GamingFan4Lyf

Know a great way to send a message to Bethesda to stop doing this?

Don't pay for anything extra.

@AllStarGamer @Ricky-Spanish I mean, when you consider that the Digital Deluxe version of Alan Wake 2 costs $79.99 (when not on sale) and doesn't include a copy of Alan Wake Remastered....I'd say the physical edition is kind of a deal at $79.99 (since it has all the same stuff plus a free copy of Alan Wake Remastered).

I guess there is the argument that they could have released the "base game" at "base game price" for those that don't want the DLC.

It's that Limited Run Collectors Edition that's ridiculous.

"Alan Wake 2 sheriff who bares a striking resemblance to Quantum Break's Jack Joyce"

Are you just saying this tongue-in-cheek or are you not aware that both Jack Joyce and Sheriff Breaker are played by Shawn Ashmore?

@DennisReynolds Oh I completely agree on that! He put the Eye of Sauron on his entire department, no doubt.

All I am saying is that a pay decrease won’t do squat. Even stepping down wouldn’t do squat.

Those studios were probably doomed when the ink dried on the ABK deal as far as Microsoft corporate were concerned.

@DennisReynolds Pretty sure corporate Microsoft would say “Cool, we’ll cut your salary.” And then close the studios anyways because it’s not enough savings.

@DennisReynolds Even if cutting his salary saved 20 jobs, it wouldn’t save an entire studio.

@DennisReynolds A pay cut or quitting may save like...3 jobs not a whole studio.

I quite enjoyed this one. Glad we could see gameplay.

I also like that stop-motion look of the cutscenes. Gives it a very distinctive syle.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess looks like it's going to be so much fun! It's nice to see experimentation still exists within AAA developers.

@Gamer_X With the 1.00 version of most games being a broken mess and requiring a Day 1 Patch, even physical discs lose their purpose should digital storefronts shutdown entirely.

1 part tribute, 2 parts throwing shade at the industry.

@Xbox_Dashboard I honestly think that is why the Series S is more popular the Series X: Microsoft seems to manufacture more Series S and were more readily available and people just "gave up" on trying to get a Series X.

I tried to get a Series X on...Black Friday...I believe(??) right after release and Game Stop had maybe...4 Series X and 10 Series S for purchase. I was 5th or 6th in line, so I left because everyone in front of me wanted Series X.

It still seems to be the case as I NEVER see Series X on store shelves, but I always see Series S.

@BAMozzy "By all accounts, it seems that Rocksteady aren't the same Studio anymore anyway."

You would be correct. Most left because of how this game was shoved down the studio's throat (and some poor upper management at Rocksteady - probably as a result of having this game shoved down the studio's throat).

Eurogamer had a good article on this on how Rocksteady was making a multiplayer puzzle solving game, was then shifted to do Suicide Squad as it would be better for the studio, and then was told to make it a live service game at a certain point in development.

Arkane Austin had the same sad tale with Redfall as ZeniMax was also "chasing trends" rather than letting the studio work its magic. I wish Microsoft had stepped in sooner (even Phil Spencer said Microsoft dropped the ball there). We saw what happened in the end.

I hate stories like these.

I know publishers want to make money, but I feel like a publisher puts faith in a developer for what the developer is able to accomplish and once the publisher steps in and tells the developer what to do, things just fall apart.

Suits should only get involved if the developer is losing focus on a project it pitched to the publisher to prevent further delays and/or releasing a project with questionable quality, it should never tell the studio what to develop.

Microsoft is great at the part of not telling its developers what to develop, but terrible at letting projects get out of hand to the point of delays and/or questionable quality.

I really liked The Callisto Protocol.

It had a really fun story, tense combat, and I found it had its own identity despite being compared to Dead Space and "lost points" with the public because it wasn't Dead Space. The Final Transmission DLC was fantastic!

My only complaint was that somehow my save file got lost of corrupted or something and I lost 4 hours of progress (though that may have been due to whatever system-level issues Xbox had at the system level for Cloud Synch that only came to the forefront due to Baldur's Gate 3 issues). I can't exactly blame the game or the developers for that though - it was just annoying.

I can not wait for Still Wakes the Deep!

I wonder why they chose a pirate theme exclusively for Xbox.

Is that a Sea of Thieves reference or something?

I never did get around to buying this for PlayStation; but since I generally prefer to use my Xbox for my games, looks like I will buy this version instead!

@RIghteousNixon I was wondering that as well. Microsoft definitely seems to be picking up steam with courting third-party developers for games.

Right now, we have Kojima Productions, Toys for Bob, and potentially Hundred Star all doing games that will be funded and published by Microsoft.

I feel like there was another third-party studio confirmed to be doing something with Microsoft, but I could be wrong.

@BacklogBrad The water is definitely the weakest effect in the game. I guess I just give it a pass since it is essentially a giant water blob operating on physics rather than a canned animation.

I guess I just appreciate Ninja Theory's attempt to make water move realistically, even if it doesn't necessarily look great in every scenario.

I guess it makes sense to do an X1 version as Activision would be remiss to not release on PS4 where the "other half" of the PlayStation crowd still resides - and it would be pretty crappy of Microsoft to release on PS4 and not X1.

Though, I do wonder how this will affect PS5 sales as one of the biggest franchises will still be playable on PS4 and giving the annual COD/FIFA/Madden crowd another reason not to upgrade.

@HarmanSmith Love the name and Avatar! Killer7 is an absolute gem!

@BacklogBrad I see a lot of people complaining about the water.

While I certainly understand to a certain degree, you also have to keep in mind that the game is using an actual fluid simulation - not just some water body that was carefully animated to a specific look.

I just think the water is a little too animated for smaller water bodies as the ripples are crazy exaggerated when walking through them.

"Misaligned peach fuzz around Senua's neck and face has been corrected"

Talk about "attention to detail"!

I am guessing this was something found during photo mode?!

@user0 Doubt that will get "fixed" since the game is meant to have the look of a film shot with a wide-angle lens.

I am sad to see this game go on without any more updates.

Sure, it wasn't perfect, but it had a lot of potential to be more had it received the proper support.

@Ricky-Spanish Well, I will say that The Witcher 3 does a very good job with side quests having actual weight in the story telling and ending. You may have had what is considered the "best" ending for the main characters, but the outcome of certain side quests (or just simply ignoring them all together) can leave the world in ruin.

Basically, The Witcher does a fantastic job of making side quests more like actual main plot.

However, the combat system in The Witcher 3 kind of sucks - I hated it. There also doesn't feel much in the way of character builds in The Witcher 3 (or, if there is, I totally lacked understanding of how that all worked).

Roach (the horse) is also an absolute idiot if you try to let him autorun without controller input - the horses in Breath of the Wild are significantly smarter in that aspect.

Side content in Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't hold much weight in the end. There are still multiple endings, but honestly, most of what happens at the end is directly tied to dialogue choices made during main story as well as decisions made once you initiate the "Point of no return" part of the game.

The combat is better in Cyberpunk (in my opinion).

Character building feels more robust in Cyberpunk2077 over The Witcher 3.

The thing is, do you like fantasy stories or sci-fi stories? Third-person hack n slash or first-person shooting/melee? Do you like more preset character type with slight tuning of attributes, or do you like more robust variance in your character to suit your playstyle?

@Ricky-Spanish That's comparing apples to oranges, don't you think? I'd argue they are both great for different reasons.

@Kooky_Geezer It's actually cheaper to do a third-party deal than to keep a studio open.

That doesn't excuse or justify the closure of the studio, but I understand the logic.

This is the kind of stuff I want to see: collaboration among Microsoft's studios!

I hope the game releases in a polished state!

A shame it can't move up to 5.4, though, as that's where the performance gains will be seen with the addition of the asynchronous rendering pipeline (especially for midrange to low-end hardware).

@Dontasciime If you watch the video, it will tell you the resolution:

It renders in the 1296 - 1440p range, but with black bars comes to 962-1070p.

I forgot Disney owned The Jim Henson Company.

Sheesh, what doesn't Disney own at this point?!

@StonyKL Did you play the original? The puzzles are a tad quirky, but it's kind of part of her psychosis more than anything (or maybe just spilling over from her journey to a mystical land in the first game?).

I put "boss battle" in quotes simply because it's a longer battle than the others, a little more cinematic, and it ends the first "chapter" - I am trying to be as vague as possible here to avoid spoilers. Not exactly a "boss battle" in the traditional sense, but definitely more than fighting some of the smaller skirmishes to get there.

"I'm just jealous I can't feel the same with it."

But hey, at least you are actually giving it a solid go!

I respect someone's perspective who is actually trying and it's not "clicking" - that's more than people calling it trash and a waste of time based on a YouTube video or written review!

"Fixed an issue that was causing low framerates with some AMD GPUs"

Oh, so you sent everyone an Nvidia GPU?!

LOL! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

NOTE: I really don't care what GPU you have, I'm just having fun.

@StonyKL "Probably about half way I'd guess and nothing has really happened yet other than the odd one-to-one battle."

Within the first hour, Senua has had a few one-on-one battles, solved a simple puzzle, been laughed at, insulted, cut, almost drowned, freaked out by ghostly voices, fought a "boss battle", watched people get slaughtered, and had a mental breakdown or two.

Are we playing the same game?

I have only really had time to play about an hour of the game, but I have been really enjoying it!

While I understand people's arguments that the gameplay is lacking and that the whole thing is nothing but a tech demo - many saying they "watched a YouTube playthrough" and got bored - to sit and engage with it on your own terms on a 4K TV with HDR and headphones on just "feels" different.

To actively engage in the slower combat rather than watch it feels different.
To see all the fine-grain details of the game world that get lost in YouTube compression feels different.
To just be able to move around on your own also makes a difference.

I guess what I am trying to say is that sometimes one just needs to experience it for themself rather than watch someone play it in a compressed video.

Yes, story-telling takes the front seat here over in-depth gameplay. There is a lot of walking, puzzles aren't hard, and I wouldn't say combat is massively difficult (though, in my opinion, it does "feel" intense when you are actually doing it yourself). But every portion of the game has a purpose in telling the story Ninja Theory wanted to tell.

It's also fine if this kind of experience isn't for you - I get it. But the toxicity about it has been awful and unwarranted.

You can see this is a labor of love from the team and I appreciate all of their hard work in crafting this experience.

Revamped cutscenes.

A Balance pass would be nice for people who do choose to go solo as sometimes it feels like certain encounters don't scale quite so well when you're alone.

Having the ability to return to Redfall proper.

Perhaps some new mission types for Neighborhoods.

I want Microsoft to reveal that my Series X is actually a Transformer that only comes to life when you input the Konami Code during boot up.

Hey...you asked for a "Dream Reveal" right?! 😅

@CutchuSlow What happens naturally with your body is that each ear picks up frequencies from soundwaves travelling to you which triggers a binaural response in your brain for you to understand position in 3D space.

So, binaural sound (much like Dolby Atmos for Headphones or 3D Audio on PS5) simulates how your ears are able to interpret sounds in a 3D space.

However, the difference comes in the recording.

Dolby Atmos and 3D Audio is generally recorded with a single microphone and added to 3D space by a computer. For speakers, it just comes out the proper channel and for headphones, an algorithm determines the proper frequencies to trigger the binaural response (to varying degrees of success).

When someone does a binaural recording, they basically have a dummy head with 2 microphones attached to the ears. Voices are then recorded in various locations around the head and at varying distances. Both microphones pick up the sounds. When it's played back via headphones, it triggers the binaural response because the microphones pick up the sounds from different directions just like your ears do. Think of it as a 1:1 translation of sound to ear.

Having it beamed directly into your ears via headphones is just more effective than having all that mixed by an engineer for surround sound.
The voices feel like they are "in your head" rather than coming from a speaker.

I had the same thought you did when I played the first game on PS4 in surround sound (because I have a really good setup). It was good, but I didn't understand the hype of the game.

I did a second playthrough on Xbox (via Game Pass) using headphones and it was like hearing a totally different game and I finally understood what people were talking about.

I can't believe how good this game looks! I played for about an hour, and it has got to be the most impressive real-time graphics I have ever seen! It looks borderline pre-rendered CG.

The fact it performs so well is also a huge plus! There were some slight hitches during the beginning of a couple of cutscenes, but I didn't notice any frame drops during actual gameplay.

I don't even notice the black bars (thanks mostly to the Active Array turning off backlighting on those particular parts of my TV, so it's pure black - I don't have an OLED, so it's the closest thing I have to achieving "True Black").

The audio design is even better than the first game. That intro sequence is extremely disorienting! The soundtrack is superb and really sets the tone.

Combat is incredibly "primal" and slow-paced, but it has a nice "punch" to it when blows are landed. I got incredibly nervous during a pivotal battle, but everything panned out to a satisfying end.

It's really a great experience so far.

@OrfeasDourvas I think it’s just that people want the spectacle of something like God of War, Bayonetta, (modern) Final Fantasy, or Spider-Man rather than the visceral and weighty type of fighting that Hellblade uses.

Senua has no flash or finesse with her combat style and people might see that as boring. It’s not fast like those other games. There are no combos to master or new moves to unlock.

I don’t think either focus is wrong, but in a world of flashy spectacle, something more arthouse and raw is always going to be divisive.

I really liked how the first game’s combat made you feel like almost as exhausted as Senua looked when it was all over. This game looks more intense than the first in that aspect.

I need to brush up on my Elden Ring skills again!

Can't wait!

Can't wait to dive in. I really enjoyed the first game despite it not being much of a game in the traditional sense, and, based on reviews, it sounds like I will enjoy this as well.

I couldn't care less.

I'd be interested to see how the revamped Neighborhood system works.

One thing I thought was odd that even a "Cleared" neighborhood was no different than a non-cleared neighborhood. It would have been cool if there were differences and even bonuses to actually freeing them (other than for game progression purposes).

Hopefully the developers manage to add some kind of Story Quest that unlocks access back to Redfall proper once you "finish" it.

Well, I guess you can't blame the controller itself for input lag.

High precision doesn't mean much when you still have Cloud Streaming latency to contend with.

Cool, I'll actually try a new Call of Duty game - something I haven't don't since...well...Modern Warfare 2 on X360.

Playing the campaign and deleting will make this a great value for me.

For those who play this game for the whole year would be better off buying it as it's cheaper than a year of Game Pass Ultimate.

Cool, I guess.

Honestly, I don’t see the appeal anymore.

I guess when you finally grow up, the whole edginess and living out the criminal fantasy all just seems so juvenile.

This will go over well with everyone, I'm sure.

Hope they're taking resumes from Tango.

@NEStalgia Even so, Microsoft's research in AI, Quantum Computing, Cloud Infrastructure, etc. etc. are all getting used by researchers to help tackle modern problems - including medical research, pharmaceuticals, and tackling even logistical issues and humanitarian necessities.

Sure, it's all for the sake of money, but it's still making a difference where it matters.

To me, I personally don't care if people make donations to causes for tax reduction purposes or invest in technology to better the world just to make more money, it's the fact it is happening at all that matters to me.

The world isn't going to change by poor people with great intentions. It's going to change by rich people clearing their conscience.

@K1LLEGAL Yeah, I am not sure who should be doing the talking now, though.

Sure, Phil is the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, but Sarah Bond is now the head of Xbox.

There are just too many [expletive] CEOs in Microsoft right now! LOL!

But yeah, there needs to be some old-school "behind closed doors" screaming matches going on at Redmond.

I have nothing against Satya. He's certainly moved Microsoft in positive directions (even if those positive directions are nothing more than opportunities to get more people rich), but he has got to let the Xbox people handle Xbox things.

Why even have an "Xbox Leadership" at this point if these decisions are just going to get dictated by Corporate?