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Xbox One Download Games |OT| News, Announcements, Reviews, and Impressions Thread

theDeeDubs

Member
Never saw this article get mentioned, but it says "More titles developed with MonoGame are in development, including the much-loved Stardew Valley and several unannounced big-name indies already available on PlayStation 4." Hopefully that means Salt & Sanctuary because I think Monogame support was the big reason it wasn't originally coming to Xbox. S&S is one of my favorite games of all time, so I hope it can get to more systems.

http://www.windowscentral.com/monogame-developer-interview
 
Never saw this article get mentioned, but it says "More titles developed with MonoGame are in development, including the much-loved Stardew Valley and several unannounced big-name indies already available on PlayStation 4." Hopefully that means Salt & Sanctuary because I think Monogame support was the big reason it wasn't originally coming to Xbox. S&S is one of my favorite games of all time, so I hope it can get to more systems.

https://gameup24.wordpress.com/2016/08/27/how-monogame-is-bringing-more-indie-developers-to-xbox-one-windows-central/
Yep, Axiom Verge is coming next week which was Monogame
 

eastx

Member
Here's a fun roundup, including one of my favorite platformers, Electronic Super Joy.

Ten underrated Xbox One games that everyone should play

Never saw this article get mentioned, but it says "More titles developed with MonoGame are in development, including the much-loved Stardew Valley and several unannounced big-name indies already available on PlayStation 4." Hopefully that means Salt & Sanctuary because I think Monogame support was the big reason it wasn't originally coming to Xbox. S&S is one of my favorite games of all time, so I hope it can get to more systems.

https://gameup24.wordpress.com/2016/08/27/how-monogame-is-bringing-more-indie-developers-to-xbox-one-windows-central/

Dude, that article is stolen content. Please link to the original article instead.

https://twitter.com/PaulRAcevedo/status/779916243948101632

Also, wow. I thought Salt & Sanctuary was pretty but fairly excruciating to play. I really wanted to like it. I have no inside knowledge, but something tells me that Bastion is another likely Xbox One port candidate.
 

theDeeDubs

Member
Dude, that article is stolen content. Please link to the original article instead.

https://twitter.com/PaulRAcevedo/status/779916243948101632

Also, wow. I thought Salt & Sanctuary was pretty but fairly excruciating to play. I really wanted to like it. I have no inside knowledge, but something tells me that Bastion is another likely Xbox One port candidate.

Had no idea since I just stumbled upon it. Will fix.

I loved S&S. It just clicked hard with me.
 

Vert boil

Member

Montresor

Member
I finished The Witness and Eventide: Slavic Fable recently.

The Witness: 5/5
Eventide: Slavic Fable: 4/5

Eventide is a typical Artifex Mundi hidden object puzzle game. If you've played their other five games, you know what you're getting with this game. It's definitely worth a purchase for anyone that's a fan of their games. I enjoyed it.

The Witness is a remarkable game. It's one of my favourite games on XB1 right now. For 2016, I'd list Inside as my favourite game of the year, with The Witness right below it. The Witness was beautiful, fun, challenging, rewarding, etc... but at the same time the game is mentally exhausting. I need to not be playing that game right now. I need to play anything else right now and delete The Witness and put it behind me (like maybe Forza Horizon 3, hehe). I did everything, everything I possibly could in The Witness without looking stuff up online. But I eventually had to give up. And I'm comfortable and happy with the progress I made before I gave up, and I can confidently say I really don't want to solve any of the remaining puzzles. So I'll retire the game - but I loved the heck out of it.
 

Montresor

Member
Getting into both Firewatch and Dear Esther now.

Firewatch had a terrible beginning but the game is hitting its stride for me now. It seems to have a touching story. So far there is fantastic dialogue between the main character and his boss / work colleague. The forest is beautiful but performance is bad and at the same time tolerable. The first 5 minutes are also very uncharacteristic of the rest of the game. First five minutes have you walking in dreadfully ugly elevator and parking garage. Get past that awfulness and there's a pretty nice game there. I'm really enjoying exploring in the forest (especially with the map and compass) and loving the banter between the two primary characters.

Dear Esther: I don't know what to think. I'm literally just walking around and listening to someone talk. I hope this gets better. Subtitles are very difficult to read..... They show up as big paragraphs instead of showing up one sentence or line at a time. I like the atmosphere. Something about it is really frightening, being alone on a desolate island. But you can't walk quickly. I've fallen off a cliff and been forced to walk a long way around which is pretty frustrating. It's hard to keep track of the monologues I'm listening to. I don't have high hopes for Dear Esther.... Despite the performance problems, Firewatch seems way, way better so far.
 

Chitown B

Member
Getting into both Firewatch and Dear Esther now.

Firewatch had a terrible beginning but the game is hitting its stride for me now. It seems to have a touching story. So far there is fantastic dialogue between the main character and his boss / work colleague. The forest is beautiful but performance is bad and at the same time tolerable. The first 5 minutes are also very uncharacteristic of the rest of the game. First five minutes have you walking in dreadfully ugly elevator and parking garage. Get past that awfulness and there's a pretty nice game there. I'm really enjoying exploring in the forest (especially with the map and compass) and loving the banter between the two primary characters.

Odd that you'd even mention the very beginning. I don't even remember it. It's moot with regard to the actual game.

Dear Esther: I don't know what to think. I'm literally just walking around and listening to someone talk. I hope this gets better. Subtitles are very difficult to read..... They show up as big paragraphs instead of showing up one sentence or line at a time. I like the atmosphere. Something about it is really frightening, being alone on a desolate island. But you can't walk quickly. I've fallen off a cliff and been forced to walk a long way around which is pretty frustrating. It's hard to keep track of the monologues I'm listening to. I don't have high hopes for Dear Esther.... Despite the performance problems, Firewatch seems way, way better so far.

It doesn't change. It's couple be a paragraph and a slideshow.
 

flkraven

Member
Getting into both Firewatch and Dear Esther now.

Firewatch had a terrible beginning but the game is hitting its stride for me now. It seems to have a touching story. So far there is fantastic dialogue between the main character and his boss / work colleague. The forest is beautiful but performance is bad and at the same time tolerable. The first 5 minutes are also very uncharacteristic of the rest of the game. First five minutes have you walking in dreadfully ugly elevator and parking garage. Get past that awfulness and there's a pretty nice game there. I'm really enjoying exploring in the forest (especially with the map and compass) and loving the banter between the two primary characters.

Dear Esther: I don't know what to think. I'm literally just walking around and listening to someone talk. I hope this gets better. Subtitles are very difficult to read..... They show up as big paragraphs instead of showing up one sentence or line at a time. I like the atmosphere. Something about it is really frightening, being alone on a desolate island. But you can't walk quickly. I've fallen off a cliff and been forced to walk a long way around which is pretty frustrating. It's hard to keep track of the monologues I'm listening to. I don't have high hopes for Dear Esther.... Despite the performance problems, Firewatch seems way, way better so far.


Firewatch: I loved it for the most part. Please let me know how you feel about it once it wraps up.

Dear Esther: I'm pretty sure it's just walking around listening to someone talk.
 

Montresor

Member
Dear Esther is horrible. I just finished. I give it a 1.5/5 and for me, the only puzzle games on Xbox One that are worse are NERO and Albedo Eyes From Outer Space.

Like you guys said, all you do is walk around and listen to someone talk. I don't know why I saw "Dear Esther is out!!!" and thought "I've got to add this to my list of ever growing puzzle games".

There is nothing interesting about the game play, controls, or story. There is virtually no interactivity with the environment. In Gone Home, I can pick up objects and diary entries and open doors and cupboards. In Firewatch I can explore the forest with a compass and map and run and pick up beer cans. In The Witness you solve sophisticated line puzzles. In QUBE, you solve puzzles by manipulating cubes and other tetris shapes. In The Turing Test you can pick up narrative objects and you shoot an energy gun to solve puzzles. Etc... I mean in any "walking simulator" game you tend to do something, ANYTHING In Dear Esther you don't really do anything.

The game's two strengths are the fantastic and wonderful music and the desolate, frightening, depressing atmosphere. They hit the nail on the head with music and atmosphere. But if I could've lived my whole life without ever playing Dear Esther, I wouldn't have missed anything.

I'm really enjoying Firewatch and hated Dear Esther. Thank goodness Firewatch was the $20 game and Dear Esther was the $8 game. If I had paid $20 for Dear Esther I'd be pretty upset, heh.
 

Montresor

Member
Odd that you'd even mention the very beginning. I don't even remember it. It's moot with regard to the actual game.

I was so put off by the beginning of Firewatch I made a thread about it: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1284917&highlight=

I think it's fair to mention it because it is remarkably poor quality compared to the rest of the great/good game (so far).

Take a fantastic game, even something like Uncharted 4. Imagine if Uncharted 4 is the Uncharted 4 everyone knows after its first five minutes. But Uncharted 4's first five minutes uncharacteristically take place in small spaces with stuttering frame rate, bad textures, and incomplete graphics. The rest of the 20+ hours of Uncharted 4 can be considered amazing. But it's still fair to mention those first five minutes for posterity's sake, at the very least.
 

Chitown B

Member
I was so put off by the beginning of Firewatch I made a thread about it: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1284917&highlight=

I think it's fair to mention it because it is remarkably poor quality compared to the rest of the great/good game (so far).

Take a fantastic game, even something like Uncharted 4. Imagine if Uncharted 4 is the Uncharted 4 everyone knows after its first five minutes. But Uncharted 4's first five minutes uncharacteristically take place in small spaces with stuttering frame rate, bad textures, and incomplete graphics. The rest of the 20+ hours of Uncharted 4 can be considered amazing. But it's still fair to mention those first five minutes for posterity's sake, at the very least.

the beginning is some text. and a little walking. that's it.
 

Montresor

Member
I didn't like Dear Esther but I've spent the last couple of hours reading about the story and the way the game was made.

One thing I realized is I owe the game a certain amount of respect. Because I love the narrative first person walking simulator genre, and Dear Esther, much as I disliked the game, spawned the popularity of this genre that I love so much. It was the trailblazer way back when it first officially released on PC. We wouldn't have Gone Home without Dear Esther.

I'm intrigued by the story but I still feel the slow exploration was too terrible for me to rate this game highly. The story did go over my head but in my defence it was difficult for me to parse the monologues when their subtitles were presented in unwieldy paragraphs. The game is simply unfun. What I can do is be thankful it exists, respect its contribution to gaming, but confidently say it has been surpassed in every way imaginable by its successors, such that playing this game is completely unnecessary today.
 

Vert boil

Member
Released today,

image
image


Axiom Verge - 18$ (will rise to 20$), 255MB.

Zenith - 20$, 6.74GB.

New DLC,

Ironcast
--The Stirling Pack - 3.50$
 

U2NUMB

Member
Curious if anyone can find anything on WRC 6.. I can not find it on the Xbox store yet many places are reporting the 6th as a release date even for the US. This game is pretty much not listed anywhere at any retailer....

Very odd...
 
Curious if anyone can find anything on WRC 6.. I can not find it on the Xbox store yet many places are reporting the 6th as a release date even for the US. This game is pretty much not listed anywhere at any retailer....

Very odd...

Here (Brazil) it is listed for Oct 10th, and we usually follow US releases. I can pre-order it both at retail (at R$ 219) and Xbox store (R$ 139) so guess what I did. (already pre-loaded).
 

Montresor

Member
After spending 30+ hours in Forza Horizon 3 and beating the final boss, my favourite games so far of 2016 are:

1) Forza Horizon 3
2) Inside
3) The Witness
4) Quantum Break
5) The Turing Test

The only unplayed titles that may have a chance to crack my top 5 are probably Oxenfree and Gears 4. And Ori Definitive Edition if that counts as a 2016 title.
 
Edit.. ok as far as WRC 6 goes I should be ok with pre ordering it from the UK MS site right? Should show up on my US box on the 7th.. correct?

You will start preloading it as soon as you buy it (on consoles, just seitch the region to uk). Just let the download complete before switching back region. On 7th you will probably have to switch to uk region to unlock it and then go back to your region. If you buy it on the website, you will have to turn on you xbox and switch to uk region in order to the preload start.
 

U2NUMB

Member
You will start preloading it as soon as you buy it (on consoles, just seitch the region to uk). Just let the download complete before switching back region. On 7th you will probably have to switch to uk region to unlock it and then go back to your region. If you buy it on the website, you will have to turn on you xbox and switch to uk region in order to the preload start.

Makes total sense.. thanks for the info.. Appreciate it!
 
Looks like MS is starting to do weekly releasewrite ups ahead of time finally. Hopefully knock donw the amount of surprise releases.

As for ID@Xbox here is next week's offerings. Sadly they don't mention price or anything other than short descriptions

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour – Wednesday, October 12
Join the world’s greatest action hero in Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour as he saves Earth once again, kicking alien ass and saving babes across the globe. Blast your way through hordes of ugly aliens in four classic Duke Nukem 3D episodes plus a new fifth episode from the game’s original designers.

Castle Invasion: Throne Out (Cat Trap Studios) – Wednesday, October 12
Castle Invasion is centered around the fun, frantic challenge of defending your castle against an army of misfits.

Mantis Burn Racing (VooFoo Studios) – Wednesday, October 12
The race is on in Mantis Burn Racing, where fast-paced bumper-to-bumper racing combines with intuitive gameplay and stunning visuals in high-risk, high-speed races where winning is everything.

Blue Rider (Ravegan) – Wednesday, October 12
Blue Rider is an action-packed shoot-em-up inspired by classic arcade titles.

Manual Samuel (Curve) – Friday, October 14
Meet Samuel, he’s handsome, wealthy and most importantly — dead. A deal with Death gives Samuel one last chance to live again if he can survive a whole day doing everything manually.

Death God University (DSK Green Ice Games) – Friday, October 14
DGU is a 3rd person 3D adventure/puzzle game where the player plays as a student of the Death God University, studying to become a death god assistant.

http://news.xbox.com/2016/10/08/next-week-on-xbox-october-10-16/
 

U2NUMB

Member
Oh I see BIG BEN interactive.. plenty of time to release a Solitare game in the US but you can not seen to bring that WRC 6 to the US ... jerks
 

Montresor

Member
I'll be passing on Manuel Samuel. Lately I've been using Cornshaq Gaming's reviews on youtube to find out if I should get certain indie games on XB1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRuoeiOw0rE. He only reviews PS4 games but if he's reviewing a multi-plat (i.e. Manuel Samuel) then I enjoy hearing him out.

I finished Firewatch recently and liked it a lot. I'll give it a 4/5. Great visuals/storytelling/dialogue/exploration, but very poor performance.

I went ahead and "splurged" today and bought 4 different indies:

Hue
140
Virginia
Among The Sleep

I hope I love all 4 of them! I'll try to play them on and off throughout the week. They all seem short enough that I might be able to 1000/1000 all of them by the end of this weekend.
 

eastx

Member
I'm having a lot of fun with Mordheim: City of the Damned, which launched for $39.99 today. Turn-based strategy set in the Warhammer universe. It's super hard and the game doesn't ease you into things, but stick with it and it becomes rewarding after a few hours. Will review it later.

Speaking of Warhammer, here's my review of Vermintide (an improved take on Left 4 Dead).
 

jond76

Banned
I'm having a lot of fun with Mordheim: City of the Damned, which launched for $39.99 today. Turn-based strategy set in the Warhammer universe. It's super hard and the game doesn't ease you into things, but stick with it and it becomes rewarding after a few hours. Will review it later.

Speaking of Warhammer, here's my review of Vermintide (an improved take on Left 4 Dead).

I watched a clip in the store and the player took a swing and 68 pages worth of text popped up on the screen. I ran away.
 

Montresor

Member
The Team17 bundle doesn't include one of the best games of the year, which Team17 published:

Overcooked

That's quite a sizeable package either way and shows the diverse set of indie-style games they have backed this gen.
 
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