TrollOfWar

@themcnoisy I only got into Evercade last April because I wanted to play Tomb Raider on a pocket sized handheld. Now I have 2 Super Pockets (Capcom and Neo Geo Edition), the original Evercade Handheld (got it used fairly cheap) and 24 cartridges. I'd probably have a VS-R by now if my family or friends were more interested in retro gaming.

I'm also very much interested in the Turrican collection.

Evercade has offered me so much fun in 2025. The Gameboy-sized Super Pockets are very affordable and there is already a large offering of games/cartridges on Evercade. Getting into Evercade last year felt as exciting as getting a new console/handheld 20 years ago with a ton of new/fresh games to discover.

It would be cool to see more Microsoft owned games to release on Evercade. The "Collection 1" in the Rare and Activision cartridge titles imply that there might be more. But also the Blizzard Arcade Collection (Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing, Blackthorne) would be great.

Also @FraserG, thanks for highlighting Crazy Burger in the article. He is creating some really good, informative videos about Evercade and retro gaming.

Square Enix has a public survey on the Final Fantasy franchise for those who care to share their opinion: https://questant.jp/q/6K9FPT4N

My new year's gaming resolution is 3840 × 2160 (4K)

Tomb Raider 2, Final Fight and Alwa's Awakening on Evercade.

@Gabrielmpf

Just looking at the poll results, with so many people willing to spend around $1000 or more, no wonder gaming has becoming so expensive...

Sadly you are correct, gaming is becoming too expensive for many people. Unfortunately these websites like PureXbox, PushSquare, Eurogamer, etc. they attract gaming enthusiasts, who are willing to pay more for their favorite hobby, while the opinion of casual gamers is not reflected on these forums.

Where in the past some people would buy 2 or more consoles per generation as the devices became cheaper towards the end, nowadays many even question the value of current gen consoles.

Personally I can imagine certain future trends which will negatively impact transitions to new "console generations" if hardware and software is becoming more expensive. Many people will stick to their old devices making cross-gen transitions even longer than what we just had. People in countries like China, India, Brazil, Eastern Europe will more likely pirate games as a result of rising game prices. Many will play more free-to-play titles making the case for premium priced games even more difficult. And finally retro gaming will become more popular. For me Evercade as a retro platform currently offers the best price/value, with the entry handhelds (called Super Pockets) costing between £ 35-50 (depending on special offers) and a module with 3-10 games costing around £ 25.

I'd pay 1000 Microsoft points 🪙 😆

I guess it's better than nothing, but given that this is Halo's - one of the most significant Xbox franchises - 25th anniversary this is a very poor offer (3 nameplates, 3 coatings and 1 weapon charm) for the celebration, despite the fact that development support for Halo Infinite has ended.

They could have at least unlocked the content of the first 3 battle passes for everyone, released some of the most iconic Halo multiplayer maps like Blood Gulch, Sandtrap, Valhalla remade in Infinite or or something similar as a "last hurrah". Give a big reason for lapsed and maybe new players to install and play Halo Infinite for one last time.

Oh Anthem. It was a game that came and went. It reached for the stars, but grabbed thin air and fell to the ground.

@Hern4ndeZzz The other games are more of the same. They expand on the ideas of the first game. Some people were a bit disappointed in the familiarity gameplay-wise.

I did like how both Fable 2 and 3 play after Fable 1 where you can see technological advancements in Albion. Though the 3rd game has a bit of an awkwardly implemented "ruler" system.

There are another 2 lesser known Fable games. One was a linear shooter for Kinect, the other one is a collection of fun pub-like gambling gambling games.

Gives players more time to save up the money for the next gen consoles. /sarcasm 😉

@Hern4ndeZzz It's never late to enjoy a great game. Have a great time with it.

NORCO
Tomb Raider 2
1944: The Loop Master
And maybe Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush

@abe_hikura

Yeah, this has to be Warzone, I don't see them putting this much effort into Black Ops 7 after the kicking it got.

Despite Black Ops 7 being one of the worst Call of Duty games, it probably still sold several million units. So, if porting Black Ops 7 to Switch 2 results in another 1-3 million sales, it will totally pay off for Activision. If they are porting Call of Duty, then the whole Black Ops 7 experience technically works on Switch 2. Warzone alone is free-to-play, so it would rely only on micro-transactions for it's revenue.

I'm curios to know how they can implement the whole "Call of Duty" platform, which demands a lot of hard drive space. On other platforms at least you can choose which parts (campaign, multiplayer, zombies, Warzone) you want to install.

@Cikajovazmaj @Brigurugi I think the reason why the player community is less toxic in Gran Turismo is because the game rewards clean racing and punishes mistakes more severely, resulting in players trying harder to avoid collision and cut corners. Forza Motorsport is notorious for the "shameless rammings" in the first corner of a race.

Also Gran Turismo seems to have a somewhat better force feedback implemention for racing wheels than Forza Motorsport dose. Players on GT can achieve faster lap times with a wheel. On Forza Motorsport 7 I rarely felt in control playing with a racing wheel and players with a controller have similar lap times to playing with a wheel. So the better wheel support on GT might attract more racing enthusiasts who enjoy playing with a wheel, who might behave more maturely online.

@Sol4ris Thanks. I'm a sucker for a good story based point & click adventure with decent retro inspired pixelart and I am enjoying NORCO quite. A nice hidden gem.

Mega Man
NORCO
Shy Cats Hidden Orchestra
Earthworm Jim 2

I've been gaming so much on Evercade. It's the best platform ever. 😉👍

I think Microsoft should have allowed this Halo mod to exist, as long as it's not being monetized and the creators don't profit from it.

Having iconic Halo multiplayer maps and content more widely available (via other games) keeps the Halo franchise relevant.

Unless Microsoft wants players to play Halo Infinite instead, but then they shouldn't end the support for that.

@Kezelpaso sorry, my bad then. I quickly scrolled through the article on my phone.

I guess there is probably a plan for 5-10 years for the next Call of Duty games. There are probably several prototypes in work. They cannot drastically change games which are releasing in a year, but 2 years, yes, could be possible.

Personally after having played and finished Black Ops 7, in my opinion the problem is not that it's Black Ops back-to-back or Modern Warfare back-to-back. The problem is with the quality of those games (forced coop mode, bad stories, confusing zombies mode). I also think that many don't associated Call of Duty with sci-fi.

EDIT: And the whole implementation of Black Ops 6 & 7 being "DLCs" for the Call of Duty platform is a horrible mess.

A direct response to Black Ops 6 & 7?

I don't think 2026 Call of Duty's campaign is based on the feedback from Black Ops 7. This is AAA development we are talking about, they cannot shift the concept of a game that quickly.

It was probably already planned to be a new story years ago.

I remember disliking the original Final Fantasy 7 a lot, despite making it to the end.😄

Nice to see the remake becoming more available on additional platforms.

Death Stranding Director's Cut was my personal gane of the year.

Followed by Tomb Raider (1996) on Evercade.

Prehistorik Man on Evercade
And maybe Sea of Thieves and NORCO.

@Sindayl

But her face… She doesn’t look like Lara Croft at all 🤔

Maybe it's like James Bond, where different actors/models have portrayed the character. I believe Crystal Dynamics started doing that for Lara Croft with Tomb Raider Legends.

A different look also signals a different "era" for the games.

A bit late to the party on Xbox.

I enjoyed the game quite a lot, despite the uninspired combat. The story, visuals and the soundtrack are a highlight and it was refreshing to play a linear game again, where most games are open world.

Hopefully the game will find additional fans on PlayStation and Nintendo.

I finished (and uninstalled) Black Ops 7 a few days ago. Functionally it's not bad, but there are so many stupid and conflicting game design decisions. No wonder it sold poorly where you have better alternatives like Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders.

The campaign's plot is just a long drig trip, with many references to previous Black Ops games. The campaign gameplay is supposed to be an online coop experience, but it jumps around between linear levels, the open world map and awkward boss fights. The thing is, the number of enemies scales based on the number of players, so the game is actually easier if you're playing alone. I also hate this RPG trend where enemies and your weapons have a level and enemies are bullet sponges. I don't know, maybe something similar to Ghost Recon Wildlands would have been more fitting for the campaign.

The multiplayer is typical Call of Duty with twitch reactions and sweaty players. It's good mindless fun, works well enough. But I was surprised to already encounter a cheater in my second match giving perfect headshots from behind walls. Luckily other matches weren't so bad. But I guess I would rather play something else like Halo Infinite or Titanfall 2 instead.

I played a round of zombies. It's fine if you have friends to play it with.

All in all Black Ops 7 feels like an unfocused mess. It tries to do too many things at the same time. It also has such a confusing, messy navigation menu, as if it's stiched together from different games. It feels like the game is desperately fighting to stop you having fun.

Interesting interview and great to see thr game becoming more available via additional platform releases.

Claymates on Evercade

I wonder if Back 4 Blood was successful? It had a fairly large hype before launch, but not much of a buzz afterwards. It was a fine spiritual "Left 4 Dead" successor, but it was fairly safe and didn't evolve the formula much (apart from some deckbuilder card modifiers). This would have to be better than Back 4 Blood.

@SigmaTheDJ

If MS had sold more consoles than Sony and Nintendo in the Xbox One generation, they wouldn't be peddling any of the nonsense they're peddling now. When one number looks bad, hold up another number and say "this is the one that matters!".

So you're suggesting what exactly?

1. Should Microsoft/Xbox continue with the same strategy as Sony, make their own 1st party games exclusive and invest an abundant amount of money on 3rd party exclusives for the Xbox consoles, and lose a lot of money along the way while trying to gain back a bit of a market share from PlayStation, even if PlayStation is in a strong, dominant position in the console space?
2. Just say that they lost the console wars, give up and close the whole Xbox gaming branch, including all the studios and games they invested in and maybe let Activision and Bethesda continue as 3rd party publishers?
3. Find a new business strategy which works best for them, like for example putting their games on as many platforms as they can, while they continue with their hardware ambitions and put a positive spin on it?

Of course Microsoft/Xbox would think differently if they were the ones selling the most high-end consoles and had the most console users. And Sony/PlayStation might be talking about how other numbers matter more to them. And the world would look different if Germany had won World War 2. But that's not what happened, so people need to make the best out of the current state.

@Coletrain

I think Xbox becomes a wildly successful publisher and software OS provider in the near future, with hardware being just a little bonus.

I think it's possible that exactly that is Microsoft/Xbox's future strategy, similar to Google Android (vs. Apple iOS). Android currently has a 72.55% of the global mobile OS market share, while iOS has 27.05%. Google also produces and sells their own smart devices (phones, tablets, watches), but their hardware business pales in comparison to other Android hardware manufacturers and of course Apple. Though I fear Microsoft might have a long way to go to get Windows OS into a good shape and get rid off all the bloat, but I guess the new Xbox full screen experience is a step into the right direction.

As for PlayStation, the brand is already on its way to become the trendy Apple brand of gaming.

... which is why we are focused on consoles and spending a ton of money and resources investing in Scarlett [later known as the Xbox Series X & S]. The same thing on PC."

I wonder what happened that it took Microsoft so many years to get any progress on the Windows/PC side?
Also it would be interesting to know how "a great Xbox in home" translates to their future plans?

I loved playing Project CARS with a racing wheel. This game looks interesting, but seems like many patches are needed to get this into a good shape.

From a publisher's perspective, they definitely would like more shadow drops. Less marketing expenses, no disgruntled fans if promised releases get pushed back, no negative day 1 reviews.

But this tactic doesn't work for everyone. Your dev studio needs a good reputation, or the franchise needs to be super popular for this to work well.

Of course they are. Every developer wishes for their game to be played by as many people as possible, no matter which platform.

I bet PlayStation devs would be just as "thrilled" to bring their games to other platforms, including Nintendo and Xbox.

@Titntin You're welcome. Enjoy the game. 😉

@Titntin

Really? How did you put up with god awful shimmering? The moment you get to a foggy area (the pathway down from the opening car park), I found the shimmering and fuz of the fomeffects unbearable on the pro..

Did you play on "quality" or "performance" mode? According to Digital Foundry the 1.06 patch released in November 2024 disabled PSSR upscaling in "performance" mode, resulting in less distracting visual shimmering noise. PSSR is still active in "quality" mode. Link: https://www.digitalfoundry.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2024-df-weekly-silent-hill-2-patched-on-ps5-pro-and-pssr-is-gone-from-the-performance-mode

@MaccaMUFC

wonder why they’ve remade SH2 and not SH1 first.

Silent Hill 2 has one of the best "psychological" stories in horror games and has a strong cult following. The story is stand-alone so there is no connection, unlike SH1 and 3.

@Balaam_

Resolution tops out a bit higher on PS consoles, but the series X holds to that 60fps line more consistently which is the better win. ... Seems like a win, but it isn’t.

You're the first person here to call it a "win", and then take it back. The visual/performance differences between PS5, PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X are less visible than game comparisons between PS2 & Xbox or PS3 & Xbox 360. I guess some fanboys like to label these comparison videos as a "win" for their favorite brand, as the number of exclusive games has diminished over the years and now they need new things to compare in online "console war" debates.

It’s a textbook example of lousy, incompetent ‘optimization’. ...
Consider—if Konami had let Sony develop it in-house, we could have seen a scenario where Nixxes did the PC port.

It's a bit harsh to call it "lousy, incompetent ‘optimization’" just because the PS5 Pro version doesn't perform better than the other versions. Even larger studios with more budget and experienced developers have a difficult time optimizing Unreal Engine 5 games. Konami chose Bloober Team because they are located in Poland, so they are cheaper than other studios and they are experienced in horror games. Also I would guess that Bloober Team had a tight schedule to deliver the game and might have received PS5 Pro dev kits shortly before the planned release.

Had the Silent Hill 2 Remake been developed in-house at PlayStation, it would have been a more expensive project and probably Sony might have liked to have a share of the revenue. Most of the PlayStation studios are located in the west so the developers have higher salaries and many of those studios were busy with their own live-service projects when development started on the Silent Hill 2 Remake.

Which would be the best version, and playable on Magnus next gen. Which would mean Xbox would have the best version, but it would be a case of having the best version without any compromises.

I guess many people prefer to play the game now, rather than having to wait another 2+ years until next generation, only to play a hypothetical "slightly better" version. Now Xbox players can play the game on their preferred system and if they choose to buy a new gen system in a few years, with "Magnus" they'll have the option between the Xbox and the Steam versions.

There is more of a power delta between the X and the Pro than there is between base PS5 and the X. Anything the X can do, the Pro can do better—but it doesn’t.

While the PS5 Pro's graphical performance is 45% faster than the base PS5, it still has the same CPU. I guess PSSR has been a bit oversold, the quality improvements differ widely from game to game. Maybe next year's version will improve it.

As things stand, the X version is the ‘best’ version but it’s a poorly optimized port that’s only marginally better than the already garbage PS5 version.

Not sure if everyone would agree with you, as the Silent Hill 2 Remake sold quite well on PS5.

@GamingGod

@Balaam_ I played this on pro and it was absolutely fine I don’t get the criticism

Digital Foundry had an analysis video when Silent Hill 2 Remake launched showing how PSSR on the PS5 Pro has some distracting visual noise. That's what @Balaam_ might be referring to.

Played some Burnout Revenge (Xbox 360 version) last night.

I've heard a lot of good stuff about this. Might give it a try

@EdgarTheBug This year's Call of Duty does feel a bit like a filler. Reminds me of Black Ops 4, which didn't have a campaign and only added the battle royale mode.

I wouldn't bet on any major changes to the engine to make it "current gen" . The engine is fairly versitile and looks decent enough, there are millions of players still on Xbox One and PS4, and Microsoft promised to release Call of Duty on Nintendo hardware.

@AgentCooper

Probably worth noting the discount runs until January which is pretty excellent 👍

Thanks for the info, might get it next month then.

Nice to see Battlefield 6 back in good form.

With this year's Call of Duty Balck Ops 7 reception being less favorable, I wonder what sort of discussions are going on at Microsoft and Activision when they compare the performance to Battlefield.

I don't remember anything noteworthy from the 20th Xbox anniversary apart from a multi part documentary. So I don't expect anything exciting from the 25th anniversary.

@Runex2121 That is quite the interesting statement being said by several Steam Deck and Xbox ROG Ally X owners that they are spending more time playing on these PC handheld than on a big screen due to having a little time to play and these devices are easy to pick up.

I don't quite see the point Ampere Analysis research director Piers Harding-Rolls is trying to make. Microsoft has clearly given up on trying to promote and sell Xbox Series consoles, so I don't think they're planning on having GTA 6 sell more Xbox Series consoles.

On the contrary, if Microsoft releases their next gen PC Xbox and it would run GTA 6 at a better performance than any other console, I could see that being a a decent sales boost - that is if the next PC Xbox can run GTA 6 if Rockstar plans to release a PC version at a later stage like they did with GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2.