Topic: General Xbox Series X|S Thread

Just a quick question. Did any of you guys buy the memory expansion cards (or whatever they're called). Right now I only have Cold War Series X version installed on my Series X but I want to get AC Valhalla but I am afraid of filling up my hard drive before I get one of those cards.

I picked one up a few weeks ago (while getting a 4k TV and sound bar).

Considering the size and the speed of the drive, I figured the freedom of storage was worth it, if you're ok spending the amount.

It's been running great, and the extra volume for games is very much noticeable. There was no stress after deciding to install the free access for CoD on working out how to free up 146 gig.

@MaccaMUFC Its on a game by game basis for me - depends on whether the game benefits from a higher graphical quality or higher frame rate more and, in the case of frame rates, which is the the most consistent. I would rather play at 30fps than a frame rate that drops every time you get into some combat and some games are perfectly OK at 30fps so I am not going to pick performance just because its a higher average frame rate.

That being said, I played Valhalla on Performance mode throughout but that was because it launched with Performance mode only and added the Graphic mode later. I didn't bother swapping to see which I preferred.

In general, I tend to try both and go with the mode I prefer most and therefore I have to say its on a game by game basis rather than 'always' going with one or the other.

@Fenbops Thank you I hope you're right. I've just been tinkering around with some settings on it the last couple of days, and have found out, that on my Series X at least, if the power mode is left on Instsnt On, then Quick Resume works, even going back to the game up to 48 hours later; this is how it should be. However, if I change the power setting to Energy Saving mode, Quick Resume does not work

@GuruOfGreatness interesting! Maybe it’s a bug then. I’ve only ever had my console in instant on mode and 9 times out of 10 quick resume seems to work as intended. I can tell you though that if this wasn’t the case I really wouldn’t be worried about the Xbox itself, quick resume is a software issue and it’ll only get better, it’s fixable if there are problems with it. So don’t worry

Here's a question for those of you using remote play, @mousieone I think you said you do. I noticed when I use it that it still outputs HDMI. I guess TVs rely on CEC to be enabled, but for monitors, when there's an HDMI signal, it turns on. So any time I use remote play, apparently the monitor is on and running the whole time. Ick. Strangely the power light on the xbox does not turn on so it knows it's running in a "different" mode and not a normal regular mode - but it's still outputting HDMI which makes no sense.

Does anyone know if there's a way around that, or do I have to manually turn off the local display if I don't want it running any time I'm using remote play?

@MaccaMUFC The green screen type issue you described with garbled/shadowed input is an HDMI oddness thing, not particular to Xbox. I've seen it happen with PS and other devices, too (never Switch though, for some reason), and it's not necessarily HDR related as it's happened on my old 1080p non-HDR display too. Somehow the handshake doesn't always complete when devices try at different times. HDR adds a different kind of odd mode where sometimes it will display but without the HDR metadata as it doesn't switch to HDR mode, but yeah....that's a thing in a list of things of things that are odd about HDMI.....

Performance/graphics modes are like others said game dependent. I tend to go for graphics mode. But in my PC days I tended to crank resolution and max details and deal with the 15fps slideshow that followed. I paid for a tech demo, I want my tech demo. Games like Watch Dogs Legion I'm running in graphics mode. So much of that game is the detailed environment, and it would just feel "worse" without it. It's smooth enough, I don't notice a performance cost. Same on PS5 for Miles Morales....it's super smooth in 30fps and looks great....no reason for me to change it. Yakuza LaD on XB, graphics, it's janky at times, but the performance mode obliterates the graphics so it looks like a 360 game. Fenyx Rising, performance. The watercolor art style doesn't really benefit at all from tack sharp graphics (and can in fact look a little "off" to me if it's too sharp), and the framerate for some reason really suffers in that game in graphics mode, visibly (which is bizarre since it has no raytracing, and uses the same Anvil engine Watch Dogs does which has a far denser environment....), plus the high speed combat that can move close to Doom Eternal speeds when you start pushing higher challenge stuff really benefits from that smooth performance. I forget it's not native 4k when I play honestly, it looks perfect anyway. Watch Dogs, otoh, where every piece of gravel in London is meticulously placed, would suffer for looking less than realistic. The sense of being in a real place is part of the mechanic of playing.

@NEStalgia Technically, you can use your phone like a WiiU controller; it's an interesting effect. But yes the Xbox is on and sending a signal, that's kind of the way most "Remote" systems work. Although, I haven't tried Playstation (I could have it's just been years so I don't remember). Like if I remote into my computer at work from home, the computer at work has to be in Standby mode, and then turns on when I use it. That said, my TV is manual all the time, so it’s not an issue for me.

@mousieone Bleh..... Yeah, PCs are different since it's not really a special "remote use" mode, you're just kind of back-dooring your way into the system to make it think you're sitting in front of it, but I thought consoles were a bit more custom than that. It's been a loooong time since I've used PS remote play, and when I did it was on Vita (the Official WiiU Screen for PS4 _{and it's also kind of almost a handheld} (TM)) I tested it with the PC client once, but I don't recall if it was showing anything on the screen or not. With Vita, I don't think it was. But Vita was special. Like the kid in the class that ate glue.

I'll find uses for it if I turn the screen off, but it does dampen the utility of remote play quite a bit if I have to remember to turn the screen off if I intend to use it.

I'll have to try it on PS5 and see how that handles it....oh wait....IIRC PS5 remote play doesn't actually work yet.

So uh I saw a retweet from Persona Central

Apparently the Xbox Game Pass account just casually made a Shido (Persona 5 antagonist) joke when someone replied to the Yakuza announcement with a picture of bald Kiryu

I know this doesn't confirm anything, but they wouldn't just casually mention it like that would they? I know they have for Sony games like GoW when it comes to making jokes but P5 isn't first party or anything. It's kind of funny

@NEStalgia In the 4 years I’ve had the TV it has never displayed a green screen like that, it’s only happened with the Series X but like I said it’s easily resolved and I’ve rarely seen it happen lately so I’m not too bothered about it.

I always go for graphics mode over performance, as like you, I want maximum resolution and/or graphical fidelity in my games. If I wanted to go with performance mode every time and settle with 60/120fps with lower resolution then I would of just got the Series S for almost half the price of the Series X. Plus I’m not about to pay £2,000 for a new TV for the sake of it, I want the best picture quality that’ll do the Series X games justice.

I plan on playing Watch Dogs Legion sometime soon but does that even have a performance/graphic mode? I know it runs in 30fps with ray-tracing but I presume if there was a performance mode that the ray-tracing would be disabled? I’d rather 30fps and the game looking much more amazing. Some people say they just can’t go back to 30fps after playing in 60fps but most of the time the game will be sacrificing things like resolution, ray-tracing and graphic fidelity which can all make a game feel much more immersive. Before Series X and PS5 released I honestly thought we’d be done away with choosing performance/graphic modes and that most if not all games would be running at least 4K 60fps with ray-tracing but I was obviously being naive.

@Senua Big win for the Series X I’d say. I suppose this is the first AAA game on PS5 that’s a lower resolution than the Series X? Usually it’s always the same for both consoles. Does Hitman 3 have ray-tracing? I didn’t hear the guys from DF say if it has or not, I’d be surprised if it doesn’t because in the video @1.52 it looks fantastic with the neon lights and reflections.

@TheFrenchiestFry It might honestly just be a strategy to observe how much interest there is in the franchise before deciding on anything. I'm fairly certain that the Game Pass account has mentioned plenty of series that aren't on GP and that could be the reason why.

But yeah, it certainly isn't out of the realm of possibilities for P5R to come to Xbox considering the entire Yakuza franchise will soon be on there and both franchises are owned by SEGA. Not to mention that the Yakuza games have been received well on GP.

@LtSarge Considering SEGA and Microsoft have things going on together with Yakuza, with Like a Dragon launching with Series X and PSO2 being a timed exclusive, I definitely wouldn't put it past them if they discussed Persona on Game Pass or just Xbox in general, especially considering the series' 25th anniversary is this year

@TheFrenchiestFry OMG, if Persona 5 comes to Xbox and Game Pass and not Switch, let's just delete our NL accounts and casually walk away like we saw nothing. They might not notice us before we get out....

It does make me wonder if there's merit to the rumors of MS in talks to buy Sega, though as well....maybe it's more serious than we thought. Japan doesn't take kindly on Western acquisitions, but Sega and MS have been fairly close from the start, and Sega's official trajectory has been a PC focus first and foremost for years.....MS is a very close partner, and Sega is horrifically cash strapped. Doubly-so since the implosion of their arcade business with covid....and their pachinko business that they run mostly on can't be in great shape either.

@MaccaMUFC I'll double check the settings again tonight, but I'm pretty sure you can switch the mode in Legion. I didn't pay too much attention though - I want the resolution and raytracing for that, and it's surprisingly smooth and clean at full res....for Anvil engine, that's just astonishing. It's never smooth.

Yeah I thought with X/PS5 we'd get 4k60 as well as a standard. Especially while they plaster "8k!" "120fps!" on the boxes. The people that say they can't go back to 30 after 60 must either be really sensitive to it, or playing the wrong games the ones with unstable fps), or are just picky though. I go back and forth and it doesn't bother me. Doom Eternal, Fenyx at 60, Watch Dogs, and Miles at 30....all feels appropriately even. Like switching between film at 24 and soap operas at 60....it just has a different "feel" is all (unless it dips. Fenyx and Yakuza on X dip in framerate and that's noticible. Fenyx "feels" better at 1440/60. Yakuza still feels better at 4k with the frame dips. Too much compromise otherwise.

We may have a better 4k/60 future than it seems though. None of these games are designed with the X/PS5 architecture in mind yet. They're X1/PS4 games with some enhancements for the new hardware. Engines will have to be rewritten to really take advantage of the new hardware properly. It'll be a few years before all new games actually use the hardware to its full ability. Even in PS5 land, the current tech showcase is Miles....but it's still built on an enhanced PS4 game's engine....which was built on the Sunset Overdrive engine....an OG VCR X1 launch window game. And Souls doesn't even have raytracing, and doesn't really showcase the new hardware much at all. At 1440/60 it runs like a PS4 BC game with a frame unlock.

@NEStalgia I doubt this would correlate to Microsoft acquiring SEGA. I still really don't think that's going to happen considering they've now got a new JP developer with Tango Gameworks

With that being said, Atlus has started becoming progressively more vocal about their efforts to bring back older games in the form of ports, remasters and remakes. Persona seems like a prime candidate for Game Pass considering Xbox has slowly been getting more and more JRPG content like Yakuza, Kingdom Hearts and FFVII-XII in addition to already having FFXIII and XV

@TheFrenchiestFry Hard to say, I dont' see MS's aquisition strategy being so much about filling gaps anymore, so much as it is about heading Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, and maybe worse, Tencent off at the pass, where they can still leverage their existing working relationship as a positive as a carrot to destract from the other 4 almost certainly willing to offer more hard cash. I'm guessing they're just running analytics on the whole industry to see everyone of substantial size that would make an attractive buyout for themselves or their competitors and seeing if they can just grab everyone before the others do.

Their desire to secure a foothold and as much of the existing industry as possible happens to work well for gamers because we are a lot better off with Xbox owning some of these companies than Googazonbookcent that would squat them and trashify them as fast as possible. Not saying Sega is or isn't one of them. Just saying if the numbers on the business side show Sega would be in a selling position for a buyout offer, they'd want to get their offer in on friendly terms before Schmidt and the like shows up with unfriendly terms and a bigger check. I think we're at the beginning, not the end, of industry mega-consolidation. Unfortunately.

It's like the railroads in the 60's through 80's.

Yes, it's a train reference. Lets see how long it takes T to notice....

@NEStalgia If SEGA really are cash strapped then being snapped up by MS seems a great idea considering the current climate we're all in. Imagine some of SEGA’s old IPs being revived and brought to GamePass on Xbox and PC, it seems like a no brainer. It would definitely cause more ripples in the gaming world like when MS bought ZeniMax Media.

I know a game that I play regularly, Enlisted, is 4K 60fps with ray tracing but I’m not sure if it’s native 4K and it is in ‘game preview’ but even so for a game that isn’t even finished it looks and runs really great (most of the time). I’m not sure what other games that are only playable on Series X/S that can do 4K 60fps with ray tracing but Enlisted is definitely one of them.

@MaccaMUFC SEGA aren't really in that much financial trouble. Most of their financial problems comes from the pachinko/arcade stuff that they shut down earlier last year but their games still do well for them, with P4G on PC being their biggest success during the pandemic. Plus to buy SEGA would mean to buy Sammy Holdings, which even for Microsoft could be a pretty freaking tall order to ask considering they're pretty much a conglomerate of a company, even more so than ZeniMax