Anyone actually do this?
There are some good 'uns coming this month, including the latest Tomb Raider (which I almost bought), Return to Arkham (which I almost bought) and Crackdown 3 (which I'll download based on goodwill from the first game).
I used the two week free trial when Sea of Thieves came out — which I'm now kind of annoyed about; in retrospect I was always going to end up buying SoT, but Crackdown 3 is a much less certain prospect given how poorly the second was received.
I'm not sure I could justify it, playing only on PC. If I owned an Xbone it would be a very tempting prospect, although having to pay for an Xbox Live sub as well might just tip the financial scales away from Microsoft's favour.
I bought a code at Christmas, because they were selling the £90+ yearly pass for about £43. Hanging onto redeeming it until I actually set up my Xbox… but having Crackdown 3 and a bunch of other things straight out of the box is kind of enough to justify my spend anyway.
I used the two week free trial when Sea of Thieves came out — which I'm now kind of annoyed about; in retrospect I was always going to end up buying SoT, but Crackdown 3 is a much less certain prospect given how poorly the second was received.
I'm not sure I could justify it, playing only on PC. If I owned an Xbone it would be a very tempting prospect, although having to pay for an Xbox Live sub as well might just tip the financial scales away from Microsoft's favour.
I'm pretty sure they're doing your first paid month for a quid, right now.
There's some absolute tat on there, but there are definitely some gems. Forza Horizon 4, Cities Skyline, Hellblade, Sea of Thieves, Doom, Rocket League etc. I'm not sure how it works on PC.
They've just added Just Cause 4, too.
So in less than a month that's Batman: Return to Arkham, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Alien Isolation and JC 4.
Pays for itself, this thing.
I flit in and out of it. Usually when it's school holidays. I frequently spot discount offers for me on the dash too so there is always that to bare in mind if you do go month to month.
Isn't JC4 a horror show? Or has it been improved since launch?
It'll be interesting to see what they do when they officially launch the PC GamePass - fairly shortly I believe. It's not quite worth it yet for PC-only users, but with FH4, Crackdown and Sea of Thieves, it's getting there. Rumours are it'll coincide with the launch of the Halo Master Chief Collection on PC.
The main problem is I think you need Xbox Live Gold as well, which is a requirement I assume they'll drop when the official PC version gets launched.
Isn't JC4 a horror show? Or has it been improved since launch?
Seems fine to me, from the hour I've played. Solid 30fps, lots of explosions, very Just Cause. Donlan loved it at Eurogamer when it first came out.
And Gar you definitely don't need Gold, I don't have Gold.
I turned on my Xbox for the first time in ages last night to download free copies of Crackdown and Crackdown 2 (might as well, right?) and had a quick flick through Game Pass while I was there. Bloody hell but that really is a good deal. Loads of games added since last time I looked and some really good stuff on there I want to play. If I had the thing hooked up permanently (and definitely if I had a One X) I'd be all over that. It's got to be the way forward.
But you have a vague dislike of the Xbox because…. of…… reasons.
Just announced Vampyr, the latest Deus Ex and What Remains of Edith Finch, amongst others.
Noice.
Jeez… Monster Hunter World, Prey, Life Is Strange Season 2 and Walking Dead: New Frontier is getting added in April.
There's really no point buying games any more, is there?
MHW is a great game for me personally. It got fantastic reviews but I'm about 90% sure I won't like it – excellent chance to find out, without spending any more. Same with Prey, really. I'm pretty sure those black spidery things will be too freaky for me, but I'll give it a go for nowt.
dont pick charge blade, you're welcome
That is so much better than PS+.
Humph.
It's getting kind of hard to resist, especially with PS+ rapidly sliding into dogshit tier. I've even moved my Xbox One back into the main room thinking I might start using it again, haven't turned it on yet of course but got to take these things slowly. I know I'll only end up buying a One X if I end up using the thing regularly again.
That is so much better than PS+.
In every way, because you're not just getting the things offered on the month you start subscribing… you get EVERYTHING.
Honestly, when I get my Xbox set up, I'm going to be on it for a long time.*
(* A year, until my subscription ends)
In case anyone is on the fence, Amazon have got a '3 months + 3 months free' offer on at the moment.
3 months for a quid for new subs via the Xbox dash too.
I got a year at Christmas that I haven't redeemed yet for £45 (because it was half price).
I just got the 3+3 offer for £24.
I've never subscribed before, so I can go for the '3 for £1' thing when I finally set my Xbox up next month (assuming it's still running).
That's 21 months of access for £70. Jeez.
I think I like Monster Hunter World, but I have a few very newbie questions. It's all a bit overwhelming.
Do I pick up everything? There are hundreds of items everywhere, do I just collect the lot?
I've done a couple of main story missions and killed a Great Jagras, which was very easy. Does it get harder? I imagined the combat being bastard hard like a Dark Souls game for some reason.
After I had found lots of footprints and filled some sort of progress bar, I kept finding skidmarks (erm…). Is there any point keeping tapping B on those once that confusing bar has disappeared?
Any more painfully obvious things I should know?
Collect everything, just remember to stash it in the item box after , it gets harder but never DS level. I forget what happens if you keep getting tracks but I think its something I need moretime to explain because Im at work now.
Glad you are liking it, shame theres no cross platform multi or Id play my horn for you. 
It definetly gets harder. Great Jagras is like Monster Hunter Freedoms normal creatures. What weapon are you rocking?
Regarding Game Pass, are the servers for SSFIV still up? I'm dire at it but spent a little bit of time as Crimson Viper back when SFIV came out on 360 and I can still kind of do her moves. Pity TTT2 isn't on Game Pass
Saying that, Arch Tempered Elder Dragons will make your fucking blood boil but they are absolute end-end-endgame and there will never be a point where you cant do content without their gear. Gutted I can't play with you though, looking forward to your reactions on all the monsters you're going to meet.
Hope you get to try the Witcher 3 crossover too.
Okay, so if you get to the point where you can do 'Investigations' these are literally just hunts with more rewards, sometimes more Faints allowed…or less. When farming certain monsters if you have the Investigation, 100% no reason not to do it. Also, you'll increase scoutfly levels making it easier to track monsters and I think unlock more hunts eventually.
As for stuff you missed, hmm, hard to say off the bat but there's stuff like sorting out the Radial Menu being a HUGE help, always eat before a hunt, don't neglect using the slingshot. Dung Bombs can make a monster run away if you're being double teamed. Flash will down a flying monster…etc
Easier to answer specific stuff and/or add stuff as I remember tbh
Amazing, thanks! I'll get some real time to spend with it once I've finished Far Cry 5.
Hope you get to do some of the cool extra stuff, I dunno' if the events will be on (But if they do an upcoming Festival as they do regularly, you'll love the Witcher/Horizon Zero Dawn stuff) but the new Monsters will be, I just don't know when you'll get to fightthem, I was already at endgame but I'd like to think they should at least be high rank.
I signed up to Game Pass today, £1 for 3 months is too good to pass up. Time to see how my Original Xbox One Potato Edition runs the latest and greatest games.
"the Xbox has to patch all the time" [Garwoofoo switches it on for the first time in 3 years]
Sea of Thieves this week anyone?
I'm hoping to bully talk my crew into trying a Reaper's Mark Mercenary Voyage tomorrow night. It'll be fun, I'm sure…
Operencia is lovely, well worth a download, and shows exactly why Game Pass is so good.
I would never, ever have played this without Game Pass. It's a first-person tile-based dungeon crawler (think Dungeon Master from the 80s if you're old enough). Just writing that almost sent me to sleep. But it's really bloody good.
The first 15 minutes don't do it any favours. The tutorial is thrown at you all at once, in 20 paragraphs of text. You start, in videogame tradition, fully powered up, with dozens of skills and powers you'll lose once the tutorial is over. All this does is complicate things. The story is toss. The voice acting in those first 15 minutes is bobbins. But stick with it; once you get to the character creation screen it becomes a joy to play.
Your powers are stripped back, allowing you to focus on one thing at a time while you learn the ropes. Combat is clearly signposted, so you always know the effects of what you're about to do – monster strengths, weaknesses, buffs and hit chances are displayed front and centre. The voice acting improves dramatically (I'm not sure why). And it's just such a lovely game to look at, all ethereal wonder and chunky (if cliche) monsters.
Just give it a go, at least past the character creation screen. It's not the best game you'll play this year but it's a lovely, refreshing surprise, in a genre I'd never normally have glanced twice at.
Sea of Thieves this week anyone?
I don't have Xbox Live at the moment. Can I play the PC version without that or do I need it to play online for both versions?
You can play on PC (even crew up with Xbox players) without Xbox Live.
Brilliant. I’ll download it then and we can fail to set up a multiplayer session together.
I'm usually up for some Sea of Thieves, once E is in bed. Throw me a message on XBL if you ever need a crewmate.
I mean… I asked this weeks ago… but you know… this is fine [stifles a sob]
Did you ask on XBL?
Srsly though, Operencia.
Another great month on the way, with Wolfenstein 2, Wargroove, Tacoma (from the creators of Gone Home), and Black Desert. All of which fall firmly into the 'not quite exciting enough to buy but can't wait to play' camp.
Black Desert sounds like the grindiest MMO I've ever heard about, but it looks pretty.
I’d not heard of that, but shit grindy MMOs are absolutely my thing. Surviving Mars also looks good and that’s coming this month too.
Black Desert has a brilliant character creation tool, so I hear. Don't know anything else about it though.
Would it need a subscription? Surely it would.
Apparently not. It’s a one-off purchase. Not sure if it has micro-transactions though.
The Surge is coming too, been interested in that since I read about it in GamesTM once, so will give that a try.
That was in PS+ this (last?) month. I believe we all concluded that it was shit, though I think only feltmonkey actually played it.
Given current trends, if it was on PS+ it must be shit.
I don't think Black Desert is for me. It's very garish, totally confusing and the performance is terrible too. There are much better MMOs out there.
I've been playing Descenders from the Game Pass, it's really rather good and quite cathartic as it's not about racing or doing tricks (although there's an element of both) and the music they've used for it really fits well with the game.
Erm, a couple of titles added to Game Pass today:
Astroneer
Battle Chasers: Nightwar
Bridge Constructor Portal
Everspace
Guacamelee 2
Hollow Knight
Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight
Moonlighter
Neon Chrome
Old Man's Journey
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
Shenmue
Shenmue II
Silence - The Whispered World 2
Smoke and Sacrifice
SteamWorld Dig 2
Supermarket Shriek
Riverbond
Thimbleweed Park
Wizard of Legend