@WildConcept6 That's a great point about remakes, especially with MGS3 being in all the headlines lately. It's literally a PS2 game with better graphics on top. The systems are (supposedly) simpler than modern games, and it's all made up of bite-size corridors, which should make it lighter on resources. Even if games did get more complex in the past decade (which they didn't, as far as I'm aware), how is a 21-year-old game struggling so much?
Now, being charitable to Sweeney and UE5, we could consider the possibility that the engine is perfectly fine when devs use what used to be common optimization practices, and Sweeney is aware of/confident in this. Could it be that these game companies all saw opportunities to push graphical fidelity higher while optimizing far less than before, and are now failing on two fronts (worse graphics and slower performance) as a result?
I just wonder, because: 1. Tons of games today are poorly optimized, including those on RE Engine, Unity, and whatever Game Freak is using. 2. What he says about optimizing early on has proven itself true, time and time again. You can't just aim for the moon when building your game/graphics, and then try to double/triple your performance in the 11th hour.
To be clear, I'm not saying UE5 is blameless- it likely is a key part of the issue. But I don't actually know how well it runs compared to, say, UE4, when all else is the same. If devs stuck with the same graphical standards and optimization practices as CD Projekt Red with The Witcher III (just to give a well-regarded example), would UE5 mess it up, or would it be perfectly fine, since they're forgoing Nanite and RT in favour of manually crafting everything to look and run well on last-gen tech?
@AverageJoseph Disappointed to hear that, as Galaxy had potential to be the one launcher to rule them all. Its performance was a little iffy when I used it a few years ago, but what really annoyed me was how buggy its integrations were. It would lose its connection to my other accounts all the time, causing various weird effects. (I think Steam is partially to blame, as they've done some stuff with their account system, but that's not the whole story.)
At least GOG Galaxy is completely optional, and we can just download all of the offline game installers. If you don't like the Ubisoft or Epic launchers, then tough luck!
"there's been a suggestion that it struggles to run on certain platforms and types of PCs"
Yeah... that's a teensy, tiny understatement there, Fraser!
"Compared to a decade ago, the complexity of games themselves has significantly increased"
Did Sweeney forget what year it is, or have games actually become significantly more complex since the days of The Witcher III, Assassin's Creed: Origins, or Crysis 3 and its half-hour credits scroll?
@TrollOfWar Oh, yeah, many of those 7th-gen games still look and play great on PC, thanks to those same enhancements!
The last truly exciting generation leap for me was the one before that, actually. Now that game design and even graphics have plateaued, the only reason I'd be in a hurry to see the next gen is if the current gen is too technically constrained to deliver a good experience- which it isn't, as the Series X can easily handle full-blown open worlds with beautiful graphics at upwards of 1080p and 60fps. The only issues we keep running into are a premature push into RT, and a lack of optimization.
I wouldn't have been all that surprised to see Bible Adventures pop up on Piko's store or something, but its inclusion in High on Life was not on the Bingo card!
@DJKingaling That's part of it, though Shenmue III is unique in its unnecessarily high barriers to progression (money and EXP), and as you've probably heard, the story doesn't move along much at all.
It does do a lot of the Shenmuey stuff we love, though, and even improves on the originals in some ways. I think you'll enjoy this enhanced version with the worst bits sanded off!
I see that the bit about "enhanced resolutions and frame rates" comes from the store page, but what is the basis for that? All of these seem to be straight emulations, with all the same resolutions, plus the PS1 game still being stuck at 30fps.
Is this some kind of 10% truth, like the Metal Gear Solid collection being "1080p"? This kind of thing really bugs me, seeing as: 1. It's a missed opportunity to improve the games (and potentially get existing owners to double-dip). 2. It's a lie, for all intents and purposes! 3. It muddies the water, and now people are now going to quote the false figures all over the internet, as usual.
On a tangent: that list of capabilities reminds me that the "60fps+" tag is a great idea, but it was never fully fleshed out. For one, so many games that support 60fps aren't actually tagged as such. There's also no way to see which systems support it: as far as I know, most "60fps+" games require an Xbox Series console, though many other games without the tag are 60fps on Xbox One.
@ScalenePowers @Broosh Yes, please! Fortunately, the PoP trilogy and Arx Fatalis are still available for next to nothing on PC, but too many games are still stranded on 6th-gen hardware, or even worse, on the OG Xbox exclusively!
Outrun 2/2006, Extreme G 3, and the Simpsons games are some of my top picks for BC/re-release right now. Others, like Rallisport, Quantum Redshift, and Chronicles of Riddick, were on my list, but I just recently picked up used copies, so MS isn't seeing any money from those. (You snooze, you lose!)
@TheEstablishment In other news, the upcoming 25th anniversary celebration just got a major budget cut, due to "financial realities" and "market conditions", and may be cancelled entirely!
(I kid, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.)
@Valhura "Rename all their studios"? Whoa, getting a little optimistic there, aren't we? Assuming that the studios will be renamed instead of shut down is a pretty bold statement!
I read that as "Is Forza Horizon About To Become Xbox's Main Franchise?" (not "main Forza franchise"), and the scary thing is... it actually made sense?
MS has been shutting down all their other studios and franchises, so Forza Horizon being their main (or only) active one isn't even that far-fetched. (Okay, some of their ABK acquisitions, like CoD, are too big to die. But still.)
@TrollOfWar Hmm, I don't remember if I ever saw Blow's portion of it. (Fish's rudeness is the more sensational and more oft-referenced portion of that event, unsurprisingly.)
I'd have to agree with him: Skyward Sword out-Navi'd Navi herself! Also particularly hate when Japanese games have those mandatory tutorials where every single action is a separate "challenge", where you have to load into a testing stage, listen to someone explaining the move, perform the move correctly, and then load back into the menu.
Oh, yeah, my criticism applies only to the technical side, not art direction! In particular: between 1999 and 2010ish, so many Japanese games had really nice character models: both in terms of fidelity and artistic skill. I find that western devs were often behind in that one area, actually: compare the major human characters in Condemned (2005), Halo 3 (2007), or even Skyrim (2011) to the likes of Dead Rising (2006), Final Fantasy X (2001), or Resident Evil Remake (2002)!
I'm fairly new to open-world games, but I would probably be majorly fatigued if I'd jumped on board and played every big flagship open world icon-athon as soon as it dropped! Though again, the point was mainly about the technical proficiency it takes to pull off a game like that, not whether it's actually fun!
@Elbow Those didn't all do well, did they? I thought Enchanted Arms, in particular, was critically and commercially mediocre... but anyway, it really is wild how many JRPGs came to the Xbox 360- Resonance of Fate and Star Ocean: The Last Hope also come to mind. And some of them were either full exclusives, or exclusive in certain regions!
JRPGs still occupied much more of a niche compared to the mainstream success of before, though, whether deserved or not.
@TrollOfWar Yep, I think you nailed it. (A surprisingly well-thought-out post, coming from a troll!)
I'd also add: while Fish was undeniably being a jerk, I do think there's a grain of truth in what he said. Japanese games really did fall behind, at least from a technical standpoint. Lots of Japanese games in the Xbox 360 era, and especially JRPGs, were using last-gen rendering tech, small environments, hard-coded frame timings, etc., while the west was pushing into open worlds, full-blown shadowing, and scalable graphics and performance for console and PC.
Even now, the best-looking, most cutting-edge games are usually not Japanese. A far cry from the late '80s through much of the '90s. (Note that I'm talking about technical proficiency, not the quality of the games!)
@Elbow JRPGs have always had their fans, but I think it's fair to say the Xbox 360 era wasn't exactly the genre's glory days. That title would go to either the SNES or PlayStation era, by most accounts.
Wouldn't you say that the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy was not exactly the peak of the franchise? Not only is VII on the PlayStation considered by many to be the best in the series, but it was drawing in tons of players in its day, even those who weren't diehard fans of the FF series or of RPGs in general. XIII... nowhere near that same degree, as far as I remember.
That's really the key: were mainstream audiences on board with JRPGs in the 360 era (2005-2013 or so), or was it more of a niche for actual JRPG fans?
PS: While Persona 5 is technically a PS3 game, it released in 2016, right in the middle of the PS4 era!
I couldn't bring myself to drop $650 CAD* for one Series X or $400-450** for one Nintendo Switch. Buying several of the same console (a surprisingly common practice) is just unthinkable! Different worlds we're in, or at least different priorities, I don't know.
@Kaloudz I had to look up what you were talking about, as it seemed random and odd that Popcap would be pushing expensive dolls!
Apparently, these Labubu dolls are by Pop Mart, not Popcap. The latter is a longtime maker of casual video games like Peggle and Bejeweled, and doesn't do any toys/dolls that I know of.
@GuyinPA75 Yeah, that much was obvious when PS2 was the dominant platform. You'd sometimes see GameCube exclusives brought over later on (and those had to be heavily cut down in their graphics and/or performance), but most of the time, the PS2 was the lead platform, and the GameCube/Xbox versions had relatively few advantages over it.
Though I can't agree with your very last statement. The X and S have basically the same CPU, the S's RAM limitations more or less line up with the savings of using a low render resolution (and low textures to match), and the X is often pushed pretty hard by today's games, even if they run in some form on the S. Only scenario I can think of where the S could hold game design back is where the X does something truly revolutionary in its gameplay, and that somehow relies heavily on its graphical muscle, rather than on CPU speed, and it can only run at 30fps on the X (so the devs can't just drop the res and fps to make it work on the S).
What does "fully utilised" even mean, in the context of gaming in the 2020s?
So far, we've gotten a lot of last-gen graphics, but actually running smoothly this time around. The true limit-pushers (like that Matrix demo) look impressive in stills, but perform like a PS1 game from the '90s (sub-30fps).
Gone are the days of breathtaking, game-changing generational leaps, but I'm actually mostly okay with that. Games have easily passed the point of looking good enough, so all they need now is to work well and run smoothly. If the game has PS4-era rendering tech, but runs smoothly, loads quickly, and doesn't have any major flaws like pop-in or smeary upscaling, then what's the issue? That's arguably maxing out the limits without straining them.
@Fiendish-Beaver Halo MCC is already 4K and/or 120fps on Series X (though presumably not both at the same time?).
Even the base Xbox One runs it at 1080p 60fps... sort of. It got an unwanted update a few years ago, which destroyed performance in the Anniversary mode, making only the original graphics mode viable for H1 and H2.
@-taco Just what I was thinking of. In this case, the enemy AI was probably really dopey, and if you went "off-script", they'd probably just stand there, swinging their fists at the air or something. Still technically real, but it gives the impression of the game being further along than it actually was.
See also: Sonic Adventure with its Autodemo in 1998. The game was technically playable by that point, but it was set up to play back the staff members' own gameplay performances, as allowing anyone else to play it would reveal all of the cracks in the collision detection, etc... come to think of it, that held true even in the retail release!
In all three of these cases, it was actual in-engine gameplay, and nothing like the outright fake CGI for Killzone.
@SuntannedDuck2 Yeah, it was a great program (and played a large part in my buying an Xbone in the first place), and it's too bad they haven't continued it further.
Back compat doesn't involve native ports, so lack of source code shouldn't be an issue (on Xbox or PlayStation), but some work would be involved in testing and troubleshooting (plus the 360 games, at least, reportedly have some form of recompilation involved), so I suspect that MS simply doesn't think it's worth it to pursue more games.
Obviously, offering compatibility with 20-year-old discs isn't making them any money, but since most of the games are available to purchase digitally, you'd think that would offset the costs decently enough. I don't know- I've bought a bunch of these games digitally, but maybe that's not really something that other people are doing.
@BAMozzy You mentioned that almost everyone has a device they can play Xbox on, and that many people will prefer to play on Xbox. No one's debating the first part of that, but will a large percentage of players actually want to buy from the Xbox store? I think you're underestimating Steam, in particular! Platform loyalty (esp. wanting to keep all your games in one place) goes both ways, too, and there are more players on Steam than on Xbox, so that could actually be to the Xbox platform's detriment, considering how large and entrenched their competitor is.
If MS actually sells a bunch of hardware at a loss, and then allows Steam to be installed on it, that sounds downright foolhardy to me. But this all depends on a bunch of hypotheticals. I get what you're saying, and the logic is there, but I'm just not convinced it'll play out the way you're predicting. But who knows?
About Linux, I've had very spotty results using Proton on my PC, and would not recommend Linux for gaming- IMO, Windows is mandatory if you want to play on PC. (That's a win for Microsoft!) But Steam Deck has been fairly popular so far, and we may see it continue to chip away at MS's market share. (Again, hypotheticals, speculation, etc. etc.) And if people are playing on Steam Deck, the fact that it has to use a translation layer to play a Windows executable is irrelevant: it's not a win for MS, since they don't see any money from that. And if there are more players on Steam Deck, that incentivizes the development of native Linux ports.
@BAMozzy That basically comes back to what I meant by "low stakes". Microsoft's hardware (whether made by them, or licensed) doesn't actually need to sell. If it does, great. If not, people are still in the ecosystem... well, potentially.
Like you said, stores like Steam are still competition- and I have to wonder if that competition is being understated. It's great (for MS) that they have so many different ways of making money at different points in the chain, but if someone buys a PC from a different manufacturer and then proceeds to buy all of their games through Steam (because why would they buy from the Xbox store instead?), then there's not a whole lot of money to be made by MS, is there? Sure, there's the OS, but they already have a near-monopoly, regardless of the gaming situation. No room for growth there. And as Linux gets a foothold (via Steam Deck), that pretty much shuts MS out from making money off those users: a typical Steam Deck user is not giving MS any money for the hardware, OS, or storefronts!
Of course, there's the software publisher side: if you buy an Elder Scrolls or Call of Duty game, MS is getting a cut, regardless of whether you buy it on Steam, PlayStation, or wherever. That's one area where they're undeniably succeeding! But if- hypothetically speaking- that becomes the only place where MS is making any real money on games, then why bother with platforms at all?
@BAMozzy I was completely unaware of that distinction! I don't have much need for a handheld game system at this point, but if there's an option that includes full-size controls, then that would be the one I'd check out first. Some people are bothered by larger systems/controllers, but I'm the opposite: I struggle with tiny devices like the DS Lite or the Switch Joy-Con. A bit of extra heft isn't going to affect the portability, so might as well go with the one that's comfortable (assuming all other factors are largely equal).
I don't know how much this will shift sales, though. Like I said, a lot of people seem to really value smaller/lighter form factors... and is the larger size even being promoted as a major talking point? I hadn't even heard it mentioned until now, after all. Maybe I'm just out of the loop.
@BAMozzy Regarding your first post (#11), you make a good case for PC gaming in general being amazing: the library is unmatched, the cost is much less of a barrier these days, etc.
But why should someone buy an Xbox ROG Ally specifically, and not any other PC or Windows-capable handheld?
Are you implying that they probably won't, but the stakes are so low (seeing as the success of MS's ecosystem no longer relies on it) that it doesn't matter? Not sure I disagree- just wondering, though.
Got to agree with the reasoning that the battle-hardened, snarky action hero that Leon has become is not a good fit for certain scenarios. (And the last thing we need is for him to become a saddened, weakened old man who has lost all of his confidence!)
I'd still welcome a sort of "Resident Evil 4-2", though, where 50-year-old Leon is kicking butt, spouting stupid one-liners, and generally being an '80s-style action hero again. But Requiem is clearly not that game.
@Banjo- It sounds like you fully played through VII, so I'm surprised that you'd still feel that way about it. The first bit (maybe a half-hour to an hour?) is like a bad Outlast knock-off, in my opinion, so I could see why you'd think it's too much of a departure if that's all you played. But before long, it really starts to feel like a proper RE, with the exploration, light puzzles, and resource management you'd expect. Of course, you can aim in first-person, but it still avoids turning into a full-blown action-fest.
@themightyant They've already got us acting as unpaid beta testers for Windows, so why not Xbox back compat as well? I actually wouldn't mind that one nearly as much! (Open the full library of OG/360 games for users, slap a disclaimer or option toggle to keep people from stumbling in accidentally, etc.)
@nomither6 I think I get what you're saying. I classify the digital/physical and subscription/ownership debates as two very different issues. I rarely listen to physical CDs, for instance, but I still keep a music collection that I own, as opposed to subscribing to a service. And I also buy digital games all the time, but GamePass doesn't appeal to me.
But doesn't Spotify fall squarely into the subscription category? I wasn't aware of an option to purchase music outright (like you can with iTunes). Once you stop paying, that music is gone.
Not that I hate subscription services, or can't see that they have their advantages! (Regarding Spotify in particular, it's especially tempting in that I've been wanting to catch up on the back catalogues of a bunch of '80s artists, and buying CDs in bulk just to see what I like probably isn't the best approach.) But I personally wouldn't make subs my main/sole method of enjoying media, that's for sure.
@nomither6 Hah, I hear you! I understand that many people are more casual about their media: throw out the old stuff, bring in the new. Rely on subscriptions like Netflix and Spotify, instead of keeping old CD/DVD/Blu-ray collections lying around. When games or movies are your sixth-favourite hobby, they don't get much physical space dedicated to them.
But man, that's pretty much unthinkable for me. I like to go back and revisit old favourites, and can't imagine the inconvenience of relying on the Xbone's limited back compat support, or hoping a certain movie (or game!) is on a certain subscription service, or putting up with Spotify ads.
PS: It seems that the average movie watcher is much more likely to value older movies (even if they don't keep them physically), whereas this doesn't hold true as often or as thoroughly for games, so there's that.
@FraserG @Techno92LFC The system they're using now is still emulation, but the differences are:
More horsepower to work with, especially on Series X.
Extensive QA, making sure that each title actually works properly.
Modern back compat does, in fact, still have emulation issues, but they're fewer and farther between than with the 360's solution. Some games ran poorly (BK: Nuts and Bolts) until receiving a patch, and some (Hydro Thunder: Hurricane's DLC tracks) still have severe graphical glitches, even now.
Not sure about licensing. Some games offer back compat only with a disc inserted, and aren't on the storefront. Does that mean MS could legally offer back compat for every game, as long as you own the disc? Maybe, but it wouldn't make sense financially to put in all that work. (If they truly couldn't, I assume it's because they're offering you a separate copy from the one on the disc.)
As for having to download the game from the internet instead of copying it off the disc, it could be that MS thwarted themselves with their own weird disc formatting . Xbone and XSX fully support normal DVDs, of course, but Xbox and Xbox 360 discs are formatted to be largely unreadable on normal DVD drives.
@Tasuki Scott Pilgrim starts out painfully sluggish, but it becomes a lot faster and easier as you start to gain upgrades- not to mention that there are more offensive and defensive options to work with.
I'm not sure that the game really benefits from this RPG-lite upgrade system, but it does become a lot more fun and worth playing if you stick with it for a bit.
@RadioHedgeFund It's just insane how much stuff Rare used to pack into their games- whether it's this, DKR, Banjo-Tooie, JFG, or even the ever-polarizing DK64, they put in a ton of content, modes, details, and extras, and I feel like they were trying to make the best game of all time- with each game they made!
I don't know, maybe this is the very thing that sank them: so many of their games had long, tumultuous development times. And they really haven't been the same since around 2001 or so. (A few would argue that Rare's quality has held up post-acquisition, but it's undeniable that they've been so much less prolific, at least!)
But man, that ridiculous ambition, scope, and willingness to throw in a bunch of stuff just because it's cool... it's a key part of the old "Rare Magic", in my opinion!
The monetization is a real turn-off, based on what I've heard. Wasn't it better before, and then changed to be extra aggressive more recently? It's a shame, as those who played it back in the day seem to remember it fondly. Plus, any game with a Nelson Everhart soundtrack can't be all bad!
I have to wonder: was it always this complicated (with all of the major publishers already having the knowledge and arrangements to easily navigate this stuff), or has Microsoft stepped back more recently, leaving more of the responsibility on the publisher?
Because it really doesn't sound like they care to make it easy to make physical media. (What a surprise!)
@vrubayka Thanks, I was clearly getting mixed up there. Maybe I was thinking of the way that the original version was only 30, and that it was sometimes advertised/listed as 60 due to the multiplayer. I don't know.
Though the comparison screenshots here are a little misleading, as they don't acknowledge that the Ultimate edition already runs at 60fps.
I was close to buying a Series X on sale, but ultimately didn't. This price increase puts it firmly in "no way" territory. The Canadian prices are even more insane, and then there's another $100 in taxes on top of that.
Never cared to play FC1 in particular (the tech is cool, but it sounds frustrating to actually play), though this is still a great discovery!
It does make sense that they'd try to do a standard port, considering contemporary games like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 made it relatively intact, but I guess this was just a step too far. (Wonder how the RAM usage is when running this on that devkit. It probably sits far above the consumer model's 64 MB!)
@Cakefish That actually sounded pretty appealing in theory, especially for those of us who don't even have high-resolution screens to play on!
But the reality became clear as soon as AC Valhalla was revealed to run at 30fps on Series S. (I believe Ubisoft patched it later, but it was already obvious that this was just the first of many, many compromised experiences.)
@themightyant "the licenses to the games we bought are for Xbox not PC" Your PC is an Xbox now, remember? As are all of your devices. (Microsoft is truly playing 4D chess!)
Comments 321
Re: Digital Foundry 'Just Can't Recommend' Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater On Xbox Series S
Ouch, 540p30? That's barely different from the PS2 original.
Even worse, it was 720p60 in the HD remaster, two generations ago!
Re: Epic CEO Suggests Unreal Engine 5 Issues Are Due To Developers Optimising Too Late
@WildConcept6 That's a great point about remakes, especially with MGS3 being in all the headlines lately. It's literally a PS2 game with better graphics on top. The systems are (supposedly) simpler than modern games, and it's all made up of bite-size corridors, which should make it lighter on resources. Even if games did get more complex in the past decade (which they didn't, as far as I'm aware), how is a 21-year-old game struggling so much?
Now, being charitable to Sweeney and UE5, we could consider the possibility that the engine is perfectly fine when devs use what used to be common optimization practices, and Sweeney is aware of/confident in this. Could it be that these game companies all saw opportunities to push graphical fidelity higher while optimizing far less than before, and are now failing on two fronts (worse graphics and slower performance) as a result?
I just wonder, because:
1. Tons of games today are poorly optimized, including those on RE Engine, Unity, and whatever Game Freak is using.
2. What he says about optimizing early on has proven itself true, time and time again. You can't just aim for the moon when building your game/graphics, and then try to double/triple your performance in the 11th hour.
To be clear, I'm not saying UE5 is blameless- it likely is a key part of the issue. But I don't actually know how well it runs compared to, say, UE4, when all else is the same. If devs stuck with the same graphical standards and optimization practices as CD Projekt Red with The Witcher III (just to give a well-regarded example), would UE5 mess it up, or would it be perfectly fine, since they're forgoing Nanite and RT in favour of manually crafting everything to look and run well on last-gen tech?
Re: GOG Adds New Xbox Login Feature Ahead Of ROG Xbox Ally Launch
@AverageJoseph Disappointed to hear that, as Galaxy had potential to be the one launcher to rule them all. Its performance was a little iffy when I used it a few years ago, but what really annoyed me was how buggy its integrations were. It would lose its connection to my other accounts all the time, causing various weird effects. (I think Steam is partially to blame, as they've done some stuff with their account system, but that's not the whole story.)
At least GOG Galaxy is completely optional, and we can just download all of the offline game installers.
If you don't like the Ubisoft or Epic launchers, then tough luck!
Re: Epic CEO Suggests Unreal Engine 5 Issues Are Due To Developers Optimising Too Late
Yeah... that's a teensy, tiny understatement there, Fraser!
Did Sweeney forget what year it is, or have games actually become significantly more complex since the days of The Witcher III, Assassin's Creed: Origins, or Crysis 3 and its half-hour credits scroll?
Re: Final Fantasy Boss Says 'There's No Real Need' For Next-Gen Consoles Like A Series X Successor
@TrollOfWar Oh, yeah, many of those 7th-gen games still look and play great on PC, thanks to those same enhancements!
The last truly exciting generation leap for me was the one before that, actually. Now that game design and even graphics have plateaued, the only reason I'd be in a hurry to see the next gen is if the current gen is too technically constrained to deliver a good experience- which it isn't, as the Series X can easily handle full-blown open worlds with beautiful graphics at upwards of 1080p and 60fps. The only issues we keep running into are a premature push into RT, and a lack of optimization.
Re: High On Life 2's Xbox Game Pass Launch Will Include 'More Than Five' Extra Games
I wouldn't have been all that surprised to see Bible Adventures pop up on Piko's store or something, but its inclusion in High on Life was not on the Bingo card!
Re: Shemnue 3 To Make Xbox Debut With 'Enhanced' Version For Series X|S
@DJKingaling That's part of it, though Shenmue III is unique in its unnecessarily high barriers to progression (money and EXP), and as you've probably heard, the story doesn't move along much at all.
It does do a lot of the Shenmuey stuff we love, though, and even improves on the originals in some ways. I think you'll enjoy this enhanced version with the worst bits sanded off!
Re: Shemnue 3 To Make Xbox Debut With 'Enhanced' Version For Series X|S
@Ricky-Spanish Does the supervisor make you come in early to do forklift races at the start of each day?
Re: One Of The 'Worst Games Ever' Is Getting Remastered In A Beautiful Collection For Xbox
I see that the bit about "enhanced resolutions and frame rates" comes from the store page, but what is the basis for that? All of these seem to be straight emulations, with all the same resolutions, plus the PS1 game still being stuck at 30fps.
Is this some kind of 10% truth, like the Metal Gear Solid collection being "1080p"? This kind of thing really bugs me, seeing as:
1. It's a missed opportunity to improve the games (and potentially get existing owners to double-dip).
2. It's a lie, for all intents and purposes!
3. It muddies the water, and now people are now going to quote the false figures all over the internet, as usual.
Re: Xbox Is Making It Easier To Find 'Play Anywhere' Titles In Your Library
This is a welcome- if overdue addition!
On a tangent: that list of capabilities reminds me that the "60fps+" tag is a great idea, but it was never fully fleshed out. For one, so many games that support 60fps aren't actually tagged as such. There's also no way to see which systems support it: as far as I know, most "60fps+" games require an Xbox Series console, though many other games without the tag are 60fps on Xbox One.
Re: Talking Point: What Should Xbox Do To Celebrate Its 25th Anniversary Next Year?
@ScalenePowers @Broosh Yes, please!
Fortunately, the PoP trilogy and Arx Fatalis are still available for next to nothing on PC, but too many games are still stranded on 6th-gen hardware, or even worse, on the OG Xbox exclusively!
Outrun 2/2006, Extreme G 3, and the Simpsons games are some of my top picks for BC/re-release right now. Others, like Rallisport, Quantum Redshift, and Chronicles of Riddick, were on my list, but I just recently picked up used copies, so MS isn't seeing any money from those. (You snooze, you lose!)
Re: Talking Point: What Should Xbox Do To Celebrate Its 25th Anniversary Next Year?
@TheEstablishment In other news, the upcoming 25th anniversary celebration just got a major budget cut, due to "financial realities" and "market conditions", and may be cancelled entirely!
(I kid, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.)
Re: Talking Point: What Should Xbox Do To Celebrate Its 25th Anniversary Next Year?
@Valhura "Rename all their studios"? Whoa, getting a little optimistic there, aren't we? Assuming that the studios will be renamed instead of shut down is a pretty bold statement!
Re: Talking Point: Is Forza Horizon About To Become Xbox's Main Forza Franchise?
I read that as "Is Forza Horizon About To Become Xbox's Main Franchise?" (not "main Forza franchise"), and the scary thing is... it actually made sense?
MS has been shutting down all their other studios and franchises, so Forza Horizon being their main (or only) active one isn't even that far-fetched. (Okay, some of their ABK acquisitions, like CoD, are too big to die. But still.)
Re: Expedition 33 Dev On Turn-Based JRPGs: They Became 'Uncool' In Xbox 360 Era, Still Haven't Fully Recovered
@TrollOfWar Hmm, I don't remember if I ever saw Blow's portion of it. (Fish's rudeness is the more sensational and more oft-referenced portion of that event, unsurprisingly.)
I'd have to agree with him: Skyward Sword out-Navi'd Navi herself! Also particularly hate when Japanese games have those mandatory tutorials where every single action is a separate "challenge", where you have to load into a testing stage, listen to someone explaining the move, perform the move correctly, and then load back into the menu.
Oh, yeah, my criticism applies only to the technical side, not art direction! In particular: between 1999 and 2010ish, so many Japanese games had really nice character models: both in terms of fidelity and artistic skill. I find that western devs were often behind in that one area, actually: compare the major human characters in Condemned (2005), Halo 3 (2007), or even Skyrim (2011) to the likes of Dead Rising (2006), Final Fantasy X (2001), or Resident Evil Remake (2002)!
I'm fairly new to open-world games, but I would probably be majorly fatigued if I'd jumped on board and played every big flagship open world icon-athon as soon as it dropped! Though again, the point was mainly about the technical proficiency it takes to pull off a game like that, not whether it's actually fun!
Re: Expedition 33 Dev On Turn-Based JRPGs: They Became 'Uncool' In Xbox 360 Era, Still Haven't Fully Recovered
@Elbow Those didn't all do well, did they? I thought Enchanted Arms, in particular, was critically and commercially mediocre... but anyway, it really is wild how many JRPGs came to the Xbox 360- Resonance of Fate and Star Ocean: The Last Hope also come to mind. And some of them were either full exclusives, or exclusive in certain regions!
JRPGs still occupied much more of a niche compared to the mainstream success of before, though, whether deserved or not.
Re: Expedition 33 Dev On Turn-Based JRPGs: They Became 'Uncool' In Xbox 360 Era, Still Haven't Fully Recovered
@TrollOfWar Yep, I think you nailed it. (A surprisingly well-thought-out post, coming from a troll!)
I'd also add: while Fish was undeniably being a jerk, I do think there's a grain of truth in what he said. Japanese games really did fall behind, at least from a technical standpoint. Lots of Japanese games in the Xbox 360 era, and especially JRPGs, were using last-gen rendering tech, small environments, hard-coded frame timings, etc., while the west was pushing into open worlds, full-blown shadowing, and scalable graphics and performance for console and PC.
Even now, the best-looking, most cutting-edge games are usually not Japanese. A far cry from the late '80s through much of the '90s. (Note that I'm talking about technical proficiency, not the quality of the games!)
Re: Expedition 33 Dev On Turn-Based JRPGs: They Became 'Uncool' In Xbox 360 Era, Still Haven't Fully Recovered
@Elbow JRPGs have always had their fans, but I think it's fair to say the Xbox 360 era wasn't exactly the genre's glory days. That title would go to either the SNES or PlayStation era, by most accounts.
Wouldn't you say that the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy was not exactly the peak of the franchise? Not only is VII on the PlayStation considered by many to be the best in the series, but it was drawing in tons of players in its day, even those who weren't diehard fans of the FF series or of RPGs in general. XIII... nowhere near that same degree, as far as I remember.
That's really the key: were mainstream audiences on board with JRPGs in the 360 era (2005-2013 or so), or was it more of a niche for actual JRPG fans?
PS: While Persona 5 is technically a PS3 game, it released in 2016, right in the middle of the PS4 era!
Re: Battlefield 6 FAQ Reveals Multiple Performance Modes On Xbox Series X|S
That's the way to do things!
Re: Talking Point: Should Xbox Bring Back Limited Edition Consoles?
I couldn't bring myself to drop $650 CAD* for one Series X or $400-450** for one Nintendo Switch. Buying several of the same console (a surprisingly common practice) is just unthinkable! Different worlds we're in, or at least different priorities, I don't know.
** up to $509 after tax
Re: Report: Reliable Leaker Details Two Unannounced Xbox Games Coming This Fall
@Kaloudz I had to look up what you were talking about, as it seemed random and odd that Popcap would be pushing expensive dolls!
Apparently, these Labubu dolls are by Pop Mart, not Popcap. The latter is a longtime maker of casual video games like Peggle and Bejeweled, and doesn't do any toys/dolls that I know of.
Re: Opinion: Xbox Series X Still Hasn't Been Fully Utilised Yet, But 2026 Could Be The Year
@GuyinPA75 Yeah, that much was obvious when PS2 was the dominant platform. You'd sometimes see GameCube exclusives brought over later on (and those had to be heavily cut down in their graphics and/or performance), but most of the time, the PS2 was the lead platform, and the GameCube/Xbox versions had relatively few advantages over it.
Though I can't agree with your very last statement. The X and S have basically the same CPU, the S's RAM limitations more or less line up with the savings of using a low render resolution (and low textures to match), and the X is often pushed pretty hard by today's games, even if they run in some form on the S.
Only scenario I can think of where the S could hold game design back is where the X does something truly revolutionary in its gameplay, and that somehow relies heavily on its graphical muscle, rather than on CPU speed, and it can only run at 30fps on the X (so the devs can't just drop the res and fps to make it work on the S).
Re: Opinion: Xbox Series X Still Hasn't Been Fully Utilised Yet, But 2026 Could Be The Year
What does "fully utilised" even mean, in the context of gaming in the 2020s?
So far, we've gotten a lot of last-gen graphics, but actually running smoothly this time around. The true limit-pushers (like that Matrix demo) look impressive in stills, but perform like a PS1 game from the '90s (sub-30fps).
Gone are the days of breathtaking, game-changing generational leaps, but I'm actually mostly okay with that. Games have easily passed the point of looking good enough, so all they need now is to work well and run smoothly. If the game has PS4-era rendering tech, but runs smoothly, loads quickly, and doesn't have any major flaws like pop-in or smeary upscaling, then what's the issue? That's arguably maxing out the limits without straining them.
Re: Rumour: Halo 1 Remake/Remaster Started Development In 2023, May Not Include Multiplayer
@Fiendish-Beaver Halo MCC is already 4K and/or 120fps on Series X (though presumably not both at the same time?).
Even the base Xbox One runs it at 1080p 60fps... sort of. It got an unwanted update a few years ago, which destroyed performance in the Anniversary mode, making only the original graphics mode viable for H1 and H2.
Re: Perfect Dark Developer Responds To 'Big Controversy' Over 2024 Gameplay Trailer
@-taco Just what I was thinking of. In this case, the enemy AI was probably really dopey, and if you went "off-script", they'd probably just stand there, swinging their fists at the air or something. Still technically real, but it gives the impression of the game being further along than it actually was.
See also: Sonic Adventure with its Autodemo in 1998. The game was technically playable by that point, but it was set up to play back the staff members' own gameplay performances, as allowing anyone else to play it would reveal all of the cracks in the collision detection, etc... come to think of it, that held true even in the retail release!
In all three of these cases, it was actual in-engine gameplay, and nothing like the outright fake CGI for Killzone.
Re: Xbox Next-Gen Console Plans 'Not Impacted' By Microsoft Layoffs
Why not scrap the next-gen console (or PC with an Xbox logo on it or whatever) and keep Everwild and Perfect Dark going instead?
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want To See From Xbox In The Second Half Of The Year?
@SuntannedDuck2 Yeah, it was a great program (and played a large part in my buying an Xbone in the first place), and it's too bad they haven't continued it further.
Back compat doesn't involve native ports, so lack of source code shouldn't be an issue (on Xbox or PlayStation), but some work would be involved in testing and troubleshooting (plus the 360 games, at least, reportedly have some form of recompilation involved), so I suspect that MS simply doesn't think it's worth it to pursue more games.
Obviously, offering compatibility with 20-year-old discs isn't making them any money, but since most of the games are available to purchase digitally, you'd think that would offset the costs decently enough. I don't know- I've bought a bunch of these games digitally, but maybe that's not really something that other people are doing.
Re: Xbox Founding Member 'Not Pleased' With State Of The Brand In 2025
@BAMozzy You mentioned that almost everyone has a device they can play Xbox on, and that many people will prefer to play on Xbox.
No one's debating the first part of that, but will a large percentage of players actually want to buy from the Xbox store? I think you're underestimating Steam, in particular! Platform loyalty (esp. wanting to keep all your games in one place) goes both ways, too, and there are more players on Steam than on Xbox, so that could actually be to the Xbox platform's detriment, considering how large and entrenched their competitor is.
If MS actually sells a bunch of hardware at a loss, and then allows Steam to be installed on it, that sounds downright foolhardy to me. But this all depends on a bunch of hypotheticals. I get what you're saying, and the logic is there, but I'm just not convinced it'll play out the way you're predicting. But who knows?
About Linux, I've had very spotty results using Proton on my PC, and would not recommend Linux for gaming- IMO, Windows is mandatory if you want to play on PC. (That's a win for Microsoft!) But Steam Deck has been fairly popular so far, and we may see it continue to chip away at MS's market share. (Again, hypotheticals, speculation, etc. etc.) And if people are playing on Steam Deck, the fact that it has to use a translation layer to play a Windows executable is irrelevant: it's not a win for MS, since they don't see any money from that. And if there are more players on Steam Deck, that incentivizes the development of native Linux ports.
Re: Xbox Founding Member 'Not Pleased' With State Of The Brand In 2025
@BAMozzy That basically comes back to what I meant by "low stakes". Microsoft's hardware (whether made by them, or licensed) doesn't actually need to sell. If it does, great. If not, people are still in the ecosystem... well, potentially.
Like you said, stores like Steam are still competition- and I have to wonder if that competition is being understated. It's great (for MS) that they have so many different ways of making money at different points in the chain, but if someone buys a PC from a different manufacturer and then proceeds to buy all of their games through Steam (because why would they buy from the Xbox store instead?), then there's not a whole lot of money to be made by MS, is there? Sure, there's the OS, but they already have a near-monopoly, regardless of the gaming situation. No room for growth there. And as Linux gets a foothold (via Steam Deck), that pretty much shuts MS out from making money off those users: a typical Steam Deck user is not giving MS any money for the hardware, OS, or storefronts!
Of course, there's the software publisher side: if you buy an Elder Scrolls or Call of Duty game, MS is getting a cut, regardless of whether you buy it on Steam, PlayStation, or wherever. That's one area where they're undeniably succeeding! But if- hypothetically speaking- that becomes the only place where MS is making any real money on games, then why bother with platforms at all?
Re: Xbox Founding Member 'Not Pleased' With State Of The Brand In 2025
@BAMozzy I was completely unaware of that distinction! I don't have much need for a handheld game system at this point, but if there's an option that includes full-size controls, then that would be the one I'd check out first. Some people are bothered by larger systems/controllers, but I'm the opposite: I struggle with tiny devices like the DS Lite or the Switch Joy-Con.
A bit of extra heft isn't going to affect the portability, so might as well go with the one that's comfortable (assuming all other factors are largely equal).
I don't know how much this will shift sales, though. Like I said, a lot of people seem to really value smaller/lighter form factors... and is the larger size even being promoted as a major talking point? I hadn't even heard it mentioned until now, after all. Maybe I'm just out of the loop.
Re: Xbox Founding Member 'Not Pleased' With State Of The Brand In 2025
@BAMozzy Regarding your first post (#11), you make a good case for PC gaming in general being amazing: the library is unmatched, the cost is much less of a barrier these days, etc.
But why should someone buy an Xbox ROG Ally specifically, and not any other PC or Windows-capable handheld?
Are you implying that they probably won't, but the stakes are so low (seeing as the success of MS's ecosystem no longer relies on it) that it doesn't matter? Not sure I disagree- just wondering, though.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want To See From Xbox In The Second Half Of The Year?
Adding more games to the back compat program is definitely up there!
Though I think the original Xbox's library needs it more than the 360's.
Re: Capcom Explains Why Leon Isn't The Protagonist In Resident Evil Requiem
Got to agree with the reasoning that the battle-hardened, snarky action hero that Leon has become is not a good fit for certain scenarios. (And the last thing we need is for him to become a saddened, weakened old man who has lost all of his confidence!)
I'd still welcome a sort of "Resident Evil 4-2", though, where 50-year-old Leon is kicking butt, spouting stupid one-liners, and generally being an '80s-style action hero again. But Requiem is clearly not that game.
Re: Capcom Explains Why Leon Isn't The Protagonist In Resident Evil Requiem
@Banjo- It sounds like you fully played through VII, so I'm surprised that you'd still feel that way about it.
The first bit (maybe a half-hour to an hour?) is like a bad Outlast knock-off, in my opinion, so I could see why you'd think it's too much of a departure if that's all you played.
But before long, it really starts to feel like a proper RE, with the exploration, light puzzles, and resource management you'd expect. Of course, you can aim in first-person, but it still avoids turning into a full-blown action-fest.
Re: Reminder: The Xbox 360 Is Surprisingly Decent For Backwards Compatibility
@themightyant They've already got us acting as unpaid beta testers for Windows, so why not Xbox back compat as well? I actually wouldn't mind that one nearly as much! (Open the full library of OG/360 games for users, slap a disclaimer or option toggle to keep people from stumbling in accidentally, etc.)
Re: Reminder: The Xbox 360 Is Surprisingly Decent For Backwards Compatibility
@nomither6 I think I get what you're saying. I classify the digital/physical and subscription/ownership debates as two very different issues. I rarely listen to physical CDs, for instance, but I still keep a music collection that I own, as opposed to subscribing to a service. And I also buy digital games all the time, but GamePass doesn't appeal to me.
But doesn't Spotify fall squarely into the subscription category? I wasn't aware of an option to purchase music outright (like you can with iTunes). Once you stop paying, that music is gone.
Not that I hate subscription services, or can't see that they have their advantages!
(Regarding Spotify in particular, it's especially tempting in that I've been wanting to catch up on the back catalogues of a bunch of '80s artists, and buying CDs in bulk just to see what I like probably isn't the best approach.)
But I personally wouldn't make subs my main/sole method of enjoying media, that's for sure.
Re: Reminder: The Xbox 360 Is Surprisingly Decent For Backwards Compatibility
@nomither6 Hah, I hear you! I understand that many people are more casual about their media: throw out the old stuff, bring in the new. Rely on subscriptions like Netflix and Spotify, instead of keeping old CD/DVD/Blu-ray collections lying around. When games or movies are your sixth-favourite hobby, they don't get much physical space dedicated to them.
But man, that's pretty much unthinkable for me. I like to go back and revisit old favourites, and can't imagine the inconvenience of relying on the Xbone's limited back compat support, or hoping a certain movie (or game!) is on a certain subscription service, or putting up with Spotify ads.
PS: It seems that the average movie watcher is much more likely to value older movies (even if they don't keep them physically), whereas this doesn't hold true as often or as thoroughly for games, so there's that.
Re: Reminder: The Xbox 360 Is Surprisingly Decent For Backwards Compatibility
@FraserG @Techno92LFC The system they're using now is still emulation, but the differences are:
Modern back compat does, in fact, still have emulation issues, but they're fewer and farther between than with the 360's solution. Some games ran poorly (BK: Nuts and Bolts) until receiving a patch, and some (Hydro Thunder: Hurricane's DLC tracks) still have severe graphical glitches, even now.
Not sure about licensing. Some games offer back compat only with a disc inserted, and aren't on the storefront. Does that mean MS could legally offer back compat for every game, as long as you own the disc? Maybe, but it wouldn't make sense financially to put in all that work. (If they truly couldn't, I assume it's because they're offering you a separate copy from the one on the disc.)
As for having to download the game from the internet instead of copying it off the disc, it could be that MS thwarted themselves with their own weird disc formatting . Xbone and XSX fully support normal DVDs, of course, but Xbox and Xbox 360 discs are formatted to be largely unreadable on normal DVD drives.
Re: 10 Of The Most Intriguing Xbox Indies We Saw At Summer Game Fest 2025
@Tasuki Scott Pilgrim starts out painfully sluggish, but it becomes a lot faster and easier as you start to gain upgrades- not to mention that there are more offensive and defensive options to work with.
I'm not sure that the game really benefits from this RPG-lite upgrade system, but it does become a lot more fun and worth playing if you stick with it for a bit.
Re: Xbox's New Retro Classics Collection Features A PlayStation 1 Game
@ButterySmooth30FPS Let me guess, "PlayStation games are coming to Xbox"?
Re: Talking Point: 25 Years On, What Do You Think Of The 'Perfect Dark' Franchise?
@RadioHedgeFund It's just insane how much stuff Rare used to pack into their games- whether it's this, DKR, Banjo-Tooie, JFG, or even the ever-polarizing DK64, they put in a ton of content, modes, details, and extras, and I feel like they were trying to make the best game of all time- with each game they made!
I don't know, maybe this is the very thing that sank them: so many of their games had long, tumultuous development times. And they really haven't been the same since around 2001 or so. (A few would argue that Rare's quality has held up post-acquisition, but it's undeniable that they've been so much less prolific, at least!)
But man, that ridiculous ambition, scope, and willingness to throw in a bunch of stuff just because it's cool... it's a key part of the old "Rare Magic", in my opinion!
Re: Surprise! Classic MMORPG 'Wizard101' Has Released For Free On Xbox
The monetization is a real turn-off, based on what I've heard. Wasn't it better before, and then changed to be extra aggressive more recently?
It's a shame, as those who played it back in the day seem to remember it fondly. Plus, any game with a Nelson Everhart soundtrack can't be all bad!
Re: Xbox Developer Shares Insight Into Why Physical Releases Are 'Complex'
I have to wonder: was it always this complicated (with all of the major publishers already having the knowledge and arrangements to easily navigate this stuff), or has Microsoft stepped back more recently, leaving more of the responsibility on the publisher?
Because it really doesn't sound like they care to make it easy to make physical media. (What a surprise!)
Re: Xbox Announces Gears Of War: Reloaded, Releasing Summer 2025
@vrubayka Thanks, I was clearly getting mixed up there. Maybe I was thinking of the way that the original version was only 30, and that it was sometimes advertised/listed as 60 due to the multiplayer. I don't know.
Though the comparison screenshots here are a little misleading, as they don't acknowledge that the Ultimate edition already runs at 60fps.
Re: Xbox Announces Gears Of War: Reloaded, Releasing Summer 2025
Hard to believe they never boosted GoW Ultimate to 60fps until now!
(At first, I was thinking this re-remaster was completely redundant.)
EDIT: No, GoW Ultimate apparently got a 60fps boost to its campaign mode a few years ago, so this re-remaster doesn't seem to be a game-changer.
Re: Talking Point: Would You Still Buy An Xbox At Microsoft's 2025 Prices?
I was close to buying a Series X on sale, but ultimately didn't. This price increase puts it firmly in "no way" territory.
The Canadian prices are even more insane, and then there's another $100 in taxes on top of that.
Re: Random: Xbox Owner Discovers Evidence Of Unreleased Far Cry Port
Never cared to play FC1 in particular (the tech is cool, but it sounds frustrating to actually play), though this is still a great discovery!
It does make sense that they'd try to do a standard port, considering contemporary games like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 made it relatively intact, but I guess this was just a step too far. (Wonder how the RAM usage is when running this on that devkit. It probably sits far above the consumer model's 64 MB!)
Re: Digital Foundry Impressed With Oblivion Remastered, But Xbox Series S 'Takes A Hit'
@Cakefish That actually sounded pretty appealing in theory, especially for those of us who don't even have high-resolution screens to play on!
But the reality became clear as soon as AC Valhalla was revealed to run at 30fps on Series S. (I believe Ubisoft patched it later, but it was already obvious that this was just the first of many, many compromised experiences.)
Re: GEX Brings Three Retro Games To Xbox This Summer, Here's A Look
I enjoyed these, but I still have the originals. Not about to double-dip unless they got these running in 60fps, which is very unlikely.
Re: Xbox Is 'Exploring' AI To Make Its Older Games Playable On Modern Hardware
@themightyant "the licenses to the games we bought are for Xbox not PC"
Your PC is an Xbox now, remember? As are all of your devices.
(Microsoft is truly playing 4D chess!)