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It’s been a stop/start month for me. Quite literally. I’ve started quite a few Game Pass games, some of which I’ll briefly review below, and stopped playing within a matter of hours.
As I get older, it’s true, I expect too much from video games. I expect a lot from any content I consume, but I seem to be on a never-ending journey chasing ‘how games used to feel’.
Are you not entertained? No, I’m not, I’m encumbered by too much stuff. I’m like an RPG character walking around a map with too much gear in the inventory. Dragging my feet, looking for the next best place to take a rest. Maybe in that city over on the horizon there, I’ll find just what I’m looking for.
I used to play games for fun. What has happened to me.
Moving on from the above brain-dump...
Diablo IV
Unfortunately, we’re not actually moving on. I’m going to start by telling you about an email I received the other day. The email was from Blizzard Entertainment and it was all about Diablo IV. Problem is, I was already playing Diablo IV, so why would they send me an email.
The title of the email was, ‘Become Sanctuary’s best dressed’. It was an email highlighting the in-game glam merch, and telling me about some competition that would see a winner selected as the best dressed. Sanctuary being the world Diablo is set in.
It made me feel strange. The email was like a knife cutting through the fog that appears when you lose yourself in a game.
Diablo IV is a stunning game. Even playing on a Series S, I was surprised by the smoothness of gameplay, the clarity and beauty of the world design, the colours and the awesome graphics. For a short while, it was typically addictive.
One thing that Diablo is, and I suppose has always been, is repetitive. And when I say repetitive, I mean, repetitive. You will be doing the same thing over and over again, and I would argue that the world is too big and there’s too much to do. This is a first for the series because if you didn’t know, Diablo is now open-world. Diablo lends itself perfectly to its previous incarnation; there was never any need for it to be open-world.
Some of the side quests are embarrassingly poor, to the extent that I believe they mock the player’s intelligence. Some quests see you simply perform an action, or walk from A to B and back again. I know these are fetch quests, but I would have thought in 2024 we would have grown beyond this.
There’s stuff to buy with real money, though you don’t need it, and there’s endless loot to sift through. I was worn out by the amount of content being thrown my way and after around four hours, something clicked, and I said to myself, ‘you’re just doing the same thing over and over again’. I was bored. And it’s a shame because I was so looking forward to playing. It seems whenever I can’t wait to play a game, said game ends up falling short. High expectations and all that.
Lightyear Frontier
This had been on my radar for a long time, primarily because it’s crossplay, which is great news for those of us who have friends playing on different platforms.
Lightyear Frontier is a farming simulator set on another planet that is yet to be colonised. You have a mech suit that you use to traverse the map, to gather materials in order to build a base. You have a variety of tools at your disposal to break rocks and cut plants, and you can even get out of your mech to dig around in caves and access tough to reach areas.
This is an early-access Game Pass game and with it being a simulator, it does get repetitive, though it is a relaxing experience. The world is a cool place to be and it’s pleasant to look at. The vibe is chill, especially when playing with friends.
Dole out those tasks and work towards your goals. I would like to see more content in the future, so it doesn’t go down as just another simulator. The mech system is novel and opens up lots of opportunities for combat, some dungeon areas that provide greater resources could be a good idea, and perhaps even multiple mechs that depend on your playstyle.
New to Game Pass
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged
Coming soon
Botany Manor - 9th April
Shadow of the Tomb Raider - 11th April
Harold Halibut - 16th April
Eiyuden Chronicle - 23rd April
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II - 21st May
What I’m playing
Although it’s not available to play on Game Pass, you can buy Mad Max for £2.99 if you’re a Game Pass subscriber.
I played Mad Max many years ago – it was released in 2015 – and what I remember thinking at the time was how polished it was. I’d even go as far as saying, it’s one of the best examples of open world games: the map is just the right size, there’s enough to do without feeling overwhelmed, and you progress, and unlock new stuff, along with the story. It’s very satisfying.
The world of Mad Max is an apocalyptic wasteland. The space and emptiness of the world is captured brilliantly and yet there’s always something on the horizon; whether that be an enemy base, or one of the mini-quests along the way.
I was going to say how underrated the game is and suggest you buy it. However, after looking at the reviews on the Xbox store – 1437 – it’s clear that it was and still is a popular game. Mad Max, for me, is the pinnacle of the open world genre. It has a brilliant story, one that has linearity (not a bad thing), and still gives you the freedom to explore and experiment with your equipment. The car aspect of the gameplay feels so satisfying and although the combat is very similar to the Assassin’s Creed franchise and other Warner Bros. games, it doesn’t feel quite as dated as some of those.
Playing Mad Max again has given me the same feeling that playing Fallout 1 for the first time did. It’s a fresh world, and one we’re not used to seeing, so it never feels overdone like some franchises. We’re used to the worlds of Assassin’s Creed, we’re used to fantasy realms like The Witcher, we’re used to the decaying setting of a Dark Souls. It might be another post-apocalyptic game, but it’s felt like playing a new title all over again.
For £2.99 you really can’t go wrong!
Anyway, that’s me for another month. What have you been playing on Game Pass? Let us know over on our socials.
Over and out o7