MaccaMUFC

I’m a bit late with my comment/opinion but I have been reading the articles and comments since last night.

Just wow. The mismanagement is unreal, how have they let it get to this point? Phil and co have got to change the way they manage their studios going forward because it can’t keep going the way it has.

Even though I’m disappointed with all this, I’m still going to be invested into the Xbox ecosystem by still subscribing to Game Pass every month playing on my Series X and buy their next gen console but I now definitely don’t see them the same as I did since 2001 and before all of yesterdays news. I can understand some people being done with the brand after all the controversies over the years but the day I’m done with Xbox is the day they stop with console hardware and game pass and go full 3rd party publisher.

Today on Edge I got the option to earn 500 points, by just clicking on it, for being MS rewards user for so many years. People should check that out.

Absolutely love the games Remedy put out like Alan Wake, Control, Quantum Break and of course the first two Max Payne games.

I played FBC: Firebreak earlier today for a couple of hours and I honestly thought it was fun and can see myself going back to it now and again. It’s definitely not up there with their other games but it’s good enough in its own way.

It’s a bit unfortunate we’re going to have to wait a while longer for the wireless version for Xbox but I can wait as I love my current G7 SE, a wireless version with extra tech is perfect for me.

I’ve got a code despite not owning GoW Ultimate Edition, only played from Game Pass. Code is wasted on me as I sub to Game Pass every month and was intending to play Reloaded on the service anyway.

Now that I know it’s basically the same as the other Ally models where it’s a handheld PC where you can download from Steam, I’m now more interested but it’s the price that would prevent me from actually buying it. If I ever went for one it would have to be the Xbox Ally X but I’m not paying more than £600 for it, couldn’t justify paying that much for a handheld and it’ll probably only be £100-£200 less than the next gen consoles.

Pre-orders are up and the standard version is £44.99 and Digital Deluxe Edition is £58.32 which includes what looks like two maps Home Invasion and Dark Waters.

I’ll be pre-ordering the standard version myself as I think the £44.99 price is very reasonable.

Well the ROG Ally X is currently £799 so it’s not going to be cheaper than that is it? Unless the Xbox Ally is restricted to just Xbox games and doesn’t offer all the benefits of the other Ally models where you can download from Steam etc so therefore it should be about £100 or £200 less.

I personally wouldn’t pay more than £500 for the ROG Xbox Ally X, hence why I’ve not bought a ROG Ally before as I think they are just too expensive for what they are. The Series X was £450 on release which has much more powerful specs, yes it’s a stationary static console that you can’t take anywhere with you and play on the go but is that why the Ally X is £350 more? If so that’s ridiculous.

It’s an E from me.

Like @GuyinPA75 said there was far too many anime style games. Got to be the worse Xbox Games Showcase I’ve ever seen.

There were five games I was interested in like Grounded 2, High on Life 2 and Resonance: A Plague Tale but the other two we already knew about Outer Worlds 2 and Gears Reloaded. Honestly surprised we didn’t see anything for Fable, Gears E Day, Everwild, State of Decay 3, Perfect Dark. Not one of those were shown.

Seriously who needs that much storage? There’s no way someone is going to have 30+ games installed and play them at once. I’ve got a 1TB SeaGate expansion card but that’s because games these days are around 100GB and are increasing. What’s wrong with just having certain games installed then uninstall when done with them to make space for more?

@InterceptorAlpha Ah well looks like I’ll just be waiting for the G7 Pro to release then. It still seems to be much better than what other premium controllers out there offer. It’s supposedly going to be around $80/£70.

When I first started playing the game I thought it was bugged with my character being in a T shape pose, as we have seen in other games with bugs/glitches. Everyone else in-game was normal. Least I know now 😅

@InterceptorAlpha I just looked up that controller after seeing your comment. I’m currently using a GameSir G7 SE which I find is great but I’ve just had a new media wall put up and the Series X is stored behind the tv, so I’m now looking for wireless controller that has Hall effects stick or at least TMR. I’m not paying close to £200 for a controller with hall-effect sticks, I’ll have to check out that 8BitDo Ultimate 2 or wait for the GameSir G7 Pro wireless to release.

Why anyone would even consider the Elite Series 3 is beyond me, it most likely won’t have hall-effect or TMR sticks/triggers, no gyro and will only be compatible with an Xbox. There’s other options out there that have all of the above for under £50.

Anyone able to play this? I keep getting a message saying servers are offline.

Great looking controller but I’d never buy one without Hall effect thumb-sticks. Very happy with my GameSir G7 SE but currently looking for a wireless controller with Hall effect sticks but only seeing the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro (£200) and Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra (£180).

Looks unbelievable and to see it captured on a current gen console is mind blowing when it looks like that.

I really hope the movement controls are a lot more fluid and realistic this time round as opposed to GTA V’s which is almost tank-like to today’s standard.

I’ve not bought anything from the sale yet but I’m thinking of buying Nobody Wants to Die before the sale ends. Heard good things about it and reviews are very positive.

Only thing that’s keeping me on Xbox now is my massive library of digital games and game pass. If it wasn’t for those I’d of moved over to PS5 Pro by now.

I will get the next new Xbox console but I do think it will be the final one before Microsoft go full third party publisher and abandon console hardware altogether. It’s quite sad as I’ve been gaming on Xbox since the original back in early 2002 up to Series X.

@VenomUK We won’t know until we’re in-game and Digital Foundry will most likely do a comparison video for the game soon but I’d bet that this will have better graphics since it’s using Unreal Engine 5 over Creation Engine 2 which is used in Starfield, Fallout 4 etc.

@FredBiletnikoff Whenever that happens you just need to click on the game card above the price, it then takes you to another page where it shows the option to download from game pass.

As soon as Tom Mustaine looked at his watch I knew it was a shadow drop. Downloading now and can’t wait to lose myself exploring the world later tonight.

@Kaloudz I agree this is much more than just a remaster, a remaster to me is just a simple resolution bump, slightly improved textures and framerate. What Bethesda have done here is bordering on a proper remake. Downloading as I type this, 123GB so a biggie as expected. Game looks and sounds phenomenal.

I used to enjoy the SWAT series by Sierra Entertainment on PC back in the day. This will definitely be a day one buy for me, it looks great so really looking forward to it.

Looks like a massive transformation from Xbox One version to Series X/S. I’ve not yet tried the game but I think it would really benefit from having a 2 hour trial like Deadside did, the trial proved to really popular and probably helped the game sell a lot more.

@Medic_alert There is no real gameplay to Balatro though for it to constitute as a proper video game. It’s something you could do with a pack of cards irl.

I admit the genre isn’t for me at all but just don’t understand why it’s so popular and received awards when it there are many other card games out there like it. I’ll just chalk this up as one of those weird things I’ll never understand, same as the very small minority who don’t get why GTA V is still popular and selling gang busters to this day.

I played a bit of it earlier but I honestly don’t get why it’s so popular and won many awards. IMO it’s **** and isn’t even a proper video game. Currently playing Hogwarts Legacy, now that’s a proper video game with freedom of movement, exploration, action etc what can you do in Balatro? Click on a few things on the screen? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I could understand the £20 price point (or £18 if you have GPU) if there was an expansion pass included but to only include 2 skins and a digital art book/soundtrack? Behave 😂

It’s obvious this is just a cash grab aimed at people who can’t wait an extra 5 days even though we’ve been waiting over 4 years.

I still don’t believe this will release this year, I reckon it will be delayed to next year. We still haven’t even got the second trailer, over a year after the first one.

This is great news, just hope the sacrifices are minimal and still running 1440p @60fps. Least the option is there for those that want the buttery smooth framerates.

This is good to know, least I know I won’t have to potentially fork out about £400 for a new Series X if, god forbid, mine ever broke.

Most of us will get used to 30fps in time but it’s going to be awful going from 60fps on GTA 5 to 30fps on GTA 6. But we’ll probably all be in awe once we get in the game to even care about framerates.

@Quickbeamx I’m not sure if you’re joking or not but I’ll bite. Sea of Thieves, High-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Grounded have released on PS5 last year. Doom: The Dark Ages, The Outer Worlds 2 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are releasing this year on PS5.

There’s many articles about MS/Xbox's intentions to bring more games to PS5 going forward now that they know how well their games sell on PS5. Also Halo: Master Chief Collection, Flight Simulator 2024, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Age of Mythology, and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition are all rumoured to be coming to PS5. It doesn’t take a genius to see where MS/Xbox are going with their strategy for first party games.

If true then expect it to be announced for PS5 too. That’s fine because we all know MS/Xbox’s strategy now in regards to first party games. I’ll look forward to playing it on Game Pass, again only if it’s true.

I don’t see Microsoft announcing a next-gen Xbox console this year as I can’t see Sony announcing and releasing the PS6 anytime soon when they’ve only just released the PS5 Pro. I think we’ll hear more about the next-gen consoles sometime in 2026 with a release in 2027.

I’m prepared to pay £100+ on GTA 6 especially if it comes in ultimate edition form. I paid £90 for RDR2 Ultimate Edition day one so I’m definitely not going to think twice about paying more for GTA 6. I may even subscribe to GTA+ if the benefits are worth it for GTA 6.

I just bought Gear Club Unlimited 2 - Ultimate Edition as I fancied a cheap arcade racer and it actually looks more fun than Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

@Deljo Do you really believe Microsoft would like Game Pass on PlayStation? The sales of their games could be severely impacted even the majority of players subscribed to it. Must be more money to be made when selling a new game for £70 as opposed to someone just subscribing for £14.99 and they may not keep renewing after finishing a game they are interested in.

@StylesT The PS2 was my last main console until Xbox came along and that has been my main console up to the current Series X. Could you easily just exit the Xbox ecosystem just like that? What about the massive digital game library? Achievement system (if your into that), all your friends on Xbox and the incredible value of Game Pass? Those are the things that I’d find hard to just leave behind after almost 23 years of Xbox.

Saying all that I do like the idea of just having one console and the benefit of having all games, barring Nintendo games, on one system. I have no interest in PC. I’d definitely get an official Xbox handheld as well.

@OldGamer999 I’ve seen that there’s hardly any Xbox consoles in stock anywhere as well but it makes no sense if it’s intentional when they are making a next-gen Xbox console. I could understand the stock shortages if there was no plans for another Xbox console.

Come on Phil, get that check book out yet again.

I think Microsoft buying Ubisoft would be great as they are lacking IPs that are open-world third person, they usually always opt for first person but we have enough of them.

If this doesn’t have Hall effect sticks then I’m not interested. Been through enough controllers that have suffered stick drift that I’ll now never buy any controller unless it has Hall effect sticks.

I bought Death Stranding the moment it was released on Series X. It’s the only game I bought from that list as I have no interest in the others.

I would prefer Microsoft to just come out and say there they are no longer making Xbox consoles, with the way they are going with their play anywhere Xbox strategy and Sony allowing Game Pass on their future consoles so I have the best of both worlds. It will never happen but that’s what I’d like to see.

Just goes to show how much the game needed more time for polish before releasing. I’m still waiting for a few more big patches before considering going back to where I left off.

As long as they keep making Xbox consoles I’ll buy it. If/when they stop making them then I’ll be jumping over to PlayStation but will still keep my latest Xbox console due to the massive digital game library I’ve accrued since Xbox 360.

@johnK I’m in UK too. Other than doing everything I’ve listed to earn points what else are you doing to earn 100K more? I’m really curious to know how I’ve been missing out on potentially earning 100K more points which equates to almost £85!

Total playtime: 1245 hrs (Series X)
Games played: 261
Achievements earned: 2,365
Gamerscore earned : 121,530
Top 2% for time played
Top 1% for gamerscore
Top 1% for achievements unlocked

@Th3_Highlander How have you earned that much MS reward points? I’ve only earned 65,500 and I do pretty much everything I can like daily, weekly, monthly in rewards tabs barring play a PC game for 15 minutes, bing searches, MS Edge searches and it’s daily set and activities, logging into Xbox app daily and playing Jewel. And here’s you with 100K+ more lol

The HDR on this game is terrible so I’d of thought they’d of done something about that in this update. They really need to add a picture/scene from in-game in the HDR settings so we can see the calibration. I’ve turned HDR off in Xbox settings and the game looks so much better, on default with HDR on it looks oversaturated during the day and way too dark when it’s night in-game.

I was looking up about the game’s HDR settings and how there isn’t a scene to see how it looks when changing the settings. Then I saw someone recommend to turn HDR10 off and wow what a difference it makes, game looks so much better and just goes to show how badly the HDR is implemented in this game.

@el_pieablo I know what you mean about enemies being bullet sponges, when I fought the bloodsucker in the prologue I think I went through about 2 or 3 full magazines from the AK-74 before I took it down, that’s not fun at all imo and I was playing on Rookie.

They still haven’t fixed the ‘Customize Identity’ feature, which shows the red man holding an error board. When trying to change anything the game just shuts down and dashboards you back to Xbox Home Screen, this is preventing us to make a start on Career mode and prevents us to board and leave the aircraft to walk around.

Also when in the game is anyone seeing very low res textures on buildings, landscapes etc? Don’t remember MFS 2020 looking this bad.

I’ve only just got past the prologue but my initial impression of the game was that the graphics didn’t look anywhere near as good as the gameplay videos we’ve saw before release. Those videos were obviously running off a powerful PC but still I’d of expected it to look similar on Series X quality mode.

I recently finished Shadow of Chernobyl so I know I’ll enjoy the gameplay, exploration etc.

@awp69 If playing on Series X what mode are you playing it on quality or performance? I’ve toggled between the two but don’t think quality mode looks good enough to sacrifice the extra frames.