Haven’t played it, but I’m not really a racing game person, so my GotY is still either Pragmata or Requiem, but Mina the Hollower’s coming up and that’s bigger a chance to be a contender to me than FH6.

I’m sure it’ll end up being the best racing game I play this year once I play it (and I will), but Halo and Fable are also far more interesting to me. Hearing most people say it’s more of the same but with a better map makes it sound like a Forza game for sure. I feel like Forza games are like a reliable 8/10 game where you know what you’re getting every time and it’s always good, just nothing that totally revolutionizes the genre.

I’m taking a bit of a break from Crimson Desert and I think I’ll probably play Yoshi and Bubsy this weekend.

I can’t really think of that many “storied first party games” that Xbox hasn’t been churning out, especially this year unless he’s finally the person lighting a fire under Todd Howard to get the ball rolling on Elder Scrolls and Fallout (or Banjo Kazooie, of course!). Those are the only big franchises that I feel like Xbox just isn’t pushing right now. Halo and Fable are finally back this year and I’ve missed them both dearly, but those are the two massive ones I’ve missed from Team Green for what feels like a while. Hopefully we get more Halo more quickly?

No Psychonauts though… 😤

I’m going to laugh if Halo gets a release date at the State of Play.

@BIG3 for real, we need a Direct.

@Sol4ris I mean, yeah. Both consoles had a better first party ecosystem when they were competing. The first party content from both parties has been tepid and I’d argue it’s largely because Xbox is more of a marketing partner to Sony than a competitor.

It’s great news. Games are better when there’s competition in the console space. Since Xbox has pivoted to being a third party with their own console too, it’s made PlayStation far worse as an ecosystem. I always thought it was strange that Xbox dropped exclusives just as they finally started to hit a stride with first party games. I know the first party slate was really iffy for a few years, but now PlayStation’s had a few really iffy years. Xbox could’ve leveraged themselves with games like Indy and FH6. Hopefully Sony and Microsoft push each other to raise the quality of their content rather than keep us in this morass of live service.

Sounds basically like every Lego game ever in the reviews.

@Ch13f_84 Pick Pragmata first. It’s a better game, especially if you’re tired of bloated open worlds. Pragmata is short. It tells a simple story with good emotional beats and gets outta there, all with solid Capcom gameplay with a unique, new spin on it. I could keep going on and on about it, but Pragmata’s so good that I’d say try to go in as blind as possible. In my opinion, it may be the GotY frontrunner for me right now. Of course, mileage varies with us all, but I highly recommend it.

@Lup There’s a demo for it if you want to give it a go. It’s certainly unique. It’s one of those, “It’s either for you or it’s not” types of games, I think.

@Ch13f_84 I dislike big, giant bloated games at this point, but I’m enjoying Crimson Desert. It’s by no means my GotY front runner, but it’s more fun than I expected. It’s hard to say it’s a 7/10 because it’s such dumb fun, so maybe I’d rank it an 8/10. I’ll probably never finish the game, and as someone that has an OCD thing about completing my games, it’s sort of freeing to have a game that’s so open like that. I really recommend the game in spite of its flaws. After about 10 hours with the game, it’s just so vast and spacious that you sort of settle into it. I can see why some people would say it’s a Game of the Generation, but I can also see why someone would say that about Mixtape. Neither one is that game for me, but both are totally worth experiencing. I’m getting close to 40 hours into Crimson Desert and I still feel like I’m at the beginning too. It’s lack of deep storytelling is quite interesting too, as it’s not often a game just says explore and do gameplay in such a way as this. It’s honestly surprising you don’t get a create-a-character for this one.

I’m about halfway through Mixtape, so I’d like to finish it. Outside that, more Crimson Desert perhaps. I feel like Crimson Desert is going to be a game I perpetually play in the background at this point. The lack of story makes it hard to feel super invested in it, but the gameplay makes it fun to kill some time with, so it’s perfect for a bit of escapism when it’s needed.

I’m a little overburdened with games to get it in May to get it at launch with Yoshi, Bubsy, and Mina the Hollower all coming out on top of each other. I’ll be there reading the reviews though. I’m curious how Hitman-y it is.

IGN gave it a 10/10. Are people going to claim a conspiracy on this one too? 😂

Elder Scrolls 6. I mean, c’mon Todd.

And Witchbrook. Surely, that’s gotta be coming out soon, right?

I’d love to see Banjo and Spyro too, of course.

I’d say it was a solid 7/10. I know people might think I’m crazy, but I was expecting the game to feel MORE TANKY than it felt. I was hoping for a relatively heavy feeling fps as a contrast to the zippiness of the genre and it just wasn’t that. Master Chief “feels” heavier to me than Doom Guy and I wasn’t expecting I’d be saying that, but therein lies my feeling of the game not being my expectation and falling short of what I wanted, so I’ll acknowledge that’s more a me thing than the game’s thing. I thought the game was relatively solid outside that, but I couldn’t shake that feeling throughout the game. Silly me.

Planning on giving this one a shot this week. After all the hateful comments mixed with glowing reviews, honestly that’s piqued my interest far more than it was before. Reminds me of the walking sim wave… and honestly I loved the Dear Esthers, Gone Homes, Edith Finches too. I wouldn’t know the hate though if it hadn’t been so thoroughly covered by the gaming news media. We hear more about these trolls than we hear about what the business is doing right now and that’s a huge red flag in the industry.

That said, we need to stop feeding the trolls. They have made a career endlessly hating the medium they pretend to like and we, as a people, need to stop supporting that. It’s just as bad as the corporate suit mentality. If we’re going to shift this world, we need to do better. For companies, we vote with our wallet. For the leeches, vote with your time. Hit that unsubscribe button, shoot them a dislike, and get outta there!

@Ecstatic-Magician I have no idea how to help you (useless with that side of tech, I’m afraid), but I’d love it if you’d reach out when it’s ready to play!

5 for me. I say that as a filthy casual. I’ve never finished a Forza campaign and I’ve always played a little bit here and there for fun instead. Just don’t really play many racing games seriously or longterm. Realistically, it’s those showpiece moments for me that are the memorable things and FH5 was really memorable. I remember saying wow a couple times just with how the game looks and feels. It’s probably the best racing game I’ve played this generation… minus… well… Mario Kart… Sorry, but I did say I’m a casual.

Thank you for doing a list without the big licensed games @FraserG. Seeing THAT list makes me far more interested.

While I’m not going to be critical of peoples’ choices in popular licensed media, there’s a good chance interest in those games might stem just as much because they’re connected to the big IP as fans of that rather than purely a fan of games.

As someone with little personal attachment to Transformers or Marvel, I love seeing a diverse list that includes Alpha Protocol, Eternal Sonata, Remember Me, etc… I mean, that list is far closer to my own personal attachment, so that’s my bias!

Eternal Sonata in particular is one I’d love to see. Long, long ago, when my wife and I had our first apartment, it was the tail end of the 360 era. We used to go to a rental store regularly and pick up movies and games. I’ll always remember picking out Eternal Sonata since my wife really wanted to pick it up. It was the first game that I didn’t expose her to or that she hadn’t been exposed to previously that she picked and we had a great time with it. Years later, I’d love to buy the game for her, so we can finally finish it. Could never find it in store.

It’s Mother’s Day weekend, so realistically I don’t know how much gaming I’ll be doing. Lol.

If I do play something, I imagine I’ll be helping my son with Lego Harry Potter or continuing on with the biggest Assassin’s Creed game yet: Crimson Desert. I jest. Curious about Mixtape too…

I think the Helix will take the 360 strategy and try to be out first, but I also don’t think there’s much demand for console upgrades right now, so they may get mixed results. Xbox has alienated their fanbase pretty deeply, so I don’t know… Most of the more affluent supporters have probably jumped on PC gaming by now and the less affluent ones might not be in a rush to have console sized expense.

@RBRTMNZ Maybe, maybe not. I suppose my focus is tightening now, but that’s just economics. I used to spend double or triple what I do now on games, but, y’know… groceries and stuff nowadays.

Gamepass has a habit of bringing older games to the service. You name dropped KCD2 and Death Stranding, for instance. I finished Death Stranding in January 2020. KCD2, I took bite into the hype wave it had after launch and bought it a week after launch last year. I play a little bit of everything. I’ve just already played a lot. My “backlog” is basically retro games that I’m working through and I mostly focus on new releases. When Xbox’s first party games are cooking, that’s usually when I’m subbed to Gamepass.

This month… I might buy four games, not gonna lie. Yoshi, Bubsy, Mina the Hollower are all a lock, and Mixtape’s genuinely sort of teasing me.

@Shinato2024 Exactly, you need to play what Microsoft has on its schedule for it to make sense and play those games a lot. If you are buying other games and balancing that, you could be paying for letting the sub sit.

@Skinny-Pete Personally, I would feel the same whether Xbox or PlayStation announced it. As a Portal owner, I’ve got my own frustration with Sony gatekeeping Portal streaming behind Premium’s paywall. Makes the Portal feel like a brick when I’m not subbed to PS+. Sony’s not exactly very consumer friendly with their policies either and I hope that they receive criticism for their weak line-up this year and questionable policies just as Xbox did years prior.

@GeeEssEff Microsoft got rich for a reason and it’s not from total honesty! Microsoft’s loved their sub services before it was cool. They didn’t make the Netflix of gaming with Gamepass, they made the next iteration of Encarta or Word with it! 😂

@RBRTMNZ y’see I’m a core gamer too. I’ve already completed a little over a dozen games this year. I like choosing my own games rather than Microsoft picking for me and I typically get games Day 1. I don’t believe any games I’ve played so far this year have been on Gamepass though. Mixtape’s probably the first game this year that’s gotten me interested and I saw the game was cheaper than subbing and figured I’d skip. I can wait to play Forza til things stack a bit more. Since the price increase, the quality and profile of releases has been smaller to me, which is a weird way to push a value proposition to me. The tail end of 2024 into the first half of 2025 was super solid for Gamepass, for instance.

@Skinny-Pete @RBRTMNZ I’m not always a fan of Gamepass because it’s usually cheaper to just buy games than to remain subbed. Let’s say you’re subbed for just Mixtape this month, right? If you’re subbed for Mixtape, it’s $20 to purchase while a monthly subscription for ultimate is $23.

I sub when it saves money on newer games, but ever since Xbox jacked up the price, it hasn’t been worth it to me, not even with the recent price decrease. It may be worth it more when Forza comes out, but the service is inconsistent and I’ve probably wasted hundreds of dollars on GP saying “next month will be better” only to be wrong.

When I did a cost analysis on my GP spending from May 2019 to May 2024, I found I would’ve saved money on buying every game I played and completed on the service rather than subbing for that time period. Subscriptions give you the illusion of cheaper now in the pursuit of making more money over time. That’s why so many businesses push them over pure sales right now.

Ultimate is a great value proposition if you only play Gamepass games and you play enough of them to offset the cost.

This looks pretty impressive. I’ve never been able to crack the Yakuza series or its spin-offs, but this is a genuinely cool idea to span such a wide breadth of time. Most interested I’ve ever been with an RGG game

Wake me up when we see actual software

Didn’t take long to bring in an AI wave with her. We’ll have to see how it plays out. I know some people are already celebrating Asha’s leadership, but we’ve still yet to see her impact beyond essentially being a reboot for Xbox

Exclusives are basically the reason I buy a console. My Xbox has been dormant since Xbox games have gone to PS5

@GASEOUS I hope that’s the case. I’d love to see a new Halo game too. I can’t believe we’ve dropped down to a single Halo experience per generation now when we used to get Halo on an almost yearly basis.

To be honest, that’s sort of expected, but also disappointing if this is the direction Halo may be going.

Granted, we’ve yet to play the remake, so we don’t know how good it is yet, but it sounds like we won’t see genuine new Halo or multiplayer Halo for a little bit. I love the original games, but I want new Halo experiences.

That’s pretty cool. I have Mariachi Legends on my Steam wishlist. Glad it’ll be coming to consoles too. Looks like a unique spin on the ‘Vania genre while still being very faithful to the source. To be honest, I’m not gonna sub to Gamepass for it, as I expect it’ll be cheaper than a monthly subscription, but hopefully I can pick it up for the Switch rather than the Deck.

I’ve completed all my games this year except for one now and I’ve got no other pre-orders til Yoshi and Bubsy at the end of the month and after that… are any games coming out in the summer? Doesn’t feel like it, so… it’s time to commit myself to Crimson Desert for a long, long while to see what all the hype is about. I am planning on it being my main game for at least two months. Let’s see what happens.

And also, finally getting to NANINF in Balatro is so satisfying

@Balaam_ Amen, brother. In the age of deeper discovery, it’s actually harder to find the good stuff. They can deepen our discovery with more transparency and showcases.

@Weebleman But corpos do let giant brands go into freefall when things are really bad sometimes to see if they can reboot a somewhat popular brand. It’s been a strategy these days in this economy. It’s something I’ve noticed lately. If you’re a somewhat beloved brand, there’s potential for a rebound, or an opportunity for a golden parachute for the CEOs.

I don’t think Xbox was quite in free fall, but rather they were seeing if being a third party publisher was a more viable option and when it was not, Phil announced his retirement, so the brand could have a reset. For all we know, Phil’s still calling the shots, but letting Asha be the face for them. Microsoft has the resources to pull a stunt like this in the pursuit of more revenue later to offset it.

I’d assume Xbox has lost most of its player base by this point. The numbers are staggeringly bad, but public trust in Microsoft in general also feels like it’s at an all time low. This crumble, I imagine, is partially a set up so Xbox can have a genuine return. They’re letting things crash out before Helix on purpose, so Helix can surge and have solid numbers as a reboot and rebrand, I’d imagine.

I’d like a sequel to Infinite, personally, but something multiplayer should be next. I hope something’s been in the works for that. A Halo BR would be incredible. Halo 3 is still basically the zenith of online multiplayer gaming in my opinion. I just hope for more fun Halo experiences. Fun is always what Halo did best.

@GeeEssEff lol, I’m not quite Eternal Life of Goldman, but I’ve started getting gray in my hair now, so I appreciate the industry’s a couple years ahead of me for representation. Lol

@GeeEssEff it still feels like most protagonists are white, straight males, so it’s sort of a bizarre thing to fight about. I’ve played about a dozen games this year and at least half had that description, and the ones that didn’t… well, LiS… Rubato had a frog, Pokopia has a Ditto, Mouse PI’s a mouse, and there’s no discernible character in either Beyond Words or Battle of Asciion, so I mean… is anyone getting upset about these animal characters? Maybe I’m just a weird person, but I feel like I get plenty of representation in gaming as a white, straight male. Maybe I should be getting upset because the characters are staying young and I… am not?

@GeeEssEff but the lead character in Banishers is a straight white male? People are weird….

@cornholio005 I don’t recall that. Care to give some details?

The game launched in a really heavy slate of releases too, if I remember correctly.

The reviews are sort of rough on this one, which in unfortunate. This is actually a higher than average review. I was holding out hope this wasn’t a “judge the book by its cover” game, given that it’s Double Fine, but I guess it sort of is. Oh, well. Game probably should’ve been $15 at launch or something like that.

@Fiendish-Beaver @themightyant Man, I wish Banishers would’ve performed better. That was exactly the type of game I wish existed more in the industry right now: a tight 20 hour game that swings big with its characters and performances, has genuine new ideas in its story, and, even if it doesn’t have the budget to revolutionize gameplay, it still plays and looks solid. It might be the AA that’s impressed me most this generation.

Lost Records was alright too, but, as a LiS fan, I don’t think they out-LiS’ed even Double Exposure, which sort of felt like it was the goal. The game looked and played better, it had better writing, but it also felt like it was missing something that LiS just does better in ambiance and feel. And I think LiS’s impact might’ve been more overstated than anyone realized, given that the original was far, far more successful than any other games in the IP. It might’ve been a time and place type of success. I say that as someone that has personally enjoyed each entry of the series too.

I like Don’t Nod, but I felt trepidation with Aphelion. I hope it’s critical disappointment doesn’t erode the studio, as we knew that they were cancelling games and holding financial burden last year…

I’m guessing an 89-91. Realistically, review scores are lower than they used to be for all games these days. I think Forza’s safe to be a strong game, but I also think that critics being more critical will factor into how it scores. Even if FH6 is better than FH5, I could see it reviewing lower because of this.

I mean, if RE Requiem couldn’t crack a 90, given how insanely good it is, I wonder what can

Legitimately the Project Helix logo puts them all to shame

@FraserG It’s honestly a really solid demo. I preordered immediately after playing it.

I dunno guys, Bubsy looks like the most exciting release for me next month. Am I hallucinating? I preordered a Bubsy game… Right now, it’s my only active preorder that’s isn’t a Nintendo first party release. Weird timeline we’re in.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Mixtape is. For some reason, I keep forgetting that First Light is coming, and I’m taking that as a subliminal hint that I’m in no rush right now pick it up.

Hopefully the economy’s in better shape by 2028, so I’m good with waiting because I’d like my economy to be better too before the next consoles. 😭

I like what I’m seeing in messaging, but truly it’ll be a few years before we actually see Asha’s impact on software developed rather than software strategy for what is already greenlit by Phil, which is what I’m curious about. It’s all about the software. Xbox has given us so many giant hype cycles that I’m skeptical right now. I need to see actual results before I get too interested. Show me the games behind the words, you know?

I mean, when Hulst took over for Jim Ryan in PlayStation, as a recent example, there was applause, but a few years later, you can hear the “Fire Hulst” chants from the back of the bleachers sometimes. We now know Shu was what made PlayStation great for a long time and Hulst took things backward. We don’t know what kind of games Asha will promote or what her strategy will be like at all.

I mean, I like the messaging too, but what has Xbox done yet that’s warranted buying the console right now? We still have next to no information on the software this year or in the future that will differentiate the console from PS5 longterm.

This feels sort of staged.