Comments 490

Re: Xbox Series X|S UK Sales Have Surpassed The Nintendo GameCube

Kienda

@StylesT @Dezzy70 I wouldn’t say it’s sheep mentality as much as it is brand familiarity. For the majority of FIFA only players in the UK, they will see “PlayStation 5” plastered all over football matches and that helps sell the console to them as the place for FIFA. COD also has been PlayStation favoured for a long time. Although I guess you could argue both those categories are “sheep like”.

Then you have those who aren’t swayed by simple things like that. I for one favoured my PS4 because of the exclusives, mainly the third party exclusives such as… Final Fantasy 7: Remake, Ni No Kuni 1 & 2 and a lot of other Japanese games that were only released on PlayStation. Not to mention Sony’s own first party offerings.

Having said that, this generation I’m spending more of my time on my Xbox. And I bought my kids Xboxes to compliment their Switches because Game Pass is insanely good value for families.

Re: PlayStation Is Going Down The Xbox Game Pass Route With Shadow Warrior 3

Kienda

@Dezzy70 that’s the thing. For my family, Game Pass is amazing. The kids have so many games to play they never get bored, and they can play all the games their friends have access to. It is great value for money.

For me personally, most of my gaming is on physical games I have bought which aren’t on Game Pass.

I don’t have as much time to game or to try out lots of things. So I pick and choose what I want to play and focus on that. If it’s on Game Pass, great. If not, I won’t try find an alternative on there I’ll just buy and play the games I want to play.

Re: PlayStation Is Going Down The Xbox Game Pass Route With Shadow Warrior 3

Kienda

@PanFriedSoup I love the sentiment and have thought about doing this myself, but unfortunately I’m unable to justify that kind of spend.

However, there some games I absolutely love having physically sitting on my shelf so some I have bought retrospectively when they are super cheap. There are also games that have never released physically that I would put in that category also.

Unfortunately, money is the issue for me, but I agree. It’s nice to support the creators and also nice to have a physical copy of games we love.

I still have old games I don’t play anymore than I can stay at the box for a few mins and fee the nostalgia and “experience the game again” in feeling. But hey, that might just be me.

Re: Battlefield 2042 Drops Out Of Top 50 Most-Played Xbox Games

Kienda

@Blessed_Koz yeah, I can understand it from EAs perspective. But EA are the ones whose reputation is on the line and they would have known 100% how the game was at launch. And there were multiple solutions or options they could have made to make it a great game.

Maybe back then delays weren’t so common. But if I was EA I’d have pressured the developer to hit a deadline, delayed it at the last second and given them another 6-9 months to finish it properly with the promise of updates in the future. Instead they launched early, it flopped, and they abandoned it.

There are always ways in business to fix issues. There are always other options on the table. But with EA it always seems money is the option. Anything to keep line the pockets instead of focusing on the product and the customer and making the best game for them no matter the cost.

Re: Battlefield 2042 Drops Out Of Top 50 Most-Played Xbox Games

Kienda

@Blessed_Koz yeah, but the solution to that is to give the developers more time to fix the problem. Not release the game early and let the customers suffer the consequences of EA’s internal problems.

The developers said they needed more time. EA didn’t give it to them. As a result, we the paying customer had spent money on an incomplete game.

In the end, Anthem was a good game with flaws. It could have been a masterpiece.

Ultimately, the buck stops with EA. They are the boss. And they choose what gets released and when it gets released.

Re: Xbox Is Reportedly Working On A 'Monster Hunter' Style Exclusive

Kienda

For me, Monster Hunter World was one of my favourite games of last gen. It wasn’t so much the battles against monsters (which were good) but I just love the world and aesthetics of it all.

An ancient and unknown world. Big ass weapons and cool looking armour. Little cute cats. The fact my character got a full cooked meal before each hunt. Etc.

Re: Battlefield 2042 Drops Out Of Top 50 Most-Played Xbox Games

Kienda

Okay, Dice developed the game, but you can be sure it was the corporate suits of EA that pushed it out before it was ready.

This isn’t uncommon for EA. They look at profits before anything else and getting money for an unfinished game is more important than their customers bad experience. Too many EA games get rushed out and then the developer gets hammered by the fans and EA for not delivering.

It was the same for Anthem, which the developers said wasn’t ready but were forced to release. EA promised to fix then cancelled it. Multiple FIFA games had to be fixed post launch. Mass Effect Andromeda was another one.

Yes, we can blame the developers. But they are only slaves to the master. And that master is hopefully now going to suffer the consequences for their greedy decisions. But they will likely just take it out on the developer.

Re: Activision CEO Wants Guitar Hero & Skylanders To Return On Xbox

Kienda

@flawse my kids still love Skylanders. They are 7 and 10 so I’m guessing they will still enjoy the next game also.

We have 100+ figures and all the games spread across Wii, Wii U and PS4. But I want to try and get all of them spread across Xbox One and 360 as I know now that Microsoft will be keeping them backwards compatible.

If only I had the foresight! They’re going for crazy amounts these days.

Re: Six Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (January 20)

Kienda

I kinda feel like Rainbow Six Extraction deserved its own release window on Game Pass as it is a heavy hitter for Ubisoft and a display of Xbox’s apparent new partnership with them, but it seems it is now being overshadowed by Hitman.

It’s not a game for me personally, but I just thought it might have been better for it.

Re: 2022's Modern Warfare Sequel Could Reportedly Release A Little Earlier Than Usual

Kienda

This is what happens when corporate suits run video games companies. It’s not about the passion or delivering for the fanbase, it’s all about churning out games to generate money.

Personally, I’d spread the releases, produce better quality games but fewer of them and try to focus the fanbase on to a select number of titles and keep those titles alive for longer.

I guess that’s not good for business though…

Re: Talking Point: Is Forced Cross-Play On Xbox Becoming A Huge Issue?

Kienda

It depends on the game, but yes, it should be optional.

You’re not going to have an advantage on Rocket League regardless of the platform you play on (except maybe 120fps) so games like that it doesn’t matter. MMOs also it doesn’t really matter.

But for FPS titles, especially unranked where they don’t matchmake according to skill, then I think it can be a real problem for some. Especially as cheaters are more prevalent on PC.

Re: Xbox Boss: We've Changed How We Do Certain Things With Activision

Kienda

I like Phil, but this is a bit of a non-statement.

It’s typical corporate speak to try and show fans who are outraged something is being done (but not saying what is being done) while being careful not to upset their business partner (because that would be bad for business).

I’m not big on boycotts or outrage mobs. And I don’t think it’s Microsoft’s place to change another company. Activision should be changing and holding itself accountable because it’s the right thing to do, not because of a Twitter storm.

If they only act because of external pressures they aren’t changing for the right reason. And if it took such outrage to bring about change in the first place, then they have far deeper problems to fix that will take a long time to earn back trust with. In fact, I wouldn’t trust any change from the company because they haven’t acted in their own accord but are only doing it to save face.

Re: Best Xbox Games For Kids

Kienda

@gollumb82 Haha. My kids are banned from both watching Ryan on YouTube and playing that game. Thankfully they were never that interested.

Glad I could give some input. Happy gaming with your daughter!

Re: Best Xbox Games For Kids

Kienda

@gollumb82 Spyro might be a good next step for her. It’s very cute, you can make it very easy and it’s super friendly for children.

You might also want to try a kart racer like Nickelodeon’s offerings or maybe Sonic. I’d say CTR might be too competitive/hard.

My kids had a Switch at 4 so they were all into Mario Kart 8, Mario Oddyssey and things like that. And they are top level kid friendly games.

I think finding Xbox equivalents might work and the two I mentioned above might fit that.

Re: Best Xbox Games For Kids

Kienda

@RadioHedgeFund you are right. Xbox is a long way behind PlayStation and a very long way behind Nintendo when it comes to family friendly gaming, but the selection is still decent.

My kids have a Switch and Xbox each. I have a PS4 and Xbox so they are very fortunate to have access to all these games.

Personally, I still ensure my ‘grown up’ games are more family friendly (no horror or gore) because I want to be able to play while the kids are in the room. And unfortunately, Xbox has a lot of games (including upcoming releases) that I will simply never play.

Re: Best Xbox Games For Kids

Kienda

@FraserG @PJOReilly yeah, a few others my kids have enjoyed are:

Terraria
Totally Reliable Delivery Service
Human Fall Flat
T.A.B.S (Totally Accurate Battle Simulator)
Untitled Goose Game
Banjo-Kazooie

Re: Best Xbox Games For Kids

Kienda

As a Dad, I approve this list.

There are clearly other games I’d add personally, but it’s enough of a list to tick most boxes.

One series of games my kids were obsessed with was Skylanders. We have all of them and 100+ figures. But that series has gone the way of the Dodo, unfortunately.

Re: Three Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (January 4)

Kienda

I think Xbox included these games purely to help me with me wife.

You see, Gorogoa and The Pedestrian are a part of the few styles of games my wife actually plays. So when she mentions the cost of Christmas (where I kitted myself out with a Series X and my kids with Series S’s) I will be able to justify the expense by showing her these two games.

That will work in convincing her it was worth it, right? Right?!

Re: No Joke, It Looks Like GoldenEye 007 Is Finally Coming To Xbox

Kienda

This game is legendary. I played for hundreds of hours on the original.

The multiplayer actually had really good options for modifying matches. We mostly played pistols only with one hit kill. We even bought a split cable so we could put the game on two TVs. We had them back to back and taped cardboard over half the screen so we could play 1v1 or 2v2 without being able to see what our opponents were doing. This was all before online play.

Thinking about it. I really hope this has online multiplayer.