BulkSlash

I replayed this one just recently, it's definitely my favourite of the three. I think the setting was the best, the mystical island meant it could include all sorts of different environments from sandy beaches to forests to snowy mountains as well things like ancient tombs and rusty science labs. Borrowing elements from Lost and The Descent was great too.

The sequels were OK, but I found there was too much back tracking and I didn't think the addition of crafting was an improvement. I preferred looting bodies for used arrows instead of holding a button down to magically make more. I didn't think the story or the characters were as good in the sequels either. Oh well, it will be interesting to see what the next reboot brings.

I think the real issue (which Microsoft touched on when they designed the Series S) is that making transistors smaller no longer makes them cheaper. In fact the reverse is happening, with the smallest process nodes being more expensive than larger ones even though you get more chips per wafer.

Against this backdrop it is becoming harder to make new console generations because the graphical leap gets smaller and the chips get more expensive. This either means consoles at stupid prices like Nvidia’s 4090 or consoles which don’t improve much compared to the previous generation.

Of course we’re not even halfway through this current generation, so there’s nothing to stop some new breakthrough allowing for much more performance without the price being a barrier. I think thinks like good AI upscaling (DLSS) and frame creation could lead to better graphics even without a huge leap in processing power for example.

I just hope this doesn't mean streaming.

I went with the 20th Anniversary in the end, but it was a close thing with the Forza Horizon one. They're all pretty good though, the Halo Infinite one was nice too.

My personal favourite special edition Xbox controller is still the Cyberpunk 2077 one, although that was for the One consoles not Series.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called the 10,000 job cuts a "difficult, but necessary move so I can be paid $54M a year".

Seriously, I hope the CEO is taking a big pay cut considering he's more than set for life with what he earns in a single year.

I’m waiting for Gotham Knights to hit around £15, I might give it a try then. It’s too pricey for a 30fps game at the moment.

It’s got to be VII for me. It’s kind of a cliched answer these days but the setting, music, characters and story all really work for me. I’m actually replaying it at the moment using the SYW mod that has AI up-scaled backgrounds, 60fps movies, more detailed character models and ups the frame rate to 60fps.

You’ve got to love this quote from them, “I remember when the Xbox 360 came out, it was a revolutionary experience [...] and a controller like no other”

Part of what made the 360 revolutionary was it had the first wireless controller that was packed in with the console (the WaveBird wasn’t standard with the GameCube), yet this thing is wired. 😩

It’s a pity they apparently haven’t done anything about the d-pad, as I find the bumpers and triggers on the 360 controller more comfortable than the One/Series controllers. I actually still use my launch 360’s controller on my PC, it’s still going strong.

I went with Blacklist. The first Splinter Cell was a favourite for ages, but I really got into Blacklist and spent ages playing it on the Wii U and 100% ghosting most of the levels (IIRC there were a few levels where you had to use a gun). I really liked how the game let you choose if you wanted to play stealthily or go in guns blazing.

While it didn’t have Michael Ironside, I still enjoyed Eric Johnson’s take on Sam Fisher (Sam seemed to get younger with every game anyway). The Paladin felt a lot like Mass Effect’s Normandy and was great a place where you could interact with the rest of the characters between missions.

It’s a real shame we never got a sequel to Blacklist, as I think they perfected the format with that game.

I don’t understand the hostility towards the Series S, it’s the perfect console for kids to plug into their 1080p screen in their bedrooms. There are millions of people out there who still don’t have 4K screens and don’t need to spend the extra cash on a console for power they won’t use.

With the cost of living and inflation going through the roof in many places in the world, having a more affordable console is a good thing I think. Plus, it’s an accessible way for people to dip their toes in the Xbox ecosystem if they’ve never owned an Xbox before.

@Zochmenos I'd love a new TNG game too. I've just finished replaying Elite Force and I'm about to start on the sequel. I'm also playing Bridge Commander as well. Activision used to make some great ST games back in the day.

I was playing this on the Steam Deck the other day and I ended up with tutorial text stuck on screen and a police hover car spawned with a regular car half inside of it. It still seems to be full of bugs...

I loved the first two Gears games, but it started going off the rails with 3 for me. It didn't feel as well balanced as the first two, with certain armoured enemies able to just bulldoze their way right up to you. Rather than fix this, it seemed like Epic just switched on being able to crawl around to be revived rather than dying instantly. Plus it seemed like they ignored all the the setup with the creatures in the tubes in the secret lab in Gears 2 when they hired some big name writer to do the story.

I didn't really enjoy 4, I mostly remember it was endless waves of the same robots for the first half before more interesting enemies showed up. I haven't played it in ages, but I seem to remember the Lancer either wasn't in it or was really hard to find. Not being able to regularly chainsaw enemies was a big downside for me.

I haven't really felt like trying 5, but I'd be all over a Gears 2 remaster.

I remember when they were making Anniversary they said they were hoping to remake TR2 along with it. Sadly it didn’t happen (I wasn’t surprised, it sounded too ambitious to remake two games even back then), but I’d still love to see a remake of TR2, done in the style of Anniversary.

As for the original controls, I think they’re still fine, it required you to be much more precise and careful and that helped to reinforce the idea you’re adventuring in a dangerous place. They’re only really a pain on the PS1 because the checkpoints are so spread out it forces you to redo a lot if you make a mistake and die.

This was originally coming to PS4 and Xbox One. If they were targeting previous gen consoles and they still can’t hit 60fps on next gen it means their engine is a total dog.

In fairness I wasn’t interested in the game anyway, every trailer looked mediocre, but no 60fps option is just poor.

That’s going to be hard to achieve, they basically need a patch that replaces most of the game.

Shouldn’t they make the first Cyberpunk good before they do that?

@A01 I can’t think of anything in the original game that is so dated that a so-called “modern-day audience” would need changes to be made to it. I can pretty much guess exactly what sort of needless alterations they’re going to make.

Looks too much like LA still. I’m not getting much of a Vice City vibe from this (I know it’s unfinished but what have they been working on all these years since GTAV launched?)

It would have been better if this was set in the ‘80s like the original VC.

This looks like emulation to me, so calling it a remaster seems inaccurate. It seems to be just an emulator with the output resolution set to 4K. The original game even had a 16:9 mode. Even using a high-res texture pack or more detailed models like you get on some N64 emulators it wouldn’t really class this as a remaster to me.

Still, it will be interesting to play it on the Xbox, although I still regularly play it on the N64 so I probably don’t want to get too used to smoother framerates and higher resolutions! 😅

I love Gears of War 2, so a shinier version would be most welcome. I was quite disappointed they didn’t do it right after finishing the remaster of the first one.

I didn’t much like Gears 3 or 4 (so I didn’t bother with 5), but a new version of Gears 2 would definitely be up my alley.

The last thing I want is yet another subscription service, especially with how relatively few games Ubisoft put out a year. They’d be much better off joining Gamepass.

Definitely 2 for me. While I quite enjoyed 3, it felt a lot more bare bones compared to 2.

The second game had lots of side events (like spraying sewage, being a bodyguard, chauffeuring ladies of the night) but it also had the more serious main story and the missions related to those.

SR3 was basically all side events, but there was less variety in them (IIRC a bunch of them had been cut out for DLC) and it meant the game was basically over the top all the time. I much preferred 2’s mixture of grounded seriousness mixed with silliness.

From what I’ve seen so far though, I’d play any of them over the incoming reboot… 😥

I suppose it depends on your definition, but I do consider the game world of GTAV to be one of the most polished I've ever seen. While I've not visited every corner of the map, every area I have visited, even the middle of the desert, looked like someone had taken great care to make sure it looked good.

Most games if you really poke into the corners or go off the beaten track you'll often find odd little things like an item hovering slightly off the ground, or two items clipping through each other when they shouldn't. I never saw anything like that in GTAV, it seemed to me like an insane amount of care had gone into creating that world.

I have to wonder if the reason GTA6 has taken so long is they were trying to outdo themselves again for levels of polish and detail. That would certainly explain why GTA completely missed the last gen. I do wonder if the departures signal management have decided they care more about making lots of money than whether a back alley in Vice City looks good.

I'm conflicted about that design. I do like the contrast of the black and white colours, but at the same time I can't help but feel they were just being cheap by not making colour matched parts for a premium priced controller.

The 360 really is massively underrated for its innovations IMHO. I think the RROD problem overshadowed all of the clever hardware and software features.

The 360 gave us the first standard wireless controller (the WaveBird wasn’t packaged with the GC) and it also enabled you to turn the console on and off.

Achievements were a new idea that took Sony several years to copy. The Guide button and the ability to jump into the blades view while still running a game was also very unique, especially when they supported custom soundtracks back then. Being able to download games and demos was a new thing on consoles back then too.

Then there was the eDRAM which allowed the 360 to really punch above its weight and offer easy anti-aliasing where the PS3 struggled to do the same, forcing developers to come up with clever software alternatives.

Plus the 360’s Xenos graphics chip had the unified shader architecture before even PC graphics cards. I remember Tomb Raider Legend ran way better on 360 than my PC at the time.

Then there was the modular hardware design. I remember the 360 was criticised for not having a hard drive or Wi-Fi out of the box, but it did mean people could buy a console for less and add those things on later, making the console much more affordable than the eye watering PS3 price.

I think the custom covers you could buy were great too, it really allowed people to personalise their console. Microsoft still have some of that with their custom controller design website.

So, I really do think MS were incredibly inventive with the 360, I was actually quite disappointed that the Xbox One didn’t manage to live up to that standard (other than TV, TV, TV).

@SplooshDmg Yeah I thought that might have been it too. He probably wanted to focus on making the narrative for the next game while the higher ups wanted a new GTA Online.

@SplooshDmg Agreed. I expect GTA6 to have a mere fig-leaf’s worth of single player content and be almost exclusively built around multi-player and selling in-game currency.

Personally I think Mighty Gunvolt Burst is the best Gunvolt game, the vast number of weapons customisation options are fantastic and the 8-bit aesthetic looks great too.

The last time I tried Gears of War the latency was unacceptable. You could probably beat Ninja Gaiden on Ninja Dog difficulty as that gives you plenty of extra health items but it wouldn't be a very satisfying experience.

@GamingFan4Lyf Totally agree, those are the best Aliens games by far!

RE4 for me. RE2 was great, but it didn’t quite surpass the gameplay of RE4. Code Veronica would have been up there was well but I prefer the original to the X version.

They should bring it back, the Series X and S have plenty of CPU overhead for this. Playing games while I have a TV show or film on via picture-in-picture is my preferred way to play.

I'd guess if TCL are in the business of selling TVs they'd probably say this in the hopes of moving some 8K panels.

I do wonder if Sony and MS are considering mid-gen refreshes just in case the other is also working on one? It would be somewhat amusing and ironic if we do somehow end up with mid-gen refreshes just because both companies think the other is going to release one! 😅

That said, I think a mid-gen refresh would be insane when people still can't reliably buy the current systems, so this is probably just TCL talking nonsense.

There’s something about Hollywood writers that makes them seem to think the moment they’re handed a beloved franchise that they know best and it’s their duty to change everything people like about it.

I don’t know why studios bother to pay for the licence if all they’re going to do is abandon all the recognisable elements.

Killing off Batman puts me off. Couldn’t he just be in Metropolis helping Clark for a bit?

“Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an 'always on' console. Every device now is ‘always on’. That's the world we live in. #dealwithit”

Remember this? It seems Microsoft need to learn the lesson again.

That's all the more impressive considering the shortages, I promise I'll definitely get a Series X one of these days! My One X is definitely getting a bit long in the tooth.

I think if there had been no chip shortages and we were well into a “normal” next generation then there could have been a Series XX, especially if Sony released a PS5 Pro.

But this is no normal console generation, I think the shortages mean we’re still going to be seeing games made to run on One/PS4 for another year at the very least. In fact I believe Sony are still making PS4s as they don’t have a Series S to cater for the budget end of the market, which is I think is going to be very important this generation with the cost of living crisis.

So, I’d be very surprised to see anything beyond slimmer/revised models from both companies this gen.

I love the first two games, hopefully they won't mess around with them too much, although it would be cool to get the improved bullet time mechanics from the second game in the first one.

Assuming they don't screw them up with microtransactions, live services or any of the other nonsense Rockstar have been into lately I'll definitely be buying both games.

I'm actually surprised to hear that MS are so hands off. Going back a few years they had Forzas releasing every year, turning out a Horizon game every 2 years must have been extremely hard work. I always assumed MS had their noses to the grind stone making sure there was a new Forza on the shelves for Christmas.

Maybe the Forza teams are really well managed and MS assumed that these new studios they were buying would be just as disciplined and organised as that?

It will probably be a live service mobile game where you have to buy Beskar points every few hours to carry on playing.

Despite seeing near universal revulsion at this plan (and the continued milking of GTAV) some people somewhere must still be playing and buying the game for them to keep doing stuff like this. Maybe it’s the annual COD/FIFA/Madden types?

Sadly I have zero interest in GTAVI now, as it seems certain they’ll do the same with that game that they’ve done with GTAV.

Assuming the codename was chosen for a reason, a keystone is the important middle wedge in an arch that keeps bridges strong.

So I think people predicting a cheap streaming device are probably on the money. This is probably Phil Spencer's masterplan and it hinges on attracting a huge number of subscribers via an affordable device.

@Titntin I haven't used gyro for racing, but it's transformative for FPS games IMHO. Being able to use the right stick on maximum sensitivity for quickly aiming in the general direction and then using gyro to fine tune the aim is superb. If developers start offering gyro in FPS games on the PS5 I think it's going to be a big disadvantage for Xbox.

I'd pay £8.99 for Story Mode only, I don't want anything to do with GTA Online.

PoP Forgotten Sands truly lives up to its name, it's a really awesome platformer that has gone unrecognised. I think because it came out at the same time as the PoP movie it was assumed to be the usual rushed move tie-in so people avoided it, but I'd say it's the second best PoP after Sands of Time.

But would they allow Epic Games Store on there? That’s the interesting question for me, as I think the reason Valve made the Steam Deck was as a way to make it harder for Epic to compete.

I haven't played a COD game since the 360. I'm sure they're fun for MP but I only play SP games generally and the COD campaigns were very repetitive back then. The last COD SP campaign that interested me was the space-based one but I never got around to buying it. After that they've gone back to boring "realistic" combat, which doesn't really interest me.

I wasn't really bothered by Cortana's colour, the costume looks a bit sparkly and naff but the real problem is the CGI face, which has major uncanny valley issues. Couldn't they have just painted Jen Taylor light blue and put a bit of CGI glow over her?