Bob_Tempura

This looks like a lot of very welcome upgrades, but man this announcement must sting for those who already bought an XBox Ally X I get that tech moves quickly, but those handhelds haven't barely been out 7 months...and while this new version doesn't have a release date yet it still feels like a kick in the teeth for early adopters.

@fatpunkslim "PS+ was raised again recently, while Game Pass actually went down in price."

While "technically" true, the reduction in price for Game Pass didn't negate the price increase that it had shortly before. It was a reaction to an overwhelming response that the price increase was too much, and saw the removal of CoD day one from GP to offset the" reduction", which was put in place because including CoD last year had a significant impact on their revenue.

TL:DR - Game Pass also saw a price increase, just not as much as it was originally due to the removal of CoD day & date.

Either way, neither service should have had their prices increased. It's just another way to further monetise their existing player bases.

Moss Book 1 & 2 are absolutely fantastic games on PSVR 2. It's safe to say flat screen gamers are in for a treat with this one 😎

For me;

Jet Set Radio Future.
Burnout 3: Takedown.
Left 4 Dead 1 & 2.
The Darkness 1 & 2 (but mostly 1).

Thanks @Old_Man_Harper & @Gunonaboat, appreciate the replies

That's kinda what I was expecting tbh, which isn't a bad thing. This definitely feels like a perfect game for Game Pass / PS Plus, an experience for people to enjoy (or not as it seems for some!) as a mostly one and done shot in an afternoon. I know that's how I'll be approaching it anyway.

While I haven't played it yet myself so can't speak for the quality of the game, it seems to be largely being bashed because it's being labelled as "woke", DEI, and of course being marketed as a "coming of age" story.
Unfortunately we're now in an age where some gamers / trolls will just tear a title to shreds if it doesn't meet their criteria of "not being woke", whatever that even means. I mean, just look at the growing discourse around Saros being accused of stealth woke. It's absolutely and equally insane and ridiculous.

Games are entertainment. Games are also art. Not all entertainment or art is for everyone, but when someone's dislike is based on such flimsy and often indescribable factors (ask those people to define what woke is or what they don't like and they often won't reply or just run themselves in circles) then it's hard to take them seriously. Just look at the backlash around the Intergalactic trailer... People hating on a "character design" that's literally an actress scanned in and mo capped for the game 🤦🏻‍♂️

I haven't played it yet, but it looks kinda fun... My only question is, do you really need to play this game, or could you get (much) the same experience from watching a long play on YouTube? 🤔

It really does look like it's an emotive experience, but I'm not sure whether the interactivity is particularly necessary as it feels like this could also be a pretty cool movie.

@Fiendish-Beaver I agree with you, although I would amend one thing;

"Helix, for example, will likely see Sharma stood front and centre on stage introducing it, but it is not her baby, it is Spencer's."

Helix would have been Sarah Bond's baby. Spencer was pretty much out of the picture by this point, being wheeled out mostly as a mouthpiece for announcements etc. Bond provided the first glimpses and posts about the next XBox... I firmly believe that she was planned to take over Spencer's role with the (now) Helix being her big console debut along with the promotion.

By all accounts, it looks like this change of direction with Asha came in forced by the Microsoft upper management to shake things up, as a major (last ditch*, perhaps?) attempt to get back onside with XBox gamers after deviating and meandering for so long.

• I say last ditch as this could be a final large push with the way MS have been willing to allow Asha to make some major changes already, with more likely on the horizon. And perhaps this is exactly what MS need... Perhaps doing something similar is also what Sony need to course correct from their live service garbage blowout.

I'm interested to see what Asha comes up with, and therefore to what extent MS show willingness to go along with her ideas... There has to be a line somewhere after all, but if she can show some well planned out prospective result predictions, who knows... It's certainly giving us something more interesting to discuss than the usual doom and gloom hey!

This was objectively a great move to make to bring down the price of Game Pass... It only affects XBox players who want to play CoD, and the savings you make over the year pay for the game outright. For everyone else, they get to save a few quid (admittedly the prices are still higher than they were before the hike earlier this year, but let's not open that can of worms).

My only concern here is that this opens the door for future titles to become "day one on Game Pass" on a case by case basis, or at least a per franchise basis, and you know there aren't doing to be any further reductions on the Game Pass subscription price, at least until the arrival of Helix, if the rumours of MS ditching a subscription being required to play online are true.

@FraserG thanks for the reply if it is an equivalent exchange, and available as an option then that's definitely a good thing! With any luck they'll keep it that way too... It never hurts to have options after all.

"the feature will only work for single-item purchases at first, and it won't apply to subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass."

But could you still redeem the points for a pre paid card to use against the cost of a subscription? Or will they only leave us with this new option? 🤔

Also, what's the conversion rate like? Is it equivalent of the current redemption for a pee paid card, or cheaper / more expensive points wise?

Outside of convenience, those are kinda make or break points for it tbh. It's usually a case of whenever changes like this are introduced, it's to make the consumer slightly less "well off" compared to what we had before.

@themightyant it's crazy isn't it. I really hope they haven't disappeared into the development hell abyss, but realistically it's not looking good.

But hey, Replicant and Replaced getting released have shown that crazy things can happen!

@Balaam_ same here... Replaced, and the ever absent The Last Night, and Little Devil Inside.

We can live in hope, hey.

So now we have rumours of:

• Call of Duty may not be a day one release on Game Pass.
• Game Pass is too expensive and they're looking at pricing.
• some XBox games may go exclusive again.

If we look at all three rumours, it wouldn't be a wild jump to make to assume that removing most first party games from day one Game Pass, reducing Game Pass pricing to reflect these games not being included day and date, and XBox games becoming at the very least timed exclusives could well be on the cards.

I'm not really sure how well all that would go down with XBox gamers though. Game Pass has been the big saviour for MS, so potentially reducing the value of its USP to lower cost doesn't sound like the best way to go (even though many have questioned its sustainability for years), and I'm not sure I'm seeing anything that would make me personally want to buy the next gen XBox just to play those games right now (for clarity, I'm not seeing anything that'd be a "system seller" for me on the next Playstation right now either).
I guess we have Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 coming at some point, but after Starfield my excitement has kinda been dulled for them somewhat, not to mention they're literally years out shrug

I couldn't care less about Call of Duty, but if this happened it would set a precedent for the major first party games not being included in Game Pass day one going forward. Things could get very messy... Expect yet another overhaul / adjustment to the tiers!

@kmtrain83 lol, yeah the term does get thrown about these days. To be fair though, the updates to Crimson Desert that have added things like extra mounts, improved load times and sharper graphics have been literally game changing. While the former speak for themselves, the latter has seen the Performance Mode graphics go from looking blurry, to crisp and clear.

It's nice to see the developers (Pearl Abyss) listening and reacting to player feedback to improve the game...and we're only 2 weeks post launch.

I think Helix be all digital for next gen, being primarily a PC device using either the XBox Gaming Mode running in the OS, or as a dual boot system.

I imagine there will either be an optional disc drive attachment that supports backwards compatibility only (no Helix generation games on disc), or MS will find a way to make it so you can use your existing discs on one of the other XBox consoles with a disc drive to allow them to assign a temporary license or similar that way.

Microsoft have made some of the biggest moves to support backward compatibility and game preservation, including games you own on disc, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

It's still way too early to put a score to it, but what I've played so far has been fun. There's a ton of stuff to see, do and discover, and the combat and skill systems seem pretty good too.

I can't believe that at no point during play testing no-one came forward and told the devs that they've way over convoluted the control system though. I don't have a problem learning new controls, systems or mechanics in a game, but when you have to hold 3 or 4 buttons in a combination to perform a fairly simple action you have to wonder what they were thinking, especially when you can perform some of those actions with a single button at other times (context sensitive controls are here in places, and could have been used more for a much more streamlined experience).

My biggest concern at this point is how grindy the game could become due to its MMO origins and developer history. In terms of exploration I can easily see this being a joy to play for many hours, but if they lean too heavily into grinding the basics it could get old pretty quickly.

I'm happy for now though, well worth the £45 it cost me.

I was gonna wait, but the DF video swung it for me. Got my copy pre ordered for the PS5 Pro, looks like it should be fun! 😎

XBox Helix is a good enough name tbh.

As I've said before, the internal project names are often better than what we end up with.

"Another positive bit of news included here is..."

Sorry, but where was the first bit of positive news?! This is a stinker all round for anyone who plays the game.

KCD2 is a good addition. It's not too old, and the more "hardcore" nature of the gameplay may have put some people off of buying it, but now they have the chance to play.

Cyberpunk is a great game, but man, it's going on 6 years old now. Most people will already own it and/or have played it. Even if they haven't, it's often on sale for less than a month of GP would cost, and then you have the game to play through at your own pace cuz it's huge.

Cyberpunk 2077 is fantastic now, but it's one of those games that most people already own or have played.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is the real highlight here, and funnily enough deserves more fanfare than a shadow drop.

The rest of the line up is super underwhelming though. Outside of the XBox Game Studios titles, it's becoming tough to justify the price of Game Pass. It's getting to the point where it may end up like the UbiSoft subscription service; worth subbing for a month once in a while to blast through the titles you're interested in, then skip it.
And let's be clear here, I'm not inferring that PS Plus is by any means better.

I think people are assuming Asha will have a lot more sway than she actually will...

Let's just take a moment to remember how Matt Booty intended for all of the XBox Studio Games to be XBox exclusives after the Bethesda & Activision Blizzard acquisitions (as shown in the internal emails over that period). The buck ultimately stops with the higher ups, namely Satya Nadella, and he made it quite clear that he has no interest in exclusives.
If Matt Booty wasn't able to change his mind with Phil Spencer behind him, I honestly can't see it being any different with Asha at the helm.

Microsoft want to recoup their expenses from that period of acquisition, and the sales of their games over on Playstation aren't giving them any reason to reconsider their decision.

For balance, I don't disagree that exclusives are what help sell systems. I have owned all the systems across each generation to play the games I can't get elsewhere, but there can come a time when it's just not sustainable, and sadly XBox have backed themselves into this corner through the whole "play it day one on Game Pass" system. It's been great for consumers, but why buy their games when you can play it on the subscription service? And why buy an XBox when said subscription service is available on a multitude of devices from phones to TVs, laptops and handhelds? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm sadly not very optimistic at all for XBox as a hardware manufacturer. I don't think they have a clear direction or vision on what they want to achieve, let alone how to achieve it.
While I see numerous benefits to a console/PC hybrid system, I can also see it being a means for XBox to haemorrhage income (no need for an online subscription to play the PC games, PC games are usually cheaper etc etc) as people move over to the PC side of said hybrid.

XBox as a publisher however? I think they'll do ok. I'd like to see Microsoft push for a more quality over quantity vision for some of the Activision Blizzard studios output for example (cough Call of Duty cough), but I think they're finally building the game catalogue they really needed to have in place at the start of this generation. I see XBox Game Studios (or possibly/inevitably Microsoft Game Studios) remaining for years to come.

Phil will absolutely be remembered for turning that disastrous start to the XBox One generation around. While it never got the momentum to catch up to the PS4, the fact that it was more than enough for Microsoft to keep investing in XBox for over a decade and still ongoing is testament to his work.

I echo the thoughts above though that the Activision Blizzard and Bethesda acquisitions were the tipping point for XBox. I'm not sure those decisions lie exactly on Phil's shoulders (remembering the internal communications from Matt Booty stating his intention of locking everything said studios produce down as XBox exclusives), but Phil was still the XBox head hocho so would have had sway in those decisions. Unfortunately they proved lengthy, costly, and ultimately divisive both internally for Microsoft and externally for gamers, which lead to the changes in business strategies as we now see them.

Regardless, Phil's legacy will live on. He was the leader XBox needed, and a personable corpo to boot... Something that we sadly can't say we have in any of the big three companies anymore.

@themightyant that's usually what happens with any kind of acquisition or restructure...a self imposed period of no change while they plan for the big changes behind the scenes. It'll most likely be 6 or 12 months before there's a shake up off of the back of this.

It's just as good as when it launched. A solid 9 😎

@DesertRanger that price is definitely going to play a factor... But we have to also consider that prices of computer parts have risen exponentially the last couple of years, so that rumoured price may not seem so out of whack (assuming it doesn't get an increase from there too!), coupled with the rumours that the next XBox could cost up to $1500, and that was before the major price increases. I can't see the XBox PC being anything remotely considered cheap / affordable if the promise of a high end PC experience is being kept (and let's be honest, we want it to be a good spec, not gimped!)

@Fiendish-Beaver I agree with everything you've said here. The only thing I'd add is that if the Steam Machine is still on target for this year, that could also be a factor in pushing the demand for the hybrid XBox PC aside even further. While it sounds like it won't be as high spec, the Steam Machine will certainly be cheaper, and if it arrives in the immediate future it could fill the hole for those interested...and not to mention it'll have access to all the XCloud games too.

IIRC the first game reviewed much the same. I guess you'll enjoy it if you liked the first, probably not so much if you didn't!

@trev666 right? It's like the clean UI they should have been using all along.

Let's go fellow South of Midnight fans ❤️

@FuzzieGinge88 that's hubris for you. It was about time Activision were given a reality check.

@Balaam_ I picked up on that too. It's the notion of taking accountability without really taking accountability.

Nah, definitely not.
That's not to say it wasn't decent (in fact it's 343i's best orignal work), but considering this was supposed to be a "return to form" for the series it fell far short. Even more so when you add into the mix the abandonment of the promised local co-op, and premature loss of on-going game support & updates.

Let's just put it this way, there's a reason why the developers are no longer called 343i, and this failing to meet the hype and expectations was the straw that broke the camels back.

UE5 performance issues aside, SH2 Remake was a quality game on Playstation so I'd expect it to be well worth playing on XBox too... Plus that's a tasty discount to launch at too.

@Balaam_ I would imagine it's just been ported as is, faults and all. Last I heard Bloober Team weren't involved in further updates for the Playstation version (Konami's decision). It'd be nice if there was some proper optimisation done for this release and the PS version gets those fixes in an update, but knowing Konami it's unlikely as they love doing the bare minimum.

@Balaam_ 100%. All Bond cares about are the metrics for her reports. It's quite clear that she couldn't care less how this is achieved, just as long as those metrics rise. Sarah Bond is unfortunately just another suit, through and through.

I'm not in favour of hard delisting games... If people have bought them then they should at least remain available to download.

But... What even are these games? Can't say I've ever heard of even one on that list. Did anyone ever even buy them in the first place?

XBox anywhere is an absolutely fantastic idea, and it's been cool to watch it roll out and evolve.

With that said, I hate this marketing push. Those are devices that can play XBox games, they are not an XBox. The laptop and the XBox Rog Ally are both PCs. They play PC games and also allow you to stream XBox games from the cloud or your XBox.
I get what Microsoft are going for, but it's just so cringe inducing.

Also, counter point for "if you can play an XBox game on it, it's an XBox"...because the Rog Ally plays PC games, it's able to play Playstation Studios games. That doesn't make it a Playstation...although by Microsofts own logic, it would. It's just stupid.
Hell, you can emulate games on your phone, laptop, said Rog Ally, but that doesn't mean we should all start calling those devices Dreamcasts or N64s 🤦🏻‍♂️

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying any attention to this device. Sadly Microsofts "everything is an XBox" push is understandably confusing for more casual gamers or those who dabble rather than the enthusiast side of gaming.

Unfortunately the "worst" thing, or at least the major gripe that seems to come up in the majority of reviews/feedback about the Asus Rog XBox Ally system seems to be the operating system... You know, the one part that Microsoft themselves are responsible for. We've seen everything from it needs more time, more updates, and more stability, through to games run better with a non MS OS installed on the device. Again, this is no surprise if you understand handheld PCs as this has always been the case, however this particular device was supposed to ship with an overhauled OS that resolves those issues... Which sadly just isn't the case right now.
Hopefully they can get it where it needs to be sooner rather than later.

It's sounding very much like it's going to be a PC in console form factor to sit in your living room... A PC that will have XBox emulation.

If so, it'll be an interesting experiment, but depending on price it may just be better to build your own PC (especially if the console doesn't support upgrading hardware, and at this stage it's safe to assume/ask why would it?).
I'm definitely interested in the idea of a more open system, but everything seems to be pointing away from XBox as a console, and more towards XBox as an idea...a vague label construct of wherever you play Microsoft published games, or more specifically, access their Game Pass service.

Remember, Phil Spencer said he didn't see $1000 consoles as being the way to grow the market (when the PS5 Pro launched), but it sounds like this new XBox could be even further north of that price point. But then Microsoft aren't trying to grow the market anymore, they're trying to push more platforms for Game Pass to increase that Monthly Active User KPI.

Anyway, it's gonna be an interesting couple of years as the information on the Next Box and PS6 appear. I'd like to say exciting, but I'm keeping my expectations in check.

I've just started over on Cyberpunk 2077 so I'm very much enjoying that atm.

I'll also be having another run at ARC Raiders for the server slam ahead of launch.

"The biggest point of contention with the "X" seems to be the software and the fact that it's not necessarily a console-like experience"

But isn't the software (Windows 11 with Full Screen Experience) the major selling point for these devices?

And Microsoft pushing the "everything is an XBox" angle is really to blame for people's misconception of what these new handhelds can do. They were always handheld PCs with optimisation for running games on Windows 11 and a dedicated XBox streaming app.

I'm not knocking the devices, they were always going to be beefy handheld PCs, but it sounds like some more work needs doing on that OS before they can really shine. And a reduced price point wouldn't hurt either (I know, I know, current economy etc).

Gotta be Psychonauts 2 for me.

It's not an easy choice though with Grim Fandango, Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle on the list, but they were all
(excellent) remasters.

I've got a lot of love for Brutal Legend too, although I never liked the way it took a hard left into becoming a tower defence game. The open world adventure part was so much better imo.

@DeadSpace I haven't had a chance to get stuck in yet, hopefully this weekend! I'll let you know.

@FraserG it's to artificially increase the value. "sure, you're paying more, but look at all this extra stuff we're giving you that you didn't ask for!".

Worryingly, it's the same sort of principle that live service games, specifically micro transactions take when they sell bundled packs. Put the one or two things people want in the bundle, then add their premium currency, extra stickers or whatever tat they can that nobody wants and inflate the value. (Bonus points for them if they put some of the tat content up for sale with silly price tags too so people can believe they're getting a perceived "bargain").

We all knew the price hike was coming, I guess just before the handheld device launches is as good a time as any for MS to lock in those gamers. But at twice the price of the Premium tier it really is hard to justify Ultimate, let alone even consider it unless you just have to have your games day one. (or if you're a big fan of the games that get the "bonus" content... Fortnite Club for example).

I might just let my subscription lapse this time around and just pick it up here and there for certain releases. I've been feeling the same way about PS Plus (currently on Extra) too tbh.

@Coletrain it's really sad that the review codes for XBox aren't being sent out a) on time, or b) at all. I mean, we can always look at the PC and PS5 reviews to get an idea of how the games are, but if the XBox games being reviewed dwindles then like DF said, it's likely they'll end up being dropped due to cost, time and punctuality (like they said, if they put out a technical analysis a week or two after launch, they just aren't getting the same views as they do on the videos they have out on day one).

Hopefully it won't come to that.

@OldGamer999 to be fair, Silent Hill (as a series) was never really about the combat. This is the first game where combat is front and centre.
I've seen a few reviews mention the lack of standard enemy variety, which is a shame, especially when the bosses seem to be praised for the most part.

Still picked it up day one though. Silent Hill is one of my favourite gaming series, despite the ups and (oh so many) downs its had. Resident Evil is the king of survival horror, while Silent Hill has always been the king of psychological horror.