Fenbops

They can joke but Starfield taught me that I shouldn’t look forward to ES6. Starfield’s writing makes Skyrim look like Shakespeare.

@YourNameHere glad someone else is pointing this out.

I played through the demo fully. Im still unsure about it. I like the mad graphics and the characters are fun enough but the pacing is terrible and some of the writing is pure cringe. Being a pure hearted hero allows you to awaken a perso… sorry I mean Archetype, so boring. I do like some of the story elements like the ‘humans’ but I came away very mixed.

“very average narrative content”

Sounds like the main game.

DLC can’t save this game. It’s a beautiful game but it’s so boring it’s unreal and it’s full of cringe ‘modern audience’ characters. I dropped it and will never go back. I think the biggest achievement of Starfield is making a game set in space and being able to travel to thousands of planets so dull. That took real talent.

@Johnnel same. The pacing is horrible, there’s fetch quests in the main story, the side quests are the most brain dead boring quests I can remember in a game and the combat is for children. Awful game.

My advice is if you’ve not played this yet and are hoping it comes to Xbox, don’t get excited, because the game is absolute dog poo.

Blah blah blah. Show an actual game instead of waffling on the usual nothings.

@Fishticon 🤣🤣 top comment my friend made me laugh.

@MsJubilee I agree with you.

@Jenkinss why not? because one doesn’t exist?

@NEStalgia fair enough. I don’t follow the VR stuff, I have zero interest in it 😂

@NEStalgia I’m harsh on FRS but I do accept your point. Developers are using FSR trying to upscale from unreasonable resolutions. It goes back to what Oldgamer was saying, optimisation should come first.

@Titntin not sure I agree with PSSR being second, haven’t DF said it’s not quite up to XeSS just yet either, but it’s an impressive start and a huge improvement over FSR which is complete dog poo. The only thing I would say is that DLSS is amazing but the vast majority of users are using monitors obviously so it’s easier to present a clearer image on a smaller screen. With PSSR it’ll be the reverse with most playing on TV’s I imagine so that in itself will be interesting.

@OldGamer999 I agree with devs relying on upscaling too much instead of optimising their games properly, that definitely happens. But if these AI upscalers improve image quality and give performance back that’s only a positive thing. If a dev can get it right and optimise and use an upscaler, it’s golden.

@OldGamer999 DLSS can look better than native 4k. PSSR isn’t there yet as it’s new but these AI upscalers are the future like it or not. You have to leave the native 4k thing behind my friend.

I watched that DF video. I can definitely see improvements. The biggest improvement for me is image quality, games look how we were promised on the X and 5. For the love of god though, stop pushing 8k, it’s dead, no one is interested.

While I can see and appreciate the improvements, it’s not enough for me to personally upgrade from the PS5 I already own, especially as it has no disc drive as standard and half the PS5 games I own are on disc. I ain’t paying an extra £100 so I can play games I already own.

I’ll keep a watchful eye on the Pro, it’s a sign of what’s next and what we can expect from PS6 and that’s interesting, but right now I have no interest in buying one due to the price and lack of disc drive.

@NEStalgia I agree with a lot of what you say. I know I would have much preferred an Origins 2 over what’s come since. I did try odyssey and felt the formula was already getting dull after just the one previous game however.

One things for sure whatever is going on at Ubisoft is fascinating right now, even away from the AC Shadows controversies.

@HonestHick it sold 10 million after only 3 days, so even if it was only 1.5 on PS5 that’s still not bad at all.

This isn’t just a China and PC success story:

‘According to PlayStation, Black Myth: Wukong was the most-downloaded PlayStation Store game for August 2024 in North America, Japan, and Europe, beating the likes of Madden NFL 25, which is incredible for a brand-new IP. If its sales continue to be this strong, Black Myth: Wukong could very well become the best-selling new video game of 2024’

It’s also selling well world wide. With zero sales on Xbox, that’s got to sting a bit at HQ.

Personally I’ve not picked it up. Performance on PS5 isn’t where I’d like it to be.

Corporate Phil at his best.

Yeaaaah. Scrolling through and having a quick gander, nothing to really be excited for.

@NEStalgia I think both things are true. People play AC to play as someone who fits in with the time and culture. I think it’s obvious to see with Shadows that they chose to tick the DEI box first and foremost and the trailers with American rap music while Yasuke is slaughtering Japanese people dont help, they feel awkward as you say 😂 AC Origins on the other hand is my favourite AC game because it was set in Egypt and Bayek was a likeable, believable character for that time period.

I also think DEI has a wider problem in that it’s become predictable, laughably so. Instead of presenting characters in natural and believable ways, everything has started to look the same. In my opinion it’s starting to have the opposite effect to the one intended.

Going to give this a go for sure. On the fence from what I’ve seen and a demo to make my own mind up. Perfect.

They knew it was gonna bomb releasing it, hopefully it still bombs in February.

@Lup hate everywhere. Make sure you report all the hate you see. Do gods work.

lol.

Ubisofts first AC game set in Japan is cancelled for a Japanese showcase…. I wonder why 🤣

Looking forward to The Lake House. I don’t know, nothing else wow’d me, not even Ghost 2. Hell is Us looks interesting but also quite janky and I dislike Aloy enough to never play another Horizon game again, let alone a remaster of a game that already looks great.

@Lurkes they can’t just leave stuff alone 😒 I would fire whoever is responsible, they’re obviously not sound of mind if the original offended them or thinks it’ll offend anybody.

Let’s be honest, it needs to take Gears back to its roots, where men can come across as strong and powerful with an unbreakable bond. I know that sounds crazy to some people these days, where men are only ‘problematic’ and ‘toxic’, when any sign of masculinity offends them. But that’s Gears at its best, when it’s the ultimate bromance of men defying all odds, making sacrifices to get the job done.

After 5, I’m not particularly excited for E-Day, the initial trailer did get me excited, but I’m not sure the Coalition have it in them to deliver what really makes gears great, they’ve missed the mark twice now. Not only that, to really make it great they’re going to have to go against the grain and ditch what nearly every other triple A game pushes with messaging and agendas. Make a game for the fans, not for the minority on X who don’t even play your games.

@Vaako007 yeah. It’s a big fat no to me ever playing this.

Will this be the ‘biggest technological leap seen in console gaming’ Xbox they’ve promised? I think 2026 will be too early, I definitely can’t see the PS6 aiming for the same year. Then again Microsoft are bucking the trends more than ever and maybe moving on to a different strategy of releasing more powerful hardware sooner is possible. The handheld is a given at this point.

With PS5 pro costing what it does, I’m concerned about where console gaming is going regarding the price. More powerful and more expensive may not be the best path to success.

Halo on PlayStation 🤣

@GamingSince84 you misunderstand. When I say Xbox is hanging on by a thread, I mean the brand. Microsoft Gaming as it is now known is booming.

The war is over. Sony PlayStation has become the Apple of the console market. Nintendo aren’t direct competition anymore which has only worked to their benefit and Xbox is hanging on by a thread, threatened not by the other 2 but from Microsoft gaming.

Sony are left to rule the console market, no one should be happy about that and the serious lack of competition they have.

I have no idea what any of this means or what will happen. What I will say is that the state of Pokemon is laughable, the newer games are technically awful, dull and uninspired. The franchise needs a major overhaul.

Honestly not played much on Xbox this year apart from Alan Wake 2 and Hellblade 2. I’d have to say Hellblade 2, it was enjoyable enough but nothing really special.

What’s interesting for me is to see how PSSR competes with FSR. FRS is dogshit, or is it more fair to say, developers are abusing it by upscaling from low resolutions the tech was never meant to be good at. DLSS is the gold standard in upscaling, I can’t see PSSR competing with it.

Either way there’s no way I’ll pay that much for the Pro, even with a disc drive I’d avoid at £700. It’ll still be interesting seeing how it all comes together.

@HonestHick not to toot my own horn but I kinda called this,

‘do you think the Pro will be $600? I think no chance, more like $700 at least’

😂 oh boy.

I wouldn’t buy one. Most games I play now hardly even use the power of the 5 or X, triple A gaming to me is a mess I’m staying away from for the most part.

Saying that i am working my way through Alan Wake 2 on the X, it looks decent and is 60fps, I wouldn’t pay £200 more for a Pro console just to have a few graphics options improved.

£700 without a disc drive. That’s insanity. I don’t care how ‘powerful’ it is, I hope it flops and Sony take another L for being so greedy.

This was a niche system anyway, at that price point it’s even more niche. Silly price.

@Banjo- I always forget about Hivebusters. Hivebusters was great and felt more Gears in its short run time than 5 did for it’s entirety.

Same as I felt about it when I played it a few years ago. Good game but it hopped on the open world bandwagon and lost some of its identity along the way. The decision towards the end was also bizarre, it comes out of nowhere and the story isn’t strong enough to make you feel any sort of emotional attachment imo, completely out of place in a gears game even if it was done well. Kait continued to be a bland, boring character I really don’t care about. It definitely had it problems and didn’t make me excited for what’s next.

I’ll pick this up when I can. Unlucky for this, Astrobot takes priority 😂

I have enjoyed watching the car crash that was Concord and its historic downfall over the last couple of weeks, I’d say the same about it if it was an Xbox game. This should be a lesson to any dev team or publisher out there but somehow I don’t think it will be for the most part.

Still it’s been enjoyable, may other games like this fail as hard.

@JoyfulFire they said it’s possible but with huge compromises. I don’t know what you were listening to but I didn’t get that impression.

John of DF: “It's very likely true that they're struggling to get this game running on Series S. As we know, this is Unreal Engine 5 version 5.0, I believe. This is like original Unreal Engine 5, which is extremely heavy.”

“And then on top of that, they probably very realistically are having troubles bringing into Series S and maybe even Series X because let's face it, clearly they had troubles bringing it to PS5. It does not work well on the PS5. And Unreal has traditionally based on, I mean, I think in our testing, we've seen Unreal games typically favor PS5”

Like I said. Idk how you came away thinking it’s no problem.

‘we’re excited for the launch of Black Myth Wukong on Xbox Series X|S and are working with Game Science to bring the game to our platforms.’

If there is an exclusivity deal, then why are Microsoft still working to bring the title to Xbox? It’ll come once the deals over. I’m not buying it, I think they’re just muddying the water, I still think they’re struggling to get it to an acceptable level on the S.

lol. Too bad. Should have made what people wanted instead of this absolute garbage.

I would not be surprised but in this case I don’t believe it’s an exclusivity deal. This game plays rough on PS5 with a dodgy 30fps setting and a laggy, fake 60fps setting. Its not hard to imagine they’re having trouble getting it to an acceptable standard on Series S. It wouldn’t be the first time the S has held back games hitting Xbox the same time as its rivals.