Comments 502

Re: Forza Horizon 4 To Be Delisted On Xbox And PC In December 2024

Altaria_97

@Scenes I never pirate games and if you look up at the chat history I ended up finding a key for the DLC and purchased it. Last thing Iā€™d want to do is steal from a developer but sometimes software gets abandoned and thatā€™s the only way to preserve or play the content.

I didnā€™t know how cheap the ultimate edition would eventually go for (or that it included all the DLC) so I thought the DLC was gone forever already without any notice. That said, I have nothing but respect for Playground Games and was upset with Microsoft, not the devs.

Re: Forza Horizon 4 To Be Delisted On Xbox And PC In December 2024

Altaria_97

@FraserG Update: I found a key website online that still had it cheap. Just got it for $12 and activated it on XBOXā€™s website while on a quick work break. I appreciate this article as I wouldā€™ve missed this news and not been able to purchase a key before they inevitably jump up in value.

For anyone who wants to play to own and play Forutune Island and the LEGO DLCā€¦ I suggest getting cheap keys asap!

Re: Forza Horizon 4 To Be Delisted On Xbox And PC In December 2024

Altaria_97

@FraserG Thanks for the heads up, but itā€™s still a big middle finger from Microsoft.

Obtaining that Fortune Island pack just went from $20 to $80 now. I already own both the expansions for Horizon 5, as well as both Horizon 4 with the LEGO DLC. So all I need is the Fortune Island expansion and they donā€™t lower the price of the Deluxe edition even if you already own the base game + other DLC. So I guess Iā€™m never buying it from them because of their scummy business practices.

Re: Forza Horizon 4 To Be Delisted On Xbox And PC In December 2024

Altaria_97

Absolute d*ck move from Microsoft to delist the DLC without any notice. I was waiting for a nice discount to get the Fortune Island expansionā€¦ and they just rip it away without telling anyone in advance.

I might just pirate it on PC since thatā€™s the only way to play it now but my concern is my Microsoft account will get banned or somethingā€¦ Microsoft has been bumming me out recently.

Re: Asphalt Legends Unite Launches For Free On Xbox Consoles This July

Altaria_97

I remember downloading this when I first got my Series X back in 2022 as it was free. It was actually pretty fun and visually looked great considering it was a mobile game first. But then I got GamePass and downloaded Horizon 5 and never played Asphalt again lol.

Iā€™m sure the game is fun, so maybe Iā€™ll give it another download. I donā€™t rememberā€¦ is it a game you can ā€œbeatā€ with a single-player campaign or is it all online? If itā€™s the former, I could see myself playing through that content.

Re: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Dev Talks Xbox Showcase Reveal, And That First-Person Perspective

Altaria_97

I disagree with them but itā€™s subjective. I feel more immersed when playing a third person game as I feel like Iā€™m controlling a character in a movie or a living world. First-person, while I donā€™t mind it, feels weird since I donā€™t sit directly in front of TV and monitor and I know that Iā€™m just using a controller to play the game, not actually performing the actions of the character in the screen (VR is different works well in this regard). It would be nice to at least have the option for third-person.

That random rant aside, I trust Machine Games and Iā€™m very excited for this game. Everything weā€™ve seen looks great and I love the IP. This will be a solid holiday for XBOX.

Re: Poll: How Would You Grade Ubisoft Forward 2024?

Altaria_97

I didnā€™t watch the event, but I watched the gameplay of Star Wars and Assassins Creed separately later in the day.

Star Wars Outlaws looks fantastic and Iā€™ll be picking that up once it drops a bit in price. Shadows looks decent. The stealth sections look nice (still some silly AI) but I donā€™t care to be a warrior in constant combat in an Assassinā€™s Creed game. They said you can chose your character most of the time so weā€™ll see.

Re: Poll: How Would You Grade The Xbox Games Showcase 2024?

Altaria_97

I guess Iā€™m the minority here as I thought it was pretty bad as whole. There were a couple games I cared about but most of it just seemed like the most generic stuff. Gears E-Day getting announced was sweetā€¦ but no gameplay. Iā€™ll give them this, DOOM and Perfect Dark looked great. Age of Mythology looks interesting as well, not sure if I care to try it though. But pretty much everything else I was just saying ā€œmehā€ about.

Re: Report: Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League Lost $200 Million For Warner Bros

Altaria_97

This is both a good and bad thing. Itā€™s good because this should teach Warner Bros and other out-of-touch higher ups at companies to not spend millions on trash hero-shooter live service type games.

Itā€™s bad though because those higher ups wonā€™t be penalized, and most likely just fire the actual talented and hardworking developers that created their stupid trend-chasing vision.

Re: Two Square Enix RPG Get A Surprise Release On Xbox Game Pass

Altaria_97

Amazing surprise. The first one left gamepass around the time I joined and Iā€™ve heard nothing but amazing things about the second one. Stocked to play them.

By the way, I heard the second one is better and I like the vibe of it moreā€¦ is it okay to play that one first? My understanding is that itā€™s a completely new cast of characters and a separate, unique story.

Re: Our Predictions For The 2024 Xbox Games Showcase

Altaria_97

Iā€™m in no way expecting them, but Forza Horizon 6 and Banjo would make me explode.

Gears 6 and, hopefully, a Gears collection would make me happy as well.

Otherwise, I hope we get most of the Activision/Blizzard library on gamepass along with that rumor for Octopath Tarveler II.

Re: Talking Point: If Halo Infinite Is Finished, Where Should The Franchise Go From Here?

Altaria_97

Infinite is a fantastic game in my opinion. The campaign was great and the multiplayer, while rough at launch, is insanely fun to play. Visuals arenā€™t anything super impressive but look nice.

That said, I think the move to Unreal Engine is a good move. I know learning a new engine takes a lot of time, but Iā€™m hoping it will allow them to work less on the backend of the game and focus on making a larger scale campaign and more fleshed out multiplayer.

Oh, and make it a visual looker. Halo deserves to have some amazing visuals.

Re: Freebie Alert! Pinball FX Is Giving Away A Free Table On Xbox This Week

Altaria_97

Iā€™ll claim it tonight, thanks for the heads up. I downloaded the game a while back but uninstalled it after some of the online achievements wouldnā€™t pop for me. Hopefully those achievement bugs are fixed up now.

Itā€™s a fun game but I wish I could just buy a table or two for a couple bucks. I almost dipped for the classic Star Wars bundle for $8 but stopped myself as I have too many games to play currently lol.

Re: 'Animal Well' Is Exploding In Popularity, But Where's The Xbox Version?

Altaria_97

@GeeEssEff It could be a time-exclusivity deal but it could also just be the dev/publisher not seeing any financial incentive to bring it to XBOX.

Bringing it to another platform would probably mean more time optimizing it for said platform, testing it extensively, and paying fees to have it up on the storefront. If they donā€™t anticipate a lot of sales on XBOX, it might just not be worth their time and money to do so.

Re: Former Microsoft Exec Gives 'Two Reasons' Why Xbox Closed Bethesda Teams

Altaria_97

Got downvoted for this before but as good of a deal Game Pass is, itā€™s not good for the future development of single player titles. Games on the service donā€™t make money on a per sale basis, so they only care about install rates and hours played per game.

This means shorter single player games like Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire, or short co-op title like Redfall, will show much lower numbers.

Another big metric is the amount of new subscribers around the release of said games, but they barely marketed Hi-Fi Rush and its contemporaries. Most people outside of the XBOX sphere didnā€™t even know some of these games existed.

This is why they mainly care about games that have insane support prior to launch, like Starfield, or games where they can milk micro transactions or playtime down playerā€™s throats. Iā€™d bet thatā€™s why Forza Horizon 5, Forza MotorSport, Halo Infinite, Sea of Thieves, and many more of their recent games have so many ā€œlive serviceā€ elements baked in.

Thereā€™s single player content coming that theyā€™ve been developing for a while, like Avowed, Indiana Jones, and Gearsā€¦ but I have a feeling theyā€™ll slowly be shifting to only making live-service games over time, or single-player titles with a lot of live-service elements baked in that feel incomplete for many months.

Hopefully Iā€™m wrong but things sure seem like theyā€™re heading this way.

Re: Xbox Fans React Angrily To Closure Of Bethesda's Tango Gameworks

Altaria_97

Ghostwire Tokyo and especially Hi-Fi Rush are two of the best games XBOX has had over the past few yearsā€¦ and they just delete the studio. Legit doesnā€™t make any sense to me.

Even financially, theyā€™re getting all of their money from GamePass. And if youā€™re comparing games by hours playedā€¦ well, yeah, of course ā€œcompleteā€ and shorter single player experiences like these will have way less hours played then sandbox titles like Starfield and online centered games like Forza and Halo.

Just a thought, but maybe with GamePass, Microsoft doesnā€™t care for games without online components where they canā€™t sink hundreds of hours into and monetize.

Forza MotorSport and Horizon 5 are heavily monetized now and more ā€œonline-focusedā€ then ever. Same with Halo. And Bethesda keeps shoving Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Online down our throats. I have a feeling that Gears 6 is going to push online super hard and be heavily monetized. Maybe this is why Perfect Dark was in development hell for its first couple yearsā€¦ the devs had to switch things up to incorporate live-service elements and monetization?

Iā€™m just theorizing and rambling now lol. This news just shocks me.