I’m not sure what Halo has to do with it? Also from what I remember Gears was a huge franchise back in the peak Xbox 360 days so of course it got sequels

I got bored of the semi open-world part but it was still much better than Gears 4.

That’s impressive. I’m more of a “play everything but finish nothing” kind of player…

They really did do a great job on gameplay. About half way through I realised that increasing the difficulty level, not using vehicles and barely using weapons was the perfect way to play DS. Items what were rarely used actually become useful (eg, sandalweed and repair sprays), building/upgrading structures becomes meaningful and appreciating other players more because of the connection I felt. I would walk across the entire snowy mountain pulling 2 carriers of packages and it would take me like 90 minutes for one journy but it went by so quickly. Also you find points of interest like the giant cryptobiote corals and the Japanses torii style gateway.

I’ve avoided DS2 like the plague but actaully bought it today for a christmas present to myself :)

With the significant rule changes I can see why they would do it this way.

GTA IV

The only reason I bought it was to play the FusionFix mod that was released last month as it looks amazing and fixes and improves so much. I haven’t played it since the Xbox 360 release so really looking forward to it!

Link to FusionFix mod here

I didn’t realise this existed so thanks from me. Also probably the best answer here.

I’d go for CO:E33 too. Its a decent enough game but I don’t understand the absolute hype it receives. Probably a 5/10 game for me.

Still playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance but it’s becoming a bit of a chore now so Colin McRae Rally 2.0 on PS1 also gets a shout out.

I really liked my 3DS and especially StreetPass and getting all those puzzles pieces. I’d take it to work with me everyday but once I lost all my progress I eventually just stopped playing on it.

I’m keeping an eye on the new dual screen handhelds but will wait a bit longer and see how it fares.

For a recommendation, the Boxboy! games are great fun.

I know I’ve played it before but that would be back in the day 20+ years ago. So it feels like my first time again.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

There was a firmware update (Knulli) for my Flip handheld so after doing that I’m now playing FFTA and other random GBA games.

Portal 2 is a classic and I enjoyed Tales from the Borderlands.

Gotta deal with that $70 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard somehow…

I’m less than a minute in and I’d hardly call Nintendo petty for wanting to stop someone naming their shop “Super Mario” and with a picture of Mario as the logo… It couldn’t look any more Nintendo-esque.

I’ll stop here thanks.

Jump Space

Playing with a mate and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a new game so not quite “patient gamer” but it’s cheap enough that I’m fine with it and looking forward to updates.

Football Manager

It got a hold of me these past couple days. I wanted something chill to do while I drink my coffee but then time just flies by… and it’s suddenly 3 hours later :/

Mad Max

Could have been just movie tie-in garbage but is a solid top 20 game from last gen.

I’ll never understand why they tried to make a game that would be instantly compared to GTA. Just set themselves up for failure when they could have tried something different and maybe made something good.

Mad Max

I’ve played it before and own it on a few platforms but it is £2.99 on Xbox at the moment so thought why not. It looks and plays great with the auto HDR and FPS boost and is kind of the perfect game to jump in/out of using quick resume. Started a new save this afternoon and will probably try and get some of the achievements I missed first time round.

Also been playing some demos on Steam and looking forward to a few of them. Tavern Keeper is my favourite so far.

Good for them. I can think of a few games that would have benefited from this mindset instead of hanging on too long now with the “games as a service” stuff.

Star Wars Squadrons is pretty good fun.

Steep has an Olympics dlc but I’ve not played it so can’t say for sure if it’s what you’re after. The main game is amazing though.

• The Mark of Kri
• Maximo
• Jake and Daxter
• Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3
• Timesplitters
• The Warriors
• Tourist Trophy

I’m playing through Yakuza at the moment and never bothered with HD textures before so will have a look at that myself.

Oh ok. Your comment sounded like the standard “I won’t play because it’s not on Steam” that people say but I hope you enjoy it.

I have a great love for games that have a snow/winter themed and ROTTR is no exception as it’s a beautiful game.

This is the best way. Give your time and money to something you believe in instead of wasting a moment on something you don’t.

If you won’t play it because of Epic(?) then it’s your loss I guess as it’s a great game.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is only £2.50 on GOG which is a great deal. In my opinion it’s by far the best in the newest trilogy.

It started off very good actually with the £1 upgrades and converting existing subs (so 3 years of Game Pass for £70!) but it’s time has come to an end.

No thanks. It’s been a great 3 years though but £22.99 a month is too hard to justify.

I’ve been in the mood for some arcade racing this week:

Wreckfest but it seems like the multiplayer has mostly died off which is sad as C class racing was a blast.

Split/Second, racing and explosions so always a good time.

Same. Never played the full game but the demo was great fun.

The Division is almost 10 years old and the environment is one of the best ever created.

I’ve been looking forward to this the most after playing the demo many many times.

Nowadays I can understand not releasing physical versions but Xbox has done so well with backwards compatibility it would be a shame if the next consoles didnt support discs and undo what they built.

I like my Series S but I’m not using it to play new games. It’s either my existing library or I’ll buy cheap backwards compatible games but anything newish I don’t even consider buying on Xbox anymore.

TWV is great. I’d recommend turning the difficulty right up as that’s when I had the most fun with it.

I recently discovered what this is on my handheld and there are come really fun games. I’ve been playing Celeste Classic today and another that was an Outrun-esque that I forget the name of.

Thomas Was Alone

It’s not at all like the examples you give but it is such a good game that I think fits nicely here.

I’ve actually not skipped many battles so lvl wise it’s all good. I remember playing on the Dreamcast originally and when a battle was about to trigger the console would make a noise so I would pause the game to try an skip it.

Thanks for this. Recently picked up a PS5 and was kinda disappointed with the controls compared to Microsoft so this is useful.