Titntin

I notice this site never mentioned the Digital Foundry analysis of their time with the units? I guess I cant blame you for selective coverage.

Trying to equate fsr generated frames as a sign of performance is a pretty big reach though.

Right up my street, I grew up with bond films, so I love the franchise. Looks in good shape for a game not coming till march.
I also trust this dev and like the hitman type levels they showed and many different systems and options you can take for any one objective.
Something to look forward to 👍

@Fiendish-Beaver Thanks for the summary mate, I'm toying with picking this game up and I like to hear direct from players and what they think, so your post was really useful to me!

I'm intrigued by Keeper, so I'm looking forward to previews and reviews of that.
I didnt enjoy the first Outer Worlds and I've seen nothing that makes me think no 2 will appeal to me more unfortunately.
Ninja Gaiden looks like something I'd have enjoyed playing 35 years ago, when I still had super fast reflexes. If I'm on GP I'll try it of course, but I doubt I'll get far.

Don't think any of these will get me subbed again, and this month I'd rather spend the money on buying Silksong rather than renting it as there's so few titles of any interest to me on GP, so I guess they are saving me money.

@Coletrain Settings are only there because they are programmed in . In reality many settings are interconnected and if you are choosing to have , say, full lumin switched on, then you need to balance other aspects of your game such as how many assets you are trying to light to match what you have picked. It seems like many younger dev teams are simply switching all the bells and whistles on and developing with that in the hope they can can recover performance with optimisation later, when that's the wrong approach.
Due to the interconnected nature of many of these decisions its not simply a case of switching some things off to regain performance as many of these teams are finding out - its not simply picking a resolution and choosing which tick boxes to enable like you can with a finished PC game where this functionality has to be programmed in.
You are correct in that often some cheap wins for performance are not followed through and studios often unwisely prioritise resolution over frame rates. But this is often the push/pull of producers having to argue with marketing and higher management over final output - many people who influence this decision have little understanding of what they are doing. It was just the same back when I was a Dev, sad to see its not changed much.

Poor development schedule. Performance needs to be the first thing you design in, it's not something you can add later or achieve via optimisation once you've already pushed all the assets too high.
Better developers know this and so some great games are being made with UE5. The Coalition will know best practice and ensure they have targeted performance first, optimisation will simply allow them to increases some assets or turn on more quality if they get some performance back from optimisation. Gears will be fine.
No matter what I think of Series S, in this case its being hard done by as it's clear this is just poor development practice.

I fail to see how being unable to deliver a game for so long and essentially failing at Rare makes this guy a good choice for 'Chief of Staff'. Mind you, I fail to see what Xbox is doing with many of its choices right now....

Silksong>all else.
But I'd like to see a TGS shadow drop or two to make this month shine!

@ozkrmz I had my ps3 still connected till a few months back just for motorstorm! That game is fantastic on any metric.. its a shame we wont be seeing more. As you say its still a blast to play many titles - enjoy 😀

@PartyMarty +1 mate. A new Blue Dragon would be such an unexpected delight!

I always thought the swinging in Spiderman would give me motion issues ( I'm suceptible to this), but Ive tried ' Spiderman Remastered on ps extra this week and Im delighted Im not having any issues with traversal!
I appreciate its essentially just another open world with markers for missions, but I enjoy exactly that. The writting and characters aren't total cringe, the combat is good, set scenes are excellently directed and the whole game is seriously polished. Ive been having a blast.
Still sneaking in some Forza 5 races, and Im getting intrigued by ' Unicorn Overlord ' too, so plenty to play!

Whatever you are playing this weekend, I hope your having fun!

Yet another month where GP just hasnt been worth it for me. Id bought herdling and I played veilguard when it came to ps extra, so I guess that tips the scales a bit, but GP just hasnt had the great games it started the year with and feels a little weaker as an offering than it has in the past.. I guess its all down to taste though and maybe some think this was a strong month.

Obviously, very keen to see whats coming with Forza 6.
I'd love to hear/see more of how Fable is doing too, I do hope they get that one right!

@Millionski
"tradional console owners are not the focus anymore rather than legacy thing. "
...and maybe that will make corp shareholders more money, Im not saying its not a valid business direction.
But for those of us who want a traditional console, we are allowed to mourn the passing of Xbox, Ive always had one and kinda hoped I always would.
Unless the new UI is far better than whats been shown so far on the rog, Ive no need to buy into where they are going, I have a £4k PC, I just barely ever use it to game as I prefer consoles.
Strange times...

@Millionski Now you're getting it. That's exactly how it will be.
If it's a decent enough PC and I can launch steam games within 30 seconds of power on, then it has my attention. Anything else and it will mean nothing to me.
I suspect that offerings like this will kill off most interest from traditional console owners, but we only need wait a while and see.
Regardless of their PC success or otherwise, its clear to me that Xbox is dead. The 'everything is an Xbox' ad campaign now makes sense: It's not dead, its just now a PC.

I don't normally play Multiplayer shooters. But I loved this game and can really see why others do to.

Its great its now on Xbox and now all can play it and have fun.

Neither gonna get me to resub.
I bought and played veilguard and thoroughly enjoyed it, as did my wife. Well worth a go on a service!

They can call it what they want, this is just a pc with an xbox logo on it. Its not an xbox at all.
No use for a handheld in our house, and so I wouldnt even consider this even if it were an xbox and played xbox games.

Ive become enamoured of a fun little rpg Sand Land which is fun and charming as long as you are not looking for anything too serious. Its also on PS plus, so costs nothing to try if you are on that service, and I do recommend it!
Still playing Forza 5 on a second run through and just starting the dlc tracks. Ive always loved Forza Horizon.
Im hoping to try the new Prince of Persia 2d game too, thats looking great.

Whatever you are playing this weekend, I hope you have fun.

@HonestHick Sweet! Ive not picked up switch 2 yet, but bound to happen some time. If I need to play in bed we have a portal, which is mainly used by my wife but which Ive been impressed with on the couple of occasions Ive used it. We dont have a need outside the home, which is why I dont have portable PC.

@HonestHick Sometimes an obvious reveal of a controller is just that.
Its a same theres not more innovation in this, but TMR sticks is a big win and this is an option well worth considering I think.

I see the foil hat brigade are still playing damage control. Its laughable.

Im glad the game is now on xbox for those that want it. I acknowledge that opinions are varied, but I had a great time with the game and I hope many others will enjoy it now.

Hall effect sticks and in the right place for me (slight preference). Im sold. Ive changed my tune since jan, now I cant use wireless on series x.
Hate that its wired, but seeing as my series x is now finding it impossible to connect to any wireless pad for any length of time (a known issue apparently), Its good enough for my uses. I'll grab one of these as soon as I can, my wife can then play on xbox if she feels the need 😀

Its also added to ps plus, so theres a choice of where to play if you have both. It would be rude not try it! 😀

Just wanted to congratulate you on your stamina Fraiser! I couldnt make it through all that, but it was a day packed with interesting news. Thanks for staying the course so you could tell us! 😀

@Fiendish-Beaver I'd be shocked if they actually sell out, unless stocks on release are very low. This is not a market segment that invites huge sales and its clear these units are not very different from other hand held pc's, so I'd be surprised if there's a huge rush to buy one. Still, I've been wrong many times and don't doubt I could be this time.

It was a D at best. So little innovation..
At least there were some highlights which do seem well worth looking forwards too.

When Lego Batman makes it onto the highlight list, you know you were struggling!
The new Black myth game will be years out.
The new Bloober game looked suprisingly good.
Indiana Jones dlc looked fine.
Ghost looked sweet!

@Fiendish-Beaver Yes mate, I think we will both be hanging on to our series x boxes for many years to come!

@Millionski I actually said quite clearly " I do think loyalty is an admirable trait so I like to see it even if I don't share it."
You mentioned insta, and it so happens I did delete that account so I said so. But I haven't deleted any others and can see little relevance in the question to the topic under debate as I have not brought up any discussion or point related to ethics in any of my posts.
However, we tend to agree that games and machines should be bought based on what you want to play. That makes both of our choices perfectly valid. 95% of titles I play are 3rd party anyway, so I'd have no problem sticking with Xbox if that were my prefered platform. There's more games than we can play anyway, so missing one or two is not the biggest deal.
The difference here is that Sony are following the strategy they always have so I know what to expect, while Xbox are making a huge change and have not been forthcoming about what they are doing or when or what that will mean. No one needs to make the change now, so by the time such decisions need to be made we will have more facts to work with. I hope they nail the PC box, I do have plenty of titles on Steam. If I can pick up a controller and be playing my steam games in 30 seconds its a winner. If I'm navigating launchers and having to do config per game, then its a failure for me.
I'm sure when the time comes we will have more chats in this very forum! Have a great day.. 👍

@Millionski Yup, corps are bad....and yes I did delete my insta account. My interest in the business is because I made AAA games for a living for 20 years - it was my business.
However, I've always bought games machines based on them playing games. I was importing machines into the UK long before they were ever imported by businesses and have owned just about every piece of games hardware since the Atari and Colecovision machines were first released (I was 13 when Atari released the VCS.)
I don't advocate skipping a machine because you don't like the corp that makes it, unless you feel particularly strongly about it. Indeed, despite fessing up to hating MS corp, I still said I'd be all in on the PC box if they get it right. If they don't then they will have nothing to offer me - I have a £4K PC for windows 11 gaming already, I just far prefer consoles. With most of my owned titles being on the PS and far preferring the whole PS eco system, why would I have a Xbox at all unless it does under the telly PC correct? I'll get everything I need from my PC, PS and a switch 2 (when I get around to picking it up). My buying decisions are based on "If it plays games I can't get anywhere else, I'll have it"
Those with a large collection are likely to have to keep their current console, as the bulk of Xbox games will not have a windows alternative as early adopters of the ROG machine will discover. Those with great internet will have options to stream some, but I suspect most people will keep a series X to play their games natively. I don't expect to be getting rid of mine, its been the least used console I've owned in 45 years, so it should last a while (even if it cant connect wireless controllers any longer). I wouldn't, and haven't, suggested anyone should get rid of theirs either - it makes sense to see what MS delivers and rely on what they promise. Especially for you and for many others who have such an investment in the system, MS is the place for you if they make a machine that works for you. Starting from scratch would be pretty daft imo and I never suggested you should.

@GuyinPA75
I don't believe Nadella cares for the consumer, so I despise him, but if he creates unending growth in revenues and dividends, then I'm sure the shareholders love him regardless. Looking after your customers is not necessarily the best way to growth when you run a monopoly, and Windows is, to all intents and purposes, such a monopoly.

@darylb24 Thanks for the info mate. Leaving such things to pot luck is not good...

@KayUK Ouch. I've been advised of coil whine and that some PS5's suffer. None of mine have, so I guess I'm lucky!

@KayUK
Really? I think you may have a faulty unit? I've had 4 PS5's now (2 originals, now replaced with 2 pro's) and every unit I have had has been silent. I love how quiet this gen is (my series X is silent too) - its a far cry from the sounds of the PS4 pro, which always sounded like it wanted to take off!

@Fiendish-Beaver I'm not sure I understand either mate, but I do think loyalty is an admirable trait so I like to see it even if I don't share it.
Personally I've despised Microsoft since the 80's. But Xbox was its own division and used to run with almost detachment from the main corp. I've worked with Xbox and their rep with devs for being decent people to work with is well deserved. Its therefore particularly hard for me to see the reigns being taken by MS corp, but it was what I feared from the moment the ABK plans were first discussed.
If they are successful in bringing a PC/Console without the PC faf to under my telly, I'll still be on board, but if not, its no biggie to me, as I prefer to play on PS anyway, its my prefered hardware, where I buy all my games and the system my wife will actually play (she cannot stand xbox controllers, just won't play with em).
I still think its shame that the series X will be remembered as the machine that killed Xbox, when the machine is fine - more than fine.

There's barely anything that uses the power of this gen yet and that series x black box has rarely got to stretch its wings.
Nice to see some people will support the corp no matter where they lead, but given the issues with this gen there's likely to be a need for persuasion for the general public to buy into their next vision. If they shift to Windows 11as they state, then many people will lose the bulk of their collection which simply won't run on the new machine. Marketing word salad will not disguise this issue and credibility is going to be MS's biggest problem.

Sea of Stars is the one I'll miss as I haven't done the DLC. Well worth buying anyway

Still working my way through Dragons Dogma 2, 93 hours in.

I started having a look at Sand Land today and I have to say Ive found it charming so far, so I expect to play a lot more.
Probably run a few more races in Forza Horizon 5 too.

Whatever you are playing, I hope you have a great weekend!

well its quite clearly a controller, the video leaves no doubt. Maybe its a new design of controller with gyro and haptics? I shall be keen to see.

I'd be delighted to see Halo reclaim the prestige the series deserves and I hope against hope that the same team that have so far ruined it will get it right. I'm not sure an engine change and change of studio name is indicative of them re-claiming that pedestal though.
I know others have a different perspective, and everyone is of course entitled to their opinion. But the infinite campaign was the worst AAA experience I've ever suffered in over 40 years of gaming everywhere, and I've no idea why I persevered it to completion - maybe because I thought there must be some saving grace there somewhere. At least from such a low starting point they can only go up, it's surely impossible to do worse. Given how highly I rated 2 and the first one, I'd love to see it make a come back.

It's a little underwhelming for my tastes, but I will watch anyway and I'm pretty sure there will be a surprise or two which will help with impact.

Thoroughly enjoyed playing this game. I'm glad those with access to just an xbox now have the opportunity too.
I can only speak of my own experience of course, but there are many people who really enjoyed this title and I completely understand why.

The bed is made, there's no going back.
They need to be completely up front about the windows 11 gaming future and make it something to be excited about rather than concerned about.
If they can do the above whilst still holding celebrations of what we have all enjoyed about Xbox gaming, making us remember all the high points whilst believing in a new future, then many will choose to stay and see what they offer.
What they shouldn't do is continue to offer BS world salad excuse laden announcements which say so little, whilst celebrating huge sales on Playstation. This is clearly alienating the very people who made a success of the brand in the first place and who should be cultivated to to be the core group moving to their new windows 11 vision.
I've never not had an Xbox. I need a reason to want one for the future.

Seems like a pretty reasonable controller, and one I'd consider if I needed a new one.
My series X barely manages to run a controller wirelessly these days (like many other people reporting the same in online forums) so I have to use my controllers wired anyway. Most annoying

@Balaam_ That's pretty unlikely mate.
It looks like the overhaul is to coincide with the PS5 release and all previous games which have had such updates have also been updated for Xbox, so I'd suggest you will definitely get the updated engine and all the fixes at around the same time. Sounds like they have done a lot of work so hopefully it will tempt you back in!

Not normally moved by xbox special edition controllers (but I have two forza special editions), but this is a great design. Well worth.

Jesus, thats Fugly. It's hard to imagine anything been uglier than this. I'm very happy to keep mine black - though I like the look of white too!

I agree with the article - it sounds like end of game support options to be added to this game only. I think it's clear now that another motorsport will not happen.
That's a big shame as I really don't like the current game, but have loved previous iterations. I was hoping maybe they would get it right in a future release, but it's clearly going to be a dead franchise now.