Cikajovazmaj

Big license, I happen to love Indiana Jones. Seems like they got a lot right and first-person perspective could work (fistfights have epic potential). However, I really hope it avoids being a predominantly stealth game. It wouldn't be character-accurate, but ideally, it ends up being way more action-oriented.
Uncharted comparisons are unavoidable I guess, and I would prefer it to follow the pace of those games (as over the years they went from unlicenced poor copies of Indiana Jones to the synonym for ruins exploration genre of approximately the same name value and weight).
I just don't want this game to be a series of Mary Jane Watson missions as nobody in their right mind wants that.

Really looking forward to Hellblade 2, these are great news.
However, I wouldn't expect shadow drop tomorrow. That is what always happens with Xbox events, people over-hype themselves based on rumors and then get disappointed even if they should not be.

@Deljo technically not a very good month for either service 😉

I tend to be pretty in the weeds when it comes to gaming, but I have not heard of 4 out of these 7 games. Turnip and Persona are good additions though.

@Lup 100% agree (not Xbox specific though, it's society in general).
Completely fine to be a psycho and brutally kill and torture thousands of virtual innocent bystanders in an open world game, just as long as no ni**les have been shown..

Wow, just wow. Good job team green, maybe use a rocket launcher next time you are shooting yourself in the foot to make an even bigger splash.

Xbox really messed up BG3 launch as much as possible. Next level of bad luck (or maybe incompetence).

@Banjo- I don't think you quite understood my argument. I'm not denying that quoting 200 games added to the service is the easy way to quantify service value.
But what actually matters to "you" is how much of the 200 games you can realistically consume. For some people that is 200, and that is cool, they are getting extreme value. For others, which I would argue is majority, number is way lower. Most people pay to have options, when amount of content they actually consume they could have bought and own for same cost.
Again, just my opinion, and I'm not saying it is true for everybody. Especially not for people on this site, as most are not casual/weekend gamers.

EDIT: Actually, analogy to what I'm trying to explain. Going to a "all you can eat" restaurant, they offer 50 different meals a day. But most people will realistically only get one, but they won't get to eat at their own pace, keep their leftovers, and for them it's questionable if such type of restaurant is worth it.

@J_Mo_Money agreed, factually correct, but also misleading. What is of relevance though is how much of $9000 worth of games has average gamer actually consumed.
Subscription services are great at creating false sense of value. For example, many of my friends have been paying Netflix for years, averaging one movie/series a month. They are not getting their money's worth..

@J_Mo_Money I would suggest reading on perceived vs actual value.. there is no way anybody is going to get $9000 of value out of GP. Most people get a single game per month out of it. Which is still decent, and if it's a day one release even better.

I honestly don't understand this post.. all games included don't cost as much as 2 months of GP (it's actually not much over a single UGP month). And you get to keep the games and play at your own pace (which you're not going to beat in a single month if you happen to be employed middle-aged human being).
I mean, it's cool to have options and ability to "try out" many games, but these subscription services actually fail exactly against heavy discounted longer quality games ($5 can get you 2 months of awesome experience most of the time).

Not bad selection at all. I'll be looking into RE and Super Mega Baseball, but can appreciate rest of the list has some mass appeal too.

Earlier this morning I've seen the title of this article and knew comments section would not disappoint. I returned like 3 times since then, so good job PX.

HiFi Rush by a country mile. Also, probably the only game I'll remember from that list.
FM was a good game too that unfortunately exists in the same universe as GT7. Everything else, quite mediocre.

Realistically I would expect such scenario.. not because the game is truly bad, but because expectations have been set too d*mn high (and not delivered on).
It's not my GOTY, I don't think it's even in top 10. But with cooler head and opened eyes, it's also not terrible. It's mediocre (as heavy of a burden as that is).

I feel like that list is definitely missing Forspoken (had to check it was released in 2023., seems like I've been hating on it for longer than a year) and Redfall. Both major duds!

Gave it a D for decent. Wasn't really anything for me there, except Hi-Fi Rush (an A game). I expected more from FM, but it kind of turned me off quite quickly.. so yeah, not great, but at least something.
I'm really happy for the people who see first party 2023 releases as A grade though. You are enjoying life far more than I do!

@Kaloudz some of that I do agree with, and as usual I don't think developers are to blame (being one myself). Almost always it's the management and stakeholders that are to blame for day one patches, year one overhaul, etc.. and I do think that should be punished and called out for what it is. Companies selling a box with a game coming later should feel the sting, unless we want that to continue being a standard practice.
Except in case of a minor indie team, you are never looking out for the developer by buying their product unconditionally. It's just normalizing the faulty behavior for the management.

Delaying score, and giving out 10/10 after save issue has been fixed seems like a cheat. By that account, Jedi Survivor score could have waited until 6-7th patch, or Cyberpunk 2077 until version 2.0..
It's a great game, but launch state is launch state, and should be scored accordingly for all games equally.

Console overlord politics aside, people should really try this demo out. Game is shaping up to be amazing.

Might be the best news I've heard this month. Happy New Year!! Hope this doesn't shuffle down to lower branches/employees, but Activision Blizzard leadership had to go years ago.

While I do not care about financial report of a global company with hundreds of billions of dollars at it's disposal, I will say this to people who say XSX/S don't matter: I don't know a single person that is subscribed to GP and does not own MS console. PC gets to be a nice backup option, and I don't know anybody actively using cloud (might be due to internet situation in my locale).

Honestly, I don't trust it as it is unreliable in it's behavior, therefore I don't use. I'll usually only switch game/exit after I see the saving spinner, and with current gen systems time from launch to in-game is counted in seconds.. not worth losing my progress or achievements over.

@somnambulance totally agree, HiFi Rush is the best MS GP game. However, 6 nominations is quite a lot and above average dose of recognition I feel like it got attention and respect it deserved.

Watched DF analysis yesterday, and I have to say I agree with almost everything said.
Somehow, GT7 looks better and more approachable (which is ironic as GT games usually are overwhelming with their large lists of menus, options, settings..). However, I feel like most visual concerns on FM side can be addressed with patches over upcoming months. There is no huge gap between the games.
When it comes to gameplay though, GT7 is just in a class of it's own (only thing I don't appreciate is the insistence on rolling start).

Always a good idea, venting back at your fans. How could this possibly backfire.
On a more serious note, game is what it is, some like it and some don't. Either is fine, different people have different interests, no need to publicly whine about it.

Reads waaay better before you open the linked article and see PS5 is up 129% compared to November 2022. I would have expected more given how heavily discounted Series consoles were.

This is my theory: they didn't slap the logo on it, as it just started development and is 4-5 years out. MS is planning to release a new console by then and Blade might be launch title, so they didn't mention platform...

@GamingFan4Lyf please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying MS won't achieve a high profit, which they almost certainly will. My point is that revenue can not even be considered a strong indicator of profit in modern business (working at a loss to achieve high market share represented by unusually large number of sales and revenue is basically a standard strategy for growing businesses), and sales numbers/money-in flow can be very misleading without cost breakdown.

@GamingFan4Lyf as usual, I just want to point out that selling a mere 3,000,000 Xbox consoles, at average price of $400 a piece also brings in 1.2 billion in revenue. Revenue does not matter, profit matters.

MS is really embracing publisher, third party role. And in a very weird way, I think it might not be a bad move at all.

Slightly worried by this.. is MS planning on releasing a Pro console? They are literally handing them away here

Genuinely a nice surprise. I was holding back on cashing up for Remnant 2, but itch was starting to grow...

Hopefully, they haven't bought anyone new..
Seriously though, it's probably Activision Blizzard games getting dropped into GP. While it is a no-brainer, it still needs to happen and be treated like a big thing that it it.

Genuinely hope it's not another sequel. The first game was fun, but the second one got boring for me really fast.
However, the team seems exceptionally talented, especially with graphic design as they pull off impressive visuals on a budget. I feel it would be better used on new IP, envisioning a fresh beautiful world...

@BrilliantBill I would partially challenge that claim.
I do believe critics respect and reward graphics and gameplay/game mechanics as separate buckets. And the game being exceptional in either of the two will impress critics. Because looking only at graphics completely ignores Nintendo's return to fame and their recent appreciation and acknowledgment.
My point is, that creating a game that has good/decent graphics and gameplay makes the game good. Nothing sticks out. And that is the field MS has been sitting in for a rather long time. I'm hopeful the trend will change and there has been evidence to support so. But realistically, game in question here, Starfield does a lot decent/good, but is not exceptional at anything. Therefore it is reasonable for it to be treated and considered good (or great as in more than the sum of its parts) but not GotY material.
At least that is my reasoning which I feel applies to a lot of good/great games outside of Starfield, that might not be exclusives and don't have platform enthusiasts in their corner defending them.
(recent Lies of P comes to mind too)

8/10 decent game in a year as packed as 2023. does not net you a GotY nomination, and it shouldn't.
If anything, if Starfield was nominated it would seem bias/suspicious.
What I do feel great about is the praise Hi-Fi Rush is getting. Game doesn't have to be built by Bethesda with unlimited budget to be great

I knew they were desperate to increase number of paying GP subscribers, but this is ridiculous. 🤦‍♂️

Nice move, at the same time as they are trying to make their public image be "for all the gamers".
I'm feeling lucky I haven't invested in any peripherals for my Xbox. To think I thought about bridging a wheel to Xbox for Forza.. what a waste that would have been.

@Banjo- Starfield is best selling game in September, not year. It is the year that had some real heavy hitters that were not on any subscription, outselling that is going to be tough with GP model.
@Titntin absolutely agreed. On the offering side things have improved a lot, marketing and word of mouth could help raise awareness.

Very positive spin you put there. If I'm not mistaken, it is actually 35% down compared to September last year, which is bad given Xbox is actually putting out some games this year. Realistically, only thing it could be is souring people on the brand as product is finally getting there now.

Is this CMA's way of trying to make it look like they are not blind while still taking money from MS to let the deal move along?

Game felt good to me through my first 5-10 races. However, I have started to sour on it fast due to unexplainable mistakes that are all under nitpick category, but pile up.
Driving is a bit too arcade for my taste, dualsense has ruined me for any sim racer with a different controller (wheel is a separate category), HUD is useless when driving using top/bumper cam (speedometer is in corner where you can't see it at a glance, there is nothing marking middle of the car to help with estimating your car boundaries), I have all assists off but still feel I can make mistakes in corners (early acceleration on exit) and not pay the price, AI is not good...
I don't know, I hoped it was gonna be a killer game which it is not :/

@rustyduck one could even say it's double the game it once was with 60 FPS mode.

Finally got to play a few races! Seems good, different than GT7, which is a great thing as I needed a change.
Default handling (with heavy assistance) is terrible and people should just turn all of that off. But once you do, driving becomes way better and engaging.

I've put Redfall on cold storage post-release, waiting for a big patch to add 60 fps mode and improve gameplay.
Yesterday I got it running again, and man, it's better but still bad. Some issues have been improved, although I don't think any were completely removed. Anyway, that was my last shot with Redfall, deleted it and ain't planning on redownloading. Bigger/better games to be had on GP.

@ZuneTattooGuy I feel like this has to be said again... especially in light of an article you linked.
Real life, it takes 30 minutes for a mediocre player to finish a clean race with a 765000 credits reward. If they are selling 100000 credits for 2 dollars, let them. Always. If somebody is lazy enough to accept that pricing, f*ck them. They should be bleed dry.
Keeping in mind time/reward ratio I just mentioned, in my opinion internet really overreacted over nothing. So business as usual.

@Titntin spot on, everything you said is spot on. I'll enjoy both for years to come, and graphical details and nitpicks won't be an issue.

Most people seem to think GT7 looks better, but I wouldn't agree. Both seem to have pros and cons to me, GT7 has better looking cars, FM has more detailed foliage and side of the road objects.
However, one thing I feel nobody else is mentioning and is so annoying to me: FM tire tracks. Why, oh why, are there tire tracks on the road pointing in all unnatural directions, just to make track feel more realistic? There is no physically possible way car could take some of those trajectories while either driving or crashing!! (I'm used to looking at tire tracks as they indicate potentially good routes/trajectories to take, I know, I'm weird).

@iplaygamesnstuff in all honesty, this generation (if one counts Switch in) might be the greatest in history of gaming. It just so happens that MS hasn't really been competitive.

Yeah, I applaud them sticking to 60 on S, even if it meant significant visual cutbacks. It's a racer, I won't be slowing down to look at the fence reflections. However, I will need every one of those frames.