It's all good useful stuff, kudos, but it's also an effective way of smashing out the low hanging fruit early for PR purposes.
I'd surmise that they categorised user feedback in an Excel spreadsheet, weighted it on ease of implementation, and went with that as a starter for ten.
Custom accent colours are already built into Windows, so knock that out relatively quickly. Extending the groups count probably only needed some testing for usability and memory usage. Letting users decide whether quick resume is available to make a RAM dump to a swap file seems like another quick win, a fire and forget way to deal with games that don't gracefully reconnect to servers or bug out in other interesting ways, bonus for the onus being on the end user therefore reducing some trouble ticket volume.
Allow some customisation and control and you're more often than not onto a winner. Let insiders do the edge case testing for you, and post it on social media. Pub, anyone?
Super sampling? Nice. Super slopping? Nope. This is awful. Sure, enjoy it if it's your thing. Personally I'd rather not use the extra ¾ kilowatt or so of power consumption, thanks very much.
@Coletrain I played it a year or so ago, went with the 60fps mode on Series X. Looked great, was smooth, can recommend. Tried the 30fps mode but it was too much of a hit in fluidity for me, considering how much time is spent panning the camera around. Don't know if there's a 40fps mode, my telly doesn't support it.
Shout out to the Xbox ROG Ally (X) players beta testing the software for the rest of us. I lift my glass to you. If this works out well then I might just end up reinstalling Windows on my laptop.
It's plausible that if the Helix alpha dev kits are out even as late as summer '27, we may still see the console launch for end of that year. Games developed on PC, even for console, will need testing and tweaking for the predicted performance of the release version of Helix to get them out of the door. We'll likely see a flow of Helix verified games hit the console as well, a la Switch 2 editions, and until then a basic performance uplift on games that struggle to reach their targets on Series. And for some of us, we'll all be hitting up our Steam and GOG libraries to pass the time.
Regarding this, being able to access PC games libraries on the console, I wonder how they'll manage pricing. Most favoured nation clauses? Hmmm... what will entice me pick up a game for £40+ on the Xbox store if I can get it on Steam for less?
Are there any older olympic titles that haven't been delisted? I mean the serious ones, not Sonic or Mario. I particularly remember Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 being very good and I'd probably pick them up if the price was right, but they possibly died along with Games for Windows Live. I'm still holding out hope for Nagano '98 on Switch virtual console, they missed an opportunity not chucking that on the service a month or two ago.
That's interesting, cheers, and your PC setup sounds lovely. My Sennheisers are the 599 SE. It's all very subjective of course, and depends on personal preferences and relative experience. I'd imagine that if I used a DAC or hi-fi separates with them they'd sound better, but I've just gotten used to running them as they come whether on a controller or on the laptop jack. I probably don't get the best out of them as a result, but I'm used to it. To me, they are bright and clear, have very decent detail and good separation. They sing with anything binaural. I got them at less than half price and for what I run them on, it all seems pretty well balanced.
I've found that I rarely have the volume on either Xbox or Switch much over halfway, and never over 3/4. It's loud enough for me. I'm wary of damaging my hearing (at least, more than I already have!). Once upon a time I used to test for a high end hi-fi retailer. The sheer quality of the speakers, headphones, amps, sources etc. spoiled more conventional kit for me at the time, and I'd say that my expectations have reset to a lower baseline standard over the years since then.
@Dogbreath It doesn't really seem to be much of a consideration on the part of either the manufacturers or reviewers, does it? I suppose at least in part this is because a typical "gaming" headset is designed with controllers in mind, and I'd surmise that the majority run at 32 ohms or less. Therefore this type of detail would be more likely found in a headphones or headset review. However in my experience I've had a very satisfactory experience running cans off of a controller.
I've found a nice pair of Sennheisers that use good materials and construction yet their impedance is only 50 ohms. The bog standard Series X controller and Switch / Switch 2 pro controllers have had no issue whatsoever powering them, they're clear as a bell. I also have an open back EPOS headset (as it has a nifty mic) that's only 28 ohms and even though they have a higher sensitivity they lack some of the clarity and transparency, but that's probably because they're constructed and tuned differently more than anything else.
I'd reckon that anything up to 80 ohms or so would be well balanced and would save the fuss and bother of using an inline amp/DAC. Anything higher might just struggle to reach ear bleeding volume, which is a big no no anyway. At the end of the day what matters to me is whether they are sensitive enough, e.g. a strong 105dB SPL at 1kHz/1V RMS or more.
@Keade I've just started it again, having played it for the first time on PC in about 2019-20 (yes, it took that long to finish with the expansions). The complete edition in performance mode is really nice on Series X with HDR. Took me a while to adjust to the "close" camera as there was only the more pulled back "default" view when I played it before, but I prefer close now for both exploration and combat after swapping them about for a while.
My best unsolicited advice: Take your time. Don't burn out on ? map markers (but do clear them all in the first area called White Orchard). Do level appropriate side quests, about 95% of them are absolutely worth it. Keep your eyes and ears open in the world (fast travel isn't just as simple as a click in a menu for a reason). If someone says "so and so would like to know about this" in their dialogue to you, go and find so and so. Save often, but live with your choices rather than going back to previous saves or looking them up in a guide.
As a role-playing experience it's right up there. Enjoy!
Yes, PS has changed forward and back as you put it in Japan, but only relatively recently to my understanding (PS5?). The original (and long-lived) Japanese mapping was based on the symbols themselves (O and X commonly meaning positive / negative, or confirm / cancel, or correct / incorrect, I'm no linguist) which was different from the mapping in the western world but funnily enough the same as that other Japanese company, Nintendo, in terms of where the buttons are and what they do.
I suppose that Nintendo could be considered the reversed setup these days, with companies in the rest of the world outside Japan changing it up at first then conforming later. However in a similar fashion, the "inverted" y-axis was, at first, standard. As it is said, history is usually written by the dominant.
@Gemini53 Speaking personally it's not so much a confusion as a conflict of muscle memory. If I've been on an Xbox or PC game for dozens of hours then play the Nintendo or vice versa, I'll sometimes make mistakes at least for a little bit.
I'm very grateful that Nintendo usually circumvent this cleverly in their own games. Instead of just a prompt to press A or B, it's typically a simplified graphic of the four face buttons with the one to be pressed in a contrasting colour. Makes it much easier.
If I'm playing something emulated I usually just map the buttons to match my muscle memory e.g. the left to right A B C of a Mega Drive game becomes left to right Y X A (or Y B A) on a Nintendo.
@themightyant As others have stated, Nintendo has always been this way, with A to advance on the right and B for back on the left, and the newer kids in the block changed it up.
What I've found is that apart from system navigation and Nintendo's own games it usually makes no difference these days, especially when it comes to cross platform titles. The buttons, whether top, bottom, left or right have the same function, no matter the glyph each brand prints on it.
@Daffy-Duck Oh it can indeed be dark, it's an RPG set in gruelling times. However in a way the adversity lends the absurdity extra weight. It's very well written with great voice acting, and full of humour both overtly and subtly 😄
@AccessibleDaydream Like you, I've had several bugs to squash.
The "have to get up, hold the power button down to force the system off, turn the system back on" has become less frequent thankfully, but still happens on occasion.
Another is where I'm using a streaming app and for some reason the copy-protection (HDCP) breaks, and only switching the console off and swapping the HDMI port kicks it back into life. I can immediately swap back and it remains working on the original port. It affects each and every HDMI port. Changing the cable made no difference.
Finally, it'll lose connection to the outside world. Leaves the dashboard stuck on the top row. If I unplug the ethernet cable or power cycle the router I actually see the Xbox appear to reconnect for a split second and repopulate the play history box on the far right, as well as the ads on the second row, before blanking them out again.
The latter two issues could potentially be down to the telly or router as well, but they have never occured with a PC, PS4, or either generation of Switch.
Nope. They can fold up their ID demand until it's all sharp corners and stick it somewhere the sun doesn't shine.
If I want to chat online I'll use a Signal call, or another platform (like Switch 2). Forget integrated Discord as well, they are circling the drain right now having had a data breach of tens of thousands of IDs recently (October 2025, users in the UK and Australia)
The third party ID checkers may say they'll delete ID scans, but the "trusted" third (fourth?) party that they themselves use may not, and as with the Discord case, might not even be secure. Discord changed their trusted third party but it was after the horse had bolted.
I've a 20+ year old MS account. I've made purchases with my own card and via PayPal over those years. Why is this not enough? What with this and the current secure boot jiggery pokery, when will they get their act together, if ever?
I'd send Microsoft or anyone else a photo of an old receipt for a pack of cigs from John Menzies or Woolworths before I send them any government issued ID.
Regarding the cost of components such as RAM and SSDs, Microsoft are heavily involved in the circular ouroboros AI shenanigans, in terms of investment and services. They've at least in part made a rod for their own back here.
The internet here isn't very good, so expansion storage is very useful. The internal drive is predominantly for single player games, captures and apps; the expansion is for games that I'd want to take with me to another's house and multiplayer games as it is formatted to work with other consoles, not just my own.
I never let them get over 90% full as a rule of thumb. The performance can degrade if higher, so I occasionally shuffle things around if I'm downloading a larger game. Gives me a chuckle to see 5Gb/s on the queue screen instead of 50Mb/s 😄
I really enjoyed Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, but with other things taking up my time it seems like it spent more hours downloading patches than being played in the last six months.
Foreshadowing quote: "...its success was short-lived due to its high price of £999.99 (later reduced to £599) and a CPU that was outdated by the time of its release."
But seriously, about the only advantage of this scheme that I can think of right now is that "play anywhere" might actually become a proper reality for all Xbox games, if full-fat Windows 11 will be able to emulate console hardware or ideally run the software natively (which could already be possible, considering that the Series consoles use a version of Win11 and virtualisation).
Oh, and obligatory you can pry Win10 out of my cold dead hands etc.
@Jenkinss I'd surmise that by adding more of the lower impact, less demanding games they get to inflate "quantity of titles available" and "number of concurrent players" metrics. Such a game would demand a relatively small slice of server resources compared to a more demanding blockbuster title. For example, a server blade may have the capacity to emulate either one Series X or several One S consoles, and some of the games will only require the latter, so one server blade could serve multiple instances of an older, less demanding game to multiple users.
So his last startup, Humanoid Studios/Origin, was working on a character driven narrative sci-fi title before an "unexpected shortfall of funding" reportedly led to closure and layoffs. His current startup, Arcanaut, has been up and running for less than a year, perhaps? Even with a pivot of their cancelled game and the potential of Lucasfilm Games bankrolling, I wouldn't expect to see this within the next few years. Seems to me that this was a premature announcement for the benefit of TGA, and Geoff looked so stoked, bless him. Having said that, I'm quietly looking forward to it, if they can make it happen.
Here's some feedback for Xbox:
Your "value add" means nothing to this GP Ultimate customer. I don't play CoD, I don't play Fortnite, and the Ubisoft "Classics" I would play have already been purchased for a song and played many years ago. Perhaps your metadata shows that I'm very much in the minority here, but the barometer of reading feedback online suggests this is not entirely the case.
For the (let's be honest) huge price increase here, perhaps you could have added one or more of the following, to the Ultimate tier at least, and some of it even to the Premium tier:
~ Ubi+, allowing access to e.g. Outlaws and Shadows, and for giggles the Ultimate editions of their games - that would have been a genuine addition of value.
~ An Xbox "expansion pack" a la Nintendo - include the DLCs for marquee releases e.g. Indiana Jones and Forza, for no extra cost.
~ A family subscription a la Nintendo - share the cost to take the sting out of it.
~ Include a bonus library of back-compat games that are no longer on sale, a la Sony and Nin... you see where I'm going with this yet?
As it was, I could spend some of my gaming time on a game that I've purchased, and feel okay with not playing something from game pass, with not getting any value out of it for days or even weeks at a time. As it is now, I'm much more inclined to feel like I'm burning money for no good reason, and that I cannot stomach.
So at the end of the day the CoD acquisition is being paid for by the ~50% price increase on Ultimate. The "value add" of CoD, Fortnite, and Ubi's bargain bin catalogue holds no sway with me.
To play devil's advocate, the potential of earning up to £100 of store rewards or whatever could, on paper, cover the price increase per year. Someone who thinks they're very clever but is in fact very cynical probably got a bonus for that. Place your bets on whether that scheme changes for the worse within 12 months.
When my prepaid sub is done (March '26) I will not be renewing Ultimate. It'll be middle tier at best, if anything at all. Happy to wait a year or so for the newest games, and thanks in advance to all of the early access testers on Ultimate. Happy to wait two years or so and just buy the GOTY edition of a few titles each year, the way I used to on PC before I picked up a Series X. I paid £300 for the console new a few years ago, and I've had good value out of it so far. The only way I can see myself getting good value out of it going forward is to drop a tier, or more likely to drop game pass entirely.
Nordschlieffe and Fujimi Kaido were the last tracks I played before uninstalling this yesterday and claiming back nearly 160GB. I hadn't played the game for a couple of months (after putting countless hours into it for a good long while) and was basically asking it to justify the storage space on the console.
The handling is tuned nicely for gamepad (trigger haptics especially) but is lacking in feel and feedback on a wheel. The physics - "built from the ground up" ha ha ha - just don't feel right at all. They may update more times per second but they're not otherwise improved as far as I can tell. Induce and hold a little too much slide and the tyres suddenly give up and let go, all grip suddenly going off a cliff no matter what you do, until you slow down enough to arrest the slip, then they're magically very grippy again. There are even design foibles and bugs apparently carried over from prior FM games. The corporate style menus and interface are still offputting to me. It just lacks soul. I'd imagine it would be difficult to get genuine heartfelt passion out of people contracted and crunched only to be let go at launch date.
All in all, one final blast around, one final rivals personal best set, and it's toodle-oo. When Assetto Corsa, Dirt Rally 2, Wreckfest, and even Project Cars with backwards compatibility are more satisfying to play, and to keep around, I still feel spoiled for choice.
ETA: I feel for the team who worked on this project. There was surely room in Microsoft's stable for both Horizon and Motorsport. I doubt that they expected this outcome. I hope they have managed to move on to better things, and to start afresh.
@Tasuki I'm wondering if they'll have both the Trueno (Thunder) and the Levin (Lightning) versions of the AE86, and even go as far as to make the Levin slightly lighter and more responsive at the front end (fixed headlights as opposed to folding) 🤓
Wasn't really fussed about these. When I did the obligatory first time settings exploration I chose a Forza 7 achievement background, because the 911 GT2 art was excellent, and it looked good even with all of the game tiles on screen. Then I saw the Pentiment (if I remember correctly) dynamic one a while ago - woods, babbling brook, wildlife - it's lovely, and I can't see myself changing that any time soon.
Comments 35
Re: 'Keep The Feedback Coming' - Xbox Boss Says New Console Features Were Built Two Weeks Ago
It's all good useful stuff, kudos, but it's also an effective way of smashing out the low hanging fruit early for PR purposes.
I'd surmise that they categorised user feedback in an Excel spreadsheet, weighted it on ease of implementation, and went with that as a starter for ten.
Custom accent colours are already built into Windows, so knock that out relatively quickly. Extending the groups count probably only needed some testing for usability and memory usage. Letting users decide whether quick resume is available to make a RAM dump to a swap file seems like another quick win, a fire and forget way to deal with games that don't gracefully reconnect to servers or bug out in other interesting ways, bonus for the onus being on the end user therefore reducing some trouble ticket volume.
Allow some customisation and control and you're more often than not onto a winner. Let insiders do the edge case testing for you, and post it on social media. Pub, anyone?
Re: Bethesda Says Starfield Looks 'Amazing' With Nvidia's DLSS 5, But Don't Expect It On Xbox
Super sampling? Nice. Super slopping? Nope. This is awful. Sure, enjoy it if it's your thing. Personally I'd rather not use the extra ¾ kilowatt or so of power consumption, thanks very much.
Re: Talking Point: What Should Xbox Call Its 'Project Helix' Console?
New Microsoft Xbox Standard Azure Copilot ProPlus Premium Enterprise Service Pack 1 NT 365 (new)
Re: Xbox Reveals New Details On 'Project Helix' Next-Gen Console, Says Devs Will Get It In 2027
@Coletrain Hope you have a blast! I edited to add I was on Series X, in case that matters, but your reply was ninja quick!
Re: Xbox Reveals New Details On 'Project Helix' Next-Gen Console, Says Devs Will Get It In 2027
@Coletrain I played it a year or so ago, went with the 60fps mode on Series X. Looked great, was smooth, can recommend. Tried the 30fps mode but it was too much of a hit in fluidity for me, considering how much time is spent panning the camera around. Don't know if there's a 40fps mode, my telly doesn't support it.
Re: Xbox Reveals New Details On 'Project Helix' Next-Gen Console, Says Devs Will Get It In 2027
Shout out to the Xbox ROG Ally (X) players beta testing the software for the rest of us. I lift my glass to you. If this works out well then I might just end up reinstalling Windows on my laptop.
It's plausible that if the Helix alpha dev kits are out even as late as summer '27, we may still see the console launch for end of that year. Games developed on PC, even for console, will need testing and tweaking for the predicted performance of the release version of Helix to get them out of the door. We'll likely see a flow of Helix verified games hit the console as well, a la Switch 2 editions, and until then a basic performance uplift on games that struggle to reach their targets on Series. And for some of us, we'll all be hitting up our Steam and GOG libraries to pass the time.
Regarding this, being able to access PC games libraries on the console, I wonder how they'll manage pricing. Most favoured nation clauses? Hmmm... what will entice me pick up a game for £40+ on the Xbox store if I can get it on Steam for less?
Re: SSX 3 Is Incredible On Xbox, Here Are Five Reasons You Should Try It In 2026
Are there any older olympic titles that haven't been delisted? I mean the serious ones, not Sonic or Mario. I particularly remember Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 being very good and I'd probably pick them up if the price was right, but they possibly died along with Games for Windows Live. I'm still holding out hope for Nagano '98 on Switch virtual console, they missed an opportunity not chucking that on the service a month or two ago.
Re: Review: The 'Nacon Revolution X Unlimited' Is A Fantastic-Feeling Xbox Controller, At A Cost
That's interesting, cheers, and your PC setup sounds lovely. My Sennheisers are the 599 SE. It's all very subjective of course, and depends on personal preferences and relative experience. I'd imagine that if I used a DAC or hi-fi separates with them they'd sound better, but I've just gotten used to running them as they come whether on a controller or on the laptop jack. I probably don't get the best out of them as a result, but I'm used to it. To me, they are bright and clear, have very decent detail and good separation. They sing with anything binaural. I got them at less than half price and for what I run them on, it all seems pretty well balanced.
I've found that I rarely have the volume on either Xbox or Switch much over halfway, and never over 3/4. It's loud enough for me. I'm wary of damaging my hearing (at least, more than I already have!). Once upon a time I used to test for a high end hi-fi retailer. The sheer quality of the speakers, headphones, amps, sources etc. spoiled more conventional kit for me at the time, and I'd say that my expectations have reset to a lower baseline standard over the years since then.
Re: Review: The 'Nacon Revolution X Unlimited' Is A Fantastic-Feeling Xbox Controller, At A Cost
@Dogbreath It doesn't really seem to be much of a consideration on the part of either the manufacturers or reviewers, does it? I suppose at least in part this is because a typical "gaming" headset is designed with controllers in mind, and I'd surmise that the majority run at 32 ohms or less. Therefore this type of detail would be more likely found in a headphones or headset review. However in my experience I've had a very satisfactory experience running cans off of a controller.
I've found a nice pair of Sennheisers that use good materials and construction yet their impedance is only 50 ohms. The bog standard Series X controller and Switch / Switch 2 pro controllers have had no issue whatsoever powering them, they're clear as a bell. I also have an open back EPOS headset (as it has a nifty mic) that's only 28 ohms and even though they have a higher sensitivity they lack some of the clarity and transparency, but that's probably because they're constructed and tuned differently more than anything else.
I'd reckon that anything up to 80 ohms or so would be well balanced and would save the fuss and bother of using an inline amp/DAC. Anything higher might just struggle to reach ear bleeding volume, which is a big no no anyway. At the end of the day what matters to me is whether they are sensitive enough, e.g. a strong 105dB SPL at 1kHz/1V RMS or more.
(edited for grammar and clarity)
Re: 50+ Games Are Reduced By 90-95% In The Xbox Lunar New Year Sale 2026
@Keade I've just started it again, having played it for the first time on PC in about 2019-20 (yes, it took that long to finish with the expansions). The complete edition in performance mode is really nice on Series X with HDR. Took me a while to adjust to the "close" camera as there was only the more pulled back "default" view when I played it before, but I prefer close now for both exploration and combat after swapping them about for a while.
My best unsolicited advice:
Take your time.
Don't burn out on ? map markers (but do clear them all in the first area called White Orchard).
Do level appropriate side quests, about 95% of them are absolutely worth it.
Keep your eyes and ears open in the world (fast travel isn't just as simple as a click in a menu for a reason).
If someone says "so and so would like to know about this" in their dialogue to you, go and find so and so.
Save often, but live with your choices rather than going back to previous saves or looking them up in a guide.
As a role-playing experience it's right up there. Enjoy!
Re: Review: Want A PS5 Controller For Xbox? Hyperkin's 'The Competitor' Is Good And Affordable
Yes, PS has changed forward and back as you put it in Japan, but only relatively recently to my understanding (PS5?). The original (and long-lived) Japanese mapping was based on the symbols themselves (O and X commonly meaning positive / negative, or confirm / cancel, or correct / incorrect, I'm no linguist) which was different from the mapping in the western world but funnily enough the same as that other Japanese company, Nintendo, in terms of where the buttons are and what they do.
I suppose that Nintendo could be considered the reversed setup these days, with companies in the rest of the world outside Japan changing it up at first then conforming later. However in a similar fashion, the "inverted" y-axis was, at first, standard. As it is said, history is usually written by the dominant.
Re: Review: Want A PS5 Controller For Xbox? Hyperkin's 'The Competitor' Is Good And Affordable
@Gemini53 Speaking personally it's not so much a confusion as a conflict of muscle memory. If I've been on an Xbox or PC game for dozens of hours then play the Nintendo or vice versa, I'll sometimes make mistakes at least for a little bit.
I'm very grateful that Nintendo usually circumvent this cleverly in their own games. Instead of just a prompt to press A or B, it's typically a simplified graphic of the four face buttons with the one to be pressed in a contrasting colour. Makes it much easier.
If I'm playing something emulated I usually just map the buttons to match my muscle memory e.g. the left to right A B C of a Mega Drive game becomes left to right Y X A (or Y B A) on a Nintendo.
Re: Review: Want A PS5 Controller For Xbox? Hyperkin's 'The Competitor' Is Good And Affordable
@themightyant As others have stated, Nintendo has always been this way, with A to advance on the right and B for back on the left, and the newer kids in the block changed it up.
What I've found is that apart from system navigation and Nintendo's own games it usually makes no difference these days, especially when it comes to cross platform titles. The buttons, whether top, bottom, left or right have the same function, no matter the glyph each brand prints on it.
Re: Two Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (February 13)
@Daffy-Duck Oh it can indeed be dark, it's an RPG set in gruelling times. However in a way the adversity lends the absurdity extra weight. It's very well written with great voice acting, and full of humour both overtly and subtly 😄
Re: Two Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (February 13)
@Daffy-Duck On the other hand, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is hilarious. I was breathless with laughter so many times.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Reviews Are Saying About Xbox Game Pass Shooter High On Life 2
".. even though the Rick and Morty creator isn't involved in running Squanch Games, he left his DNA behind"
Phrasing is very, very important
Re: Xbox Signs Out Multiple Players At Once, Seemingly Related To Age Verification Issues
@AccessibleDaydream Like you, I've had several bugs to squash.
The "have to get up, hold the power button down to force the system off, turn the system back on" has become less frequent thankfully, but still happens on occasion.
Another is where I'm using a streaming app and for some reason the copy-protection (HDCP) breaks, and only switching the console off and swapping the HDMI port kicks it back into life. I can immediately swap back and it remains working on the original port. It affects each and every HDMI port. Changing the cable made no difference.
Finally, it'll lose connection to the outside world. Leaves the dashboard stuck on the top row. If I unplug the ethernet cable or power cycle the router I actually see the Xbox appear to reconnect for a split second and repopulate the play history box on the far right, as well as the ads on the second row, before blanking them out again.
The latter two issues could potentially be down to the telly or router as well, but they have never occured with a PC, PS4, or either generation of Switch.
Re: Xbox Signs Out Multiple Players At Once, Seemingly Related To Age Verification Issues
Nope. They can fold up their ID demand until it's all sharp corners and stick it somewhere the sun doesn't shine.
If I want to chat online I'll use a Signal call, or another platform (like Switch 2). Forget integrated Discord as well, they are circling the drain right now having had a data breach of tens of thousands of IDs recently (October 2025, users in the UK and Australia)
The third party ID checkers may say they'll delete ID scans, but the "trusted" third (fourth?) party that they themselves use may not, and as with the Discord case, might not even be secure. Discord changed their trusted third party but it was after the horse had bolted.
I've a 20+ year old MS account. I've made purchases with my own card and via PayPal over those years. Why is this not enough? What with this and the current secure boot jiggery pokery, when will they get their act together, if ever?
I'd send Microsoft or anyone else a photo of an old receipt for a pack of cigs from John Menzies or Woolworths before I send them any government issued ID.
Re: Talking Point: Will The Next Xbox Console Be Revealed In 2026?
Ever hear of Betteridge's law?
Regarding the cost of components such as RAM and SSDs, Microsoft are heavily involved in the circular ouroboros AI shenanigans, in terms of investment and services. They've at least in part made a rod for their own back here.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox Series X|S Owners, How's Your Storage Looking In 2026?
The internet here isn't very good, so expansion storage is very useful. The internal drive is predominantly for single player games, captures and apps; the expansion is for games that I'd want to take with me to another's house and multiplayer games as it is formatted to work with other consoles, not just my own.
I never let them get over 90% full as a rule of thumb. The performance can degrade if higher, so I occasionally shuffle things around if I'm downloading a larger game. Gives me a chuckle to see 5Gb/s on the queue screen instead of 50Mb/s 😄
Re: Seven Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass In Late January 2026
I really enjoyed Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, but with other things taking up my time it seems like it spent more hours downloading patches than being played in the last six months.
Re: 50 Backwards Compatible Xbox Games That Are 'Disc Only' In 2026
Project Cars 2 on disc was one of the best fivers I ever spent. I know it was what, Xbox One? But used disc was the only way to find it.
Re: Report: Xbox Working On 'Major Updates' To PC App For Next Console's Dashboard
Hold up, let me dust the cobwebs off of the old memory banks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_Mega_PC
Foreshadowing quote: "...its success was short-lived due to its high price of £999.99 (later reduced to £599) and a CPU that was outdated by the time of its release."
But seriously, about the only advantage of this scheme that I can think of right now is that "play anywhere" might actually become a proper reality for all Xbox games, if full-fat Windows 11 will be able to emulate console hardware or ideally run the software natively (which could already be possible, considering that the Series consoles use a version of Win11 and virtualisation).
Oh, and obligatory you can pry Win10 out of my cold dead hands etc.
Re: 50+ Games Added To Xbox 'Stream Your Own Game' To Finish Off 2025
@Jenkinss I'd surmise that by adding more of the lower impact, less demanding games they get to inflate "quantity of titles available" and "number of concurrent players" metrics. Such a game would demand a relatively small slice of server resources compared to a more demanding blockbuster title. For example, a server blade may have the capacity to emulate either one Series X or several One S consoles, and some of the games will only require the latter, so one server blade could serve multiple instances of an older, less demanding game to multiple users.
Re: Xbox Is Sending Out Forza Horizon 6 Gift Packages Ahead Of Its 2026 Release
I'm feeling a bit cynical today, so here's my finger in the air:
Re: Xbox Owner Thinks They've Found A 'Major Design Flaw' That Impacts Game Performance
Decades old legacy issues, quick and dirty bodged hacks, and counter-productive idiosyncrasies in MS software? You don't say...
Re: Star Wars: Fate Of The Old Republic Will Be Out Before 2030, Says Casey Hudson
So his last startup, Humanoid Studios/Origin, was working on a character driven narrative sci-fi title before an "unexpected shortfall of funding" reportedly led to closure and layoffs. His current startup, Arcanaut, has been up and running for less than a year, perhaps? Even with a pivot of their cancelled game and the potential of Lucasfilm Games bankrolling, I wouldn't expect to see this within the next few years. Seems to me that this was a premature announcement for the benefit of TGA, and Geoff looked so stoked, bless him. Having said that, I'm quietly looking forward to it, if they can make it happen.
Re: 'Price Increases Are Never Fun For Anybody' Says Xbox Exec Defending Game Pass Changes
Here's some feedback for Xbox:
Your "value add" means nothing to this GP Ultimate customer. I don't play CoD, I don't play Fortnite, and the Ubisoft "Classics" I would play have already been purchased for a song and played many years ago. Perhaps your metadata shows that I'm very much in the minority here, but the barometer of reading feedback online suggests this is not entirely the case.
For the (let's be honest) huge price increase here, perhaps you could have added one or more of the following, to the Ultimate tier at least, and some of it even to the Premium tier:
~ Ubi+, allowing access to e.g. Outlaws and Shadows, and for giggles the Ultimate editions of their games - that would have been a genuine addition of value.
~ An Xbox "expansion pack" a la Nintendo - include the DLCs for marquee releases e.g. Indiana Jones and Forza, for no extra cost.
~ A family subscription a la Nintendo - share the cost to take the sting out of it.
~ Include a bonus library of back-compat games that are no longer on sale, a la Sony and Nin... you see where I'm going with this yet?
As it was, I could spend some of my gaming time on a game that I've purchased, and feel okay with not playing something from game pass, with not getting any value out of it for days or even weeks at a time. As it is now, I'm much more inclined to feel like I'm burning money for no good reason, and that I cannot stomach.
Re: Poll: What Are Your Plans For Xbox Game Pass After This Week's News?
So at the end of the day the CoD acquisition is being paid for by the ~50% price increase on Ultimate. The "value add" of CoD, Fortnite, and Ubi's bargain bin catalogue holds no sway with me.
To play devil's advocate, the potential of earning up to £100 of store rewards or whatever could, on paper, cover the price increase per year. Someone who thinks they're very clever but is in fact very cynical probably got a bonus for that. Place your bets on whether that scheme changes for the worse within 12 months.
When my prepaid sub is done (March '26) I will not be renewing Ultimate. It'll be middle tier at best, if anything at all. Happy to wait a year or so for the newest games, and thanks in advance to all of the early access testers on Ultimate. Happy to wait two years or so and just buy the GOTY edition of a few titles each year, the way I used to on PC before I picked up a Series X. I paid £300 for the console new a few years ago, and I've had good value out of it so far. The only way I can see myself getting good value out of it going forward is to drop a tier, or more likely to drop game pass entirely.
Re: If You're Dying To See Forza In Japan, Xbox's Latest Motorsport Track Is Well Worth A Try
Nordschlieffe and Fujimi Kaido were the last tracks I played before uninstalling this yesterday and claiming back nearly 160GB. I hadn't played the game for a couple of months (after putting countless hours into it for a good long while) and was basically asking it to justify the storage space on the console.
The handling is tuned nicely for gamepad (trigger haptics especially) but is lacking in feel and feedback on a wheel. The physics - "built from the ground up" ha ha ha - just don't feel right at all. They may update more times per second but they're not otherwise improved as far as I can tell. Induce and hold a little too much slide and the tyres suddenly give up and let go, all grip suddenly going off a cliff no matter what you do, until you slow down enough to arrest the slip, then they're magically very grippy again. There are even design foibles and bugs apparently carried over from prior FM games. The corporate style menus and interface are still offputting to me. It just lacks soul. I'd imagine it would be difficult to get genuine heartfelt passion out of people contracted and crunched only to be let go at launch date.
All in all, one final blast around, one final rivals personal best set, and it's toodle-oo. When Assetto Corsa, Dirt Rally 2, Wreckfest, and even Project Cars with backwards compatibility are more satisfying to play, and to keep around, I still feel spoiled for choice.
ETA: I feel for the team who worked on this project. There was surely room in Microsoft's stable for both Horizon and Motorsport. I doubt that they expected this outcome. I hope they have managed to move on to better things, and to start afresh.
Re: Forza Horizon 6 Devs Discuss Why Japan Was 'Right Fit' & When To Expect Gameplay
@Tasuki I'm wondering if they'll have both the Trueno (Thunder) and the Levin (Lightning) versions of the AE86, and even go as far as to make the Levin slightly lighter and more responsive at the front end (fixed headlights as opposed to folding) 🤓
Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.31 Brings AutoDrive Improvements, Photo Mode Changes To Xbox
@Notmything It's not a new feature, it's a new bug, or sometimes both at once.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Might Be Ditching The 'Auto-Redeem' Offer For Xbox Game Pass
Well, at least the smattering of points over the last however long have "paid" for a year of extended security updates on Windows. Every cloud...
Re: Xbox Adds Multiple New Dynamic Backgrounds To Kick Off April
Wasn't really fussed about these. When I did the obligatory first time settings exploration I chose a Forza 7 achievement background, because the 911 GT2 art was excellent, and it looked good even with all of the game tiles on screen. Then I saw the Pentiment (if I remember correctly) dynamic one a while ago - woods, babbling brook, wildlife - it's lovely, and I can't see myself changing that any time soon.
Re: Review: Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 (Xbox) - A Brutal & Brilliant Medieval Epic, But You'll Need To Put The Time In
How's the lock picking? 😬