Scrubchub

It looks absolutely brilliant and plays really well. It plays almost identically to the original 3 which personally I see as a good thing as they were almost pixel perfect to play straight out of the gate in the late 90s.

It's not easy though and if I wasn't a pretty experienced Crash player I probably wouldn't bother.

Have found myself bouncing off a couple of games recently. Metaphor just overwhelmed me when it opened up a bit (the first 10 day countdown to the first main dungeon). No idea what to do. And Oblivion looks brilliant but it really isn't great to play, let's be honest.

So I've gone for something totally different and downloaded Dredge from Gamepass. Done about 3 hours and really enjoying it. Great spooky atmosphere at night and just chill during the day. Simplistic but enjoyable gameplay loop that I do wonder about being able to maintain interest the whole runtime. But so far I'm loving it.

Also redownloaded Resi 2 Remake to do the Claire play through (started with Leon).

Those two plus Forza Motorsport and the newly released Gamepass FIFA/FC is more than enough for the next week I reckon.

Oh, and Crash 4 waiting to be started but not sure I can be bothered with the difficulty level judging by what others have said!

Looks pretty cool and liking the sound of something a bit more linear. One to keep an eye on.

@dani3po that's exactly it - £50 for FFXVI or go on Gamepass for Metaphor, which is a better game. Demo of FF was great but it's got no chance.

The demo was good fun but it's an older game, and the FF games I really want are the FF7 remakes. I'll definitely get those.

And it's quite hard to choose this as my next big epic RPG when Metaphor has just released on Gamepass.

I would say that it's one for me to pick up in a sale but I think it'll get lost to time for me.....

I've got the demo downloaded as I've just finished E33 (what a game. The ending messed me up). But I also have Metaphor waiting to be started. Two mammoth RPGs simultaneously seems a bit silly so a decision to make.

I do love FF and the medieval setting really appeals.

Frostpunk 2 hiding away in there somewhere. Don't sleep on that one, the first one was brilliant, if depressing.

Wow, that's a lot of money. 1tb is actually just about enough if you are decent at managing it.

Absolutely brilliant game, one of the best JRPGs ever made. But as others have said, it isn't crying out for a remake/remaster.

I'll be playing it on Gamepass regardless.

@AlwaysPlaying I've got FF16 showing as £49.99 on the Xbox store so that's some kind of discount from full price I guess.

Persona 4 is one of the very best RPGs ever made. Played it to death on the Vita (still have it actually!) and will certainly play it again. It's a bit of a monster though - 70 hours minimum really.

@andrewsqual Christ mate, it's not that serious. Most of us just want some new games to play. Can't imagine writing a post that long just full of moaning, but each to their own.

Some Xbox Final Fantasy would be good.

Wow, I didn't even realise the original trilogy was considered hard! Got through them all back when they were released and loved them, don't remember anything too frustrating. But obviously had much more patience back when I had a new game for my birthday, one for Christmas, and maybe one or two the rest of the year - quitting wasn't an option!

Will definitely be downloading number 4 when it drops but don't have anything like the patience I used to have with all these games vying for my attention and so little spare time!

@Kaloudz ha we knew it was coming at some point! Been looking forward to this one for a while.

Really want to play this, and will definitely give it a good go. Just a bit put off by the mammoth runtime. A 100 hour game will potentially take me months to get through.

Hoping for some Xbox Final Fantasy announcements.

Bit of a break in the must plays for me, thank god. Going to try to tick a couple off the play later list.

Dredge this month for me. Though that is because I needed something a little more bitesize in-between Oblivion and E33. Definitely going to get to Doom, CoD and Metaphor. At some point....

Going to finish E33 first then definitely giving Metaphor a go. It's waaaaaaaaay too long so probably won't ever finish it but looking forward to trying it.

@Kaloudz yep, the living embodiment of, "even a broken clock is right twice a day."

And agree about the controllers. The 'standard' ones are £50 plus and pretty damn premium to my eyes. They more than do the job.

@Balaam_ so digital games are only a problem when you have to pay for them 😂? Cracking bit of hypocrisy.

@Ricky-Spanish exactly the same as me. The controller is the most 'used' part of the gaming experience; handled constantly, sweated all over, thrown against the wall in frustration etc. I'll go for the 'bog standard' version personally (that's still £60 so pretty premium on its own!).

Or buy a refurbed one from a specialist for £35, which is what I've done the last couple of times I bought a controller.

Also, scalpers can go do something rude to themselves. Nothing worse than opportunistic profiteering.

@Ricky-Spanish PLAY. IT. And don't forget Gwent, the greatest 'mini' game of all time.

I love the Witcher 3, and these look cool, but not for £75. Just not worth it for something that is handled and used as much as a controller.

This is still the best game I've ever played. It's such an epic; the opening section in White Orchard, Kiera Metz quest line, the Bloody Baron, Crookback Bog, hours spent in Novigrad, over to Skellige, the battle of Kaer Morhen, the build up to the final battle, the epilogue, Hearts of Stone, and then another 30 hours in Touissant. It's less a game, more an entire epic saga in one.

The combat is underrated - played on Death March, it's tricky but not insurmountable, just asking that you engage with the games different systems. It works really well.

The world is the best I've ever played. Completely believable and hugely detailed. The quests are brilliant, the writing and characters are brilliant, it still looks great to this day (even without the next gen update), and Gwent is the best side game ever.

Of course it's not perfect, but the sum of its parts is an incredible experience.

@Titntin the motion sickness on Indy was also a problem for me. Gutted as I was enjoying it and love the franchise as a whole but slower paced first person adventures have always done that to me.

It's really good, as good as the other two (can't be bothered to pick a favourite as they're all great).

On a side note, if a poster is clearly here just to antagonise as @PlatinumMikey is (he's actually admitted he doesn't even own an Xbox) then report them. The mods here are really good at clearing up the message boards. Which is why this site is pretty good compared to most of the internet.

@Nightcrawler71 yeah, I'm enjoying it, not bothered by the braying internet mob. Wish there was a bit more exploration but the combat is great fun.

Funny you should mention Avowed as I played it for about 10 hours and drifted away. I would have kept going if I had bought it but as it was Gamepass I didn't. Will definitely go back to it.

Dragon Age Veilguard has really caught my attention this week so going to keep plugging away at that. I know it seems like one of those games you aren't supposed to like, but I'm really enjoying it personally.

Past that, would like to get on the new Gamepass Call of Duty (I genuinely forget which one it is!) as the one released last year was great fun.

And I'll continue indulging my Balatro addiction as well on mobile.

@PJOReilly your comment about these games potentially being very off putting to start rings so true with me. I found exactly that with Lies of P. I could tell it was a well made game, but after getting to the first boss (and getting clobbered many times), I just, well, couldn't be bothered.

As good as some of these games are, they are sometimes just too much of a commitment to get through.

I'd have Nine Sols on there over a few of those in the list personally. Definitely worth an honourable mention!

Well, I like mine. Don't really care about much beyond that to be honest.

Forget the super cheap version and treat yourself to the one with the DLC. It's less like a single game then and more like an extra long saga or something. Amazing game. Best ever for me.

My favourite game ever. Really comes to life when you play it on the hardest difficulty (and I'm not one who usually likes super hard games) and you have to really engage with the different systems during combat.

I grabbed one last week on eBay. Been thinking about a second console for a while so got the Series S to complement the X. You're looking at £150 now to win an auction, give or take (for the S, obviously). Whether that is worth the saving from the £210 stated above is debatable. Actually really impressed with it. I think the S gets a bad rap sometimes - I was conditioned into thinking I would have something that looks like an Xbox 360, and in reality it looks, well, pretty much the same as the X. Of course, a Digital Foundry deep dive will uncover the differences pretty easily, but for the majority of people, it does the job required admirably.

So no need to hang around waiting for whatever rubbish my partner wants to watch on the TV to finish haha.

So, is this just the game, or are we hoping that it will be fixed in a few months, at least to a certain level? I know they're taking suggestions, but Bethesda are synonymous with a certain amount of jank.

I've gone off to play E33 but planning to go back after finishing that. But there's plenty of other games to play while this one is sorted....

What a great console that was. Great time of my life as well. Everything was great for a few years before all falling to pieces as I got older.

I wonder if this feeling really is just what every generation goes through as they yearn for their 'nostalgia' years, convinced that everything these days is so much worse than back in their day? But then I'm fairly convinced that the difference between, say, the 70s and the 90s is a much smaller difference than between 2005 and 2025.

Like, seriously, everything really is just complete ***** these days. Literally EVERYTHING. The whole world is a mess - from a geopolitical level on down. Life feels objectively worse than it was just 20 years ago and being an elderly 40 year old, I feel that I am a member of one of those very rare generations that is leaving a worse world for my children than the one that was left for me.

We've sleep walked into an Orwellian dystopia.

Anyway, enjoy your Tuesdays.

I was happily playing my Wii U until the summer of 2023, at which point I went over to Switch for TotK. Perfectly happy with my Switch. Will upgrade in 2 or 3 years.

Rematch looks really good (if it's your sort of thing). Definitely need to get some Pure Xbox games on that one.

I'd not heard of Against the Storm but the first line of the synopsis (a dark fantasy city builder) has my interest well and truly piqued......

@ScalenePowers if you missed the Xbox One generation (sorry if I misread your comment) then try Ryse on Gamepass. It's an Xbox One launch game and is amongst the best looking games I've played on the Series X. Which is a bit mental really. It definitely has a touch of a 'tech demo' feel to it but the gameplay is satisfying and visceral enough to last the 4 or 5 hour run time. Perfect Gamepass title.

@Cakefish @Ricky-Spanish thanks for the suggestions I'll certainly check them out.

@Cakefish absolutely loved that game on PS4. Wasn't expecting the story to be so somber as I went in. Loved hunting giant robot crocodiles with my son. One of the few PS exclusives that I actually wish I still had access to.

Just received my Series S so I've got two TVs I can play on now and not have to wait for whatever crap my partner is watching to finish so I'm going through Gamepass to try and find a few hidden gems that I wouldn't normally play. Smaller games with shorter runtimes. Played some great games like Firewatch, As Dusk Falls, Dordogne etc through that.

Any ideas appreciated!

Well, it was always going to be good, wasn't it? Looking forward to this one.

@Vectrex the commenters on Push Square are, generally, quite mental at the best of times.

I agree with you for the most part - digital is happening and there really are more important things for which to, "Rage against the dying of the light." Some people love being angry about stuff all the time though.

Uh, that weird Balaam poster who's obsessed with physical media is going to pop when they read this.

Only fitting for such a fantastic game (though I still prefer 4)!

Wow, just made the mistake of going to Push Square to see what PS owners were saying about this. What a mental comment section - utterly toxic.

Console fan boys are eternal, apparently.

@OldGamer999 crazy, when you actually list it like that, isn't it? And that list could easily be twice as long by the end of the year. Hundreds and hundreds of pounds worth of games. Gamepass is crazy value at the moment.

Yeah, nothing to get excited about for long time Xbox players. But the multiplayer is still brilliant so the boost to that is a nice side effect.