Balaam_

If anyone else had made something so bug filled, glitch riddled and utterly broken they’d have been torn to shreds. There are glitch compilation videos hours long on YouTube highlighting problems with everything from basic movement to combat to pathing ai to NPC animations to dialogue bugs to general framerate performance issues to falling through the ground to shooting inexplicably off into orbit to various other game breaking, progression halting bugs.

Starfield is Mind’s Eye in space, but because Bethesda made it it gets a free pass. Bad coding is bad coding; nail Bethesda to the wall like every other lousy developer.

Normally I’d be doing backflips over this fantastic news, but I’ll only ever play THPS on PlayStation—those games were made for that controller. No one uses the analog stick for THPS and the Xbox dpad is trash. The only worse experience was using the arrow dots on switch (although the switch pro controller’s dpad was half decent). No, this is going to be a PS4->PS5 double platinum delight.

Too bad this game has Tarkin syndrome. ‘The more you tighten your grip, the more gamebreaking bugs and glitches will slip through your fingers.’

Poll question—is it only for people who would rather rent than own? Can the people who prefer to buy the game and not go the gamepass route still vote? The way the poll header is worded is very specific, as if just playing it on Xbox alone doesn’t make you worthy enough to vote.

Every single one of you out there dull enough to have actually cheered this acquisition on and attempted to defend it as ‘good for gamers’, ‘good for developers’ and ‘good for the industry’ is partially responsible for the current state of affairs. You are the heralds of your own demise. Oh the infinite irony that Lyin’, Cryin’ Jim Ryan not only knew better, but actually tried to stop this.

I thought this was that 2D pixel sci fi game shown at one of the earliest series console showcases, but this is something different. I can’t remember what the one I’m thinking of was called, or if it ever even came out (I believe it was delayed at some point, but I haven’t heard much of anything about it after that). It looked awesome, I hope it wasn’t cancelled.

‘One we’re all wanting’ cool, we’re finally getting one that isn’t riddled with bugs and glitches. Maybe it’ll be the FO3 remake and I’ll be able to play for more than 20mins at a shot before getting stuck in the stairs, falling through the floor, or encountering one of a thousand other game breaking bugs and glitches.

Then again, if Virtuos is at the helm and they don’t fix Bethesda’s underlying garbage spaghetti code, we’ll just end up with another Oblivion Remastered situation. Same broken trash with a pretty coat of paint.

Is Gamepass sustainable? Trick question. Yes, in that Microsoft as a company can sustain practically anything they want to with nearly limitless wealth. Ah, but will they? That’s another question. They’re a business. If it isn’t worth the time or effort or investment, they won’t bother. It is rapidly proving not worth it. This isn’t even a #ColinWasRight moment, this is an #AnyIdiotWithHalfABrainCouldHaveSeenThisComing moment.

Whoa hang on. Where are all the people that crawl out of the woodwork whenever the Xbox handheld is brought up, the people that drone on about how they’re more than willing to accept technical sacrifices in favor of portability and on the go gaming? Now we’re touting the dedicated console and tossing the handheld factor to the wayside. If this was an Xbox series P for portable version being analyzed, the comment section would be all praise and any technical shortcomings would be swept under the rug. Interesting,

Makes me want to rewatch the Terminator movies just to watch a physical embodiment of ai either get squashed to death in a hydraulic press or burn in some molten steel.

It takes a special kind of person to conflate Sony deciding to publish a port of a live service game with a dwindling player count and interpret it as the floodgates are opening and we can expect ports of first party flagship franchises embodying brand recognition to hit the Xbox, especially after Sony goes out of its way to reiterate it refuses to drop its own exclusives into PS+ day and date.

I hope we get some footage of a leaked build or something down the road. As far as I can tell nothing was officially revealed, and it would be interesting to see what was so amazing and fun that they had to kill it off before it saw the light of day. And the fact it was only tangentially connected to the Bethesda name and not a Bethesda Softworks developed title meant the odds were good it wasn’t a steaming pile of unplayable, broken trash like Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallouts 3/4/76, Starfield, [insert future Bethesda Softworks title here]…

“Today’s decision is a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C. We are grateful to the FTC for today’s announcement.“ -Brad Smith, President of Microsoft

If they let a bug filled, glitch riddled, barely playable broken mess of a ‘game’ like Oblivion Remastered (or any mainline Bethesda entry for that matter) on their platform, I can’t imagine Q&A was much of a focus to begin with. I personally know someone on my friends list who cannot even finish the MAIN QUEST due to a progression halting bug. Not some funny little oddity occurring, not some rare off-the-beaten-path side quest, the main-freaking-quest . That tells me no one bothered to playtest that trash, or else they booted it up, saw the production logos and said ‘good enough, it works’.

Thank goodness. I have no love for Phil and his mantra of shoving the ‘you’ll own nothing and like it’ gamepass model down everyone’s throats, but the man did do a few good things for the brand. He’s by Far the lesser of the three evils, namely himself, Booty and Bond. Better the devil you know…

For the love of god give the position to an outside hire. Poach someone competent, don’t let this role fall into the hands of that walking joke Booty or that corporate wind up doll that can barely read a teleprompter Bond. These specific types of corporate mentalities are what have dismantled and nigh on destroyed the brand value as it stands. They need the Xbox equivalent of a Shuhei Yoshida to help right the ship, if that’s even possible at this stage.

As awful as this is due to the human element involved, trimming down Turn 10 at least makes logical sense. There’s little money to be made selling games on Xbox, hence the shift to 3rd party publishing (masquerading in the trappings of ‘we make hardware too!’). There is mega profit to be made shipping titles on competing platforms like PlayStation—the problem is, while Forza Horizon sells huge numbers because there’s nothing quite like it on Sony’s machine, the same isn’t true for Forza Motorsport. They already have the premiere track racer; no one wants ‘We have Gran Turismo at home.’

Nice to see. Even nicer was the purported criteria, as per Microsoft, ”…all achievements in the title must be achievable.”

I wish they’d follow through on that and be a little less of a doormat, though. If I’m not mistaken, the same source websites True Achievements/True Trophies periodically compile lists of games with broken, glitched or otherwise impossible to obtain achievements/trophies. Makes Microsoft (and I’m assuming Sony has the same contractual language) seem impotent and toothless, unable to ensure these lazy, anti-achievement hunter/trophy hunter devs fulfill their end of the bargain.

Guaranteed physical releases entirely on disc, without any ‘internet download required’ BS

Even if it’s only on PlayStation where people actually buy physical media, and even if they have to mint two discs, if that’s what it takes. I don’t lease digital code I can’t own, and—how do I put this—it would save me the effort of having to buckle my swash to play something.

There is exactly one game on that 30-game list cited here that I’d even consider playing, and I would only ever want to play it in a single place.

They already did the good Quake, the original gothic horror single player focused game. Q3 is just low IQ ‘run around in circles shooting at each other repeatedly’ fare, and Q4 carries on the lame, generic sci-fi direction Q2 took the series. Personally I’m hoping for something new from them, although the odds of announcing something unrelated at *Quake*conn is admittedly pretty low.

…ouch.

Still, good to see they made the right call and didn’t punish people who own the better machine just because the weaker platform can’t handle it.

Unless the version of the game on gamepass is in some way different that I’m not noticing, I’m enjoying this the same as when it originally landed on Xbox. Fantastic platforming coupled to an achievement/trophy list that should be punishable in a court of law. It’s like Ferrari designed the next great supercar and decided to make the steering wheel out of razor blades when it didn’t have to be that way.

There’s so much spin here I’m getting dizzy.

I find it interesting the sister site has an article about most of the same subject matter yet it repeatedly reiterates how unlike gamepass Sony’s service is, highlighting how entrenched those executives are in their stand to specifically not imitate Gamepass in certain respects.

$20 says when DreamcastGuy makes his inevitable video on this, he’ll mispronounce Klobrille as ‘Kl-eye-oh-br-eye-uhll’ at least twice.

@InterceptorAlpha I’m aware of the discourse surrounding Alan Wake 2 (I don’t agree with it, I love the game with the exception of the Saga actress’ horrendous, slurred, ‘can’t decide which accent to use’ ear-bleeding voiceover work) but I was not aware of any negativity around Control. Not a single forum post or reddit thread or what have you. I’m not saying you’re making it up, just that I must be completely out of the loop about that one. Now I’m curious—what is it exactly people didn’t like about Control? Again, I absolutely loved that game as well.

Great article, stuff like this is always appreciated, and I mean that sincerely. Now if you really want to get on my good side (jk), show us how to block anything and everything copilot ai. Bonus points if you show us how to block it ‘with extreme prejudice’.

They’re going to dole these out with an eyedropper. Gotta recoup that $70Billion 🥴

So it’s a meta quest with the words Xbox on the package and some gamepass gift card thrown in. Reminds me of that Portlandia sketch where they go into a store, stencil a silhouette of a bird on different items and claim it makes them ‘art’

Not a big JezC fan but I’m even less a fan of a certain loudmouth on the Xboxera podcast. You know the one I mean. I don’t even watch the episodes without Shpeshal Nick; that channel desperately need him to balance out the endless opinionated remarks spewing from the fellow that can’t stay quiet without interrupting the other 2 panel members for more than 2mins straight. Seeing Jez rubber stamp the post as False is satisfying for that reason alone.

Haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to at least give it a chance. I don’t go to Remedy for live service-y multiplayer affairs the same way I don’t go to FromSoft or Sony first party for that stuff. I only want industry leading single player epic greatness from the above, not their attempts at getting a slice of the live service pie.

It’ll be a real shame if they don’t, the game is freakin fantastic. Best real time combat with a sword in any game, hands down. They truly nailed the flow of good feeling combat. My advice is play it wherever you can, even if it doesn’t come to Xbox. I don’t recall what won Best Action Game the year Stellar Blade came out, but it wasn’t SB and that’s nearly as big a travesty of justice as some broken slop like Skyrim beating out the og Dark Souls for GotY.

Edit-iirc Black Myth Wukong won best action game, and it’s garbage by comparison. SB should have taken that award, no question.

There is no world where they couldn’t have included backwards compatibility, especially considering who this future hardware is actually for.

PC users are good where they’re at. They have their multi thousand dollar rigs crammed with the most expensive, highest performing tech available. They have the ability to tinker with settings to eke out those few extra frames, to buy from multiple storefronts, to play the latest and greatest from PC centric devs/Xbox/Playstation, pretty much everyone but Nintendo. They’re good where they’re at; this console is not for them.

PlayStation bros have all their exclusives, they’re evidently fine with that ecosystem, and they’re now getting basically every Xbox game too (eventually). They’re good where they’re at; this console is not for them.

Switch bros have their docked home console experience, their portable experience, quite a few Xbox games headed their way (and likely many more down the road), even the odd PlayStation game, as well as their highly vaunted industry champ first party exclusives. They’re good where they’re at; this console isn’t for them.

The only demographic this future Xbox(ish) hardware could possibly be aimed at are existing Xbox users who prefer this ecosystem and who’ve already built up extensive libraries. That’s who this future xbox(ish) hardware is for.

@Fraser Gilbert is the game pass version of The Alters different in some way than the pc/playstation versions or the version you can buy a la carte off the Xbox store? Or am I reading too much into the article title?

Not sure whether to go with the ‘when you release a low effort, poorly optimized port running at a butchered 720p resolution, what did you expect?’ comment, or the old reliable ‘Square is displeased when their games sell the same number of copies other devs boast about, big surprise.’

It’s like that Seinfeld when George’s gf got a nose job and Kramer just blurts out “…You got butchered.”

I realize the series machines will assuredly still receive support after next gen begins, as was the case with the prior gen(s). But what’s with the seemingly arbitrary length spans of the Xbox console generations?

OG Xbox was a meager 4 years, 360 had a good lifespan and basically kept pace with PS3 up to the end, Xbox one got massacred right out of the gate but lasted just as long as ps4, but now we’re back to a kneecapped gen length seemingly cut short. It feels like there’s no rhyme or reason as to Microsoft’s plans, and they don’t appear to be tied to how well the platform is doing—og Xbox got steam rolled by ps2 and they raced to market with the 360, but the Xbox one got butchered and they let it ride. Everything is so random and inconsistent.

@AlwaysPlaying “we be eating good”—I understand your sentiment, and I’d definitely agree with the point of what you’re saying (at least for what GP currently costs…), but that isn’t exactly the best analogy. Restaurants don’t pump your stomach to take back the food after you leave. You own what you spent money on there 😉

Ah, I get it. They’re going after the market demographic of geniuses who saw no issue with Apple’s thousand dollar monitor stand 😆

There’s a direct correlation between Xbox migrating away from a failing business model toward other revenue streams and Sony getting lazier and more complacent. When Sony is firing on all cylinders, no one can touch them. They shot themselves in the foot right out of the gate during the PS360 era, but managed to sprint ahead during the home stretch anyway (and keep on going throughout the next gen). Even Nintendo had to think outside the box to rebound from the slaughter of the PS2-GameCube era with the Wii. Sadly, lazy complacent Sony is a gamer’s worst nightmare. Bland, same-y games and absurd price gouging. Every hardcore gamer should want nothing more than for Sony to be backed into a corner, since that’s when we receive the best this hobby has to offer. Xbox removing itself from competition is good for no one.

Excellent. It’s now worth buying. Give this person a raise—actually, give them the job of the waste of space with the anti consumer ideology who thought putting only a few MB’s of data on the Indy and DoomDA discs was a good idea. That way those mistakes can be corrected.

It’s quite a good game, far better than I anticipated. I play my Japanese games on their home platforms whenever I have the option (it’s nice having them all in one place), but for anyone who hasn’t played this yet you’re in for a treat. I only hope this doesn’t become an FF16 situation whereby the performance is improved by a nearly imperceptible increment but at the cost of the resolution taking a nosedive down to 720p.

I’m of two minds on this.

I empathize with the extremely limited use cases I can think of, people like kids on the school bus/long family road trips or adults with insanely long commutes on busses/trains. This stinks for those folks.

For me, and I would argue the overwhelming majority of gamers (both hardcore and casual), this is a welcome development. I say use these resources, time and effort to double down on next gen’s premiere high end console. Don’t bisect the userbase trying to be a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. You still have the crappy pc handhelds for those that want them. You still have your gamepass for those casuals who are too dull to comprehend the drawbacks of owning nothing and leaving your gaming experience entirely at the mercy of the platform holders, and with any luck the next proper console will still have a disc drive (or add on) for the enlightened, discerning, competent hardcore gamer.

This isn’t even technically a ‘loss’ since nothing was officially announced anyway. And who knows, maybe Microsoft will pivot again in the next few hours in reaction to some other perceived threat and the handheld will be brought back into discussion once again.

Is there any specific reason I’m missing why silent hill 1 is presumed to be on Xbox? Not saying I wouldn’t want it to be, just questioning the legitimacy of the idea. I was under the impression that the upcoming Chronos game by Bloober Team was the game referenced in the linked article, the ‘next project’ that’ll be on Xbox consoles in addition to Sony platform. I’m wondering if wires got crossed and this one’ll be locked to PlayStation like SH2 was

Why are they apologizing on behalf of the bad actors paid to trash this brilliantly designed, well optimized game?

Wait, hold up—I thought Koei-Tecmo was making Ninja Gaiden 4? I didn’t know Xbox has a first party team coding and developing this! Is this a case of Koei-Tecmo just licensing out the IP to another dev, kind of like Konami did with Silent Hill and Bloober Team?

What’s that beautiful saying floating around out there, ‘If buying a digital license isn’t ownership, piracy isn’t stealing’? Looks like unless they decide to put out a physical copy (with the entire game on disc) for the PlayStation crowd, then I’ll be wearing an eye patch while I play Ninja Gaiden 4.

Has the achievement/trophy list leaked for this yet? I’m anxious to see whether the list has those same god awful mp achievements from the original, or if they put achievement/trophy hunters first and cut that slop. I would love to play through the campaign again and never need to touch the mindless, repetitive, ‘run around in circles killing/dying/repeating’ low intellect multiplayer modes.