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As always I love the effort they put in, but I'd like to see more turn based games get touch controls. I think turn based is a more appropriate for an input mechanism where you don't get the tactile feel and response of a controller.
That being said, Minecraft Dungeons does work pretty well with touch, so I'm happy to be proven wrong.

@Cyrus29 glad you're enjoying your Xbox, sorry to see you go but I do understand. Some of the articles here are click bait, I get annoyed when another website does an interview and PureXBox and Nintendo life do a series of articles covering each comment, stop catering for the TL;DR crowd and write a full length piece ffs.

Anyway, to the matter at hand here. I'm still stunned that there is a market for scalers, how many people out there need a console for this price? With a little patience you can get hold of one of these.
It's like Turboman all over again I guess.

@NEStalgia I don't get it either, for a long time now I've considered the lack of replaceable battery in devices to be a negative.
I really don't understand the frothing at the mouth rabid enthusiasm for glued in batteries. I mean if you really want a battery you can't change then buy a frikkin' recharge pack and glue it in yourself.

@NEStalgia I agree, there is more chance you'll find a snowman roasting chestnuts in hell, than there is of finding user replaceable batteries on the next elite controller.
Which is really a shame, and will prevent me from getting one.

Arrogant little pr**ks should go back to school and learn to spell. We're not using T9 keyboards anymore, there is no excuse for these silly abbreviations.

It's important for a game to have a distinct aesthetic, it's part of the brand and why people have a preference of one game over another. Whether the armour looks cool or not is subjective, but the fact is they don't fit the game.

Part of the fantasy that Halo creates for the player is that they're a space marine/spartan, if you suddenly see Skeletor or He-Man run past it breaks that illusion. This is why it matters and why 343 shouldn't add any old junk into the game (free or not) .

I used to enjoy the COD campaigns and would pick them up 2nd hand or in a sale. Not played one for a while simply for this reason, they're too expensive. As for the price of the remastered modern warfare...

I never really knew why people beat up Halo 4 and 5 campaign so much. Sure the Prometheans are annoying and the story is hard to follow, but the levels and gameplay are still great. I'd like more of the same but, wrap up the reclaimer story and set a new direction with a decent storyline.

@StevenDTM I appreciate the info you've given from the beta, and while the challenge/reward system may change between the beta and retail versions of the game, I completely agree with your assessment of the article. PureXbox/NintendoLife articles are often light on the detail, an article like the one above is begging for some analysis of what is known from the beta and even some speculation on what be changed.

Players such as myself (who are basically rubbish) are doomed. Of course this does this does depend on what form the challenges take, have they given any examples of what the challenges will look like?

I'd really like one of these for my office, but I'll likely miss out and be greeted by an out of stock notice. I'm not prepared to pay what the scalpers will charge on ebay.

@Would_you_kindly I'm a software developer and have never heard of 'Shutdown mode' however each organisation has it's own acronyms and phrases so hardly surprising. To me it sounds like they're focussing on getting to a release version of the game, this probably means that they're feature complete at this point and primarily working on fixing defects.

Nice paint job but I'm very much in the user replaceable battery camp so I'll pass.

@Senua the original Elite pad took 2x AA batteries. That changed with the second elite controller.

Utterly speachless...

@TheSilverFalcon Yeah, I just thought they could have done it in a less annoying way.
I fully appreciate I am absolutely nit picking which is probably a sign I'm getting old.

@oconnoclast I can see why you'd say that about flight sim, I quite like it for when I just want a chilled experience but I'm not a hard core simmer.
On gamepass I try a lot of games I wouldn't otherwise buy, the Art of Rally and Human Fall Flat being a two examples. I've sunk a lot of time into the core MS offerings such as Forza Horizon 4, Gears of War, Halo. Admittedly I already have Halo MCC and 5 on disc, but its convenient that I don't have to get up from the sofa and put the disc in a console (Super lazy right). I also understand your point that a lot of it is stuff you own or played in the past, but going forward with each new game release you'll hopefully find it more compelling and better value, right now it feels like the service is a bit of a promise of things to come.
I also quite like the idea that my XBox One X which has now retired to the bedroom will get a new lease of life with cloud gaming.

@Vepra I always interpreted 'Holiday' as the period from American Thanksgiving through to New Year. So that would be from late November until the end of December.

@oconnoclast for me gamepass is ace, I find it to be incredible value and have almost stopped buying console games entirely. However, Fifa and CoD don't exactly float my boat so you're taste is likely quite different to mine.

That being said, I also bought a SeriesX soon after release and I've been somewhat disappointed by the lack of true next gen games. This is why I was quite miffed last night regarding the lack of Halo content, this is one game I've been anticipating for years.

I quite like the format, interviews followed by trailers. It's interesting to hear from the developers and you can forgive them for being a little awkward, as it's not a big part of their job and sometimes English is a second language. As for the presenters, I found the two female presenters quite annoying, the bloke was alright even with his Top Gun glasses moment.

Although it was massively out of context and a filler, I also enjoyed the Trebuchet documentary.

Was hoping to see Halo, Perfect Dark and Everwild. Hey ho! Lots of other good stuff instead.

The grumpy old man inside of me was getting a bit annoyed after seeing the Xbox, Microsoft and then Available on Gamepass after each video snippet. We get it, we're watching an Xbox presentation, we're not expecting this stuff to be for a Nintendo. As for the available on gamepass notice, that's useful info but couldn't they just show one slide, with all the games, whether it's for PC, Xbox, Cloud or all three?

Any idea if there is a way to access the console or join multiplayer games running other client/servers?

Quake was basically a new Doom in everything but name. Quake2 is where the Quake franchise really started, I'd like to see a continuation of this story line with a decent fast paced uncomplicated multiplayer.

I was going to write something here grumbling about why this is a stupid idea, then I realised that the reason I don't like this is because I'm getting old.

I'm out of the loop it seems, what's wrong with the fruit physics?

@VOODOO85 cheers, I didn't know is MS still saw it that way.

So does this include the UK?

I used to enjoy Dirt and Dirt2 (the older games for 10years or so ago) So I'll look forward to trying the new games, I just hope there is more Rallying and less of the Gymkhana.

My current media remote is looking really tired and shabby, Microsoft doesn't seem to manufacture them anymore so this product is most welcome.

@Broosh I'm assuming you mean the bodies of climbers who failed to return, including that in the game would be incredibly controversial and in poor taste.

Nazca Plains were a bit of a disappointment, lots of lines but I couldn't see the drawings, even after using google maps to make sure I was in the correct location.
Other than that I've been really impressed with the game on both PC and Xbox.

@Hypnotoad107 hmm, so we have to have a gimped experience to get the funny photos. Thats a bit annoying.

I remember when MS removed crashing, I know why they did it and in a post 911/World Trade Centre world I get it. But I do wish they'd add it back in, there was nothing like trying to fly through a barn and getting your wings cut off.

Finally got to have a fly about last night, I started off in the UK at sunset I gave my house a quick fly over and could even see my cars on the drive, paid the Barringer Crater in Arizona a visit, then off to Japan to take a look at Mt Fuji. Tonight I'm off to the Nazca Plains.

I know you can fly really low on this game, but it looks best when you're a bit higher up, say around 4000ft.

On the XBox, nowhere yet. I got clobbered by a big day1 update then spent the rest of last night watching the free world updates download. Why doesn't this game manage addons like other Xbox games is beyond me!

A couple of people have mentioned opening ports but not specified any details.
I followed the article here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/open-these-network-ports-for-xbox-one-94d5f68a-387c-1982-7163-6e12a4d9e981 to configure my router. I'd be interested if somebody has opened anything extra.

I love the idea of xCloud, but in practice until 5g is ubiquitous it's not a very portable solution. I've used it at home, but whats the point when I have a XSX in the living room and a XOneX in the bedroom, a PC in the office.
For me it's something that will be great in the future and it's something I'm very much looking forward to.

As for a device that runs the xCloud, well MS kinda already do that with their folding phone, you can just sit it on a table and pair an xbox controller for the best experience. If they're going to do a dedicated gaming handheld, then I'd want something that can run the games natively, but I really can't see that happening.

@Xiovanni Gravity Rush is an excellent title, I played the original and would recommend it to pretty much anybody. I've never played anything like it before of since.

In respect to picking up a Vita, I think you're right. The platform is dead and you'd be much better served by a PS4. So unless you're a vintage game and system collector it's best not to bother with it.

@Xiovanni you would have been a perfect customer for the Playstation Vita, it's such a shame that little handheld didn't get a bigger following.

I didn't even know Sensi was available... I know what I'm going to be playing tomorrow night!

It's not that I don't like some of this old IP, I was a massive fan of Perfect Dark on N64 and I'd quite like to see Conker return. But my trouble is I can't keep up with all the new games I want to play let along find the time to go back to older titles.

@Residentsteve01 surely you have to concede that when the battery on an Xbox pad is at the end of it's life it's easier to replace than the pack built into the Switch or Playstation controller. The fact that it takes standard AA batteries is a bonus, they can be bought anywhere and they'll be available many years from now.

It sounds like you're pretty organised always making sure a pad is charged up each evening, so if you wanted to switch to a more sustainable way of powering a controller it wouldn't be a huge step. You just need to ensure you have a stock of already charged AA batteries somewhere in the house. Personally I manage it by using 2 small tupperware boxes, where one contains batteries waiting to be recharged and another for batteries that are ready to go.

@The_New_Butler seconded, I also prefer to have AA rechargeable batteries rather than a non replaceable battery pack.

I don't really understand what the objection was to watching TV through the Xbox, the OneGuide was pretty good and paired with a Kinect/Cortana it was really cool.

I also preferred the tiles UI/menu system shown in that video. I liked the horizontal scrolling, the panel names across the top and I also thought it looked better with the different sized tiles. I'm not a fan of the current Home screen, where you get one row of recent apps/games and then 3 advertising tiles below.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could return to the old days of dedicated servers. You could either host your own or go to a Wireplay, Jolt, Barrysworld server instead.

Its nice, but for me not really worth the upgrade. Although saying that, when I go back to the Xbox One X it does seem sluggish by comparison.

What about Peter Pan and Captain Hook!

@3RedTriangles I don't know if it would work in Elite, but would you really want to dogfight using a yolk? I think you'd be better off using something like the Thrustmaster TFlight, assuming that it works with the games you'd like to play.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/thrustmaster-flight-hotas-flight-simulator-one-flight-stick-ergonomic-detachable-throttle

@gingataisen agreed. But this article talks about hardware sales and specifically the success of the Series S

@mousieone cheers, that helps a lot, that level of detail should really have been in the article.

Soo.. They sold more than 12 consoles?

Seriously though, this story needs numbers to give it some perspective.

@DDJT During the last gen I had a PS4, PS4 Slim, Xbox One, Xbox One X, Nintendo Switch, PS Vita, PC.... Frankly, I couldn't keep up with the back catalogue, this gen I'm probably going to focus on what's available in Gamepass and Nintendo. I feel for the PS5 owners that will miss out, but they could always subscribe to Gamepass and use the cloud for a couple of months.