everynowandben

Crazy to think the guy who coded a bunch of the emulators on the original Xbox went on to be a senior dev on a first-party Microsoft release.

Xbox Series X: Splitgate, Quake, Doom Eternal, Bug Fables

PC: Cyberpunk 2077

I started chipping away at Quake 2 RTX a couple weeks ago, but I might try to finish the original before I go back to it since I have that now too. I played a bit of it last night, and was having some fun with it. So far the level design is a lot less complex compared to Q2, but the brevity of the missions makes the game feel even more fast paced.

Doom Eternal is very fun, but so intense I have to play other games in-between missions. Last week was Hades, but I've since beaten it (20th attempt). Also, I'm considering 1st time through "beating the game." Doing it 9 more times just to roll credits is ridiculous. The real "true ending" is that I'm moving on because I beat the game. This week it's Cyberpunk 2077 which I've only played for about an hour. It's fine so far. I'm playing the corpo route, and yeah, the narrative/storytelling is honestly pretty poor so far.

Played Splitgate with the guys last night, which was a total blast. Love all the different games modes.

Then finally I'm also chipping away at Bug Fables. It's decent, and very Paper Mario, but without the equivalent of all the cool paper mechanics, it ends up feeling a little basic and hollow - like that "special something" is missing.

@NEStalgia It'd be nice if they left it in the code or whatever so gyro would work if you have an adapter to use a compatible controller. Looks like the PS version also has gyro control.. Personally I think I might go that route to get best of both worlds.

Does anyone know if this has gyro controls? It does on Switch so... I might buy it there instead if this version doesn't support that feature.

@fabio1 Many of the Castlevania games aren't considered Metroidvanias, including Castlevania 64. While I agree that non-2D games aren't typically what comes to mind when the term Metroidvania is used, there are such things in existence, or at least, there are games that some people do consider to be 3D Metroidvanias. Examples include Metroid Prime, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Control, Darksiders 3, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

@TuckNorris85 I bought it on Steam for the RTX mod. It's incredible. Not sure it'd work on this version.

Tried Hades for about an hour last night until my guys popped online and we got into the Back 4 Blood open beta. Pretty fun stuff, but a little anticlimactic. The card mechanic is alright I guess, but the game doesn't do anything super innovative or interesting to tweak the formula, which is fine overall since the main gameplay loop is still as fun as it ever was in L4D.

I'll play through another chapter of Doom Eternal before returning to Hades for the rest of whatever time I have this weekend. Not quite sure I'll stick with it, but I am enjoying it so far. What weapons are you all using? Outside of the sword, I tried the bow and was doing well until I got to one of those big crystals and was completely dominated, so yeah, I went back to the sword for now.

Also, I noticed Cruelty Squad is on sale on Steam - would anyone recommend it?

So far this year for indies on Game Pass I've played through Ori 2, Gris, the Medium, Donut County, Rain on Your Parade, Deliver Us the Moon, Ghost of a Tale, Prodeus, and I just reached the final boss in Cyber Shadow. I'm also maybe 20% of the way through Bug Fables. With the guys, we've checked out Second Extinction and the Ascent as well. Looking forward to Narita Boy and Backbone next, maybe Y2K, too. Saying that Game Pass is a great place to check out indies is an understatement.

@SplooshDmg Haha 😄 Thanks anyway for the thought

Considering getting this for PC the next time it's on sale. If not for the game itself, then as a benchmark for my laptop.

So glad to see this. I miss the days when controllers didn't have lights on them.

It's ray-tracing appreciation week for me: Quake 2 RTX and Doom Eternal.

Not sure what the guys and I will get up to tonight. I'd like to try out The Ascent, but more likely we'll end up playing Sea of Thieves and Knockout City as per usual.

1 Logitech Precision Wireless Xbox controller for the OG Xbox (amazing)

1 generic wired Xbox 360 controller (horrible)

1 Xbox One S controller (excellent)

1 Xbox Series X controller (very good)

@james_games If you play a wide variety of online multiplayer games, and your friends also have Xbox, you and your buds end up saving a ton of money. If you play less than 3 single player games per year, then yeah, it's probably not worth it.

Check out Ape Out if you enjoyed Hotline Miami and/or if you like fast paced action games that are incredibly stylish with brilliant music

Doom Eternal is getting slightly easier as I'm gaining new abilities and customizing upgrades, but each chapter is so exhausting I have to actually take a breather between them. Don't get me wrong, it's fun as hell, just some of the kill room sections are so frantic and chaotic I end up literally on the edge of my seat, and I refuse to accept the sentinel armor or whatever I've been offered a couple times for dying too much, haha... I don't need that pity prize - thanks, but no thanks 😎 I'll beat this game by getting good. Also, The raytracing mode is really quite stunning.

I started Bioshock Infinite yesterday to play something a little less intense, and I'm not sure how I feel about it so far. I just got to Monument Island. I have to say, I am intrigued, and quite curious to see where they're going with this.

Bug Fables. Almost bought it several times - now I don't have to. Already played A Plague Tale or maybe I would've voted for that - such a great that isn't getting the full attention it deserves. Looking forward to checking out The Ascent as well.

Dang, easily the best month of the year so far. I'm actually pretty impressed.

@Tothington91 Hahaha yeah, it's just over the top dumb fun. Not all the jokes are landing, and the gameplay is honestly pretty sub-par, but I'm still having a blast with it. It's so all over the place too - I'm always anticipating what wacky mechanic or ridiculous one liner is coming next. If you haven't already, check out Shadows of the Damned and Shadow Warrior for similarly raunchy stupid fun.

This weekend is all about Doom Eternal and Duke Nukem Forever. Two pioneering franchises made modern (although I suppose DNF might actually be considered retro now). Both innovative in very different ways, one is an incredible achievement, and the other, not so much. It's time to rip and tear, and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of... d*** jokes and chainsaw fuel.

@gollumb82 Uncharted is action adventure, while TR is an action RPG. They both have climbing, shooting, and puzzles. Only TR has crafting, upgrades, permanent inventory, meaningful backtracking, exploration for rewards that are more than simply collectibles, skill tree, shops, sub-missions, optional missions, fast travel, gear/equipment that alters stats, etc. They are only similar at the most very basic level.

Uncharted and Tomb Raider are very different games. It's like comparing Mega Man and Metroid.

Absolutely amazing! Cannot wait to play this!

@antdickens Fair enough. Thank you for listening/interacting. I'll go through the proper channels if I ever feel compelled to voice concern going forward. Thanks, again.

@antdickens I made suggestions as to what possible headline length summaries for this might look like. The headline here is purposely not a summary. The goal of the headline of this article is not to inform, but to force people to click on the link. That's clickbait.

@antdickens LOL can't argue with that

Edit: Honestly though I'd hope the "main purpose" of a news/enthusiast site would be to inform rather than simply to get people to click on links.

@ThanosReXXX Google clickbait definition

click·bait
/ˈklikbāt/
noun
(on the internet) content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page.

@Nerdfather1 I clicked it to call out content I view as below the standard community members should expect from this site. People are allowed to not like things and voice their concern regarding quality control.

@Nerdfather1 They name called and attacked me directly for voicing my opinion. The person could take their own advice and ignore me, but they chose to viciously lash out at their fellow community member.

Please don't encourage cyber-bullying.

@ThanosReXXX The headline purposely leaves out a detail to make you click on it to find out what that detail is, which is the definition of clickbait.

Also, I reported you for abusive behavior.

Just change the headline to something like "Death's Door Players Are Loving the Game's Close Attention to Detail" or "Death's Door Players Are Loving the Game's Neat Sign Chopping Mechanic" Boom. Done. No longer clickbait. Is that "constructive" enough?

How do I "constructively" express that I don't appreciate clickbait articles?

Bug Fables next please. Might actually be able to play that one via xcloud with my not so great internet. Then again, action commands require precise timing so probably not..

Last night the guys and I played the second tall tale in the Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life expansion, which while very, very pretty, was fairly repetitive overall - definite Zelda water temple influence. The new weapon was pretty fun to use though.

I'm nearing the end of Half-Life 2: Episode 1, and will likely finish it before the weekend is over. It's fine so far - just more of the same. Actually, I'd say it's sortof less of the same.. The story (so far) has minimal impact, and there's nothing really new or exciting going on mechanically. Pretty underwhelming to be honest. Maybe Episode 2 is more interesting?

I think it's kind of awesome. I just bought a fairly decent gaming laptop (Asus 2021 G14) about 3 weeks ago, so I probably don't need this, but I love the form factor and price point. If I knew this existed before the return period for my laptop elapsed, I probably would went for this instead. Even though my laptop is a lot better in many ways, it also costed a lot more, and I really only got it to keep myself satisfied until building my own desktop becomes feasible again. Oh well, hopefully other people get to enjoy this thing! I might bite if there's a redesign model or whatever in a couple years if this is successful. My internet, even at work, just isn't good enough for xcloud/streaming.

There's some pretty solid tunes in FH4 - I was floored when MJ by Now, Now came on (I grew up in a neighboring suburb and used to go to their shows when they were still in high school - so cool to see them "make it big" or whatever), but I always get annoyed when I'm not digging any of what's currently playing and I can't skip to the next song (it's "radio" I know, but still). It would be amazing of you could connect to your Spotify account. I mean, that's how I listen to music when I'm driving in real life.

Just fired it up yesterday to see if I could cross save between PC and Series X, which I could. It really does seem extremely similar to the original Paper Mario so far, so I'm very much looking forward to actually getting going with it soon.

Finally got a chance to check out A Pirate's Life in Sea of Thieves with the guys. The first mission was pretty easy, and sortof felt introductory, which I suppose makes sense for appealing to newly attracted and possibly less experienced players, but having finished most of the original tall tales in the game, it felt pretty simplistic. Pretty cool to see all the references to and influences from the Disney ride for sure. Capped off the night with a couple rounds of Knockout City. I'm also just over halfway through Thief: Deadly Shadows on PC and absolutely loving it. Hopefully I can get another mission or two completed over the weekend.

Do we know if it'll be on Game Pass for PC day one or not?

I wish they made a new Deus Ex game where the characters have twice as much dialogue.

Also, I feel like Final Doom doesn't count, but if it does count, then surely Doom 3: The Lost Mission should count as well.

2016
64
2
3
1
3RoS

They're all great games. Haven't played Eternal yet, but I'm really looking forward to it now that it's on Series X. One of the best series in existence.

Played a bunch of Knockout City with the guys last night since they both forgot to update Sea of Thieves. We're getting better at KC though - winning more matches, unlocking more stuff.

If I have time, I'd like to chip away at Ghostbusters - I'm probably halfway through at this point. It's decent so far. You'd probably get more out of it if you're a bigger fan of the series, but it's not as good as I hoped it'd be. Maybe I'll sneak in another mission of Thief: Deadly Shadows instead.

I returned my Kishi just today. I got it for a really great price, but it wasn't worth it. It fits floppy, and feels bad. I know everyone seems to like it, but I recommend avoiding it.

Sadly this is arguably the best month we've had so far this year.

Resident Evil 8age for sure. An instant classic.

My buds are on vacation, so no weekend online multiplayer session this week. I just bought a nifty little laptop (2021 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14) for myself a couple days ago, so I've pretty drastically upgraded my PC gaming situation. I've got the day off tomorrow, so tonight I'm looking to dive deep into Prodeus. I've had save file issues with the Xbox app in the past, however, this game allows you to choose between saving locally or saving to the cloud. I chose local and have not had an issue yet, and hopefully I won't. I'm also looking at my gigantic library of free games I've collected from EGS over the past 12-18 months that my previous PC wouldn't be able to run very well, and I think I'm going to check out Ghostbusters Remastered as well.

Probably should've spent 1400 hours doing something unique and original

Thief - Apparently it's bad, but I'm going to play it anyway, so it may as well be the best that it can be.