Titntin

@BrilliantBill Agree mate. There's no reason at all why xbox wont hit all the right beats in the future and produce some uncontested classics, and I'm hopeful we will see it soon.

But just because they are not making award winners, doesn't mean they are not making some fantastic games and the vast majority of my favourite games, many on Xbox, don't win awards, so its not necessary. It does help with capturing mind share of the general buyer though, so shouldn't be dismissed.

Those who bother to read my long rambling comments might know I'm not signed up to 'the cult of Phil', as I often refer to it. But he's worked hard to point Xbox in the right direction and I'm sure him and many of team green would cherish an uncontestable accolade such as a GOTY award, and at this point, they deserve it. I'm sure it will come soon and I will celebrate it!

@Stnkygrngo Thanks for the encouragement. I will no doubt try it again in 6 months after many updates and I hope it will have found its feet by then!

@TheGrizMan I wouldnt know about Spiderman 2, I don't play them games (swinging makes me ill).
I have played BG3 though, and Zelda, and I have no beef with them being considered as they are excellent.
I'm also delighted that Sea of Stars is up for the RPG catagory - I played and completed this on Game Pass, and the love that went into crafting that title shines through.
Im genuinely hopeful for future xbox titles mate, I want to see that success as much as anyone, but I wont let desire colour my genuine feelings for whats been served this year. Please dont turn this into plastic box wars, thats so useless and unnecessary.

@GuyinPA75 The conversation around this game is how can be so bad. Just read the Forza forums for a taste of this.
I got to driver level 50 something and gave up on it - it was soulless and joyless to me, so I can see why people are having those conversations. I'd rather play FM7 - its a far better game to me.
If you liked it mate, then enjoy away - I have no hotline to good taste (far from it), so I don't want to spoil anyone else's enjoyment of it
The view appears to be shared widely online, so I don't think my own feelings are way out of leftfield - much was promised and even shown, and simply not delivered. Huge shame as I really wanted to love it, that's why I played for so long before realising I was wasting my time.

Cant help feeling this article will play nicely into the 'Victim mentality' that seems to be prevalent with many Xbox only gamers, but you cant blame a site wanting more engagement

I wasn't at all surprised to not see a Starfield nomination, as it quite clearly doesn't warrant one, even though I enjoyed the game.
Forza Motorsport is an absolute mess and is best forgotten - and its not a genre that would normally warrant GOTY attention anyway.

Best game from Xbox this year has been Hi Fi Rush. You can make a case for its inclusion in the reckoning, but ultimately its just a beat-em up with knobs on, so in the year where we've had so many glowing games, it doesn't surprise me its not in there.
But it's Xbox's best by far this year imo.

I'm hoping for better things from the new teams to raise the bar and compete with the industries best, and hope we see Xbox games in the conversation next year (please avowed, be good!)

Rollerdrome - nice! I've let my GP sub lapse for a while as I have far too much to play elsewhere for now, but I'll definitely check Rollerdrome out once I re sub

If MS aren't carefull, this cashcow will kill itself. Thats in nobodies interests, so I hope MS turn this around....

It was hyped to be goty, but in reality what was delivered was just a good game. This year, it simply wasnt good enough to make nominations, and thats a shame. I had some fun with it, but I'll never go back and its simply not a patch on the great bethusda games of the past.

The 360 by far for me. I wish the current generation could recapture the innovation and quality xbox delivered for the 360.

@RetroRacer Welcome on board mate, nice to see you here.
I find console gaming so much more relaxing than on the PC (even though I have a good one) so I hope you find the same experience.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but its still 'The Crew Motorfest' to the exclusion of everything else, much to my surprise!
What I thought would be a bit of fluff and an inferior Forza Horizon rip off, has shown much more depth and longevity than I could have guessed, and its all myself and the wife want to play - both of us have well over 100 hours each into it.
I rarely laugh and scream with joy playing games these days, but Im doing it a lot with this title - reminds me of the lifelong joy and happiness games have given me.

I had planned plugging in my joystick (its a big heavy beast), and hitting some schmups, but I suspect I'll be back in motorfest instead.

Whatever and where ever you play, I hope you have great weekend!

Good lists and worthy winners.

My own preferences:
BG3
Sea of stars
FF16
Crew motorfest
Zelda Totk.

Not played spidey 2 or mario yet.

Biggest dissapointment is Forza Motorsport, its not just souless, its a mess.

Doesnt matter how you look at it, its been a great year for gamers.

This is undoubtedly game of the year.
I'm playing it elsewhere through so no, not on Xbox.

Happy birthday Series X - here's hoping for a uplift in your fortunes for the rest of the generation!
All the talent is there, if it can manged properly it will go from strength to strength.

I've yet to see any signs of MS managing their studios well so far, and more than doubling their head count does little to fill me with confidence that they will suddenly mange those studios well.

My Game pass ultimate unexpectedly runs out tomorrow. Given I waited so long for starfield only for it to be only 'OK' and that Forza is a complete disaster of a game, I'm letting my sub run out for now and wont use my Xbox until they actually deliver.
I have such a backlog anyway that I can happily satisfy my needs with games on the other two platforms until MS actually deliver anything compelling.
This sits very comfortably with me as I have boycotted ABK games for years following the exposure of their shabby inexcusable treatment of devs. Those same managers and Bobby Kotick are now all part of team Green. I hope there will be actions that show that treatment and respect for devs is actually something they do and not just say.
I hope that with time, they will actually deliver on the never ending promises, and clean up the culture of the awfull managers they have now taken on as employees. Till then its adious Xbox - at least till they release something I must play.

I'm not hugely convinced on Hellblade 2.
The team definitely set a high bar for visuals, so I'm sure it will look nice, but we've seen nothing that gives us any real game play.
I was not very happy with the first game and did not bother to complete it, so I'd much rather have details about how the gameplay will engage the player rather than how many polys they use to get the characters looking great. From what we've seen so far, it could be a quick time action game - but of course its not!
Fingers crossed for this, but the effort seems to be going into visuals only, and I'd much rather hear about gameplay? Am I being unfair?

Good to see continuing support.
I wish some of this had been present on release.

I'm personally finished with this game, got 120 hours of entertainment and that's fine for me, but continual improvement is great to see!

Still no statements on tackling the frat boy work culture of their new arrivals? That's frustrating.

Like others here, if this chap helped guide the limitations that delivered the recent motorsport, then I fear for future quality. However, the position is needed and MS need to take full control of the studios they now own and not just write them cheques.
I hope this ends up being a positive move for xbox as a whole!

Its a real shame that rewards are not quite as rewarding as they used to be, as I know many of you actively pursue rewards and it helps pay for GP.
I think perhaps that following the 70 billion spend, head corp are not prepared to let the xbox division be as generous as they have been and are insisting on starting to see some returns, hence some of the changes and stories of late. I guess its to be expected - they are not a charity.

It doesn't affect me, I've never chased rewards and no doubt have some I've never claimed. Whilst everyone likes free money, I won't dance to the tune of a corp to earn some. I play the games I want to play the way I want to play them and I use the search engines I want to. Fair play to those who have used and enjoyed the system to help finance their gaming though, and especially to the poster who donates their reward points to good causes, that's a fantastic thing to do if you can afford to.

I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. It was visually appealing bht ultimately I uninstalled it after a week.

Do we really want any integration with those cesspits of humanity?
I'm certainly very happy that Xbox left a while back and I'm happy that PS will leave soon. Not having a link to those sites is a positive.

Still absolutely rivited by the crew motorfest, which just gets better and better the more I play it - just hitting 95 hours now.
My wifes played it even more than me! Fortunate to have two gaming tellies in my main living room and two ps5s, so I 'crew up' with my wife and yet we are playing locally.
Unfortunately Ive given up on Forza motorsport. I put a lot of time in and simply wasnt having fun despite my best efforts. I honestly believe FM7 is a far better title and I'll play that or GT7 for more serious racing.
So many great games waiting for my attention, but all I can think of is getting back to motorfest! Happy days 😊

Where ever you game, and whatever you're playing, I hope you have a fun weekend.

Ive been saying that this is the best gaming has ever been to anyone who will listen for some time. Particularly if you are a multi format gamer.
Since space invaders launched when I was 15, Ive been hooked on games and gaming and have owned pretty much every console released since - in the very early years I had to import from Japan as the western gaming market was still tiny. I left a high paying position with IBM and took a 50% pay cut to become a games dev and spent a ghappy 20 years making some of the games Ive enjoyed playing.
My enthusiasm has never waned, but Ive never had so many fantastic titles on my 'to play' list as I have today. There has never been a better time to be a gamer imo.

In their financial plans Microsoft made it clear they are targetting significant income rises from advertising from the xbox group.
This is the start of what that will mean, and I suspect this will become a common occurrence.
Its not what I want from a games console I bought, and its something I never experience on other consoles. Now that xbox employees now include some total scumbag managers still nesling under Boby Koticks evil shadow, and some of the people responsable for almost evil levels of monitisation, im thinking long and hard about if I can continue gaming on this platform. Ive bouycotted activision for years, Ive seen nothing so far to have any trust those issues have been, or will be, tackled.
Its not that I have to press a B button to get back to my ad laden dashboard, thats merely a symptom. Its a slow steady drip of Microsoft actually becoming the Pantomime villain people have been incorrectly labelling them as for years.
Ive just discovered my gp ultimate subscription is up next month and I dont have another year stacked like I thought I did. Its still great value, but given the transformation MS are going through I dont know if I can support them with a new sub yet.
Im waffling again, sorry all..

Im afraid it would take more than local co op to save this title for me. Ive put a lot of hours in, but its just not fun.
Ive gone back to the simple arcade delights of the crew motorfest, and Im having loads more fun with that..

Been waiting for this one and will pick it up on release, on console. I have a really strong pc, but hate gaming on that platform, particularly since most releases these days are a stutter fest.

@inverseIV @Sakai
Thanks guys. I appreciate all the information you've given me! 👍
Ive only ever used my xim nexus for gyro and have never played or bought an Activision/Blizzard game since the treatment of their devs came to light some years ago. Until we hear theres been a root and branch change under new Management I still wont touch games from these teams, so Im not undully concerned.
Im still a little concerned about the direction of travel of MS though, even if I suspected it would happen eventually.

@inverseIV Thanks mate, Im hoping they cant detect any subeterfuge, but yes, it should appear as an official contoller to the OS. Thanks for reminding me!

@Sakai Thanks for the info! Not sure why gyro would be considered cheating, but I can go and research now - cheers!

I actually play more games on psn, but that may change as GP get some more heavy hitters I enjoy. Thought Id play Starfield and Motorsport for years, but Im actually done with them. Thank goodness for like a dragon this month...

No surprises from me. I know microsoft from old and sooner or later the mask was going to slip. Proprietary memory thats twice the cost it should be, advertising in our dahes with a promise to shareholders of greatly increased ad revenue from xbox division, and now this.
I use a xim nexus to get gyro on xbox, but not for long it seems.

Anti consumer has been the heart of Microsofts core stratagey for decades in its corporate dealings. Its sad to see they have finally reigned in the xbox division and I fear for the future of the traditionally consumer foccussed games division.

Im utterly captivated by 'Roki' (on psplus if you have access).

Im afraid ive finally stopped playing Motorsport for now and returned to 'The Crew Motorfest' because that title is so much fun.

I took a look at 'Gotham Knights' expecting to switch off fairly quickly, but Im really enjoyig it, so I plan on giving that a good play through - much to my surprise!

Whatever you are playing, have a great weekend. 😊

@ZuneTattooGuy
Thanks for mentioning 'Coral Island', Id not looked at it before, but checked it out when you mentioned it and now Im really keen on playing it!

Another good month on GP!

I might have hoped for some more and bigger structural changes.
Having more than doubled their workforce, I think it will take a bit more than a slight shuffle to get a real grip on the studios and ensure the changes Microsoft are looking for.

When many of the management teams recently taken over have a history of 'frat culture', I do find it relevent and welcome that half the leaders are female. I hope this will ensure that this mysoginistic trait is well and trully buried.

I have a lot of respect for rdr2 and the world they created, but once the awe wore off I got a bit bored. I actually prefered the first game, but appreciate Im in the minority on that! Its a shame they stopped developing new game ideas inorder to exploit gta5 online so much, but Im hoping gta6 will be return to form next year..

Huzzah! Looks like Remedy have truly delivered.
Sux for my bank account, but its only money eh?

I'm really looking forward to this one. Remedy does things differently, and I really appreciate it.
I do hope this delivers!

This was OK and I thought the format was very good. Definitely a few titles to put on the wish list..

This kinda 'news' is pretty pointless. As GP subs rise any game on GP will have record numbers as most people will at least try a new AAA release if they can do so without cost.
It's only by looking at engagement and how many players actually play it that we get any meaningful figures, so this kind of 'pat your self on the back statistics' release is disingenuous.

This game is a good case in point. Very many people who have been motorsport fans all through the series are not at all happy with this release. The Forza forums are full of such people raising their concerns. Its a little disappointing to see fans with such valid concerns being over looked while they celebrate meaningless figures as if the game is an unqualified success.

I've put my hours in (driver level 70) and do agree with many of the criticisms. Even installed it on PC and played there in case full ray tracing at 60fps would help me 'feel it'. Sadly, I need to put this away for another look after several more patches in the hope that improves the gameplay loop which is frankly boring AF. The AI in particular is the worst I've ever seen in a driving game and I have to keep the rewind feature on just so I can undo stupid AI moves, like every car trying to ram you off in the first lap and cars needlessly breaking in middle of a long corner.
FM7 was a better game, and I'm disappointed to say that.

I'm delighted to see that the game increased subs significantly - this was its intended aim and its clearly worked
Its certainly not my game of the year, but its enjoyable enough on GP for all its faults. I'd be a little harsher if I had paid good money for it, but I've got over 100 hours into it now and I'm likely to go back for a bit more before I uninstall - that's a level of engagement I don't get from many games, even if its miles less than previous output from Bethusda.

I'm interested to see what will drop here!
I hope we get details of some Square Enix drops. I may have access anyway, but I'd like to see these games on all platforms, and the recent positive comments from Square give me hope that some tasty 3rd party treats will arrive.

I think a date for BG3 on Xbox is a safe bet

@Vipor007 Welcome to Xbox then mate! There's lots of great old titles for you to play and enjoy, and lots of new ones too Have fun

Revenues is where is counts, especially for Microsoft's future Roadmap. Might not match their aspirations, but this is a good rise and hopefully a continued release of new titles will keep up the growth!

@Moonglow
Dont be rediculous, the comments section of a games news site is hardly the place to write a technical paper.
.. And this is no random news site, its part of a group of sites Im a supporter of and have gotten my news from for years.

If you genuinely wish to enlighten yourself about the work required to bring a decent single player title to fruition, theres plenty of resource available to provide insight if you wish to see it.
I'd suggest maybe looking at guerilla and how they brought Horizon Forbidden West to life, they have some decent insight into the toolsets they developed. Even a piece like digital foundaries insomniac interview today, has plenty of insight into the rendering pipeline used on spiderman 2 and the creative solutions used to ensure the could stream and dump fom memory withing a frame or two. Single player games also have creative systems, such as the traffic and citizens, and the reactive conversations generated wen the player is close. I doubt if you are genuinely interested, but I'd urge you to look. A game such as Halo will simply have different systems to build, and different problems to overcome.

@Vipor007 Really good mate. Even the first game is good fun still.
I picked up all the old titles really cheap on ebay and me and my wife played them through from number 1 upwards. No 3 has some great urban city areas that I feel are still the best in this series.
Its a lot of fun for not much cash. 😁

@Moonglow
'Exactly, most people have little knowledge in game development and are unaware Sony makes "easier" to develop games.'

Id like to know what game dev knowledge you have that gives you this special insight? Because you are completely wrong and your simply making this statement to be dismissive of their success in making popular well recieved games.
I have 20 years experience as a developer of AAA titles having made titles for Sega, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Sony and Microsoft, among several others. Doesnt mean my opinion carries any more weight than anyone elses, but it means I can smell fanboy BS when its stated as fact.

16 gb left to download!
I'm not one to play PC much (much prefer console gaming), but this type of game I feel can really benefit from mouse and Keyboard.
Given how demanding this game is for even beefy PC rigs, I fear there will be a lot of compromises to get it running OK on consoles. This is one game where you want more res so you can get lots of detail without zooming in, so I'm concerned as to how it will fare on console. Hope they do a good job!

I'm now a level 70 driver in Motorsport, but I'm sure its sure bloody mindedness that's keeping me going, not fun. They broke motorsport and I think it will take a lot of time to get it working again. I was reading the forza forums this morning and they cant make happy reading for the devs.

Horizon was a good game and deserves its success. I think horizon 4 was the pinnacle, but I'm British so I'm probably biased!
I'm also hugely impressed by the Crew motorfest, which is a blatant copy in most ways. Copy or not, in many areas its even better than Horizon, and I really don't say that lightly.
Roll on Horizon 6 - its sure to be fire...

@themightyant Pretty fair appraisal and one I agree with. I'm a little over 100 hours in and I've had few bugs. Def 8/10 from my perspective.
So many little things that let the game down, keep it from being a true classic, which is a shame.
You can tell the quest design loop was kept exactly the same from previous games. Travelling the land to talk to people can work in a fantasy setting. But repeatedly having to travel to talk to people face to face as if phones haven't been invented in starfield's universe, is just one of the many disconnects from reality that spoil the immersion, as is the whole travel system that's quite simply broken and make the universe feel smaller than Skyrim.
Its still an enjoyable experience though, I wouldn't waste my time with it otherwise, but I cant help thinking what it might have been with some better design choices. Its not even close to being my fave Bethesda title and its left me worried for ES6. I hope to god they learn how to make people that don't look like mannequins and animate like living beings instead of a students first showreel.
But I also hope they never lose their ability to tell a decent story - some of the side quests on this were very well written, even if the main quest was a little less so.

There are indeed many great studios now under the team green umbrella. It should be important for every true gamer that MS nuture and support them to produce great games.

Some of these teams already have a high bar for quality, and a title like hifi rush is proof they can do it without support, but I would agree that a strong central QA team is now essential and they should be involved early. Quality is designed in, not added later.
With the talent they have, theres no doubt they could match the quality bar set by nintendo and sony and be top of the goty considerations with a touch more qa. Im hoping for real realignment of resources to ensure this happens going forward.
All true gamers should be hoping for this, and their continued success...