evan23

@Sol4ris To be fair, I think what he was gushing over is that the game is doing interesting things technically and that the open world experience was more interesting than others from his perspective.

I think he pretty clearly hadn't played very deeply into the game and he made that clear in the review.

@eduscxbox Ahh....there were some pretty significant bugs at launch.

I remember several times parts of New Atlantis came with me into space. Characters floating off the ground blocking mission progression, going into a structure and finding your ship had disappeared from the planet, etc, etc.

I was more or less expecting bugs so I wasn't terribly surprised but claiming it wasn't buggy seems....not accurate.

Of course, those things were all fixed and nothing a new player needs to concern themselves with.

@ilyn FWIW, my experience was different. I only had the feeling of the story being unengaging for the first hour or so which is true of many games.

On my first playthrough, I went to New Atlantis, then left on the first mission where I found the note for the secret outpost mission and then went off and did that.

I also didn't feel the need to drive through the story in any certain order.

Obviously, there is a lot of personal preference in that but I thought the game was quite good when I first started playing. I didn't start to see the flaws until later on.

Looks like some good updates here. Most of it free.

I imagine that they will also lower the price on xbox to match PS5 too.

Almost anything could happen with Microsoft/XBOX over the next 5 years:

• They could rise from the ashes and become a dominant force in gaming
• They could continue down the path they are on towards becoming purely a software publisher
• They could abandon gaming and the end of XBOX could be real

Because gaming is a relatively small part of their overall business I think the future is far more complicated than with the other major players.

Purely speculatively, I believe the price for Helix will be between $100 and $10,000. I feel very confident about this.

But seriously, I doubt even Microsoft fully knows what the price will be at this point. It is too early to worry about it overly.

I did some before and after testing last night.

It is definitely an improvement. Image quality is improved and image stability is greatly improved.

Looking at side by side images my guess would be there is a bump to base resolution and also an upscale being applied. There are pretty clear signs of upscaling on objects in the distance.

I am not sure how to post images here but I put a side by side here: https://bsky.app/profile/dalto2.bsky.social/post/3mgegqo6rvc2g

Here is a fun fact, I pre-ordered this game for xbox one in 2020 and the release date was set for January 21st, 2021.

Yeah, add me to the crowd that is saying it looks like a Switch port and the Switch 2 version was an afterthought. I think some of those cutbacks were not required on Switch 2.

@Chip-Douglas I love the Gamecube! Although, now that I think about it, it was from the prior generation. The XBOX/PS2/Gamecube generation was one of my favorites.

For me, I wasn't expecting much. I know the X360 is beloved by many people but I don't see the anniversary of the X360 as a significant event. The anniversary for XBOX as a whole is the thing I think should be celebrated. The same for the other consoles too. The anniversary of the PS1 is interesting, the anniversary of the PS3, not so much. Likewise with Nintendo, I don't expect an anniversary celebration for the Gamecube.

I am sure the solution to this problem is to increase game prices.......

@OldGamer999 The One X never got an upgrade for this game. Only the PS4 Pro did.

That is one of the reasons this is such a great update for XBOX Series Owner's. It is a huge bump.

@OldGamer999 It is also because the game was pushing the bounds of what those consoles could handle at the time.

On the original XBOX One, it was running at 900P/30 and couldn't hold 30 fps consistently. So if it can run at 4K/60 after 5 years, that seems pretty fair. Isn't that like 10x the amount pixels you need to push to make up that difference?

@Scirius I would love to see a Black Flag update but I am willing to bet they won't do it since they are working on a remake.

That being said, if they do, I would be glad to be wrong on this one.

This fantastic news! It used to be much worse on XBOX than PS. Low quality textures and low target resolution. It is pretty shocking to me that they pushed this update this late in the game but I am very glad.

The game update sizes on PS5 and XBOX should provide a hint on how big the difference was: PS5 0.75GB. XBOX Series 31.8GB

That being said, I am little curious if it can hold 60fps cleanly. If I remember right, I was getting about 70-80fps on Ryzen 5800/RTX 3080. Of course, that was with everything maxed out. They may have different settings on console.

@Millionski

i completely disagree. now as the cross-gen period ends, is the best time to get the current gen console. And esp xbox with GPU. Of course if you own pc or ps then there is no point but not everyone got a newest console

I am not sure I can follow that logic

• Since you are buying now for more or less the same price as you could have years ago, it would have made more sense to buy then and have enjoyed the console for all this time.
• In late 2024, unless you are a diehard gamepass fan, it makes more sense to buy a PS5 due to the situation with exclusives. If you are a big gamepass fan, you probably already have a Series console and don't need to buy one now.

On the other hand, if you are already a PC gamer, you really don't need an XBOX at all.

I agree with @Balaam_ from above. When the generation started, I was very hyped about the XBOX. For me, it was clearly the better console over the PS5. I bought it at launch. But now it just seems like it is wasted potential.

It seems like it exists purely to serve the gamepass ecosystem. But if you aren't interested in subscribing to their selection of games, there isn't much you can do on an XBOX you can't do somewhere else better.

I can't imagine buying a Series X at this stage of the game. It seems like a bad investment at this point.

I bought a Series X at launch and I mostly have used it for back compat.

@BIG3 The results look a lot different now than when I originally posted. The distribution was much more even at the time.

That is a pretty interesting distribution of ratings we are seeing as of the time I am writing this. I don't think I can recall a games with such a mixed spectrum.

I guess this is the definition of a divisive game.

At the time I wrote this is it was 54% 6 or better, 46% 5 or worse.

@XxHyperspudxX I am using component cables connected to a scaler. That then converts to hdmi which goes to my OLED TV.

If this is only for the xbox, you could also use one of the HDMI adapters made for the OG XBOX. I think the Kaiko one is one of the better ones still being made.

I am probably one of the few people that still has one setup in and use.

I think my earliest memory of the XBOX was going to a friends house and seeing "the duke". I remember asking why it was so huge and deciding that I would never be getting one of those.

Of course, I bought one anyway. Luckily, the controller s also came not too long after and made playing the xbox a lot more fun.

The games I remember the most on the XBOX were probably not the big name games that most people associate with it.

I loved the Buffy the Vampire Slayer games, especially the first one.

I remember getting the GTA double-pack and being blown away at how much better those games worked that on the PS2. You could even rip CDs to the hard drive and use your own music in-game.

I absolutely loved the much maligned Oddworld, Munch's Oddysee

I also played Beyond Good and Evil, Robotech Battlecry and the PoP, Sands of Time on the XBOX.

That being said, my favorite games on the platform were KOTOR and KOTOR II. I played those games so many times.

@themightyant Yeah, that is a shame. It is significantly higher on PS5/PS4 Pro. Outside of PC, that has always been the best place to play Syndicate.

The tweet doesn't seem to reference XBOX specifically. I wonder what platforms this may include.

@themightyant Hasn't Unity already been updated or am I misremembering?

It seems pretty clear that the XBOX ecosystem as it existed in the past is going away. In the future, there will likely be some type of device that is called an XBOX but it won't be the type of traditional console ecosystem that we are all familiar with.

Microsoft gaming is clearly going in a different direction. They are probably saying as little as possible right now because they don't want to hurt console or software sales in the short-term.

I am definitely interested but at this point we know so little about what kind of game this will actually be. I suspect it will be a tremendous departure from the first game.

If that is a good thing or a bad thing is currently unclear.

@OldGamer999

I think if you took all the resources of all these remasters etc over 2023 and 2024.
You could make the most amazing new ip that would blow every AAA game out of the water.

Perhaps, but I bet the collective revenue from all those remasters combined is much higher than what that one game would bring in.

@OldGamer999 Maybe it is because I am getting old but I often enjoy the remakes/remasters as long as they are done well.

Yeah, I will get it at some point. I would love to play this again all these years later.

That being said, I think it is important that people new to the game realize what they are getting here. It is a game from a different time in gaming when expectations for what made a narrative single player game special may not be the same as today.

It sort of feels like XBOX is becoming a second class citizen for 3rd party publishers.

There are many factors for this in my opinion:

• The smaller install base
• A portion of the install base being game pass centric and not buying games
• The work involved in supporting both the S and X
• Microsoft's multi-platform strategy
• Nintendo and Sony having a strong portfolio of exclusives

I have had a series X since day 1 and I still believe it is the best console on the market. However, I haven't had a reason to turn it on in months. Almost everything I would want to do on the series X, I can do better somewhere else.

It is depressing to be honest.

I think it is way more focused on advertising and selling me product than it is about being a usable tool for me to navigate and use my system.

The vast majority of the world would never notice this difference unless they were specifically told about it.

The bigger issue that digital foundry was trying to address is that almost all the first party microsoft games have been in some way better on PS5 than the xbox series consoles and microsoft really should address that before launching these games.

@Kaloudz This seems to be the new sale price for FF XV RE

It was the same price in the most recent sales from last year.

While I am glad to see fixes coming in this list seems way too small given how much time has passed. There are many bugs I saw regularly that are still not patched.

@awp69 Those are published by Beamdog, not Larian.

Those comments from Larian seem spot on to me.

Not saying there isn't a place for a subscription but if it becomes the only model available that will be a dark day for gaming.

I buy DLC when there is legit content be added to a game I enjoy. Although, with my backlog as large as it is, I try to wait for the "complete" version of the game with all the important DLC included to be released and drop in price.

I never buy cosmetics, skins, lootboxes or participate in other forms of ongoing monetization.

I don't hate them but I don't find them engaging enough. I keep trying to play them but I always end up losing interest long before reaching the end.

Syndicate was the last AC game I really enjoyed.

I suspect there are going to be continued legal battles over MIckey's image since there are many versions of Mickey that aren't in the public domain yet.

That is a tough one. Hi-Fi Rush, Ghostwire, Minecraft Legends and MW3 aren't really games I would be likely to play given my preferences so I can't really speak to those games.

Starfield, Forza and Redfall were all disappointing in different ways.

I guess Starfield would have to be me favorite since I played it for over 250 hours.

Definitely. It is over.

However, the Gamecube generation is over too and I still break that sometimes so it doesn't mean that people can't still enjoy their XBOX One's.

I have over 250 hours into starfield and I have to say, the longer I played it, the less impressed I was. It is definitely a game that wears on you as you play it for longer.

Unless they make some substantial changes to the game, I don't think it will maintain the long-term player base that games like Skyrim have.

Is it worth playing? - Yes
Are there amazing things in Starfield? - Yes
Is it an amazing game overall? - No
Does it deserve a Mostly Negative rating? - No

The reality it that Starfield's high unique player counts are probably due to it being on game pass and lots of people trying it out.

I actually just started playing this last night. It is definitely a fun way to pass some time without requiring a big investment.

It seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to me. Not every dev needs to bring the game to game pass.

To be honest, I wouldn't have played it on gamepass anyway. BG3 is a title I would rather buy on PC. If it has even half the mod support that BG1 & BG2 enjoyed than there will be years of fun on the modded versions side.

@themightyant

You can filter by time played on Steam, it's one of the unique features on that platform. Though obviously the longer you play a game the more likely you are to have positive things to say.

That is one of the most interesting thing about Starfield. The more you play, the more you see the flaws.

I don't really get all the angst over Starfield's "omission".

This year quite a lot of games that are better than Starfield.

I have over 200 hours into Starfield and I have enjoyed it.

However, it has just as many flaws as it has impressive elements. The more you play it, the more you find it's shortcomings.

I think if you rated Starfield with any type of objectivity, you would have to knock some points off for all it's flaws.

Even though I have a large amount of time invested in it and think it is a good game, I can recognize that it has a lot of problems. In addition to being littered with bugs that seem to get worse the longer you play, it has some serious game play flaws.

On top of that, 2023 has had some truly amazing games. IMO, it shouldn't be a GOTY contender unless that list was very long to being with. I don't see it being a top 5 game in 2023.

I have well over 200 hours into Starfield. I continue to enjoy it.

That being said, it is not GOTY material IMO.

It is both magical and tragically flawed.

For everything it does well there are two more which are implemented poorly or just plain broken.

When I first started playing I found the number of bugs were under control, however, the more you play it, the more bugs you find. Many of them are painfully obvious and really should have been fixed before release.

The problem is partially with the expectation setting around visuals and performance.

The footage leading up to the release of the game was of a much higher quality visually then what was actually delivered. This almost always leads to bad press and I think developers need to learn to be more careful with this marketing tactic.

That and there seem to be some performance issues on PC in some cases.

Mirage is basically a last-gen title, graphically speaking, so it isn't a huge surprise it can run well on Series S with a lower resolution target.

Although, I guess Ubisoft shipping a game in an acceptable state is something of a surprise.