Just One Game Is Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In December 2024 So Far

Indiana Jones... the game to Rule them All

I’m incredibly excited for Indiana Jones. Other than Youngblood, I love MachineGames and their Wolfenstein output. I really hope this game gets Xbox a much needed W. The game looks fantastic, and I’m curious to see how their first person combat system works—they are the masters at it.

Out of avowed stalker and Indy, Indy was the one I was least interested in, I’m not a big fan of Indy.

But I hope it releases well and is fun, as I’m waiting for stalker patches I’m certainly more interested in trying it out now.

Still lament the fact they opted for 1st person over 3rd. In 1st person you may as well be playing as Rick O'Connell.

I’m not fussed about Indiana Jones but I hope it’s great for those who are looking forward to it.

There should be another option for the vote:

‘I’m excited for the game but will wait to see whether it releases as a buggy mess’.

I can hear the movie soundtrack in my brain - so yeah I’m in the can’t wait group…

It's really the only one that matters to me anyway, so I'm good.

I am in the not excited but willing to give it a chance category. I still have a lot of doubts about the game play loop & how things are outside of the big set piece highlight moments.

I’m a little concerned about some janky animations (notably the first person whipping seems a bit off), but otherwise it looks to be shaping up into something special.

My only major concern is the extent to which that no talent fool Todd Howard is actually involved. The less he gets his grubby fingers into something, the better off it will be. I’d prefer Machine Games handle everything, while they sit Todd in a corner and hire someone to pay him condescending praise like a parent gives a child. ‘Oh yes Todd, that’s a great idea. That’s going right up on the refrigerator next to your decision to partition starfield into a thousand different areas connected by loading screens.’

@Dalamar73 I’m with you about that. We have enough first person games on Xbox, I would of preferred Indy to be in third person that plays a bit like the Uncharted games. Can only hope it launches in a decent state compared to others recently.

@MaccaMUFC

I suspect a 3rd person mode or two will surface at some point. Depends on how they've approached the 1st person.

After the recent changes to gamepass that have made it so Ultimate members get less games each month I'm not expecting much else other than Indi next month. We got 9 games on gamepass last year in December, this year I bet you we get 3 for ultimate, the rest will be games already on gamepass being moved over to gamepass standard.

I think Indy's going to be absolutely brilliant. Excellent dev, gameplay, puzzles, tone, everything looks on point.

With this, Avowed, Doom, Perfect Dark and Fable Xbox is about to (finally!) start cookin'.

The last Indiana Jones game I played was that one on the Sega Genesis lol

Looking great, they seemed to have cooked something really special. Funny that Indiana Jones inspired Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider inspired Uncharted and now we are back to Indiana Jones. 😂

I'm not sold on what I've seen up to here, but I hope it turns out well. I'll check it out, in any case.

Fingers crossed 🤞. Not sure Microsoft can afford any more launch day disasters - any more and we should be asking for a discount for Day 1 games being included with Gamepass Ultimate, rather than paying a premium.

I’m currently playing through Uncharted 4 on PS5 and it is polished, superbly presented and well scripted - I appreciate Indy is going to be a very different game, but if it can match Uncharted on those elements then we might just have a decent game coming our way.

@Feffster Uncharted 4 is well presented, well scripted and has excellent voice acting, but the gameplay is extremely flat and linear and the shooting sections are terrible. I don't think that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is following Sony's PS4/PS5 template of cinematic experiences, in spite of being based on a cinematographic IP, but rather a big adventure with much deeper gameplay. We'll see.

@Banjo- each to their own, but I’m enjoying the game so far (about 50% in). As I said above, I appreciate that the two games are going to be very different - but there are still likely to be comparisons.

Definitely hoping it (Indy) turns out well 🤞

Early previews were decent. And I am glad they made it first person and more puzzles/adventure than fighting. I think they want to avoid comparisons with uncharted plus machine games is known for first person gameplay. Its also seems like to be stable and 60fps right away which is great.

@Feffster Yes, they are being compared but they are quite different in terms of gameplay. Not long until Indy's is released. 😊

Uncharted 2 is still considered one of the best games of its type so, differences aside, comparisons will still be made with Uncharted and the more recent Tomb Raider reboots. It's inevitable.

That aside Indiana Jones has to deliver. As the year draws to a close Microsoft can ill-afford to have another title they've hyped to the maximum not deliver the goods.

@Banjo- @Feffster uncharted games really shine in the moments where there's no combat, or it's a high octane set piece. Naughty dog are undoubtedly the best in the biz at video game storytelling, but even the last of us doesn't have particularly compelling gameplay. The moments I remember are always non-combat.

Indy very much looks scaled back on the combat front, so I'm hoping we essentially get the best of uncharted's tenplate, without the crap gunplay.

@Coletrain Right, I really enjoyed the Uncharted games as "films", Nathan Drake is likeable, but as games they are terrible. In that sense, the Tomb Raider games are much better, although modern Lara Croft is not coherent. What I remember about them is what you remember about them.

I didn't like anything about The Last of Us and I was more excited about playing those than Uncharted because horror is one of my favourite genres. Critics love this kind of games with solid and intense storytelling even when gameplay is mediocre, and they became Sony's identity during the PS4 era, at the expense of Sony's more gamey IPs.

Judging by the trailers, Indiana Jones will be a combination of adventure, exploration, stealth and close-range combat and looks great. More similar to Tomb Raider than Uncharted, I think. Microsoft's Sony template game has been released already, Hellblade II. 😉

@Onlyboxmatters This has to be a troll comment...none of what you said makes any sense and is pretty much the opposite of reality.

@Banjo- haha Hellblade II was at least something totally different, I absolutely loved the visual and sound design of that game!

There's a place for those Sony story driven games, but you're bang on that the gameplay doesn't seem to matter from a critical standpoint any more. So why wouldn't they carry on that way? It gets high metascores and sales.

The two PS5 games that I genuinely feel we miss out on with Xbox? Rift Apart (although will grab that on my ROG Ally when it's on sale) & Astro Bot. The rest I don't need. I have prime video and netflix for that.

@Coletrain Indeed. About Hellblade II, the first part of the game near the ocean and the key fights were presented in a way I had never seen in a video game. The way the sword is swung, even. The graphical fidelity... The torches!

@Banjo- oh god, some of the stills I took when Senua is crawling under the boat are photorealistic. And that first fight against Thorgestr...yeah, wow!

It's the game I'm most looking forward to, I love the movies, and previews seem positive. The last two IJ movies, and the games industry in general, however, have taught me to listen to the cynical ***** in me, and not get my hopes up. Thankfully it's on Game Pass so at least I'll not be out of pocket if it turns out to be stinker.

They'll drop 2-3 games during the Game Awards in Dec

Genre wise it looks like a PlayStation game which is fitting since it'll be on PlayStation in short order.

@themightyant agree with every point you made. I still came away on the whole with a "wow" feeling from the experience, but in pure gameplay terms I was ready for it to end when it did.

It was the epitome of a "7" score for me, where the visuals, atmosphere and sound design were all 10 out of 10, but the gameplay after the first act never deviated and is more of a 4.

Interestingly, it also reminded me that when a games visuals are so well done, I really don't give a s##t if I'm playing at 30fps 🤣 it's how I plan to play ff16 when (if?) it comes to Xbox...come on SE...

@themightyant exactly. I've seen a few on here worried about Avowed being 30fps and they're right, it just doesn't feel good for first person games now. Feels weird but I'll probably play that one on the ROG Ally just to get the frames, even if it looks like crap.

Didn't even care about this stuff til 2021. Truly spoiled as gamers 🤣

@themightyant hahaha oh god. I was close, really thought about it, but still don't have a 120hz TV (and I wasn't about to play that thing on a 24" monitor). Enjoy it though man, all the content I've seen so far looks sick

@themightyant had it in my basket, disc drive version with the Very discount (UK based too), but changed my mind and got the Ally instead. Needed a new PC anyway. Figured I can get most of the PS games (the ones I want at any rate) on that anyway, but if the NextBox doesn't move towards PC storefronts then ps6 with all the pro back compat will look mighty tempting...