xxk7xx

Wuchang Fallen Feathers

I just finished Wuchang Fallen Feathers, that’s my goty for now. I enjoyed it more than Expedition 33 that slightly outstayed its welcome at the end. Outstanding game, one of the best non-from software soulslikes out there, right behind Lies of P in my opinion. Truly great, even after the patch, which is annoying.

They will probably be replaced by not-unionised outsourced devs or ai models.

My patience has been rewarded.

No thanks.

If they do a proper high end VR headset capable of running decently Call of Duty games, Halo, Forza (Horizon and Motorsport), Gears, Doom, Bethesda Games, and many others, I'm preordering it instantly, no matter the price.

Looks like a slideshow.
I'm not going to play it anyway on current gen hardware.

I haven't played it yet because I'm still waiting for a 60fps patch. I hope this is it.

I’m really enjoying this game.

Absolutely fantastic.

@Shigurui send me the links to base code of both. If I see it I can tell.

I don’t remember dismemberment being in sigma, to me this looks its own thing, closer to og x360 because of said mechanic and lack of extra bosses but completely rebalanced.

@NintendoByNature Yes, right now it’s the best introduction to the series in my opinion.

It’s not based on the Sigma version, it’s based on the OG 360 version with some tweaks, probably number of enemies/hp etc. It’s significantly easier than the Xbox 360 version but in my opinion works great as an entry point for those less familiar with the franchise or the action genre. I’d recommend this over Sigma, original NGII through backwards compatibility is still the best version though in my opinion.

Seeing the UE5 version of one of my all time favorites in the download section was quite the surprise.

Congratulations to Microsoft as well for publishing a new game in a genre that deserves to come back.

Halfway past prestige 3 I’m still enjoying my daily dose of Call of Duty. Hope there are small maps as well, I mostly play faceoff playlists. You get addicted to the intensity at some point.

@Coletrain agreed, I haven’t spent so much time checking the surroundings in ages, some of the later levels are spectacular.

I'm impressed by what I have seen so far in Indiana Jones.

In my opinion what truly prevents it from greatness is pacing. The sandbox, open worldish levels outstay their welcome and the game would have needed more "forced" action sequences. Last few levels were linear with some action parts and they were very entertaining.

But really, amazing work with a lot of care, attention to detail and historical accuracy.

Huge disappointment.
Not only is the Ciri saga less interesting than the original short stories in Sapkowski's works, now we even get her as the main character. Very annoying, I loved playing as Geralt.

When it’s ready, it’s going to be awesome. Right now, to me is not worth investing dozen of hours into. I quit after 20 minutes or so.

Controls are shockingly bad. I mean, that drift is bad input handling, probably just a few lines of code in the player controller. I don’t know how it is even possible to launch a game of this magnitude without properly fine tuning aim. And why not just delay it? Launching so close to Black Ops 6 was a bad idea in the first place.

Microsoft messed up two high profile launches on GamePass in two days. I’ll wait till they’re fixed no problem, but still.

@TheEstablishment you do these ad campaigns to drive short-term consumer behavior, not to explain long-term strategies of the company. But even then, I doubt there is a single subscriber in the world who uses game pass exclusively through smartphone. It's console that is driving their game pass revenue, pretty sure there's data somewhere to back this up. And no, the end of plastic boxes is not fast approaching, the end of the xbox brand is if they keep embarrassing themselves like this.

@TheEstablishment you are the one who doesnt get it. Consumers dont care about the pie, they just know that in a few weeks they’re going to buy a christmas present for their kids, and Microsoft just told them to go buy a samsung smartphone instead of an xbox.

Totally lame. They could have spent that money to try and sell a few more consoles instead.

I played it only years after launch. It's on par if not superior to the Orange Box in terms of value. Absolutely fantastic package, being able to switch seamlessly between old and new graphics for older games is a great feature, and the Bungie era still retains its magic.

There's nothing quite like the first few hours of Death Stranding. Unfortunately after waiting for years I've played it just a few months ago on the ps4 pro, but I'm totally buying it again at some point. Decima engine is impressive on last gen hardware, should be amazing on the series.

So the 14 is when they break multiplayer with battle pass and convoluted progression system. They were probably waiting for the reviews to come out.

Right now multiplayer is great but as others have pointed out, selection of maps is thin, they've been withholding them. Well, the 20 Stalker 2 comes out, so.

As I’ve said multiple times, I've enjoyed the game. But removing content from the career is just pathetic. When we will be free from these manipulators that instead of game design think in terms of addiction exploitation we will have great AAA games again.

@ButterySmooth30FPS I actually haven't tried, and I've already deleted the game, but maybe disabling fps boost and/or auto hdr fixes it.

Bought and finished in a few sittings. Not as good as 1&2 but fun. Fps boost is inconsistent though. I’m playing Fear 2 now which hasn’t fps boost but definitely feels 60fps, plays way better than f3, only at low res. Great game.

I don't know, after three years we used to have a new game, not a mod. I wonder what are these devs doing.

Check your rewards section in the ambassador profile if you have been part of the program, chances are there's one month of GPU waiting for you. I gave it a try after seeing the symbol in an Xbox profile, I was curious but quickly abandoned it, the sweepstake thing felt too arbitrary. I got the code though!

Absolutely, not just the pro but in general all Sony strategies this gen are a clear example of what it means for consumers when there's no competition. Sony tried to do the same with the PS3 but at the time there was the x360 that was like a tiger. The result was a huge price cut, multiple sku with a clear goal in mind - price reduction to bring on board more gamers - and the start of a first party output that will probably go down in history as the best ever.
Current Microsoft looks like a scared kitten instead and this is what we get. Laziness and greed from all sides.

@Utena-mobile In the last few months I’ve been playing mostly ps360 era games, I’ve even started using the ps2 again after I don’t know, 20 years maybe? I wish Nintendo did something unique for the switch successor like they did with the Wii, which I now truly enjoy, but I’m afraid they won’t take risks. Yeah, the industry is getting bad: boring and disgustingly greedy.

Wow in eu markets 920€ if you want to be able to play discs. Absolutely an insult, after a generation where they have been chasing only the live service dream. Microsoft doesn't pull the trigger here because for them playstation now means business, otherwise that would certainly be a cheap shot.

When it is Call of Duty it’s as good as ever, but the “classic” cod experience doesn’t last long, most missions are just maps with a few markers, multiplayer equipment scattered all over the place, and enemy waves dynamically added when you press x on a given marker. That’s it. It can probably be done by a modder in a few evenings, or rather with ai tools even quicker. The levels are empty, they didn’t even take the time to add some weather effects here and there just to give a more organic look, and they use a lot of repeated assets; my guess is they are ai generated as well with just a bit of supervision by humans, provided they are new at all.

Multiplayer is as good as always, but most of the time I ended up in old maps often remade with custom post processing or shaders, which should be relegated to specific playlists and not belong to the regular one. I don’t know the numbers but there are probably not many new maps. I will only mention here how oppressive the whole battlepass garbage feels and how it has sucked the fun out of the old progression system. Fortnite truly has ruined the game industry.

As Phil Spencer would put it, slimy platform(agnostic) things.

Played it twice, I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I’m afraid we won’t be getting other AAA titles of this calibre from this team.

I played for an hour or so yesterday night and didn't notice anything. The fact that a console needs a guide, which I'm going to read just in case since I forgot about it, to explain its users how to play the damn thing offline is a joke though. Microsoft should really just trust us on this and give us the means to play seamlessly offline and simplify the process.

Matchmaking. I played it for a few hours post 60fps patch and I enjoyed it.

@themightyant
Who knows, maybe they already have a 60fps version, they’re just keeping it away from us at launch for a number of reasons.

That's nice to hear, hope this is true.

I won't download Hellblade II right away though, I'll wait for the inevitable 60fps/full screen patch instead, hype just doesn't affect me.

I hope Ninja Theory is safe. Despite that screen ratio thing I love their work.

That said, Hi-Fi Rush has been one of the most annoying games I've ever played. Best thing about it was its short length, 6 hours to finish it. Uninteresting story and characters, uninteresting locations repeated again and again, basic structure verse chorus verse repeated ad nauseam, and then some of the worst QTE to ever grace the medium. The worst thing for me is that it acted like it was a superstar and many believed it while in fact it was not. Felt like the devs thought too much of themselves and this is probably why ultimately they didn't align with Microsoft, but this is a very personal opinion without any direct knowledge.

The evil within as a series, while it has its cool moments, I certainly liked the first one, just couldn't reach Resident Evil levels of greatness and polish, which was probably what Mikami set out to do. Ghostwire Tokyo is, together with the first Evil within, my favorite game from Tango, but again it's around a 75 game, not that kind of 90 that justifies keeping lesser(in terms of sales) projects alive.

Just another perspective. Remember, way better studies have been closed in the past.

Why do they feel the need to mess up the launch of each and every first party title?

@ValentineMeikin @TheGameThrifter @AceRimmer

KI lends itself well to a comic style approach so yes, it could be ported at a nice 60fps on the Switch.

And I don't know the exact shares, but if it is 30% Sony, it means it is 70% Microsoft to fund a new Killer Instinct and create more jobs.

As for the exclusives, I wish we could come back to the SNES/Mega Drive era but it is what it is, and as long as I can keep enjoying the unbelievable benefits of Game Pass + Rewards on a high end console I'm fine with whatever strategy they think fits best their portfolio, that now includes some of the most successful multiplatform publishers. That's something you simply cannot ignore.

They can just keep a window of exclusivity on Xbox/Game Pass.

@ValentineMeikin Halo and Forza? That's a great idea!

They should publish it on the PS5 and above all on the Switch, possibly with a cross-get upgrade for the Switch's successor. They could probably fund a new chapter to launch first exclusively on Xbox.

@GeminiReign
I’m doing all I can, but ultimately I’m just a drop in the ocean.

About Moore. He’s just covering his buddies with those words about poor industry. We have to learn these guys are not our friends. Our interests and their interests are NOT the same.

The technology could have many advantages in terms of portability of devices, storage, lower price point etc but instead I’m pretty sure it will be used mostly against us. We will go from having smart devices to owning useless pieces of plastic that will only serve as portals (nice one Sony) to paid, ad-filled services. Not to mention the absolute lack of privacy in everything we will do.

So yeah, I think those of you guys that are using cloud to play despite having a chance not to are ultimately damaging us all.

"And is the industry, given all the layoffs and everything we're going through right now, is the industry ready for that?" The industry has more than enough money to absorb that. Those who don't have the money are those who lost their jobs, or the millions around the world that are being caught in what is basically a pre-world war economy.

But yeah, of course cloud-only future is everybody's dream, no hardware, no software ownership, no piracy, everybody wins but the consumer.

I immediately liked Tales of Arise but that forced side-quest in the beginning is concerning... I also don't like the fact that you don't see the party during exploration. Why is that?

I can't believe they can't come out with an alternative to drives. Clearly all these companies - Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, but pretty much everyone in the industry - just want to get rid of physical products and transferable ownership and push people to digital only, which is obviously what the masses carelessly are doing.

Solutions to a world where physical games and disc-less consoles are a thing exist but they will never happen because people are good at digging their own graves.

Just stop telling lies, Phil.

@RBRTMNZ
Right? Nobody is talking about that, so they won’t probably fix it, although it could be really easy.

@robe
True vr is the real deal for racing games

While I agree the game feels soulless I think in terms of graphics and handling this is the superior Forza.

There are some manipulative systems in place that I truly despise: the removal of single player content when there's not enough races to begin with. I've lost a few prizes because they removed a series before I could finished it (ie not enough money to buy a car). That's truly annoying and it basically makes your 80$ game an empty shell. If I had bought it instead of just playing it through GamePass I would have asked for a refund, as I told them in the survey.

The upgrade system that wants you badly to practice a track is another manipulative system I despise. I decide if I want to practice or not, you don't tell me.

Then there's this weird thing I think I've never seen in a racing game where you don't know how far behind or ahead you are from your opponents. I don't remember in multiplayer, I haven't played it that much, but those info are definitely not available in single player. Unbelievable.

As for the tracks, looking forward to my fav track, Nordschleife. But these are almost all tracks we pretty much know by heart. Personally I'd like original tracks and at least one urban track would be nice as well.

With all that said, again, I'm enjoying the game and I will keep playing 1/2 races here and there for a long time. But I feel some "forces" outside the core development team have imposed some sort of retention/manipulative systems that have broken everything.

Why people pay 80€ for a digital game when the physical alternative is often cheaper is beyond my comprehension but here we are.
The problem is that we’re stuck with discs that are slow, make console too big and overall are pointless, since we have to download updates and/or be online anyway to play.
If we, as customers, had shown greater resistance, big companies might have found smart alternatives to discs but now it’s too late.
One day many of you will feel nostalgic but you will have no way to play the games of your youth.