There would need to be some kind of mega deal for the consumer for this to matter. 5 to 15 hour monthly stints aren't gonna draw in non-Xbox users. Hopefully Asha has something biblical cooking for this one

Advanced haptics eh....interesting....

@Mr-Cage FSR4 is rolling out to RDNA2 GPUs in "early 2027" so it could theoretically be used on series x, presume it would still require a lot of optimisation and back porting if Devs want to use it but I've had a play with FSR 4 on ROG Ally and it's very nice

@vanYth ah right thanks for the clarity. Happy with all that as well to be fair!

The amount of redundancies just within my immediate friends and family circle over the last year is unprecedented. AI in its current form is by far the biggest cancer I've ever known. But sure, keep selling memory to the AI overlords Micron, good job 👍

@Kaloudz I'm just wondering what the SSD is capable of data streaming-wise on an Xbox. I tried to see if that DF interview gave any clues but not really. Maybe like, background textures or something quite static?

Still, it's very cool if it can be used by other devs

@Kaloudz oh I think I know the video you're talking about. They did something where each levels streamed in in chunks on crash, can't remember the exact details but it wasn't using storage as such, just normal RAM

P.S. welcome back

Using SSD storage as memory sounds extremely cool. What would it actually be viable for then? What could it realistically be streaming in on games?

Burnout with pod racers, yes please

Looks much more stable in motion than TAA. Big W for ps5 owners to be fair. Hopefully AMD allow for the INT8 version of FSR4 on rdna2 so series consoles can get a similar option. Has the AI hardware to do it

For a 3rd person cover shooter to be sitting in the high 80s on MC, potentially 90 if later reviews go their way, is nothing short of exceptional nowadays. Bravo Coalition, the game looks stunning, and Craigo I concur with an earlier comment that your review is dripping with passion. Great read.

Reboot it and keep the things that work. The soundtrack should be similar, obviously. Also, not to make this sound like some kind of Sony title, but more set pieces. Some of my favourite parts of Halo are the vehicle sections because they're so grandiose in scope.

Absolutely made up. Already claimed 3 games digitally and yep, showing up on my ROG Ally with play anywhere. Beautiful!

@themightyant I dunno man. Since this was announced Metaphor has gone up by £3, hogwarts legacy by £2, Starfield by £2, AC Valhalla by £1.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting this is earth-shatteringly relevant, but it would indicate a slight increase in demand for physical Xbox games in the UK

Excellent. I bought metaphor hoping this would go through. Think another trip to CEX is due now

For anyone who is a CEX regular observer like me, notice that Starfield went from £20 to £22...I'm curious of this is due to increased demand, as they generally work pricing based on availability

Looks awesome. Jon Clarke from DayOne said he met you guys and loved yas.

Satya being a bit of a k---head aside, I feel a lot more positive about the direction of Xbox than I've felt before. Despite all the layoffs, Sharma seems to have a clear direction and a purpose to what she does

@Sol4ris when it's completely blatant nonsense then I'd agree with you, but this is one of those rumours that would not only feel plausible to the average reader, but is downright damaging to the brand. So for this instance I think Ball was on the money and did well to shut it down quickly

@Sol4ris I think it was needed. The very mention of "heavily skewed" puts thought in your mind like 90/10 for PS5 when the reality might be 60/40 or 65/35.

Also, Tom Warren is generally a trusted source so if it needs correction then he will have to learn his lessons and go lick his wounds accordingly.

This is a great move from Ball. Better to stop this kind of (pointlessly) negative information from spreading like wildfire and damaging the brand for no other reason than checks notes there are more ps5 consoles than Xbox ones in the wild

If they did a sequel in the style of elder scrolls I.E. all bespoke environments I would want it in a heartbeat. Starfield is amazing when you stick to the quests

@theduckofdeath I hope so. Outside of new Vegas I wouldn't class obsidian as a big game kind of studio, more a delightful AA one

@RiverGenie I worry that too. Fallout just isn't my jam, but Pentiment was an absolute breath of fresh air. Need more of those smaller obsidian games in my life

@Balaam_ I agree wholeheartedly with the notion of being able to delete achievements for games you don't want there (not merely "hiding" them as we do now.) I don't want the achievement my wife earned for 15 mins on "the good life" to show on my screen.

Otherwise, this update sounds exactly like PS platinums, and I'm here for it

@fatpunkslim nicely said

All these changes make sense. Frankly, the decline of Halo needs to be sorted by a team that knows how to support shooters, Activision is the best place for that.

Not much else to say, sad times for the staff and no doubt a culmination of increasingly poor management from the top.

@HonestHick as a former PS4 player it was baffling to me the first time I found a 1000g game that suddenly had me at 70-odd percent. I used to look through my platinums with some pride so to see it come to Xbox would be a great touch for me.

Hope you are keeping well bud

Two things: firstly, make sure this is tied to the base game only. When add-ons take my gamerscore beyond 1000g and I've already got all base achievements it's annoying

Secondly, I still prefer emerald achievement 🤘

I'll make sure I've got room spare. This is gonna be a cracker. (And I actually like all the side and chadley stuff...don't care if the consensus is that it bloats the game)

@Banjo- I'm jealous! I'm still on FFII (but it's still wonderful, I love the remastered music)

@Banjo- yeah, I very specifically didn't mention the adaptive triggers because they're an awful idea most of the time. Astro bot does them well, and Spiderman 2 has a semi-cool use for them. But horizon forbidden west using tension for the bowstring in a game where you always use a bow seems overkill...

@Banjo- Witcher 3 took me a good 10 hours to get into, that was ages ago mind...I'm also working through rebirth and the pixel remasters, amazing games

@Banjo- I love them. But having played astro bot and miles morales at my mates house, the dualsense haptics are special (just hate the shape of the damn thing, hurts my left thumb!)

@Banjo- the first control is an absolute treat. Surprises around every corner!

@Banjo- @Brigurugi it has a solid 60fps mode, Craig is just saying that he played at it 30!

(I agree with Craig, some games are just better at 30fps, this isn't one of them for me but rebirth, hogwarts legacy spring to mind)

Great review too, sort of parallels with Wolverine: made a great game but combat wears thin by virtue of the game being a shade too long! (Bring back 10 hour games I say...)

1. 4k60 in all games without a need for VRR. Support for hardware accelerated ray tracing en masse helps too

2. Continue the back compat journey. It's honestly been so great playing portal 2, GTA IV and Stuntman Ignition, to name a few.

3. Advanced haptic feedback in the controller (dualsense best feature by a mile) - impulse triggers can stay, they're great already

4. GAMES. I love RPGs and Xbox has some of the best studios for them

@themightyant exactly right. Every business needs a recurring revenue stream and game pass is Xbox's answer.

The only thing I think Xbox should change (which is more for the benefit of developers) is keeping tentpole releases that would be guaranteed hits away from day 1, maybe give them 6 months first. I'm thinking really big ones; elder scrolls, Forza horizon etc. rather than Halo or Fable

Wouldn't bother me personally, but it does take the service's USP away. At that point, they may as well just get rid of ultimate and offer premium only.

It would severely hurt their recurring revenue so I don't think it's true

@GeeEssEff I sometimes use reward points to buy via Xbox store, sometimes physical and loaded when those two are no Bueno. It's nice to have choices!

I use loaded and always pay via credit card in case of fraud. Never had any that weren't legitimate though

This has blown up on X and it's single source rumour milling. I know pure need to report this kind of thing but it's sloppy from ALL journalistic sources to do so

@Balaam_ the X is the single greatest product Microsoft ever made, it was just shackled by poor leadership

Awesome. Doom eternal is on my list of games I wanted after finishing doom 2016 in Feb this year. Bet it plays great on Ally

@Millionski that's what I'm getting at bud, Sony were usually fine with taking risks and backing it up with great marketing, but this new cautious Sony is weird to see!

Risky Xbox I love though. All these games that underperformed, like South of Midnight, Avowed etc are absolutely great

On the one hand, this is a stupid decision and rightful karma for Sony's cancellation of disc-based games.

On the other, it's understandable that Sony are being guarded over budgets after this generations live service flops.

The more terrifying thing is that Sony doesn't feel confident enough to take a gamble on this, which could lead to more sequel-itis, and that's not the Sony that I used to know and love

@Millionski it's ok for now isn't it, but if I only had a switch 2 I'd eventually feel like I was missing out on awesome games!

@SodaPop6548 crisis core can be a bit of a slog but it's pretty much essential for understanding rebirth (didn't stop me playing for 50 hours and getting 100% of achievements though...)

I'll be there no matter how much padding there is! One thing I am interested in which the previews don't go into detail on, is whether they've worked out how to make a good performance mode, which is really poor on rebirth on xbox

@CasualGamerFatigue thank god for the ignore button. What kind of sad troll makes an account just to argue with strangers and then not have an intelligent come back? I made my points of why D2D on those 3 games was beneficial to me, in rebuttal to your nonsensical point that the discs don't contain the full games.

Newsflash: hardly any Xbox series games are all on disc because they have 50GB capacities

@Millionski Nintendo is cool and all but there's no way I'm buying a game that's also available on Xbox for Switch, to get worse graphics and performance.

But with their own stuff and with indie games, I think they're the kings 👑