@TapeLoader Yep, 15 years ago, I woulda said Turok 1 & 2 were the only good ones, but in the absence of any new games since 2008, I've revisited all of them multiple times and have learned to love each for different reasons. Nightdive better remaster all of 'em, especially Rage Wars!!!
@TapeLoader It's been 17 years since the last game, so I'll take anything at this point! Personally, it checks-off a lot of boxes for me as a fan, so I'm very, very excited.
One of my favorite devs! Loved the character design in Spacelords (aka Raiders if the Broken Planet), too bad the main character here is the only thing in the game lacking any rizz whatsoever.
Xbox over here releasing consoles faster than they release games. I don't see any good reason why we have to wait 6+ years between Halo and Gears releases.
What! That was my favorite part of Doom 2016. BOOOOO!!! Sure, it wasn't anything "crazy", but it didn't have to be. Tons of people played multiplayer for years and years past release. It was unique, simple, and (god forbid) fun.
"Take it or leave it...it's free, so you're getting what you paid for!" That's the way all Game Pass games come off to me. I know there are other factors contributing to a rocky development cycle, but still...Microsoft's quality control for its exclusives is severely lacking.
My god, they have no good reason not to have made Gears 6 next. There are a million ways to easily stitch together a story about the Gears 5 "choice", play levels taking place during an E-Day via flashback, and go to space.
In addition to difficulty levels, they should also have a setting called "Respect For Your Time" that changes the game's length to ~20 hours. Just like Dragon Age 2 Still never beat Inquisition, due to the typical RPG padding.
@Fiendish-Beaver Yep. I think they should've made Gears 6 and started the game with E-Day (to please nostalgic fans), and then did a story act before Gears 4 with Marcus and younger JD where something happens to JD like he inhales a Locust spore or something (alternate chapter for Del where something similar happens, maybe he is exposed to spore while dying?).
Then it fast forwards to after Gears 5 and the spore causes JD/Del to survive his death by crystallizing. Then someone figures out a way to reverse Locust back to humans, but it requires a super rare mineral (maybe a scientist in act 1 was working on something?) , and so Kait has to decide whether to reverse JD/Del or her mother.
@JokerBoy422 Halo Reach at least came out after Halo's 1-3 story arch, just like Gears of War Judgement came out after the OG trilogy. The E-Day story has already been told via books too. IDK, I always make the mistake of taking the story seriously in games and getting personally invested, so I was really expecting Gears 6. Anyway, I'll get over it. Multiplayer is what I like best anyway.
This is just like the next Mass Effect game. The old story is OVER. IDK why we need to go back. I loved it too but it's time to move on. The Coalition could take the Gears 6 story into whatever direction they want...they could have another "war" easily. They can have flashbacks where you play as old characters. There's no excuse for this laziness. Ugh.
Gamers need Xbox and Playstation to compete with each other. If there's only one console (Playstation), Sony has no reason to make any first party IP games and can just rely on 3rd party support.
Case in-point: Steam. Valve stopped making games long ago.
The opposite would be Nintendo, who's console is so weak that third party support is horrendous and they NEED to crank out high quality first party games on a consistent basis to maintain business.
@abe_hikura The original Perfect Dark was just a reskin of GoldenEye with futuristic weapons and gadgets, so a reskin of the Tomb Raider games with some fun spy tech would be a simple and effective concept, IMHO (and was what I was hoping for).
@GamingFan4Lyf Whatever they're doing, they need to try something different. With the money and talent at Xbox's studios, the fact they can't get anything right is just sad and embarrassing.
@rustyduck Probably because of the game selection? It's definitely not for everyone.
I only have Ultimate to play Gears and Guilty Gear on my phone. Otherwise, I'd rather just buy the games I really want to play instead of feeling like I need to play all the third-party mid-tier titles we seem to get every month just to feel like I didn't waste my money.
Just finished 4's campaign after owning it since launch. Loved the gameplay, but didn't connect with the new characters (I couldn't tell you anything about them other than they live outside the COG settlements).
Hopefully 5 won't take me 8 years too. I already know about "the choice" at the end, and I'd like to think The Coalition wouldn't have done that without an idea for the sequel. Good or bad, I think they need to execute on their vision and not cater to the section of the fanbase that probably wouldn't like the story regardless (and would probably love scrapping all the new characters and focusing on the old ones). It's too late for them to back out now.
Cliff as a consultant would be amazing. Living legend.
Is it bad that I've been boycotting this game? I wanted The Evil Within 3, and I know that most studios nowadays hardly ever work on more than one IP every console generation, let alone release more than one game every ~5 years.
Well, with Shinji Mikami gone and Hi-Fi Rush erasing The Evil Within in terms of acclaim, I guess all hope for me is lost!
@Kienda Yessss, exactly. People forget that corporations are beholden to their shareholders, aka if you own stock, you only care about how much more money the company can make you.
If replacing everyone with AI and leaning on subscriptions instead of new products is the easiest, fastest path forward, of course the shareholders will want that.
The question is....what do we do? It affects me because I want new games (Gears, Halo, all the Rare IPs and all the studios bought up by MS) instead of Game Pass with 1 new first-party game every 5 years and 1 Forza game every other year. I guess all I can do is buy premium titles to support new content.
GeForce Now, hahahaha...now matter how late at night I try to get on their servers, there's at least 200 people queued in front of me (and ticks down like one person every 5 minutes), and the $10 monthly premium subs are sold out. Not to mention you have to own the games you want to play, and despite the hundreds and hundreds of games they support, they still somehow manage to NOT have any of the main games I want to play. And when an update rolls out, games sometimes just won't work because the host computer didn't download the update yet.
Finally finishing Gears 4 after giving up on "At the Door" like 3 years ago since it was too hard (on Insane, being able to be downed just makes it too easy otherwise).
This was before the Gears 6 production rumors, so it's like it was meant to be...
@Gamer83 I totally get that...writers that come into established stories sometimes like tearing down what came before in order to make their mark. The only way we'll find out is when they decide to release Gears 6. I'm guessing 6/6/2026 at this point?
@Gamer83 Hmmm, you think they wrote themselves into a corner and that's what's causing the delay? God, I hope this isn't one of those trilogies that's just made-up as it goes along.
Cliffy B recently tweeted on 11/28/2023 for Microsoft to call him about Gears 6, along with a pretty unique idea he had. Cliff seems to be doing just a bunch of random small non-gaming projects recently, so a design consultant for Gears 6 would be a nice return to bookend the second trilogy.
Now that I think about it, I didn't actually like nor care to finish almost all of the games on this list, but nostalgia is raisin' them rose-tinted glasses high.
What about a co-op puzzle-platformer (like It Takes Two or Unravel 2) where one person is Banjo and the other is Kazooie? And Mumbo can have a son who rides around in Banjo's backpack and learns spells to transform each of them at-will into different things to solve puzzles? It can be called Banjo-Threeie since there's 3 characters palling around.
Actions speak louder than words. With a resume like Phil's, we'll be lucky to get more than a few first party AAA exclusives each year, let alone good ones.
The one that lets me break away from a boring mission when I see something more interesting going on in the distance and NOT stop the entire game with "Mission Failed" and teleport me all the way back to where the mission began.
Protip: I called my ISP asking for a new modem and router and they sent me one for free (well, $20 service fee). Ever since then, ALL game stream services and in-home streaming have been working soooo good.
It's not perfect, but definitely stable, consistent, and more than suitable for everything short of super-sweaty-zero-ping-tryharding. Highly recommended. Makes Xcloud amazing since you don't have to actually install anything, just boot up games instantly.
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Re: Two More Xbox Games Are Being Cancelled, Including Perfect Dark
I'm done. Goodbye. Xbox sucks. All those IPs wasted. Zero games.
Re: Opinion: It Feels Like Microsoft Is Planning A Huge Final Year Of Xbox Series X|S In 2026
No games, no consoles. Just GamePass offering rentals of multiplatform games. Xbox is just a digital Blockbuster. What a waste.
Re: Last Chance! What Are Your Final Hopes For The Xbox Games Showcase 2025?
@TapeLoader Yep, 15 years ago, I woulda said Turok 1 & 2 were the only good ones, but in the absence of any new games since 2008, I've revisited all of them multiple times and have learned to love each for different reasons. Nightdive better remaster all of 'em, especially Rage Wars!!!
Re: Last Chance! What Are Your Final Hopes For The Xbox Games Showcase 2025?
@TapeLoader It's been 17 years since the last game, so I'll take anything at this point! Personally, it checks-off a lot of boxes for me as a fan, so I'm very, very excited.
Re: Last Chance! What Are Your Final Hopes For The Xbox Games Showcase 2025?
Ummm, Turok Origins, helloooooo....???
Re: Talking Point: Would You Be Disappointed If A 'Gears Collection' Didn't Include Multiplayer?
Multiplayer would break people who don't know how to wall-bounce, haha. Bring it baaaack...
Re: Metroid Dread Developer Announces 'Blades Of Fire', Heading To Xbox In May 2025
One of my favorite devs! Loved the character design in Spacelords (aka Raiders if the Broken Planet), too bad the main character here is the only thing in the game lacking any rizz whatsoever.
Re: Microsoft CEO: Xbox's New AI Model Is A 'Wow' Moment, But Great Games Must Be The Focus
Again...Microsoft will do anything except actually make games.
Re: Xbox Reporter Says Series X|S Successor Has Been 'Fully Approved' By Microsoft
Xbox over here releasing consoles faster than they release games. I don't see any good reason why we have to wait 6+ years between Halo and Gears releases.
Re: Xbox On Keeping Games Off Other Platforms: 'That's Not A Path For Us'
Shut up and make games, Phil.
Exclusive or not, Xbox's games output is disappointing and sad.
Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Drops Multiplayer In Favour Of 'Most Expansive' Campaign Ever
What! That was my favorite part of Doom 2016. BOOOOO!!! Sure, it wasn't anything "crazy", but it didn't have to be. Tons of people played multiplayer for years and years past release. It was unique, simple, and (god forbid) fun.
Nice cop-out, iD Software!
Re: Rumour: Leaker Names Two More Xbox Games Possibly Going Multiplatform In 2025
I guess if they are going multiplatform, maybe we'll get what we wanted all this time...for them to make some actual games.
Re: Sci-Fi Dino Hunting Is Back In 'Turok: Origins', Confirmed For Xbox Series X|S
AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! My jaw is on the floor. I haven't felt this excited about a game in a loooong time!!
Re: GSC Game World 'Absolutely Committed' To Fixing Issues In Stalker 2 On Xbox
"Take it or leave it...it's free, so you're getting what you paid for!" That's the way all Game Pass games come off to me. I know there are other factors contributing to a rocky development cycle, but still...Microsoft's quality control for its exclusives is severely lacking.
Re: Phil Spencer Explains Why 'This Is An Xbox' Will Be Beneficial To Console Owners
Phil is the smartest, most handsome, tallest man alive. Xbox doesn't need things like games or consoles...they have Phil!
Re: Xbox's Rod Fergusson Explains The Team's Original Plan For Gears 6
My god, they have no good reason not to have made Gears 6 next. There are a million ways to easily stitch together a story about the Gears 5 "choice", play levels taking place during an E-Day via flashback, and go to space.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Gets Price Increases And New 'Standard' Subscription Tier
Game Pass is just paying to have a backlog. Well, with the new tier, maybe that means MS is ready to start making more than 1 AAA game per year again?
Re: Preview: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is A Confident Return for BioWare
In addition to difficulty levels, they should also have a setting called "Respect For Your Time" that changes the game's length to ~20 hours. Just like Dragon Age 2 Still never beat Inquisition, due to the typical RPG padding.
Re: Gears Of War: E-Day Dev Is 'Not Retreating' From The Modern Gears Saga
@Fiendish-Beaver Yep. I think they should've made Gears 6 and started the game with E-Day (to please nostalgic fans), and then did a story act before Gears 4 with Marcus and younger JD where something happens to JD like he inhales a Locust spore or something (alternate chapter for Del where something similar happens, maybe he is exposed to spore while dying?).
Then it fast forwards to after Gears 5 and the spore causes JD/Del to survive his death by crystallizing. Then someone figures out a way to reverse Locust back to humans, but it requires a super rare mineral (maybe a scientist in act 1 was working on something?) , and so Kait has to decide whether to reverse JD/Del or her mother.
Re: 'Gears Of War: E-Day' Is The Next Instalment In Xbox's Famous Franchise
@JokerBoy422 Halo Reach at least came out after Halo's 1-3 story arch, just like Gears of War Judgement came out after the OG trilogy. The E-Day story has already been told via books too. IDK, I always make the mistake of taking the story seriously in games and getting personally invested, so I was really expecting Gears 6. Anyway, I'll get over it. Multiplayer is what I like best anyway.
Re: 'Gears Of War: E-Day' Is The Next Instalment In Xbox's Famous Franchise
This is just like the next Mass Effect game. The old story is OVER. IDK why we need to go back. I loved it too but it's time to move on. The Coalition could take the Gears 6 story into whatever direction they want...they could have another "war" easily. They can have flashbacks where you play as old characters. There's no excuse for this laziness. Ugh.
Re: 'Gears Of War: E-Day' Is The Next Instalment In Xbox's Famous Franchise
Annoyed it's not Gears 6. Giving up on a story that we've spent the last 8 years following via books and games really grinds my gears. Laaaaaame.
Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 Live Action Trailer Lands Following Xbox Game Pass Confirmation
I'm still reeeeally hoping it releases a month early on Xbox to get back at PlayStation for pulling that same kinda garbage on past CODs.
Re: Random: Phil Spencer Seems To Be Preparing His Own Nuke Launch In Fallout 76
Surprised Phil hasn't popped up to congratulate Sony on the success of Stallar Blade.
Re: Xbox Is Reportedly 'Considering' Hellblade 2 For PlayStation 5
Gamers need Xbox and Playstation to compete with each other. If there's only one console (Playstation), Sony has no reason to make any first party IP games and can just rely on 3rd party support.
Case in-point: Steam. Valve stopped making games long ago.
The opposite would be Nintendo, who's console is so weak that third party support is horrendous and they NEED to crank out high quality first party games on a consistent basis to maintain business.
Re: Latest Rumours Suggest Perfect Dark Reboot Isn't Going Smoothly At Xbox
@abe_hikura The original Perfect Dark was just a reskin of GoldenEye with futuristic weapons and gadgets, so a reskin of the Tomb Raider games with some fun spy tech would be a simple and effective concept, IMHO (and was what I was hoping for).
Re: Latest Rumours Suggest Perfect Dark Reboot Isn't Going Smoothly At Xbox
@GamingFan4Lyf Whatever they're doing, they need to try something different. With the money and talent at Xbox's studios, the fact they can't get anything right is just sad and embarrassing.
Re: 10 Free-To-Play Games To Look Forward To On Xbox In 2024
Dang, how did I not hear about Off the Grid???
Re: Roundup: All The Xbox Reveals From January 2024's State Of Play Event
Dang I just wanted to say Judas looks cool. More of the same Bioshock gameplay, which I believe hasn't been replicated once over the last 12 years.
Re: Xbox Game Pass: All Games Coming Soon In February 2024
@rustyduck Probably because of the game selection? It's definitely not for everyone.
I only have Ultimate to play Gears and Guilty Gear on my phone. Otherwise, I'd rather just buy the games I really want to play instead of feeling like I need to play all the third-party mid-tier titles we seem to get every month just to feel like I didn't waste my money.
MS needs more first party games BADLY, IMHO.
Re: Gears Of War Creator Voices Interest In Returning To The Series (Again)
Just finished 4's campaign after owning it since launch. Loved the gameplay, but didn't connect with the new characters (I couldn't tell you anything about them other than they live outside the COG settlements).
Hopefully 5 won't take me 8 years too. I already know about "the choice" at the end, and I'd like to think The Coalition wouldn't have done that without an idea for the sequel. Good or bad, I think they need to execute on their vision and not cater to the section of the fanbase that probably wouldn't like the story regardless (and would probably love scrapping all the new characters and focusing on the old ones). It's too late for them to back out now.
Cliff as a consultant would be amazing. Living legend.
Re: Hi-Fi RUSH Celebrates First Anniversary With A Free Bundle
Is it bad that I've been boycotting this game? I wanted The Evil Within 3, and I know that most studios nowadays hardly ever work on more than one IP every console generation, let alone release more than one game every ~5 years.
Well, with Shinji Mikami gone and Hi-Fi Rush erasing The Evil Within in terms of acclaim, I guess all hope for me is lost!
Re: Microsoft Hits Historic $3 Trillion Valuation On Same Day Of Xbox Layoffs
@Kienda Yessss, exactly. People forget that corporations are beholden to their shareholders, aka if you own stock, you only care about how much more money the company can make you.
If replacing everyone with AI and leaning on subscriptions instead of new products is the easiest, fastest path forward, of course the shareholders will want that.
The question is....what do we do? It affects me because I want new games (Gears, Halo, all the Rare IPs and all the studios bought up by MS) instead of Game Pass with 1 new first-party game every 5 years and 1 Forza game every other year. I guess all I can do is buy premium titles to support new content.
Re: Apple Opens The Door For Xbox Cloud Gaming App On Its Devices
GeForce Now, hahahaha...now matter how late at night I try to get on their servers, there's at least 200 people queued in front of me (and ticks down like one person every 5 minutes), and the $10 monthly premium subs are sold out. Not to mention you have to own the games you want to play, and despite the hundreds and hundreds of games they support, they still somehow manage to NOT have any of the main games I want to play. And when an update rolls out, games sometimes just won't work because the host computer didn't download the update yet.
Game Pass Ultimate is a miracle by comparison.
Re: Limited Run Says It Will Continue To Support Physical Xbox Releases 'Whenever Possible'
One problem with Limited Run is that, for new releases (or new re-releases) you get the game months after it actually comes out.
Then again, I'm more into playing games than collecting them.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 13-14)
Finally finishing Gears 4 after giving up on "At the Door" like 3 years ago since it was too hard (on Insane, being able to be downed just makes it too easy otherwise).
This was before the Gears 6 production rumors, so it's like it was meant to be...
Re: Did You Know? You Can Earn Microsoft Rewards Points Using Your Nintendo Switch
I get 3points per day searching for "Pure Xbox" in Bing!
Re: Talking Point: Has Xbox Done A Good Job With Gears Of War So Far?
@Gamer83 I totally get that...writers that come into established stories sometimes like tearing down what came before in order to make their mark. The only way we'll find out is when they decide to release Gears 6. I'm guessing 6/6/2026 at this point?
Re: Talking Point: Has Xbox Done A Good Job With Gears Of War So Far?
@Gamer83 Hmmm, you think they wrote themselves into a corner and that's what's causing the delay? God, I hope this isn't one of those trilogies that's just made-up as it goes along.
Cliffy B recently tweeted on 11/28/2023 for Microsoft to call him about Gears 6, along with a pretty unique idea he had. Cliff seems to be doing just a bunch of random small non-gaming projects recently, so a design consultant for Gears 6 would be a nice return to bookend the second trilogy.
Re: Talking Point: Has Xbox Done A Good Job With Gears Of War So Far?
The article says it all: kind of hard to stay positive as a fan these days when the Microsoft itself doesn't seem to care at all about the franchise.
Re: All Of These Xbox Games Are Celebrating Their 10th Anniversaries In 2024
Good year, good times.
Now that I think about it, I didn't actually like nor care to finish almost all of the games on this list, but nostalgia is raisin' them rose-tinted glasses high.
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Knows How Much We Want A New Banjo-Kazooie Game
What about a co-op puzzle-platformer (like It Takes Two or Unravel 2) where one person is Banjo and the other is Kazooie? And Mumbo can have a son who rides around in Banjo's backpack and learns spells to transform each of them at-will into different things to solve puzzles? It can be called Banjo-Threeie since there's 3 characters palling around.
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Knows How Much We Want A New Banjo-Kazooie Game
Actions speak louder than words. With a resume like Phil's, we'll be lucky to get more than a few first party AAA exclusives each year, let alone good ones.
Re: Reminder: Three New Xbox Releases Are Launching On Game Pass Next Week
Where's Gears 6 and Perfect Dark?
Re: The Next Mass Effect Could Drop Andromeda's Open World Elements
Wow, what a novel idea...keep the same gameplay of the previous games that made the series so successful, instead of chasing trends?
Re: Alone In The Dark Delayed To 'Avoid Competing' With Jam-Packed October 2023 On Xbox
@Reptilio IKR? Guess I'll buy this next October for $20 now?
Personally I had less than zero interest in all the other games coming out in October, so dang it.
Re: Talking Point: Have You Ever Bought An Xbox For One Specific Game?
Xbox One for Killer Instinct 2013! Everything else I wanted to play was on PC at the time.
Re: Pick One: Which Franchise Do You Prefer, Red Dead Or GTA?
The one that lets me break away from a boring mission when I see something more interesting going on in the distance and NOT stop the entire game with "Mission Failed" and teleport me all the way back to where the mission began.
Re: Talking Point: What Would Convince You To Use Xbox Cloud Gaming More Often?
Protip: I called my ISP asking for a new modem and router and they sent me one for free (well, $20 service fee). Ever since then, ALL game stream services and in-home streaming have been working soooo good.
It's not perfect, but definitely stable, consistent, and more than suitable for everything short of super-sweaty-zero-ping-tryharding. Highly recommended. Makes Xcloud amazing since you don't have to actually install anything, just boot up games instantly.
Re: Phil Spencer's Xbox Games Showcase Shirt Has Hexen Fans Excited
I'm surprised he wasn't wearing a PlayStation shirt