Topic: Now Playing on Xbox Series X|S

Mostly diablo 4 for me. I'll also try out Solar Ash tonight.

Elden Ring, with forays into PGA Tour for a break!

So many good games out the mo. I'm also enjoying playing the new Alone In the Dark and Outcast 2

Playing South Park Snow Day, Stick Of Truth, and Alone in the Dark.

Patiently awaiting the Fallout 4 patch to jump in.

***Edit. Started Fallout 3 on gamepass. Whoa.

Started up Eiyuden Chronicles tonight and so far I am enjoying it. The graphics are beautiful and vibrant. Gameplay wise this is an old school RPG. I am only a few hours in an completed the first Dungeon. But I can tell this is going to be a great game.

Played a bit more Eiyuden Chronicles last night. Managed to recruit some more people and went through the second Dungeon and beat it. I will say random encounters aren't as annoying as some other games. I have played RPGs where it seems every two steps you are getting into a battle this game not so much. I don't know if they programmed it that way or if it's my imagination. Also I love how each boss has a gimmick to the battle makes it so each battle feels different and you not mashing attack and Magic over and over again till it dies.

Assassin's Creed

I played and loved Assassin's Creed on Xbox One and now I'm playing The Ezio Collection on Series X. Assassin's Creed II became a bit of a chore, but that was me trying to do everything and find all the chests and unlocking the secret "movie". I loved Brotherhood, the story hooked me and I played it naturally, ignoring the chests and of course the hidden messages and so on. Now I'm playing Revelations and I'm liking it, too. I'm just doing the stuff that gets in the way, but not trying to find everything. I'm enjoying these games more like this. They are amazing games, but parkour is a bit cumbersome and unresponsive as races prove.

By the way, have any of you played Black Flag on Wii U? I bought that game physically when it came out and the frame rate is so bad that I sold it after playing it for a few hours, so I wonder what others think. It felt like 10-20fps. I'm delighted to know that every Assassin's Creed runs at 60fps on Series X... Every title except Black Flag and Syndicate.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

I haven’t actually played a Tomb Raider game before, but this was the game that the Pure Xbox Game Club voted on as their game for May. I haven’t gotten far into it since I was busy yesterday and got super annoyed from outside circumstances, but it’s pretty good so far! I don’t play triple-A games and usually stick to smaller or retro games. I’m going to try to complete it as fast as I can before May ends. Hopefully I don’t take weeks to finish it! Once I complete it, I think I’ll likely play the game that comes before it, since Rise of the Tomb Raider is actually a sequel.

Aside from that, I’ve been going through some games I already completed. I’m playing through a couple of classics on Rare Replay and revisiting Conker: Live and Reloaded. I replayed through the final two chapters of the latter at 12 in the morning since I had little time to play games from being all busy. I still find myself entertained by the game even after completing it. I can’t get enough of Conker for some reason

EDIT: It’s almost the end of May and I never finished Tomb Raider… Unfortunately I am not surprised I didn’t finish it

More Assassin's Creed

Because I have already beaten all Gears of War and Halo games after skipping Xbox 360. I finished Assassin's Creed III Remastered recently and the DLC The Tyranny of Washington. They look great on my TV (C9 and C1) even in the original Xbox One resolution, but the gameplay is the worst in the series so far. I liked the story and script as usual and the DLC is actually more enjoyable than the main game. The UI is the opposite of intuitive. The gameplay and even the level design of the main game is very bad at times, like you have to repeat sections just to understand how and what the game expects you to do, but I'd still recommend the older games (the first and The Ezio Collection). Now I'm playing Liberation Remastered. So far it's not as bad as I expected after a glance at some fan and media reviews. It's Assassin's Creed Lite meets Super Princess Peach, but to play this (and III) in 60fps on Series S|X is a luxury and the gameplay is not as confusing and glitched as the main title, although the music is not as good. Both games are included with Assassin's Creed Odyssey Gold.

@Pastellioli Oh my boy, I loved Rise of the Tomb Raider and I need to play Conker again. I also just read (and loved) your comment on "What Convinced You To Pick Xbox In The First Place?"

@Banjo- wait a minute did you just say AC3 had the worst gameplay?! how?? correct me if i’m wrong because i played the original AC3 on 360 , and the new engine was mindblowing and the game felt almost like a generational leap , couple with the fact that it came out towards the end of the generation when most games were maxing out the systems hardware. AC3 is my favorite AC game up there with 2 , and i don’t remember AC3 having any gameplay frustrations no more than AC2 and other typical AC jank

Decided to give XDefiant a try now that it's live. Really enjoying it its everything that I loved about the older Call of Duty games that the newer CoD games have lost, and best of all its free. Definitely will have a place on my harddrive for when I am craving some FPS action.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

I started it today because Ubisoft is supposedly remaking Black Flag, that would be the next after Assassin's Creed III and Liberation. I just beat Valravyn. My biggest complaint so far is that the character moves very slowly, but to "run", instead of pushing the analogue stick further -isn't that what they were invented 30 years ago?-, you need to keep pressed a button (left bumper). So, you basically play with the bumper pressed all the time. My second complaint is that navigation is confusing because there's no map and not only you have to explore the full area like in most games, but also go through portals to switch the environment. I realised this by chance. I don't usually like navigating areas without maps, but switching the 3D environment on top of that is too much. I don't mind the lack of tutorials because the voices vaguely guide you and it's a part of the presentation, but who said this game is linear? 🤣 My third complaint is the visual effects, too much lightning while exploring, like every five seconds while exploring the big area before the boss, that made my eyes bleed on my OLED TV with Dolby Vision.

What I've liked so far is the presentation, the audio (with Dolby Atmos for Headphones) and that they talk some Norse mythology that I didn't know anything about [EDIT: Now that I have heard more in the game, I realised I did know stories about Norse mythology.] Combat? So far, so good. The first enemies are simple and fun to beat like a beat 'em up game and I kind of liked how it felt, but the first boss was a Souls battle. I thought that I was not making any progress until the end. It doesn't look like a short game at all, because it took some time to get here and it's very intense.

EDIT: I also dislike the perspective puzzles because of how boring the exploration is and also the lack of interaction with the environment that hinders the exploration every time you have an idea that doesn't match the level designer's.

@nomither6 I'm playing the remaster. The graphics are much better and the engine is more immersive than I and The Ezio Collection, with no obvious walls but being able to check the outskirts of Chicago and seeing lots of different textures and reflections everywhere. The animation is also improved, but gameplay is much rougher. Many times I didn't even know what I was supposed to do and how or where to go within the given five or so seconds, so it became trial and error, not to mention some very annoying sections and that the UI is the worst so far, even the real-time menus are finicky and cumbersome. Combat is more difficult at first, because there's no extra health or potions, but once I understood how it worked it felt more reliable and responsive than previous games. I was relieved when I beat it, but I'm glad that you loved it. I only loved the story and some of the characters, as I explained 😁.

I'm always playing a number of games throughout the week, so I'll list what I've been playing this week and what I think I'll be playing for the rest of the week.

MMO/Live Service

Final Fantasy 14 - I've been playing this since 2010 and have played this on PC/Playstation until it
released on Xbox. Mainly trying to catch up on the post-Endwalker main story quests to be ready for
Dawntrail.

Diablo 4 - Working my way through Season 4. I'm playing Rogue this season which I've now played
each class in the game. 1 per season and the launch period before season 1. I will have to decide
what class to return to if there is another season before the expansion otherwise I'll be playing the
new one that is coming.

Single Player

Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice - I started this last night stopped after beating the first boss. This will likely be my main single player game until I finish it or the next batch of games leaving gamepass are announced if any of those interest me to complete before they leave.

GTA3 - I bought the GTA Trilogy this week on sale and started playing GTA3. It has been a long time since I've played it but it's amazing how quickly I remembered some of the early missions like the one where you plant the bomb in the guys car while he is eating at the restaurant. The definitive edition looks great and I like the updated controls.

Chicory - I finished this last weekend as it is one of the games leaving gamepass at the end of the month. There was few odds and ends I could finish if I feel motivated too so we will see about that. I had a lot of fun with that game and was very unique with the painting mechanic. The boss fights, which are the only combat in the game, were really creative and intense. I loved them. My 4-year-old daughter even wanted to play so I let her mess around with painting one of the screens.

I just reached the second boss (Surtr). From all the people running the Hellblade games down on the recent threads, you can tell that most haven't played any of them, but some have and write specific complaints that I can agree with, like the perspective puzzles that suck because exploration is slow and interaction with the environment is unpredictable. Combat is becoming unfair too, because although the camera focus on the enemy, more enemies come and attack from different angles, even when you are parring or counterattacking and you can even get stuck in the process.

I'm playing Hellblade 2 as well. I've enjoyed the first hour and I actually enjoy the combat thus far. I thought it was going to be even more stripped down based on what I've read. It's engaging enough for me. Playing on medium difficulty atm..

I've put Fallout 4 on the shelf until I'm done with this.

@Banjo- I finished the second boss Surtr last night. It was a cool fight and the arena looked awesome. The second boss was an easier fight than the first one for me. I understand your comment about the enemies coming up behind you, I've got in the habit of evading away to get all enemies in front of me and then resuming the attack. I don't mind the environmental puzzles but I can definitely see how people would find them tedious especially the ones where you need to find the runes to unlock the doors. I actually was stuck on one of those last night on the way to Surtr that took me like 30 minutes to find lol.

@Conflix I think we started playing the game at the same time because I read your comment elsewhere. I posted that message when I reached the boss arena, but I had not tried. I resumed the game and I beat it in my first try because I used "focus" as intended. It's a cool fight and easier than the first one when I didn't feel that I was making progress until I beat it.

I browsed some pictures online to help me find some of the symbols, especially the infinity symbol, because I knew I was at the right place, but couldn't align the trees in the intended way and I don't like the exploration in this game. I think there's still a long way ahead of us 😅.

@NintendoByNature I you have played the first game, the one that Conflix and I are discussing now, can you tell what differences there are, like improvements?

@Banjo- I wasn't sure if you were talking about 1 or 2, but I've only played 2. So unfortunately, I can't compare for you. For 2 though, The combat does feel fun and meaningful. It's one on one, unforgiving, and your attacks feel very weighted if that makes sense. When you hit the enemy, you REALLY hit the enemy. I enjoy it quite a bit.

@NintendoByNature Yes, the very first battle in the first game gives that very first impression. They nailed the weight of the hits like very few developers do. I am in the Tower Shard Trial because it's the first trial I found. The narrative gets more interesting and touching just before the trials, in the Shipwreck Shore. I still hate that running is not mapped to the analogue stick, the exploration and the unpredictable interaction with the environment, so I'm using a guide, something I rarely do. Not all the time, but for finding the symbols and such. I'm not enjoying everything so far, but I want to keep playing. It's part of the game design, but there are too many voices all the time, I would appreciate some moments of silence every now and then. Truth is psychotics don't hear voices 24/7. The presentation and the graphics are high-quality, so I can see why the sequel's graphics are being praised so much.