Coletrain

@themightyant I was just about to comment the same thing, it was too samy and lacking in variety. Unless using UE5 somehow would have afforded them more time to work on different biomes and set pieces etc

@Scrubchub of course they would, who would pay £/$70 for Spiderman 2 if you could pay 15/20 and complete it in a month.

I know the internet is a crappy place for discourse a lot of the time, but I just hate this sentiment that ps buyers sometimes act morally superior based on their choice of console (I know, it's not all of you ps buyers!) It really wouldn't cost me much to trade in my XSX and get a ps5, it's a choice I've made because it suits my gaming needs better and it costs me a heck of a lot less

@Scrubchub obviously you have to buy the games if you want the latest and greatest on ps5, and I think because the choice isn't there (like with GPU) then some people end up with a tribal mentality that game pass users and the option to have it is killing the industry. Xbox bad, PS good etc.

Like, if that turns out to be the case MS will stop doing it and I'll happily stop using it, but we're not some inferior beings incapable of rational decisions on how we consume games and services. On forums you get "Xbox trains users not to buy games" like we're Pavlov's dogs!

@Titntin good life lesson. Never trust what someone says they'll do, look at what they do do and trust that it will happen again.

Please straighten up your messaging MS and for the love of god reduce console pricing before GTAVI hits if you want to sell anything

@themightyant yep, that critical period once stock availability increased post COVID Sony had good games and MS didn't.

Thankfully that's now flipped and us formerly oppressed minority Xbox users are fit to burst!

So weird when there's such a big swing in scores. Wuchang looks like a game that rewards people for taking their time, exploring and engaging with different systems but doesn't reward those who mainline it (from the reviews)

I've said this on a post before but I actually enjoyed this at 30fps. I think it suited the cinematic gameplay, and the frame pacing and motion blur were so good that it didn't even matter.

I know 60 is the gold standard now, but sometimes I just like a good 30 game

@Weebleman i feel like what we see with the Xbox ally and ally x is more important than people think. The prototype of the environment if you will 🤞

@Weebleman re: skipping Xbox for steam, I presume they're trying to find a way to run PC code on console with system level optimisation. Agree that if it's it's own OS and dev environment then it'll be overlooked for the most part like this gen

@IOI yeah that seems more likely. Seems like a rare opportunity for Xbox to say absolutely nothing, avoid any additional press coz for Mahler to do a social media statement like that he's possibly begging for marketing or game pass costs

@IOI surely the port cost of a fairly simple isometric game can't be that off putting though? This isn't some AAA behemoth that will sell millions on ps5 and switch

@Trmn8r I don't think this smells like an exclusivity deal, the game simply doesn't have enough reach for that to be worthwhile

I'm not a fan of these being added later. When a game is built in 1st person it's usually for an aesthetic reason (much easier if other way round from 3rd to 1st person)

Like with indy, I loved it being 1st person and I wouldn't want it any other way because it was a design choice

Well this is certainly...a feature

What are the market conditions that they don't like? I know I know the obvious one of "games don't sell on Xbox" but any further insight from Moon?

I buy games and turn game pass on for short periods of time when something I want is on there. I wouldn't use GP for something like Metaphor coz that would take me too long to finish, but I subbed for 3 months to play SoM and E33 with no regrets as I'll "beat the banker" with those being shorter games

Studio famed for incredible games with engrossing stories and weird but wonderful worlds makes live service game, flops.

You don't need to do this remedy, just stop.

@Millionski always been intrigued about a user point of view, did you use the ps5 pro with a VRR TV and oled all the bells and whistles etc?

It always looks to me like the upgrades aren't totally worth it (subjective of course, I'm sure there are many happy users)

@Banjo- oh man I hate the digital card thing from Nintendo, I understand it from a cost perspective but it makes the switch 2 lose a bit of magic for me. Unless CEX still do good trade in on them!

Yes, I agree windows looks like the direction of travel, much as it's hard to see how they do it I'm still intrigued by the thought of it man

@Banjo- switch oled, nice!

The doom and gloom from my perspective is just the total lack of clear messaging from Xbox. And I know that's likely down to MS as the parent company, but with Sony you know that next gen you'll be able to get a ps6 and you know what it is, no drama.

I personally find it exciting because it's the first time we're moving to a new gen with no idea what we could get. But it doesn't sell the brand too well!

@Banjo- did you 100% it? That adamantoise took some time and willpower for me lol

@Kraven it plays great in graphics mode, performance mode is far too low res for a 4k TV (but locked to 60fps) and doesn't do it justice.

After the brotastic cringefest that was FFXV I'm over the moon with it, deserves to be bought

FFXVI down to £35 already, go get it boys! (And girls)

@Markatron84 nicely put. I categorise my gaming in two ways: AAA titles for the series x, and indies on a handheld. Something so special about both experiences that way

@SleeplessKnight the one thing I have to 100% agree on is it's more silent than the ps5, it's honestly so impressively built.

The other stuff with loading times, graphics etc. I am not wading into that debate coz I think the ps5 definitely has it's merits, but overall I've been a happy XSX owner (MS conduct aside...)

@Scrubchub honestly my backlog is so long that I've not even considered getting a switch 2, still trying to play stuff on my 2017 switch. I plan out in my head what games I'll do in what order but every now and again a Clair Obscur or an Indiana Jones comes along and just screws the whole thing lol

@BrianRGI2X is FSR4 not hardware based like DLSS?

In terms of pushing graphical boundaries yeah it's fair to say the best is yet to come.

But in terms of number of high quality games? I can't keep up, so it's been an unbelievable gen. Still not played BG3, Metaphor, the lost crown, avowed, elden ring...I could go on.

So my opinion is, the gens been great, and I'll have very little need to upgrade early next gen no matter how many AI/NPU/fake frame marketing is thrown at me

Wouldn't mind blue prince coming down to £15 or so. I've enjoyed it on GP but I want to own that one

I think I'm right in saying that at the moment you get the series s version of games on xcloud, up to a maximum of 1080p 60fps, and the bitrate fluctuates wildly here in the UK making it often a frustrating experience.

Unlocking the bitrate and allowing higher resolution profiles is all I really want

@AlwaysPlaying thing is that cyberpunk was a great game lurking under p**s poor performance, Starfield is a good game that already performs well.

Dunno if Idris Elba can save Starfield from the critical masses, but I'm up for him trying

Keeper. Double fine is one of the best studios on the planet for fun and different experiences, and I pray that they don't get Nadella'd to death

I just assumed candy crush and all it's ilk were made by AI anyway, soulless time grabbing slop

@Kaloudz Beyond Good and Evil 2 would like a word 🤣

@NishimuraX Jon Clarke @ Xboxera mentioned that they've already trademarked and bought a web address with a different name if something happens. Speaks to the uncertainty when one of the biggest Xbox supporter sites is hedging

Gameplay was nothing to write home about, but the graphics are gorgeous and I enjoyed the humour a lot. Well worth checking out for those into the likes of family guy or rick and morty

@Mazitron I don't find DF biased, they seem as perplexed by the rest of us at the Xbox messaging. And obviously on the PC side where they focus a lot of coverage they're as sick of windows as the majority of users lol

@M20B25 yep, there you go then. It's not the full game 🤣 not even sure why they're doing a physical for Xbox then, it's a GP title anyway

@TheGameThrifter yes you're absolutely right. That's why the hardware needs to be able to cope with non-VRR TVs. That's really my biggest question mark over the whole thing, because now we're talking about system level (or maybe AI?) optimisations to each game with PC code.

But you have to look at everything they're doing or announcing, a traditional console doesn't seem to be the direction of travel, and I don't think it should be either coz it's not growing anything for them. I think we as Xbox gamers spend far too much time worrying if our platform is going to be supported, and if they don't fix that then I personally won't buy into the next machine

@Millionski yes I agree steam would be favoured. I'm just struggling to see another way that they stay alive hardware wise

@TheGameThrifter well, my honest opinion on this is that they know Xbox is fading to nothing in its current format. So matching the PC side of their gaming division is the only thing that makes sense. Oh and heavy advertising, coz it's MS and that's what they do on windows PCs now

@Titntin I just want to see the software front end on other windows PCs and handhelds. As is echoed in most of the threads on this, it's a cool product but overpriced in comparison to an actual gaming pc/laptop. But doing something to match steam OS efficiencies, now that's actually interesting...

How big is the current install size? I'd say all signs would point to it not being the full game, what do Xbox run discs to, about 50GB max?

@Cakefish yes exactly. If you see a mouse you think mouse, not elephant. Everything Xbox is doing points towards a platform agnostic future for them, if they wanted to do a xsx successor they would have needed to keep exclusivity.

I know we get a lot of comments about why would Xbox want steam, nobody will buy on Xbox store etc but simply put, 70% of something is always better than 100% of nothing

@Weebleman yes they let it through early doors didn't they, £640 for console plus disc drive at launch was incredible value. Hope you're enjoying it

@Kraven that's a fair sentiment that I share at the moment. Love the ecosystem and the games, hate the brand right now. Wish they would just come out and tell us what the vision is rather than tiptoeing around it and letting rumours fly about

If anyone wants to do this at a lower cost in the UK, grab a Rog ally z1e at Very when they go on sale as your first ever credit order (extra 20% off), grab a 65wh battery upgrade from Jsaux (takes a while to come) for £60 and game away for under £400.

Let's face it, NFS has been on life support for a while. It's definitely still got the potential to birth a great game, and I hope they do coz I love arcade racers

Maybe it's an extremely clever ad. "Xbox graphics is hiring coz our AI bots are 💩"

If MS can crack PC games on a standard non-VRR TV, they'll have my money. If not, ps6 will look very tempting, as will a big gaming PC

I've enjoyed everything they've ever put out, this one looks like it'll be no exception