The Game Pass Thread

[Zloth]

I bet there's ten times that number, @ZedClampet! But, if you look at a store and there's no games you want to get, you're not going to want to go to that store.

Getting GamePass for me is tricky. I've got a cycle of stocking up on games in the big Steam sales. When the next sale comes around, I'll be running low on games, but I rarely run out completely. So, at any given time, I've got games I've already paid for waiting to play. If I get another game from, say, GOG, then it just goes on this cycle's stack - no problem. With GamePass, though, there's a time factor. Once I sign up, I should play those first so I can finish them and drop the service to save myself the monthly fee. It's not a horrible problem, but it's a disruption for sure.

So I go look at the list and find... not much. Maybe one game I want and three more that might be interesting to try out. And then I look at the game I want and, oh! No DLC included! Sometimes that isn't a big deal, other times it most definitely is.

And then I move on. Maybe next time there will be enough there to be worth signing up.

 

[Sarafan]

Huh? It's a 4X game. Not many of those have campaigns, but there's certainly a single player game. (It also has some massive mods to switch out the ships to use other IPs, like Star Wars.)

Yeah, it's a 4X game, but it's also an RTS at the same time. I've spent quite a lot hours in this one. The only problem (apart from lack of campaign) was that the performance did drop significantly when there was a lot of things going on simultaneously regardless of hardware. This was due to the fact that the game utilizes only one CPU core. Did they fix this with the new patch perhaps?

The DLC was included in the package but I wasn't about to touch them.

Wise choice. It cost me a lot of vulgarisms to get through the DLCs...

You mean lose access while you're playing them, or lose access some years later?

Lose access after I stop paying the subscription. GOG always had a problem with lack of big games. Most big titles avoid the store due to the lack of DRMs and not big enough sale records. It's a niche service. When it tries to compete with the biggest players it starts to generate losses. That's why it was announced that GOG will return to its roots. This means focus on older and indie titles. AAA releases will be even rarer than in the last two years.

 

[Zloth]

This was due to the fact that the game utilizes only one CPU core. Did they fix this with the new patch perhaps?

That would be a huge thing to pull off. Multi-thread is great when your threads are completely independent of each other, but when they need to interact... ewww. Bugs that only show up when the timing is just right! Tons of code to try and keep everything in sync! Race conditions! Real Wrath of Gates stuff.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Yeah, it's a 4X game, but it's also an RTS at the same time. I've spent quite a lot hours in this one.

I've been gaming since the Magnavox Odyssey, and I've never heard of 4X games until I came to this forum recently. Pretty crazy.

 

[Zloth]

I've been gaming since the Magnavox Odyssey, and I've never heard of 4X games until I came to this forum recently. Pretty crazy.

When the bigger gaming sites do articles on 4X games, they almost always take a sentence or two to explain what the genre is.

 

[ZedClampet]

Death Stranding is coming to Game Pass (PCG Article)

Strange days when a PS exclusive comes to Game Pass.

 

[ZedClampet]

Hey, mods. Can someone change the title of this thread, if that's possible at this point, to "The Game Pass Thread"?

 

[Frag Maniac]

Death Stranding is coming to Game Pass (PCG Article)

Strange days when a PS exclusive comes to Game Pass.

It's been quite a while actually since it was still a PS exclusive. I played it some time ago on PC. I didn't care at all for it though, and to your point, that may be why you see it on Game Pass. It did not get good reception.

 

[ZedClampet]

Thanks, mods, for the title change!

It's been quite a while actually since it was still a PS exclusive. I played it some time ago on PC, didn't care at all for it though.

Yeah, but there used to be a time (I think) when exclusives stayed exclusive forever, or maybe (probably) I'm wrong and there were always some exclusives that jumped to the other console (not counting PC). Dunno. I'll take your word for it.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Thanks, mods, for the title change!


Yeah, but there used to be a time (I think) when exclusives stayed exclusive forever, or maybe (probably) I'm wrong and there were always some exclusives that jumped to the other console (not counting PC). Dunno. I'll take your word for it.

Well thankfully Sony, and to a degree MS, have gotten off that exclusives stay exclusive forever mindset some time ago. It's just that it took until now to see a good number of such games releasing on PC. I mean I lost track of how long I waited for the entire Halo series to come to PC. I remember thinking it never would, so glad they appeased us though.

 

[ZedClampet]

some time ago

Everything before today seems like yesterday to me.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Yeah, but there used to be a time (I think) when exclusives stayed exclusive forever, or maybe (probably) I'm wrong and there were always some exclusives that jumped to the other console (not counting PC). Dunno. I'll take your word for it.

Other than first party games, exclusives are usually timed these days. But everything is fair game on the PC. This game coming to PC isn't what surprises me. The game going onto Microsoft's Game Pass is what surprises me.

 

[Zloth]

Odd it isn't the Director's Cut version. A lot of games on GamePass come without DLC, too, presumably to get you to buy the full game for cash instead of the monthly fee. I wonder if this will show up with an upgrade option?

This will be a nice way for people to try out a game that's pretty different than most.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Odd it isn't the Director's Cut version. A lot of games on GamePass come without DLC, too, presumably to get you to buy the full game for cash instead of the monthly fee. I wonder if this will show up with an upgrade option?

Yeah, they pretty much use Game Pass as a way to hook you in and get you to buy the DLC or final version. One thing I noticed was that Control is on there, but it's not the version that supports RT.

 

[Slasken]

Odd it isn't the Director's Cut version. A lot of games on GamePass come without DLC, too, presumably to get you to buy the full game for cash instead of the monthly fee. I wonder if this will show up with an upgrade option?

This will be a nice way for people to try out a game that's pretty different than most.

Yeah, it's a way to hook you in. It's the same way Epic gives games away for free. It's to get you to buy DLCs.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Yeah, it's a way to hook you in. It's the same way Epic gives games away for free. It's to get you to buy DLCs.

Unfortunately for Epic and Microsoft, I never buy the DLC.

 

[Pifanjr]

Unfortunately for Epic and Microsoft, I never buy the DLC.

I don't think they particularly mind, as long as you are talking about their games. And considering you're on a gaming forum, you probably will at some point.

 

[ZedClampet]

The hook works. I ended up buying the games and DLC for Forza Horizon 3 and 4 and also For the King, although I bought For the King on Steam during a sale, so I guess that didn't work so well after all ;P Course, I had to start over without all my unlocks.

Unfortunately for Epic and Microsoft, I never buy the DLC.

I buy DLC if I really like the game. I try not to have nonsensical moral standards like refusing to pay anything if the game is free

 

[Brian Boru]

the same way Epic gives games away for free. It's to get you to buy DLCs

I must confess that this tactic works. I got base Civ6 free on Epic, and maybe ~6 months later bought the 2 expansions. Mind you, I bought them + base on big Steam sale, but it's the thought that counts, right?

 

[Pifanjr]

For the King

What difficulty do you play on? I tried it for a bit and liked it, but the timer felt too restrictive for me. I ended up either getting debuffs because I wasn't moving fast enough or being underleveled and dying because I moved too fast.

, although I bought For the King on Steam during a sale, so I guess that didn't work so well after all ;P Course, I had to start over without all my unlocks.

Mind you, I bought them + base on big Steam sale, but it's the thought that counts, right?

I guess it works really well for the developers

 

[Slasken]

I must confess that this tactic works. I got base Civ6 free on Epic, and maybe ~6 months later bought the 2 expansions. Mind you, I bought them + base on big Steam sale, but it's the thought that counts, right?

It's the same way I do it, except I prefer GOG.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

The hook works. I ended up buying the games and DLC for Forza Horizon 3 and 4 and also For the King, although I bought For the King on Steam during a sale, so I guess that didn't work so well after all ;P Course, I had to start over without all my unlocks.


I buy DLC if I really like the game. I try not to have nonsensical moral standards like refusing to pay anything if the game is free

Lol. Well, I'm not that bad!

But I'll say this about DLC. I just don't buy it at all. Breath of the Wild is one of my favorite games ever. One of the biggest reasons I bought my Switch was so that I could buy that game on Switch instead of Wii U, only because I knew the DLC would likely only come to the Switch. I wanted to make sure if I was going to invest that kind of time into a game, to be able to get the DLC later. But then the DLC finally came out, and I never even bought it.

So it's not that I'm against buying DLC for free games. I don't even buy it for my very favorite game franchise!

 

[ZedClampet]

What difficulty do you play on? I tried it for a bit and liked it, but the timer felt too restrictive for me. I ended up either getting debuffs because I wasn't moving fast enough or being underleveled and dying because I moved too fast.

What I can say for sure is that they had already gotten rid of the timer before I started playing, so maybe you should give it another shot. I'm not sure I would have liked it with a timer. As far as the difficulty, I mostly likely did the various campaigns on normal, but I don't remember. I know I experimented with higher difficulties, but I think that may have just been during the endless dungeon mode.

I'm not sure what your stand on cartoon violence is, but this might be something your daughter would enjoy watching, although maybe she would think it was scary. Kids can be weird about that sometimes.

 

[Pifanjr]

What I can say for sure is that they had already gotten rid of the timer before I started playing, so maybe you should give it another shot. I'm not sure I would have liked it with a timer. As far as the difficulty, I mostly likely did the various campaigns on normal, but I don't remember. I know I experimented with higher difficulties, but I think that may have just been during the endless dungeon mode.

With timer I meant the chaos and scourge events on the timeline. I assume those are still there, they are a pretty integral part of the game. I think you could disable those though, at least partially, so maybe you did that?

I'm not sure what your stand on cartoon violence is, but this might be something your daughter would enjoy watching, although maybe she would think it was scary. Kids can be weird about that sometimes.

We recently tried watching Finding Nemo with her, but she was really upset by how scared the dad gets and the idea that Nemo gets lost. She also seemed scared when she saw a monster in World of Warcraft while my wife was playing, but was fine when we showed her my wife was beating it.

I'm not entirely sure what the advice is nowadays on letting your kids play video games that involve cartoon violence, but she's been killing stuff for quite a while now, though we mostly call it "chasing away". Then again, her pretend play with her nephews involves a lot of shooting as well, so I suppose violent play was unavoidable anyway.

 

[ZedClampet]

With timer I meant the chaos and scourge events on the timeline. I assume those are still there, they are a pretty integral part of the game. I think you could disable those though, at least partially, so maybe you did that?

No, I didn't do that. After you said something about timers, I did a search and saw people saying that they had gotten rid of the timers. I didn't play it when it first came out, so my assumption is that there were timers of some sort other than the scourge events, but maybe not.

Here is where I read that

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Immortality (which just scored a 95 in a PCG review) is on Game Pass, as is Fenix Rising, although I couldn't get into that when I tried it some time back.