Duders: I've been gone a long time. From gaming, and from this site. It's very nice to see all your beautiful faces. I'm beyond glad to see that this site is still heavenly.

I haven't had a console since selling my Xbox 360 in April of 2014, and last week I bought the PUBG bundle of the Xbox One S, along with Metal Gear Solid V, GTA V, Halo 5, Resident Evil 7, Fallout 4, Destiny 2, Assassin's Creed IV: Gregg Ginn, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Just Cause 3. I'm telling you all this shit because I need your guidance on what else is essential here. Granted, my backlog is rather sizable already, but I suppose I don't have to defend having a fat backlog to any of you fine folks. I'd very much appreciate the help, if you can spare a minute to throw a deep cut or two my way.

As for what I don't have yet but is on my radar:

• Middle Earth
• Alien: Isolation
• The Evil Within 2 (if I'm real nutty about RE4 should I play the first game?)
• Doom
• Titanfall 2 (do people still play this online on XONE?)
• Cuphead (in addition to everything else raved about on the last GOTY podcasts, I burned through those while playing rounds of Halo 5 and/or Spelunky)

Thanks a million. By the way, all my old XBL friends have moved onto greater pastures (PCs), so if you want to play some Halo or be held back by me in PUBG (I have no headset, working on that), the gamertag is "jillsandwich96." Might be changing it soon.

The Witcher 3, Forza Horizon 3, Cuphead, Titanfall 2, and while not essential I find Sunset Overdrive a ton of fun

@jillsandwich The haul you got with your new Xbox seems really nice and @rawrz already recommended most of the games I'd push you towards.

While I've not tried the service yet myself, it seems like you would be exactly the kind of person who would benefit from a Game Pass subscription. You'd be able to play stuff like Gears 4 and the upcoming Sea of Thieves while having access to a nice list of backlog titles.

Get game pass and get Ori and the Blind Forest. You'll be set for a while. I think both Rise of the Tomb Raider and Sunset Overdrive are on gamepass as well and those are great.

Metal Gear Solid V, Witcher 3, Hitman, Doom. The last few years have been pretty good. The current gen was pretty weak until about 2015.

Destiny and Division are probably worth playing as well, just to get a taste of that type of game. Although neither of them are perfect, by any stretch.

I'd have a look at Fallout 4, too. Again, not perfect but worth seeing.

Metal Gear Solid V - Amazing game / Bad Metal Gear...watch your head in the unfinished back half of the game

GTA V - Amazing game

Halo 5 - ...it’s better than Halo 4

Fallout 4 - Never EVER spend a second building a settlement...HUGE distraction from an otherwise fine game

Destiny 2 - It’s fun until you realize that it’s garbage, but that realization will take 20+ hours

Assassin's Creed IV - Is that Black Flag? All kinds of fun

Wolfenstein: The New Order - One of my favorites, great stealth, shooting, exploration, story, music, etc.

Just Cause 3 - I hear it performs pretty poorly...

Middle Earth - First one was great, heard middling things about the second

Alien: Isolation - If you like some Alien-ass Alien, this is a hell of a game...too long, but still worth playing for 8-10 hours...REALLY cool.

Doom - It’s Mad Max Fury Road in video game form. It’s amazing.

Titanfall 2 - I hated the multiplayer for its chaos. The campaign is great!

Cuphead - Great first impression...I fell off of it, though.

Other Games...

Multiplayer Competitive

- Overwatch is absolute magic.

- Rocket League is a sensation, and a fun one.

Big Ol’ Campaign Games

- Witcher 3 is amazing.

- Gears 4 has a great campaign and horde mode.

- Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider are REALLY GOOD!

- I liked Quantum Break by Remedy a whole lot, though I’m in the minority here.

- Wolfenstein 2 isn’t as good as The New Order, but it’s friggin’ bonkers in the best way.

- Hitman is pretty great.

- I really enjoyed Sunset Overdrive.

Small Games

- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is great couch coop.

- The Flame in the Flood is very special to me.

- Thimbleweed Park is a great adventure throwback from Ron Gilbert.

- Oxenfree is a really cool little story-based game.

- Superhot is a gem.

Rocket League if you want some quick multiplayer fun. I can't stop playing it even if 90% of the community is toxic.

Dying Light. Such a great game gameplay-wise. Never felt it got enough praise. Thought it was a big jump in quality over their Dead Island game.

Disgustingly accurate in both cases.