16BitHero

Outlaws is objectively a good game. Not great, not bad. Yes it has some standard open world genre fare but I'd argue most of what is here fits the Star Wars universe and in this case the player character very well. The graphics, music and overall feel of being in a Star Wars adventure are excellent. Ubisoft isn't for everyone and I've long since tired of most of their IPs but I'm glad EA isn't the only developer able to make Star Wars games now. It's refreshing to have one without Jedi as main characters. Outlaws was clearly made by people who are passionate about the universe. I got the same for $25 after all the various gameplay patches and it's a fun time and well worth it if you're a SW fan. Put it this way, I've been playing every genre of Star Wars game since the 80's and this ranks among the best imo.

@RegnumSolipsi believe!

This game is brilliant, I've been hammering it with friends on Steam. Everything an old school Rainbow Six and SWAT fan could ask for and by a relatively small studio too. Early bugs are mostly patched out, there is plenty of content and each mission is refreshingly well realized and detailed. It's not for the faint of heart in terms of subject matter so be warned. It's good in single player as you have four guys with you who you can control as a single team or two teams of two at any given time. Multiplayer with friends is where it's at though. It can be tense or hilarious and frequently both. Definitely a good move to finally bring it to consoles.

@Kaloudz I put about 26 hours into it but I'm sure it can be done faster.

I have it through Steam. If you enjoy PowerWash Simulator but could do with a voice acted narrative that fits the vibe then this is definitely worth checking out. Honest review here:

https://youtu.be/eW-x0y2lHak?si=r4_7icXatEpAmFDm

Indiana Jones is a dream come true for this 80's kid. Split Fiction has been brilliant fun for my wife and I. Batman Arkham Shadow is a close third - another gaming milestone for any Batman fan.

95% of my owned PC games are on Steam. I can however sub to GP for $11.99 whenever there's a few titles I want to check out and South of Midnight is most certainly one of those. GP has been amazing recently but my default is to not be subscribed. I got through Hellblade 2, Still Wakes the Deep and Wasteland 3 in two months last year. For me it just depends on free time and games that perk my interest.

@Kaloudz ha, sounds like some electronic recycling is well overdue!

@Shy_Hallaman Well worth it for that price. Brilliant if you're a fan of the original film and a damn fun shooter regardless.

@Kaloudz the first Fear still holds up well today with some of the best enemy AI in gaming. It's a cool mix of very satisfying action/gunplay with some mild horror elements. You can only get it on physical (prices are jacked up of course) or if you have a PC/laptop it's $10 and frequently less on sale.

As a Brit who lived for many years in a southern college town, I can't wait to check this out now. I read Paul Theroux's Deep South, visited New Orleans among many other southern towns/cities and count things like True Detective season 1/3 and the films Mud and Beasts of the Southern Wild among my favourite screen discoveries while living there. Time to resub to GP!

The thing with Gamepass is that it's still excellent value, even with a potential price increase when compared to TV streaming however and this is a big however - if we've already got significant backlogs on other platforms/devices, it becomes less attractive as the value decreases with time available to play the games. I only subscribe for a few months each year to knock out what I consider essential releases. That's just me though. I hope Xbox don't get too carried away as there is a lot of competition these days.

Both Baldurs Gate 3 and KCD 2 shouldn't be on the list until they've actually had an 'influence' (which they will over the coming years). Grand Theft Auto is odd too. GTA 3 makes sense. Halo Combat Evolved as mentioned by a fellow commenter above was hugely influential for console shooters and I think Sonic should be here too. Thinking of open world games, perhaps Far Cry 3 should be here as most open world action RPGs and first person shooters all have design influences from that game for better and worse!

@Fiendish-Beaver ah that's on me for miss-reading the article, this third tier is a bit silly though. I played it through PC Gamepass.

@Sakko Exactly. Invest the money now in a solid PC and you'll never look back. A handful of exclusives over an entire generation is no reason to buy a console. The competition between storefronts despite Steams overall dominance plus the frequent and steep discounts means I've bought my last console. Only took 4 decades of gaming! Plus VR is excellent.

@IronCrow86 It's my favourite Diablo despite its more cartoonish aesthetic. Great in co-op. I got a bit overwhelmed and burned out by 4 although it's still a great game.

I didn't realize Still Wakes the Deep hadn't been on console yet - anyone looking for a short, gorgeous, brilliantly voice acted 70's oil rig riff on The Thing/Color Out of Space with a bit of Alien Isolation or Soma thrown in should absolutely check it out. It's fairly limited from a mechanical perspective but succeeds with a tight little story and excellent atmosphere.

@themightyant good to know. I've been resistant to small screens for a long time but now see the life circumstances that make it useful to people of all ages! Good to have a few different options too. Thanks again for the info.

@themightyant wow, the local console streaming over Wi-Fi is a great feature - not sure how I overlooked this. Maybe a handheld is in my future after all. Thanks for the info!

@themightyant You can use a Steamdeck for all of those things?! Does that mean having to subscribe to GPU and Sony's highest tier to play your owned libraries on both ecosystems?

It's a three day weekend for me but boy oh boy it's hard making backlog decisions.

I'm currently playing through Star Wars Outlaws and Split Fiction on PS5

Kingdom Come Deliverance 1, Monster Hunter Wilds and Baldurs Gate 3 on PC

Batman Arkham Shadows on Quest 3.

I wish I still had the restraint and conviction to play one large game at a time!

Happy gaming everyone!

I guarantee precisely no one is bored waiting for GTA 6 considering the state of gamers backlogs nowadays 😂 If IO are putting their name on this then they must be somewhat confident it's decent.

These companies really need to let gamers with physical games 'own' the digital versions ASAP as these disc drives won't last forever. I think this is going to be a major issue in the evolution of gaming.

Nope. I can't wait until it's out of beta but let's be honest, this should have been MSFS 2025/26. I have over 800mbps and it sometimes looks much worse than 2020 and that's before the numerous bugs. The smaller install size is nice but I'm not sure the infrastructure and technical side is quite there yet. The new features are great but I held off buying and cancelled Gamepass until some titles of interest come my way (it's admittedly been an incredibly strong year for GP so far, just nothing for me yet).

Split Fiction with my wife, then hopefully I'll be reach another Star Wars Outlaws planet. I've been dabbling with Dirt Rally 2.0 in VR using PS5 controller 'gyro' to steer. Surprisingly immersive.

Happy gaming fellow gamers!

Played on Series X (not PS5 or PC) mostly thanks to Gamepass which is just brilliant value whichever way you look at it.

Indiana Jones
Halo Infinite
Ghostwire Tokyo
Aliens Dark Descent
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Hades
Immortality
A Plague Tale (both games)
Unpacking
The Artful Escape
Night in the Woods
Turtles Shredders Revenge

Edit: also loved Hellblade 2 and Still Wakes the Deep but played both on PC.

If the next Xbox console has Steam and can maybe run PCVR games....Those are incredible selling points for anyone without the spare $2500 minimum for a beefy PC. As someone who only built a PC in late 2023, I can attest that PC gaming is excellent because of the variety and choices it offers gamers as well as the frequent and incredible storefront sales and discounts.

It's got 96% from almost 3k reviews in Steam early access...

That's a good length. Too many games are far too long these days. Yes they represent great value in that sense but it's the main reason many of us have neverending backlogs. Personally I don't want most games to be more than 10-40 hours. If it's an epic RPG then I can and will do more but they are so commonplace I don't know how anyone gets through more than three or four games a year and does other things in life haha

I really do like this series, it's full of atmosphere. A mostly linear and focused narrative shooter with a bit of survival horror thrown in, I think it should be played on higher difficulties. The first two are still the best in my opinion. Exodus was an interesting concept but felt far less claustrophobic owing to the semi open world setting. I have the VR game Awakening but want to finish Arkham Shadow first.

@Titntin Once the feedback became positive after a few big patches, as a Star Wars fan I knew I couldn't say no for $20. It's very immersive in terms of characters, music and world building. I definitely want to see and do most of what's here despite having an insane backlog of many higher rated games.

Huuuuge backlog here but this weekend it's Star Wars Outlaws (I waited for a sale and the numerous patches and you know what? It's Star Wars and it's fun), Split Fiction with my wife and hopefully some more Alien Isolation VR (an hour at a time for both battery and pant wetting reasons).

Can't see this happening for several reasons mentioned above but never say never in the ever evolving world of gaming.

@OldGamer999 I feel the same way, the gunplay in Halo is practically unsurpassed at this point, only Doom is competitive and evolving in that respect. The grappling hook was a simple but excellent mechanic. The AI on harder difficulties is still a million years ahead of COD for example. The story and environments have just been a bit stagnant for too long. There is so much potential in this franchise still. Maybe an ODST style spinoff would freshen things up again. It's always going to be multiplatform and have multiplayer but a special focus on solo campaign innovation would make Halo exciting again.

Nacon is quickly becoming one of my favourite publishers. More RoboCop? Yes please.

@Yukairi @Deljo @LordDieALot cheers for the info. I might jump in this year!

Do these games still have a decent roster of classic wrestlers? Now they're finally getting consistently good reviews I'm tempted to recapture the good old days of wrestling games on PS1 and N64 but have been hesitant due to the current state of WWE - dull personalities, dull writing, dull wrestling, dull commentary. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky?!

@themightyant I think the main tech leap will be AI upscaling, similar to what AMD and Nvidia are doing with PC graphics cards and now PlayStation with the pro. More than anything else the next gen of consoles needs to have a minimum of 60fps that maintains good graphical fidelity including fancy features like Ray tracing. Just my opinion but if this isn't the bare minimum then consoles risk falling further behind even modest PC builds.

A strange generation indeed but gaming is going to evolve and change like everything else tech related and often in unpredictable fashion. The Series X is an excellent console, it just had an uphill battle to contend with after the Xbox One generation. Personally, I'm going all in on PC and VR from now on. Gamepass is cheaper and not tied to online multiplayer. The only thing I'll miss is day one PlayStation exclusives but I haven't been a day one gamer for a while - sales are frequent.

@Kilamanjaro VR will also have more widespread application in the medical industry too. I think it's here to stay in various applications meaning that hopefully it'll stick around for gaming too.

Hoping to have time to finally finish the wonderful Indiana Jones. Also hoping to try Monster Hunter Wilds with a friend who generously gifted me the game. If there is still time thereafter, I'll dive back into the first Kingdom Come Deliverance which I started last weekend in an effort to gain the maximum backstory for the sequel.

@armondo36 There is a VR mod for Halo Combat Evolved - its incredible but the cost of entry is steep if you don't have a PC or headset to begin with. Its nevertheless a worthwhile investment at this point in time in my opinion.

@LMN118 the Art and Design high school I work at utilizes VR for a range of subjects. I think it'll become more prevalent, at least in countries that fund education effectively. My dream is to learn languages with AI NPCs who respond, teach and correct in real time.

Total nonsense. I was a VR skeptic for years, I returned both psvr and psvr 2 after two week trials. Despite being impressed by a few of the titles I did get motion sick and didn't think the cost of entry worth it at the time. Fast forward to having owned a Quest 3 for 14 months and some of my best all time gaming experiences since the 80's have been with VR. I never get motion sick anymore (switch to snap turning makes the world of difference even if other movement locomotion is smooth). The Quest alone has a fantastic library but add in PCVR and you've got a thoroughly outstanding selection of games/experiences to choose from.

Half Life Alyx
Metro Awakening
Batman Arkham Shadow
Assassin's Creed
Asgards Wrath 1+2
Lone Echo 1+2
Red Matter 1+2
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Resident Evil 4/7/8
Walkabout Mini Golf
Moss 1+2

My personal favourites Eye of the Temple and the utterly incredible Alien Isolation VR mod speaking of which you can already play Indiana Jones in VR as well as RoboCop, Avatar and Cyberpunk among many others if you have a PC.

I haven't even mentioned legions of indie titles, puzzle games, music/virtual instrument games, educational titles...

I think Microsoft didn't take the plunge because they correctly think most people aren't aware of how far VR has come. Sony killed psvr by not getting the support it needed from both first and third party.

A Terminator game? An Alien game? A RoboCop game? A Predator game? Count me in! We've been thoroughly treated in recent years and with this game, an Alien Isolation sequel and more on the horizon, I'm one happy/nostalgic 80's camper.

@Kaloudz @Odium Cheers chaps for the insightful and amusing parental remarks etc. Lots to look forward to apparently ha. I'd completely forgotten which article this comment thread originated on. Have a great day!

@Kaloudz Ha I've contributed to the list but I can't help feeling I'll be ultimately downvoted. Maybe I'll get to choose a middle name...

@Kaloudz I've heard the same from many friends (I'll be an older dad). Trying to plough through the biggest backlog I've ever had beforehand!

@Kaloudz @Odium I've very much enjoyed your comment conversation! I've gone back to Banjo and Perfect Dark myself recently. Relatively simple games with timeless soundtracks. It's great reading about your kids preferences as I am hopefully going to embark on that particular adventure soon too!

@Kaloudz If you're an Aliens fan then you should give Dark Descent a go! I'm not one for today's overly complex games myself but this one is really very simple and accessible from the outset. You can customize aspects of the difficulty settings then managing your squad between deployments is about as basic as it gets in strategy games. The real time action can be paused and in my humble opinion, this is the best Alien game after Isolation albeit a very different style. It nails the Aliens look and feel and the story is perfect for the universe it's set in.