Coletrain

@DonnieTACO oh man, yeah I agree Clair Obscur is incredible, but that's more 00s retro. Sea of Stars is like 80s & 90s retro vibes which I'm super into. Ninja gaiden ragebound and Shinobi Art of Vengeance are up my alley too, that kind of stuff.

Shame it didn't grab you, but at least with E33 you had a banger of a distraction. If it's not GOTY then the whole thing is rigged lol

@Millionski yeah I've got the normal Rog ally and anything that isn't super graphics heavy plays well on monitors (as long as you find a good frame rate lock) at 1080p. 'grats on your upcoming purchase, I'm jealous!

@GuyinPA75 no arguments from me on the evils of that man. He is truly a world class *****

@GuyinPA75 there's a method in the series S madness though that's very Microsoft. It may have held back some console games, but the design is to make games scalable (which let's face it, is already done on a lot of PC games so that people with 8gb or lower GPUs can play) for the cloud push, which uses those S profiles.

I think I'll personally look back on the S fondly for the incredible design and form factor, and for giving next gen gaming a cheaper entry point (which is now all but gone, there's the nadella greed creeping in)

@somnambulance really nice way to look at it to be fair. My problem with Nintendo games is finding the time to fit THEM in so I just haven't upgraded to S2 because I don't have the bandwidth, but I really do admire your decision. Bet it took some serious thinking time to drop a main!

@somnambulance Nintendo as a main is something I've considered before (especially with the kids), but I'd feel like I was missing out on too much stuff. Gta6 for one!

XSX is such an incredible console, I really wish it had done better because as a piece of hardware it deserves to. Silent, unassuming, just gets on with making my gaming awesome.

I am NOT ready for next gen yet 😭

@FraserG took me 45 hours to feel like I'd seen it all, worth every minute!

Sea of stars is a beauty for any retro RPG lovers, shove GP that one is worth a purchase it this is you!

@SMJ a good partner to have. They make great products. All that remains to be seen is if Xbox outsource to OEMs for next gen 👀

Got a couple of venoms for 15 quid, they tend to last for about 15 hours a charge, much preferred to my old dualshock 4 from last gen

Already have a Rog ally z1e that I picked up new for just £320, so not for now but the xbox ally x in a couple of years on a deep sale would be a welcome upgrade

Can someone tell gamesir that the exchange rate isn't exchanging on this one, outrageous dollar to pound difference!

@ilyn I agree wholeheartedly. E33 takes it, DS2 close 2nd.

Re: Blue Prince. As someone deep into the post game puzzles, I can confirm that RNGesus is kicking my ass!

Wonder if this is the devkit issue that DF have been talking about. Mind you, I do think it's not a particularly natural home for a gritty war shooter (even if it does have silly skins)

@RiverGenie ah that's disappointing to hear. I did like 3 but the missions repeated too much, the atmosphere and music, story all spot on though. Just dragged on a litttttle too long.

Deep sale it is!

@RiverGenie how would you compare it against mafia 1 or 2? (Let's ignore 3, totally different game!)

I'm interested at deep sale price if it's on the level of those games

@ilyn astrobot looked a worthy winner to me. Not hating on BMW mind, it looks fine, but weird how it just came out of nowhere to be a part of the conversation.

Hoping for E33 or blue prince to win it this year, both outstanding at what they do

@ilyn I do like the memes of Brits conquering everything 🤣 maybe that could be a good game for us with a historic twist

With this game though, weren't the vast VAST majority of sales in China? But it was celebrated as a worldwide success!

Really we can point to certain parallels with the shift to music streaming, but the strongest one to me is that like with songs, there are too many games for them all to do well. So the best games and songs do well, and the rest go where they were always gonna go with or without streaming...into obscurity.

Also, games cost a heck of a lot to buy now. Does anyone really think E33 would have sold anywhere near the numbers it has at £70? Game pass helped a bit, sure, but the Xbox marketing and low price point would have been bigger factors in it's success (as well as being a great game anyway)

Anyway, the point in trying to make is that gaming subscription models aren't likely to be the ruin of this industry, they're probably going to become the saviour of it in the short-term whilst Devs figure out how to reduce cost and pipeline.

Was already excited to see remake intergrade running on Xbox, and also MGS delta should be great. But I had totally forgot about High on Life 2, yes please!

No, but not because of all the furore around it last year, just because it doesn't look very good compared to other games of it's ilk.

I'll never get why it was so lauded in the west, surely this was just a big deal in China

I'm not convinced that Fortnite and Roblox are good for gaming, but I know which I'd rather use out of those two and game pass

Drop the price of the consoles below ps5 pricing so we can have more brothers and sisters to finish this fight.

@ilyn "playallyourgames (as long as we've added them to play anywhere and you buy the X)"

Yeah I agree, OG MSRP is £599.99 for the z1e and £799.99 for X so no reason for them to shift on that (although the z1e is on sale at £400 a LOT of the time)

@Llamageddon yeah that is a scandal. Wonder if the UK £ price will match europe or US prices. Either way ima wait for a sale to even CONSIDER these products

Interesting, they're gonna have to get rid of the two different editions of THPS1+2 then, yes?

Looking forward to seeing remake intergrade running on Xbox, and seeing how this Xbox OS layer works on the new Xbox allys

@Weebleman more than welcome, I think you'll be happy either way. Main difference really is steam deck doesn't do xcloud without some side loading. With the ROG, it's very much like a switch, a compliment rather than a replacement. I've played FF16 and death stranding on it no problems. Happy handheld gaming my man!

@Grippie because it's a way to diversify their platform and keep a larger cut of sales, why wouldn't they want to do that eventually? If the console market is stagnating where else will they see growth?

PC gamers boycotted games that mandated a PSN account being sold through something they already have an account for, totally different to Sony having their own platform on PC.

@Ricky-Spanish I probably didn't explain well but I meant that because of the black bars the pixel count was lower, because less screen real estate was there, but yeah visuals are always subjective - sounds like me and you had totally different experiences which is kinda cool 😎

Just to avoid the "OMG God of War is coming to Xbox all you ponies suck it" rhetoric, what I HOPE this means is working on their own PC launcher that has synergy with console save files and stuff. I.e., an ACTUAL platform instead of "hardware as a platform"

@Ricky-Spanish what, on a series x it looked poor res for you? I took some screenshots during my play through and they looked incredible!

I know DF tried to pixel count it but if you compare it to something else that presents in 1080p I don't think it would be comparable. Mind you, I still like 1080p as a resolution, looks sharp from my viewing distance

@Ricky-Spanish I think the 1080p ish resolution was due to the black bars but in terms of pixel density it was closer to 1440p on the OG version. Still, it was a heck of a looker!

I think all the reviews are fair here. It's a real experience and you sort of love what it's doing or you hate it. Regardless, I think it should be experienced by most hardcore gamers, as with the ol' headset on and some Dolby surround for headphones there's truly nothing else like it (as you can tell, I was a fan)

@Weebleman I haven't had any issues personally. It keeps me signed into Google, MS (and Xbox), Steam, GoG and Epic.

Graphics-wise it's great, it's a sharp 7" screen with fast response times, you can run AAA games on med to low settings at 900p and not notice a drop in quality. For indie games, incredible, high or ultra settings can be used when available (something like The Lost Crown will do 1080p ultra 120fps at 15w.) It replaced my switch OG for indies very quickly due to better prices on steam and free games through Amazon prime.

And if you're into it, runs emudeck just fine too.

@Weebleman OG ROG owner here. They're not too bad as long as you can dock them. You update armory crate, myasus and windows itself but it rarely gets in the way or stops games running if you don't do it immediately. Battery life is by far the bigger issue!

Thanks, Sony. Anyway, back to E33 and Blue Prince on gamepass

@Lup yeah very good point with persona, more should have copied it sooner!

After replaying ff7 this year on switch, I can confirm that searching for Yuffie in those damn forests with 3x speed is an absolute blessing compared to the painstaking waiting for random battles in 1997 🤣

What E33 and Persona got right that took a while to filter through, was transitioning from totally random battles as you're exploring to visible enemies that you chose to engage with (or not)

E33 is a great game to revive the genre though, incredible story which is kinda what they're about!

"Can you verify my age in GTA mister?" Is gonna be the new "I'll give you a tenner to get me booze and ciggies from the corner shop mate"

To echo some of the comments it just doesn't need a remaster. Or a sequel really. Such a special franchise sometimes deserves to exist in the annuls of time rather than risk a bad sequel!

@Kaloudz yeah I'm totally on board with you when it's cosmetic, if you remember though when loot boxes first starting appearing they were usually integral to success (I'm looking at you, battlefront 2 👀) which is very predatory!

I think we're probably same era, I started with master system, mega drive, PS1 etc. but let me put it this way, I still watch 99% of my TV shows at 1080p and unless HDR is involved I genuinely can't tell the difference between that and 4k. It's more noticeable in games (especially with how UI and HUD looks) but man, I played last of us pt2 on PS4 and it's better looking than most things that come out in 4k.

E33 is a cool case to consider. If you look properly when you're playing you can see so so SOOO much aliasing and poor textures, but it doesn't matter because the gameplay and the story are incredible. Such an affecting game (in fact you first recommended it to me on here!) so I totally overlook the tech issues. And I'm so here for more stuff like that!

@Kaloudz re: #18 I don't think we've caused this as consumers. We pushed back on lootboxes and MTX because they were predatory in a lot of cases and pay to win in others (FIFA was horrendous for this and still is!)

As for us pushing for graphical fidelity, I'd argue that 4k was actually pushed on us as consumers and that's the point at which development starts getting protracted. Now Devs are trying to code more fine detail and higher res assets causing massive delays, but not out of demand, just because that's how they see the progression of tech. Honestly, if 1080p was still mainstream for TVs studios would all be better off right now and we'd be none the wiser!

@Millionski it's definitely a landmark, and I don't think the brand will suffer in the long term if they do more multiplat. Still the defacto console in probably every country in the world that isn't Japan

This was a good video. Basically DF telling Black Shamrock that they were wrong. Particularly the comment that 60fps games from series s would port easily to S2, which might be true but only where DLSS is working from a very low baseline

I still don't think porting single player games fits in with their business model right now, but it does make sense ready for next gen. Happy to be proven wrong and Helldivers 2 port is probably a bigger moment than we realise, sticking to my guns that the only one I actually want is GT7 though 🤣

@Ricky-Spanish I tried E33 at 30fps and it looked great, but it made parrying far too difficult for my middle aged hands lol

@BAMozzy so my mum, who is 70 and plays candy crush, doesn't spend a penny on it mind, never played anything even close to a console or PC in her life, is a good barometer of how successful Microsoft gaming is? Just because they acquired King? Not really though is she.

It's just a way for Nadella to tell investors how big the whole thing has got with this ABK acquisition. It's absolute tripe, and has nothing to do with Microsoft gaming.

For the record I don't hate COD and I adore Pentiment. But let's just agree to disagree on these numbers being in any way worthwhile as a way of knowing how well Xbox gaming is doing. When Amy Hood predicts to that the financials will decrease in Q1 2026, you can bet that King sales have jack all to do with it

@BAMozzy FFS it's like arguing with a brick wall. I did NOT dispute the meaning of MAUs I said it is inflating the figures and doesn't relate to the gaming picture that I or you for the matter operate in.

Honestly, I don't know why you insist with these walls of text when you have no idea what point I'm making anyway pal