Runex2121

@Coletrain They want 30% margins, I think mp may be 39.99 or 29.99 and have MTs like a live service game

@Coletrain pure speculation, but Im thinking they are going to release this as a full price title and then release halo:multiplayer evolved later as another full release title. Double dipping for the same game.

@Coletrain Id agree with the assessment of 5. Similar to the last gears game to be honest. Good game, not really a series feel though.

2 and 3 are excellent games to me as well. Really, just 1 was kinda meh.

I am cautiously optimistic. I found the first halo to be the worst halo in retrospect.

The levels were far too open and the amount of pointless backtracking was tedious. They got the gunplay right, but generally speaking, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were all much better games.

Infinite just never did it for me, i much preferred 4-5 to it. Really wish they'd finish that story arc to be honest.

If they have cleaned up the levels and reduced the backtracking, this one could be quite good.

@DNortonX Thats your definition, not mine or the platform holders. Also, the rog ally xbox x does indeed play every xbox game. You can remote play from your console. There is nothing saying that it has to be a native experience.

Personally I am now really enjoying my new handheld xbox.

They will have a winner on their hands if they just improve the starting user experience.

My guess is that the 3+ hours of initial setup is done already on the booth ones. People wont see the horrible setup process, just the games and outstanding hardware.

The promise is there and I also really want this to succeed, but msft has their work cutout on the os side.

The billion rpg maker kemco rpgs out there are hit and miss. I am a sucker for SNES era rpgs, but kemco always seems to get the balance wrong. Games are either too hard, or too easy. And you dont find out until like 3-4 hours in, which is frustrating.

Mine was delivered today, but ive only had an hour or so with it.

Only thing im a bit put off by at this time is a complete lack of any user onboarding sequence. It literally booted to a black screen with "setup" and "windows setup" as the options. No guidance on which to select so I chose windows setup. This put me through some updates, but once done, no real guidance on what to do to actually get started.

I fumbled around a bit and installed steam and updated the game bar, but it was far from intuitive.

I have a feeling though that itll be a great experience once setup though. The hardware feels great.

@FraserG Thanks. Im not a fan of tinkering if it goes too deep. The reason I sold my steamdeck was due to always having to dig into the desktop or advances settings to make things work correctly. (And many games were listed as compatible but wouldn't even boot)

Are the settings easy to adjust here or will I need to dig into text files to reconfigure things?

Excited for mine tomorrow. Already got my confirmation it shipped.

Sounds like its a perfect device for me as well. I cant discern the difference between 30 and 60fps, so prefer higher quality settings over performance.

Sounds like that is almost the default here without tinkering, which is great.

@Mastlander98 Many of us have no interest in a legion(or any other handhelds) for a variety of reasons. For me, I dont like the general design of a legion. I loved the grips on the portal and this one looks like its taking that same approach. I hated the steamdeck because it was too bulky and uncomfortable.

Im also a fan of the xbox button on the controller. Hall effect sticks dont mean a lot to me. Only console ive ever had drift was the switch and those sticks were notoriously bad. Even if these did drift, you can fix them with the right tools.

I only like campaigns in games like this and everything ive read makes me think the campaign is very low quality. I may play it if I get it free or under $15, but I cant see myself playing it anytime soon.

I see it as an xbox since i essentially have used my series consoles as streaming devices as it is. Either from the console to another screen or via gamepass xcloud on the console itself.

Now I can just play all the same games in the same way. Via streaming either from the cloud or my series x.

Throw in steam games and its really an xbox plus imo.

I have the xbox ally x coming next week, was a bit hesitant due to the price but I spent $700 on a ps pro and 200 more on a portal, so it balances out kinda. (Yes, im omitting the series x and series s costs, but i never play my pro on the tv, its a stream box. Which I guess is the same...so I just make poor financial decisions lol)

I really enjoyed the show and was bummed when it was cancelled. One can only hope netflix renews

I live ubi games, but they raised the price $10 a month. The fortnite thing is useless to me, so I feel like if we sub, were basically getting $5 worth of service for $10. Not a good deal.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Id be laughing if they somehow decided itd be a good idea to "convert" gpu old to gpu time for those with current credit. .75 or something of that nature.

Note by laughing i mean in a non funny i cant believe it kind of way

Ugh, i caved and got 3 months for $54. I unsubbed last month because i never used it, but with my xbox ally x coming in a few weeks i wanted to keep it for a few months of testing and refuse to pay $30 a month

@Exerion76 excuse me, they have only hit bottom. They are obviously still looking for the rock.

So preroll ads and potential time limits.

At first i was thinking this was complete trash, but, if they decide to add some gamepass games to it or new release titles it could be a really cool way to try before you buy. I could not sub, but still try games i may be interested in.

Of course, none of that is mentioned, but i can dream right?

So, they converted the discount from real gain to their own point gain, which has the effect of diminishing the returns for the consumer.

They are really going scorched earth here on consumer benefits after the past few years of being "pro-consumer"

This usually only happens when platform holders get cocky with sales(see Sony a few times, nintendo a few times, etc..) Its rare to see it from the 3rd place team.

What is this unlimited thing? I dont recall cloud gaming being capped before. I have always had Ultimate, but I dont recall any messaging being about there being time limits or anything like that.

@BacklogBrad Id like a piecemeal option to be honest. I cancelled my sub last month after having never not been subbed to an xbox service since the OG live launched in the early 00s.

This update just reinforces my decision. I have 0 interest in EA play, UBI+, or especially fortnite. so why would I pay more for these inclusions?

@Neither_scene Thats what I thought was happening too. That they were eliminating pc tier since all tiers now include pc games too

@PsBoxSwitchOwner

Ive been a staunch supporter of gamepass and xblive before that since day 1. Ive always said it had great value associated with it.

Last month, when i let my sub lapse for the first time ever it was more because of my use of it as opposed to the value prop, as at $23 it was still a solid investment.

Now though, at $30 a month, or $360 a year I just dont see the value prop unless you have an immense amount of free time.

So I really dont think well see many defending this unless they are in that extremely small subset of high income and high free time.

@Gabrie Ahh, I see your argument now. I dont really align with it, but I understand it.

Personally I couldnt care less about achievements nor whose brand is on a device. I just want to play games when and how I want. So if i can play more games on the handheld easily, im good. (Ive been a multiplat gamer for 4 decades.)

@Gabrie But this unit aggregates stores, so does it really matter if games bypass?

I wound up getting the x, despite going in for the regular. Id rather regret the expense than future capability. Ive seem enough of ai to think its possible to do some crazy things with that neural chip. Doesnt mean they will, bit id rather be future proof than to have to buy another later. Haptics are a big selling point too, though not $400 worth

I was surprised to be honest that the x sold out faster than the ally. I originally intended on getting the lower model but skipped to the higher tier thinking that itd be easier to get.

While I preordered the x, it took bestbuy a few hours to process. The regular is apparently still open.

I cant imagine they made too many of these, guessing they made a lot more lower trims. Im also not entirely sold on a $400 difference, but time will tell. Atleast itll be futureproof, right?

@GeeEssEff Different devices altogether. Id never play games on my phone(and I always get the latest iphone as part of my phone package) Even with a backbone its at best a less than fun way to play a game.

I think the comparison made though holds true at a general level. You have a high end handheld gaming device and a high end phone, both are consumer electronics in the same price range.

The fact that the inferior steamdeck comes with a case is also a valid comparison, but it doesnt take away from the other comparison.

That said, am I happy im paying 1k for an ally xbox x and have to buy a case and screen protector still? Ofcourse not. Just as Im not happy when I buy a new phone and they changed the screen size by .001MM so that I need to buy a new case and screen protectors. When I bought my deck I was surprised by the case, when I sold it though(because it was terrible) the case was the only thing I was sad to see go.

Ive been in queue for 90 minutes at best buy, starting to think Ill miss this one and honestly ill probably be better off saving the money. 1k is crazy high.

I give this the same grade I gave the PS one yesterday. Its a solid Meh.

One stellar title, but far off. (Forza ofcourse), and a bunch of "not really my kind of games".

So not bad, but not good.

@BaldB3lper78 Meh to the steamdeck. I bought one at launch for $650, played it like 10 hours in a year, sold it for $375.

It was clunky, heavy, and annoying to play. I didnt mind the performance when it worked, but half the time steam deck certified games played like crap or required significant tweaks.

I just want a handheld gamepass device that doesnt require me to dig into the desktop to edit crap. Oh, and that isnt a phone with a backbone, those stink too.

@BaldB3lper78 I actually looked into a gcloud since im really just looking for a native streaming device like the ps portal.

Unfortunately the gcloud is apparently not all that good at anything, including its intended function.

In the image, which is which? They look identical.....

@themightyant We said that about msft as well when they increased the price $100 on the series x like 3 months ago.

I can absolutely see sony following suit here in the next month or so. They cant eat the tariffs forever.

So in 6 months the xbox series x will have been increased $150 or 30%. Sounds like a tariff pass on cost to me.

@Coletrain yeah, and im thinking of unsubbing for the first time ever from either xbl or gamepass. I just dont have time for all the games, havnt turned on my pspro or series x much in the last year.(only logged 25 hours on the pspro since i got it day 1, some for testing, rest on ac shadows and death stranding 2. Series x has seen even less with just avowed and clair obscur getting any time) I play mostly portable, switch and now switch 2.

Horizon 6 is enough for me. I dont have time for anything else. Maybe final fantasy tactics 2 or dragon quest xii

@Coletrain I have 0 interest in playing games locally on one, i just want a proper gamepass device. The backbone is too flimsy, the steamdeck was too convoluted and bulky, and there isnt another alternative yet. Before I shell out another $600+ though im going to need to hold and use one. Not making the steam deck mistake again.

As such, the white one should be ideal.

@Dan1283 I was thinking the same thing. I love my 2k games and thankfully only play single player, but Im a minority there. They are essentially forcing people who play online to reup every other year. Its deplorable. Atleast give people 4-5 years. Thats half a console cycle.

I personally loved the last Forza game. Still play it to this day on a regular cadence. Unlike GT7 which is pretty, but extremely dull. The coffee shop theme, boring music, and stiff gameplay leave me sleepy. I definitely prefer the last forza to the first forza of the last gen as well.

2k has always been better than ea when competing. It took ea 10+ years to make a madden game as good as the last nfl2k title. Even now Id argue 2k5 or whatever it was may still be better than todays madden in terms of gameplay.

Needless to say, id love to see a 2k game for ncaa basketball. The only issue I have with any of the current sports games is the microtransactions. Whether its MUT, Diamond Dynasty, or whatever 2k calls it, its a grind and takes away from the actual game.

I miss the old days of simple games. Arcade, season, play now. Nothing else....

@BAMozzy

But yet it is subjective. It can have the best specs in the world and be a dead weight if its not comfortable to hold. I found that out with the steam deck which is absolutely worse than a switch for any game that is playable on both platforms.

All this said, Ive no issue with the ally or ally xbox and fully intend on buying the xbox ally x should it be under $900usd. Ive not held either so I cant judge either.

Horizon 5 is getting up there in age now. The last mainline game is still kinda fresh.

Id like to see horizon 6 in a new setting with a full ev bracket. (And more everyday vehicles like a trax or camry)

Not sure Id want a different spin off. I dont really like rally games and hate nascar/f1.

@BootlegHuman

I have a dedicated phone and a kishi, dont like the feel of a bolt on. 1st world issue I know, but if Im going to play a game I need it to feel comfortable and be seamless.

I had a steamdeck too which I sold because it was too clunky and convoluted. Also just didnt feel good holding it.

@BAMozzy

Better is highly subjective.

I have a ps5 pro, ps portal, series s, series x, switch oled, switch 2, and a gaming pc.

Ive long been an xbox centric gamer though, since the og xbox launched to be precise since it was a spiritual sega successor to me.

I do want an xbox portable, but only for gamepass games. The switch 2 is a great little console just like the switch was and that was regardless of game. I use doom 2016 as a standard example. I bought it on xb1 and switch, but only beat it on switch because it was where I could play. It didnt look as nice, but didnt matter. We have options now, but the switch 2 so far has been great. And I say that as an xbox first long time gamer.

Im thinking itll be 799 and 1199 personally. Given tariffs, manufacturing pipelines, and current product pricing, I cant see it going down. That said, if the top model is 799 im in.

If they can get the lower model under 700 ill bite(699 is ok), but only if it handles streaming well and isnt a total mess in ergonomics and battery life

So if the current ally x is 999 i think we can expect this to carry an xbox premium and push into 1100-1200 range for the upper tier. I love xbox, but Id hard pass on that.

Quite simply, I love my series s and my ps5 pro. Still prefer my series x mainly due to quick resume and a better interface.

I have a switch 2 now and Im enjoying that too, but its not a competitor. Id personally live to see xbox gamepass on switch 2, but know that wont happen. Id be equally happy though to see forza horizon 5, since playing that on the go is essentially a dream. (And not on a crappy 800lb steamdeck, which i sold because it just wasnt being used)