I also started Creature in the Well over the weekend. Having just completed Yoku's Island, I was intrigued at the idea of another pinball-ish game...as merphle and pandasuit note, the pinball comparison isn't totally apt, but still, you're hitting balls into bumpers to score points, so it's in the ballpark. I haven't loved the game, but I have slowly gotten more into it the more I've played it. I don't really like the art style--it's stylish and different, but it's also kind of flat and crude in a way I just don't find very appealing. It is very similar to the style I didn't like in Ape Out.
I've also had some frustrations with learning the mechanics in the game. After the first time I died, I was surprised to respawn with basically 0 health, and so died 2 or 3 more times in short succession trying to complete the same puzzle since the very first hit I took killed me instantly. I looked all over for something to replenish my health, checking all the rooms and doors in that little town outside your base, until finally I just happened to walk into this little pool in my base and saw my health go up. Maybe I missed some sort of prompt, but it seems like they could have tutorialized that. Similarly, just as I was quitting the game yesterday, I noticed that I think I have been playing the game wrong? Do you *hold* the X button to charge balls? Because I've been very frustrated by how hard it is to aim shots when you can't stand still, as I was tapping X repeatedly while angling my shot as my character stutter-stepped around the screen, but just as I was quitting I looked at the inventory and read the tool tip for my charge item and I think this is a case of me misunderstanding the basic mechanic of the game. So maybe I'll have a much better experience soon?
Despite my misgivings, I have liked the puzzles as I started to interact with them more, and I won my first boss fight which was an interesting experience. I don't think I like the story, but I expect to come back to this on and off over the next few weeks.
I also installed and jumped into Dead Cells. I'd probably put 10-15 hours into Dead Cells on Switch a year or so ago, but it never quite clicked. I honestly started it up this weekend just to grab whatever easy achievements there were, but I did get reminded that actually, this game is pretty fun. I'm not sure how much time I'll spend with it--when last I played, I stopped when I realized I was not good enough to get terribly far in any given run, not making enough progress towards permanent unlocks to feel like I was accomplishing anything, and tired of playing the initial set of areas.
Finally, I played some Gears 4 and Gears 5 over the weekend. I had a thought that I might complete the Gears 4 campaign before going to Gears 5, but my desire for new shinies short circuited that. Still, I completed the first act of the Gears 4 campaign and thought it was pretty solid and have now completed the first chapter of Gears 5. I'll probably post more in the Gears thread, but holy cow does it look great on Xbox One X.
I also started Creature in the Well over the weekend.
I don't remember whether they gave an explicit tutorial message for the healing pool. I can't think of any good reason to respawn the player with 1 health instead of full health; it was really just a trivial annoyance to penalize dying.
And yes, you hold the X button to hold balls near you so that you can aim precisely where you want them to go once you swing. Definitely do that.
I honestly started [Dead Cells] up this weekend just to grab whatever easy achievements there were
Damn, I wish you hadn't said this. I've been out of the achievement-hunting business for years, but I suddenly feel compelled to install and play some great games I've played before on other platforms, just to get those quick endorphin hits of Gamerscore unlocks.
What am I doing wrong? I have GamePass, I have installed Gears 5 but when I try to start it is says "Gears 5 isn't unlocked yet visit the store to see when you can play it."
Grr...
mrlogical wrote:I also started Creature in the Well over the weekend.
I don't remember whether they gave an explicit tutorial message for the healing pool. I can't think of any good reason to respawn the player with 1 health instead of full health; it was really just a trivial annoyance to penalize dying.
And yes, you hold the X button to hold balls near you so that you can aim precisely where you want them to go once you swing. Definitely do that.
Also you can dash while holding/charging balls which becomes important later in the game. You don’t have to shoot balls you’ve charged either. You can just grab them to stop them.
It definitely doesn’t go out of its way to tell you how to play. Definitely read the description of each new weapon in the inventory screen to see if it has some power that changes how you play.
Without spoiling anything I’ll just suggest you keep an eye out for hidden areas and shortcuts.
I’m currently at what I’m pretty sure is the very end of the game and as merphle said in the finished games thread it does certainly get harder at the end. I got stuck replaying this section for a while before taking a break. I decided to finally look up what others did to see if I was just doing it wrong and saw some people went back to using an earlier weapon with a useful ability. I’ll give that a try when I play next.
I’m still enjoying Creature in the Well but I think I’m also learning that my reflexes have deteriorated a lot more than I thought.
What am I doing wrong? I have GamePass, I have installed Gears 5 but when I try to start it is says "Gears 5 isn't unlocked yet visit the store to see when you can play it."
Grr...
I think it only unlocked early for holders of Game Pass "Ultimate" (the one that covers both PC and XBox One).
What am I doing wrong? I have GamePass, I have installed Gears 5 but when I try to start it is says "Gears 5 isn't unlocked yet visit the store to see when you can play it."
Grr...
What you're doing wrong is not time travelling to the future (the 10th) when the game is unlocked for us plebs.
What am I doing wrong? I have GamePass, I have installed Gears 5 but when I try to start it is says "Gears 5 isn't unlocked yet visit the store to see when you can play it."
Grr...
Do you have game pass ultimate? I thought I read that Gears 5 ultimate required game pass ultimate and only that version was unlocked to play early.
Ok, I guess there is a reason at least.
Kind of annoying. It is still a great deal generally but the need to check fine print all the time is less user friendly than it could be.
The way Microsoft handles the files it installs on your machine is really annoying. It mashes your game folders in a 'WindowsApps' folder along with a bunch of other garbage folders (there are Zune folders in there!) with terrible names to make it hard to find them. Then you don't have permission to even view them. You have to 'hack' the security for files on your own PC to even look at them.
Having been granted the rights to view folders on my own PC now I can't do anything with them. Want to tweak an .ini because some game left most of the settings out of the game? Tough shit. You can forget about mods too, or migrating a save from Xbox to Steam. I can go mess with stuff in C:\Windows\System32 and make my computer completely unusable, but I'm not allowed to make it so I can wager up to 1000 gold on dice games in Kingdom Come instead of the default (and boring) limit of 100.
I've never felt like a second class citizen on my own computer until now (I've never used a mac)
Ok, I guess there is a reason at least.
Kind of annoying. It is still a great deal generally but the need to check fine print all the time is less user friendly than it could be.
It wasn't fine print. They want to you to buy GPU, so may they made it blatantly clear that was what you needed for early access. There is not upside in hiding what you need, when they want to sell it.
It wasn't fine print. They want to you to buy GPU, so may they made it blatantly clear that was what you needed for early access. There is not upside in hiding what you need, when they want to sell it.
My first read on this was "They want you to buy a graphics card just to get a day early into Gears?!"
mrlogical wrote:I honestly started [Dead Cells] up this weekend just to grab whatever easy achievements there were
Damn, I wish you hadn't said this. I've been out of the achievement-hunting business for years, but I suddenly feel compelled to install and play some great games I've played before on other platforms, just to get those quick endorphin hits of Gamerscore unlocks.
Yeah, I'm certainly not hardcore about achievements, but with Game Pass games I will usually take a look at what the achievements are in thinking about how long I want to stick with it, and I'll usually aim to get at least the 2-3 most commonly earned achievements for a game before moving on. Sometimes a game misses me so hard I don't even bother getting one achievement (Metro Last Light) and sometimes a game clicks with me and I realize it's not that challenging to go for the full 1000 (Gardens Between, all of the Telltale games). I've gained about 10k gamerscore this year alone without going out of my way very much at all.
It wasn't fine print. They want to you to buy GPU, so may they made it blatantly clear that was what you needed for early access. There is not upside in hiding what you need, when they want to sell it.
Depending on where you're looking and what type of user you are, you get different representations. If you were a Game Pass Non-Ultimate, you just get a Play button that sometimes works and sometimes throws an error. Huzzah.
Polypusher's observation of how things get stored is also a pretty strong argument to either buy things on a different platform, or pretend that GamePass is basically a console on your PC and be okay with the second class citizen status.
All of this feels like Microsoft being Microsoft. There are so many cooks in the kitchen I worry about Hawking Radiation.
Yeah, after purchasing several of the Kingdom Come DLCs on Xbox PC thing, then promptly seeing the full edition go on Steam sale this weekend, I'm just treating the Game Pass as demos till it runs out in November. We'll see if they can change my mind before then.
For us Xbox owners it is still a pretty great deal. I don't mind waiting I just need to accept that they will want to get as much revenue as possible before letting us have it.
Considering how great a deal Game Pass Ultimate was upgrading a prepaid 3 years of Xbox Gold I cannot complain at all about the cost and since I still game a ton on Xbox I don’t mind the occasional game treating my PC like a console. I still wouldn’t buy any games on the Microsoft store on PC unless it was a Play Anywhere title and I also wanted it on Xbox.
You upgraded 3 years? I thought 2 was the maximum, but good for you! My kids always have something to play now, it's been a big savings for me already.
You upgraded 3 years? I thought 2 was the maximum, but good for you! My kids always have something to play now, it's been a big savings for me already.
Yeah I’ve got ultimate until sometime in 2022 for $1 more than I was planning to spend on Gold in that same time period.
There are definitely games on the pass I’m playing and I would consider it good value with just those but my kids are in heaven having so many new games to play. They recently discovered Disney Pixar Rush and there is a ton of safe kid content in just that title.
For us Xbox owners it is still a pretty great deal. I don't mind waiting I just need to accept that they will want to get as much revenue as possible before letting us have it.
Ultimate is only a one time $1.00 charge.
farley3k wrote:For us Xbox owners it is still a pretty great deal. I don't mind waiting I just need to accept that they will want to get as much revenue as possible before letting us have it.
Ultimate is only a one time $1.00 charge.
The main negative of doing that upgrade is when your sub runs out and you decide you want to pay up but not pay the ultimate price you'll have to cancel your sub and then re-sub. Likely not a big deal but there isn't any "downgrade to non-ultimate" button. I guess I'll find out in 2022 
Just added to Xbox GP:
Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 HD
GoNNER
Gears 5
Creature in the Well
Dead Cells
Some of those have been out for a week or so.
Sweet, I just got an app notification that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was available for gamepass. Remotely downloading.
Wow, as a backer of Bloodstained, that’s an awesome pickup for Game Pass.
Sweet, I just got an app notification that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was available for gamepass. Remotely downloading.
Not only Bloodstained, this also on this dates:
* Jump Force (today, sep/19)
* Bloodstained (today, sep/19)
* LEGO Worlds (sep/26)
* Bad North (sep/26)
* Dirt Rally 2.0 (sep/26)
Wooww... with only this subscription I dont have time left to play/buy other games......
Oh nice, Bad North has been on my wishlist too!
Bad North is a fun light strategy/tactics game. Love the minimalist style and choices you make along the way.
EvilDead wrote:Sweet, I just got an app notification that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was available for gamepass. Remotely downloading.
Not only Bloodstained, this also on this dates:
* Jump Force (today, sep/19)
* Bloodstained (today, sep/19)
* LEGO Worlds (sep/26)
* Bad North (sep/26)
* Dirt Rally 2.0 (sep/26)Wooww... with only this subscription I dont have time left to play/buy other games......
Where are you finding the forthcoming titles announced?
I tried to play State of Decay 2. It started out alright but after the tutorial everything turned bright green. It was unplayable. I haven't had a similar issue in any other game.
Sonrics wrote:EvilDead wrote:Sweet, I just got an app notification that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was available for gamepass. Remotely downloading.
Not only Bloodstained, this also on this dates:
* Jump Force (today, sep/19)
* Bloodstained (today, sep/19)
* LEGO Worlds (sep/26)
* Bad North (sep/26)
* Dirt Rally 2.0 (sep/26)Wooww... with only this subscription I dont have time left to play/buy other games......
Where are you finding the forthcoming titles announced?
Twitter is your friend, follow:
Pages