Jark

Has it really been seven years since State of Decay 2?

What have I done with my life?

@Foxx_64740 ah it's ok. I started Tales late, at the end of last year, but most of my gaming time goes to Destiny 2 (now I'm finally raiding multiple times per week with a clan), so I knew what I was signing up for .... Or rather biting off more than I can chew lmao.

My sister and BIL got me FF7 Rebirth on pc for my birthday recently so that also took away time from Tales. I'll probably buy it with the DLC on another platform/storefront and find some sort of save editor to re-attain my progress.

For some reason the Leaving Soon games were indicated on the PC Game Pass app much earlier than usual: Saturday, Feb 15th.

It made me panic BC I was trying to finish up Tales of Arise into the wee hours of the morning on the 16th (didn't finish, lol), only to think that Warhammer 40K: Boltgun was leaving that same day (the 16th).

So, uh, forgive me if I call foul on this prediction, if any. Someone did us a solid over at Microsoft and gave us a heads-up.

Play Boltgun, btw. It's amazing and I don't even vibe with some of the game's presentation (usually in other titles, I mean). I'm becoming more interested in the lore, even though I disagree a lot with the Astartes culture and their imperial overlords' philosophies. In other words, I'm gaining insider knowledge of this universe but misgivings remain, and yet I still really like Boltgun.

It's also cool that when I play it with a controller with vibration on, I undoubtedly FEEL the heft of the armour and it makes it very immersive; playing with M&KB makes it very close to a jumpy, faster-paced Unreal, Quake III or Quake 4 experience. Both vibes feel great to play.

Don't try and finish a bunch of Yakuza games in two weeks, as those games are meant to be savoured. I wouldn't bother with Wo Long... I really tried to like it but other than a few good fights I felt that other Soulslike games have systems that are equally robust but more rewarding. It didn't help though that I played it on the cloud.

@Jenkinss that would've been a great answer, had I not felt that this practice takes synecdoches and metonymy too far. We the people who spend time online do not*compose* (not comprise) a collective called the "Internet." Ever.

@Jenkinss who the heck is the internet

MCC did it first?

@Sol4ris What hypocrisy are you talking about?

That can only be measured for one individual or a cohesive collective at a time, not from one entity to another. As in, if I advocate something and do its negation behind everyone's back, I am a hypocrite on that thing; if random jagoff does the negation despite me being the advocate for the thing, then there's no hypocrisy — even if we're in the same household. I would need to empower the random jagoff to speak on my behalf, like a leader or boss does, and even then (and they then wouldn't be random, either).

And what was the issue anyway? That the game wouldn't be multiplatform even though for several years now people were warning each other that Microsoft could possibly open up some IP (various) or lock down others to exclusivity (Starfield)?

Are you asserting that multiplatform or exclusive games have tendencies to exhibit whatever issues are being alluded to, and that Indy didn't? Vice versa? I followed this game for a while and didn't anticipate problems with it. This discussion isn't elucidating any ambiguity either.

Wth is corker, btw?

@neoxmahi obviously they are followed in droves based on their engagement on every website they operate on — including their own. Don't even have to crunch numbers to get the gist.

@Ricky-Spanish who the heck is "the internet"

@awp69 what is Astro "Blast"

@NostromoXP and my last post is succinct, whereas yours is just crude and off-base. Can't be both.

@NostromoXP You ostensibly have low constitution if you think Eurogamer is near exemplary of whiny-ness, and that you imply yourself to be exempt of any degree of it.

Can we please pare back a bit on using "higher" and "lower" for scoring and remember that "greater" and "lesser" descriptors not only exist as well but carry more umph?

@Rodimusprime13 no, they don't tend to be unbiased and tend to be nonsensical.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner that would be nice if everybody didn't layoff their QA/QC testers. It's getting cheaper & more common to occasionally outsource the testing to market research departments/partners who dole out little doodad rewards to surveyed regular joes, who then subsequently perform the closed alpha & beta tests.

@themightyant I found Genshin to be obtuse and tiresome after a while, some years ago. If it weren't for the bright colours in a big world and combat tricks I think I would give it a preemptive rejection if it were to release today. All of the activities/modes, locales and characters that gets added can largely serve as deterring bloat to newcomers; such ongoing content cadence mostly keeps the existing players locked in. That could be said about its competitors too, I suppose.

@Elbow I'd like to see them try their hand at making a survival/crafting game that's more in the vein of the myriad titles of more "fantastical" / sci-fi persuasions, most of which have come out in recent years. ("Fantasy" in genre world-building is a loose term now, and maybe always should have been, but it's annoyingly gatekept... Hence the " ").

No, LaD: Ishin isn't leaving, at least in Canada.

Halo 5 could have been my favourite if two conditions were met:

(1) The plot actually made some sense and featured even just 2 more levels with Chief's team.

At least they followed up on Halo 4's Spartan Ops story... Kind of. Ugh.

(2) The multiplayer dialed down the microtransaction card system (req packs and whatnot). It wasn't egregiously annoying most of the time, but it could feel a bit oppressive and grubby.

Halo Infinite would've been my favourite, even in an unfinished state, if it had properly followed up on Halo 5 and Wars 2. There's an entire game's worth of plot to cover in-between Halo Wars 2 and Infinite, and I'm not sure that the book released in that timeframe is adequate.

Also, why the hell a six-month gap with little intermittent backstory to go over during the campaign?

At least Legendary campaign wasn't obnoxious and felt doable all around.

Halo 4 could've used a season 2 for Spartan Ops, but it was very solid even with having to get used to "sandbox" changes for multiplayer. Well-produced (good presentation) and feature-complete, too, so it wins. I was also 25 when it came out so still in my gaming prime and kicking arse at it, lol.

@HelloCraigo come on bruv, I just got off my Halo 4 OST addiction... Here we go again!

We watch media.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner The heck are you even talking about? I have to do research? I don't act like I never do that. And that's not even relevant. And I don't care about anyone's track record - though I dog Ahmad's twitter musings to keep tabs - bc it's not relevant to the language we use to make argumentation. And I didn't make argumentation, Pure Xbox authors did, even if it was just mere regurgitation.

Peace out.

@themightyant hoo ha!

Ahmad isn't explaining anything if he's just speculating. How do I know his comments are speculative? You summarize them with the overused timid word "seemingly." All I gotta do these days to get the crux of a sentiment's tone these days is to search for such overused words and voila.... Here we are.

Has received a score

No thanks. Wasn't a fan of any of the Robin Hood-esque stuff that has come out since the pandemic (I think there were at least two). Gangs of Sherwood last year or so was particularly disappointing.

Brotato is getting co-op too!

@somnambulance lol it was a whole bunch of comments that everybody was making. Made me think I couldn't understand what the heck was going on lmao

@somnambulance who is he???? KIKI WOLFKILL made those comments.

I'd only buy it for PC. No longer buying consoles since I downgraded my living space size and literally don't have room for them.

@Jett No, there are no forced 30fps locks on Xcloud streaming.

It's the only way I can play Dead Island 2 on GP, since I don't have new consoles. My PC can certainly play the game at max, but I don't really wanna buy it tbh.

I don't have time to finish Soul Hackers 2 before it leaves in a week or so, but I'll make the time for SMT V.

Let's play vanilla Dark Souls 2! I still have my 360

@Vipor007 RPGs

There are also SECOND-PARTY games, and I'd be more worried about those if you're concerned about the "chopping block" of exclusives.

Or, y'all could expand perspective and realize you're not beholden to or promised certain things by Microsoft. This doesn't define you, unless you're a "content creator" being paid to talk nonsense and cause bandwagoning / build camp tentpoles.

@Sakai this whole situation is players and people jumping on bandwagons!!!

God no. I'm not buying Tekken 8 until it's umpteenth season pass is out and the deluxe pricing is no longer prematurely padded.

Some USians had their best-in-class point generation hindered, then recently restored, and now this.

Meanwhile we foreigners gotta make do with what we get. Sometimes our changes are lateral rather than buffs or nerfs, like the new requirements for the 1000-point monthlies.

@Gollum oh yeah my bad. Isn't that just Game Pass Core, which is pretty cheap for most people and thus most would forget it's even a factor? Lol

I lost my cloud AND hdd save — minimum 200 hours — of Dragons Dogma on XB360. Played it summer '14, and returned to the console a few years later to consolidate old files and stuff.... And nothing was there. Never figured out what happened.

Yeah reading through these comments time and again paints two different pictures of gamers — sometimes of the same people.

#1. They can't wait

• Buy many AAA titles on release or pre-order and make public figures, like Keighley, important with their trailer/ad preview fests

#2 Buy everything on sale

• Months if not years after release (though even without exaggeration, some titles - Ubisoft or not - have been getting significant discounts for physical AND digital copies just weeks after launch, depending on performance or an imminent seasonal sale).

The #1's usually far outnumber the #2's in vocality, but the reality is that most games don't sell well at their full price (why would they? The market is bloated, we're crunched for time, and notoriously penny-pinching). So, like other harmless dichotomies, it's fairer to say that we kinda hover between both operational/philosophical regimes...

I imagine the consumer is measured by a wave function, in which there is a probability of any of us existing at a certain economic state of mind at any one time. Lol.

Just crunch the numbers a bit better for your budgets, folks, and you should be fine no matter how you operate. Basically: don't let the cart lead the horse (there's one person here reliant on previews to determine how much money they're going to spend on MULTIPLE NEW preorder, when it's the amount of PRE-BUDGETED money that determines whether you spend at all).

@Gollum huh? Why would you even be subscribing for three years if you're just playing CoD and Avatar?

I still haven't played Far Cry 5. I played FC6 + some DLC for a little while around launch (I, uh, got privileged access, don't ask me how)... Should I just skip FC5 then and keep going with 6 now that it is on GP?

Should I keep putting off Immortals Fenyx Rising? Fenix Rysing? Sheesh.

Also, as a closed beta tester for Skull & Bones.... You can put that off, folks. It's okay. But you ain't missing nothing by waiting until it has some more red meat on its bones. It's got an impressive ocean size and nice vistas to sail, though. More than a few upgrades to grind for, but I'm not sure if the actual acts of ship combat and treasure hunting/sailing would withstand the grinder. The game just needs more mechanics — more dimensions of gameplay.

@Nic-Noc20th-C you could be eligible for refund

Hogwarts Legacy is NOT GOTY material!

Lol, 1000 hours is a lot of total playtime across all games played that year?

I played 900 hours of Destiny 2 from February until early December, alone. That's before we even get to the other owned games and game pass titles...

@InterceptorAlpha holy smokes, there were TWO bad Walking Dead games this year?!?!

It's because Microsoft ostensibly put contractor studios (2nd-parties) to work on 1P "content" for the Halo franchise. 343 was tasked with the MP. I wouldn't be surprised their Xbox repertoire received a new Halo spin-off title for campaign gameplay.