Xbox Game Pass

Sable looks great. I'm interested to hear how it plays.

I'd forgotten about Psychonauts 2, I haven't played the first one so I didn't even look at that. Guess it was a big title for a lot of people though.

Definitely going to check out Somnium Files, and that Scarlet Nexus thing looks interesting too. Plus Avengers of course.

I'm actually partway through Somnium Files, I like it. Best way to describe it is as a more anime version of Disco Elysium for want of a better comparison, a murder mystery where you can enter people's 'dreams' or whatever state they call it to solve abstract puzzles in addition to the more traditional detective work. There are branching paths and whatnot, everyone in this game is a 'character' and I like there banter between the main character and his sentient synthetic eye a lot, if anything makes or break this game for you it will probably be the cast.

I am laughing because I had my eye on Nexus for ages, rewarded yet again for not buying it!

Somnium files is by the guy who did 9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors on DS and Virtue's Last Reward on Vita both of which I really enjoyed. Good balance between visual novel and puzzles in both, with VLR much more streamlined and user friendly. Hopefully this is equally entertaining. Have been eyeing it up on Switch so will definitely give it a go for "free" when it pops up on GP. Scarlet Nexus looks interesting too.

Mighty Goose

Having not heard of this before, I watched the trailer on YouTubelol. Vlambeer have a lot to answer for when it comes to overbearing screenshake.

Sable looks great. I'm interested to hear how it plays.

It looks better than it plays. It feels pretty unfinished in a lot of places.

Somnium files is by the guy who did 9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors on DS and Virtue's Last Reward on Vita both of which I really enjoyed.

I loved both of those - especially the first. Encouraging!

wave of goose-based enthusiasm

That's one of my favorite Pixies songs.

Why is the recent Gamepass output being considered disappointing or mediocre? In the last five minutes or so we've had:

Psychonauts 2, which is fantastic.

The Artful Escape, which is Journey crossed with a prog rock album.

Sable, which looks like a Moebius comic. I'm a massive fan of Moebius and those European comic artists, and have spent literally hours just staring at Moebius' art, so I'm pre-disposed to like it. It is not going to appeal to task-focussed gamers, but it's quite an interesting game. It's very open-ended, and non-violent. It's about an atmosphere that is communicated through the visuals. It's not perfect by any means, and does feel rough around the edges, but it doesn't deserve to be dismissed, even if it is in the main a visual style and a philosophy rather than a tight gaming experience.

And also Scarlet Nexus which I've heard is an undiscovered gem, The Somnium Files which I haven't played at all but Cheddar points out is the new game from the guy who made Virtues Last Reward, so it's got pedigree. There's also Nuclear Throne which I've heard is good. And Superliminal, and a Subnautica game.

Yeah, I'm being ungrateful, just because there was a two-week stretch where none of the games particularly appealed to me personally. Which is ridiculous really because I'm just playing Yakuza 6 anyway (also through Game Pass). So ignore my entitled whinging.

… an apocalyptic future world populated only by aggravating hipsters.

I'm old now. This is what day-to-day reality feels like for me.

Phoenix Point is out today too. That's a very well-regarded XCOM successor - definitely checking that out.

Holy shit, Avengers is 125GB. HOWWWW

Holy shit, Avengers is 125GB. HOWWWW

Loads of cut scenes?

Don't forget, girl characters are harder to render. Ubisoft said so.

Even more reason not to bother with it.

Guardians of the Galaxy coming to Game Pass on March 10. This is the Avengers game that's actually good.

I've come very close to buying Guardians of the Galaxy a few times, so this is excellent news. It seems very much my kind of thing.

The people from the remaining IGN show I listen to really seemed to like this too, not a fan of the films or characters really, but I don't dislike them so might give it a chance.

Nier Autotomato is leaving and I want to play it.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion has just gone up on Game Pass. I have absolutely no idea what it is but I want to play it on the basis of the name alone.

Oh! I wanted to play that. Will give it a spin (I've also queued up Lost In Random, which I fully expect to disappoint in the same way The Gunk did, but we'll see).

I played about half an hour of Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion yesterday. Don't know if it changes things up as it goes, but it starts with a whole lot of chained fetch quests…

May is looking pretty stacked for Game Pass. A few day one titles being added that I've been looking forward to.
Loot River /May 3rd
Trek to Yomi /May 5th
Eiyuden chronicles rising /May 10th
Sniper elite 5 /May 26
Pacman Museum May 27th

I'll wait and see for Eiyuden chronicles rising, but the rest are looking great!

I can't believe Eiyuden Chronicles is almost out at last, Suikoden 1 and 2 are some of the very best RPGs on the PS1 so if this is AS good it'll be straight up GOTY material.

I honestly had it in my head that Rogue Legacy 2 was Game Pass, but it's just console exclusive. Hovering over dropping cash on it, but then I'm in stingy mode for now while I pay for more important things.

Game Pass has given us all crippling self doubt on buying anything lol, I have put off buying Nier Replicant for months because its screams 'Coming to Game Pass' soon, just like Automata did.

I honestly had it in my head that Rogue Legacy 2 was Game Pass, but it's just console exclusive. Hovering over dropping cash on it, but then I'm in stingy mode for now while I pay for more important things.

I might be wrong but wasn't the first on a game pass day one?

@Alastor I think the one your talking about is the Octopath style game. This one is a spin off set in the same world. It's a side scroller beat-them-up.

Oh right, lame. :<

Whatever, play Suikoden.

It's got a really stupid name and its graphics are terrible but Floppy Knights is lots of fun.

It's basically a straight cross between a Slay the Spire-type deckbuilder, and Advance Wars. You play cards in your hand each turn to spawn units, move and attack, and use special moves. Completing optional objectives and levels rewards you with new cards, and you can tweak your deck between games.

I guess I'll see in time whether it has the depth of strategy it'll need to have to make it a solid long-term title, but it's nice to try something random on Game Pass and immediately think "yes, this is great, I want to play more of this". Had too many of the other type lately.

Ninja Turtles Revenge of Shredder coming June 16th and is day one on game pass. Yes please!

Oh! Didn't realise that. Saved me some money!

Got the Ninja Turtles going. Seems good so far but has the trappings of the same problem of a "feed tokens" arcade game infinite continue game from back in the day without being able to feed any tokens on home consoles back in the day, you get chipped down slowly and ultimately your game's over and you're barely halfway through the game. Time to get good I guess so it's not really a huge complaint, but holy hell, give me some continues.

Least it's better than the new Battletoads where I couldn't even hit anything directly in front of me half the time for some odd reason.

Ive been playing through the story mode which I think has unlimited continues. This is an amazing game. Hits every note for me. It's far more simple than Street of Rage 4, but makes it up with other mechanics. I can see myself getting all the achievements for this for sure.

Yeah, I see you can basically continue after a game over. I just played it once earlier and I got to a "game over" screen and didn't realize you could keep going by going back in and starting from where you left off.

Enjoying Citizen Sleeper a lot at the moment.

It's essentially an open-ended point-and-click adventure, if that makes sense. As a "Sleeper" - a human consciousness implanted in an android body, and considered company property - you are a fugitive on a space colony and have to juggle survival and keeping yourself hidden with actually working out what's going on and finding a method of escape. Each cycle/day, you have a certain number of points to allocate to different activities, determined by your physical condition and nutrition level. As you progress different tasks, new storylines and activities open up and new avenues open up to you.

Most of the game is played out in (reasonably well-written) text and the story goes in some unexpected directions. Juggling all the various things you need to do is absorbing and I can see different people tackling this in very different ways.

Frustratingly it really reminds me of something and I can't quite place what that is. I've seen comparisons to Disco Elysium but I haven't played that so it's not that.

I think in general it works slightly better on PC (it's not technically demanding, and the UI is clearly designed for a mouse pointer rather than pad controls) but it's well worth checking out no matter what you're playing on.

Frustratingly it really reminds me of something and I can't quite place what that is.

I'm not sure, but

Each cycle/day, you have a certain number of points to allocate to different activities, determined by your physical condition and nutrition level.

sounds a little bit like Long Live the Queen, where the length of your reign (and manner of your near-inevitable death) are determined by what activities you choose to pursue, which increases certain stats, and unlocks different options in perilous, social, or perilous social situations.

Another one I haven't played, so it's not that, but yes, you've got the idea. A lot of reviews call out Citizen Sleeper's TTRPG influences, so I thought it would appeal to a few folk here.

Tried a bit of House Flipper, which advertises itself as a game where you buy houses, do them up then sell them on for a profit. I thought this would be some sort of business management sim that I could use to indulge my inner Tory (spoiler: I don't have an inner Tory), but no - it's actually a game which simulates all the really dull bits of decorating in mind-numbing detail and makes you do them really slowly. Now there is of course some satisfaction to be found in throwing out bags of rubbish and cleaning out sinks, but it lost me when I had to paint a room basically inch-by-inch, refilling my roller regularly, having already had to go out and buy the paint.

I'd describe it as "aggressively tedious". There seem to be a few of these popping up - Lawn Mower Simulator was a bit of a cult hit recently, and I think there's some sort of Power Wash game coming this week. I guess you could include Unpacking at a push, too. What a strange genre.

Peppa Pig and a new Paw Patrol game has come to game pass today. My son loves the last Paw Patrol game they added so I'm sure he'll be happy with this.

Can't think of Paw Patrol without remembering this:

Especially Marshall! Always goofing off on the job. He's not funny, he's dangerous!

Another game in the "boring tasks from real life" genre - Powerwash Simulator turns out to be actually quite brilliant. It's incredibly satisfying in ways I can't really explain.

It's really designed around mouse & keyboard controls though - can't imagine it's the same on a pad - so play it on PC if you can (or hook up a mouse & keyboard to your Xbox).

Wasn't sure at all with As Dusk Fall but you can stream it with native touch controls on mobile. Worked well for me. Only played it for half hour or so, but seems interesting so far.

I tried Powerwash Simulator, but I didn't really like it. I didn't find it satisfying, and in fact I found it sort of frustrating and stressful. Searching for the last spot of dirt on a scrambler bike was terrible. It felt like I would never find it, and that I couldn't stop until I did.

I don't think it's the fault of the game, as such. I can see how it could be very zen, but I think my own extremely heightened levels of stress and anxiety at the moment meant it was impossible for me to enjoy it.

There's something about these mundanity simulators that appeals and repels simultaneously. They're all focussed around achieving small goals that you could achieve in your real life. So as you do them, you feel like you're achieving something, but at the same time, the proximity to achievements you could make in your real life sort of emphasises the fact that you are not doing the thing that you are doing in the game.

Games make things seem easier than they really are. In reality, powerwashing is hard work. It's loud, dirty, and difficult. The dirt you blast off whatever you're washing doesn't just disappear - it flies off in all directions and makes the person powerwashing and the surrounding area dirtier. The water doesn't just disappear if you powerwash a shed in a garden - it turns the surrounding lawn into a swamp. You certainly don't get paid £500 for half an hour's work cleaning someone's patio.

Searching for the last spot of dirt on a scrambler bike was terrible. It felt like I would never find it, and that I couldn't stop until I did.

Not sure if you know, but pressing right on the d-pad highlights all the spots of dirt you've missed. It makes finishing stuff off a lot easier. And you can select individual sections from the menu on your tablet and they will flash, if you're not sure what bit you need to focus on.

I'm finding the game oddly compulsive and I don't really know why. I think it scratches the same sort of itch as doing a sudoku, or a colouring book. (Or painting miniatures?) It's absorbing without being challenging, it gives you something to do without requiring much active thought, it gives you the satisfaction of achieving small goals and then completing a larger one at the end. I wouldn't want every game to be like this but I'm enjoying this one very much. I find I genuinely relax when I'm playing it.

Then again I'm one of those weirdos that actually likes doing housework - so it's probably a me thing.

Yeah, I knew about the dirt highlighting button, but the dirt I needed to find was seemingly not visible from any angle or level of crouching.

I can definitely see how it could be a relaxing game. The way I bounced off it is not likely to be most people's experience.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising is coming to Game Pass at the end of this month - that's the Ubisoft open-world collectathon that's taken inspiration from Breath of the Wild. Very much my kind of thing so quite looking forward to this, in the absence of any Assassin's Creed this year.

Bought this in a sale a while ago* - there's plenty of fun to be had if you can get past/ignore the appalling script/humour - the combat/stealth is pure Odyssey, the exploration is pure BOTW climb'n'glide. Plus plenty of Ubi-towers to climb, Ubi-lists to tick, Ubi-things to unlock etc.

* must stop doing this, seems everything comes to GP or PS+ eventually these days…

Can't wait to play Fenyx Rising. I'm not a fan of Ubisoft open world games these days, but this seems interesting. I think the BOTW style has convinced me to play it.

A few new games coming soon I'm really looking forward to playing on Game Pass.

Soccer Story

There was a game that launched on game pass a few months back called Dodgeball Academia. A RPG where you battle through playing dodgeball. Different characters in your team have unique abilities and play styles to play with. Really Fun campaign similar to pokemon top down camera when exploring the world. Golf Story is another great example with what to expect. If this plays like them but with football, I'm definitely in! Coming some time in 2022.

Midnight Fight Express

This game looks hella fun. Saw this game announced at least a year ago with one of them Xbox indie showcases. Honestly, could be a sleeper hit. Reminds me of Sifu. Hopefully not as hard, and focuses more on fun. Comes out 23rd August.

Moonscars

Only found out about this a few days ago, but looks interesting enough. A indie souls like type of game. Hoping it's not too hard. 😅 Sometime in 2022.

Signalis

Very classic Resident Evil vibes going on with this. Really miss the top down Resi games, so this is definitely scratching that itch for me. Don't think I've played too many indie horror's, but the overall the theme looks cool and spooky. A few previews are on YouTube if anybody is interested. Coming October 27th.

High on Life

Think a lot of people have seen this already so no point in a YouTube video. I'll say this has jumped to the top of my game pass list for this year. It's been a while since I've play a comedy focus game. Big fan of Rick and Morty so the humor is up my alley. Something that's interesting to me is the developers said it like Mega Man when you choose a boss and you play that world where that boss is from. They've announced more gameplay at gamescom on August 23rd. Really hope it has a strong showing and a release date. All we know is it's releasing in 2022.

Did you drop Sifu?

I've not got it. I'll wait until it's cheaper or if it ever goes on the ps plus.