What I would really like is for it to actually acknowledged my daily plays on my Xbox. I figured I would try and actually put the effort in for the free month of GPU so have been turning my Xbox on and playing at least 10 mins every day for that 275 extra points a week. It registered Monday, didn’t register Tuesday or Wednesday and then when I logged in Thursday it told me to try again next week. This is the second week in a row it’s not worked for me and a quick google suggests I am not the only one with these issues.
I bought into the hype and downloaded it again. It looks and plays much better in 60fps but it only took 30 minutes (including at least 10 fast travel loading screens) before I remembered why I dropped off it in the first place. Might give it another go when DLC drops or they add Mod support on console.
@Clamwowowowo Ahhh man I was getting excited. I have a steam deck and just want to be able to play Minecraft natively on it. It’s so bizarre that you can buy all the Minecraft spin offs but not the actual game.
@Titntin They massively fumbled the release and burnt through a lot of goodwill, particularly from the PC crowd. The actual gameplay was pretty fun aside from the inexplicably bad penalty system. It was the grindy progression that did it for me and in the end I was like “what am I actually grinding towards?” I could spend hours levelling up and tinkering to create the best car in the world but the moment I take it online I will get rammed off the road at the first corner and receive a 3 second penalty for the trouble.
It’s a shame it released with the bugs and obscure design choices because it was my most anticipated game last year. If there’s one game I was confident MS couldn’t possibly balls up it was their flagship racing sim, especially with the 18 months they had to learn from the mistakes their main competitor made.
@theduckofdeath My WiFi is not the best by any stretch. It’s like middle of the road fibre optic but I can play online games on both Xbox and PS5 via wireless connection no problems whatsoever. Which is kind of what I’m getting at, for any cloud gaming service to be usable for me it needs to be as good as the console experience or at least 90% there. If I am at home I will play on console so the chances are I am only going to want to play cloud games while I am away from home like in a hotel or on a train etc and the chances are the connection in these places is going to be even worse then my WiFi connection at home.
Out of interest how easy is it to stream GP games on Steamdeck. I have chiaki4deck and Xbplay for remote play and both work way better than my phone did so I would be interested to try streaming via Xcloud on the deck and see if I get better results from that. Maybe it is my phone, that’s the issue.
Tried it once on my phone, in my house, on WiFi, sat next to the router. It was a terrible experience. It could be a phenomenal game changer in theory but it needs to start working consistently for everyone with minimal end user tinkering if they want to hit the masses. The purely anecdotal feedback I see on Reddit/websites is about 50/50. For some people it is downright unplayable and for some people it works well, although I still often see the caveat that they wouldn’t play an online multiplayer game on it.
I imagine Sarah Bond’s metrics for growth here are the typical Xbox reporting metrics: they have seen massive amount of growth in the people who have given it a go once but probably not in the people who consistently use it on a day to day basis. If they came out and said “X million number of people spent 2 hours or more on xCloud in April” I would be impressed however I imagine the figure they are actually pulling from here are the X number of people who tried it for five minutes and gave up….alternatively it’s just an outright lie which I wouldn’t be surprised about either!
@Altaria_97 very true. I was trying to offer an explanation that isn’t going to further annoy an already pretty angry user base this week 😅. The “Evil Anti Consumer Sony purchased exclusivity” theory tends to go down better than the “What’s the point in porting to Xbox when it won’t sell well?” theory. I think we can all agree though we actually have absolutely no idea 🤷♂️
@Kevw2006 Exactly there’s huge lists on both sides of timed or full exclusive indie and AA third party games but every time a half decent one doesn’t go to one of the consoles everyone pulls shocked pikachu face (same thing was happening with vampire survivors and rogue legacy 2 for PS as examples).
There’s a good chance it’s not an exclusivity deal but there does seem to be a growing pattern of games that leave PS plus after a year and head straight to gamepass or vice versa.
@andrewsqual ok what is the reason why then? I did reread my comment and realise I said that like Its some sort of fact…I dunno I’m just stating what I think. Worth noting that just yesterday Little kitty released on everything except PS and vampire survivors is out on everything except PS as well. If there isn’t some level of exclusivity agreement there then why aren’t they all releasing on everything?
@Kooky_Geezer Same here. My next Xbox is going to be a PC or Laptop. I got a steam deck recently and love pretty much everything about it, I just want more power.
@Nic-Noc20th-C from what I have seen on the internet from people much smarter than me:
They likely closed rather than sold so they could keep the rights to IPs in case they ever did want to do a sequel/reboot/remake to any of the games. Also Tango had only just released a game, had nothing in the pipeline and Hi fi Rush had probably sold as much as it was going to so the overall value of Tango probably wasn’t all that great for a sale at the moment. Whoever buys them would have to front the cost of the next game while not seeing massive amounts of residual sales from already released games.
It was a day one PS Plus Extra game so it will have an exclusivity period after which it will go to Xbox and probably end up on gamepass like Humanity and Stray.
Interesting and fun game though from what I have played so far. Never thought I would enjoy controlling what is essentially a potato.
@Cikajovazmaj I was thinking the same thing when reading this. So easy to just say yes or no instead of speaking in riddles. Looking forward to see what they do with CoD but they have backed themselves into a bit of a lose-lose situation with it.
@RIghteousNixon Hey man I very quickly regretted my above comment. It was over the top and I’m sorry. We clearly don’t see eye to eye on any of this stuff so should probably try our best to ignore each other on this site but I don’t want to resort to mud flinging and being a general idiot. I meant it about the respect for your business and genuine congrats on coming up to retirement, massive milestone and probably an exciting time for you so I hope it lives up to its promise. Sorry bro, I don’t know why us gamers get so heated about all this stuff but we are hot blooded beasts that’s for sure. Hopefully no hard feelings.
@Reaper_cet It’s a bit different when a company spends 80billion to obtain exclusivity to games they would have got anyway and then shuts several of the studios they have purchased. Literally everyone in gaming hates Embracer group for doing that and yet in their entire lifetime they have spent a fraction of what MS has in just 3 years. I think gamers are finally getting sick of it and realising it’s not all sunshine and lollipops and ABK games on gamepass.
No one knows what would have happened if MS hadn’t acquired these publishers but it’s fairly reasonable to assume that they are in the process of shedding costs to help pay for the ABK deal…a deal that I have a feeling the only people who will see the benefit of are the Microsoft shareholders because so far the gamers and employees certainly haven’t seen any benefit whatsoever.
Truly mindless article. Why would you use Quick Resume for some games and not others?!? If you have to do that then what is the point of quick resume at all. If Jez Corden, Tom Warren or Phil Spencer aren’t tweeting Pure Xbox really do not have anything to write about.
@Banjo- and to top it off at 8 hours long I don’t even need a full month subscription, I could complete it in an afternoon! If only they sold day passes to GP
I got bored after about 60 hours. Loved it at first but it just started to feel more like a chore than a fun RPG and I haven’t been back to it since. These updates sound positive though and it definitely wouldn’t be too little too late for me. If they made enough QoL improvements I could see myself going back and at least finishing the story. I have everything crossed for a better inventory management system as that alone would go a long way.
@cardcrusher29 Apple TV is excellent! What it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. Aside the ones you mentioned The Morning show, Foundation, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses and Shrinking are all well worth a watch.
@BAMozzy I’m not dismissing any game that doesn’t score 9 or above, I’m very aware there’s been some good games on GP. I’m saying if I relied solely on gamepass for all my gaming over the last 3 years I wouldn’t have had anywhere near as much fun as I have buying games like Elden Ring, Baldurs Gate 3, Resi evil 4, god of war Ragnorok, Spiderman 2, Alan Wake 2, Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart and I could go on with an list much longer than this of my fav games that either haven’t appeared on GP or wernt on at launch.
Happy with just and Xbox and GP? That’s absolutely fine but the gamepass model doesn’t suit everyone. I didn’t get much further than your first paragraph cuz I couldn’t be bothered with the mental gymnastics you were trying to pull to suggest gamepass games are free. Suffice to say every game I mentioned above is single player and can be played without GP or PS+ so the “your paying for it anyway” argument is pretty weak when a lot of people are just happy with single player games.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner I know I was being facetious. It’s absolutely not free and anyone saying it is clearly does not understand the concept of a contract between vendor and customer. Stop paying Microsoft = Lose access to the games.
@BAMozzy Your point works if every game ever released on gamepass. In the top 20 games released this year on Metacritic only 1 came day and date to gamepass and that’s Persona 3 Reload, a remake of a game released in 2006. I still would need to buy Dragons Dogma 2, Infinite Wealth, Prince of Persia, Balatro, Tekken 8, Unicorn Overlord etc.
If everything I wanted to play came out on gamepass I would have sold my PS5 by now but it simply doesn’t. Instead I find myself buying games and unsubbing from GP for months at a time because I’m too busy with the infinitely better games that aren’t on the service. The “day one” games on GP would be great if they were all bangers but the vast majority of them are 7/10 at best. On top of that a good portion of the first party games release half baked as well: Forza M, Redfall, Halo Infinite for example.
I’m quite happy buying the top games full price on release if I’m really interested or waiting for a sale if I’m not. If I buy them on disk I can trade them in or sell them as well when I’m bored but either way an important thing for me is that I own them. The system you’re talking about is a world where i could give MS £750 over the course of five years and come away owning absolutely nothing.
P.S how do you get it free? I have looked everywhere on my series X but it keeps trying to charge me £12.99 per month.
@Enigk I used to work in a bookies in the late noughties and we had a regular who bought a Man United top and a Chelsea top, cut them both in half and sewed them together and wore it nearly every day. I asked him why he did this and he was like “dunno just funny seeing peoples reactions”. Your comment reminded me of this and I very much enjoyed it.
It’s excellent. I love all the little Easter eggs, nods to the game, the music and the the quirky sense of humour. I’m only half way through the series so can’t get a definitive score but if I had to score it now it would be 9.
@Sol4ris I started writing some long reply then looked at the beautiful weather out the window and just thought “what the hell am I doing with my life arguing with randos on the internet about which soulless multi billion dollar company is slightly more evil”…..have a fantastic weekend my friend I hope it’s sunny in whatever part of the UK you are in.
@GamingFan4Lyf See I purposely left Xbox published games out my list because I think if a company published something it probably has a right to some level of exclusivity. Things like Quantum Break and Ryse which are third party developed but never made the leap so again there’s examples for both.
I absolutely agree with you about the practice needing to change, particularly with current markets. If it’s Xbox who do it it’s not because MS are some benevolent entity who want peace and prosperity for all…it’s because their $80 billion spending spree has failed to get the result they want.
I also don’t care what plastic box people buy but I will call out something when I think someone’s talking crap on either side and two things I will absolutely call out is Xbox tax and the idea that Sony are the only ones making exclusivity deals. My view is if you are the first to do something you can’t complain when someone else does it better, no matter how much time has passed. No Xbox fans were complaining during the 360 era…because we were too busy playing Bioshock and Mass Effect. We are all at least a little biased towards one or the other. I am biased towards PS because I have experienced first hand how little MS cares about me as a customer when something goes wrong. So now anything I buy is on PS and I have a Series X for sporadic gamepass membership when there’s a few games I want to play.
I know it’s purely conjecture (a bit like your Xbox PC console) but if MS hadn’t completely fumbled the Xbox One release we would be living in a completely different world. If anyone for one second thinks that world would have involved Xbox sharing, playing nice and not throwing their money around like a Kardashian kid they are kidding themselves. They have proven both in gaming and in their wider technology business exactly what they are capable of when they are market leader and it’s very rarely philanthropic.
Anyway it’s Saturday morning for me and I imagine the middle of the night for you. I hope you have a fantastic weekend whatever you do. I imagine it’s something fun and American like a road trip or a BBQ….i will be planting potatoes because my wife has told me to 😕
@GamingFan4Lyf Can you provide examples? And by examples I mean literally anything other than FF7 remake which people have been moaning about non stop for the last 4 years and frankly it’s getting boring because it’s as much on Square as it is on Sony.
We are talking third party exclusivity deals here (timed or otherwise) because xbox make as many as PS: Stalker 2, planet of Lana, tunic, cuphead. rogue legacy 2, high on life, gunk, vampire survivors, party animals, warhammer Darktide, Ark 2 just to mention a few. But because Xbox didn’t get the FF7 remakes everyone loses their minds and forgets everything MS have done in the third party space.
Also worth mentioning Xbox really went to town with this practice during the 360 era with games like mass effect, bioshock, dead rising, tales of vesperia, the last remnant, blue dragon and being the FIRST to make stupid cod exclusivity deals for maps/weapons etc but because we all hate Sony we forget the history and pretend that they started and mastered the exclusivity deal. PS is the ‘premium’ market leader right now and as such it’s getting good deals. To pretend Microsoft hasn’t done the same and wouldn’t continue to do the same if it was market leader is naive and completely ignorant of modern gaming history. They are as bad as each other.
@GamingFan4Lyf it probably won’t shock you to find out I feel exactly the same way. Blind forest is one of my favourite games of all time.
It’s also an excellent example of a game franchise funded by a console manufacturer, marketed predominantly as an exclusive and taking years (if ever) to appear on a competing console…it’s not just “evil” Sony doing it.
@GamingFan4Lyf Sony did have a hand in it. They funded part of Kenas development and marketing. It’s exactly like Ori and Moon studios with MS funding their development.
Does WoW still require a monthly subscription fee? I could never fathom buying a game and then needing to pay a monthly fee just to play it. It’s one of the things that’s always put me off giving it a go.
Future Crossplay support is excellent news. I will probably get it on Steamdeck at some point anyway but not being able to play with my friends on PC has been a bit of a downer. Looking forward to seeing what the modding tools bring as well if it does indeed come to console. Larian truly are one in a million.
This is quite a good drop. I want to play Another Crabs Treasure, I am intrigued by Eiyuden and Orcs Must Die looks like a bit of silly fun.
@Foxx_64740 I bought Have a nice death on PS on release and dropped off it pretty quick. It’s not a bad game it just didn’t seem to do anything new or different to previous roguelites/metroidvanias. Hope you enjoy it though!
@IOI That’s why I said “if you buy most of your games digitally” right at the start of my comment.
@Rodimusprime13 See those ratios are actually pretty good. However I did some googling and you only get the 20 points per £/$ if you are on GPU and are earning 400 points per month. If you’re not on GPU it’s 1 point hence my 53 points for DD2. I also don’t understand why credit in UK costs so much more points.
Like I said in my first comment in this thread, any company willing to do a half decent reward programme is good. Ms rewards is good if you play your console daily, are willing to do little tasks daily on various different apps and it’s significantly better if your subbed to GPU and play GP games. PS stars is good if you have PS plus and buy games digitally. They have both, unsurprisingly, built their reward programmes around what their core demographics are doing.
Personally I don’t play games every day, i subscribe to GPU intermittently but PS plus a year at a time, I buy most of my games digitally, 95% them are on PS and I’d rather put pins in my eyes then use Bing. It’s not rocket science which one I am going to get more value out of. I’m absolutely not crapping on MS rewards here either I’m just saying for certain things they are comparable and one of those things is purchase to credit conversion….at least in the UK where MS credit seems to cost 4.5 times as much as PS
@Rodimusprime13 Honestly I think compared to MS rewards, PS stars is as good if not better if you buy most of your games digitally. It might be different in Canada but in UK I get 10 points for every pound spent so a £70 gets me 700 points (if it’s one of the selected games of the month I might get an extra 50 which I think is what you were alluding to). £5 credit is indeed 1250 points but on Xbox it’s at least 5900 points…nearly five times as much. At the end of the day whichever store front you use the most is going to give you the most value but the credit system on stars is certainly not to be sniffed at. I don’t really understand the level system on MS rewards (apparently I’m only level 1?!) but I bought Dragon's Dogma 2 on Xbox and only got 53 points for it. That would have been 530 on PS and nearly half way to a £5 credit.
I will always defend a company giving us something for nothing so I am a fan of MS rewards. It takes me an age to get enough points for a month of GPU but it’s better than nothing.
The absolute pinnacle of horde survival games for me is Killing Floor 2. It’s not the most polished game, it can be a grind and it gets a bit repetitive but it’s just so much fun. I’m desperately waiting for any news on the third.
Probably my most anticipated game this year. I adore the Ori games and so far everything I have read/seen about this suggest it’s going to be a classic. In the unlikely event it’s steamdeck compatible I might even dive in on the early access but very keen for a console release date!
Looking forward to giving this ago. I have quickly bounced off every narrative adventure game I have tried except for Firewatch but the art style and premise makes me want to give it a try. A good gamepass addition.
I would consider a small tip for true indie games I love like Balatro and Incsryption. The prospect of tipping for a game made by the likes of EA, Ubisoft or Blizzard just seems mad to me. For starters I have absolutely zero trust that any developers would ever see any of that money. Secondly I imagine a fairly significant chunk of Devs creating these games are contractors so would be working for a completely different company by the time I come to tip them.
@RIghteousNixon Ok I will remember to take what looks for all the world like a statement of fact to be an opinion in future. I still think that for something you believe to be so prevalent and obvious you would be able to provide at least one example though. Even if it’s off the top of your head. I can provide examples of non anti-Xbox bias off the top of my head as I have done previously in this comment section: hi fi rush, psychonauts 2, every Forza Horizon, Flight simulator, Gears 1-3, Halo 1-5, Age of Empires 1-4, all reviewed and were received well because they are interesting or did something different or had a solid story but most importantly because they are fun.
I’ve lost track of how many times I have said this in response to the ridiculous Xbox tax conspiracy theory but: When MS make good/fun games they get good reviews. It really is as simple as that. There’s no media cabal out to get the poor little trillion dollar company, they just haven’t been showered with praise recently because they haven’t deserved it. And when I say they haven’t deserved it I mean that in both the quality and quantity of output. If they hadn’t bought Bethesda the only first party games they would have released so far this gen are Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Forza Motorsport and Pentiment. That’s a truly pathetic offering nearly 4 years in but by all means let’s keep pretending it’s the media who are being overly mean to MS and not just MS being a terrible games publisher.
@RIghteousNixon So you kinda just proved your whole “blatently obvious” statement false by saying it’s all subjective. So really there is no bias….. you just see bias because you, yourself are biased towards Xbox. Nice work.
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Re: Microsoft Rewards Adds Multiple New Features, Including A 'Streak Protection' Toggle
What I would really like is for it to actually acknowledged my daily plays on my Xbox. I figured I would try and actually put the effort in for the free month of GPU so have been turning my Xbox on and playing at least 10 mins every day for that 275 extra points a week. It registered Monday, didn’t register Tuesday or Wednesday and then when I logged in Thursday it told me to try again next week. This is the second week in a row it’s not worked for me and a quick google suggests I am not the only one with these issues.
Re: Starfield's New Xbox Update Is Getting Fantastic Feedback So Far
I bought into the hype and downloaded it again. It looks and plays much better in 60fps but it only took 30 minutes (including at least 10 fast travel loading screens) before I remembered why I dropped off it in the first place. Might give it another go when DLC drops or they add Mod support on console.
Re: Minecraft Game Pass Ultimate Perk References Steam
@Clamwowowowo Ahhh man I was getting excited. I have a steam deck and just want to be able to play Minecraft natively on it. It’s so bizarre that you can buy all the Minecraft spin offs but not the actual game.
Re: Forza Motorsport 'Update 8' Arrives Today, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
@Titntin They massively fumbled the release and burnt through a lot of goodwill, particularly from the PC crowd. The actual gameplay was pretty fun aside from the inexplicably bad penalty system. It was the grindy progression that did it for me and in the end I was like “what am I actually grinding towards?” I could spend hours levelling up and tinkering to create the best car in the world but the moment I take it online I will get rammed off the road at the first corner and receive a 3 second penalty for the trouble.
It’s a shame it released with the bugs and obscure design choices because it was my most anticipated game last year. If there’s one game I was confident MS couldn’t possibly balls up it was their flagship racing sim, especially with the 18 months they had to learn from the mistakes their main competitor made.
Re: Poll: As Hellblade 2 Draws Near, What Do You Think Of The First Game?
Wasn’t for me. Felt like a walking simulator. I will give the second a go because of the hype but I doubt I will complete it.
Re: Xbox President Says xCloud Is Enjoying 'Tremendous Growth' Right Now
@theduckofdeath My WiFi is not the best by any stretch. It’s like middle of the road fibre optic but I can play online games on both Xbox and PS5 via wireless connection no problems whatsoever. Which is kind of what I’m getting at, for any cloud gaming service to be usable for me it needs to be as good as the console experience or at least 90% there. If I am at home I will play on console so the chances are I am only going to want to play cloud games while I am away from home like in a hotel or on a train etc and the chances are the connection in these places is going to be even worse then my WiFi connection at home.
Out of interest how easy is it to stream GP games on Steamdeck. I have chiaki4deck and Xbplay for remote play and both work way better than my phone did so I would be interested to try streaming via Xcloud on the deck and see if I get better results from that. Maybe it is my phone, that’s the issue.
Re: Xbox President Says xCloud Is Enjoying 'Tremendous Growth' Right Now
Tried it once on my phone, in my house, on WiFi, sat next to the router. It was a terrible experience. It could be a phenomenal game changer in theory but it needs to start working consistently for everyone with minimal end user tinkering if they want to hit the masses. The purely anecdotal feedback I see on Reddit/websites is about 50/50. For some people it is downright unplayable and for some people it works well, although I still often see the caveat that they wouldn’t play an online multiplayer game on it.
I imagine Sarah Bond’s metrics for growth here are the typical Xbox reporting metrics: they have seen massive amount of growth in the people who have given it a go once but probably not in the people who consistently use it on a day to day basis. If they came out and said “X million number of people spent 2 hours or more on xCloud in April” I would be impressed however I imagine the figure they are actually pulling from here are the X number of people who tried it for five minutes and gave up….alternatively it’s just an outright lie which I wouldn’t be surprised about either!
Re: 'Animal Well' Is Exploding In Popularity, But Where's The Xbox Version?
@Altaria_97 very true. I was trying to offer an explanation that isn’t going to further annoy an already pretty angry user base this week 😅. The “Evil Anti Consumer Sony purchased exclusivity” theory tends to go down better than the “What’s the point in porting to Xbox when it won’t sell well?” theory. I think we can all agree though we actually have absolutely no idea 🤷♂️
Re: 'Animal Well' Is Exploding In Popularity, But Where's The Xbox Version?
@Kevw2006 Exactly there’s huge lists on both sides of timed or full exclusive indie and AA third party games but every time a half decent one doesn’t go to one of the consoles everyone pulls shocked pikachu face (same thing was happening with vampire survivors and rogue legacy 2 for PS as examples).
There’s a good chance it’s not an exclusivity deal but there does seem to be a growing pattern of games that leave PS plus after a year and head straight to gamepass or vice versa.
Re: 'Animal Well' Is Exploding In Popularity, But Where's The Xbox Version?
@andrewsqual ok what is the reason why then? I did reread my comment and realise I said that like Its some sort of fact…I dunno I’m just stating what I think. Worth noting that just yesterday Little kitty released on everything except PS and vampire survivors is out on everything except PS as well. If there isn’t some level of exclusivity agreement there then why aren’t they all releasing on everything?
Re: Tango Gameworks Manager Proudly Displays Hi-Fi RUSH Awards Following Studio Shutdown
@Kooky_Geezer Same here. My next Xbox is going to be a PC or Laptop. I got a steam deck recently and love pretty much everything about it, I just want more power.
Re: Recent Studio Closures Tied To 'Long Term' Health Of The Business, Claims Xbox President
@Nic-Noc20th-C from what I have seen on the internet from people much smarter than me:
They likely closed rather than sold so they could keep the rights to IPs in case they ever did want to do a sequel/reboot/remake to any of the games. Also Tango had only just released a game, had nothing in the pipeline and Hi fi Rush had probably sold as much as it was going to so the overall value of Tango probably wasn’t all that great for a sale at the moment. Whoever buys them would have to front the cost of the next game while not seeing massive amounts of residual sales from already released games.
Re: 'Animal Well' Is Exploding In Popularity, But Where's The Xbox Version?
It was a day one PS Plus Extra game so it will have an exclusivity period after which it will go to Xbox and probably end up on gamepass like Humanity and Stray.
Interesting and fun game though from what I have played so far. Never thought I would enjoy controlling what is essentially a potato.
Re: Xbox Reiterates Every First Party Title Is Coming To Game Pass 'Day One'
@Cikajovazmaj I was thinking the same thing when reading this. So easy to just say yes or no instead of speaking in riddles. Looking forward to see what they do with CoD but they have backed themselves into a bit of a lose-lose situation with it.
Re: Xbox Reportedly Considering Game Pass Price Hike To Accommodate Call Of Duty
I’m going to continue doing what I have done for the last 7 years….buy cod on PlayStation.
Re: Reaction: Xbox's Push Towards 'Microsoft Gaming' Looks More Drastic Than We First Thought
@RIghteousNixon Hey man I very quickly regretted my above comment. It was over the top and I’m sorry. We clearly don’t see eye to eye on any of this stuff so should probably try our best to ignore each other on this site but I don’t want to resort to mud flinging and being a general idiot. I meant it about the respect for your business and genuine congrats on coming up to retirement, massive milestone and probably an exciting time for you so I hope it lives up to its promise. Sorry bro, I don’t know why us gamers get so heated about all this stuff but we are hot blooded beasts that’s for sure. Hopefully no hard feelings.
Re: Reaction: Xbox's Push Towards 'Microsoft Gaming' Looks More Drastic Than We First Thought
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Re: Reaction: Xbox's Push Towards 'Microsoft Gaming' Looks More Drastic Than We First Thought
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Re: Reaction: Xbox's Push Towards 'Microsoft Gaming' Looks More Drastic Than We First Thought
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Re: Reaction: Xbox's Push Towards 'Microsoft Gaming' Looks More Drastic Than We First Thought
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Re: Reaction: Xbox's Push Towards 'Microsoft Gaming' Looks More Drastic Than We First Thought
@Reaper_cet It’s a bit different when a company spends 80billion to obtain exclusivity to games they would have got anyway and then shuts several of the studios they have purchased. Literally everyone in gaming hates Embracer group for doing that and yet in their entire lifetime they have spent a fraction of what MS has in just 3 years. I think gamers are finally getting sick of it and realising it’s not all sunshine and lollipops and ABK games on gamepass.
No one knows what would have happened if MS hadn’t acquired these publishers but it’s fairly reasonable to assume that they are in the process of shedding costs to help pay for the ABK deal…a deal that I have a feeling the only people who will see the benefit of are the Microsoft shareholders because so far the gamers and employees certainly haven’t seen any benefit whatsoever.
Re: Talking Point: What Are Your Favourite Quick Resume Games On Xbox Series X|S?
Truly mindless article. Why would you use Quick Resume for some games and not others?!? If you have to do that then what is the point of quick resume at all. If Jez Corden, Tom Warren or Phil Spencer aren’t tweeting Pure Xbox really do not have anything to write about.
Re: Hellblade 2 Will Display With Black Bars Outside Of Ultrawide Mode
@Banjo- and to top it off at 8 hours long I don’t even need a full month subscription, I could complete it in an afternoon! If only they sold day passes to GP
Re: Lords Of The Fallen Is Apparently Bringing Its Soulslike To Xbox Game Pass In Late May
Ohhh this would be good news if true. I will be resubbing to GP later in May to give Hellblade 2 a try so LOTF would be a juicy bonus.
Re: Talking Point: Will You Be Playing Through Starfield Again At 60FPS On Xbox Series X?
Going to wait till all DLC is out and it’s fully patched before trying it again but the updates are a step in the right direction.
Re: Starfield's Shattered Space Expansion DLC Launches On Xbox This Fall
I got bored after about 60 hours. Loved it at first but it just started to feel more like a chore than a fun RPG and I haven’t been back to it since. These updates sound positive though and it definitely wouldn’t be too little too late for me. If they made enough QoL improvements I could see myself going back and at least finishing the story. I have everything crossed for a better inventory management system as that alone would go a long way.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 27-28)
@cardcrusher29 Apple TV is excellent! What it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. Aside the ones you mentioned The Morning show, Foundation, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses and Shrinking are all well worth a watch.
Re: Microsoft CEO Comments On Xbox's New PlayStation Store Success
@BAMozzy I’m not dismissing any game that doesn’t score 9 or above, I’m very aware there’s been some good games on GP. I’m saying if I relied solely on gamepass for all my gaming over the last 3 years I wouldn’t have had anywhere near as much fun as I have buying games like Elden Ring, Baldurs Gate 3, Resi evil 4, god of war Ragnorok, Spiderman 2, Alan Wake 2, Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart and I could go on with an list much longer than this of my fav games that either haven’t appeared on GP or wernt on at launch.
Happy with just and Xbox and GP? That’s absolutely fine but the gamepass model doesn’t suit everyone. I didn’t get much further than your first paragraph cuz I couldn’t be bothered with the mental gymnastics you were trying to pull to suggest gamepass games are free. Suffice to say every game I mentioned above is single player and can be played without GP or PS+ so the “your paying for it anyway” argument is pretty weak when a lot of people are just happy with single player games.
Re: Microsoft CEO Comments On Xbox's New PlayStation Store Success
@PsBoxSwitchOwner I know I was being facetious. It’s absolutely not free and anyone saying it is clearly does not understand the concept of a contract between vendor and customer. Stop paying Microsoft = Lose access to the games.
Re: Microsoft CEO Comments On Xbox's New PlayStation Store Success
@BAMozzy Your point works if every game ever released on gamepass. In the top 20 games released this year on Metacritic only 1 came day and date to gamepass and that’s Persona 3 Reload, a remake of a game released in 2006. I still would need to buy Dragons Dogma 2, Infinite Wealth, Prince of Persia, Balatro, Tekken 8, Unicorn Overlord etc.
If everything I wanted to play came out on gamepass I would have sold my PS5 by now but it simply doesn’t. Instead I find myself buying games and unsubbing from GP for months at a time because I’m too busy with the infinitely better games that aren’t on the service. The “day one” games on GP would be great if they were all bangers but the vast majority of them are 7/10 at best. On top of that a good portion of the first party games release half baked as well: Forza M, Redfall, Halo Infinite for example.
I’m quite happy buying the top games full price on release if I’m really interested or waiting for a sale if I’m not. If I buy them on disk I can trade them in or sell them as well when I’m bored but either way an important thing for me is that I own them. The system you’re talking about is a world where i could give MS £750 over the course of five years and come away owning absolutely nothing.
P.S how do you get it free? I have looked everywhere on my series X but it keeps trying to charge me £12.99 per month.
Re: Xbox Series S Toaster Drops To Lowest Ever Price In The UK
@Enigk I used to work in a bookies in the late noughties and we had a regular who bought a Man United top and a Chelsea top, cut them both in half and sewed them together and wore it nearly every day. I asked him why he did this and he was like “dunno just funny seeing peoples reactions”. Your comment reminded me of this and I very much enjoyed it.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Fallout TV Show's First Season?
It’s excellent. I love all the little Easter eggs, nods to the game, the music and the the quirky sense of humour. I’m only half way through the series so can’t get a definitive score but if I had to score it now it would be 9.
Re: PlayStation Exclusive 'Kena: Bridge Of Spirits' Rated For Xbox Series X|S
@Sol4ris I started writing some long reply then looked at the beautiful weather out the window and just thought “what the hell am I doing with my life arguing with randos on the internet about which soulless multi billion dollar company is slightly more evil”…..have a fantastic weekend my friend I hope it’s sunny in whatever part of the UK you are in.
Re: PlayStation Exclusive 'Kena: Bridge Of Spirits' Rated For Xbox Series X|S
@GamingFan4Lyf See I purposely left Xbox published games out my list because I think if a company published something it probably has a right to some level of exclusivity. Things like Quantum Break and Ryse which are third party developed but never made the leap so again there’s examples for both.
I absolutely agree with you about the practice needing to change, particularly with current markets. If it’s Xbox who do it it’s not because MS are some benevolent entity who want peace and prosperity for all…it’s because their $80 billion spending spree has failed to get the result they want.
I also don’t care what plastic box people buy but I will call out something when I think someone’s talking crap on either side and two things I will absolutely call out is Xbox tax and the idea that Sony are the only ones making exclusivity deals. My view is if you are the first to do something you can’t complain when someone else does it better, no matter how much time has passed. No Xbox fans were complaining during the 360 era…because we were too busy playing Bioshock and Mass Effect. We are all at least a little biased towards one or the other. I am biased towards PS because I have experienced first hand how little MS cares about me as a customer when something goes wrong. So now anything I buy is on PS and I have a Series X for sporadic gamepass membership when there’s a few games I want to play.
I know it’s purely conjecture (a bit like your Xbox PC console) but if MS hadn’t completely fumbled the Xbox One release we would be living in a completely different world. If anyone for one second thinks that world would have involved Xbox sharing, playing nice and not throwing their money around like a Kardashian kid they are kidding themselves. They have proven both in gaming and in their wider technology business exactly what they are capable of when they are market leader and it’s very rarely philanthropic.
Anyway it’s Saturday morning for me and I imagine the middle of the night for you. I hope you have a fantastic weekend whatever you do. I imagine it’s something fun and American like a road trip or a BBQ….i will be planting potatoes because my wife has told me to 😕
Re: PlayStation Exclusive 'Kena: Bridge Of Spirits' Rated For Xbox Series X|S
@GamingFan4Lyf Can you provide examples? And by examples I mean literally anything other than FF7 remake which people have been moaning about non stop for the last 4 years and frankly it’s getting boring because it’s as much on Square as it is on Sony.
We are talking third party exclusivity deals here (timed or otherwise) because xbox make as many as PS: Stalker 2, planet of Lana, tunic, cuphead. rogue legacy 2, high on life, gunk, vampire survivors, party animals, warhammer Darktide, Ark 2 just to mention a few. But because Xbox didn’t get the FF7 remakes everyone loses their minds and forgets everything MS have done in the third party space.
Also worth mentioning Xbox really went to town with this practice during the 360 era with games like mass effect, bioshock, dead rising, tales of vesperia, the last remnant, blue dragon and being the FIRST to make stupid cod exclusivity deals for maps/weapons etc but because we all hate Sony we forget the history and pretend that they started and mastered the exclusivity deal. PS is the ‘premium’ market leader right now and as such it’s getting good deals. To pretend Microsoft hasn’t done the same and wouldn’t continue to do the same if it was market leader is naive and completely ignorant of modern gaming history. They are as bad as each other.
Re: PlayStation Exclusive 'Kena: Bridge Of Spirits' Rated For Xbox Series X|S
@GamingFan4Lyf it probably won’t shock you to find out I feel exactly the same way. Blind forest is one of my favourite games of all time.
It’s also an excellent example of a game franchise funded by a console manufacturer, marketed predominantly as an exclusive and taking years (if ever) to appear on a competing console…it’s not just “evil” Sony doing it.
Re: PlayStation Exclusive 'Kena: Bridge Of Spirits' Rated For Xbox Series X|S
@GamingFan4Lyf Sony did have a hand in it. They funded part of Kenas development and marketing. It’s exactly like Ori and Moon studios with MS funding their development.
Re: World Of Warcraft For Xbox Is Still Discussed Internally At Blizzard
Does WoW still require a monthly subscription fee? I could never fathom buying a game and then needing to pay a monthly fee just to play it. It’s one of the things that’s always put me off giving it a go.
Re: Larian Teases Four Major New Features Coming To Baldur's Gate 3
Future Crossplay support is excellent news. I will probably get it on Steamdeck at some point anyway but not being able to play with my friends on PC has been a bit of a downer. Looking forward to seeing what the modding tools bring as well if it does indeed come to console. Larian truly are one in a million.
Re: These Six Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (April 17-30)
This is quite a good drop. I want to play Another Crabs Treasure, I am intrigued by Eiyuden and Orcs Must Die looks like a bit of silly fun.
@Foxx_64740 I bought Have a nice death on PS on release and dropped off it pretty quick. It’s not a bad game it just didn’t seem to do anything new or different to previous roguelites/metroidvanias. Hope you enjoy it though!
Re: Microsoft Rewards Fans Are Preparing For A New Era On Xbox This Week
@IOI That’s why I said “if you buy most of your games digitally” right at the start of my comment.
@Rodimusprime13 See those ratios are actually pretty good. However I did some googling and you only get the 20 points per £/$ if you are on GPU and are earning 400 points per month. If you’re not on GPU it’s 1 point hence my 53 points for DD2. I also don’t understand why credit in UK costs so much more points.
Like I said in my first comment in this thread, any company willing to do a half decent reward programme is good. Ms rewards is good if you play your console daily, are willing to do little tasks daily on various different apps and it’s significantly better if your subbed to GPU and play GP games. PS stars is good if you have PS plus and buy games digitally. They have both, unsurprisingly, built their reward programmes around what their core demographics are doing.
Personally I don’t play games every day, i subscribe to GPU intermittently but PS plus a year at a time, I buy most of my games digitally, 95% them are on PS and I’d rather put pins in my eyes then use Bing. It’s not rocket science which one I am going to get more value out of. I’m absolutely not crapping on MS rewards here either I’m just saying for certain things they are comparable and one of those things is purchase to credit conversion….at least in the UK where MS credit seems to cost 4.5 times as much as PS
Re: Microsoft Rewards Fans Are Preparing For A New Era On Xbox This Week
@Rodimusprime13 Honestly I think compared to MS rewards, PS stars is as good if not better if you buy most of your games digitally. It might be different in Canada but in UK I get 10 points for every pound spent so a £70 gets me 700 points (if it’s one of the selected games of the month I might get an extra 50 which I think is what you were alluding to). £5 credit is indeed 1250 points but on Xbox it’s at least 5900 points…nearly five times as much. At the end of the day whichever store front you use the most is going to give you the most value but the credit system on stars is certainly not to be sniffed at. I don’t really understand the level system on MS rewards (apparently I’m only level 1?!) but I bought Dragon's Dogma 2 on Xbox and only got 53 points for it. That would have been 530 on PS and nearly half way to a £5 credit.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Fans Are Preparing For A New Era On Xbox This Week
I will always defend a company giving us something for nothing so I am a fan of MS rewards. It takes me an age to get enough points for a month of GPU but it’s better than nothing.
Re: Hands On: Sker Ritual - A Zombie-Filled Ceremony That Struggles To Satisfy
The absolute pinnacle of horde survival games for me is Killing Floor 2. It’s not the most polished game, it can be a grind and it gets a bit repetitive but it’s just so much fun. I’m desperately waiting for any news on the third.
Re: Ori Dev's 'No Rest For The Wicked' Re-Confirmed For Xbox, PC Early Access Starts This Week
Probably my most anticipated game this year. I adore the Ori games and so far everything I have read/seen about this suggest it’s going to be a classic. In the unlikely event it’s steamdeck compatible I might even dive in on the early access but very keen for a console release date!
Re: Review: Harold Halibut (Xbox) - A Heartfelt & Handcrafted Narrative Adventure
Looking forward to giving this ago. I have quickly bounced off every narrative adventure game I have tried except for Firewatch but the art style and premise makes me want to give it a try. A good gamepass addition.
Re: Hallmark's Musical Xbox Ornament Sounds Like A Must-Buy This Christmas
Our definitions of “Must-buy” differ wildly.
Re: Former Xbox Exec Likes The Idea Of 'Tipping' Developers After Beating Their Games
I would consider a small tip for true indie games I love like Balatro and Incsryption. The prospect of tipping for a game made by the likes of EA, Ubisoft or Blizzard just seems mad to me. For starters I have absolutely zero trust that any developers would ever see any of that money. Secondly I imagine a fairly significant chunk of Devs creating these games are contractors so would be working for a completely different company by the time I come to tip them.
Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?
@RIghteousNixon Ok I will remember to take what looks for all the world like a statement of fact to be an opinion in future. I still think that for something you believe to be so prevalent and obvious you would be able to provide at least one example though. Even if it’s off the top of your head. I can provide examples of non anti-Xbox bias off the top of my head as I have done previously in this comment section: hi fi rush, psychonauts 2, every Forza Horizon, Flight simulator, Gears 1-3, Halo 1-5, Age of Empires 1-4, all reviewed and were received well because they are interesting or did something different or had a solid story but most importantly because they are fun.
I’ve lost track of how many times I have said this in response to the ridiculous Xbox tax conspiracy theory but: When MS make good/fun games they get good reviews. It really is as simple as that. There’s no media cabal out to get the poor little trillion dollar company, they just haven’t been showered with praise recently because they haven’t deserved it. And when I say they haven’t deserved it I mean that in both the quality and quantity of output. If they hadn’t bought Bethesda the only first party games they would have released so far this gen are Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Forza Motorsport and Pentiment. That’s a truly pathetic offering nearly 4 years in but by all means let’s keep pretending it’s the media who are being overly mean to MS and not just MS being a terrible games publisher.
Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?
@RIghteousNixon So you kinda just proved your whole “blatently obvious” statement false by saying it’s all subjective. So really there is no bias….. you just see bias because you, yourself are biased towards Xbox. Nice work.