I can't even fault how GameMill and Outright Games do things. Their best games are only above average at best, but the budgets to make them are way less, even when they throw a ton of darts at the board. Meanwhile a lot of AAA devs put a lot of years and millions into one project, and how often are those projects even above average?
@Martsmall If i had to guess, it's probably just the 360/PS3 port with a face lift and with the ability to revisit Levels. Those versions had Local Co-op, and with modern Popcap I'd guess most of it is the same coding copy-pasta'd.
The original PvZ is a classic, but not worth $20, and aside from graphics they didn't show any new additions. The fact they specifically mentioned Co-op as a bonus but showed nothing was a red flag too, as the 360 and PS3 versions had it but it was just for Mini Games/Side Modes.
It'll stick around for a bit... but eventually any form of media affected will just skip having a UK release, and the government will panic with how much money they're losing and back peddle.
Curious what they'll do to make the original PvZ worth $20. The Campaign is perfect and the art style was already great, so maybe they'll be adding a handful of new Mini Games/Side Modes? Even if they're been periodically ruining the original on phones, just PvZ with a new coat of paint is a bit of a hard sell for 20 bucks.
@Kaloudz The original Plants vs Zombies was a digital download on 360 & PS3, and it's actually BC on Xbox. But that version was weird because you couldn't replay Stages.
@CallMeDuraSouka It really shows how the average quality of games has gone down doesn't it? For the past 10 years AAA games have just not been what they used to, to the point where people look back at games that were panned when expectations were higher and talk about how great they were now. With a few exceptions (mostly on PS4) the XBO/PS4 Gen was the equivalent of the Star Wars Prequels, and the current Series/PS5 Gen is the Disney stuff.
For the Multiplayer maybe. But for the Campaign, the open world would still be empty, the Levels would still all feel the same, and 343 would still be incapable of starting and resolving a conflict within the game instead of across multiple pieces of media.
Was the Achievements section not already a good enough Play History? Most Xbox games have Achievements, and it bumps up the most recently played games.
Games I'm looking forward to laterthis year are Digimon Story: Time Stranger, Powerwash Sim 2, & Marvel Cosmic Invasion. At least that launch on Xbox. I won't be getting them on Xbox, but they are in fact Xbox releases.
Graphics are great, gameplay is perfectly average. By the time you get all the upgrades it's actually super fun... but by then the game is over and there's nothing left to do. 7/10 that either bumps up to an 8/10 or down to a 5/10 depending on how the humor hits you.
My first Halo was Reach (was a Nintendo baby growing up) and I very fondly remember playing BTB and Custom Maps & Games with my cousin on weekends and over the Summer.
Awesome for the community to get more players, but I don't see this happening for anything that isn't multiplayer focused. I'd prefer to have online for my Series X but Game Pass Core is such a scam compared to PS Plus Essential that I'd rather re-buy games I already own on Xbox and ger re-released like Halo.
@bazchillin Microsoft and Sony are the reason gaming costs have ballooned, so I very much can be upset with both the increased price of games and the layoffs. Before the start of the XBO & PS4 Era, people didn't care what kind of graphics a game had. Realistic, cartoony, comic book/manga, pixelated - it didn't matter to most. Then at the start of that Era both started pushing (then) hyper realistic graphics as the big selling point over everything else, which skyrocketed the cost and development time of most of there games.
And with the Series & PS5 Era they've doubled down on this so costs have escalated even further because of features most people either turn off or don't care about like motion blur and ray-tracing. So now they not only spend a ridiculous amount of money (and time) per game, but they also need to make an insane amount back to just to make a tiny bit of profit. And since they spend so many resources just on graphics, the actually gameplay and story for these games get neglected in comparison, so they sell worse. It is entirely self-inflicted and everyone can directly blame Microsoft and Sony for all the bad in these specific situations.
@Exerion76 The modern Xbox higher ups often say how little they think of the 360. Which is insane with how downhill and backwards their progress has been since moving on to the Xbox One.
@themightyant Yeah, arguably worse than any gameplay changes has been 343's story telling - by which I mean almost every conflict starts and resolves off screen, requiring you to be invested in cross media to know what happens. And the Halo fanbase is pretty casual so it's just bad idea all around, that they show no signs of changing a decade in.
If they're making a ground-up remake of CE, I wonder how they'll approach things like weapon balance (though everything but the Needler is good in Campaign and PVP) or if we'll see things like Firefight that weren't in the original. They really need all the bells and whistles for whatever they're making as Halo PS entry point, and I love CE, but just that won't be enough to make an impact.
They'll fire the more expensive but experienced senior staff of their dev teams then wonder why their next games are all universally panned, like all these companies do.
I wish Microsoft didn't kill Mighty DOOM, which the picture reminded me of before seeing this is Halo's Hololive Save the Fans. Or at least wish they'd give it the Spartan Assault treatment and give it a $5 console port that skips the grindy bits.
PS Plus Essential is so much better than Game Pass Core for me personally, as it's just what Gold used to be but better giving Game Perks that Microsoft locks behind Ultimate (and still has less of somehow). I personally prefer the Xbox overall and it has the MCC, but I already own all the games that come with Core, and I can't justify paying $60 just for online. Especially if Xbox is just gonna bring all the exclusives over to PS eventually.
At this rate we won't even have half the XBO & Series Activision games by the end of the next console's life cycle. And I thought Nintendo was bad with the NSO's dripfeed of old games.
I don't believe this for a second. They've done nothing to preserve the current backwards games, even the ones they own, and I doubt they'd try now. Especially for the Activision 360 games - they have more incentive to just re-release them with a face lift like Oblivion, and if the process is as complex as they act like it is, it'd probably take a comparable amount of effort for much less gains.
They're gonna see an even bigger drop off in Subscribers. Even now at the current price, between expenses and time to play for most, it's just cheaper to occasionally buy a game you're really interested in and wait for decent sales for any others. And even if by 2026 Microsoft has a steady supply of games from Activision, Bethesda, etc. new and old coming to Game Pass, I don't think it'll be fast enough to justify GPU to most. And if they bring back or make new games like Tony Hawk, Transformers, Spider-Man/Marvel - those are gonna be games people are going to want to own due to licensing, not rent. I just don't see it working, especially since even if they make something original, it'll be Multiplat.
Unless they're completely reworking the game, I just don't see a point. The gameplay's not 'bad', but it's watered down and over simplified so much compared to Fallout 4 it gets repetitive fast. And so many of the features like the base building just don't have a purpose anymore but are still there just to say they exist.
@Romans12 In previous reports it's been said internally at Microsoft they don't view Halo as one of their heavy hitting IPs like Forza and Gears anymore. And if Forza and Gears are on and coming to PS, you better believe Halo isn't being left out.
I don't think it'll be the MCC just because that feels like a lot they'd have to rework for cross-play. As the only Campaign that supports it is Halo 3 iirc, and people might be upset if it's only partially cross-play.
If it's a Halo CE Remaster/Remake, as the first Halo for PlayStation, I hope for the Campaign they stick to the original vibrant colors, and for Multiplayer it's not just a complete re-hash of the original's Game Modes. Adding stuff like Big Team Battles and Firefight from later entries, even if in a limited capacity, would be great for first impressions.
@SingleStooge Most people have always bought full priced Nintendo made games. Most people have not bought full priced Xbox made games in the past decade. I don't know how I can simplify it further for you.
Heard the game was by no means bad but definitely the weakest of the 3 DOOM Slayer games. But compared to most modern AAA games it's still one of the best new ideas.
I can't really name any gaming showcase Event in the past decade that was worth watching live. Even if there's a lot of worthwhile stuff in one, there's so much filler it's way less annoying to just read recap articles.
I'm not sure. For whatever reason anytime Microsoft brings up the 360, it seems to be in a negative or dismissive context. For me and a lot of people it was and is the best Xbox console, and they don't seem to think it was very good.
I can't think of a game on Xbox I'd want to play on handheld that isn't already on my Switch or potentially coming to the Switch 2. Microsoft also doesn't get my benefit of the doubt that they'll give it there all. After 12-18 months they either give up on things or slow down to a near stop, so I have no faith this will go anywhere.
Only things I care about from Microsoft as of now are old licensed Activision games coming to modern systems. But if Oblivion is anything to go by, they probably would rather Remaster these games graphically from the ground up than just relist or upscale them.
Comments 1,124
Re: Xbox Announces Big List Of Games For Its Two Gamescom Broadcasts Next Week
Salivating at the mouth of the thought of a Powerwash Sim 2 release date.
Re: Three Games Announced In 24 Hours As GameMill Unveils New Lineup Of Xbox Releases
I can't even fault how GameMill and Outright Games do things. Their best games are only above average at best, but the budgets to make them are way less, even when they throw a ton of darts at the board. Meanwhile a lot of AAA devs put a lot of years and millions into one project, and how often are those projects even above average?
Re: GTA Insider Shares First Look At Age Verification Checks For GTA Online
@GamerScore200K Also including the people who are of age but don't trust giving their info out.
Re: PvZ: Replanted Is A 'Definitive Remaster' Of The Xbox 360 Original, Releasing This October
@Martsmall If i had to guess, it's probably just the 360/PS3 port with a face lift and with the ability to revisit Levels. Those versions had Local Co-op, and with modern Popcap I'd guess most of it is the same coding copy-pasta'd.
Re: Hideo Kojima Says We're Either Going To Love Or Hate His Xbox-Published Game 'OD'
Most people either loving or hating Kojima games sounds pretty normal, don't think this one will be an outlier.
Re: PvZ: Replanted Is A 'Definitive Remaster' Of The Xbox 360 Original, Releasing This October
The original PvZ is a classic, but not worth $20, and aside from graphics they didn't show any new additions. The fact they specifically mentioned Co-op as a bonus but showed nothing was a red flag too, as the 360 and PS3 versions had it but it was just for Mini Games/Side Modes.
Re: Xbox Introduces Controversial Age Verification Process In The UK
It'll stick around for a bit... but eventually any form of media affected will just skip having a UK release, and the government will panic with how much money they're losing and back peddle.
Re: Slime Rancher 2 Releases This September, Three Years After Early Access Game Pass Launch
I'll actually pick it up now that it's fully released.
Re: Report: Reliable Leaker Details Two Unannounced Xbox Games Coming This Fall
Curious what they'll do to make the original PvZ worth $20. The Campaign is perfect and the art style was already great, so maybe they'll be adding a handful of new Mini Games/Side Modes? Even if they're been periodically ruining the original on phones, just PvZ with a new coat of paint is a bit of a hard sell for 20 bucks.
Re: Report: Reliable Leaker Details Two Unannounced Xbox Games Coming This Fall
@Markatron84 There will be no toleration of Garden Warfare 1 slander in this house! You can bash on the other two though.
Re: Report: Reliable Leaker Details Two Unannounced Xbox Games Coming This Fall
@Kaloudz The original Plants vs Zombies was a digital download on 360 & PS3, and it's actually BC on Xbox. But that version was weird because you couldn't replay Stages.
Re: Talking Point: Would Halo Infinite Have Been A Bigger Success Using Unreal Engine 5?
@CallMeDuraSouka It really shows how the average quality of games has gone down doesn't it? For the past 10 years AAA games have just not been what they used to, to the point where people look back at games that were panned when expectations were higher and talk about how great they were now. With a few exceptions (mostly on PS4) the XBO/PS4 Gen was the equivalent of the Star Wars Prequels, and the current Series/PS5 Gen is the Disney stuff.
Re: Talking Point: Would Halo Infinite Have Been A Bigger Success Using Unreal Engine 5?
For the Multiplayer maybe. But for the Campaign, the open world would still be empty, the Levels would still all feel the same, and 343 would still be incapable of starting and resolving a conflict within the game instead of across multiple pieces of media.
Re: Microsoft Is Adding A 'Play History' Tab To The Xbox Dashboard
@Fiendish-Beaver Even if you have 0 Achievements a game will show up in that section as long as the game has any.
Re: Microsoft Is Adding A 'Play History' Tab To The Xbox Dashboard
Was the Achievements section not already a good enough Play History? Most Xbox games have Achievements, and it bumps up the most recently played games.
Re: Deals: All 70+ Backwards Compatible Games In The Xbox Summer Sale 2025
Metal Slug 3 & XX are on sale too. Think they have modern ports, but I plan to grab these 360 versions too.
Re: Poll: Which Of Xbox's Fall 2025 Games Are You Most Excited About?
Games I'm looking forward to laterthis year are Digimon Story: Time Stranger, Powerwash Sim 2, & Marvel Cosmic Invasion. At least that launch on Xbox. I won't be getting them on Xbox, but they are in fact Xbox releases.
Re: High On Life Returns To Xbox Game Pass Today, And Now Is The Perfect Time To Play It
Graphics are great, gameplay is perfectly average. By the time you get all the upgrades it's actually super fun... but by then the game is over and there's nothing left to do. 7/10 that either bumps up to an 8/10 or down to a 5/10 depending on how the humor hits you.
Re: Rumour: Halo 1 Remake/Remaster Started Development In 2023, May Not Include Multiplayer
@wildcat_kickz This. Even if it's a budget title for $40-50, without Multiplayer it'll essentially be DOA as the first Multiplatform Halo.
Re: Rumour: Halo 1 Remake/Remaster Started Development In 2023, May Not Include Multiplayer
@CaptainCluck It's the same reason they remastered Gears 1 a second time - because they want the first entry to be the first one on PlayStation too.
Re: Xbox Summer Sale 2025 'Teaser' Now Live, 300+ Games Discounted
I'm hoping this will be a sale they add a few more Backwards Compatible games to the usual rotations.
Re: Talking Point: To Celebrate Bungie Day, What's Your Favourite Halo Memory Of All Time?
My first Halo was Reach (was a Nintendo baby growing up) and I very fondly remember playing BTB and Custom Maps & Games with my cousin on weekends and over the Summer.
Re: Helldivers 2 Is Officially Releasing For Xbox This August
Awesome for the community to get more players, but I don't see this happening for anything that isn't multiplayer focused. I'd prefer to have online for my Series X but Game Pass Core is such a scam compared to PS Plus Essential that I'd rather re-buy games I already own on Xbox and ger re-released like Halo.
Re: EA Is Shutting Down Anthem, And It Won't Be Playable Offline Either
I had just assumed it was already shut down.
Re: Xbox Layoffs Begin As Phil Spencer Shares Internal Microsoft Gaming Update
@bazchillin Microsoft and Sony are the reason gaming costs have ballooned, so I very much can be upset with both the increased price of games and the layoffs. Before the start of the XBO & PS4 Era, people didn't care what kind of graphics a game had. Realistic, cartoony, comic book/manga, pixelated - it didn't matter to most. Then at the start of that Era both started pushing (then) hyper realistic graphics as the big selling point over everything else, which skyrocketed the cost and development time of most of there games.
And with the Series & PS5 Era they've doubled down on this so costs have escalated even further because of features most people either turn off or don't care about like motion blur and ray-tracing. So now they not only spend a ridiculous amount of money (and time) per game, but they also need to make an insane amount back to just to make a tiny bit of profit. And since they spend so many resources just on graphics, the actually gameplay and story for these games get neglected in comparison, so they sell worse. It is entirely self-inflicted and everyone can directly blame Microsoft and Sony for all the bad in these specific situations.
Re: Xbox Layoffs Begin As Phil Spencer Shares Internal Microsoft Gaming Update
@Exerion76 The modern Xbox higher ups often say how little they think of the 360. Which is insane with how downhill and backwards their progress has been since moving on to the Xbox One.
Re: Halo Studios Confirms Major Reveal To Take Place Later This Year
@themightyant Yeah, arguably worse than any gameplay changes has been 343's story telling - by which I mean almost every conflict starts and resolves off screen, requiring you to be invested in cross media to know what happens. And the Halo fanbase is pretty casual so it's just bad idea all around, that they show no signs of changing a decade in.
Re: Halo Studios Confirms Major Reveal To Take Place Later This Year
If they're making a ground-up remake of CE, I wonder how they'll approach things like weapon balance (though everything but the Needler is good in Campaign and PVP) or if we'll see things like Firefight that weren't in the original. They really need all the bells and whistles for whatever they're making as Halo PS entry point, and I love CE, but just that won't be enough to make an impact.
Re: Forza Motorsport Studio Said To Be 'Bracing' For Job Cuts At Xbox
They'll fire the more expensive but experienced senior staff of their dev teams then wonder why their next games are all universally panned, like all these companies do.
Re: Halo Fan Game To Release On Xbox After Microsoft & Halo Studios Give Approval
Now we need Microsoft to give the okay for Halo Combat Devolved which is CE as a Gameboy Color game.
Re: Halo Fan Game To Release On Xbox After Microsoft & Halo Studios Give Approval
I wish Microsoft didn't kill Mighty DOOM, which the picture reminded me of before seeing this is Halo's Hololive Save the Fans. Or at least wish they'd give it the Spartan Assault treatment and give it a $5 console port that skips the grindy bits.
Re: PS Plus Has 'Surpassed Expectations' Since Becoming More Like Xbox Game Pass
PS Plus Essential is so much better than Game Pass Core for me personally, as it's just what Gold used to be but better giving Game Perks that Microsoft locks behind Ultimate (and still has less of somehow). I personally prefer the Xbox overall and it has the MCC, but I already own all the games that come with Core, and I can't justify paying $60 just for online. Especially if Xbox is just gonna bring all the exclusives over to PS eventually.
Re: Opinion: It's Nice To See ActiBlizz Titles Coming To Xbox Game Pass, But We Want More
At this rate we won't even have half the XBO & Series Activision games by the end of the next console's life cycle. And I thought Nintendo was bad with the NSO's dripfeed of old games.
Re: Report: Xbox Working On Massive Backwards Compatibility Overhaul Called 'Xbox Classics'
I don't believe this for a second. They've done nothing to preserve the current backwards games, even the ones they own, and I doubt they'd try now. Especially for the Activision 360 games - they have more incentive to just re-release them with a face lift like Oblivion, and if the process is as complex as they act like it is, it'd probably take a comparable amount of effort for much less gains.
Re: PS5's Stellar Blade Could Move To Switch 2, But What About Xbox?
But it's already on an Xbox, because Microsoft said anything is an Xbox.
Re: 'Subscription Price Increase' Tag Reportedly Added To Xbox Cloud Gaming Website
They're gonna see an even bigger drop off in Subscribers. Even now at the current price, between expenses and time to play for most, it's just cheaper to occasionally buy a game you're really interested in and wait for decent sales for any others. And even if by 2026 Microsoft has a steady supply of games from Activision, Bethesda, etc. new and old coming to Game Pass, I don't think it'll be fast enough to justify GPU to most. And if they bring back or make new games like Tony Hawk, Transformers, Spider-Man/Marvel - those are gonna be games people are going to want to own due to licensing, not rent. I just don't see it working, especially since even if they make something original, it'll be Multiplat.
Re: Starfield Fans Voice Their Concerns About Future Support And Updates
Unless they're completely reworking the game, I just don't see a point. The gameplay's not 'bad', but it's watered down and over simplified so much compared to Fallout 4 it gets repetitive fast. And so many of the features like the base building just don't have a purpose anymore but are still there just to say they exist.
Re: Phil Spencer Says 2026 Is Going To Be 'A Really Special Year' For Xbox
Well yeah, it'll be a special year for Xbox because the Switch 2 is an Xbox lol
Re: It Sure Sounds Like We're Getting A New Halo Game In 2026
@Romans12 In previous reports it's been said internally at Microsoft they don't view Halo as one of their heavy hitting IPs like Forza and Gears anymore. And if Forza and Gears are on and coming to PS, you better believe Halo isn't being left out.
Re: It Sure Sounds Like We're Getting A New Halo Game In 2026
I don't think it'll be the MCC just because that feels like a lot they'd have to rework for cross-play. As the only Campaign that supports it is Halo 3 iirc, and people might be upset if it's only partially cross-play.
If it's a Halo CE Remaster/Remake, as the first Halo for PlayStation, I hope for the Campaign they stick to the original vibrant colors, and for Multiplayer it's not just a complete re-hash of the original's Game Modes. Adding stuff like Big Team Battles and Firefight from later entries, even if in a limited capacity, would be great for first impressions.
Re: Xbox Officially Has Its First $80 Game, And It Won't Be The Last
@SingleStooge Most people have always bought full priced Nintendo made games. Most people have not bought full priced Xbox made games in the past decade. I don't know how I can simplify it further for you.
Re: Xbox Officially Has Its First $80 Game, And It Won't Be The Last
They couldn't even get people to buy their games at $70, why would they think people will either spend $10 more?
Re: Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Punches Its Way To Xbox In 2025
No idea why Warner didn't get get Digital Eclipse to do this sooner with how successful other such collections have been.
Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Xbox Patch Nerfs Super Shotgun & Cheap 'From Behind' Deaths
Heard the game was by no means bad but definitely the weakest of the 3 DOOM Slayer games. But compared to most modern AAA games it's still one of the best new ideas.
Re: Talking Point: What Are Your Plans For The Xbox Games Showcase 2025?
I can't really name any gaming showcase Event in the past decade that was worth watching live. Even if there's a lot of worthwhile stuff in one, there's so much filler it's way less annoying to just read recap articles.
Re: Talking Point: Will We See Another 'Anniversary Event' For Xbox 360 Turning 20 This Year?
@Ricky-Spanish No no no, I'm saying Microsoft seems to hate it. Everyone I know loves it.
Re: Talking Point: Will We See Another 'Anniversary Event' For Xbox 360 Turning 20 This Year?
I'm not sure. For whatever reason anytime Microsoft brings up the 360, it seems to be in a negative or dismissive context. For me and a lot of people it was and is the best Xbox console, and they don't seem to think it was very good.
Re: PSA: You Can Now Redeem Custom Xbox Gift Card Amounts Via Microsoft Rewards
Well, if you're not temporarily restricted by their crappy AI for doing the Dailies consistently.
Re: Talking Point: Will You Be Buying The 2025 Xbox Handheld From ASUS?
I can't think of a game on Xbox I'd want to play on handheld that isn't already on my Switch or potentially coming to the Switch 2. Microsoft also doesn't get my benefit of the doubt that they'll give it there all. After 12-18 months they either give up on things or slow down to a near stop, so I have no faith this will go anywhere.
Re: Talking Point: Do You Have High Expectations For The Xbox Games Showcase 2025?
Only things I care about from Microsoft as of now are old licensed Activision games coming to modern systems. But if Oblivion is anything to go by, they probably would rather Remaster these games graphically from the ground up than just relist or upscale them.