themightyant

No Hades 2, no Blue Prince, no Split Fiction, no KCD2, no SILKSONG!

While all opinion are valid, you don't have to respect them all equally.

Either way it’s still good to see other games get some attention.

@Neither_scene In hindsight yes. But I don't think they anticipated the level of drop off that happened.

For me the crazy thing about Destiny was that with vaulted content there was no natural entry point for new players. It would be like starting reading a book series half way through. That severely limits your new players coming in, which live services need to counterbalance the churn of players going out. You are always likely to be losing more players with this setup, but it becomes especially hard when you suddenly haemorrhage players.

I am surprised they haven't fixed that first, but Destiny 3 makes the most sense for them. Even if personally I wish they would go back to making a new IP with a single player campaign as part of the hook.

As this becomes a bigger thing and 5G has rolled out I really think Xbox could do with a cheaper PS Portal like device for cloud & console streaming. I know some people will say you can just play on your phone etc. but the user experience just isn't the same ESPECIALLY with screen size. It works OK on some games but is nowhere near as immersive. Text becomes hard, or impossible, to read and the controller doesn't feel right.

I do have a Backbone controller for phone and it's great in many ways, but it doesn't feel like an Xbox. I also have a phone clip for an Xbox Series controller which solves that problem, but it is a bit fiddly and the screen size is still an issue. All the options currently feel sub-par, or super expensive like the Xbox Ally. Feels like there's an obvious gap in the market here.

@Vidorra FYI Game Pass this year has included 10 nominees from 2025's Game Awards, mostly 3rd party, and over 50 games rated 80+ on Metacritic. There have been PLENTY of strong 3rd party games. That said value is subjective, if you don't like the offerings, it's very simple, don't subscribe.

That's two pretty huge updates. One of many downsides with Xcloud has been it's low resolution, made worse by all the video compression / macro blocking. But 1440p should be a major step and bring it more in line with similar offerings from their competitors.

More countries is also a good thing, not just for people that live there but also for travel. I've fallen foul of this when abroad when I didn't want to take a whole console with me but it would have been nice to have Xcloud on my phone. Great news.

These are all important steps, it needs to "just work".

Nothing, nada. Between my backlog and Game Pass I have more than enough to play.

These are an ABOMINATION!

Where do I buy them again

I hope not, they have already gone up considerably more than the competition and look unfavourable by comparison. Would be a bad look.

What's crazy to me is how much of that list Microsoft now owns.
Not to mention the CoD dominance 6 of the top 10!

I suspect most developers, given the choice, would want their art to be experienced by as many people as possible.

That said I still think there's something special about seeing games that are designed and developed around a specific hardware target. E.g. I am always amazed at what Nintendo could do with the potato-like Switch in games like Zelda BOTW, TOTK and Xenoblade Chronicles games. What studios like Naughty Dog have done. They squeezed so much performance out of the hardware. But this is a dying thing.

@Fiendish-Beaver Glad to hear you treat yourself on games my dude! I was just playing, as I generally couldn't afford consoles at launch back then and when I could get a console I would maybe get one or two games at most... not half the launch line-up! lol.

But then I did do most of the things you didn't... and then some. (no regrets). Yet one benefit of being short of cash, and something I miss now I can afford it, was it made gaming far more sociable. We would always go around to each others houses specifically to see the latest games (this was before YouTube etc) and constantly swapped games which was great. I even swapped my PS2 (and all my games) for my mate's Dreamcast (and all his games) one summer holiday. Despite the better weather, and knowing I would have to give it back a few weeks, I barely left the house that summer, especially playing Shenmue. lol. Good times.

P.S. Sorry to hear about your wife

It is better than nothing, but also not enough when Digital PS5 (£285) is virtually the same price as Series S (£270) this Black Friday. Should have done more.

I like the idea of this. But was it a success? Tango Gameworks was sold shortly after and Oblivion Remastered was released in a shoddy technical state despite it being a 19 year old game. If you are going to do it at least release polished like Silksong.

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.