Scrubchub

The next gen update of the Witcher 3 is my most played game this gen which is saying something (not least that that game is still magnificent almost a decade later). Of actual current gen games, I thought Hogwarts Legacy was an absolute triumph. I'm a Potter nerd so a bit biased but it's been my game of the generation so far.

Special mention to SSX3 which is a great advert for backwards compatibility. At 4k and 50fps then it is not far off feeling like a current gen remake. All these years later and it's still about as fun as gaming gets. Surely that series is ripe for a reboot.

A highlight was also the drop of Mafia onto Gamepass the other month. Never played them before but immediately bought the next two games in the series and it's now a favourite series of mine.

Starfield, Cyberpunk, Forza Horizon 5 (actually preferred 4 to be honest but both great) and Halo Infinite also great. I tend to enjoy games that get crapped on a lot it seems, but whatever; I like what I like.

Been a lot of highlights for me. There seems to have been a lot of belly-aching about this generation but I've just been getting on with playing games and enjoying them.

Finished CoD - great campaign marred by a couple of stupid, weird missions that just dragged on. Randomly decided to buy AC Syndicate for another play through. Still looks great and London is amazing but desperately needs a 60fps patch.

@StylesT same for me re Andromeda. Played it a 12 month after release and didn't have any technical issues at all and as such really enjoyed it. Not quite as much as the original trilogy but still worthy of bearing the Mass Effect name.

Also, quite surprised by how challenging it is. No, it isn't Sekiro, but if you play it 'gung ho' then you'll be cut down in seconds.

Haven't played a COD since the 360 so was just going to dip into this and see what it's like and I have to say it is really quite good indeed! Looks great, polished to a sheen, and satisfying gunplay. It isn't, on paper, my kind of game, but I'll check out the others when they make their way to Gamepass.

Might even try the multiplayer.

Christ, I haven't even got round to Baldur's Gate 3 yet and now there's another massive, hour munching Western RPG to put on 'to buy' list. First world problem, I guess.

The guy is literally a billionaire, running a trillion dollar company. It is what it is. Par for the course for people in his position. Not fair or right but it's not changing anytime soon.

@DEATH2SONY what in God's name are you going on about?!

I haven't played a CoD since Modern Warfare in the 360 but couldn't resist this on Gamepass. Not interested in multiplayer but the first couple of hours of the story are fantastic. Really, really polished and great gunplay. Will definitely be exploring the campaigns of the back catalogue when/if they are released on Gamepass.

Just starting it up! Campaign first for me, always the way I do it.

Still got the last one on my backlog. They're normally good games so need to get that done ready for this one.

@Fenbops enjoying their downfall and actively wishing for it to happen to other companies is extraordinarily unpleasant. You'd see thousands of people out of a job just so you can enjoy watching a company fail? Says so much about you, it really does.

Ooh, this looks great fun. Never heard of the original but will check this out.

South Park is great though obviously far more so for those who enjoy the show's humour! Great second half to the month though. Really can't moan at that.

Seems a bit of a disaster to release FM25 2 months before the end of the season.

Another FM, another year of me resisting the urge to download it. Spent a genuinely unhealthy number of hours on certain iterations of these games in the past so I weaned myself off. Dangerously addictive! Hope those who are jumping in enjoy it though!

Tidy. Love Flight Simulator but the last one was a victim of the limitations of my hard drive. Very clever and very well needed.

Can't wait. Don't wait for the sequel though if you haven't played it. The first is fantastic. And a genuinely original take on such an old genre is pretty rare.

The original was a great game, definitely going to give it another play through.

@Nightcrawler71 it's not just you. My 'play later' list on Gamepass is getting smaller as I tick off the games I want to play and there aren't that many getting added to it....

That's a big old chunk of dosh for a console that will play all the same games (yeah, ok the current gen is basically that anyway). To be honest, if someone is the kind of gamer who is this into frame rate and resolution that the PS5 Pro is tempting then surely PC is the place to be gaming for them anyway?

Hmm, this looks quite cool. Wouldn't buy this type of game but that's the beauty of Gamepass so will try it out.

I haven't got around to Prince of Persia or AC Mirage yet, so with this and AC Shadows coming out, I was thinking a few months of subscription to ubisoft plus might be a half decent idea.

I have an older (wired) Wolverine and it's excellent. Best of all is that you can normally pick up Razer controllers for a fraction of their original price at some point in the not too distant future.

I'm taking these a bit like Hogwarts Legacy - if you're a fan of the franchise you can chuck an extra point on these scores. That's certainly the case for Hogwarts for me as I loved that game and as I also love Star Wars then I can't wait for this.

Hmm, looked up Atlas Fallen and it looks, dare I say it..... good? Will give that one a go.

I thought it was excellent. Great world - like a movie set. Great story, though I thought the end seemed a bit rushed. Some clunky mechanics - the shooting is pretty old fashioned. I might get slaughtered for this, but it's one of those rare games that is a better experience on the easiest difficulty. Then you can just have fun with the world, the story, the characters, and the excellent writing and voice acting.

I finished it and went straight to the store to check out Mafia 2 and 3! (Though I reckon waiting a bit for a Gamepass release would be a decent bet)

It was also the perfect length. And personally, I didn't once notice any issues with performance/frame rate.

Will undoubtedly be one of my favourite games of the year.

Finishing off Mafia on Gamepass. Excellent game, despite some clunky mechanics and irritating difficulty spikes. Well worth the 10 hour or so runtime.

I'll be getting it. The racing is just as good as 5 and I prefer the setting (like lots of people it seems). Not quite as in your face with all the pretend social media stuff as 5 as well.

@Spider-Kev couldn't disagree more. It clearly apes GTA, even though there are major differences. The gameplay is similar; the driving and shooting mechanics. It differs in that it is designed as a more linear experience. A relatively short, story focused game set in a tightly authored game world. I think it's excellent. I also managed the race section first time without too much difficulty. I thought that was great fun. And Pure Xbox was very clear in their article the other day that it ISN'T an open world game like GTA and you don't go off and explore and do a load of side content. And they even mentioned that the Free Roam mode is indeed a separate game mode.

I remember a 40K title coming to Gamepass at some point this year (though I may have imagined it or confused it for something else). Is that this title? It looks awesome regardless.

It's staggering the ruthlessness of how this has been done. They've basically just clicked the OFF button and everything is gone. Feel for the people who woke up on Saturday morning without a job. Sounds like they heard about it around the same time as the rest of us.

Looking forward to Mafia and already played the Crash trilogy on Switch. Still got Octopath 2 to finish, plus a bunch of stuff I picked up in the Nintendo E shop sale. That'll keep me more than busy.

Played them to death on the PSOne, played them again on the PSVita, then did the remaster on the Switch! Timeless fun. Probably won't play them on the Xbox as well as there is a limit but remains a great addition to Gamepass regardless.

It was June, not July, but Still Wakes the Deep finally got cleared from my backlog. Fantastic few hours of gaming.

I think I had Airborne Kingdom downloaded at one point but didn't get around to playing it. Might have to revisit that one quickly.

Hard not to see this as just two organisations that, quite frankly, don't like each other and are taking pot shots. "Battle" probably too strong a word. More like lots of grumbling.

Still Cyberpunk, but now interspersing with some Top Spin 2k25 to mix things up. Hoping to finish Cyberpunk and then do Still Wakes the Deep but realistically that isn't happening this weekend.

The Wandering Village looked interesting, even had it downloaded. But it fell victim to 'The Backlog'. Ah well, it won't be the last.

So if you bought a Key for 12 months of Ultimate now, would that mean you could avoid the price increases for a 12 month?

Hmm, getting very close to being too much. Plus, it just rankles a bit to put tiers in like that. I'll look at getting a 12 month pass from a CDKeys website but if there aren't any deals then I think I'll be out. Been trying to cut down the monthly direct debits quite drastically the last few months so any price rises are pretty much automatically out.

I loved Sea of Stars but it's weightier than I was expecting so get on that one now if you want. I think it took me 30 hours or so.

And if you haven't played it yet then Firewatch gripped me completely over the course of a 3 hour evening. Brilliant little game with a great story.

@Decoy_Snake really fancy that one. Might give it a go.

Also fancy a rerun of RDR2 as haven't played it since my initial play through on PS4.

@Foxx_64740 if you're enjoying Cyberpunk then check out the Netflix show. I'm not an anime fan but that one is great fun and a good companion to the game.

Awesome. Looking forward to this one.

Just Cyberpunk for me. Bought the base game a while and really enjoying it so just going to plough through that and maybe upgrade to Phantom Liberty. Feels nice and simple to just know what I want to play when I turn on the Xbox.

I really, really wanted to love Crusader Kings and I really tried but I just didn't get it. I even played it while following an hour long tutorial on YouTube on how to start the game and learn the basics and as soon as I was trying to play on my own I went back to not having a scooby doo what was going on. Alas, I guess I'm just too thick.

I never actually played this first time around despite being an N64 owner so may download this on switch tonight as I'm a NSO member and don't use it as much as I should. I can't imagine it's aged that gracefully though.

Still wakes the deep definitely looks worth a play through.

This is a series that has completely passed me by for whatever reason. This looks great though.