| Barozi said: 100% done with Avowed. Got all achievements except for the difficulty related one. |
Pretty much what I would score it too, around 85-86. It's just above The Outer Worlds for me which I also enjoyed. About time someone else finished it, slow MFs, Lol, I was waiting before posting any spoiler comments or discussing the story, Lol.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 30 March 2025
The end of 2024 was a huge moment for Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service. The day-one arrival of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the biggest possible blockbuster to add, felt like the climactic endpoint of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. And it was swiftly followed by another huge Microsoft release: Bethesda’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, an improbably great licensed romp starring a genuine pop culture icon.
The early months of 2025 haven’t seen such splashy day-one exclusives on Game Pass, and won’t until Doom: The Dark Ages arrives on May 15. And yet this period has been just as consequential for Game Pass; it has, if anything, done even more to demonstrate the value of a Game Pass subscription. The service is finally delivering something Microsoft has always intended it would: a steady, reliable stream of brand new games you actually want to play.
It started in January, with the surprise release of the Ninja Gaiden 2 Black remaster, the sleeper fantasy adventure Eternal Strands, and dependable Nazi assassination sim Sniper Elite Resistance. In February, there was Obsidian’s Avowed, perhaps the ultimate Game Pass release — a manageable, moreish, and colorful role-playing game. Now we have Atomfall, completing an endearingly janky one-two punch from Sniper Elite developer Rebellion. The pace is not about to let up. On April 8, there’s Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight. On April 24, the delightfully French turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Amongst all these titles there have been a smattering of must-play indie games, like Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, Citizen Sleeper 2, and the upcoming Blue Prince. There have also been some worthwhile back catalog drops of varying vintage, from the first Diablo, through Watch Dogs: Legion and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, to the now-ubiquitous Balatro.
These games are all great additions, but they are not the headline. What’s really striking when you look at this release schedule is the steady cadence of brand-new, mid-size, single-player adventures: the kind of game you can gorge yourself on for a couple of weeks and then move on, happy and satiated. From January through to Doom: The Dark Ages in May, Game Pass is serving up at least one of these games every month on day one — and sometimes two or three. It’s also notable that many of them — Eternal Strands, Avowed, Atomfall, South of Midnight, Clair Obscur — are originals. Rejoice, for in the year 2025, Game Pass has become a reliable monthly supplier of a kind of entertainment that was on the verge of extinction: original AA games.
Game Pass Was Always Good. Now, It’s Finally Consistent | Polygon
In response to the article, I'd say for me, from an Xbox studio perspective, the consistency started with Hellblade II and hasn't stopped, since Hellblade II, Microsoft has released what I would personally consider at least an 8/10 title on a quarterly basis, kicking off with Hellblade II in Q2 (May), Age of Mythology Retold in Q3 (September), both Black Ops 6 and Indiana Jones in Q4 (October + December) and then Avowed in Q1 (February) and on the horizon we have South of Midnight and Doom for Q2 (April + May). Thus far nothing in Q3 for me since I'm not interested in Tony Hawk but I'm sure they'll find something to slot in August or September.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 30 March 2025
I'm a bit tempted to buy South of Midnight's premium upgrade, if only because I think it's pretty great value, I'm not even that excited for it, I think they'll be a lot of praise for its artistic style and story, but I still have major worries about the combat and platforming but their price point is far better than many others which almost makes me think they just deserve it either way, Lol.
Only £10 to upgrade to the premium edition via Game Pass Ultimate and in return you get a digital artbook, the original soundtrack, a digital comic book, a music video, a documentary and 5 days of early access, Lol. Even the 5 days is pretty wild, the vast majority of people going for the upgrade would be finished with it before the full release since it's only a ~12 hour game.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 30 March 2025
Leading domestic game companies have entered into an unprecedented competition to win orders for Starcraft, Blizzard's representative IP (intellectual property).
According to the game industry on the 28th, four major domestic game companies, NCSoft, Nexon, Netmarble, and Krafton, are in a full-scale competition to develop new games based on the Starcraft IP and secure global publishing rights. It has been confirmed that some of these game companies have gone all the way to Blizzard's headquarters in California to make presentations in order to secure a competitive edge.
NCSoft is a company with outstanding development capabilities and operational know-how in the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) field, and is known to be the closest in the field of RPG development utilizing the StarCraft universe.
Nexon has entered the competition by proposing a unique way to utilize the StarCraft IP based on its experience in creating successful global titles in various genres.
Netmarble is leveraging its experience in the mobile game market to combine the StarCraft IP with the mobile platform. The strategy is to simultaneously target popularity and deep gameplay.
Krafton, which achieved global success with the battle royale game 'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds', is known to have challenged this contract by planning to develop a new StarCraft based on its own development capabilities.
One developer DidYouKnowGaming spoke to says the team gave “a lot of effort and care taken to craft something that looked, sounded, and felt like Halo.” IGN’s video showed Halo 2’s multiplayer map Zanzibar, but N-Space made a single-player map as well.
A VFX artist provided even more details. The plan was to include six-player multiplayer, drivable vehicles like Warthogs and Ghosts, Grunts who shot blasters and threw grenades, and Elites with one hit kill Energy Swords.
Arguably the most interesting thing about the whole thing is that the Microsoft / Bungie side approved Halo for DS. However, the VFX artist claims “it was Nintendo that shut it down.” Though not confirmed, it’s claimed Nintendo was “unwilling to front some advertising money on a first-party development side.”
New Details Revealed About Halo DS, Apparently Scrapped Because of Nintendo
...to avoid getting banned for inactivity, I may have to resort to comments that are of a lower overall quality and or beneath my moral standards.
TOP 20 2025 Games by TA player count (March update)
| Game | Players | Change |
| 1.Avowed* | 152,096 | +24,853 |
| 2.NINJA GAIDEN 2 Black* | 78,731 | +4,999 |
| 3.Sniper Elite: Resistance* | 74,384 | +7,527 |
| 4.Assassin's Creed Shadows | 49,226 | NEW |
| 5.Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders* ↓1 | 43,033 | +4,478 |
| 6.MULLET MADJACK* | 38,774 | NEW |
| 7.Monster Hunter Wilds ↑1 | 36,588 | +29,676 |
| 8.Atomfall* | 35,167 | NEW |
| 9.Eternal Strands* ↓4 | 31,141 | +3,173 |
| 10.Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap* ↓4 | 22,818 | +2,915 |
| 11.Split Fiction | 22,144 | NEW |
| 12.Kingdom Come: Deliverance II ↓5 | 16,093 | +2,628 |
| 13.Spectre Divide** ↑3 | 10,136 | +8,226 |
| 14.WWE 2K25 | 9,703 | NEW |
| 15.MLB The Show 25 | 8,305 | NEW |
| 16.One Lonely Outpost* | 7,636 | NEW |
| 17.Deadside | 5,104 | NEW |
| 18.Dynasty Warriors: Origins ↓9 | 4,935 | +329 |
| 19.Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii ↓9 | 4,837 | +1,198 |
| 20.PGA TOUR 2K25 ↓2 | 3,577 | +2,202 |
↑ ↓
*Gamepass
**Free2play
January | February
Avowed over 150k, Asscreed outpaces Monhun to be the most played non-GP title
For my JRPG bros: Suikoden-1,095, Atelier Yumia-667
Spectre Divide has impressive gains considering the server closure announcement
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