kevinm360

@Rodimusprime13 Avengers and all of the Eidos/Square Enix Europe studios were sold off to Embracer a few years back

I imagine it's so they can direct players to the monetised Halo Infinite if they want to play multiplayer

@themightyant Thanks Ant. It wasn't until this thread I even learned you could change it.

Been attempting to change my button press habit when not needed 😂

@darylb24 £59.99 for The Outer Worlds 2 Standard Edition

Was their previous comment about $80 before GTA VI got delayed to 2026? That would make sense for publishers to be watching what GTA VI launches at and how it performs. (GTA isn't comparable to any other AAA game but they would view it as a business benchmark to aim for, similarly to when everyone chased the live service dragon because Fortnite made money)

@Broosh didn't realise you could do that. Awesome

You can press "X" instead of "A" if you still want to open a game with a single button press

@MFDOOM360 you can rent/buy movies on the Prime Video app without needing to wait for a streaming library.

Gutted about Perfect Dark. I just hope Fable and Clockwork Revolution are okay

@TheSimulator I'm a fan. Sony and third party went heavily into the live service dragon, and Nintendo are just doing what Ninten..do? So im glad theres still single player RPG experiences getting churned out for me.

@Tasuki just like people got confused when PlayStation 2 was the sequel to PlayStation and it went on to be the best-selling console of all time.

Your point about Wii and Wii U being confusing is fair, Nintendo Switch 2 is clearly a sequel console to Nintendo Switch, and it's not the first console in history to be a numbered sequel. Parents will be fine.

Sure. I'm all for games getting a second chance at life, even if that's just to die with little fanfare again.

@VoidPunk it depends. They'll likely be dropping this onto Game Pass Day 1. So it would be used as a selling point for that service when advertised on the day. As for other platforms, I'm guessing theyre trusting the niche audience and same word of mouth that Oblivion had originally.

@abe_hikura haha MessengerPlus. Putting all the colour and style tags into your display name and all those standard MSN plebs getting confused at your name they couldn't read 😂

I genuinely thought Skype was dead already because of the likes of Teams and Zoom, along with Discord.

I originally got Skype for speaking to family abroad via phone call, but then MSN/Windows Live Messenger migrated into it and it just died a death not long after for me.

I reckon it'll be the campaign remaster. They wouldn't want to splinter their own audience away from the current multiplayer product

I definitely will get it, but I'll wait for a complete edition with all the DLC.

@AlwaysPlaying Indy's there on Daily Active Users. Probably didn't make the units sold because it'll be Game Pass users.

I'm surprised they havent put Crash Team Rumble on Game Pass. It would benefit greatly from a second chance at life as a free to play game.

Choice is what is most important. Some people are happy with crossplay, so I'm grateful when a game gives us the option to turn it off rather than force it either way.

Even better when you come across a rare game that has crossplay matchmaking customisable so you'll only get into games with other users with the same control input regardless of platform.

@Balaam_ hard Disagree on Nintendo. While their service might not be great, it's still a full download and emulation, and they also had Virtual Console for two straight generations allowing purchases of old games.

Sony were hesitant to even re release PS1 or PS2 games when people were willing to pay.

@BAMozzy you're 100% correct with this analysis. I think it's a difficult swallow because the name "Xbox" as the brand contains the word "box" which is immediately correlated with the console itself. If they'd rebranded the service to "Microsoft Gaming" along with the company and advertised with "We are Gamers" then it'd be less genius but more accepted within the hardcore to play "Microsoft Game Pass" on other devices

As much as I'm looking forward to Avowed, The Outer Worlds is the true spiritual successor to Obsidian's best work. They made the right call to namedrop KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights and New Vegas in the trailer

I do full shutdown and then turn the plug off at the wall. I'd say its a fire safety thing ...

But then I have youtube on in the background while I sleep and my TV remote, phone and PS4 controller in bed next to me

If the Switch 2 turns out to have specs matching the Series S then this Xbox handheld is DOA.

@Millionski Core is required for online play, so there will be a large number of people who will get it just for that and will probably enjoy these "free" games that go along with their ability to play with friends

Slightly off topic, but I'm a fan of getting these interviews and opinions from the likes of Shawn Layden and Reggie Fils-Aime after retiring from Sony and Nintendo. While we might still be several years off, Phil Spencer will have loads of good years worth of analysis, thoughts and stories to share once he leaves Xbox.

@somnambulance Call of Duty: LEGO Ops

The origins behind stories like this always amuse me. Xbox fans are wondering what happened to it because some random on Reddit went "hey, anyone remember this?", and everyone else was like "oh yeah, what DID happen to that?"

@somnambulance while that's quite funny, Toys for Bob were actually downsized quite a bit so are too small to work on a game with the production values of Call of Duty... Spyro, however...

@MeanBeanEgg Who's saying DA is a flop based on concurrent player count?

They should revive Starcraft Ghost

Kinect didn't kill the Xbox 360, Play Anywhere and TV apps didn't kill the Xbox One, and this won't kill the Xbox Series. There's room for everyone

Despite its capability, the Xbox One X got held back by the Xbox One S, in much the same way ws the Series X is limited by requiring Series S compatibility

I wonder what other past Activision games we could see on Game Pass in the future. It would also be cool if Microsoft resurrected the Backwards Compatibility program again to take advantage of the Activision acquisitions.

Now that they own Bethesda/id and Activision, it would be great to have Quake 4 and Wolfenstein 2009 brought back from obscurity.

Also, the Prototype games, and if they could work it out with Disney... The Simpsons Hit and Run

Great addition.

I'm surprised they haven't added Crash Team Rumble with how much that game would benefit from having a player base injection

@SuntannedDuck2 I played KUF: Circle of Doom years ago on 360. Definitely a forgotten gem. There was quite a few non-first party 360 exclusives back around 2006 as well. Two Worlds was a flawed but enjoyable RPG.

From camp MS: Age of Empires returning to console and the launch of Starfield. (I really enjoyed that game)

EDIT: The 2021 update to backwards compatibility that let me bring a good deal of my 360 games along for the ride. Thanks @kuu_nousee, your comment reminded me.

They definitely need to maintain this. Everyone should have access to redownload games they own, at the very bare minimum

@SuntannedDuck2 Yeah, i dont think anyone plays Switch for the social elements at all haha. But the benefit is theyre de-emphasised and hidden away rather than being cluttered with a UI that emphasises friends lists and welcome feeds.

On optional installs, sadly blu ray read/write is too slow for the file sizes it contains so games can't read from disc. Switch is great for physical media due to the game cards (or cartridges as we call them). I think it would be a great idea for all games consoles to use cartridges or memory sticks for physical game distribution as they can be preserved without the need for system updates or internet connectivity. The upside being faster loading and not requiring installs, but downside to this is physical games would be much more expensive having to ship on up to 128GB flash memory

I liked the NXE aesthetic for the reason you didn't 😂 if you liken it to flicking through a deck of cards, it makes it easier to digest as a design.

Blades was great too though, reminiscent of those colour-tabbed folders for physical documents

On your note for social features in Xbox, if we're going solely for things like voice chat and online stability, they definitely feel second to none. They also do have some good gamification thats sadly hidden within the UI (a monthly gamerscore leaderboard, for example). Those features are much more innovative than the Facebook/Twitter-like screenshot and video shares

@SuntannedDuck2 i completely get on board with you on the social aspect and UI. Nintendo is always my 2nd console because they do it differently from the trends of the rest. Game Pass is still the difference maker on Xbox regardless of all the other downgrades

P.S. NXE was my favourite 360 dashboard, I was disappointed they went Metro because it made me think of Windows 8 too much

I normally buy two consoles every generation (Sony and Nintendo usually), but because of price Id went with a 360 over a PS3 and ended up getting the PS3 later in its life.

I got a Series X because Id missed out on the One and wanted to try game pass. It's been a good enough experience that I'll consider buying all three consoles again next gen. However, what ive learned from this gen (both PS5 and Xbox have the same issue) is most games still support last gen even 4 years on. So I'll wait rather than buy them within their first year on market.

Three games from my wish list leaving this month. Being time-poor does make things a challenge when trying to get your money's worth out of these services.

@Balaam_ while there are still Call of Duty support studios, it doesn't mean they wont get other developers to pick up Crash, THPS etc, especially if they pitch ideas to Microsoft. These things take time and we'll see what the landscape looks like in 10 years time.

If Mass Effect Legendary Edition were here it would get my vote but instead went with Mass Effect 2 as the base game required the least amount of upgrades in the remaster.

Had to add my own comment too because "wow" comes to mind. I played the first mission and thought it would be standard Call of Duty fare, but similar to how MW2 had "Alone", Black Ops 6 gets creative.

I loved the espionage mission at the gala, and the open world mission in Iraq, and now I'm on "Emergence" and it's hitting "next level".

I'm very much a campaign guy so I'm still buzzin to play this. Will probably dip into the multiplayer too.

I don't feel like Capcom have enough seventh gen era games worth a "deluxe remaster", when they could be doing a full remake of the first two Dino Crisis games.

If they're going for a deluxe remaster, I wouldn't mind Resident Evil 6, as its already pretty modern so doesn't need a full remake. Other than that, maybe giving Viewtiful Joe another go?

Edit: Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen elevated to match DD2 would be cool too.

Thanks @Elbow, I will check it out on YouTube, that way I'm not missing out on this story and soundtrack haha.

I seriously have to stop buying games in their first year of launch... 😂