Titntin

Picked up 'Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' expecting to put it down pretty quickly, but im now over 20 hours in and loving it.

Have fun playing whatever you're playing!

@lacerz
Agree with it or not, its certainly a passionate and well written piece. Its clearly also well over stated. But well worth the read.

Its nice to see though, that many of the things I think I see going on from MS,are noticed by others. Its easy to think no one else is noticing. Whether you choose to see it as cynical manipulation and loathsome, or the clever use of tools available to achieve their buisness aims, is a matter of perspective.

My heart goes out to the Devs whos lives will be shattered by this move. Given the recent layoffs in the industry, it must be very difficult for anyone to find new work.
I refuse to accept that a company with the pockets of MS could not restructure and form more targetted dev teams foccussed on the games they still need, but there has to be a will to do that. Despite Phil putting a friendly media face to the buisness, they are the same ruthless corporation of old. The only difference these days is that most other corporations have become just as ruthless. The days of gaming buisness being run partially for the benefit of the workers are long gone, and corps no longer need to be losing money before ruining lives - these days they will do it in response to a projected dip in growth.
Im disspointed in many of the companies, but particularly in MS who are one of the leading companies and have the means to do this better.
I pray for the staff affected, Ive been made redundant from a game many a time, but back in the day, the jobs came you with little effort. I fear thats not the case anymore.

Thanks for this review, its well written and helped me decide Im not tired of this series yet! Sounds like I could be playing it all year 😊

@Fiendish-Beaver Thats pretty much how I feel about it. It doesnt feel like a combat focussed title, more like Skyrim with a bit more.
Thats fine for me as I love skyrim, and the world and creature design looks great. I'm trusting that Obsidan will create a compelling experience and this is probably my most anticpated Xbox release this year.

Great! I'm not a huge fan of the current controller and its feature set and this looks like it addresses mnay of my issues with the current design, so I'm glad to see its coming...

Im a little captivated by 'under the waves' and I hope to play much more this weekend.
Right now I have the urge to plug in my fighting stick and play the Raystorm collection, see if I have any reflexes left!

Whatever your playing, I hope you have a great weekend!

Though it really isnt for me, I respect 343 for chipping away at this game and continuosly improving it. It would appear many more people are playing it and enjoying it now, so its at least moving in the right direction for those who play multiplayer shooters.

Given what I thought of the single player campaign, its hard to be excited by the propect of new ips from 343, but I hope they prove my skepticism wrong and produce a banger! I have no desire to see any developer fail.

Its a shame its a short experience, especially as a lot of it looks like story rather than play, but its a technical showcase for sure..

Really happy to see how this ones shaping up... the game looks as fun as Id hoped for a Skyrim fan, but has its own look.
I can see myself losing many hours in this game 😊

B from me.

Avowed was very skyrim, but thats fine with me!

Hellblade looked fantastic again, but I have some gameplay concerns and its dissapointing its a shorter experience.

When we cut to the squate enix logo I bet I wasnt the only one hoping for more than a mana title. Looked fun though!

Arta felt like it didnt belong, but it looks like a great evolution of civ games.

Indiana Jones stole the show and was proper exciting to see.

A really good showing, shame theres nothing imminent.

I thought this looked really excellent and displayed a lot of elements I really enjoy in other games.
It looks like they have really caught the spirit of Indie and I cant wait to play it and see!

Im looking forward to this! Interesting titles I want lots more info on, and the format is good. I hope we all enjoy it. 👍

@jikflet Nice to hear mate.I unsubbed 3 months back because I have issues supporting this model when so many devs and companies are closing. Of course its great value, thats not the point to me. I'm and Ex dev who wants to support current devs and de-valuing games is certainly not making peoples jobs any more secure.
Its complicated I know, and I have no issue with anyone else doing whats best for them, my issues are mine.

Looking forward to seeing all the 1st party releases this year, especially avowed.
It will be interesting to see how they intergrate ABK over the year too, and if they finally comfirm a new Banjo game!

I suspect that the vast majority of series owners are 'gp only' owners, and thats why they have the machine. Im part of that problem, I dont buy anything on xbox, its there to provide me 'free stuff' via game pass (and Ive even let that sub expire) .
Ive always thought that the game pass buisness model devalues new games on the platform and feared it might lead to smaller games not coming to the platform unless they strike a gp deal.
Im not happy to hear such news at all. Wherever my preference is, I want to see as many games available to all platforms as possible.
I cant see this issue going away unfortunately.

Avowed is my biggest hope here, but if they do it right, Indianna Jones could be fun too.

Hellblade 2 tech will interesting, though I have personal doubts about the game.

Nice to see Xbox getting the year going with a bang!

@LeroyJenkem Just because Xbox has a specific issue with this game doesnt mean there are not other issues too, and Im sorry you are affected by them. But there is definately a specific issue relating to the game and Xboxs OS, which is affecting many more players.
Unless you are somehow propossing that Xbox themselves are putting their hand up to problem thats not theres and have their team working hard on this for no reason?
The world is bigger than your personnel experience, and microsoft are working on this because they have conceeded they have an issue with large saves, one thats been present for some time and particlarly shows up with BG3.

@Kraven Congrats mate. I have really enjoyed having a portal too.

Ive been playing midnight suns since picking it up cheap. Its a lot more rpg and fetch quests than I expected, but if you ignore the occasional flat writting, its suprisingly engaging, and the combat is fun.

Eludian chronicles has also had a good 12 hours out of me this week. Its carefree jrpging thats fun if you like that kind of thing, and I do!

If I feel a little more lively later, Im also enjoying Jedi Survivor.

Whatever your playing, I hope you enjoy!

Game pass is limited time... comparing apples with oranges again.
I'd rather own the titles (yes even digitally) which is probably why I havent renewed GP and have bought several titles elsewhere that are on that service.
GP is great value, but Id consider owning a game at dirt cheap prices to be a better option. Its fantastic that we have the choices though.

@themightyant Fully agree, theres so many titles I have yet to get to!
Its one of several reasons I let my GP sub expire 2 months back, I had concens following the purchase of ABK, but Ive largely come to terms with that - theres really little else I could expect from MS since the purchase and Bobby is gone.
Given how many dev studios have folded or downsized last year, I've had a battle of consciousness about how I consume my games. Having spent 2 decades as a dev, I feel it hard when studios close and peoples lives are uprooted like we have seen so often this last year. I've been there and it hurts.
After passing on 'Season' last year telling myself I'll play it on GP when it arrives, I was mortified to see the studio fold and those devs out of work.
Im trying to stay off GP till the 1st party releases and buy more games and support people who want to make more than another shooter or rouge like. I bought three games yesterday on another platform, even though they are all on game pass and I could renew for £1.
I realise many will think Im mad for doing so, but I can afford to support games I appreciate directly. Maybe if more people did, there wouldnt be so many failures, but I suspect whats happening is more indicitive of games having become mainstream culture and simply another traded commodity.

Im rambling again, sorry!

@JayJ You need to read the problem better. Its Microsofts Operating System thats the flakey code here, not the games.
The devs are not getting any flak as people clearly understand its not their bug...

Happy new year!

Given the methodology, Starfield had a healthy advantage despite the issues so many had with it.
It was a very mediocre game imo, and the fact it's Xboxs Goty may offer insight as to why mine hasn't been switched on for 6 weeks. That said, there's games I'm very interested in coming this year, so I'm hoping for better and it would be great to see a strong uncontesdedly excellent xbox exclusive top this list next year. For what its worth, I thought HiFi rush was xboxs best exclusive this year, and Sea of Stars was my fave played on Game Pass.

I think on any metric 2023 was great year for games in general, and Xbox most specifically. I might not have been impressed with Forza MS and Starfield, but plenty of people love em, and they are exclusive to MS and the subject of much attention. Given two big ticket launches, a bunch more promised and the extra resources ABK will bring, Xbox have a lot to be happy about right now regardless of where this old man plays

Happy New Year Pure - lots to look forward to in 2024!

Always happy to play a new horizon. I think 4 was their peak, but Id be happy to wrong,
In the meantime, The Crew Motorfest was a shameless rip off, but has done it brilliantly to the point where Im still playing almost 4 months later.

Microsoft are at the forefront of this technology, and you can be sure they will push it wherever they can.

I have my own thoughts as to its suitability being used this way, but Im pretty sure this is the beggining of this conversation, not the end.

This is the company that brings you windows, almost nothing surprises me about their software.
I am shocked though they they pressured the games release before they fixed their own operating system to work properly with it. I have genuine sympathy for anyone experiencing this issue. Its a fantastic game but one where a loss of save file is a killer.

It was a worthy game of the year and I hope its not long before xbox gamers can properly enjoy it.

@cburg
' I guess praying to a plastic box makes one’s self esteem feel better.'
If you cant see the irony of that statement after your post....

People who dislike this game do so because it was over promised and has some very clear issues. It would have been picked apart and considered dissapointing on any platform of course. The victim mentality is a really poor card to play and is clearly BS.

Nice to see Riders Republic there. I had fun with that game on release, and Id suggest its great value at that price 😁

Not so sure the monitoring of every shift in steam rating is a healthy obsession that supports worthwhile discourse?
Its clear some people love the game.
Its clear others do not.
Its certainly not an undisputed huge hit, and given promises of a generational game we would play for years, its under-delivered. I dont think Bethusda have what it takes to deliver something ground breaking any longer, sadly, and this title proved it to me.
I played 120 hours and had some fun in with the frustration, but its a 7/10 game at best and the faithful were promised so much more.

Im looking to Obsidian to deliver something considerably better designed with Avowed this year, and look forward to that.
Delighted some are still having a lot of fun with starfield, but on balance, in a year filled with many great titles, it doesnt belong in the top 10 for me.

Happy Christmas all!

Just finished Forespoken last night. Despite its rep, theres plenty to like, its a 7.5 type of game. Picked up for £20 and got good value.
Picked up Jedi survivor in the sales, so Ill probably start that today.

Have a fantastic Xmas break!

Im surprised theres no score? That aside, this is well written review that locks down what makes this an all time great.
Im finding it hard to remember any other game that deserves a 10 more than this one does, and Ive been seriously invested in the industry since it first started
Even if you dont like rpgs, see if you can try it at a friends or something. Its well worth experiencing.

Lost Odessey. Such a memorable title.
Oblivion is high up there too, for me.
There were a lot of great titles to choose from...

@EvenStephen7 Thanks for pointing out that toxic individuals remain running some of teams. It sometimes seems this unfortunate truth is not acknowledged, or hidden as its inconvenient, so its good to see other people acknowledge it!

As many have pointed out, this may not be awful for the vision of a consume anywhere sub service model.
But there is a large section of the console market that is not so likely to move in that direction quickly, so having a decent install base still has to be desirable. To capture the market like Microsoft wish to, you cant leave those people behind, so getting xboxs into homes must still be an important priority.
Im not sure I can imagine a credible scenario where these results arent bad news, but Im hopefull Microsoft will turn it around, and the recent price premotions were a good start.
You may know im not a huge Microsoft corp fan, but I really am an Xbox fan. I want to see more xboxs out there and I hope we will see that happen.

Thank god.

I may be a little dissapointed that team ledership is left untouched, but if it getting Bobby Kotick out of this buisness was the only thing achieved by the purchase of ABK it would still have been worth it!

I put 120 hours in, but it felt like I was playing it simply because Id put so much time in. It was not fun any longer and the stories were not interesting enough to keep me going.
Once I decided to stop I uninstalled it and would never go back. Its a seriously flawed design imo.

I am happy that some others enjoy it more than me, but I suspect the numbers playing it next year will be much lower than those still playing skyrim...

I like that they have the options. I know opinion is devided, but Ive never been a fan of the xbox layout. Still it hardly worth this spend for me, especially right now when Im not using the xbox.
Good to see the tech and options available though...

None on xbox. I only play GP games on the series X and Ive let my gp lapse now.
2 on the switch, abiut 10 on ps5.

Imo it deserves twice those numbers!
It was a real pleasure to play this title as it was clearly a labour of love and it reminded me why I love this style of rpg so much. Its top of my lists for this year..

Quick resume would be good if you could rely on it, but far too many games dont work.
As a result I tend to just use suspend resume for those games that work ok with it. Suspend resume also works fine on ps5.

@electrolite77 I certainly hope your right. Too much speculating from the press trying to make a story thats not thefe 😀

@Sol4ris Bobby will go soon at least
Unfortunately they've just cleared the last law suit with a paltry 54m payment, whilst insisting it be written that they were never proven to have done anything wrong. Not the language of a reformed attitude under a more benign leadership, but its long been obvious MS will not do the local level culture changes required for full change.
Still, that's my own beef 😢

I'm going to have to fess up.
I'm playing Foresaken and really enjoying it. Please dont judge me, I feel dirty!

Putting my huge lapse of judgement to one side, I hope you all are playing some excellent titles. GP is bursting at the seams with worthy games, I hope you are enjoying some of them!

@Sol4ris Your quite correct, MS have been pretty upfront with their desire to be a big player in the mobile space with their own storefront and operating more as a mega publisher. Having a hardware platform seems secondary to their longer term efforts.

My concern arises as I think good strong competition is good for players on all platforms.

I dont have any personal concerns as I have a great PC and use steam, so I can still access anything I consider essential, which is why Ive been able to move away from my series X and MS in general with little concern (we've even unsubbed to office 365).

Xbox were always the function in MS I had most time for though and despite my opposition to the ABK whitewashing going on, I always imagined there would be an xbox. The industry would be much worse off without one..

Fantastic deals and good buys.

BUT, this is clearly a needed response as sales across Europe are terrible. The imbalance in sales is the worst I think Ive ever seen between two competing consoles (please correct me if theres been a bigger imbalance.)
Im not hugely concerned about MS, they will be fine, but I am concerned about xbox as I believe this will hasten the plans MS already has to leave hardware behind and just be a publisher.

Regradless of buisness concerns, theres never been a better time to pick up a GP machine. Which is ironic as Ive let my own GP lapse for the first time ever and Ive not switched the series X on in over a month, but we all make personal choices... (mine relate to scumbag ABK managers who are now all team green)

Im in for mid gen machines if they run higher frame rate and with some rt functions.
Id need to know MS will have software to take advantage, as I tend to play 3rd parties on ps5.... so Id be relying on 1st party software to get best use.

Sea of Stars got my top vote, but there are so many good choices!

In a great year for games, just getting a nomination is a real accolade.
Good luck to them all.