Scrubchub

@Sindayl or, alternatively, lots of people just liked it a lot. Having a different opinion to you doesn't mean people have jumped on a bandwagon.

Terminator looks cool but I think I'm saving myself for Metroid Prime 4 on the Switch (with the big caveat that it actually runs well on the Switch).

Finishing off Resi 4 Separate Ways DLC. Great DLC, more like a B campaign to the mean Leon run than just a side story.

Outer Worlds 2 and also really enjoying Winter Burrow which is not my usual type of game at all but it's got me for some reason.

Would love to give Banishers a go but may not get around to it quite yet.

Outside gaming, giving my son his first ever Warhammer 40k match as he has enjoyed doing some painting so I got the big chunky starter set with Ultramarines and Tyranids in it. Can't wait to revisit that hobby as I've been out of it for years!

Control has been on my Play Later list for ages. I should use this as a kick up the backside and get it played.

It was a great line up of games to be fair. I couldn't pick between CoD2 (which blew my mind - how could anything be that intense and cinematic?!) and PGR3. So I was pleasantly surprised to see they were both on 17%.

I voted CoD2 just because it was such a giant leap forward from the previous gen. Kameo, Ridge Racer and Condemned were also great.

And a special mention to King Kong which was such a cool game as well but doesn't seem to be getting much love in the poll!

Smart money is on Black Flag, which would be great and also a little underwhelming at the same time.

Yes, yes yes!! What a game that was and my first experience of online gaming as well.

@Pigrotto completely agree. I actually think it does something genuinely different with the timing aspect of the turn based combat that really adds a great extra layer but I haven't really seen it implemented elsewhere. It also has one of the loveliest soundtracks of any game, ever.

Looking forward to Routine. Perfect for the winter nights.

Seems a bit of a waste seeing as how it's more stable now but there you go. I put 20 enjoyable hours into it but just found the whole thing a bit hard work so drifted away. Will possibly pick it up in a sale at some point.

Nothing new for me - just sticking to Outer Worlds 2 and having another run through of Child of Light, which is a lovely little game. Will get around to CoD at some point sooner rather than later.

@Pac_Bot played that on Gamepass and within 24 hours I'd bought it for my phone so I could play it more! Dangerous game to get yourself into....

Outer Worlds 2 for me. Outer Worlds was good, Avowed was good, so looking forward to this one.

Well I liked it. Definitely a bit of a hate train around this. The open world could have been a bit fuller but the Halo gameplay had never felt better. I just had fun playing it so it gets a pass from me.

@Jean_McClane thanks - very kind of you. And yes, if I'm being honest I am enjoying the peace and quiet at home!

Been a great year when you see it laid out like that. E33 all the way for me but plenty of worthy games if not. Silksong was a bit of a media darling just recently so I guess that will give it a bit of a lift, so that's what I'd put my money on.

Looking forward to the new CoD. Still have Outer Worlds 2 and Ninja Gaiden 4 to play and there's FM26 later today. Plenty to be getting on with.

Haven't played one of these for years but I'm home alone all week (was supposed to be on holiday in Tenerife but can't fly due to waiting for an operation so my family went without me haha) so seems like a good opportunity to give it another go! Never played one on console though. Really can't imagine how it can work as well as a mouse but I'll give it a go.

Started Stalker 2 a couple of months ago and it appears to have been 'fixed'. Was a good experience but truth told, after 30 hours I'd pretty much had enough.

Frostpunk is a brilliant game - shame that's going.

Will definitely play through CoD as I've enjoyed all of the ones that have come to Gamepass so far. Other than that, still got a mighty Gamepass backlog to get through.

@Titntin well put. Someone with first hand experience of the man versus someone who is an internet expert on him. I'll take your opinion over the latter.

Was looking at Pacific Drive a few days ago on Steam and now here it is! Definitely going to give that a go this weekend.

@Tdx it's a great game with an amazing world but my god is it overstuffed. Love a bit of sightseeing but they really needed someone at Ubisoft to say "Enough!" at some point during development.

Anyway, decided this was the weekend to go back to No Man's Sky. That really has turned into an excellent game in the last few years.

My son is loving Palworld and I'm actually quite enjoying him playing that.

@Kaloudz Time Crisis was great! I used to work as a carer and me and the lad I worked with used to go to the local ten pin bowling/arcade and play that to death! And I got paid for it haha. That was a good job.

Definitely time for me to return to my PC gaming roots for the next gen. Straight into the TV, wireless everything, Steam big picture. This whole generation has just been a bit anti climactic so just feels like it's time for something new.

That's quite a big potential price range. If it's 800 then there's a decision to be made, 1200 and I'm well out. To be honest, I've been looking at PCs the last couple of weeks anyway.

I started watching it a couple of weeks back and think it's quite good. I actually didn't realise that the 2nd season isn't on Netflix UK until reading the comment above which is a bit annoying as everything I've read has said to get through the 1st for the much better 2nd. Hopefully it's on its way!

Day of the Tentacle - just an absolutely bonkers piece of ingenious creativity, and very funny as well.

"Price hikes are never fun for anybody."

Hmm, I wonder what you bought with your bonus last financial year, you shilling, soulless corporate mouthpiece.

Great - but what games are they?! Utterly meaningless news without that bit of context.

And let's be honest, there's only so many hours in the day to play anyway.

@Banjo- thanks for that link. Was pulling my hair out just trying to find a list of games on each tier!!! It's almost as if this whole thing is designed to be as confusing as possible so everyone sticks with the one tier that hasn't been renamed....

@AndroidBango here's hoping. No time for trolls like them.

@Markatron84 I've just spent an enjoyable half hour speccing up a PC on PC Specialist. I'm not going to do anything knee jerk but this is, without doubt, my last console generation.

4 games leaving Gamepass, while 4 million gamers leave Gamepass (and counting).

@GuyinPA75 sorry, but reposting that in every article about this is utterly pathetic.

Well done you though, I'm sure you feel wonderfully vindicated.

I'm really not sure but it sure as hell won't involve paying the best part of three hundred quid a year to rent games.

At the moment I'm just putting another month of Ultimate on to take me to mid November, let the dust settle etc.

After that I'll probably go for Premium but may do a conversion.

What a confusing, convoluted mess. Well done Microsoft.

@Mincey0 I've always been a fan of PC gaming since I was a kid playing Commander Keen on my dad's 386 sx with 4mb of RAM (I remember getting an upgrade to 8mb!). With the ability these days to use a PC basically exactly like a console from the couch then it is basically impact to ignore that option.

@Mincey0 that's what I'm finding really frustrating. The fact that they've also changed the names at the same time for extra confusion is soooooo cynically done. But the most expensive tier is still good old 'Ultimate'?! Clearly just hoping people will give up in the confusion and stick with Ultimate to save their sanity.

And funnily enough I was in CEX yesterday looking at the old AC games. You could get a good selection of those for £30 - most of the series in fact. And cheaper again on eBay.

@Banjo- yes but with the biggest initial outlay. Also, you can't redeem PC Gamepass on console. I'm not sure how it works - redeem PC Gamepass on PC, upgrade to Ultimate, then will your linked account on console also be upgraded? My word, this is so overly complicated.

Premium tier with a CD Key to bring it below £10 a month is looking a no brainer.

@Mincey0 that's the thing that really annoys me - is so staggeringly convoluted. There are still some decent deals to be had through conversion but it does require a high initial investment.

PC gaming has never looked more attractive to be honest.

@brettvsgodzilla just been thinking this through - there wouldn't be much point in the conversion if you're converting it Premium instead of Ultimate as you'd only be saving the difference between 1 month's worth of Premium vs Ultimate. So if you're doing the conversion it would be to Ultimate.

@brettvsgodzilla sorry just replied to you on the other thread as well!

To be honest, I don't know! But that will certainly be my next line of enquiry tomorrow morning! Like others have said, that seems to be the tier to go for. Can live without day ones.

@brettvsgodzilla in the UK you can get EA Play for 1 year for £20 from Argos. That would give you 1 year of Ultimate for £75 before. Now it's £82 for 7 months. Still worth it for me, but only just, and it's a decent outlay almost twice a year.

Sorry if you aren't in the UK and this is therefore irrelevant!

So, I can get a key for 12 months of Core for £40 and a key for 12 months of EA Play for £20. I had it all worked out that EA Play was the way to go. Now I really can't be bothered. How can they possibly think something this staggeringly convoluted is a good idea?!

Maybe I'll wait a few days for someone less lazy to work out the best deal on Reddit.

Edit - ok EA Play will give you 7 months of Ultimate if you buy 3 years of EA Play at £60 (Argos in the UK) plus the conversion at 1 month of Ultimate. So £82. Which is just under £12 a month. Not bad, but a hell of a hike from the sun £7 it was before this wonderful news.

3 years of Core/Essential will give you 14 months of Ultimate after conversion. That is available for £120 in the UK on CJs CD Keys amongst other places. So with the conversion to Ultimate, that will work out at a smidge over £10. A bit better but a considerably bigger outlay at the outset.

PC Gamepass will give 23 months if you buy 3 years, again at CJs CD Keys at £50 per year. This will work out as the biggest outlay initially but will be £7.50 per month.

This is all based on UK retailers and prices.

Hopefully I haven't completely fudged the numbers here, but I've tried. Sizable caveat is that the prices of the keys I'm using may go up with this news (which is basically a guarantee).

They've crapped the bed with this one. Too expensive, too convoluted. Going to have to give it a miss once my subscription runs out.

Gamepass was what had me in the Xbox ecosystem, so once I'm not using that then it'll be a jump over to PS for me to enjoy some of those exclusive games we hear so much about.

Found my 9 year old boy playing Hogwarts Legacy which inspired me to go back to it. Really lovely bit of escapism and looks fantastic. Hoping for the sequel announcement sooner rather than later.

Beyond that - Stalker 2 has firmly sunk its teeth into me. The vibe is the polar opposite of Hogwarts so a nice contrast.

And as always, the racing wheel may come out for some more Forza Motorsport.

@SuBLiMe83 yes, absolutely! I try to go through my Play Later tab and just update it, taking off the things that I don't feel I'll get to and replacing them with shiny new additions. I play as much as I realistically can but would like just another hour or two a day. Maybe that'll happen as my kids get older.

@themightyant that's the reality of Gamepass I guess. Same for me - I would have an interest in this but the backlog is so long I probably won't even bother looking at it.

@Isca I put about 80 hours into Valhalla and by the end I was so done with it that I haven't gone back to the DLX, which I bought early on when I was loving it. It's been a good couple of years so maybe time to try again. That game is just so ludicrously massive and bloated though. I feel that if they had some outside consultants or something that could have told them to rein it in then it would have benefited. Like an author with an experienced editor just cutting the chaff.

Anyway, I'm fully into Stalker 2 now. What a great game. Brutal, rough around the edges, sometimes just plain unfair. But really enjoying it despite that.

@Fiendish-Beaver as someone else said, it's a top 3 game the franchise. It's also a great pirate power fantasy in its own right. Great game.

Would be a shame off they removed the modern world stuff as it was actually quite good in the original. Could be pretty much completely bypassed but if you put in some time to it then it was a good addition.

@Ricky-Spanish it's clearly not, though, is it? Maybe nothing to your taste, but that is an objectively decent selection of games.

There's been months where there hasn't been anything that I fancied but I didn't label it as 'lame'.

Been wanting to try Hades for years now but haven't got around to it. Will definitely try it now.

Can't wait for Frostpunk 2. The first one is an absolutely brilliant game, and worked well on Xbox as well. Try it if you haven't yet. It's bloody hard work though.