Freestar Collective
A couple of gems I found on GamePass that had me pleasantly surprised and engaged:
Planet Crafter
I loved the premise of being a prisoner sent into exile on a dead world you are tasked with (sentenced to) terraforming. The controls are a bit crazy - which is the game's number 1 complaint in reviews. Who makes the jump button the right trigger? Once you get used to that, everything else was golden. I loved the progression you got to witness in the world as the terraforming process reached various stages.
It helps that it has amazing music and a great balance between searching the world for resources plus lore and crafting new tools to accelerate each terraforming phase. I actually never finished the complete process, but I got quite far into it after around 50-60 hours. And I'm vowing to myself that I will return one day to finish it.
Subnautica 2
I missed playing the first one, but I happened to see some folks compare Planet Crafter to it. Since I know I loved the latter now, I gave this sequel a try since it is in game preview on GamePass. I really love the lore and setting with this one, and the graphics and sound design are amazing. In fact, for those of us Starfield fans that love a gas giant in the skybox, we're in luck here. There is a stunning gas gaint in the night sky on this one. 😄
Immersion is great here. I found myself wanting to unravel the mysteries of the strange world and those that didn't make it before me.
My only gripe with this one is that it began stressing me out the further along I got. I'm going to try switching to creative mode at some point to see how enjoyable that. I want some challenge, but the depth and hostile creatures was starting to overshadow the wonder of exploration for me. Games, for me, are a way to de-stress after a long day. I know plenty of others that will relish the tension, so they should love this one.
Coming Soon
- I am a huge Gears of War fan, so I'm really looking forward to the new E-Day game coming out in early October. I don't care for multiplayer any. I'm just in it for the story. I love Delta Squad, and Gears of War 3 was the last great single player story for me. I'm looking forward so much to playing again with Marcus and Dom. The story trailer was so exciting. "To the end."
- I grew up on Diablo, and my kids have been growing up on Minecraft. Combine the two and you get Minecraft Dungeons - something I played quite a bit with my kids. Now we get the sequel coming out at the end of the month, so that will be booted up on our Xbox quite a bit.
Anyone else got other recommendations lately or things they're looking forward to?