jesse_dylan

I was really hoping to see it on game pass. I’d love to support it, but I’ll have to wait for a sale.

Damn. Now the rogue trader season pass won’t ever go on sale again tho. Shoulda got it for $15!

Holy moly! Rogue trader is a big deal. My opinion of game pass in 2025 just changed with a single title 😂 Now I gotta figure out when to play it.

Really glad to see this on Xbox. I wish they’d publish deca police multiplatform as well—I’d buy that one immediately

@Casco as I keep saying, it depends what you’re into. I really liked all the indies and RPGs that game pass was stacking for a while.

I have zero interest in call of duty and felt a shift once this became the call of duty service. Stalker launched buggy asf (and is another fps at its core). I’m sure I’ll enjoy avowed, but it’s not quite what I’d hoped. Indy was fine, but I’m not as wild about it as some are.

Like I said it depends what a person is into. I came into GPU when for whatever reason it was bringing endless indies and a lot of RPGs. There was a lot more variety.

@awp69 The last two years with GPU have been pretty amazing. This year has been weak for me personally so far. Citizen Sleeper 2 is great. And I'll probably like Avowed, but a lot of the games you list are kinda mid (including Avowed in some opinions).

I might even like Atomfall, but it's not my usual preferred genre (more FPS...), and it could turn out to be pretty mid too. I appreciate the variety, but when there are so many great games, it's hard to devote time to stuff that isn't as great.

@Kaloudz Yeah, if it's stuff you're interested in. There are definitely a few I've got my eye on, but it's not like it was in past years for me.

Other people are probably happier than they were in past years. The shift has definitely been away from more niche/indie/Japanese stuff, as we've shifted toward CoD and more stuff along those lines.

Hope fully there's a lot more coming in the pipeline that aren't announced yet.

A lot of the games have also been kind of mid lately. I have no issue with that, if it's something I'm interested in, but if I'm already not interested, and it turns out mid besides, I play other stuff, and Game Pass feels a bit devalued in my mind.

@IOI Yeah, it all changed with the buyout...

The problem with first-party is there isn't enough variety. They have to pad it out somehow, either like they're doing with a lot of Sega/Atlus/indie, or something else. They need Japanese games, and they need nerdy Japanese games, not just Ninja Gaiden.

I think they're doing their best and are doing well. Whether it's sustainable, I don't know! Game Pass is their focus though.

They'll keep improving, but it's definitely been weird since it became a call of duty machine. It's a fine line, but they have to continue courting many different niches at the same time as they court the magical "mainstream" that everyone wants.

@Kaloudz It's been slower and has been pretty focused on more mainstream stuff, far less indie, plus a lot of bargain bin AAA (Far Cry comes to mind). It comes and goes in waves, I realize, but lately, the selection has been like if a random friend's 13 year-old brother was picking the games.

It’ll be an AI-focused machine, remote AI piped to the user from Microsoft’s (potentially nuclear-powered) AI centers. It sounds like fiction, but it’s reality.

Weird to see yakuza leaving. They no longer launch on gpu either. Seems like sega is less focused on game pass. I still need to play yakuza 7, so maybe I’d better get on that…

They’re leaning way too hard on first party titles.

PS+ gets lost records. Not to mention it had animal well.

Game Pass meanwhile: …

They both look excellent and promising. I’d rather they take all the time they need to be good. We don’t need more mediocre “okay” titles on game pass. Why waste your gaming time? These can both be great.

Endless growth and aggressive growth, along with absurd overspending, are literally the problems with the industry, but this is the only company I’ve ever heard that actually says so.

Depressing to see obsidian, known for narrative and mechanics, make a very simplistic action game that de-emphasizes both.

Oh boy, finally a survival crafter…

I’ll def give blue prince a try tho!

I wish more of these were on game pass. It feels like there are less indies on game pass lately, and more 5yo AAA/AA games instead that you could just buy on sale for $5

Musta been a lame show. Shinobi sounds interesting!

Digimon Story Time heh

The gold edition of the original game had frequently been like $3 on sale. Now it goes on sale for $30. Kinda crap.

Anyway I’ll be busy with avowed.

There’s no way this is coming out in 2025. Can’t tell that to any other publishers tho, so we still have a gaping hole for like May onward since no one will announce anything.

Sometimes I wonder if GTA is even a net positive for the industry anymore. Meanwhile rockstar is too focused on their online cash cow mode to even do expansion packs. Or games.

@jFug these people see “wokeness” everywhere because they want to stay in a closed off little safe zone. There are lists rating retro games on their “wokeness” level.

iicon is kind of a ccrappy nname

I wish they’d announce these things a month ahead instead of 13 days.

@Kaloudz I'm cautiously optimistic. I thought the original game would be an absolute, steaming dumpster fire in Siberia on a winter day, so they've already impressed me! I liked their Mad Max game, but for some reason I still thought this one would absolutely collapse like a colon full of American fried food. And I would say I found it 90% enjoyable, other than the obnoxious Gotham Knights Destiny 2 Diablo loot system, which I suppose they'll keep. I even liked the combat, which could have, again, been an utter abomination.

That said, by the end of the game, it was so checklisty that I almost killed myself. Again, maybe a me problem.

Maybe the DLC will just tune things up and give us another game-sized thing, as you said. If it's just some added endgame content or whatever, I can't imagine bothering personally. It's gotta be an Erd Tree type of deal...

@Kaloudz that's a thought. To be fair, I would probably be pretty interested in an "erd tree" style expansion pack vs "DLC," and maybe that's what they're doing, and like you said, dovetailing that into the sequel somehow; but as cool as the game was, I don't know if I trust them like I'd trust FromSoft to get it right! I'm scared it's just gonna be MORE LOOT and not much more game. Maybe my fault for getting too into the loot. It's like a damn slot machine. can't help myself.

@Kaloudz I think they'd kind of have to reinvent the wheel, too, but maybe that's their intention. I just can't picture the leveling and loot-gathering scaling any further. It was already a lot.

It was definitely a fun game though. I'm looking forward to a sequel. Just not so sure about DLC!

@Kaloudz yeah I can’t even imagine a late game expansion. It was such a loot fest already. More useless loot?? If it was just a totally new side campaign I’d be in. But in that case you’d think they’d just save it for a new game. They had said no dlc at one point too.

If your game can’t be considered a success with 1.5 million copies sold, you are spending too much money making your game. AAA needs to die. Make cheaper, uglier, better, more creative games.

I keep hoping kingdom eighties will get on here.

Game pass seems to now lean on first party titles, and old stuff you could get for $5 on sale. But. Indie showcase incoming so… will see. And avowed definitely pays for the month.

Avowed is the only one I’m interested in.

Game pass used to get quite a few excellent indie games. Now it seems like it’s mostly older high budget games.

Of course, avowed more than pays for the service for me. And citizen sleeper pays for January.

@JON22 that’s too bad. I’d like to try that one

Yeah, they should put more of them on game pass. We don’t get the indies we used to.

Sword art online is already on game pass apparently. 🙄 I’ll try Alan wake but sweet mother of cheese toast that’s a huge download.

Whoa, stuff I’m actually interested in? 2 out of 3, even.

@Millionski people usually think a strong year means games they like. So a strong year for me might be a dud for other people. Or maybe a strong year is variety. It seems like they’re really leaning into CoD and stuff now, where as it used to be a lot more variety.

I ain’t got the money to be dropping on games at all, which is why I’m on Xbox. Besides game pass, I get about $10-20 per month on Xbox rewards, which I save up and spend on sale stuff (and occasionally new indies)

I hope this doesn’t mean they’ll quit with indie games and niche stuff. Seems like they’re really buckling down on CoD and such.

Kind of a weak year on paper. But I’m sure it’ll change. I’m mostly here for cool indie stuff, and there seems to be less and less of that.

I bet they’re getting it ready for switch 2 launch and porting the series S version.

I’m kinda over it. There are so many games and many are so long. Who has time to play an endless, padded game like wow?

@Blastfemur the last third of the game really feels broken and unfinished too. I had no bad problems, but the first 2/3 was way better than the last 1/3.

People shouldn’t support paying more money for literally nothing. There are plenty of games to play without paying money to play something earlier. Spend that money on supporting a good game and wait for the release date.

That said, definitely looking forward to avowed.

@LostInBlue0 heck yeah! Glad to hear it. I really hope they pull it off!

I was a little disappointed the mystery game was ninja gaiden. Nothing against it (I liked the 2d ones, not the 3D), but there were too many people with unreasonable theories that it was gonna be final fantasy, or smt, or persona, or dragon quest, or any number of things (or at least an RPG). The rumor mill is out of control these days!

I mean… it’s the whole first half of the year…

Fingers crossed for Clair obscur especially. Hoping for south of midnight, but I dno!

Jeez, everyone was talking about it being Persona 6 of Final Fantasy 17 or something. People always get so overhyped, and then it turns out to be Ninja Gaiden Which is fine. But why get all hyped that it's "definitely" gonna be XYZ when it'll always turn out to be ABC instead?

Other than avowed and citizen sleeper 2, January and February haven’t had much for me so far. But I guess that’s enough.

Included with game pass, play these game pass games for free that you could already play for free!

Another year of junk no one wants unfortunately 😭

I wish Hannah telle would win something, but she sure does get nominated a lot. Love her as max.

@LostInBlue0 you’re not interested in Clair obscure? I’m cautiously optimistic! Gives me some real Lost Odyssey vibes.

@Lup it’s 6pm GMT, so for you, it’ll either be 10am, 11am, noon, or 1pm! I think. I’m in North America on central time, so noon for me.