Scrubchub

Fantastic. The first one is simply brilliant. Stressful and a bit depressing, but brilliant nonetheless. If you haven't played it yet then really do give it a go, but don't expect a relatively sanguine Cities Skylines type experience. It's less of a city builder, and more of a micro management puzzle game.

Anyway, the sequel will be a day one download for me.

@Coletrain yes I agree completely. If those same people dropping the comments about Gamepass were being really honest with themselves then they know they would be subscribers too if it was available on their system. Many of them, at least. I know there are some that do genuinely value physical media.

@awp69 😂 just yesterday there was someone getting out the "people who actually buy games" comment on another article.

Not sure what it is about Gamepass that seems to bring out people's innate passive aggressiveness that other subscription services seem to get away with.

@InterceptorAlpha they'll "finally have funds"? Because Microsoft owned Bethesda are so famously down on their luck and struggling for money?🙄

@Kaloudz I really enjoyed it personally but it's just so flipping big. Overwhelmingly loaded with content. Put in 50 hours and drifted away but have never deleted it (in fact it is still on my Series X and my Series S) so I certainly plan to go back to it!

Definitely a game where you want to ignore the relentless naysaying and try it yourself.

Never heard of Wheel World but I looks pretty cool. Trying to play some different types of games at the moment so will put that one on the list.

@mac_da_man I actually think CoD WW2 may actually be my favourite CoD campaign! Loved it.

May start RoboCop but fancied something different so going back to Frostpunk which I haven't played for years. Absolutely brilliant game, though a bit a downer (to say the least).

Never played an Age of Empires and I used to love RTS games when I was younger so have AoE4 downloaded and going to start that as well.

For me, it's the classic 8/10 game. Really enjoyable, great fun, but probably not going to stick in my mind like the games I'd give 9s or 10s to.

@Isca FFXVI has a pretty generous demo you can download! Definitely worth a go - I think I'm going to pick it up in the same based off of how much I enjoyed the demo.

@DaveTheRave agree with you about watching TV. I love the cinema still but when I'm at home, if I'm in front of a screen it'll be gaming. It's just better than watching TV.

Anyway, The Quarry for less than a tenner is a good buy (I started playing it on Gamepass without realising it was leaving the service in a couple of days!). And I recently did the 2nd run of RE2 Remake which is genuinely one of the greatest games ever made. So I'll probably get RE4 Remake as I haven't got around to it yet. I'll think about Baldurs Gate 3 as well but it's still almost £50 so not sure I need a 100 hour RPG at the moment.

@Coletrain completely agree. There's so much doom and gloom around the hobby at the moment and while there are obviously issues in the industry that shouldn't be ignored, we should also be thankful that there is an absolute truckload of great games to play. Backlogs have never been longer!

Mafia might be my favourite game that I played from last year. Been meaning to continue with the trilogy ever since.

@OldGamer999 I actually did enjoy Starfield but it's hard to argue with what you say there. It is, undoubtedly, archaic to play compared to some more modern RPGs and it does feel as though Bethesda REALLY need to get back to the drawing board and start from scratch for the next game.

Well I liked it. Put in about 80 hours which was enough for me. Had plenty of fun with it but it hasn't stuck in my mind like, say, Fallout 3 has over the years.

@Balaam_ good grief, you really take this internet world in which you exist far too seriously. You're making out as if a poll on a videogame news site is discriminatory. It's just a poll.

As others have said, Gamepass would be long gone if it wasn't making money. I don't know how much, but Microsoft is the most hard nosed of hard nosed companies. They make money, and lots of it. And if something doesn't make money, it's history.

Regarding the other conversations about the PS and Push Square, then I'd agree with the criticism of the users of Push Square. It's an absolute toilet, but any internet forum becomes the same when it gets bigger. This site goes under the radar as it is a nice size. Some of the users on Push are staggeringly, childishly biased. Personally, I love PlayStation. Had every single one except the 5 and that's due solely to Gamepass. If it was on the PS5 then that would be my console. A lot of the criticism comes from people that would LOVE to have the service on their console. I believe it's what the internet kidz label these days as 'cope' or something. Also worth pointing out the Push Square posts EVERY story that could have an anti MS stance and the comments are stacked. Yet this one is strangely absent from their site.

Anyway, I hope Gamepass continues as well as Xbox. If it doesn't, I'll continue to play on the other platforms. Life is too short to be so passionately partisan about everything. None of these huge companies are grateful for your loyalty, they're all bloody horrible. They just want your money. I've got not interest in being some billionaire's lap dog, when they don't even know I exist.

@Soup-Rules was going to buy it in the last sale but didn't get around to it so going to get it tonight before I forget again!

@Soup-Rules well put. I'll probably get criticised for this but a lot of the criticism of Microsoft comes across as virtue signalling. I have empathy for anyone who loses their job but we aren't talking about children in sweat shops here, they are skilled, educated professionals who work in a volatile industry. And everyone here orders from Amazon and the way that they treat their 'lower level' employees is despicable. Don't have much time for selective outrage.

Anyway, Robocop looks a great bargain.

The Ascent is great. Not sure I'll do another play through but definitely recommended.

@Kaloudz yeah, it's a great game but why is it so hard?! Seems such a strange decision to make a mainstream mascot platformer Dark Souls difficult. I'd like to think I'll return to it but for the moment it's defeated me.

@Coletrain I know what you mean. It's a good game in a lot ways but it is lacking something and I drifted away.

I love a proper circuit racer so if you have any recommendations to replace it with I'd love to know!

Mafia was my surprise title of last year - absolutely loved it when I gave it a go on Gamepass. Went straight to the other titles and it became a favourite series of mine. Really recommend it and you'll finish it easily in about 12 hours max.

Oooh now that's a nice surprise. Definitely sliding this to the front of my backlog of games.

Though I hope it's easy to download - I went to download the last one they released on GP (Modern Warfare of some kind) and it seemed to be 400+ GBs or a ton of different smaller downloads. Had no clue what to download so didn't bother.

Definitely. Great escapism in that game. Proper pirate fantasy.

@Isolte have you played South of Midnight on Gamepass? It reminded me a lot of Alice. Very similar gameplay loop and great visual design.

Got Against the Storm downloaded but going to finish of my 2nd run of Resi 2 Remake as I have a feeling it may come off Gamepass soon. A bit of Forza Motorsport to fill in the blanks.

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.