J4MES OX4D

People really shouldn't have to pay to play online. Although this is nothing to do with the game pass, this is an extremely outdated model from the 360 days. Most of the burden of content servers and services lie with the 3rd parties now so it's even more unjustifiable for Microsoft to charge a fee. Xbox Live back in the day was a unique and almost groundbreaking platform but now all features are standard and expected and it's free on every PC platform. Cloud gaming should not be costed into the game pass because that just blurs revenue and makes the majority of gamers feel like they are paying for something they don't use, will never use and ultimately don't want. it really should be a separate service altogether. Game Pass should retain its identity of a subscription service to a range of games for the best price possible. Sony may have convoluted their entire business with PS+, PS NOW and tiers within but Microsoft should be able to differentiate the models. Less than half of Xbox customers have used Cloud Gaming and I expect many of those did it just to try it once. Unless 50%+ are using it each month regularly, it should not be part of the Ultimate offering. Microsoft have spent years trying to blend their entire service to make it appear more popular. Sony are a shambles - they confused the hell out of everyone with their bloated tiers and were then charging people £40 to stream 10 year old games for 2 weeks which you could buy in the sale for £3. The trouble with the console industry is prices are rising and nobody can provide a true justification as to why. One does it and they all do it. Nintendo puts games up to £70 and everyone follows. Sony ups their consoles by 10% and then the rest follow and now Microsoft have set the pass standard so Sony will probably raise at some stage despite having no tangible offering or true justification.

Yeah I used the Moguri Mod (I think that's what it's called) which uses some really impressive upscaling techniques. Total game-changer really and made the experience look exceptional!

Resident Evil Requiem

I'll probably grab this in the far future when it's £25. It's basically the same game once again but with a different backdrop. FH4 was where the series peaked but now it's a bit stagnant.

Just saw that it's £790 for a PS5 Pro from Argos. Absolutely disgusting really. I could probably sell my old PS5 standard for more than I paid for it back in 2021. This is also the end of the generation and the prices are still going up. Doesn't make sense. These machines shouldn't cost more than £350 for what's under the hood and how powerful they are.

Smart move from Microsoft to fool consumers once more. Even though the pass is $7 cheaper now, it's still $7 more expensive than it was several months prior. Removing Call of Duty will see them getting paid massively at retail once again, so any freeloaders who choose not to renew the pass even at the cheaper rate, Microsoft will still rake the money in from unit sales of the game which will comfortably exceed any lost revenue at the original pass increase rate. Arguably $23 a month without a flagship title like Call of Duty is an outrageous rip-off in itself. The only consolation is that the games on the pass, particularly the indie games may actually get to make a better share of income without COD absorbing it all. Some indie titles were probably lucky to walk away with 30 cents an install on products that would cost £20 at retail.

The designer of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, co-creator of Call of Duty, founder of Respawn Entertainment and Titanfall plus the man who salvaged Battlefield 2042 which enabled BF6 to exist, was killed over the weekend in a car crash. Tragic news and his name will go down in industry folklore forever. Vince Zampella, the co-founder of Infinity Ward and head of Battlefield, dies in car crash | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM Zampella was reportedly killed in a car crash over the weekend.

I saw the game had a free trial and was discounted but I just couldn't be bothered to go through the download just to try it. Even free and in the sale, the player count on PC dropped between 48,000 and 56k which is insane and this also includes the Warzone numbers. The next game will have to be something special because I have never seen it so unappealing or players so demoralised with it all.

Gears of War: Reloaded

FREE £10/$10 in store credit which you can claim in your in-game messages section. Should be enough to buy a new outfit!

Some more Dark Souls 2

Most of these big announcements at the game awards are typically premature but I trust Larian as they have a track record of doing the business. The new Fate of the Republic Star Wars game on the other hand likely wont arrive until 2029-30 and we are still waiting for the first update to Elder Scrolls 6 which was shamefully announced and never mentioned again way back in 2018. I pretty much just ignore CGI trailers and just leave these games on the backburner though.

PUBG has really gone to shit in recent years. The only players left are pretty much all cheaters and the vast majority are from China. Was a really promising game about 7-8 years ago but as soon as they went to China and flogged the IP before it even launched out of early access, it was a total mess. This game wont improve things that's for sure. The whole brand is totally unrecognisable and it'll eventually die just like H1Z1 did with a dreadful reputation.

Hogwarts Legacy FREE on Epic until the 18th Just a moment... STORE.EPICGAMES.COM