When my current prepaid Ultimate expires I’ll downgrade to premium for online play most likely. Cancelling entirely isn’t entirely off the cards, but we’ll see, as I don’t even do online all that often.
Ultimate cost too much IMO now and I’m mostly playing on PS5 Pro, including MS published titles. I prefer to buy games outright anyway and the price increases further makes that appealing to me over just using gamepass to access title.
I’m nowadays time poor rather than financially poor, so I have a preference to a (denser) game that can tell a story in 5-15 hours rather than something I’ll need to commit weeks to. While I do appreciate them, expansive RPGs or open world Ubisoft games are a bit hard for me to commit to.
So yeah, I’m all for shorter games and I’ve never been one to base the value of a game by the hours/cost ratio.
ODST is probably my least favourite Bungie Halo title. Don’t hate it, but I don’t love the New Mombasa sections which make up a good chunk of the game. The story isn’t bad but execution of those bits falls a bit short for me. The flashback sequences and ending which are a bit more typical Halo vibe worked better for me personally, with the vehicle play and the like.
Did enjoy it more however on a more recent play through about 5 years ago than at release. I’d also rather revisit ODST than Halo 4 or 5 probably.
I doubt the handheld will be an addon that depends on a top end home console to work. That’s very far from a Series S replacement given the cost outlay. Is that adding much that can’t be done with current streaming from a Series X to a phone or other device (including true handhelds like a Steamdeck).
Also assume MS will want to target portable play that extends beyond one’s home network, and hopefully that’s not achieved purely via cloud streaming.
They’re betting the farm on GamePass and Streaming it seems, allowing people to play games anywhere. That’s at a time where the markets (global infrastructure) probably not ready for cloud gaming yet and without having a presence for GamePass on Sony or Nintendo consoles.
If the EU steps in and opens up platforms and marketplaces, then MS could throw GamePass on PS and Switch and probably grow the market massively for their service. Until that happens but, GamePass seems to be very reliant on Xbox hardware sales to pull in subscribers yet the hardware isn’t shifting and MS messaging isn’t exactly enticing people to buy their hardware. With GamePass prices going up considerably over the years, grabbing a PS5 and just buying the odd MS game outright on PS, now they’re doing cross console releases, is probably more appealing to buyers given it also exposes them to Sonys game library.
To me it really feels like MSs strategy and fortunes would benefit greatly if the opening of marketplaces on mobile platforms is extended to home consoles, and opens up other hardware platforms to them. Not sure how they grow otherwise.
Like a few, disappointed they haven’t wrapped up the GoW 5 story and I think the longer they go, the less likely it is that it’ll be revisited. The games take a long time to develop. If they had more enthusiasm today to go do a prequel, why would they have enthusiasm to work on that story moving forward. The justification that “we had an opportunity” is pretty weak as they probably always had that opportunity before embarking on the current games. 4 and 5 weren’t amazing but they had it in a place where we could have got an interesting progression to resolve where the last ended off.
Still, keen to see what they do with this title and glad it’s happening, just wished they’d closed out the previous games first.
“ 2014 was a particularly good year for Xbox. We had Halo: The Master Chief Collection”
Halo MCC was actually a train wreck and PR disaster at launch. To their credit they turned it around in a big way, but at launch it attracted a lot of negative press. To the extent that 343 and MS both made public apologies and were handing out free digital content to early adopters as compensation.
It was later in 2015 that this one began to fix its reputation.
@TommyNL Well, we’re almost mid way through the year and MS has published more releases on Sony consoles than they have on the Xbox this year, never mind the Fallout updates seemed to be better on Sony PS too.
I know bugs happen and all, but it’s not a great look when repeatedly MSs own games have issues on the Xbox that aren’t there on PS for the cross platform releases. Been a number of releases now where this has occurred.
No doubt he’ll be sorted quickly, but hopefully they can improve the quality control.
It’s fine enough, but I don’t love it and haven’t loved the design language ever since it was brought in with Xbox One. Would love a 360 style NXE style release that completely overhauls the experience. Not that I want NXE specifically, but in the 360 gen MS we’re willing to really experiment with the dash and I’d like them to take a go at something at that scale again.
Honestly of the three consoles, I probably like the switch the most for its focus on my game library. Could maybe do with a few more options around filtering and sorting things, but I do like that the games are the focus of the entire UI. Their store apps slow and cumbersome however, and other online options missing compared to the competition. Otherwise I like it, and I feel like my library feels better integrated than it does on Xbox where the My Games and Apps is an interface I find oddly disconnected to the consoles main dashboard (which is where I really want a full list of my games, without me needing to Pin them).
PS5 is OK also, like Xbox, but don’t necessarily love that either.
@Dimey without checking the webpage, I assume they are referring to the fact you need an Xbox copy, and that on a PS5 you’d need to have purchased for the PS4 previously to upgrade. That the purchases aren’t transferable across platforms.
Single player gamer here mainly. I got enough out of the game at launch…finished the campaign and got most of the collectables. No real interest in going back however.
Game was ok. Mechanically very proficient as is usually the case for Halo, but the story and missions were all a bit forgettable.
Wish they’d made a single player expansion for the game where they could double down on story and interesting missions, given the gameplay loop and engine were in place.
No local co-op also killed longer term playability in our household where we have one TV. Past Halo titles I’ve co-op’d the campaign with my son.
I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. Plenty of opportunity in an open world title to also include castles, mansions or whatever that funnel users into a more linear/scripted set piece. Games such as Gears, Tomb Raider Reboots, etc have combined more open hubs with more traditional segments to good effect.
@RIghteousNixon Minecraft was a unique IP though that MS could market and capitalise on. Very different to Palworld where the interest and media is largely driven by its satire of the Pokemon IP which isn’t going to be something MS is really going to sell as its own thing, at least not without risk of going through courts. Over time they can evolve the game, but the further they move away from Pokemon to make the game safer to market, the more they might lose interest in those that saw that as a draw.
When MS purchased Minecraft the game was also 3 years old at the time, rather than 3 months. In all likelihood we’ll have moved on from Palworld in 6 months, let alone 3 years.
Worth noting the fact Nintendo hasn’t sued yet isn’t a sign that they won’t. They went after Yuzu well after the high profile leaks and reported promotion of piracy by the team through discord channels etc around Tears of the Kingdom leaks. I think that will be a concern for anyone acquiring the studio, especially if they’re hopping to expand on the game. At some point Nintendo may test whether the title is satire or IP infringement. Purchase and ownership by a larger company may also make suing more appealing, as they have the money to actually pay out.
Recommend looking at the GameSir Galileo G8. The controller grips are very similar to an Xbox controller and as such it’s very comfortable to use. It’s larger, which is a consideration for travel, but very nice to use.
Something like a Backbone is great for portability, but can be cramped in use for longer sessions.
@StylesT they won’t give you all the games on a new account. If they were confident that what you are telling support is the truth and they wanted to help, they can reinstate the access to the original account to the rightful owner. MS still has control over the account. The fact they haven’t done so means they aren’t looking to assist or perhaps the original owner was unable to provide sufficient evidence.
If they were to clone content an account has then there’d be a new type of scam where people would fake such an incident while still having the original account, and then sell the login to a new account that comes preloaded with a stack of digital content they didn’t have to pay for.
@Gabrielmpf Sony agreed to the deal to get COD for 10 years, as has Nintendo. Those other systems aren’t going away and if anything Nintendo is re-establishing presence of the franchise.
There was a few other dashboard achievements at the time that I think no longer exist. MS was pushing for achievements in apps and some like Netflix had them (https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Netflix/achievements).
@Moonglow the “Xbox has no games” narrative is usually in the context of exclusive console games, not cross platform ones and not in regard to who the developer/publisher is. People are looking at the PS vs the Xbox libraries and it’s the exclusives that ultimately are the differentiator and matter to consumers. It’s a discussion about which console to buy to get access to the best game library, if you can’t buy multiple consoles.
There’s a bright future here, but with Redfall being a swing and a miss and a number of other games (HiFi Rush and the Minecraft spinoff) being much smaller releases, it has fallen on Forza Motorsport and Starfield to really carry the weight this year.
Arguably we haven’t seen a lot from the Bethesda deal yet other than Starfield. Will be interesting to see what id Software is up to in this respect. Going to be some time until the Activision one begins to bring exclusives to the table I’d say, especially with COD being committed as a cross platform release for the next decade and Blizzard only having just released Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2.
Yes, MS Games Studios are getting large, but to date the outputs still been pretty slow, but with games taking 5+ years to make that’s also not entirely unexpected.
Personally I wouldn’t want one. Games at launch are generally 20-30% cheaper through physical retailers than they are in the Xbox store, so any cost saving is given up very quickly if you’re prepared to buy physical games. Same reason I went the PS5 with disc console. Even if you buy most games digitally, it’s nice to have that option to grab and insert a disc.
I’d rather see a more expensive Series S with disc drive than a Series X without, to be honest. The hard bit would be pricing it such that it’s not so close to the Series X pricing as to make a Series S with disc model pointless.
@Moonglow id are certainly working on a new game of some sorts. The Quake 1 port was by Nightdive studios, a very adept porting studio, and Quake 2 may also be by them. So the Quake remasters wouldnt have impacted id a lot.
We have had a console gen since Doom Eternal and given id do their own tech and are bleeding edge, it’s not all together surprising we haven’t seen a new title yet as they’re probably building on the tech they updated with the last game. Who knows, maybe they’ll tease one at Quakecon as well.
@carlos82 yeah the Series X imo is the better bet long term. Appreciate this is a price conscious system, but the Series X gets access to far far cheaper games due to supporting physical discs, so over the lifespan of the system the Series X could well be cheaper if you’re willing to get physical games (which you can optionally resell) to save money in the process.
To me, Series S makes sense if you’re going to stick to Game Pass and pretty much nothing else. Otherwise, having the optical drive gives you more flexibility.
That’s ignoring the far more consistent performance of games in general you’ll get.
Prey, but it’s the only one I’m yet to play so it wins by default. Even still, it’s a game I thoroughly loved and recommend.
Was looking forward to Redfall as a result and hope that one gets turned around. Got a bit of a back log so happy to wait to boot it up. Might give Deathloop a go first.
Long overdue but welcome, even if there’s clearly room to go lower. Hopefully WD still wants to undercut Seagate and can trigger a bit of competitive price drops in the process. My assumption is these things will basically just be differentiated on price and whoever is more expensive will struggle to compete.
@Bleachedsmiles the battlefield bad company games are actually quite good for the time single player campaigns. Been a long time since I played them, but I recall them being quite different to Call of Duty and every other military FPS, including later BF games, that looked to mirror the COD campaign template.
Sure, there’s no more multiplayer, but those single player campaigns are still worth keeping available and prevent those two games being nothing more than coasters.
Especially loved the first bad company, particularly the tone of the game.
@BrilliantBill happy to wait a while for a new company and wouldn’t expect a rapid turn around at all for any future release. Last Gen we only got the one game anyhow. I don’t think 343 has handled this release very well but, especially in terms of single player but also multiplayer and they seemed overwhelmed trying to manage both aspects. If they did split out SP and MP releases into seperate games with different developers, that could eventually lead to quicker turn around or at least allow a team to focus on the game-as-a-service that they seem interested in producing. In fact Halo has adopted so many COD traits it’ll be interesting to see whether MS does leverage any Activision developers for Halo multiplayer.
Now, they didn’t promise single player content, but they did provide us a huge world to explore which unfortunately is a bit sparse and begging for some more interesting content. A lot of people did expect more content to eventually drop exploring new biomes etc. 343 also said this release was the groundwork’s for the next 10 years of halo which I think most people took to assume wasn’t just limited to multi player. With news reporting 343 are committed to Unreal engine for future titles but already, indicating a shift in focus on their technology, I’m not holding me breathe for any new SP content for Infinite.
One way or another something needs a bit of a shake up as Infinite really wasn’t the release I think MS was looking for. It has its fans, but I don’t think it’s kept Halo especially relevant for people less interested in the franchise. I assume that may be under way given the staffing shakeup at 343 recently.
As someone that plays Halo for the campaigns, this has sure been a disappointing release in terms of post shipment support. Enjoyed the campaign somewhat and was optimistic about this being a platform they said they’d build on. Since then local co-ops being dropped, ray tracing which was a major graphical enhancement is multiplayer only and a complete lack of any real post release story content has all been disappointing.
While Halo campaigns typically don’t get big post release changes, this game felt like it would be different and there was outstanding content promised following what was a chaotic release.
Kind of would like to see MS get 343, who have talent, to try their hand on something else and maybe give another of their developers they’ve acquired from Bethesda (or possibly Activision) a crack at the IP. MS are full of AAA teams that have strong FPS pedigree at this point and maybe some of them can provide a different perspective.
It may not be the worse idea to split competitive multiplayer and campaigns into different releases at this point with different teams or devs supporting each.
@FraserG I hope it is the remastered port. It was close to final but not complete and shipped, so it’s conceivable they did some uplift including changing or adding achievements. The port also has both new and old graphics so perhaps they’d use the old style assets in places. It’d be truly bizarre for them to have a straight N64 port when they have the remaster sitting there that can run both new and old. I doubt they avoid any of the licensing issues by using a straight N64 port rather than the remastered edition, so it wouldn’t make sense to me.
I don’t play many online games but Halo Infinite had issues for me where in resuming, the game would occasionally report I wasn’t licensed to play it via GamePass and had to terminate and restart the game for it to work right. Suspect it’s not totally unrelated to these issues. Wasn’t too common but I probably saw it about half a dozen times over the period I went through the campaign.
Purchased a 1TB one this week, but only because I had a stack of points through my Telcos reward program that allowed me to get it for $60AUD rather than the $360RRP. If I didn’t have a steep discount I’d have continued to archive to a standard drive.
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Re: Poll: What Are Your Plans For Xbox Game Pass After This Week's News?
When my current prepaid Ultimate expires I’ll downgrade to premium for online play most likely. Cancelling entirely isn’t entirely off the cards, but we’ll see, as I don’t even do online all that often.
Ultimate cost too much IMO now and I’m mostly playing on PS5 Pro, including MS published titles. I prefer to buy games outright anyway and the price increases further makes that appealing to me over just using gamepass to access title.
Cloud gaming on Premiums a win but at least.
Re: Xbox Legend Major Nelson Asks For 'More Varied Experiences' At Lower Price Points
I’m nowadays time poor rather than financially poor, so I have a preference to a (denser) game that can tell a story in 5-15 hours rather than something I’ll need to commit weeks to. While I do appreciate them, expansive RPGs or open world Ubisoft games are a bit hard for me to commit to.
So yeah, I’m all for shorter games and I’ve never been one to base the value of a game by the hours/cost ratio.
Re: Talking Point: Next Month Marks The 15th Anniversary Of Halo's Weirdest Console Release
ODST is probably my least favourite Bungie Halo title. Don’t hate it, but I don’t love the New Mombasa sections which make up a good chunk of the game. The story isn’t bad but execution of those bits falls a bit short for me. The flashback sequences and ending which are a bit more typical Halo vibe worked better for me personally, with the vehicle play and the like.
Did enjoy it more however on a more recent play through about 5 years ago than at release. I’d also rather revisit ODST than Halo 4 or 5 probably.
Re: Rumour: Xbox Handheld System Will Sit Alongside 'A Series X Successor'
I doubt the handheld will be an addon that depends on a top end home console to work. That’s very far from a Series S replacement given the cost outlay. Is that adding much that can’t be done with current streaming from a Series X to a phone or other device (including true handhelds like a Steamdeck).
Also assume MS will want to target portable play that extends beyond one’s home network, and hopefully that’s not achieved purely via cloud streaming.
Re: Xbox Console Sales Struggling As Hardware Revenue Nosedives At Microsoft
MS is in for a really rough period.
They’re betting the farm on GamePass and Streaming it seems, allowing people to play games anywhere. That’s at a time where the markets (global infrastructure) probably not ready for cloud gaming yet and without having a presence for GamePass on Sony or Nintendo consoles.
If the EU steps in and opens up platforms and marketplaces, then MS could throw GamePass on PS and Switch and probably grow the market massively for their service. Until that happens but, GamePass seems to be very reliant on Xbox hardware sales to pull in subscribers yet the hardware isn’t shifting and MS messaging isn’t exactly enticing people to buy their hardware. With GamePass prices going up considerably over the years, grabbing a PS5 and just buying the odd MS game outright on PS, now they’re doing cross console releases, is probably more appealing to buyers given it also exposes them to Sonys game library.
To me it really feels like MSs strategy and fortunes would benefit greatly if the opening of marketplaces on mobile platforms is extended to home consoles, and opens up other hardware platforms to them. Not sure how they grow otherwise.
Re: Gears Of War: E-Day Dev Is 'Not Retreating' From The Modern Gears Saga
Like a few, disappointed they haven’t wrapped up the GoW 5 story and I think the longer they go, the less likely it is that it’ll be revisited. The games take a long time to develop. If they had more enthusiasm today to go do a prequel, why would they have enthusiasm to work on that story moving forward. The justification that “we had an opportunity” is pretty weak as they probably always had that opportunity before embarking on the current games. 4 and 5 weren’t amazing but they had it in a place where we could have got an interesting progression to resolve where the last ended off.
Still, keen to see what they do with this title and glad it’s happening, just wished they’d closed out the previous games first.
Re: Talking Point: 10 Years Ago, Phil Spencer's First E3 In Charge Marked A Turning Point For Xbox
“ 2014 was a particularly good year for Xbox. We had Halo: The Master Chief Collection”
Halo MCC was actually a train wreck and PR disaster at launch. To their credit they turned it around in a big way, but at launch it attracted a lot of negative press. To the extent that 343 and MS both made public apologies and were handing out free digital content to early adopters as compensation.
It was later in 2015 that this one began to fix its reputation.
Re: Review: Braid, Anniversary Edition (Xbox) - XBLA And Indie History Remastered
I’ll wait for it to go on sale as I’ve already purchased it in the past, but no doubt will grab it at some point for a replay.
Re: Random: Phil Spencer Seems To Be Preparing His Own Nuke Launch In Fallout 76
So where is he sending the nukes. Towards Tango or Arkane Austin?
Re: Latest Rumours Suggest Perfect Dark Reboot Isn't Going Smoothly At Xbox
@TommyNL Well, we’re almost mid way through the year and MS has published more releases on Sony consoles than they have on the Xbox this year, never mind the Fallout updates seemed to be better on Sony PS too.
Re: Fallout 4's Quality Mode Is Reportedly Bugged On Xbox Series X|S Right Now
I know bugs happen and all, but it’s not a great look when repeatedly MSs own games have issues on the Xbox that aren’t there on PS for the cross platform releases. Been a number of releases now where this has occurred.
No doubt he’ll be sorted quickly, but hopefully they can improve the quality control.
Re: Talking Point: Almost A Year On, What Do You Think Of The Current Xbox Dashboard?
It’s fine enough, but I don’t love it and haven’t loved the design language ever since it was brought in with Xbox One. Would love a 360 style NXE style release that completely overhauls the experience. Not that I want NXE specifically, but in the 360 gen MS we’re willing to really experiment with the dash and I’d like them to take a go at something at that scale again.
Honestly of the three consoles, I probably like the switch the most for its focus on my game library. Could maybe do with a few more options around filtering and sorting things, but I do like that the games are the focus of the entire UI. Their store apps slow and cumbersome however, and other online options missing compared to the competition. Otherwise I like it, and I feel like my library feels better integrated than it does on Xbox where the My Games and Apps is an interface I find oddly disconnected to the consoles main dashboard (which is where I really want a full list of my games, without me needing to Pin them).
PS5 is OK also, like Xbox, but don’t necessarily love that either.
Re: Fallout 4's Next-Gen Update Is Coming To Xbox Series X|S Later This Month
@Dimey without checking the webpage, I assume they are referring to the fact you need an Xbox copy, and that on a PS5 you’d need to have purchased for the PS4 previously to upgrade. That the purchases aren’t transferable across platforms.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox Fans, Are You Still Enjoying Halo Infinite In 2024?
Single player gamer here mainly. I got enough out of the game at launch…finished the campaign and got most of the collectables. No real interest in going back however.
Game was ok. Mechanically very proficient as is usually the case for Halo, but the story and missions were all a bit forgettable.
Wish they’d made a single player expansion for the game where they could double down on story and interesting missions, given the gameplay loop and engine were in place.
No local co-op also killed longer term playability in our household where we have one TV. Past Halo titles I’ve co-op’d the campaign with my son.
Re: Rumour: Resident Evil 9 Could Go Open World Thanks To Dragon's Dogma 2
I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. Plenty of opportunity in an open world title to also include castles, mansions or whatever that funnel users into a more linear/scripted set piece. Games such as Gears, Tomb Raider Reboots, etc have combined more open hubs with more traditional segments to good effect.
Re: Rumour: Microsoft Is Apparently Prototyping Xbox Handheld Hardware
Would like to see such a device. Switch is my most used console, even at home, since I can play on the couch while others use the TV.
Having this as an option would presumably allow an even lower cost Series S home console, to differentiate between the Series X more.
Re: Palworld Dev 'Open' To Acquisition Offers, But Hasn't Talked To Xbox
@RIghteousNixon Minecraft was a unique IP though that MS could market and capitalise on. Very different to Palworld where the interest and media is largely driven by its satire of the Pokemon IP which isn’t going to be something MS is really going to sell as its own thing, at least not without risk of going through courts. Over time they can evolve the game, but the further they move away from Pokemon to make the game safer to market, the more they might lose interest in those that saw that as a draw.
When MS purchased Minecraft the game was also 3 years old at the time, rather than 3 months. In all likelihood we’ll have moved on from Palworld in 6 months, let alone 3 years.
Worth noting the fact Nintendo hasn’t sued yet isn’t a sign that they won’t. They went after Yuzu well after the high profile leaks and reported promotion of piracy by the team through discord channels etc around Tears of the Kingdom leaks. I think that will be a concern for anyone acquiring the studio, especially if they’re hopping to expand on the game. At some point Nintendo may test whether the title is satire or IP infringement. Purchase and ownership by a larger company may also make suing more appealing, as they have the money to actually pay out.
Re: GameSir's New Xbox Cloud Gaming Controller Sounds Like One Of The Best Yet
Recommend looking at the GameSir Galileo G8. The controller grips are very similar to an Xbox controller and as such it’s very comfortable to use. It’s larger, which is a consideration for travel, but very nice to use.
Something like a Backbone is great for portability, but can be cramped in use for longer sessions.
Re: Ubisoft Boasts 'Record Player Engagement' With Pirate Adventure Skull & Bones
"Over four hours of average daily playtime" Ubisoft said in a press release, “our user base of 12 love this game”
Re: Xbox Players Urged To Use '2FA' Security After Account Gets Hacked
@StylesT they won’t give you all the games on a new account. If they were confident that what you are telling support is the truth and they wanted to help, they can reinstate the access to the original account to the rightful owner. MS still has control over the account. The fact they haven’t done so means they aren’t looking to assist or perhaps the original owner was unable to provide sufficient evidence.
If they were to clone content an account has then there’d be a new type of scam where people would fake such an incident while still having the original account, and then sell the login to a new account that comes preloaded with a stack of digital content they didn’t have to pay for.
Re: Here Are The First Impressions Of The Call Of Duty: MW3 Campaign
@Gabrielmpf Sony agreed to the deal to get COD for 10 years, as has Nintendo. Those other systems aren’t going away and if anything Nintendo is re-establishing presence of the franchise.
Re: Less Than 1% Of Xbox Players Own The Coveted 'Day One' Achievement
Yep, got this one. 21st Nov 2013.
There was a few other dashboard achievements at the time that I think no longer exist. MS was pushing for achievements in apps and some like Netflix had them (https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Netflix/achievements).
Re: Here's A Look At Every Xbox Studio Following The ActiBlizz Acquisition
@Moonglow the “Xbox has no games” narrative is usually in the context of exclusive console games, not cross platform ones and not in regard to who the developer/publisher is. People are looking at the PS vs the Xbox libraries and it’s the exclusives that ultimately are the differentiator and matter to consumers. It’s a discussion about which console to buy to get access to the best game library, if you can’t buy multiple consoles.
There’s a bright future here, but with Redfall being a swing and a miss and a number of other games (HiFi Rush and the Minecraft spinoff) being much smaller releases, it has fallen on Forza Motorsport and Starfield to really carry the weight this year.
Arguably we haven’t seen a lot from the Bethesda deal yet other than Starfield. Will be interesting to see what id Software is up to in this respect. Going to be some time until the Activision one begins to bring exclusives to the table I’d say, especially with COD being committed as a cross platform release for the next decade and Blizzard only having just released Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2.
Yes, MS Games Studios are getting large, but to date the outputs still been pretty slow, but with games taking 5+ years to make that’s also not entirely unexpected.
Re: Talking Point: Would You Be Interested In A Digital-Only Xbox Series X?
Personally I wouldn’t want one. Games at launch are generally 20-30% cheaper through physical retailers than they are in the Xbox store, so any cost saving is given up very quickly if you’re prepared to buy physical games. Same reason I went the PS5 with disc console. Even if you buy most games digitally, it’s nice to have that option to grab and insert a disc.
I’d rather see a more expensive Series S with disc drive than a Series X without, to be honest. The hard bit would be pricing it such that it’s not so close to the Series X pricing as to make a Series S with disc model pointless.
Re: Quake 2 Remastered Will Seemingly Stealth Launch On Xbox Game Pass This Month
@Moonglow id are certainly working on a new game of some sorts. The Quake 1 port was by Nightdive studios, a very adept porting studio, and Quake 2 may also be by them. So the Quake remasters wouldnt have impacted id a lot.
We have had a console gen since Doom Eternal and given id do their own tech and are bleeding edge, it’s not all together surprising we haven’t seen a new title yet as they’re probably building on the tech they updated with the last game. Who knows, maybe they’ll tease one at Quakecon as well.
Re: Xbox Reveals New 'Carbon Black' Series S With 1TB Storage, Releasing September 2023
@carlos82 yeah the Series X imo is the better bet long term. Appreciate this is a price conscious system, but the Series X gets access to far far cheaper games due to supporting physical discs, so over the lifespan of the system the Series X could well be cheaper if you’re willing to get physical games (which you can optionally resell) to save money in the process.
To me, Series S makes sense if you’re going to stick to Game Pass and pretty much nothing else. Otherwise, having the optical drive gives you more flexibility.
That’s ignoring the far more consistent performance of games in general you’ll get.
Re: Poll: Which Of These Is Your Favourite Arkane Title On Xbox Game Pass?
Prey, but it’s the only one I’m yet to play so it wins by default. Even still, it’s a game I thoroughly loved and recommend.
Was looking forward to Redfall as a result and hope that one gets turned around. Got a bit of a back log so happy to wait to boot it up. Might give Deathloop a go first.
Re: Xbox Announces Permanent Price Cut For Series X|S Storage Expansion Cards
Long overdue but welcome, even if there’s clearly room to go lower. Hopefully WD still wants to undercut Seagate and can trigger a bit of competitive price drops in the process. My assumption is these things will basically just be differentiated on price and whoever is more expensive will struggle to compete.
Re: Three EA Games Are Being Fully Delisted On Xbox This April
@Bleachedsmiles the battlefield bad company games are actually quite good for the time single player campaigns. Been a long time since I played them, but I recall them being quite different to Call of Duty and every other military FPS, including later BF games, that looked to mirror the COD campaign template.
Sure, there’s no more multiplayer, but those single player campaigns are still worth keeping available and prevent those two games being nothing more than coasters.
Especially loved the first bad company, particularly the tone of the game.
Re: Ray Tracing Is Coming To Halo Infinite On Xbox Series X
@BrilliantBill happy to wait a while for a new company and wouldn’t expect a rapid turn around at all for any future release. Last Gen we only got the one game anyhow. I don’t think 343 has handled this release very well but, especially in terms of single player but also multiplayer and they seemed overwhelmed trying to manage both aspects. If they did split out SP and MP releases into seperate games with different developers, that could eventually lead to quicker turn around or at least allow a team to focus on the game-as-a-service that they seem interested in producing. In fact Halo has adopted so many COD traits it’ll be interesting to see whether MS does leverage any Activision developers for Halo multiplayer.
Now, they didn’t promise single player content, but they did provide us a huge world to explore which unfortunately is a bit sparse and begging for some more interesting content. A lot of people did expect more content to eventually drop exploring new biomes etc. 343 also said this release was the groundwork’s for the next 10 years of halo which I think most people took to assume wasn’t just limited to multi player. With news reporting 343 are committed to Unreal engine for future titles but already, indicating a shift in focus on their technology, I’m not holding me breathe for any new SP content for Infinite.
One way or another something needs a bit of a shake up as Infinite really wasn’t the release I think MS was looking for. It has its fans, but I don’t think it’s kept Halo especially relevant for people less interested in the franchise. I assume that may be under way given the staffing shakeup at 343 recently.
Re: Ray Tracing Is Coming To Halo Infinite On Xbox Series X
As someone that plays Halo for the campaigns, this has sure been a disappointing release in terms of post shipment support. Enjoyed the campaign somewhat and was optimistic about this being a platform they said they’d build on. Since then local co-ops being dropped, ray tracing which was a major graphical enhancement is multiplayer only and a complete lack of any real post release story content has all been disappointing.
While Halo campaigns typically don’t get big post release changes, this game felt like it would be different and there was outstanding content promised following what was a chaotic release.
Kind of would like to see MS get 343, who have talent, to try their hand on something else and maybe give another of their developers they’ve acquired from Bethesda (or possibly Activision) a crack at the IP. MS are full of AAA teams that have strong FPS pedigree at this point and maybe some of them can provide a different perspective.
It may not be the worse idea to split competitive multiplayer and campaigns into different releases at this point with different teams or devs supporting each.
Re: Someone Recently Unlocked An Achievement In GoldenEye 007 For Xbox
@FraserG I hope it is the remastered port. It was close to final but not complete and shipped, so it’s conceivable they did some uplift including changing or adding achievements. The port also has both new and old graphics so perhaps they’d use the old style assets in places. It’d be truly bizarre for them to have a straight N64 port when they have the remaster sitting there that can run both new and old. I doubt they avoid any of the licensing issues by using a straight N64 port rather than the remastered edition, so it wouldn’t make sense to me.
Re: Xbox Fans Highlight Quick Resume Issues With Online Games
I don’t play many online games but Halo Infinite had issues for me where in resuming, the game would occasionally report I wasn’t licensed to play it via GamePass and had to terminate and restart the game for it to work right. Suspect it’s not totally unrelated to these issues. Wasn’t too common but I probably saw it about half a dozen times over the period I went through the campaign.
Re: Talking Point: Have You Bought An Xbox Series X|S Expansion Card Yet?
Purchased a 1TB one this week, but only because I had a stack of points through my Telcos reward program that allowed me to get it for $60AUD rather than the $360RRP. If I didn’t have a steep discount I’d have continued to archive to a standard drive.