@awp69 Ahh yes the old "its you not me" argument. Your the one who bought up the FF16 review comparison on a Starfield review thread so lets not pretend I'm the guy stirring up console war rubbish.
@awp69 If an xbox exclusive beating a playstation exclusive on metacritic is what gets you through the day then more power to you. Lets hope Forza beats Gran turismo for your sake!
The general consensus seems to be that it takes a while to get going, theres not much to do on the procedurally generated planets and its a bit of a jack of all trades but the scope is incredible. Looking forward to trying it next week but glad i didnt fork out for early access based on the reviews i have seen.
I might be tempted by the early access upgrade if it reviews well. I don’t particularly fancy paying £30 for something I wont own but I have a free weekend upcoming and then a super busy few months afterwards. However got early access of Baldurs Gate 3 on PS from Saturday to tide me over if not.
@ZuneTattooGuy it is a genuine Reddit account with a reasonably long history of posting positively in Xbox subreddits. I’d say you might have a point if this was a fresh account created for this purpose or there was a history of posting console war stuff but there is non of that. Sometimes MS just screw up.
Honestly I can’t see it working for Gears in its current form. Something about the movement and the cover system just doesn’t feel like it would work in the open world. However I also think Gears is at the point where it needs a bit of a refresh so if Coalition do it and make it into a good game I would be happy. I’d rather they take some risks than play it safe. I haven’t completed a gears campaign since 3 because they just get a bit samey after a while.
@pip_muzz Completely agree on the grief messages. I tend to just ignore them and if they are offensive report them however this particular case is not a grief message nor is it offensive. If they had said “F*** off leave me alone” or something like that then the ban would still be harsh but slightly more justifiable. This is simply denying a user of a service they have spent money on for the most inane reason possible. I doubt it even goes against the T&Cs we all agree to before logging in but I can’t be bothered to go back and look because I’m lazy.
@pip_muzz I think removing all swearing from gaming is a step way too far. I thought the point of this change was to crack down on the racism, homophobia and misogyny, not standard speech. Even if they do go down that route then who exactly are MS trying to protect in this particular instance and how far are they going to go with it? If anyone is genuinely offended by the acronym WTF, particularly in a non aggressive context like the one above, then they probably shouldn’t be playing around on the internet full stop.
I love Bloons 6 and have spent more time playing it on iOS than I would care to admit. That being said charging £25 for a straight port of a £6 mobile game that’s been out for over 5 years seems like a bit of a cash grab.
I think title of the article is slightly misleading. Most people associate cross play with being able to play online with people on another platform. As far as I have been able to find BG3 doesn’t support cross play at the moment (after tons of googling to see if I would be able to play with my PC mates).
@ysfex3 It is indeed sad. I have had a blast with my wife getting into more games recently playing things like It Takes Two, Sackboy, Lego Star Wars and various Mario’s via couch co op. I have floated the idea of BG3 to her…it might be a bit tooo deep too keep her interest but we will give it a go.
@S-Bacc That’s very sound logic but I don’t think the average gamer/consumer is going to think like that. People want the latest technology and the best games and aren’t necessarily thinking 3-5 years into the future. Even if I knew back in 2020 that there would be a PS5 pro model releasing in 4 years and PS4 would still be supported right through to 2024 I still would have gone ahead with my day one purchase. My digital library is built up on PS ecosystem and just because I can play most of these games on my PS4 doesn’t mean I don’t want to leverage the PS5 power to play those games with better visuals and performance.
The best thing Xbox can do to prepare for next gen is start pumping out regular bangers for the rest of this one so more people buy into the ecosystem. Even then though for all its merits gamepass is kind of shooting Xbox in the foot with regards to digital libraries. I have bought one game on my Series X in the year I have owned it whereas I have countless games purchased on PS. For that reason next gen I am going to be buying PS first because I can play my games without paying monthly subscription.
@somnambulance Gotta admit when I first saw the announcement for Jusant I thought it looked pretty mundane but when I saw some more gameplay I was sold! Absolutely no chance it’s getting played on release with what’s round the corner but looking forward to dipping in next year.
Friday nights me and a few mates would all set up our 360s and TVs in someone’s living room and just drink and play Gears online till the early hours. We fondly called it Beers of War.
@Nightcrawler71 Pretty sure progress carries over to the full game as well. I didn’t get very far but it seems a bit more varied than Shadow Tactics and Desperados with some level of choice of which characters you add to your roster first. Hope you enjoy!
I played about an hour of the free trial last night and it seems like a lot of fun. No point buying now with BG3 and Starfield on the horizon but l will definitely get this further down the line.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner MS did desperately need to do something about the transparency. I don’t know if it’s still the case but the banning using to be controlled by a group of volunteer moderators who were not permanent members of MS staff. They didn’t communicate bans properly and then to appeal one you had to reach out to them publicly on twitter. Receiving a 3 month voice comms ban back in 2015 with no notification or reason given was what drove me to PS4 as my main console.
@ZuneTattooGuy "It can be done it's just lazy developers being lazy"...that was your comment about Larian struggling to implement split screen in BG3. So does that apply here or is it different now its an MS game?
@pip_muzz 👍👍 Just give me actual time trials where I can compete online with friends and randos and I will be a happy happy man! I still can’t believe GT7 is always online but has no permanent time trial boards, just the stupid weekly ones and the circuit experiences. I can’t remember exactly but I’m pretty sure Forza used to do this.
Agreed as well about the handling and gameplay. The fact that they absolutely nailed the feeling of circuit driving was pretty much the only thing that saved GT at launch 😂. Insane microtransactions, always online (with plenty of downtime in first few weeks), restrictive multiplayer options, crap music, ridiculously low payouts and a phoned in career mode….but my god was it still fun to play simply for the actual driving. Turn10 will smash it out the park if they can get the physics right. I have every faith in them.
@GhanaViking Amen to that. Soooo many quality games coming out before the end of the year I think this might well be a Black Friday 2024 purchase if it doesn’t end up on a subscription service before then.
@Sol4ris @pip_muzz GT7 got absolutely destroyed by pretty much everyone on release last year…the metacritic user score dropped to something like 3. Exactly the same criticisms were levelled at it and more so tbh I think your both being a bit over sensitive on the whole “Microsoft can’t catch a break” rhetoric. This is the internet and people are entitled to their opinions. Just because it’s an Xbox site does not mean everyone has to be 100% positive on it 24/7.
Despite it not being the complete package though, GT7 went on to be my most played game of last year and one of my fav racing games of all time. I expect Forza will do everything bigger, better and shinier though so Im looking forward to sinking as much, if not more time into this over the next 12 months as I’ve always preferred it over GT. I’m probably more pumped about this than Starfield overall.
@Moonglow Each to their own. If you don’t like it that’s fair enough. I’m clearly not going to convince you of the fun factor although I do wonder how much time you have actually spent playing games that use it properly. On the price front though the dualsense (£65) retails at £10 more than the Xbox controller (£55) and for that you get gyro, mic, haptics, adaptive triggers and touch pad….if you wait till a sale like everywhere’s having in the UK right now you can pick up spare controllers for £40 a pop.
The rate people buy up the often higher priced coloured and themed Xbox controllers and the success of the elite controllers show there is clearly not a shortage of people willing to throw money at peripherals. Plus if the dualsense features were industry standard the price point would even out due to the need to remain competitive. The dualsense is only more expensive now because it offers a significant amount of extras that the Xbox controller doesn’t.
I love the Dualsense. It’s actually one of the few things about this generation that has felt like a proper step forward and when games successfully make full use of it like Returnal did it really adds to the whole experience. As @BeerIsAwesome said it would be great if Xbox adopted it and it became an industry standard because we would see more third parties coming up with new ideas and pushing the tech forward. There’s a laundry list of innovations in gaming considered “gimmicky” at the start but have gone on to be massive successes both in terms of hardware and software.
I’m very excited for it. It’s more or less the reason I bought an XSX. I am a bit apprehensive that it is going to be a steaming pile of bugs and performance issues as too many releases have been in the last few years but still if I have half as much fun with it as I did with Skyrim and Fallout I will be a happy man.
@ZuneTattooGuy Even MS have acknowledged the problem and sent engineers to help Larian so it’s definitly not as simple as just moving some sliders. Also it’s not favouritism still releasing on the PS it’s a business decision. Delaying on PS would piss off a massive install base, destroy their expected quarterly profits and shake confidence in the brand. And aside all that why should PS fans suffer because of an Xbox problem? You know full well if roles were reversed you would not be happy about an Xbox delay because a game couldn’t run properly on PS.
This is a cool feature. I have heard some truly horrific stuff on COD over the years but for the most part it feels like there’s no point in reporting it without evidence.
Absolutely loved crackdown 1 but did not need reminding how old I am 😅 I have very fond memories of playing this in my first year of uni shortly after trading nearly every bit of tech I owned to get a 360.
@Tharsman cheers mate. They are a bit better than I expected. I think most games hand out their 1st story achievement fairly quickly so to lose 72% of players before that is pretty drastic. But it was always gonna be that type of game with a core audience who see it through. Out of interest where do you get that achievement data? Would like to delve into some other games
I would be more interested in how many of those 2 million actually completed it or even got 50% through. Personally it got about 30 minutes out of me. I just did not find it particularly fun or engaging and judging from a lot of comments on here and Reddit around release time I wasn’t in the minority.
@Tharsman Can they really be classed as a friend if they haven’t seen Back to the Future?
That was one of the more compelling arguments I have read in favour of the acquisition. Most of the time what I read it seems to boil down to “I want MS to own ABK so I don’t have to pay full price for COD” so I appreciate you putting it how you put it. With regards to growth though I think MS would just have a whole lot more respect from the wider gaming community if that growth came more organically. They have had over 20 years with nearly unlimited resources to foster talent and creativity and in the 360 days they did just that. Something has gone wrong internally though since the noughties and rather than address the problems they have just decided to throw money around externally taking a huge amount of IPs away from other gamers while flying the flag of “gaming for everyone!”
If they were completely innocent of all the things Sony is accused of then fair enough but they aren’t. In fact it could be argued they bullied themselves into relevance by tying up timed exclusives and third party deals throughout the 360 days. They haven’t been particularly successful with this approach recently because of the self inflicted wound that was the XBone and now everyone seems to think it’s Sony’s fault they are failing. I am lucky in that I own a Switch, Ps5 and Xbox Series X but many people are not in that position. Any fans of Bethesda and ActiBlizz games who were PS5 early adopters would not have foreseen in a million years that they may not be able to play their games in 3-4 years time. I think most of them would bite your hand off to play Starfield in September 2024 after a years exclusivity which is most likely the worst thing that Xbox gamers would have faced if Sony had their way with it. To be clear I’m not defending timed exclusivity I’m just saying waiting a year is a hell of a lot better than waiting forever. I also see a lot of arguments saying that “with a good internet connection you could play these games anywhere through gamepass” and I don’t think it’s as simple as that. I have reasonable fibre optic and my online isnt brilliant even over LAN. To stream entire games and play online I think my router would just give up.
Yes Xbox need to grow but it would be so much more respectable if they did that through clever business decisions (not TV….Sports…TV…..sports) and nurturing what they have rather than spending the GDP of a small country to take games away from other people permanently.
@Jenkinss Well when I’m wrong I’m wrong…..Im sorry my friend I thought I was being clever and I wasn’t. Hope you can accept my apology @Tharsman I stand corrected on the Sony publisher comment (I did say “to my knowledge” and now my knowledge has been updated). Still I don’t think we can compare gaming 20 years ago to what it is today. I accept it’s not going to be completely accurate but according to a currency converter what Sony spent on Psygnosis in the 90s is worth about $45mil in 2023. We are talking $69bil…a number most people couldn’t even write down accurately. Everyone always talks about this acquisition in terms of the games and exclusivity but when you thinking about the good MS could do with that money through research and technology it’s actually pretty mad they are spending it on a games publisher who already releases their games on the Xbox anyway. But just my view I accept it’s an unpopular opinion on here.
@Jenkinss I’m working hard to feel silly mate but struggling to find that infographic anywhere through google searching. Also every image I did find gives completely different % market shares which goes back to the point of sources and how accurate they are. I will however apologise for my erroneous comment in suggesting you made it. It very much looks like something someone would knock up in 5 minutes based on limited information but in future I won’t jump to such drastic conclusions.
@Jenkinss yeh cool an infographic you knocked up in your spare time that has no sources, is 2 years out of date and provides zero forecasting potential. Send this to the FTC and their whole case falls apart! Well done for solving the console wars!
@cragis0001 Look up the difference between Publishers and development studios my dude. You will find Sony hasnt (at least to my knowledge) bought any publishers. On top of that you will find that MS actually own more development studios than Sony and considering they haven’t been in the game as long that would logically suggest they have purchased more than them in a shorter period of time. You see higher quality and quantity of output from Sony’s studios which might be why people jump to the conclusion Sony has bought more but facts is facts.
@somnambulance Haha you named some of the exact games I was thinking. My subscription was due to end day after Planet of Lana came out. I gave it a good few hours as a kind of last gasp subscription saviour after all the positive reviews and I just couldn’t get passed the fact it was a prettier but less interesting Limbo/Inside. And a lot of the games feel like that. They are just average examples of their genre which are good if you have never played a game like that before but if you have played the games they are based on before they offer nothing new.
As you point out 2022 had a tonne of interesting and unique titles but they have just not recaptured that magic this year. It’s especially noticeable when PS extra is having a stormer of a year. Ratchet & Clank and Horizon FW would be worth the sub fee alone this year without anything else if you didn’t own them.
@somnambulance completely agree with you and I hope at least your sons getting some good use out of it! The thing is as well I remained subbed for the promise of good games but so many of the indies released this year just got such Average/negative reviews I didn’t even want to invest time trying them when there’s more interesting stuff to play. It’s almost at the point where I see a game I’m interested in is releasing day one on gamepass so just assume it’s going to be a 6/10 at best.
I get the day one release addition is a big selling point for gamepass but it seems pointless when most of those day one games aren’t worth playing.
I cancelled in May after months of new additions that did not interest me. I will resubscribe if Starfield releases in a reasonable state and if that’s not the case then for Forza. The days of just letting it auto renew are dead for me, price hike or not, as Ive barely turned my XSX on this year except for Wo long which I could have just bought outright for the money I have spent on gamepass.
@Fiendish-Beaver It’s not necessarily the price more the principle. For my preferences Gamepass has been dry since Wo Long and Hi Fi Rush and now, a few months out from the first big AAA 1st party releases in nearly two years they raise the price. It’s a pretty cynical move from the supposedly more “Pro Consumer” company.
The showcase will be excellent. The problem is they will then follow the showcase with months of broken promises, endless delays and poor quality releases. Last years “everything on gamepass in the next 12 months” show was brilliant. I came away feeling super pumped. A year later and only a handful of those promised games released and they were mediocre at best.
I think this showcase is going to make a lot of people instantly forget how shoddy MS have been this entire gen and as long as they keep dangling the carrot of “one day you will get good games” they will keep getting away with it.
I’m really happy with the current state of download speeds. They seem to be a bit faster on the Series X compared to the PS5 but I won’t say no to even faster speeds.
@TheElectroFunky Just wanted to say it’s refreshing to see an objective, fact based argument built from knowledge and personal experience. I see too many comments either bashing the UK as a whole or claiming the CMA (an entire organisation who’s job it is to research and decide on deals like this) doesn’t have a clue what it is doing.
@northofthewall I don’t think it’s just journalists bashing Xbox. It’s a viewpoint of a developer which is perfectly valid and makes sense. For a disruptive service like GP there will always be positives and negatives, it’s not a one size fits all type approach.
For me It’s purely psychological but I am very aware with my own gaming habits that if I purchase a game then I am way more likely to put more time into it because I want to get my moneys worth. The benefit of gamepass is that it gets people to try games that aren’t usually in their wheelhouse and often that will mean less time engaging with it. Pentiment for example I would never have bought but I tried it because it was on gamepass. I can appreciate it is a stellar example of its genre but it’s just not for me so I clocked about 30 mins tops. I guess for the Devs it’s a balancing act of either taking MS money and getting more people to try your game but potentially not spending huge amounts of time on it or going it the traditional sales way and risking it flopping.
Woooooo this is very positive news! Fingers crossed it is in other territories outside the US as well but at the very least it’s the beginning of the change
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Re: Trepang2 Is An 'Outrageously Violent' Single-Player FPS Coming To Xbox This October
Well colour me interested. Looks like it’s been out on PC for a while has been very well received.
Re: Forza Motorsport Hands-On Previews Expected To Arrive Well Before Launch
It looks beautiful. What a truly brilliant year this has been for gaming.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think Of Starfield So Far
@Sifi Jesus have a day off man!
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think Of Starfield So Far
@awp69 Ahh yes the old "its you not me" argument. Your the one who bought up the FF16 review comparison on a Starfield review thread so lets not pretend I'm the guy stirring up console war rubbish.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think Of Starfield So Far
@awp69 If an xbox exclusive beating a playstation exclusive on metacritic is what gets you through the day then more power to you. Lets hope Forza beats Gran turismo for your sake!
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think Of Starfield So Far
The general consensus seems to be that it takes a while to get going, theres not much to do on the procedurally generated planets and its a bit of a jack of all trades but the scope is incredible. Looking forward to trying it next week but glad i didnt fork out for early access based on the reviews i have seen.
Re: Starfield Fans, What Are Your Plans Over The Next Few Days?
well reviews have started coming in....I will not be getting early access
Re: Starfield Fans, What Are Your Plans Over The Next Few Days?
I might be tempted by the early access upgrade if it reviews well. I don’t particularly fancy paying £30 for something I wont own but I have a free weekend upcoming and then a super busy few months afterwards. However got early access of Baldurs Gate 3 on PS from Saturday to tide me over if not.
Re: Xbox Fan Sparks Huge Debate After Receiving First 'Strike' For Bad Language
@ZuneTattooGuy it is a genuine Reddit account with a reasonably long history of posting positively in Xbox subreddits. I’d say you might have a point if this was a fresh account created for this purpose or there was a history of posting console war stuff but there is non of that. Sometimes MS just screw up.
Re: Talking Point: Would You Like A 'Fully Open World' Gears 6?
Honestly I can’t see it working for Gears in its current form. Something about the movement and the cover system just doesn’t feel like it would work in the open world. However I also think Gears is at the point where it needs a bit of a refresh so if Coalition do it and make it into a good game I would be happy. I’d rather they take some risks than play it safe. I haven’t completed a gears campaign since 3 because they just get a bit samey after a while.
Re: Xbox Fan Sparks Huge Debate After Receiving First 'Strike' For Bad Language
@pip_muzz Completely agree on the grief messages. I tend to just ignore them and if they are offensive report them however this particular case is not a grief message nor is it offensive. If they had said “F*** off leave me alone” or something like that then the ban would still be harsh but slightly more justifiable. This is simply denying a user of a service they have spent money on for the most inane reason possible. I doubt it even goes against the T&Cs we all agree to before logging in but I can’t be bothered to go back and look because I’m lazy.
Re: Xbox Fan Sparks Huge Debate After Receiving First 'Strike' For Bad Language
@pip_muzz I think removing all swearing from gaming is a step way too far. I thought the point of this change was to crack down on the racism, homophobia and misogyny, not standard speech. Even if they do go down that route then who exactly are MS trying to protect in this particular instance and how far are they going to go with it? If anyone is genuinely offended by the acronym WTF, particularly in a non aggressive context like the one above, then they probably shouldn’t be playing around on the internet full stop.
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Will Feature Cross-Saves Between Xbox, PS5 & PC
@FraserG Haha no worries. I just saw the article and got super excited because I thought Larian had confirmed it. Hopefully it’s a future addition.
Re: Tower Defense Mega-Hit 'Bloons TD 6' Arrives On Xbox This September
I love Bloons 6 and have spent more time playing it on iOS than I would care to admit. That being said charging £25 for a straight port of a £6 mobile game that’s been out for over 5 years seems like a bit of a cash grab.
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Will Feature Cross-Play Between Xbox, PS5 & PC
I think title of the article is slightly misleading. Most people associate cross play with being able to play online with people on another platform. As far as I have been able to find BG3 doesn’t support cross play at the moment (after tons of googling to see if I would be able to play with my PC mates).
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Confirmed For Xbox In 2023, Series S Version Ditching Local Co-Op
@ysfex3 It is indeed sad. I have had a blast with my wife getting into more games recently playing things like It Takes Two, Sackboy, Lego Star Wars and various Mario’s via couch co op. I have floated the idea of BG3 to her…it might be a bit tooo deep too keep her interest but we will give it a go.
Re: The Xbox Series X Is 'At The End Of The Beginning', Says Phil Spencer
@S-Bacc That’s very sound logic but I don’t think the average gamer/consumer is going to think like that. People want the latest technology and the best games and aren’t necessarily thinking 3-5 years into the future. Even if I knew back in 2020 that there would be a PS5 pro model releasing in 4 years and PS4 would still be supported right through to 2024 I still would have gone ahead with my day one purchase. My digital library is built up on PS ecosystem and just because I can play most of these games on my PS4 doesn’t mean I don’t want to leverage the PS5 power to play those games with better visuals and performance.
The best thing Xbox can do to prepare for next gen is start pumping out regular bangers for the rest of this one so more people buy into the ecosystem. Even then though for all its merits gamepass is kind of shooting Xbox in the foot with regards to digital libraries. I have bought one game on my Series X in the year I have owned it whereas I have countless games purchased on PS. For that reason next gen I am going to be buying PS first because I can play my games without paying monthly subscription.
Re: Xbox Reveals Full Gamescom 2023 Livestream Schedule
@somnambulance Gotta admit when I first saw the announcement for Jusant I thought it looked pretty mundane but when I saw some more gameplay I was sold! Absolutely no chance it’s getting played on release with what’s round the corner but looking forward to dipping in next year.
Re: Talking Point: What's Your Favourite Xbox Live Memory?
Friday nights me and a few mates would all set up our 360s and TVs in someone’s living room and just drink and play Gears online till the early hours. We fondly called it Beers of War.
Re: New Xbox Release 'Shadow Gambit' Is Getting Fantastic Reviews So Far
@Nightcrawler71 Pretty sure progress carries over to the full game as well. I didn’t get very far but it seems a bit more varied than Shadow Tactics and Desperados with some level of choice of which characters you add to your roster first. Hope you enjoy!
Re: New Xbox Release 'Shadow Gambit' Is Getting Fantastic Reviews So Far
I played about an hour of the free trial last night and it seems like a lot of fun. No point buying now with BG3 and Starfield on the horizon but l will definitely get this further down the line.
Re: Phil Spencer Responds To Concerns Over New Xbox Enforcement System
@PsBoxSwitchOwner MS did desperately need to do something about the transparency. I don’t know if it’s still the case but the banning using to be controlled by a group of volunteer moderators who were not permanent members of MS staff. They didn’t communicate bans properly and then to appeal one you had to reach out to them publicly on twitter. Receiving a 3 month voice comms ban back in 2015 with no notification or reason given was what drove me to PS4 as my main console.
Re: Forza Motorsport's Multiplayer Looks Awesome, But Split-Screen Didn't Make The Cut
@ZuneTattooGuy "It can be done it's just lazy developers being lazy"...that was your comment about Larian struggling to implement split screen in BG3. So does that apply here or is it different now its an MS game?
Re: Forza Developer Highlights Eight 'New To Motorsport' Cars Available At Launch
@pip_muzz 👍👍 Just give me actual time trials where I can compete online with friends and randos and I will be a happy happy man! I still can’t believe GT7 is always online but has no permanent time trial boards, just the stupid weekly ones and the circuit experiences. I can’t remember exactly but I’m pretty sure Forza used to do this.
Agreed as well about the handling and gameplay. The fact that they absolutely nailed the feeling of circuit driving was pretty much the only thing that saved GT at launch 😂. Insane microtransactions, always online (with plenty of downtime in first few weeks), restrictive multiplayer options, crap music, ridiculously low payouts and a phoned in career mode….but my god was it still fun to play simply for the actual driving. Turn10 will smash it out the park if they can get the physics right. I have every faith in them.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think Of Action RPG 'Atlas Fallen'
@GhanaViking Amen to that. Soooo many quality games coming out before the end of the year I think this might well be a Black Friday 2024 purchase if it doesn’t end up on a subscription service before then.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think Of Action RPG 'Atlas Fallen'
It’s doing better than expected. Still I think it’s a wait for a sale kinda game.
Re: Forza Developer Highlights Eight 'New To Motorsport' Cars Available At Launch
@Sol4ris @pip_muzz GT7 got absolutely destroyed by pretty much everyone on release last year…the metacritic user score dropped to something like 3. Exactly the same criticisms were levelled at it and more so tbh I think your both being a bit over sensitive on the whole “Microsoft can’t catch a break” rhetoric. This is the internet and people are entitled to their opinions. Just because it’s an Xbox site does not mean everyone has to be 100% positive on it 24/7.
Despite it not being the complete package though, GT7 went on to be my most played game of last year and one of my fav racing games of all time. I expect Forza will do everything bigger, better and shinier though so Im looking forward to sinking as much, if not more time into this over the next 12 months as I’ve always preferred it over GT. I’m probably more pumped about this than Starfield overall.
Re: Talking Point: Should Xbox Make A Revised Controller With Haptic Feedback?
@Moonglow Each to their own. If you don’t like it that’s fair enough. I’m clearly not going to convince you of the fun factor although I do wonder how much time you have actually spent playing games that use it properly. On the price front though the dualsense (£65) retails at £10 more than the Xbox controller (£55) and for that you get gyro, mic, haptics, adaptive triggers and touch pad….if you wait till a sale like everywhere’s having in the UK right now you can pick up spare controllers for £40 a pop.
The rate people buy up the often higher priced coloured and themed Xbox controllers and the success of the elite controllers show there is clearly not a shortage of people willing to throw money at peripherals. Plus if the dualsense features were industry standard the price point would even out due to the need to remain competitive. The dualsense is only more expensive now because it offers a significant amount of extras that the Xbox controller doesn’t.
Re: Talking Point: Should Xbox Make A Revised Controller With Haptic Feedback?
I love the Dualsense. It’s actually one of the few things about this generation that has felt like a proper step forward and when games successfully make full use of it like Returnal did it really adds to the whole experience. As @BeerIsAwesome said it would be great if Xbox adopted it and it became an industry standard because we would see more third parties coming up with new ideas and pushing the tech forward. There’s a laundry list of innovations in gaming considered “gimmicky” at the start but have gone on to be massive successes both in terms of hardware and software.
Re: Talking Point: We're Officially Four Weeks Away From The Early Access Launch Of Starfield
I’m very excited for it. It’s more or less the reason I bought an XSX. I am a bit apprehensive that it is going to be a steaming pile of bugs and performance issues as too many releases have been in the last few years but still if I have half as much fun with it as I did with Skyrim and Fallout I will be a happy man.
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox Version Seemingly Pushed To 2024 Due To Series S 'Technical Hurdle'
@ZuneTattooGuy Even MS have acknowledged the problem and sent engineers to help Larian so it’s definitly not as simple as just moving some sliders. Also it’s not favouritism still releasing on the PS it’s a business decision. Delaying on PS would piss off a massive install base, destroy their expected quarterly profits and shake confidence in the brand. And aside all that why should PS fans suffer because of an Xbox problem? You know full well if roles were reversed you would not be happy about an Xbox delay because a game couldn’t run properly on PS.
Re: Here's A First Look At Xbox's New Voice Chat Reporting Feature
This is a cool feature. I have heard some truly horrific stuff on COD over the years but for the most part it feels like there’s no point in reporting it without evidence.
Re: PSA: Crackdown 1 & 2 Are Still Free On Xbox As Sequel Turns 13
Absolutely loved crackdown 1 but did not need reminding how old I am 😅 I have very fond memories of playing this in my first year of uni shortly after trading nearly every bit of tech I owned to get a 360.
Re: Gory Game Pass Adventure 'Scorn' Hits 2 Million Players As An Xbox Console Exclusive
@Tharsman cheers mate. They are a bit better than I expected. I think most games hand out their 1st story achievement fairly quickly so to lose 72% of players before that is pretty drastic. But it was always gonna be that type of game with a core audience who see it through. Out of interest where do you get that achievement data? Would like to delve into some other games
Re: Gory Game Pass Adventure 'Scorn' Hits 2 Million Players As An Xbox Console Exclusive
I would be more interested in how many of those 2 million actually completed it or even got 50% through. Personally it got about 30 minutes out of me. I just did not find it particularly fun or engaging and judging from a lot of comments on here and Reddit around release time I wasn’t in the minority.
Re: Microsoft's CEO Isn't A Fan Of Console Exclusives, Blames Sony
@Tharsman Can they really be classed as a friend if they haven’t seen Back to the Future?
That was one of the more compelling arguments I have read in favour of the acquisition. Most of the time what I read it seems to boil down to “I want MS to own ABK so I don’t have to pay full price for COD” so I appreciate you putting it how you put it. With regards to growth though I think MS would just have a whole lot more respect from the wider gaming community if that growth came more organically. They have had over 20 years with nearly unlimited resources to foster talent and creativity and in the 360 days they did just that. Something has gone wrong internally though since the noughties and rather than address the problems they have just decided to throw money around externally taking a huge amount of IPs away from other gamers while flying the flag of “gaming for everyone!”
If they were completely innocent of all the things Sony is accused of then fair enough but they aren’t. In fact it could be argued they bullied themselves into relevance by tying up timed exclusives and third party deals throughout the 360 days. They haven’t been particularly successful with this approach recently because of the self inflicted wound that was the XBone and now everyone seems to think it’s Sony’s fault they are failing. I am lucky in that I own a Switch, Ps5 and Xbox Series X but many people are not in that position. Any fans of Bethesda and ActiBlizz games who were PS5 early adopters would not have foreseen in a million years that they may not be able to play their games in 3-4 years time. I think most of them would bite your hand off to play Starfield in September 2024 after a years exclusivity which is most likely the worst thing that Xbox gamers would have faced if Sony had their way with it. To be clear I’m not defending timed exclusivity I’m just saying waiting a year is a hell of a lot better than waiting forever. I also see a lot of arguments saying that “with a good internet connection you could play these games anywhere through gamepass” and I don’t think it’s as simple as that. I have reasonable fibre optic and my online isnt brilliant even over LAN. To stream entire games and play online I think my router would just give up.
Yes Xbox need to grow but it would be so much more respectable if they did that through clever business decisions (not TV….Sports…TV…..sports) and nurturing what they have rather than spending the GDP of a small country to take games away from other people permanently.
Re: Microsoft's CEO Isn't A Fan Of Console Exclusives, Blames Sony
@Jenkinss Well when I’m wrong I’m wrong…..Im sorry my friend I thought I was being clever and I wasn’t. Hope you can accept my apology @Tharsman I stand corrected on the Sony publisher comment (I did say “to my knowledge” and now my knowledge has been updated). Still I don’t think we can compare gaming 20 years ago to what it is today. I accept it’s not going to be completely accurate but according to a currency converter what Sony spent on Psygnosis in the 90s is worth about $45mil in 2023. We are talking $69bil…a number most people couldn’t even write down accurately. Everyone always talks about this acquisition in terms of the games and exclusivity but when you thinking about the good MS could do with that money through research and technology it’s actually pretty mad they are spending it on a games publisher who already releases their games on the Xbox anyway. But just my view I accept it’s an unpopular opinion on here.
Re: Microsoft's CEO Isn't A Fan Of Console Exclusives, Blames Sony
@Jenkinss I’m working hard to feel silly mate but struggling to find that infographic anywhere through google searching. Also every image I did find gives completely different % market shares which goes back to the point of sources and how accurate they are. I will however apologise for my erroneous comment in suggesting you made it. It very much looks like something someone would knock up in 5 minutes based on limited information but in future I won’t jump to such drastic conclusions.
Re: Microsoft's CEO Isn't A Fan Of Console Exclusives, Blames Sony
@Jenkinss yeh cool an infographic you knocked up in your spare time that has no sources, is 2 years out of date and provides zero forecasting potential. Send this to the FTC and their whole case falls apart! Well done for solving the console wars!
Re: Microsoft's CEO Isn't A Fan Of Console Exclusives, Blames Sony
@cragis0001 Look up the difference between Publishers and development studios my dude. You will find Sony hasnt (at least to my knowledge) bought any publishers. On top of that you will find that MS actually own more development studios than Sony and considering they haven’t been in the game as long that would logically suggest they have purchased more than them in a shorter period of time. You see higher quality and quantity of output from Sony’s studios which might be why people jump to the conclusion Sony has bought more but facts is facts.
Re: Poll: Will You Stay Subscribed To Xbox Game Pass After The Price Hike?
@somnambulance Haha you named some of the exact games I was thinking. My subscription was due to end day after Planet of Lana came out. I gave it a good few hours as a kind of last gasp subscription saviour after all the positive reviews and I just couldn’t get passed the fact it was a prettier but less interesting Limbo/Inside. And a lot of the games feel like that. They are just average examples of their genre which are good if you have never played a game like that before but if you have played the games they are based on before they offer nothing new.
As you point out 2022 had a tonne of interesting and unique titles but they have just not recaptured that magic this year. It’s especially noticeable when PS extra is having a stormer of a year. Ratchet & Clank and Horizon FW would be worth the sub fee alone this year without anything else if you didn’t own them.
Re: Poll: Will You Stay Subscribed To Xbox Game Pass After The Price Hike?
@somnambulance completely agree with you and I hope at least your sons getting some good use out of it! The thing is as well I remained subbed for the promise of good games but so many of the indies released this year just got such Average/negative reviews I didn’t even want to invest time trying them when there’s more interesting stuff to play.
It’s almost at the point where I see a game I’m interested in is releasing day one on gamepass so just assume it’s going to be a 6/10 at best.
I get the day one release addition is a big selling point for gamepass but it seems pointless when most of those day one games aren’t worth playing.
Re: Poll: Will You Stay Subscribed To Xbox Game Pass After The Price Hike?
I cancelled in May after months of new additions that did not interest me. I will resubscribe if Starfield releases in a reasonable state and if that’s not the case then for Forza. The days of just letting it auto renew are dead for me, price hike or not, as Ive barely turned my XSX on this year except for Wo long which I could have just bought outright for the money I have spent on gamepass.
Re: Microsoft Announces Price Increases For Xbox Series X And Xbox Game Pass
@Fiendish-Beaver It’s not necessarily the price more the principle. For my preferences Gamepass has been dry since Wo Long and Hi Fi Rush and now, a few months out from the first big AAA 1st party releases in nearly two years they raise the price. It’s a pretty cynical move from the supposedly more “Pro Consumer” company.
Re: Poll: How High Are Your Expectations For Sunday's Xbox Showcase?
The showcase will be excellent. The problem is they will then follow the showcase with months of broken promises, endless delays and poor quality releases. Last years “everything on gamepass in the next 12 months” show was brilliant. I came away feeling super pumped. A year later and only a handful of those promised games released and they were mediocre at best.
I think this showcase is going to make a lot of people instantly forget how shoddy MS have been this entire gen and as long as they keep dangling the carrot of “one day you will get good games” they will keep getting away with it.
Re: Xbox Download Speeds May Receive A Boost As Part Of New Update
I’m really happy with the current state of download speeds. They seem to be a bit faster on the Series X compared to the PS5 but I won’t say no to even faster speeds.
Re: UK CMA Places Further Restrictions On Microsoft And Activision Blizzard
@TheElectroFunky Just wanted to say it’s refreshing to see an objective, fact based argument built from knowledge and personal experience. I see too many comments either bashing the UK as a whole or claiming the CMA (an entire organisation who’s job it is to research and decide on deals like this) doesn’t have a clue what it is doing.
Re: Indie Dev Prefers Selling Games Outright Despite 'A Pretty Good Deal' With Xbox Game Pass
@northofthewall I don’t think it’s just journalists bashing Xbox. It’s a viewpoint of a developer which is perfectly valid and makes sense. For a disruptive service like GP there will always be positives and negatives, it’s not a one size fits all type approach.
For me It’s purely psychological but I am very aware with my own gaming habits that if I purchase a game then I am way more likely to put more time into it because I want to get my moneys worth. The benefit of gamepass is that it gets people to try games that aren’t usually in their wheelhouse and often that will mean less time engaging with it. Pentiment for example I would never have bought but I tried it because it was on gamepass. I can appreciate it is a stellar example of its genre but it’s just not for me so I clocked about 30 mins tops. I guess for the Devs it’s a balancing act of either taking MS money and getting more people to try your game but potentially not spending huge amounts of time on it or going it the traditional sales way and risking it flopping.
Re: 'Fuga: Melodies Of Steel 2' Is Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (May 11)
Looking forward to giving this a go over the weekend. I’m a sucker for Turn based RPGs.
Re: Xbox Announces Permanent Price Cut For Series X|S Storage Expansion Cards
Woooooo this is very positive news! Fingers crossed it is in other territories outside the US as well but at the very least it’s the beginning of the change