JetmanUK

It's nice to see the trend of growing popularity in this poll, great for the franchise.

For me? Number three is the best, I spent so much time in that version of Australia, and I don't have a particular love for that country (or to be clear a dislike either! Haha, I'm more indifferent).

FH3 is my game of the generation on Xbox One.

Just wait until GTA 5 releases on X/S and is also underwhelming and overpriced*... maybe Rockstar are finally getting found out.
I hope so.

*Priced in any way is laughable, when it could be a Smart Delivery freebie!

I'm excited to see what we get back compat and OS feature wise. Not happy that I will have to watch the replay as I'm at an appointment. Grrrrr.

JETMANUK, of course.

You would hope that Manhunt 2 and Max Payne 3 would appear too judging by the list. Also The Warriors.

@Carck True.
Great games, so much fun to be had.

Thank you.

I usually buy the treasure map though. Funny to spend money to play less, but I do. I think the locations are quite frustrating to find rather than fun.

It.... looks like GTA.

I voted for the original Black Ops.
I expected it to do better in this poll tbh, quite surprised, complete domination by the Modern Warfare franchise.

@Snake_V5 I don't think many people who play both GT and FM would agree that GT has that crown any more....

My comments above stated that Horizon is the best open world racer, but yeah I think it's the best racer including traditional track racers too.

All opinions though fella.

This review is basically how I felt about FH4, a wonderful game but more of the same. Number 3 is still my favourite game in the series.

Don't get me wrong here, the series is amazing, by far the best open world racer out there, nothing touches it.

After this entry they need to park the Horizon games (no pun intended) to avoid burnout of the series (pun totally intended!).

I suggest a new Forza game, a mario kart style game with all the licensed vehicles. Remember how good FH3's Hot Wheels expansion was? That kind of gameplay but with power ups.

A modern day Blur.

I'm pleased to say that Vanguard does not include an exclusive game mode.

Here's what I found on what PS got for their exclusives this year:

After keeping specifics under wraps for months, Activision recently detailed how Vanguard will dish out PlayStation exclusives, starting with five extra tier skips included with the battle pass bundle. PlayStation players will also receive 25% more weapon XP when playing in parties, and both PS4 and PS5 will apparently receive exclusive 24-hour double XP events each month.

Other PlayStation-exclusive trinkets include two additional loadout slots plus a free in-game bundle for Season 1 of Vanguard and Warzone with a new Operator skin, a weapon blueprint, and other goodies. Future seasons will come with their free bundles.

I'm 100% ok with this.

@Would_you_kindly Thanks for the list. Haha

I didn't actually say that MS never do deals if that is what your comment was suggesting.
They are however very much less active in this area than Sony.

My thought on the games you mentioned:
PUBG, MS helped a very inexperienced dev team with the game, also Sony don't have an early access program and this game was early early access, I know, I played days of if with friends from the very start. It was rough! Haha.
But yeah, Sony could not have had the game at the same time due to their policies.
They did however get the benefits of MS helping polish the game whilst it was 'exclusive', they never saw the rough 10fps performance that the Xbox had in their version. I still had a lot of fun with this game.

Tomb Raider - I think this deal was done to help MS get something out there that they didn't have in their internal studios, a year deal. Not a fan of these deals. Can't remember many (any?) deals like this since

Dead Rising (3 and 4?) - I think this was marketing and a funding of the project deal. Did 3 and 4 make it the PS4? I think 3 maybe did? Not sure.

GTA IV - I really don't remember this, this was very much of the era when MS were active with deals though for sure. These days are looooong gone. What was the deal?

But yeah, my comment was not on which corporation has which deals and the various details of them, it was on COD and how the Sony deal is much more harmful than the old deal under MS. I'm sure no-one would disagree with that.

I's also sure that no one would disagree that MS are much less active in these practices than Sony too.
I'm not a fan of anyone doing these deals even though I am immune to them, I play on all formats. Its crummy for many.

@FriendlyOctopus 🤣 True!

I get marketing deals will be marketing deals, but this was a really grimey one.

Back on the 360 when MS had the deal it meant that DLC maps were available on the PS3 a month later. This is a whole game mode and for a year. I understand that they don't sell DLC maps now and have to offer something as a sweetner, but a game mode? And for a year?
Not cool Sony/Activision.

Haha, I like this stuff.
MS show a friendly and fun side quite often, I am aware that it's not to everyone's taste....but there are miserable people everywhere.

Comic Sans is hideous though. Haha

What a great feature this is.
I'd prefer MS to add this feature via Windows and leave a third party out of this, particularly as the party also charges for this feature (the free service is limited).

Ah, it'll work just like the Mixer integration did then. Lovely. 👍🏻

I voted yes, after a price drop. Whatever it costs, I'm not paying the full asking price.

It does look sharper now so it's a nice upgrade, also I've set my controller and console to dimmer settings, pretty nice little QOL upgrades.

It looks okaaaaaay, maybe takes too many shots for some of the bad guys to go down.

Always nice to get an update for free.
The resolution on the One X version looks off though, why is it lower than the PS4 Pro?

The blades dash is all about nostalgia. I'm not sure it would work well with all the features of the modern console.

That said I liked it at the time, but was excited every time they changed the 360 dash over the years, it was like getting a new console.

How about an animated blades background instead?

I really want this, but I have absolutely zero need for it, or any where it would really go.

Ironically, my full size fridge, which I bought just before the XSX was released already looks like an XBOX.

This one:

https://ao.com/product/ms83430ffb-fridgemaster-american-fridge-freezer-black-69786-27.aspx?utm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=guenstiger.de+GmbH&utm_campaign=Price%20Comparison%7C331615&utm_content=0&sv_campaign_id=331615&sv_tax1=affiliate&sv_tax2=&sv_tax3=guenstiger.de+GmbH&sv_tax4=0&sv_affiliate_id=331615&awc=19526_1634410141_0cfcae720ef98e1337086220a9471923

Maybe I just need an XBOX sticker for the left door, also a green light for on top.

The main improvement I want from any GTA game is improved controls. The entire (3D) series has felt clunky AF.

The mention of the remasters controlling like GTA V are the most off-putting part of the comments. I find it crazy that they think that GTA V is a great bastian of how a game should control. 🤣🤦🏻‍♂️

I suppose the sales tell them that? I think it's sold well in spite of the controls.

I think this looks OK so far, although the amount of health bars are quite jarring and take some immersion away. Save health bars for a big boss!

I will wait for reviews on this one, my usual tactic anyway.

Xbox will never ever take on Nintendo and PlayStation in their own back yard and win, but if they can keep improving like this they can get a bit of mindshare, which long term will be key in getting more Japanese games on the system.

I've tried two or three different Smash Bros games and I could never get into them, so this is no loss for me. It does sound like some people are happy with the game, so all good.

I'm one of those buyers, I still haven't got round to playing it yet. 😬🤦🏻‍♂️

I really have no idea why Kentucky Fried Cruelty feel that they need a gaming account, or even need to comment on a developers hard work.
Take a look at yourself and your ***** food.

That would feel quite an awkward moment.
Since XBOX One they have been back in bed together, no hard feelings here I think.

I really like the SR games but this preview does not do the new game any favours, it's just dull footage isn't it?

I am hoping that the new game can get near the heights of SR3.

@anoyonmus 2, 3 and 4 ran at 30fps on Xbox One, so I am sure it will.
They did add a 60fps mode to the XB1X version of FH4, but it did cut the res down to 1080p.
I would guess that it will be 1080p/30 on the XB1/XB1S and 4K/30 on the XB1X and that is just fine, the FH games have been rock solid 30fps with perfect frame pacing and good motion blur, they genuinely play really well at 30fps.

I have faith that this game will be very pretty, even on an Xbox One fat. 2, 3 and 4 all ran at 1080p/30fps and a solid fps at that, this will the same.

Expected really as Sony still has a deal with Activision, which to be fair MS had in the past, however the deal with Sony seems more egregious as it's not just a month delay to maps, it seems to be exclusive content or content locked off from Xbox customers for up to a year.
Very scummy deal.

Will MS try to get a deal with Activision after Sony's has expired? I suspect not, they don't that many deals with third parties these days.

Its Rockstar, did anyone expect this to be cheap?! 🤷🏻‍♂️

@KilloWertz
Hmmmm.
Just gonna leave this here. Unfortunate. 😜🤣

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/far-cry-6-has-reportedly-shipped-wrong-versions-in-the-uk-blocking-upgrades/

I voted Vice City, expecting it to be popular choice too. I see that it currently is.
I think the music and sunny aesthetic really made this the best GTA game.

Hopefully they don't play like the originals, those things are clunky.

The nostalgia is strong though and that will drive sales, just please please make they play more modern, oh and make sure all the original music is intact too.

@blinx01 Yeah, I think its optional for the Series S, I saw it on a YouTube video.
I wonder if it is also optional for the XB1X?
I don't have the game to check this.

I went all digital around 2015 so this doesn't effect me.

It does kinda baffle me that this is even news, for years now a disc has just been a physical key for a digital game.
I would suggest that 100% of XBOX One game discs out in the wild do not contain the final game, they all have updates, some of which are actually most of the game itself.

We are not in the cartridge days where you can pop the game in 20 years down the line and you play the finished article, those days are gone, many many years ago now.

Physical copies are for the collector, not for the preservationist.

EDIT:
I understand that people with poor internet may want to buy a physical copy, but to be honest poor internet is gonna catch you out at some point, even if the game is on the disc, updates are often huge these days and games never release in a final state.
It's just the way it is, game publishers are not not going to release their game 18 months later just so you can get a final version on a disc, the world has changed.
Updates can also be a positive, games often get support for a long time and you are going to have to download lots of data, this is gaming and has been the case since last gen (2013 XB1/PS4).

With regards to the Series version not being mostly available and the XB1 version being on the disc, well there's a lot more XB1s out there, but even if they did release a specific Series disc (too costly to produce two physical versions, so no chance there) there's no guarantee that the Series version was ready at the time of disc production anyway.

I've mentioned it before in a comment on another article here, on my honeymoon in Japan I visited the aquarium in Osaka.
They had a Kinect looking down on you to track your movement through a section on the floor where fish were projected.
As you walked round your splashes in the water scared the fish and they'd swim away. Of course no real, water, splashes or fish, just a cool effect. All the little kids seemed to love it.

Kinect, more popular than Xbox One in Japan!
Not difficult I know. 🤣

Ordered, couldn't resist.
I claimed 60 quid with my reward points, so it doesn't hurt too much.

What does hurt is trying to store all the controllers I own, I think I have a problem. 😬🤣

FIFA are a grubby outfit, I would actually be pleased if they moved away from using the name. As long as all the other licenses are present who would really care?

I have already pre-ordered the 20th anniversary Duke, looks like my wallet is going to get a little lighter still.

Most games that haven't made it to the program must be due to licensing issues, so the list will never grown by a great amount

I expect only a handful of games to be added, due to the software wizards in this department gaining so much experience at this point, then it's game over for this feature. Don't lose perspective on just how good they have done here!

Adidas & Xbox, two brands I particularly like.
Sadly I bet these things will be hard to get hold of.

I haven't started the show as yet, but I have been enjoying the memes. It's great to see that Xbox is leaning into popular goings on again, their social media accounts are very well run.

For this type of game I'd take a higher res at 30fps than lower res 60fps, it's not a twitch action game.

With it launching with so many problems, and the fact that it's also a mobile game, will they be able to not just fix bugs but make the game better? I'm not so sure.