Titntin

I'm sure the guy might have some choice words to say if it didnt affect the future. But with MS now owning so much of the 3rd party space, you don't cut those bridges without severely limiting your future prospects, so its not surprising in the least that he has shown no 'ill will' and I'd have been much more surprised if he had.
I guess we will never know the state of the game, but we know that at least part of the decision to cut it was driven by a MS perceived need to invest in AI. After all, a 3 trillion dollar company obviously didnt have alternate funding sources....

@Markatron84 Hi. Yes I was recruited from Psygnosis to work on Dungeon Keeper 2 and Theme Park world. Peter had left before I arrived, but I got the opportunity to meet him a few times. Happy days...

Right up my street. I used to know a few people at criterion ( they were in Guildford back when I was in Bullfrog in guilford), so Id love to see the team be successful.
I still miss the Burnout series, and in particular the crash mode, so I have high hopes. I will definitely be buying this.

Keeper is definitely the (erm) keeper here. I love its style and I'm genuinely interested in what they have done!

@Fiendish-Beaver Thank you! Sounds like a must play....

Finally playing Spiderman remastered. Its formulaic, but its a formula I like and its a very well polished experience.
I finally picked up 'Lamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story' and Ive been attempting to match my past on Tempest 2000.

What ever you are playing this weekend, have fun!

This series was forgettable and Ive no idea why anyone thought it was worth resurrection...

@Fiendish-Beaver Agreed mate. I bought it after PJs excellent review and loved every minute. Worth a 9 from me, particularly after that great rollercoaster ending.
Its a shame some communities are split by ideological hatred to the point some comments show. Gaming used to be something that drew us together.

I loved the original right up till I couldnt progress any further.
As I suspect Im likely to have the same issue with this sequel I havent rushed out to buy it yet.
Its the only recent addition to GP I have any interest in though, and Id rather own than rent, so it didnt tempt me to resub.

Im not sure that there's joined up marketing going on. Doesn't this rather take the wind out of the sails of the rog ally launch?
Its hugely expensive of course, but hand held pcs are stupid expensive so its just what the market is for these devices.

Im not in the market for a handheld pc, but its nice to see them rolling out their interface as promised, as it makes it far more likely someone will develop an under tv console style unit, and I am interested in that. From what Ive seen of the interface I think it needs a LOT more development before it offers what I want, but never say never. I genuinely hope it improves to be everything we could hope for.

@Millionski I stand corrected, completely missed it! Thanks for pointing it out..

Ive heard all the criticism, but once this is cheap, I'm tempted to pick it up as I think I may really enjoy it for what it is.

Nice to see them continue to improve it. By the time its half price it might run better 😂

This is a great program, Ive always believed a demo is the only way to know if a game is for you.
Ive bought several games this year because I tried them on a demo, it does sell games.

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.