Kang81

@TheGiraffe

That would be perfect. Maybe they still will, but my bet is they just stick with a partnership, maybe make a cheaper version.

My hope is on Sony making a handheld like a Switch but more powerful. My Steam Deck is good, but I'd rather have a dedicated PS/Xbox/Nintendo handheld.

I got my code this afternoon and I forgot this was even a thing.

Make a dedicated Xbox handheld that lets me download my digital Xbox Library or or it's useless to me.

My Steam Deck already does what this will do with the exception of GamePass, which I don't use. Even then, I could dual boot my Steam Deck with windows and handle GamePass as well so it's just not for me.

I hope Sony does better than making a PS Plus device. I like my Portal for streaming my entire purchased game library when I'm home, but it also had a price tag of only $200. I want a dedicated Switch-like handheld or why even bother.

@TapeLoader

I'm waiting for someone at Xbox to say just get a second job like the PS3 all over again. It's going to be expensive, no doubt.

No doubt extremely expensive and overpriced going by the new price increases Xbox made to all of their hardware recently.

A Rog Ally X is already what, $700? I'd expect $900-$1,000.

@EvenStephen7

This entire generation has felt lackluster. Obviously there have been good games, some even great, but no surprise blockbusters in the making that wowed me.

Maybe I'm losing interest in gaming a bit, but I'm just waiting on that wow game still.

PS State of Play, Summer Games Fest, and the Xbox Showcase have all been lackluster for me. Glad to see it's good for others though.

The only thing I'm really looking forward to is Sword of the Sea and Clockwork Revolution.

@IronMan30

Ditto, this just seems to fit the Switch better as a portable game to me.

@Lordyeet

At least it's playable on PC and is fun on the Steam Deck. Still, a shame that EA made sure the series is done for despite American McGee having already started work on another Alice game.

@Benjamin

Nostalgia alone will never let a new Elder Scrolls beat Oblivion for me outside of a full modern remake.

I'd love to see Blur, Wolfenstein 2009, the Saboteur, and Singularity return to being playable on modern systems again via digital marketplaces now that Xbox owns Bethesda and Activision.

I won't hold my breath for them though.

So I purchased an old platformer called Fancy Pants Adventures for $1, yet it doesn't show up on my series X at all in my full library nor does it show when searching the store.

I guess I just tossed a dollar out the window. 😑

It could be repetitive and empty at times, but I highly enjoyed the game. The vehicle combat was immensely fun and the sand storms were great.

FYI: This game is on Steam and it runs flawlessly in the Steam Deck. It's a perfect game for on the go or trips.

@Lup

I honestly have forgotten so much about both games, but I love them equally.

FarCry 3 made me a fan. I enjoyed the PC game, Ubisoft's first few FarCry games less.

One thing I dislike about Blood Dragon is the persistent dark red sky. It's dark red, or darker red, and after a while I was sick of it. I get why they did it, but it's still too much.

Blood Dragon has my favorite tutorial of any game ever. It's great. 😄

Edited

Console wars are childish

Asking for all games to be on every system is in my opinion a bad thing. What reason does Sony or Microsoft have to strive for better without competition?

Xbox squandered the success of the 360 and hasn't recovered still.

Instead of begging for ports, consumers should have demanded better of Xbox. I feel like they just haven't cared since the XBox One reveal.

Xbox just used their bottomless pockets to try and recover by creating GamePass which subscriptions seemed to have hit a plateau, and it's not a service for everyone.

Xbox should have used the last decade to cultivate talent and create studios that could make games but I feel they simply do not care enough. That's why we have GamePass, Xbox purchasing major publishers for obscene amounts of money, and now the likelihood of bigger Xbox games coming to Playstation or Nintendo because Xbox needs to recoup those billions somehow.

Xbox can act like they're looking out for gamers all they want but they're not. They're trying to save themselves from their arrogance and mistakes.

Sony could have been in a similar situation when they showed their own arrogance at the PS3 reveal.

"The PS3 is for consumers who think to themselves 'I will work more hours to buy one'. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else." Anyone get a second job to pay for theirs?" - Ken Kutaragi of PlayStation.

The 360 is tied with the PS4 as my favorite consoles, and it's been disappointing that Xbox has fallen from the heights of the 360.

Initially I would have said Avowed, but after seeing Indiana Jones gameplay I went from not interested to really interested.

You can't go wrong with killing Nazis.

@Steel76

That's the best way to do it. Sign up for a month here or there and binge until the next content drop that interests you.

Open Roads looks interesting, it reminded me of an upcoming game called Pacific Drive, looking forward to that one.

Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, and Wolfenstein are all great games that I'm sad to see are either done for good or at the very least pushed aside for quite some time, which is likely the case for Wolfenstein.

I hate seeing Respawn's talent for FPS' with stories, usually good ones, wasted on a Battle Royale.

I hate that Sunset Overdrive is dead. I had hoped now that Insomniac and the IP belonged to Sony we'd see a PS port/remaster and sequel. Not enough people played it and I think they should.

I only recently learned Microsoft still has rights to any ports or sequels, and with the leaks of Insomniac now being turned into a Marvel machine, that's never happening. Such a waste, Insomniac is usually great at everything they do, and they are capable of working in multiple genres more than most studios.

Wolfenstein hurts too. Hopefully Machine Games can go back to Wolfenstein after Indiana Jones. Publishers seem to be focusing on popular licensed properties for easy success at the expense of great studios working on new IP or more worthwhile established ones.

@Gamer83

I would love to see that happen, but at this point, I doubt any of the teams that worked on those games would be around. They've probably been scattered everywhere, or even left Activision.

I know a job is a job, usually, but if I had to work on the same game over and over after being able to do different things all the time and be more creative then I wouldn't stick around.

@shoeses

I didn't know the same happened to High Moon. Originally I thought they were a Destiny support studio and then just closed.

Regardless, I hate seeing any good studio relegated to a support team for Call of Duty. It's always a waste of great talent in my eyes.

I really liked the Transformers games from High Moon. I would love to see what they could have done with today's tech and the further expansion and popularity of the movies.

I could see them make it an open world game, or at least far bigger open areas/levels that could be explored and backtracked. I don't know which is prefer, because as much as I love open world games, they have become overdone and aren't necessarily a good fit for everything.

One game I forgot about I'd love to see return with a remake/remaster or even better a new game would be High Noon's Darkwatch. It was such a great setting and concept.

@Ocat

I haven't purchased BG3 yet because I'm hoping it will eventually get a physical release.

Of course there is also the fact I've never finished Divinity Original Sin and haven't even started my copy of DoS2.

So I can certainly wait a long time.

I wasn't a big fan of Ubisoft's 2D platforming Assassins Creed games so I wasn't sure about Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, but more Prince of Persia is always good. Even PoP 2008 that will never get the sequel it deserves thanks to the haters. 😡

Yeah, I felt the same about the lack of difficulty and poor combat, but a sequel could have fixed all that. The world and story deserved to be expanded upon and the visuals were stunningly gorgeous. The game still looks gorgeous today and the art design is amazing.

After hearing some recent hands on gameplay opinions I'm pretty excited for this game. Metroidvanias are some of my favorite games, and this one being developed by the Rayman Origins/Legends team has me really hopeful, because those games were amazing.

I'm not too keen on the protagonist, yeah, I hate the hair but I'll get over it. To be fair, I wasn't a big fan of Warrior Within's edgy Emo Prince look either, just because it was 'cool' for the time. I'm more disappointed that we won't actually be playing as the Prince himself.

Here's hoping it turns out to be good, and I really hope the Switch version doesn't end up like Bloodstained, because I prefer my Metroidvanias on a handheld and I'm not dealing with Ubisoft games on PC.to buy it for my Steam Deck.

@jikflet

I was going to add that. I bought it on Steam to play on my Steam Deck, but the controls are less than ideal in a controller setup. Tweaking them via the Steam Deck doesn't help much.

I loved the game back on my Xbox 360, and I'll forever be angry at Activision for turning Raven Software into a Call of Duty support team and not let them work on their own games again. Such a collosal waste of talent in my opinion.

@Gamer83

I forgot about those, I'd love to see them as well.

Blur was an awesome racing game, I still don't understand how it wasn't successful when something like Split Second was, which I feel wasn't as good.

Blur was like a Burnout and Mario Kart love child, it should've been an instant success.

I'm still angry at Activision for cancelling the sequel, but even more for shutting down Bizarre Creations. When early footage of the sequel was revealed I was further upset.

Wolfenstein 2009 is my favorite in the series. I loved the hub world and it's secrets, though I could have used more of them. While I loved Machine Games' take on Wolfenstein, I miss the occult setting and hope the next game in the series goes back to it. Who knows when that will happen though since Machine Games' are now working on Indiana Jones.

Just like Blur, I'm upset that Activision took a great studio like Raven Software, who followed up Wolfenstein 2009 with the great game Singularity, and turned them into a Call of Duty support team. To me, it's one of the biggest examples of wasted talent in the industry for decades.

Raven made some great games. In addition to Wolfenstein 2009 and Singularity, some other favorites where X-Men Legends 1 & 2, and the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I don't like Star Wars, but I believe the 2 Jedi Knight games they developed were good and well recieved.

I own both Blur and Wolfenstein 2009 physically on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC DVD. It's a shame they can't be played on modern consoles or PC anymore. I recently 'found' a way to play them on my Steam Deck at least.

I'd love to see them come back for sale digitally, same goes for Singularity.

@Grumblevolcano

I haven't owned a PC in nearly a decade as I had no need for one. I could just use my smartphone phone for everything I needed.

I did buy a laptop when I needed to handle more important things like everything involving my parents affairs before they passed.

Now I keep getting prompts to upgrade to Windows 11 everytime I login to my laptop. If Windows ever went to a subscription service I'd stop using Windows. I'm so sick of everything becoming a service.

@TanaDax

I hate how I can't mix and match Nintendo profile icons from different sets. Also, not sure if this is new, but I just wanted one of the backgrounds in the new Mario Wonder icon page but it requires me to first buy one of the characters.

Nintendo has put some pretty stupid restrictions on something as simple as player profiles. 🤦‍♂️

They need to recoup all those billions they spent recently. 😄

Seriously though, all rewards programs are a joke anyway.

I love Black Flag, but it was a PS3/360 port, and as such it's disqualified in my eyes.

It's going to be a toss up for me. I love Ryse: Son of Rome, but I also love Powerstar Golf and wish it was a continuing franchise because it was a ton of fun.

Bonus: Anyone with a Steam Deck, Ryse Son of Rome looks and plays great on it, and you can get it cheap fairly often. I think I bought it for $5 last year when I bought my Steam Deck and it's just as fun as I remembered.

While it wasn't a launch title, my favorite Xbox One game is Sunset Overdrive. I feel it's often overlooked and should be played more.

I'm still hoping Sony ports it to the PS5 so more people can play it and experience it. Plus it could increase the chances of getting a sequel, unless insomniac gets stuck only making superhero games, which would suck.

@InterceptorAlpha

The procedural generation is so bad in Starfield, it's like Bethesda didn't even try. I e seen the same copy pasted structure 3 times on one planet, and the other two locations were effectively small holes in the wall somehow labeled as caves.

It's not like Starfield is terrible or anything, but is it ever underwhelming, and oftentimes it feels like it was phoned in. It's the first Bethesda game that's ever bored me.

While I find Starfield to be a massive disappointment, it's not entirely a bad game, there are far worse.

I do think it's nowhere near good enough to even be considered for the running as a GotY contender.

@abe_hikura

There were a handful of good toe-in games, even a few great ones, I can't think of a single one at the moment though.

It's been quite some time since I've even noticed a movie/TV show toe-in game, a long time in fact.

With all the risk aversion to making bad games withing the industry for quite some time now, I'm surprised that any of the businesses in charge of the rights to these tie in games even bother.

I'd bet the vast majority of licensed games are abysmal games, and that's in the entire lifetime of licensed games being a thing.

Why even bother wasting the time and money on something that is so low effort it can only be a sales flop.

Oh well, it's not my money.

I see I was one of the unlucky ones, I had 8 360's. 😑

I take excellent care of my electronics, but my streak of bad luck with the 360 was record breaking for me.

My last 360 was the CoD Modern Warfare 3 edition console. It's been packed away for years, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the RRoD once again if I unpacked it and turned it on.

@Kaloudz

Yeah, I didn't even realize it until I started to look for all the Bethesda game release dates. Time has been flying by, I would have thought Skyrim was about 10 years old.

@Kaloudz

I haven't had much interest in Starfield, and that's since it was first announced. Elder Scrolls 6 is what I want, and unfortunately it will be nearly 20 years between the release of Skyrim and the hopeful release of ES6. That is far too long for my liking.

That said, I've found Starfield hugely disappointing and in many ways a step backwards from previous games. That's not even mentioning all the streamlining Bethesda has been doing to their games to gain wider appeal ever since Oblivion.

Not unlike the simplification of the Mass Effect games as they progressed. I'm actually a bit worried about ES6.

I have no idea what my GoTY will be yet. I don't care about technical prowess or how expansive a game is, or a number of other reasons. I base my choice of GoTY on pure enjoyment.

So far, the games I've enjoyed the most this year are TotK, Hogwarts Legacy, Marble it Up, Dredge, and Sea of Stars. I still haven't played Oxenfree II, and Spider-Man 2 hasn't even released yet.

I want to play Baldur's Gate 3, but I've never finished Divinity Original Sin, nor have I started Divinity Original Sin 2, so it'll be a long time before I play BG3.

As for Starfield, it isn't a bad game, but for me, it's a highly disappointing game. It feels unfinished and lacking basic features past Bethesda games have had, among a myriad of other issues I have with it. To be fair, Starfield was the first Bethesda game that didn't interest me when revealed either. I'm not even sure why, it just doesn't resonate with me so far.

I will say it's gotten better once I finally left New Atlantis and and started aimlessly wandering, which I've always enjoyed most about Bethesda games. It did take far too long to get to that point though.

@Zucaritas

Dredge is so good!

@Spaceman-Spiff

EDIT: I was confusing Eurogamer with Digital Foundry, although I thought they were part of the same company

They have? I thought I saw a headline somewhere they had access before anyone else. Unless it was just limited access for their in depth technical analysis of the game.

In which case I can see Bethesda denying a pre-release game code if whatever they said was less than favorable.

@Dsswoosh

I was so disappointed in Redfall, but the writing was on the wall with that game, and Arkane should have stuck with what they were good at. Single-player Immersive Sims. They're one of my favorite developers, I just want them to go back to what they're good at for their next game.

I diiked Deathloop from the moment it was revealed. I didn't even want to give it a chance. Primarily it was do to the slight roguelike mechanic of repeating everything over and over.

I eventually gave the game a try and surprisingly, I really enjoyed it. I'm still not a huge fan of reusing the same maps over and over, but I eventually grew to like the story and premise, and the two main characters Colt & Julianna were excellent. Personally, they're two of the best characters I experienced in gaming in a long time. The voice actors nailed their delivery and relationship to each other.

@BBB

This is why I always say reviews need to do away with scores entirely. Too many people don't even bother to read reviews, they often just read the brief review summary and score and base decisions on that. Or worse, read none of the reviews and entirely base their opinion on the score alone.

Everyone has different opinions on how they would score a game, and they will never be agreed upon by everybody.

Personally, I read or watch reviews and what I look for is how the game plays, performs technically, and to just gain a sense of how the game is overall in gameplay and story, then I base my decision on that.

@StylesT

He definitely shouldn't have been tasked with the review if that was the case. If he was a professional, that wouldn't matter, but not many game reviewers seem to act professional these days.

@NeutronBomb

I'm honestly surprised Ryan Mccaffrey didn't review Starfield considering he's IGN's resident Xbox fanatic. No dig at Ryan, but he's said it himself, and I've been reading his reviews from the start of the Official Xbox Magazine days. I miss that magazine.

I'm fairly certain he's a massive fan of Bethesda's games too.

@ArmoredMore

I believe they did this for the PC version of BG3 as well

I want to play it, but I already bought Divinity Original Sin 2 and haven't even played it because I never finished the first Divinity Original Sin.

So it will be a long time before I play BG3.

@BrilliantBill

"I just worry that now every big developers start selling 30 dollar play-it-5-days-early passes."

Oh, that is definitely going to be more prevalent going on. 🤦‍♂️

Publishers couldn't get money any easier than early access to a game, this will grow, and likely never go away. Me, I'll just wait the extra week. 🤷‍♂️😄

I'm not intentionally trying to offend anyone, and this is just my personal opinion on the matter. Personally, I think it's rather dumb to pay extra money for access to a game a few days up to a week before release. It's a week at most, fans have waited years, one more week really shouldn't matter, but obviously it does to a lot of people.

@Savage_Joe

Edited for grammar and clarity...hopefully

Late response, but I agree with you.

If Microsoft could come out of the disastrous Xbox 360 fiasco, and I bought 8 of them (thanks Best Buy warranties), I think they'll do fine if they have to backtrack on the whole parity thing. There will obviously be more backlash, and they may lose further customers from here on out, but Xbox is certainly not the only one of the big 3 who fell from grace and had to fight their way back. It's happened to both Sony and Nintendo.

Although, I do feel they don’t have much good will left between the 360 disaster and the poor decisions with the XBox One reveal and its seemingly lack of caring about developing its own 1st party studios and games. Which I feel was part of the reason for the creation of GamePass, as a quick fix band-aid leading into what I think is now their core strategy from here on out.

It's the combination of these that likely turned many consumers off the brand. It had that effect on me, to a point, but I still bought a Series X in the hopes they'd turn things around, which for me, I'm still waiting on.

Dropping parity, which leads to lost features on S versions of games surely won't help though. Hence Microsoft's poor sales of the XB1 and and continued 3rd place in console sales.

However, I'm not knowledgeable enough on tech specs and their limitations in comparison to a competitors system. I would imagine anyone with technical knowledge of the ups and downs of PC hardware, and that's basically a gaming console these days, won't be surprised by any of this.

It's the consumers who are unaware of this difference that will likely be disappointed or upset. I do feel it should be common sense based off the price difference alone. As with any product, if it's a cheaper version of a product, one should expect limitations.

This is all Microsoft's doing though by requiring parity between the S &.X. I'm fairly confident that a majority of gamers don't even use couch co-op, so it's only the minority that do who will feel cheated. It's couch co-op today, but what will it be tomorrow? I guess we'll all find out as the generation goes on.

@Dsswoosh

EDIT, I'm not intentionally trying to be offensive, though I understand if it does

This just seems like tinfoil hat console war mentality, which quite frankly is childish and needs to stop. Reviews are subjective opinions.

People hate on IGN reviews all the time, it doesn't mean their reviews are bought, nor those of GameSpot. One could say all reviews are bought if a reviewer wants to keep getting pre-release codes for reviews. For example, if a reviewer is known for consistently bad reviews, it is highly likely publishers will just forgo sending pre-release codes to that review outlet so it doesn't effect their metascore, which is so problematic to begin with.

The fact that people care about the numerical score of a game is just dumb. It seems far too many people don't even bother to read a review and instead either just read the summary and view it's score, or worse, base all their decisions on a a score. Which has clearly been shown to negatively effects a developers bonus pay.

I feel reviews shouldn't have scores. People should read the reviews so they can learn of a games faults and accomplishments. There is no perfect game, some people may feel otherwise, but faults can be found in any game.

Reviews are subjective, always have been, always will, and there will always be people that don't agree with them. It doesn't always mean a reviewer will be paid off.

@Jenkinss

So your saying the best path is to make a lesser version from PC and PS5 and restrict all Xbox versions from a feature consumers may want?

I plan on playing this solo, it I'm sure there are many who want to play in split screen co-op. Why should I get a lesser experience because people were

1) Too cheap to buy a Series X
2) Couldn't afford the Series X

I didn't pay for the Series X to be held back by the Series S.

Consoles are a luxury item, and while I'm fortunate enough to be able to own all 3, if I couldn't afford the Series X at launch, I'd just wait and save up more for it instead of limiting myself with a lesser console.

I'm all for Xbox selling a lower priced console to make it more affordable for consumers, like everyone, there was a time I couldn't afford all 3 consoles let alone one new console at launch.

This parity and dropped features issue will only grow worse as this generation continues. Mi rosoft should have just released a digital only console with the same specs as the Series X for $100 less just like the PS5, then this would never even be an issue or discussion.

@Lightning720

That may be the case for now, but it will more than likely grow worse as the generation goes on. If I bought an S, and all of a sudden games start omitting featurs the X version has because of hardware limitations I'd be upset.