Feffster

Playing Deus Ex Mankind Divided on Series X - but not too much as I don’t want it to end.

Dipping into Quake II at 120fps, Forza Horizon 4 and a little bit of Halo Wars just for good measure.

Happy Days!

I have the XB360 disc version and although it plays at 4K on Series X it would be great to get a 60fps patch/fps boost. Probably not going to happen though?

I prefer Forza Horizon but still looking forward to giving this a go and hoping it will look the business on Series X. Not long now.

@Para1966 @Krzzystuff - thanks both. I was a bit too eager - it has now been redeemed.

Slightly off topic - but has anyone else had problems this month for auto-redeem? I’m comfortably past the 5500 points needed for a fiver credit but auto redeem hasn’t worked. It simply says I’ve (already) met the target for September (next redemption 31 days from now)…

…help!

@Banjo- I’m not a big Gears fan but there is definitely a Gears feel with the characters & voice acting. But it’s an arcadey first person shooter at heart that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Good fun, pretty good graphics and runs very smooth (I’m on Series X). Definitely worth three quid if you’re into that kind of thing.

Bulletstorm @£2.99 seemed a bit of a steal, especially with reward points.

Hopefully in just 40 days time we’ll all be talking about how great Starfield is and not worrying about how the dashboard looks!

Storming that beach in The Silent Cartographer level of Halo.

Splinter Cell.

Rallisport Challenge and its sequel (wish they were backwards compatible or remastered).

No thank you, but if there was a pro model with an upgraded CPU that could run Starfield at 4K 60fps then maybe.

@Markatron84 - but that’s not what this story is about, is it? There’s no mention of improvements to the service, just a suggestion that it will be (slightly) diminished.

It’s no biggie, but I think people have a valid reason to point that out, rather than being told to ‘settle down’ by you.

@Markatron84 - lol, you’re missing the point - all that is being said is that under this new system GPU subscribers will be getting a bit less for their $/£

Yes, GWG is often rubbish, but I’ve enjoyed a few titles that have dropped ‘free’ as part of my GPU sub - Aeero, Hoa, Hue, Iris Fall, Star Wars Racer, Sudden Strike, Truberbrook and the brilliant Portal 2 have all been on my playlist (from GwG in the past 2 years).

Flawed as currently GwG is, no one is ever going to convince me that getting nothing is better than getting something.

So presumably that means Gamepass Ultimate subscribers will now get less for their money? i.e. no additional monthly Games with Gold as part of their subscription…

Hope this appears on Free Play Days soon, I’d love to give it a trial first.

Think £9.99/$9.99pa might be the sweet-spot to lure in us oldies who want to hunt down some nostalgia.

Recently completed Tinykin for a second time, but I’d still miss it.

Hope Immortals Fenyx Rising stays, still have lots to do there.

@Kezelpaso - thanks mate, I had a feeling it wasn’t downloading correctly. I’ll go into manage game once the online bit has finished installing. Thanks for the advice.

@Kezelpaso - looking forward to giving it a go. How does the install work (I’m on Series X)….it seems to be installing GTA online (101 GB) and the Xbox One version of GTA V (another 70+ GB)

….is that correct?

Pleased to see GTA V on the list.

Downloading and looking forward to giving it a go.

Not a fan of walking miles in games so I’m disappointed there’s no moon buggies, could have been a lot of fun. Submersible vehicles for underwater caverns would be cool too. And what about being able to tame local wildlife and hitch a ride on its back?…

Excited when I saw the patch yesterday - hoped it was 60fps.

So far I’ve only played as far as the fire station & gave up - 30fps made my head hurt.

Wish I was one of those who can’t see the difference but it is so obvious (in a bad way) for my poor old eyes. Especially after playing the likes of Far Cry 5&6, Crysis Trilogy Remastered and Halo Infinite.

But roll on the 60fps patch, I want to give this a proper go.

Mr Ryan sounds like he’s being a bit of a plonker, Rodney.

@sixrings - I don’t think you can - as soon as you launch the game it will try and update to the latest version

83.58GB patch/update 😳

Did I imagine it or was there also a Fallout 4 next-gen (current gen?!) upgrade announced earlier this year?

@Markatron84 - no worries at all buddy, it’s so easy to misconstrue the intended meaning of text or email. Just nice that we can discuss things Xbox related on here with (mostly) like-minded people. It’s a friendly bunch on here, we don’t always agree on everything but for the most part discussion and opinion is well and politely argued.

@BAMozzy @Markatron84 @RetroMan71 - lol, thanks guys - my comment was intended to be very much tongue-in-cheek, even I’m not that dumb to think the file should be 1,000x 200Gb for Starfield 😎

Defies all logic when you think about it - Microsoft Flight Sim is taking up c200GB (with updates) and it is only one world….Starfield apparently has over 1000 worlds 🤔

I feel sorry for those individuals (including those on here) who live in a world where they deny there is any difference between 30fps and 60fps. Respectfully, I suggest you book yourself a slot at Specsavers.

I’d much prefer 1440p 60fps (or even 1080p 60fps) on my Series X but I’m happy to try on Gamepass and really hope it is great game.

Blimey, that music is ####ing shocking.

I’m totally not cool with 30fps. I wish I could say it makes no difference (and I get the fact that some people don’t care or can’t see the difference) but for me 30fps makes my eyes hurt to the point of being unplayable.

Always happy when developers include a choice in the graphics options to favour performance or graphical fidelity to suit individual taste.

An amuse-bouche before Sunday's main course

Redfall fixed
Starfield running like butter and bug free
Release date for a silky smooth Forza confirmed
Hellblade 2 before Xmas
Xbox Live Arcade (360) version of Goldeneye as a shadow drop
Avowed, Perfect Dark and Fable confirmed for first half of 2024
Forza Horizon spin-off set for late 2024
Banjo Kazooie ip resurrected
New Halo single player campaign to release in 2025
Asobo acquired by M$
All of the above confirmed NOT to be a dream

For my money it is much improved with a 60fps option, but I get that some prefer to play at 30 with higher resolution, etc.

Excellent update and great to have these choices, well done Asobo.

Bought for 99p and reward points.

It is FPS boosted (to 60fps) on Series consoles.

Plays well, but be aware the resolution is pretty poor - sub 720P.

Haven’t played for a few weeks but usually yes. Forza Horizon 4 is better, but this is still a fantastic game.

I’m happy with any news however far off. I just hope they try and be honest about proposed time-lines. For projects that are miles off presumably they can narrow it down to an 18month-2 year window, for games well into development you’d hope they can narrow it down to a 12 month window and for games undergoing testing, optimising and bug squishing hopefully a 3-6 month window.

Just be honest, and don’t worry about delaying something if it isn’t up to scratch (mentioning no names…)

Good to have extra graphic options. Tried this last night, resolution appears to have been lowered in some areas but it still looks fabulous and for my preference I like the extra fps, even compared to 40 with vrr. I’ve disabled motion blur & chromatic aberration.

A couple of oddities - some characters animate at 30fps (much like the flags do in Assassins Creed Origins) and I had one major lock-up when the game froze for 4-5 seconds before correcting itself (but didn’t crash). I read there are fewer rats, but you’d still struggle to count them.

Good stuff.

@Markatron84 - Odyssey is a cracking game and Origins is excellent too. DLCs worth getting too if you like the main games. I bought the lot before they were added to GP, but don’t regret it. Valhalla hasn’t grabbed me from my initial look, …it’s still on the to-do list.

Excellent news, can’t wait to give this a try.

I’ve no sympathy for the moron that decided to launch an incomplete Redfall but every sympathy for Arcane and it’s staff who must have been pushed to release this before it was finished. I said in an earlier post that the negative feedback would hurt the staff at the studio and this proves the point.

Microsoft needs to get a better grip of its studios and value the talent it has at its disposal. Rushing out games that are half-baked just to fill a hole in its release schedule isn’t good enough.

Hopefully reaction and opinion will change as the game gets patched and (hopefully) becomes the game that the studio envisaged.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….someone wake me up when this is over.

Dishonoured for me, great game. Enjoyed Deathloop and just started Prey (impressed so far). Still waiting on a finished version of Redfall before downloading.

Hopefully the person who decided it was a good call to release Redfall is now looking for new employment. I still can’t get my head around why they think this is acceptable to release something that is half-cooked (on many levels, not just the frame rate). The game is getting hammered, pretty much everywhere you look.

Redfall was never going to appeal to everyone but it has turned into a complete embarrassment for Xbox. If they felt another delay would be unacceptable then as suggested above why didn’t they just release a beta version and delay until Halloween? That would have given Arcane another 5-6 months to iron out the problems.

You also have to ask what impact this will have on the studio. Arcane have made some brilliant games so how are the team going to feel when they read the reviews and feedback aimed at this? It’s going to be tough for the staff to shrug off the reviews and negative feedback- especially if the team wanted the project delayed so that it could be finished/polished to their usual standard.

@Tharsman - brilliant suggestion, M$ should put you in charge.

The whole 30/60fps debacle meant it was obvious this was being pushed out the door before being complete.

I haven't downloaded and will wait for the 60fps patch (which will hopefully address the bugs, dodgy AI, pop-in and other mentioned glitches). Maybe then we'll have a decent game.

@Kaloudz - ever since the Hotwheels FH5 expansion I’ve been saying they should do a Wipeout style expansion (or full game) so I’m totally in agreement a pod racer expansion would be great 👍

I’ve uninstalled the pre-download but will happily download and play the game when the performance patch arrives. Hope those that aren’t affected by 30fps enjoy a fantastic game next week.

Presumably this runs at 30fps and they’ll patch it at a later date?

I don’t have a PS5 so nothing to compare it to, but there are definitely performance issues on Series X. VRR and 120hz still fail to save the day.

Anyway, I’m enjoying the game more than I thought I would - it’s just a shame the game hasn’t been properly optimised for X/S especially as this is a first party game and the developers have had an extra year to get it ship-shape.

If anything it further illustrates the poor management/control Microsoft has over its studios.

Looking forward to Benedict Fox. Was also looking forward to Redfall but someone put a stake through its heart - will play when it is removed.

@Banjo- well said, and fingers crossed one day it sees the light of day on Xbox.