I recently subscribed to Xbox Game Pass, primarily because there were a number of games available I had always had some intention of playing, but not enough interest to pay for them individually. Given that I am not buying these games, I feel no obligation to try and complete things I don't like. This will be a log of my experiences. Maybe they can guide your own decisions. Or better yet, maybe you have some of your own to share.

Game 1: Defense Grid 2

Why: Because I didn't hate the first one and was looking for something relaxing.

Time to deletion: One level, maybe 15 minutes

I don't hate tower defense in principal, but more recent iterations have involved more active player participation for good reason. The biggest problem with DG2 was how long the stages are. It's bad enough when I'm bored with how easy it is, I can't imagine how I'd feel replaying a level. And why are these three people talking so much? Who are they? Why do I care? (Answer, I don't. Deleted)

Game 2: Sacred 3

Why: I actually played quite a bit of Sacred 2. There were a few times I was bored and scanning XBL and almost pulled the trigger on this.

TtD: Three levels. Maybe 45 minutes.

Sacred has a history as an unabashedly b-tier version of other, more popular (and better made) Computer RPGs from the 90s and early 00s. Nevertheless, it did combine things in a manner that was pretty much all its own. I don't love any Sacred game, but if there were another one and I could play it for free, I would. So I did. It turns out the thing that Sacred 3 is trying most to be is something like Gauntlet. Its perspective evokes past Sacred Games, but the combat is extremely mashy, it has an extremely stripped-down equipment system, and the only thing it does to try and maintain your interest is bombard you with a ton of aggressively tongue-in-cheek dialogue. I had some kind of companion spirit who had a schtick based around intentionally awful pick-up lines (though I do have to give them credit for "I could drown in your... river of eyes... I messed that up") and I decided whether I would continue based on the next companion they gave me. It turned out to be a woman who sings everything like a showtune. Deleted.

Game 3: Dark Void

Why: I really wanted Dark Void before reviews came out and told me my time was better spent elsewhere..

TtD: About 5 hours.

My main interest came from the WW2 aesthetic and the Bear Mccreary (of BSG fame) soundtrack. For a little while, I was impressed with what the game had - its approach to battle areas was a little like Halo with a dash of Just Cause 2. Unfortunately, the game wasn't nearly fun enough to play. I was thinking that if Capcom had managed to infuse the shooting with a bit of Binary Domain's kinetic brutality, it would have gone a long way. But the real Achilles heel of the game is the flying. A combination of unresponsive controls, tight combat areas, low health and a lack of tracking weapons make for a frustrating experience. I eventually reached a flying mission I was legitimately not sure how to beat. I thought about looking up a guide, then realized that I didn't like the story, which did basically nothing with its setting to spice up a very Stargate-esque plot, nearly enough to put up with that kind of roadblock. Deleted.

Game 4: The Swapper

Why: It came highly recommended
TtD: 2-2.5 hours?

The game had a very novel mechanic and I genuinely enjoyed solving some of the puzzles. The sound design was grating, though - nothing I hate more than a silent game. Looking at you, ME:A. About what seems to be halfway through, I ran into some problems I couldn't solve and looked up one solution, then a second. It seemed like the game was starting to hinge its solutions on standing on the edges of buttons and slipping teleports into split-second, pixel-perfect window. At this point, I decided I could move on. Deleted.

The people talk constantly in Defense Grid 2 because the game is boring so they want to do SOMETHING to try to engage you, like a radio play.

Tower defense as a genre works ok on portable or mobile where you're on a bus and just need something to do with your hands while you listen to a podcast or whatever. As a console experience it's kind of interminable. I played a bunch of Defense Grid 1 and it was okay...if I was also watching Youtube videos at the same time. There's just too much time where you're literally doing nothing, waiting for money to come in. Or, if it gets harder like Defense Grid 1 does, where you're staring down an unviable build and having to just play out the string even though you know you're going to lose.

If you played 5 hours of Dark Void you probably got pretty close to the end. I actually liked that game and am probably one of its more ardent defenders, but it is FULL of jank and objectively not very good. The story also ends in the most obvious "We ran out of money and had to cut the third act out of our game" way I've ever seen. After I finished it I literally looked up a guide to make sure that my game hadn't bugged out and skipped like 3-4 missions (a legit possibility considering how poorly put together the game is.) It hadn't. I will always have a soft spot for Dark Void because of its good ideas (rocketpack! hijacking alien saucers! campy story with Tesla as a character!) but man was it a shoddy b-grade production.

In a way I almost enjoyed that aspect because it made it seem kind of like the game version of a Roger Corman movie, which fit well with the story and tone.

@bigsocrates: The mission I failed on was probably the last one of episode 2. I don't know exactly how much of act/episode 3 wasn't there that I missed. I had to kill 3 of those walking tanks (that weren't actually walking, they were just standing on random buttes). The thing was, I hadn't ever upgraded my jetpack weapons so taking out their weak points just took too long.

Incidentally, the game that wins my most "ran out of money and had to cut the third act out" award is Bound by Flame, another XBGP offering that I will not be revisiting. Though maybe it would be more accurate to say that is a game that almost felt like it cynically put all of its money into its first act to generate buzz and word of mouth sales before people recognized the bait and switch.

@veektarius: I don't remember that particular mission, but I do think that act 3 was pretty short.

Honestly part of the fondness I have for that game is probably because I conflate it a little bit with Crimson Skies, which had a somewhat similar tone/story scenario but was a MUCH better game.

Man do I want a new Crimson Skies. That game remains an all-time favorite and there's nothing like it around these days.

Good write up, id like to hear more.

Time for another installment - I took some time away from my Xbox, but I'm back for more disappointment!

Game 5: Mad Max

Why: Like most sane people, I like the Mad Max franchise pretty well. I even like the original Mad Max in its own very Australian way. Not Beyond Thunderdome though.

TtD: I'm going to call it somewhere in the 8 hour range. I completed the first act and then got the first stronghold about half built up.

I can safely say I never had a good feeling about the Mad Max game. Even though Mad Max is effectively presented as an avowed lone wolf, the Mad Max movies are never about Max handling things on his own. They're about him finding something worth defending in the shit world that he's been left in and doing so. So even though the aesthetics of the Mad Max world is right, even though their portrayal of Max is about right,, the fact that it's about Max solving the wasteland's problems on his own is a huge tonal disconnect. And saying that the game is going for any story at all is a stretch based on what I played. Its towns felt more like World of Warcraft quest hubs than part of any kind of narrative. I thought maybe the first stronghold was just introducing the game's systems and it'd start to develop a narrative from there. Then I saw the first thing required in the second stronghold was to liberate another town in much the same way as the first. Deleted.

Game 6: Fable 3

Why: I genuinely liked the first Fable game and didn't play enough of the second to form an opinion either way. I seem to recall it having some kind of installment based free-to-try model like old Apogee games... wonder how many people who read this will get that reference. (I wonder how many will even read it?)

TtD: About 4 hours.

It's kind of interesting that Fable ever became a trilogy. Even the first game, though well-liked, received a lot of backlash thanks to Molyneux's pathological problem with exaggeration. While Fable games were advertised as worlds that could be shaped by the player's actions, they were always more noteworthy for their options in customization and their lovingly designed environments than they were for any kind of player agency. I seem to recall being roped back in to the second Fable by its novel setting, but the third is just more generic fantasy bullshit, and I've gotten way too old and too cynical to keep playing games where you communicate using chicken dances. The humor kept me going until the real gameplay kicked in and I realized that the game had no intention of introducing any systems that would spice up its combat, which, while frequent, seems to have been implemented without the slightest consideration to what might make it either fun or challenging. Somehow, I bet old Peter made a case for a game without combat at all and got overruled by some Microsoft Suit. Would it have been Jay Allard?