a month, so its 3 months free, 1 month paid. Cant really complain.

Paired with the xbox credit card rewards, things work well.

Especially when compared to the conpetition. Sony just killed its rewards program and the ps credit card is winding down its rewards(yet to announce a replacement) Stars has been down for over a month, so they effectively have no rewards anymore.

Nintendo has gold points which are a glorified rebate program and platinum points which are useless for anything but digital nonsense.

So all said, Im pretty content even with the reduced value.

Being in my mid 40s with children and an exec level job, my available time for games greatly diminished. Its been a trend though for the past 30 years. (Hard to even fathom that the SNES/Genesis era was nearing its end 30 years ago)

I used to play like it was a full time job in my teens and early 20s, then it dipped to be more like 10-20 hours a week, then it dropped again in my 30s to under 10 a week. Now Im lucky if I get 5 hours a week, so have to make the most of it.

On the bright side, I can see a return when I hit my 60s and retire.....

@UltraGuy It sold a lot, but Im not sure Id call it great. It was a new idea at a budget price, but the controls were crap and the post launch support has been less than ideal. Its an AA game at best and one I personally feel I wasted $30 on.

It's been a pretty average year to date, but a lot on the horizon. There has been just enough to keep me busy across all 3 consoles and PC, but nothing that really stands out on any of them from 2024. (Last amazing game was AW2)

Its going to be a really back heavy year though, thats for sure.

While I loved 5s open world(ish) play, gears is at its best when its playing the linear moment to moment approach. This is a very good move for the series.(both in plot and gameplay)

That said, I would be happy if they didnt wait too long to close out the second trilogy.

Completely unrelated, but the title for some reason made me think of clockwork knight, the old saturn game. Nostalgia is deep with that one. Anyways…

I love the idea of doing perhaps a e day trilogy. Its hard to believe were already approaching 20 years of gears.(2026 will be 20)

I always wanted more backstory, so this will be great.And nostalgic with the old crew together in the game. I hope the build out the next mainline though as well, story isnt over yet.

All I can say is that for the first time ever, i was impressed by a games presentation. Ive been gaming since the early 80s, always multi console, so its not an insignificant amount of time.

They hit so many areas with games that genuinely looked great. Many I had not heard of but are now on my radar.

Going back to eday is brilliant for gears as well.

All that said, nothing is perfect. Some missing release windows, no mention of a portable xbox or halo. And no mention of when acti games will hit gamepass. Still, easily best games show i can recall and destroyed sonys earlier. (Though astro is gonna be great)

Ive been pretty lucky. Only xbox consoles to ever fail me were early model 360s(one in japan and one in the us) and both were dead on arrival, so i just swapped them out. Got multiple years out of each with no issues.

Xbox and Nintendo have always been rock solid for me. PlayStations 1-3 were utter trash for me though. 4-5 have been solid. I went through 9 ps1-3s in a period of 9 years, was very frustrating. Didn’t buy a 4 until the spidy version of the pro released as a result.

Id be more interested in a mmo bundle. Add ffxiv and wow subs in and raise it a reasonable amount