Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club - On Indefinite Hiatus

@BaldBelper78 hello there, I believe it is your first time here so welcome! If you'd like I can added you to the tag list so you know first hand the game chose each month and how to vote. You don't have to to stick around obviously. Cheers

Unfortunately cannot download the game today because of the outage...

I finished this the other week. I really enjoyed the setting and it looked and sounded amazing. It was a great game to test my new TV and sound bar with 😂

For me, It had a similar story path as their other game, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. You learnt about your character and the environment as you progressed, coming to your own conclusions as you go.

@themightyant Agreed, I hate to use modern parlance in this context, but there is definitely a vibe you have to tap into and I can imagine if you can’t you end up with cries of boring and the like. I would love them to move away from horror again or at least be horror adjacent. Need to check out Little Orpheus, I had forgotten about that one.

I tried it for a bit but definitely way to stressful for my taste. Uninstalled 😂. Hope everyone else likes it though.

@Balta666 how far in did you get? It gets really stressful when things go quite wrong and you are navigating the under side of the oil rig! 😂

Almost an hour I would say. Just a bit after I got the lantern and I knew a crazy guy was lurking around

Yeah... that part is quite stressful 😂😂

Please do add me in. I was here before but am now back!

Played a little more and still love the characters and the setting, it's just the gameplay which is very average and lets the game down. Even before my first encounter I noticed a locker with press X to hide which gave you an idea of what was to come, but in reality I never needed to even use a locker to hide, the enemy is AI is both simplistic and irritating. It feels like one of those games where i'd almost rather they just committed to it being a walking sim than having the not so good gameplay. It lets the whole package down.

Played about an hour today. Not bad. I pretty much second most of what's said here, both good and bad. I'll carry on tomorrow and see where it takes me. One thing I do love is the vibe. Reminds me of classic 70s/80s horror films like "The Thing." So needless to say, I'm really intrigued thus far.

@themightyant My expectations were in check so the rudimentary gameplay didn’t bother me as it seemed to service the story and atmosphere, which is the main attraction here, and is way more interactive than say …Rapture or Dear Esther which was quite refreshing. I would have definitely been happy with a straight up walking sim though.

Well another round of price increases are up for tomorrow. I still have a couple of months stacked but most likely will be unsubscribing soon I am afraid...

@Balta666 didn't hear that. When? I might unsub myself.

@NintendoByNature at that time I mentioned it was a leak of official documents (it was pretty clear was not a fake) and has now been confirmed. For the same current price you no longer have day One Microsoft games and Ultimate has increased 3€/$

@Balta666 @NintendoByNature It's a real shame. Especially for Standard tier subscribers as they also had a price hike last year. In June 2023 you could get Day 1 games for £8 / $10 a month, now the minimum tier for Day 1 games is £15 / $20. Effectively DOUBLE the cost in just over a year.

For Ultimate subscribers this is slightly easier to swallow, though still off the back of the hike last year. That all said through Microsoft Rewards I haven't paid a penny for Game Pass Ultimate in years and have it stacked for the next 3 so I likely won't feel the pinch of this till next gen.

EDIT: One other thought. I am interested to see how long it will take for games to hit the new Game Pass STANDARD tier and if that includes ALL Games in Ultimate.

EDIT 2: It seems there will be some games that are exclusive to the Ultimate tier. From the FAQ

Ultimate also includes day one titles, specific entries to the Game Pass Ultimate library, access to EA Play, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Perks, Quests, and discounts on games in the Game Pass library

@themightyant yep rewards are a big bonus which unfortunately I have not access in my country... The only way I managed to get slight cheaper is to buy it on second hand markets (10-30%)

@Balta666 I remember seeing that they were discontinuing the console subscription for standard before it was reported here, and I already knew it was a bad move. It's a shame because I was planning on getting the console subscription back as I had canceled it, but I think now I'll have no choice but to buy the standard one if I want to continue playing in the game club unfortunately, though I'll think about it. I really don't want to have to purchase the Ultimate subscription but they are now going to lock some of the games we were supposed to play here behind Ultimate. If we do play Conker's Bad Fur Day eventually (as that is the only game here that I own) I don't know if I'll continue to participate in the game club sadly. I don't have all the money to purchase a lot of games...

@Balta666 @Pastellioli On the (subjective) plus side this might change the group back to playing older titles over new Day 1 releases. That will please some and frustrate others.

@themightyant I would not be to sad about that. Day one releases seems to me to be maybe the most unprofitable an well least unsustainable thing about the standard offer/service to me.