This served only to remind me that I: a) didn't love Control as much as other people did b) will never get the Quantum Break sequel I want c) need to finish Alan Wakes 1+2
I loved the campaign - it was everything I had hoped for. The MP started off a bit slow but was top notch within about 6-9 months. Unfortunately, that delay felt like it killed a lot of momentum in the press and on the internet, but I've never had a problem getting into a match quickly to this day.
Gaming awards shows need a category for something like "Best PS2/OG Xbox era-style game on current gen platforms." I feel like South of Midnight and Keeper would both be in contention for that. Honestly, they're 2 of about a dozen highlights for me this year precisely because they remind me of that era. I'm over 8000 sq mile open world slogfests that take 120 hours to complete (except Square RPGs obviously). Give me great, unique, and even quirky stuff that I can spend 6-8 hours in and just enjoy
It's only NOW in early development? I assume this was due to moving resources to Marathon? It feels like Destiny 2 is almost as old as the Xbox One generation.
Eh, that's fine, but what I really want is the a proper Gushing Geoff reveal of the next Hazelight game, followed up with a expletive-filled speech from Josef Fares, letting me know that his next contrived and mediocre game is better than all of the other games at the show. It's not the Game Awards without him and Hideo getting a proper foot wash.
And yes, I just called It Takes Two et al "Mediocre." I'll stand by it. I halfway enjoyed his prison game a few years back but the rest have done nothing for me.
I have a launch day ROG Ally with a 2TB drive in it, so Play Anywhere games are the lifeblood of my gaming life, Switch 2 aside. I LOVE the program, though I do get a bit confused at how some publishers deal with it - looking at you, Square. Why are they so inconsistent? Either way, I give Play Anywhere credit with my having finished quite a few games in the past year: Keeper, South of Midnight, and several others.
I fully admit that I think twice before buying anything that doesn’t have Play Anywhere.
Funny you should compare this to Ryse. I felt that both were given a bit of a bad wrap when they were released. Maybe it was because there wasn’t a whole lot to play at the time, but man, I sure do love both of them, even all of these years later.
Thanks for celebrating this. It feels like the rest of the world, at least in the gaming press, has more or less given up on the Xbox brand.
For me, one of my fondest memories of the past 20 years is moving to my new home state and falling asleep on my recliner playing UNO multiplayer on Xbox live. It was NEVER boring, I’d just play it that late into the evenings. Add on some of the best experiences and innovations in the history of gaming, and the 360 will always hold a special place in my heart. I no longer own one, but I’ve managed to pick up nearly every BC 360 title available today, if only for the nostalgia of it all.
The pinnacle era of gaming, between 360 and PS3 and Wii. We'll never reach such heights again. In fact, I think we're moving further and further away by the day. That I'm busily playing remastered 360 games more than almost anything else says something (well, it says I'm old but it probably says something else too)
@themightyant You're not wrong. I have a small handful of exceptions in mind, and quite a few AA games, but it's exceedingly difficult to play something like a Starfield or a Diablo IV on a handheld, at least for me.
Strangely enough, this kind of extends to Switch/Switch 2 as well (AAA by Nintendo standards anyway) - Pokemon aside, there's no way I'm playing Metroid in handheld mode if my experience with Metroid Prime Remastered was any indication.
@themightyant yeah that’s my biggest issue. Handhelds are great for a lot of things but competitive FPS isn’t one of them, at least that’s been my experience.
It feels like every 4th or 5th CoD is a complete bust on the campaign side. Advanced Warfare anyone? This is what happens when you put unrealistic expectations on teams to deliver an iterative update to the formulaic on a yearly basis – no one has time to innovate whatsoever.
I enjoyed Black-Ops 6 and am still playing it, even with the new Battlefield sitting on my home screen. That said, I'm not excited about the prospect of moving on just yet either.
And in truth, I haven't played through a CoD campaign in about 4-5 years. They're mostly crap anyway. Sounds like this is more of the same.
Forza is just another in a long line of things that MS didn't have enough patience for.
Windows Phone
MS Band (1+2)
Kinect (whether you love it or hate it)
Cortana The list goes on (and on and on). Thing is, they could learn a good lesson here from Sony - GT7 wasn't a massive hit upon release either, nor was the game before it. Phil can throw the word "hiatus" around all he wants but at the end of the day I think we all know what it means. Forza is dead, just like Perfect Dark, Halo Infinite, and many, many other things that died either before their time or were killed before they really saw the light of day.
Bottom line: for as much an Xbox and MS fan as I've been, they've completely lost my trust.
Do I blame Phil? Nope. I truly (maybe even misguidedly) believe he wants to make great games and wants to do right by the Xbox community. I blame Satya and the shareholders.
Funny how Phil and Satya can talk about the war for attention and it’s laughed off as “that’s because you lost” while Reggie says the same thing and it’s wise words. We live in completely different times now compared to the last half dozen console generations. Roblox is eating everyone else’s lunch and there’s not a damn thing any exclusives can really do about it. Sure, you’ll see some Metroid sales this fall, but the era of consoles is over, many of us just haven’t accepted it yet.
@kmtrain83 and that has what to do with what I said? I mean, at one point Titanic was the biggest film in history. Doesn’t make it good. It definitely didn’t make it a great film before it even came out?
Speaking as someone who couldn’t care less about Xbox’s anniversary
...and the shareholders were thrilled that virtually no money was spent making this thing into a true, proper Xbox but gave the gaming division a reason to issue a press release or two.
And now back to the slow, steady decline of the Xbox brand, already in progress.
I would 100% buy this right now except that it isn't a Play Anywhere title. Considering literally 95% of what Square Enix is putting out these days IS Play Anywhere, I don't get why the omission here, but it's definitely keeping it off my Xbox, Ally, Cloud, etc. for the time being.
Does it even have cross-save? Doesn't look like it.
Based on the high percentage of respondents that own the 2TB card (which is WAY more than I expected) I would venture to guess this will be in higher demand than most think. I'll get one. I love having even my old Xbox One and 360 games on one of these whenever possible. Loading screens are for suckers.
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Re: Control Resonant Is The Next Game From Remedy, Coming To Xbox In 2026
This served only to remind me that I:
a) didn't love Control as much as other people did
b) will never get the Quantum Break sequel I want
c) need to finish Alan Wakes 1+2
Re: Geoff Keighley Talks The Game Awards & His 'Balancing Act' Of Pleasing Everyone
I'll never be even remotely interested in anything that goon has to say. That show literally makes me embarrassed for the industry.
Re: Xbox & Activision Issue Statement On The Future Of Call Of Duty Following Black Ops 7 Backlash
Whatever. I couldn't care less about campaign mode but am 110% loving this year's multiplayer.
Re: Xbox Series X|S Had No Black Friday Deals, So They Lost To A Console We've Never Heard Of (US)
@Runex2121 I loved it too.
Re: Take-Two Hires Former Perfect Dark Leads To Spin Up A Brand-New Project
If it isn't Perfect Dark, I'm not altogether sure that I care.
Re: Talking Point: Four Years On, Did Halo Infinite Ever Live Up To Expectations?
I loved the campaign - it was everything I had hoped for. The MP started off a bit slow but was top notch within about 6-9 months. Unfortunately, that delay felt like it killed a lot of momentum in the press and on the internet, but I've never had a problem getting into a match quickly to this day.
Re: Clockwork Revolution Dev Shares New Message About Its Eagerly Anticipated Xbox RPG
You'll forgive me for waiting for the cancellation announcement.
Re: Metroid Prime 4 Has A Stronger Connection To Xbox And Halo Than You Might Think
I'm 3 hours in and so far it isn't as good as any of the above mentioned games these folks have worked on in the past, but whatever.
Re: Five Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass In December 2025
Still Wakes the Deep is an absolute classic
Re: Talking Point: Did You Expect More From Xbox 360's 20th Anniversary?
Honestly, you guys did more to celebrate it than Microsoft did, so for that, thank you.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think Of Silent Hill 2 On Xbox So Far?
Bought it because of the sale. Haven't played it because I don't like scary things.
Re: This Xbox Game Studios Adventure Deserved More Nominations At The Game Awards 2025
Gaming awards shows need a category for something like "Best PS2/OG Xbox era-style game on current gen platforms." I feel like South of Midnight and Keeper would both be in contention for that. Honestly, they're 2 of about a dozen highlights for me this year precisely because they remind me of that era. I'm over 8000 sq mile open world slogfests that take 120 hours to complete (except Square RPGs obviously). Give me great, unique, and even quirky stuff that I can spend 6-8 hours in and just enjoy
Re: Embracer Group Sells Off Two Studios As Its Acquisition Spree Dies Down
Good of them to keep the Remnant IP so that they can ruin it down the line and keep it out of the hands of its own studio and creators
Re: Destiny 3 Is Apparently In 'Extremely Early Development', Should Still Launch On Xbox
It's only NOW in early development? I assume this was due to moving resources to Marathon? It feels like Destiny 2 is almost as old as the Xbox One generation.
Re: TimeSplitters Rewind Has Launched For Free On PC, And It's Great On The Xbox Ally
Downloading this .... now.
I love these games. Thanks for the heads up. I somehow missed this completely.
Re: The Game Awards 2025 First Reveal Confirmed Ahead Of Next Month's Showcase
Eh, that's fine, but what I really want is the a proper Gushing Geoff reveal of the next Hazelight game, followed up with a expletive-filled speech from Josef Fares, letting me know that his next contrived and mediocre game is better than all of the other games at the show. It's not the Game Awards without him and Hideo getting a proper foot wash.
And yes, I just called It Takes Two et al "Mediocre." I'll stand by it. I halfway enjoyed his prison game a few years back but the rest have done nothing for me.
Re: Xbox Cloud Gaming Expands To New Regions & Adds 'User-Selected Resolution' Feature
Love this! There are quite a few games I come back to that I don’t want to install. Now they’ll look even better.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (November 22-23)
@Blastfemur This is exactly why I haven’t picked it up. Sounds like my experience with every extraction shooter to date.
Re: Poll: How Important Is The Xbox Play Anywhere Program To You?
I have a launch day ROG Ally with a 2TB drive in it, so Play Anywhere games are the lifeblood of my gaming life, Switch 2 aside. I LOVE the program, though I do get a bit confused at how some publishers deal with it - looking at you, Square. Why are they so inconsistent? Either way, I give Play Anywhere credit with my having finished quite a few games in the past year: Keeper, South of Midnight, and several others.
I fully admit that I think twice before buying anything that doesn’t have Play Anywhere.
Re: Hands On: Perfect Dark Zero Is A Bizarre Time Capsule Of The Early Xbox 360 Days
Funny you should compare this to Ryse. I felt that both were given a bit of a bad wrap when they were released. Maybe it was because there wasn’t a whole lot to play at the time, but man, I sure do love both of them, even all of these years later.
Re: It's Official! The Xbox 360 Is 20 Years Old Today
Thanks for celebrating this. It feels like the rest of the world, at least in the gaming press, has more or less given up on the Xbox brand.
For me, one of my fondest memories of the past 20 years is moving to my new home state and falling asleep on my recliner playing UNO multiplayer on Xbox live. It was NEVER boring, I’d just play it that late into the evenings. Add on some of the best experiences and innovations in the history of gaming, and the 360 will always hold a special place in my heart. I no longer own one, but I’ve managed to pick up nearly every BC 360 title available today, if only for the nostalgia of it all.
Re: Total Chaos Gets Its First Official Review Following Surprise Xbox Game Pass Launch
This was the game I was most excited for after watching the showcase. Can’t wait to try it.
Re: Silent Hill 2 Remake Is Rolling Out Now On Xbox, And It's Discounted By 50% At Launch
@Banjo- ohhhh. Got it. Thanks!
Re: Silent Hill 2 Remake Is Rolling Out Now On Xbox, And It's Discounted By 50% At Launch
I can’t seem to buy it in the US store, at least not from the link above. Searching doesn’t turn anything up.
Re: Roundup: All The Reveals From 2025's Xbox Partner Preview Showcase
Loved it. One of the best showcases of the year from any platform. Full stop
Re: Deals: Xbox Black Friday Sale 2025 Now Live, 2000+ Games Discounted
Remember when we were all sitting around waiting for ANY word on whether or not Alan Wake 2 was even coming? And here it is, discounted.
Re: Seven Things We Miss About The Xbox 360 Era In 2025
The pinnacle era of gaming, between 360 and PS3 and Wii. We'll never reach such heights again. In fact, I think we're moving further and further away by the day. That I'm busily playing remastered 360 games more than almost anything else says something (well, it says I'm old but it probably says something else too)
Re: Hands On: Black Ops 7 Is Amazing On The ROG Xbox Ally X, As Long As You're Not Offline
@themightyant You're not wrong. I have a small handful of exceptions in mind, and quite a few AA games, but it's exceedingly difficult to play something like a Starfield or a Diablo IV on a handheld, at least for me.
Strangely enough, this kind of extends to Switch/Switch 2 as well (AAA by Nintendo standards anyway) - Pokemon aside, there's no way I'm playing Metroid in handheld mode if my experience with Metroid Prime Remastered was any indication.
Re: Hands On: Black Ops 7 Is Amazing On The ROG Xbox Ally X, As Long As You're Not Offline
@themightyant yeah that’s my biggest issue. Handhelds are great for a lot of things but competitive FPS isn’t one of them, at least that’s been my experience.
Re: Five Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass In Late November 2025
Bought Octopaths 1 and 2 anyway. Worth the price! Such great games.
Re: Stalker 2 Team Shares Parting Message Ahead Of Xbox Game Pass Departure
I’ve enjoyed my time with it enough to go ahead and buy it.
Re: Two Games Are Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In December 2025 So Far
Was completely unaware of Routine. Now I’m stoked for it. WOW.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox Is 24 Years Old Today, What Do You Expect From Next Year's 25th Birthday?
What do I expect? I except Xbox to share their birthday with Sony and Nintendo, rather than keeping it exclusive to Xbox.
Re: Black Ops 7 Campaign Review (Xbox): Black Ops Pedigree Can't Save This Mess Of A COD Campaign
It feels like every 4th or 5th CoD is a complete bust on the campaign side. Advanced Warfare anyone? This is what happens when you put unrealistic expectations on teams to deliver an iterative update to the formulaic on a yearly basis – no one has time to innovate whatsoever.
I enjoyed Black-Ops 6 and am still playing it, even with the new Battlefield sitting on my home screen. That said, I'm not excited about the prospect of moving on just yet either.
And in truth, I haven't played through a CoD campaign in about 4-5 years. They're mostly crap anyway. Sounds like this is more of the same.
Re: Reaction: As Gran Turismo 7 Gets A Major 2025 Expansion, Forza Motorsport Deserved More
Forza is just another in a long line of things that MS didn't have enough patience for.
The list goes on (and on and on). Thing is, they could learn a good lesson here from Sony - GT7 wasn't a massive hit upon release either, nor was the game before it. Phil can throw the word "hiatus" around all he wants but at the end of the day I think we all know what it means. Forza is dead, just like Perfect Dark, Halo Infinite, and many, many other things that died either before their time or were killed before they really saw the light of day.
Bottom line: for as much an Xbox and MS fan as I've been, they've completely lost my trust.
Do I blame Phil? Nope. I truly (maybe even misguidedly) believe he wants to make great games and wants to do right by the Xbox community. I blame Satya and the shareholders.
Re: 20+ Games Are Already Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In 2026
Fable in a year? Yeah right
Re: Hit PS5 Exclusive Stellar Blade May Be On The Way To Xbox In The Near Future
@Kieduss This. 100%.
And yeah, it’s a mediocre game for sure. I bought it day one and regretted it 20 minutes later.
Re: Ex-Nintendo Boss: Xbox Isn't 'Directly' Competing Anymore, But There'll Always Be A War
Funny how Phil and Satya can talk about the war for attention and it’s laughed off as “that’s because you lost” while Reggie says the same thing and it’s wise words. We live in completely different times now compared to the last half dozen console generations. Roblox is eating everyone else’s lunch and there’s not a damn thing any exclusives can really do about it. Sure, you’ll see some Metroid sales this fall, but the era of consoles is over, many of us just haven’t accepted it yet.
Re: Poll: Now That The Dust Has Settled, Which Xbox Game Pass Tier Are You Subscribed To?
Eh, kept Ultimate and dropped Disney+. Easy choice.
Re: Five Years On, Xbox Series S Is Still A Fantastic Place For Current-Gen Gaming
My kids still use Series S consoles and love them more than any other consoles they have, and we’ve got PS5’s and Switch 1&2. Go figure.
Re: The Timing Of Xbox's 25th Anniversary Just Got A Lot More Awkward
@kmtrain83 and that has what to do with what I said? I mean, at one point Titanic was the biggest film in history. Doesn’t make it good. It definitely didn’t make it a great film before it even came out?
Speaking as someone who couldn’t care less about Xbox’s anniversary
Re: Marvel 1943: Rise Of Hydra Has Been Delayed Again By Skydance Games
Can’t wait for another game from the Marvel Disappointment Universe!
Re: Rumour: Ex-Obsidian Dev Suggests Avowed 2 Is On The Cards, But 'No Plans' For Outer Worlds 3
Gosh, no sequel news for a game that’s barely a week old? You don’t say!
But definitely sign me up for Avowed 2. Day one.
Re: The Timing Of Xbox's 25th Anniversary Just Got A Lot More Awkward
I’m so tired of hearing how GTA6 will be the biggest game ever that I’m not even looking forward to it anymore.
I get that it’s a big franchise but please, calling it the biggest video game ever is hyperbolic and premature.
Re: Xbox President Explains Why Microsoft Ditched Its First-Party Handheld
...and the shareholders were thrilled that virtually no money was spent making this thing into a true, proper Xbox but gave the gaming division a reason to issue a press release or two.
And now back to the slow, steady decline of the Xbox brand, already in progress.
Re: Sarah Bond: Our Next-Gen Console Will Be 'Very Premium' & Informed By ROG Xbox Ally
If this is a bad ass gaming PC with a forward/backward compatible Xbox 'layer' then I don't really care what it costs. I'm in regardless.
Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Is Getting Amazing Reviews So Far
I would 100% buy this right now except that it isn't a Play Anywhere title. Considering literally 95% of what Square Enix is putting out these days IS Play Anywhere, I don't get why the omission here, but it's definitely keeping it off my Xbox, Ally, Cloud, etc. for the time being.
Does it even have cross-save? Doesn't look like it.
Re: Xbox Quietly Releases New 4TB Expansion Card For Series X|S
Based on the high percentage of respondents that own the 2TB card (which is WAY more than I expected) I would venture to guess this will be in higher demand than most think. I'll get one. I love having even my old Xbox One and 360 games on one of these whenever possible. Loading screens are for suckers.
Re: Clockwork Revolution Debuts First-Person RPG Gameplay Ahead Of Xbox Game Pass Release
I had zero interest in this based on the earlier teaser but holy crap did this drop it in first place on my want list. Wow.
Re: Xbox Handheld Is Called 'ROG Xbox Ally', Releases Holiday 2025
Day one buy for me. My Ally is already my favorite gaming device - deeper xbox integration just makes it better I would think.