@Aizen82 Huh?! That didn’t make sense. No one is saying five year olds should be allowed to watch porn or action movies. They are saying that they can record a 1 minutes gore fest on Gears, Doom, CoD, Duke Nukem etc but the moment someone takes a screenshot of some boobles they are slapped with a ban….its inconsistent. Also no one is suggesting that kids should have access to this content but really it’s on MS and the parents of the to moderate this in a sensible way, not your average gamer. I am a mid 30s and all my friends on Xbox are a similar sort of age…why should I change my gaming habits because MS designed their system so that some random kid on the other side of the world might see a clip of something I record? It’s madness.
In comparison to PlayStation their default settings are that if you record a clip or screenshot it doesn’t leave your console/cloud storage until you actively choose to share it with friends or the wider community. This is called common sense.
@Markatron84 Straight off the back of an article yesterday applauding an AEW wrestler for saying console wars are stupid. You can’t say console wars are stupid and then have the strapline “another one bites the dust” on a non-article about a third party game arriving on PS. Bizarre double standards.
6 years of GDPR in the UK might have changed my mindset a bit but from a pure privacy perspective I would expect to have to opt in to auto uploads rather than opt out…especially when it auto uploads to the world and not just your friends. Admittedly it’s been a while since I set up my Series X but I don’t ever remember being given the option or even being notified of this. If they are going to continue throwing out lengthy bans they need to change the default settings or be much much clearer about what happens with your screenshots and clips.
@BacklogBrad This is such a good idea which I will be adopting. I love a good spreadsheet so recording exactly how much I am spending will hopefully make me rethink some of my purchases.
@J_Mo_Money shouldn’t it really be Microsoft learning a lesson in this instance? Gamers shouldn’t need to change the way they use an integrated feature on a console they have spent good money on just to cater for an overly aggressive censoring system.
D. Microsoft were all hype and very little substance as per. Starfield was not the endless space epic that we will be playing for the next decade, it was a tedious slog. Months of beautiful Forza trailers before releasing a buggy, soulless grind fest. Redfall…..sigh. Although at least they have worked on improving it since release. You’d hope they learn from the fact that their highest rated and best received game this year was a shadow drop AA title which no one even knew existed.
If MS are going to continue their trend of announcing games 5+ years out before hyping them up to fever pitch levels they need to actually ensure the game is worth hyping because all I’ve seen from them over the last decade is a drastic decline in both the number and quality of their yearly releases. Without Bethesda their first party AAA output 3 years into this gen would be two Forzas and a Halo. That’s just insanely bad but uncle Phil wears retro gaming t shirts and posts his gamerscore on X so all is forgiven.
“Push a button and it goes away” yeh duh. People aren't angry about the extra time it takes to get to their games. They are angry about the principle of Microsoft forcing even MORE advertising down our throats in ever increasingly intrusive ways. As someone said previously when we buy an Xbox we are the consumer, not the product. If I was getting a free service I would expect to see forced ads (e.g YouTube) but when I paid £450 for a series X and then £12 a month for gamepass I don’t need or want it. Would everyone please just stop accepting and making excuses for Microsoft’s mediocrity.
@J_Mo_Money You’re right my commitments don’t have anything to do with me forming my own opinion. They do however have everything to do with where I focus my free time which is the point I was making. Don’t get me wrong I will try a game Im super interested in if it’s on a service like gamepass but outside of that I’m not going to spend money and time on a game that 90% of critics think is bad to average when there’s hundreds of other games that 90% of critics think are excellent. Regardless of the state of gaming websites nowadays they tend to align on most games and come up with very similar pros and cons which I will look into before investing. My system is not so different to yours in that I will look at overall scores, read/watch some reviews from critics I trust and then decide whether I want to buy the game or not. It’s not like I just go “ahhh that one was 8.7 and that one was 8.5…I really like the look of the 8.5 but I better go with the 8.7 because Metacritic says so”…I’m not that basic.
I have just got a lot more precious with my time this year because I own all three systems and there’s a hell of a lot of quality games releasing on them but not enough time to play them all. Metacritic for me is an excellent tool to help.
@JayJ @J_Mo_Money Personally for me Metacritic is a godsend. I have a full time job, family commitments, pets and social engagements most weekends. If two games I am interested in release the same day, one scores 9 on metacritic and the other scores 5 I am absolutely going to use my limited time to play the 9. General consensus is, has always been and always will be an excellent indication of how good something.
I was loving Forza until I started getting booted out the game and losing progress on Friday. I have stopped playing since it happened two days on the trot. It’s a grind enough to get the car xp and decent amounts of money without it randomly kicking you and erasing your last few races. What makes it even more frustrating is I don’t understand the point of it always being online if it’s not going to cloud save after every race.
It could be amazing in a year. Hopefully it becomes amazing in the next few months. At the moment it’s a game I want to play but won’t because my gaming time is at a premium and I don’t want to waste it.
@BAMozzy a survival horror spin off could be really cool. It would be interesting to follow the stories of some regular people handling emergence day and the following months instead of just playing as jacked up soldiers who shoot anything that moves.
I’m just a bit burnt out on the standard gears format. I completed the first three and have played but not completed 4 and 5. While the first gears pretty much reinvented what a third person shooter could be, in the 15 years following they have barely done anything innovative with the gameplay loop aside from some new weapons and a robot. I dunno what it would look like but if they can reboot the franchise in a way that GoW did in 2018 with fresh gameplay, story and mechanics I would be all up for it.
This is straight on the Christmas list. Like others have said here I was expecting (and in some ways hoping) this would score lower so I wouldn’t be so interested but there’s just too much to play at the moment. I can’t believe I’m actually hoping for a quieter 2024 just so I can catchup on the backlog.
@K1LLEGAL I am the same. I don’t particularly expect or even want a game to last hundreds of hours usually but Skyrim in particular I have happily played for days on every gen since 360 because the content felt consistently engaging….although nostalgia probs played a part. I’m just not getting that with Starfield and my own unrealistic expectations will take some blame although Bethesda themselves hyped it as a game people will be playing for the next decade.
@ebony-shabba Fair play mate. Apologies I came across as a bit of a D*** in my reply to you I’m sorry. Caught me on a rough day I just sometimes feel on this website the moment you’re slightly critical of anything Xbox people jump on you.
@themightyant It’s a weird phenomena I don’t think I have seen with any other game. Reddit boards (I know can’t be taken too seriously) are filled with people who have put in 40-70 hours and then just hit a wall and concurrent/daily steam numbers have just dropped off a cliff. But I don’t regret playing it and I will definitely drop back into it in the future. Like you said it’s good but unfortunately I was hoping for great.
@K1LLEGAL happy to justify mate. I really enjoyed it for the first few weeks. And thought I would be playing it for years to come. Then it just started getting very samey. Same mission structure, same process of getting new powers, same trek back to a shop to manage my inventory, same enemies, same wildlife models on planets, same everything just in different barren environments. I loaded up cyberpunk on 2.0 release just to see what it’s like and basically haven’t gone back to Starfield since. It felt like it did loads of stuff but none of it particularly well so allot of my time with it was exploring these systems and finding that I didn’t particularly love any of them. Also didn’t help I have been playing Baldurs gate along side which really highlights the illusion of choice most RPGs present. If Starfield came out in any other year I probably would have been way more into it but it’s competing with too many exceptional games atm which show it’s weak points.
@ebony-shabba chill out not everything is a personal attack on you. I didn’t say I hate it I said it was a disappointment…the reason I say this is because the Bethesda buyout is basically the reason I bought a series x with Starfield being the main game I have been excited for since it was announced. Bethesda is one of my fav publishers with Elder Scrolls and fallout being among my fav series. To me (because believe it or not I’m entitled to my opinion) Starfield would have been much better if it tried to scale back, do less and focus on core gameplay. Is that ok? am I allowed to have a negative opinion about an Xbox game? Or do I need to love absolutely everything about Xbox because I could wax lyrical about Forza for hours if you want?
I resubbed for Starfield after cancelling in May. Got bored of Starfield after about 50 hours (disappointment of the year for me) and haven't touched it in weeks but will stay subbed for Forza, which I’m loving, and keen to try Jusant. Not sure there’s anything else in the near future I am interested in so will probably keep lapsing and resubbing when there’s something I want to play.
@Banjo- Minor correction: Starfield was the best selling game of September in the US….not the year. As of a couple days ago it’s the 7th best selling game of the year which is still a great achievement.
@Kaloudz Yeh the Xbox players are enjoying it but what this article hasn’t included are the Reddit comments from pc players who are saying the performance issues make it unplayable. It’s easy to make it seem like people are just moaning for the sake of moaning by taking a few select quotes but a quick look at the Forza subreddit shows it’s filled with people who want to play the game but can’t.
I only managed to give it about 3 hours last night and am really enjoying it. At the moment for me its not the mind blowing next gen leap forward I was hoping for but it’s deffo got that “just one more race before bed” feel to it. A lot of the gripes I have seen online are about the grindy nature but I quite like that you have to use a car to unlock upgrades and then use the car xp points to buy them rather than in game currency which you can save up to buy decent cars instead. I had a quick look through the car shop and some of the more exotic ones don’t seem too far out of reach to save up for. Only time will tell if the payouts for some of the later races are decent.
My main gripe (and it’s a fairly small one) is the practice laps. I like it as a feature and have used it for my first race in a new car but other than that I just skip them. Please Turn10 just let me skip it from the start of race menu rather than having to start the practice lap and skip it from the pause menu. It’s close to a minute of wasted time with the cutscenes involved and more than anything just seems like a bit of a UX oversight. Feels a bit like they are desperately trying to force me into playing the game their way.
From what I could tell of Reddit last night though PC players are not enjoying the solid performance I am enjoying on XSX. If the game isn’t working properly for them they have every right to moan about it.
I put in about 50 hours total. Loved it at first but I started finding it quite repetitive after around 40 hours. Also appreciate the sentiment that it’s the least buggy Bethesda game but it is still riddled with them. Some are funny, non have been game breaking but they all ruin the immersion which, for me, has been a massive problem with the game overall.
It’s a very good Bethesda game which would have got plenty more hours out of me if it released in a less packed period. At first it feels like a step forward from things like Skyrim and Fallout but then a few more hours in and I miss the more focused experience of those games. I will go back to it when I have more time but at the moment BG3 and a new playthrough of Cyberpunk are stealing my attention and the thought of playing Starfield feels more like a chore than fun.
I gave it an hour or so yesterday and so impressed by it and can’t wait to find a bit more time to play. Going to refrain from dropping a score at the moment though as not given it enough time
Can’t believe UK actually get earlier access for once! Not that I will be up at 11pm to play it but it’s exciting to see considering we are usually bottom of the pile. Either way looking forward to giving this a go sometime in the future when the backlog isn’t so backloggy.
If the new Forza is better than last years Gran turismo and doesn’t lean too heavily on microtransactions then for me it will be a resounding yes. I loved the old Forza motorsports and I love the horizon games. Too early to crown it best racing franchise though.
@MasterPlayerOne Perfectly reasonable comparing them. Both are insanely large monopolies who have made decisions over the last 5-10 years which eventually resulted in them needing to ruin 10,000 people’s lives. The only difference from your perspective is you think one company can do no wrong and the other can…..because you’re a fanboy. Get a grip.
@MasterPlayerOne I was more referring to you randomly bringing Meta into the mix (which is also one of the biggest companies in the world) but either way I don’t see how you can accuse other companies of over spending when MS is dropping 69 billion on ABK but it does seem like the standard cultish hypocrisy I would expect so dunno why I’m surprised tbh. Also you couldn’t be more incorrect in your suggestion that the 10,000 employees MS let go were employees bought on during the pandemic, there are absolutely tons of cases posts online from people who had been working for Microsoft for over a decade. Let’s not pretend either of us know the ins and outs of any of these companies and why they make redundancies. You don’t know the inner workings of epic, MS, meta or Amazon and neither do I. The difference is I know it’s highly unlikely to be as simple as “they over spent on stupid stuff” and if it is you really should be applying that same logic to MS. But nothing I say will change your blind fanboyism so let’s just move on. Good day to you and keep fighting the good fight for a monopolistic giant who doesn’t know you exist 👍
@MasterPlayerOne you are conveniently forgetting Microsoft has also had to layoff over 10,000 employees this year. All why trying to spent billions on publishers. I guess it’s different for them though yeh?
This is one of my most anticipated upcoming releases but I’m actually happy with the delay. Got too much on outside of gaming in the next few months and barely scratched the surface of BG3.
Gaming is a luxury hobby and it always has been. I understand why people are complaining about the price rises but maybe direct that towards things like food, childcare and petrol. Things you actually need to survive. If you can’t afford or don’t want to spend £70 on a game then fair enough, wait for a sale or don’t buy the game but suggesting the game industry should be the only industry immune to inflation is naive and immature. I’m more interested in how we have got to the point in the uk where topping up my car is £70, a small pack of chicken breasts is over a fiver and a selection of basic fruit and veg is nearly double the price it was a few years ago (if what I want is even in stock)
There’s waaayyy bigger financial problems in the world then Capcom hitting what is basically becoming the industry standard for day one game prices. Especially compared to other media. I bought SF6 day one and have got over 90 hours of pure joy….about 75p per hour. Last time I went to the cinema with the wife it was just short of £30 for two tickets for 90 minutes. Snacks and drinks take it to over £40. Even at £70 gaming, to me is one of the best bargains on Earth.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Every time I enter the ship builder menu I get confused and frustrated. I want to get good at outpost building because I’ve always loved the crafting element to Bethesda games and it seems like the best way to get resources but there’s just too many of them. Every time I want to upgrade a gun or something I seem to have one of the resources for every option but am missing everything else so either need to find a planet with those resources and walk around it or accept I am not going to upgrade. They could have made things easier by making it so resources don’t weigh anything but because of the over encumberance mechanics I have resources dotted around the lodge, my ship and various companions making it even more frustrating. This is with max weight lifting perk and a suit that gives me +40 weight. I honestly appreciate everything that have tried to do with this game but with the way it has come together there’s just a few too many barriers for pure enjoyment and it results in at least 20% of my time playing it being pure busy work.
Most surprising of my choices for me was Street fighter. Always been the bottom of my pile of fighting games but 6 is such a complete package that encourages continuous improvement. Incredible game!
If I was asked first weekend it would be top 3. After putting more time into it though I’m starting to get bored. Choices feel inconsequential (although this probably comes from an unconscious comparison with BG3 where choices are everything) and missions just feel so compartmentalised…..take mission on planet, talk to someone somewhere else on planet, fast travel to different planet, talk to someone there, kill some bad guys, fast travel back to initial planet to close out mission. I like there’s other stuff to do like ship building, outpost building, pirating etc but I just don’t feel compelled to put the grind and effort into levelling up the stat points required to reward me for that stuff. It’s deffo top 10 for 2023 but probably BG3, Resi 4 and Street fighter 6 for me as a top 3.
@Fiendish-Beaver I completely appreciate your view but for me I find it the polar opposite. I think everyone has a bit of bias and I will openly admit to being more PS biased so probably see toxicity more on this site than Push through my own lens.
I think here it is slightly more centralised to a few people but there’s half a dozen users who if you look through their comments they talk negatively about Sony in 90% of them regardless of whether it’s related to the topic or not. So many people on both sides just align their entire personality to loving/hating a company or CEO who doesn’t even know they exist.
All the people saying “MS SHOULD SUE THE FTC THEY ARE INCOMPETENT” have certainly gone quiet since it was revealed this is and MS screw up. Also another takeaway from this comment section is the staunch defence of Phil Spencer and vilification of people attacking him….has anyone read the comment section here whenever literally anything Jim Ryan related comes up? It’s absolutely vile. Can’t agree enough that we shouldn’t be attacking peoples character/looks/views so maybe let’s extend that to both sides.
@Tharsman They famously attempted a hostile takeover of Yahoo in 2008. Also I guess it depends on the exact definition of “hostile” but in the 90s and 00s they snapped up anyone they could find that posed a threat to Windows or Internet Explorer. They have form.
It’s Skyrim for me. I played that game solidly for months when it came out and then dipped back in on every console since. I do love starfield but I am starting to get a bit of fast travel and inventory management fatigue and a fair few of the quests are just feeling like busy work.
@JayJ I think tbf the good ones are critics favourites and it’s usually because they are actually good games. There’s plenty of soulslikes that got low to average ratings like steelrising, thymesia, surge series and the original lords of fallen just to name a few. Personally I love them for the challenge and genuine sense of achievement at overcoming that challenge although they have tested my patience over the years quite a few times.
I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the demo but looking forward to trying it now. On a different note I don’t think I have ever seen a more resounding 8/10…everyone seems to be giving it the same score.
I have had only had one so far. Controller rumble didn’t work until I closed the game and opened it back up again. Although I do tend to find the game runs a bit better overall if I close it down first.
The fact the loading screens use photos you have taken is genuinely one of my favourite features in a new game ever. I’ve always loved photo mode in games but never really do anything with them apart from occasionally send them to friends. Seeing my character Old Man Reggie hanging out with his parents who look half his age during loading screens is magical.
Starfield is excellent. From the moment I started it just felt like slipping on a comfy old pair of Bethesda branded shoes. I think a lot of the negativity towards the game comes from it not living up to the ridiculous hype of being a “go anywhere and do anything you want” space sim which I think is mostly comes down to the community building it up to something it’s not but also some of it lays with MS and Bethesda not being able to realistically set expectations.
Just like Skyrim and Fallout I can see myself playing this for years to come. I can deal with the bugs, I can deal with the fast travel, I can deal with the encumberance but one of the main gripes I’m finding at the moment is just how ridiculously thick the AI is. Got into a firefight last night and a high level Spacer decided to hide behind a metal grate which I could shoot through. I literally just stood there shooting him for the minute it took to knock down his health and he didn’t make any effort whatsoever to move. But this is the sort of stuff we both love and hate Bethesda for
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Re: Xbox Divides Opinion With Controversial Response To Baldur's Gate 3 Bans
@Aizen82 Huh?! That didn’t make sense. No one is saying five year olds should be allowed to watch porn or action movies. They are saying that they can record a 1 minutes gore fest on Gears, Doom, CoD, Duke Nukem etc but the moment someone takes a screenshot of some boobles they are slapped with a ban….its inconsistent. Also no one is suggesting that kids should have access to this content but really it’s on MS and the parents of the to moderate this in a sensible way, not your average gamer. I am a mid 30s and all my friends on Xbox are a similar sort of age…why should I change my gaming habits because MS designed their system so that some random kid on the other side of the world might see a clip of something I record? It’s madness.
In comparison to PlayStation their default settings are that if you record a clip or screenshot it doesn’t leave your console/cloud storage until you actively choose to share it with friends or the wider community. This is called common sense.
Re: Another Xbox Console Exclusive Makes Its Way To PS5 Later This Month
@FraserG apologies I misread. Still failing to see the point of this article though. It has absolutely no bearing on Xbox whatsoever.
Re: Another Xbox Console Exclusive Makes Its Way To PS5 Later This Month
@Markatron84 Straight off the back of an article yesterday applauding an AEW wrestler for saying console wars are stupid. You can’t say console wars are stupid and then have the strapline “another one bites the dust” on a non-article about a third party game arriving on PS. Bizarre double standards.
Re: Xbox Divides Opinion With Controversial Response To Baldur's Gate 3 Bans
6 years of GDPR in the UK might have changed my mindset a bit but from a pure privacy perspective I would expect to have to opt in to auto uploads rather than opt out…especially when it auto uploads to the world and not just your friends. Admittedly it’s been a while since I set up my Series X but I don’t ever remember being given the option or even being notified of this. If they are going to continue throwing out lengthy bans they need to change the default settings or be much much clearer about what happens with your screenshots and clips.
Re: Talking Point: What Are Your Gaming Resolutions For 2024?
@BacklogBrad This is such a good idea which I will be adopting. I love a good spreadsheet so recording exactly how much I am spending will hopefully make me rethink some of my purchases.
Re: Talking Point: What Are Your Gaming Resolutions For 2024?
To buy less games on release day and wait for sales. I will be breaking this resolution on 26th Jan when I buy Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
Re: Xbox Has Changed Game Pass Quests For 2024, And Fans Aren't Happy
@BacklogBrad But if you get rid of the backlog you will just be….Brad
Re: Xbox Owner Receives Year-Long Ban After Uploading Baldur's Gate 3 Clips
@J_Mo_Money shouldn’t it really be Microsoft learning a lesson in this instance? Gamers shouldn’t need to change the way they use an integrated feature on a console they have spent good money on just to cater for an overly aggressive censoring system.
Re: In The End, Are You Happy With Xbox's First-Party Lineup For 2023?
D. Microsoft were all hype and very little substance as per. Starfield was not the endless space epic that we will be playing for the next decade, it was a tedious slog. Months of beautiful Forza trailers before releasing a buggy, soulless grind fest. Redfall…..sigh. Although at least they have worked on improving it since release. You’d hope they learn from the fact that their highest rated and best received game this year was a shadow drop AA title which no one even knew existed.
If MS are going to continue their trend of announcing games 5+ years out before hyping them up to fever pitch levels they need to actually ensure the game is worth hyping because all I’ve seen from them over the last decade is a drastic decline in both the number and quality of their yearly releases. Without Bethesda their first party AAA output 3 years into this gen would be two Forzas and a Halo. That’s just insanely bad but uncle Phil wears retro gaming t shirts and posts his gamerscore on X so all is forgiven.
Re: Some Xbox Fans Aren't Happy About 'Intrusive' Call Of Duty: MW3 Ads
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Re: Some Xbox Fans Aren't Happy About 'Intrusive' Call Of Duty: MW3 Ads
“Push a button and it goes away” yeh duh. People aren't angry about the extra time it takes to get to their games. They are angry about the principle of Microsoft forcing even MORE advertising down our throats in ever increasingly intrusive ways. As someone said previously when we buy an Xbox we are the consumer, not the product. If I was getting a free service I would expect to see forced ads (e.g YouTube) but when I paid £450 for a series X and then £12 a month for gamepass I don’t need or want it. Would everyone please just stop accepting and making excuses for Microsoft’s mediocrity.
Re: Reaction: Forza Motorsport Should Be Feeling The Pressure After New Gran Turismo 7 Update
@J_Mo_Money You’re right my commitments don’t have anything to do with me forming my own opinion. They do however have everything to do with where I focus my free time which is the point I was making. Don’t get me wrong I will try a game Im super interested in if it’s on a service like gamepass but outside of that I’m not going to spend money and time on a game that 90% of critics think is bad to average when there’s hundreds of other games that 90% of critics think are excellent. Regardless of the state of gaming websites nowadays they tend to align on most games and come up with very similar pros and cons which I will look into before investing. My system is not so different to yours in that I will look at overall scores, read/watch some reviews from critics I trust and then decide whether I want to buy the game or not. It’s not like I just go “ahhh that one was 8.7 and that one was 8.5…I really like the look of the 8.5 but I better go with the 8.7 because Metacritic says so”…I’m not that basic.
I have just got a lot more precious with my time this year because I own all three systems and there’s a hell of a lot of quality games releasing on them but not enough time to play them all. Metacritic for me is an excellent tool to help.
Re: Reaction: Forza Motorsport Should Be Feeling The Pressure After New Gran Turismo 7 Update
@JayJ @J_Mo_Money Personally for me Metacritic is a godsend. I have a full time job, family commitments, pets and social engagements most weekends. If two games I am interested in release the same day, one scores 9 on metacritic and the other scores 5 I am absolutely going to use my limited time to play the 9. General consensus is, has always been and always will be an excellent indication of how good something.
Re: Reaction: Forza Motorsport Should Be Feeling The Pressure After New Gran Turismo 7 Update
I was loving Forza until I started getting booted out the game and losing progress on Friday. I have stopped playing since it happened two days on the trot. It’s a grind enough to get the car xp and decent amounts of money without it randomly kicking you and erasing your last few races. What makes it even more frustrating is I don’t understand the point of it always being online if it’s not going to cloud save after every race.
It could be amazing in a year. Hopefully it becomes amazing in the next few months. At the moment it’s a game I want to play but won’t because my gaming time is at a premium and I don’t want to waste it.
Re: Gears Of War Needs A 'God Of War-Like Reboot', Says Original Lead Designer
@BAMozzy a survival horror spin off could be really cool. It would be interesting to follow the stories of some regular people handling emergence day and the following months instead of just playing as jacked up soldiers who shoot anything that moves.
I’m just a bit burnt out on the standard gears format. I completed the first three and have played but not completed 4 and 5. While the first gears pretty much reinvented what a third person shooter could be, in the 15 years following they have barely done anything innovative with the gameplay loop aside from some new weapons and a robot. I dunno what it would look like but if they can reboot the franchise in a way that GoW did in 2018 with fresh gameplay, story and mechanics I would be all up for it.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Are Saying About Alan Wake 2
This is straight on the Christmas list. Like others have said here I was expecting (and in some ways hoping) this would score lower so I wouldn’t be so interested but there’s just too much to play at the moment. I can’t believe I’m actually hoping for a quieter 2024 just so I can catchup on the backlog.
Re: Three Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (October 26)
Thanks for the update! I will have Dead Space a go when I get a minute
Re: Starfield Launch Set Record For "Most Game Pass Subscriptions Added On A Single Day Ever"
@K1LLEGAL I am the same. I don’t particularly expect or even want a game to last hundreds of hours usually but Skyrim in particular I have happily played for days on every gen since 360 because the content felt consistently engaging….although nostalgia probs played a part. I’m just not getting that with Starfield and my own unrealistic expectations will take some blame although Bethesda themselves hyped it as a game people will be playing for the next decade.
@ebony-shabba Fair play mate. Apologies I came across as a bit of a D*** in my reply to you I’m sorry. Caught me on a rough day I just sometimes feel on this website the moment you’re slightly critical of anything Xbox people jump on you.
@themightyant It’s a weird phenomena I don’t think I have seen with any other game. Reddit boards (I know can’t be taken too seriously) are filled with people who have put in 40-70 hours and then just hit a wall and concurrent/daily steam numbers have just dropped off a cliff. But I don’t regret playing it and I will definitely drop back into it in the future. Like you said it’s good but unfortunately I was hoping for great.
Re: Starfield Launch Set Record For "Most Game Pass Subscriptions Added On A Single Day Ever"
@K1LLEGAL happy to justify mate. I really enjoyed it for the first few weeks. And thought I would be playing it for years to come. Then it just started getting very samey. Same mission structure, same process of getting new powers, same trek back to a shop to manage my inventory, same enemies, same wildlife models on planets, same everything just in different barren environments. I loaded up cyberpunk on 2.0 release just to see what it’s like and basically haven’t gone back to Starfield since. It felt like it did loads of stuff but none of it particularly well so allot of my time with it was exploring these systems and finding that I didn’t particularly love any of them. Also didn’t help I have been playing Baldurs gate along side which really highlights the illusion of choice most RPGs present. If Starfield came out in any other year I probably would have been way more into it but it’s competing with too many exceptional games atm which show it’s weak points.
@ebony-shabba chill out not everything is a personal attack on you. I didn’t say I hate it I said it was a disappointment…the reason I say this is because the Bethesda buyout is basically the reason I bought a series x with Starfield being the main game I have been excited for since it was announced. Bethesda is one of my fav publishers with Elder Scrolls and fallout being among my fav series. To me (because believe it or not I’m entitled to my opinion) Starfield would have been much better if it tried to scale back, do less and focus on core gameplay. Is that ok? am I allowed to have a negative opinion about an Xbox game? Or do I need to love absolutely everything about Xbox because I could wax lyrical about Forza for hours if you want?
Re: Starfield Launch Set Record For "Most Game Pass Subscriptions Added On A Single Day Ever"
I resubbed for Starfield after cancelling in May. Got bored of Starfield after about 50 hours (disappointment of the year for me) and haven't touched it in weeks but will stay subbed for Forza, which I’m loving, and keen to try Jusant. Not sure there’s anything else in the near future I am interested in so will probably keep lapsing and resubbing when there’s something I want to play.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 21-22)
Mainly been Spider-Man 2 so far with a bit of cyberpunk thrown in for good measure.
Re: Nintendo Boss Showers Praise On 'Great Relationship' With Xbox & Microsoft
I will never not chuckle to myself when I see the name ‘Doug Bowser’ being associated with Nintendo
Re: Thanks To Starfield, UK Xbox Sales Enjoyed A Huge Increase In September
@Banjo- Minor correction: Starfield was the best selling game of September in the US….not the year. As of a couple days ago it’s the 7th best selling game of the year which is still a great achievement.
Re: Forza Motorsport Fan Bemoans The 'Non Stop Criticism' From The Game's Reddit Community
@Kaloudz Yeh the Xbox players are enjoying it but what this article hasn’t included are the Reddit comments from pc players who are saying the performance issues make it unplayable. It’s easy to make it seem like people are just moaning for the sake of moaning by taking a few select quotes but a quick look at the Forza subreddit shows it’s filled with people who want to play the game but can’t.
Re: Forza Motorsport Fan Bemoans The 'Non Stop Criticism' From The Game's Reddit Community
I only managed to give it about 3 hours last night and am really enjoying it. At the moment for me its not the mind blowing next gen leap forward I was hoping for but it’s deffo got that “just one more race before bed” feel to it. A lot of the gripes I have seen online are about the grindy nature but I quite like that you have to use a car to unlock upgrades and then use the car xp points to buy them rather than in game currency which you can save up to buy decent cars instead. I had a quick look through the car shop and some of the more exotic ones don’t seem too far out of reach to save up for. Only time will tell if the payouts for some of the later races are decent.
My main gripe (and it’s a fairly small one) is the practice laps. I like it as a feature and have used it for my first race in a new car but other than that I just skip them. Please Turn10 just let me skip it from the start of race menu rather than having to start the practice lap and skip it from the pause menu. It’s close to a minute of wasted time with the cutscenes involved and more than anything just seems like a bit of a UX oversight. Feels a bit like they are desperately trying to force me into playing the game their way.
From what I could tell of Reddit last night though PC players are not enjoying the solid performance I am enjoying on XSX. If the game isn’t working properly for them they have every right to moan about it.
Re: Forza Motorsport Is Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (October 10)
This has been my most anticipated exclusive this year. Can’t wait to finish work
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 7-8)
@ParsnipHero Get better soon! @BBB Good luck with the new job!
I am playing a combination of Baldurs Gate and a new run through of Cyberpunk. Might sprinkle some cocoon and lies of p in there aswell.
Re: Talking Point: One Month On From Launch, How Are You Feeling About Starfield?
I put in about 50 hours total. Loved it at first but I started finding it quite repetitive after around 40 hours. Also appreciate the sentiment that it’s the least buggy Bethesda game but it is still riddled with them. Some are funny, non have been game breaking but they all ruin the immersion which, for me, has been a massive problem with the game overall.
It’s a very good Bethesda game which would have got plenty more hours out of me if it released in a less packed period. At first it feels like a step forward from things like Skyrim and Fallout but then a few more hours in and I miss the more focused experience of those games. I will go back to it when I have more time but at the moment BG3 and a new playthrough of Cyberpunk are stealing my attention and the thought of playing Starfield feels more like a chore than fun.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think Of Cocoon So Far On Xbox Game Pass?
I gave it an hour or so yesterday and so impressed by it and can’t wait to find a bit more time to play. Going to refrain from dropping a score at the moment though as not given it enough time
Re: Warhammer 40K Darktide: Release Date, Release Times & Preload Details On Xbox Game Pass
Can’t believe UK actually get earlier access for once! Not that I will be up at 11pm to play it but it’s exciting to see considering we are usually bottom of the pile. Either way looking forward to giving this a go sometime in the future when the backlog isn’t so backloggy.
Re: Talking Point: Is Forza The Best Racing Franchise Of All Time?
If the new Forza is better than last years Gran turismo and doesn’t lean too heavily on microtransactions then for me it will be a resounding yes. I loved the old Forza motorsports and I love the horizon games. Too early to crown it best racing franchise though.
Re: Fortnite Creator Epic Games Laying Off 870 Employees
@MasterPlayerOne Perfectly reasonable comparing them. Both are insanely large monopolies who have made decisions over the last 5-10 years which eventually resulted in them needing to ruin 10,000 people’s lives. The only difference from your perspective is you think one company can do no wrong and the other can…..because you’re a fanboy. Get a grip.
Re: Fortnite Creator Epic Games Laying Off 870 Employees
@MasterPlayerOne I was more referring to you randomly bringing Meta into the mix (which is also one of the biggest companies in the world) but either way I don’t see how you can accuse other companies of over spending when MS is dropping 69 billion on ABK but it does seem like the standard cultish hypocrisy I would expect so dunno why I’m surprised tbh. Also you couldn’t be more incorrect in your suggestion that the 10,000 employees MS let go were employees bought on during the pandemic, there are absolutely tons of cases posts online from people who had been working for Microsoft for over a decade. Let’s not pretend either of us know the ins and outs of any of these companies and why they make redundancies. You don’t know the inner workings of epic, MS, meta or Amazon and neither do I. The difference is I know it’s highly unlikely to be as simple as “they over spent on stupid stuff” and if it is you really should be applying that same logic to MS. But nothing I say will change your blind fanboyism so let’s just move on. Good day to you and keep fighting the good fight for a monopolistic giant who doesn’t know you exist 👍
Re: Fortnite Creator Epic Games Laying Off 870 Employees
@MasterPlayerOne you are conveniently forgetting Microsoft has also had to layoff over 10,000 employees this year. All why trying to spent billions on publishers. I guess it’s different for them though yeh?
Re: Xbox Game Pass's Cities: Skylines 2 Delayed On Console Until Spring 2024
This is one of my most anticipated upcoming releases but I’m actually happy with the delay. Got too much on outside of gaming in the next few months and barely scratched the surface of BG3.
Re: It Sounds Like Capcom Is Considering Raising Its Game Prices
Gaming is a luxury hobby and it always has been. I understand why people are complaining about the price rises but maybe direct that towards things like food, childcare and petrol. Things you actually need to survive. If you can’t afford or don’t want to spend £70 on a game then fair enough, wait for a sale or don’t buy the game but suggesting the game industry should be the only industry immune to inflation is naive and immature. I’m more interested in how we have got to the point in the uk where topping up my car is £70, a small pack of chicken breasts is over a fiver and a selection of basic fruit and veg is nearly double the price it was a few years ago (if what I want is even in stock)
There’s waaayyy bigger financial problems in the world then Capcom hitting what is basically becoming the industry standard for day one game prices. Especially compared to other media. I bought SF6 day one and have got over 90 hours of pure joy….about 75p per hour. Last time I went to the cinema with the wife it was just short of £30 for two tickets for 90 minutes. Snacks and drinks take it to over £40. Even at £70 gaming, to me is one of the best bargains on Earth.
Re: Talking Point: Where Does Starfield Rank In Your Top Games Of 2023?
@Moonglow Fast travel is not a choice…if you tried playing the game without fast travel you wouldn’t get off the first planet
Re: Talking Point: Where Does Starfield Rank In Your Top Games Of 2023?
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Every time I enter the ship builder menu I get confused and frustrated. I want to get good at outpost building because I’ve always loved the crafting element to Bethesda games and it seems like the best way to get resources but there’s just too many of them. Every time I want to upgrade a gun or something I seem to have one of the resources for every option but am missing everything else so either need to find a planet with those resources and walk around it or accept I am not going to upgrade. They could have made things easier by making it so resources don’t weigh anything but because of the over encumberance mechanics I have resources dotted around the lodge, my ship and various companions making it even more frustrating. This is with max weight lifting perk and a suit that gives me +40 weight. I honestly appreciate everything that have tried to do with this game but with the way it has come together there’s just a few too many barriers for pure enjoyment and it results in at least 20% of my time playing it being pure busy work.
Most surprising of my choices for me was Street fighter. Always been the bottom of my pile of fighting games but 6 is such a complete package that encourages continuous improvement. Incredible game!
Re: Talking Point: Where Does Starfield Rank In Your Top Games Of 2023?
If I was asked first weekend it would be top 3. After putting more time into it though I’m starting to get bored. Choices feel inconsequential (although this probably comes from an unconscious comparison with BG3 where choices are everything) and missions just feel so compartmentalised…..take mission on planet, talk to someone somewhere else on planet, fast travel to different planet, talk to someone there, kill some bad guys, fast travel back to initial planet to close out mission. I like there’s other stuff to do like ship building, outpost building, pirating etc but I just don’t feel compelled to put the grind and effort into levelling up the stat points required to reward me for that stuff. It’s deffo top 10 for 2023 but probably BG3, Resi 4 and Street fighter 6 for me as a top 3.
Re: Three Games Announced For Xbox Game Pass At Tokyo Game Show 2023
Awesome. Three games I wouldn’t buy but really want to try.
Re: Phil Spencer Issues Statement In Response To Massive Xbox Leak
@Fiendish-Beaver I completely appreciate your view but for me I find it the polar opposite. I think everyone has a bit of bias and I will openly admit to being more PS biased so probably see toxicity more on this site than Push through my own lens.
I think here it is slightly more centralised to a few people but there’s half a dozen users who if you look through their comments they talk negatively about Sony in 90% of them regardless of whether it’s related to the topic or not. So many people on both sides just align their entire personality to loving/hating a company or CEO who doesn’t even know they exist.
Re: Phil Spencer Issues Statement In Response To Massive Xbox Leak
All the people saying “MS SHOULD SUE THE FTC THEY ARE INCOMPETENT” have certainly gone quiet since it was revealed this is and MS screw up. Also another takeaway from this comment section is the staunch defence of Phil Spencer and vilification of people attacking him….has anyone read the comment section here whenever literally anything Jim Ryan related comes up? It’s absolutely vile. Can’t agree enough that we shouldn’t be attacking peoples character/looks/views so maybe let’s extend that to both sides.
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Was Dead Serious About Wanting To Acquire Nintendo In 2020
@Tharsman They famously attempted a hostile takeover of Yahoo in 2008. Also I guess it depends on the exact definition of “hostile” but in the 90s and 00s they snapped up anyone they could find that posed a threat to Windows or Internet Explorer. They have form.
Re: Pick One: Which Is The Best Bethesda Game Studios RPG?
It’s Skyrim for me. I played that game solidly for months when it came out and then dipped back in on every console since. I do love starfield but I am starting to get a bit of fast travel and inventory management fatigue and a fair few of the quests are just feeling like busy work.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 16-17)
It will be the same as last weekend and probably every free weekend for the forseeable future: Baldurs Gate 3 and Starfield.
Re: Lies Of P - Dystopian Pinocchio Slashes And Stabs His Way Onto The Best Soulslikes
@JayJ I think tbf the good ones are critics favourites and it’s usually because they are actually good games. There’s plenty of soulslikes that got low to average ratings like steelrising, thymesia, surge series and the original lords of fallen just to name a few. Personally I love them for the challenge and genuine sense of achievement at overcoming that challenge although they have tested my patience over the years quite a few times.
Re: Lies Of P - Dystopian Pinocchio Slashes And Stabs His Way Onto The Best Soulslikes
I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the demo but looking forward to trying it now. On a different note I don’t think I have ever seen a more resounding 8/10…everyone seems to be giving it the same score.
Re: Starfield Players Are Loving Xbox Quick Resume, But Some Users Are Reporting Issues
I have had only had one so far. Controller rumble didn’t work until I closed the game and opened it back up again. Although I do tend to find the game runs a bit better overall if I close it down first.
Re: 13 Useful Mechanics Starfield Doesn't Tell You About
The fact the loading screens use photos you have taken is genuinely one of my favourite features in a new game ever. I’ve always loved photo mode in games but never really do anything with them apart from occasionally send them to friends. Seeing my character Old Man Reggie hanging out with his parents who look half his age during loading screens is magical.
Re: Review: Starfield - Bethesda Serves Up Its Best RPG Yet In A Messy, Exciting And Emotional Space Odyssey
Starfield is excellent. From the moment I started it just felt like slipping on a comfy old pair of Bethesda branded shoes. I think a lot of the negativity towards the game comes from it not living up to the ridiculous hype of being a “go anywhere and do anything you want” space sim which I think is mostly comes down to the community building it up to something it’s not but also some of it lays with MS and Bethesda not being able to realistically set expectations.
Just like Skyrim and Fallout I can see myself playing this for years to come. I can deal with the bugs, I can deal with the fast travel, I can deal with the encumberance but one of the main gripes I’m finding at the moment is just how ridiculously thick the AI is. Got into a firefight last night and a high level Spacer decided to hide behind a metal grate which I could shoot through. I literally just stood there shooting him for the minute it took to knock down his health and he didn’t make any effort whatsoever to move. But this is the sort of stuff we both love and hate Bethesda for