Comments 314

Re: Pick One: Which Is Your Favourite Xbox Console To Date?

swedetrap

Tough call. 360 was so far ahead of its time in terms of its interface, early social features (UNO!) and games. I have so many amazing memories of playing it all night long and marveling at how far MS had come in such a short time. That said, I've gotta go with the Series X (or S) because it plays nearly everything I care about across 4 generations. No other console has ever done such thing and it makes Xbox such a PC-but-friendly experience.

Re: Don Mattrick Discusses The Failures Of The 2013 Xbox One Launch

swedetrap

While I'm no fan of Mattrick's, there's no denying that he was ahead of his time, like it or not. We live in a future without physical media and we're always connected - it's really that simple. Steam is to blame for the former, progress for the latter. All of that said, the messaging behind the Xbox One was abysmal. I didn't even want one at all until I saw a Killer Instinct playable demo at a Microsoft Store in San Francisco. I knew then that I still wanted one.

Having said all of that, I really liked Skype, Kinect, OneGuide, etc. - I watched all of my TV through an Xbox One until they shut those features off. By then, most smart TV software had at least caught up a little bit.

That messaging though? Still makes me cringe. Who shows up to show some new games on a new games console and then doesn't bring games? Don Mattrick. Sap.

Re: Halo Infinite: How Long To Beat (And 100% Complete) The Campaign

swedetrap

@NEStalgia Couldn't agree more about Spider-Man. People LOVE that game. For me, once the traversal mechanics wore off about two hours in, I found it tedious to get around in. What would have been a 10/10 solid 8-10 hour experience for me ended up being a 6 or 7/10 slog. I get that they want people to feel good about spending their $60 but there's a fine line there. I'm down for 8-10 hour campaign that I can come back to and play again at my option to 100%. Despite how many people rag on Far Cry, that's exactly how I play those games. They're really not that long if you just focus on the story missions, and they're a blast to plow through again later for the extras.

Re: Xbox Game Pass: All Games Coming Soon In December 2021

swedetrap

Are people still playing Destiny? All of my friends that played it seem to think Bungie has committed some sort of awful and unforgivable sin in recent months and refuse to go back to it. I stopped playing it well over a year ago. I didn't realize it was on Game Pass until reading this.

Re: These Games Are Coming To Xbox Next Week (September 13-17)

swedetrap

Wasn't Skatebird a Nintendo Indie showcase title a while back? There have been so many "OMG WE HAVE INDIES!" presentations lately that I've lost track along with most of my ability to care. That said, The Artful Escape is a beautiful not-really-a-game game on Game Pass. Satisfied my "small devs make good stuff" urges for the month already.

Re: A Knights Of The Old Republic Remake Is Coming, But Not For Xbox... Yet

swedetrap

Had this come out more toward the beginning of the Non-Stop Remasterathon a few years ago I would probably be excited. Now, after Mass Effect, et al I'm rather bored with playing previous gen games with a fresh coat of paint. Go ahead and have an exclusive, Sony. As much as I love KOTOR I won't be buying for PS5 or Xbox because meh.

Re: Not Everyone Is Happy With Xbox's Recent Comments About Preservation

swedetrap

Everyone is so obsessed with being able to play Keith Courage on their TurboGrafx/PC-Engine in the year 2067. I support this, really I do, but I fail to see why the industry needs to cripple itself with outdated technologies to satisfy the collectathon needs of a segment of users. Why can't it be both? Personally, I'd rather more users had more access to more artistic works than a scant few obsessives being able to play Mad Dog McCree on the Sega CD.

(I say the above with peace and love as a recovered game collector that sold off my entire collection of physical games last year, including every known US Vita release, etc.)

Also, why isn't everyone down on Steam for the same things? What's different about Microsoft in this case? I get that Sony and Nintendo have been flat out stupid about back-compat and legacy gaming, but Microsoft feels like the only console manufacturer to care at all. So it's a work in progress - give em some time.

Re: Soapbox: Forza Horizon 5 Is Going To Need To Lean Into The Series' Absurdity To Impress Me

swedetrap

The one-off stuff like the Halo Experience only work because they're one-offs. They're delightful little surprises in an otherwise incredibly deep and satisfying, albeit extremely arcade-like racing game. While I love the Hot Wheels expansion I hated the LEGO one because most of us come for the cars and all of the ridiculous things the game allows us to do with them that we couldn't do in real life (not to mention in most other games). The absurdity dial has generally always been set to `perfect` in my opinion. Setting it higher risks alienating the superfans, those of us that never stop playing, and we are very very many in number.

Re: Bethesda's Pete Hines Apologises To Fans Upset By Starfield Xbox Exclusivity

swedetrap

Exclusivity sucks either way. I'm just happy MS has made themselves a nice path backward and forward so I can play these things well into the future and still go back and play Panzer Dragoon Orta every now and again. Where exclusivity really burns are those PS3 games i never got around to playing before my console died and now my only choice is to use the godawful PS Now service.

Re: Xbox Announces Cloud Gaming Streaming Sticks, TV Integration

swedetrap

I finally have enough bandwidth to make this worthwhile and have been hoping for this for years. My Steam library makes me realize that "ownership" of physical things is kind of stupid when I can take my library from PC to PC. Being able to simply stream to a low-cost laptop of MS Surface is the dream there. Something similar for my Xbox game library and Game Pass would be amazing. I don't need a big stupid box next to my TV to feel happy. I just need good bandwidth, low latency, and all my games. Consoles are over within 10 years.