themightyant

Same thing we do every night Pinky... try to take... play some games.

@Fiendish-Beaver Oh you were RICH rich!

(i'm playin')

Glad to see some Kameo love! I didn't play it at launch, but loved that game.

Not really important to me, I just use Xbox or cloud to play. But it might be useful in future and I’m glad it exists.

Visually stunning, interesting modern Athurian legend links and combat that looks great. Sign me up.

Pretty cool they are offering 50% off at launch, I wish more games that arrived late did that.

@Kezelpaso Certainly nowhere as good as the awesome trailer suggested so far. I just stood in front of the enemies and it kinda lost its scares when they’re so impotent

Continues to look fantastic. Plus Game Pass ftw.

I played about an hour so far. Mixed bag imo. The atmosphere is great but the gameplay (so far) is pretty weak.

Also what’s up with the FOV, aggressive head bobbing and Camera warping. I realise they do this to make it feel more unsettling, but as someone who never gets motion sick in games I was close to getting motion sickness. Thankfully you can fix this in settings but it’s a weird default.

It’s such a bizarre awards show. Different winner for PC GOTY, Console GOTY, Critics GOTY and public GOTY.

Regardless congratulations to all winners and nominees.

Awesome. Interested in at least 4 of those. Currently trying Total Chaos. Great atmosphere but gameplay is lacking so far.

Much better than I expected. Lots of games I am interested in. Playing Total Chaos now.

Went in with low expectations and they smashed them. Great show. Lots to look forward to.

Other outlets have done a spec by spec comparison and found it to be around $750+ for an on PAPER spec PC. BUT and this is the important thing to note, that is running on Windows. SteamOS is more performant despite running under a compatibility layer. Additionally devs should be able to target the Steam Machines fixed specs exactly meaning you get more out of the system, much like the Steam Deck which overperforms for it's specs. So again I don't think you will get a better performing PC for a lower cost at launch.

@fatpunkslim So what's your money on for price?

@fatpunkslim It's not that small. But I guess time will tell. Entry level PCs are around $800 and not this good on spec.

@Coletrain I think, as Xbox learned this gen, that there is value in a low-cost device for the masses. I think that's where the Steam Deck is positioned.

While it may not be cheaper than XSX/PS5/PS6 I think it WILL be cheaper than a similarly performing mid-low end PC. Add to that console like convenience, UI and an under TV experience and I think there's a reasonable niche for it. It's just not for me, not at those specs.

I tried South of Midnight, but while I liked the art, I didn't like the gameplay or the animation style. Felt a bit mid tbh and I dropped it. But maybe music or art.

I've also played Doom, Indy and Keeper and i'm not sure I agree. Keeper perhaps for art. I loved Indiana Jones and thought last year it might have won more if it was able to be nominated, but this year is just far more competitive. Not sure it's better than those nominated. Doom: TDA was good, but also a bit disappointing v the two earlier games.

Perhaps TOW2 will change my mind.

@Coletrain I'm with you. The concern for me is that around a year and half of this releasing we expect we will be getting next-gen consoles which will blow this out of the water. I expect PS6 to be similarly priced to this. NeXtbox is harder to pin down, their comments make it sound like it will be prohibitively expensive to most.

@FrenchVaniIIuxe The performance ISN'T lower than the Xbox One, who told you that? Digital Foundry, and others, have suggested on paper it will be a bit weaker than the Series X, but likely more powerful than the Series S, though this will vary per game.

This makes sense to me. The CPU is better than the Series S|X, but the GPU is worse and there is less VRAM, but there is separate to RAM, newer gen tech and a smaller more efficient process node.

While Valve said this is a 4K @ 60fps device WITH FSR upscaling, I think it might be a bit short of that, but still be good enough for most gamers.

Steam Deck launched at $400, I expect they tried to make a similarly low cost unit, which is why the specs are so (comparatively) low. So around $550 - $700 window depending how bullish they are being on profit.

I didn't like the game much overall, but goodness RAGE was a good looking game for X360.

@RadioHedgeFund Good additional list. A couple of FYI's you might not know to mitigate these a little.

• Xbox has various voice commands for Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, for turning on, launching games etc. Yes it requires another device, but one you may already have.
• The accounts thing is annoying. But there's an easy way to make this less annoying with a lot of email providers via alias addresses i.e. addresses that appear different but go to the same account, or can be filtered. This skips the step of needing multiple email accounts, which is the time consuming part, and a new Xbox account can be setup in little time.

It's slightly different with each provider but with Gmail my [email protected] is the same as [email protected] for google, but different for Xbox. You can put in as many periods as you like it makes no difference to Google, it all comes tot he same mailbox, but each will be seen as a different email address by Microsoft or other sites. Additionally you can use the plus symbol and some text e.g. [email protected] which will also come to the same inbox and you can easily filter these, while still managing their accounts.

Personally I use that both for consoles and many other sites, not least to see who might be selling my data! e.g. if I sign up at Pure Xbox and use [email protected] but receive email to this address from someone else you know who's to blame.

H_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ : _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Surely a Square-Enix game. 😂

OOH Puzzles!

• On the one hand I like this.
• On the other the internet is collectively too smart and will have it mostly solved already leaving few surprises.

@FraserG True. Hopefully tomorrow (in part 2) we can find a new morsel. Still good value.

It is interesting, but it's also all pretty old news. It was in the Xbox documentary and Peter's said it all before elsewhere. (Iron Lords, IGN etc.)

I never actually owned PGR3, but I played it at a friends and remember thinking "graphics couldn't get any better than this". Lol. But it was a ridiculously good looking game for the time. I'd be intrigued to see how it actually looks and feels in play now.

The things I miss most from the 360 generation are:

• Shorter games that didn't outstay their welcome with grind
• Shorter dev times, you could have a whole trilogy in a generation
• Accepting it was fine for a multiplayer game to have a shelf life and not be a live service.
• Bright, fun & family games, now it's all gritty grimdark.
• 1 vs 100

The things I regret from the 360 generation:

• Microtransactions became prevalent this generation
• Paying for subscriptions / online became the norm
• DLC that was crucial to the story. E.g. Asura's Wrath, Mass Effect 3. You shouldn't have to pay extra for the proper ending! Glad that died.

Unlikely. Very few games are given an actual release DAY over a year in advance, and that's for good reason. I can't think of a single one that has hit it, though maybe i've missed one. Perhaps they will be the first, but I doubt it, most likely is a another 3 month delay to polish and "give the game you deserve". Feb 2027 releases beware!

Enjoyed Moonlighter. Will give this a go.

@Rodimusprime13 @ButterySmooth30FPS My money would be on standard m.2 nvme storage that PC, PS5, Steam Deck and RoG Xbox Ally all use.

But there’s a slim chance they might also have a slot for these, it’s effectively a small Gen 4 m.2 nvme inside with a custom controller.

Will it? Or will it get cancelled later as part of EA's big shakeup? Only time will tell

I wonder if there will be compatible next gen?

Otherwise you are buying something with a pretty short shelf life. IMO if you've lasted this in the gen without one you can probably do without.

@PJOReilly FYI Easy Red 2 is on PS4.

By my reckoning that makes only the following Series X console exclusive, the rest are on Xbox One:

• Keeper
• Grounded 2
• Avowed
• South of Midnight
• MS Flight sim 2024 (on PS5 in a few weeks)
• Starfield
• Halo Infinite
• Valheim (announced for PS5)
• Jump Space

Might be time to park this imho.

That's a pretty fun get. Will give it a whirl.

@AccessibleDaydream Sure. The natural refresh rate of the panel is 120Hz and 40fps divides into that exactly 3 times making motion appear smoother.

Whilst this is less important as the panel has VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) - meaning it will show a frame whenever one is ready - hitting a frame rate that better aligns with the panel's refresh rate is still preferable for perceived motion clarity with evenly paced frames. VRR is great, but it's not everything.

Additionally while 40fps may only seem a little better than 30fps, and a long way from 60fps, in fact it's the exact half way point between the two in terms of frame time. To my eyes it's a great balance between feeling smooth enough and being able to push fidelity as high as possible. 40fps is great, especially on handheld.

• 30fps = 1/30 = 33.3ms every frame
• 40fps = 1/40 = 25ms every frame (8.33ms difference to 30fps)
• 60fps = 1/60 = 16.66ms every frame (8.33ms difference to 40fps)

Adjusted FPS Limiter option from 45 → 40 FPS to better align with the device’s 120hz panel refresh rate.

That's a pretty big one. I find 40fps is often the sweetspot that FEELS far closer to 60fps than 30fps to play. Amazed it wasn't at launch.

That is likely ESPECIALLY true of Ubisoft games.

Personally I buy any Ubisoft games at a sale because playing the same thing isn't worth full price, and they have conditioned me that they will go on sale quickly. When was the last Ubisoft game that felt truly fresh and new? It's stale.

If they want me to buy day 1 they need to push the boundaries of what is possible again, be exciting, like they used to do with Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, early Assassin's Creed titles, Far Cry 3, The Division, Beyond Good and Evil, Rayman, Splinter Cell and others.

@Sol4ris I think it's far more nuanced than that. Are there some deranged takes online, sure yes, but there always are.

Are Xbox making more hardware? Yes absolutely. But will it be what users consider a home console? This is more complicated. Usually a console is a more affordable gaming device that plays games on a TV with far more convenience than a PC. What they seems to be moving to sounds less like a console and more like an optimised fixed spec PC. There's pros and cons to that, and while personally I’m quite excited, I also don't blame a lot of XBOX fans who are worried that they are going to get left behind. Especially on price.

The other trouble is Xbox has spent YEARS saying one thing but then doing another, hence many people simply don't trust their words anymore. ACTIONS speak louder.

I agree the Xbox rumours are out of hand, but I think this is problem of their own making. That's why they have alienated so many Xbox fans too.

@Deshalu Forza Horizon 5 was an undeniably well made game... but it was unexciting because it was basically just a reskin of Forza Horizon 4 with few new mechanics.

I put over a hundred hours into FH4 but dropped FH5 within the first 5. Many people said similar here and online. It maybe still deserved a GOTY nomination that year imo, but still won 3 awards. Hopefully they shake it up for FH6.

As expected Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 domination. I have it winning virtually every category it's in.

But GAME PASS players are the big winner with Expedition 33, Silksong, Blue Prince, Atomfall, The Alters, Doom: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, Ninja Gaiden 4, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2 all included. 10 TGA nominees, we been feasting!

This is undeniably true... but it doesn't tell the whole story. The earth has never warmed or cooled at anything like this rate EVER in the recorded history of the planet, which we can tell from analysing ice cores, ocean sediment, tree rings and other methods to read past climate conditions.

Whether you believe it's man-made CO₂ or not what is also undeniably clear is that SOMETHING has changed the earth's natural cycle, the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate and there is a wealth of evidence to suggest it's caused by human activity.

I suspect the video was Piers Corbyn or one of the other FEW climate experts who deny this (and the cynic in me says they make a good living off it too... but i'd love the link anyway). Fact checked articles have stated 97% of climate experts DO believe climate change is caused by man. Am I more likely to side with that 97% who have a wealth of peer-reviewed evidence... or the few who push back usually with pretty flimsy arguments.

@Chip-Douglas It may well say that on the home screen, but there have been over 20 mainline COD campaigns, not unreasonably we have certain expectations from that... like not being pushed into a lobby on a single player campaign, and being able to pause the game because... life happens.

@Chip-Douglas It is when the SINGLE-player is always online and won't even let you pause it! (Madness)

@swedetrap I'm probably in the minority here but it's not just competitive multiplayer that I think is a bad fit for handheld. I don't really like playing AAA on handheld either. It feels like watching the latest big-budget blockbuster on a phone. I'd rather play it on a bigger screen / TV. I use my handhelds for older and simpler games, but save the big budget stuff for a screen where I can actually appreciate it.

...as long as you are not offline

is a pretty big caveat for a handheld device and Microsoft's biggest game every year. Though, personally, I wouldn't want to play competitive multiplayer on a handheld.

I don't care if creatives use AI as a TOOL to help them achieve their vision. But it does depend HOW it is used and on what. But we can't have clear lines, as it always depends on the final product. e.g.

Look at something like Microsoft Flight Simulators absolutely brilliant use of AI to process satellite imagery and other data to create the whole world, something that would have been impossible without it.

I do wonder what a super-small team could do, making something like an Elder Scrolls, using AI as a tool, similar to how Hello Games made No Man's Sky with a tiny team and procedural generation.

I am both excited about the possibilities of what we COULD do, while also very cautious about what studios and publishers WILL do. But I don't think we should say it's always good or bad, because it isn't.

@Gabrie This is the way. It's just a shame that it takes longer to download the campaign than it does to play it!!!

That's a real shame. Several big games leaving.

@Fraser G The original press release for OT1 & OT2 specifically said they were going to be on Game Pass until January 2026, as reported on Pure Xbox here and elsewhere, I wonder what changed?

A shame as I was hoping to play OT2 this xmas.

@Lucylu1983 That's a shame, and a surprise, as the original announcement specifically said they were staying on Game Pass until 2026, which is unusual.