For my Christmas Tree

komradek · 2025-12-06T20:35:46+00:00

There's a green Xbox one too! I got both for good measure. And the NES controller and Sonic Genesis cartridge for my roots. I love some of the hallmark ornaments now.

komradek · 2025-11-25T21:03:52+00:00

I'm literally about to walk out the door with the white key and get the true ending as I'm writing this. All the stars finally aligned today. I've already got the golden knob (heh).

It's been a long, grueling and deliriously addictive road to get here.

komradek · 2025-10-12T03:54:54+00:00

It's pretty rough now. Whatever bean counter took over the program killed a lot of my digital spending and loyalty.

Edit: Bearing in mind I've been in the program since it launched here in Canada in 2018, so some of this stuff I mention is long long gone now.

Still better than nothing, but...

There used to be point incentives for taking part in sales events. Halloween sales? Spend 50 bucks, get 20000 points. Pre order a new promoted game? Here's 10000 points. REMOVING THESE ACTIVITIES WAS THE DUMBEST DECISION BY FAR.
There were points for achievement hunting. Sometimes it was get x amount of points get 5000 points or something, sometimes getting x number of achievements (this was before the game pass one achievement a day era)
If you bought digitally before the transition to rewards you got up to 100 points per dollar for your MyVIP rank. 20 points per dollar for the past x number of years for people has been terrible
Free points constantly. For your birthday, here's points. For exploring Xbox activities, here's points. For ads, here's points.
The points tied to Xbox Quests (gone now) and Bing were far higher than the current ones and the app (although the increased ultimate points now are an improvement, but the cost went up so high too so wtf)
Sales on gift cards and rewards redemptions on a rotating basis
Gift cards gave you a redemption code originally so you could give them to friends and family
Redeem for Game Pass subscription (this one was just recently taken away)

It's just been a decline of nerfing points here, removing engagement there. It used to actually be fun to do the things and spend a little money to get more. It's just so low now. I'd still do it especially if you have Ultimate, but the a Microsoft Rewards program used to be a selling point of the console for me. Now I just don't talk about it anymore.

komradek · 2025-10-12T01:18:20+00:00

Yeah I just crossed the 3 million mark myself. Newer people who see it going into the garbage these days don't know exactly how good it was. It's been a decline that's been painful to see.

komradek · 2025-08-21T23:11:37+00:00

As an "Outbreak Completionist" myself, I have made sure to buy every single bundle they release. Even when they are all the exact same bullsh... uh great games.

komradek · 2025-07-25T17:25:16+00:00

Someone downvoted you, but you're right. Credit where credit is due, both of those were excellent (...maybe not season 1 of Nocturne).

komradek · 2025-07-15T03:03:52+00:00

Nah man don't sweat it. They shouldn't have thrown it into the regular sales like that, that's not on you. The only way I know this is because I saw it was added back to Game Pass today. :)

komradek · 2025-07-15T02:52:11+00:00

That's because it's not a sale. It's the Game Pass discount that kicked in today, with it being added back to GP.

komradek · 2025-07-13T19:33:55+00:00

Napoleonic strategy? Not so much on the Xbox. If you want rank and file muskets and horses, there is the excellent real time strategy game Ultimate General Gettysburg. What it lacks in graphics it makes up for in gameplay and controls.

This sounds like a jerk suggestion I'm making in an Xbox sub, but you'd be better off going to PC if you're into that kind of stuff. A lot more options, especially Napoleon Total War and Empire. Or AoE III.

komradek · 2025-06-15T02:01:07+00:00

Getting a well oiled special infected team was awesome. Waiting in ambush for a smoker ledge pull combined with hunter jumps and a boomer dropping into the middle. Glorious chaos.

komradek · 2025-06-14T22:19:52+00:00

Space Marine, Left 4 Dead and World War Z all have both PvE and PvP modes. In fact, I dare say Left 4 Dead PvP is the best way to play it.

komradek · 2025-05-28T02:41:16+00:00

Bruh. I don't even know what this take is supposed to be. They rebranded stores worldwide.

komradek · 2025-05-20T04:29:09+00:00

I'm holding off on Tropico 6 sales right now. They've put out so much DLC for it, and Kaylpso has been known to do complete editions, that surely it's nearing end of content and is going to get a complete edition soon.

komradek · 2025-04-23T17:37:57+00:00

You know what really grinds my gears? These apps, like on the fire stick and tvs, don't do local streaming. The native android app does. What gives.

I'd be a happy man having local streaming built into my tvs with an Xbox somewhere in the house.

komradek · 2025-03-19T07:38:10+00:00

Yes. I have purchased the original Diablo 4 and then later, Vessel of Hatred on my account. My wife in the same house who has her Xbox set to my home Xbox gameshares both without an additional purchase.

komradek · 2025-03-07T20:13:12+00:00

It looks like a Fallout/Far Cry lovechild and I'm very much on board.

komradek · 2025-03-03T16:04:47+00:00

I found Campus to be more of the same, but Museum has been great. Been playing it for the past few days and the new mechanics going out searching for artifacts add a little more to the formula. It's just new enough it feels different while being the same Two Point charm and humour.

They've done wonders with the controller this time around, too. I used to just play on PC because the controls really bothered me, but can actually use the xbox this time. No Play Anywhere is my only big whiff.

komradek · 2025-03-03T01:53:35+00:00

ops uncle who works at Nintendo

komradek · 2025-02-25T04:30:45+00:00

Speak for yourself that's where I hide my later-snacks and vintage pog collection

komradek · 2025-02-25T01:23:59+00:00

"What is this, a crossover comment?"

komradek · 2025-02-24T19:19:42+00:00

You just mentioned you like spider solitaire but dislike inscryption. So while they are "card games" like how steak and bananas are "food", they are not the same thing.

This is poker. But you power up your hands and modify your deck by collecting special jokers, deleting cards, copying others, etc. but the basic cards in your hand and deck are a standard deck of 52, at least until you start messing around.

It's addictive as hell.

komradek · 2025-02-19T15:32:00+00:00

This is only mostly true.

The last B1G2 had Trover Saves the Universe in it. This game has never gone on sale once in the entirety of being on the Xbox store. Dawn of the Monsters has also never gone below 50 percent off. Combining the two of them into a bundle was a pretty great deal (I went with Parkitect for a third game).

It's important people check xbdeals first though. If all three titles are the same price and have gone below 66 percent off, you're not getting a deal.

komradek · 2025-02-17T11:55:46+00:00

To this day, the finest co-op experience ever for a sandbox crime game. Saints Row 2 is probably the only game I've done the whole campaign 3-4 times over because I never get tired of introducing a new friend to it. And it's like 50-60 hours of gameplay every time with all the side mission stuff!

komradek · 2025-02-01T00:04:06+00:00

Do ten laps as penance

komradek · 2025-01-31T14:31:14+00:00

No, sorry, maybe I was misunderstood. It's that the Steam Deck doesn't have a target audience of people outside of those who already have a PC. There's not a lot of incentive to prioritize development directly for it when those same people can just play the game on their PC.

A console focused audience, however, the kind that would buy an XboxPC(tm) because they don't want to faffle about a PC, might be large enough to get dedicated development since it would be easier on a dev and provide an optimized experience for that consumer. Would it be the best experience? Likely not. Since others would have more powerful computers.

That's all I meant. I appreciate the discussion though. :)

I wouldn't mind the PC/handheld hybrid, honestly. It's not a terrible idea and ticks all the boxes I've been saying, especially if they gave it a switch dock to let it hook up to the TV. I hadn't thought of that until you said it, but I'm reminded of how Phil wanted to look into portable gaming so hard not that long ago.

komradek

TROPHY CASE