Doom Eternal (Xbox One)

I had some serious reservations about playing Doom 2016, but when it was all said and finished, I still recommended that game with a fair number of warnings.  The gameplay in that game was so good I couldn't put it down and when I did, I couldn't wait to pick it up again.  Fast forward to 2020, I have my shiny new Xbox Series X, a game pass subscription and there's Doom Eternal at no real cost to me.  I was excited to play it, it didn't take long though where I felt very overwhelmed.  While the first game had upgrade paths etc, they seemed to make sense and came at you at an acceptable pace. This game though, this game has systems on systems on systems.  I feel like so many games nowadays want to be the one game you play for years.  I get games as a service, games like Fortnite and Overwatch, but sometimes I just want to play a campaign, have it do it's thing, and wrap up after 10-12 hours or so.  This game is trying to do so much, puzzle game, platformer, shooter, rpg.  I'm retiring this one about at third of the way through.  I can't bring myself to finish it.  It's worth a try if you enjoyed the first one, but this one's hooks didn't catch me.  Pass.

Crackdown 3 (Xbox One)

Waiting for the Xbox Series X I played through and quite enjoyed Crackdown 3.  It's a fun open world game with plenty of upgrades, although none of them are really meaningful.  The auto lock on of enemies makes the combat not very engaging.  A lot of things about this game coming to mind are negative, but I still enjoyed my time hopping around the city.  It's on Game Pass so I'd recommend it on that alone.  It's worth a try at least and maybe you'll see it through.  And if you don't?  Well, no harm no foul, you didn't have to shell out a lot of money.  Recommend, but don't feel obligated to finish it.

The Turing Test (Xbox One)

Coming off of a recent playthough of Portal I remembered hearing about "The Turing Test" which has a definite portal vibe, both in presentation and gameplay.  This is a first person puzzler but where Portal succeeds in it's playtime, humour, and story, The Turing Test feels like it's trying too hard.  I wanted to see the story though, it did have me engaged enough to want to see how it turns out, but the gameplay itself, likely the most important quality, had me YouTubing the home stretch like a madman.  I JUST WANTED THIS GAME TO END.  I was proud of myself initially for my brilliant puzzle solving, but by stage 50 I was done.  The game does have neat alternate endings, I played the last level twice to see them both through and while I did enjoy myself for the bulk of this game, I can't say I enjoyed it enough to recommend.  Pass.

The Messenger (Xbox One)

Another retro side scrolling adventure, let's be honest, this is a Ninja Gaiden clone.  I was really enjoying my time with this game, specifically part one.  By the time I got to part two, the game shifted from a traditional side scrolling point a to point b action platformer to a metroidvania complete with back tracking which, for me, is an instant turn off.  I then quit playing.  The game is good, I just wish it wouldn't have changed genre's or I would have seen it through.  If metroidvania's are your thing, by all means, play this game.  If you hate traversing levels trying to figure out where to go and what to do next, skip this one.  Pass.

Streets of Rage 4 (Xbox One)

Continuing my quest to play some "smaller, less graphic intensive" games on Game Pass before the launch of the Series X I decided to give Streets of Rage 4 a shot.  Coming off of Battle Toads this is a lot of beat-em-ups.  Streets of Rage 4 is a more traditional take on the genre and the actual "beating upping" feels better, is a little deeper and allows for more variety.  It lacks in level variety compared to Battle Toads, but that's not a fault.  Streets of Rage 4 was a fun romp, and while I played it on "easy" I'd recommend bumping that up to normal as it didn't present any challenge ... at all.  While I regret not playing it on a more difficult setting, there wasn't enough there to make me want to go back and play it again ... yet.  A second play through may be in my future as I quite enjoyed my time with this game.  Recommend.

Battletoads (Xbox One)

I've been trying to play some games on game pass that are not graphically intensive as I wait for the new Series X to come out.  I want to play some of the better games at the best possible frame rate and resolution.  Battletoads is a side scrolling beat 'em up, or so I thought.

An hour or so in,  I didn't know if I had it in me to complete this game, it felt very repetitive, but after some time the game radically changes things up and it become a very weird mashup of genre's including twin stick shooter, puzzle platformer, and my favorite, a wario ware style mini game collection.  It's funny, fresh and should be played if you have game pass.  Recommend.

Hotshot Racing (Xbox One)

A gamepass game I gave a few hours and had exactly a few hours worth of fun.  I used to buy these game on Xbox Live Arcade and stress about high scores, fastest laps etc.  This game has all those options, I'm just "over" competing like that.  This is what I love about GamePass, I can enjoy a game for a few hours and call it complete with no real investment of money or time.  I did complete every track and got a gold on every championship on the standard difficulty.  Recommend for a few hours.