northernmonkey75

I haven’t jumped ship completely but picked up a PS5 pro on release date as nothing is sacred just for Xbox anymore and the lack of pricing and no advertising other than Gamepass they don’t seem bothered in selling consoles.

I’ve pretty much given up on XBOX, I have a huge catalogue of digitally owned games to work through for my Series X that will keep me going, but considering dropping Gamespass and picked up my very first PlayStation ever last Thursday (PS5 Pro) so enjoying starting on all the great single player franchises that are exclusive. It has surprised me the high level of production on their first party games and if XBOX first party games come over to PS anyway, may as well have the best of both worlds but on one console. They have no interest at all in console sales, why would they when they have made so much money from Black Ops 6 PS sales already.

Had it on my Sega Saturn, wasn’t a big fan.

I appreciate MS for keeping the E3 spirit alive, but I was pretty bored by this. There wasn’t a lot of actual gameplay shown, although it was nice that they showed in game for Perfect Dark and Fable but very little other than that interested me. We all knew a new Gears of War game was coming and I like the concept but once again just a CGI movie. I enjoy the show they do earlier in the year more. No mention of Activision additions to Game Pass, no shadow drop, no Xbox portable and no Banjo. A lot shown but quantity over quality. Sorry, the worst one since the new post E3 concept and I have been really looking forward to this.

I did try 40fps on visuals last night which was a big improvement but decided to boost this to 60fps on visuals and seemed pretty stable, it does drop in big built up area’s but VRR seemed to iron things out pretty well and it does look beautiful when opting the visual mode at a higher frame rate. Definitely closer to what we hoped Starfield would have been at launch, I really struggle to play at 30fps but having the best of both has certainly caught my interest in giving this another go.

I’ll be trying out the 40fps and 60fps modes, but also interested in some of the additional improvements being made for gameplay.

Started Diablo 4 today, never played one before and apart from issues registering, I am really impressed. I too, didn’t think it would be my type of game but pleasantly surprised. Also picked up Penny’s big Breakaway after purchasing it in the sale, so need to put some time in with this. Not that I need to bother with either of the above as my backlog could last me absolute years of games I have barely started (Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Red Dead 2, Starfield, Alan Wake 2, Resident Evil 4 remake etc etc).

I wonder what knocking off ray tracing will do when on un-capped frame rate mode.

Lack of any real advertising (here in the UK) since the release of the series consoles hasn’t helped the situation. If I wasn’t a serious gamer since the mid 80’s and up to date on what’s happening in the gaming world, I wouldn’t buy an Xbox over a PS. But that’s the problem, even now I’d buy a Xbox mid gen refresh as I did with the One X (which I loved) but I am not new to their ecosystem, there seems no effort to bring new gamers to the Xbox as a console. I am not against some first party titles going to other systems like SOT or even games like State of Decay, as these are Service style games and will only strengthen the brands. Both have grown so much since initial launch so it makes sense to bring the revenue in to develop the games further. But some clarity on which games will stay exclusive to the Xbox would be good. I like exclusives, but a great game is still a great game if ported to a PS but I have envied PS owners for their single player exclusives since the latter stages of the PS3 era, having the majority of exclusives on a PS may make me get a PS6 when it gets announced as I would have the best of both worlds.

I get the need to make money to strengthen Xbox as a brand and their studios, but surely they don’t want to loose those who helped them build the Xbox brand.

Just only recently started my second play through on my Dreamcast, great game but second to Skies of Arcadia in my opinion.

Been hacking away at this since day one Gamespass release and really enjoying it. My only irritation was fighting that damn clown but eventually beat him.

I have to admit that if I hadn’t invested so much money into the XBOX brand over the generations, I would be considering flogging my Series X. It’s the games I own digitally that’s stopping me. I have enough games waiting to be started/finished to last me years, but at the moment I don’t really feel like investing more and maybe even ending my Gamespass ultimate subscription. This is the closest I have been to getting a PS5 yet. I know deep down that as long as I get to play the games, who cares if they end up on other platforms but I feel like it’s one foot forward (with great developer directs) and two back. Not sure their vision is mine to be honest as why keep an Xbox when I can play their games plus the library of PS5 exclusives on a non XBOX platform.

Let’s not forget they also released AOE2 & AOE4 this year and the XBOX is the only place to play these on consoles, amazing ports.

Alan Wake 2 and Robocop for me, both amazing games 🙂

I am pretty disappointed as a long standing FM fan. Previous Forza games used to have so few bugs and released in such a solid state. For me this is a downgrade from 7 in many ways.

Played it on 60fps tonight on my Series X, what a difference it makes to exploring the world. The visuals have definitely improved despite the double frame rate, especially the lighting at night. I would have been very happy if it released in this state, there are a lot of gameplay improvements, it is definitely better. In my opinion if it was reviewed in its current state it would be a 8/10. Much better, but it’s just a shame it generated so much bad press due to how it was released. If we would have been great to release Redfall in its current state, Starfield and Forza in the closing months of the year.

Wow, what a list of games. Finally seeing the results of all its studio purchases. Add Banjo and Viva Piñata and you have the perfect list 🙂

Downloaded this last night on the Series X and WOW this game looks great. Playing it in graphics mode and to be honest with the slow nature of the game and stability it actually doesn’t feel 30fps. The textures, lighting and materials are sublime and could see this engine really shinning on something like the GOW franchise.

Going forward they do need a shakeup as the amount of talented studios they have there shouldn’t be games put out in such a state. Some games that have been underdeveloped such as Sea of Thieves and State of Decay have seen a massive turn around but great IP’s such as the original Crackdown have received such poor sequels due to short development time. Funnily enough, I am enjoying Redfall at the moment, certainly not even close to being great, but not a complete disaster.

Resident Evil 4 and AOE2, although I have recently restarted RE2 and have RE3, RE7 (played a few hours) and RE8 still to start in my collection, Capcom are on fire lately.

Agreed, on Bethesda being the best purchase, just in 2023 we will have had Redfall, Starfield and High-Fi Rush from the purchase. Let them release stuff from the Activision buyout, it will keep the money coming in for the XBOX brand.

I tried it using the fps boost but the resolution quality took too much of a hit to use this mode. I would definitely play at 4K/60.

Sudden Strike 4 and all its DLC is a great addition. I have the base game already but always been tempted by the DLC. Superb game for RTS fans.

I’ve had a short time with it in release, but waiting for achievements. The first one was amazing, the second one is off to a great start on early access, love the visual style, especially the lighting.

Age of Empires 2 definitive edition isn’t going to be on any GOTY lists but will be on my list for game I will have sunk the most hours into.
I think Microsoft has a much better chance of having potential GOTY contenders. I think not depending on a new Gears or Halo game cycle is the difference. Not sure why MS are wanting to plow billions into the Activision deal when already we have Redfall, Hi Fi Rush and Stargate in the first half of the year from the Bethesda deal before it, now that was money well spent.