Aeula

As a bethesda fan since 2002 this was an even bigger disappointment than fallout 76 for me. That setting does not work with bethesda’s design and gameplay.

And it’s one of the most boring scifi settings to begin with.

World of Warcraft on consoles confirmed???

Didn’t deserve to be anywhere near Game of the Year unless it was the category for biggest disappointment. Fighting against Fire Emblem Engage for the top spot.

@GeeEssEff Played for exactly the same amount of time lol.

I hung on hoping for that bethesda magic that kept me playing Skyrim for a decade and got at least one full Fallout 4 playthrough out of me.

But by the time I’d done the main quest, Ryujin, The uh, Marine guys? I don’t even remember the name. I wound up giving up mid way through the Space Pirate questline, uninstalled and haven’t touched it since.

I’d go so far to say I enjoyed my time with Fallout 76 more.

I was so bored the entire way through. But I didn’t have much else to do so I stuck it out progressing a few hours every day before getting bored and closing it…

I hope this results in a large amount of AA games rather than one or two AAA flops a year.

I feel bad for anyone who bought an xbox just for starfield.

It’s a great console and increasing cross play with PC is why I got it but Starfield is just an awful game.

Xbox cloud streaming to switch would be lovely.

But I sincerely hope Microsoft never acquire nintendo.

Feels like gamepass loses value every month.

The series X is bloated with this stuff. Feels like the UX gets slower every updated. Especially the store of all things which seems to constantly need updating.

Considering Skyrim is deeper than the Outer Worlds… yikes.

Always wanted to try an ace attorney game.

Oblivion remaster is worrying. Skyblivion is already coming out, I don’t want to see that canned by Bethesda’s legal team for this unreal engine, likely unmoddable sewn together abomination.

All digital renders buying anything post series x completely pointless imo. Might as well get a PC for a similar price. Backwards compatibility with my 360 discs is one of the main reasons I got mine.

I'm not sure if Starfield or Fire Emblem Engage is my biggest DISAPPOINTMENT this year. Probably Starfield, I was a passionate Bethesda fan and Starfield barely feels like a Bethesda game anymore. Miles behind Bethesda's Elder Scrolls glory days.

I use it a lot to get my ESO dailies done on steam deck. What would really boost my usage of it though is being able to use it for PC versions of games. Be they ESO or otherwise.

Haptic Feedback is a gimmick. It feels like the controller is about to break every time I hold down R2. Which is often because it does 'satisfy' an itch to press it down when haptics is turned on, problem is I find myself doing it even when I don't need to because of that because I'm a natural fidgeter!

The theme is incredily disappointing to me but Bethesda RPGs are my favourite kind of RPG's. So I'm hyped at around a 3/5 scale. I hope to god it's better than Fallout 4.

@InterceptorAlpha If it's like PlayStation you won't need gamepass core and should just be able to play it out the gate. I recommend trying the free trial first though. It basically has all the game's content up through 2019 or so pre-Shadowbringers.

I hope Xbox can get a foot in the door in Japan some day. This is a good step in that direction.

I enjoy FFXIV a lot on PC, look forward to getting some easy achievements with my progressed character. Though I can't for the life of me get used to playing it on a controller. Swapping between controller and KB+M in particular is frustrating.

Bit of a tip to Xbox players wanting to get into this though, you can use a Keyboard and Mouse with it! Hook your series x to a monitor and play it like a PC game for the best experience or find a comfortable place to put them in front of your TV.

@Sifi I was hoping the online play would be free.

I’d hoped it’d be free. I own all the games on there I’d care to play. Ah well, still got another 3 years or Ultimate.

Feels like I'm the only one who loves this stuff lmao.

Next big one is likely gonna be Nintendo vs Dolphin if they decide to finally push that button and try nuke emulators.

Figured they'd patch it up, I got three years while I still could thankfully but I'll be damned if I pay full price for game pass when I own -most- of the games I'd want to play on it. Especially when it feels it's been falling off a lot lately outside of that massive GTA V gain. I love Xcloud and all but it's kinda useless outside of my home.

Not if you just get it on ebay.

I'm on a 3 year sub using the xbox gold - gamepass ultimate conversion thanks to that.

God damn, current gen GTA V is pretty big.

Just hope the PC version isn’t locked down like the windows store versions of bethesda games are. I’d like a script extender for this one day, god knows it’ll need it.

I know the PC code is for steam but this is microsoft’s first time publishing a proper bethesda studios title. I’m anxious about what, if any, restrictions there could be because of that, even on steam.

You can find it significantly cheaper on Ebay. I used xbox live gold to get three years so yeah, maybe in 2026 if they stop people being able to get it cheaper elswhere I'll let it lapse. Gotta say Gamepass' game offerings have been slipping quite a bit lately. All the games I want to play wound up on PS+ Extra instead.

@Evilinsane I wouldn't even call it new vegas lite. It feels so distant from that era that another studio might as well have made it.

Chained Echoes was the first game I played this year and is an amazing RPG. It was made by ONE PERSON. Pretty spectacular and with a gorgeous retro art style.

New Vegas is possibly the best RPG of all time. But it's a very different experience to Fallout 3 and 4. I often struggle to play it if I've played one of those too close to it. Less of an exploration game, more of a choices, consequences and world building game.

Skyrim has one of the best open worlds of all time for roleplayers. Even if it suffers in other aspects. But mods can fix it! Not as well as on PC but don't sleep on how much a few simple mods can improve the core experience. Even then though, I just finished my Achievement run vanilla, the game holds up really well. Anniversary edition is absolutely worth the upgrade cost for that content, at least imo as a huge elder scrolls nerd.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is also a really, really good game. They should drop Assassin's Creed from the title of course but god damn as someone who really digs Greek history and mythos it was a treat to play through.

Mass Effect Trilogy is a really solid series of RPG's. Shepard's a great protaganist.

Dragon Age Inquisition's sadly a bit in the shadow of Origins, but still a very enjoyable experience. Certainly more modern. Some of the best dragon fights of any game I've played, I recommend tracking them all down.

Crusader Kings is more a grand strategy. I played it with the Elder Kings mod and got a good 32 hours of enjoyment out of it on steam.

Wasteland 3 has an amazing soundtrack, pretty compelling story, interesting choices and fun gameplay. Very old school turn based feel. Not quite as good as something like Divinity Original Sin but still good.

Outer Worlds... eeeh... probably one of Obsidian's more shallow RPG's. Stupid setting. Like literally, the entire basis is stupid for the sake of commedy. I played it once then never touched it again. I heard the DLC is better than the base game though sooo...

That's about all I've played. I'd recommend Morrowind ontop of that. I -presume- it's on game pass at least. As well as Oblivion. Both are a bit dated but if open world RPG's are your thing Bethesda is king.

I'm mostly just hyped for Bethesda's games with a tentative eye towards Avowed. My hopes for Fable are kinda shattered after that recent cinematic, it doesn't look or feel Fable at all.

I hope Avowed is better than Outer Worlds was at least.

It's also important to note that Bethesda has had issues with their physics being tied to framerate since 2002. The higher the framerate the less stable the game. It's something I really wish they'd fix but also a consistent 30 is better than a waivering 40-60.

A lot of what he said was taken purposefully out of context and twisted to make Xbox look bad both by people who want Xbox games to stop releasing on PC and PlayStation console warriors. It's a shame because it was such a good interview.

No surprise here given Bethesda’s physics engine dies if you go even slightly over 60.

ESO’s recent chapter was definitely better than the last few. Not sure how much of that is Xbox’s influence or a response to 2022 backlash.

Solid D. Kinda wanna be harsher.

Fable butchered and unrecognisable.

Avowed looking real bad.

The Starfield presentation after was really good though.

Incredibly underwhelming. Didn't see anything interesting bar FF7-2 and I ain't even played the first one yet.

Here's hoping the deal falls flat so Microsoft can focus on their existing studios instead of letting them rot. This actiblizz stuff has gone on long enough.

I'm excited to see the outcome of this. I'm still not sure if I want the deal to go through or not for various reasons. So I'm fairly neutral.

I think it's very unlikely. If the CAT decide that the CMA reached their verdict irrationally and the EU agrees this month then yes, it'll still go through.

If the CAT rules against Microsoft it's over. The deal can't go through without UK approval as those were part of Activision's terms.

After Redall I mostly want Xbox to focus on the studios they still have. Actiblizz is fine on it's own, just sign some exclusive content deals for CoD like Sony's been doing the past decade or so.

Too close to call between Dishonored 1 and 2.

I don’t have much hope as a long time Bethesda fan. Aesthetically it’s one of the weakest sci fi settings I’ve seen so far. NASApunk just isn’t interesting to me. Praying they at least have the decency to launch the creation kit day and date with the release.

At best I expect an even more mediocre Fallout 4 I’ll play once on game pass, shrug and go back to waiting for TES:VI while modding Skyrim instead.

At worst… I don’t know how many flops Microsoft can keep publishing before the division starts getting asked questions by management. And when that happens I just hope TES:VI will still come to PC and with modding allowed.

The very concept of the game was flawed. It was clearly intended as a soulless live service from the onset, I don’t think any amount of tweaking and reneging on that idea could save it.

I think it's worth noting here... Microsoft's cloud tech is used by Sony. As of 2019 I believe.

I think the CMA likely came to this decision about the cloud regardless of Sony rather than because of them.

A lot of their reasoning is strange but I can see the concern. This isn't a near-term 10 year thing. They're thinking 20, maybe even 30 years down the line if Microsoft is allowed to get such a strong stranglehold on cloud now given Google and Amazon are currently the only two who can reliably compete. And google failed. (Nvidia's cloud is an entirely different story and business model).

Still, ideal situation is they reverse their decision via the CAT declaring the CMA's findings illogical, if they don't the EU is very likely to follow the CMA's lead on this and the FTC soon after.

EDIT: And for those saying Microsoft could just 'leave the UK'.
1. It's their second largest market after the US
2. Their deal with Activision stipulates that it's all or nothing. The CMA, EU and FTC all have to agree or the deal falls through.