Coletrain

@Nintendo4Sonic the Xbox controller works fine for me. I wouldn't use it on 2D games you're right, no need really, but it's better for this. Very little travel so quick inputs are easy

@Nintendo4Sonic the switch pro controller has a large and rigid dpad which makes inputs harder. I have one. THPS is much easier on an Xbox pad than a switch pro

@Balaam_ the switch pro controller's dpad is nowhere near as good as the series controller.

You ever got anything useful to say on here or do you just come to tell us how much you hate Xbox?

Thanks for the review, lovely stuff!

I suppose back in the day each entry iterated and added something new to the moveset. Now all 4 have the same pretty much so I was expecting it to be more of 1+2. Still, I'll be playing it coz there's nothing quite like a THPS game

Yeah he's deffo a gamer. A well paid one though 🤣 also, it has started to feel like he's slowly winding down to hand the reigns to Sarah Bond...

Oh, and so I don't have to trawl back to find an old thread, regarding an older discussion we had about E33: now played it, amazing. It's kinda what I wish final fantasy would be!

@Millionski oh yeah, I don't mean in relation to Xbox. That ship has sailed long ago. I just mean that because we're not seeing the deep mid and end of cycle discounts I don't see ps5 quite matching PS4 sales by the end of it. They've probably already picked up a few Xbone players who didn't like the direction MS were headed in.

Remember, this is only a 3% YoY rise over last May, and sales had already started to slow down in 2024 (plus this is N America only).

Guess GTA VI will be the big revealer. PS4 didn't have a game like that.

@Millionski you could be right on the ps5 sales, my only scepticism would be that prices have remained high and even risen. It'll be close though.

Yeah, Devs won't follow a more powerful series X so it needs something to attract then for sure!

PS5 looks like it's gonna be a similar beast to PS4, MS offering no competition even in their home market any more, and yet they still make games that I love.

As long as the Devs keep supporting Xbox, I'm good

@Kaloudz yeah, it's hard to believe that he would be pulling the strings on such a massive job cut. I could see him being the one to pull the plug on PD (boooo!) and everwild as GAMES (not closing the initiative as a studio though), but turn 10? That's gotta be higher up coz that one is cruel!

@EfYI that's some nice balance there dude, well said.

As someone who loves game pass, if I'm going to be critical, it definitely drives consumer behaviour away from buying newer games that aren't on game pass UNLESS they're popular or 9 and 10s. I'm not sure it's bad for the industry at the moment because the reach is quite low compared to PS and PC users, but IMHO if PS were to adopt the exact same model it would be an issue because that would drive the same consumer behaviour en masse. It's not something I want to continue long term really, but it's a hell of a ride!

Gears 3 hands down. Looks and runs amazing.

GtaIV on the other hand runs great but looks like crap, everything is super aliased and distracting on a 4k set!

@Kaloudz you know what mate you could be right, but look how many bad messages go out now and we're in the Phil era! This future pivot to a more PC focussed model is the last throw of the dice really, although it is something that will definitely work on me if done right 🤣

He seems like he wants the best for Xbox though, that message always shines through to me, even when he gets made to cull staff. I guess it's ok for me to like Phil but hate MS more generally at the moment!

@Kaloudz @Soup-Rules I have nothing against playstation users, it's a great console with a cool controller, but it's success is built solely on how good PS4 games were. We all know MS screwed up last gen, and they've tried everything under the sun to win people over with limited success. And yet, we as Xbox players this gen have access to some unbelievable bargains. I'd say that's a fair trade off for a bit of a lack of Dev support at the start of the gen!

The comments sections though just become echo chambers sometimes, it's a small minority but playstation (and sometimes PC) elitism is a powerful drug; as if I wouldn't just trade the Xbox in and get a ps5 if it was a better deal for me!

@Soup-Rules it's weird isn't it. "Game pass isn't sustainable" well now we know it is.

"Game pass is ruining the industry" PC and playstation sales prove that's not the case, very few people comparatively engage with it compared to buyers in the market.

For me, I engage when I want to and disengage when I've bought something. F2P behemoths are far worse for the industry than game pass, and it's probably what's driving a multiplatform push from the big 2!

@FraserG are you chaps doing a review on this one or is it not worth it due to timing or anything?

Watched the IGN review and looks like a solid game but agree that cutting most of the OS is a bad choice!

The amount of discourse this started on here and Push yesterday was horrendous haha. Should people have to delete comments that were like "I told you it wasn't profitable and is hurting the Devs"? (I'm joking of course, game pass is divisive, especially for those that don't use it)

Irresponsible reporting from Chris Dring, and as always people are better waiting for the facts than believing stuff from him. Mat Piscatella does much better industry analytics anyway!

@somnambulance yeah they both have in different ways. Sony had been pushing me away for a while last gen with overly serious AAA games (I don't mind them, but it was getting to be like every release) but this gen has held nothing of interest outside of Astro Bot.

Xbox has been making games that I love but damaging the brand as soon as they do something good.

I'm not done with them, but I'll be waiting a while after the next machines come out to see which is really being supported

A lot gets levelled at game pass being good for consumers, bad for Devs. I can't imagine it's anywhere near as damaging as Fortnite or Roblox is for them.

I do agree with the sentiment that it'll scale back or die out over time, because as price goes up there's only so long people will continue to pay more for the same product. But not having game pass wouldn't have helped revenue from gamers like me who will happily wait for a sale for a year or more. Game pass gets me to their games sooner.

@somnambulance yes I totally agree. Every time I find myself excited by the direction xbox is heading in they find a way to damage the brand, which makes it hard to see the wood for the trees as a consumer.

I think the one saving grace is Xbox Play Anywhere, because it means people who decide that they've had enough can still take some of their library over to PC. Cool to see stuff like death stranding and final fantasy games on there.

It's cool that they're doing this, but it's a no from me. And not because it's not on game pass, but because it's just not my jam. FF16 on the other hand, very much is, so that got my wallet vote recently

@Kaloudz oh man yeah the Series S is incredible for the form factor alone. If anyone using it has a 1080p or 1440p monitor too I bet it absolutely sings for the price.

It was probably always gonna happen though these comparisons, they're two consoles with similar memory pools. It's fun but I reckon any serious gamer is gonna play stuff like hogwarts legacy or cyberpunk on a PC or Series X, and leave the switch for the awesome Zelda (plus Mario and Metroid I guess...)

@Kaloudz well it looks quite good to me on that video. I suppose it's just interesting to have a bit of a barometer of how good the S2 is for 3rd party titles.

Fully expect 1st party stuff to be their usual incredible selves what with the generally cartoony art styles 😎

In theory SS should run games better when they're more open worldy or busier with NPCs due to the clock speed. DLSS on the S2 could make more condensed games look a lot sharper though. I love the comparison videos, really cool to see the difference in approaches.

Edit: ha @Juanalf you beat me to it!

@HarmanSmith it's so hard to tell how much Phil is involved in the decisions, but if he gets the directive to cut then I'd have to assume he just looks at the numbers and sacks the least valuable studios. Shame really, I would have liked Perfect Dark and Turn 10 did enough over the years for a redemption arc.

@IOI windows is such a scam on home PCs. Ad riddled nonsense and horribly inefficient. If this supposed overlay that comes with the Xbox ally becomes available to all windows PCs and genuinely kills inefficiencies then I have no further need for full fat windows ever again

Jez Corden dropped a really good article on MS canning people to spend on a failed AI future, and it really made me hate Satya Nadella with a passion. Keep that man away from the remaining game studios

@Cakefish comment #55 well said. And that's the thing right, from my point of view if the next Xbox is more of the same, I'm not buying it. Not because they don't make great hardware (they do) but because it would lack incentive for Devs to code for it.

Something tells me they're on the right track though. The additional support from 3rd party Devs over the last couple of years makes me think that there's something special in the waters. Even if that doesn't include steam, you can bet it'll include an environment where the Dev can just make a PC game/port that works on an Xbox

@Millionski oh I'd bloody love R&C on Xbox, Xbox hasn't had a decent 3d platformer since psychonauts 2! (platformer? 3rd person Shooter? Bit of both I guess)

I guess if they ever did decide to release something though it'd be a guaranteed seller like Spidey. Xbox can give PS Sunset Overdrive and they can shake hands and go for a beer after

@WildConcept6 haha yes Marathon releasing and Bungie in general is a different topic for a different day eh!

@RagnarLothbrok yeah that's what I'd assume too, especially with Marathon being multiplat. Still, is this historically the first time a Sony published game has been allowed on Xbox?(death stranding being a little different of course with Kojima getting IP rights)

Is this...a sign of bigger things to come? Or just a one-off... Oh man this industry doesn't half keep us on our toes

@Kaloudz it's a fair take, but I suppose bigger picture Xbox just seems to have an uncanny habit of shooting themselves in the foot (and I say this as a quite new Xbox fan)

Take the AMD partnership announcements last week. Sarah Bond announces it, we're all buzzing and then a week later all the news about layoffs come out. It damages the perception of the brand.

Cerny has a similar announcement about partnering with AMD but people trust him because he comes across well (most recently in the ps5 pro announcement and the follow-up interview with Oliver from DF) - Sony's brand is strengthened in the consumers eye.

I do want Xbox to thrive but they don't half make it hard to love them 🤣

@S1ayeR74 couldn't agree more. The best companies retain and move staff around to fit their value. MS are probably just too rich to care about doing that.

It's certainly a powerful advert for not getting an Xbox today. Xbox always manage to announce a W for gamers followed by an L for their staff

F. That trailer last year looked awesome.

@Kaloudz tbh if it were me I'd just go whole hog on Forza horizon only and add a few stadiums to the map where you can do a mini GT mode. Oh and classic 90s and 00s pop rock to help with my blind nostalgia 🤣 (god damnit I miss Burnout 3)

@Banjo- 100%. Look how well astro bot did, great platformers will always endear themselves to gamers

@Kaloudz I said this on a previous post but the new FM just wasn't a good game. Great driving physics and I enjoyed it for about 15 hours, but then extreme boredom set in because there were no cool modes to keep me playing

@Banjo- judging by your name and profile pic I assume you wanted what I wanted - a rare that makes awesome single player games! Sea of Thieves just ruined them as a dev

@S1ayeR74 yeah they've clarified what they mean mate, guess we're all in agreement 👏 my employer is much the same though, rapid growth recently and a boatload of layoffs of really experienced people to maximise earnings before tax

@bazchillin fiduciary duty, that's the word I was looking for mate good work 🤣

@bazchillin how do you mean "legally" obligated to maximise profits for Shareholders? That would be a corporate responsibility at best, they wouldn't be fined if they didn't make a profit one year unless it was because of fraud, embezzlement or money laundering.

But obviously your wider point that we all feed into it stands on merit, of course we do every time we buy a MS product or service. Layoffs are a frightening time for employees though and unfortunately in publicly traded companies it's an easy way to trim the fat and add value to share prices.

I'll champion Xbox as a gaming brand, they've made some real strides this gen, but large scale layoffs points to some serious inefficiencies at MS

Nahhh. Enough great open world games without re-skinning a game from a franchise that peaked with AC2

@Isolte yeah you're spot on. Sort of the beauty of it, it's exciting to speculate on what the next Xbox will be and where the brand is going, but at the end of the day if they make something crap we can just go away and buy a ps6. It's all on MS to convince us really 🤷

If I strip it down to what it's really all about, I've absolutely loved my series x. The games are awesome, performance is excellent, doesn't make a peep and just gets on with being a living room beast.

But I think we're all ready for MS to just say in black and white what the next console is all about.

@Lrapsody not dull but deffo lacked that "magic" hoping gtaVI brings it back

@DaveTheRave yeah, I wish FM had that same touch man. I really enjoyed the driving but it's not a good "game"

I'm a big fan of play anywhere. I know I've championed in the past that the switch 2 is the best handheld for most people, but using play anywhere (plus steam) on the ROG Ally makes pc handhelds the best for me. I love being able to switch between series X and handheld depending on my mood.

Here's hoping that play anywhere won't matter in a few years though, and that MS/Xbox work out emulation for console games on PC!

@Millionski I think the press release was that the new Xbox layer with the reduced windows processes would be backported to OG ROG Ally and Ally X, so one would hope that also extends to LeGo and and MSI claws 🙏

@PsBoxSwitchOwner with FM8 I always thought if they'd chucked in a few mini games, precision challenges and the like, as well as had an actual soundtrack, it'd feel like a much better "game" without compromising the sim element.

Gt3:A spec. Them were the days.

@Ricky-Spanish haha dude if that's what 720p games looked like on 4k displays then we'd be in gaming heaven! Did you maybe play on series s originally? No idea what the res was on that but I'd imagine it could easily go from 720p and upwards dynamically

Well this is cool. Although I have to admit, the cinematic nature and slow paced combat of this game felt pretty spot on at 30fps. Hats off to ninja theory though!