They failed to ship the full game on disc despite releasing a “physical” version, so after holding out so long for what turned out to be deceit I went ahead and put on my eye patch and played the game on pc at a 100% discount. It was ok. It managed to improve some things, take a major step back in other ways (like butchering the aesthetic design choices of the original), and completely sidestep any work to fix the innumerable game breaking bugs and glitches that are a hallmark of Bethesda Softworks.
Always preferred GT’s insanely obsessive attention to detail over Forza Motorsport. I did appreciate Turn 10’s role in forcing GT to not lapse into complacency, so in any other circumstance I’d be very leery Motorsport is no more if only for the possible deleterious effects it might have on GT. Sadly, this is irrelevant since before GT7’s launch, as Sony decided to turn it into a live service title. It’s the only GT I haven’t even bothered to boot up. If I can’t own it, I don’t really have any interest in playing it either.
Ah, but is it truly optional? Can I disable it or block it or remove it from the ui experience? Or are we talking passive-aggressive ‘optional’, like it’ll be shoved in our faces at every available opportunity with menu/UI layout designs ‘heavily encouraged’ to make use of it?
If everyone on earth interested in Xbox and who was capable of leaving feedback united en masse and flooded social media stating we don’t want copilot touching Helix, Satya would still force it into where it doesn’t belong. They’re ’listening’ and ‘hearing’ any and all feedback all right…as long as it lines up with their prearranged intentions.
Always liked DoubleFine’s stuff. Need to find out if there’s a physical copy at/near launch (with the full game on disc) or to wait for a 75% off sale if it’s digital only.
Never used quick resume even once. These machines boot up and load so fast this gen I just don’t see the point. I also don’t like being dumped straight into a game in any way that bypasses the game’s main menu. Maybe it’s an ingrained trait from living through the NES era where booting up a game meant a main menu screen every single time. This isn’t unique to Xbox either, I hated those ‘activity cards’ over on the PlayStation too.
In fact, I’m playing Ghost of Yotei right now and that game force loads your current save whenever you open the game from the system homescreen. There is literally no way to make the game go to the main menu upon startup. It’s absurd. Don’t want to load that save? Too bad. It loads you in, then you have to exit to the main menu from within the game, and only then can you load a different save. Oh and that new Legends mode? Same deal. First it force loads your main game save, then you have to choose legends from the pause menu. Incomprehensibly stupid backward design. It’s called a Main Menu for a reason.
This might be the only time I would ever even think to consider playing a game anywhere other than my S tier home setup, if only to play Thomas the Tank Engine on an actual train. Alas, there are no railways near me.
Not that I’m remotely interested in the game itself, but is it confirmed whether or not the PS5 ‘physical’ edition will actually have the game on the disc, or is Microsoft/Bethesda pulling their usual anti-consumer BS and pressing a worthless plastic coaster with a few MB’s on it?
This DLSS5 reveal is getting annihilated everywhere I look. Go read the comments in the DigitalFoundry video; what’s normally a butt kissing comment section praising DF and claiming they can do no wrong has completely flipped the script. Gamer’s Nexus has a delightful post about it too.
Not sure what Bethesda’s bragging about here. The base game is a technical and artistically devoid mess, so adding DLSS5 to it would be like applying an instagram ai slop filter to a dog poop laying on the sidewalk. Go interact with it afterward and tell me it’s ‘better’
Too bad AMD probably has the trademark to the “XTX” nomenclature on their graphics cards. I could see it being introduced as the DirectXbox XTX Ai or something similarly awful.
I have nothing to add to the above comments, I can only reiterate.
The death spiral will continue; the ai slop will become intrinsically entwined with the very identity of the Xbox brand, all the good 1st party games will be given away to everyone else while no one reciprocates, and if you think hardware sales are low now then you’re in for a world of hurt once a $1K~ ‘PC masquerading as a console’ hits the market. At some point Satya will see the CPR has failed and he’ll pull the plug on Xbox as we know it (and it already hasn’t been what we knew it as for some time now) and it’ll be nothing but a label. Full Atari. Full NEC. Full 3DO. Full Sega.
First he says “If you’re a developer, putting your game out across as many different store fronts and platforms increases your opportunities for sales.” Then one sentence later he highlights Play Anywhere, which cuts into the sales potential of selling multiple copies on multiple devices.
I think it’ll be swept under the rug. I don’t see how Xbox can ever officially address this, since it was a definitive statement. It’s either ‘We lied, your other device was never an Xbox’ or ‘Well, it was an Xbox…but no longer’
It’s a lose-lose scenario for one of the most incompetent, self defeating marketing campaigns ever devised. This is right up there with those ‘Don Mattrick: Sony Employee of the Year 2013’ memes
Really tired of Microsoft PR crafting a statement that is good in and of itself, but then they tack something extra onto it that turns it from a good statement into a questionable one.
“As part of our 25th anniversary later this year, [the game preservation team] will release some iconic games from the past that are now going to be able to be played in entirely new ways”
Chop out that last bit and you’d have a perfectly awesome announcement. You’re brining back BC and have some iconic games from the past we can now play. That’s it. The end. Idgaf about being able to play them “in entirely new ways”. If BaskinRobbins got rid of chocolate ice cream for a few years then announced they were bringing the flavor back, that’s great. Don’t try to tell me there’s ’new and exciting ways for you to eat it!’ or some crap like that, it feels pandering.
I’m trying to imagine an absolute best case scenario here.
Let’s say the devs get the kits in January of 2027. Let’s say the hardware is super easy to code for. Let’s say it’s all very intuitive and Microsoft is good about providing hands on help when needed. Let’s say whatever projects devs have been working on in the background that are already up and running on guesstimated proxy hardware translate very well to the actual dev kits.
This is still a really miniscule window of time to even think about getting something out the door and ready for launch in what would be supposedly the same year, 2027. I don’t see how anything but a low budget, low tech, low scope indie game could see release in the launch window. I fear for another Series X launch fiasco repeat, where yeah the hardware is great but there is literally no ‘next gen’ software at launch and you’re stuck playing last gen content on your shiny new $1K+ investment. That’s not a good look.
I keep going back and forth as to whether following the Series S|X model and designing a weak entry Helix alongside a capable enthusiast Helix would be better or worse this upcoming generation.
On the one hand, the MLID leaked specs for the enthusiast model are quite good, so you’d think starting from a higher roof would raise the floor in a corresponding manner, meaning a better ‘casual helix’. No more ‘the series X version is great, the s version is a severely compromised downgrade’ situations.
Then again, this is far more a pc than a console and I’m wondering just how much you can hack down the specs before the latest and greatest pc versions really do become severely compromised. PC is all about scalability, but try playing Cyberpunk with path tracing on a 5090 and then plunging into the godforsaken cesspool of running it on a budget entry GPU with settings cranked all the way down and the resolution being a garbled mess thanks to crappy upscalers. Is that what’s in store for the Enthusiast Helix vs Casual Helix? That’s arguably an even worse look than all the lousy Series S versions of X games.
This ship has sailed so far away it’s beyond the horizon already. The time for this sentiment, these actions, was at the beginning of the Xbox One generation. That’s the thing about irreparable damage; it’s irreparable
Someone should let Ubisoft know that just because there was a wealthy, upper crust living alongside second class citizens in Unity doesn’t mean they should reenact that in the console space by catering to one platform while the other languishes
I’d be very curious to see what a hypothetical Silent Hill 2 addition to the BC program would look like. It’s a lousy port on original hardware (DF has used it as a whipping boy a few times) but that’s on original hardware. Up the resolution, up the framerate consistency and it might prove to be a complete reversal of fortunes. I don’t know whether they could fix the crap implementation of fog and weather effects though. I mean they obviously could, but that might fall outside the scope of their efforts.
This is the only reason I engage with any part of Microsoft’s ecosystem outside of Xbox (i.e. the store on an actual Xbox console, not the ‘everything’s an Xbox!’ BS marketing). After I cash in my points I’m out.
All I want from Sony first party is single player narrative driven games. That’s it. They come in all flavors; sad dad walking sims to rogue like shooters to open world action adventure stuff. Some hit hard, others miss the mark and some are simply average.
What I don’t want from Sony is live service slop. I would have bought Marathon in a heartbeat if it was a story driven FPS with that same great visual aesthetic and gunplay, but I have less than no interest in a multiplayer focused, server dependent GaaS title.
This is a potential solution to a problem that shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Evidently someone is making a game that’s too convoluted for the ordinary person to understand or so absurdly difficult the average player can’t engage with it. It’s like your light bulb burnt out so you decide to wear night vision googles. Just change the bulb
@Fiendish-Beaver PC will unequivocally be the best place to play this (as long as ‘best’ means highest settings possible to you). But I’m with you in that I genuinely dislike playing on pc for most titles most of the time. Pro would theoretically be the next best place to play, but that’s only if devs take advantage of the better hardware and feature set. Until now that was a crapshoot, but with it already confirmed to be using PSSR 2.0 that trend might be changing. Keep your eyes peeled for DF’s console analyses!
The assets in this game are incredibly poor on all versions. Texture quality is muddy and blurry, polygon counts on models are low (everything that should be round has plenty of corners), mid distance lods are glaringly low detailed and pop in is a frequent issue. Bethesda’s tech has always been rather poor, and FO4 is certainly no exception. Saying the series S version is more presentable than Switch 2 isn’t really a feather in its cap, it’s more like having the shiniest turd.
@Coletrain your perspective seems based on a lot of ‘on paper’ points that the reality of the situation just isn’t reflecting. They’re crushing it in the console space with 100million units sold and record revenues despite the genuine lack of constant AAA bangers like the PS4 generation had.
Would more and better exclusives increase their position? Obviously. But they aren’t floundering nor is their situation even remotely resembling the dire predicament you’re painting for them. The PS5 is the ‘de facto’ console, for better or for worse, and that’s highly unlikely to change whenever PS6 comes out. Again, you have a lot of points that sound good individually and theoretically, but things just aren’t panning out in a way to legitimize your statements.
I feel bad for any achievement hunters out there who are going to be screwed out of full 100% completion because of the somewhat abrupt nature of this shutdown. There should be a consolation edict that requires devs to bolt on alternative offline methods of unlocking achievements for otherwise online only games for cases like these.
She’s merely doubling down on the current direction Xbox has been heading toward and attempting to reframe things in a more palatable way. If the console is only the ‘reference experience’ that means their focus is already split and the brand is already planned to be further diluted.
Adding these mega huge titles this late after their launch dates can be rather eyebrow raising. It’s been on sale multiple times already so anyone who wanted it would have bought it by now, and anyone who hasn’t probably isn’t interested. I suppose it’s great for those that fall into the ‘on the fence’ group, but again—you’d think those people would have at least tried it somehow already to make up their minds by now. Strange.
I’m deathly curious to see how much of the hate was real, and how much was grifting. I myself have repurchased several PS5 ports of former xbox exclusives for a few reasons, but I will not be buying this bug filled, glitch riddled, janky pile of outdated spaghetti code. Didn’t buy it on Xbox, won’t be buying it anywhere else. My standard of quality is simply too high to tolerate this level of broken, unpolished slop.
It still boggles my mind the degree to which Bethesda gets away with what they put out—if any other AAA publisher put out something this poorly optimized and feature-incomplete, it would light the internet on fire. Just imagine if one of Nintendo or Sony’s first party studio darlings shipped something in the state Starfield launched in. They’d be skewered to the wall. Yet Bethesda inexplicably gets away with it. I guess their target audience is more impressed by being able to stack grilled cheese sandwiches like dominos rather than a extremely polished, well crafted games.
Fun stuff. Games from this era had their priorities in line with a focus on pure gameplay. No microtransactions, no forced online, no subscription fee, the game was fully on disc (a lot easier back then, but still) and nothing crammed in the game that doesn’t belong. Better times.
Haven’t opened my copy yet, but after watching Digital Foundry’s coverage I’m glad I went with the PS5 version (specifically to be played on my Pro). That said, I’d be pleased with the Series X version as well. My heart goes out to anyone suffering through the series S version, it’s far and away the worst way to play this.
The statement in Forbes about “The genre, to me, has always felt like a big time-waster. One bad run, possibly with deaths you couldn’t even avoid, and you can lose that great gear it took a zillion games to find.” resonates very strongly with me. A game in which the potential to make players feel like they’ve wasted their time is inherently bad design right out of the gate.
I love the visual design language of Marathon, and I’m sure the gunplay is up to Bungie’s always-awesome standard, but I have zero interest in some sweaty PvP extraction garbage. If this were a single player narrative driven adventure with a story as compelling as the visual style, I’d have preorders already. As it stands this is nothing to me but a waste of time.
My confidence in the state and direction of the brand is essentially null. What I want from Xbox is no longer their priority; it mostly isn’t even on their radar.
I want exclusive games driving people to the hardware. I want that hardware to be self contained and dedicated solely to gaming. I want true permanent ownership of my games, the type of ownership that only comes with physical media (the full game contained on disc without any internet download required BS). I want a dashboard/homescreen free from the scourge of ads or ai. I want the console to be the focus of the brand and anything else to be simply a passing afterthought.
Basically I just want the original Xbox all over again, but that is not what Microsoft wants. If they had their wish we’d own nothing, pay ever increasing monthly access fees to rent content and have our eyelids stapled to our foreheads to make it easier to consume as much ai slop as they can force feed to every screen in our homes.
Without a statistic disclosing the amount of time these games were played for, this is practically useless information. If half these people booted up the game, played 5mins and said ‘this isn’t for me’ and shut it off, that paints a very different picture. Without that specific metric this info doesn’t tell us much.
That’s the thing about intentionally burning bridges. You can rebuild them, but the amount of traffic that crosses them won’t ever be the same again. ‘Fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice…’ etc.
I’m going to assume in this hypothetical that Satya is releasing his ai infected brainrot death grip on the wheel and I can reasonably steer the ship myself. In no particular order:
•Ban all ai from the next console. Not the machine learning upscaling type ai tech, but that copilot and copilot-adjacent ai agent worthless slop. Ban all ads, either on the dashboard or in-game (not counting random product placement, like the brand name food and drink items in MGS4 for instance).
•Force all first party devs to release their games fully on disc without any internet connection or downloads required (exceptions made for GaaS stuff like Sea of thieves or Flight sim that wouldn’t be possible to put on 20 discs) and highly suggest (think ‘one step removed from threaten’) 2nd and 3rd party devs to do the same.
•All Magnus consoles, whether in house or OEM will be built with a mandatory internal, integrated disc drive for complete and total backwards compatibility. Disc drive isn’t detachable and doesn’t need to be paired using the internet (cough Sony cough).
•No steam or alternate storefronts. You’re buying an Xbox for Xbox games and access to the Xbox storefront. You want Steam or GoG or epic? Go play on pc.
•Overhaul the achievement system. Include a green version of the Platinum, and more importantly enable the end user to permanently erase a game with incomplete achievements from their list. Not “hide”, permanently delete. Establish platform wide criteria as to what constitutes an acceptable achievement and what is an unacceptable stipulation for unlocking. Force devs to split any multiplayer achievements off into a separate sku (which can be deleted if desired) so as not to ruin the achievement hunting experience for those uninterested in multiplayer (and vice versa for those who don’t want single player).
•Reinstate first party exclusives and aggressively court 3rd party timed exclusivity.
•Pursue Japanese games at any cost and further strengthen those relationships.
Comments 692
Re: Talking Point: 20 Years Later, How Do You Feel About The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion In 2026?
They failed to ship the full game on disc despite releasing a “physical” version, so after holding out so long for what turned out to be deceit I went ahead and put on my eye patch and played the game on pc at a 100% discount. It was ok. It managed to improve some things, take a major step back in other ways (like butchering the aesthetic design choices of the original), and completely sidestep any work to fix the innumerable game breaking bugs and glitches that are a hallmark of Bethesda Softworks.
Re: Forza Horizon 6 Dev Explains How Turn 10 Has Helped Since Dropping 2023's Forza Motorsport
Always preferred GT’s insanely obsessive attention to detail over Forza Motorsport. I did appreciate Turn 10’s role in forcing GT to not lapse into complacency, so in any other circumstance I’d be very leery Motorsport is no more if only for the possible deleterious effects it might have on GT. Sadly, this is irrelevant since before GT7’s launch, as Sony decided to turn it into a live service title. It’s the only GT I haven’t even bothered to boot up. If I can’t own it, I don’t really have any interest in playing it either.
Re: Xbox 'Copilot' Demonstration Hints At How It'll Work On Your Series X|S
Ah, but is it truly optional? Can I disable it or block it or remove it from the ui experience? Or are we talking passive-aggressive ‘optional’, like it’ll be shoved in our faces at every available opportunity with menu/UI layout designs ‘heavily encouraged’ to make use of it?
Re: Former Xbox Leader Don Mattrick Lands Major New Role As CEO Of Photonic
“Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of quantum computing, it's called xbox 360.”
Re: 'Keep The Feedback Coming' - Xbox Boss Says New Console Features Were Built Two Weeks Ago
If everyone on earth interested in Xbox and who was capable of leaving feedback united en masse and flooded social media stating we don’t want copilot touching Helix, Satya would still force it into where it doesn’t belong. They’re ’listening’ and ‘hearing’ any and all feedback all right…as long as it lines up with their prearranged intentions.
Re: Guide: Marathon Data Reconstruction Contract: Part 1
The article picture makes me want some Good’n’Plenty
Re: Xbox Fan Shows Off Their Collection Of 'Almost' Every OXM Demo Disc
Ah, the good old days!
Re: Microsoft's Next First-Party Release Officially Launches On Xbox Game Pass This April
Always liked DoubleFine’s stuff. Need to find out if there’s a physical copy at/near launch (with the full game on disc) or to wait for a 75% off sale if it’s digital only.
Re: Xbox Series X|S Is Getting Its First Dashboard Update In Ages, Quick Resume Upgrade Included
Never used quick resume even once. These machines boot up and load so fast this gen I just don’t see the point. I also don’t like being dumped straight into a game in any way that bypasses the game’s main menu. Maybe it’s an ingrained trait from living through the NES era where booting up a game meant a main menu screen every single time. This isn’t unique to Xbox either, I hated those ‘activity cards’ over on the PlayStation too.
In fact, I’m playing Ghost of Yotei right now and that game force loads your current save whenever you open the game from the system homescreen. There is literally no way to make the game go to the main menu upon startup. It’s absurd. Don’t want to load that save? Too bad. It loads you in, then you have to exit to the main menu from within the game, and only then can you load a different save. Oh and that new Legends mode? Same deal. First it force loads your main game save, then you have to choose legends from the pause menu. Incomprehensibly stupid backward design. It’s called a Main Menu for a reason.
Re: 'I'm Of Two Minds' - Todd Howard Gives His Thoughts On Xbox's Leadership Changes
Wait, this is the guy who said he liked the new DLSS 5 TikTok instagram ai slop filter right?
Re: First Reviews & Xbox Gameplay Revealed For Thomas & Friends: Wonders Of Sodor
This might be the only time I would ever even think to consider playing a game anywhere other than my S tier home setup, if only to play Thomas the Tank Engine on an actual train. Alas, there are no railways near me.
Re: Starfield Gets Major Free Update & New Expansion Next Month, Alongside PS5 Release
Not that I’m remotely interested in the game itself, but is it confirmed whether or not the PS5 ‘physical’ edition will actually have the game on the disc, or is Microsoft/Bethesda pulling their usual anti-consumer BS and pressing a worthless plastic coaster with a few MB’s on it?
Re: Bethesda Says Starfield Looks 'Amazing' With Nvidia's DLSS 5, But Don't Expect It On Xbox
This DLSS5 reveal is getting annihilated everywhere I look. Go read the comments in the DigitalFoundry video; what’s normally a butt kissing comment section praising DF and claiming they can do no wrong has completely flipped the script. Gamer’s Nexus has a delightful post about it too.
Not sure what Bethesda’s bragging about here. The base game is a technical and artistically devoid mess, so adding DLSS5 to it would be like applying an instagram ai slop filter to a dog poop laying on the sidewalk. Go interact with it afterward and tell me it’s ‘better’
Re: Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War Is Out Now On Xbox, And It's Getting Good Reviews
Watched the trailer, this does look pretty good
Re: Talking Point: What Should Xbox Call Its 'Project Helix' Console?
Too bad AMD probably has the trademark to the “XTX” nomenclature on their graphics cards. I could see it being introduced as the DirectXbox XTX Ai or something similarly awful.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You 'Expect' From Xbox Over The Next Five Years?
I have nothing to add to the above comments, I can only reiterate.
The death spiral will continue; the ai slop will become intrinsically entwined with the very identity of the Xbox brand, all the good 1st party games will be given away to everyone else while no one reciprocates, and if you think hardware sales are low now then you’re in for a world of hurt once a $1K~ ‘PC masquerading as a console’ hits the market. At some point Satya will see the CPR has failed and he’ll pull the plug on Xbox as we know it (and it already hasn’t been what we knew it as for some time now) and it’ll be nothing but a label. Full Atari. Full NEC. Full 3DO. Full Sega.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox Game Pass Players, What Do You Think Of Cyberpunk 2077?
I appreciate the way the title is worded.
Re: 'We Will See More Games Come To Xbox Quicker' - Microsoft Exec Talks Plans For The Future
First he says “If you’re a developer, putting your game out across as many different store fronts and platforms increases your opportunities for sales.” Then one sentence later he highlights Play Anywhere, which cuts into the sales potential of selling multiple copies on multiple devices.
Re: Microsoft's 'This Is An Xbox' Post Taken Down As Fans Wonder If The Controversial Ad Is No More
I think it’ll be swept under the rug. I don’t see how Xbox can ever officially address this, since it was a definitive statement. It’s either ‘We lied, your other device was never an Xbox’ or ‘Well, it was an Xbox…but no longer’
It’s a lose-lose scenario for one of the most incompetent, self defeating marketing campaigns ever devised. This is right up there with those ‘Don Mattrick: Sony Employee of the Year 2013’ memes
Re: Xbox Says Backwards Compatibility Program Will Be Revived For 25th Anniversary
Really tired of Microsoft PR crafting a statement that is good in and of itself, but then they tack something extra onto it that turns it from a good statement into a questionable one.
“As part of our 25th anniversary later this year, [the game preservation team] will release some iconic games from the past that are now going to be able to be played in entirely new ways”
Chop out that last bit and you’d have a perfectly awesome announcement. You’re brining back BC and have some iconic games from the past we can now play. That’s it. The end. Idgaf about being able to play them “in entirely new ways”. If BaskinRobbins got rid of chocolate ice cream for a few years then announced they were bringing the flavor back, that’s great. Don’t try to tell me there’s ’new and exciting ways for you to eat it!’ or some crap like that, it feels pandering.
Re: Xbox Reveals New Details On 'Project Helix' Next-Gen Console, Says Devs Will Get It In 2027
I’m trying to imagine an absolute best case scenario here.
Let’s say the devs get the kits in January of 2027. Let’s say the hardware is super easy to code for. Let’s say it’s all very intuitive and Microsoft is good about providing hands on help when needed. Let’s say whatever projects devs have been working on in the background that are already up and running on guesstimated proxy hardware translate very well to the actual dev kits.
This is still a really miniscule window of time to even think about getting something out the door and ready for launch in what would be supposedly the same year, 2027. I don’t see how anything but a low budget, low tech, low scope indie game could see release in the launch window. I fear for another Series X launch fiasco repeat, where yeah the hardware is great but there is literally no ‘next gen’ software at launch and you’re stuck playing last gen content on your shiny new $1K+ investment. That’s not a good look.
Re: Microsoft's 2026 GDC Booth Showcases An Impressive Look At The History Of Xbox Consoles
It’s like the ‘Started from the bottom, now we here’ meme but reversed. And under glass.
Re: Digital Foundry Speculates Whether There'll Be An Xbox Series S Successor Next-Gen
I keep going back and forth as to whether following the Series S|X model and designing a weak entry Helix alongside a capable enthusiast Helix would be better or worse this upcoming generation.
On the one hand, the MLID leaked specs for the enthusiast model are quite good, so you’d think starting from a higher roof would raise the floor in a corresponding manner, meaning a better ‘casual helix’. No more ‘the series X version is great, the s version is a severely compromised downgrade’ situations.
Then again, this is far more a pc than a console and I’m wondering just how much you can hack down the specs before the latest and greatest pc versions really do become severely compromised. PC is all about scalability, but try playing Cyberpunk with path tracing on a 5090 and then plunging into the godforsaken cesspool of running it on a budget entry GPU with settings cranked all the way down and the resolution being a garbled mess thanks to crappy upscalers. Is that what’s in store for the Enthusiast Helix vs Casual Helix? That’s arguably an even worse look than all the lousy Series S versions of X games.
Re: Xbox Must Live Up To Expectations Of Fans Who Have 'Counted On Us', Says Microsoft Boss
This ship has sailed so far away it’s beyond the horizon already. The time for this sentiment, these actions, was at the beginning of the Xbox One generation. That’s the thing about irreparable damage; it’s irreparable
Re: Assassin's Creed Unity's 60FPS Upgrade Is Seemingly Broken On Xbox Series X|S
Someone should let Ubisoft know that just because there was a wealthy, upper crust living alongside second class citizens in Unity doesn’t mean they should reenact that in the console space by catering to one platform while the other languishes
Re: The 10 Most Wanted Backwards Compatibility Games According To 'Xbox Game Preservation'
I’d be very curious to see what a hypothetical Silent Hill 2 addition to the BC program would look like. It’s a lousy port on original hardware (DF has used it as a whipping boy a few times) but that’s on original hardware. Up the resolution, up the framerate consistency and it might prove to be a complete reversal of fortunes. I don’t know whether they could fix the crap implementation of fog and weather effects though. I mean they obviously could, but that might fall outside the scope of their efforts.
Re: Talking Point: Are You Happy With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate In 2026?
$30 a month to own nothing.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Reduces 'Daily Set' Points Across Multiple Regions
This is the only reason I engage with any part of Microsoft’s ecosystem outside of Xbox (i.e. the store on an actual Xbox console, not the ‘everything’s an Xbox!’ BS marketing). After I cash in my points I’m out.
Re: Talking Point: Will 'Project Helix' Be A Niche Device, Or An Xbox Console For The Masses?
Beyond niche. If Niche is a market demographic in and of itself, Project Helix will be the niche of niche.
Re: Marathon's Final Reviews Are Mostly Being Held Back, So Here's What Xbox Players Are Saying
All I want from Sony first party is single player narrative driven games. That’s it. They come in all flavors; sad dad walking sims to rogue like shooters to open world action adventure stuff. Some hit hard, others miss the mark and some are simply average.
What I don’t want from Sony is live service slop. I would have bought Marathon in a heartbeat if it was a story driven FPS with that same great visual aesthetic and gunplay, but I have less than no interest in a multiplayer focused, server dependent GaaS title.
Re: With Xbox's 'Project Helix' Revealed, How Likely Is A 2027 Release Date?
Not 2026. Probably 2027. With RAMageddon and other potential factors, I could also see it slip to 2028.
Re: Xbox Announces New 'Project Helix' Console, Says It Will Play PC Games
So is that our Xbox and our ‘Xbox pc’ games, or our Xbox and Steam/GoG/Epic/etc pc games?
Re: Here's Almost 10 Minutes Of Uncut Gameplay Footage From Forza Horizon 6
Looks awesome.
Re: Microsoft Has Explored Allowing AI & Other Xbox Players To Help Control Your Games
This is a potential solution to a problem that shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Evidently someone is making a game that’s too convoluted for the ordinary person to understand or so absurdly difficult the average player can’t engage with it. It’s like your light bulb burnt out so you decide to wear night vision googles. Just change the bulb
Re: Crimson Desert Impresses In Previews As Dev Urges Patience For Xbox & PS5 Footage
@Fiendish-Beaver PC will unequivocally be the best place to play this (as long as ‘best’ means highest settings possible to you). But I’m with you in that I genuinely dislike playing on pc for most titles most of the time. Pro would theoretically be the next best place to play, but that’s only if devs take advantage of the better hardware and feature set. Until now that was a crapshoot, but with it already confirmed to be using PSSR 2.0 that trend might be changing. Keep your eyes peeled for DF’s console analyses!
Re: Assassin's Creed Unity Is Getting A Free Xbox Series X|S Upgrade This Week
These are always interesting DF videos to watch, when they compare the Xbox BC FPS boost tech vs an official patch.
Re: Digital Foundry Compares Fallout 4 On Switch 2 & Series S, Xbox Version Wins Out
The assets in this game are incredibly poor on all versions. Texture quality is muddy and blurry, polygon counts on models are low (everything that should be round has plenty of corners), mid distance lods are glaringly low detailed and pop in is a frequent issue. Bethesda’s tech has always been rather poor, and FO4 is certainly no exception. Saying the series S version is more presentable than Switch 2 isn’t really a feather in its cap, it’s more like having the shiniest turd.
Re: Next Xbox Console Could Be Affected By PlayStation Pulling Back On PC
@Coletrain your perspective seems based on a lot of ‘on paper’ points that the reality of the situation just isn’t reflecting. They’re crushing it in the console space with 100million units sold and record revenues despite the genuine lack of constant AAA bangers like the PS4 generation had.
Would more and better exclusives increase their position? Obviously. But they aren’t floundering nor is their situation even remotely resembling the dire predicament you’re painting for them. The PS5 is the ‘de facto’ console, for better or for worse, and that’s highly unlikely to change whenever PS6 comes out. Again, you have a lot of points that sound good individually and theoretically, but things just aren’t panning out in a way to legitimize your statements.
Re: Highguard Goes Offline Next Week As Failed Online Shooter Officially Shuts Down
I feel bad for any achievement hunters out there who are going to be screwed out of full 100% completion because of the somewhat abrupt nature of this shutdown. There should be a consolation edict that requires devs to bolt on alternative offline methods of unlocking achievements for otherwise online only games for cases like these.
Re: Xbox Head Doubles Down On The Importance Of Console, Says It's A 'Reference Experience'
She’s merely doubling down on the current direction Xbox has been heading toward and attempting to reframe things in a more palatable way. If the console is only the ‘reference experience’ that means their focus is already split and the brand is already planned to be further diluted.
Re: Xbox Is Teasing Something 'Very Cool' For Game Pass This Month, Possibly Cyberpunk 2077
Adding these mega huge titles this late after their launch dates can be rather eyebrow raising. It’s been on sale multiple times already so anyone who wanted it would have bought it by now, and anyone who hasn’t probably isn’t interested. I suppose it’s great for those that fall into the ‘on the fence’ group, but again—you’d think those people would have at least tried it somehow already to make up their minds by now. Strange.
Re: Starfield Is Reportedly Launching For PS5 On April 7th, With Pre-Orders Starting This Month
I’m deathly curious to see how much of the hate was real, and how much was grifting. I myself have repurchased several PS5 ports of former xbox exclusives for a few reasons, but I will not be buying this bug filled, glitch riddled, janky pile of outdated spaghetti code. Didn’t buy it on Xbox, won’t be buying it anywhere else. My standard of quality is simply too high to tolerate this level of broken, unpolished slop.
It still boggles my mind the degree to which Bethesda gets away with what they put out—if any other AAA publisher put out something this poorly optimized and feature-incomplete, it would light the internet on fire. Just imagine if one of Nintendo or Sony’s first party studio darlings shipped something in the state Starfield launched in. They’d be skewered to the wall. Yet Bethesda inexplicably gets away with it. I guess their target audience is more impressed by being able to stack grilled cheese sandwiches like dominos rather than a extremely polished, well crafted games.
Re: SSX 3 Is Incredible On Xbox, Here Are Five Reasons You Should Try It In 2026
Fun stuff. Games from this era had their priorities in line with a focus on pure gameplay. No microtransactions, no forced online, no subscription fee, the game was fully on disc (a lot easier back then, but still) and nothing crammed in the game that doesn’t belong. Better times.
Re: 20+ Xbox Games Are Reduced By 90-95% To Kick Off The New Month
The Metro collection is worth it for anyone who hasn’t played them yet.
Re: Talking Point: What Are Your First Impressions Of Resident Evil Requiem On Xbox Series X|S?
Haven’t opened my copy yet, but after watching Digital Foundry’s coverage I’m glad I went with the PS5 version (specifically to be played on my Pro). That said, I’d be pleased with the Series X version as well. My heart goes out to anyone suffering through the series S version, it’s far and away the worst way to play this.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The First Reviews / Impressions Say About The Marathon Server Slam
The statement in Forbes about “The genre, to me, has always felt like a big time-waster. One bad run, possibly with deaths you couldn’t even avoid, and you can lose that great gear it took a zillion games to find.” resonates very strongly with me. A game in which the potential to make players feel like they’ve wasted their time is inherently bad design right out of the gate.
I love the visual design language of Marathon, and I’m sure the gunplay is up to Bungie’s always-awesome standard, but I have zero interest in some sweaty PvP extraction garbage. If this were a single player narrative driven adventure with a story as compelling as the visual style, I’d have preorders already. As it stands this is nothing to me but a waste of time.
Re: Poll: How Optimistic Are You Feeling About The Future Of Xbox?
My confidence in the state and direction of the brand is essentially null. What I want from Xbox is no longer their priority; it mostly isn’t even on their radar.
I want exclusive games driving people to the hardware. I want that hardware to be self contained and dedicated solely to gaming. I want true permanent ownership of my games, the type of ownership that only comes with physical media (the full game contained on disc without any internet download required BS). I want a dashboard/homescreen free from the scourge of ads or ai. I want the console to be the focus of the brand and anything else to be simply a passing afterthought.
Basically I just want the original Xbox all over again, but that is not what Microsoft wants. If they had their wish we’d own nothing, pay ever increasing monthly access fees to rent content and have our eyelids stapled to our foreheads to make it easier to consume as much ai slop as they can force feed to every screen in our homes.
Re: Analyst Provides Interesting Data On How Well January's Big Game Pass Additions Performed
Without a statistic disclosing the amount of time these games were played for, this is practically useless information. If half these people booted up the game, played 5mins and said ‘this isn’t for me’ and shut it off, that paints a very different picture. Without that specific metric this info doesn’t tell us much.
Re: Xbox Boss Questioned On Whether Exclusives Could Return In The Future
That’s the thing about intentionally burning bridges. You can rebuild them, but the amount of traffic that crosses them won’t ever be the same again. ‘Fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice…’ etc.
Re: Talking Point: You're The New Head Of Xbox, What Do You Do Now?
I’m going to assume in this hypothetical that Satya is releasing his ai infected brainrot death grip on the wheel and I can reasonably steer the ship myself. In no particular order:
•Ban all ai from the next console. Not the machine learning upscaling type ai tech, but that copilot and copilot-adjacent ai agent worthless slop. Ban all ads, either on the dashboard or in-game (not counting random product placement, like the brand name food and drink items in MGS4 for instance).
•Force all first party devs to release their games fully on disc without any internet connection or downloads required (exceptions made for GaaS stuff like Sea of thieves or Flight sim that wouldn’t be possible to put on 20 discs) and highly suggest (think ‘one step removed from threaten’) 2nd and 3rd party devs to do the same.
•All Magnus consoles, whether in house or OEM will be built with a mandatory internal, integrated disc drive for complete and total backwards compatibility. Disc drive isn’t detachable and doesn’t need to be paired using the internet (cough Sony cough).
•No steam or alternate storefronts. You’re buying an Xbox for Xbox games and access to the Xbox storefront. You want Steam or GoG or epic? Go play on pc.
•Overhaul the achievement system. Include a green version of the Platinum, and more importantly enable the end user to permanently erase a game with incomplete achievements from their list. Not “hide”, permanently delete. Establish platform wide criteria as to what constitutes an acceptable achievement and what is an unacceptable stipulation for unlocking. Force devs to split any multiplayer achievements off into a separate sku (which can be deleted if desired) so as not to ruin the achievement hunting experience for those uninterested in multiplayer (and vice versa for those who don’t want single player).
•Reinstate first party exclusives and aggressively court 3rd party timed exclusivity.
•Pursue Japanese games at any cost and further strengthen those relationships.