Balaam_

Series X screams ‘wasted potential’ to me. Backwards compatibility is second to none, and a number of included niceties (DolbyVision support etc) are great adds. Unfortunately there has been scant little to make me feel like owning one has been a worthwhile investment, some 4 years on. So much power, refinement and ‘secret sauce’ tech wizardry inside yet barely any games have showcased what it’s capable of :/

Now series S, on the other hand, well…I can honestly say I have no regrets. Since shoving it under the short leg of the kitchen table, it’s stopped wobbling entirely!

Definitely. This along with Indy were the two good games at the last showcase.

Cool! Now give Halo Infinite a hideously ugly, low-budget-Saturday-morning-cartoon visual makeover for the uncultured masses that think Fortnite is a good looking game.

Cannot wait for Indy. Looks freakin awesome.

Unless it also docks so I can play it on the tv, not interested. I have less than no interest in hunching over a portable, squinting at blurry compromised visuals on a tiny screen, wondering when the battery will give out.

I’m not a child with a long bus ride to school. I’m not a Japanese businessman with a 2hr commute on the Shinkansen. When I’m at a rooftop soirée like in the commercials, I’m socializing not troll’d up in a secluded corner hissing at any girls that get too close. When I’m at a vacation resort, I’m enjoying the vacation and not letting the world pass me by as I’m hunkered over the handheld. When I’m on the john, I’m taking a dump—I’m not glued to a screen.

Unless you’re a kid or in prison or something, games should be played on HFR monitors paired to the best pc your money can buy, or else from the comfort of your cushy armchair with the controller in your hands and a big OLED in front of you.

I don’t understand why the article title is phrased the way it is—is there a difference between Metal Slug Tactics on Gamepass and when you buy it a la carte? Is there bonus content or something along those lines?

God I hate this AI trash.

It remains to be seen whether these changes for Australia equate to more or less overall value, but 900 Dollaridoos says it’ll be a downgrade.

Astrobot hands down. Nothing else even comes close.

It’s like watching the Pro on the kill cam after getting mowed down 🫠

Fable. Been there since the beginning but just couldn’t get into it. Fable had none of the deep RPG systems of western RPG’s, or any of the streamlined Japanese sensibilities that come with mastering the craft. It was in RPG no man’s land. Lots of different concepts all mashed together, none of which really worked all that well. I’m hoping the Playground games one coming up is more of a reboot than a continuation of what came before—this is the perfect opportunity to iron out the myriad of flaws and really craft something decent with fresh direction and competent talent behind the helm.

Great, we get the inferior version of our own game

My only guess is they’re playing it safe in case any government agencies are snooping around, in view of Playstation’s lame ‘they’ll gimp our console versions if the deal goes through’ objection. Microsoft probably rationalizes ‘Make the Xbox versions just inferior enough that a tech analysis will show it but John Q. Public won’t notice, and we’ll dodge any potential bullet.’ Still not a good look for the brand.

Tumbleweeds…

Most excited for Dragon Quest 3 remake, but I prefer to play all my Japanese games in one place so I’ll play it where Japanese games are guaranteed not to miss. Stalker 2 also looks great. Amazing considering the conditions that team had to work under! That will be a gamepass download for sure. Also, that ant game looks interesting.

Fantastic news. I’d like to see more of this, honestly. Put out a finished product in good shape, then end it

No half baked dlc, no tacked on low effort wave survival/roguelite modes to squeeze a few extra bucks out of everyone. This is the best possible news for dedicated achievement hunters—no need to worry about any potentially awful achievements being shoehorned in after you’ve already 100% the game and moved on!

If anyone has somehow not yet played What Remains of Edith Finch, it’s fantastic. Same goes for Stray.

Hm, then this is most disappointing. I got suckered in by the pre-merger rhetoric of ‘If the deal goes through and Microsoft gets Activision, just think of all the beloved IP they can resurrect. Development teams languishing in CoD support roles can work on a new StarCraft, Hexen, THPS, Crash, Spyro etc etc etc’

Lando’s words have never been more true— ”This deal is getting worse all the time!”

Whoever writes many of the italicized subtitle puns on this site and PushSquare needs a raise XD

In other breaking news, mathematician claims: “Two plus two equals four.”

Ok now I’m starting to feel like there’s a sliver of hope for PD!

When something as severely compromised as a handheld is running RDR @60fps and my Series X isn’t, it’s almost too much to bear.

Any official posts about Pro resolution/performance targets yet, or is it too early?

I’m of two minds on this one and I haven’t been completely sold either way yet.

On the one hand, we have a developer making promises that they’ve definitely delivered on before in the past, on prior Obsidian titles. On the other hand, all they’ve shown thus far is janky combat, stilted animations that look quite awkward, and a hideously garish visual aesthetic reminiscent of those eye-searing Lisa Frank neon art supplies for kids from the ‘90’s.

In before all the ‘Paid framerate exclusivity!’ whistleblowers

Not a fan of the skill based matchmaking. It sounds good in theory, but the implementation is questionable. It seems I’m either paired with people picking up a controller for the first time in their lives, or after dominating them I’m placed in a lobby populated by every esports pro on earth, where I can’t even turn around before getting gunned down and plopped back into noob country. There is no in between.

I love Star Wars. Not the newer stuff, I mean the classic original trilogy. Those movies/toys/books/games brought me endless hours of entertainment as a kid, and I am eternally grateful to Disney for everything.

Edit—Just learned Disney had nothing to do with the inception, nurturing and growth of my beloved Star Wars. They just swooped in with billions at the ready and bought the rights long after it had been established. In fact, their involvement actually seems to be a detriment to the franchise. Thankfully, there are no other real world parallels with this scenario. No sir, none at all.

Wasn’t there just an article about the cadence supposedly slowing down? 😆

If only that much care and attention had gone into the game prior to launch…

We’re past the days when the X/PS5 were impossible to find and the S was the only thing readily available, and we’re at the point where the gerbil inside the S is too tuckered out to spin the wheel fast enough to run many of the latest and greatest games in an even remotely acceptable manner. Expect more of the same sales data from here on out favoring the X in the split. People want power and are tired of a severely compromised experience.

I like how Jez inserted the phrases “…right now” and “…for now” into the statement. It creates a sense of hope where there otherwise wouldn’t necessarily be any. Let me try:

For anyone wondering, right now (as of right this second) I haven’t found any gold after digging in my backyard, for now.

Watching Sega exit the console hardware market only for Microsoft to move in left me in tears too.

Great aesthetics on this headset, I only wish it had a hidden mic. The extendable boom mic looks so chintzy. Just embed it in the earcup.

If I was a developer (of real games, not mobile slop), I really wouldn’t even consider working on a title for anything other than one of the Big 3’s platforms. We’ve seen too many of these articles, ‘So and So left SwitchBoxStation to work at Amazon/Google/Netflix/Meta/etc but said company terminated said project’.

It’s interesting how he phrased this backpedal. He could have simply said ‘I’m aware of how much the IP means to fans of the series’, but instead we get a statement which includes two distinct groups—“our fans” (presumably Xbox fans) and “gamers everywhere” (PC, Nintendo and PlayStation oriented gamers). I wonder if this means there is something in the works, and that it’s primed for a multiplatform release? 🤔

Curious to see if it’ll run as poorly on Series X as it does on PS5. My guess is Series S will be either a blurry mess and run ok, or decent looking and 15fps.

There needs to be a voting option for ‘Refused to buy at launch because of scummy decision to release only a digital version; excited to play soon when my physical disc version arrives.’

I wish they’d focus more on the native Xbox experience, for those of us to whom ‘cloud’ means less than nothing.

It was decent.

A bittersweet experience so far. I’m enjoying almost everything about the core gameplay, but the menu/UI design is atrocious. Just a splatter of crap thrown on the screen at haphazard angles, without rhyme or reason. I’d give anything for a ‘clean menus’ option. Neat, ordered, clearly legible text, that’s all I want.

As good as Animal Well is, I can’t see it competing for GotY in the same year we get FF7 Rebirth, Helldivers 2, Astrobot, Metaphor ReFantasio, Silent Hill 2, Stalker 2, Black Myth Wukong, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Stellar Blade and Hellblade 2. If you go strictly by ratings, I guess, but these other games cast such an impossibly large shadow over it that there really isn’t much comparison.

Speaking of shadows, there’s also Shadow of the Erdtree—a dlc big enough to be a whole game and could easily snag GotY if quality is the measurement.

Something about the idea of Master Chief being dropped by a single throwing knife or a tiny 9mm pistol doesn’t sit well with me. Giving this the axe was probably for the best.

Whenever I see a console without a disc drive I think of that scene in Dogma when Metatron drops his trousers and he’s clearly missing something you’d expect to be there.

Microsoft: How can we drive prospective customers who prefer physical media elsewhere?

Xbox Marketing:

@Medic_alert zing!

The only IP they have I actually care about have seen only vague acknowledgements, no releases. To me, ABK is merely the Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon and Tony Hawk publisher and nothing more.

I can see this as a nice add, but as someone who does his gaming in the comfort of home from a plush armchair in front of a console connected to a glorious OLED, I personally struggle to find any meaning in this announcement.

People hate on the 343 games a bit too much if you ask me. They aren’t great or anything, but they’re very playable.

Good to see Microsoft’s trademark of horrible naming conventions is being extended to games as well as consoles. Halo Infinite 2 . Sounds like a couple of kids arguing. ‘My bike is better than yours!’ ‘My bike is better than yours, times infinity!’ ‘Yeah, well, my bike is better than yours times infinity, plus two!’

No adblocker, no use.

It belongs in a museum!