Shigurui

As a huge fan of Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, David Bowie etc, this hit a home run on so many levels for me. Superbly written with a stellar cast and performances, Mark Strong and Carl Weathers were especially good.

While I played it for 'free' on GP, I've since bought it on PS4 to support the devs further. Gems like this are few and far between. Fully deserved the award.

Not sure why that list has Witcher 2 as N/A for UK. It's on sale for £3.74.

Think I'll grab the Metro collection. £12.49 for all 3 games and DLC is a steal. That Cyberpunk 2077 price is a bit scummy, it was regularly £19.99 but since the 1.5 update came out they've hiked the price up by £5 in the last few sales.

@PhhhCough Isn't that already doable? I know the you've been able to turn off the startup sounds for ages, I assumed shutdown was the same.

@Dezzy70 Huh? What does any of that have to do with this article?

I'll be keeping the virtual keyboard sounds on, it's how I know the single press, double input bug that's plagued the keyboard for almost 9 years is still alive and well.

@FraserG So, not April then..

@FraserG Fair enough, just seemed odd to see a game listing that's potentially months away.

@FraserG Trek to Yomi could be April or it could be May or even June. No point listing it without a firm date.

@Tangerine Mass Effect Trilogy is a permanent addition. It's part of the EA Play library, not GP itself.

@Roqka Totally agree, I don't see a benefit to any of those being bought out. Konami may licence their dormant IP's out but that's about all.

I could see Platinum Games being bought by pretty much anyone though, they always seem to be on the brink of going under.

@Roqka It won't be FromSoft. I highly doubt Kadokawa Corp will ever sell them. Especially coming off the back of their most profitable game to date.

@Tharsman Hitman was put on GP but was it part of the ID@Xbox funding program? I thought IO developed and published it themselves.

Love indie games and Xbox has always been pretty supportive where indies are concerned. Both the XBLA and XBLIG marketplaces were excellent back in the day. I bought hundreds of games from them. Great to see their support has been successful over the years.

I get why this game has a bad rep based on its very average campaign but if you're into hack/slash games there's a very good combat system in there with some excellent build variety. Had a lot of fun with it.

While I absolutely agree that SP should never require you to be online, everyone seems to have forgotten that the reason why GTSport and GT7 do this is because all of their leaderboards and rule sets are governed by the real world FIA.

@Medic_Alert I agree, I can't begin to imagine how difficult it must be to balance a game like this.

@Medic_Alert I'm not saying they shouldn't rebalance costs, I just find it hilarious that sorcery is getting even more OP. Did Carian sword spells really need cost reduction or Great Glintstone Shard need more range and speed? I'm not sure they did.

Saw the Night and Flame nerf coming a mile away. Meanwhile they lower the FP cost for a bunch of sorceries, making them even more spammable and deadly. Hilarious!

For anyone on the fence about this game due to difficulty, now is the perfect time to get it. Just start as an Astrologer, watch any of the millions of OP early sorcery vids and pewpew your way to victory. Easy mode ON lol.

@GuyinPA75 Yes mate, NG+ means new game plus. So after you beat it once, starting a new game will carry over everything from your first playthrough, upgrades, weapons etc.

@GuyinPA75 Why would you pick it up because NG+ is easier? You do know you have to beat the game from scratch to get to NG+, right?

@UltimateOtaku91 Every Souls game has an easy mode. For Demon's Souls play as Royalty, Dark Souls Pyro, DS2 Hex.

Elden Ring is a joke as Astrologer. That class absolutely breaks the game. None of the games are overly difficult anyway, they just require something a lot of gamers today seem to lack. Patience.

Bikes would be a brilliant addition, haven't played a truly good arcade racer with bikes since the mighty PGR4.

PS5 version it is then, for 50% less than on X|S.

@RadioHedgeFund Lego LOTR is playabe and got the 60fps boost treatment. Otogi 1 & 2 were added in the last batch of BC titles.

@GlasgowGuy Try deleting your profile and download it again. I know it sounds odd but you'd be amazed at how many issues it fixes on 360.

360 BC is pretty decent but it's horrible for games like JSRF and PGR2. Those games are the reason why I still have an OG Xbox hooked up to a CRT TV.

@ymo1965 I suck at fighting games like Street Fighter, Tekken etc. I find them to be incredibly difficult to just pick up and play beyond button mashing, so I don't play them. On the other hand I could put the time and effort into learning how to play them but I don't.

Another thing I don't do is post in threads about fighting games, complaining about their difficulty when I haven't even played them. See where this is going?

You already said the DS series isn't a good fit for you. In that case I guarantee that Elden Ring isn't for you. Ignore the FOMO and play things you do enjoy.

@TheSilverFalcon It's a 43.4 gig install.

If 'a brand new take on their critically acclaimed signature combat' means not including said signature combat then this atrocity has succeeded. Utterly abysmal game.

@BadTimeHaver As @Would_you_kindly says it's mostly more of the same but on a smaller budget. However, they tried to change the combat system to a slower Dark Souls type of affair.

It did get patched with a classic combat mode so make sure to use that option if you want it to play like the older games.

@TryToBeHopeful Click on show all in the app, the Elden Ring and Grid cards are tucked away in there.

@ChopperCampbell Yeah mate, DkS2 is brilliant. I don't get the hate for it. Glass cannon Hexer for life lol.

Dark Souls 2 (SotFS version).

So I've spent around 10 hours with it trying out different classes and my main take is the hit boxes are well and truly borked. Collision detection on blocks and parries is highly questionable at times.

I don't mean unfairly either, I've had dozens of occasions where my blocks are completely ignored, the enemy hit will simply pass through my shield but not cause me damage, likewise my anticipated counter attack animates like a hit but causes no damage.

I've finished every Souls game so I'm well versed in the nuances of the combat as well as its jank but I've never seen anything like this before. Really weird.

Taking my usual Souls approach and trying different classes for an hour or so. Finding Astrologer pretty good but I'm getting my arse handed to me by what I assume is the first proper boss, it drops me in 2 hits lol. Fun times!

@lolwhatno Copies sold has nothing to do with being niche. Souls games sell millions and they're very much considered to be niche titles.

@lolwhatno I'm not biased at all, I think both games are bang average but Returnal is an extremely niche game whereas Halo appeals to a much wider audience. Also Halo might be undercooked but Returnal was straight up broken at launch.

@teknium_ 30fps is fine for something like Watch Dogs but for melee based action games it's awful. I'm no framerate snob but as someone who plays a lot of hack/slash games 60fps in that genre absolutely matters, it's always a far better experience without exception.

Disappointing given the hardware but to be expected really, it's a FromSoftware game after all. Hopefully it gets a stability pass in the coming weeks. If I can get through Sable with its horrific 5fps framerate I can get through anything.

@Stnkygrngo JSRF isn't on the marketplace, only the remaster of the original Jet Set Radio game is available.

I was already old when JSRF came out, now I just feel depressed lol. This and PGR2 are why I still have an OG Xbox hooked up to a CRT TV. The 360 back compat for those games is pretty messed up.

@Cherip-the-Ripper PS4 is 720p mate, PS4 Pro is 1080p, either way it's ridiculous that Series X is so far behind such old hardware.

It's certainly a cool feature but I don't use it. I wish it could be disabled to give more usable space on the SSD.

Kinda scummy that they raised the sale price to £24.99 as it was selling for £19.99 the last two times it was on sale.

@Beagle The voice of reason there mate. I don't understand the complaining tbh. Cyberpunk 2077 always ran at 30fps on Series S. Now it's an objectively better package overall with new AI, vehicle physics, a boatload of fixes etc but somehow it's not enough.

@SecretAgentCat A few games use it but not many. I've played 2 myself. Watch Dogs Legion has pretty impressive ray tracing on Series S, the game runs between 900p and 1080p. Metro Exodus also has RT but has very low resolution on S, it can hit 1080p but averages 512p to 720p.

@Nightcrawler71 Saber Interactive are the studio working on Witcher 3 for X|S. They did the Switch port too.

Got to love the rewards system. I'm buying this with reward points and getting reward points for buying it. Insane.

Got rewards points ready for this, 100% free and a 6K points rebate. Happy days!

Honestly, the more I read the article the more I felt that this is a game I'd like. Love a dumb fun shooter and that it harks back to 360 era CoD with bullet time sounds great. Perfect GP filler stuff that I'd never buy but will definitely play.