Westernwolf4

I purchased an S during Covid because it was the only Xbox to be found in my area at the time. I have thought about switching to the X for a few years, but honestly I am happy with my purchase. Games run on it just fine-I play on multiple platforms, and there are not big enough differences between the S and the others to be very concerned.

I will say-I am playing Outer Worlds 2 on it right now, and it runs fine. But the loading screens take FOREVER. I just played Yotei on my PS5 with no loading screens to speak of in the whole game, and it is a little jarring.

Also: I would not buy the S at the current price. But I have certainly enjoyed the console, and it was a big bargain at the time.

@abe_hikura I felt exactly the same way, I was really having trouble once I got to the first town-the game really slowed down. . But it picked up again once I got to the first big choice in that town.

After that speed bump, I am really enjoying the game, for what it is worth.

As many have already said, Ultimate may finally be too rich for my blood. I share it with my youngest son, so I will get his opinion before I do anything. But we both game on other systems too, and $30 per month is a lot considering that Xbox is far from our only gaming platform.

If this was only following the first game, which I really enjoyed, it would be a no brainer.

It is following the second, which I did not enjoy. So I am open to it, but awaiting reviews.

Release window for Moonlighter 2 was supposed to be Summer 2025 ☹️☹️☹️.

Delays are a part of gaming life, but I just want to play it!

I may give Mirage a look.

I was hoping for a Moonlighter 2 shadow drop (we are near the end of the Summer 2025 release window) but alas.......

I still love it. I was looking for some creative Bethesda quests in a space setting, and that is what I got. So I was very happy.

I was not expecting No Man’s Sky type exploration plus an RPG. I think it was kind of marketed that way, and that led to some understandable disappointment for people. The game also had a very uncomfortable start-new systems are not introduced well, and the first hours of the game are a real slog.

However: once I got past all that, it was a great space adventure. One of my favorites of 2023.

Yes! I have played all the AC games, and I agree with many that it is not really an AC game. But: It is such a wonderful pirate simulator, I don't really care. Bring on the seven seas!

I have said this before, but allow me to keep repeating myself: Gamepass has been amazing in 2025. My Xbox is my Gamepass machine, and I turned it on to play a grand total of three games in 2024. And one of those was Indy at the very end of the year.

This year, the trick is to get to all the good games before they leave the service. It is going to be impossible. And with The Alters, Moonlighter 2, and Outer Worlds 2 still to come. GP is on a real roll this year.

My youngest son and I had a ball playing Little Kitty Big City.

I randomly played The Big Con a few weeks ago while I was looking for something short to play while waiting for South of Midnight to drop. Not much to it game play wise, but very charming. I recommend if someone is looking for a game you can roll credits on on a sitting or two.

@Kaloudz This happens to me all the time on my S-Digital Foundry and everyone is all dire about every game that comes out, and then it runs fine. I play games on PS5 and S, and I have fun and don’t have glaringly different experiences.

I guess I just don’t pay enough attention to the finer details. When you start your gaming on the Atari 2600 watching dots wander around the screen, I guess everything in 2025 looks and plays amazing. 😃

Yeah, Gamepass really deserves its flowers in 2025. I have multiple consoles at home, and I barely turned on the ol Xbox last year. I played a game or two early in the year and played Indy in December, and the rest of the time it collected dust while I gamed elsewhere (my son still made good use of our GP subscription!).

But 2025 has just been hit after hit. So far I have already played through Avowed (great!), Citizen Sleeper 2 (great!) South of Midnight (Great!) and Atomfall (meh). Expedition 33 is loaded and ready to go for the weekend. And then we have stuff like Doom, Outer Worlds 2, Moonlighter 2, The Alters on the way. Oh yeah, and a hidden gem no one has heard of called Oblivion or something.

The biggest problem in 2025 with GP is there are too many great games to play. Which is an amazing problem to have!

@Lup This is exactly where I am. Very excited to play 33, but I got hooked by South of Midnight. I think I was on track to finish it in time, but then I spent time with my family and went to bed early last night like a FOOL (jk), so now I am behind. I may have to wait till the weekend to start my Expedition-South of Midnight is really good and I want to see the end of Hazel's journey.

4 is actually the only one in the series I haven’t played. No real reason, I just didn’t get to it. I am tempted.

I played it a long time ago, but Dredge is really good. Don’t miss it!

Like many, 33 is the big add for me this month!

@Fiendish-Beaver I think it is really cool that your son got to play it, and I hope you enjoy the game when you do!

My youngest son is the other gamer in our family, and I tried to get him to play Avowed so that we could discuss. But I can't tear him away from Flight Simulator right now. I am glad he is enjoying himself, but no one at home will talk Avowed with me!

@fatpunkslim I think that this is the perfect speed to play a game like this, where exploring is such a big part of it. I play most of my games at a slow pace. As long as you are enjoying yourself, that is all that matters!

@Fiendish-Beaver I know you were not talking to me, so I apologize for jumping in. But my playstyle is similar to yours. In this game I played on the hard difficulty, explored heavily, did every side quest and completed all the stuff like treasure maps and bounties. I think my final hour count was 78, if that helps.

I agree with others in the thread about Avowed. I figured I would enjoy it as an Obsidian fan, but I was surprised by how much I liked it. The main story didn't really hook me until near the end. But it did get me eventually, and the combat and side quests are really great throughout. I am a big fan of the game.

@Dalamar73 “I didn’t say he called me a liar. I just implied he was going to if he dared to post more evidence that ran contrary to my opinion.”

Don’t you understand that your opinion about Eurogamer’s coverage is not a fact, no matter how strongly you feel about it? It is an opinion that can be supported by facts, and is open for debate just like every other opinion.

@Dalamar73 Respectfully, he was not calling you a liar. He disagreed with your opinion that EG has given KCD2 no coverage and provided evidence with links. He then asserted his own opinion that EG reviewer can have a different opinion than others about the game.

There is a post above this one that came in with some good data to back your opinion. It is a discussion. No one was being insulting to anyone else.

@gravelmonkey I was worried about the free form stuff, but so far I am solving a lot of leads pretty organically just by exploring a lot. That could change, but so far so good.

The melee combat feels kind of weightless to me, and it annoys me there is no dodge (walking backward during a fight is the best you can do). But it is not a deal breaker for me. Movement seems fine generally. I wish you could sprint more in the game without the heart rate stuff kicking in, because there is a lot of backtracking and no fast travel. But there is something to explore over every hill, so that hasn’t bothered me much either.

@LaurenceJ1987 I am playing on Survivor (recommended difficulty), and I am having a pretty easy time sneaking around outlaws I don’t want to fight. And I am leaving resources behind because I am finding so many.

Not trying to tell you what to do or suggest I am good at this game (I am not). Just suggesting that you sneak around more and explore every corner if you aren’t doing that already!

I am having fun with the exploration, which is what the game does best. 8/10 for me about 4 hours in. The character models are a little dated and the combat is only fair so far, but it doesn’t really bother me.

@Titntin That is so cool! My wife and I share a lot of hobbies, but gaming is not one of them. She is very supportive of my gaming habits, but is not very interested herself. Although-she has put a lot of time into Hello Kitty Island Adventure, the first game she has spent any time with in our whole 25 year marriage. Maybe the tide is turning!

I hope you and your wife enjoy many many years of happy gaming!

@Titntin The only time I get extensive time away from work each year is around the Christmas holidays. I was thinking that may be a good time for Shadows. It looks cool-there is just no time to get to it now!

@Titntin You and I are on the exact same gaming schedule! I am finishing up Avowed, then Atomfall here I come.......

And Expedition 33 after that!

@AlwaysPlaying Such a shame that this happened to us and @jesse_dylan. I thought the idea for this game was really cool. I hope if any of you do go back to play you find a playable game, but I have not seen anything to show that the updates helped much. What a shame. Thanks for the responses!

I was interested in the concept of Lamplighters League, but I heard it was super buggy and the developer was no longer really supporting it. Did they ever fix it?

I am playing Avowed and enjoying it. Nothing revolutionary, but the combat and exploration is fun.

@Kaloudz I am also VERY excited for a sequel to Moonlighter. I only heard about it a few days ago, and now it is going to be on GP too. Excellent.

My Xbox is my GamePass machine, and I barely used it last year. I played a few games on the Xbox in parts of March and April, and then it lay dormant until Indy came out in December. Most of my time was on PS5.

That is not going to be the case in 2025. Avowed. Atomfall. Expedition 33. Rogue Trader. Outer Worlds 2. Star Citizen 2. Now Balatro? Dang, there isn't even going to be time to play it all!

I am only 5ish hours in, so too early for a rating. I am having fun.

I will say: I have a strong feeling that Avowed is very similar to every RPG I have ever played. That is not really a bad thing-part of the reason I wanted to play this is because I love games from Obsidian, and these type of games in general. But I have rarely had such a strong vibe in the first few hours that zero new ground will be explored here.

Even if that is true, I will finish the game and have fun. I just find my initial reaction interesting, as it is not one I usually have with a new game.

@anoyonmus Lego Horizon is already on Switch! 😃

I have a all the major consoles, including Xbox, PS5 and Switch, so I have zero side to take in any console war. I agree with a lot of others. I think exclusivity dying out would be beneficial for gamers. But Sony has zero incentive to do this when they have such a big lead in hardware sales. I am not holding my breath for Sony exclusives going to Xbox, that is for sure. If it happens, it is going to be a long time from now.

@Scrubchub The negativity you discuss is weird. I find it especially weird when it is directed at a game that has not been released or reviewed yet.

Some people get so worked up and fixed in their opinions before anyone has even had a chance to play the thing.

Too much to play! So many great games. Awesome time to love gaming!

And The Alters wasn’t even mentioned, which I am really looking forward to…….

I have been wanting to try Dark Descent, so this is perfect!

This sounds well done and I am sure a lot of people will like it. But the gameplay sounds excruciating to me.

Starfield was my favorite game of 2023. I wanted great Bethesda questlines in a space adventure skin, and that is what I received.

I have a GOOD feeling about this! I think it will be fun.

My youngest son and I are looking forward to playing Cat Quest 3 in co-op!

If Indy doesn't come out this year for whatever reason, then my Xbox won't be turned on again until 2025. I haven't used it since April.

There is just not much I want to play on the console atm (I was really looking forward to Avowed), especially with raised prices for gamepass. I am not trying to be a hater-this is just where I am at right now.

I am really excited about it, but how will I hear when it is released? Microsoft has no money for things like advertising! /s

@kelomaniack I am so glad to hear it is fun! It is next on my list to play after I finish slogging through Calisto Protocol. I am looking forward to it!

I can confirm this rumor is true, because I just bought the game. Happens every time. 😂

1.Most of us expected this for quite some time.

2. I will continue to sub to Gamepass (and PS Plus too).

3. I do think this is going to go badly for Xbox. Lots of posts here saying that this is still good value (true), but that is only part of the point. Xbox has been marketing exclusives day one as a huge part of this service. Now that is no longer completely true, and people are either going to be less interested or annoyed that the service they are locked into is not really what they were promised. Most of us here are really into this hobby, but more casual gamers may have a harder time accepting this.

4.A few posts here telling people they are overreacting. I find that strange. I have never understood the need of some people to police the reactions of others, especially when it is comments under a piece asking for opinions, and especially when it comes to how people spend their money. Gamepass still holds value for me, but it doesn’t surprise me that a price increase makes it less valuable to others.

@munstahunta I have played through all the Goat Simulator content available with my youngest son. It is a blast! Perfect silly game for an afternoon of parent/kiddo bonding.

I just wanted to say to a fellow gamer parent: have a great time!

@Divide_and_Wander I just finished Immortals on PS Plus. The game is nothing special, but it absolutely is fun and worth playing.

@EvenStephen7 Sadly, I think this is always what you are going to get with gaming development budgets so high and development taking so long. I hate it that Arkane Austin is closing-Prey is one of my all time favorite games-but when you make one game every seven years for millions and millions, each one better hit. Again, I hate it, but I actually thought Redfall doomed them a long time ago.

I think the industry we all enjoy needs to think about changing its model from 10 year huge game development cycles to 2-3 year smaller game cycles. I would rather have these studios stay open and together making high quality smaller games than releasing a huge game every decade that HAS to hit or else.

I hope all impacted find new jobs soon, but from a gaming perspective the closing of Tango hurts me the most. To me, Evil Within, Ghostwire and Hi-Fi were all spectacular, and they still get closed. I was expecting Austin to close, as messed up as the model is. But I was expecting lots more good stuff from Tango.

Such a shame. I hope all impacted find their next chapter soon. Prey, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Hi-Fi Rush are all amazing games. It would be better for all of us if those teams were together and making games for years to come.

I took a video game hiatus for three years because of my brand new marriage, moving to a new city, and law school all at once. There were two games that pulled me back in-Fallout 3 and Max Payne. I am very grateful to those games for reigniting one of my favorite hobbies, and so I am unreasonably excited for the remakes.

I just really hope they use the James McCaffrey voice work. Those games would not be be the same without his excellent portrayal of Max Payne.