BrilliantBill

@BAMozzy Honestly, while 343 and Coalition faced very similar situations from the outside, the fanbase of the two games are inherently very different. The nostlagia-driven and Bungie-obsessive attitude of the Halo fans is nowhere as present in a similar way with Gears fans. Even the rift in the fanbase about Gears 5 is nowhere was deep and dramatic as the heated fights Halo fans have about Halo 5 and Infinite.
Over time Halo fandom has morphed into something similar to the Star Wars fandom, a giant group of people claiming to love something yet they haven't enjoyed a single product from that IP since 2007 apparently.
But it is worth remembering that overall Coalition has also done better than 343, dramatically so. Their games at least have great presentation and graphics (Infinite's first E3 gameplay flashbacks), their Gears games have all the features people want from a Gears game (Horde,Co-Op etc). There is also the feeling that they do nudge Gears down a new path but only so slowly and gradually that it feels more palatable and you don't have the hard turns that 343 pulls off every Tuesday about lore of Halo universe.
TLDR: While 343 always had a tougher job, their poor action didn't make it easier for them either.

@Kaloudz On the slightly more negative side, unless a game has something to show you won't hear a confirmation of its existence with CG trailer. But there isn't much time to wait now, we will see.

@BAMozzy Boy this studio, 343 has really made so many mistakes that every time there is a discussion on mistakes of Xbox brand 343 is there to introduce themselves. It is kinda impressive actually.

@Zoidpilot4 They have always kind of been third place. But during X360's peak era they really challenged Sony very strongly. Halo Reach, Halo 4, Gears 2 and 3 etc were all great exclusives. Many of the exclusives Sony had back then like Resistance, Killzone etc didn't even make it beyond that generation for example.

@Fiendish-Beaver I was looking forward to see you mention Gears in the comments. I also really want to see both 6 and a collection. It is about effing time for both.

@Kaloudz Some months hit harder than others with their departures. But I am also hoping there are a couple of big drops in the upcoming showcase. Where is my Gears of War collection Xbox??

@Moonglow Yeah, we have seen this "it just needed another year" with many other games. Anthem, Mass Effect Andromeda, Halo Infinite, etc.
It is a very easy argument to make from a gamer and developer's perspective, but how much time should a developer finally get? A publisher cannot endlessly delay and extend and fund the development of a game for a dev team that needs 3 years to barely figure out the baseline direction of its game, then 2 years to make it, then 3 more years to bug fix it, etc.
From Spencer's interview I got the impression that everybody decided a year or two wasn't going to fix this game's deeper issues. Plus, it is a live-service style game, it could be great but still lose in the long run because people prefer Fortnite, Warzone and so on.

@Balta666 Making remasters of the older games before releasing the new entry (after a large time gap between entries) is generally standard procedure at this point.

@Tharsman Since the show is taking place in the middle of 2023, it is not that strange if it touches on stuff all the way to the end of 2024 and even early 2025. Xbox still has so many games we know nothing about.

Given the ancient age of most of these games by now and by the time I got into gaming. My favourite is 4 and it isn't sadly on this list. 5 came across as a sort of game that Kojima made because he didn't know what else to do? I wasn't a big fan of it.

@Kaloudz The peak of this was that "Extended Showcase" some year where there was a section for Age of Empires and there was like a whole 10 minute peace about how a Trebuchet works. I was almost flabbergasted.

@GamingFan4Lyf What is the importance of the progressive/interlaced difference in this context?

@NEStalgia Out of curiosity, Have you tried the IMAX theatres? They are truly something.

@Markatron84 I would pay top dollar to see a version of "The Office" that takes place inside 343.

@Banjo- I think the problem that Sony has, is that their success in PS4 era was so deeply based on their "sad dad" games like GoW and TLoU. Supported by some other story-heavy and graphically impressive games, a type of game that almost only PS could make up to that level. But they are making an effort to do something other than that (as those games take 4-6 years to make anyway) and their new schtick is live-service games, with Fairgames, Marathon, Concord and probably some other stuff. But GaaS market is already really crowded and break-neck competitve with some big players that have pockets as big as PS or even bigger. It also isn't something that thrives on exclusivity because it needs player numbers, hence a game like Marathon is multi-platform despite them owning Bungie.

@Kaloudz Watch them fumble that ticket by spending 30 minutes on Sea of Thieves, Elder Scrolls Online and how that one vintage plane that flew once in 1967 is now added to Flight Simulator.
But jokes and my typical cynicism aside, I think they will have a much better or better or at least as good showcase. I think it is very unlikely they do worse.

Digital Foundry peeps are now salivating at this.

@Kaloudz Yeah, Sony is very heavily reliant on Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica and Guerilla to carry them. Without these three they are in a lacklustre position. The Spiderman game is ofc looking good but it is probably deep in "Sequelities" disease and it is not as impressive as the first one was back then for people.
It also doesn't help that their biggest other stuff (MGS3,Alan Wake etc) were also all multiplatform. Last but not least, I guess Bungie's Marathon was supposed to be a megaton announcement but its odd art design, extraction shooter nature and ultimately Multiplatform nature didn't serve it well in context of a PS Showcase.

3 years of owning an Xbox and I am yet to pick a single game in disc format. Specially with Xbox it makes no sense cause most stores dedicate 1/5 of the store space to Xbox games than what they give to PS and Nintendo.

@Kaloudz You basically missed Sony's E3 thing. Which was surprisingly tame and basic and underwhelming.

@Utena-mobile The remaster has done a lot of improvements on character models. So it is worth it.

@Rmg0731 Interesting, I wonder when we will see the games they are assisting with.
@GamingFan4Lyf Yeah great game. Sadly it released at a time when basically nobody had an Xbox or talked about it so it didn't get much recognition. But for me it is below Control and AW in terms of quality.

@Wiiiiiiii You are right. Perhaps because they want this game to be the intro to MGS for a new generation and it is kinda odd to start with 3 ?

PlayStation is essentially having a bit of a "slow" year now that ND, Sony SantaMonica and Guerilla have all released their games. It is the perfect opening for Xbox to release some big hits and take over some gaming "mindshare" and attention.

@GamingFan4Lyf I mean, it can be that he is actually 100% Max Payne but he is called Alex Casey because of legal reasons and rights to Max Payne belonging to Rockstar.

"And Jesse Faden look very different from Beth Wilder."
Yes, they have intentionally changed the face model in the game in Control a lot, but still in the coverart of Control the similarity is very uncanny because it is the same person.

@GamingFan4Lyf And another problem or fly in the ointment is that the lead character in Control, Jesse Faden is played by an actress (Courtney Hope) which also played the role of Beth Wilder in Quantum Break, so how do they cover that? The face models are different enough between the games, but this whole "Remedyverse" has some glitches.
Also, Remedy wants to make a remake of MP1 and 2. So when they remake 1, will they use Sam Lake's face again for 1-2 or switch to the face they had for 2 and 3?
Edit: Rockstar owns the IP, but they are funding remedy to make a remake of 1 and 2. So not that disappointing.

@Kaloudz I mean, Sony isn't quite Sonying when Naughty Dog (TLoU) or Sony Santa Monica (GoW) aren't around. Spiderman looked great however.
For me Alan Wake 2 was the winner and AC Mirage a close second.

@GamingFan4Lyf It is quite messy, so Sam Lake himself was the face model for Max in MP1, then in 2 and 3 it was someone else. In all games he was voiced by James McCaffrey. So this character called Alex Casey is voiced by James McCaffrey and face model is Sam Lake. Also, rights for Max Payne are with Rockstar. So?

Totally expected Marathon to be PS-exclusive, but I guess online games need as big a number as they can get.

@Tharsman I am halfway through it. In typical Remedy fashion the game is more style than substance in my opinion. But it oozes with a sense of style and character that is truly top notch.

@Ralizah It helps separate it from original and avoid that awkward mess that CoD:MW2 2022 vs 2009 has to deal with for example.

The art-style of this game is so odd and out of place to me. But on the positive note I can't say I have seen something like it before. On a positive note I am having a lot of fun with CoD's DMZ and the concept of extraction shooter from Bungie is far more appealing than that money-spinner treadmill called Destiny.

@Carck Phil seemed very confident about it in that podcast where he talked about Redfall, since he is generally a little more honest than the average corporate face I think they are good enough.

@UltimateOtaku91 That is kinda the whole point, to watch for emerging and new studios and inject them with Daddy Microsoft's money.

@Friendly The RTS genre as a whole is on life support I guess. It doesn't help that the genre is only truly good and playable on PC. Some RTS games have been built from ground up for console in case of Halo Wars. But still, not much success.

I mean, between Mirage, the Avatar game and this SW game Ubi probably has the chance to make some serious money this year and ease the worries for its shareholders. Let's see if they manage to do it right or just put our three games broken at launch and ruin it all 😂.

@armondo36 I mean, everything after 2020 is 100% on Phil Spencer. Mattrick left in 2013 and Phil had 7 years to turn things around. It is true that as Phil said "they lost the worst generation". But Phil also has a long list of "miss". Biggest of which, failing to launch Halo Infinite in a good state with the console, then the issues with Redfall etc.

@PhileasFragg I mean, Konami knows there is a huge bag of money there and MGS games are so old now that the only way to make money off of them is to remake the old ones. They are doing what "must be done". I think even in less competent hands the remake will sell well enough to get the ball rolling.

Pooofff. I mean, it is easy to call for Phil to step down every time an exclusive fails to meet expectations. But then you think about those days with Mattrick and you kinda put things into perspective again.

@Wheatly It is also strange to think that for all his faults, Mattrick actually didn't skip on making sure Xbox has a lot of great exclusives. During his run we had many many great exclusives on Xbox, several great Halo, Gears and Forza titles alongside other games I may not recall that well now.

@Ephexis83 I think voice acting is one of those things that can be added in late into development, specially if the writers are still messing about with finalising what dialogues they want.

Somewhere further down the line I would love to try that Star Trek game. I wonder if it shows up on GP some day.

Ok now deliver us Firefight and at least it is a complete MP suite. I would dip back when Infection goes live.

@Kaloudz Hahahaha. Honestly that is not my intention. But I think it is very important the message is communicated around that the way that Xbox wants to go is not focused that hard on a sort of a single player story-focused "sad dad" games (cough TLOU ... cough GOW) ant it involves a broad range of games in all sorts of quirky genres paired with focus on "availability" and "accessibility" of games everywhere. So anyone hyping themselves up to see Xbox give Sony a run for their money in GOTY-level exclusives will be disappointed sooner or later.

@FenIsMightier as Spencer himself pointed out very clearly, they don't see any way they can win a head-on console war with Sony or Nintendo. The only way for them is to focus on making their platform available to as many players as possible, GP, Cloud and Series S (a console for the masses) are all parts of that.

@Kaloudz They haven't really "delivered" for close to a decade and they are still around. There will be 1 or 2 decent AAA games a year. But again, lower you expectations to bare minimum and you won't be disappointed. Phil himself almost confirmed it that releasing frequent AAA exclusives the way Sony does it isn't their "way".

@Techno92LFC It is crazy how these things are always a work-in-progress at a snail speed. I mean, a whole game I get it why that's difficult. but stores still being way behind the expected levels is weird.

@Kaloudz We will get something that goes above X and offers stronger raytracing and higher FPS (like 120FPS in all games) is my guess. We will get more consoles and 100 more controller colors. The only thing we will not get are enough good games 😂.

But again, it kinda serves us console gamers right after obsessing with trends bragged about by PC gamers like super high frame rates and RT etc. It would make games take even longer to develop and launch in even worse states.

@NEStalgia Honestly, the game is really the most niche title I have seen in years. A series of moving medieval style paintings with some written text on top is really the sort of "presentation" that drove a lot of people, including me away. The whole thing also came across as the type of "awards-bait" video game. Kinda like those movies that are made just to win the Oscars. I am surprised it even got the success it got. Probably thanks to GP.

@Tharsman I think One sold better because at the end of X360 Xbox was in a great position and a huge loyal fanbase. As opposed to early X360 era where it was off the back of the dominant PS2 era.

I played probably the first hour of it. It was not something for me but great innovative game indeed.

The amount of extra time and delay that video games suffer before release or the amount of time that they need after release in order to be well optimised, refined and bug free is at times staggering and it is getting progressively worse I feel.
At least at this point we are past trying to run these games on Xbox One and with all the kerfuffle about Redfall, Xbox has probably learned a lesson or two.

So many publishers and developers out there and Sony managed to convince regulators that the entire games industry is this one franchise called CoD. 😂😂

I tried Outer Worlds for an hour a year ago and it didn't grab me. I returned last week and I have been playing it every day. Sometimes you give games a 2nd chance and it works and sometimes it doesn't.

@Kaloudz He isn't really getting into anything I guess, each model has its advantages, just like theatre vs. streaming in movies. At the end of the day the dev needs to figure these things out and in 2023 we shouldn't still be hung up on if a subscription service is bad. Subscription services are used from Music and movies all the way to Gillette razors. If it was bad for developers/creators not so many people would be doing it.

@Fenbops I mean, if you are the type of person that spends a fair bit of time in planes and trains and long commutes it makes some sense. But I don't exactly see myself wanting to play AAA blockbusters like Starfield or Gears 5 on a morning 30min bus commute. If we are talking about solely playing at home, well the consoles are superior option anyway.

@Kaloudz Haha, you got me there. For me it felt much worse than what I remembered from Ghosts. So maybe some nostalgia/historical-revisionism has an influence there.
@Solidchief So another one is there at the bottom. Good to know.

How is no one talking about how Remedy managed to make an FPS campaign with the most god-awful story and setting and mood?
Even the worst CoD campaigns were a masterpiece next to that.