Feffster

I often replay favourite levels rather than whole games. Plenty of old games that are regulars on the playlist that I can dip into for a quick 20mins or even an hour or two - FH4 &5, F1 2024, skirmishes on Age of Empires 4, Halo Wars 1&2, the ‘overhead’ air support missions from CoD games. Recently I’ve gone back to AC Odyssey and have also revisited Dishonored. Titanfall 2 is another I need to find time to repeat…..the problem is there’s still so much new stuff to play too…a good problem to have!

@themightyant - absolutely spot on. I’ve been there since Day 1 with OG XB but have no sympathy for them at all - they did this to themselves and have all but wrecked the brand.

I have no desire to see XB fail, but they really need to sort themselves out, and quickly.

The ‘it’s only 4 games’ nonsense stopped me buying games on the XB store & ridiculous price hikes mean I’m out of Gamepass when my subscription expires.

Still interested in Next-Gen, but Xbox need to pull a rabbit or three out of that (now tattered) Green Hat.

Always interested in new hardware. Been on this journey since Pong, Atari 2600 & 400, etc, - and look where we are now.

Fascinated to see how all this develops.

@REALAIS - that's ok then. Thank you for providing clarity where one of the world's largest corporations failed to do so!

@PartyMarty - that looks like a scam email. £275.99 does not divide by 12 into an exact number.

As usual, completely mixed messages coming out of Microsoft & this sounds like a panic reaction to the cancellations.

After the news regarding the 50% increase I checked my recurring billing and it clearly had the new (increased) price - so I cancelled.

(I’m in the U.K.)

Should’ve locked Day 1 CoD behind an annual subscription to GPU - that way gamers couldn’t dip into for a month, play the game and then exit.

Much more gamer friendly than locking it behind Fortnight Crew, Ubi old stuff and a massive price hike.

Ghost of Tsushima - first playthrough - loving it!

On XSX - yet more AoE4, and a bit of Gears.

Have a good one everyone 👍

I gave them my feedback - I’m subbed until May 2026 but I’ve already cancelled my renewal.

Last year I had some landscaping done in my back garden. I got 3 quotes. First two quoted £2-3K, the third guy quoted £12-13K but said “it might cost a few £K more, depending on how the job progresses”. I think Microsoft might be that third guy - he doesn’t really want the job, but if you pay him a fortune he’ll do it (and laugh all the way to the bank).

Well I’ve always had a soft spot for Team Green (and that’s despite owning a PS5Pro too) but this is a step too far for me. I’m subbed up to May 2026 and then I’m out.

I will keep my Series X and buy a few of the games I play regularly such as AoE4, but £23pm isn’t justifiable in my world.

@Nexozi - good work mate 👍

@Nexozi - I read the same yesterday but this morning (1st October) I was still able to redeem 12,000 points for 1m GPU (I’m in the U.K.)

I was previously getting 8,000+ points per month so it’ll be interesting to see how the changes pan out by the end of the month.

@FraserG I got to 12,000 points this morning and was still able to redeem against 1m GPU without any fuss (I’m in the U.K.)

Just checked my order history reward points have covered my GPU subscription for 10 of the previous 12 months.

I totally get it that people are disappointed with less rewards - but that sort of level of generosity can’t be sustainable.

Fraser - On a positive note…from today there are more points being given for using the Xbox app, and for playing Gamepass games. The ‘extra’ points seem to be if you subscribe to GPU which must be where Microsoft wants its players. The monthly bonuses for playing 4 (or 8) Gamepass games have also increased.

@johndoe89 - that’s interesting. I thought it was just me that struggled with slow download speeds on PSN but it’s interesting to hear you also have the same. Not sure why but XSX downloads are way quicker for me.

“This survey is not allowed for your country”

…I am in the U.K.

Pretty much a given that we’ll see something Halo related next year, minimum being another remaster of CE. COD 2026 (MWIV?) also.

@Fiendish-Beaver - I think I’m being dim! I can see what you’re saying now - not that the DLC will be free, but that the first DLC will be bundled with the PS5 version of the game.

Apologies for being thick!

@Fiendish-Beaver - yes mate, there were a couple of other purchase options on PS5 (over the ‘Standard’ edition) but they were higher priced compared to the base game.

I’m sure all the DLC will come to PS5, I’m just saying that I doubt that Microsoft will give anything away for ‘free’ - especially as this is one of their premium IPs.

Doesn’t affect me as I own XSX & Pro but it does seem a little odd to me - at this point you have to assume (with everything they’ve done since Feb 2024) that they don’t care about console sales, so why bother with an exclusivity period?

@Fiendish-Beaver - I really can’t see them throwing in a free DLC with the PS5 version. The add-ons for FH5 are paid for extras on both consoles (and the PS5 version came out c4 years after the Xbox game). Time will tell I guess.

I know the ‘demo’ was something of an illusion, but I thought it showed a lot of promise. I hope the project can be resurrected at some stage as it’s an IP worth saving and a game I’d love to play.

@Fiendish-Beaver - you’re welcome. Hope you get enough points for some good freebies 👍

@Fiendish-Beaver - 3 points per search, up to 90 per day. You don’t get any pints until you’ve done 3 searches in a day (and get 9 points when you’ve done that). I think you can get another 60 points per day on your phone for searching - but I rarely, if ever, search on my phone because it’s a bit naff! (I tend to search on my iPad).

There are other accumulators that build over time - provided you complete a minimum of 3 searches a day then after 7 days you get 100 bonus points. Every 12 weeks or so you’ll get a bonus 1000 points as well.

The daily Bing extras are really easy to complete (as I say I do it while drinking my first cuppa of the day) - if you keep a streak going then every 7 (might be 10?) days you get an additional 150 points.

It doesn’t sound much, but it all adds up and I reckon it’ll all pay for 9-10 months of GPU over a year.

To be honest I thought auto redeem had already gone…I used to auto redeem 35,000 points for 3m GPU but earlier this year (U.K.) I thought it had been removed.

Anyway, since then I’ve been manually redeeming 12,000 points for 1m GPU.

I know Rewards aren’t as generous as they used to be but since November 2024 I’ve only had to pay for 1 month of Gamepass. I bought an extra 6m via PureXbox last time you had it on offer - but that’s put me 7m ahead on my subscription.

I’m not a slave to Rewards and don’t play on PC This is all I do:

Open the Xbox app each morning.
Play on Xbox most days.
Search on Bing rather than Google.
Do all the Bing extras while I’m having a cuppa in bed each morning.
Simples!

I thought Borderlands 3 had gone (or was scheduled to go) already?

I enjoyed the base game but got distracted (and still need to go back and finish it). I will do that, but this sounds like a 6hr expansion - so probably c10hrs for me as I’m always slow! - I’ll wait until I get around to finishing the main game and the DLC drops below a tenner.

I’m sure this will be good, but like many I’m drowning in good games and an enormous backlog atm.

@ElkinFencer10 - 120fps is already in the PS5/Pro version, it was just the vrr that wasn’t working on XB that needed to be patched (Digital Foundry video for the details).

I’m generally happy at 60 but it’s sometimes good to have the choice to use 120fps - I use that option on F1 where it helps the sense of speed/smoothness. But I prefer the 60fps mode on GRID Legends as the drop in resolution and loss of screen-space reflections is too much of a trade off to get to 120.

Anyways, choice is always good and it’s good this is now fixed on XB.

Had a quick look and the graphics look decent but it all looks a bit 30fps to me? Hopefully there will be a performance mode.

Third time lucky for me - after 2 aborted attempts at Cyberpunk I’m now completely hooked. Playing on Pro and loving every minute - 40ish hours in and I can see there’s 100’s of hours of fun to be had before even contemplating Phantom Liberty.

If I can drag myself away from Night City then I shall get stuck into some Gears Reloaded on Series X.

Have a good one.

I could be tempted if the list included these…

Drop Zone - Atari 800xl, Uridium - C64, Ghostbusters - C64, Impossible Mission - C64, Blue Max - Atari 800xl, IK+ - C64, Montezumas Revenge - Atari 800xl, Shamus - Atari 800xl, Creatures 1&2 - C64.

Not sure I can go back to Starfield - I enjoyed parts of it after the 60fps update but the constant faffing around due to being “over encumbered “ every five minutes did my head in. Performance can be pretty wonky too, even on Series X.

I actually had to stop playing yesterday - the judder was so bad (XSX 120hz campaign). I thought it was a problem with the motion blur, but turning it on and off seemed to have no effect.

I’ll turn off 120hz and try again…I’m glad Digital Foundry got to the bottom of the issue and there’s an easy fix until it gets patched.

Herdling and AoE4 on XSX
Cyberpunk 2077 and Sword of the Sea on PS5Pro
Have a great w/end everyone

I use my Series X pretty much every day - a brilliant bit of kit and just such a shame that Microsoft gave up on Series consoles. I really think they missed a trick by not getting Series S down to £199 to tempt players across into a second console from other platforms. Need to see what Microsoft offer us next before deciding if XSX is my last console from them. Already have one foot in the Sony camp with PS5Pro but I’ve always had a soft spot for Xbox, having been there Day1 with OG Xbox and then 360.

Cyberpunk 2077 on Pro - my first proper playthrough after a couple of aborted attempts. I’m about 14 hours in - enjoying it but maybe slightly underwhelmed with the gameplay & overwhelmed with the amount of stuff to learn! WipeOut Omega Collection too.

XSX - AoE4, Assassins Creed Mirage & a few races on Forza Motorsport.

Have a good one everyone.

@Fiendish-Beaver - well said. I’m in a similar boat and enjoyed the first game more but the second was visually stunning enough for me to be curious about this update….certainly enough for me to take another look at 60fps.

Nice, I’ll definitely play Mirage and also take a fresh look at Hellblade 2 at 60fps.

@Millionski - I’m hoping exactly the same re the original Uncharted Trilogy. They look ok on PS5 but could definitely benefit from a current-gen coat of varnish. If it did happen I’d probably still play them on PlayStation but think they’d do really well on Xbox. More games everywhere is a good thing.

@Sol76 - great spot!

This is an absolute s h1 t show….

Before the update I had CoD HQ installed with BO6 and MWII campaigns installed - total 165GB + 25GB reserved space (190GB);

Now to have the same content installed I need 136.8GB on the COD app for BO6 + 25GB reserved, PLUS another 110.2GB just for MWII campaign (and no doubt it will want to reserve another 25GB the minute I’ve downloaded the game and load my save).

So prior to the update the same installed content was 190GB, now it is a minimum of 272GB and likely more when MWII reserves space once it is fired up.

You literally couldn’t make this s##t up!

Is that 6PM in old money (BST)? I must be one of the few people that didn’t mind the launcher - I actually quite like having the games grouped together and it is very easy to install/uninstall the various bits and bobs as required. Just hope the new system doesn’t force installation of parts that I don’t want on these older titles (mainly multiplayer) as otherwise that will surely end up INCREASING the amount of space these games take up?

@ScalenePowers - fantastic game, enjoy. Sounds like you’ve got some other great titles lined up but if you enjoy the genre don’t sleep on Deus Ex Mankind Divided- terrific game and runs super smooth on Series X thanks to fps boost.

Probably not my thing but it looks pretty so I’ll give it a spin on Gamepass. Most of those reviews are on PS5 so it will be interesting to see how it runs on Series X. There’s also an update today, maybe that addresses some of the performance concerns.

@Kezelpaso - thanks Ben, I’m sure an article like this takes a fair bit of research and time….thank you for putting it together. I’m hovering over The Outer Worlds Spacers Choice on the back of this!

@FraserG - lol, impressive but not quite as ‘sad’ as me….4TB external SSD, 1TB internal Series X and 2TB WD Black Expansion Card that arrived yesterday (Amazon Prime Day purchase). Oh, and a 1TB Seagate Expansion Card just in case!! 😂

I’m too embarrassed to mention the storage on my PS5Pro 😳

My first 360 had the dreaded RROD but Microsoft did a fine job replacing it with no fuss. No such luck with my original (fat) PS3 which suffered an orange ring (or was it a light?) of death - I just had to go out and buy a new one. Interestingly my replacement XB360 and (slim) PS3 are still working fine to this day.

2TB WD expansion card is down to £180 as well.

Getting multiple Xbox’s and TVs connected up for some original Halo system-link deathmatch takes some beating. The Silent Cartographer level from Halo CE is still right up there too. Happy Days!

@Nintendo4Sonic - that’s a sweeping generalisation and makes a lot of assumptions. I’d argue why shouldn’t people enjoy Gamepass? They are not doing anything illegal and I dislike the insinuation that somehow Gamepass subscribers are doing something ‘wrong’. For clarity, they are not. Look at it another way - they are enjoying their hobby and putting money each month into the gaming eco system. Whether that works financially for Microsoft and publishers/developers is a matter for them….not me as a user.

I subscribe to both Gamepass and PS plus, I also buy games from time to time - some of which I’d never have become aware of if they didn’t exist on those subscription services. If others choose to ‘rent’ games and not buy them then that’s fine too - it’s arrogant to suggest they shouldn’t make that choice. Back in the day the attach rate for purchased games per console was low single figures - I don’t recall anyone suggesting back then that there was a minimum number of games console buyers should buy to stop the industry ‘dying’. Studios have come and gone over the years, and the cream usually rises to the top.

Gamepass (and PS Plus for that matter) may not prove sustainable in the medium to long term, but in all honesty none of us really knows that - I repeat, dine out on it while you can and ignore the trolls who tell you it is some sort of evil.

It’s obvious Gamepass isn’t for everyone - both developers and gamers - but there are plenty of each that are perfectly happy with it.

Will it last forever? Probably not….but nothing in this world ever does. Dine out on it while you can and ignore the trolls who tell you that subscription to Gamepass is some sort of evil.