Xbox Game Pass for Console, PC, and Android

Weird, I've played a few hours of Monster Sanctuary on my tablet and didn't have any issues with the lag. I tried playing Doom Eternal through my Edge Browser last night but there was just too much delay between controller to screen for me to enjoy it. Microsoft needs to figure out whatever Geforece Now does because that service works great for me.

Dyni wrote:

I didn't realize that the input lag would vary so wildly from game to game. Why would that be the case?

It could currently be related to the graphical prowess required by the game. SpiritFarer is much less intense than Dragon Quest XI. It might also have to do with how many users were on at that time, as well. It's quite hard to do anything except speculate. IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/120/apple/285/thinking-face_1f914.png)

Dyni wrote:

Also, I experienced some weird audio crackling in both DQXI and Monster Sanctuary. It might have been present for Spiritfarer too, but I had that muted when I was testing it out, so I'll have to check on it later. Is anyone else getting something similar? I thought it was just an issue with my connection on DQ XI, but it was just as bad when the connection to Monster Sanctuary was pretty solid.

I get that with my cruddy moderately beefy Amazon Fire 10 HD whatever Tablet.

I don't get it on my phone though.

I have no idea why, but my best guess is something to do with the audio hardware in the tablet vs phone being, most likely, sh*tty.

For me both iPad and iPhone are so bad that’s it’s unplayable. It’s not even close to acceptable. Hot garbage!

At some point I’ll try it on PC.

PC won’t even start a game stream. I guess the servers are down.

Been a while since I played anything new on Game Pass so I checked out the Prodeus "preview" (I guess it's just Early Access?).

Holy goddamn hell, what a great game. It's all the good bits of Doom and Duke Nukem 3D overlayed with modern (i.e, Doo 2016) gameplay. The whole thing has a stunning 2.5D presentation which I didn't realise at first from looking at still images.

Level design feels closer to the original Doom with more verticality, and the gunplay feels unreal. Unfortunately, the shotgun feels a little clunky since you have to charge it up for the alternate shot. Otherwise? Damn near perfection. Fast, bloody, stylized and fun.

I want to play more, but it's so good I want to save myself for the full release. Has anyone else tried it?

IMAGE(https://bitmunchies.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Prodeus-4.jpg)

No, but I just watched a video and that looks pretty cool.

I tried Prodeus last night and it felt just like you said. All the best parts of Duke Nukem and Doom with great presentation. Sound is wonderful. The game looks really really good in motion. Stills don't do it justice. Gameplay is fast, but not too fast for someone who played the original Doom in university. I'm just hoping for more enemy variety...but I only played 2 levels in.

How would you guys compare Prodeus with Doom 2016, for someone looking for a brain-in-neutral stress-relieving shooter?

Granted, I could download and try both, but I'm lazy.

Where's Greg/doubtingthomas? You know he'd be into it.

So a week or so ago I decided to give Greedfall a try. I played enough to leave the opening town and sail to the island. I was impressed with the writing. Even the beginning side quests that seemed straightforward has some interesting twist. The combat was a little clunky but not terrible.

Then last week Greedfall implemented its next gen update. It’s broken the game. None of the menus show up. The main screen menu, the character menus. None of it work. I hope they patch it soon.

I tried out Prodeus. Definitely Doom. Right down to the pseudo-NIN soundtrack.

Asked to log into Gamepass then said it couldn't. And there's nothing to explain what I am doing or why. But yeah, Doom. "There are things. Kill them."

Tried Prodeus due to the comments above. Really enjoyed the first level so far.

Woo! I've held off on Tropico 6 for years as I didn't like 5 - it'll be good to try it out.

I've played a bunch more Game Pass games.

Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars sure is a video game. It felt very much like a PC game that did not translate especially well to Xbox. Just a very complicated interface that left me constantly confused about what layer or what menu I was currently in and how to get to the next thing. I played through the tutorial and it seemed okay--kind of a mix of Civilization (an overworld map with a city you control and a mix of enemy buildings and neutral buildings that you can expand and conquer and gain resources and build improvements) and maybe Fire Emblem (when you get in combat, it moves to a combat grid and you move your parts along with enemy parts in turn order, use abilities etc. to have a sort of tactics combat scenario), all with a kind of grimly goofy story of your vampire clan's battle for dominance. It seemed like this is absolutely going to be right up someone's alley, just not mine.

Going Under is a roguelike dungeon crawler with persistence and story, kinda like Hades, except with the graphical style of Ooblets, all twee and cutesy and pastel, set in a satirical tech startup company. I don't think much about this game is very good except I keep playing it? It's easy to just do a quick run in and see what happens. The combat isn't amazing but it's okay. It's fairly challenging. Some of the dialogue is a little funny, although I am really starting to get sick of "lol, capitalism, amirite?" as everyone's joke (not because I am tired of people being mean to my good friend capital, but it feels like this satirical story framework has been used in so many games now that it is very hard to do in a way that doesn't feel trite). This reminds me of another game pass game, UnderMine, that I also did not think was an especially good example of the genre and yet I ended up putting 10 or so hours into it and had an okay time.

Haven is the game I've been looking for for a while: something with a narrative strong enough to pull me in and sustain my interest. You're playing as a couple who ran away from the sort of dystopia that folks have a hard time distinguishing from a utopia, and ended up crashlanding on an uncharted planet (though really it seems more like a system of asteroids and/or another dimension). The game is mostly about exploring this planet/set of planets and finding materials to repair your ship (although not necessarily to leave?). This involves a mechanic where you kind of surf around the planet while holding hands, often following little blue streams of "flow", a form of energy on the planet, while seeking out fruits and veggies you can cook with, float over little red bursts of "rust" to cleanse them, and fighting with/pacifying rust-infected monsters. All of that stuff is a bit mediocre--not wildly fun, and occasionally there are flow paths that you have to follow that area little too fiddly for my liking, and before you get a radar feature in the game it was way too easy for me to just go the wrong way and waste a bunch of time--but what I'm really loving is the interactions between the two characters, the chats they have (you have some control over dialogue options, though I'm not sure how much it matters). It is the most explicitly sexual game I've played, perhaps short of a Mass Effect cut scene or two, but also incredibly well-done. It is a strong portrayal of a couple who are somewhat newly bonded and in love and enjoying each other. As a big Mass Effect fan who liked that games relationships generally but felt most of the romantic aspects of relationships in the game were kinda terrible, I wish Bioware would hire these writers for future ME stuff. I would guess I'm 8-10 hours in at this point, and from my progress on the ship I'm assuming I'm roughly halfway through, but I would guess the second half will complete much quicker, as I was really fumbling around for a lot of the first few hours of the game. I really recommend this game if you're into walking sims or adventure games or are otherwise looking for a good character-based narrative.

I'm not sure if this is the right forum, so apologies if it isn't.
Is anyone having problems trying to login to xbox live from xbox for pc on some games? Some games work fine on my pc, others get error after I select what account to login with. Games like Desperados III, Va-11 Hall-A, and Star Renegades all give me an error, some with an error number some without. Other games, like My Time at Portia, Forza Horizon 4 and ReCore all work fine.
Thanks in advance for any advice

I was so excited to see an email with the subject "You've been invited to join Project xCloud (Preview)" in my inbox this morning when I was still half asleep. Just got around to registering and they'll "get back to me within a few months to let me know if I’ve been selected for the preview".

Omno is coming to Game Pass day one, on July 29.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/07/...

I am thrilled about this. Omno is a sort of 3D puzzle platformer with Journey-meets-Supraland vibes that has been on my Steam wishlist for a while. There is a demo on Steam, actually: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1...

Between this and Hades, I'll be busy in August...

This could be really slick for Game Pass Streaming to iOS but the price is way higher than I'd want to pay

For now I use one of those controller mounts directly on an Xbone controller

CrossCode is leaving Game Pass next week on 7/15, along with Downwell. I gotta fire CrossCode back up to see if I'm gonna buy it.

pandasuit wrote:

This could be really slick for Game Pass Streaming to iOS but the price is way higher than I'd want to pay

For now I use one of those controller mounts directly on an Xbone controller

I feel like I have been waiting forever for the PowerA Moga XP7-X Plus which was supposed to come out mid-year last year but got pushed to fall and is now pushed to late summer maybe.

IMAGE(https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UEnk56gV9vXAON3Qrqth-vwZmuA=/1400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21695392/powerarenders.jpg)

My wife got me a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 for Christmas that I had sitting on my wishlist after doing some research. If it will fit in the XP7 it will be a hell of a portable gaming machine.

I've been patiently waiting for this handheld to release as I think it will be really nice to play gamepass and geforce now games on not to mention various emulators. It plays Genshin Impact well too which my tablet can't do. Indiegogo for it finally went up but I'm not sure when they will ship.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/o...

mrlogical wrote:

Haven is the game I've been looking for for a while: something with a narrative strong enough to pull me in and sustain my interest.

Hard same. Cross-posting because it’s relevant:

Finished off Haven (via Game Pass), and absolutely adored the vibe, from the start screen. IMAGE( https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/240/google/274/heart-with-arrow_1f498.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ykrAUxm.jpg)

The interactions between the main characters is *chef’s kiss* IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/240/google/274/revolving-hearts_1f49e.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/GOy5xA8.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/vHNTEdu.png)

Yu and Kay are just wonderful. The game being focused on their relationship is so much fun. IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/240/google/274/growing-heart_1f497.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1Okd5vV.png)

I honestly didn’t know a game like this existed. IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/240/apple/285/smiling-face-with-smiling-eyes_1f60a.png)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/zorJ5K6.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/JwN9Cca.jpg)

Tried Cloud streaming for the first time on my Macbook this morning while the kids watched Ninjago on the living room TV.

Katana Zero had lag and that thing's so twitchy it wasn't going to be a good enough experience (also didn't seem to load to the spot I'd stopped at last night but that could just be because I stopped mid-level?).

Played Injustice 2 (story mode) and even though it had some blips during cutscenes and fights, I'm kinda just playing for the story and to beat up characters...so I didn't really mind. I LOVED that I could play in another room on my laptop screen and free up the TV. Also liked that they asked for feedback on what worked about the game and the service. That data, across everyone using the service, should lead to improvements.

Overall very pleased with this service in its early days and extremely optimistic for what it will become.

I finished Haven at the end of last week. Such a great game, though I wish the game play were a bit less fiddly and definitely enjoyed it more once I used the accessibility options to basically set it to easy mode. One minor gripe: there is a big choice at the end of the game that a)isn't much of a choice (one option is obviously far superior to the other) and b)is one of those endings where it gives separate achievements for each choice, which I feel pushes players (at least players like me) into doing both endings, which makes the choice feel less meaningful (and is only possible if you know to make a copy of your save at the point of no return). Of course I could just ignore the achievements, but I don't see why they don't just grant a "making the choice" achievement rather than "Choice A" and "Choice B" achievements, especially since, aside from this final choice, a second playthrough would be identical and boring...it's not the sort of game you could start over with a Choice B route in mind. All pretty minor though, it's a really nice game.

I also renewed my efforts on Wild at Heart, which is great, a Pikmin x Metroidvania thing. My daughters were into it, so for a while I was only playing when they were watching, but they got distracted and I got tired of waiting for them to want to play it. My biggest gripe about this game is sometimes it is difficult to figure out which objective you should be going for next. As the metroidvania part of the game, there are paths that are clearly blocked until you acquire certain abilities, but those abilities don't necessarily unlock on a clear timetable. For example, there was a path with frozen obstacles and I knew I would clearly need to get some freezy guys to help me clear them, but I explored the start of the icy area several times with no obvious way forward, but there was no "you can't go here yet!" clues, so it was possible I just hadn't figured out the trick. I eventually consulted a guide and found a good suggestion for the next thing to do, and then the next time I was looking for something to do, returned to the icy area. On my return there, all of a sudden there are just some icy guys waiting around who are happy to help my character. No story event explained why they were there now, and nothing in the environment had indicated to me previously that they wouldn't be there. It feels very classic adventure game in a sense -- the game has its own logic that is not always going to be apparent to you, and if you want to avoid beating your head against a wall, be sure to pull up a guide any time you're feeling lost, it's not worth trying to stumble into the right place at the right time. When it's clicking, though, it's fun and satsifying little puzzles and a cute and interesting world.

I tried Stealth Inc 2. Its a MetroidVania. Not my favorite genre. It didn’t stick with me.

I tried Moonlighter. Charming art style. Kind of a pixelated Miyazaki vibe. I’ve played too many games like this. Rogue like. Zelda like. Dungeon crawler. I want to like it but it’s incredibly similar to so many other games which I’ve already played and grown tired of. It seems that I’ve hit the wall that so many others have with rogue likes.

I should try Haven again. Maybe I’ll use a guide to avoid aimless wandering.

The aimless wandering in Haven can definitely be frustrating. Fairly early on, though not early enough (4 hours, maybe?), you'll get a compass and that does help you avoid re-exploring places you've already been, so if you can get over that hump it gets a lot smoother.