Tdx

I only buy my absolute favorites digitally to replay them. Game Pass or physical (so I can get rid of them) for everything else.

Finished Nine Sols - tough/fun bosses, but way too much story/dialogue for a metroidvania.

Dropped Expedition 33 - nice music but I still don’t like JRPGs. Dropped Atomfall - cool exploration but was bored with the story/combat.

I have one more week of GP so I think I’ll try Blue Prince again. I bounced off it last time but now that I know how roguelike it is I can adjust my expectations.

This is great news.

Finished Citizen Sleeper 2. A really wonderful game once again. I don’t think I connected to the space odyssey plot as much as the intimate survival premise of the first game, but the expansion of mechanics, especially the contracts, is great. And the art, music and writing come together to create those rare poignant moments, albeit not always organically.

@MegMachine87 Exactly! So many highly rated "RPGs" don't even allow you to use your imagination in this way - with voiced/named protagonists, a strict main questline, etc. I have fun playing Starfield not just because of the graphics or atmosphere or music but because it's my character and my narrative - I control the thoughts and feelings of my character rather than the game dictating it - that's immersion.

Best game of the generation. An amazing sandbox for actual role playing. So much atmosphere, detail and weird stuff to discover.

It does take investment and patience and most importantly: personal creativity for role play. Not recommended for people who just want to play the main story and cross it off their backlog. Or for people who want an emotional narrative-driven game.

It's a loss-leader desperation comeback attempt. If Xbox wasn't in a distant 3rd place with a big stigma against it, you would never see Game Pass in its current form. I won't complain.

The Ascent is true cyberpunk. Amazingly detailed art.

Finished Crypt Custodian (100%) and Mullet Madjack (Challenge difficulty). Loved both of them.

I’d prefer they remake it in the newer AC RPG style. The old one holds up fine but the game design, linearity, combat and stealth is creaky (I 100%’d it last year). Mirage showed that they can’t make the old formula new.

And the office Animus stuff has got to go.

I’m back. After playing only PS4 exclusives the past 6 months (after not having a PS for a long time), I’m relieved to be back to Xbox and Game Pass. Favorite games were: Tsushima, Bloodborne, Nioh and TLoU2. Least favorites were: Horizon ZD, Days Gone, Death Stranding and Uncharted 4. Overall I don’t really think these 3rd person cinematic games are for me anymore, as I prefer something with either 1. deeper immersion and freedom 2. more challenge 3. more experimentation in gameplay design and 4. less story and cutscenes.

Excited to be back to Xbox: Bethesda RPGs, Game Pass indies, etc. Just have to decide which of all these games to play first.

Emperor’s (Kojima’s) new clothes

I hate every game this guy makes. Including MGS 1 and 3.

While they often have a stylish visual design, they’re corny, boring, arcadey, long winded, constantly take control from the player, have hammy voice acting, inconsistent tone and never make much sense. I really gave DS1 a chance but it plays like a meme indie game.

I hope the next Xbox doesn’t inherit any of the hassles of PC gaming

If Gex gets a 7/10 in 2025, 7 is truly the new 0.

They increase console prices. Outer Worlds 2 is $80. GP has had strong few months. Sony hasn’t done much for a while. Do the math.

I remember when it was like $4.50/month with the upgrade loophole.

Sad to see no Starfield DLC but a bunch of ESO and Fallout 76 junk.

It was a lot of predictable sequels, live service seasons, remakes, and some games that looked absolutely awful.

My eyes glaze over when I see anime, cinematic or multiplayer games so not much for me.

Bond looks American-cocky (annoying) not British-cocky (subtle)

I’ve been spending this year playing all the PS4 exclusives I missed (mostly overrated btw). Tough year to skip out on Game Pass but I’ll get to them eventually.

Fallout 5, Elder Scrolls 6, Starfield 2

Hide System Apps. Yes! I’ve wanted this since the day I bought a Series X. Kills my OCD. I’ll open games just to move system apps off the row.

Switch was a great console for indies, but Game Pass has really taken the indie crown.

Not a fan of Nintendo first party stuff and my Backbone is more convenient for travel.

Any game that's super heavy on narrative is usually going to be boring - open world or not. Gameplay, atmosphere and player autonomy are the only things that matter to me.

Far Cry 4 also got a minor resolution bump this week from 900p->1080p

FC4 (and Wildlands) is my comfort game. Have replayed it more than any other Xbox game. Would love a 4K patch for this and Primal. I suppose they would’ve done it already if it was easy.

Be thankful for the “hateful”. If it wasn’t for Xbox being in 3rd place and all the irrational haters, GP would certainly be less affordable.

Any hope of a resolution boost? FC4 is the best of the series and the one I've replayed the most (along with Primal).

Only for a BGS single-player RPG

Microsoft somehow looks like the good guy in all this.

Sony has endless $70 remakes and remasters, a stingy subscription service for first party games, along with live service missteps.

Nintendo has $80 games and charges for tech demos and resolution upgrades.

Meanwhile good guy Xbox gives out fps boost for free and all first party games are permanently on GP.

I'm rooting for Ubisoft. I haven't liked several of their recent games, but I'm still a fan of the Far Cry and Ghost Recon franchises. They've also set the bar for open world environmental detail and current gen console optimization for years.

Starfield. Easily.

After that, a few amazing indies: Citizen Sleeper, Sable, Neon White, Tunic.

Since they are combining Xbox and Windows, call it the Windows Xbox Portable or just Windows XP for short.

Played through Golden Idol as a couch coop game. Definitely challenging to finish it with no hints. Really well done puzzle game.

Completed 83 games on Xbox this year. Almost all through Game Pass and Ubi+.

From your GOTY list, I completed Stalker 2 and Indy. They were just OK to me.

Best games: Far Cry Primal Survivor, Dead Space, Hardspace Shipbreaker, Neon White, Chants of Sennaar, Wo Long, Lies of P, FIST, It Takes Two, Golden Idol

Worst games: Fallout 76, Breakpoint, Control, Evil Within 2, Gears 4, Chicory

I feel very disconnected from the mainstream opinions on games these days.

Next year I’d like to spend more time on games I truly love like Skyrim/Fallout4/Starfield and maybe a few indies mixed in.

Finished Indiana Jones. Wasn't a huge fan of the gameplay or level design, but they nailed the environments, music and tone of dialogue from the films. The tombs and side quests were well done.

Love Starfield

Finished Stalker 2 after 50+ hours. I have mixed feelings. I really wanted to love this game but the more I played the less I felt connected to the world and story. It’s not just the bugs or lack of A-life that hurt the experience. It’s a game designed primarily around the main quest and cutscenes and I guess I was hoping for a more Bethesda-esque open world approach. The combat feels very rough with minimal stealth, difficult enemy movement, bullet sponge, etc. The world and atmosphere - especially underground - is fantastic though. It reminds me of Cyberpunk, not just because of the bugs but because it has a conflict between an urgent main quest for a preset character vs open world exploration and side quests. Yet due to the game’s focus on the main quest, the open world is not as deep, open-ended and rewarding as it could be - there is little opportunity for role playing. It may feel better to play eventually with patches, but I don’t think it’s my type of game ultimately - it’s more an action adventure game with long walks than RPG.

Guess I’ll play Indy next.

Definitely the best one they’ve ever done. Only like 2 games interested me (Long Dark and Outer Worlds) but it was very entertaining throughout. Great speech by the Larian guy. I think I called every major award correctly.

Every year I look forward to watching and then by the end I'm wondering if I even like video games anymore.

Played Stalker 2 a lot. The performance is OK (up-res in the distance is blurry as hell), the world is beautifully done, the combat/AI/stealth feels quite rough and I'm paranoid about softlocks. But overall the vibe is amazing.

Game Pass was solid. I finished 60 GP games this year (play a lot of short indies).

Favorite AAA: Dead Space
Favorite AA: Hardspace Shipbreaker
Favorite indie: Neon White

Appreciate the honest review even if it goes somewhat against the consensus. Sound like you thought it was too shallow for an imsim and too plodding for a cinematic game. That’s totally fair.

Top 2% time played, top 1% gamerscore. I did an experiment and played a new game every week this year (so no super long RPGs), mostly using Game Pass.

Played through Cuphead & DLC with my partner this week. A lot of fun trying to grade high on each boss.

Next is Nine Sols. A game I would’ve probably purchased on Switch if not for GP.

Wildlands.

New Vegas, Far Cry 4 and Primal need 4K.

Old Blood. Others have way too much story and cutscenes for my taste.

Keep bringing top indies to GP. Some truly excellent Starfield DLC. Maybe bump New Vegas to 4k. That’s all I need.

Finished Steamworld Dig 2 - surprisingly solid Metroidvania. Gonna give Stalker 2 one more week and hope for some essential patches. Might play Cuphead with my partner.

Would you recommend the original (dated jank and all) over this?

@TheGiraffe I was for a while (200+ hours). It's hard for me to switch between an immersive RPG like that and a random Game Pass game though. I really have been meaning to go back - so much I still have left to do with new characters. Do you only play Starfield or do you alternate?