I never understand people finding Xbox or PS controllers so different, I swap between both daily without missing a beat. They’re so similar. If the left stick position is a problem on PS5 why isn’t it a problem on the right stick on Xbox? It makes no sense.
The only one that drives me crazy is Nintendo with their reversed (compared to Xbox) ABXY… but worst of all the button on the right (A) being confirm / proceed and the one on the left (B) being reject / go back. Maddening that it does the opposite of what you intend. It’s the only time I have to actually think about what button I am pressing which takes me out of the game.
Finally joined the Yakuza bandwagon with Yakuza 0. In fact I played Yakuza 1 & 2 on PS2 back in the day but never since so it’s a fresh start. My overarching memory of those PS2 games was how dynamic the combat felt in the early 2000s, grabbing a guy and smashing his head into a wall, or picking up a sign and beating them down with it… it felt like you could do anything.
Jump forward 20 years and even though Yakuza 0 uses the newer engine the combat feels a lot more clunky that I remember, quite limited in a lot of ways, it gets tired quite fast, and I don’t love that aspect as much as I expected. But thankfully there isn’t actually that much combat so far, the game is far more of an interactive movie (with a LOT of mini-games) than I remember with long cutscenes followed by a few minutes of gameplay then another lengthy cutscene.
Thankfully the story is good, the characters, writing and voice work are excellent, add to that
the sense of place in Kamorocho is brilliant. I am still a little disappointed however, I thought I’d love it more based on memory and reputation. But I’m only on Chapter 8 of X, will see how I feel by the end.
I need to go back and give this another go. I started it but REALLY didn't like the combat at all, and wasn't a huge fan of the stop frame animation either in the early stages. But perhaps it will grow.
Always a shame to see, doubly so as these were some of the best looking games in the state of play. But it also makes sense, some are being published by Sony (Kena) and others will only publish on the top platforms first, that currently isn’t Xbox. Still plenty of games coming over, but hopefully these port sooner not later.
I’m sure they have data on how little this is used and makes sense to drop it. Too many half baked features like this, better to have a faster more streamlined OS.
@dskatter "From the Pokémon devs!" but also apparently mostly outsourced. It isn't most of the same devs. I read that GameFreak have a program for outsourcing games and this is one of those games.
@Coletrain agreed, best Sony showcase in a while. A great mix of new announcements, updates (and release dates) to already announced games and a few remakes/remasters.
Over 30 games featured, personally I was interested in over 20 of them, with more than 10 to get excited about. Kena was a brilliant way to start the show and a highlight, but they also had Castlevania, John Wick, Shinobi OPs & Project Windless (aka Co** of War) which looked fantastic. Most were 2026 too.
My only real complaint was ending with GoW trilogy remakes which are likely years away and then the 2D GoW, it felt like they were building to one more big thing that never quite happened. (I genuinely thought with all the Santa Monica stuff they were going to announce Corey Barlog’s new game.) But it’s hard to be disappointed with so many great games shown. 9/10 for me. And over half the games coming to Xbox.
@BAMozzy I understand what you are saying but it's a gross oversimplification. New live services do succeed and do break through e.g. in 2025 alone we had Helldivers 2, Arc Raiders, Battlefield 6, Elden Ring Nightreign, Rematch, Where Winds Meet, Deadlock, Umamusume, Escape from Duckov, etc. plus many more. That's just the larger ones off the top of my head, many smaller ones that don't need as large a player base also have enough of an audience to keep going. Do many fail? Sure. But the same is true of single player games, they just fail more quietly.
This idea that people only play one and have to 'jump' is a myth. I'm sure that's true of a few players, but most of us can divvy up our time and try more than one.
While I am with you I would personally rather see more releases like Doom: TDA (though I didn't love it) than another live service I also accept not all games have to be made for me and my tastes, there are already more games I am interested in released every month than I can ever keep up with. Are you really at a loss for what to play?
@RedFlash475 The trouble is what gamers online loudly say they want (usually single player games not live services) isn't what the larger market actually plays, which is dominated by live services. Look at any list of most played games each month and count the few single player games that occasionally break that mould.
The reality is many single player games fail every single day, they just often do so anonymously compared to live services that have to put out a public statement. The real core issue is there are too many games released and a large proportion will always fail, the market can't support them all.
It's rough being a game dev. But it's not the only industry where your job security depends on the project you are working on succeeding. At the end of the day the books have to balance.
If you work in Advertising, Construction, Manufacturing or many other industries and your company loses the large contract you are working on then chances are you might be laid off.
Gaming is particularly susceptible to this with games taking years and the upfront costs are HUGE. If the game doesn't succeed out the gate then you don't even make back the money invested let alone enough to keep everyone employed to try again. It's often a choice of scale back to a small team or shutter the whole studio.
No easy choices. I don't envy those having to make them, or those in the firing line. Wishing all involved luck finding new roles.
@Cakefish Wasn't aware they split the reviews by country, that makes more sense on how they got 500... but the list still makes no sense at all. As you said many other games released last year with higher than a 3.x/5 on the store.
@Cakefish @TrollOfWar @TuscanUK It makes no sense. Even if you ignore Black Ops 7 / Warzone excuse why is Borderlands 4 on the list with 3.4/5 or Little Nightmare 3 with 3.6/5 with less than 500 reviews (which they say is their criteria).
Especially as @Cakefish said Split Fiction (March 2025) gets 4.9 with over 500 reviews but doesn't hit the list. Something's amiss because this certainly isn't "the highest-rated content across our stores released in 2025, with a minimum of 500 ratings."
Surprised the highest rated games on the store contain titles like Black Ops 7, Little Nightmares 3, Oblivion Remastered & Borderlands as they all got very mixed reviews both from critics and players elsewhere. e.g. they are all 'Mixed' on Steam.
EDIT: I just checked on Xbox and Black Ops 7 is scoring just 1.4 / 5 HOW is this one of the highest rated games on the store?
EDIT 2: Borderlands 4 only gets 3.4/5. Little Nighmares 3 only gets 3.6 and doesn't have over 500 reviews (just 130) as their criteria suggests.
I've already verified but I keep getting emails about this that effectively say (I paraphrase), "if you've done it already you don't need to do it again". But if i've done it why is it constantly sending me nagging emails and messages. Left hand not talking to right hand. Get your act together Microsoft, this shouldn't be so hard.
@InheritNegative Google maps only shows a handful of map markers at once BECAUSE they understand that to show them all at once would be information overload. Something Playground's UX team could learn from.
No I never suggested a barren open world, just a better way to handle maps, progression and more meaningful GAMEPLAY changes that they suggest here.
If you are happy with what the game currently is good for you, but others are allowed to have a differing opinion. Forza Horizon 5 was an exceptionally well made game, but for many of us that had sunk hundreds of hours into the series already it was exceedingly dull, basically just a reskin of FH4. I want more than that, don't you?
Bit of a weird list imo. Most are just to be expected e.g. Japanese landmarks, year-round alpine snow, car meetups, new cars/customisations. Did we expect same cars, no Japanese landmarks, etc. Of course not.
Still waiting to see if they've solved some of the fundamental issues with FH6 like spunking map markers everywhere and not enough player direction for those that want it. They slightly alluded to this with the "wristband" system but never went into detail to see if it's actually fixed. This seems like the perfect time to do so rather than talking about "Enhanced Steering Wheel Animations"... weird list.
Almost certainly there will be some third party games coming to Xbox, perhaps even some Sony first party live service titles. But it won't be like the Xbox direct where every game is coming to PlayStation, that's just how it is sadly.
Makes sense. In reality Series X (and PS5) are powerful enough for the VAST majority of games and will be for a while to come. It's only really a handful of AAA, highly ambitious AA or really unoptimized games that will require more compute and couldn't run on this hardware.
Hell, most new games could still run on Xbox One and PS4 with settings dialled down. I suspect we will still get some games released for these systems even after next gen rolls out.
@Markatron84 One of my favourite self aware dev moments was in Fable 2 where they alluded that the Hero of Oakvale killed his master on a loading lore screen that said:
Shortly after the hero slew Jack of Blades, the Heroes Master was killed as well. It's said that the words "Your health is low" were cut into his forehead.
Good for them. Though I expect this is the exception not the rule, else we would see more devs focus on Xbox first, but we don’t. Several devs and publishers have spoken out about the troubles with publishing on Xbox without a Game Pass deal.
However Xbox does a better job of highlighting legitimate smaller indie games than Nintendo and PlayStation which both have a lot more dross on their stores drowning out legit indie games.
@Millionski They have confirmed this several times. Here's one quote from Sarah Bond last year, specifically discussing the AMD silicon.
"Together with AMD we're advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation to unlock a deeper level of visual quality and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI, all while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games."
They also said to IGN it would be “fully compatible” with users’ existing Xbox game library.
Jason Ronald has also said similar in a different quote.
I totally agree none of these options is easy to implement, but this is what they have promised, I was simply suggesting possible ways they could deliver on that promise.
re: Fallout 3 remastered. "Bethesda is keen to ensure it’s as well polished as the surprise release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered last year."
Well polished!!! Are they having a laugh? The framerate still hasn’t been fixed and there are 20 year old quest bugs in the game. Hopefully Fallout 3 is far more polished.
£39.99 is a good price. It's only twice, very briefly, been below that in sales on PS5, normally it's £69.99 and more than £39.99 in most sales. Saying it's 20% off suggests the standard Xbox Price will be £49.99.
Here we go again… We had this story in 2024 and 2025. Maybe this is the year…
To be fair Cloud could do with a dedicated controller that links straight to Wi-Fi to reduce latency.
But with a new gen coming in I’d wait. I hope that next gen Xbox gets with the times and adds some other features to their controller like Haptics, gyro, battery. As well as others in their leaked “Sebile” document like hall-effect sticks, lift-to-wake, etc. and PC games often play better with more buttons so add some programmable back paddles.
But It makes sense to add these with a new console as standard not now.
@Fiendish-Beaver @Millionski i agree the speculation on what XboxPC might do is a bit wild and perhaps a bit of a pipe dream. But it’s also normal based on things Xbox has said that conflict with it just being Windows 11 FSE. E.g.
Xbox have said there will be full Xbox backwards compatibility with our existing Xbox library - that is almost certainly not via Windows FSE - else why isn’t RoG Xbox Ally X doing it? It can’t play Xbox (console) games at all.
Additionally as far as I see it they can’t do this via emulation on FSE as a PC won’t be powerful enough to emulate XSX. Typically due to the overhead required we can only emulate 2-3 generations ago e.g. we have ok but flawed X360 and PS3 emulators but XBO and PS4 are awful. Also emulation is always flawed many games won’t work properly if at all, which doesn’t sit with what they claimed. That leaves maybe 3 other options
dual boot of some sort, with an Xbox OS in there, perhaps doing this in a hidden way similar to how quick resume works. (Hold the whole second OS in storage ready to be swapped to memory on the fly elegantly)
compatibility layer similar to Proton… but again then not all games will work.
Cloud. People won’t be happy, they want native.
The speculation is a result of Xbox’s pie in the sky comments that leave more questions than answers.
P.S. additionally the little I have seen of FSE it is an AWFUL user experience with 3 places to update software (windows, Xbox, armoury crate), still being booted to windows for some things, amongst many other issues. I don’t know about you but that isn’t the future I want for Xbox.
@dskatter I think Starfield is a good game many enjoyed. I just don't think it's a great game. More than enough people will enjoy it enough on PS5 just as they did on Xbox. You make it sound like it's awful.
@InterceptorAlpha I'm still kicking myself for not buying 32GB (or even 64GB) of Crucial DDR5 6400 when it was briefly reduced to £64 last year. That same kit today... £323.03 a 5x increase. Bonkers.
Not surprising at all. I don't know how you would set a price in this uncertain climate where RAM can triple in a few months. Analysts seem to suggest prices won't come down for a few years, so this might well affect the next Xbox, but prices hopefully should have stabilised by then too.
@Fiendish-Beaver It could, but I don't think it will.
The trouble is this all basically rests on one man, Satya Nadella, and his cronies like Amy Hood. He could give a thumbs up or thumbs down one day and bring Xbox as we know it to an end. He's done similar for other divisions within Microsoft, even ones that by other's metrics would be seen as successful.
However 3 reasons why I don't think he will.
Gaming is Microsoft's third biggest business segment, bigger than Windows. Even if it isn't being quite as successful as he would like, it still brings in big bucks.
Gaming generally is still growing, especially PC, so there's still untapped potential.
While Microsoft Gaming now makes more money from publishing than they do as a platform holder (based on the change in revenue and profit since they bought ABK) there's no doubt being a platform holder still brings in a lot of money and things like a 30% cut on MTX is basically free money with very little outlay. Games themselves are more complicated, but it's better to have eggs in many baskets.
And for balance here's 3 reasons why he might:
I don't believe Game Pass is anywhere near profitable enough for him, but shut down that and what does Xbox have to rally around as a USP, to entice new gamers? Play Anywhere??? It's not enough. If you shut down Game Pass the best reason to own an Xbox for many gamers is gone. (Although the USP in future could be all the PC stores + Xbox on one device + Play Anywhere, that's more enticing)
That 30% store cut might not last. If regulators decide to intervene and lower this then being a platform holder may not be as appealing anymore. However this would be worse for Sony who makes most of their money off other publishers games on their store. In fact I have posited that Microsoft / Xbox might even lead the way here, lower their store cut and try and put pressure on regulators to lower Sony's, effectively damaging the competition more than themselves.
Cost of hardware for NextBox just becomes cost prohibitive with their current plans, made when PC parts were much cheaper, to the point where it just won't sell much. Rather than stick it out, sack it off, just move to publishing.
If I had to put money on it I don't think Xbox is going anywhere. They might shrink it further, but I don't think it will disappear as a platform. But what makes Xbox / Microsoft so interesting to follow at the moment is while I think that's HIGHLY unlikely, I do think it's possible. That sense of insecurity is making a lot of Xbox gamers nervous, and some are jumping ship, while I personally think that's a bit foolish, it is also understandable.
@Fiendish-Beaver Like @ilyn said I think it will be hard for Microsoft to make users use their store. But I have presented some examples of how they could do that.
In short Microsoft will likely give you the console experience via the Xbox store (pre-set game settings, pre-compiled shaders, Play Anywhere, cross save, quick resume, etc.) and generally make it as easy to use as possible. Convenience.
Whereas I'd expect them to make you jump through several hoops for the other stores and almost make it as inconvenient as possible, at least initially. I am FASCINATED to see how they attempt it, as it's one of the largest gaming shifts I can think of... and to see if they can pull it off.
There is always the chance, as some have suggested, that this is their exit strategy as a platform holder, just allow everything and then slowly step back and back to become a publisher only, initially only making extremely expensive devices and pricing people out. Effectively make us give up on them as a platform, not the other way around and slowly move us to PC.
I'm not sure I buy that, but it is possible, and if I was aiming for that in 7+ years this might be a way to go about it without tanking the whole Microsoft Gaming brand.
@Fiendish-Beaver These 'perks' are like when you receive an offer card in something else you purchased. Get £50 of free wine (... if you sign up to a £20 a month subscription). Almost all the games are MTX laden live services.
The reality is that the vast majority of people will only use the xbox store and never even install epic/steam/gog.
@BacklogBrad while I mostly agree with you if it was a mass market console, I am not so sure if it’s a high end premium PC/console. In that demographic users are more likely to be more tech savvy and willing to try things like sideloading and unofficial stores.
That said see my post above for reasons I agree with you.
@Sindayl I suspect that they hope features like Xbox Play Anywhere or Quick Resume will make the enthusiasts want to buy from the Xbox Store. They’ll give advantages to buying from them.
Additionally I expect them to create just enough friction, through deliberate UI design, to push people to buy on the native store not Steam, Epic etc. e.g. look how Android handles external app stores with warnings and other notices that will scare off a lot of casual users and most use the official stores.
You’ll probably have to jump through a few hoops to use the other stores which means less people will use it. Path of least resistance.
At least this will probably be the plan… whether it works 🤷
We’ll probably see all these tactics used and more.
@Fiendish-Beaver Same. I’m interested in Thai, but not at these prices. I played a bit at a mates house and it was ok. As you said plenty of other games to play.
@Fiendish-Beaver I get the impression Phil's autobiography would be a bit boring tbh. That's less to do with NDAs and more that I don't think he's the sort of self-aggrandising person that say Peter Moore or Seamus Blackley are (I like them both, but they are different personalities). He comes across as a loyal company man who's been there for so long and wouldn't want to upset the apple cart for Microsoft or his proteges even after the fact, similar to Shuhei Yoshida. And Phil's been handsomely rewarded for it (reports suggest around $10m annually, plus bonuses). But I agree I'd love a fly on the wall account!
@Jenkinss I agree they have had much more of a focus on financial results since ABK, I didn't say otherwise. Just questioning how the 30% might have been misinterpreted. I don't think it's a blanket top down "everyone must make 30% margins this year, or you're in trouble" statement like many believe.
@Fiendish-Beaver I tried... but when you see nonsense posted it needs to be called out and backed up with receipts not feelings.
It's possible to love gaming on Xbox and also admit the PS5 Pro is a great bit of kit... or even just that it's selling ok, not peddling fake news. This console war nonsense is just childish.
Comments 8,444
Re: Review: Want A PS5 Controller For Xbox? Hyperkin's 'The Competitor' Is Good And Affordable
I never understand people finding Xbox or PS controllers so different, I swap between both daily without missing a beat. They’re so similar. If the left stick position is a problem on PS5 why isn’t it a problem on the right stick on Xbox? It makes no sense.
The only one that drives me crazy is Nintendo with their reversed (compared to Xbox) ABXY… but worst of all the button on the right (A) being confirm / proceed and the one on the left (B) being reject / go back. Maddening that it does the opposite of what you intend. It’s the only time I have to actually think about what button I am pressing which takes me out of the game.
Re: Three Games Are Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In March 2026 So Far
Looking forward to trying Replaced and Planet of Lana 2.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 14-15)
Finally joined the Yakuza bandwagon with Yakuza 0. In fact I played Yakuza 1 & 2 on PS2 back in the day but never since so it’s a fresh start. My overarching memory of those PS2 games was how dynamic the combat felt in the early 2000s, grabbing a guy and smashing his head into a wall, or picking up a sign and beating them down with it… it felt like you could do anything.
Jump forward 20 years and even though Yakuza 0 uses the newer engine the combat feels a lot more clunky that I remember, quite limited in a lot of ways, it gets tired quite fast, and I don’t love that aspect as much as I expected. But thankfully there isn’t actually that much combat so far, the game is far more of an interactive movie (with a LOT of mini-games) than I remember with long cutscenes followed by a few minutes of gameplay then another lengthy cutscene.
Thankfully the story is good, the characters, writing and voice work are excellent, add to that
the sense of place in Kamorocho is brilliant. I am still a little disappointed however, I thought I’d love it more based on memory and reputation. But I’m only on Chapter 8 of X, will see how I feel by the end.
Re: Gorgeous Xbox Adventure South Of Midnight Wins 'Outstanding Achievement' Award At DICE 2026
I need to go back and give this another go. I started it but REALLY didn't like the combat at all, and wasn't a huge fan of the stop frame animation either in the early stages. But perhaps it will grow.
Re: Silent Hill: Townfall Not Coming To Xbox At Launch, Along With A Few Other State Of Play Titles
Always a shame to see, doubly so as these were some of the best looking games in the state of play. But it also makes sense, some are being published by Sony (Kena) and others will only publish on the top platforms first, that currently isn’t Xbox. Still plenty of games coming over, but hopefully these port sooner not later.
Re: Xbox Announces Social Clubs Will Be Removed From Consoles In April 2026
Used this once at launch, never used it since.
I’m sure they have data on how little this is used and makes sense to drop it. Too many half baked features like this, better to have a faster more streamlined OS.
Re: Game Freak's Beast Of Reincarnation Gets August 2026 Xbox Game Pass Release Date
@dskatter "From the Pokémon devs!" but also apparently mostly outsourced. It isn't most of the same devs. I read that GameFreak have a program for outsourcing games and this is one of those games.
Re: Hands On: If You Liked Sunset Overdrive, High On Life 2 Is Worth A Play On Xbox Game Pass
I didn't love the first one and would never BUY the sequel. But that's what I love about Game Pass, I can try this risk free.
Re: Roundup: All The Xbox Reveals From February 2026's State Of Play
@Coletrain yep me too!
Re: Roundup: All The Xbox Reveals From February 2026's State Of Play
@Coletrain agreed, best Sony showcase in a while. A great mix of new announcements, updates (and release dates) to already announced games and a few remakes/remasters.
Over 30 games featured, personally I was interested in over 20 of them, with more than 10 to get excited about. Kena was a brilliant way to start the show and a highlight, but they also had Castlevania, John Wick, Shinobi OPs & Project Windless (aka Co** of War) which looked fantastic. Most were 2026 too.
My only real complaint was ending with GoW trilogy remakes which are likely years away and then the 2D GoW, it felt like they were building to one more big thing that never quite happened. (I genuinely thought with all the Santa Monica stuff they were going to announce Corey Barlog’s new game.) But it’s hard to be disappointed with so many great games shown. 9/10 for me. And over half the games coming to Xbox.
Re: Xbox FPS Highguard Now Has A 'Core Group' Working On It As Staff Get Laid Off
@BAMozzy I understand what you are saying but it's a gross oversimplification. New live services do succeed and do break through e.g. in 2025 alone we had Helldivers 2, Arc Raiders, Battlefield 6, Elden Ring Nightreign, Rematch, Where Winds Meet, Deadlock, Umamusume, Escape from Duckov, etc. plus many more. That's just the larger ones off the top of my head, many smaller ones that don't need as large a player base also have enough of an audience to keep going. Do many fail? Sure. But the same is true of single player games, they just fail more quietly.
This idea that people only play one and have to 'jump' is a myth. I'm sure that's true of a few players, but most of us can divvy up our time and try more than one.
While I am with you I would personally rather see more releases like Doom: TDA (though I didn't love it) than another live service I also accept not all games have to be made for me and my tastes, there are already more games I am interested in released every month than I can ever keep up with. Are you really at a loss for what to play?
Re: Xbox FPS Highguard Now Has A 'Core Group' Working On It As Staff Get Laid Off
@RedFlash475 The trouble is what gamers online loudly say they want (usually single player games not live services) isn't what the larger market actually plays, which is dominated by live services. Look at any list of most played games each month and count the few single player games that occasionally break that mould.
The reality is many single player games fail every single day, they just often do so anonymously compared to live services that have to put out a public statement. The real core issue is there are too many games released and a large proportion will always fail, the market can't support them all.
Re: Xbox FPS Highguard Now Has A 'Core Group' Working On It As Staff Get Laid Off
It's rough being a game dev. But it's not the only industry where your job security depends on the project you are working on succeeding. At the end of the day the books have to balance.
If you work in Advertising, Construction, Manufacturing or many other industries and your company loses the large contract you are working on then chances are you might be laid off.
Gaming is particularly susceptible to this with games taking years and the upfront costs are HUGE. If the game doesn't succeed out the gate then you don't even make back the money invested let alone enough to keep everyone employed to try again. It's often a choice of scale back to a small team or shutter the whole studio.
No easy choices. I don't envy those having to make them, or those in the firing line. Wishing all involved luck finding new roles.
Re: Xbox Announces Excellence Awards Winners, Including For 20 Best-Selling Games
@Cakefish Wasn't aware they split the reviews by country, that makes more sense on how they got 500... but the list still makes no sense at all. As you said many other games released last year with higher than a 3.x/5 on the store.
Re: Xbox Announces Excellence Awards Winners, Including For 20 Best-Selling Games
@Cakefish @TrollOfWar @TuscanUK It makes no sense. Even if you ignore Black Ops 7 / Warzone excuse why is Borderlands 4 on the list with 3.4/5 or Little Nightmare 3 with 3.6/5 with less than 500 reviews (which they say is their criteria).
Especially as @Cakefish said Split Fiction (March 2025) gets 4.9 with over 500 reviews but doesn't hit the list. Something's amiss because this certainly isn't "the highest-rated content across our stores released in 2025, with a minimum of 500 ratings."
Re: Xbox Announces Excellence Awards Winners, Including For 20 Best-Selling Games
Plenty of surprises in here.
Surprised the highest rated games on the store contain titles like Black Ops 7, Little Nightmares 3, Oblivion Remastered & Borderlands as they all got very mixed reviews both from critics and players elsewhere. e.g. they are all 'Mixed' on Steam.
EDIT: I just checked on Xbox and Black Ops 7 is scoring just 1.4 / 5 HOW is this one of the highest rated games on the store?
EDIT 2: Borderlands 4 only gets 3.4/5. Little Nighmares 3 only gets 3.6 and doesn't have over 500 reviews (just 130) as their criteria suggests.
Something ain't right here.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Reviews Are Saying About Xbox Horror Title 'Reanimal'
Good scores. Will look into it. Thanks for the heads up.
Re: Two Of Next Month's Xbox Game Pass Titles Now Have Free Demos
This is cool, but I'll just wait for the full games. Want to play both.
Re: Xbox Has A Top-Three Most Wishlisted 2026 Game On Steam Right Now
@somnambulance Indeed. Especially considering the troubles between the dev and publisher.
Re: Xbox Signs Out Multiple Players At Once, Seemingly Related To Age Verification Issues
I've already verified but I keep getting emails about this that effectively say (I paraphrase), "if you've done it already you don't need to do it again". But if i've done it why is it constantly sending me nagging emails and messages. Left hand not talking to right hand. Get your act together Microsoft, this shouldn't be so hard.
Re: Xbox & Playground Games Highlight '10 Incredible New Features' Coming To Forza Horizon 6
@InheritNegative Google maps only shows a handful of map markers at once BECAUSE they understand that to show them all at once would be information overload. Something Playground's UX team could learn from.
No I never suggested a barren open world, just a better way to handle maps, progression and more meaningful GAMEPLAY changes that they suggest here.
If you are happy with what the game currently is good for you, but others are allowed to have a differing opinion. Forza Horizon 5 was an exceptionally well made game, but for many of us that had sunk hundreds of hours into the series already it was exceedingly dull, basically just a reskin of FH4. I want more than that, don't you?
Re: 'Romeo Is A Dead Man' Receives Wide Range Of Review Scores, Hits Xbox This Wednesday
It's in the same range as most of Suda51's recent games, aggregating about a 7/10, if you liked those more than that you will probably like this too.
Re: Deals: All Of The 'Bendy' Games Cost Less Than A Cup Of Coffee On Xbox This Week
That's cool... but I haven't even HEARD about 'Bendy', are they actually any good? Anyone played them?
EDIT: Metacritic puts them around 7/10. Steam has then at around 85% positive.
Re: Xbox & Playground Games Highlight '10 Incredible New Features' Coming To Forza Horizon 6
@TrollOfWar I think you nailed it.
Re: Xbox & Playground Games Highlight '10 Incredible New Features' Coming To Forza Horizon 6
Bit of a weird list imo. Most are just to be expected e.g. Japanese landmarks, year-round alpine snow, car meetups, new cars/customisations. Did we expect same cars, no Japanese landmarks, etc. Of course not.
Still waiting to see if they've solved some of the fundamental issues with FH6 like spunking map markers everywhere and not enough player direction for those that want it. They slightly alluded to this with the "wristband" system but never went into detail to see if it's actually fixed. This seems like the perfect time to do so rather than talking about "Enhanced Steering Wheel Animations"... weird list.
Re: Sony Is Hosting A Huge State Of Play This Week, Do You Think We'll Get Any Big Xbox Reveals?
Almost certainly there will be some third party games coming to Xbox, perhaps even some Sony first party live service titles. But it won't be like the Xbox direct where every game is coming to PlayStation, that's just how it is sadly.
Re: Microsoft Apparently 'Expects' The Xbox Series Era To Last, Despite Next-Gen Plans
Makes sense. In reality Series X (and PS5) are powerful enough for the VAST majority of games and will be for a while to come. It's only really a handful of AAA, highly ambitious AA or really unoptimized games that will require more compute and couldn't run on this hardware.
Hell, most new games could still run on Xbox One and PS4 with settings dialled down. I suspect we will still get some games released for these systems even after next gen rolls out.
Re: Game Pass Shooter High On Life 2 Now Available To Preload On Xbox Series X|S
@FraserG Ah that's a shame. I've never agreed with a review more!
(But I can also see it probably makes sense to give it to someone who might enjoy it more.)
Looking forward to reviews regardless, possibly more than the game!
Re: I'm Playing Fable 1 For The First Time, And Here Are Five Things That Have Surprised Me
@Markatron84 One of my favourite self aware dev moments was in Fable 2 where they alluded that the Hero of Oakvale killed his master on a loading lore screen that said:
Or words to that effect. I laughed my ass off.
Re: Game Pass Shooter High On Life 2 Now Available To Preload On Xbox Series X|S
@Kezelpaso Is PJ reviewing the sequel too?
Re: Here's What Might Leave Xbox Game Pass In March 2026
Hopefully not Atomfall as I haven't gotten to that yet. The rest I'm fine with.
Re: I'm Playing Fable 1 For The First Time, And Here Are Five Things That Have Surprised Me
I haven't played it for a few years but I have played it at least 5+ times. Great game. Watch your health hero
Re: Indie Publisher Spends $0 Marketing Their New Game, Sells Most Copies On Xbox
Good for them. Though I expect this is the exception not the rule, else we would see more devs focus on Xbox first, but we don’t. Several devs and publishers have spoken out about the troubles with publishing on Xbox without a Game Pass deal.
However Xbox does a better job of highlighting legitimate smaller indie games than Nintendo and PlayStation which both have a lot more dross on their stores drowning out legit indie games.
Re: 'We've Been Talking To Microsoft' - Epic Games Wants Its Store On The Next Xbox Console
@Millionski They have confirmed this several times. Here's one quote from Sarah Bond last year, specifically discussing the AMD silicon.
They also said to IGN it would be “fully compatible” with users’ existing Xbox game library.
Jason Ronald has also said similar in a different quote.
I totally agree none of these options is easy to implement, but this is what they have promised, I was simply suggesting possible ways they could deliver on that promise.
Re: Xbox Release Windows Teased For Halo, Gears, Kiln & New Starfield Content In 2026
Well polished!!! Are they having a laugh? The framerate still hasn’t been fixed and there are 20 year old quest bugs in the game. Hopefully Fallout 3 is far more polished.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Hits Xbox Series X|S This June, Pre-Order Discount Now Available
£39.99 is a good price. It's only twice, very briefly, been below that in sales on PS5, normally it's £69.99 and more than £39.99 in most sales. Saying it's 20% off suggests the standard Xbox Price will be £49.99.
Re: Xbox Is Reportedly Releasing A Brand-New Controller Revision In 2026
Here we go again… We had this story in 2024 and 2025. Maybe this is the year…
To be fair Cloud could do with a dedicated controller that links straight to Wi-Fi to reduce latency.
But with a new gen coming in I’d wait. I hope that next gen Xbox gets with the times and adds some other features to their controller like Haptics, gyro, battery. As well as others in their leaked “Sebile” document like hall-effect sticks, lift-to-wake, etc. and PC games often play better with more buttons so add some programmable back paddles.
But It makes sense to add these with a new console as standard not now.
Re: 'We've Been Talking To Microsoft' - Epic Games Wants Its Store On The Next Xbox Console
@Fiendish-Beaver @Millionski i agree the speculation on what XboxPC might do is a bit wild and perhaps a bit of a pipe dream. But it’s also normal based on things Xbox has said that conflict with it just being Windows 11 FSE. E.g.
Xbox have said there will be full Xbox backwards compatibility with our existing Xbox library - that is almost certainly not via Windows FSE - else why isn’t RoG Xbox Ally X doing it? It can’t play Xbox (console) games at all.
Additionally as far as I see it they can’t do this via emulation on FSE as a PC won’t be powerful enough to emulate XSX. Typically due to the overhead required we can only emulate 2-3 generations ago e.g. we have ok but flawed X360 and PS3 emulators but XBO and PS4 are awful. Also emulation is always flawed many games won’t work properly if at all, which doesn’t sit with what they claimed. That leaves maybe 3 other options
The speculation is a result of Xbox’s pie in the sky comments that leave more questions than answers.
P.S. additionally the little I have seen of FSE it is an AWFUL user experience with 3 places to update software (windows, Xbox, armoury crate), still being booted to windows for some things, amongst many other issues. I don’t know about you but that isn’t the future I want for Xbox.
Re: Three Xbox Games Dated For Nintendo Switch 2, Starfield Also Rumoured For PS5 In April
@dskatter fair enough.
Re: Three Xbox Games Dated For Nintendo Switch 2, Starfield Also Rumoured For PS5 In April
@dskatter I think Starfield is a good game many enjoyed. I just don't think it's a great game. More than enough people will enjoy it enough on PS5 just as they did on Xbox. You make it sound like it's awful.
Re: Valve Admits Its New Console Plans Have Been Affected By Component Crisis
@InterceptorAlpha I'm still kicking myself for not buying 32GB (or even 64GB) of Crucial DDR5 6400 when it was briefly reduced to £64 last year. That same kit today... £323.03 a 5x increase. Bonkers.
Re: Valve Admits Its New Console Plans Have Been Affected By Component Crisis
Not surprising at all. I don't know how you would set a price in this uncertain climate where RAM can triple in a few months. Analysts seem to suggest prices won't come down for a few years, so this might well affect the next Xbox, but prices hopefully should have stabilised by then too.
Re: 'We've Been Talking To Microsoft' - Epic Games Wants Its Store On The Next Xbox Console
@Fiendish-Beaver It could, but I don't think it will.
The trouble is this all basically rests on one man, Satya Nadella, and his cronies like Amy Hood. He could give a thumbs up or thumbs down one day and bring Xbox as we know it to an end. He's done similar for other divisions within Microsoft, even ones that by other's metrics would be seen as successful.
However 3 reasons why I don't think he will.
And for balance here's 3 reasons why he might:
If I had to put money on it I don't think Xbox is going anywhere. They might shrink it further, but I don't think it will disappear as a platform. But what makes Xbox / Microsoft so interesting to follow at the moment is while I think that's HIGHLY unlikely, I do think it's possible. That sense of insecurity is making a lot of Xbox gamers nervous, and some are jumping ship, while I personally think that's a bit foolish, it is also understandable.
Re: 'We've Been Talking To Microsoft' - Epic Games Wants Its Store On The Next Xbox Console
@Fiendish-Beaver Like @ilyn said I think it will be hard for Microsoft to make users use their store. But I have presented some examples of how they could do that.
In short Microsoft will likely give you the console experience via the Xbox store (pre-set game settings, pre-compiled shaders, Play Anywhere, cross save, quick resume, etc.) and generally make it as easy to use as possible. Convenience.
Whereas I'd expect them to make you jump through several hoops for the other stores and almost make it as inconvenient as possible, at least initially. I am FASCINATED to see how they attempt it, as it's one of the largest gaming shifts I can think of... and to see if they can pull it off.
There is always the chance, as some have suggested, that this is their exit strategy as a platform holder, just allow everything and then slowly step back and back to become a publisher only, initially only making extremely expensive devices and pricing people out. Effectively make us give up on them as a platform, not the other way around and slowly move us to PC.
I'm not sure I buy that, but it is possible, and if I was aiming for that in 7+ years this might be a way to go about it without tanking the whole Microsoft Gaming brand.
Re: Xbox Adds More Perks For Game Pass Members (February 2026)
@Fiendish-Beaver These 'perks' are like when you receive an offer card in something else you purchased. Get £50 of free wine (... if you sign up to a £20 a month subscription). Almost all the games are MTX laden live services.
Re: 'We've Been Talking To Microsoft' - Epic Games Wants Its Store On The Next Xbox Console
@BacklogBrad while I mostly agree with you if it was a mass market console, I am not so sure if it’s a high end premium PC/console. In that demographic users are more likely to be more tech savvy and willing to try things like sideloading and unofficial stores.
That said see my post above for reasons I agree with you.
Re: 'We've Been Talking To Microsoft' - Epic Games Wants Its Store On The Next Xbox Console
@Sindayl I suspect that they hope features like Xbox Play Anywhere or Quick Resume will make the enthusiasts want to buy from the Xbox Store. They’ll give advantages to buying from them.
Additionally I expect them to create just enough friction, through deliberate UI design, to push people to buy on the native store not Steam, Epic etc. e.g. look how Android handles external app stores with warnings and other notices that will scare off a lot of casual users and most use the official stores.
You’ll probably have to jump through a few hoops to use the other stores which means less people will use it. Path of least resistance.
At least this will probably be the plan… whether it works 🤷
We’ll probably see all these tactics used and more.
Re: Black Myth: Wukong Gets Its First Xbox Discount Since Launching Last Summer
@Fiendish-Beaver Same. I’m interested in Thai, but not at these prices. I played a bit at a mates house and it was ok. As you said plenty of other games to play.
Re: Obsidian Says Two Of Its 2025 Titles Didn't Meet Sales Targets, Vows To Learn For The Future
@Fiendish-Beaver I get the impression Phil's autobiography would be a bit boring tbh. That's less to do with NDAs and more that I don't think he's the sort of self-aggrandising person that say Peter Moore or Seamus Blackley are (I like them both, but they are different personalities). He comes across as a loyal company man who's been there for so long and wouldn't want to upset the apple cart for Microsoft or his proteges even after the fact, similar to Shuhei Yoshida. And Phil's been handsomely rewarded for it (reports suggest around $10m annually, plus bonuses). But I agree I'd love a fly on the wall account!
@Jenkinss I agree they have had much more of a focus on financial results since ABK, I didn't say otherwise. Just questioning how the 30% might have been misinterpreted. I don't think it's a blanket top down "everyone must make 30% margins this year, or you're in trouble" statement like many believe.
Re: AMD Mentions Next-Gen Xbox Console, Says It's 'Progressing Well' To Release In 2027
@Fiendish-Beaver I tried... but when you see nonsense posted it needs to be called out and backed up with receipts not feelings.
It's possible to love gaming on Xbox and also admit the PS5 Pro is a great bit of kit... or even just that it's selling ok, not peddling fake news. This console war nonsense is just childish.