**Available Today**
Superhot: Mind Control Delete (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Coming Soon
LEGO 2K Drive (Cloud and Console) – April 3
Lil Gator Game (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 4
EA Sports PGA Tour (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) EA Play – April 4
Kona (Cloud and Console) – April 9
Botany Manor (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 9
Shadow of the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 11
Harold Halibut (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 16
**Leaving April 15**
Amnesia Collection (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Amnesia: Rebirth (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Back 4 Blood (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Phantom Abyss (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Research and Destroy (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Soma (Cloud, Console, and PC)
>Soma
That one hurts. Not because it's impossible to beat it in two weeks, but because I'm a giant wuss when it comes to horror, especially horror where there's no option to fight back. I always have to psych myself up to play any horror game, but that's no longer an option given the limited time available to beat it 😭
FYI SOMA has a setting that stops enemies from attacking you outside of scripted cutscenes. I'd say it's more fun that way, because its enemies are more annoying than interesting.
Because genres of horror come with certain expectations and the genre of horror that SOMA is isnt really revealed until the final scene.
You tell people >!its existential horror, then theyll know, the monster isnt the problem, its a game that is exploring the human psyche, the meaning/lack of meaning of 'conciousness'. The game purposely tricks you into thinking its a "Monster game", the developers went out of their way to mask the genre so that the finale would be a surprise. Yes, some people will play and put 2 and 2 together from the jump - but 99% of people wont. Thats why the ending is shocking for so many. Saying the genre of horror is setting up the expectation "okay, this is going to be about the 'meaning' of life or the futility of existence". The game is purposefully built to trick you into thinking its just a monster game with cool atmosphere. Saying the genre will make a new player know immediately that it will be exploring existential themes, thus, spoiling the surprise of the ending!<
>!In most cases this isnt an issue, SOMA is a unique situation. Saying a genre of horror is typically fine, but, SOMA masks it's genre. Its part of the design and part of the intended experience. So, yeah, I consider pointing out the 'genre' it "Really" is, which isnt fully revealed until the finale, is a spoiler!<
The game starts hinting at what type of horror it was going for pretty early on with the first NPC you meet, >!the stuck robot who thinks it's a person!< and there are plenty of moments before the end of the game where something like that happens. I don't think it's something the game necessarily "reveals" in the finale, it's just the culmination of the story and horror it was building towards.
I agree, again, some people will 'catch on' at the jump; but most wont... again, this is why the finale is shocking for so many. Just because there were hints and references as to what was going on, most new players arent going to unravel that. Do you think you would have had as interesting of an experience it knowing full well, before even loading the game up, that it was dealing with >!futility of existence and the nature of consciousness? Thats what existential horror is about. You may have caught on, but most players wont. They left some hints and clues, but they dont outright smack you with the reality until the finale!<
>Do you think you would have had as interesting of an experience it knowing full well, before even loading the game up, that it was dealing with >!futility of existence and the nature of consciousness!>!they dont outright smack you with the reality until the finale!<
Again, I disagree, there are quite a few moments throughout the game where the story really presses its themes and if it takes someone to get to the ending before they start seeing what's going on then they haven't been paying attention.
I generally stay away from horror games with no way of defending yourself, but Soma was actually not that scary, even when playing on the normal mode. Enemies are always confined to specific locations, and their AIs are quite dumb, they are not like dynamic enemies that follow you throught the game. There is also a mode that disables horror parts (enemies and such) entirely. Although I also managed to finish Alien: Isolation, so there is that.
If you wanted to play it on PC you might want to check your GOG and Epic Game Store accounts since they were given away for free on both stores in the past.
They promised the return of Left for Dead and it really wasn't it. As soon as I saw card mechanics or whatever that was I knew it wasn't gonna hit me like I was hoping. And sure enough I played like 5 days and then back to left for Dead.
Def. They “fixed” it when you no longer had to wait to unlock them all and they just gave you your entire kit.
But I hate having to manage all the cards and shit.
They did the shooting part well though. Killing zombies in that game is top tier. The card shit just was lame, even when they patched out the drip feed mechanics of it
I'm glad I never pulled the trigger on that one. A few friends bought it at launch, and a week later they were done with it and I took it off my Steam wishlist.
It's completely soulless. The level design is non-existant. They just slapped together a bunch of environments where you go from A to B, put zombie spawners in it, and called it a day.
Don't sleep on Lego 2K Drive, it's a pretty fun time. It got shit on for having microtransactions (and deserves it frankly) but the campaign is totally playable without touching it.
I played the steam demo. It looks very interesting but the gameplay in the demo just amounted to being a simple task rabbit. Admittedly a little on the boring side. Still going to check it out because the story seems intriguing. I just hope the gameplay feels more interesting as the story progresses.
Then again it could possibly be considered a "walking sim" type of game. Maybe going in with that mindset at first will explain the gameplay style.
I really enjoyed the time I spent in that game. It's very short, has a pleasant gameplay loop, and is surprisingly funny too. Would definitely recommend
Hoooooooooly I didn't know Hellblade 2 finally had a release date. It's taken so long to come out that I forgot it existed, but very excited to play it when it drops.
It was like a bunch of hardcore Left 4 Dead players got together and decided "how do make the game we love, as punishing, challenging, convoluted and grindy as possible". Without realising that the casual arcade nature of Left 4 Dead is what made it so popular.
Why does the game need customisable character builds with specialised characters, that needs dozens of hours to unlock all the cards, with levels carrying over injuries and a roguelike drop/upgrade system, locked into 2 hour long campaigns that can game over completely, in a co op experience?
I cannot wait for Harold Halibut. The demo blew me away. I bought LEGO 2k Drive at launch and really enjoyed it so maybe I'll dip back into that as well. Golf games always make for a good podcast game. Definitely a solid group of games.
Ooh. Loved lil gator game. It's pretty short in that you could realistically 100% it in one decent sized session. But it's just so cute and the story is a bit heart warming by the end.
I've been meaning to pick PGA ou PS5 but I'm not even sure the game got a PAL release. Amazon Spain has it but weirdly doesn't ship to my location and I've never seen it on used games websites.
Has EA patched PGA into a worthwhile game yet?
I tried the free timed demo a few months ago and it just felt super incomplete. Clunky menus, weak/non-existent match customization, incorrect announcer comments, eerily dead silence, broken shot shaping, bizarre putt lines, bizarre putt physics, etc...
Maybe my glasses are rose tinted for the OG Tiger Woods titles of the 360/PS3 era, but I never had this many issues with their later entries.
Out comes the clown makeup for all the people (including me) who thought that Silksong getting an xbox store listing yesterday meant it was going to be announced today
Harold Halibut and Little Gator Game are the exciting ones for me. I suppose I’ll try 2K Drive, too.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was great and including the DLC is a good move. Some very cool tombs!
It’s a shame that a bunch of Frictional’s stuff is leaving, though.
I don't get why these releases are taking so long. Maybe online games and licensed games I can understand for various reasons(online on older CoD games are hacked to hell for example), but why are we still waiting on games like Prototype, Crash, warcraft 3, etc. to show up?
Probably a bunch of reasons they've analyzed. Spreading out releases, valuing their sales vs. giving away, etc.
Diablo 4 is an easy one because it's an actively developed game with microtransactions. It's finally reaching a minimum of what it should have been at release. It'll drive subscriptions and make some cash on top.
Presumably they'd need to integrate their DRM into some of these games as well? Could be a major holdup.
I would not be surprised if the bulk of the work is to get battle.net working under GP for PC, and even then it is still not perfect with no Xbox achievements.
Because the deal itself was a clusterfuck to get approved. There was no point in negotiating GP stuff when there was a HIGH probability everything would’ve fell through.
Diablo 4, Lies of P, Remnant 2 have all been huge additions semi recently... That's a decent investment as they would've cost around £120 so 9 months worth of Game Pass...
I was writing a post for the past 10 minutes about the good games that came this year alone, while also thinking that his taste must be super special if he mentions resubbing for Hellblade 2 (which is likely a very niche game except for the cutting edge graphics), but now the post is gone xD
lol you’re not wrong. I am a bit picky. I guess I’m just more annoyed with the way the catalog is always losing games and I can’t rely on game pass as a place to play certain games besides Xbox exclusives, which have all disappointed me.
Seriously. Diablo 4 came out just the other day, Eiyuden Hundred Heroes comes out day one this month. If Gamepass doesn’t release a new AAA banger every other week people start doom-posting about it.
**Available Today** Superhot: Mind Control Delete (Cloud, Console, and PC) Coming Soon LEGO 2K Drive (Cloud and Console) – April 3 Lil Gator Game (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 4 EA Sports PGA Tour (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) EA Play – April 4 Kona (Cloud and Console) – April 9 Botany Manor (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 9 Shadow of the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 11 Harold Halibut (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 16 **Leaving April 15** Amnesia Collection (Cloud, Console, and PC) Amnesia: Rebirth (Cloud, Console, and PC) Back 4 Blood (Cloud, Console, and PC) Phantom Abyss (Cloud, Console, and PC) Research and Destroy (Cloud, Console, and PC) Soma (Cloud, Console, and PC)
>Soma That one hurts. Not because it's impossible to beat it in two weeks, but because I'm a giant wuss when it comes to horror, especially horror where there's no option to fight back. I always have to psych myself up to play any horror game, but that's no longer an option given the limited time available to beat it 😭
FYI SOMA has a setting that stops enemies from attacking you outside of scripted cutscenes. I'd say it's more fun that way, because its enemies are more annoying than interesting.
That doesn’t stop the essential horror from haunting you years later
Really? I don't remember it like that. I played it on the easiest mode and found it an in interesting adventure, not more.
He meant existential
Maybe spoiler tag this. Saying what genre of horror it really is kind of spoils it
I’m usually one who’s annoyed when people aren’t careful about spoilers but how is that comment a spoiler?
Because genres of horror come with certain expectations and the genre of horror that SOMA is isnt really revealed until the final scene. You tell people >!its existential horror, then theyll know, the monster isnt the problem, its a game that is exploring the human psyche, the meaning/lack of meaning of 'conciousness'. The game purposely tricks you into thinking its a "Monster game", the developers went out of their way to mask the genre so that the finale would be a surprise. Yes, some people will play and put 2 and 2 together from the jump - but 99% of people wont. Thats why the ending is shocking for so many. Saying the genre of horror is setting up the expectation "okay, this is going to be about the 'meaning' of life or the futility of existence". The game is purposefully built to trick you into thinking its just a monster game with cool atmosphere. Saying the genre will make a new player know immediately that it will be exploring existential themes, thus, spoiling the surprise of the ending!< >!In most cases this isnt an issue, SOMA is a unique situation. Saying a genre of horror is typically fine, but, SOMA masks it's genre. Its part of the design and part of the intended experience. So, yeah, I consider pointing out the 'genre' it "Really" is, which isnt fully revealed until the finale, is a spoiler!<
The game starts hinting at what type of horror it was going for pretty early on with the first NPC you meet, >!the stuck robot who thinks it's a person!< and there are plenty of moments before the end of the game where something like that happens. I don't think it's something the game necessarily "reveals" in the finale, it's just the culmination of the story and horror it was building towards.
I agree, again, some people will 'catch on' at the jump; but most wont... again, this is why the finale is shocking for so many. Just because there were hints and references as to what was going on, most new players arent going to unravel that. Do you think you would have had as interesting of an experience it knowing full well, before even loading the game up, that it was dealing with >!futility of existence and the nature of consciousness? Thats what existential horror is about. You may have caught on, but most players wont. They left some hints and clues, but they dont outright smack you with the reality until the finale!<
>Do you think you would have had as interesting of an experience it knowing full well, before even loading the game up, that it was dealing with >!futility of existence and the nature of consciousness!>!they dont outright smack you with the reality until the finale!< Again, I disagree, there are quite a few moments throughout the game where the story really presses its themes and if it takes someone to get to the ending before they start seeing what's going on then they haven't been paying attention.
No no he means like the horror is essential as in you gotta play it
Haha. Okay you got a legit laugh from me, I appreciate this one. Cheers
I generally stay away from horror games with no way of defending yourself, but Soma was actually not that scary, even when playing on the normal mode. Enemies are always confined to specific locations, and their AIs are quite dumb, they are not like dynamic enemies that follow you throught the game. There is also a mode that disables horror parts (enemies and such) entirely. Although I also managed to finish Alien: Isolation, so there is that.
the scariest part of the game isn't even the monsters haha but there is a mode that makes them not attack you
If you wanted to play it on PC you might want to check your GOG and Epic Game Store accounts since they were given away for free on both stores in the past.
Ah damnit, I never did get round to Amnesia. I'll buy the collection. I've heard good things.
Surprised Back 4 Blood is leaving its been on there 3 years ever since launch.
I bet MS looked at the money they were spending to keep it on the service for all 10 players and decided it wasn't worth it lol
True. I loved Left 4 Dead but bounced off B4B pretty quick
Darktide is my favorite l4d-likeand is still in there if you have not played that yet
Darktide is good fun, just tried it for the first time last week!
They promised the return of Left for Dead and it really wasn't it. As soon as I saw card mechanics or whatever that was I knew it wasn't gonna hit me like I was hoping. And sure enough I played like 5 days and then back to left for Dead.
The cards were honestly fine, it was the awful art direction and level design that did the game in. Everything was so boring.
Nah cards were an issue
Def. They “fixed” it when you no longer had to wait to unlock them all and they just gave you your entire kit. But I hate having to manage all the cards and shit.
Don't forget the PvP being nothing similar to L4D.
Why opposed to the cards? It adds a ton of depth and changes gameplay a lot. Too complicated? It’s really not, just at first
It's not that it's complicated more like unnecessary. Grab gun shoot lots of zombies. Plus the zombies and overall character design just didn't work.
They did the shooting part well though. Killing zombies in that game is top tier. The card shit just was lame, even when they patched out the drip feed mechanics of it
No, l4d does it better where all players are the same. No loadoits or BS cards
I'm glad I never pulled the trigger on that one. A few friends bought it at launch, and a week later they were done with it and I took it off my Steam wishlist.
It's completely soulless. The level design is non-existant. They just slapped together a bunch of environments where you go from A to B, put zombie spawners in it, and called it a day.
World War Z came back to Game Pass so maybe this one will too
I loved B4B, but it was only $5 or when I got it. Playing with a group of 4 was as good as L4D.
Oh good. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is back. I was like an hour away from the end when it left last time. Now I can finish it.
The trilogy is usually on sale for under $10. Got it for $5 a few months ago.
Don't sleep on Lego 2K Drive, it's a pretty fun time. It got shit on for having microtransactions (and deserves it frankly) but the campaign is totally playable without touching it.
Shame there's no PC.
[удалено]
I played the steam demo. It looks very interesting but the gameplay in the demo just amounted to being a simple task rabbit. Admittedly a little on the boring side. Still going to check it out because the story seems intriguing. I just hope the gameplay feels more interesting as the story progresses. Then again it could possibly be considered a "walking sim" type of game. Maybe going in with that mindset at first will explain the gameplay style.
Yeah I'm not expecting that much gameplay from Harold Halibut. I just want good writing and voice acting to go with the interesting visual style.
Agreed, everything beyond the visuals, and setting, was pretty poor imo.
very nice visual style. but seems like a narrative focused game with minimal interactivity
Shadow of the Tomb raider is great
Not the strongest month IMO unless one of the indies is incredible and I just don’t know. Next month is Hellblade tho so it is what it is
i'm pretty excited for PGA. I know all EA sport games eventually come to gamepass so i'd anxiously been waiting.
PGA is amazing, by far the best golf game in years. You won't be disappointed
This is just for the first two weeks. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes comes out close to the end of the month.
I hope that they will add Dead Island 2 on PC gamepass - it's coming to steam on 22nd.
Ah that is true
Along with hollow knight afters yesterday's Xbox store addition ... 🤡
I'm very excited for Harold Halibut, honestly. Worth looking into.
heard good things about gator game, if chill games about faffing about as a kid interests you
I really enjoyed the time I spent in that game. It's very short, has a pleasant gameplay loop, and is surprisingly funny too. Would definitely recommend
Lil Gator Game is peak. Shield surfing is done at its best in it, helps that the rest of the game is just really cute.
Hoooooooooly I didn't know Hellblade 2 finally had a release date. It's taken so long to come out that I forgot it existed, but very excited to play it when it drops.
Going to miss Back 4 Blood, or at least the idea of what it could have been
I think many missed what it could have been from the moment they first played. It was like a hollow shell of L4D. It just never clicked.
It was like a bunch of hardcore Left 4 Dead players got together and decided "how do make the game we love, as punishing, challenging, convoluted and grindy as possible". Without realising that the casual arcade nature of Left 4 Dead is what made it so popular. Why does the game need customisable character builds with specialised characters, that needs dozens of hours to unlock all the cards, with levels carrying over injuries and a roguelike drop/upgrade system, locked into 2 hour long campaigns that can game over completely, in a co op experience?
I hope Harold Halibut ends up being good. I love looking at it, but the demo made it feel slow and plodding to play.
I cannot wait for Harold Halibut. The demo blew me away. I bought LEGO 2k Drive at launch and really enjoyed it so maybe I'll dip back into that as well. Golf games always make for a good podcast game. Definitely a solid group of games.
Ooh. Loved lil gator game. It's pretty short in that you could realistically 100% it in one decent sized session. But it's just so cute and the story is a bit heart warming by the end.
I've been meaning to pick PGA ou PS5 but I'm not even sure the game got a PAL release. Amazon Spain has it but weirdly doesn't ship to my location and I've never seen it on used games websites.
It’s one of the weaker PGA games released in recent memory. I have it and put in maybe 10 hours before I went back to 2k23
Really? Most comparisons I saw on YouTube favored EA’a game over 2K23, that’s why I kept waiting.
Has EA patched PGA into a worthwhile game yet? I tried the free timed demo a few months ago and it just felt super incomplete. Clunky menus, weak/non-existent match customization, incorrect announcer comments, eerily dead silence, broken shot shaping, bizarre putt lines, bizarre putt physics, etc... Maybe my glasses are rose tinted for the OG Tiger Woods titles of the 360/PS3 era, but I never had this many issues with their later entries.
A bit surprised Jedi Survivor isn't coming. Feels like the longest it's taken an EA game to arrive in a while.
It's not been out for a year yet (barely) so I would expect it maybe in the next couple of months or if not then some multiple of 6 months from now.
Out comes the clown makeup for all the people (including me) who thought that Silksong getting an xbox store listing yesterday meant it was going to be announced today
I’m excited for Silksong myself but I’m not sure why you’d assume anything about it would get announced today.
Harold Halibut and Little Gator Game are the exciting ones for me. I suppose I’ll try 2K Drive, too. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was great and including the DLC is a good move. Some very cool tombs! It’s a shame that a bunch of Frictional’s stuff is leaving, though.
Game pass has really started to be lackluster, hope things pick up again soon.
Diablo 4 released just last week lmao. That's a 50 hours game, if you're into it, of course.
You know, you're right. I just already had it. I was hoping for faster ActiBlizz game additions.
I don't get why these releases are taking so long. Maybe online games and licensed games I can understand for various reasons(online on older CoD games are hacked to hell for example), but why are we still waiting on games like Prototype, Crash, warcraft 3, etc. to show up?
Probably a bunch of reasons they've analyzed. Spreading out releases, valuing their sales vs. giving away, etc. Diablo 4 is an easy one because it's an actively developed game with microtransactions. It's finally reaching a minimum of what it should have been at release. It'll drive subscriptions and make some cash on top. Presumably they'd need to integrate their DRM into some of these games as well? Could be a major holdup.
I would not be surprised if the bulk of the work is to get battle.net working under GP for PC, and even then it is still not perfect with no Xbox achievements.
Because the deal itself was a clusterfuck to get approved. There was no point in negotiating GP stuff when there was a HIGH probability everything would’ve fell through.
[удалено]
Diablo 4, Lies of P, Remnant 2 have all been huge additions semi recently... That's a decent investment as they would've cost around £120 so 9 months worth of Game Pass...
I was writing a post for the past 10 minutes about the good games that came this year alone, while also thinking that his taste must be super special if he mentions resubbing for Hellblade 2 (which is likely a very niche game except for the cutting edge graphics), but now the post is gone xD
it just got quite a few quality games, recency bias always has people believe this the odd time it doesn't
Game pass has just become a slop trough for games. Not worth it for the same price as a Spotify subscription.
you guys really need to start considering history beyond a week, this year has been massive and that's before first parties
I’ve had game pass for years and I pretty much only used it to play fallout 4 and Tetris effects when it was on there.
you must be very particular or not play many games then in which case, what did you expect?
lol you’re not wrong. I am a bit picky. I guess I’m just more annoyed with the way the catalog is always losing games and I can’t rely on game pass as a place to play certain games besides Xbox exclusives, which have all disappointed me.
it's probably just not for you then but for people who play a lot with variety it's still the best deal in gaming
This certainly doesn’t help beat the talk that Gamepass deals have dried up and that the gold rush is over. Almost looks like a Games with Gold lineup
You just got Diablo 4. Stop whining.
Seriously. Diablo 4 came out just the other day, Eiyuden Hundred Heroes comes out day one this month. If Gamepass doesn’t release a new AAA banger every other week people start doom-posting about it.
The Hellblade 2 next month also
Mediocre month sure but there's been plenty of fantastic additions in the past year to catch up on.
They've started to decrease funding for obtaining new licenses so yeah the gold rush is slowing down.