ParsnipHero

@somnambulance conversely I appreciate the art style they went for in the sequel. The original game was a massive mixed bag done decent generic looking characters whilst a few of them looked pretty awful. I think Babu (NIA) came to mind.

I hope they don’t go the Fortnite route and allow anything.

Wife & I have a couple of series Xs but we prefer local multiplayer if it’s supported. Some games just play better in local. We tried Baldur’s Gate 3 online and it was hard to play without seeing what the other was seeing. We opted for local multiplayer.

@NEStalgia Bungie! They're the game dev team that bounced around a bit before they hit the floor.

I think they wanted to tell a noir detective story almost. This is one of those games Bungie owed Microsoft before they went off to seek their Destiny (and seal their fate).

If Borderlands is the worst movie they've seen all year then they clearly haven't seen My Spy: The Eternal City!

Yea, I heard this wasn’t great. No Gollum but not worth the wait.

Pretty decent week! Pepper Grinder, Creatures of Ava and Steam World Heist 2?! Not to mention Cat Quest 3!

I’ve really been into No Man’s Sky since the World Update 1 was announced. It’s been great getting back into it again.

@NEStalgia I think it’s got a lot going for it. Firstly it’s a really calming there’s no time limit or enemy. The only thing is that “ahh” feeling you get from cleaning up a level.

Secondly, the game has levels it just “clean a thing” so you can get a lot of collaborations in be it SpongeBob or Final Fantasy it all works because of the freedom of this system.

If I was to describe the gameplay it’s that feeling you get when you see those TV ads where they take a dirty plate then show you how their product cleans it instantly.

Sadly I parted ways with the game a while ago. Playing for periods of time would cause repetitive strain in my wrists.

Both of these look far more appealing than CoD coming to Game Pass. I’m glad there’s space for both.

Thank goodness this isn’t a Nintendo IP otherwise they’d be firing up their legal team’s own Halo ring.

@ATaco wouldn’t mind if we were getting the same service but they’re having issues at the moment. Can’t play No Man’s Sky on my Xbox.

Not to mention Microsoft’s cert process means we don’t even get the v5 game like other platforms.

Grumble, grumble…

Not surprised sadly. I watched both seasons but you could tell that while season 2 was a course correction it didn’t have the budget to do Halo justice. Battle of Reach was like 5 minutes.

@Fiendish-Beaver yea, I'm aware of those polls. I find that absolutely wild. I'm in the minority here but I hardly rate Halo as a campaign experience at all. I've played each one (except for 5 which I skipped) but despite Master Chief being a cool character the stories just don't do it for me.

Halo is a multiplayer experience to me first and foremost. That's where the fun is but like a lot of modern trend chasing multiplayer experiences the bottom line comes before the fun. Halo Infinite has the most expansive cosmetics in the series but that's what 343 focused on. Get the shop updates out to fund Forge then get the Forgers to carry the game updates. No new additions to the sandbox like vehicles. Any guns were done to support HCS not the average Halo player.

So I guess the picture I'm painting is noone was happy. The fans of Halo who didn't get more story and the multiplayer crowd got a monkey paw'd experience.

I think switching to Unreal 5 is a smart move in attracting new talent to the series. The slipspace engine is still an iteration on the BLAM! engine though. Enough that Halo Infinite doesn't quite feel like classic Halo though. This is the biggest challenge we'll see going forward to Unreal 5, Halo has to feel like Halo. It had a vary specific physics engine which created so many of those Halo moments. As a developer I'm sure it was hell to work with though.

Dynamic split screen was a big missing feature for us at launch. Glad they’re adding it in.

@Ricky-Spanish I understand why you might think MS tears Gears as a franchise like crap. They probably have but I do believe Gears has been treated better than Halo in the last decade though.

Both franchises are treated very poorly by Microsoft though. They love to use the IPs on marketing but do little more than that.

I’m hopefully for the Gears franchise though. I hope E-Day doesn’t disappoint fans like Infinite has for Halo.

@Ricky-Spanish at least PureXbox mentioned Gears. No one had mentioned Halo at all until you have. It’s a sad state of affairs.

I used to play Halo several times a week. Absolutely loved what MCC had become finally and Infinite while stunted was good time for the most part.

Gears as a franchise has a future but Halo is pretty much dead right now. I don’t see myself going back either. I’m getting too old to throw so much time into live service/multiplayer games.

Both look good fun. I might consider giving them a go

Voted Fable but no votes for MSFS2024 :/

@Willbo47 I played a bit of MW or MW2 back in the day on the 360 with friends as after Halo 2 my friend didn’t really enjoy Halo any more. So I’ve never really played it for the story.

I’m sure Flintlock and Awoved aren’t really my thing. Not really sure what that is right now as I’m avoiding online shooters, don’t have the attention span for anything other than roguelikes/lites and might be getting tired of them too.

So I’m looking to take a break from gaming and cancelling game pass makes sense right now even though I think the service is a great idea.

Pretty meh. I’m actually considering cancelling my Game Pass. I paid for it even though I rarely used it outside of Halo Infinite but there’s not much coming up to keep me subbed.

I used to play a bit as a kid; NES, GB, SNES then a lot more as a teenage. N64 with GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark and DKR with friends. Then as uni age hit I started getting into Halo.

Took a bit of lull of console gaming. During uni I tried out MapleStory and meet my wife online. Then we did Guild Wars & World of Warcraft from Burning Crusade to Cataclysm.

Wife & I got married and then I got hooked on online multiplayer games like Halo 4 and starting proto live service games with The Division 1 and Destiny 1 before getting back into online multiplayer games again. Fortnite and then Apex Legends. Bounced around those games for a bit before finding Halo Infinite. Played Infinite multiplayer religiously from launch until the exchange came in and I quit.

I’ve tried playing single player games but I’m going to be 40 next year and I’m loving having more time with my wife and to do stuff that I find to have a more positive impact on my life. I just can’t get back into live service games again. They tend to really suck me in. I just play them healthily.

My wife is a fellow gamer though. She doesn't play multiplayer games but she loves Vampire Survivors and the odd ARPGs like Dragon Age or AC:Odyssey. She’s super supportive of me playing games but I just don’t want to get dragged in any more.

So I think in my late 20s and 30s I probably played more games than when I was younger.

@Savage_Joe the problem I find typically with the use of the word “woke” is it’s awfully lazily applied. Here in the US it’s used by Republicans to describe pretty much anything they disagree with.

You talk about woke and you’ve applied a meaning to it which is fine. I don’t have a problem with games that have a diverse cast but I do have a problem with bad games. I do have problem with people who attack a game simply because it has a diverse cast though. If that’s the only merit they have against a game that’s a red flag for me.

Critique a game for its graphics, story or its mechanics that’s fine but just because they decided to include a certain demographic yea nah. That don’t wash.

Woke is thrown around so much by people right of left it definitely causes an eye roll moment. I don’t think we should throw out constructive discussion because of it though.

@ZuneTattooGuy no-no, that’s not how it happened.

Lots of good stuff. However another year where Microsoft disavow any knowledge of Halo but they looovvve sticking Chief on their promos. The gaul…

I’m in between stuff at the moment. I gave Roboquest another go but it still makes me motion sick. It’s a real shame because I love everything about that game.

I’m pretty busy this weekend so I’ll probably just end up watching the rest of not-E3 hoping for a tasty shadow drop.

I’ll be out on Sunday but I’m looking forward to catching up on the happenings afterwards.

@Trmn8r it was.

Just let my wife know this exists. I'm sure it'll be a day one for her, seeing as this is the first entry in the series since 2014 (!?!!)

I'd love to play Tchia! I thought it was odd they announced a Switch version but kept quiet on Xbox. Maybe this is hopium talking?

Surely something from the Microsoft Flight Simulator team as there is a 2024 coming out, right?

Downward looks alright. I might give that a go.

@somnambulance Humanity is fantastic! Looking forward to 100%-ing this one. Something I rarely do with games.

Humanity has been a good quirky laugh. So I’ll mostly be playing that when I get a chance.

Honestly not sure. Infinite was a hell of a cope ride for me. Spent weeks of in-game time playing that game.

I’m sure I can’t do it again. I’m just at a
different point in my life now. During my late 20s and 30s I’ve put years into multiplayer and live service games. I’ll be 40 next year and I think I’ve finally cut the cord of live service games.

I love multiplayer games but they’re just FOMO time sinks these days. Instead I’d rather spend time with my wife or do something else productive.

Just finished Operation: Guns In Vampire Survivors in co-op last night. We still need to finish a few things in the regular game mode (collection & bestiary) but otherwise looking good.

We tried Bread & Fred in the switch. Noooooppe!!

I don’t know what they were thinking creating a Gollum focused game. Admittedly it’s different from your usual human/dwarf/elf action RPG but still.

@somnambulance I’d love a throwback line that. I don’t think Microsoft would let that happen.

@somnambulance not sure I have the energy for a new live service halo game! Infinite really took it out of me.

Vampire Survivors for me. My wife & I completed most of the base game and are working through the adventures. Just on the Light & Dark but should be on to the moonspell one this weekend.

Not Halo.

Playing Vampire Survivors with my wife in coop mode. She’s 100% everything in solo we play on my profile to do everything mostly in coop.

Other than that I’m thinking of giving Vagante a go.

I’ve had lots of fun with Halo over the years. A lot of frustration too. They really messed this one up and the recent changes failed to capitalise on the season 5 momentum.

Switching to operations was one thing would switching over to Spartan points really made me quit. I really don’t want or need anything from the exchange. I’ve completed every weekly since launch except for this week when I decided is over for me.

The weeklies don’t take long to do but it’s still habit forming and I’m trying to get out of that now after so long.

You could say you’re playing for the wrong reasons but as someone who has had weekly of not daily at some weeks I’ve really stifled with matchmaking either I’m just getting worse or I’m getting destroyed by better teams. I find it could be several matches in a row where I get utterly awful games. That’s just not fun so why stick around for that? It’s not like I only want games where I stomp.

Anyways taking a break from Halo for a while. I really feel the game has been squandered and this trailer is great but too little too late for folks like me who have supported the game since technical test 1 and launch day.

i have no Interest in COD on Game Pass at all.

@GamingFan4Lyf I've been considering this for a while. Some kind of steam box hooked up to the telly.

There are so many couch coop games on Steam that never make it to Xbox.

@old-dad bit of a ***** show, eh?

I can't help but feel a tad negative going into this reveal. That's mostly fueled by hype for past years and it really not amounting to much.

I'm also pretty bummed out that Halo Infinite is on a death slide existing only to milk players with the shop between now and the next release.

Microsoft rarely use their showcases to show Halo projects. The last time was Infinite and despite my excitement we all know how that turned out. I just feel my favorite franchise is being terribly mishandled.

I guess this is somewhat what it feels to be a Gears of War fan?

Not to be too morbid but people should enjoy this one while the servers are still online.

@Grackler well, they're definitely working on something else. As for the rest of what you said the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

@dreadful Feels like the end. Halo is pretty much the only game I play and maybe that’s the issue here.

I've played every week and for every weekly. There are orbs in the exchange I don’t have but do I want them? Not really. Even the 30000 credits one just doesn’t seem worth it.

With weekly rewards going I think I’m actually going to stop doing weeklies. I’d hope on each Tuesday night (as my calls it “Halo night”) but with how unenjoyable the game is to play nowadays I’m seriously reconsidering that.

You can really tell their heart isn’t in it any more.

Humanity looks fun but I don't know if it'll keep me interested long term.