Indiana Jones is reviewing higher than I thought it would and I was getting it either way but the scores are maybe the difference between Game Pass versus early access, I was personally expecting high 70s - low 80s because 2 of MachineGames Wolfenstein titles are in that range which are widely agreed as being underrated and I also thought they'd be unfair comparisons between Indiana Jones and Uncharted/Tomb Raider because people are too used to titles that look like Indiana Jones being action focused nowadays but I'm glad to be wrong.
This feels a bit like the start of the storm, Xbox has had a very solid quarter between Indiana Jones, Stalker 2 and Black Ops 6, it would have been brilliant if Flight Simulator 24 didn't shit the bed on launch. The past few months have also been solid for Game Pass and I have too much I want to play now, Game Pass for Q1/Q2 of 25 already looks insanely packed, Avowed is right around the corner in Q1, South of Midnight doesn't sound too far away, Doom is very likely to be Q2 I would predict.
From here on it feels like we're going to finally hit the "one AAA per quarter" goal and almost all of them look to be solid releases, I'm only really worried about Contraband. Towerborne and South of Midnight I think will be 70s titles which is fine by me, the rest I would predict 80s. Then add on the Game Pass releases planned, Q1/Q2 for Game Pass already looks packed. Second half of 24 has been solid, 1st half of 25 looks even better and the business looks healthier, especially with B06 selling amazing on PS but having bonkers engagement on Xbox, best of both worlds.
Essay Pro