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@Pabpictu these games are basically gamings equivalent of a B slasher movie. And quite a lot of people (myself included) happen to love those, as long as they are properly priced and self- aware.

I'm a bit suspicious of the result when letting UE5 "optimize" for itself.. historically it turned image quality to "you know what" on XSS as it would lower resolution too low for FSR to be able to help. TSR seems to be too taxing for XSS, so that crutch is out of the window.. it's basically manual optimization and tweaking, or "water painting" image.

Somehow, Palpatine returns, and PX will find a way to blame multiple developers for getting their games stuck in MS release pipeline, instead of a service provider (MS) who's obligation is clearly to streamline and help with this process.
Actually, MS supposedly has Advanced Technology Group, a team that helps get games to Xbox, but it seems to only be helping teams who's games are going directly to GP..

Unfortunately, I won't be around for it as my GP subscription has finally ran out (and no way am I extending full price). This was one of the games that I would like to checkout, but probably wouldn't stick with it till the end.

On the subject of subscription, is it me or did MS at some point turn auto renewal back on for me (I disabled it manually again on the last day)?

Tried it out for a while.. not for me. But then no CoD really is, so that tracks.
However, I haven't played CoD in years and BO6 felt just as they ever did. Honestly, I couldn't tell these games apart.

Totally expect this game to release running at 25FPS on XSS.
It would be interesting to know if MS investing all this time into consulting and helping these teams to release on XSS was actually financially worth it.

Do a crossover with Concord, that will surely work.

My guess would be situation is a bit more complicated than an exclusivity deal, which is why nobody is making any public announcements.
Most likely scenario, team developed for PC first and had issues porting to any of the 2 powerful consoles. Sony stepped in first and offered to help with porting (as a way to boost PS5 sales in China market). Team opted to go with that offer even if MS made one, as porting to Xbox meant optimizing 2 versions vs 1, and their home market has more interest in PS over Xbox hardware.
It could be something completely different though, we might never know..

@StylesT well makes me wonder what thier life is like that they get so upset/angry that a computer game doesn't have the precious 60fps...

That's turning things upside down a bit, isn't it? Nobody is upset/angry, people are just expressing their opinion that 60FPS is a crucial feature for them, and they would skip the game without it. Doesn't seem like an emotional thing to me at all.

@eduscxbox Zelda BOTW and TOTK have been universally panned for it's performance. They get a partial "pass" because they are genuinely greatest games of their time. Pure art level.
FF16 has performance issues in general play (inside VRR window), but locks to 60 during combat. I don't like this approach and consider it a fail, but at least you wouldn't lose/die due to performance and slower/lagier input.

In relation to Atlas Fallen, I just wanted to say this game is looking really poorly on XSS. Relying on FSR (1?) with such a low native resolution, in a world filled with sand and foliage.. when doing a sand skate whole screen just turns to soup. Please, at least give me an option to play in 540p without artifacts, if that is the most XSS can do.

@Fiendish-Beaver I think you meant to say Quality or Balance, as Performance is lingo for a 60 FPS mode..

@Fiendish-Beaver let's agree to disagree on that, as personally I only play PS5 on 60FPS modes for quicker and driving games and 40FPS for a more story driven titles. Also, I have gotten nausea from FPS games in 30 FPS modes before and would not force myself to play a game that way if I feel bothered by it.

@Fiendish-Beaver literally every Sony made game supports 60 FPS mode that works, and a good chunk has a 40 FPS mode which I believe to be a blessing.

@Titntin I agree his earlier games (Bullfrog era) were amazing. In my memory, that used to be the golden years of gaming (and I started my gaming adventure much earlier).
However, these days he can't make it through an interview without overpromising, compromising himself and the team, and downright making them eligible for a lawsuit.
Couple of kickstarter/mobile scams in between doesn't help. It's sad for sure, but I feel like for a while now he is not looking to revolutionize as much as just scam and quickly profit.

Have you learned nothing Jon Obsidian Snow??? Series consoles shall go down in history as home of 30FPS exclusives (title most likely held by PS3 up to this point).

Gonna be waiting for reviews and getting this on PS5 if it ends up being good. It is losing some steam in my eyes, as they are really hiding gameplay in all of these trailers. That makes me nervous.

Molyneux should be banned from gaming industry after all false promises he made over the years..
Regardless, that game looked proper bad.

@Rog-X I'm gonna take a wild guess you never had an Amiga?
Game looks perfectly fine for what it is (2D metroidvania), and I'm having trouble finding a bad review of it. I hope that this situation works in devs favor and game gets few extra sales.

Nice of MS to offer help when this case was exposed to public and picked up by mainstream gaming media. Funny how they fiddled their fingers and ignored the team for 6 months prior..
Not even saying this is MS specific, every large company is similar (working with Apple team on publishing software can occasionally be hellish experience), but MS should at least be supportive and frictionless in these customer relation services (for platform developers are their customers) if they want to attract and keep indie devs in what is clearly a dying platform.

Seems like the only one with real worth. Unbelievably, Xbox has lost ownership of only new IP I liked they created this whole gen.

Good games that still hold up. But anybody who had interest already played these and most likely also owns them..

They had that awesome Showcase and everything, but somehow I still feel like there is nothing coming up for the rest of 2024. Hopefully Indy releases.

@HonestHick respectfully, I don't agree.
Assuming this generation includes only XSX/S and PS5, PS5 had some bangers like R&C, FF7/16, Spider-Man 2, Astro... And while graphics evolution hasn't been breathtaking, load times and immersion have been taken to another level. Personally, I don't enjoy playing last gen stuff as much anymore.
It's really only that MS has dropped the ball when it comes to content and immersion side of things. There has been zero top-notch exclusives and controller (users interaction point) is unchanged from last gen.

I understand I'll be frowned upon for this comment, it's just how I feel.

@FraserG my hunch is that proper MS Xbox handheld is going to be targeting lower pricing, which might result in MS going out of their way to lock Windows down and disabling it being used as a regular PC (to avoid all complications steaming from that). Rog Ally for all it's faults in doing so can still be docked and used as any old PC.

Once this thing goes on a sale, I'm getting it. Seems like a really thought through product compared to alternatives (minus steamdeck, but that is sort of feeling underpowered now).

Did I miss the news, but it seems Frostpunk 2 was also delayed? (my GP app says it's supposed to be out today, and I was kind of looking forward to that, wondering why there is no coverage..)

Terrible naming. I've been in gaming for almost 30 years and I don't see myself as "average" user, but my wife plays only occasionally and almost bought One S instead of Series S. So it's not just grandpas getting confused. Same color palette and look doesn't help.

Glad it reviewed well, I really liked this from the trailers/images. Hopefully it joins GP at some point!

@Neither_scene you got that other way around, it's Xbox head of marketing for EMEA, aka. MS/Xbox employee overseeing the region of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. That means in public situations he is representing MS.
It is a part of this man's job to present a case for securing the funding for his region. If amount isn't sufficient it is either due to case not being persuasive enough, or MS actually not being able to fund it.
I bet you it's not the latter

Ignorant me, not having sympathy for the company acquiring worlds biggest publisher for 70 billion, crying about budget issues now.

Decided to try it for myself
Well, in my opinion, it ain't all that great. Rather, it could be good, but is unfinished.
Traversal (running, jumps, dodges, etc..) have weird animations that interact with environment in all the wrong ways. Fighting suffers from similar issues and animations are a bit lacking.
All of that is understandable for a AA game, but very unfortunate in a game that mechanically relies on precision and fluidity.
I have not played enough to comment on story or dialogue (but it seemed perfectly serviceable for as long as I played).

Eh, opened PS first and saw it was a "mini review".. that is never a good sign. Unfortunately, it fared even worse on PX.
Oh well, maybe I try it out for myself..

First off, I wanna say I kind of like Sad Dad Simulators. Not perfect, but can be fun.
However, Hellblade 2 was quite disappointing as a game (almost no actual gameplay, and realistically "experience " is just boring) and visually on XSS things get quite blurry. Given hype and development time I really expected more.

Ouuuuu, I love the wording there, games may come to Standard later, but they also may not..
Does that mean MS first party games are not guaranteed to be added to any other tier except GPU?
Noice

Yeah, I'm out. It already didn't make sense for me, as I don't get to play enough GP games for it to be financially smart.
But I'm happy for the people that seem overjoyed with this price hike, and hope you get another one soon.

5/10 for me. Gave it same score when it came out on PS Plus.. found it unpolished and a bit boring. Also, first 3-4 hours felt all samey.

@AlwaysPlaying I like that rule, makes sense.

@themightyant I have no idea what are you basing mostly "happily playing" info on. Every performance compromised port on Switch has sold considerably less compared to uncompromised platforms, metacritics score was lower, and user reviews have been vocal about the issues..
Maybe you know a few people who happen not to care? There are cases where property popularity/value outweighs the actual game (Pokemon, Harry Potter, etc..) but those are exceptions rather than a rule.

@themightyant Series S UE5 games have been rendering internally between 436p-900p. Higher end of that spectrum is fine, but lower is just not enough to produce a passable image for a 50+ inch TV output.
And I'm a big fan of Nintendo's potato, but that relies on a specific art style (as big N very well knows what they can and can not pull off). 3rd party ports for example are a mess on Switch, and I don't see too many people getting Switch to play those if they have a choice.
I do agree with the upgrade note, but somehow PC master race is willing and eager to pump money down the drain at a stunning pace (many of my friends find XSX/PS5 too expensive, while investing 2500 euros into a PC they use for browsing and gaming).

@RadioHedgeFund I would not agree completely. All UE5 games have been a mess on Series S as resolution that S can push is just too low for upscaling to be useful. But, majority of offerings works just fine.

@themightyant limitations of Series S and something like new Rog Ally X are very different in favor of handheld. Portable PC devices have room to iterate (vs. consoles that are locked in for 7 years cycle) and adapt to latest engines, and are far less affected by low resolution and upscaling artifacting.

All that said, Series S is a good device and there is a place for it in the market obviously. It's just that it has it's limitations and there is no reason to turn a blind eye to 'em (MS won't fix them in XSS2 unless acknowledged is my take I guess).

@PsBoxSwitchOwner agreed that it costs, but its a cost you shouldn't/can't eliminate. It's like deciding out of all parts of your car to eliminate tires. You can do it, but you probably shouldn't.
Running beta testing is supposed to inform behavior under load, bottlenecks, user interactions with platform and among themselves.. Validate gameplay loop outside of confines of internal cherrypicked QA team.
But, it might all be OK and they end up delivering good, polished experience.

Isn't that beta like critical part of September release? Or does September release become a low key beta launch marketed as full release now?
In my experience every time beta was cancelled what it actually meant was "we'll fix it on prod".

Looks much more like GT7 to me (which in turn means much cleaner and better).
I'm just interested in how people who said they preferred more realistic pre-update look feel now?

Disclaimer: it genuinely looks good now.

I'm not sure if I watched the same video, but I've understood it as basically not being good at all. Uncapped mod is running in 30-40 territory, which is not good enough for VRR, and is choppy on regular display. 120 mode is all over the place, 30-120, and image quality is very poor (this actually might just be a mod bug).
Either way, it's a nice experiment for power users and DF crew, but I don't see it as actually viable or useful.

Special thanks to Tango Gameworks and other who helped them survive rough patch there..
On a more serious note, I think they have a great lineup that is actually coming out just in time to push all those conversion opportunities to resubscribe as their pilled up years are finally running out. I don't know if that is on purpose, but if yes it's a master mind move on MS side.
And, while I do think Sony's roadmap is lacking in comparison, I believe Nintendo's, for the last year of the system mind you, was very comparable if not better.

Well deserved, justice served.
Lesson learned is that sequel needs even more micro-transactions and story removed, double down on the crazy.

Tried this out myself (although on a PS5) and I must admit it impressed. Basically makes the game completely playable. If they did this pre-release game would have probably been a decent success (it's actually not that bad, just average with pretty boring start/begining).

I've beaten "the game" (used very loosely here) on Series S, and can tell you it does not look great. Resolution is just too low, which is a shame because through grain you can see quality art.
However, what helped me was playing on the OLED TV. I've started playthrough on a 27" LCD gaming monitor and that looked terrible, full of noise and shimmer. TV meanwhile produced a more blurred but pleasing image.

For what it's worth Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is my favorite game from that list. Such injustice that it didn't sell better.