Spiders

This game looks interesting. A lot of comments comparing to Kingdoms of Amular.

Tons of great stuff to playcoming down the pike — doesn’t look like I’m canceling Game Pass any time soon.

Hope my PC can run it. Can’t wait to find out!

Hideo name checked INSIDE? Man has good taste!

@SplooshDmg : “ really good entry for people that maybe didn't know they liked roguelikes...”

That’s the PERFECT way to put it. Saying it’s the RL for people that don’t like RLs — which I think I’m guilty of doing — is probably not true very often. I was hit and miss with the genre but Hades made me a fan, so much so I sought them out after I maxed out everything on my save file. I also bought Hades when my company laid us all off, so I had time to pay hours and hours a day. I wonder if I’d feel different now that I’m working full time.

It really is a different approach to gaming and, like you said, games like Bayonetta, or even the Souls games are really about character/player meta-progress and often softer with the narrative and diegetic sense of progress. Luckily with Gamepass you only have to risk spinning your hard drive platters to find out if it’s for you.

Although I have heard that playing roguelikes can make you young and skinny...

@JohnyHalo I’m really excited for new people to play it too. I thought I would install just to see how it ran and felt compared to Switch, but I forgot how good that soundtrack is and now I’m back in.

@SplooshDmg The feeling of progress is definitely of character and not of place, but it’s requires a perspective change that might be too much to ask for some people. I think what Hades does brilliantly is progress the story alongside your attempts to escape that makes it easier to adjust. The story is basically everyone vicariously being stuck with you the player and, ultimately
vicariously persevering and overcoming.

I’m playing for the second time on a fresh file, and haven’t passed Meg yet to tell you whether or not there’s some moment after that would be some strong hook or revelation to push through to. The only thing I can say is if you think it’s button mashing and then die, don’t mash. Be precise. If you think your getting hit too much, play shield and get a feel for the movement and pace. If you think you’re being under-challenged, play spear and use all the crazy tech.

Every element expands out — even after your first successful run. Even Hades itself becomes more interesting a place through more attempts. But if you don’t see the potential places it can all go at this point, it might just be a miss for you.

That soundtrack though... I’d bang my head against the wall for that alone.

Series S is tempting but I still think I’d prefer to save for the Series X.

Twelve Minutes looks great! The whole August lineup is bananas.

Here here! I’ve been able to play swaths of wishlisted indies for $1 (my proper sub starts today actually). Subnautica, Star Renegades, Curse of the Dead Gods, and I got 4 more downloaded. I just missed Cross-Code. For fans of indies aka people with good taste, this is the place to be right now. Even the potential must-play day one games that don’t go XGP like say Death’s Door or Axiom Verge 2 are easier to pony up for when you’re spending less on new titles.

I was hoping the technical issues were frame rate related and a patch was incoming. I’m on medium settings and wooded areas get really choppy. My PC is slowing turning into a potato I suppose.

@void5400 Thank you. And GRID is not rally racing?

Can anyone familiar with the genre explain the difference between these rally games and recommend ONE?

Hope it is good. The last rally racer aka “The Dark Souls of Racing” I got into was Colin McCrae 04 on Xbox.

I guess I’ll skip Halo Infinite and re-download Fruit Ninja.

@Bdbrady I agree with you completely, but something about “fat Aloy” just slays me every time I see it.

The game is unplayable on GP for PC on the lowest settings for me - with the rough equivalent to a PS4 Pro level kit. Fix that!

I see what you're saying, but keep in mind a couple of things: they don't set the prices on their store. many of the games that are available on other platforms come a lot later — if you look at the price drops relative to when the games releases it's the same price slashes.
As far as the full price remakes — I agree with you. On Wii, they had Gamecube re-releases called Wii New Play Control! that were budget priced, and I think they should have done that for this generation, as well as doing their 'Player's Choice' line. They're doing there "evergreen" strategy though, so it's hard to call it greed when they're still charting in Japan with 3 and 4 year old games.

On the other hand, there is some consumer value to Nintendo keeping their first party prices high — you get a lot more on the used market even years later sometimes.

I don't think Nintendo having a profitable console is greed either, they’re not Sony or Microsoft with multiple divisions that can bolster their gaming efforts. They're sink or swim on everything they do.

@S1ayeR74 I don't think it's greed necessarily for Nintendo or Sony, it's just the consequences of the environment they created — but yeah, Xbox::Sony and hopefully Steam Deck::Switch are going to be great for everyone having strong competition for the value proposition.

@Doctorwhoooourgh Truly. I'm always biased to what I'm playing on at the moment, but I've been lucky enough to have had most major consoles and handhelds.
As a Sony fan who can't get a PS5 even if I wanted or could afford it, current Sony feels like a more subtle PS3-era Sony.

I haven't really played on Xbox since the original and early 360
(my "Most Recent" games still has Geometry Wars, Lost Planet, Dead Rising 1, etc. haha). Gamepass for PC has been a great gateway, and I'm getting those same vibes from current Microsoft as you.

It likely won't last forever, but right now it's crazy not to see the positives of what they're trying to do going forward, and all the negativity I really think is that frustration I mentioned earlier, and some kind of Stockholm Syndrome for these platforms.

From your above comment - this last year and a half really changed how I buy and play games just because it kind of had to — probably a lot of people. I went pure backlog / PS+ games up until a month a go (blessing in disguise). Getting Gamepass on PC (and GG Strive which will give me thousands of hours of gameplay over the next couple of years) has let me budget for something like Metroid Dread or SMTV on Switch. If I played handheld, Steam Deck looks like an amazing option to be able to play great games on a budget over the long run.

@Doctorwhoooourgh At least from the outside looking in, I think it’s a rough time to be a Sony fan. Best case, you have a “Nintendo New 3DS”... a small handful of exclusives and a better version of the old hardware. Plus, every decision and statement Sony makes is baffling.

The Ascent was a dud for me. Unplayable on Gamepass for PC. Had to go with Lethal League Blaze from previous experience.

Glad to hear it’s running good on Xbox. Runs like cheeks on my PC.

Y’all sleeping on Lethal League Blaze! It’s really fun and super stylish.

Never heard of this before I saw it in “Coming Soon” on Gamepass. Everyone’s excitement here got me hyped! Just rolled credits on Subnautica last night so perfect
timing.

Lethal League Blaze is a great game... basically a fighting game meets Pong with a Jet Set Radio vibe.

Hope people give it a go!

@Mamabear I loved Control — way more than I thought I would — so I’m tempted to go back and try Quantum Break. I’m worried the “television shows” are going to be a big drag.

Subnautica (Gamepass for PC) has me in it’s grasp. How a game can go from super-chill and relaxing to absolutely terrifying is an amazing trick. Literally, personal courage is the scarcest resource in the game for me haha.

Playing Guilty Gear Strive (PS4) like a madman. Was going through the whole roster to learn characters but can’t seem to move past Anji Mito. My kind of character.

All this Death’s Door hype has me really considering grabbing it.

@LtSarge Steins;Gate has to be one of the best sci-for stories ever. The only flaw is how obtuse your choices are as far as how they affect the story. Otherwise, it’s perfect. You might dig 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim if you ever get the chance to play it.

@Tharsman I never finished Arkham, but I would agree with that as grounds for excluding it.

I am playing Subnautica right now, and that is an interesting cusp of Metroidvania game. It actually reminds me a lot of Metroid Prime, at least the vibe of exploring a hostile alien world. You are constantly “locked” by what equipment you can make to reach further depths, and exploring and scanning wreckage grants you those blueprints. It’s really well done, and I highly recommended it.

@LtSarge Exactly. Netflix was "initially" a DVD rental by mail, and here we are now. They're starting where they can be strong, and it'd be foolish not to keep an eye on what they're doing. Netflix has 203 million subscribers and has footprint on mobile, PC, smart TVs, and consoles. If they can back-door their way into the games industry, it could be very disruptive... especially with Xbox running away with the market.

@Tharsman Metroid Prime series is definitely Metroidvania, Control as well. I think Castlevania: Curse of Darkness was, and some people same the Batman Arkham games.
There's no reason a Metroidvania can't be 3D, it's just not a lot of devs are making them.

And yeah... that Bloodborne did not directly and immediately inspire a 3D Castlevania is a shame.

This looks interesting! Not a lot of 3D Metroidvanias for as popular as the genre is.

@PhhhCough I think you can make the case, but very few areas in Soulsborne games are "locked" by an item, and none by a traversal ability (save Sekiro). That's probably a pretty good standard for what makes a "Metroidvania", beyond a single persistent map and backtracking.

I would love to see Double Fine fans get together and give Tim some softies for the achievements.

I didn’t know it was coming for PC GP! Awesome!

I bought the Jet Set Radio Future/Sega GT bundle OG XBox along with Munch’s Oddyssey.
Not sure what I actually played first... probably Sega GT.

I’d still love to know why Titanfall is a target. I’ve always seen it as an underdog in the market, and Titanfall 2’s campaign was really something special in the “take it or leave it” current AAA shooter space, as well as their MTX model being among the least contemptible.

No games deserve this, but still some more than others, right?

Fusion Frenzy is so much more fun than it has any right to be. I would encourage everyone to try it with a video game competent person or two.

I went with Psychonauts. I literally bought into Gamepass in anticipation of the sequel.

@BrilliantBill “ Consoles work because you optimise the game down to a very core level...”

Gosh, I remember when that was a true.

@Benjamin 100% this. People conflating the two to make it about themselves and sound more important. Both are valid, but separate issues. Game preservation, however, requires you to think beyond yourself and about future generations.

Kotaku’s point is ridiculous. Preservation has nothing to do with ownership and everything to do with access. The content is precious, not the medium — and certainly not ownership.

Xbox obviously wants to foster a “preservation” market, but they narrowly mean backwards compatibility across generations of hardware. Gaming Preservation is more about making sure software is rescued from failing physical mediums and hardware, and — more challengingly — online and networked games.

More concerning is how to preserve Sea of Thieves, for example, when the servers go down. It does not matter one whit about who and how people own games now. Owning a disc doesn’t not guarantee you can play it in the future anyway.

Such a disingenuous argument from that hack site.

@S1ayeR74 I’m glad I’m not the only person who read Jim Ryan’s comments that way. Returnal and Astro Bot are the only Sony games so far that make me want a PS5, and neither of those seem like they’re Jim Ryan’s ideal portfolio going forward.
Time will tell, but I don’t think $70 “blockbusters” are the future, and he sounds like a moron saying it is. Sony’s diverse output was always a strength of Playstation, but he doesn’t see it that way.

Then I would have said nah, but after playing Golf Story, there’s definitely a place for comedy sports games today.

@Fath 1000 ft Robot Golf does this and it pretty decent.

Just got gamepass (PC). Do they generally rotate games in and out around the same time like Netflix?

Anywhere to read the story behind this? How long as this been going on, and why is this hacker trying to take down Titanfall?

I’ll never forget the things I heard screamed at me by 13 year olds the first time I played Halo 2 on XBox Live. You’ve come a long way baby!

This is the attitude so often after E3, but the fact is - like every year - I went from playing my backlog to planning my budget. We saw lots of great stuff to play, even if the one game -whatever it was - everyone seems to have wanted didn’t show.

MS finally made a compelling argument for a Game Pass for me by just the sheer number of interesting titles I couldn’t afford otherwise, Nintendo’s show had me literally screaming like a youtuber, and the were so many good indies I had to make a list to keep track.

E3 has had so many bad years and bad shows, yet gaming continues to get richer and reach new heights. It’s almost like the hype has become its own hobby and people are forgetting what it’s all about.

@tanaka2687 haha same

Haven’t had an XBOX since, well, XBOX, but I’m signing up Game Pass (PC), considering a Series X in the future which I hadn’t before, and visiting PureXbox for the first time so it’s gotta be an A from me.

Best Microsoft show since 2017 for me.