Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club - Halo 2 (Nov)

@Ryu_Niiyama haha cool! Yeah I definitely wouldn't have understood PTO! My brain was just about working enough to abbreviate A Plagues Tale and understand APT 😅

@Tothington91 @MAC26 @XBontendo @Justifier @LtSarge @Tjuz @nessisonett @crippyd @Krzzystuff @sib @Ryu_Niiyama @John117 @LeanerFasterStronger @cracked_seal @Mr-Fuggles777 @Mundaney @KilloWertz @Beagle @antifyre @Magabro @themightyant @The_New_Butler @ZeD @K1LLEGAL @Balta666

Apologies for the mid-month tag, just wanted to get some more votes in for September's game...

Here's how it stands currently (apologies to those who have been tagged but already voted...):

Psychonauts 2 - 1 (antifyre,
Mirrors Edge - 2 (magabro, ltsarge
Perfect Dark - 1 (ltsarge
Quantum Break - 1 (ltsarge
Ori and the Will of the Wisps - 1 (ltsarge
Kameo: Elements of Power - 1 (ltsarge
Dante's Inferno - 2 (ltsarge, krzzystf
Crysis - 1 (ltsarge
Dead Space - 2 (fuggles, krzzystf

A varied mix but the votes are spread thin at the moment. I like the sound of a few of them but Im leaning toward Psychonauts 2 because my gaming time is being held up by work and other responsibilities at the moment so I'm quite happy play it for game club.

But yeah, please cast a vote if you haven't done so already!!

@ralphdibny my votes go for psychonauts 2, kameo and Dante's

@ralphdibny

Thanks for the Tag, I'm gonna have to go with Psychonauts 2 as I'm continuing to finish my MBA and I intend to check it out, I won't have time to add another game onto the stack.

@ralphdibny +1 for Mirrors Edge or Quantum Break for me.

I feel like Psychonauts 2 is a game that a lot of people will play anyway so seems like a waste to have it as part of Game Pass Club and so close to playing the original too - just my 2p worth though.

@ralphdibny Psychonauts 2 for me. Or a replay of Ori WotW.

I've played all the others, good solid choices!

@ralphdibny I'll stick votes in for Dante's Inferno, Mirrors Edge, Quantum break and Dead Space.

I'm going to be honest, I've been slowly playing more games on PlayStation systems these past few weeks that I might just need a boost to return to Xbox One and Game Pass since I still haven't played anything on GP since A Plague Tale. While I agree that most people are going to check out Psychonauts 2 anyway, it does feel appropriate since we just played the first Psychonauts on Game Club. However, I don't want this to become a trend where the only games we play are new games coming out on Game Pass. Like I don't want to vote for Halo Infinite as November's title, lol. I personally view Game Club an opportunity for me to go through my backlog. But yeah, I don't mind checking out a new title every once in a while.

In other words, put a vote for Psychonauts 2 from me as well.

@ralphdibny Dantes Inferno and Dead Space for me please.

Cheers for all your votes peeps! Keep em coming, if there are any more to come!

@LtSarge I do agree that we'd probably have to start nixing new releases if it became a trend but I honestly don't think it will. I'm not even fussed if we did do Halo Infinite for November (if it even comes out then), it would be 2 months out of 12 so not a huge deal really. But I don't think they have enough games that are game club material coming out anyway. I'm trying to remember what else is even coming out, obvs Horizon 5 isn't really a month long game. I can't say I'm too fussed about any other upcoming games. My highlights of E3 were literally only WarioWare on Switch and Horizon 5, although I am keen to check out the Advance Wars remake as I have never played the originals.

I think we did do it a bit when we did a double bill of Tell Me Why and Battletoads last year actually but yeah, we ain't going back to that mad schedule, @dmcc0 is only just getting around to Night in the Woods now 😅

I am Gona play Halo Infinite but I can just imagine what my comments are going to be if it got picked for game club 😂. "It's ok", "bit boring here", "the archives were tedious", "pretty generic", "totally average". You never know, 343 might pull a Doom Eternal out of their hats but somehow I doubt it!

Also not sure what day Halos coming out but if it's mid November then it's out of contention anyway. Psychonauts just happens to line up nicely with the start of the month.

@Mr-Fuggles777 ahh cool, sorry yeah I wasn't sure if you were just recommending Dante's inferno but voting dead space from your original post. I'll get the list updated shortly

@dmcc0 I don't think you're alone in that opinion bud. I'm quite keen on it still but I'll count up the votes in a bit and we will see how the cards get dealt

Oh yeah, also I started playing A Plague Tale today. For some reason I really thought I wouldn't enjoy it. The survival horror aspects sounded really hard but they really haven't been so far but I'm only on chapter 8. I think all of your comments praising the game helped egg me on to play it and I'm glad I did.

I think it's really good so far, not my favourite gameclub game but to be fair, nothing is going to top Ori! It's probably on the same level as like Hellblade and Alan Wake for me.

Speaking of Hellblade, gameplay-wise it is reminding me of a cross between ICO and Hellblade.

Is the second game Xbox only? I can't remember if it was or if it was just day and date game pass. I was just thinking that I've played a couple of these cinematic narrative driven single player games on Xbox now even though it's something that PlayStation has become known for.

Love the setting, idyllic France 😍. So beautiful. I was thinking at one point that this game would really benefit from playing it on an ultra wide curved screen. Not VR though 🤮. Just a bit more real estate so I don't have to turn the camera to look around at the beautiful settings which is already a bit vom inducing because it's not mega smooth. The cameras a bit weird as well actually, it's like tank controls but spread over two sticks. It feels a bit odd for it to control like that, I guess it's like a third person shooter. You can only turn the camera around to see your characters' faces when you are standing still.

I was actually pondering the notion of moving to France the other day 😅. Using the EuroTunnel to commute into London. It's a quick train but I think it would be too expensive even if the house prices are cheaper out there. I'll keep dreamin'

But yeah, I thought I'd start this game today as I had a few things on this week (hair cut, taking my mum to the opticians, picking up my own glasses, going to see my grandad in the care home) but thought this game would plug the gaps. Unfortunately I ended up being booked for work for the next 3 days so all my plans went out the window. I've gotta take the work though because my partner and I are looking at flats on Friday so we can move in together properly. Time to become a responsible adult even if it took me until my early thirties to do it 😭😂

@ralphdibny Well I'd love to play the next A Plague Tale, which is also coming to Game Pass, on Game Club and that game is coming out in Spring next year so it would also be close to Halo Infinite. Granted, the next A Plague Tale is going to be next-gen exclusive, so if I don't find myself with a Series X next year then I might not even get to play it so it wouldn't matter anyway.

Funny that you should mention Night in the Woods because I also started playing that game again recently, lol. Although I decided to restart it on the Switch instead since it's better suited for handheld play. Hopefully I'll have the motivation to finish it this time around!

Glad to hear that you're enjoying A Plague Tale and it's crazy that you're already on chapter 8! You're pretty much halfway through the game now. I also really liked France as the setting. It's funny that you brought up moving there because I literally thought about wanting to move to France as well right after I finished the game. I've been there a couple of times on vacation and it's a lovely country. I could definitely see myself living there in the future, maybe settle down with a nice French lady. Speaking of which, back when I studied at uni, there were exchange students in my class and one of them was a girl from France. I got a crush on her over time but it didn't lead anywhere because I kept getting c***blocked by other foreign students who wanted to hang out with her, including a French guy. Anyway, there have been other instances where I've taken a liking to French girls so it feels like I'm really drawn to girls from that country. Who knows, maybe I'll eventually move there, lol.

Current rundown

Psychonauts 2 - 7 (antifyre, balta, leanerfaster, mightyant, john117, sarge, me)
Mirrors Edge - 5 (magabro, ltsarge, dmc, crippy, me)
Perfect Dark - 2 (ltsarge, me)
Quantum Break - 4 (ltsarge, dmc, crippy, me)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps - 3 (ltsarge, mightyant, me)
Kameo: Elements of Power - 3 (ltsarge, balta, me)
Dante's Inferno - 5 (ltsarge, krzzystf, balta, crippy, Fuggles)
Crysis - 2 (ltsarge, me)
Dead Space - 4 (fuggles, krzzystf, crippy, me)

What's good about this, is that there are a bunch of contenders for future months. We were flagging a bit in terms of new suggestions but there's a solid turn out here so hopefully stuff like Mirrors Edge, Dante's Inferno, Quantum Break, Dead Space etc should see us through late 2021/early 2022

I will do a vote for October again, as Sarge suggested. I'll pick a few horror games from game pass, GwG and maybe even paid games and see what gets traction. Save your october votes for when I put up the poll though please as it becomes unmanageable and confusing for me to sort between September's votes and October's votes.

@LtSarge 😂 my goodness! That was such a "lads on tour" post! It's nice to hear more about your personal life while still retaining the anonymity of the internet. Missed opportunities though, I think I alluded to my own during my philosophical rantings the other day but I won't go into any more detail on a public forum 😅. Possibly could over chat if we ever play a game online together. Audio only, don't want any screenshottable evidence of my misdeeds 😂

Haha your mind races a lot. I didn't realise the second plague tale was going to be next gen exclusive. Gutted, it was one of the things that made me keen to play the first one (same with Psychonauts). Oh well, you never know what the future holds. Maybe I'll find a series X under my Xmas tree. Most likely not though 😅

I think I might play Night in the Woods after I finished Plague Tale. I'm sorta kinda guessing it's Gona get dropped from game pass in the next few months as it only joined when we attempted to play it for game club last year. My mates been on at me to start Yakuza 4 though so we will see.

@ralphdibny In my defence, I only got my Xbox in December and apart from Switch, hadn't really done any gaming since PS3 so I've got a whole generation to catch up on as well as a ridiculous backlog on Switch, older consoles/handhelds It's a nice problem to have though - I'm never stuck for something to play, but also means I tend to ignore newer stuff and pick it up cheaper down the line.

@dmcc0 ah fair enough and sort of same here but I got mine in Nov '19 so I had a year head start. I think purexbox came back in March '20 maybe? But yeah, no need for a defence 😅. We just game at our own pace. Mine has massively slowed down since going back to work and also the general reinstatement of real life responsibilities now that we appear to be coming out of this pandemic. Sucks, wish I could go back to playing games from morning to night!

@ralphdibny Apart from a bit of extra free time at weekends because we couldn't go anywhere, the pandemic hasn't really given me more play-time. I work for a pretty small company which never shut down at all. My boss decided not to furlough anyone apart from the receptionist; said he'd rather pay us to sit around doing nothing and be available rather than furlough anyone and not be able to use them if required. Had the odd quiet day here and there, but generally had enough work to keep everyone ticking over the whole time so probably quite lucky in that regard.

I worked from home for the first couple of months, but found I wasn't getting anything done so ended up going back into the empty office just to avoid distractions. I pretty much had the office to myself for about a year until a couple of the engineers came back recently - the rest are still working from home for now.

@ralphdibny Haha yeah, I felt like opening up a bit last night since it's only fair considering how much you're talking about your private life.

Man, I really miss Yakuza now, lol. It's so sad that I won't be able to play a game with Kiryu and the gang anymore. I probably will start up Judgment sometime soon just to satiate my craving for the series. You're lucky that you still have three more games to go. Yakuza 4 is great though btw, hope you'll enjoy it if you decide to start it up soon.

@dmcc0 ahh lame that sucks. To be fair, I only got 5 months of furlough out of the available 12 or whatever the government was offering. I just lived off savings for the rest of it. I think I did about 6 shifts in total so it was funny when my p60 came through and it said 6 grand with all the furlough money so it was like getting £1000/a shift 😂. Of course the reality of it is that of shot my self in the foot and burned through my savings. Still got a bit left for that house deposit down the line though thankfully.

I think there's a semi permanent position coming up at a particular company that I don't really like working at which I'll probably have to take as I'm moving in with my partner soon so I'll need a regular income. Hoping to negotiate a bit of extra dough for it because with peak travel and tax, my take home actually won't be that high unfortunately.

@LtSarge yeah that's cool 👍. I don't really mind doing it as long as I leave out names, locations, places that are close to where I actually live. I think the only people that would be able to identify me from my stories are my friends and as far as I know, none of them visit this trio of sites. I love telling stories though, both good and bad ones. I love being reminded of my past because I view it so fondly, even the tough times. Obviously I have to censor a fair bit of it so it's appropriate for these sites 😅. I'm sure I'd be run out of town with some of the stuff I've got up to!

Oh man @LtSarge I miss Yakuza too! Still have Judgment to play which is awesome to have for whenever I want it. I feel like me and you have a similar (but still broad) taste in games. I think it was you I was talking to about being on the “bear” bit of Yakuza 5 and being burnt out. But Yakuza 6 brought me right back. Incredible game.

Anyway with the Vote just seen that Myst is coming to Gamepass on Aug 26th so that could be an idea! Never played it before. Otherwise Psychonauts 2 is good for me. I would have said 12 Minutes but seems like most may have that done by September.