Scrubchub

Crash 4 - that's great news. Might finish up Spyro with my son in time for that one.

Kind of in-between games at the moment (that doesn't happen often) so probably time to give Sniper Elite a go. Been meaning to play one of those for years so will try the newest one.

I absolutely loved KoA back on the 360 - hugely underrated game. Big world, great combat, really good lore. Story is very meh but there's so much to do outside of that.

Interesting to see how far they go with this. I'd be a day one buyer of the Xbox handheld but I'll also get a switch 2. So it does certainly beg the question of whether one would actually need both....

@VenomUK £100 would probably be a bit far for me but at £80 I could justify it due to the sheer number of high quality hours I've had out of the franchise in the past.

That's GTA and Rockstar though. Their tent pole releases are as consistent as they come. If it became standard across the industry then it's a different story.

Makes Gamepass a no brainer at that point.

@Nighto4 that would be awesome but hugely unlikely unfortunately.....

Some weird comments, as always. Never understood the rampant negativity around our hobby sometimes - it genuinely seems like some people would be better off doing something else.

Anyway, this looks interesting. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out at release.

Don't really understand the comments about it being delayed to avoid Ghost of Yotei - does that have a release date yet?

Besides, in terms of sales, the AC is considerably bigger than Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei; AC Valhalla (universally derided according to internet echo chambers) sold many millions more copies and made an absolute fortune compared to Ghost of Tsushima (universally adored according to internet echo chambers).

If anything, Sony would want to be avoiding the samurai game from the more prestigious franchise, not vice versa.

Also have to laugh at the poster above saying KCD2 would have been a bigger seller in February than AC Shadows. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that is a possibility.

I'm not even a huge Ubisoft fan, but the bandwagon jumping is so tiresome. They made one of the best games of last year in Prince of Persia so they can't be all bad. Welcome to the internet, I guess.

@Tasuki been thinking about adopting that setup - Series X for the living room and then get a S for the bedroom for when the living room is free. I'd just spend all my time in the bedroom on the series S then though I guess. It's that or putting a TV on the wall above the dining table which I'm leaning towards at the moment.

🤣 the state of some of you in these comments. Seriously, just relax and go and play some games. Absolutely staggering how worked up some people can get with strangers on the internet who disagree with them over something that doesn't matter.

@NintendoByNature in that case really do look up buying a key from it. I just bought 4 lots of months for £20 each from CDKeys. Nice to know I'm stocked up for the next year.

@NintendoByNature I did the same - just went through my direct debits on my online banking and ruthlessly just culled almost all of them. I also now buy a 3 month Gamepass subscription (about £20 from CDKeys). It's cathartic and those £10/£15 subscriptions add up REALLY quickly each month.

Play more. Not being flippant either - spoke to my partner about where we can fit another TV so I can spend some free time actually doing the hobby I most enjoy. Work too hard to not have a bit more time to myself. And then get through the backlog and play a few games I've missed over the last couple of years.

I have a backlog of purchased games, a backlog of Switch games, a backlog of Gamepass games, a backlog of games from 2023 (BG3 specifically) and a backlog of games from 2024. And at least 7 or 8 games here that I would like to get to as soon as they are released.

Actually spoke to my other half today about my New Year's resolution genuinely being finding more time to game - getting a 2nd TV etc. It's my favourite hobby so an hour a night if I'm lucky at 11pm when I'm exhausted doesn't cut it really. Life's too short.

Bring on the games!

Downloaded Indy - time to dive in to that one. Also eyeing Baldurs Gate 3 in the sale and have a good number of games on the Switch as well. As always, I'm game rich and time poor but there you go.

Still Wakes the Deep was probably my Gamepass game of the year. Mafia was a nice surprise - hoping the sequels end up on the service as well.

CoD was probably my favourite 'big' GP release and loved both the Resi games. Indy will probably get into my top 5 when I get around to it!

Spyro was good fun too. Still playing that with my son.

Loads to enjoy on the service this year. Well worth the £20 I spend on it every 3 months from CDKeys.

@neoxmahi 🤣 get a grip mate, it's not that serious.

@gollumb82 well put. Not many places on the internet that are 'safe places' these days but this one is a pretty nice place to spend some time!

Happy Christmas to all and hopefully you all get some gaming time (I'll be in the Switch today as I've got no chance of getting some time on the TV!).

Brilliant game - I'm not exaggerating when I say it's possibly the best FPS campaign I've ever played. Only thing counting against it is the length (5 hours tops), but minute for minute it's almost flawless.

@Balaam_ good grief, give it a bloody rest.

Baldurs Gate 3 finally sneaks under £50! May finally be time for me to get on that one!

Geralt's story was nicely tied up in Blood and Wine for me. I'm happy to let him enjoy his retirement. Ciri is a great character as well so I can live with it.

I do like a deck builder - will check this one out!

@Timppis I feel that is missing the point. It isn't people having a tantrum over having to wait an extra three days. It is the fact that a Gamepass sub is advertised as having the benefit of these day one releases. And when it comes to the actual release then to get true day one access you would have to pay a premium. It is fundamentally dishonest.

@themightyant exactly. It was clearly a traditional Friday release but they put that behind a paywall in the name of this ridiculous 'early access' nonsense. Pretty cynical way to nickel and dime their customers but if people are paying it....

As others have said, the best Forza Horizon. The perfect arcade racer and well worth (just over) a tenner of anyone's money.

Need to get back to Resi 2 to do the second campaign then. Been meaning to but so many games to play.....

Christ, what a bunch of whining babies some of you are. Get off social media and go play some games.

Almost 600 hours (pleased with that, managed to get in an hour and a half a day) and Cyberpunk 2077 winning my most played. Incredibly the first game other than the Witcher 3 to be my most played since 2016!!

Completely staggered that someone can rack up well over 5000 hours - quick bit of an maths puts that at 15-16 hours a day?! Surely that's bordering on impossible.

Not sure Stalker is for me but will return at some point. Have really enjoyed playing Spyro with my boy - was a great surprise to see that in Gamepass so that gets my vote.

Have a feeling Nine Sols might be my kind of thing when I get around to playing it.

Every. Single. Comment. Section. Yawn. Seriously - stop posting quite so much and go play some games.

Good games, lots of which are on Gamepass.

How has Nine Sols completely passed me by? Looks wicked. Aliens looks good too. Bloody GamePass. Not close to enough time to play even a quarter of the games I want to play.

@gravelmonkey exactly my thoughts. Fallout it ain't. It's just a bit of a grind and pretty miserable. Not for me.

How does a simple article highlighting the sale price of an Xbox get such angry comments?!🤣
Anyway, I might pick up a Series S at that price for the bedroom. Useful when my other half is using the TV downstairs.

If it was £200 I might be tempted into one for the second TV so I need never be without a TV to play Xbox on.

Absolutely nothing and resisting the urge to even look. At some point I've got to spend more time playing games than buying them.

Edit - might get Mass Effect Legendary actually. Oops.

Hmm, bounced off this one pretty hard. Didn't have any technical issues but just didn't seem like my kind of game. Seen lots in previews about how good it looks but honestly can't see it. It looks like a remaster of a 360 era game. Monsters were pretty dreadful too. I get that it's more of an immersive experience and not meant to be 'fun' per se but I think that's just not for me.

Will try again at some point. And can confirm that, for me at least, it was perfectly stable with none of the issues that have been reported, other than a seriously inconsistent frame rate.

@OldGamer999 good to hear. Maybe that patch really has ironed it a lot of the bugs. Hoping for a good session tonight (oo-er).

As others have mentioned - cloth physics are still at 30fps and it is a bit jarring. Really illustrates the difference between 30 and 60. Still, game looks great.

Is this replacing what is already there or an EXTRA 140gb?!

Started this a few days ago and was surprised how much I noticed the 30fps! So looking forward to seeing this tomorrow. Just tidied up the SSD as well so the size is fine at the moment.

Been playing them with my son. Great fun, excellent surprise when I checked in on Gamepass and just saw it there. Won't be for everyone as, let's be honest, they are children's games at heart but my son is loving it and I'm actually enjoying it too. Even had a go on my own when he wasn't around.

And let's hope that is the first and last time any of us read the term 'competent consumer' used with what I can only assume was a straight face. If I see that again I might cringe myself out of the nearest first floor window. How some people can be so staggeringly pretentious is mind boggling.

Star Wars Outlaws. Really enjoying it, even if it is a slightly janky Assassin's Creed: Star Wars. Good fun and good atmosphere so I'm sticking with that.

@OldGamer999 sounds a plan! Good game.

@OldGamer999 bloody hell, calm down mate. Go play some games and take your mind off things.

@Tonmoy this one does seem to be a bit polarising. I'd love to try it someday but after reading reviews and watching gameplay footage I still have no idea what kind of game it is.

Completely agree about MGSV as well - it got a lot of criticism for the mishandling of the story towards the end of the game but I absolutely loved it. Still rate it as the greatest action game of all time.

Always feel a bit deflated when there's a big sale on and when you go to look at it the majority of the games seem to be the best part of fifty quid. Mass Effect Legendary at that price seems a good idea to add to the backlog though.

@fabio1 I wanted to play both those games but after looking at the lengths of them then they were inevitably going to stay in the backlog for ever. Honestly wish I still had the time for big games but a 20 hour game takes me a month to get through these days. Roll on retirement.

@themightyant funny isn't it - I finished Crash as a kid and don't remember that bridge level being an issue but playing it again in the remake and well, yeah..... f' that.