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Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass: Pentiment, Football Manager 2023, Somerville, and More

RAIDEN1

Member
How come Xbox One and PS4 owners were excluded for the return of Monkey Island, yet it comes out on the Switch?
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Checked out Tianding last night. It’s an average Metroidvania in a sea of average Metroidvanias. Worth sleeping on. 🙂

Another weak GamePass haul. It is seriously starting to feel like a rebranded, more expensive, games with gold…

Eh, looks like a ‘you’ problem. Because most of the games on offer have 80+ MC ratings. Including stuff like Monkey Island that’s one of the better rates games released in H2 2022.

Certainly not a weak month.
 

CamHostage

Member
What are these projections you speak of?

Internal projections, nothing we the public would know.
I just don't want to find an interview or sales report from MS in 9-12 months saying, "Unfortunately Pentiment underperformed against our sales estimates, and we do not plan to continue this line of products." I hope people try this, and I hope it's successful enough for MS to ask what other ideas are floating around the offices which might be worth a try.
 

clarky

Gold Member
Internal projections, nothing we the public would know.
I just don't want to find an interview or sales report from MS in 9-12 months saying, "Unfortunately Pentiment underperformed against our sales estimates, and we do not plan to continue this line of products." I hope people try this, and I hope it's successful enough for MS to ask what other ideas are floating around the offices which might be worth a try.
With Game pass i don't think thats much of an issue. Infact without GP i doubt this would have got made.
 

CamHostage

Member
With Game pass i don't think thats much of an issue. Infact without GP i doubt this would have got made.

Eh, it's still an issue. HBO shows with unfortunately low ratings get canceled even though their business model is driving premium subscription interest for prestige TV. But Pentiment has gotten the kind of attention it needs for being small yet prominent; so far, so good.
 

clarky

Gold Member
Eh, it's still an issue. HBO shows with unfortunately low ratings get canceled even though their business model is driving premium subscription interest for prestige TV. But Pentiment has gotten the kind of attention it needs for being small yet prominent; so far, so good.
You mentioned sales, hence why i mentioned the game pass model, which will lead to more engagement even if its doesn't light up the charts (it won't). But yeah, i get your drift.

If it reviews well and enough people try it out hopefully we'll get more of this kind of thing. Like you say.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Eh, it's still an issue. HBO shows with unfortunately low ratings get canceled even though their business model is driving premium subscription interest for prestige TV. But Pentiment has gotten the kind of attention it needs for being small yet prominent; so far, so good.

I don’t think Pentiment is planned to be a franchise. And with the success of Grounded, MS will likely continue to fund these smaller titles.

Not to mention they can’t really say no to the likes of Sawyer.
 

Nico_D

Member
Booted up Monkey Island just to see it. Still don't like the character design, backgrounds are ok. The characters just pop out like marionettes or something.

Will probably dig deeper today. Just very first impressions after whole two minutes of playtime.
 
Internal projections, nothing we the public would know.
I just don't want to find an interview or sales report from MS in 9-12 months saying, "Unfortunately Pentiment underperformed against our sales estimates, and we do not plan to continue this line of products." I hope people try this, and I hope it's successful enough for MS to ask what other ideas are floating around the offices which might be worth a try.
Looks like it was made with a very small budget and a very small team. The mere fact Booty gave this the greenlight (I'd wager Sony wouldn't have) shows how much Xbox have come on since the early Xbox days.
 

CamHostage

Member
I don’t think Pentiment is planned to be a franchise. And with the success of Grounded, MS will likely continue to fund these smaller titles.

Not to mention they can’t really say no to the likes of Sawyer.

What I'm saying is, I'm hoping whatever Pentiment does for Xbox and Game Pass (perceptually if not financially,) I would like to see the possibility of that kind of greenlight also extended past Josh Sawyer.
 
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SmokedMeat

Gamer™
How the heck Konami don't sue it with all that asset grab from Castlevania?

I thought that was the case as well originally.

https://www.pcgamer.com/vampire-survivors-didnt-rip-off-castlevania-sprites-after-all/

This was also highlighted by the developer on the Steam discussion boards, which brought the topic up.

No assets have been ripped or stolen from other titles. The asset pack in question had been commissioned non exclusively for a different game, Serenade of Chaos, in 2006, then removed from sale from Oryx Design Lab's site a few years ago and finally made available on Oryx's Patreon under the name "Hi-Fi Gothic".
Designs from the pack that are too unique and that aren't just the yet another interpretation of something from the Ars Goetia are not in use.
 
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buenoblue

Member
If your new to the Xbox eco system then gamepass is insane value. If like me you keep up with new games and have played pretty much all the older games you wanna play, yeah gamepass ain't really worth it imo. I just sub for a month( usually at£1) if something big comes.
 

reksveks

Member
If like me you keep up with new games and have played pretty much all the older games you wanna play, yeah gamepass ain't really worth it imo.
Think it also depends on the type of games, if you are into indies then there is a great number of indie day one games (thank god for the humble games partnership).
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Think it also depends on the type of games, if you are into indies then there is a great number of indie day one games (thank god for the humble games partnership).

Agreed. The big games are always great to see on there, but there are so many gems on there that aren't as widely known. You miss out on a lot if you ignore those.
 

buenoblue

Member
That’s a lot of words to say you only play AAA games. Which is kinda sad.

Yeah I have nothing against indies but being in my 40s now I have limited time to game and prefer to just play the bigger titles at the pace I want..price is not an issue for me it's having the the time and having had gamepass for 18 months or so I just don't use it enough. It's like quantity over quality for me.
 

feynoob

Banned
If your new to the Xbox eco system then gamepass is insane value. If like me you keep up with new games and have played pretty much all the older games you wanna play, yeah gamepass ain't really worth it imo. I just sub for a month( usually at£1) if something big comes.
I doubt you play every game.

But I can see the gamepass burn. I don't see any game worth playing for me currently. Most of my desired games are 2023.
 

My first play session on Somerville lines up with this review pretty well. Seems like a 7. It's not bad, has some cool elements for sure. But it definitely is a little difficult to see what you're doing sometimes, and the controls don't feel great.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Somerville is good, not INSIDE type of good, nonetheless it can be seen that it's from people of that team.

I am going to try Signalis next.
 

Roberts

Member
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My first play session on Somerville lines up with this review pretty well. Seems like a 7. It's not bad, has some cool elements for sure. But it definitely is a little difficult to see what you're doing sometimes, and the controls don't feel great.
Yup, they should have spent a bit more time on animations and improve the way characters interact with the world. That said, art, sound and overall mood are really impressive - as a father of two small kids, that beginning at the house with the kid gave me weird anxiety and yet sucked me right in.
 
Yup, they should have spent a bit more time on animations and improve the way characters interact with the world. That said, art, sound and overall mood are really impressive - as a father of two small kids, that beginning at the house with the kid gave me weird anxiety and yet sucked me right in.
I can only imagine lol. That trash can part I was like ... kid ... stop lol.
 
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