4 Reasons Why Grounded Is a Win for Xbox

Chris writes: "This week saw the release of Obsidian Entertainment's survival/ base-building title, Grounded in Early Access. Here's four reasons it's a huge win for Xbox."

[Vits]

I liked the game so far. And it's the most polished early access title I've ever played. The only problem is that there is a lack of content, especially in terms of survival as there are not many threats or variable scenarios. Obviously that is something that will be addressed as they develop the game, being a early access and all. But if you went to it now, expecting Minecraft 1.5 levels of possibilities you are going to be disappointed.

And besides the game being actually soli, one of the best things about it is that it's being made by Obsidian. At this point most people know how solid of a developer they are as far as RPGs are concerned. So it's a nice change of pace to see they tackling a different genre and actually delivering.

[sprinterboy]

You like the game so far apart from the lack of content? Lol that don't make any sense.
Early access, you mean bare bones GaaS model which will be unfortunately 75% of gamepass nxt gen to keep you subscribing for 12minths and not just 1 month and cancel.

[King_Noctis]

Have you played this game yet?

[DJStotty]

There is literally minimal GAAS titles in the xbox game studios library, or even gamepass.

Please enlighten us and list the GAAS under microsofts umbrella and included in gamepass.

I'll start you off :-

Sea of Thieves

go!!!!

[MarkyMark89]

@SprinterBoy The top genre's are Moba and Survival titles on PC, and the biggest player base by far is PC so what does that say...But forget that, you seem like one to have never play a survival game so why are you here again? People enjoy early access and especially survival games where the community helps flesh out the game over the years. Rust is a prime example of the positive side of early access titles, while Ark is the negative that comes with them. But that is with all games not just early access, if survival is not your thing why bother commenting?

Not everybody wants that single player, linear experience my dude. Don't get why you Sony fanboys don't get that. Main reason I switched from PS4 to PC was the games, I am tired of single player games I beat in 20-40 hours, don't care how good they are. When Sony finally decides to bring back some good Multiplayer games they own Syphon Filter, Socom, maybe get Insomniac to work on a new Resistane, then I will look into buying a PS5 but until then I will enjoy gaming on PC with my Steam sales, all the free games Epic keeps dishing out and also dabbling in the titles they put on Game Pass for PC.

[sero33]

polished? it has plenty of bugs. dont get me wrong. im absolutely enjoying the game. sure there is a lack of content but the groundwork's there for a solid survival game. but some of the bugs are getting really frustrating. spiders will spawn right on me when i wake up from sleeping. mobs of 10 or more larva spawn inside my fort destroying everything. soldier ants will camp paths and never leave. it just makes exploring hard when you have mobs trying to kill you spawn next to you every second.

[badz149]

plenty of bugs?? is that a pun?

[TheProblem]

MS still have a lot to prove with their studios. They took Rare, a legendary studio. Probably top 3 in the world and reduced them to nothing.

After acquiring all these studios, so far the first release from them is bleeding edge by Ninja Theory. The lowest rated game they have ever released.

Now we also have grounded which has little content. Microsoft have been talking big but the results speak for themselves

[King_Noctis]

You do realize games take time to make right? Games like Bleeding Edge and Grounded are just side projects for their studios. Let not pretend like big AAA games like Fable, Hellblade 2, Forza, or Avowed aren't coming.

[Question_Mark]

@Shaggy2304

Shhhh! Don’t use logic on Sony fanboys! It confuses them.

[DJStotty]

Rare started failing before MS took over, people leaving, etc etc.

[King Nezz]

I was telling my brother when they add areas how amazing it would be to fly into the kitchen through the window on a bee. That would be funny.

[Kribwalker]

Man Obsidian was such a huge get for MS. The outer worlds was awesome, grounded is a big success in early access, and Avowed’s trailer really hooked me and i can’t wait to get more info on that. These guys seem to be crushing it

[chiefJohn117]

Ah Christopher! I been looking for you!

[PyroMessiah86]

--

[Darkborn]

Honestly this is the only game that I liked from th rmicrosoft showcase except for probably avowed, even though no real gameplay was shown of avowed.

[GunHoCharlieA1]

Oh, man is this a trend we're noticing here with XGS pumping out CGIs and solid textured colred games? Where is the action-adventure gameplay and exclusives?

[PyroMessiah86]

Don't knock the game until you tried it. It's a decent game.

[phoenixwing]

basically microsoft is lucky they bought obsidian, the only real people who know what they're doing out of all their studios besides the ones who do their forza racing games. maybe ninja theory too but they're getting typecast a little with hellblade

[RamRod88]

Obsidian is the only talented developer at MS. Oh maybe Ninja Theory too, Turn 10, playground games, The initiative, The coalition, Inxile, Rare, Double Fine, but that's it! Nobody else!

[phoenixwing]

inxile aren't all that great, double fine's claim to fame is psychonauts which gameplay wise is crap, it's only lauded because of writing and interesting level design that doesn't all come together well. rare is a shell of itself, the coalitions last game is microtransaction infested, the initiative is unproven and hasn't made a game yet so don't act like they're golden when they aren't. i already said turn 10 was ok because they made racing games.

so yeah i said 3 devs what of it. i didn't say all the others are that great and i stand by it

edit: also if you payed any attention to the development of the halo game you would know that they cantract out the work instead of hiring permanent staff because they're trying to save a buck and it's creating development hell for the few that are actually staying on

[FlavorLav01]

And still, not a single Sony Santa Monica,
Sucker Punch, or Naughty Dog caliber exclusive debatably since Halo 3 or Gears of War 3(outside of Forza), a full generation ago. Wish it wasn’t so hard to admit for some that it has indeed been a bit of drought for those looking for those big ARPG experiences from studios with 1st hand knowledge of their hardware

[Melankolis]

They're all good. But i think they are too predictable. Look at Guerilla, suddenly they make Horizon after Killzone, Sucker Punch make Tsushima after Infamous, and Santa Monica, when we we thought God of War was finished, they rehaul everything in it.

[RamRod88]

Inxile and Double Fine have been around for about 20 year. They've been getting by with releasing terrible games this whole time. Psychonauts 2 and Wasteland 3 look absolutely horrible. /s Sea of Thieves is probably Rares most successful game to date and Everwild looks excellent.

Let's ignore the fact Gears 5 story is great, has some issues, but still better than 4s. How many of Sonys developers release a game with as much content as Gears 5? A story mode, multiplayer, escape mode, level creator, and Horde? I'm sure if The Coalition only focused on making an excellent story and nothing else, I'm sure they would nail it. Lets not forget they helped Splash Damage make Gears Tactic throughout development, which turned out great.The Initiative hasn't released a game yet, but once they do, I have no doubt it will be anything less than great simply based on the talent they have there. But sure, we'll take them out of the equation for now.
I've been paying attention to the development of Halo infinite so I'm aware of the contractors they've been hiring and other things going on. I'm sure with the COVID, it certainly has put more stress on the developers to get the game ready to ship this holiday. They have some issues internally for sure. I'm still confident Halo Infinite will be a great game. I know the graphics aren't where we all expected the game to be around this time, but then I look at everything else going on in the game, I see a game that lives up to the Halo standards. I'm going to reserve final judgement once the game fully releases.

[King_Noctis]

“ They're all good. But i think they are too predictable. ”

Did anyone predicted that Obsidian would make Avowed? Ninja Theory would make Project Mira? Rare would make Everwild?

[Gunstar75]

Typecast? They made 1 hellblade game...

[PyroMessiah86]

Loving this so far. Been playing it the past couple of nights with my gf, though she's super scared of spiders so thats been pretty amusing. Building our first base and defending it during the night from all the bugs has been a lot of fun so far. Change of pace from the main games in my library and long of the Dark Souls series 😂

Tried the beta and alpha before this Game Preview and it's coming together nicely. Lots of cool items, building is pretty fun and the concept whilst not new is pretty new in games. Whole sort of Hunny I Shrunk The Kids, meets Bugs Life meets Minecraft survival. Really. Recommend it 👍

[Sayai jin]

Yeah, it has been a pretty fun beta to play. There is a anti arachnophobia setting that makes it playable for people that are terribly afraid of spiders. That's the fun part of it though.

[Profchaos]

I still don't get this game is it purely survival is there a story with a difinitive end or dies it go until you die.

[PyroMessiah86]

Yeah there's story. Some of it released in the Game Preview which is gonna expand over time. Sort of a mystery type thing of figuring out what happened in regards to getting shrunk and such.

[Profchaos]

Cool Im down for that I just didn't know it was there most of its promotion that I've seen has been around it's graphics survival and gameplay mechanics.

[PyroMessiah86]

@ profchaos Yeah it's actually one of the better Game Preview games I've played so far. Tonnes of items and building stuff.

I'm only on my 2nd night of playing it so not sure how deep the story gets but think we'll see a good chunk of that as the Preview progresses.

[Sayai jin]

There is a story. From the looks of it, you have to find out why your are shrunken, how to get back to your original size, science questions, etc. It looks like the survival expect is just mixed in. So no it is not purely survival. You do have to survive to finish the story...as with any game.

[yomfweeee]

There are like 10 story quests that take 20 minutes. So, while there is a story... I'd say not really at this point.

[Father__Merrin]

looks a fun game if im being honest

[Jayrod]

I’m a PlayStation gamer but I must say I enjoyed watching my son played for the first time I’m definitely gonna check it out this weekend

[Hakuoro]

My problem is how it's becoming normalized to released unfinished games and no one can complain because "it's on game pass".

Microsoft just seems so low effort.

The last full game they released was Gears of War 5 almost a year ago and before that it was Forza Horizonin 2018.

[FlavorLav01]

Thank you, somebody had to say it. I believe MS are so low energy they’re turning most their games MMO so they don’t have to make proper sequels anymore. Keep games alive, proper narratives or amazing endings be damned! Halo”Infinite”, Sea of Thieves, State of Decay, Forza”rebooted”, Fable “rebooted”. It all smells of GAAS to me. Watch the next Gears be a Gears “universe” game and not Gears6. That will be the true sign to let us know where MS is steering the ship long term.

[Atom666]

I'm sure they look at the best selling game of all time, Minecraft, and say "we should do less of that."

They have popular tentpole titles like Halo, Forza, and Gears. People enjoy them for their SP and MP. Some people think they are milked, but dedicated fans want more.

So what is the best approach? Take Halo. We see it's going to have a campaign, and the newest MP rumors are very interesting. Is it bad to release a SP and MP Halo and find a way to support it with new content and new modes over a long term period?

Some people like to jump in, "complete" a game, and move onto the next. But is it wrong that some people just want more of their favorites? And isnt constant updates to a base game better than constant sequels?

GaaS gets people upset because of the bad practices we've seen. I get that. Sea of Thieves launched as a shell for instances. That's bullshit for $60 games. But as of today, it's grown to be one of the big successes of this gen.

The balance needs to be carefully crafted. In the case of Halo, it is primed to do the thing that Destiny missed on. Despite it's huge popularity, Destiny lacked that campaign and story heavy center. Halo can really find its home in that space.

Games like Forza should be a platform. Tracks, cars, features, modes, and enhancements can all be updates rather than reasons to put out $60 sequels every other year. Horizon too. What if the Horizon Festival really just was an expansion every year, rather than sequels?

GaaS doesn't have to be bad. We already get the worst of it in sports titles. My little crew haven't come off of MLB 17 for 3 years now once they dropped online franchise and pushed for the diamond dynasty stuff. That's just saying we want you buying the game every year AND buying MTs.

Sports would be perfect for GaaS. Likewise, an mmo State of Decay would be amazing. It would easily outsell its predecessors too.

Fable, Hellblade, Avowed, etc. won't go that route, but for others? It makes too much sense not to. And it's not a bad thing imo.

[DJStotty]

sea of thieves is the only gaas game on your list.

[RamRod88]

Ori 2 and Gears Tactics would like to have a word with you.

You're complaining about a game that is still in "Game Preview." I don't plan on playing it until the full release next year when I can play the entire story, but there is nothing wrong with the approach Obsidian is taking with a game like this. This way the community can help shape the game until the full release next year. There is so many different possibilities with a game like this if you really think about it.

[Hakuoro]

Ori is independently developed. And Gears Tactics is pretty budget to be fair.

[RamRod88]

Always moving the goals post. XGS published and funded both games. Ori 2 wasn't a cheap game and took years to make. Gears Tactic was in development for 4 years and had the budget of a AAA game. It has one of the most, if not the most, fleshed out campaigns for any game in its genre. Just admit you were wrong and we can move on.

[FlavorLav01]

So top down strategy and side scroller action are the high bar now. Super sad and why I’m uninterested is MS offerings of late. Not that those are bad games, but those are not anywhere near the action I’m looking for

[RamRod88]

It's okay if not every game Xbox game releases caters towards everyone's interest. I would rather see Xbox offer a diverse amount of content then release the same kind of games. You know, how everyone was complaining about Xbox only making shooters and racing games.
Then remember the issue was Xbox releasing unfinished games, these games are finished products when they released.
But because these games don't fit into your box of what you enjoy, they don't count or whatever. Like I said before, Sony fans moving goal post.

[DJStotty]

@RamRod88

"Gears Tactic was in development for 4 years and had the budget of a AAA game"

If it had the budget of a AAA game, then it is quite simply, a AAA game.

[Atom666]

Yes, most games in this genre have released to game preview prior to full release. Maybe that's "normalized," I suppose.

You already identified the issue with the MS 1st party releases. Who exactly was going to release these games you're (not really) looking for on GP?

Coalition isn't going to have anything to release right after Gears, but they managed to assist w/ therelease that "budget" tactics game.

Mojang released Dungeons.

We know what 343 is doing.

We know what Rare is doing.

After Horizon, we know what Playground is up to. Plus, as much as some people enjoy them, and as much as toxic little fanboys like to criticize them, I think giving Forza a small break is understandable by all.

So what new studios of theirs should be releasing these full games a year after their acquisition?

Regardless of Gamepass, this game is perched at the top of Steam as a paid game. Right below it are MCC, Flight Sim, and SoT. Those aren't GP games being artificially boosted by being "free." Those are sales of games you may not be interested in, but obviously others are.

They may have a long way to go to get all of their new studios firing, and you can say you're not interested in the games, but you can't say they haven't increased output and "effort" substantially.

[Hakuoro]

Let's compare them to Sony which released this year 2020 released Dreams AAA published Nioh 2 AAA released TLOU 2 AAA (even more than AAA really) Ghost of Tsushima AAA and MLB The Show.

And in 2019 they released Day's Gone AAA Death Stranding AAA Concrete Genie AA (but really high production) Medievel AA MLB the Show and Erica AA plus three VR AA games.

All of those games were complete games and aside from MLB none of them used MTX to fund development.

Or look at Nintendo if you don't want to just compare things to Sony, Nintendo isn't making unfinished low effort games. It's just Microsoft.

There is a clear distinction between the effort of Sony, Nintendo even the 3'rd party publishers and the effort of Microsoft.

[Atom666]

You keep saying effort and want to compare to others. I get it. They don't compare on the AAA output.

But what studios did they have to match Sony and Nintendo?

That's the part you're missing. They couldn't match them because they literally didn't have the humans available.

They're putting the effort in a lot more than the few years prior, but they're realistically 2 years from being close to matching Nintendo or Sony during their "big years".

[FlavorLav01]

Well that’s the problem right there, MS for 6-8 years now have been “years from being close to matching Nintendo or Sony”. As an original Xbox and 360, and I have (2) OneX...I’m tired of waiting and I’ve more than paid for my right to gripe about the lack of High-Quality content by this point.

[Hakuoro]

Well they did have the humans but Phil axed a ton of studios.

You "hope" they are putting in effort but certainly Halo doesn't show it Grounded is another half baked release Bleeding Edge was half baked.

A lot of what i am saying isn't about numbers it's about releasing unfinished content. Like Sea of Thieves was Crackdown was State of Decay was.

The only two games they have really released complete and polished have been Gears and Forza.

And further my point is that it seems like they are moving things more in the direction of unfinished by using game pass and GaaS as the excuse. The trend doesn't fully appear to be increasing quality in the future, the trend seems to be just to shove things onto game pass sink or swim.

[Atom666]

Wait, you didn't count Ori because it was "independently" developed, but you count other second party stuff like State of Decay (buggy but definitely not GaaS and was 2nd party at the time) and Crackdown (mediocre but not Gaas, developed by 2nd party).

Look at this month. Wasteland 3 (crpg not a Gaas) and Battletoads (not GaaS).

Grounded is looking like a hit. It's in game preview because it's unfinished. Kind of the point. Bleeding edge, budget game with budget price. I'm sure a lot of people would want huge AAAs, but they literally didn't have the studios to make them. We know these games were in development pre-acquistion though. So if you can use those as examples, why not Outer Worlds?

And keeping Lionhead open sure as shit wouldn't have changed anything. They were literally making the type of game you're complaining about.

Sea of Thieves was deservedly shit on for the state it released in. Seems to have redeemed itself. MS has been deservedly shit on for lack of output. It's looking better already.

But again, if you don't have the studios to make the games, WTF can you do?

You're right, I "hope" they are putting in effort because I will always "hope" for great games from everyone.

@flav

You're talking to someone who was there launch day for the Saturn, Dreamcast, Wii U, and Vita. I would gladly buy a Vita 2, Dreamcast 2, and I was there first thing for a Switch.

Gripe away if it helps you, but just letting you know, speaking with your wallet is the only thing that matters.

And why buy 2 one x's if you already were upset about the prior years? That's on you man.

[DJStotty]

nothing wrong with putting games in early access, to get the ideas/fixes done before it is released.

early access is not releasing a game then patching afterwards.

[anast]

Another great game ruined by the live service model.

[RamRod88]

How is this game ruined by following the live service model? Please explain.

[RamRod88]

Humor me. If you can't answer the simply question.
I don't understand the value of a full game because I play on Xbox? Gotcha. I've never spent a dime on microtransactions, but that can't be true because you said so. Unless you have something meaningful to add to the article instead of drive-by fanboy comments, just shut up.

[anast]

Live service is pay full price just to get in the door. The rest of the content that would otherwise complete the experience will be lock behind incremental pay walls. Now instead of a full game it will be hacked up and resold to the person that already paid full price for it. Or the person will have to pay perpetually for a sub just to play it and still not get the full experience unless the person is willing to fork over more cash for MTs or other service fees. Hence, what would have been a great game is now turned into a cheap carnival game. Therefore ruining the experience.

[RamRod88]

Not all live service titles are that way. Look at the recent titles XGS has released over the last several years. Sea of Thieves never charges you the monthly content they add, same with Gears 5, Minecraft, Bleeding Edge, Halo 5, MCC, State of Decay 2, and plenty of other Xbox games go this route. Most likely what will happen with this game is, they will release free content updates and possibly give players the option to buy cosmetic items.

[PyroMessiah86]

@RamRod88 It's no different than Minecraft's model, aka one of the biggest games on the planet but this is earlier in development. Don't worry about the PS fanboys here, they are in every Xbox/MS related article now.

If you show any love to any MS/Xbox thing you'll get downvoted to hell.

Funny that half the people commenting here on this article haven't even played the game and magically know 'everything about it' in their mind 😂

[DJStotty]

@PyroMessiah

"Don't worry about the PS fanboys here, they are in every Xbox/MS related article now."

That is because there is minimal PS5 news, regarding console or games. Whereas xbox series x is getting news weekly.

[chiefJohn117]

This game isn't live service

[DJStotty]

@Anast

"Live service is pay full price just to get in the door."

It's free though so.....

So would you call Destiny Gaas?

[Agito1987]

The game was a big surprise, played really well. Giving that sense of wonder exploring the world. Only too bad the Story so far is pretty short but still very solid for a preview.

[jlove4life]

I'm torn because the game is fun but it seem like it will be slow dripping content to keep us paying for gamepasss main story is really really short

[lellkay]

ahahahhaahahah

[Kerppamaister]

Immersion is a weird thing. Works in this game. First time one of them wolf spiders came at me almost didn't shit my pants. Very nearly almost

[Yodasfavoritesoda]

This game is gonna be a big hit! Obsidian with the backing of Microsoft is just pumping out hits

[Petebloodyonion]

It's actually a fun game
Is it a experience like Tlou2?
Of course not but it's not aiming to be one (and like the trailer said: if you are waiting for the biggest game then get Cyberpunk).
But the game is quite enjoyable in a group and the ideas works very well.