Cikajovazmaj

I gave this game zero chance of success, and it seems it defied the odds and I was in the wrong. Good for the team (which has some bangers in their CV). I'll give it a go

@CallMeDuraSouka and the trophy for the most appropriate profile picture for the message thread goes to.... just awesome

@FraserG I'd argue due to the nature of the game (and content) GTA 6 will not win GOTY. It's very obvious GTA will be a hit and a joy to play (took their sweet time polishing), but my money is on GOTY being a safe established decent to everybody awesome to no one game.

Only game I was interested in before and after the direct.. looks very good.

Great 3-month review! Very often this is exactly info missing, past initial impressions if and how has device become the part of reviewers day-to-day. Good stuff.
Personally, I also tend to forget these handhelds can genuinely be a usable PC for majority of the users. Not everybody requires a workstation, and for a LOT of workflows they are just as good as a docked laptop.

Year of the Xbox, and it's the first one I'm totally ok with experiencing through PS5 and PC.
But seriously, it's shaping up to be an amazing lineup.

Going by this poll, people seem to have too much money. No other explanation for the results...

@Brigurugi this! GT7 is so much better for just being loved by it's players. Wonderful game indeed, every design decision in game has been made for the love of cars and that translates to player community too.
Unusually low percentage of people with "problems" trying to solve them through online bullying and general douchiness.

A lot of good technologies packed under that FSR Redstone banner. It's a bit disappointing internet is trying to show it in bad light for clicks, when it's the only real competition to Nvidia rule..
I applaud any innovation and hope they continue evolving this for years to come.

I've worked with many leaders over the years and there is one thing I happened to pickup on: leaders who give vague, generic, forever applicable but never actionable statements tend to achieve very little.
Practical, actionable, and value oriented leaders GSD.

Take that however you want.

Does it even matter anymore? It's just a number next to a box nobody is buying. Time to think about the next step..

@OldGamer999 to be fair, CoD was on a much healthier trajectory when Sony used it to promote PS. Right now, it would only feed into "out of touch" perception.
However, MS needs to rethink pricing and value proposition as these poor decisions are going to impact next generations starting sentiment.

South of Midnight is a perfect "game for impact". I can understand how art and music could move somebody, but at the same time the game underneath it is nothing unique. I'm aware of the irony, yes.
I wanted to like it more than I did, and realistically it's decent. Just nowhere near GOTY category.

@themightyant while I did hear about that I'm having hard time believing it. MS bread and butter is literally writing software and offering services (based on well defined abstractions and APIs).
It would be baffling if they would not be producing leading SDK and dev tools.

Title is a bit misleading... It's not development that is difficult, it's publishing. At least that's my understanding of prior examples and what this document would address.

@Gabrie while I do agree developers should be better at eliminating shader stutter, reality we live in still has that problem in current, future, and many past games. Making a workaround solution that circumvents the issue, I'm all for it.
On another note, doesn't steam deck have something similar already?

I can wait until they patch it and discount.. I'm sure it would make more sense to sell a finished game full price vs. on sale once you actually fix it, but what do I know, I'm not the numbers guy.
Jokes aside, this team is still capable of delivering the goods. I'm sure they'll get there.

Yeah, don't care. Back when I had XSS I really tried to like this game, but man it wasn't made for humans (rather going through all those menus, loading screens, sub-menus, more loading.. just wasn't fun).
Also, I don't see how it can be fixed through a DLC, it needs to be a different thing entirely to become engaging and interesting.
So, no need to port this one, please port the rest. TY

My one big complaint with Windows in general is how clumsy it is, because it has to support almost infinite number of hardware combinations.
And ROG Xbox Ally is the first step in moving that "experience" into handheld space. So no, I don't think using partner such as Asus was a good idea. Especially if Asus is just going to be one of partners. Keeping platform constrained and internally managed would have been better.

"Laws and regulations be damned, how come we can't change our subscription conditions however and whenever we want?" - what I assume Phil and the gang were shouting once they learned there are countries where customers indeed have rights.

@Questionable_Duck your time spent watching ads is not free. Or at least you shouldn't consider it free.

If it ends up being true, I'm starting to suspect this company is run by real mad men. Not just the fact it's not a great deal to begin with, but they are changing terms and tiers left and right with no clear direction.. it's impossible to feel well informed and confident as a user.

@Ricky-Spanish I care to disagree.
Prices for other services are usually market adjusted, but in my current location montly cost of internet connection, IPTV and Netflix COMBINED is the same as GPU. (optical link, full TV package, lowest Netflix tier)

It's not really easy to rationalize spending that same amount for a gaming sub I use maybe an hour daily.

Khm, I don't think the fan picked up on a fact that "modular" part is packed in just to artificially increase the value, but is in practice "diddley squat" useful and nobody would opt in. Therefore, no way

I feel like MS is thinking price/value proposition is still debatable, but I simply can't afford 30$ a month for gaming. And I don't even consider myself to be that poor on average

I'm worried about PX staff as MS basically nuking the brand they are reporting on is no fault of their own. Hopefully the gaming world grows elsewhere and everybody ends up being fine after a little bit of in office rebalance.

I'm sure somebody did the math and decided these prices would be competitive.. but man, last year I've used discounted PS Plus and bought games I really wanted outside of the service.. and have not spent total of 360 USD. That is wild!

@Gabrie honestly, MS is the offending party that should take action when it comes to Windows Store. It's abysmal.
As for the machine itself, glad to hear it's a good product. Can't afford/reason it myself with all the other gaming platforms I use, but as an all-in handheld option it seems to shine.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner couple of million would be a success for a PC handheld, at least going by historical data.
However, I do believe outside of SteamDeck 2, these particular ones have the highest chance to do so.

Universe has really wronged that game. Such an excellent metroidvania and a game in general. Hopefully everybody gets to play it.

@cburg my 350€ phone came with a case and a charger.. just saying.

@SaltySpitoon957 Technically Switch 2 is cheap compared to alternatives (but you are locked into Nintendo storefront).

Asus/Xbox have literally priced me out of getting this product. I just can't rationalize spending that much on a handheld (for the X).

I'm a bit concerned this is going to end up being another experience for "all gamers" like Netflix branching TV series, or such low interactivity, heavily directed content.
Hopefully not, but high visual fidelity + Unreal 5 suggests slower pace and limited freedom to roam outside of the beaten path.

@abe_hikura didn't MS do literally that a while back? Or I'm imagining things..

Seems like a mode to ensure everybody who plays the game is eligible to purchase a sequel.
Which is fine I guess, I won't be using it, but if you are just interested in a streamlined experience, wish to follow the story without hustle of actually playing.. now you can. There is also YouTube as an option, it's cheaper.

What do I want from year three...
I want Bethesda to stop new development outside of critical bugfixes, and move team over to a hopefully better next game.

Haven't gotten around to it yet, I'll buy it down the line.
But I'm not sure how much of a big deal it is/was for Game Pass, they underpriced the game to really be a factor for any service (cost's about the same as a service month, if you like it you'll spend more then a month in it, and if you buy the game you get to keep it)

7/10 IGN, not quite low enough (that would be 6/10) to guarantee an excellent game, but I'll eventually give it a go. High hopes

@Ricky-Spanish I'm just saying that it's way more probable that one forgot to write their homework, rather than dog eating it.

What a world we live in, it's easier to believe in some grand conspiracy theory then just regular old human incompetence.

@DennisReynolds for the most part I agree. It took a very long time for them to "properly" optimize PS5 version (at least set usable framerate targets), and even then it's barely passable.
That said, this is whole new level of lazy, but there is a good game in there somewhere.

These comments are dripping with so much positivity and excitement for Series consoles.. meanwhile MS takes it out the back with the gun.
Honestly, I understand hardware side was good, but last generation was such a failure for MS they pivoted the business model 180.

It's not her leaving I'm worried about..

@ChopperCampbell it's hard to clearly explain your plans to the masses if you happen to have none. And I'll have to be proven otherwise before I change my stance on that.
@JayJ agreed, most of new stuff they tried to introduce just wasn't very good and got rejected by the community fairly quickly. Not ideal, but they made like 7 successful iterations before, Turn 10 should be allowed a dud.

Definitely disappointed with what happened to the team. Latest FM was/is not as great as GT7, but competition is a healthy thing and I believe Turn 10 was keeping Sony in check.
Hopefully they recover and there is a next competitive FM.

While these might not have as wide appeal as FH5, personally I prefer simcades.

2026. - the year of the Xbox.
All jokes aside, I feel like this generation has come and gone, and it has not stroke out because of use compute power, rather due to lack of imagination and innovation. And nothing in the upcoming lineup actually sticks out as if it will change that.

@Kaloudz in theory, most people don't think that far ahead
For a while, most luxurious position in companies was being "AI enthusiast", training your own replacement. And it was also most wanted.

@AccessibleDaydream if I'm honest, I'd say there is a decent chance whomever was forced to use AI in MS graphic design department has done this on purpose. There is no other explanation. Every designer I ever collaborated with would see that mistake from mile away, and it would take a visible effort and internal struggle to push it forward without fixing

@Kaloudz I'll risk stating the obvious, but maybe because AI is gonna mess it up and embarrass you in front of the fans/internet..
I get AI generating slope, but is there anyone with healthy pair of eyes validating this?