Widey85

Beacon Pines is a really sweet awesome little game, clever mechanics and a good chill out

@Cashews It's your issue if you like indie games and less get made / less added to Game Pass.

If you don't like indies then fine - a discussion about Unity won't affect you, no

@Cashews Because it disproportionately will impact smaller developers as they most use Unity, and it's a complete joke of a licence model that'll impact the number of games we get on Game Pass etc

Worst case Microsoft or Apple will buy them to fire the idiot that came up with it - as both as distributors of a lot of Unity games would soon find that a cheaper option.

In reality though if Unity don't back down on this they're going to kill their own product as developers will move away - particularly when Unreal Engine is starting to pull away from Unity with functionality designed to make life easier for small dev teams.

Really does seem some tech CEOs are going for the reckless "shoot for the moon, or crash and burn" approach...

I'm one of the few who liked Andromeda, but it definitely needed a lot more fast travel points - and exploring often wasn't particularly fun apart from the team chatting amongst themselves.

I adore the original trilogy, I played through it again as part of the Legendary Edition and I think the story and depth of lore is second to none - I'm not 100% sure about how they'll bring it back, and I'd like to see some gameplay improvements with maybe bigger open world "non-combat" areas.

For example, being able to explore much more of the Citadel would be good - and the universe in general.

Just really hope they don't go the trendy "Souls-like combat!" route as that does my head in...

Codemasters I'll always remember for Colin McRae Rally which was one of the first "proper" 3D racers I remember playing, back on PS1.

Loved that game, and the main listing screenshot of McRae's Subaru definitely brought back memories - will be interested to give this one a try on the free trials we get with EA Play (via Ultimate)...

Only downside with the game not getting highest marks is the sound of hundreds of hooves galloping here from PushSquare...

I'm looking forward to playing it tomorrow regardless, and have no doubt I'll be on it for the next few months at least

Can't wait to dive in tomorrow, it sounds exactly my cup of tea.

My brain had been hyping it as Mass Effect meets Skyrim x100, despite trying to keep expectations in check - so the outlier scores will just help me do that...

@BAMozzy Yep I had the same experience with Goldeneye, bought an N64 again in uni to play with housemates and we couldn't believe how poor the aiming was and particularly how ugly it was given we remembered it looking so much like the film...

Since then I've been much more in the "redo it" group - Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a great example for me, they redid the games so they looked great but didn't change the gameplay, story or levels (although I'm OK with modernising poor controls like the Mako!).

I've played other games with mods on PC to make them look better and bring them up-to-date - it's shocking how poor some ports on console have been recently given much higher quality versions already exist on PC thanks to mods...

I think memories take into account the technology of the time, so when I remember this game I remember it looking awesome.

This definitely brings back memories, but it does feel minimal effort from Konami and hurts the nostalgia a little...

@clvr Yep the car handling, combat and AI in GTA5 are all pretty mediocre to downright bad too.

We all loved GTA in the past for the sheer freedom, variety and massive settings - many other games have now overtaken them on much of those.

And yes the missions and gameplay can be infuriating - the amount of times I've failed missions over the year due to a stupid bug, which has taken forever to do and you can't save within missions so have to redo huge amounts.

GTA6 needs to significantly improve the above systems to be worthwhile playing - unfortunately you're right, it'll likely sell shedloads even if it sucks...

The idea that I'd trust that hellsite for banking is ludicrous - and I say that as someone who is still using it (through gritted teeth) to keep an eye on the latest news (plus here of course!).

Once Threads sorts its feeds and trending stuff I'll probably give up on Twitter as it's just full of spam and Nazis (literally in too many cases!)

Win - I'm always in need of this info so I'm happy

Subtitles, difficulty, quick save all very useful

Might have to boot it up again, been busy with Deliver Us Mars but wrapping that atm.

Do love cruising in FH in the warm sunshine, so a Summer Party vibe might be just want I need after the windy / rainy weather in much of the rally DLC

@PartyMarty @Kaloudz Yep I'm going to give that a try, I do like simple planner type games (Two Point Hospital etc., I love Anno 1800 but I get lost in the complexity!) so thinking it'll be up my street.

Also want to give Maquette a try as I do like a puzzle game...

This article now has more comments than the article on replacing Xbox Live branding (which has been with us over 20 years) and a big change in offering which is probably a better fit for arguments around strategy (which a lot of this appears to be...)

@PartyMarty @awp69 @Kaloudz Yep usually these GP half-month updates are just a few of us PureXbox lot saying "ooo might try that, everyone else give X a try as it's pretty good" or at worst "bit disappointing, hoping next batch is better".

Today I can't even find the usual discussions about the individual games - just rants or baiting turning it into a nasty thread just like the ABK ones usually got...

Agreed I get the feeling that Microsoft finally starting to get serious about Xbox and back it like they did in the 360 days is definitely causing some bad feeling - whereas I think competition makes everyone up their game (the 360 gen for example pushed PlayStation to make some of their biggest current franchises)

Nice, will give it a go, love these kind of puzzle games on GP

Yep loved the first two games, to the point the first two Forza Horizons didn't gel with me as much as I wanted to walk around showrooms and houses etc. (fourth one got me, then got me playing 3 and 5 too).

I remember doing loops of the entire Ibiza island sea road in the second one, while the first was just staggering in what they'd achieved

Lots of trailers including gameplay, most games coming very soon or even today and some really nice looking stuff.

Over half was playthroughs as usual but overall a solid B or B+ from me

@Snake_V5 As @Somebody mentioned, CMA already looking like they're backing down:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/11/23791149/microsoft-activision-blizzard-uk-regulators-cma-appeal

So despite your desire in every post to see this blocked, it doesn't look like it will be - if it's just pessimism to avoid getting hopes up then my apologies

@Wheatly Looks like CMA about to back down:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/11/23791149/microsoft-activision-blizzard-uk-regulators-cma-appeal

@Wheatly FTC trial is August from what I recall - so whether they handle the UK and close ahead of the deadline, or extend it to after the CAT tribunal then close after winning that, it's almost certain now (short of a shock loss on an FTC appeal) that MS will close ABK before the FTC in-house trial.

The FTC can then decide it requires MS to divest of ABK - but MS will likely fight that in the federal courts right the way up to the Supreme Court so it could take a year or two, during which they may please the courts by not fully merging ABK in but keeping it running as a separate entity within MS (which is often their default anyway)

Hopefully means the CMA can be handled one way or another (ABK UK subsidiary until CAT tribunal or a deal with CMA) and this can finally close.

Then a) we can reap the Game Pass benefits and b) we can finally stop hearing about it!

EDIT: CMA may not be such an issue https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/11/23791149/microsoft-activision-blizzard-uk-regulators-cma-appeal

Might give the free trial a go as the narrative intrigues me, and the passive mode may be for me given I hate survival games!

I was going to use Ubi+ for the short free trial or for a month to give this a go, as while I've loved old Settlers games yeah the reviews aren't amazing...

Absolute joke it's not on Ubi+ given the sky-high cost of that for how much is on it - so will probably just wait a few months for this to be 50 to 75% off and give it a go then...

Enjoyed both Call of the Sea and GreedFall, both recommended

@Banjo- Nice, well definitely worth starting it today while it's still on there, if like then at least it's cheap at the moment

Still going to shout about how great Road 96 is!

Always meant to try Empire of Sin but didn't get around to it despite having it installed for the year or two since it got added - think it probably tells me it wasn't meant to be...

@FraserG Yep I love my puzzle and chill out games on Game Pass so will definitely be trying it, cheers!

@NeoRatt Nice, I've been looking at both and been leaning towards the ROG for the same reason

These all look pretty interesting to me, even the one coming out in September feels it might be a good in breaks from Starfield

Think if this acquisition fails MS will go and buy lots of smaller developers and publishers to keep Game Pass stacked, so either way we'll probably get quite a bit added.

The case has revealed Xbox has to fund its marketing and exclusivity deals mostly out of its own budget, which explains the lack of outbidding Sony for a lot of marketing / exclusivity, and why I don't now think if MS lose we'll see them buying GTA6 exclusivity out of spite (for example).

Given acquisitions simply move an asset onto the balance sheet in place of cash, and they usually generate profits higher than cash interest, Xbox would be able to continue to ask for acquisitions using Microsoft's cash on hand, rather than huge exclusivity deals that don't guarantee a profit

I'm hopeful this will go through, but if not I'm not too worried as I suspect we'll still see acquisitions to feed the content monster without "wasting" money on exclusivity that is so expensive to buy given Xbox's smaller market share

@NeoRatt
Agreed on the consoles hardware being very similar nowadays, and getting closer and closer to optimised PCs / PC decks.

I see more the rise of streaming as potentially being the way we get to "play everything" scenario - there will likely still be consoles with exclusives for decades, but you'll be able to sub to PS+, xCloud and NintendoFlix (or whatever they end up having) services on your TV (potentially even console) to play the other lot's games.

We're close to it at the moment, but it'll take a few years yet for broadband / fibre and latency issues to get sorted I guess...

@NeoRatt Hate to tell you this, Blu Ray is only a standard because Sony bullied HD-DVD out of the market.

I worked in retail at the time (part time job with uni) and it was a bitter war where you often could only get some content on one or the other - Toshiba, Panasonic and a bunch of big tech companies wanted HD-DVD which was a more open standard.

But Sony used their movies arm and by putting Blu Ray in the PS3 at a loss to ensure they captured the market.

The others had the last laugh I guess as Netflix and streaming came along meaning hardly anyone buys Blu Rays anymore anyway, but Sony was absolutely ruthless in that war too.

So this "kill the competition" approach where they lock up third party exclusives using their already almost-monopoly worldwide in "high end consoles" (their definition for the ABK merger) to do so at a low price, isn't anything new for them - and unfortunately competitors have to adopt the same tactics until I imagine we all go streaming only in a few decades...

Wow that email from Jim is bad.

"We want all ABK games for a really, really long time. We don't want any to be on Game Pass and they must have no exclusive content despite us doing that for years. We also want Bethesda games too, and btw cancel the CoD marketing deal as it costs a lot and you're going to give us it all anyway!"

Didn't Jim say though "this email worried me as it for example mentioned Overwatch but not Overwatch 2" - when Overwatch 1 has gone bye bye and 2 is basically considered an update to 1?

So Overwatch is Overwatch - there is no "2" in most terms now, hence it not being called that on the email...

To be honest, vehicles / horses are often used get across huge maps that are sparsely populated - basically to allow us to rush through the boring bland parts.

So I'm not too worried

Road 96 is awesome, and can certainly get a play through done before the end of the month

@Jark It's ok, I can tell 4k from upscaled 4k so I'm probably better off not noticing frame rates so I can benefit from quality modes

@PhileasFragg Think Microsoft Solitaire could be an example - it's free on Android and you can pay quite a bit for premium, but premium is free for Game Pass members.

They've not extended it to their other mobile games such as Wordament yet for some reason though

@Jark That's the one scenario I'd welcome refreshes - ones that still allowed the base PS5 and Series owners to play, but allowed 60fps or much higher ray tracing for those who really want that out of consoles which let's face it are a bargain compared to gaming PCs.

I can't tell 30 from 60 as my reactions are those of a sloth, but I'd happily buy them if I could crank up the 4K and ray tracing while others can dial them back for 60 or even 120hz...

@Cashews Nice well if you've got a decent PC you can probably play the exclusives you miss from Sony's side within a year or two anyway, while yes at the moment Xbox has the more exciting line up in my opinion...

Enjoy!

@Cashews I'd tend to agree, if in a few years Xbox has lost more market share and not delivered from all these first party developers.

Welcome back btw - I was one of the idiots who stayed on Xbox in the One generation as university was all Xbox 360 with friends so they were going that way too.

But then had to get a PS4 too in order to play with friends and family outside that group, as everyone else went Sony - so I can't say much as for a few years my One was pretty quiet.

Game Pass drew me back as did Forza Horizon, and given I've always loved western RPGs I think I'm in the right place

Think it was the successful "E3" season that Xbox needed after last year was too quiet on the first-party front.

Between first and third party games, the rest of 2023 looks busy, while 2024 and 2025 is looking pretty stacked - was happy with what I saw

@Cashews I get it was a bad year, but it's the reason he needs to promote confidence and enthusiasm to both his team and the wider Xbox community - so no, it's better as a public message IMHO.

Cheer up, it's going to be a great few years of gaming!

Good for People Can Fly, didn't mind Outriders and it had some good ideas, and Square treated them terribly so it's good for them to be away from that abusive relationship!

TRO is very easy to get, literally just a stay - it's the injunction hearing later this month that will be interesting.

If the FTC win that, it'll be a long drawn out process to defeat them - but most observers seem to reckon Microsoft / ABK have a good chance of beating them...

Think if they did win against the FTC injunction, the deal will close and we'll see the CMA decision as simply being whether or not ABK stays in the UK (and will make the CMA look really silly as the only one standing in the way)...

B from me, would have liked them to merge the Forza deep dive into it and maybe go more in on those 13 indie titles they rushed through.

But overall pretty solid, what I expected from the show that has more "dev-focus"

Will give this a go - the Game Pass additions recently have been backburner or "quick try then give up" for me, so I'd bought SteelRising and Deliver Us Mars and been playing those.

I've been using Powerwash Simulator's new levels as a break from them, but given the enormous satellite dish level is breaking me I think this might be the exact cute little indie game I need