JayJ

@LocalPenguin Yikes, if they're counting on skaters loving this game, they really screwed up. Just about every decision they made with this game feels like it was done to appeal to the average normie audience over skaters. I think that's why it feels so "Fortnite" despite having more of a Sims aesthetic, it has that made to please everyone look and feel. I think a lot of skaters would be put off by the lack of authenticity here. This game feels like what most skaters would call a poser.

I just played some Skate 3 on Xbox before I played this and the new one simply feels "off" or wrong in many ways. It completely lacks the atmosphere and feel that the Skate games had, that's for sure, and the art style feels very Sims 4 or Fortnite. I can see how some people could call this soulless because it really does just feel like a generic corporate gaming product in 2025. There is just zero passion or authentic skate culture that can really be felt. The basics are there in terms of the controls and your ability to skate around, but most of the time it simply feels wrong for a Skate game.

I've been playing Session and Skater XL and both of those games really blow this one away when it comes to controls, accuracy, and capturing the feel of skateboarding and skate culture. Especially Session, that's more of a complete game while Skater XL is more dependent on it's community created content.

This new Skate simply doesn't feel like a proper skateboarding game to me. It's more like The Sims Skateboarding or Fortnite Skate. It feels like a product made to be like that, which is made worse by the way everything is either micro-transaction content or some lame slow trickle down of random clothing and stickers.

Only good thing is how this is early access and this might change or improve over time, but for now I am having a hard time seeing myself really putting much time into this beyond checking it out.

I love extreme sports games, wish they were as popular as they were back in the 00's, but this looks pretty good, kind of like Session or Skater XL.

This reminds me of when they re-released those old Sega CD FMV games with some remastered treatment. Yeah they're awful games but that's sort of the point, it's real cult fanbase stuff.

I'm sure this is going to be a big deal to the 5 people still playing this game.

Also I doubt Grid Autosport is going down as it's still being sold on the Nintendo switch and it's easily among the most popular racing games on that platform. To top it off they are presently marketing it as "with online multiplayer" as a selling point today.

Wow I'm surprised most of these games were still working online in the first place.

Other numbers that are unheard of in handheld gaming: the price

The fact that it's so popular despite the lack of journalist reviews speaks volumes about the current state of journalism.

Sounds like they might as well just put a fork in it. Make a better game if you want better reception.

Roadcraft is fantastic if anyone is into a mix of offroading and road building.

This release is just a mess, it even has some serious problems running properly on the PS5 Pro. It's just kind of a joke by this point.

The series basically became Fortnite FPS.

This definitely feels like the last console generation for many. The price keeps going up on these things while exclusive games are largely going away. Gaming hardware feels like it's generally become pick your favorite flavor sort of thing with there being different ways to play the same games.

This just feels kinda unnecessary after the Xbox One version which already did a great job of updating a 360 classic. This is a modern "remaster of a remaster" situation that has been becoming relatively common now.

One good thing I can say at least is how I was given this game for free so at least they weren't trying to nickel and dime me for this. I think it's pretty obvious how this mostly exists for the Playstation crowd.

Never. I played it but never beat it. Never was much of a Gears of War fan to be honest, never saw what all the fuss was about.

@Kaloudz Yeah things got kinda weird towards the end when it came to Dreamcast games. The plug got pulled on things really fast, as for Shenmue 2 not sure why that happened, but it might have had something to do with Microsoft quickly making it a game for the original Xbox.

Wow, very excited about Euro Truck Simulator 2 & American Truck Simulator coming to console! Can't say I care about anything else here though.

@Kaloudz Yeah true Shenmue 2 was just an absolutely massive game for it's time, especially for a Dreamcast title. I think it's the only multi-disc Dreamcast game I can think of. A shame it never released in the US, I think it's the only Dreamcast game I have a PAL import for.

@Kaloudz I think it's just the feel of the game. First game just felt like more of a passionate life sim to me, second was more of an adventure game.

The first Shemnue was incredible for it's time. The sequels always failed to capture it's magic for me.

Oh wow live service crossovers and some game I probably won't care about.

Wow the Jaguar game is a rare one and interesting.

Seems pretty obvious how she isn't the right person for the job anymore. We need a president who is truly dedicated to the brand, passionate and focused on it.

Well it looks like something I'd pick up at the bargain bin

Tired of all these gaming related shows.

All they had to do was make a proper Forza Motorsport 8 like the past Forza Motorsport games. But no, they couldn't, they wouldn't. They had to go all-in on trying to turn Forza into a live services deal for reasons I will never quite understand. Surely they have to realize they screwed up there first and foremost.

I think it would look a lot better with the transparent green plastic like the old original Xbox Halo edition.

Love this game, it's exactly what I've been begging for as a SWAT 4/R6 Vegas fan.

What is with all the cartoon animal games?

@MaccaMUFC With how sophisticated AI is getting, I bet people will be able to fake identities with ease before long.

So whatever happened to parental controls and parents deciding what is appropriate or inappropriate for their children? This is true nanny state stuff right here.

@TrevorP86 That old Bungie is gone. This is just the name.

Not sure how much hype there is for this but even as someone who buys a lot of handhelds I just have no real excitement for this. Forza Horizon 4 and 5 work just fine on my Steam Deck and those are the only real Xbox games I would really want on a handheld. I mean a proper Xbox handheld with full OG, 360, and One backwards compatibility would be amazing but this is not that.

So what exactly is Xbox still working on? Fable?

The Xbox brand has so little going for it now.

I am not surprised, Mafia 2 was by far the best and even though the previews for this reminded me of Mafia 1 that game came out a very long time ago and I doubt anyone who made it is still at the studio today. This honestly just looked like a mediocre action game.

Glad to hear but there is no denying how this game lost to GT7. Only thing that really redeems it for me is the variety of cars, engine swaps, and that Japanese mountain road track they added.

@theduckofdeath I think there's a pretty big difference between small sites, hotel sites, and Microsoft's ability to have a functioning web service.

@Cikajovazmaj I just think they would really need to restructure the dev, reduce it's size, and go back to what made it great in the first place to redeem it.

I have given up on anything genuinely good coming from their IP's anymore.

I think they're toast. At best they will have mass layoffs and rebuild it for something in the future, but I think their live services Forza Motorsport game was a big flop. They should have simply made it Forza 8 and stuck to their tried and true approach to a racing game. All of their new ideas were bad and largely rejected by fans and gamers alike. The whole car RPG leveling thing was just a genuinely awful idea that really ruined any momentum it could have had out the gate.

I have a 2TB PS5 Pro with a 4TB M2 internal drive and a 4TB external SSD for PS4 games, combined I got 570 games installed.

Probably not. Doesn't look that good and I have no shortage of games like it to play right now in my backlog.

@theduckofdeath Yes and that was always a very lame excuse at best. There is no good reason a company as big as Microsoft should take so long to simply get a different payment system.

Too late, bought an Elite 2 on sale.

They've been milking VF5 for about 20 years now. It's only $20 but I feel like I am tired of just seeing new releases for the same old game.

The 40 years might as well be a reference to the studio's lifespan by now.

$90 for a 3'rd party controller? No thanks.

What's the point anymore? Microsoft isn't trying to sell consoles anymore anyways, the way they have them priced after the price hike made that all too clear. By now I wouldn't bother buying another Xbox even if it is a cool looking special edition.

Can't believe it's been a year. I remember getting an Xbox 360E in blue with the 500GB HD off Ebay for the store shutting down. Still play it occasionally as my go-to 360.