Vordus

@nomither6 Avatar checks out.

Absolutely nothing like Palworld. Not even close. Palworld is an open-world survival crafty game with Pokémon-like creatures tacked on, whereas this is a plot-heavy action-adventure game. Literally the only similarity is that there are fictional animals that can be befriended.

@rustyduck Are you really that afraid of colour?

@Kezelpaso This does seem to be the big difference ultimately. Which makes sense; they've made S vs X confusing enough, no need to make it even more baffling to folks who don't know the differences.

Nice that there's a new Davey Wreden game coming. That's... pretty much it.

Guess who pulled the 2am baker's shift for the morning after? As much as enjoy Xbox's showcases, I think not being completely dead in the morning is probably a priority.

@Gamer_X The industry in general is losing exclusives. The market isn't large enough to sustain them in the way it used to be.

I wasn't even aware this one was still alive!

June 9th: O P T I M I S M

@eSocrates I am sorry to inform you that this isn't a remaster of Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Game (2005), but a wholly original brand new game made and released in 2023.

For the best results, I'd recommend roping in a friend or partner to play this one with you. Having someone to bounce ideas off of and discuss solutions with really helps elevate the experience.

Played through this one with the same friend as I played through Obra Dinn with. Both excellent deduction puzzlers.

If anyone's wondering why this is happening now; it's the end of Microsoft's fiscal year in less than 2 months, which means they have to get everything all looking sleek and efficient to keep the investors happy.

Ah, Capitalism. Don't you just love it.

Ugh, 5pm is waaay too late in the day! Don't they know we have things to do? Sparkly pan-European things?

@Fenbops I suspect it might have been the other way around; without Shinji Mikami MS may not have seen Tango as a viable studio.

I'm wondering if Shinji Mikami's exit from Tango may have resulted in the studio losing its footing. Especially if some of his longer-term collaborators at the firm were planning on jumping ship with him.

The minimum character limit won't let me just say 'Welp'

But 'Welp' regardless.

To be fair, a significant number of those captures are just me fumbling the controller.

@Fiendish-Beaver these are the core titles; they're existing game pass titles being added to the service that replaced Xbox Live Gold.

I can't even access the rewards on Xbox any more. As far as I can tell, MS doesn't recognise my ISP, so it thinks I might be using a VPN to tunnel in from an unsupported region. The only way I can access them is by physically unplugging the Xbox and tethering it to my phone. And unlike the old MS Rewards app that only locked me out once a month, the new system locks me out of rewards the moment I plug the ethernet cable back in.

Ironically my PC can access it fine. Because it's behind a VPN.

Well SOMEBODY'S got to revive Jazz Jackrabbit.

@Kloppo alas, the PC version is €37.49, and the physical Xbox/PS5 copies seem to be selling at €44.99, so I'm guessing it's one for the waitlist.

@TheSimulator Ironically I suspect 'cheap and cheerful trials-like' has a much larger audience than a Spawn game would in this, the year 2024.

@jesse_dylan It's fully voiced at this point, so it should be comfortable on either.

Going to be the iconoclast here and say that I'm ready for some goddamn plant-themed puzzles.

@MehrunezZDagon It's a Larian game, so it'll be years before there's a significant discount.

I already have an X and an S, so I don't really need a midpoint between the two.

I've already deleted the YouTube app from my Xbox. Constant ads don't make me want to pay money to get rid of them, they make me want to do something else instead.

"Spyro 4 is in development. That's a statement. No theory crafting, no evidence-based assumption, no conspiracy theories or even a heavy-handed hint. Spyro 4 is in development. Period."

Interesting how he somehow twists the concept of 'having some evidence' into a negative here.

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he's right, but that's a bit of a weird way to say "look, I can't tell you how or what I know, but I know".

Considering that these games are quite often more than 75% off individually, this seems like a particularly mediocre deal.

@somnambulance Yeah, no, I get it. I'm all for a bit of risk. If the big players don't at least try out some new franchises soon then the conventional third party AAA industry is going to collapse.

But I'm not sure that earmarking/spending a billion dollars of money that the Saudis haven't actually given you yet was a smart play. Or being a second-tier publisher whose entire bread and butter was based on making niche carefully-budgeted games that the AAA publishers didn't want to touch any more, and then suddenly greenlighting, like, a dozen AAA games over two years.

I like it, but I'm not entirely sure I'm enjoying it. It's very prone to sudden difficulty spikes.

@somnambulance It does look good. It's just a lot of money to be putting behind a franchise that hasn't had a well reviewed game this century.
But then, decent horror games can be decent sleeper hits. Not sure what Embracer needs right now is a sleeper hit, what with it being almost the end of their fiscal year, but I'm sure it'll be a lovely investment for whoever buys it off them in the bankruptcy sale.

So, will anyone actually be buying Alone in the Dark, or is it going to be another disappointing money sink for the publisher that's mostly known for being a disappointing money sink?

@GamingFan4Lyf They'll probably switch it out for something else. Raw Fury's had a pretty long relationship with MS for Game Pass games so it's pretty unlikely they won't have come to some alternative agreement.

@StylesT Microsoft isn't using it at the moment, but a lot of the tech from the motion control era has essentially evolved into the tracking technology that underpins modern VR.

Talos 2 is a marvel, and Lil Gator Game is a cute and extremely fun romp; like a more evolved A Short Hike. I've got my eye on Lil Guardsman, but my backlog (and crippling Balatro addiction) take priority.

Nothing says 'independent' like a $40 million marketing and distribution budget from EA!

It's like if Dead Island was good!

Right then. So business as usual. Who'd have thunk it.

Insert the Aunty Donna 'everything's a drum' sketch here, but with the word 'drum' replaced with 'Xbox'.

Bit of wild mass guessing here, but MS has a huge back catalog of PS4 and PS5 games through aquisitions.

Is it time for Game Pass on PS5?

The irony is that internally this isn't particularly different to what Xbox have been doing for years; some games go multiplatform, the rest go to both Xbox and PC. They've been doing some variations on this for years, so nobody inside the company was really thinking about the optics involved in adding more multiplatform games immediately after laying off thousands of people.

But then, 'nobody thought about the optics' seems to be the Xbox corporate mantra.

If it's less prone to disconnection, that would be a help.

Speaking as a baker, that slice of bread is upside down.

Between this and Palworld, it must be a fun month for the lawyers.

@S-Bacc Wii Music was 15 years ago. *
Crumbles into dust*

@ZuneTattooGuy Arkane is two studios under one banner. The Blade game is being handled by Arkane Lyon, which is the one that made the Dishonored games and Deathloop, whereas Redfall was made by Arkane Austin, which also made Prey.

I'm pretty sure that the guys that made Dishonored are well-positioned to make a street-level superhero game with supernatural elements.

@K1LLEGAL I think we could workshop the name. Possibly 'Green Apron'.

Hm, the Devs for this one are owned by Embracer, who are absolutely up ***** creek when it comes to finances.

Wonder if it's just the Remnant games, or whether there's going to be a big push of older THQ/Nordic/Koch/Deep Silver/Embracer titles over the next few months as Embracer tries to recoup some of their overspend.

I wouldn't say I'm excited. More, morbidly interested.