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@FraserG You’re probably asleep at this time but Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii shadow dropped on GamePass.

GamePass socials are also teasing Avatar coming soon.

MIO by a country mile. Fantastic day one metroidvania!

I’d give at least an 8 as well. Really enjoyed my time with it and don’t understand the hate. Well, maybe not Redfall hate but a lot of people thought it was average. I think it may have to do with Obsidian not necessarily breaking new ground. But do they need to? They’re great at what they do and this is another game to add to that track record IMHO.

Ah, tried Drop Duchy on PC a bit and was waiting for the console version so happy it’s here. Fun game!

@bert0503 I was actually thinking that the gameplay reminded me more of Twisted Metal than Carmageddon, which is a good thing.

Might have to pick this up if reviews are decent!

I played some of the first game (think on GamePass?). I liked it but it didn’t hook me and I fell off of it to play other games fairly quickly.

Both are in the “if I ever get through my backlog” I might play them. Admittedly, that may never happen. 😀

Would love a WoW console port!

I have to keep my eye out for a sale on this one. Sounds good!

Sure a lot will be looking for Space Marine but I’m excited for Drop Duchy. Have played the demo of it on PC and it’s a blast. Glad it’s coming to Xbox on Day One!

I love how it sounds like it will be a fully explorable world. Being able to go into every building, how the NPCs can be followed for entire days with their routines, hiring them for work, etc. Sounds like a truly lived in world and that’s something I’m not sure that’s been fully achieved in any game to this point. Sounds brilliant.

I’ve always wanted all of the FH expansions so I knew I’d be buying it. The increase sucks but went ahead and preordered the upgrade with promo mentoring earlier in the US.

@darylb24 That’s a bummer, especially considering the price increase is even more notable in the UK.

@Kezelpaso Don’t know if the offer is in all countries, but in the US, Microsoft has an “limited time” offer where if you preorder the Premium edition or upgrade, you get a $5 gift card and $5 in car vouchers. So that takes a little bit of the sting off in terms of the increase.

@anxiouz These shows are always meant to be deeper dives on three or four games. They are not just to show a stream of trailers. Personally love the format that gives us a chance to see more and hear directly from the devs.

If you expect a bunch of trailers, don’t watch the Developer’s Direct.

Looks absolutely fantastic. Love the new races types. Mountain races remind me of the “Canyon Duel” races in one of the older Need for Speed games and I loved them.

Looked fun but they spent way too much time in it IMO. Also thought it might be a shadow drop. Oh well..

Loved FH 6 and Fable. Happy to hear that Beasts of Incarnation is going to be on GamePass. Kiln could be fun but they spent way too much time in it. And that’s the only reason I dropped it to a B. Otherwise fantastic stuff!

@FraserG Was just thinking that maybe we’ll get a Day One shadow drop during the Developer’s Direct on Thursday. Fingers crossed. 😀

@FraserG Overall the games for January were pretty good but wasn’t their just one “Day One” game (maybe two if there was a PC-only game)?

I’m curious how they’re going to get to 75+ day one games a year if this is the pace we get. Maybe it’s partly that January is a relatively slow month for new games.

Great list to round out the month!!! Been wanting Talos Principal 2 but glad I held off on buying it!

Second batch:

https://x.com/xboxgamepass/status/2013612633748869229?s=46

@Fiendish-Beaver You also have to realize this is just the first batch of the month. Tomorrow they should announce the rest. You can’t compare them directly yet when we didn’t even have the complete list for GamePass this month.

Maybe see what else is coming the rest of the month first before concluding PS Plus is better?

Really been looking forward to MIO! Hope to check it out tonight.

The exact date the game bombs….

Death Howl is great. Glad it’s making its way to Series X!

I’d say it should be Death Stranding 2 or Doom: The Dark Ages. Both look amazing. GoY is a decent looking game but nothing special IMHO. Both DS2 and Doom are jaw dropping at times.

I love the art style of South of Midnight but I suspect it’s not perceived as “mind blowing” compared with the others.

Guess it depends on if the award is more based on artistic merit or graphical prowless.

And, yes, Digital Foundry had Doom: The Dark Ages as their best graphics of the year. DS2 was #3 and AC Shadows #2 (which I personally agree was a better looking game overall than GoY).

Still think Doom and DS2 stood out far above the rest.

Cannot f****** wait for this! And it’s one game that I absolutely will fork out for the early access because I know I will be buying the expansions anyway. Bring on May 15th!!!

Nice! Fun game but I really hate F2P games so awesome that it’s going premium. (Of course, doesn’t hurt that it’s on GamePass)

If you like games like Castle Crashers, be sure to give this one a try!

“Intrepid” seems like a really weird word to use.

Not a bad group of games for the first half of the month. And I say that “first half of the month” for the no value crowd because, yes, this is just the next two weeks. More will be on their way for this month too.

Anthem had so much potential. The traversal system was magnificent and even the combat was decent. It’s the story and quests that killed it. If only EA had given the time and effort it needed, maybe the game could have been turned around. A damn shame.

@Jeong-Ho Why? The games for January haven’t even been announced.

I haven’t finished either one yet, but from what I’ve played, I think I would have put Outer Worlds 2 above Avowed. Has the extra level of polish and the combat is great (much better than the first game IMO).

Regardless, I have enjoyed pretty much all of Xbox’s first party output this year. Not everyone would be in my top 10, but it was a great year!

And screw the haters, E33 for life!!!

Replaced and Death Howl are my most anticipated on that list. Death Howl is already on PC and has gotten a great reception.

I think it will depend on what releases. Fable and Clockwork are the ones with the best chances IMO. I would absolutely love Clockwork to release next year (easily my most anticipated game) but doubt it will.

BUT they’re saying there’s way too many games for them to put in the Developer’s Direct that are releasing next year so who knows what else is up their sleeves. Overall I’m excited for a lot of the already announced Xbox games and that’s a good place to be.

I have a Switch, PS5 and Xbox and have spent at least 80% of my time on my Series X. GamePass, of course, is a large part of that. I mainly use my PS5 for exclusives and there just haven’t been that many of them.

Upgrade for Yakuza 0 is finally working for me as a JFY deal.

Control 2 should have been the final trailer drop.

I mean it probably was the best show yet but it’s way too long…

Still a better option to watch the trailers later and read the award winners.

Xbox had a great year this year. This year this year. A lot of great first party games. So, no, it isn’t always “next year”.

@Kezelpaso But others are now having issues with the discounted upgrades for the Yakuza games. I purchased Yakuza 0 and cannot get the $14.99 discounted price for the new version.

@FraserG Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut is out on the US store but no discount showing for me as an owner of the original. Looks like another RDR situation. 🙁

If I win, I will generously buy a copy of their game (that I will never play). 😀

There you go. Sales improved!

Of course, I never get one…

I actually bought the game (got a steep discount where I basically paid $15 for it) knowing there would be bugs. But I’m still having a blast with it. The races are even more like Burnout than any of their past games. The Sky tracks with loops, etc. are really fun.

I’m not big on the creation stuff but there’s an enormous amount of single player content.

Yes, it doesn’t look much better than an Xbox One game. And it’s definitely rough with some laughable bugs at times. But it has the thing I care about most — more Burnout.

It’s a damn shame this team doesn't have the big budgets to do these games justice but its even worse that they may not be able to work at all after this.

In that same Reddit thread, a different response from Rockstar support said that the digital 360 version is the one that qualifies for the upgrade.

https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadredemption/s/yMNVQNJa5Y

Routine looks awesome and can’t wait to finally play it. Dome Keeper and Death Howl might be good. And guess I’m finally see that the fuss is about with A Game About Digging a Hole.

Honestly I was surprised at how big of a deal it was on gaming sites. At one point there were like four or five stories about the 360 featured at the top of the Eurogamer site.

I loved the 360 and the anniversary is cool but not that big of a deal to me. Really the first Xbox’s anniversaries are a bigger deal to me since that was the whole start of the brand.

Anyway, my vote would have been getting some more BC games. 🙂

I honestly think they don’t want to put much more effort into the Series consoles as far as sales. Right now it’s all about GamePass and prepping for next gen.

It’s a great option. Know many people who game on both PC and Xbox and having to only purchase once is sweet. It’s not that important to me but it definitely is for others.