Game Pass and streaming games and all that shit

[Barry Admin]

What do you think about all this? 

I keep thinking back to what jutl said many years ago, I think when there was that big backlash to the plans for Xbox One, and they ended up changing it about a bit.  He warned along the lines that the long-term plans were to get you to just rent games over and over again instead of buying them, something like that.

So Game Pass seemed like a good deal to hook people in, but now it seems like a pack of wank to me. 

It's prohibitively expensive for starters, compared to Gold, and the Cloud streaming part of it has really shit the bed recently.

Anytime I sign up for it, I now have to generally wait in a queue in order to play the new/popular games.  "There's a lot of people playing right now, you'll have to wait for 20 minutes."  I never saw that until very recently, it's infuriating. 

Do you still buy games or do you just use this now?  What do you think of it as a service?

[oggyraiding]

I think if you've got lots of free time, it's a great service. Back in lockdown I got the Xbox Access thing, Series X and 2 years Game Pass Ultimate for £35 a month. I was semi-NEET, so having hundreds of games available was a good deal. Quite a diverse array of games, then you get a lot of day one releases too. It has the same drawbacks of many streaming services - other than Microsoft Studios stuff, most games are only on for a limited time. I think it's very feasible to play games exclusively through Game Pass instead of buying them.

Playstation's answer to Game Pass is a bit shite. PS3 games can only be played through streaming, and the selection of PS1/PS2/PSP games is lacklustre. It does currently have some big hits on there like Horizon Zero Dawn 2, Returnal, Demon's Souls Remake, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, but they're not day one releases like MS do with their tentpole titles.

[ProvanFan]

I do a bit of PC Game Pass and a bit of digital purchasing. I take ages finish games, so the changing library of a subscription service is a bit risky, but I've only been stung once by it so far, and they did give me reasonable notice.

I can also go ages without playing games at all, or maybe I'll be focusing on something I've bought on Steam and not touching Game Pass, so sometimes I'll just cancel it and resubscribe later. I think I got a partial refund last time (might have made this up, feels correct though).

[bgmnts]

Prefer to own the games outright to be honest. Like you say it was a good hook initially, but just didn't justify the pricetag, which is the same for every subscription service to be honest.

[Timothy]

It was a good deal when you could convert Gold to Gamepass (got 3 years for 90 euros) but the monthly price is a bit expensive imo.

Its still what I mostly play though. Great library and a lot of recent games, like the new Persona and Yakuza.

[Thursday]

You can basically hack your way into pretty much never paying for gamepass because of reward points if you don't mind a couple of minutes of chores which you can automate a lot of.

I don't stream the games though, that service is pretty dogshit.

[beanheadmcginty]

There's some sort of trick my mate does that involves buying the Turkish Gamepass over a VPN and it ends up costing him about a fiver a year or something. Should probably look into that.

[Timothy]

I don't stream the games though, that service is pretty dogshit.

Its quite good imo. I play a lot of Gamepass on my Steam Deck without any lag.

[Barry Admin]

You can basically hack your way into pretty much never paying for gamepass because of reward points if you don't mind a couple of minutes of chores which you can automate a lot of.

Oh damn, good point, I always ignore that shit, but I seem to have some points to turn in, nice.

[Ferris]

The PlayStation streaming service is absolute dogshit. Slow, laggy, and expensive and there's not a whole lot in the library I'm really interested in. It even blocks you buying some games (from their extortionate store, which is a separate problem) because you can get em on Gold so go do that or get fucked. Ghost of Tsushima, for example - pay $144 for a year of this service you'll never use and you can play it, or fuck off. Them's your choices.

I've been buying games second hand from our CeX equivalent or eBay, or replaying old games that I already have because the cost of these fuckers is getting beyond a joke.

(In case you can't tell, I've been looking for a reason to rant about the service for a few months at this point. There's a reason I'm replaying RDR1 and Fallout 4.)

[Mister Six]

I never stream stuff. I think the only such service I've used is the Switch one for NES and SNES games, and my sister-in-law's digital games. And that's because it's about $3 a month.

I mostly just play stuff I've bought cheap during PS sales. It's helped stage off the urge to buy a PS5 too. At this rate I might end up skipping a generation and jumping straight to PS6.

[Harpo Speaks]

It even blocks you buying some games (from their extortionate store, which is a separate problem) because you can get em on Gold so go do that or get fucked. Ghost of Tsushima, for example - pay $144 for a year of this service you'll never use and you can play it, or fuck off. Them's your choices.

Hmm this isn't something I've come across. Wasn't there some fuck up though specifically with GoT arising from the fact that they offered the multiplayer as a PS Plus game? Is it games that you had previously downloaded as part of Plus when you had a membership, that now show as unable to be purchased?

Extra is probably the best value of the PS Plus tiers if you want a back catalogue of games to play, realistically though I have such a backlog of physical discs already that it usually just ends up acting as a series of demos. I did have Premium for a period which was very poor in terms of adding to the PS1 selection, which was the main element I was interested in. The only time I ever streamed was to play Enemy Unknown, which was fine, but I only did so because that is a necessity of the PS3 games they have. Otherwise it's always downloaded.

Game Pass I've found to be good value, the issue with it for me personally has been more my naivety in buying an Xbox in the first place and thinking I'd be finding time to play across two consoles. Never touched the cloud service though.

[Ferris]

I can see all the "extra" type GoTsu content, but the actual game itself is hidden behind this ludicrous "aha! Welcome to our PS Subscription!" type thing.

I'm not even massively arsed, only a friend (whose judgement is very good) recommended it and complained that nobody takes recommendations. I sold him on Nirvanna the Band the Show, and I'm unilaterally unable to download a game that I'm frankly willing to pay way over the odds for just to prove to my mate I value his opinion.

[C_Larence]

Can you not skip that welcome screen? I bought GoT recently without any issue, but a similar screen has popped up before and there's always been an option to skip.

[Consignia]

I find the streaming stuff great for testing something out first without committing to a massive download. It's no substitute for playing locally, but if I can just try Starfield I know I'm not going to bother waiting for it. Conversely, after a few minutes of Superliminal, I knew I was worth downloading.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I'll get a month of GamePass when there's a deal on or if I've saved up some points from answering trivia questions about UNESCO sites in Bing, and then just use it like a big demo library to see if there's anything I want to actually buy. Keeping an active subscription would be a total waste for me as I don't have the time to put into it.

[seepage]

I think it's paid for itself so far: Persona 5 Royal, Persona 5 Tactica, Gears Tactics, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Lamplighters League, Total War Warhammer 3, Gears Tactics, Chained Echoes. Persona 5 Royal scrolled off before I had time to complete it. Thing I mustn't do is buy stuff on sale in Steam unless I've got time to play it straight away, in case it turns up later on Game Pass. Also had to limit the bandwidth used by updates in Delivery Optimisation, especially that e.g. 80 GB patches for Warhammer 3 were being download automatically   

[The Crumb]

I've found it's been good for prompting me to play indie games with interesting ideas that I wouldn't normally fork out £15 a go for. Stuff like Inside, Cocoon, Norco, Superliminal. And for making me realise how boring I find Microsoft's big ticket games these days.

[seepage]

Do titles by Xbox Game Studios e.g. Gears Tactics stay on permanently and not scroll off?

[Papa Wheelie]

Do titles by Xbox Game Studios e.g. Gears Tactics stay on permanently and not scroll off?

Yes, because nobody would buy them otherwise.

[brat-sampson]

I'm not into streaming, but love PC Game Pass. There have been a ton of  interesting games on there, AAA and Indie that I've gotten to play through for a pittance thanks to backlogging like 3 years of the service at a time. This year alone there's been laD Gaiden, Cocoon, Hi Fi Rush, Starfield, Lies of P, Persona 5 Tactica and probably a bunch from earlier in the year that I've forgotten.

[falafel]

Trying to save on getting a Steam Deck but wanting something a bit more oomphy than my Switch, I got a controller for my phone and have been giving it a go through the Steam Link app. It works wonders. Playing pretty much any controller based game handheld whilst knocking up dinner is great fun. I don't commute or go anyhere I can usually play games outside the house so it works nicely for me. Game Pass works nicely too. Well recommended - it's come a long way since I last tried it.

[Josef K]

Had a play around with Geforce Now's game streaming and honestly I think I'm a convert.

Tried the Ghostrunner demo (which lets you go in without queueing if you're on the free tier) and played a bit of Battlefield V as I already own it, and it's a revelation.

I've got the optimum conditions - on wired internet, have a good speed, and live in that London close to the Nvidia server, but I couldn't detect any input lag whatsoever. Got rid of my PC as it was pretty old, I prefer slobbing on my couch with the PS5, and felt embarrassed having my partner see me hunched over with my bulky gaming headphones, but I think I might give it a go when monthly subscriptions aren't full.

Anyone else had any experience with it? I miss gaming with a keyboard and mouse but I hated the faff around upgrading every few years. Seems like this is a pretty cost efficient way of getting access to one of those ridiculously expensive gfx cards.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I just have a PC for gaming and some games are only available on consoles so I found Game Pass useful for that, I can play stuff like MLB The Show on XBOX via streaming rather than shelling out for a console. Naturally need a very good internet speed though.

[Thursday]

Some of you are talking like you can't download the games.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I'll download you in a minute

[Consignia]

Chance would be a fine thing.

[Thursday]

I'll download you in a minute

Download your tongue into my arsehole mate.

[Queen Peach]

It's prohibitively expensive for starters, compared to Gold, and the Cloud streaming part of it has really shit the bed recently.

is 15 quid prohibitively expensive? how much was gold? what do you mean by Cloud streaming?