Markatron84

I can't speak much on Starfield because I didn't play much of it. But from the 2 hours and 46 minutes I played... eeehhh 🤷

I'm liking the look of this. Linear games like this really fell out of favour, but I for one miss them.

It's been two years since a defining moment in the history of Xbox... and things have never been better. 👀

I'll admit getting caught up at the time in the excitement of the possibilities. Thinking about what dormant ABK franchises they could bring back (although I still maintain that Phil Spencer wearing a Hexen t-shirt never meant anything and will never mean anything, sorry) and all those back catalogue ABK games on Game Pass! etc.

But what a wet fart of an acquisition this has been for everyone involved: so far, nigh-on $70bn has bought us no dream franchises returning from the ashes, a sad trickle of back catalogue releases on Game Pass, Call of Duty being as insipid and uninspired as ever, and thousands of people losing their jobs. But hey, Xbox is more profitable and has higher engagement than ever before!

Since this acquisition was announced as being in the works, I've mostly moved away from game subscriptions and console gaming in general (I have a Switch 2 because it'll be a cold day in Hell before Nintendo releases its games on PC) and am glad of it. No moronic decisions made by one platform holder who despite having almost limitless resources couldn't come up with a cohesive business strategy to save its life, or another who's so busy trying to chase outdated industry trends that it can't fathom why endlessly throwing good money after bad isn't yielding the desired results.

Sorry, rant over.

@Kezelpaso in fairness, you can't be blamed for not currently being well-versed in D2. I haven't played since October last year and only keep up with the goings-on due to morbid curiosity. I was an avid player up until the combination of egregious nickel and dining of playable content, vaulting of content I'd paid for and piss-poor seasonal offerings became too much to bear.

Also, I hate to be a pain, but technically Shadowkeep and Beyond Light aren't included in this trial period. Turns out both campaigns were made available to all players to play for free some time ago. Now, that I didn't know.

Curse of Osiris, Warmind and Forsaken aren't included, surely? All that stuff - along with the campaign from the base game - was vaulted. You can't buy or play them anymore.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

Wouldn't the money Xbox puts into designing these special edition controllers have been better used going towards keeping some people enployed?

"I lost my job through no fault of my own. But hey, at least someone might win a grotesque special edition controller based on a character that hasn't been culturally relevant in over 20 years."

Coming home with Halo Reach and convincing my wife to try it, her really liking it and then us having five games to play through in co-op.

@FraserG and I think I'll give up on getting actual news, information and reviews here. 👍

@FraserG Of course people are going to click on something claiming to inform them about the next Xbox, because they think the article is going to inform them about the next Xbox. Which this article doesn't do. It takes bugger all information and stretches it out into something that could've been summed up in a few lines. Catering to the audience and baiting them in with things you know full well they'll click on aren't the same thing.

My main issue with this is that it's detrimental to actually reporting on actual news, talking about games or reviewing games. Every nothing burger article like this takes time away from reporting on or writing about things that are actually interesting or relevant. I'm not sure how many times PX needs to be told this.

@FraserG I mean, you can disagree, but you just made my point for me. You're titling an article "Next Xbox Console: Everything We Know So Far About Microsoft's Next-Gen System", knowing full well there is basically no information to report. What available information there is can be boiled down to:

1. What Is The Name Of The Next Xbox Console?
We don't know.
2. What Has Xbox Said About A New Console So Far?
That there will be one and it'll supposedly be "the largest technical leap".
3. Are There Any Rumours About The Next Xbox Console?
Loads, but who cares? They're rumours and therefore not information.
4.Will We Get A 2025 Release Date For The Next Xbox Console?
We don't know.
5. What Kind Of Price Will The Next Xbox Console Be?
We don't know.

I get it. We've been here before. You "have to cater to what the audience wants", blah blah blah. But this is a clickbait article and you know it. Saying you'll add to it as the months and years go by? Then write the article in a few months or a few years, when you actually have information to report on.

@FraserG It's popular because the title reads "Next Xbox Console: Everything We Know So Far About Microsoft's Next-Gen System". The content isn't popular; the (sorry, but it is) click-baity title is just doing its job.

@Ricky-Spanish it's my second favourite thing after Switch firmware stability updates.

@NeutronBomb the intelligent among us will pay no mind to videos/YouTubers like that and get our information from reputable sources. Unfortunately, you're right; "news" on social media is rotting the human race. It used to be that to report on news, you had to be qualified, reputable and have some sort of integrity. Unfortunately, YouTube - or the internet as a whole, really - made it so that any mook can say anything and get a sizeable following.

Anywho, I sincerely doubt Microsoft will close Playground even if Fable does turn out to be a dud, for one reason: Forza Horizon. I don't see Microsoft putting an obstacle in the way of FH6 being made; it's too big a deal for them.

@Lup my complaint was actually what it always is: that's not the title of the game.

Bomberman: Act Zero 2.

@Ricky-Spanish are you saying we wasted our time here? Nice to be appreciated, eh @Kaloudz? 😉😂

Not surprising news, honestly. I feel like they've shown way too little of it, considering that it was supposedly coming out this year and how far back they announced it. More time in development hopefully means a better game though.

For anyone disappointed in the delay: at least you know it'll come out sooner than The Elder Scrolls VI 🤷

Edit: also, Fable fans, be thankful it's only been delayed. Wonder Woman fans reportedly haven't been so lucky, although not as unlucky as Monolith.

@Ricky-Spanish I respectfully advise to go against @Kaloudz's recommendation. Personally, I found Assassin's Creed Valhalla to be an aimless and overly bloated game that I gave up on within 10 hours. Legion isn't perfect; hell, a lot of its ideas and mechanics fall far short of their ambitions. However, it's a much tighter, more restrained game. Plus there are banners with "c*nt" written on them; what's not to like? 🤣

Both games are on Game Pass though, obviously, so you've nothing to lose by trying both, either or neither.

@Kaloudz

With the 3/4 remaster accompanying the game as a pre-order incentive?

I bloody well hope not.

@FraserG as of right now, it's not on PC Game Pass. My wife got a month of PCGP to play Avowed, so I've been checking since you published this article, because I wanted to see what it was like before picking it up to play on Steam Deck.

I've only played Rise. Got about 4 hours in before becoming overwhelmed by all the systems and mechanics. I guess it's just not a series for me.

@fizban3332 yep, when rumours of poor sales started cropping up, Aaron Greenburg said that Hi-Fi Rush was "a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations,", which clearly wasn't true considering that shortly after that Microsoft closed Tango Gameworks and washed its hands of the IP.

Don't forget that Gears of War: E-Day is probably around a year out from release as well, so timing its launch with a Netflix series could work out extremely well for Netflix, Xbox Game Studios and The Coalition. Makes sense to us!

Dave Bautista is urging people to start a petition for Netflix to pull its finger out. Sorry, but if a Gears of War film/series is at that point in production right now, then it's probably not going to be done soon enough to time it with E-Day. And if it is done in time, it definitely won't be good.

@Kaloudz it isn't on Game Pass, but it does go dirt cheap on sale quite regularly. Although, I suppose if it's not a priority play for you, you should wait as it's bound to wind up on there at some point.

@Kaloudz if grid-based combat is what turns you off, I recommend Midnight Suns. Your movement is a lot more free than in most turn-based tactics games and there's not even a cover system.

@Kaloudz I'm generally the same, but there are a few outliers; namely, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Marvel's Midnight Suns, Mario + Rabbids (the first one) and Disgaea 3. For some reason those all really gelled with me.

It needs background music, like the Wii and Wii U.

I don't like watching or listening to Fares; I find him cringey, insufferable and edgy for edgy's sake. I will, however, never question the man's artistic integrity and willingness to go against the grain in regards to what a publisher would want him to do. The guy knows what he wants to do and what's best for the players playing his games and does it.

we've got to produce great quality games, you can't be a gaming publisher without first and foremost being focused on that

Nonsense, I won't hear of it! People have been hanged for this kind of deranged, outlandish, unorthodox and most important of all dangerous thinking.

@Elbow I'm not sure it's that strange. Not to sound facetious, but they're probably testing this stuff out with Bleeding Edge of all games because if nothing comes of it nobody will care.

@donv2135 I'm no techspert, but I'm sure AI is at the root of all upscaling technology, not just PSSR.

Hopefully this pans out and lets more people easily access more of their library of games on future consoles. I can fault Microsoft for many things but the effort they've put into backwards compatibility so far can't be sniffed at.

@Elbow you know, you could just go play Bleeding Edge right now this second, right? Ninja Theory ended support for it, but the game's still online. Well, that's assuming anyone else is still playing it, of course.

Oh good. More rumours.

Wow, so NetEase rewards the studio contributing to arguably the most successful new live-service game in recent years by shutting it down? Cool, good work NetEase.

@BacklogBrad Blinx Tactics.

The 1+2 remaster was brilliant. A 3+4 remaster would be my ideal next game (barring a completely new one, of course) but I'd take most of them, to be honest.

@LogicStrikesAgain back in the day, we used to call games published by platform holders but developed by external studios "second-party games". I like this.

@Ricky-Spanish word

@FraserG I know the data you have in front of you is what you have to act on but, speaking personally, I'd like to see more news articles about, y'know, games.

I understand the need to "cater to the audience", get the maximum amount of clicks/engagement, etc, and that Pure Xbox has a small staff, but I seem to get more information about games that are coming to Xbox by reading Push Square and Nintendo Life.

This isn't meant to sound snarky, mean spirited or anything like that, but - and I've brought this up before, as a reader on the outside looking in - but it's kind of irritating and off-putting to see the same sorts of articles over and over about every little thing Phil Spencer says/does/plays/wears or the latest bit of nonsense some rumour mongering "insider" is spouting this week.

Again, I don't mean the above to sound mean in any way; just a bit of (hopefully) constructive feedback.

@Ricky-Spanish you'll really get a kick out of this then 👀

Xbox has a good lineup of games coming and seems to be finally set up to release them at a decent cadence.

Not being funny though, but does this graphic really need to include all the previously released games, especially when that list includes such bangers as Bleeding Edge and Redfall, and Hi-Fi "it was successful by every metric but oops not successful enough for us to keep the studio open" Rush?

It's amazing how much console owners are against changes to the status quo. It's not 1995 anymore; a platform holder's success doesn't have to hinge on what games are exclusive to its plastic box.

I personally believe that there will come a time when Microsoft is releasing all of its games multiplatform, day one. It might be later this year, it might be next year, it might be five years from now, but I firmly believe that it'll happen.

Whether I'm right or wrong, time will tell. But Microsoft's multiplatform strategy, whatever form it takes in the future, will bring in more money than simply relying on hardware sales and Game Pass subscriptions ever could at the stage in the game and will benefit everyone. Players will have more choice regarding where to play Xbox games. And if releasing games on Sony and Nintendo platforms means more money for Microsoft, surely that means more money available to be invested in future Xbox games and third-party Game Pass additions and - most importantly of all - more money available to keep developers employed?

@Coletrain I don't think that Days Gone Remastered is even a test to gauge interest in a potential sequel. Wolverine and Saros aren't coming out this year, and who knows when Fairgame$, Marathon and project Gummy Bears will see the light of day, or if they won't get cancelled before they even release.

So I think Days Gone Remastered is a barrel-scraping last-ditch attempt by Sony to have something come out this year because its push into live-service has gone tits up and anything else they might have in the pipeline is either years out or in pre-production.

What has Hookshot got against Roman numerals?

From a quick cursory search, Obsidian's games (on Opencritic) have scored anywhere between 78 and 89. I reckon Avowed will settle on 81-85.

@AverageGamer true, it probably wouldn't have gone well for Activision. Although, THQ had no IP of its own to speak of under its belt until late in the company's life. Activision at least had IP/games beyond licensed software prior to its focus on Call of Duty. We might have lived in a world where Hexen, Singularity, Pitfall, True Crime and Soldier of Fortune set the world on fir... No, sorry, can't finish that sentence with a straight face 🤣

@AverageGamer it is a crazy what if situation. Without Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and Vivendi/Blizzard, would Activision have instead doubled down on licenced games? Could Tony Hawk's Pro Skater been their key pillar? They wouldn't have had Crash or Spyro, so Skylanders wouldn't have happened either. Wild to think about.

@Kilamanjaro i haven't used it in a while, since I let my GPU lapse last year. I think it was October I last used it, when I got it up and running on Steam Deck. It worked great. No noticeable input lag, and on a screen that size you wouldn't know it was being streamed from looking at the image.

@Scirius that's an in-game feature though.

@trev666 @Kilamanjaro really? I tried Stadia when Google was so desperate to get people on board they were sending out the controller and Chromecast Ultra for free. It was bunk. I've had a far better experience with Xbox Cloud Gaming.

@PhileasFragg yeah something definitely needs to change at WB Games. Other developers and publishers would be falling over themselves to make games based on WB's various IP, so licencing them out to other companies would definitely be the way to go. Disney cottoned on to this and games based on their IP have generally been far better than anything they ever put out themselves.