themightyant

Real shame to see this. Both should be able to co-exist, they are different. There should be some sort of warning to make sure people don't accidentally buy the wrong version.

@fatpunkslim No you're right... Microsoft would never delist games like Forza Horizon 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. 👀

Was not expecting Kingdom Come Deliverance 2! Huge addition.

Though to be honest with a game this big i'd probably rather buy it.

@Gemini53 Price of bread is driving my crazy. Not helped that all my local bakers have stopped making what I would call normal loaves and are jacking prices up on Sourdough... which I like but not at £5 a bloody loaf!!! So yeah console's will likely get a bump too here.

Whoa! I was reading the title expecting it to say price DROP!

But I guess an increase does make sense with current market conditions, doesn't make it any easier to stomach, was already overpriced.

At first glance a delay doesn't seem like a bad thing and I wouldn't mind waiting a few more years for next gen.

But the reality is Microsoft and Sony have been developing their next gen processors with AMD for YEARS and spent a small fortune doing so, they almost certainly aren't going to scrap that and start again. That means that if the generation is delaying 2-3 years we just get 2-3 year older hardware. This may not be a big problem at launch but by the middle / end of the gen the hardware will be a decade old.

Almost certainly not coming natively to Xbox, but as I said on PS if the rumours of NeXtBox pan out we will be able to get Spider-man 2 and many other PS 'exclusives' on the next Xbox.

As I said after the Dev Direct the new Fable felt very ambitious which was very much in keeping with Molyneux's Lionhead.

@Gabe250 @BustedUpBiker yep. Well aware Nintendo did it first, it’s just a little frustrating getting mixed up going back and forward in menus. While they were first EVERY other system does the opposite, Xbox, PC, Sony, Amazon, Google (before they killed Stadia), etc. it’s only still Nintendo with this reversed setup, even Sony changed it in Japan. It would be better if this were standardised imo.

At the very least they could just have a setting to change confirm and cancel ONLY that can work at a system level to suit all players. There is in fact a setting to swap A and B buttons In the Switch/2 settings… but it doesn’t work quite as expected because every game you play will also swap those buttons for in game controls, some show the wrong on screen prompts and many don’t allow you to remap buttons leading to unnatural control schemes. It’s far from the ideal solution.

@FredBiletnikoff Eh? The Xbox and PlayStation right sticks are in the same position. But one is now apparently hard to reach… lmao

I never understand people finding Xbox or PS controllers so different, I swap between both daily without missing a beat. They’re so similar. If the left stick position is a problem on PS5 why isn’t it a problem on the right stick on Xbox? It makes no sense.

The only one that drives me crazy is Nintendo with their reversed (compared to Xbox) ABXY… but worst of all the button on the right (A) being confirm / proceed and the one on the left (B) being reject / go back. Maddening that it does the opposite of what you intend. It’s the only time I have to actually think about what button I am pressing which takes me out of the game.

Looking forward to trying Replaced and Planet of Lana 2.

Finally joined the Yakuza bandwagon with Yakuza 0. In fact I played Yakuza 1 & 2 on PS2 back in the day but never since so it’s a fresh start. My overarching memory of those PS2 games was how dynamic the combat felt in the early 2000s, grabbing a guy and smashing his head into a wall, or picking up a sign and beating them down with it… it felt like you could do anything.

Jump forward 20 years and even though Yakuza 0 uses the newer engine the combat feels a lot more clunky that I remember, quite limited in a lot of ways, it gets tired quite fast, and I don’t love that aspect as much as I expected. But thankfully there isn’t actually that much combat so far, the game is far more of an interactive movie (with a LOT of mini-games) than I remember with long cutscenes followed by a few minutes of gameplay then another lengthy cutscene.

Thankfully the story is good, the characters, writing and voice work are excellent, add to that
the sense of place in Kamorocho is brilliant. I am still a little disappointed however, I thought I’d love it more based on memory and reputation. But I’m only on Chapter 8 of X, will see how I feel by the end.

I need to go back and give this another go. I started it but REALLY didn't like the combat at all, and wasn't a huge fan of the stop frame animation either in the early stages. But perhaps it will grow.

Always a shame to see, doubly so as these were some of the best looking games in the state of play. But it also makes sense, some are being published by Sony (Kena) and others will only publish on the top platforms first, that currently isn’t Xbox. Still plenty of games coming over, but hopefully these port sooner not later.

Used this once at launch, never used it since.

I’m sure they have data on how little this is used and makes sense to drop it. Too many half baked features like this, better to have a faster more streamlined OS.

@dskatter "From the Pokémon devs!" but also apparently mostly outsourced. It isn't most of the same devs. I read that GameFreak have a program for outsourcing games and this is one of those games.

I didn't love the first one and would never BUY the sequel. But that's what I love about Game Pass, I can try this risk free.

@Coletrain yep me too!

@Coletrain agreed, best Sony showcase in a while. A great mix of new announcements, updates (and release dates) to already announced games and a few remakes/remasters.

Over 30 games featured, personally I was interested in over 20 of them, with more than 10 to get excited about. Kena was a brilliant way to start the show and a highlight, but they also had Castlevania, John Wick, Shinobi OPs & Project Windless (aka Co** of War) which looked fantastic. Most were 2026 too.

My only real complaint was ending with GoW trilogy remakes which are likely years away and then the 2D GoW, it felt like they were building to one more big thing that never quite happened. (I genuinely thought with all the Santa Monica stuff they were going to announce Corey Barlog’s new game.) But it’s hard to be disappointed with so many great games shown. 9/10 for me. And over half the games coming to Xbox.

@BAMozzy I understand what you are saying but it's a gross oversimplification. New live services do succeed and do break through e.g. in 2025 alone we had Helldivers 2, Arc Raiders, Battlefield 6, Elden Ring Nightreign, Rematch, Where Winds Meet, Deadlock, Umamusume, Escape from Duckov, etc. plus many more. That's just the larger ones off the top of my head, many smaller ones that don't need as large a player base also have enough of an audience to keep going. Do many fail? Sure. But the same is true of single player games, they just fail more quietly.

This idea that people only play one and have to 'jump' is a myth. I'm sure that's true of a few players, but most of us can divvy up our time and try more than one.

While I am with you I would personally rather see more releases like Doom: TDA (though I didn't love it) than another live service I also accept not all games have to be made for me and my tastes, there are already more games I am interested in released every month than I can ever keep up with. Are you really at a loss for what to play?

@RedFlash475 The trouble is what gamers online loudly say they want (usually single player games not live services) isn't what the larger market actually plays, which is dominated by live services. Look at any list of most played games each month and count the few single player games that occasionally break that mould.

The reality is many single player games fail every single day, they just often do so anonymously compared to live services that have to put out a public statement. The real core issue is there are too many games released and a large proportion will always fail, the market can't support them all.

It's rough being a game dev. But it's not the only industry where your job security depends on the project you are working on succeeding. At the end of the day the books have to balance.

If you work in Advertising, Construction, Manufacturing or many other industries and your company loses the large contract you are working on then chances are you might be laid off.

Gaming is particularly susceptible to this with games taking years and the upfront costs are HUGE. If the game doesn't succeed out the gate then you don't even make back the money invested let alone enough to keep everyone employed to try again. It's often a choice of scale back to a small team or shutter the whole studio.

No easy choices. I don't envy those having to make them, or those in the firing line. Wishing all involved luck finding new roles.

@Cakefish Wasn't aware they split the reviews by country, that makes more sense on how they got 500... but the list still makes no sense at all. As you said many other games released last year with higher than a 3.x/5 on the store.

@Cakefish @TrollOfWar @TuscanUK It makes no sense. Even if you ignore Black Ops 7 / Warzone excuse why is Borderlands 4 on the list with 3.4/5 or Little Nightmare 3 with 3.6/5 with less than 500 reviews (which they say is their criteria).

Especially as @Cakefish said Split Fiction (March 2025) gets 4.9 with over 500 reviews but doesn't hit the list. Something's amiss because this certainly isn't "the highest-rated content across our stores released in 2025, with a minimum of 500 ratings."

Plenty of surprises in here.

Surprised the highest rated games on the store contain titles like Black Ops 7, Little Nightmares 3, Oblivion Remastered & Borderlands as they all got very mixed reviews both from critics and players elsewhere. e.g. they are all 'Mixed' on Steam.

EDIT: I just checked on Xbox and Black Ops 7 is scoring just 1.4 / 5 HOW is this one of the highest rated games on the store?

EDIT 2: Borderlands 4 only gets 3.4/5. Little Nighmares 3 only gets 3.6 and doesn't have over 500 reviews (just 130) as their criteria suggests.

Something ain't right here.

Good scores. Will look into it. Thanks for the heads up.

This is cool, but I'll just wait for the full games. Want to play both.

@somnambulance Indeed. Especially considering the troubles between the dev and publisher.

I've already verified but I keep getting emails about this that effectively say (I paraphrase), "if you've done it already you don't need to do it again". But if i've done it why is it constantly sending me nagging emails and messages. Left hand not talking to right hand. Get your act together Microsoft, this shouldn't be so hard.

@InheritNegative Google maps only shows a handful of map markers at once BECAUSE they understand that to show them all at once would be information overload. Something Playground's UX team could learn from.

No I never suggested a barren open world, just a better way to handle maps, progression and more meaningful GAMEPLAY changes that they suggest here.

If you are happy with what the game currently is good for you, but others are allowed to have a differing opinion. Forza Horizon 5 was an exceptionally well made game, but for many of us that had sunk hundreds of hours into the series already it was exceedingly dull, basically just a reskin of FH4. I want more than that, don't you?

It's in the same range as most of Suda51's recent games, aggregating about a 7/10, if you liked those more than that you will probably like this too.

That's cool... but I haven't even HEARD about 'Bendy', are they actually any good? Anyone played them?

EDIT: Metacritic puts them around 7/10. Steam has then at around 85% positive.

@TrollOfWar I think you nailed it.

Bit of a weird list imo. Most are just to be expected e.g. Japanese landmarks, year-round alpine snow, car meetups, new cars/customisations. Did we expect same cars, no Japanese landmarks, etc. Of course not.

Still waiting to see if they've solved some of the fundamental issues with FH6 like spunking map markers everywhere and not enough player direction for those that want it. They slightly alluded to this with the "wristband" system but never went into detail to see if it's actually fixed. This seems like the perfect time to do so rather than talking about "Enhanced Steering Wheel Animations"... weird list.

Almost certainly there will be some third party games coming to Xbox, perhaps even some Sony first party live service titles. But it won't be like the Xbox direct where every game is coming to PlayStation, that's just how it is sadly.

Makes sense. In reality Series X (and PS5) are powerful enough for the VAST majority of games and will be for a while to come. It's only really a handful of AAA, highly ambitious AA or really unoptimized games that will require more compute and couldn't run on this hardware.

Hell, most new games could still run on Xbox One and PS4 with settings dialled down. I suspect we will still get some games released for these systems even after next gen rolls out.

@FraserG Ah that's a shame. I've never agreed with a review more!

(But I can also see it probably makes sense to give it to someone who might enjoy it more.)

Looking forward to reviews regardless, possibly more than the game!

@Markatron84 One of my favourite self aware dev moments was in Fable 2 where they alluded that the Hero of Oakvale killed his master on a loading lore screen that said:

Shortly after the hero slew Jack of Blades, the Heroes Master was killed as well. It's said that the words "Your health is low" were cut into his forehead.

Or words to that effect. I laughed my ass off.

@Kezelpaso Is PJ reviewing the sequel too?

Hopefully not Atomfall as I haven't gotten to that yet. The rest I'm fine with.

I haven't played it for a few years but I have played it at least 5+ times. Great game. Watch your health hero

Good for them. Though I expect this is the exception not the rule, else we would see more devs focus on Xbox first, but we don’t. Several devs and publishers have spoken out about the troubles with publishing on Xbox without a Game Pass deal.

However Xbox does a better job of highlighting legitimate smaller indie games than Nintendo and PlayStation which both have a lot more dross on their stores drowning out legit indie games.

@Millionski They have confirmed this several times. Here's one quote from Sarah Bond last year, specifically discussing the AMD silicon.

"Together with AMD we're advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation to unlock a deeper level of visual quality and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI, all while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games."

They also said to IGN it would be “fully compatible” with users’ existing Xbox game library.

Jason Ronald has also said similar in a different quote.

I totally agree none of these options is easy to implement, but this is what they have promised, I was simply suggesting possible ways they could deliver on that promise.

re: Fallout 3 remastered. "Bethesda is keen to ensure it’s as well polished as the surprise release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered last year."

Well polished!!! Are they having a laugh? The framerate still hasn’t been fixed and there are 20 year old quest bugs in the game. Hopefully Fallout 3 is far more polished.

£39.99 is a good price. It's only twice, very briefly, been below that in sales on PS5, normally it's £69.99 and more than £39.99 in most sales. Saying it's 20% off suggests the standard Xbox Price will be £49.99.

Here we go again… We had this story in 2024 and 2025. Maybe this is the year…

To be fair Cloud could do with a dedicated controller that links straight to Wi-Fi to reduce latency.

But with a new gen coming in I’d wait. I hope that next gen Xbox gets with the times and adds some other features to their controller like Haptics, gyro, battery. As well as others in their leaked “Sebile” document like hall-effect sticks, lift-to-wake, etc. and PC games often play better with more buttons so add some programmable back paddles.

But It makes sense to add these with a new console as standard not now.

@Fiendish-Beaver @Millionski i agree the speculation on what XboxPC might do is a bit wild and perhaps a bit of a pipe dream. But it’s also normal based on things Xbox has said that conflict with it just being Windows 11 FSE. E.g.

Xbox have said there will be full Xbox backwards compatibility with our existing Xbox library - that is almost certainly not via Windows FSE - else why isn’t RoG Xbox Ally X doing it? It can’t play Xbox (console) games at all.

Additionally as far as I see it they can’t do this via emulation on FSE as a PC won’t be powerful enough to emulate XSX. Typically due to the overhead required we can only emulate 2-3 generations ago e.g. we have ok but flawed X360 and PS3 emulators but XBO and PS4 are awful. Also emulation is always flawed many games won’t work properly if at all, which doesn’t sit with what they claimed. That leaves maybe 3 other options

• dual boot of some sort, with an Xbox OS in there, perhaps doing this in a hidden way similar to how quick resume works. (Hold the whole second OS in storage ready to be swapped to memory on the fly elegantly)
• compatibility layer similar to Proton… but again then not all games will work.
• Cloud. People won’t be happy, they want native.

The speculation is a result of Xbox’s pie in the sky comments that leave more questions than answers.

P.S. additionally the little I have seen of FSE it is an AWFUL user experience with 3 places to update software (windows, Xbox, armoury crate), still being booted to windows for some things, amongst many other issues. I don’t know about you but that isn’t the future I want for Xbox.

@dskatter fair enough.

@dskatter I think Starfield is a good game many enjoyed. I just don't think it's a great game. More than enough people will enjoy it enough on PS5 just as they did on Xbox. You make it sound like it's awful.

@InterceptorAlpha I'm still kicking myself for not buying 32GB (or even 64GB) of Crucial DDR5 6400 when it was briefly reduced to £64 last year. That same kit today... £323.03 a 5x increase. Bonkers.