Xbox Game Pass - GUIDE TO BEST DEAL IN FIRST POST

[Harsin]

7 minutes ago, Benny said:

As I get older, my tolerance for annoying jank has mostly cratered. And that's even with lockdowns putting us all under videogame filled house arrest.

No Benny, you need to relax your unrealistic standards and then you'll find true love. Alternatively some people enjoy some games more than others and some don't respond to books, films, TV shows, whatever other people really like. Sorry lapsed into crazy talk there again.

[Timmo]

27 minutes ago, Plissken said:

 

This.  A million times this.  It constantly amazes me how many people just don't like games unless it meets a spec chart.

 

My spec chart includes not being shit and boring for the first three hours.

[JPL]

21 minutes ago, Harsin said:

No Benny, you need to relax your unrealistic standards and then you'll find true love. Alternatively some people enjoy some games more than others and some don't respond to books, films, TV shows, whatever other people really like. Sorry lapsed into crazy talk there again.

Well yeah, you have. 12 Minutes is unmitigated shite.

[bradigor]

30 minutes ago, Harsin said:

Ah cool beans we're doing the whole ascribing psychological motivations to people for the sin of not long liking a piece of subjective media as much as you.

 

Not at all. I like that we all have subjective opinions, just surprised how I am in the minority with many, that I see as just really enjoyable. I likely didn't express that well and for that I apologise.

[JPL]

2 hours ago, BeeJay said:

 

My take on it is that these games are exactely what they expect of them, but the higher profile and expectations that comes with being on game pass relatively inflates expectations with customers and reviewers. I play and watch a lot of indie games and I would say that the indie games that appear on game pass are in line with most very good indie releases, in terms of quality. These games are generally much better received by the community and reviewers when they come out of the blue without the marketing push behind them, which just raises expectations unreasonably.

What I don’t understand though is why they’re promoting the weaker games on the service. As Harsin says, The Last Stop is, I think*, better than 12 Minutes, for example. So why have MS chosen the latter to promote, when they’ll have played both and know exactly which one is the better game?
 

*Yeah, I know it’s all subjective and people like different games, but looking over the 12 Minutes thread, are the majority of us really that wrong?

[Flub]

I reloaded Humankind and it popped up the big tutorial chooser again so this time I was able to have a quick look at the game with helpful instructions. I've founded my first Egyptian city but now my lunchbreak is over boo. Seems like it might be interesting.

 

I also gave The Ascent another try on my XBox. It got better when I got a machine gun and now I'm  out of the tutorial area. I'll give it more time but I'm hopeful.

[pinholestar]

3 hours ago, JPL said:

What I don’t understand though is why they’re promoting the weaker games on the service. As Harsin says, The Last Stop is, I think*, better than 12 Minutes, for example. So why have MS chosen the latter to promote, when they’ll have played both and know exactly which one is the better game?
 

*Yeah, I know it’s all subjective and people like different games, but looking over the 12 Minutes thread, are the majority of us really that wrong?

 

Hindsight's a wonderful thing and no-one knows exactly how a game is going to turn out until it's released. Many a game has had a torrid development process but came together in the last few months to produce something great. 12 Minutes looked like a very intriguing premise and had genuinely big name Hollywood actors involved, so it's not hard to see why they gave it a push from a marketing perspective. It's also reviewed reasonably well for some unfathomable reason (currently sitting at 78 on Metacritic) so I'd imagine they'll be happy enough.

 

Also makes me wonder about the terms of the individual Game Pass deals that MS sign with indie devs. Phil Spencer's said that in some cases they've funded development of the game itself in order to get it on the service on day one, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of those titles also had a marketing obligation or agreement in there somewhere. They look like geniuses when they strike gold but idiots when that strategy produces a stinker like 12 Minutes.

 

The beauty of the service of course is that as a consumer you've effectively lost nothing (apart from a few hours of your time I guess) and can just shrug and move on to one of the other 300+ games available to you. I keep a little list of the games I've finished and give each a score and of the 40 or so Game Pass titles I've played through to completion since owning a Series X that's the only one I'd objectively call shit. That's a pretty damn good strike rate all in all, although admittedly I'm pretty forgiving of a game's shortcomings if I can extract some enjoyment from it.

[LaveDisco]

2 hours ago, Benny said:

As I get older, my tolerance for annoying jank has mostly cratered. And that's even with lockdowns putting us all under videogame filled house arrest.

Agreed. And my free times is to rare to waste on a ‘fine’ game just because it’s ‘free’. The most fun I’ve had these last few months is the Xbox exclusive Deaths Door, but that skipped gamepass at launch because they knew it was good enough to not need to. See also Hades, etc. 
 

Don’t get me wrong, game pass is worth it for the first party stuff (getting quake out of nowhere! ❤️). But I’m not going to waste my time on mediocre games I wouldn’t have bought - if I follow that path I’ll end up playing games for the reward points!

[LaveDisco]

I think if gaming is your “main thing” then your less forgiving, not more. There is a lifetime of brilliant stuff out there. 
 

But time rich/poor is a big factor. 

[bradigor]

@Pockets I'm a near 40 year old overly stressed depressoon sufferer with ADHD and a keen gender.

 

Onboarding odd vital to me. I can be easily distracted and lose focus. It is why I love Indies so much. Most I play are instantly assignee and/or short enough to keep me engaged. 

 

Not sure what my point is actually. Please ignore me

[Mr. Gerbik]

I'm a 44 yo stressed out gamer dad, hella busy with little gaming time. And i genuinely don't understand all the bitching about the aforementioned games. They're all very interesting and ambitious indie games, at the very least worth checking out. Love the Ascent et al. I only complained about Omno because the performance is genuinely horrendous on Series X

[JPL]

12 minutes ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

I'm a 44 yo stressed out gamer dad, hella busy with little gaming time. And i genuinely don't understand all the bitching about the aforementioned games. They're all very interesting and ambitious indie games, at the very least worth checking out. Love the Ascent et al. I only complained about Omno because the performance is genuinely horrendous on Series X

 

Yeah, but have you tried 12 Minutes yet? Same question to you as well, @bradigor

 

I think for me, it's important that MS try to shake the 'perfect for gamepass' image, which I think will be detrimental to the service in the long term, especially if they keep promoting under par games.

 

I've said it before but I'll say it again, they really need to start delivering some top quality games now. We've all been more than patient.

[bradigor]

Nope not yet. Hoping too in the next two weeks as my visions clears a bit again until the next setback

[Stanley]

12 minutes ago, JPL said:

 

Yeah, but have you tried 12 Minutes yet? Same question to you as well, @bradigor

 

I think for me, it's important that MS try to shake the 'perfect for gamepass' image, which I think will be detrimental to the service in the long term, especially if they keep promoting under par games.

 

I've said it before but I'll say it again, they really need to start delivering some top quality games now. We've all been more than patient.

In the last month we’ve had Flight Simulator which is comfortably one of the best games I’ve ever played and a great demonstration of what all the various technologies can achieve these days, we’ve had Hades which is also in the upper echelons of game design. I enjoyed The Ascent and whilst 12 Minutes is frustrating there is also very little to compare it with, so at least it’s something new and different. And that’s just a few of them there are loads I haven’t yet played released just in the last few weeks or so, 
 

I mean I woke up this morning (yeah!) and found out Quake had been added to the service, fucking Quake! Right now I think Game Pass is knocking it out of the park tbh. 

[footle]

1 hour ago, LaveDisco said:

Agreed. And my free times is to rare to waste on a ‘fine’ game just because it’s ‘free’. The most fun I’ve had these last few months is the Xbox exclusive Deaths Door, but that skipped gamepass at launch because they knew it was good enough to not need to. See also Hades, etc. 

You say this (and I liked deaths door, though perhaps no more so than last stop, nowhere near as much as flight sim and hades), and mention a game that… didn’t skip gamepass at launch on Xbox?!

 

Game pass has had, at launch on the console, the best two indie games of the last three years. It’d be the winners of both of the last two years GOTY rllmuk awards, if people weren’t so taken by one-and-done single player games…

[Stanley]

What’s the other indie games you’re referring to there, assuming you’re talking about Hades as one of them? 

[therearerules]

It had The Outer Wilds and Hypnospace Outlaw, 2 outstanding indie games.

[Stanley]

I think Slay The Spire was day one on console too. 

[therearerules]

Oh yeah, and Monster Train

[LaveDisco]

Totally fair point. I meant launch first on game pass. All of those were on other platforms first (pc or console) . 
 

and I’m sure there’s exceptions to the rule. Tots just how it feels to me at the minute. 

[JPL]

43 minutes ago, Stanley said:

In the last month we’ve had Flight Simulator which is comfortably one of the best games I’ve ever played and a great demonstration of what all the various technologies can achieve these days, we’ve had Hades which is also in the upper echelons of game design. I enjoyed The Ascent and whilst 12 Minutes is frustrating there is also very little to compare it with, so at least it’s something new and different. And that’s just a few of them there are loads I haven’t yet played released just in the last few weeks or so, 
 

I mean I woke up this morning (yeah!) and found out Quake had been added to the service, fucking Quake! Right now I think Game Pass is knocking it out of the park tbh. 

I think I probably worded my last post badly, because I agree with everything you’re saying there. What I mean is they now need to start delivering some AAA big hitters, a la Sony last gen.

 

I’m pretty sure it’ll come and obviously there are a few already on there, but right now Gamepass does feel like the home of smaller scale games with limited budgets, hence the ‘perfect for Gamepass’ tag a lot of them get.

[the_debaser]

Gamepass is at its best when it comes to tent pole games, Doom, Yakuza, Halo etc.
 

These indie games which are experimental and hyped to hell might be ok for people with loads of spare time, but when you wait to download them and then play and find out they’re utter shit, it feels like a waste of time and cheapens the service. With Hades and 12 minutes and the Ascent, I’ve spent a good amount of time in the last month, at least an hour or two in total anyway, which could’ve been spent on far better games. 
 

Make them all streamable, MS. Then trying them out maybe wouldn’t be so annoying. 

[bradigor]

Aren't all three you mention in cloud?

[Stanley]

9 minutes ago, the_debaser said:

Gamepass is at its best when it comes to tent pole games, Doom, Yakuza, Halo etc.
 

These indie games which are experimental and hyped to hell might be ok for people with loads of spare time, but when you wait to download them and then play and find out they’re utter shit, it feels like a waste of time and cheapens the service. With Hades and 12 minutes and the Ascent, I’ve spent a good amount of time in the last month, at least an hour or two in total anyway, which could’ve been spent on far better games. 
 

Make them all streamable, MS. Then trying them out maybe wouldn’t be so annoying. 

If you find a better game than Hades let me know, thanks in Advance 

[the_debaser]

Darksiders 3. You’re welcome. 

[Quest]

[5R7]

I love that  there seems to be a bunch of really salty people about so many games on GP being "7/10" indies ...thats good, 7/10 is good! (5 is average, 6 above, 7 good, 8 great, 9 a classic of the genre, 10 truly genre/gaming defining)...unless your sole comparison is OPM, where anything less that 84% is so bad it should be buried in the desert...

[matt0]

This idea that MS needs to get more tentpole releases on game pass... We aren't getting more than a trickle of AAA tent pole games anywhere, on any system, on any service for the foreseable future. A combination of Covid and the AAA studios rotting out from the inside (sometimes from crunch, sometimes institutional sexual abuse scandals, sometimes just the games, and tech and expectations are getting beyond the scope of what can actually be made) is seeing to that.

 

Also, I personally like roguelikes, deck builders and Quake. Probably more than any of the upcoming big hitters with the possible exception of Halo Infinite. Roguelikes, deck builders and Quake are going to keep me happy for a good long while. 

[deerokus]

There's a reason some of the biggest AAA releases to come this year are Skyrim, GTA V and Witcher 3

[Harrisown]

Twelve Minutes so far… ❤️