"Review bombing" is a loose term with several contexts. Specify. One context suggests coordination amongst a subset of users - that is likely not the case, for various reasons (laziness being one of them).
It is incorrect and deficient to down-rate something to lowest score because it's not aesthetically, thematically/politically catered to you; something that you've fundamentally disagreed with. Overall quality of a game experience has next to nothing to do with the message in its medium (and the medium is the message, in case you haven't heard); today's writers brush on this when they talk about the "cultural impact" of a game — I think that's fine to talk about, but not fine for anyone to base their opinion of something.
Thus, if the constituent design elements (e.g. gameplay in particular) sucks, take the effort to explain why. If it IS the writing, as described above, still be tactful, explicit, pertinent - what it means to be on point. You'll find that fundamental disagreement doesn't translate to "zero" or the closest substitute to that.
@NEStalgia Well said. Additionally, the vast majority of all those leaks - whether they're ***** or not, whistleblowing or not, from an actual inside source or a rumour-mongering attention grubber - are intentional. Very few accidental ones, if at all. Just thought I'd throw that additional consideration, as a tangent.
Re: Hiring, we should only assume that it's still "early development" iff (if and only if) we know what sort of positions they're hiring to fill. So it is not a factor of whether they're just hiring at all (just what they're hiring for).
Oh yes, because all [of] their 1st/2nd-party games (yes, first and second) sold tens of millions each over their lifespans, netting them ~50-70% or more of MSRP (which was never more than 60 USD; 80 CAD, until now, but as they lower prices for a game then even a 70 USD title becoming 50 bucks averages out to a cool 60 over time).
But of those tens of millions, a few titles netted more than 10-15M NEW sales (the rest were used sales).
The preceding paragraphs are intended to be a bit sarcastic and quite hyperbolic (exaggerated).
Instead of banking the profits from their revenue, they upped their future expenditures, which lead to what, exactly? What does an increased expenditure of millions more do, to attain qualitative results beyond that of HFW/HZD and God of War? Was it for R&D on the fancy SSD IO throughput bandwidth in the PS5? Was it for allowing them to hire more junior writers like Alanah Pearce, in fall 2020 (no less for a game that understandably got delayed seeing as how they were still hiring writers A MERE YEAR out from original planned release)?
What exactly are they doing with their gross budgets, when they also have a hands-off policy on development, too - so who's even telling them that they need to spend more money when they're already doing it right with whatever they already have? (Any C-suite exec would tell you: "Why on earth would I approve of higher budgets when we got it right before with less?").
Instead of answering these questions, Mr. Jim Ryan, which would naturally arise upon analyzing your philosophy, maybe you should ask two questions instead:
1. How much profit is Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios actually making from the various Game Pass revenue streams - GP Ult in particular?
2. Is it actually funding (expenditure) that's the problem with their games, or is it really too many cooks in the kitchens with no clear direction? To wit: Halo Infinite stumbled for years, Everwild stumbled last year or so, and Perfect Dark supposedly stumbling right now as we speak.
{Additionally, my further speculation is that their other projects and contracts are simply delays for various reasons which may not necessarily be remarkable or related to quality control. Examples: Project Mara is still too early in the pipeline, probably bc its older sibling Hellblade II is understandably taking forever; Starfield is too ambitious and probably on the wrong engine, as per usual with Bethesda (and that title is holding up TES 6); Redfall is yet another multiplayer title that very likely wasn't yet offering something revolutionary, so Arkane probably panicked and delayed it; Forza Motorsport 8 is likely sitting in the oven so that they can avoid the promise Uncle Phil made about maintaining "two year" cross-gen support for development. Everything else is just a delay for reasons beyond control (Stalker 2), or just announced too early.}
That's okay. Gotham Knights and Hogwarts are more than enough for me, and I refuse to get around to new games until 4+ months after they released anyway.
Was also getting tired of Keighley making his shows unofficially taking in too much of the limelight, so any excuse to watch less of his stuff is okay with me. (It's nothing personal: there should just be more unofficial "official" shows, and so far the only prominent people competing with him have relegated themselves to podcasts).
And I think that we also just need less stuff coming out, so that publishers aren't stretching themselves so thinly that they push out rushed crap and set schedule expectations unreasonably high for developers. That all usually has an economic backlash which directly affects the consumer, negatively. (I'm at a loss for succinct words here, oh well).
Uh, ok. Greedfall was decent but I've played in-depth modern and classic RPGs of similar or higher calibre over these last two decades or so. If they improve on their take of the recipe, great
My issue is that YouTubers and podcasters of all kind - including former professional studio workers & creators like him - are implicitly doing their "broadcasting" with so much focus because THEY have issues they probably still need to work through. I can't even begin to name all the commentators out there who rant because they have not successfully reconciled their hangups and baggage.
@Balta666 yep, I feel ya right there. The funny thing is that my distaste for early access games didn't even come from officially confirmed ones - it came from games that were early access in all but name only. Titles like Anthem are "excellent" examples of a game released early, but disguised as a full launch, to garner consumer feedback (and generate revenue on an increasingly profitless project).
Netizens, writers and bloggers use the word "seemingly" a lot. Maybe even too much. A synonym here and there would be nice, some thoroughness even better (to ascertain things), and failing all that, confidence - we're in an age where being bombastic, running one' mouth too quickly, or just being opinionated is what counts for making one's words stick out the most. So who really cares if something actually is, versus ostensibly (besides sticklers like me)?
@Rocco81 it would be cheaper to do a trial and/or subscribe for just a month (the max length of time before one gets bored of Ubisoft open world hum drum).
I dunno how many times I gotta keep saying this. It was implied for Xbox, not for Game Pass. Yes, they didn't explicitly state that it would never come to GP, but they also never explicitly said it would. It was just explicit for Xbox, like EA Play once was.
Didn't help that SE* frequently put the game on sale for like $20 in my country — even as early as summer 2021. They wanna make profit? Have a little more faith in a product's potential for greater profit margins; i.e. treat your customers' wallets with more respect, and make a good game that engages us immediately and for the long-term (but without being immediately cheapened to <60% MSRP to capitalize on sales discounts).
(Sqex, Squenix, or whatever other nickname they go by, since I'm not mentioning them by name)
@Balta666 I am not too keen on early access either, especially if the quality could bring down the reputation of a service like Game Pass. But, to the unfettered access devs would have to user feedback via GP would be a great boon to the game's final development.
well I prefer my rogues on Switch, but I'll buy it for Xbox in a little while (just bought Sekiro, finally) to support indie exclusives. Can't have Xbox getting excluded or picked last for these things, after all.
@BAMozzy Please ease up with the excessive apostrophes (aka "single quotation marks" or whatever). I believe we've already commented on that quirk on this website.
However, unlike last time - when I mentioned that it makes the argument strangely seem simultaneously this and that (e.g. satirical and uncertain) - I didn't allude to how it could make a reader feel. That practice makes it seem like we're all misunderstanding things and/or using incorrect terminology (even if only slightly incorrect). It therefore comes across as condescending.
Not really a problem for the myriad of people playing from One X to Series X.
The correct compromise here is to make optional the downloadable upgrades for 4K assets, just as we begged them to do for One X. I still have a 1080p screen for Pete's sake.
Anyway, this is the least of my concerns for the system, so I'll leave it at that.
@Korgon I agree, I'm not a fan of those fandoms as well. Would definitely not want to be constantly having to cater for their "wrath" or worse, their boredom (when they invariably move onto other channels or things as they pass into different phases of their lives).
Nobody who's only accessed the game via GP - anyone who doesn't actually own the game - will be able to get the expansion upgrade price. You'll just get the standard GP discount. So, 20% off of US$60 is US$48 (or 80% of the listed price).
My friend bought me SOR4 on Steam when it launched. He was bored during the early pandemic, lol. That was a great gift and it took me a while to reciprocate properly.
The following year he got us Dark Alliance (also a day one XGP release) on Steam, and we both got frustrated with how sucky it was. Unfortunately we both played too much to return it. What a waste of his money. I bought him It Takes Two and we played it before it launched on GP, so that more than made up for DA.
I legit thought this was some sort of mistake on Thursday the 14th, when I was trying to download an invoice from my Xbox Store order history. Called MS support (which is a mess to find a phone # for; even worse was navigating back to my order history from the support website); they told me it was a free gift. Lol
Background: I needed to prove I bought the Middle Earth Shadow bundle, bc I couldn't install the DE of Shadow of War (... it had turned out that I just had to download base game and DLC separately, sigh). Then in my most recent order history entry, I saw a credit from MS, that matched what I paid for Middle Earth, and thought maybe they had refunded me for revoking the credentials.
@Royalblues Square Enix has been very generous with GP, too. Same with Capcom, but haven't seen anything of theirs in a while, and only RE7 has lasted more than a year on GP.
I've been having this issue for years with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. Have already figured and tried all of these solutions and settings, doesn't work.
Perhaps it's an error from the early days of Xbox store's ability to give gifts to another account; I received it as a digital gift from my sister for Xmas 2015 or so. Her account is dl on my XBO X, but that wasn't set to her home Xbox when I got it (her partner's is).
You'd think that would be the source of the problem, but it isn't? I still have access to her Rare Replay with no issues, and it's not as we had logged into RR years ago before she switched her home Xboxes (in 2016-17) or before I upgraded to the X (in 2018).
I also had free access to CoD: Advanced Warfare when it launched, when one day I came home, started up my old XB1 and saw that game randomly downloading onto it, lol. (It was revoked a year later or so). So maybe this is the universe's comeuppance on me.
I'd rather play a game like this with 3 randos chattering in my ear than alone. If I wanted a single player game, my NPC companions better be filled with personality and competent AI (and preferably not NPCs, but playable).
@uptownsoul PS+ Extra, Premium/Deluxe tiers do look attractively priced, versus PS+ Essential, when considering the bulk subscription options (3-month and especially 12-month fees)
This is making me upset, now. When are we going to realize these "free games" have always been just the throw-a-bone GIMMICK perks to smooth over the actual reason XBLG and PS+ exist: pay-gating multiplayer services?
Once a consumer remembers this and accepts it fundamentally, the "quality" of these games becomes as important as determining what type of eggs you want for breakfast (if you can even eat them, that is).
@Richnj Well, despite what I wrote above in a related post - which could imply otherwise - MP games don't necessarily have "activity bloat" per se. Neither are they far exceeding big 1P campaigns fraught with icons and filler quests on a world map. Plus, these games effectively replace content (and sometimes actually do that) rather than simply stacking on more stuff to do.
These games are FOMO'd, as you say, but the real danger they have is mindless repetition from the literal same activities & modes, rather than cloned activities/tasks & modes usually gated behind something arbitrary (plot points, for example).
They're not at all bloated by FOMO itself; these two things are independent axes of each other which contribute in their own way to burnout.
Single player games, however, that have Ubisoft or Mad Max style bloat, number in an amount large enough number to make no matter about which is worse in quantity. All the proof you need of this is the # of people who don't finish a campaign (measurable by achievement stats) or the people whining about open world tropes (which is the majority of critics for example, part of the reason why Elden Ring is so well-received too, for bucking trends).
A comparison:
Destiny 2 isn't played as a 100% collect-a-thon or measured by completionist standards; hundreds of hours in a live service game is spent perfecting the craft on a selection of a smorgasbord of activities (sometimes a singular aspect, like Crucible/Trials, with only some campaign hurdles to overcome just to get there). The collection / checklists grows as a consequence of what you do; for most players it is not the primary purpose or systematic impetus of the gameplay. Part of my og overall point: how often this butter is churned is the burnout, and that's up to the player, regardless of FOMO.
Mad Max I mention bc the game deliberately goes out of its way to entice you to do most things in its world, just to progress. The activities themselves feel too inspired by checklist mentality (so it's a checklist game with formulaic humdrum), and it could take someone much much longer than they intended just to get past hurdles - dozens of hours longer (I took over 100 to check the checklist on HM). This is not unlike a MP service game to players who are burnt out by the grind, which is my point.
Note: the hours themselves don't matter; it's how we filled them. Contrary to what some POS website says, open world games take hundreds of hours, potentially, just like live service MP. All of them these days spread content over months and years due to DLC, so it is completely one's own fault if you chug the drink down all at once. Furthermore, many players potentially drop a game before 10-50 hours in, respective of whether its gameplay is good enough to keep going. Again, hence my original point, more or less.
I think we've now addressed what needs to be, replete with definite misconception and probable misunderstanding. As everyone has their own tastes (I'm one who likes everything), the arbitrary player can not definitively deconstruct aspects they don't like without acknowledging similar drawbacks in the stuff they like. Thus, it's irrelevant as to what type of games enable burnout (and bloat & FOMO), bc it's just not based on content rollout (as is typical with GAAS). It's based on the cross section between player mindset, habit and intrinsic game design.
TLDR - Also, bloat is not a good characterization of the problems facing MP games (I shouldn't have implied MP and 1P burnout as similar, originally, in retrospect). Burnout in general has different metrics (hours is actually an insufficient metric) all contributing to it. Big open world titles (or drawn out 1P campaigns) are not exempt. Not relevant as to whether 1P or MP exceed each other in number of examples of burn out content or which is better at mitigating it, either; same with the number of players a game could feature, simultaneously, NOT determining whether it'll burn you out tbw — that only determines the nature of burnout. Your complaint and my points are directly addressed with that; I'm not humouring any further discussion on my part.
(Edit: Don't need to, all this would've been in further rebuttals if it not here).
Other edits:
Added an overview comparison of D2 and Mad M, and a conclusion paragraph that rolls better into the TLDR.
removed Ubisoft analysis & commentary on narratives; weren't integral to the thrice-repeated main points.
@Richnj you know it's the same with bloated single player open world games tho? The number of players is actually irrelevant to a game's bloat (or rather, whether one burns out from the game itself, at all).
@Rmg0731 last year or so they said they were basically going back to the drawing board, more or less. Not unlike what had happened with Metroid Prime 4 on Nintendo's side.
TBH was coming here to say that I had never liked Rare's 2020 summer special video in which they streamed or recorded two of the senior staffers on the project just talking to each other about this game. The discussion sounded like a brainstorming session, and that's not great; it suggested they still hadn't set a clear direction for the game, and I was right.
There's no way you can find unlisted items unless someone on the inside feeds you tips, or they're breeching security.
I'm not gonna blithely accuse of the latter, but it sounds like Mr. So and So Great Track Record on Twitter has an insider tipper. That tipper is the actual leaker.
The article makes it seem like publishers-within-publishers are what makes a second-party contract. This is not so.
It is only second-party publishing development because it'll focus on publishing cloud games from mainly external developers; Xbox Game Studio subsidiary developers - including Bethesda and pals - could very well partner up with the CGO, but that would be redundant with the CGO's very purpose being to seek out & fund new projects.
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Re: Soapbox: Forza Horizon Is Spinning Its Wheels, So Let's Bring Back The Best Racer On Xbox
Test Drive Unlimited
Re: Upcoming Action RPG 'Stormrite' Teased For Xbox Game Pass
I like the typical swords & sorcery + dragons/etc fantasy theme(s), but I'd rather the imagery and iconography move beyond medieval inspirations.
Re: Calico Gets Review Bombed On Xbox, Dev Calls For 'Better Moderation'
"Review bombing" is a loose term with several contexts. Specify. One context suggests coordination amongst a subset of users - that is likely not the case, for various reasons (laziness being one of them).
It is incorrect and deficient to down-rate something to lowest score because it's not aesthetically, thematically/politically catered to you; something that you've fundamentally disagreed with. Overall quality of a game experience has next to nothing to do with the message in its medium (and the medium is the message, in case you haven't heard); today's writers brush on this when they talk about the "cultural impact" of a game — I think that's fine to talk about, but not fine for anyone to base their opinion of something.
Thus, if the constituent design elements (e.g. gameplay in particular) sucks, take the effort to explain why. If it IS the writing, as described above, still be tactful, explicit, pertinent - what it means to be on point. You'll find that fundamental disagreement doesn't translate to "zero" or the closest substitute to that.
Re: Calico Gets Review Bombed On Xbox, Dev Calls For 'Better Moderation'
"Intolerable" is a sign of weakness.
Re: Calico Gets Review Bombed On Xbox, Dev Calls For 'Better Moderation'
@Xeno_Aura there is no industry standard.
Re: Scorn Runtime Revealed Ahead Of Xbox Game Pass Launch
GD the guy with the apostrophes
Re: Digital Foundry Host Says Xbox Series X Wins Most Console Comparisons
It wasn't that way about a year ago, though, especially for solid 60fps
Re: Two Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (June 23)
Wow last ever Fifa EA game... Last one I played for real was 18 or 19, might give it one last go. Hopefully it goes out with a hurrah.
Madden, NBA 2K and the latest F1 continue to be my favourite sports games
Re: Two Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (June 23)
It's a shame Naraka is a BR game. Good thing they added campaign co-op.
Re: Fable Producer Responds As 'Downscaling' Rumour Gains Traction
@NEStalgia Well said. Additionally, the vast majority of all those leaks - whether they're ***** or not, whistleblowing or not, from an actual inside source or a rumour-mongering attention grubber - are intentional. Very few accidental ones, if at all. Just thought I'd throw that additional consideration, as a tangent.
Re: Fable Producer Responds As 'Downscaling' Rumour Gains Traction
Re: Hiring, we should only assume that it's still "early development" iff (if and only if) we know what sort of positions they're hiring to fill. So it is not a factor of whether they're just hiring at all (just what they're hiring for).
Re: PlayStation's Jim Ryan Continues To Dismiss Game Pass-Style Launches
Oh yes, because all [of] their 1st/2nd-party games (yes, first and second) sold tens of millions each over their lifespans, netting them ~50-70% or more of MSRP (which was never more than 60 USD; 80 CAD, until now, but as they lower prices for a game then even a 70 USD title becoming 50 bucks averages out to a cool 60 over time).
But of those tens of millions, a few titles netted more than 10-15M NEW sales (the rest were used sales).
The preceding paragraphs are intended to be a bit sarcastic and quite hyperbolic (exaggerated).
Instead of banking the profits from their revenue, they upped their future expenditures, which lead to what, exactly? What does an increased expenditure of millions more do, to attain qualitative results beyond that of HFW/HZD and God of War? Was it for R&D on the fancy SSD IO throughput bandwidth in the PS5? Was it for allowing them to hire more junior writers like Alanah Pearce, in fall 2020 (no less for a game that understandably got delayed seeing as how they were still hiring writers A MERE YEAR out from original planned release)?
What exactly are they doing with their gross budgets, when they also have a hands-off policy on development, too - so who's even telling them that they need to spend more money when they're already doing it right with whatever they already have? (Any C-suite exec would tell you: "Why on earth would I approve of higher budgets when we got it right before with less?").
Instead of answering these questions, Mr. Jim Ryan, which would naturally arise upon analyzing your philosophy, maybe you should ask two questions instead:
1. How much profit is Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios actually making from the various Game Pass revenue streams - GP Ult in particular?
2. Is it actually funding (expenditure) that's the problem with their games, or is it really too many cooks in the kitchens with no clear direction? To wit: Halo Infinite stumbled for years, Everwild stumbled last year or so, and Perfect Dark supposedly stumbling right now as we speak.
{Additionally, my further speculation is that their other projects and contracts are simply delays for various reasons which may not necessarily be remarkable or related to quality control. Examples: Project Mara is still too early in the pipeline, probably bc its older sibling Hellblade II is understandably taking forever; Starfield is too ambitious and probably on the wrong engine, as per usual with Bethesda (and that title is holding up TES 6); Redfall is yet another multiplayer title that very likely wasn't yet offering something revolutionary, so Arkane probably panicked and delayed it; Forza Motorsport 8 is likely sitting in the oven so that they can avoid the promise Uncle Phil made about maintaining "two year" cross-gen support for development. Everything else is just a delay for reasons beyond control (Stalker 2), or just announced too early.}
Re: Don't Expect As Many Showcases This Year, Says Geoff Keighley
That's okay. Gotham Knights and Hogwarts are more than enough for me, and I refuse to get around to new games until 4+ months after they released anyway.
Was also getting tired of Keighley making his shows unofficially taking in too much of the limelight, so any excuse to watch less of his stuff is okay with me. (It's nothing personal: there should just be more unofficial "official" shows, and so far the only prominent people competing with him have relegated themselves to podcasts).
And I think that we also just need less stuff coming out, so that publishers aren't stretching themselves so thinly that they push out rushed crap and set schedule expectations unreasonably high for developers. That all usually has an economic backlash which directly affects the consumer, negatively. (I'm at a loss for succinct words here, oh well).
Re: Next-Gen RPG Steelrising Gets Story Trailer Ahead Of Xbox Series X|S Launch
Uh, ok. Greedfall was decent but I've played in-depth modern and classic RPGs of similar or higher calibre over these last two decades or so. If they improve on their take of the recipe, great
Re: God Of War Creator Slams Xbox Boss's Response To Bethesda Delays
My issue is that YouTubers and podcasters of all kind - including former professional studio workers & creators like him - are implicitly doing their "broadcasting" with so much focus because THEY have issues they probably still need to work through. I can't even begin to name all the commentators out there who rant because they have not successfully reconciled their hangups and baggage.
Re: Little Witch In The Woods Debuts On Xbox Game Pass Next Week
@Balta666 yep, I feel ya right there. The funny thing is that my distaste for early access games didn't even come from officially confirmed ones - it came from games that were early access in all but name only. Titles like Anthem are "excellent" examples of a game released early, but disguised as a full launch, to garner consumer feedback (and generate revenue on an increasingly profitless project).
Re: Achievements In Original Xbox Games? Microsoft Rewards Pretends They Exist
More proof that the MS Rewards app on Xbox is actually handled by an algorithm, lol.
Re: Random: Xbox Series X Owner Panics As Console 'Runs Out Of Memory'
Netizens, writers and bloggers use the word "seemingly" a lot. Maybe even too much. A synonym here and there would be nice, some thoroughness even better (to ascertain things), and failing all that, confidence - we're in an age where being bombastic, running one' mouth too quickly, or just being opinionated is what counts for making one's words stick out the most. So who really cares if something actually is, versus ostensibly (besides sticklers like me)?
Re: UbisoftNL Clears Up 'Confusion' About Ubisoft+ On Xbox Game Pass
@Rocco81 it would be cheaper to do a trial and/or subscribe for just a month (the max length of time before one gets bored of Ubisoft open world hum drum).
Re: UbisoftNL Clears Up 'Confusion' About Ubisoft+ On Xbox Game Pass
I dunno how many times I gotta keep saying this. It was implied for Xbox, not for Game Pass. Yes, they didn't explicitly state that it would never come to GP, but they also never explicitly said it would. It was just explicit for Xbox, like EA Play once was.
Re: Outriders Hasn't Been Profitable Despite Positive Xbox Game Pass Launch
@Banjo- they've been saying that this game hasn't been profitable since last summer.
Re: Outriders Hasn't Been Profitable Despite Positive Xbox Game Pass Launch
Didn't help that SE* frequently put the game on sale for like $20 in my country — even as early as summer 2021. They wanna make profit? Have a little more faith in a product's potential for greater profit margins; i.e. treat your customers' wallets with more respect, and make a good game that engages us immediately and for the long-term (but without being immediately cheapened to <60% MSRP to capitalize on sales discounts).
Re: Little Witch In The Woods Debuts On Xbox Game Pass Next Week
@Balta666 I am not too keen on early access either, especially if the quality could bring down the reputation of a service like Game Pass. But, to the unfettered access devs would have to user feedback via GP would be a great boon to the game's final development.
Re: Roundup: Rogue Legacy 2 Is Getting Incredible Reviews So Far
well I prefer my rogues on Switch, but I'll buy it for Xbox in a little while (just bought Sekiro, finally) to support indie exclusives. Can't have Xbox getting excluded or picked last for these things, after all.
Re: Xbox Isn't Done With New Acquisitions, Job Listing Suggests
The "rumours" surrounding Ubisoft are about non-gaming sharks circling it as it treads water.
Re: Xbox Engineer Explains Why Smart Delivery Forces Series X|S Version
@BAMozzy No. Wrong on all accounts, oops, sorry for being polite.
Re: Xbox Engineer Explains Why Smart Delivery Forces Series X|S Version
@BAMozzy Please ease up with the excessive apostrophes (aka "single quotation marks" or whatever). I believe we've already commented on that quirk on this website.
However, unlike last time - when I mentioned that it makes the argument strangely seem simultaneously this and that (e.g. satirical and uncertain) - I didn't allude to how it could make a reader feel. That practice makes it seem like we're all misunderstanding things and/or using incorrect terminology (even if only slightly incorrect). It therefore comes across as condescending.
Re: Xbox Engineer Explains Why Smart Delivery Forces Series X|S Version
Not really a problem for the myriad of people playing from One X to Series X.
The correct compromise here is to make optional the downloadable upgrades for 4K assets, just as we begged them to do for One X. I still have a 1080p screen for Pete's sake.
Anyway, this is the least of my concerns for the system, so I'll leave it at that.
Re: YouTuber Angry Joe Threatens To Take CBS To Court Over Halo Dispute
@Korgon I agree, I'm not a fan of those fandoms as well. Would definitely not want to be constantly having to cater for their "wrath" or worse, their boredom (when they invariably move onto other channels or things as they pass into different phases of their lives).
Re: Outriders On Xbox Game Pass Is Getting A Huge Expansion This June
Nobody who's only accessed the game via GP - anyone who doesn't actually own the game - will be able to get the expansion upgrade price. You'll just get the standard GP discount. So, 20% off of US$60 is US$48 (or 80% of the listed price).
Re: Sonic Origins Brings Its Remastered Collection To Xbox This June
Any water left in the bucket?
Re: Another Four Games Will Leave Xbox Game Pass Soon (April 18-30)
My friend bought me SOR4 on Steam when it launched. He was bored during the early pandemic, lol. That was a great gift and it took me a while to reciprocate properly.
The following year he got us Dark Alliance (also a day one XGP release) on Steam, and we both got frustrated with how sucky it was. Unfortunately we both played too much to return it. What a waste of his money. I bought him It Takes Two and we played it before it launched on GP, so that more than made up for DA.
Re: Microsoft Is Giving Away Free Gift Cards For The Xbox Spring Sale 2022
I legit thought this was some sort of mistake on Thursday the 14th, when I was trying to download an invoice from my Xbox Store order history. Called MS support (which is a mess to find a phone # for; even worse was navigating back to my order history from the support website); they told me it was a free gift. Lol
Background: I needed to prove I bought the Middle Earth Shadow bundle, bc I couldn't install the DE of Shadow of War (... it had turned out that I just had to download base game and DLC separately, sigh). Then in my most recent order history entry, I saw a credit from MS, that matched what I paid for Middle Earth, and thought maybe they had refunded me for revoking the credentials.
Re: 'Loyal Fans On Xbox And PC Game Pass' Help Scarlet Nexus Reach Two Million Players Worldwide
@Royalblues Square Enix has been very generous with GP, too. Same with Capcom, but haven't seen anything of theirs in a while, and only RE7 has lasted more than a year on GP.
Re: Xbox Dev Clears Up Confusion About Ownership Of Games With Gold Titles
@BAMozzy bc you're using single quotation marks (apostrophes) so much, your spiel comes off as a combination of sardonic and strange.
Re: How To Fix "The Person Who Bought This Needs To Sign In" Error On Xbox
I've been having this issue for years with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. Have already figured and tried all of these solutions and settings, doesn't work.
Perhaps it's an error from the early days of Xbox store's ability to give gifts to another account; I received it as a digital gift from my sister for Xmas 2015 or so. Her account is dl on my XBO X, but that wasn't set to her home Xbox when I got it (her partner's is).
You'd think that would be the source of the problem, but it isn't? I still have access to her Rare Replay with no issues, and it's not as we had logged into RR years ago before she switched her home Xboxes (in 2016-17) or before I upgraded to the X (in 2018).
I also had free access to CoD: Advanced Warfare when it launched, when one day I came home, started up my old XB1 and saw that game randomly downloading onto it, lol. (It was revoked a year later or so). So maybe this is the universe's comeuppance on me.
Re: Another Six Games Will Leave Xbox Game Pass Soon (April 11-18)
@OneArmedGiant gotten around to my backlog from three months ago, myself
Re: Xbox Exclusive Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Releases This September
I'd rather play a game like this with 3 randos chattering in my ear than alone. If I wanted a single player game, my NPC companions better be filled with personality and competent AI (and preferably not NPCs, but playable).
Re: Surprise! Xbox Games With Gold For April Hasn't Gone Down Well
@uptownsoul PS+ Extra, Premium/Deluxe tiers do look attractively priced, versus PS+ Essential, when considering the bulk subscription options (3-month and especially 12-month fees)
Re: Surprise! Xbox Games With Gold For April Hasn't Gone Down Well
This is making me upset, now. When are we going to realize these "free games" have always been just the throw-a-bone GIMMICK perks to smooth over the actual reason XBLG and PS+ exist: pay-gating multiplayer services?
Once a consumer remembers this and accepts it fundamentally, the "quality" of these games becomes as important as determining what type of eggs you want for breakfast (if you can even eat them, that is).
Re: Fable Dev Announces He's The Game's New Lead Level Designer
@Rmg0731 it wasn't announced four years ago. That was rumoured until summer 2020.
Re: Fable Dev Announces He's The Game's New Lead Level Designer
Ostensibly, not seemingly.
Re: Rare's Everwild Set To Feature A 'Large Scale Multiplayer World'
@Richnj Well, despite what I wrote above in a related post - which could imply otherwise - MP games don't necessarily have "activity bloat" per se. Neither are they far exceeding big 1P campaigns fraught with icons and filler quests on a world map. Plus, these games effectively replace content (and sometimes actually do that) rather than simply stacking on more stuff to do.
These games are FOMO'd, as you say, but the real danger they have is mindless repetition from the literal same activities & modes, rather than cloned activities/tasks & modes usually gated behind something arbitrary (plot points, for example).
They're not at all bloated by FOMO itself; these two things are independent axes of each other which contribute in their own way to burnout.
Single player games, however, that have Ubisoft or Mad Max style bloat, number in an amount large enough number to make no matter about which is worse in quantity. All the proof you need of this is the # of people who don't finish a campaign (measurable by achievement stats) or the people whining about open world tropes (which is the majority of critics for example, part of the reason why Elden Ring is so well-received too, for bucking trends).
A comparison:
I think we've now addressed what needs to be, replete with definite misconception and probable misunderstanding. As everyone has their own tastes (I'm one who likes everything), the arbitrary player can not definitively deconstruct aspects they don't like without acknowledging similar drawbacks in the stuff they like. Thus, it's irrelevant as to what type of games enable burnout (and bloat & FOMO), bc it's just not based on content rollout (as is typical with GAAS). It's based on the cross section between player mindset, habit and intrinsic game design.
TLDR - Also, bloat is not a good characterization of the problems facing MP games (I shouldn't have implied MP and 1P burnout as similar, originally, in retrospect). Burnout in general has different metrics (hours is actually an insufficient metric) all contributing to it. Big open world titles (or drawn out 1P campaigns) are not exempt. Not relevant as to whether 1P or MP exceed each other in number of examples of burn out content or which is better at mitigating it, either; same with the number of players a game could feature, simultaneously, NOT determining whether it'll burn you out tbw — that only determines the nature of burnout. Your complaint and my points are directly addressed with that; I'm not humouring any further discussion on my part.
(Edit: Don't need to, all this would've been in further rebuttals if it not here).
Other edits:
Re: Rare's Everwild Set To Feature A 'Large Scale Multiplayer World'
Why do I get the feeling Everwild is becoming the Xbox's answer to Pokémon (some people had been spreading gossip about a Pokémon clone on Xbox).
Re: Rare's Everwild Set To Feature A 'Large Scale Multiplayer World'
@Richnj you know it's the same with bloated single player open world games tho? The number of players is actually irrelevant to a game's bloat (or rather, whether one burns out from the game itself, at all).
Re: Rare's Everwild Set To Feature A 'Large Scale Multiplayer World'
@Bleachedsmiles it won't. Those 2020 trailers were already touted as concept videos, and they already started reworking the game a year ago.
Re: Rare's Everwild Set To Feature A 'Large Scale Multiplayer World'
@Rmg0731 last year or so they said they were basically going back to the drawing board, more or less. Not unlike what had happened with Metroid Prime 4 on Nintendo's side.
TBH was coming here to say that I had never liked Rare's 2020 summer special video in which they streamed or recorded two of the senior staffers on the project just talking to each other about this game. The discussion sounded like a brainstorming session, and that's not great; it suggested they still hadn't set a clear direction for the game, and I was right.
Re: Leaker Finds Mysterious New Xbox App On The Microsoft Store
There's no way you can find unlisted items unless someone on the inside feeds you tips, or they're breeching security.
I'm not gonna blithely accuse of the latter, but it sounds like Mr. So and So Great Track Record on Twitter has an insider tipper. That tipper is the actual leaker.
Re: Xbox Announces New Cloud Gaming Initiative
@Halucigens I've been hesitant to both download and stream this title. May have to get a new SSD and upgrade my internet to accommodate it, lol.
Also don't wanna play without a flight stick, bc what's the fun in a flight sim with a regular ol' controller?
Re: Xbox Announces New Cloud Gaming Initiative
The article makes it seem like publishers-within-publishers are what makes a second-party contract. This is not so.
It is only second-party publishing development because it'll focus on publishing cloud games from mainly external developers; Xbox Game Studio subsidiary developers - including Bethesda and pals - could very well partner up with the CGO, but that would be redundant with the CGO's very purpose being to seek out & fund new projects.