Topic: General Xbox Series X|S Thread

@Banjo- Absolutely. Speaking of that, I need to progress in the original game. Tried playing it back in December and I didn’t finish the first level.

@Pastellioli The first Fable game is awesome. I think that Perfect Dark became my most anticipated game yesterday. 😁

@Banjo- There are certainly a couple of games I need to play before some of these new titles drop in the future! I plan on trying to play through the original Perfect Dark games, complete Nuts and Bolts (since it’s the only Banjo game I’ve never completed) and possibly trying the original Fable too. It’s going to be fun! That showcase definitely rejuvenated some of my interest in these games.

To be honest, I'm looking forward to the rest of this year and feel more 'reassured' 2025 will be a cracker. Perfect Dark and Doom both look interesting and very different FPS games - liked PD's game-play too - very secret agent and mobile too. Doom looks like crazy slaying mayhem and fun...

I'm glad they are going back and putting the War back into Gears of War with E-Day - but I do think they ought to make a DLC add-on for Gears 5 to conclude that in the 'near' future at the very least. I know it could be 'difficult' to start '6' after 5, but they could do a 'Light' and 'Dark' conclusion based on that end for example, conclude that Storyline and enable them to 'move on' as this 'new' Coalition. Gears 5 will be on Game Pass for years so new 'Gears' fans too will want a satisfactory end...

I've been burnt too many times to be 'excited' for something you expect to be 'ready' on the day you expect only for 'delays' and/or unfinished cash grabs that I can't get excited for 2025+ games yet, but they were making me feel more a lot more confident in the value I'll get from Game Pass in the next 18months+. Many games I'll likely be excited for closer to launch, but with Indy, BO6, Avowed, Stalker 2 etc coming in the next half a year to be 'excited' for, plenty of time for the others in 2025 LOL...

Whether I play on Console or PC, it looks like I'll have something to play for 'free' and on Day 1 too. BO6, Stalker 2 and Indiana Jones are probably the 'most' excited for at the moment. I enjoy the campaign & round based Zombies and not paying £70 for it is a reason to be excited. Avowed looks interesting too and FS24 looks more interesting than just 'flying' a plane but not sure its my thing.

I'm not a SoD player, but I also thought SoD3 looked pretty interesting but Fable is looking incredible and I think really capturing the 'snarky Brit humour' of the Originals too so far. Atomfall caught my eye too - another very 'British' setting/game. South of Midnight left me conflicted, the cut scene animation stutter style is off putting, but the game-play looked far more fluid and quite interesting.

Plenty of games coming up in the next few months to be excited for and plenty that I'll want to know more about. The next 18m is looking rather Good - and this is 'just' MS games coming to Xbox/Game Pass to keep me Subscribed for and playing on their platform.

@Pastellioli All very good choices. The Xbox version of Perfect Dark is a massive technical improvement, much more enjoyable on Xbox than on N64. I know because I beat the game on both. The final boss on N64 is almost impossible because of the frame rate! I also liked Perfect Dark Zero. Of course, I love the game that started it all, Goldeneye 007. I beat the N64 version and the Xbox 360 remake on Series X in developer mode.

@Pastellioli
I can relate to that. The PD and golden eye games objective system boggled my mind at first since I was more used to 6th gen era shooters like max payne where you just move from point A to point B. Thankfully the gun play was very addictive and the games are not that long.

@Yousef- Yep, Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark are challenging of course, especially the harder difficulty modes, but the missions are not long and they have a variety of objectives. Modern shooters, some of them I like, but not many are at that level of level design and quality.

@Yousef- I loved the way PD and Goldeneye tackled difficulty. Instead of just making enemies more Bullet Sponges and/or you becoming far more delicate and fragile, they added more objectives you had to complete. Instead of just opening a gate for example, you may have to turn off Alarms, hack some system, turn the power on etc to be able to open the gate.

Modern game design would just make the enemies tougher or more numerous, reduce your health to the point that any damage means death, but the 'objective' remain the same regardless. Also, you did get rewarded for beating missions on the highest difficulty with unlockable cheat Codes, Characters and a couple of new maps too. Now that 'content' is sold rather than rewarded...

Ok! Just finished the first level in Perfect Dark and it’s pretty good so far. I think why I got stuck on the level and quit playing the game my first time was because I didn’t know how to open doors, which is probably the most video game journalist thing I’ve ever done lol. I’m pretty bad at playing Rare’s games on my first try and I only get better at them later when I use walkthroughs.

I had to use walkthroughs for some of the Banjo-Kazooie games and Conker’s Bad Fur Day when I first played them, though the walkthrough for the latter helped me the most since it’s pretty difficult to play thanks to it having junky controls. I tried replaying the War segment earlier today and it’s way too hard with how bad it controls, so I just stopped playing it. The shooting in that game is so dreadful actually…

@Pastellioli if it’s any consolation, I can definitely relate to a lot of this. PD felt really “foreign” to me at first but I managed to get the swing of things better. I would argue i had an easier time with banjo because of me beating Mario 64 in advance, so a lot about banjo was instantly recognizable.

@BAMozzy yup! It’s certainly a fun design choice braun teaser. While theres some merit to making enemies stronger, especially if the game was designed around it, it can definitely reek of laziness. Extra objectives can potentially add a ton of fun value to some missions, changing the way you play in general can unlock a new side of the game for you.

@Yousef- I have played first-person shooters before, but the ones I’ve played are more fast paced and not like Perfect Dark, where you have to complete a set of objectives to complete missions, alongside using gadgets and opening up doors to progress the game. I think I was expecting a faster pace when I first played it back in December, since compared to Rare’s other games, Perfect Dark is the one I never read heavily about before playing, but I am getting the hang of the game now luckily.

I did play Mario 64 maybe two or three years ago, but I never finished it. When I got the Expansion Pack on the Switch, I remember immediately jumping into Banjo (since that game was why I wanted the Expansion), but because I never fully played a Banjo game before or completed platformers similar to it, I initially had a hard time figuring out what objectives I needed to do without using a walkthrough. I remember I sucked at figuring out some most obvious parts, like the breakable window on that ship in Rusty Bucket Bay that leads to a room holding a jigsaw. I did try to avoid using walkthroughs for the sequel, but I failed at doing so because of the harder difficulty and used them anyway.

@Pastellioli I played PD on the N64 and LOVED it. Spent so many hours playing that and Goldeneye with Family and Friends.

When I go back and play basically the same game today, they really don't work for me. Controls can be clunky and aiming difficult when it was so Easy to me on N64. I had been playing Goldeneye since it released so that helped.But going from Modern Day Shooters to really old games, its not the best experience.

I've come to the conclusion that its better to keep the memories of playing because I've become too accustomed to 'modern' day controls and graphics. There was a time I was stunned by Goldeneye and how they really looked like there Human actors. Now it looks AWFUL compared to Hellblade 2 for example.

@BAMozzy I am more new to playing Rare’s older games, but I can understand. I can see that lot of those games were impressive and mind-blowing back then, but they are sometimes nigh impossible to play nowadays because of modern standards and control schemes rendering some of the controls outdated. Older games are more playable in remastered form, where the controls are usually better quality. I did hear the final parts of the N64 version of Perfect Dark are hard to play (and even almost UNPLAYABLE) but I can’t comment on that since I’m playing the 360 version, though I will say I am not surprised to hear that.

Bad Fur Day has awful shooting gameplay when compared to the shooting you see in modern games for example. I didn’t mind it when I played it for the first time back in September, but I am now starting to realize how terrible it was. It makes the entirety of the War segment hard and annoying, which stinks because it is full of a ton of cool and downright insane moments. To add, before that specific part, there are small portions that involve shooting, such as with a slingshot and shotgun, but they lack reticles there, which doesn’t help at all. There was a pretty hated remake they released back in 2005 that I feel plays better and has shooting that is more closer to modern shooters despite nearly being two decades old. I prefer playing that over the original actually.

I was having a talk with someone else on a Nintendo Life forum a few weeks ago and the person told me that he felt older games that are simple aged better than older games that are impressive and somewhat complex, and I can agree. I played the SNES Donkey Kong Country trilogy for the first time three years ago, and those games are still easy and playable by modern standards despite being from nearly thirty years ago, whereas a lot of ”impressive for their time” games like Bad Fur Day do not hold up well and become aged and sometimes unplayable as time goes on thanks to carrying some complexity with portions of the gameplay, though I also think the game being a 3D platformer and not 2D like DKC has something to do with how bad it’s aged.

@Pastellioli I bought Rare Replay as I loved Rare - inc their pre-Rare 'Ultimate' days I spent hours and hours playing Sabrewulf and Knightlore for example. However, trying to play Jet Force Gemini and even Blastcore two of my Favourite Rare games that I think would seriously benefit from a complete remake for modern Hardware.

But neither felt right or 'fun' anymore but then I lived and played through that era, being old enough to play the first Games and had some of the Hardware. I played Goldeneye and Perfect Dark with my Kids - now my kids are older than a lot who frequent here...

@BAMozzy I did hear about Jet Force Gemini. I did play some of that a year ago and did not get far into it, but I did hear it’s a slog to get through, since you apparently have to save every single member of that bear-like alien race to finish it, which, despite only hearing that, sort of kills my interest in giving it another go. It just sounds like they put in some collectathon elements from the Banjo games (the Jinjos specifically) with that aspect, but chose to make it worse by making it a requirement to collect every one of them.

Blast Corps, on the other hand, I was actually close to finishing and thought was good, until I started to realize later on during the final set of levels that the game’s controls aren’t great, not to mention the difficulty ramps up by that point and you have to act swift to complete the timed levels, so the outdated controls just make things worse.

With the other Rare games I have completed, I still love them, but I tend to play them for a little and then stop. I usually don’t think of doing second playthroughs after. Luckily, Bad Fur Day has this feature that allows you to replay specific parts of the game and skip portions of it, so I use that a lot when I want to play through some of my favorite moments from the game but don’t want to go through portions of the game that are difficult or annoying to complete.

@Pastellioli I didn't have this one for N64, but I beat Jet Force Gemini on Xbox and although some levels are challenging, I enjoyed it a lot. It took me some time to get used to the controls and aiming, that have been improved in the Xbox version, but once I got the hang of it, it was a blast, with the typical addiction of Rare's games. Also, you just reminded me that I tried but I didn't beat Blast Corps.

@Banjo- Maybe I could still give it a try at some point and see myself… I do think I maybe did sound a little judgmental of a game I didn’t play much of, which I do think isn’t entirely fair. If I recall, I only did two or so levels before dropping it and never got to playing as the other two main characters. I could revisit it, though only after I complete the Perfect Dark games and Nuts and Bolts, which might take me a while, though moreso with the latter since I’m not used to construction games and elements that pertain to it.

@Pastellioli Yes, you need to beat the others first 🤣. The first level of Jet Force Gemini is the most difficult of all, because the player is probably not used to that kind of controls and aiming. If you go back to this level to find the Tribles later, then you realise how easy it really is. It's one of those games that is easier the more you play, except certain platforming section, strangely enough.

@Pastellioli

I forgot to reply but yeah. Mario 64 is essential before playing any other n64 platformer, and banjo is especially essential before playing any other 3D rare stuff. It’s thankfully available on the Nintendo online service too (though the Xbox version is obviously superior thanks to turning notes into normal collectibles that don’t need to be re-collected)

By the by, in case I forgot to share it. My Nintendo friend code is SW-7391-1388-5607 , it’s not quite relevant, but I felt I shoulda mention it at some point. I’ll put it in my forum signature and bio too when I’m less lazy haha.