Aeula

I play it every day and enjoy it. But it’s awful for new players, major cities are flooded with prologue quests for all the DLC which show up and are doable even if you don’t own it. It means a new player will be assaulted by 20 different plots all at once, a genuinely awful and overwhelming experience.

Most folk seem to dislike the combat though I’ve never seennanyone articulate why, makes me wonder if it’s just poorly tutorialised and people are light attacking things to death. I doubt a new player would think of weaving, buff and dot management when the game is laughably easy now.

Not gotten around to it. Haven’t liked the series since Fallout 4 kinda killed it for me.

Hopefully this will include ways to play our old disc based games when they go 'all digital'.

Crash Twinsanity and the Legend of Spyro trilogy please... they were never made backwards compatible.

Otherwise I'll take some World of Warcraft stuff...

And nuke my 2 shelves of 360 and xbox one games? Nah. Xbox going all digital means I’m out unless they put out a really good handheld.

Why would anyone downgrade to this?

It was always a weird one. Fortunately this means I can fully quit microsoft reward points now. That was pretty much what was carrying them for me.

I only ever played Diablo 3 and I liked it for what it was. Tried Diablo 4 during the open beta and found it incredibly boring so nah, probably not gonna touch this one. Though I hope we get the WoW mount via game pass perks or something...

Backwards compatability, 100%. It's not perfect but sometimes I just wanna chill and play some good old games like the Fable trilogy or even third party stuff like the original Assassin's Creed. Can't do that on PlayStation outside of cloud which... while nice in a pinch, isn't a true gaming experience to me.

Hopefully 360/PS3 emulation can catch up by next gen if we're truly gonna be forced into an all-digital future.

Just a ton of great games and better performance than the PS3 in third party games until super late in the generation when Sony got their act together. I'm still sad Fable II hasn't been ported to PC.

It’d be nice if nobody was working on Starfield at all.

Putting Starfield as the poster child for it? Oof.

Never had any interest in this game. The tone and character designs just felt a bit... blegh.

That trailer took my hype from a 10 to a 0 pretty quick. It just doesn't look, feel or have the tone of Fable. It's like someone heard the title, heard it was made in Britain and just kinda went from there without ever playing the original 'trilogy'.

2027 seems to be the expectation.

But three going on four years in and neither platform has really earned the right to be called next gen. Every game released so far could've been released on last gen with a bit more optimisation. In fact many were released on last gen.

Woulda been funnier if they inflicted Starfield on PlayStation, but seems like there's a chance they're putting their actually good but low-reach games out there. How Xbox handled this is completely abysmal, this only needed a tweet.

It was rough. But I enjoyed Fable the Journey despite the inconsistent controls.

The best case and what I actually expect they'll announce a handful of games are going to PS5, asure everyone they'll stay in the hardware business for next gen. Maybe reveal their handheld (Probably not since it's so early but it's like the one Microsoft thing I'm hyped for).

Worst, cynnical case for xbox fans is they announce that yes, they're dropping hardware support at the end of this generation, will no longer be supporting their legacy consoles (Online for 360 and One shutdown 2025) and backwards compatibility, games will no longer launch on gamepass day 1 and they'll be moving to an adorably all-publishing future.

The fact Xbox hasn't outright denied the rumours already means they're most likely true. If I was an indie dev I'd definitely lower the xbox porting priority significantly, if they -do- confirm it then I just wouldn't port to Xbox at all. The sales wouldn't be worth the cost. If Xbox as a console goes it'll just become synominous with game pass and nothing else.

Xbox becoming a publisher and abandoning hardware is the logical conclusion to their gamepass buisness model. At least when their console sells so poorly.

Honestly if I didn’t take advantage of the 3 year gold to ultimate conversion I wouldn’t be touching this at all. But it’s basically free on game pass so might as well kill a weekend with it like I did the Outer Worlds.

I’d love for this to be an amazing game but Obsidian’s output has been disappointing for a while now.

That'd be pretty damn rough if all those left.

If I'm stuck with digital I'd rather play on PC where I can more reliably own, access and tweak games. Xbox going all digital murders any reason to continue to use their console except to play 360 games and no doubt that service will end one day, in which case I'll just stick with my old 360 for the games I can't play on PC (Until emulators catch up).

Not opposed, more competition in that market is good and I'd rather a handheld ran on Windows than Linux right now. I respect Linux and what it's trying to do but too many times I've tried to get a game running for my steam deck, it working, only for it to break a few days later. It's frustrating and annoying.

If it's just gonna be usable for Xbox games and only Xbox games though? Gotta admit that'd be kinda lame. Though ironically the two games I'd want to play on it are both technically xbox games lmao. World of Warcraft and the PC server for Elder Scrolls Online.

Pretty much has to be New Vegas, one of my all time favourites.

And Steam, and PlayStation.

I got this with PS+ on my PS3 ages ago. Should grab it phsyically while I can.

Man bugs aren’t Starfield’s issue. Game’s got no soul. Wish they’d abandon it already and out resources into what’s left of elder scrolls and fallout instead. Those settings at least have potential even if it’s never realised.

People thought Xbox buying Blizzard would mean no more activision meddling. They must feel pretty silly for believing that now.

I expect Blizzard to continue to decline, Microsoft has never really done anything to save failing game companies. They tend to just leave them to rot before scrapping them for parts.

Well over 100 in total. 70+ 360 games, 26 Xbox One/Series X games. Digitally I probably own a further 25-30 total. Digital games were fun until I realised how quickly they filled my storage. The change to discs being lisences meant I bought less physical games next gen.

I prefer how Switch does it, they force companies to keep game sizes realistic instead of endlessly chasing graphics, which means it can fit on a cartridge.

If I'm playing digital I want the ability to back my games and saves up to a Physical storage device without worrying about DRM - A service I can only get on PC either by BREAKING the DRM by force or buying from GOG.

Whelp, this is my last generation with an Xbox then. I got the Series X to play my 360 discs on an SSD and play a few third party games on the big screen. I hope 360 emulation picks up on PC to preserve these games since Microsoft likely will drop support for backwards compatability one day all together. It doesn't help that every exclusive Microsoft has released since the 360 era has sucked.

I'd hope Sony and Nintendo continue to support physical. They'll pretty much own the aisles at super markets now, moreso than already. Otherwise I'll be leaving console gaming behind. If I'm stuck with all-digital I'd rather it be on PC where I have other means of ensuring my ownership of games.

The survival game seemed pretty soulless so no loss there for me. But hey so long as WoW keeps trucking on as it is (Or ideally better) I'm happy.

Activision Spyro/Crash games made backwards compatible.
Alpha Protocol made backwards compatible.

More backwards compatible 360 and original xbox games in general.

It depends but they're definitely moving in that worrying direction.

I mostly use my series x to play my 360 discs and the occasional xbox one game disc. I simply would not buy an all digital Xbox. If I'm going all digital I might as well stick to PC where I have other methods of ensuring ownership and continuing with my launch Series X for my discs rather than move on to the next gen.

Same goes for PlayStation to a lesser extent. I mostly use it to play PS4 games on disc. And Switch to a greater extent where my entire library is physical (Due to the entire game being on the cartridge most of the time). If they all stop then I might as well save the money and get a quieter PC rig.

Combat is looking super floaty. Which is fine, but makes me wonder why it seems to be all they're focusing on. RPG's are rarely known for their engaging combat.

Don't give a damn about graphics. Just hope it's good. So far they've only shown dialogue and combat. Neither of which particularly wowed me. I'd like to see the levelling system, how abilities are earned, hopefully some other systems beyond just fighting and talking.

Play more than just World of Warcraft and keep knocking out my backlog. Same as last year. Though my backlog does have a LOT of overdue replays on it. Witcher 3 this time for the first time since Blood and Wine wrapped up.

Please, please let Avowed be good…

Honestly? They could. My big worry with microsoft is always them abandoning PC gaming again but at the same time.. I can’t remember a microsoft exclusive I’ve enjoyed since the 360 era. A lot of my favourite games to play on my series x are third party. Even Bethesda’s disappointed me since 2015. Particularly with Starfield.

I’d mourn the loss of a real pioneer of backwards compatibility and I’ll always be bitter towards PlayStation for not supporting their PS3 catalogue but man, there really ain’t much. Point in the xbox for me but 360 games on an SSD.

I -love- Odyssey, I consider it the best in the series, though they should drop the AC name for it… but hate Origins and Valhalla. Valhalla is just too bloated. They crammed every possible side quest into the main quest and you can feel it. And the combat is such a downgrade from Odyssey it’s unreal, as is itemisation.

Dragon’s Dogma II is probably gonna be my game of the year. Unless Avowed somehow manages to be good under modern Obsidian and not just “outer worlds but fantasy”.

I’ll wind up getting more points. I had to stop doing the game specific ones due to time constraints, now I don’t need to worry. A pity as I found some fun titles that way.

@Sol4ris I’d hate on it if it wasn’t. I grew up with Bethesda’s games and Starfield is a betrayal of everything that made them good. If TES VI turns it around then I’ll sing it’s praises but Bethesda themselves have said they ignore criticism. I don’t give a rats ass who it’s associated with so long as modding isn’t hamstrung.

Console war fanboyism at its finest.

Starfield didn’t deserve the win by any metric. Outside of people married to a brand it’s considered well below average and boring, if not outright trash.

Doesn’t feel over to me. Truth be told I’ve yet to see any game that needed to be next gen. Seems all we get is slight graphical upgrades with no gameplay innovation across the industry, hard to believe we’re almost half way through this generation.

>Starfield won

Lmao. Awful taste, probably rigged judging by the comment section here.

I’m glad the greater gaming community is turning against that heaping pile of trash.

Bought Starfield for the early access, refunded it after an hour, decided early access wasn’t worth it. Played it on gamepass later and confirmed I hated it.

Other than that? Nothing. I prefer to buy games physically for switch and digitally for PC via Steam.

Xbox’s software has felt like it’s stuck together with bubble gum and tape for a while now. First with the slow as hell dashboard, the store needing updates multiple times a day and now how it handles saves. Not to mention all the rewards points bugs, achievements not unlocking (Still denied my Dark Souls dark ending achievement) and so on. It’s just a mess and makes the experience of being an xbox gamer feel so budget.

I bowed out when they deleted Nuclear Winter. Adding NPC’s wound up being a detriment due to how badly written they and all their stories are.

Phantom Liberty hands down. Starfield disappointed me so much but refunding it and getting Phantom Liberty instead was the best decision I made all year.

I noticed a less severe cooldown. Opening a collection used to get me all the points, now it doesn’t even get me a quarter. So I just stopped using edge.

I’m happy to abandon the scheme if they keep nerfing it. I got plenty out of it but if the time spent doing this every day begins to not feel worth it, it’ll be nice to not have to.