Topic: Now Playing on Xbox Series X|S

After wrapping up Cyberpunk 2077, I'm still slowly chipping away at Banjo-Tooie, which I haven't played since I was a child on my N64 and it's giving me such warm, fuzzy, nostalgic feelings lol
I didn't remember it to be so much longer and more involved in its objectives compared to Kazooie!

In the meantime I started Deus Ex HR, which I played on PS3 many years ago but never completed, before finally starting Mankind Divided.

I'm still playing through the ascent, finding the massive spikes in difficulty a bit frustrating. Going to see if i finish the game or give up on it. Might be halfway through but just loosing it's appeal a bit. Started up Dirt 5 yesterday and....well...i think Forza Horizon had ruined racers for me. This looks and handles a little trashy to what I'm used to. I'll give it another night or two to see if i adjust to it but I was pretty disappointed in my first time playing lol. Did about 5 races so far. I heard a lot of positive talk about it and some folks saying it felt better than FH so maybe that was part of my disappointment as well. Tunes are decent though.

I'm busy with Octopath Travel(l)er. I just wanted to say something about Panzer Dragoon Remake. I bought it on the last sale but I was worried about the performance. I can confirm that, although the intro runs choppier than Turok on N64, the first episode runs like a crisp 60fps dream, at least on Series X. I need to say it because the remake has a bad reputation and that's why I didn't buy it before.

I'm loving Octopath Traveler for many reasons I'll explain another day but the one thing I hate is Tressa's English voice. It's the most irritating thing I've ever heard in my whole life. I turn voice volume all the way down or switch to Japanese voices whenever I'm playing dungeons and boss battles.

@Krzzystuff I tried The Ascent when it joined Game Pass but it's not for me. It seemed to demand a lot of learning with no proper tutorials nor smooth difficulty/learning curve and tiny fonts.

@Banjo- yeah it's a beautiful game and lot of ambition for a small studio. I think a lot of the feedback they got from this game could result in something amazing for their next title....but definitely a big issue with the difficulty spikes and lack of information. You can only apparently upgrade one weapon fully and you can't reset your points spent on a weapon....read that online randomly after spending points on one of my first weapons.... would have been great to know that early on lol. But the world is freaking beautiful and a lot of details in it....and great explosions. But that's not helping me beat this hard ass boss now is it!?

@Krzzystuff I'll leave it to you! Let us know how are you liking (or not) the game.

Started Snowrunner recently - I've spent a ridiculous amount of time in the first map (Michigan) so haven't actually encountered any snow apart from the early stages of the game/tutorial when it first explains the maps and you do a contract in Alaska. My truck was way too underequipped and I ended up getting stuck on a pathetic hill almost right next to my garage and tipping the trailer contents all over the road as I tried to turn around - I just left the stuff in the road and went back to the Michigan map to improve my trucks and I've been there ever since 😂

Loving the game so far though. There are 3 regions in the game - Michigan, Alaska and somewhere in Russia I think - each with 4 separate areas and, apart from my brief visit to Alaska, I'm still just driving around the first 2 Michigan maps despite being about 50 hours into the game. I've done a few of the "Story" contracts, but have mostly been driving around doing the side quests, rescuing abandoned trucks, finding vehicle upgrades etc.

@dmcc0 I had not heard about it but it looks like an immersive experience, I'll try it.

@Banjo- I was vaguely aware of it (and the previous game, Mudrunner) before, but saw a review when it was recently released on Switch, so checked out some other reviews and most seemed really positive, so thought I'd give it a go when I saw it cheap in an Xbox sale. It's strangely addictive and definitely worth a try if it's still on Game Pass - I'm sure it got added shortly after I bought it!

On paper it sounds pretty dull - basically a delivery sim with trucks - but there's some strategy involved with planning your route to avoid impassable terrain, choosing a suitable vehicle for the job etc and it's pretty satisfying completing a contract that looked almost impossible at first

@Krzzystuff I played the full game when it launched and apart from one or two bosses did not have much trouble with it. Cannot remember the upgrade system at all but I know that I have use the machine gun most of the time and as that is an early game maybe that is the reason I did not find it difficult I guess...

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order via Gamepass. Apart from the Lego Star Wars games, I usually avoid Star Wars games, but I don't have anything to 'lose' from Gamepass. Generally, its good, but the horrible platforming especially the sliding down ice is utterly terrible to control and steer. Wish Respawn went back to the drawing board and rethought of doing these parts better.

Currently playing Guardians of the Galaxy and Cyberpunk 2077 on Series X. When I started playing GotG a couple of months ago, I wasn't that fond of the game. But having played more of it now, it's actually really good and I'm starting to like the characters more than before when I had only watched the movies.

As for Cyberpunk, it's such a cool game. Like everything is cool. And it's really nice to be playing it without glitches or performance issues. I'm really enjoying it so far.

After a few weeks of break I am back to elden ring grind (closing on level 100 soon but cannot find a +7 upgrade for my weapon when I already have the +8 on hand...). It is a cool game but I do prefer the more linear progression of the other souls games. I feel the experience is less balanced as you can go anywhere

Played the first hour of As Dusk Falls and it's pretty good. The lack of animation does feel a bit jarring but the story became so engrossing that I stopped thinking about that. There are definitely a lot of choices and different outcomes like you'd find in a Quantic Dream title, and the flow chart at the end is neat. Looking forward to playing more of it.

Psychonauts 2 on GP. So far, so good! To me, it is one of the best platformers in recent years. The art design is top notch.

And, as a side dish if you want to, I started The Good Life, also on GP. Man, this is tough to recommend but easy to love, like some other Swery games.

Having a second break on elden ring (about 50h in and at the big city atm) to play Omno and Raji before they leave GP and then I think I will also play as dusk falls and that should be plenty until next friday when Xenoblade arrives and I don't turn on the Xbox for a while ..

Gave PowerWash Simulator a go on Game Pass. On paper it sounds right up my alley since I like doing "menial" tasks. The first level was pretty fun, but the second one where you clean an entire garden just went on for far too long. It took me over an hour to clean it and at that point it just became annoying. So I think I'm done with the game. If the objectives took 10-20 minutes, I think I would've liked it more. But having levels that are so long just hurts my head.

I also started playing CrossfireX Operation Catalyst campaign and honestly, it's pretty fun. It heavily reminds me of a 360 era CoD campaign and it's just mindless fun. It just sucks that you have to pay for the other campaign and there are literally no achievements for the story. So I'm just going to play through the first campaign and then move on from the game.

I just started Binary Domain. A first person shooter by RGG studios. Very curious since I'm absolutely loving the Yakuza games and fist of the north star. Binary domain is the only rgg game avaliable on modern consoles I haven't tried yet so I'm curious

Decided to give the game Exo One a go on Game Pass. It's heavily reminiscent of a thatgamecompany game. I think the best comparison would be Flower meets space. You're basically playing as a ball that's jumping and gliding through one planet after the other and it's just a relaxing experience. If you're looking for that Flower or Journey experience on Game Pass, definitely give Exo One a shot.

Binary Domain was a pretty decent cover shooter like gears. Not to long, finished it in like 9 hours or something. After that i started Solasta: crown of the magister. An isometic rpg that is based on D&D 5th edition. Never been a real top down rpg player, but i wanted to give this game a try to see if i like it before i start games like Divinity, Pillars of Eternity etc. It's a pretty enjoyable game until now, the voice acting is a bit all over the place and it is getting used to if you havent really played an isometric rpg before. But i think i can finish it. Thats the good thing about gamepass at least i can try this type of game now.