Tdx

Finished Mass Effect 2. I remember not loving it back in 2010 and I’m still very lukewarm about it. The combat is repetitive and boring, the areas are linear, the plot is a bunch of side quests. I guess people love the game because of the character interactions, which were good for the time but that’s not why I play video games. It looks good, music is still great, lore is interesting, controls are smooth, but yeah I find it worse than ME1 and pretty overrated. Gonna replay ME3 now.

Also chipping away at Portrait of Ruin.

Awesome - considering I have no love for any MS/Sony/Nintendo exclusives - this makes too much sense. The only reason I avoid PC gaming is because I hate Windows, so if this runs SteamOS well, I'm in. Game Pass is no longer a no-brainer option and Nintendo has felt very anti-consumer lately, so an even easier choice.

Very useful article. This is how reviews for hardware should be - after longterm and real world use.

accept Windows prompts, deal with error messages, applications that'll take over your screen when you don't ask them to, and everything else that comes with a Windows-based device

I wonder if it's any more or less than SteamOS, which also has those issues (like dealing with 3rd party launchers, etc.)

Wow a lot more people cancelled than I would have expected on a site like this. So according to these results, if MS lost 50% of subs but increased prices by 50%, that’s a 25% revenue drop.

I might still get GPU for a month or two every year but I’ve gone back to buying indies on sale on Switch and really enjoying it. It’s more expensive but I’m playing exactly what I want instead of feeling pressure to try the newly added mediocre AA game of the week.

Finished RE4 (2005) replay. I was reminded why it’s a classic: gunplay is still satisfying and every single room presents a new surprising challenge, which means the game never drags.

Finished Powerslave Exhumed. Not quite the metroidvania people claim but still a decent boomer shooter.

Contra Hard Corps with my girlfriend. Damn this game is insanely creative - and insanely hard.

Castlevania Portrait of Ruin. I dropped Dawn of Sorrow and this game feels even more banal. I like SotN but don’t really like any other Igavania - they’re goofy, messy and the combat is pretty boring.

@themightyant True. Plus people will buy it again for next gen. And next next gen.

I wonder if the game doesn't actually run well enough on current consoles and they're just trying to kill time to get to next gen.

In the meantime, Vice City Stories is awesome.

Hitman Blood Money. A brilliant game that was way ahead of its time. Probably the game I played the most on the OG Xbox (close tie with GTA:SA). Minimalist choral music swelling only at pivotal times, long waits for the exact moment of opportunity, adapting to chaos in an instant. Missions have manageable complexity with great variety throughout. And there's much less explicit player direction than the newer games.

"It's kind of funny that people think of console and PC as two different things"

No, it's really not. The PC has Windows, which is a disgusting mess - among many other barriers to ease of use.

I love indie games - but that was pretty bad

I don't know if Matt Booty, Sarah Bond and Phil Spencer are bad at their jobs, but it doesn't seem like they're good.

Just saw that you can play KCD2 on Amazons Luna (cloud) for free if you have Prime

Two boomer shooters: Dusk and Ion Fury. Dusk is really solid with wild and twisting level design. Ion Fury is absolutely awesome with impactful shooting, a great synth soundtrack and huge levels that are complex but never confusing.

Buying Candy Crush crushed Xbox

@Scrubchub There’s an interesting GDC talk on YT where the devs show off all the systems they used to efficiently create mass amounts of dialogue, conversations, architecture and quests.

@FarmDog08 I'd really recommend Origins - a serious tone, handcrafted locations and cities, focused plot, excellent main character, and stealth/bow are viable for the entire game.

Chipping away at AC Odyssey. It just keeps going. A pretty and frictionless busywork game - sometimes what you need.

Their art style is so original but the amount of cutscenes and story in PN2 killed me. Glad this is a simple gameplay-first puzzle game.

Amos Roddy soundtrack? Now it’s a must play for me.

They have an airplane seat testing area? That's hilarious

Stealth boomer shooter? Looks great

Many times a year. Especially retro games like Mega Man, Contra, SotN, Doom, old sports games.

On Xbox? I’d like to replay Skyrim/Fallout/Starfield at least every year. And Wildlands and Far Cry are my comfort games.

Was just considering replaying the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time since release.

AC Odyssey. It’s keeping me busy.

Silksong, Blue Prince were awesome. Citizen Sleeper 2, Hexen Remastered were also great.

I'm hoping SteamOS is ready and official by then.

Why does a game like Ball x Pit not come to Premium? They should should leave Premium as the indie tier not the somtimes-indies-sometimes-not tier.

They need a huge GP drop today. Multiple AAA games to shift the narrative. AC Shadows, BG3, Dragons Dogma 2 - games like that.

I would buy any controller that had gyro aiming

@BattleMonkey I didn't know about that ending. Just watched on YouTube - "eh, plenty of fish in the sea" - hilarious.

If they upgraded the games to be 4K/60fps that'd be one thing, but even some of the great ones like Far Cry Primal are sub-1080p. It also makes the games list cluttered with bargain-bin stuff like Monopoly and AC Chronicles.

Replayed Shadow Complex. One of the first metroidvania revival games from the Xbox arcade days. Has a fantastic sense of progression from normal dude to super soldier. And a cool flashlight mechanic that shows what items are needed for each obstacle. A hassle to 100% however.

Trying to get into AC Odyssey again. I loved AC Origins so I keep thinking it’ll click. Everything feels slightly worse in Odyssey - spongey combat, goofy tone, unfocused plot, stealth/bow is less viable, much more ludonarrative dissonance. But I haven’t given up yet.

Whoever made this doesn’t understand it from MS’s perspective. The “day 1 releases” are like 90% of the cost to MS they need to recoup. The other stuff like EA and Ubi classics are probably minor costs. Part of the GP strategy is to get you interested in a few premium games and keep feeding you random stuff to keep you subscribed.

Yeah. Personally I use GP 95% for indie games. Don’t care about MS first party or CoD or EA. So if indies come to Premium day 1 that works for me.

Edit: I doubt most of the good ones will after seeing which games didn't move to Premium

In 2022, we had GPU for less than $6/mo with the conversion. We all said "these are the golden day, enjoy it" and we were right.

In 2023, we said the ABK merger would spike prices, and we were right.

In 2024, MS said GP was profitable but we knew it wasn't with all the true costs included, and we were right.

In 2025, MS increased hardware and GPU prices and we said they were no longer interested in the console market. Are we right?

Silksong. Holy hell, this game can be tough. Just finished the final boss - 94% completion after 86 hours playing with no guide/help along the way. Incredible.

Silksong. Absolutely phenomenal.

Been completely avoiding all discussion/reviews/guides and just enjoying every second.

I didn’t see any gameplay in that 3 minutes. Just cut scenes, quicktime events and pressing forward.

Silksong. It’s absolutely magnificent.

Avoiding all scores/reviews/videos/discussion.

My favorite gunplay in any video game. Awesome gameplay loop. Compelling worlds. Especially 4 and Primal (Survivor mode).

But yeah, Ubi always messes it up with 2-3 design decisions that hurt the whole experience. At least they’re warning us this time

I answered this as I want to support this site.

1. Only games coverage
2. No mobile ad banners
3. No clickbait drama articles
4. Reviewers actually finishing the games they review

Played through a bunch of indies this week so I could clear the backlog for Silksong. In rank order:

Hexen Remastered - AWESOME exploration and atmosphere, love the remastered QoL stuff, can be very demanding to remember multiple maps at once. Highly recommended.

Heretic Remastered - fast and fun, expansion levels aren’t good

Rogue Prince of Persia - great soundtrack and movement, not enough variety or content after winning a few runs

I Am Your Beast - decent gameplay, grating voice acting and too-strict grading system

Herdling - nice vibe, not enough gameplay

BL3 was terribly annoying

Another 3rd person hand-holdy cinematic game - I was hoping these would die with the last console gen. I've had enough of these for a lifetime.

Of course the PS publications give the cinematic 3rd person adventure game the highest scores.

Had a retro week. Finished Ninja Gaiden Ragequit (aka Ninja Gaiden 3) and Castlevania 3 on the NES. Sometimes I forget how stiff and brutally cheap those old games were. Kids simply weren’t meant to ever finish most of them. Games like Contra or the Mega Man series still hold up due to the perfect controls and fantastic music - and also the lack of cheapness - however, they are the exception rather than the standard for that era.

Playing through Cat Quest 2 with the girlfriend.

Will probably start on some GP indies and then jump to Silksong (!) the following week.

Replaying Far Cry 6. Was hoping I’d like it more than I did the first time since I love the series and it looks so pretty. Pero no.

Happy to see Silksong get a release date.

Awesome. Can’t wait.

Add native gyro next gen please

Finished Elden Ring. It had its moments but I didn’t really enjoy it after the first 10-20 hours (which were great). Mid-game was a slog and end-game was pretty relentless. Made me miss Dark Souls 1-2. Kinda killed my interest in soulslikes.

Started AC Odyssey. I’m down for an old fashioned Ubi map clearing once in a while. I loved Origins so I’m optimistic. The melee combat feels more spongey so hoping I can spec out for bow/stealth eventually.

Also chipping away at Dawn of Sorrow on handheld.

Really glad this exists but I have a backbone for travel, which is far more convenient.