GeeEssEff

I have tried on four separate occasions since release and still haven’t even seen the main menu. Truly disappointing launch of a flagship title and an insightful peek into what Microsoft’s cloud future is going to look like.

That’s a shame I think everyone was rooting for this to be a success. I haven’t tried it myself yet. I was planning on diving in over Christmas after a few patches and some backlog clearing. If Stalker is a 4 I wonder what Microsoft Loading Screen Simulator 2024 will get 😬

Compulsion seem to be really good at making games that have captivating art styles and concepts but don’t play particularly well. South of Midnight looks interesting (just like Contrast and We happy few did before it) but I don’t have much confidence in it.

I don’t regret my Series X purchase but if I could go back in time I would put the money I have spent on the console and gamepass towards a decent gaming PC instead.

I am looking forward to giving flight sim and Indiana Jones a go but I doubt I will get into either of them. Stalker 2 on the other hand looks fantastic

@Steel76 Not boomerish at all. I base a lot of my decisions on things like phone and broadband contracts based on my experiences with their customer service teams. The whole reason I switched from Xbox One to PS4 as my main console was due to a series of really bad customer service experiences with Xbox.

@Rog-X No it’s Windows, Azure, 365 and countless business acquisitions over the last 4 decades which have turned Microsoft into a trillion dollar company.

Thanks for the update on Sony though Sifi, I understood the “one exclusive a year” comment the first 20 times you made it on here. I look forward to reading it a further 500 times in the future…..absolute broken record.

@K1LLEGAL For me the silly take part was that just because a Multi trillion dollar company can afford to do something their infinitely poorer competitor should follow suit. You are right though, anything can happen but I think hell will freeze over before we see Sony put a game like Spiderman 3 day one on plus. There’s no sustainable profit generation from their single player games so nothing stopping users buying a month of PS plus, completing it and unsubscribing. Xbox might be able to absorb that hit, particularly now they own a cash cow like ABK but Sony cannot.

@Wisegamer When did the tried and tested model of making a product and selling it become “milking their fanbase”?

It’s hardly a secret that this gamepass day one thing isnt particularly profitable for MS which is why they are releasing on other platforms, adding pay to play early gimmicks and splitting up GP tiers more aggressively. Sony don’t have the backing of a three trillion dollar parent company to bail them out or spend 80bil on publishers when it doesn’t go to plan. Comparing Sony and MS from a financial perspective is like comparing Me to Ed Sheeran. Silly take from a “wise gamer”

Definitely the best COD in a while. I’m really loving the multiplayer and the small amount of zombies I have played has been a blast. The respawns are a bit all over the place at the moment and a couple of the maps are terrible but it’s a huge return to form.

Best COD in years. I only really play Multiplayer and I have been glued to it since it came out.

PlayStation for third party and exclusives
Steamdeck for Indies and early access
Switch for exclusives and games to play with the wife
Xbox for gamepass

If MS plan to pump at least some of the extra ABK money back into their extensive list of studios then I’m hoping we see more positive results over the next 5-10 years. As it stands though it’s looking increasingly likely that the only ones to truly benefit from this acquisition are the shareholders.

Happy to have everything in one place. Makes more sense than two apps.

I am looking forward to playing this when it comes to console. In the unlikely event it gets a SteamDeck playable/verified badge I might even pick it up before then.

@Ricky-Spanish Haha love the drunk, guilty pleasure Christmas purchases.

Last year was the first time in a long time I didn’t get Fifa day one but got it around Christmas for basically half the cost. Not sure I’m going to buy this year’s atall as they have been landing on gamepass or PS plus around May/June the last few years and the upgrades really do feel negligible. We are basically just buying a yearly squad update and the odd gimmicky game mode.

It’s my favourite extreme sports game but I played it to death in PS5 when it released so won’t be double dipping on gamepass

Chronicles of Riddick!

@Mustoe are we reading the same comment section? Almost all of the comments are saying it’s way overpriced and even Sammy B has said its “insane”. At the moment only 15% of the poll intend to buy it at some point, 7% are undecided and a mass majority of 78% have no intention of buying it, mostly due to the cost. This has been unanimously panned across the board with maybe 2/3 defensive comments in a sea of 400+ comments absolutely slamming it.

I wouldn’t. My base Series X is barely justifying its own cost with the amount I use it.

This is one of the most bizarre releases I’ve ever seen. As a founder I could pay £22 or £40 to gain early access to a title that is going to be free to play in a matter of months. Then once it leaves early access all my progress gets wiped, I have to start all over again and all I have to show for the experience is some exclusive cosmetics.

I’m looking forward to playing this when it comes to Xbox but for me the amount they are charging for EA here is wild. I was under the impression developers were meant to pay gamers to be beta testers, not the other way round.

@HeavyHoggJP crossplay is the big update I am waiting for as well. I play on PS5 and every single one of my friends who has it plays on PC. Larian have said it’s still happening and tbf to them they have been regularly supporting with excellent updates. Maybe it’s not an easy thing to implement.

@Kezelpaso Legend that worked thank you!

@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.