I wouldn't have expected anything less. It would be stupid of Microsoft and completely ridiculous as well, to allow the weaker system to take the spotlight as the platform with the better performance.
Games with Gold has most definitely seen better days, so I agree with most of the others there, but personally, I have a MASSIVE distaste for anything disposable, which seems to be more and more becoming all the rage in modern day's society, so I couldn't give a rat's @ss about Game Pass.
I'll play games whenever I bloody want to, NOT for however long an online service decides to allow me to have access to them. For me, gaming is a fun pass time for the rare hours that I nowadays have time to partake in it, what with work and private life taking up well over 95% of it, so I don't need or want the added pressure of "play this game NOW before it disappears from Game Pass forever".
So, I actually still prefer Games with Gold, regardless of the slim pickings of late, also because it allows me to keep the Xbox 360 and OG Xbox games that they offer, the latter of which I always like to play and/or discover, since I never owned an OG Xbox.
And obviously, once I've downloaded these now owned titles, I can rest assured that I can indeed play them whenever I want to, without having to fear them being lost forever, or being at the mercy of the ever rotating/shifting selection of the gaming equivalent of Netflix...
@ALK Well, they may not care (anymore), but if they want us to play BC titles on the new hardware, then they had better up their game, because these here are slim pickings, in my opinion.
No offense, but that's quite the pathetic offering, to be honest. Price and age-wise, they could easily have made a list of anywhere between 50 and a 100 titles, instead of this meager collection comprised of titles that most, if not practically all Xbox owners have already bought or played, complemented with a couple of completely uninteresting titles.
Nope, received nothing. Then again: I'm not too bothered, seeing as 5 bucks is basically nothing as well, so they can keep it. I'm easily able to cough those pennies up myself...
@AJDarkstar Well, sounds like they've done it right, then. We sure have come a long way from the simple rumble packs which basically only had three settings: soft, medium and hard rumble, combined with intermittent patterns and either short or long signals.
Back in the day with Star Fox/Lylat Wars on the N64 I was completely amazed by it, nowadays it just feels crude. Still fun to play, obviously also because of the sentiment attached to it, but crude nonetheless.
@AJDarkstar I wouldn't blame you if you've forgotten all about HD Rumble in Mario Odyssey, because like I said, in that game it was implemented quite subtly.
Then again, perhaps that actually IS the way to do it, so it feels natural, instead of the player being too aware that he has an haptic/interactive controller in his hands, seeing as it should add to the overall experience, to complement, enhance and/or increase the immersion.
@AJDarkstar Well, all I can say is that if you are able to grab a copy of 1-2 Switch for a good price (I bought mine second-hand for 34 euros), then it's most definitely worth it, because it is THE title to showcase what HD Rumble is actually capable of, but you have to experience it, to get it, probably much like Sony's new controllers.
I do definitely agree with you though, that HD Rumble has so far been rather under-utilized, other than in a few choice Nintendo titles, such as Super Mario Odyssey, but even there, it's rather demure/subtle, to such an extent that most might not even notice it, whereas in 1-2 Switch it's all too evident, because the entire collection of mini games is built up around it.
Should have been a pack-in title, though. Much like Wii Sports back in the Wii days. Oh, well...
@AJDarkstar so, if I read that correctly, Sony basically mixed Xbox One's haptic triggers with Nintendo's HD rumble, and tweaked it.
Impressive and/or interesting on the one hand, but on the other it's still not a completely original idea/invention, or as fanboys would say, it's simply stolen ideas.
On a side note: I am now curious to experience it myself, but still not enough to shell out the money for the console.
On a second side note: I don't know if you've ever played/tried out 1-2 Switch, (or if you even own a Nintendo Switch) but that title has some equally impressive showcases of the technology, in my opinion.
In one of the mini games, your JoyCon acts as a small wooden box, that has a number of marbles rolling around in it, and you can actually "feel" them rolling around inside the controller, even though you intellectually know that it's not real.
11. By far the better controller. The Xbox One controller was already pretty darn good, so for the Xbox Series X version of that controller, they only had to do some minor tweaking here and there. And it too has haptic triggers, ever since the Xbox One, so nothing new there from Sony at all.
Meanwhile, Sony tries to sell us their version of HD rumble, which as per usual, is copied from Nintendo, and given a "unique" twist, much like the ridiculous and infantile looking Move controllers, back in the PS3 days.
12. Microsoft doesn't try to pawn off what is basically a DLC package and market it as a full game, fooling entire droves of idiot fanboys and girls into believing that it's the next best thing besides sliced bread.
I could probably come up with a couple more, and the fact that they've enlisted Bethesda is also a pretty big one, so that's probably going to yield some interesting results.
On a side note: my preference is obvious, but I won't deny that I would like to play certain PlayStation games. Just never bad enough that I'd buy one of their consoles for it...
Having said that, even all the biggest pros of any platform will only ring true if they matter to you. If they don't, then it's just marketing blabla. We should simply all play what we like/prefer, and not fight or ridicule each other because we aren't gaming on the cooler platform, which on both sides is equally debatable, seeing as at the end of the day, the list of pros and cons is probably just as long for both consoles...
Ridiculous and insanely outrageous prices for what it is and offers. No way in hell that I'll be buying one of these, before they go down in price by at least half their current cost. And even then I'd still find them expensive...
@FraserG I don't know if there's a specific reason for only posting Amazon and CD Keys links, but if there isn't, then you might want to keep tabs on this comparison site as well, seeing as it offers FAR more options for getting the cheapest Xbox Live Gold subscriptions:
@Krzzystuff Yes, you can, but it's different for Xbox One games, which are only for rent, basically, whereas Xbox 360 and OG Xbox games are yours to keep forever, and will work regardless of an active subscription or not, albeit without any online functionality, obviously.
So, all you'd need to do then is to retrieve these specific titles from your download/purchase history, in case you've ever deleted or lost them.
Xbox One titles only work with an active Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate account. You will still be able to download them, but you can't access them without an active subscription.
@NotoriousWhiz You got a point there. The gaming industry isn't similar to those other sectors/branches/industries that are getting hit hard by the pandemic, but because of that, there might be a general sentiment, or as in my case: uneducated guess, that it actually has something to do with it.
@Tasuki I do understand your point, but your reply simply brings me back to my "just because you can throw bricks through windows" comment, because just because there's opportunity to take advantage of whatever kind of situation, doesn't mean you have to act upon it, especially if it's hurting other, FAR more deserving people than you.
Far as I'm concerned, it's just common human decency. It's YOUR decision to scalp, and the guilt should NOT be transferred onto other parties because they enabled your nefarious schemes. No matter what, you shouldn't be partaking in nefarious schemes in the first place, period.
EDIT:
But, having said that, I also do think that there's something that platforms like eBay should do, to prevent individuals like these from advertising their maliciously acquired goods, but they too probably make too much money off of it to bother with that.
I didn't even know she was a part of the Xbox and/or Microsoft team, because I've never seen her before, so to me it's "unknown person leaves Microsoft for unknown reasons"...
But all kidding aside, I hope she wasn't fired, or kindly excused to leave because of a COVID-related down-sizing of the team, and I hope she finds whatever it is she's looking for next.
@Tasuki No offense and sorry to butt in here, but that does in no way whatsoever justify or excuse them. That basically makes it sound like "they do it because they can and/or are enabled by <enter other "guilty" party>".
Just because you can throw bricks through people's windows, doesn't mean you should...
Besides, often times, they also do it when there is more than enough supply of something, so it's actually all the same to them. As I already mentioned in my previous comment, they simply act upon the age old supply and demand principle.
Albeit the highly nefarious kind...
So, yes, we can and SHOULD fully blame the scalpers.
Ugh! Scalpers, the "gift" that keeps on giving, albeit nobody in his or her right mind should want to have anything to do with it.
I honestly don't mind people buying a second copy of something to earn a bit of extra pocket money, or pre-ordering from two outlets, just to be sure they can get their hands on something, and then re-selling the second item in case they do manage to secure two pre-orders, but making THAT kind of money off of the backs of honest and genuinely interested people that already have to squeeze every cent out of their wallet to pay for it, is WAY beyond disgusting and despicable behavior.
Unfortunately, there'll always be poor saps who'll fall for these scams, so I'm afraid scalpers are here to stay, because it's simply a case of supply and demand.
I can honestly say that between these types of individuals and hardcore scalpers, I really don't know which of the two inbred maggots I find to be the worst.
@NEStalgia All true about bc, but I also have quite a few non-bc titles, so that's why I need to keep the 360 around.
As for all digital still not being fully realized: honestly, not surprising to me at all. Not in the slightest.
Factoring in the amount of older gamers and/or users of legacy systems moving over to this generation, it's pretty clear to me that we're still quite a way's off from that reality, and obviously, Microsoft can't run the risk of alienating their existing user base (again).
All kidding aside though, that's probably exactly what I'd feel like if I would buy one of these drives at that price, so I'll either steal one somewhere or wait until after the generation has run half its course, in hopes of them actually having become considerably cheaper...
Just to be clear, I was only kidding about stealing one. Kind of a sarcastic nod to them perhaps some day becoming a steal...
As for re-downloading games, if you think you're having problems with that, just imagine what I'm going through right now: I had an external drive connected to my trusty Xbox 360, that was in dire need of replacement, because it started to act up. So, I bought a new one, copied all the content over (almost a TB's worth of data), and connected it to my console again, only to find that the drive wasn't recognized by the Xbox 360, and suggested for it to be formatted.
Guess I forgot that the Xbox 360 doesn't recognize NTFS drives, so it had to be formatted to FAT32...
So, I disconnected it again, and started to move the games over to the old drive again, through my PC. But well, you guessed it: during this procedure, my old external drive decided to give up the ghost, resulting in me losing roughly 700GB of data, and having only around 212GB left to move over from my new drive.
So, long story short: I had to buy yet another external drive, so I could salvage that data, seeing as I didn't have that much space left on my PC.
Next, I connected the now once again empty drive I bought earlier to my Xbox, formatted it, reconnected it to my PC, moved over the 212GB of leftover data from new drive nr. 2 and then connected that first drive to my Xbox 360 again.
And now I've already been busy for this entire weekend to re-download all the missing titles, or at least: the ones still available, because I've already run into several mentions of "content not available" without even having a single inkling of what title or demo is/was hidden behind that notification.
And even with all this time spent, I'm not even close to being halfway, because I'm sifting through my ENTIRE download history from the start of my Xbox 360 days.
I'm definitely NOT happy that Microsoft chose to remove the option to offer members to batch re-download older library titles from their own profile on the Xbox website, because the process is agonizingly slow on the console itself, as well as it having a limit on how many titles can be queued at once, so I have to do it in bite-sized stages, more or less.
I have never been more aware of how excruciatingly slow the Xbox 360 OS actually is, especially with these kinds of things. They have most certainly improved upon it in the current and upcoming generations...
@Medic_Alert Oh, and I literally never sell any of my consoles or handhelds, so I'll keep playing my previous gen games on the 360 or on my One S, unless of course there's a significant benefit to playing them on the newer console.
But it would have to be a REALLY big difference for it to be able to persuade me.
@Medic_Alert True, and I was indeed already aware of the options for previous gen games, but in this scenario, I was purely considering new games, and seeing as these will more than likely be pretty hefty in size, I'll probably need to keep my next gen library a bit more modest, for the time being.
@Medic_Alert Here's hoping that the internal drive will last long enough, space-wise, to accommodate for that.
I'm not really partial to installing/playing and then erasing games again. I always like to keep them installed so they're instantly available whenever I want to (re)play them.
@Senua And who exactly are these "some people"?
Probably the one's that don't understand the whole idea or purpose behind the new generation's eco-system. Or the Xbox family's eco-system as a whole, for that matter.
Any word on official price target for the expansion cards yet? I've seen various mentions of it here and there, ranging from €100 - €200, so if you have anything sensible or factual to say about that, then I'm all ears...
@FraserG Ah, okay. Fair enough, then. Must be Monday, that I missed that... 😉
I guess I'd also remove data for games that I don't play anymore, but I only keep games that I actually want to play anyways, and I mostly have physical games, which I also never trade in, and besides that, I have a MASSIVE backlog, so actually finishing a game has become somewhat of a nearly unreachable goal for me...
No offense, but I find it VERY ill-advised to tell people to save space by removing DLC and similar data from their internal hard drives.
It's needed for the games, and there's simply no telling for how long we'll still be able to (re)download these add ons, so better keep them right where they are, or better yet: make a backup on a (second) external hard drive, which is a FAR better option to save space on the internal drive, if you have to.
@Grot You're welcome, and fair enough. I'm relatively sure that things will quiet down eventually, and some kind of agreement will be made, but it's a shame about all the bad publicity for all parties involved.
I'm no Apple user myself, so I won't be affected at all, but I still sympathize with my fellow gamers, so here's to an ultimately positive outcome.
@Grot True enough, and mind you: I'm definitely not defending Epic's practices of trying to sneak their 30% rules past Apple's platform restrictions, and as mentioned before, I'm fully aware that they aren't doing this out of any kind of noble general purpose, but I don't think that you'll have anything to worry about, certainly not about the platform blowing up.
If anything, if this goes in favor of Epic, then all it will mean is that Apple will either have to change some of the terms and conditions of their platform, or that they'll have to make some exceptions towards certain services, so that they can work as they are supposed to. Especially in the case of xCloud, it just isn't a realistic stance, much less a workable situation to force Microsoft into allowing Apple to rate/control/check EVERY single game which is available through xCloud.
That's beyond crystal clear to me, so I don't understand why a large company like Apple wouldn't be able to see this, although I bet they actually do, but they just don't want to loosen their reigns. Reaching a nice middle ground would be good, because it would ultimately be beneficial to all parties involved, but it seems like Apple is just digging its heels into the ground, and doesn't want to give an inch.
As for Epic: if things stay as they are, then Apple device-owning console gamers should definitely also blame them for causing problems for other developers that are using Unreal Engine, because it's going to cause a world of hurt for a lot of them, especially the smaller developers. Just imagine not being able to use the latest Unreal Engine on iOS and having to completely retool or downgrade your game to a version of Unreal that actually IS allowed on iOS. If that is even possible at all.
I wouldn't know, since I'm obviously no developer, but this is what I am envisioning as a spectator, as the ultimate result for developers, when the sh** hits the fan, if it hasn't already...
@Tharsman Ah, okay. Didn't know that. Still, it's a LOT more lenient than what Apple is doing, and it isn't hampering or crippling services like xCloud or engines like Unreal, so regardless of this (for me) new information, my views on this remain the same.
@Grot Well, agreed to the latter: if you don't like something, don't buy it, eat it, listen to it, use it and so on, but if any kind of policies or rule sets are hurting existing customers and/or developers, then that IS bad, no matter which way you look at it.
Apple's restrictions may be entirely logical from their point of view, but they factually do prevent xCloud from being able to be offered as it is supposed to work, so that completely defeats the whole purpose of xCloud, so that's VERY counter-productive as well as customer-unfriendly.
So, thanks to Apple's narrow-minded rule set, customers be damned. And I'm betting that there's plenty of Xbox and Apple smart device combo owners that would like to be able to use xCloud as intended...
And the issue with Unreal Engine is potentially even worse, because that will impact both the customers AND the developers.
I also don't believe for a single micro second that Apple is adhering to these practices for platform compliance or quality control. What it actually is, in my view, is trying to keep a stranglehold on software and developers, which just isn't feasible/workable anymore, in today's world.
And as a veteran sales & marketing professional myself, I can definitely also see this becoming something that's eventually going to bite Apple in the you-know-what, because in my personal view, this is also VERY bad marketing on their part.
@Grot No offense, but while I definitely agree with you on the Tencent situation, and also about Epic's motives not being purely for the noble cause (although it's still understandable, seeing as, at the end of the day, they're still a business, wanting to make a profit), I don't agree with the rest at all, and it sounds just a little bit too pro-Apple...
Apple's motives are equally shady, if not more so. Blocking/obstructing xCloud because they won't be able to "quality check", aka brute force control every individual game on the service is total and utter consumer-unfriendly crap, as is blocking newer versions of Unreal Engine, which does indeed hurt a LOT of developers.
And besides, if Apple is supposedly well within their rights to apply these Draconian measures on external services and/or developers and if it's all so normal, then why aren't these things happening on Android as well? Definitely does make Apple stick out like a sore thumb...
Comments 531
Re: Xbox Responds To Reports Of Games Running Better On PS5 Than Series X
I wouldn't have expected anything less. It would be stupid of Microsoft and completely ridiculous as well, to allow the weaker system to take the spotlight as the platform with the better performance.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy With December 2020's Xbox Games With Gold?
It's okayish, kinda...
Games with Gold has most definitely seen better days, so I agree with most of the others there, but personally, I have a MASSIVE distaste for anything disposable, which seems to be more and more becoming all the rage in modern day's society, so I couldn't give a rat's @ss about Game Pass.
I'll play games whenever I bloody want to, NOT for however long an online service decides to allow me to have access to them. For me, gaming is a fun pass time for the rare hours that I nowadays have time to partake in it, what with work and private life taking up well over 95% of it, so I don't need or want the added pressure of "play this game NOW before it disappears from Game Pass forever".
So, I actually still prefer Games with Gold, regardless of the slim pickings of late, also because it allows me to keep the Xbox 360 and OG Xbox games that they offer, the latter of which I always like to play and/or discover, since I never owned an OG Xbox.
And obviously, once I've downloaded these now owned titles, I can rest assured that I can indeed play them whenever I want to, without having to fear them being lost forever, or being at the mercy of the ever rotating/shifting selection of the gaming equivalent of Netflix...
Re: Deals: Over 50 Games Added To This Week's Xbox Sale (Nov 24 - Dec 1)
As a BIG fan of the previous installments in the series, I'll definitely be buying MudRunner.
Re: Deals: All 25+ OG Xbox, Xbox 360 Games In The Xbox Black Friday Sale
@ALK Well, they may not care (anymore), but if they want us to play BC titles on the new hardware, then they had better up their game, because these here are slim pickings, in my opinion.
Re: Deals: All 25+ OG Xbox, Xbox 360 Games In The Xbox Black Friday Sale
No offense, but that's quite the pathetic offering, to be honest. Price and age-wise, they could easily have made a list of anywhere between 50 and a 100 titles, instead of this meager collection comprised of titles that most, if not practically all Xbox owners have already bought or played, complemented with a couple of completely uninteresting titles.
What a disappointment.
Re: 10 Things Xbox Series X Does That PS5 Doesn't
@AJDarkstar My sentiments exactly.
Re: Xbox Is Giving Away Free Gift Cards To Celebrate Black Friday 2020
Nope, received nothing. Then again: I'm not too bothered, seeing as 5 bucks is basically nothing as well, so they can keep it. I'm easily able to cough those pennies up myself...
Re: 10 Things Xbox Series X Does That PS5 Doesn't
@AJDarkstar Well, sounds like they've done it right, then.
We sure have come a long way from the simple rumble packs which basically only had three settings: soft, medium and hard rumble, combined with intermittent patterns and either short or long signals.
Back in the day with Star Fox/Lylat Wars on the N64 I was completely amazed by it, nowadays it just feels crude. Still fun to play, obviously also because of the sentiment attached to it, but crude nonetheless.
Re: 10 Things Xbox Series X Does That PS5 Doesn't
@AJDarkstar I wouldn't blame you if you've forgotten all about HD Rumble in Mario Odyssey, because like I said, in that game it was implemented quite subtly.
Then again, perhaps that actually IS the way to do it, so it feels natural, instead of the player being too aware that he has an haptic/interactive controller in his hands, seeing as it should add to the overall experience, to complement, enhance and/or increase the immersion.
Re: 10 Things Xbox Series X Does That PS5 Doesn't
@AJDarkstar Well, all I can say is that if you are able to grab a copy of 1-2 Switch for a good price (I bought mine second-hand for 34 euros), then it's most definitely worth it, because it is THE title to showcase what HD Rumble is actually capable of, but you have to experience it, to get it, probably much like Sony's new controllers.
I do definitely agree with you though, that HD Rumble has so far been rather under-utilized, other than in a few choice Nintendo titles, such as Super Mario Odyssey, but even there, it's rather demure/subtle, to such an extent that most might not even notice it, whereas in 1-2 Switch it's all too evident, because the entire collection of mini games is built up around it.
Should have been a pack-in title, though. Much like Wii Sports back in the Wii days. Oh, well...
Re: 10 Things Xbox Series X Does That PS5 Doesn't
@AJDarkstar so, if I read that correctly, Sony basically mixed Xbox One's haptic triggers with Nintendo's HD rumble, and tweaked it.
Impressive and/or interesting on the one hand, but on the other it's still not a completely original idea/invention, or as fanboys would say, it's simply stolen ideas.
On a side note: I am now curious to experience it myself, but still not enough to shell out the money for the console.
On a second side note: I don't know if you've ever played/tried out 1-2 Switch, (or if you even own a Nintendo Switch) but that title has some equally impressive showcases of the technology, in my opinion.
In one of the mini games, your JoyCon acts as a small wooden box, that has a number of marbles rolling around in it, and you can actually "feel" them rolling around inside the controller, even though you intellectually know that it's not real.
Here's a clip, just in case...
Re: 10 Things Xbox Series X Does That PS5 Doesn't
@KelticDevil Haha, thanks. I do hope you've also read and agree with the side note that I made in that comment, though.
Re: 10 Reasons Why Xbox Series X Is Better Than PS5
10 reasons? How about 12, at least?
11. By far the better controller. The Xbox One controller was already pretty darn good, so for the Xbox Series X version of that controller, they only had to do some minor tweaking here and there. And it too has haptic triggers, ever since the Xbox One, so nothing new there from Sony at all.
Meanwhile, Sony tries to sell us their version of HD rumble, which as per usual, is copied from Nintendo, and given a "unique" twist, much like the ridiculous and infantile looking Move controllers, back in the PS3 days.
12. Microsoft doesn't try to pawn off what is basically a DLC package and market it as a full game, fooling entire droves of idiot fanboys and girls into believing that it's the next best thing besides sliced bread.
I could probably come up with a couple more, and the fact that they've enlisted Bethesda is also a pretty big one, so that's probably going to yield some interesting results.
On a side note: my preference is obvious, but I won't deny that I would like to play certain PlayStation games. Just never bad enough that I'd buy one of their consoles for it...
Having said that, even all the biggest pros of any platform will only ring true if they matter to you. If they don't, then it's just marketing blabla. We should simply all play what we like/prefer, and not fight or ridicule each other because we aren't gaming on the cooler platform, which on both sides is equally debatable, seeing as at the end of the day, the list of pros and cons is probably just as long for both consoles...
Re: Did You Know: These Xbox 360 Games Are Free To Download On Xbox Series X
@Nic-Noc20th-C Not quite the same: Phantom Dust is a free to play title, not a completely free, fully "everything available without extra cost" title.
Re: Hands On: Seagate SSD 1TB Storage Card Is A Great Expansion For Xbox Series X
Ridiculous and insanely outrageous prices for what it is and offers. No way in hell that I'll be buying one of these, before they go down in price by at least half their current cost. And even then I'd still find them expensive...
Re: Just Got A Series X? Save Up To £275 / $390 On Xbox Game Pass Ultimate With This Trick
@FraserG I don't know if there's a specific reason for only posting Amazon and CD Keys links, but if there isn't, then you might want to keep tabs on this comparison site as well, seeing as it offers FAR more options for getting the cheapest Xbox Live Gold subscriptions:
EU version:
https://www.allkeyshop.com/blog/buy-xbox-live-gold-membership-12-months-subscription-compare-prices/
US version:
https://cheapdigitaldownload.com/buy-xbox-live-gold-12-months-subscription-code-price-best-deal/
Re: PSA: Some 'Optimised' Xbox Series X Games Work From External Drives
Well, nice to know, I guess... ?
I wonder what the use will be, though, considering the rather damning downside...
Re: RRoD Issue Forced Xbox 360 Team To Effectively Run Two Businesses
Yes, I did and after I sent it in for repairs, I got it back within the space of ten days, and it has been working perfectly ever since.
Re: Two More Of November 2020's Xbox Games With Gold Are Now Available
@Krzzystuff You're welcome.
Re: Two More Of November 2020's Xbox Games With Gold Are Now Available
@Krzzystuff Yes, you can, but it's different for Xbox One games, which are only for rent, basically, whereas Xbox 360 and OG Xbox games are yours to keep forever, and will work regardless of an active subscription or not, albeit without any online functionality, obviously.
So, all you'd need to do then is to retrieve these specific titles from your download/purchase history, in case you've ever deleted or lost them.
Xbox One titles only work with an active Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate account. You will still be able to download them, but you can't access them without an active subscription.
EDIT:
You can find all the related info here:
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/subscriptions-billing/manage-subscriptions/xbox-games-with-gold-faq
Re: Catarina Macedo Departs Xbox And Microsoft
@NotoriousWhiz You got a point there. The gaming industry isn't similar to those other sectors/branches/industries that are getting hit hard by the pandemic, but because of that, there might be a general sentiment, or as in my case: uneducated guess, that it actually has something to do with it.
Re: Dev: Easier To Add 120FPS To Legacy Games On Xbox Series X Than PS5
Ha, that's another home run for the Xbox team, then. Things just keep getting better and better, and personally, I just LOVE it.
Re: Scalpers Are At It Again With Expensive Xbox Series X eBay Listings
@Tasuki I do understand your point, but your reply simply brings me back to my "just because you can throw bricks through windows" comment, because just because there's opportunity to take advantage of whatever kind of situation, doesn't mean you have to act upon it, especially if it's hurting other, FAR more deserving people than you.
Far as I'm concerned, it's just common human decency. It's YOUR decision to scalp, and the guilt should NOT be transferred onto other parties because they enabled your nefarious schemes. No matter what, you shouldn't be partaking in nefarious schemes in the first place, period.
EDIT:
But, having said that, I also do think that there's something that platforms like eBay should do, to prevent individuals like these from advertising their maliciously acquired goods, but they too probably make too much money off of it to bother with that.
Re: Catarina Macedo Departs Xbox And Microsoft
I didn't even know she was a part of the Xbox and/or Microsoft team, because I've never seen her before, so to me it's "unknown person leaves Microsoft for unknown reasons"...
But all kidding aside, I hope she wasn't fired, or kindly excused to leave because of a COVID-related down-sizing of the team, and I hope she finds whatever it is she's looking for next.
Re: Scalpers Are At It Again With Expensive Xbox Series X eBay Listings
@Tasuki No offense and sorry to butt in here, but that does in no way whatsoever justify or excuse them. That basically makes it sound like "they do it because they can and/or are enabled by <enter other "guilty" party>".
Just because you can throw bricks through people's windows, doesn't mean you should...
Besides, often times, they also do it when there is more than enough supply of something, so it's actually all the same to them. As I already mentioned in my previous comment, they simply act upon the age old supply and demand principle.
Albeit the highly nefarious kind...
So, yes, we can and SHOULD fully blame the scalpers.
Re: Scalpers Are At It Again With Expensive Xbox Series X eBay Listings
Ugh! Scalpers, the "gift" that keeps on giving, albeit nobody in his or her right mind should want to have anything to do with it.
I honestly don't mind people buying a second copy of something to earn a bit of extra pocket money, or pre-ordering from two outlets, just to be sure they can get their hands on something, and then re-selling the second item in case they do manage to secure two pre-orders, but making THAT kind of money off of the backs of honest and genuinely interested people that already have to squeeze every cent out of their wallet to pay for it, is WAY beyond disgusting and despicable behavior.
Unfortunately, there'll always be poor saps who'll fall for these scams, so I'm afraid scalpers are here to stay, because it's simply a case of supply and demand.
Re: Yep, YouTubers Are Already Smashing Up The Xbox Series X
I can honestly say that between these types of individuals and hardcore scalpers, I really don't know which of the two inbred maggots I find to be the worst.
It's probably a tie...
Re: The Best 4K TVs For Xbox Series X
LG C9 all day, every day. The best blacks, good refresh rates, low latency and enough built-in counter measures to negate any and all burn-in issues.
Samsung's higher end QLED's come as a close second, though, so both are a good purchase for next gen gaming, AND movies/TV watching.
Re: Site News: We Have An Xbox Series X
@NEStalgia All true about bc, but I also have quite a few non-bc titles, so that's why I need to keep the 360 around.
As for all digital still not being fully realized: honestly, not surprising to me at all. Not in the slightest.
Factoring in the amount of older gamers and/or users of legacy systems moving over to this generation, it's pretty clear to me that we're still quite a way's off from that reality, and obviously, Microsoft can't run the risk of alienating their existing user base (again).
Re: Site News: We Have An Xbox Series X
@NEStalgia "and right now Seagate's the only MFR"
Mother ***** *****?
All kidding aside though, that's probably exactly what I'd feel like if I would buy one of these drives at that price, so I'll either steal one somewhere or wait until after the generation has run half its course, in hopes of them actually having become considerably cheaper...
Just to be clear, I was only kidding about stealing one. Kind of a sarcastic nod to them perhaps some day becoming a steal...
As for re-downloading games, if you think you're having problems with that, just imagine what I'm going through right now: I had an external drive connected to my trusty Xbox 360, that was in dire need of replacement, because it started to act up. So, I bought a new one, copied all the content over (almost a TB's worth of data), and connected it to my console again, only to find that the drive wasn't recognized by the Xbox 360, and suggested for it to be formatted.
Guess I forgot that the Xbox 360 doesn't recognize NTFS drives, so it had to be formatted to FAT32...
So, I disconnected it again, and started to move the games over to the old drive again, through my PC. But well, you guessed it: during this procedure, my old external drive decided to give up the ghost, resulting in me losing roughly 700GB of data, and having only around 212GB left to move over from my new drive.
So, long story short: I had to buy yet another external drive, so I could salvage that data, seeing as I didn't have that much space left on my PC.
Next, I connected the now once again empty drive I bought earlier to my Xbox, formatted it, reconnected it to my PC, moved over the 212GB of leftover data from new drive nr. 2 and then connected that first drive to my Xbox 360 again.
And now I've already been busy for this entire weekend to re-download all the missing titles, or at least: the ones still available, because I've already run into several mentions of "content not available" without even having a single inkling of what title or demo is/was hidden behind that notification.
And even with all this time spent, I'm not even close to being halfway, because I'm sifting through my ENTIRE download history from the start of my Xbox 360 days.
I'm definitely NOT happy that Microsoft chose to remove the option to offer members to batch re-download older library titles from their own profile on the Xbox website, because the process is agonizingly slow on the console itself, as well as it having a limit on how many titles can be queued at once, so I have to do it in bite-sized stages, more or less.
I have never been more aware of how excruciatingly slow the Xbox 360 OS actually is, especially with these kinds of things. They have most certainly improved upon it in the current and upcoming generations...
Re: Site News: We Have An Xbox Series X
@Medic_Alert Oh, and I literally never sell any of my consoles or handhelds, so I'll keep playing my previous gen games on the 360 or on my One S, unless of course there's a significant benefit to playing them on the newer console.
But it would have to be a REALLY big difference for it to be able to persuade me.
Re: Site News: We Have An Xbox Series X
@Medic_Alert True, and I was indeed already aware of the options for previous gen games, but in this scenario, I was purely considering new games, and seeing as these will more than likely be pretty hefty in size, I'll probably need to keep my next gen library a bit more modest, for the time being.
Re: Site News: We Have An Xbox Series X
@Medic_Alert Here's hoping that the internal drive will last long enough, space-wise, to accommodate for that.
I'm not really partial to installing/playing and then erasing games again. I always like to keep them installed so they're instantly available whenever I want to (re)play them.
Re: Site News: We Have An Xbox Series X
@Thretosix On a side note: I wouldn't be surprised if the final price in euros is ultimately the exact same figure as the amount in dollars.
Taxes and all that fun stuff...
Re: Site News: We Have An Xbox Series X
@Medic_Alert @NEStalgia @Thretosix Thanks, people!
But damn, that's a pretty steep price for a single TB. I know that solid state is more expensive than regular storage expansion options, but still.
Doesn't make it very attractive to dive right in after you've already paid around €500 - €600 for the console itself...
Re: Confirmed! All Non-Kinect Back Compat Games Work On Xbox Series X|S
@Senua And who exactly are these "some people"?
Probably the one's that don't understand the whole idea or purpose behind the new generation's eco-system. Or the Xbox family's eco-system as a whole, for that matter.
So, probably not the target audience, then...
Re: Site News: We Have An Xbox Series X
@redd214 Haha, you and me both, man.
Re: Confirmed! All Non-Kinect Back Compat Games Work On Xbox Series X|S
So, who exactly are the kings of backwards compatibility again?
Yup, that's what I already figured...
(or rather: knew)
Re: We Have An Xbox Series X
@redd214 Thanks, very kind of you. Went through a bit of a rough patch (non-COVID related) but things are slowly improving again.
Re: Site News: We Have An Xbox Series X
@FraserG You lucky devils...
Any word on official price target for the expansion cards yet? I've seen various mentions of it here and there, ranging from €100 - €200, so if you have anything sensible or factual to say about that, then I'm all ears...
Re: Guide: How To Remove Leftover Add-Ons & Free Up Space On Xbox
@FraserG Haha, yeah. Indeed...
Re: Guide: How To Remove Leftover Add-Ons & Free Up Space On Xbox
@FraserG Ah, okay. Fair enough, then. Must be Monday, that I missed that... 😉
I guess I'd also remove data for games that I don't play anymore, but I only keep games that I actually want to play anyways, and I mostly have physical games, which I also never trade in, and besides that, I have a MASSIVE backlog, so actually finishing a game has become somewhat of a nearly unreachable goal for me...
Re: Guide: How To Remove Leftover Add-Ons & Free Up Space On Xbox
No offense, but I find it VERY ill-advised to tell people to save space by removing DLC and similar data from their internal hard drives.
It's needed for the games, and there's simply no telling for how long we'll still be able to (re)download these add ons, so better keep them right where they are, or better yet: make a backup on a (second) external hard drive, which is a FAR better option to save space on the internal drive, if you have to.
Re: EA Disables In-Game Replay Ads In UFC 4 After Heavy Backlash
"We realize this should have been communicated... "
And they are oh so "sorry", but they still tried to force it down our throats anyway...
Typical EA for 'ya...
Re: Ubisoft's Immortals: Fenyx Rising Arrives This December, According To Microsoft Store Listing
The new name still sucks, though...
Re: Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Unveils Its First Gameplay Trailer
An absolute must-have and a VERY easy recommendation for anyone that's even remotely interested in the action RPG genre.
Re: Apple Can't Block Epic's Unreal Engine, Rules Judge
@Grot You're welcome, and fair enough. I'm relatively sure that things will quiet down eventually, and some kind of agreement will be made, but it's a shame about all the bad publicity for all parties involved.
I'm no Apple user myself, so I won't be affected at all, but I still sympathize with my fellow gamers, so here's to an ultimately positive outcome.
Re: Apple Can't Block Epic's Unreal Engine, Rules Judge
@Grot True enough, and mind you: I'm definitely not defending Epic's practices of trying to sneak their 30% rules past Apple's platform restrictions, and as mentioned before, I'm fully aware that they aren't doing this out of any kind of noble general purpose, but I don't think that you'll have anything to worry about, certainly not about the platform blowing up.
If anything, if this goes in favor of Epic, then all it will mean is that Apple will either have to change some of the terms and conditions of their platform, or that they'll have to make some exceptions towards certain services, so that they can work as they are supposed to. Especially in the case of xCloud, it just isn't a realistic stance, much less a workable situation to force Microsoft into allowing Apple to rate/control/check EVERY single game which is available through xCloud.
That's beyond crystal clear to me, so I don't understand why a large company like Apple wouldn't be able to see this, although I bet they actually do, but they just don't want to loosen their reigns. Reaching a nice middle ground would be good, because it would ultimately be beneficial to all parties involved, but it seems like Apple is just digging its heels into the ground, and doesn't want to give an inch.
As for Epic: if things stay as they are, then Apple device-owning console gamers should definitely also blame them for causing problems for other developers that are using Unreal Engine, because it's going to cause a world of hurt for a lot of them, especially the smaller developers. Just imagine not being able to use the latest Unreal Engine on iOS and having to completely retool or downgrade your game to a version of Unreal that actually IS allowed on iOS. If that is even possible at all.
I wouldn't know, since I'm obviously no developer, but this is what I am envisioning as a spectator, as the ultimate result for developers, when the sh** hits the fan, if it hasn't already...
@Tharsman Ah, okay. Didn't know that. Still, it's a LOT more lenient than what Apple is doing, and it isn't hampering or crippling services like xCloud or engines like Unreal, so regardless of this (for me) new information, my views on this remain the same.
Re: Apple Can't Block Epic's Unreal Engine, Rules Judge
@Grot Well, agreed to the latter: if you don't like something, don't buy it, eat it, listen to it, use it and so on, but if any kind of policies or rule sets are hurting existing customers and/or developers, then that IS bad, no matter which way you look at it.
Apple's restrictions may be entirely logical from their point of view, but they factually do prevent xCloud from being able to be offered as it is supposed to work, so that completely defeats the whole purpose of xCloud, so that's VERY counter-productive as well as customer-unfriendly.
So, thanks to Apple's narrow-minded rule set, customers be damned. And I'm betting that there's plenty of Xbox and Apple smart device combo owners that would like to be able to use xCloud as intended...
And the issue with Unreal Engine is potentially even worse, because that will impact both the customers AND the developers.
I also don't believe for a single micro second that Apple is adhering to these practices for platform compliance or quality control. What it actually is, in my view, is trying to keep a stranglehold on software and developers, which just isn't feasible/workable anymore, in today's world.
And as a veteran sales & marketing professional myself, I can definitely also see this becoming something that's eventually going to bite Apple in the you-know-what, because in my personal view, this is also VERY bad marketing on their part.
Re: Apple Can't Block Epic's Unreal Engine, Rules Judge
@Grot No offense, but while I definitely agree with you on the Tencent situation, and also about Epic's motives not being purely for the noble cause (although it's still understandable, seeing as, at the end of the day, they're still a business, wanting to make a profit), I don't agree with the rest at all, and it sounds just a little bit too pro-Apple...
Apple's motives are equally shady, if not more so. Blocking/obstructing xCloud because they won't be able to "quality check", aka brute force control every individual game on the service is total and utter consumer-unfriendly crap, as is blocking newer versions of Unreal Engine, which does indeed hurt a LOT of developers.
And besides, if Apple is supposedly well within their rights to apply these Draconian measures on external services and/or developers and if it's all so normal, then why aren't these things happening on Android as well? Definitely does make Apple stick out like a sore thumb...