EvenStephen7

Put another vote down for Final Fantasy 16; I can’t get enough. Easily my GoTY so far.

On the Switch side, I resumed playing Mario+Rabbids and got hooked. Maybe I’m a tactics guy after all?

Oh Xbox I’m prepping for MK1 by replaying the Netherrealm trilogy — starting with Mortal Kombat 9, thanks to backwards compatibility!

I think hype is subdued because this has been one of the best years in gaming recently. Final Fantasy 16, Tears of the Kingdom, Street Fighter 6, Spider-Man 2, Mortal Kombat 1, Starfield, Resident Evil 4, etc..

Racing games are always niche, especially sim ones (and I say that as a fan). It’s probably hard to stand out in this year’s slate of GotY contenders.

I played it when it launched on PS+ back in ‘21. It was an interesting idea, though I eventually fell off.

The big selling point has to be the voice acting by real-life couple Bryce Dallas Howard and her husband, Seth Gable. Not only did it add a level of quality voicework, their natural chemistry really brought this love/breakup story to life.

@Cherip-the-Ripper Haha you know what’s especially bad? I’m so sleep-deprived I meant to say “Tears of the Kingdom,” not “Breath of the Wild.” 😂

Thank you!

@Kaloudz Thank you!

Like many others said, my entire world is revolving around Final Fantasy 16 at the moment. But I’m also still chipping away at Breath of the Wild during late nights with my newborn son.

Other than that, the weird thing I’ve gotten into lately? Peggle 2, specifically on xcloud. I typically don’t use touch controls with cloud games on my phone but they’re pretty easy here, and P2 is a mindless little game I can pick up and drop off in minute bursts in between other tasks.

@Zochmenos I didn’t see anything about it in the video. The long combo (ahem, kombo) strings are definitely going to be an issue for some. It’s totally a throwback to older MKs and MKX. But the kameos can’t be spammed as much as assists in MK11; they have a limited burn meter. It fills pretty fast but you still need to be judicious.

Each Kameo has multiple moves though you can use in the heat of battle, including combo extensions, cancels, and reversals. So for every potential misuse there’s a way to use them for breaking long combos.

My biggest concern after the stress test is the unbalanced damage. At this point all 4 fighters could take off 3/4ths of a health bar in one kombo string with a special; Kenshi didn’t even need the special. But this has historically been part of early stress tests and betas for MK and they’ll presumably (hopefully) fix it, because a long combo string at this point can end a match in seconds.

@Kaloudz Ha, well there are actually a few cannons already. Besides some multiverse stories, the series rebooted in 2009 with “Mortal Kombat.” They ended everything with MK Armaggeddon in the game before; 2009 was a time-travel story that turned into an alternate universe when certain events changed.

So we’ll see where this new timeline fits in. Without spoiling the end of 11 that led into this, I have a gut feeling 1 is going to end with all of the realities/MK universes converging.

As for places to catch up on lore, check out Behind the Warrior on YouTube. Honestly YT is in general is great for lots of recap videos but BtW is really a deep dive. On the podcast side, check out The Realm Kast. And on the MK wiki is always a great resource.

But if you ever have a Q, hit me up! I’d be happy to chat about it/shed any light I can. Have to put this useless knowledge to use somehow

@Kaloudz They’ve been allies far longer than enemies. They were only enemies in the first (and events leading up to it); since MK2 in 1992 they’ve been on good terms. Once Scorpion killed the first Sub-Zero (who was a horribly awful villain), he bonded with the new Sub-Zero, who is the younger brother who took up the mantle.

But further, this game is a canonical reboot and playing with everything in the lore. Here, they’re both members of the Lin Kuei clan, rather than competing gangs (they may also be brothers).

I had lots of fun with the stress test beta; I think people are going to pleasantly surprised with how fun the Kameo fighters are — and how much depth they have.

Yesterday’s Kombat Kast (featuring this trailer and tons of gameplay videos and info) is worth looking up if anyone hasn’t seen it yet. What a year for fighting games.

@ZYDIO I appreciate all of this, thank you. Going to go ahead and pull the trigger on these. I see what you mean about going down a rabbit hole but your testimony (and many others online) have me sold. And that’s awesome about the Bluetooth adaptor! Going to look into that as well.

This is really exciting, especially with getting such a premium, multi-thousand-dollar sound for a fraction of the cost. Right now I have AirPod Pros for music and a PlayStation Platinum headset for gaming but these are obviously going to blow both out of the water. Again, I appreciate the recommendation! I can’t wait to get these in.

@ZYDIO You might be my new best friend. Looking at the specs and reviews (and price!) and this seems like a must-have. I never even heard of this before.

Out of curiosity, is this the model you use? If not, which one do you have?

Stray was fantastic and one of my more memorable games last year — and I don’t even like cats. I wish it was on GP day one like it was PS+ (because I foolishly would have likely skipped it if it wasn’t there) but I’m very happy it’s getting a wider audience.

I’m still hoping this is a backdoor reboot/sequel to Dino Crisis, and at the end we get a surprise reveal that the redhead’s real name is Regina.

I know there are always “har har” jokes about games like Paw Patrol (I made the same kind of jokes when I was young) but they really are invaluable additions to the service for kids. The Paw Patrol games are surprisingly fun and they’ve been gateways into getting my kids into games and build the next generation of players (along with Mario over on Switch).

GP is the perfect home for games like this, especially if you’re unsure if your kids will like it and don’t want to bite the bullet and buy it.

@BBB Please God, make it stop.

@AverageGamer I did!!! Glad to hear you spreading the word though; feels like a lot of people weren’t aware of it.

@Reptilio don’t forget that first game to come out the acquisition, Grabbed By the Ghoulies. I think that was the exact moment my excitement turned to disappointment and dread.

@Nic-Noc20th-C If DKR came over there are no words for how happy I’d be.

Sometimes Xbox feels like a platformer graveyard — Banjo, Blinx, Voodoo Vince, Conker, etc. Would love to see one of them resurrected; feels like the time is right.

Just like Gamepass isn’t a good fit for every player, it’s not a good fit for every publisher. Not surprising; they all have different KPIs and opinions. It doesn’t mean it’s bad either.

I’m kind of tired of this debate whether GP is 100% good or bad for everyone; it’s more nuanced than binary. Obviously if Xbox acquires Activision-Blizzard it’s a moot point, but I don’t think this means Kotick is necessarily wrong either (and believe me, I despise the guy)

I agree with him, but every console since the start has had exclusives - Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and yes, even Xbox (starting with taking Halo from Apple).

Not sure you can place all the blame of exclusives solely at Sony’s feet. They’re just continuing the tradition.

Not to be cheeky, but at this point it’d be easier to make an article on which companies Xbox DIDN’T think about buying.

So I have to preface this and say: I don’t like or trust Phil Spencer any more than Jim Ryan. I think too many people idolize Phil and think he’s “just like them” and too many demonize everything Ryan does. They’re both crappy execs in the pursuit of more money, and too many fanboys on both the Sony and MS side have blown a lot of this hearing out of proportion.

But this? This is ridiculous. Spencer was cordial in his email and offered a lot to PlayStation. I don’t see how this email could possibly be so offensive to Ryan.

@Fiendish-Beaver The difference here is that it’s not funny texts to friends — it’s written correspondence on behalf of a corporation regarding official business.

I can’t stress this to anyone enough — always be careful with your email and IMs on company channels, even if you’re just the intern. But if you’re an executive, you’re trained to understand and treat e-mail in a serious manner; it’s not uncommon for companies as large as Microsoft to have their messages pulled for investigations and reviews, be they external or internal.

Matt Booty should have known better. Matt Booty does know better. And his actions have now made Microsoft look more suspicious in their intent/undercuts their corporate messaging.

I have so many thoughts.

1. I don’t think $2 is a deal-breaker for everyone, though its timing is so shockingly poor (following Redfall and years of no AAA games, during a time when MS is trying to get approval to spend an unfathomable amount of money for Activision). So bad optics.

2. But everyone’s financial situation is different too. I think it’s pretty crappy to just assume $2 is no big deal for everyone. Even people with the means to pay it may not see the value — $2 means different things to everyone, and no one ever got or stayed wealthy by paying more for services they don’t use.

3. That said, it’s a little annoying that I bought 3 years of GPU on the promise of day-1 AAA titles — and now that it’s finally set to happen with regularity, the price goes up in my third and final year.

4. I’m not renewing but it’s not all about the $2 increase. I was told over and over that Gamepass was a near-requirement for having an Xbox, but I learned something about my Series X — almost all my time is spent on games I own, not Gamepass. Part of this is probably due to the lackluster offerings on GPU as of late, but I think it’s always sold Xbox short to say it’s useless without an additional sub. It’s a great console with or without it. So paying more for a service I don’t use at all just doesn’t seem worthwhile to me anymore. And the few first-party games I want a year? I’ll get them at my leisure.

I have a PS5, Switch, PC (and subs for all those). And having kids means less time for gaming in general these days. I have more games than I have time for. So I’m not getting the value of Gamepass anyway, though I don’t think that means it’s a bad subscription.

But I do look forward to the narrative moving away from “you need Gamepass” to seeing it as a suppplamental service.

@GADG3Tx87 Yea, I think this is going to follow the “frog in boiling water” slow cadence that you see from other subs as soon as they exit their hyper-growth stage. It’s less jarring to raise it by $1 every year rather than several all at once.

I’m always surprised by how few Gamepass users use cloud gaming. It has always be a perfect experience for me — so smooth that I sometimes I forget the game isn’t installed. A great way to get around hard drive space.

The extreme violence and dismemberment is giving Solider of Fortune vibes (on PC/the OG Xbox) mixed with F.E.A.R.

A job very well done on that header.

@Darude84 Same. This fall and winter are looking bonkers, especially if you’re a multi-console user. There’s not enough time for everything coming already.

@Darude84 100%. I’m in that same camp as you.

This poll will be easy to sum up:

Xbox fanboys: It’ll be a 10/10 and change the face of gaming.

PlayStation fanboys: It’ll be 0/10 and trash.

(Nintendo fanboys are too busy with ToTK to look up)

I mean, it’s way too early to answer this right? That said I hope it’s fantastic and lives up to expectations.

I’d very happy with someone besides 343 on Halo. I’d also love to see new takes on such a rich universe via other genres (Halo Wars) or perspectives (ODST).

That said, I put zero stock in anything Matt Booty says. If he says the sky’s blue, it’s purple.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I’ve seen a few new accounts in the last week or so going hardcore on brand loyalty.

I get this is an Xbox site, and we (presumably) are all fans, but blindly defending a corporation at all costs will always be odd to me. Not to mention it just ultimately ends up hurting the brand because they’re not pushed to be better.

One reason I really admire the PX site is the nuanced comments, and how many of us are multiconsole/gamers first. I’d hate to see that’d change.

Welp, better hope the internet never goes out. I’m mostly bummed that this means the game will be unplayable and dead one day.

It’s just disappointing. There’s no need for a single-player campaign to be always online.

@Zoidpilot4 I personally don’t care about 60FPS, but this hasn’t been just backlash from PS fanboys. There are plenty of hardcore Xbox fans upset over this too. I know you’re new around here, but it has been a point of contention for a while in these forums, which is probably the impetus behind the post.

Personally, I use performance modes on a case-by-case basis. But for months now I’ve thought people here were setting themselves up for disappointment with their 60fps wishes. It was never going to happen with Starfield.

They're walking into an easy joke with that statement.

I feel like we’re now at a point where this is hyping people’s’ expectations up to an unreasonable level that MS (or anyone) couldn’t meet.

Ironically, the more we keep talking about it and dreaming, the more people are going to walk away disappointed.

I’m staying cautiously optimistic but keeping expectations firmly in check.

First the Oreo Series S, now this.
Why are these contests designed to punish the winners with the ugliest console?

@StonyKL Another agree here as well.

I'm thinking many of these comments are from people who don't have children (but have plenty of opinions on raising them, of course!) mixed with diehard company loyalty.

In the end this is a best-case scenario for MS: a VERY light fine (that's pocket change for one of the world's biggest megacorps) while shining a light on a loophole that they needed to close to keep kids safe going forward. MS got off easy and got to fix the problem.

I don't understand how anyone could see this as a bad thing.

@Trmn8r Same. I’d love to load up my Series X with more third-party games, but until these cards get close to the price of the 1TB SSD I threw in my PS5 I’m going to pass.

@Tonmoy Hats off to you! I have some close friends with successful legal careers and sometimes I wish I followed the same path. For now, I get to roll my eyes as a VP of marketing whenever everyone’s playing advertising expert online. 😂

It’s pretty remarkable that everyone who plays videogames graduated at the top of their class from law school.

@Fishticon I had to do a double-take that I didn’t click on the GWG article instead.

And this is unfortunately going to be the takeaway for publishers. The horrific reviews, the embarrassing launch — it doesn’t matter if the game sells.

If you’re a giant publisher all you need to do is throw the $$ to secure a big franchise and know you’re likely to get a sizable return on your investment, regardless of the finished product’s quality. Even if it has a very weak sales tail, it did its job at launch — and the franchise name will always ensure that it’ll be picked up occasionally in the future (the holidays are just a few months away, and well-meaning relatives are prime shoppers for this).

@Techno92LFC I imagine it means cutting down on drawings of dicks and other offensive imagery (think Germany around 1941) in user-created content.

@Stamnoso I’m not @kaloudz but I’d say:

1) The setting and villains were interesting for the series, and the story was excellent and topical
2) It’s the right blend of the mechanics that FC3 introduced but with a more modern approach that Ubisoft spent years perfecting
3) It’s probably more welcoming to newcomers and just felt like a more a fresh start for the series
4) Its Arcade mode is still unbeatable — you can make your own missions or play a nearly limitless amount of them from others. They bring in elements from all the other FC games — and even other Ubisoft games — to make a sandbox that just doesn’t get old. I stormed Die Hard’s Nakotomi Plaza, infiltrated a ship of terrorists, and played a zombie horror game through the streets of NY.

For years it was on the Xbox FPS boost program but that made the game look shockingly awful; everyone avoided it. Recently Ubi just dropped their own 60fps patch across all platforms and it’s fantastic.