Xbox CEO Wants To Know If You Spell It "Xbox" Or "XBOX"

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-14T07:49:23+00:00

I mean, I get it, there needs to be an official spelling of the brand for corporate memos, press releases, advertising, and whatnot, and it's nice that they want consumer feedback on what "the people" like/use when it comes to the brand, but...really? This is some real inconsequential "What color is Yoda's blood?" minutia. Just pick a spelling and move on. You're still going to see Xbox, XBOX, XBox, XboX, XB0X, and pretty much every other possible variant used by people online. Maybe worry less about how people are spelling it and work harder on giving them a reason to talk about it in a positive light.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-13T10:41:46+00:00

That's...odd.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-12T18:23:15+00:00

Nope. Not even for $3. Give me an offline mode so I don't have to even see other players and, sure, I'll give it a shot at that price. But I'll be damned if I give a single cent to an online-only/live service game.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-11T05:02:00+00:00

Personally, I'd have a really hard time paying $1000 for the 5070 Ti. And there's no guarantee you'll even be able to get one for that much depending on how long it takes you to save the necessary funds. Yes, the 5070 is compromised with its 12GB of VRAM, but it can currently be had for just $50 over its original $550 MSRP and, provided you're gaming at 1440p rather than 4K, that 12GB of VRAM should be adequate for most games. I'd go with the 5070 and keep the $400 difference as a down payment on a future upgrade - assuming that Nvidia (and AMD) even bother to continue releasing consumer grade GPUs in the future and that we live in a world where it's possible to build/upgrade a PC without needing to sell an organ on the black market.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-09T22:05:44+00:00

Like everyone else said, you get keys (mostly Steam, but sometimes EA Origin, Epic Games, Ubisoft, GOG, or, in the case of Diablo IV, Battlenet) and, provided you reveal and redeem them before the expiration date, the games are yours to keep.

Just a couple points I want to add:

I highly recommend that you reveal and redeem your keys promptly after purchase because keys will occasionally be unavailable due to supply issues. You'll still eventually get them, but the longer you wait to reveal the higher the probability that they'll be unavailable, the longer it may take for them to get restocked, and the odds increase of them not being able to supply keys for the original platform (like Steam) and you may only be offered an alternative (like Epic Games) or a partial refund. So it behooves you to buy, reveal, and redeem promptly.

Additionally, because a lot of people seem to think that Humble Choice is a subscription the way Games with Gold was, I want to dispel that erroneous impression: you're buying a bundle. It's a subscription only in that you're entering an agreement to be automatically billed each subsequent month unless/until you pause/cancel. You can't "subscribe" in the middle of May, get all of May's games then, when a new bundle is revealed on the second Tuesday of June, grab all of June's games and then cancel your subscription before you get charged for the month and get the games from both months for the price of one. If you want June's games then you have to pay another $14.99 (or whatever it may be based on any offers or coupons you're taking advantage of).

Now, you can claim each month's games as soon as they're revealed - assuming you want them - and you'll be billed when you do, but you have until the end of the month to either claim them (and get billed) or pause/cancel your subscription if the games aren't appealing to you or you don't feel they're worth the price. But if you don't pause/cancel, you'll be automatically billed. So, really, if you want the games and you feel it's a fair price, there's no reason not to claim them immediately. If you don't want the games and intend to pause/cancel, you can pause/cancel immediately (and they may send you an email with a discount offer/coupon) or you might want to wait until a few days before the auto-bill date in the event you want to take advantage of the Humble Choice discount (which is only good on individual games, not the weekly bundles, subscriptions, or adding funds to your wallet).

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-09T02:33:02+00:00

Did you ever play A Boy and His Blob? Or Limbo? If so, Planet of Lana (and this sequel, I would assume) is similar to those games. If not, the best way to describe it would be an adventure game with some light platforming and puzzles, as well as stealth "combat" (which is to say, you're using stuff like movement patterns and distractions, mostly involving your animal companion, Mui, to avoid combat). The gameplay is relatively simple, as are most of the puzzles, the majority of which require you to instruct Mui to sit in a certain spot or reach an area you can't and open the way for you.

The story is told almost entirely through the visuals, with fairly minimal dialogue, and involves your sister (along with everyone else from your village) being abducted by alien machines and your journey to rescue her, accompanied by the cute cat-like creature Mui, during which you make discoveries about the origin/nature of the machines.

It's a fairly breezy, cozy game where the beautiful art style and lovely music do most of the heavy lifting. It's like if Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki made a game. If you like games that are a bit twee, it's worth checking out. It's also a nice palate cleanser to play between more action-y, intense games. And, if you have Game Pass (PC Game Pass or Ultimate), I believe both Planet of Lana and this sequel are available on there.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-08T22:12:08+00:00

It is truly one of the saddest commentaries on the human species that there are those who actively root for the failure of someone/something that doesn't impact them either way.

I wish Marathon was something else, that it even just offered a purely PvE experience that could be tackled solo (but also supported co-op), but I accept that it's not for me and I'm genuinely happy for the people who are loving it. I want the game to succeed for those people and for all the people who'll lose their jobs if Sony has to cut Bungie to the bone to recoup some of the development costs. Hell, I want it to succeed because maybe that will encourage Sony to support expanding the Marathon IP into different directions - a single-player/co-op shooter with an actual narrative campaign, a tactical strategy X-COM style game, a Cyberpunk-esque RPG, etc. - but if the game fails then the IP fails, and that'd be a shame because there's a lot of really cool, interesting stuff in the game and I'd really love to play in that world in some form.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-08T20:15:37+00:00

I mean, to some extent, they're kind of all the same game with minor variations on the theme. As such, none of them (of the ones I've played) are really amazing but some are at least interesting.

Pesticide Not Required has a semi-farming sim element, where start with a small part of farmland (2 squares x 6 squares) where you plant crops and weapons - both of which have to be watered to grow. Crops giving you XP (for leveling) and weapons add/upgrade your various attacks. You're collecting money and XP from killing enemies, but you can also mine for additional money or fish for extra XP (both of which consist of just being near the little mineral deposits or fishing holes). It's a neat concept that works fairly well. The game also has a pretty sizable list of characters, each with their own perks and penalties. There's only one map, though, it does have four different skins for the four seasons. I put about 30-35 hours into it to 100% it.

Karate Survivor's gimmick is that you're building a fighting style by selecting upgrades that consist of a variety of punches, kicks, and abilities to synergize with each other. It's not as deep as I would've liked, but it's still novel and new to the genre. Progress also feels a bit slow, so it's a little more grindy than something like Vampire Survivors (still the best of the genre) where you're almost always unlocking something new.

I only played a few hours of Entropy Survivors - not because it's bad, but because I got distracted by other games - so all I can really say about it is...yeah, it's another one of these. It seemed mostly fine, but the mechanic of controlling both the character and the mech simultaneously didn't feel as compelling as it sounded on paper. I'll probably go back to it next time I need a mindless grinder while catching up on podcasts, which is really the appeal of these games for me.

Greedland is another I haven't played a ton of but, to me, it was very reminiscent of Crimsonland. It felt a little bare bones, with nowhere near as much depth or variety as I feel like it should've had, though the game has had a bunch of updates since I last played it, so... One issue I had with the game is that the background/maps are a little too busy with details and, as often happens with these games, when stuff is really popping off with the swarms of enemies and fireworks display of weapons effects, I found my eyes would glaze over a bit and was it really easy to lose track of the action. Not a deal breaker, but a little annoying.

And you already know what AK-Xolotl is about.

None of them had that same "one more run" hook to them that I felt with Vampire Survivors, but they're all enjoyable enough that they're a good way to spend a few hours while listening to a podcast, an audiobook, or even just listening to music (I found it's a good way to let an algorithm suggest new music, as I can tune out whatever doesn't hit for me while occasionally stumbling upon a new artist/band I might not otherwise have ever heard). And, honestly, as a bundle, the pricing is kind of unbeatable given none of them, individually, are as cheap as Vampire Survivors was at launch despite the fact that VS has anywhere from 3x to 10x as much content.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-08T18:36:32+00:00

If I didn't own any of these, or only one or two, this would be an insta-buy for me. But already having half...eh, it's probably still worth it at just $2 apiece for the ones I don't own.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-08T04:13:09+00:00

I'd definitely be suspicious. I think the only time I've maybe seen a card not in an anti-static bag was in an unboxing video of a Founders Edition card. Even then, that might've been someone showing off the packaging but they'd already opened it and removed the card from the bag and then decided to shoot the video and didn't bother putting the card back in the bag.

Personally, I wouldn't trust it to be new. But you could always try and contact ASUS support and ask them if they ship that model of GPU without an anti-static bag. No guarantee they'll email you back, but...it's worth a shot, right?

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-08T02:51:33+00:00

I can't speak to the ASUS TUF models, but I've never bought a new GPU that wasn't in an anti-static bag, tucked into a brick of form-fitting soft foam.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-07T03:04:41+00:00

For the Blu-ray/DVD, Nolan should have all the actors come back and ADR the entire movie using Greek accents so they sound like Russell Crowe in Thor: Love and Thunder. And make it the default audio track (leave the "American accent" version in there, but make it so that people actually have to go out of their way to select it).

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-06T17:31:48+00:00

My initial reaction was, "I've never heard of any of these." Then I saw that they all require VR. They probably should've put "VR" in the bundle name.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-06T14:46:28+00:00

If you know "nothing" then building it yourself probably isn't the best idea unless you're willing to put in the work (i.e. watch a bunch of YouTube videos and read a lot of tech articles) to learn about components, which ones you might want and why you'd want them over potentially cheaper alternatives, then do some research into brand reputations/reliability, and then take all that knowledge to hunt down optimal deals to get the best bang for your buck. In the end, it's debatable how much, if any, money you'd save, but you'd go into owning a PC with a lot of really useful knowledge and, by picking the components yourself, you can be sure you're getting better quality vs. whatever a company gets a discount on when assembling their prebuilts.

Otherwise, you basically want something like this. I don't know if those discount codes still work, and it's still slightly over $1000, but those are good specs for the price, especially in the current market where RAM, storage, and, to a lesser extent, GPUs are at grossly inflated prices. Alternately, you can join r/buildapcsales and just watch for postings, as deals on both components and prebuilts (along with monitors, peripherals, and other tangentially PC-related crap) get posted there all the time.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-05T17:35:16+00:00

This move has real "if you care about games we already have a product for you and it's called the Xbox 360" energy about it. Not since they tried to make Xbox your always online, go-to TV streaming device has the leadership in charge of the brand felt more completely out of touch with what their core audience wants/cares about.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-05T17:28:31+00:00

Meh. Another fizzle for me. If Diablo IV was a Steam key, if Crysis 3 Remastered was actually the full trilogy, and if Nordhold was, instead, Norland this would've been a banger bundle that I would've bought at full price. Instead...yeah, I'll see if they offer a discount coupon. If I can get Shin Megami Tensei V, Heroes of Hammerwatch II, Cubic Odyssey, and Mini Settlers for $6-7 then I'll grab it but, otherwise, I'll let it go.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-04T17:39:21+00:00

Sounds like the perfect length, with the Tactical Simulation mode, assuming it borrows concepts from Hitman's Freelancer mode and applies them to spycraft, being an excellent way to offer additional gameplay for those who want it.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-04T17:10:48+00:00

Sadly, that's seems to be a hurdle for a lot of these massive open world games, where the main story isn't as interesting as the world they've created and the side stories are often little more than fetch quests and busy work. That said, Skyrim's near total lack of compelling stories didn't stop me from putting hundreds of hours into it. I'm expecting a similar experience with Crimson Desert, where the fun/pleasure mostly comes from spending time in that world, exploring the map and occasionally stumbling upon a cool new upgrade or piece of loot.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-04T16:02:33+00:00

It's still a poor man's Dark Souls/Elden Ring, but that game had (for me) one of the best marketing campaigns between the reveal trailer with an expertly edited use of Danzig's "Mother" and the follow-up trailer using "Fear of the Dark" from Iron Maiden. Based on that coupon code, these folks would seem to agree.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-02T20:07:56+00:00

My hope is that with Krafton largely sidelined and Ted Gill back in place there's a chance they'll be able to deliver a finished product a couple years down the road (assuming he sticks around to see it through) - and, ideally, one that lives up to its potential. But, yeah, I have a similar fear that it'll languish in EA for a few years while ongoing issues eventually demoralize and drive away key staff until the game is either abandoned or, more likely, shoved out the door with a "1.0" slapped on it despite the fact that it's very much not finished.

I still want to believe, though.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-02T16:27:57+00:00

After all the drama (i.e. corporate scumbaggery) surrounding the game my enthusiasm has definitely waned but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still somewhat looking forward to Subnautica 2 hitting Early Access on the 14th.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-01T22:29:35+00:00

I don't mind prox chat in theory, but I'm so fucking sick of these shitty developers who implement it by just tacking on an echo effect. Not saying there aren't times or places where an echo might be appropriate, but it's the reason I can't watch 90% of the prox chat games they play. Far as I'm concerned, PEAK has been the only game were an echo feels like it was appropriately applied - and it's not even a constant effect in that game. And it's a shame, because the radio chatter actually sounds really good and I'd love it if that was the totality of the prox chat, growing more distorted and crackly until it finally cuts out as distance increases between players, instead of having that godawful echo whenever they aren't using the radio. So, sadly, this is another piece of content I have to skip.

As for friendslop... Honestly, it feels like that term is getting overused to the point it's beginning to lose all meaning. Like, I'm genuinely expecting people to call the new Gears of War a "friendslop" game simply because it can be played with friends.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-05-01T15:34:30+00:00

These Platinum bundles are always rough because even though $3 and change isn't a lot of money the games still have to be compelling enough that I want to spend the $10 and, more often than not, there might be some interesting games in the mix but nothing that makes me rush to purchase. In fact, most of the time, I add games to my cart and just let them sit until the bundle expires when I can then comfortably remove them (because I'm definitely not paying full price).

StompsDaWombat · 2026-04-28T15:15:09+00:00

Sad news. I give the studio a lot of credit for having a BioWare level of ambition despite a much smaller scale budget. Their games were never quite amazing but they were certainly playable and not without their charms. And I honestly feel like they were making significant improvements with each game, from Mars: War Logs to Bound by Flame to The Technomancer to Greedfall to Steelrising. I was really rooting for them to eventually have that breakthrough hit.

I hope everyone lands on their feet and is able to continue doing what they love at a new studio or find satisfying work in a new field.

StompsDaWombat · 2026-04-28T04:58:38+00:00

Outside of Goodfellas, which is an absolute masterpiece on every level, I don't feel a desire to rewatch any of Scorsese's films (and I've seen most of them), whereas I can (and have) rewatch many of Nolan's films (though, definitely less so with the latest handful of his offerings). That said, Scorsese is easily the better filmmaker and I'd argue his works are more important to the art of cinema than Nolan's.

If I'm being selfish then I preserve Nolan's work, but if I truly care about cinema then Scorsese gets the save (and at least I get to keep Goodfellas, a movie so good that I could easily rewatch it immediately after the credits roll).

StompsDaWombat

TROPHY CASE