Yeah, I'll try the other characters and it's not like I thought it sucked, it's just that I basically have already played this game in a more convenient format (a phone), and was expecting something a bit more dramatic. It's a game I've heard a lot of hype about, and it was . . . fine.
Game Pass has absolutely made me both try more things and bounce off then quicker, because there's no cost to dropping stuff now. I'll probably even try cricket because reasons.
Slay the Spire is on Game Pass, and I'd heard a lot about how good it was. It's . . . fine? I played a game called Meteorfall on my phone that's the same thing, except that had a cuter art style. I'm vaguely underwhelmed by Slay the Spire after all I'd heard about; I only did one run and got through a level and a half so maybe it pops later, but it felt pretty standard.
I played Meteorfall to completion with all the characters. Slay the Spire is much deeper and more interesting. Give it a few more gos for the subtleties to become more apparent. Meteorfall, in my experience, is a bit more obvious early on.
However, to each his or her own if it didn’t grab you.
I'll probably even try cricket because reasons.
Same! I hate cricket, but the game might be fun...
I'm about half way through Unavowed and I'm enjoying it a lot. Well worth a shot. I noticed the Bard's Tale trilogy has been added - now, that is a blast from the past...
Bard's Tale Trilogy and Wasteland 30th Anniversary Edition coming to Gamepass
Bard's Tale Trilogy looks nice and crisp! I'll be playing it during commercial breaks, always had a soft spot for old school dungeon crawlers.
The utterly brilliant Yoku's Island Express is also now available I see. I'd urge anyone with a backlog of games to try on Gamepass to move this to the top of the next to play list - it's fantastic.
The utterly brilliant Yoku's Island Express is also now available I see. I'd urge anyone with a backlog of games to try on Gamepass to move this to the top of the next to play list - it's fantastic.
I downloaded this last night when i randomly checked out its trailer. Looking forward playing this.
I’ve downloaded it but haven’t yet tried it. I think I will go do that now!
Played a bit of it yesterday. Pretty fun! It's like a cute platformer + open world + pinball.
I played a little last night too. Really great game so far, looking forward to playing more.
Some more Game Pass games announced at Gamescom today.
Has anyone tried Ape Out? The demo was fun for a minute so I hope the full version is too.
August 19
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (PC)
Devil May Cry 5 (Console)
Stellaris (Console, PC at a later date)
August 22
Ape Out (PC)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Console and PC)
August 27
Bard’s Tale IV (Console and PC)
August 30
Blair Witch Project (Console and PC)
They also mentioned Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is coming to Game Pass PC on Nov 14.
Well hell, why buy anything anymore?
I've only got the PC gamepass, and I keep finding myself jealous of the console only stuff. Not necessarily "buy an Xbox" jealous, but jealous.
I've played both some Yoku's Island and some Slay the Spire recently. I like them both!
Yoku's Island took me a little time to warm to--I think sometimes I come to Game Pass games almost hoping I don't like them so I can scratch another thing off of my To Play list--but it really is a perfect podcast/audiobook companion. It's fun to explore, it's a cute world to look at, and the pinball skill level is enough to be a challenge, but not so hard to be a problem. Whenever I find myself a little stuck, I usually just need to look more carefully at the screen until I realize I have misunderstood what I'm supposed to do.
I have completed one run of Slay the Spire, in which I completed the first part and died somewhere about a third to half way through the second. It's challenging and interesting, it gives me a lot to think about and mull over in my choices. I don't yet understand what stuff is persistent and how that will change over time...at the end of my run, I saw some sort of counter tick up in a way that suggested I was making some sort of permanent improvements, but it wasn't explained at all... I definitely see myself spending more time with this, and as with Yoku's, it's a solid game for multitasking, which is always a plus for me.
I played 30 minutes or so of Devil May Cry 5 and it drove me nuts. Because played is to strong a word. Between cutscenes, loading screens, and on screen explanations I think I played 10 minutes of that 30 - and it was all broken up so I don't think I played more than 2 minutes at a time.
I know it is important at the beginning of the game to explain stuff but it was worse than most games (in fact I can't think of a worse one).
Am I the only one not seeing the newly announced games in "recently added", either on console or in the app? The app now has a banner picture for DMC5 (and earlier this morning it showed Stellaris there for me, though I don't see it now), but neither of those show up on the recently added tab for some reason. I bet I will dislike DMC5 for the reasons you cite, farley, but it is a good Game Pass option for me, the sort of game I have heard good things about and am curious about but that I suspect a low chance of actually clicking with me.
Blackice wrote:The utterly brilliant Yoku's Island Express is also now available I see. I'd urge anyone with a backlog of games to try on Gamepass to move this to the top of the next to play list - it's fantastic.
I downloaded this last night when i randomly checked out its trailer. Looking forward playing this.
I downloaded Yoku on a whim and ended up playing all the way through it over the weekend. What a great little game!
Loving Yoku's Island. I'm around 50% now, I think? I was feeling frustrated and stuck, but fortunately I stuck with it enough to find another location I hadn't explored fully, and with that I got the tool to use sootlings to swing around on flowers (it was obvious to me those flowers were going to be a mechanic at some point, it was a relief to finally find that tool). It can be a little annoying at times when I just want to go from one area to the next but pinball skills get in the way. I did just open up the last beeline, however, so I hope that means I will have less frustration moving around.
I also played maybe 15 minutes of Ape Out on PC yesterday. I had heard a lot about this, yet it was much different than the picture I'd had in my head! The graphics were much more lo-fi, the objective kind of unclear. I don't love it? The drums and rhythm are satisfying, but I think the art is kinda bleh, and after two runs (one where I died near the end of the very first section, another where I made it through a good 3 or 4 sections before dying), it feels a little too aimless for me. Surely one must unlock something at some point, right? It's not just a game where you have to complete it all in one run? I progressed far enough in my second run I expected to get some sign of persistent progress, but I didn't see anything. That said, I stopped playing this when my baby started screaming, so maybe I just missed some info in my haste.
I also played maybe 15 minutes of Ape Out on PC yesterday. I had heard a lot about this, yet it was much different than the picture I'd had in my head! The graphics were much more lo-fi, the objective kind of unclear. I don't love it? The drums and rhythm are satisfying, but I think the art is kinda bleh, and after two runs (one where I died near the end of the very first section, another where I made it through a good 3 or 4 sections before dying), it feels a little too aimless for me. Surely one must unlock something at some point, right? It's not just a game where you have to complete it all in one run? I progressed far enough in my second run I expected to get some sign of persistent progress, but I didn't see anything. That said, I stopped playing this when my baby started screaming, so maybe I just missed some info in my haste.
That pretty much lines up with my experience of it. Feels like a game where the 20 minutes I've put into it might have shown me most of what the game has to offer.
mrlogical wrote:I also played maybe 15 minutes of Ape Out on PC yesterday. I had heard a lot about this, yet it was much different than the picture I'd had in my head! The graphics were much more lo-fi, the objective kind of unclear. I don't love it? The drums and rhythm are satisfying, but I think the art is kinda bleh, and after two runs (one where I died near the end of the very first section, another where I made it through a good 3 or 4 sections before dying), it feels a little too aimless for me. Surely one must unlock something at some point, right? It's not just a game where you have to complete it all in one run? I progressed far enough in my second run I expected to get some sign of persistent progress, but I didn't see anything. That said, I stopped playing this when my baby started screaming, so maybe I just missed some info in my haste.
That pretty much lines up with my experience of it. Feels like a game where the 20 minutes I've put into it might have shown me most of what the game has to offer.
Same here. I played the demo and was really looking forward to the full game but after playing it for a little while I was bored and moved on.
Yoku's Island is a game I put a couple sessions into and was mostly enjoying but never ended up finishing. Sounds like I should.
Been playing Kingdom Come on the pass. As a medieval counterpart to games like Red Dead Redemption its pretty great. The combat is quite challenging and there's great attention to detail in the game's systems, like having blood on your shirt helps when you want to intimidate someone, or that being drunk gives you some bonuses for a time, then penalties for a time, then a hangover if you overdo it.
A murder mystery quest has lead me over a great deal of the map, had me hunt bandits, investigate a murder scene, learn to read (which itself is a sort of mini game), have a drunken night of debauchery with a hedonistic priest, then give a hangover'd sermon in his stead the next morning and it's still not quite over!
The game's main developers clearly don't think much of women (which is what happens when a team of 8 bros writes a game). So far female characters are all accessories and the usual tropy caricatures. One of the DLCs is played from a female character's perspective so maybe that's their attempt to make up for it... another one is entirely about getting a prince laid.
It's a shame the DLCs aren't on the pass at all. It would cost about $30 to get them all and they don't have the complete edition on the xbox store at all, so I'm actually tempted to get the complete edition on Steam next time it goes on sale. One of the other DLCs has you rebuild a town and looks pretty cool. Another involves more tactical warfare.
Do you see the disconnect between saying that the developers don't think much of women and then showing interest in giving them money?
Edited to be less dickish.
Im weighing the good against the bad and deciding a purchase could be worth it. We'll see. So far I've put around 8 hours in and enjoyed it quite a lot.
I finished Yoku's Island Express over the weekend. What a fun game. I did manage to convince myself not to try to 100% it, mostly because in completing the story there were 2 small sections I had to look up guides for because I simply could not figure out how to complete them, and neither of them felt like things I would have enjoyed trying to figure out on my own. In one, there was a tiny bumper hidden in the environment I just did not notice in the 100 times I zipped my ball around the area, and in the other, there was a chute where I had sent my ball plenty of times, but I guess I needed to go through that chute 3 times in close enough succession to trigger something, which just wasn't a thing I would've known to try. As much fun as I had checking off little sections in this game, seeing that I was at 68% completion at the end of the story, I expected that much of that final 32% would have similar bits of inscrutability. Really glad I played this one, though, a very fun 5-10 hours or so.
I wanted to play Steamworld Dig 2 and I remembered that I had Steamworld Dig 1 from GwG and thought I would try #1 first. It’s actually a super solid Metroid-Vania
With a digging mechanic. I think I’m getting close to finishing it. Hard to tell. But it’s great fun.
This is rather off topic, but... For me a counterpoint of the gems of GamePass is any new release game that I’m eager to buy rather than just keep playing all the great stuff on GP.
After listening to this week’s podcast I’m drinking the kool-aid and buying Control. It sounds like something I’d like to experience on 4K.
This is rather off topic, but... For me a counterpoint of the gems of GamePass is any new release game that I’m eager to buy rather than just keep playing all the great stuff on GP.
After listening to this week’s podcast I’m drinking the kool-aid and buying Control. It sounds like something I’d like to experience on 4K.
It's phenomenal.
I started playing Creature in the Well now that it has been added to Game Pass. So far I'm enjoying it a lot. I like the art style. Especially the creature. The graphics resemble Hyper Light Drifter in a good way.
While there is a strong element of pinball to the gameplay, where you hit bumpers with balls, the way you hit the ball does not feel like pinball at all. Unlike Yoku's Island Express where you hit the ball with pinball paddles Creature in the Well requires you to move a character around dodging things, power up and pull multiple balls to you at the same time then pick a direction to fire them. It feels a little bit like the parts of a 2D Zelda game where you have to redirect projectiles back at enemies.
Often there are strict timing requirements because you only have a few seconds to hit specific targets before parts of the room reset and you have to re-do earlier targets. This timing bit makes the game very intense but it is also a source of frustration for me as I've run into a few challenges I just couldn't get the timing for. Luckily the ones I failed at all turned out to be optional challenge rooms.
I've died a few times and while that does require me to do some walking back to where it was it never felt like much of a setback as I could easily get back to where I was headed.
Overall it's been good and I'm going to continue to play it. I get the impression it is only a few hours long which suits me fine.
Update: I’ve been trying to figure out why people associate this game so much with pinball and why that doesn’t feel right to me. Today, after getting some new weapons that change the way the ball works I realized they were very similar to things from Arkanoid. Once I realized that it started to click. This game is very inspired by Arkanoid. The way you have to setup bank shots. The way you have to keep the ball from hitting some surfaces by moving in front of it and redirecting it. The way you often find yourself managing multiple balls in parallel and rapidly switching between blocking and redirecting and you have to be aware of the whole board at the same time. The way you try to use the right weapon/power up for each situation. I’m digging it.
Man Game Pass on PC is turning out to be an incredible value even at full price. They keep adding games like dead cells that I want to play.
This thread is awesome and horrible at the same time. Games I looked past are now making my list based on these recommendations, but I have SO MANY games in my back catalogue I need to quit my job to play them all. Wait a minute, did I say awesome and horrible? How bout just awesome??!?
I started playing Creature in the Well now that it has been added to Game Pass.
I did too, and just finished it. Very fun game; a bit on the easy side up until the last level, where the difficulty spikes pretty dramatically.
I think maybe with the popularity/success of Yoku's Island Express last year (a metroidvania/pinball game), people associated this as a similar kind of game. But you're absolutely correct, Creature in the Well is a metroidvania(lite)/Arkanoid game, and definitely worth checking out because it's so unique.
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