Xbox Game Pass - Harold Halibut, Botany Manor, LEGO 2K Drive, Diablo 4, Evil West, Control:UE, Dead Island 2 out now

aayl1 wrote:I but the bullet and did the newbie deal and got 36 months of ultimate for the price of Gold +£1.

I did this as I wanted to use the Xcloud service, after having excellent quality Stadia streaming. Played about 4 hours if Psychonauts 2 tonight via my browser and it the service (and game!) truly is excellent. I barely noticed any latency at all, and forgot I was streaming it for most of the session. This was also while on WiFi and streaming it out to twitch, so impressive that is performed so well under those circumstances - stadia can struggle with that sometimes.

And the choice of games is fantastic. Looking forward to getting stuck into 12 minutes, Myst, The Ascent, Void Bastards and more!

We both know you're just going to play Banjo Kazooie again.

Awesome, aayl. You're well prepared for a mountain of games to be playing, now.

Craftopia (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox – September 2
You arrive on a small island packed with animals, resources, and infinite possibilities. What you do in this game is completely up to you – gather resources, harvest crops, fight bosses, capturing enemies, building a lovely house, unlocking new islands, exploring the world, and more! What will you do when you can do anything you’ve ever dreamt of?

Final Fantasy XIII (Console and PC) – September 2
Final Fantasy XIII is a fantasy RPG in which a band of brave humans struggle against fate in the utopian sky city of Cocoon and the primeval world of Pulse. Follow stylish heroine Lightning’s fast paced battles and high adventure in a mysterious new world.

Signs of the Sojourner (Cloud, Console, and PC) – September 2
A narrative card game about connecting with people. Your deck is your character, reflecting your experiences, and shaping your relationships. Travel to diverse locations to acquire goods for your shop. Along the way, you’ll encounter optimistic stories, compassionate characters, and delightful surprises in a world where climate change has made life hard.

Surgeon Simulator 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox – September 2
Bob’s life is in your hand! Scrub-in solo or with up to three friends in this physics-based sim and unearth the mysteries of the Bossa Labs Medical Facility, explore hundreds of community-made levels, and even create your own using the sandbox level building tool. Or, if you prefer, spend your time replacing all of Bob’s limbs with heads – that also works.

Crown Trick (Console and PC) ID@Xbox – September 7
Welcome to The Nightmare Realm! Guide protagonist Elle on a perilous journey through procedurally generated dungeons, carefully navigating unique enemies and traps that only move when Elle does thanks to Crown Trick’s unique synchronous turn-based mechanic. Strategically plan each move to survive, master a combination of skills, Familiars, and weapons to escape the labyrinth.

Breathedge (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox – September 9
Inspired by Retrofuturism, Soviet aesthetics, and dark comedy movies, Breathedge is a fresh take on the survival genre that puts you in control of a simple guy called the Man who is carrying his grandpa’s ashes to a galactic funeral and suddenly finds himself in the middle of a universal conspiracy.

Nuclear Throne (Console and PC) ID@Xbox – September 9
Nuclear Throne is a post-apocalyptic roguelike-like top-down shooter. Fight your way through the wastelands with powerful weaponry, collecting radiation to mutate some new limbs and abilities. All these things and more you could do if only you were good at this game. Can you reach the Nuclear Throne?

The Artful Escape (Console and PC) ID@Xbox – September 9
A teenage guitar prodigy sets out on a psychedelic, multidimensional journey to inspire his stage persona and confront the legacy of a dead folk legend. Starring voice performances by Michael Johnston, Caroline Kinley, Lena Headey, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Strong, and Carl Weathers.

Leaving September 13

Red Dead Online (Cloud and Console)

Leaving September 15

Company of Heroes 2 (PC)
Disgaea 4 (PC)
Forza Motorsport 7 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Hotshot Racing (Cloud and Console)
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (Cloud and Console)

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/09/01/ ... mber-2021/

Why is Forza leaving? Isn't that a Microsoft Games Studios game?

I know I really shouldn't but I've definitely got a hankering to play FFXIII again. Maybe just as far as the fireworks scene to see how lovely it looks on Series X.

Jenuall wrote:Why is Forza leaving? Isn't that a Microsoft Games Studios game?

I've only just got around to installing it as well! Seems very weird.

Last edited by jiggles on Wed Sep 01, 2021 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It's leaving because it's not receiving any further maintenance and is being removed from the store. Which is a strange move when they don't have any other active Forza Motorsport games. Probably not a good sign for Turn 10 if they literally have no active games anymore.

IIRC, Forza is being removed as the car licensing agreements have expired.

jawaX wrote:IIRC, Forza is being removed as the car licensing agreements have expired.

Or that makes more sense. I do wonder what state Turn 10 is in though to go from a release every 2 years to (assuming 2022 is the earliest we see a new ForzaM) at least 5 years until this one. I certainly wouldn't have thought it was even fathomable that the previous game's licenses would expire before the new one is out.

Yeah that's a bit of a concern. Do Turn 10 have any involvement in the Horizon games or is that purely Playground Games now?

Jenuall wrote:Yeah that's a bit of a concern. Do Turn 10 have any involvement in the Horizon games or is that purely Playground Games now?

It's hard to tell, really. The wiki page for FH4 has a footnote that "additional work was provided by Turn 10 Studios", but it's not cited. I'm sure you see their logo when it starts up somewhere but whether that's because it's their franchise, or they've provided models to Playground, or something more involved, we may never know.

Anyway, it's probably not too concerning. I'd actually forgot they've shown a teaser of the next ForzaM, and they're dropping the number so it's likely a complete overhaul which would understandably take longer. Probably originally intended for XSX launch window but slipped due to the rona.

I thought the reason the new one isn't out is that they are doing a new engine for the Forza Motorsport series?

Yup. New engine for the series, which will be provided to Playground Games once it's finished so it can be used across both Motorsport and Horizon.

Isn’t the new engine meant to be a big step up in the car physics too? Definitely worth waiting for but I think that they were hoping it’d be out late this year with the licences being up for Forza 7.

It's being used for Fable too

Albion Kart Racer confirmed

Yikes that game selection blows. You can’t have something like Psychonauts 2 or FH5 every month I guess.

Out tomorrow, 8 from IGN, about 4hrs long -

Currently 83% on metacritic - https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-se ... ful-escape

Buffalo wrote:Yikes that game selection blows. You can’t have something like Psychonauts 2 or FH5 every month I guess.

Crown Trick is fairly decent.

Monkey Man wrote:Out tomorrow, 8 from IGN, about 4hrs long -

Currently 83% on metacritic - https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-se ... ful-escape

Looking forward to this, but worried it might be another Genesis Noir.

Xbox Game Pass - Harold Halibut, Botany Manor, LEGO 2K Drive, Diablo 4, Evil West, Control:UE, Dead Island 2 out now

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