GeeEssEff

@kezelpaso Any idea what time this hits gamepass? There doesn’t seem to be a pre-download option and I wouldn’t mind getting stuck in after work 😀

@Trmn8r I’m well aware they aren’t selling games on iPhones. The point I was trying to make is platform fees exist, MS charge them as well and 30% seems to be the industry standard. If I subscribe to FF14 on Xbox, Microsoft are going to get a cut of that subscription fee for every month, on top of a cut of any cosmetics, DLC, add ons etc. Why should it be any different if I subscribe to stream games via apple? Now if apple are trying to charge a percentage of every single gamepass sub ever then I agree it’s excessive but either way it’s just business. If users are streaming Xbox games on their phone they aren’t buying games off the App Store or subscribing to Apple Arcade so to some extent Apple is just protecting its own interests. And let’s be honest if the roles were reversed and MS was charging a fortune to put Apple TV on Xbox you would be cheering them on like there’s no tomorrow.

This comment is coming from a place of naivety more than anything but don’t Microsoft get around 30% for third party games sold on the Xbox? I don’t understand the intricacies of Apples policy here but also don’t understand how it’s any different from the platform fees Xbox charge to developers.

@Kezelpaso I loved Blops 3 and 4 and could never understand the backlash to them. They actually dared to try something different and quirky. I think the writing was on the wall with Cold War though as that basically felt like MW with a 80s reskin. I was hoping it was just a blip and we would get back to the Blops of old with this one but looks like they are quite happy to not change up the recipe too much moving forward.

Also completely agree with you about the movement being a potential issue. I was playing last night and some dude I was in a fight with suddenly did some weird direction change, jumped, slid on landing and had got completely behind me before I even had time to blink. The whole thing just felt completely unnatural and looked bizarre.

I’m enjoying the beta but it doesn’t feel like a black ops….. It feels like Modern Warfare 4. CODs used to differ quite a lot from each other in gameplay, tone, UI, weapons etc year to year but now they seem to have just settled on a formula which they iterate on slightly. It’s working because the gameplay is solid and it still sells ridiculous amounts but they are all kind of just merging into one and don’t seem to have a personality of their own.

Xbox Series X: Power Your Dreams!

*as long as you dream in 30fps

Cool I will give it a go!

@JayJ He doesn’t need Sony to repair his Xbox controller he needs Microsoft to do it….whataboutism isn’t going to sort out his problem

@Old_Man_Harper A lack of runway is a definite problem. I probably need to spend more time in the training rather than assuming I have what it takes to just get in a plane and fly it but I’m impatient.

@InterceptorAlpha cheers mate I will come back to this in November and give it another go. I do want to get back into it but I tend to download it, fly around a bit, do (fail) some landing challenges and delete it to free up space for something else.

Sounds like you have to be able to land the plane first…a skill that has eluded me with Flight Sim. I am looking forward to this one though. Just flying around staring at the scenery is magic even if I am terrible at the actual game.

@Foxx_64740 It’s more that there’s no real evidence to say Sony paid for exclusivity and the only two sources of information we have on the subject are the developers themselves and Jez Corden.

History tells us that if Sony bought exclusivity they would be shouting about it from the rooftops, including it in state of plays and throwing out bus sized adverts saying “console exclusive”. History also tells us that at least two developers (Larian and Remedy) have publicly admitted to having trouble optimising for Series S (no idea if that’s the case here but we all know there is form for it).

Obviously you are free to believe what you want but to me, the simplest and most logical answer is that Game Science has prioritised PS5 and MS has put out a vague, non-commital statement to Jez Corden in order to deflect from the problems whilst drumming up some free anti Sony rhetoric. Until any of the core parties involved comes out and explicitly says that it is a timed exclusive, it is just a conspiracy theory.

For me it’s not a great sign. It shows a lack of confidence in the game. Avowed is a completely different offering to Flight sim, Indy and Towerborne. A lot of fantasy RPG fans would have had this higher in their most wanted gamepass games this year. If it’s not ready and needs more time then fair enough but using your own first party game’s release schedule as an excuse just seems like really stupid planning.

Overthrown looks fun! I will give it a go I think.

I admittedly haven’t given it enough of a go to properly judge but also I’m not sure how much more I want to give it. Movement is much clunkier than it looked in the gameplay previews and it just seems very generic in nearly every aspect.

I think a lot of people forget the FTC is there to protect the consumer. As a consumer of Xbox and Gamepass I have personally seen no added benefit from the acquisition. Diablo 4 is the only ABK game to arrive on GPU and it arrived about 8 months after I had already completed it and lost interest. What I have seen is two price rises in the service with no increase in quality (for my personal tastes), closure of two studios both of which produced games I enjoyed, thousands of layoffs and a dip in MS reward point value. It’s been 9 months since the deal closed and literally nothing but a constant spew of mishaps and corporate rubbish. But at least MS is raking in that COD, Overwatch, WoW and Candy crush MTX cash.

@pip_muzz This has to be one of the wildest, most reaching defences of Microsoft I have seen in the 4 odd years I have been coming to this site and that is honestly saying something. Do you really believe a single Lego game not coming to Xbox is equal to a 69billion deal which has resulted in thousands of layoffs and price hikes up to 100%? Is that the hill you want to die on in defence of the lies MS has told and the promises they have backtracked on?

Cdkeys has been a gem for all my digital gaming needs across all platforms. It’s saved me a small fortune over the years.

I pre order on PS5 and Steam sometimes if I really want the game and it reviews well before release. I very rarely buy games on Xbox.

@BAMozzy “I’ve never had Sony fans demand to know when games will come to extra and when?” Maybe because Sony have never once claimed that all first party games will hit PS plus or ever used the words “case by case”. Each month they release a list of games coming to the service and leaving the service and it’s as simple as that, no promises made…..MS have, for years said “all first party games will come to gamepass day one” They are now simply trying to find ways to back out of that promise because it’s proving too costly and your eating it up like Christmas has come early. If you’re going to argue a point at least ground it in facts rather than blind loyalty to Microsoft.

Your “pro consumer” Xbox ladies and gentlemen!

I was a big fan of the snap feature and actually used it quite a lot. I would have Netflix in snap mode while I played games that didn’t require full attention like Minecraft. I’d almost certainly use it if they bought it back as I love a cheeky multitask.

Overall it’s good but I have no idea how people claim to get completely free gamepass each month purely from the tasks. I do the bing rubbish everyday and I ensure I turn an Xbox gamepass on for 15 mins per day at least 5 times per week. Still don’t get anywhere near completely free gamepass but i will probably get 4 months in the year free which is much better than nothing!

It’s a Sony IP and it’s developed by a Sony owned studio so they can do what they want with it without needing to justify those decisions.

Ori games are on Xbox, Switch and PC but I have never once seen a push square article asking why they aren’t on PlayStation.

Way less then I used to but the steam deck has improved that slightly. Gone are the glory days of university where I had about 16 hours total a week where I needed to be a responsible human adult.

I find Phil Spencer more vague and non-committal over informative and engaging.

Quick resume is one of the standout new features and I hope it’s a staple of all consoles moving forward. I also treated myself to an Elite Series 2 controller this gen which I love. I still buy the vast majority of my third parties on my PS5 but specific Xbox highlights have been Forza Horizon 5, Age of Empires 4 and Flight Simulator. Overall the first party offering has been poor for my tastes, especially when you consider how bad it would have been had they not bought Bethesda a year into the cycle.

@ironcrow86 Lol I mean your using the term facetious in the same way your using the term free…incorrectly. Gamepass is not free and I wasn’t being facetious. @Sol4ris not so much offence..more that it’s just objectively not free.

@ironcrow86 I’m looking forward to playing it on gamepass but last time I checked I wasn’t getting that service for free

@ironcrow86 It’s also on PlayStation.

I’m just going to leave this here:

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2022/08/sony-didnt-pay-to-keep-cult-of-the-lamb-off-xbox-game-pass-says-publisher

@BAMozzy lol why would I subscribe to Disney+ for anything other than watching the content? I am paying Disney for that exact specific purpose. I’m not giving them £7 a month for the fun of it and going “oh thanks for all these free Star Wars shows Disney”. Best analogy so far and perfectly sums up the fact that I pay MS a monthly fee for the sole purpose of playing GP games.

Also how have you come to the conclusion that Fortnite isn’t free because I need an internet connection, electricity and a console but gamepass games are 😂 Truly bonkers logic on display here but at the end of the day you are still wrong….if you need to pay for something to use it then it’s not free. You have already written a dissertations worth of rubbish trying to disprove that fact but it’s still a fact.

@BAMozzy
Oxford English dictionary’s definition of Free:
Adverb - Without cost of payment.
“The ladies were admitted free”

The ladies would not be able to play games on gamepass without paying for gamepass…..therefore gamepass games are not free.
Stop paying for gamepass and see how much Starfield you can play pal.

@BAMozzy You can write as many essays as you want on this but it doesn’t change the objective fact that to play the games you mentioned I either need to buy them or pay for gamepass. By definition if money has changed hands for something it is not free.
Fortnite: Free
Starfield: Not free
Your “at no extra charge” argument isn’t a thing…gamepass is the charge. Either stop calling these games ‘free’ or get used to being corrected.

@BAMozzy Gamepass isn’t free therefore you aren’t playing the games for free

I am very excited for Flintlock and I think Kunitsu-Gami looks interesting. I can’t wait for Frostpunk 2 to reach console. The first was really good although maybe a tad too difficult.

So far I’ve put the most time into Galacticare but I can foresee Lords of the Fallen being my overall favourite. Really good month even if the headliner wasn’t for me.

@InterceptorAlpha And you would be absolutely correct it’s not really quality of life it’s just something I love so I see if that way. I didn’t realise how much I take it for granted on COD until playing xDefiant but I’m getting used to it a bit more after a few hours last night.

The one game I played yesterday before the server exploded was pretty fun. It’s missing some of the quality of life stuff that CoD has (reloading while aiming as an example) but for a free to play game with plenty of updates ahead of it I think it’s a good start.

Enslaved for me followed by DmC. Both very enjoyable

@themightyant Yeh I had noticed the boxes filling in…that’s why I was getting frustrated because it worked on the Monday (must have played over 15 mins) and then didn’t for the Tuesday or Wednesday. I know for next week now. Bring on that free month of GPU in 2025

@theduckofdeath @Blaa thanks both. That will be why then. I was wondering if it’s something like this but couldn’t see anything in the rewards tab and google wasn’t helpful except for finding other people having the same problem. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place.

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.

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.

@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.