Scrubchub

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.

Already a nice selection. Couple of heavy hitters and thought both Mixtape and South of Midnight looked interesting at the Showcase.

That's great news. Unfortunately I'm still trying to find time to clear Eiyuden Chronicles from my backlog(which I'm yet to start)! Should I drop that and do Octo 2? I liked the first game.

🤣 the state of the comment section from those early commenters! Thank god it seems to have calmed down the last couple of years!

Lots of good games here. Had Halo Wars on my list for ages. This is yet another reminder to actually get on and play it.

And another shout out for Halo Infinite. Fantastic campaign (not a multiplayer gamer personally). The less than favourable reputation is baffling.

Taken 7 months but Startield has finally sunk its teeth into me. The symbols on the minimap is such a worthwhile, simple quality of life improvement that makes a not hugely intuitive game that bit more welcoming and easy to find your way around.

Looking forward to playing this but will wait until after the summer at least when it's had a good six months for Capcom to turn it into the finished article.

The current one (series x) has been faultless. I loved the 360 but it was a mess.
Off topic, but the sub-heading should read 'fewest issues', not 'least issues'.

Enslaved was a really cool game.

Sounds like my views on the original - hell of a spectacle but missing something in the gameplay. Worth experiencing though.

Halo and Gears of War.

Really?! Is this actually common in games and I've just never noticed (I certainly notice when I'm watching TV)?

@Fenbops it doesn't need 'saving'. It was successful and if/when there is a PS5 version then it will become even more so.

Feels like this game has been incoming for about a decade now. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait. Certainly looks promising.

The game looks good to me and still plays well. Haven't noticed any bugs (which I certainly did when it was first released those years back!) so going to keep playing and not worry about what mode it is in.

@Vilimeno I agree - I don't see in which way, other than narratively, Fallout 4 is a step back from the 360 era games. Mechanically it is considerably better and a more satisfying game to play today by some margin.

@StylesT yes yes yes! Flipping load times really hampered the game for me. On that note, New Vegas on Series X is fantastic for that very reason. The load times on 360 were excruciating.

Great addition to Gamepass.

This will be a rare day one purchase for me as the Top Spin games are possibly my fave sports titles ever (though classic PES also takes some beating). Glad it plays well. Missing Novak and Nadal does seem a rather big hole in the roster though.....

Good news as it's a great first season. Though with the way things are going in the moment it'll probably be hard to tell the difference between the second season of Fallout and the 6 o'clock news.

Ooh, wasn't expecting a release date of this year for this. The first one is really good. Yes, it is a bit rough around the edges and isn't the easiest thing to play but I thought it was really enjoyable. If this builds on the first one in the obvious ways then it could be truly great game.

Great game. This was such a great era for these indie games. The Dishwasher was one of my faves of that whole generation but sadly seems to have been forgotten. I'll be getting this though. Can't recall if I ever actually finished it which probably means I didn't....

The £70 purchase price is enough of a tip for me, thanks very much. When you currently need to remortgage your house to buy a litre of olive oil then this idea is rather out of touch. People don't have the money for pleasantries like this at the moment - outside of the world of millionaire 'execs'. And it's not as if your tip is going to end up in the pockets of ground level employees.

Mike Ashley is a billionaire and you don't become one of those without being, shall we say, ruthless.......

Having your job suddenly become a zero hours affair is a kick in the teeth. You can't live like that for long if you have rent/mortgage/dependents etc.

Though, let's be honest, we all know that Game is going sooner rather than later. Used to love my local (that's still there) but it hasn't been the same for a while and I don't use it anymore.

Kingdom Come for less than a pint is outrageous. Yes, it is kind of a pain to play, but it is such a great game when you are settled into its rhythm. Worth a try for anyone at that price.

Until we see something on this gen of consoles that GENUINELY couldn't be done on the last gen (and not just a largely last gen game with a higher frame rate and resolution) then I genuinely don't care. I remember playing SSX on the PS2 and being floored. There was no way that could ever have been achieved original PSOne. Same thing when I played the original Ridge Racer. Those were generational leaps you could get excited about. A genuinely new experience. My favourite game of this gen is the Witcher 3. Same as my favourite game of last gen but with a (admittedly very nice) lick of paint.

Botany Manor is exactly the kind of thing I like to try on Gamepass - something that, on paper, is really not my kind of thing but gets good reviews and isn't a huge time commitment. I've played some gems that I would never have played that way, thanks to Gamepass.

Had Sniper Elite 5 on my watch list for a while. Good excuse to actually get it downloaded.

Mad Max really stands out. Just a great, fun game.