Comments 122

Re: Talking Point: Does Microsoft Have A '30FPS' Problem With Its Xbox Series X|S Output?

Phantom_Anima

I left IGN due to fanboy toxicity, and I've stopped commenting here due to many articles lately encouraging fanboy toxicity. I guess I'll just leave now then 😅.

For the record, 60fps is not an xbox exclusive problem but also for the PS5. It's a problem for both current gen consoles.

@avoidercat you'll end up very little content to read if you had a filter. Around 60% of the articles here now are done for rage clicks.

Re: Poll: As Hellblade 2 Draws Near, What Do You Think Of The First Game?

Phantom_Anima

Loved the first game. I finished the game thinking it was a masterpiece. No the gameplay wasn't great, but it absorbed you into a heartbreaking world, full of twists and turns leaving you vulnerable as to what's to come next.

Can it do it a second time? That I'm not so sure, we already know what to expect and I think not knowing is what made the first game great.

Re: Xbox Reportedly Testing The Waters With Sea Of Thieves PS5 Release

Phantom_Anima

I think people need to relax. With the way the industry is heading, this may be a critical business decision. Perhaps they need to recuperate some finances temporarily after the Blizzard lawsuit, or for the acquisition itself. The costs of production has only increased recently so more exposure can be a big help.

The point is, get a grip. Xbox is selling their games to another console, it's not a big deal. I'd still much rather play these games on an Xbox with quick resume and Game Pass. It seems like people just love to complain and be negative or they seem to think it's cool to jump on the bandwagon and hate "the cool thing to hate" on the Internet.

For now I'm going to jump on my Xbox and enjoy playing my games as it was intended

Re: Phil Spencer Celebrates 10 Years As Head Of Xbox This Weekend

Phantom_Anima

Phil is doing an excellent job. Unfortunately things are going to appear worse before it gets better, but that's a sign of his progress and vision are stirring up the gaming community.

He is rattling the cages, and Sony fanboy critics are upping the pressure, with anti-consumer remarks, wild rumours, and unfair poor reviews of Microsoft's biggest games.

All this pressure on Microsoft is to sway the Xbox users to lose faith, and prevent the long term vision from achieving success. Plenty of stalling tactics by Sony and critics alike, but now that Blizzard is finally acquired, and Gamepass seeing great popularity, the wheels are set in motion. It's just a matter of time.

Re: Poll: How Many Physical Xbox Games Do You Have In Your Collection?

Phantom_Anima

Yes it will be sad to not have physical games but it will be for the best. Its more cost-effective which can be used to fund the development of the games itself, not to mention how much more environmentally friendly it will be to not have unnecessary physical copies or store presence.

There really is no requirement for a disk these days except to use up shelf space for a piece of plastic. The nostalgic side in me will miss it, but I'm all for moving on to the future.

Re: Pure Xbox's Game Of The Year 2023: The Results You Didn't See

Phantom_Anima

I've seen on IGN in the comments section, as soon as someone says they like Starfield, the whole community attacks them, claiming they are either a fanboy, or deluded.

Now I am not saying that is the case here at Pure Xbox, but it's a shame that people just can't accept that some people actually think Starfield is a great game.

Re: Bethesda's Starfield Drops To 'Mixed' User Reviews On Steam

Phantom_Anima

So my opinion quickly changed over the course of one night 😆. I ran into a game-breaking bug yesterday, twice now that I've had to restart, although the first time I didn't actually have to. But I don't think I've got it in me to go through a new playthrough anymore.

First time was a bug in New Atlantis for the power re-route activity in the underground. It bugged out saying I needed computer access. Since this wasn't a main quest, I didn't need to restart but I did because I'm a quest completionist.

This time round, it's blocking my game progress. The into the unknown mission bugged out for me, not generating my quest marker for when I have to track distortions. Apparently the bug occurs if you didn't follow a specific quest order, and I don't have a save that goes so far back.

I've enjoyed the game immensely so far, but I can't take another restart 😅. If I can't find my way around this, I'm done with the game.

Re: Bethesda's Starfield Drops To 'Mixed' User Reviews On Steam

Phantom_Anima

Overwhelmingly Positive for me. Its an incredibly built sandbox. Perhaps many were expecting an action-rpg, but this game is a Space Exploration Sandbox first, and Action RPG second. It also has a narrative to boot, and all those concepts together and I think Bethesda have done an impressive job!

Also think the negative critic reviews on it have affected other player views. People have been clocking up over 100s of hours and still rate it 6/7 out of 10 which is strange. Also a lot of complaints about inventory management which perplexes me. I mean that's why you save a lot of money to buy a bigger boat-i mean ship! It's a true role-playing experience which I think most people are not accustomed to.

Re: Some Xbox Fans Aren't Happy About 'Intrusive' Call Of Duty: MW3 Ads

Phantom_Anima

Reading the comments and I'm not sure why so many people are getting offensive over differences in opinion, but hey that's how a lot of wars happen - am I right? 🤷‍♂️😅

Personally I'm not a fan. Sure it's one button press but it started from changing the dashboard into adverts at the cost of a simpler and easier to use interface. Considering how it's developed/progress in a short time, what next? An advert that forces you to watch for 20 seconds before you can skip? Perhaps a 20 second advert everytime you switch games? Hmm might not be long until games become shifted for more ad-heavier games... Sounds like the reason why I stopped playing anything on the mobile phone.

I know I'm only making predictions, but if it's happened on another platform, I can't see why it won't happen here.

Re: Review: EA Sports FC 24 - A New Era Begins With An Impressive Result

Phantom_Anima

I thought this year I'd try pro career and pro clubs for a change as previous seasons of manager career and overall match gameplay had become shockingly poor and broken.

Ran into a bug in Pro Career where my 5"9 DM was constantly played out of position in CB. I thought this was just typical managers trying out different tactics, but after many games I researched and found its been a bug since at least 2019.

Then I thought I'd give Pro Clubs Online mode a try, and I was just constantly failing to match up with people and after plenty of waiting and failing I gave up. Glad it was just a 10 hour trial.

Re: Pick One: Which Is The Best Bethesda Game Studios RPG?

Phantom_Anima

Need some more time on Starfield until I can judge it. But as of now, Fallout 3 comes out on top followed by Oblivion. Fallout 3 had permadeath for your companions - I still remember the day when me and my trusty ghoul companion got ambushed by some raiders, and a car exploded and I saw his arm fly across my screen (highly traumatic!).

As for Oblivion, it's the true RPG of any Bethesda game. I spent many hours role playing as a poor Orc living in the slums, and plying his trade in the arena.

Re: Poll: Based On What You've Played So Far, What Score Would You Give Starfield?

Phantom_Anima

I am leaning towards the 10. Its not perfect by any means, and I did ponder 9 because of its imperfections, but due to the sheer scope of it, I am leaning towards a 10 due to longevity and immersiveness. They created a new world where I can sink hundreds of hours in and I think that's worth a big score jump. I will need more time before I commit to a 9 or 10.

Also, surprisingly I'm actually quite enjoying the lack of maps. Sure it would have been nice to have, but it's forced me to learn the area and feel more immersed. Reminds me of the game Outward where you didn't have an icon on the map and had to navigate it yourself, which really helped with the immersion

Re: Starfield Players Are Loving Xbox Quick Resume, But Some Users Are Reporting Issues

Phantom_Anima

I've not had an issue with quick resume yet, in fact it's been a godsend. To be able to jump back in straight away is just an amazing quality-of-life thing to have, but to be on the safe side I do action a quicksave before quitting.

I flick quicksave between Starfield and Slay the Spire.

Tip: anytime you switch on your xbox, wait until you are connected to the Internet first before opening a game. I've noticed that doing this before you are connected messes up the quick resume. A good indicator that you are connected to the Internet is, when you have 2 boxes at your uppermost dashboard then you are not yet connected, and when the dashboard fills up with more than the 2 boxes at the top, then you are connected.

Re: Ready For Launch! Starfield Is Now Available On Xbox Game Pass

Phantom_Anima

@Jonnyfalcon that's not what I meant at all. But on the other hand, would you send a sushi critic to review a pasta dish? My point is, some reviewers are approaching the game like a COD review as opposed to an RPG review. Don't get me wrong, that approach is fine for an everyday gamer as we all have different tastes, but not as a professional critic. To give another metaphor, I wouldn't want to have an action film critic go review a drama film, unless he can provide a nonsubjective critique of the film - otherwise we may get a review that sound like "the drama film could have done with being faster paced, and focused less on the emotions of the actors involved" 🤷‍♂️.

I appreciate Dan who reviewed it may not like the game, but I wouldn't take his word on it if he plays an RPG like he would a action game.

Re: Ready For Launch! Starfield Is Now Available On Xbox Game Pass

Phantom_Anima

@Jonnyfalcon I've watched the full video review rather than read it, but yes - same thing. His biggest issue was that the game took too long to get going, and he marked down the review significantly for that (although he did mention multiple other gripes - but the beginning of the game is what bothered him most).

Starfield is an open-sandbox role-playing game, and yet the reviewer seemed disinterested to explore all of the game's sandbox mechanics which he admitted in the video, and I got the impression that his boredom with the beginning of the game is due to a focus on the action points of the game along with the main story, elements which are often secondary within a full role-playing game experience. This leads me to wonder whether he was the right person to review the game, or if he had approached the review with the wrong mentality? I noticed the same trend amongst other negative reviews that people often disliked the game when they tried to rush through the main story, much akin to Gameranx. Yet ACG and Mortismal Gaming, both of whom attempted to explore every aspect of the games mechanics, fell in love with the game and gave it incredibly high praise.

Edit: just to clarify my previous comment, my score so far would not be an 8, but that I would have expected most professional reviews to at least award the game an 8. As for my own review, I would so far award it a 9 but thats subject to change based on me playing more of the game.

Re: Ready For Launch! Starfield Is Now Available On Xbox Game Pass

Phantom_Anima

@Jonnyfalcon it's sad because as professional critics, it is their duty to be able to review a game whilst considering all elements that make a game. For example, I may not personally like a souls game, but I can clearly see the appeal and elements the game offers that would make it a good achievement, therefore I would rate it highly.

So far I have seen nothing in Starfield that would warrant it a 7/10, and even if it wasn't my kind of game (to clarify - yes it is), there is so much depth and polish to this game that this game deserves at least an 8.

To give context, according to IGN, this game is just about as good as most cashgrab FIFA releases, and worse than the recently divisive Final Fantasy. According to IGN, Moving Out 2 is a better game than Starfield (with no disrespect to Moving Out 2).

What makes this sad ultimately is that developers will think twice before putting a lot of effort into new IPs. What also makes it sad is that Bethesda clearly put a lot of effort in this game in many aspects of the gameplay, only for reviewers to give negative reviews based on one element of gameplay.

On the opposite side, reviewers who have had the time to complete all elements of the game, have reviewed this game exceptionally high.

Re: Ready For Launch! Starfield Is Now Available On Xbox Game Pass

Phantom_Anima

@cburg "sad" is exactly the word I've been thinking about the reviews for this game. It's a piece of art considering how much detail, lore, and flexibility the game offers only for a website like IGN to give it a 7. If a game this solid gets a 7 out of 10, then it's a real shame, and future titles will suffer massively as no developer will want to take such a huge risk with video games anymore.

This game is easily a 9 out of 10, if not more.

Re: Talking Point: What Else Do You Expect To See From Xbox Before The End Of 2023?

Phantom_Anima

@BAMozzy yeah I'm not expecting it soon but I'm hoping to see some form of announcements to do with clips/gameplay/features. To be honest, I also don't truly think it will be cancelled, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did, mainly because I had read a while back that they were suffering from some management issues.

I do hope all is on track and we will hear more about it soon as I had put so many hours into SoD2 and had a blast with it.

Re: Xbox Unveils New 'Daily Achievement' Xbox Game Pass Quest

Phantom_Anima

As a Game Pass subscriber, this makes sense. This makes activating the points a lot quicker and easier without distracting you from the game as much as before.

It also allows Microsoft to encourage people to try their vast library of games, whilst also providing better publicity to the many publishers who have decided to utilise the Game Pass model whilst sacrificing direct product sales.

I understand this move is frustrating for non-Game Pass subscribers though, but from a selfish perspective, I hope this move encourages more Publishers to use their service to improve the gamer experience.

Re: Talking Point: Xbox Series X|S Owners, How's Your Storage Looking In 2023?

Phantom_Anima

I used to think I needed an expansion card, but then I think I was just being greedy. I can't be playing more than 15 games at a time, and with modern download speeds, I can easily download the games I want to start playing when I want to play them.

Think of it as Resident Evil's inventory management 😂. It's always hard to manage what to take with you and leave in the storage, but when you set out on the level, you just make it work! 😁