somnambulance

Nope, my Series S is fine for right now. Realistically, I’ve used my Xbox 360 more than I’ve used the Series S this year.

I forgot about this one. I’m really hoping it’s a solid one, cinematic and fun.

Fantastic line-up. Can’t wait for South of Midnight, Fable, and Doom.

The three 2025 games are practically the best set we’ve gotten from Xbox in years.

It will be a Series S’s full hard drive space to play, you know? Or you could play it on xCloud.

I loved the DLC and loved that I could play it the day after announcement. After a while of waffling with really finding something that really clicks with me as a game, this DLC reminded me why I play. Just wonderful stuff.

@OM1993 @Nexozi I just resubbed to Gamepass yesterday! Xbox won me back with the showcase.

Honestly, AC Shadows looks better to me than Avowed. I’m going to be subbed by that time, so I suppose it doesn’t matter, but I do budget my time out. I’m waiting for the Nintendo Direct, but I’m starting to feel ready to preorder my games for the rest of the year (if I’m buying games). 2025 is already looking stacked too, so things that get left behind now might be left behind for a while.

Life is Strange/Dragon Ball/Silent Hill/Sonic in October practically booted Metaphor out of my gaming calendar for this year, and to be honest Life is Strange getting announced firmly put Silent Hill and maybe even Sonic potentially on the wayside. LiS and Dragon Ball is definitely going to keep me busy. If Avowed and Indy are November/December, great, I’ve got time for them.

But why? With everything else announced, I’m making plans for what to buy now. Just waiting on that Direct to make that plan concrete. Seems weird to hide that info

@rustyduck If they get delayed, 2025 just gets thicker for Xbox. Honestly, this showcase let me know I’ll actually have enough to play for the rest of the year, though I’m not sure what I’ll play this summer. Got a feeling I’ve got til September of waffling and waiting outside Erdtree… if I can even get to the DLC. Why oh why did I not beat Mogh when I was good at the game!?😅

Fable, South of Midnight, Doom, and Expedition 33 next year for me.

I’ll try Avowed, but I can’t wait for Life is Strange and Indy. Honestly, AC Shadows looks really solid to me too.

Cautiously optimistic on MGS and even Perfect Dark. Not interested in anything else, but it was so diverse a line-up that it has that “something for everyone” vibe. I do wish Silksong and Replaced would’ve gotten updates and the lack of release dates for 2024 titles is baffling, but honestly it feels like Xbox is back after years of let downs.

Now I just need that Nintendo Direct and I can plan my whole year in gaming (well, I’m still waiting to know more about Lost Records, but I think that’s the only game floating on my spreadsheet now as a 2024? title).

I gave it an A. Sure, not everything looked like something I want to play personally (in fact, probably less than half the games appealed to me). Heck, I can’t stand CoD or Gears, for instance, but the flow of the showcase was so solid throughout. It felt like an important showcase. It felt like Xbox was bringing a lot of effort to the showcase. There was a lot for all the different sides of the fanbase.

Now, that said, man, where the heck is Silksong? I hope Nintendo’s shadow dropping it for the Direct. Also, not sure how Avowed and Indy don’t have release dates. Avowed looks less and less interesting to me every time, but I’m still going to try it. Indy looks like Xbox’s return to form. 2025 is going to be the return year for Xbox for sure. Fable, Doom, and South of Midnight… what a line-up! That’s the Xbox I want! It’s like they are making a year that’s specifically catered to me, which is at odds with how I’ve felt about the industry lately, so I love that.

Life is Strange 1 getting a direct sequel (and soon too!) was probably the highlight for me. I was really hoping Lost Records would’ve been featured in one of the showcases this week, and was sad it wasn’t, but this absolutely makes up for it.

I do wish we would’ve gotten something about OD, but i suppose Death Stranding 2 is coming first, so I get it… I was just hoping for a Kojima double feature next year.

Looks like this one might be absolutely remarkable. I’m definitely excited for it. Wish there was a release date, so I could mark my calendar! Might be Xbox’s first chance to turn around that narrative about Xbox Game Studios being behind Sony.

I still want to try it, but I feel like every time I see Avowed, I’m less interested in it. Wish Avowed and Indy had release dates. Seems weird to not have them at this point. Makes you wonder why they’re waiting to announce that info.

I need this now. The show just keeps getting better!

This one looked good, but I also sort of feel like there’s too much mystery to get excited yet. So far so good in this showcase.

This looks fantastic. This is exactly what I want out of the industry: new, creative ideas and IPs that show us new worlds unlike anything we’ve yet seen in gaming. This one hit me as good as the Doom reveal.

This looks insane. Great start to the show. This looks absolutely incredible.

No release date, but at least the game is alive

Well, given the quality of the other showcases this year, Xbox needs to do a bit of lifting to restore not-E3. The whole thing’s been so… ok-ish… so far. I want to believe! Trying not to get my expectations to flare up, but I want it to be a success so badly.

@ATaco jeez, is that a thing? Half Life 2 honestly still plays better than most games, so that’s surprising. For a 20 year old fps, it’s held up remarkably well. I can’t say that for most others of the genre, even if my nostalgia goggles make me want to.

It’s funny. Helldivers ripped off Starship Troopers only to make Starship Troopers look like it’s ripping off Helldivers now.

@AlwaysPlaying I really hope so. I know that Alan Wake 2 DLC won’t last long. It certainly feels like Erdtree better be darn good because it needs to last me til September (for Astro Bot) with the current release slate and not much after! At this point, I’m really hoping for Xbox to shadow drop something interesting… it’s just so weird that State of Play, Summer Games Fest, Day of the Devs, and the Devolver Direct seemed so hollow.

It was rough. It’s starting to solidify what I’ll be playing the rest of the year though. Surely, Xbox and Nintendo MUST have better showcases! Right!? …right?

Antonblast, Beyond the Ice Palace 2, and Toxic Crusaders were the highlights of the show for me. I’m honestly sort of upset about Yooka Laylee if it’s not a free upgrade. The original is 7 years old…

At this rate, I’ll buy this one on PlayStation for the novelty of it. That feeling of Sonic on Nintendo and all that.

@BacklogBrad I’ll agree that it’s good Xbox bought them once they prove it. I can’t say that Bethesda has been a good example of a set of studios Xbox has clearly improved since Redfall and Starfield are essentially the only current examples we have. Neither company was anywhere near dying when they were purchased.

I hope this one is in the showcase since I think it was shown off even before Hellblade 2 if I remember correctly. I’ve been curious about it since that first trailer. I’m not holding my breath though.

@BacklogBrad Yes, he took them from “no games” to “Xbox buys IPs.” I really hope this is the year Xbox finally turns it around. The last five years for Xbox have been more about industry consolidation than releasing games. To be honest though, I’m not sure if he’s ever honestly gotten to get his vision out for the brand in practice.

I hope for different things. Lol.

If this was the list of reveals, it’d hit my taste about as well as the State of Play, where I’d say Banjo is the Astro Bot of the presentation.

Give me release dates for Avowed and Indy. I’d like to see South of Midnight too. I’m hoping this is a really exciting Xbox presentation for me personally. I miss being more excited about the platform.

Shadow drop Avowed and Silksong, please.

@FarmDog08 Xbox might. It seems like it, but I don’t count my hopes til I’ve got release dates. I’m really hoping this is a decent year for Xbox. It’s about time. A Silksong release date alone would break the internet, so if they’ve got that, everything else is practically icing. Lol.

Don’t sleep on this one. The story’s a bit of fluff, but if you’re one of those people that was like “BotW is NOT MY Zelda,” you’re bound to love the gameplay on this. Heck, even if you’re not cynical (and I’m definitely not cynical toward Zelda, BotW’s my favorite), the gameplay is solid and reminiscent of a simpler Zelda. I liked this game a lot. Everything outside the story had me hooked. It’s like a PS2 title with modern paint.

I’d put Fallout anything on my bingo card. After that State of Play, man, do I hope Xbox and Nintendo deliver this showcase. We need some second half 2024 releases. It’s looking barren out there.

You know, I think Humanity is probably the best game of this bunch, but I voted for Hauntii since it’s fresh and honestly a really cool experience from what I’ve seen of it so far. My son’s started playing it and he really likes it so far. I love the artwork in it. Feels like a game not enough people are talking about.

A shame NLife’s review pretty much decimated its aggregate review score since I know people avoid games if they don’t hit a certain overall score. As a piece of art, it deserves a bit of love since it was clearly made with it.

Sort of surprised at the positive response to Hellblade on here. I thought it was just sort of ok, even with the strong visuals and audio presentation. Releasing so close to Indika too, sort of feel like Indika totally outclassed it in the artsy walking sim/light puzzle genre they both cohabitat.

Maybe I’ll finally actually play Banishers this week. I’m caught up on the backlog, so technically that’s all that’s left for me on my to-play list til Erdtree (unless I decide to get Still Wakes the Deep or we get some Summer Game Fest surprises).

I’ve been fluffing about in Elden Ring mostly, regaining my skill, but the stuff I skipped is stuff I’m not able to beat. Lol. I was Elden Lord long ago, but now… Man, I can’t beat Commander Niall… Was I that dependent on others to help me through the game? Yesterday I was having a great time clearing Farum Azula though. Really fun area to practice in.

I might watch my son play Hauntii for a while. He quite likes that one.

I’m really hoping Still Wakes the Deep is great. I enjoyed Dear Esther and Rapture quite a bit, but it’s been a long time since they’ve released anything new. Hopefully they’ve evolved their gameplay a bit the last ten years (though I do miss back when walking sims were sort of a thing).

I downloaded it last week and decided to delete it again on Sunday. I doubt I’ll play it again.

Infinite had the right feel, but the story was incoherent at times and lacked authentic biomes. Just add some diversity and sense to the game and we’re golden for a campaign.

For multiplayer, it’s about time for BR and to bring progression back to the series’s roots. Live service is junk. For me, I was an avid player through Halo 4. What they’ve done to increase engagement has made me play less. Significantly so. I’d rather level up. For the honor of it.

A shame FIFA didn’t partner with an indie developer.

I might pick up Umbraclaw. I enjoyed the demo well enough on Switch, but I dunno. I might.

Indika and slowly getting back into Elden Ring to reacquaint myself with it for Erdtree. Outside that, just Banishers sits in the backlog now. I can finish this backlog before Erdtree!

@ParsnipHero instead of live service, it’s a multiplayer Halo game with progression like the Halo games of yore.

Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 are closer than we imagined with a Fable shadow drop announced immediately after. Then there’s a new Halo game that is similar to Infinite, but hits like Halo 3 did at launch. The multiplayer would be the best yet in the series and there is a BR mode. And next a new Banjo game! If we’re talking dreams here…

DmC probably. It’s such a game of its era now, but I never got the vitriol it received at release. It’s a solid if try-too-hard effort, but hasn’t Devil May Cry always been this?

@PsBoxSwitchOwner lol, everything Day 5. Sums up Gamepass perfectly

It was the Halo

Should be completing Dave the Diver this weekend, so that’s the big thing.

Once I do that, Indika is the next “big” game for me, though I’m going to see if the wife wants to play that one with me. We’ve still got Banishers and Road 96 in that backlog though…

Outside that, depending on how long it takes to finish Dave the Diver and what time I have to game, I may do a bit of Animal Well too, which is fantastic, or try to play Prey one more time. I’ve tried to play the game maybe four times now and I want to give it one more shot for the folks at Arkane Austin.

And honestly, working through these games will be my gaming time til Erdtree unless we get some surprises at the Summer Showcases coming up in a few weeks. Yeah, knock out six games in a month, I’ve got this… Lol.

I like Rockstar games a lot usually, but it’s been sooooo long since we’ve gotten anything from the studio. All we’ve had is GTA Online in the interim and some junk remasters the last five years, and we’ve not seen anything concrete about the game.

The same month PS+ gets RDR2?

The real surprise here is Bokeh being involved. Bring on Slitterhead!