HonestHick

@Banjo- oh i ain’t leaving Xbox, but they do need to finally start earning my money than just me giving it to them if they are in fact bringing their titles to all platforms and those platforms have advantages. I am good with games going to more places for people to play, i think MS has a sound plan in terms of making money and building a ecosystem, just don’t forget about us over here on Xbox, and it is feeling that way with Series consoles. I think it’s clear MS can’t wait to get to their next gen plans. Which i can’t wait for either. I look forward to their next console and handheld. I just hit my breaking point with them a little bit this year. They need to get the messaging and plan out to us gamers better. It’s been a bit of an ugly year for Xbox in my eyes. Phil saying i have a business to run, then saying one more thing and ending their show on a PS5 announcement? Man thats just odd to me and a little frustrating.

@OldGamer999 you know me well. We have had a bunch of talks about countless things. My stance on the PS5 Pro is while yes it is overpriced. Sony is making Money on every one of those sold. But it does what i want it to do and that is bridge the gap until next gen and gives me smoother frame rate and better graphics and effects. Not all games will use the overhead power the same way. Some dev’s may focus on one thing or another to benefit their style of game. But the Xbox has made not one, not two, not three but 4000 mistakes since the launch of Xbox One and i am slowly getting sick of them. I will be buying my multi plat games on the PS5 Pro, and if Gears of War comes to PS then I’ll play that there also. I need MS to earn my money back. I love the Xbox controller even tho it needs a huge update. Mostly just quality improvements. Which i thought from the leak we were getting and we didn’t. But enough is enough with Xbox. I do not want or need GP, and bringing their titles to PS makes the Pro worth a little more to me then it would ever been if those titles from Xbox weren’t coming. Remember i said this, rebooting Halo and going to a prequel for Gears sure sounds like a PS5 announcement for me. What’s left for me there? Sorry ain’t trying to rant on you, but i know you feel strongly about this as well. I am loving Astro Bot right now. Like best platformer i have played since Mario and MS has what coming out? Indiana Jones for PS?

Doom Dark ages for me, but i know want to know if it will do any PS5 Pro enchantments. Cause if so i will get it there, if it is looking and running best. I think thats a big question will MS studios support the PS5 Pro? Or will they just cater to the base console and of course Series consoles. Time will tell but Doom in this setting looks great. South of Midnight will be a play for me as well and Fable if that makes it out in 2025.

@Fenbops no i mean toot it. You had it. It’s for sure coming in around $50-$100 more than i thought it would. Nice specs and the leaks on it were right. I’m sure it’s going to be nice for some games and barely noticeable on others. But it’s a good call from you. But this is PS it will sell some. Not a ton but it will not be on shelves for long when it launches.However something i did not see happening was Wi-fi 7 and a 2TB SSD. So that is included in the price. I didn’t account for those.

@OldGamer999 100% they should have. It’s like Xbox don’t want to win. Instead Gears and Halo might come to PS and then it’s like well what is an Xbox needed for for a lot of us. Should be keeping all the games and sitting back with good pricing and winning people back into the ecosystem. I would not be surprised by the end of this generation that the numbers between PS5 Pro and Series X will be close and thats with a $200 dollar gap. Series X is said to only be around 9-10 million right now with the others being Series S. Thats not good in my opinion and i think the dev’s hate it too. Cause they have to make sure they have the series S game good cause it’s who will largely be buying those games, unless they are just on GP. Weird weird generation. Lot’s to fix for next Gen. starts with better games.

Disclaimer: anything Gears of War, Red Dead and Diablo i am maybe a touch bias. Those are my go to franchise's. That out of the way.

Gears 5 single player shockingly only came in at a 7.5 for me. The open world and running around on a glider just didn’t hit that well with me. The cast of characters weren’t great and the story again right in that 7.5. Onto multi player

Online play was a 9.5 for me, easily the best in the series. It ran, looked and played so well on my One X. I put over a 1000 hours into the multiplayer. Every day i would play it and i am not bragging but proud to say i was in the top 25 in the USA for a while in leaderboard stuff. I loved it. Overall it’s a mixed bag for me. But i suspect Gears of War E Day is going to be outstanding. I mean the cast will be great, the story should be amazing. The locust are back, Sera getting attacked, graphics on UE5 will be some of the best of the generation in my opinion. Overall i can’t wait for it as it’s my most anticipated game of the generation and it will pull me away from grinding levels and gear on Diablo 4.

I put 40 hours in XD. It’s ok at best. The fact it don’t have SBMM makes it hard for players to have fun with it. I am a good player at these games, good not great. There are matches were i am like 9-14 and a guy is 40-3 or even on match 51-6. So it’s just very hard and not a fun experience. With Pro’s beating up causals it makes it feel like a game not worth the time. Once COD Black Op’s 6 comes out i will never touch XD again and i suspect many others will do the same. 6/10 for me!

@OldGamer999 last time i seen the Xbox was only like 6 million behind the PS5 in the US. So it’s fairly close. It’s worldwide that PS just tramples Xbox in sales. Making the gap really big. This announcement won’t hurt Xbox as Indiana Jones wasn’t going to be a system seller. So it don’t hurt them much, but Xbox needs a true system selling game to see if people still care about the brand or will just pass on that game.

Playground games just expanded its team, maybe bringing Forza Horizon 5 to PS5 helps pay for that new overhead. Sure seems to be the only reason. It’s a guess but it seems to make sense.

@IOI you beat me to it. I just did a rant on it haha

This is why Nintendo and Apple rule the industries they are in SIMPLE CLEAN UI. I don’t want to read a book’s worth of text on a Ui. Adding more to what it already has is just lame. Microsoft Windows same thing clutter. even the PS5 Ui is to much clutter with cards that i don’t even want or use. This is a pass for me, make a clean simple 4K HDR Ui that is quick, fun and easy.

Likely Starfield, but i am going to go a different direction and say it will be Indiana Jones with the release date. Thats a game with a big license that might want more broad appeal. It’s a guess, i don’t know the contract details. But again a safe bet is Starfield. Wow if Gears of War E day comes to PS5 & PS5 Pro Xbox hardware sales could flatline.

This game has had more delays than it will likely have levels or play hours. I am still highly interested in it as i like the style and look of gameplay but dang this game has just seen delay after delay. Hope it makes it a great game tho as i am sure thats what the reasoning is.

@NEStalgia yeah even myself i am not a AI guy that much. I don’t use nor want it in my products. I can see the use, and if it’s doing things in the background and i don’t know it in the next consoles thats fine, but i don’t need it to build my hammer.

I said 70 million for the generation for Xbox should be a nice goal and sweet spot, sure PS5 is only at 61 million currently but thats without GTA6, and some of Sony’s 1st party bangers they normally have 1-2 of a generation. So they will easily in time hit 100-110 million PS5’s, if Xbox in the future could do 65-70 that is more competitive and i think makes them stick around consoles, but you are correct in saying consoles are slowing and customers have 2-4 devices in their homes right now they can play a game on. Throw in the PC growth and i think like you do that gaming is changing and has already changed as well. It’s just too big a market for it to only be in 1-2 areas. Heck it’s in car’s these days. So at some point someone’s numbers are going to grow and the others shrink and i think it will be the dedicated console that seems some dip in sales. Especially if the parts prices don’t allow consoles to do a price reduction in the later years as we are seeing now. So once again great points and i agree with ya.

@NEStalgia i agree with that 1000%, image is a huge problem at the moment for Xbox.which in gaming is hard to change at times. Like you said even more so with the casuals buying PS. They seem content with their PS experience and have games bought there. Very well said friend, i agree.

@NEStalgia Phil has already said he wants a native handheld that is a portable Xbox from the Ui, to the achievements and friends list and everything. I think that was a good look at how this thing will be and anyone thinking it will just be a portal clone hasn’t been listening. He likes the Asus handheld just not the Ui, that was his vision for what he wants it to be. Funny to hear me say i have confidence in anything MS but i think they get the handheld right. Now the Series X2 i am calling it for now, that is where they need to look at past mistakes and drive home a much better name, branding launch titles, year 1-2 titles and the sort. If they can do that then we have the winning formula for those wanting to be in the Xbox ecosystem which is me and here we go again put the dang gyro and better tech into the controllers. Hall effect Elite 3. No more messing around, who do you think you are Scuf HHAHA

@NEStalgia i am think that or maybe AI enhancements? The rumors are still there that MS wants AI to do some heavy lifting in the next Xbox and so does Sony. Both are rumored to be far along in that feature set for PS6 and SX2. I think it will play a vital role in the handheld. Man i have to say i really want a Xbox Handheld. I hope they do it right. I know i know it’s MS they won’t but a man can wish right. Anyways it’s looking more and more that Xbox and MS teams are committed to gaming and i think they will continue to look at ways to get the console more love and grow those numbers in the future. I know Xbox is only near 30 million in sales and might only hit 45-50 for the gen which will be worse than Xbox One. But think of that, no killer launch games, wrecked Redfall, Halo Infinite while good, no maps and content to keep players, them telling everyone you don’t need the console to play their games and more negative news stories than you can shake a stick at and yet they have 30 plus million fans buying it. It could be worse and while i don’t think MS will ever be a 100 million console seller like Nintendo and Sony, i think it’s fair to set a goal of like 70 million units, thats a fairly healthy console business when you have all the other ways to access the library. Again i am just throwing out ideas and by no means am i saying Xbox is Doomed but it sure could be going better.

@NEStalgia Me too and it works still. Easily a top 3 all time controller for me and if i tried hard enough it could be number 1. I was a MASSIVE fan of the GameCube. I loved that thing so much.

@NEStalgia i ain’t buying that mouse for work i use a Microsoft Surface mouse and i like. Just the thought of were tech is heading is insane. Don’t even seem real at times and yet here we are.

@Cikajovazmaj you wont get frowned on by me, this is what this platform is for is to share what you like and don’t and why. I respect what you said and what is working for you. I am just not getting the types of games and franchises that excite me so far this generation. It will change at some point, but i find myself waiting on things more than playing whats out. Well other than the few titles that i do like have been released. I am hope in 2025 we start to see less cross gen and push some true life into the software before we see the next gen consoles. I enjoyed your reply and always look forward to speaking on any topics 😀

@OldGamer999 yeah i do agree with those points and while i am a stay at home worker. My job is ideal for it. There job is to be around creators and share idea’s and make sure each others work is jelling together, i think video game work from home is not ideal. This Gen has been awful honestly. I am sure it will get good right before the new generation starts and yes i agree i love the Series X hardware, it’s the best made hardware they have ever made but they are wasting it on doing everything else poorly. Sony is just living off past history and a fan base that thinks they do no wrong in some cases. But even Sony this gen has been a lot of failed live service projects and remasters. At least this far along. Nintendo could release the Switch 2 at any point and it will sell. They said they wanted to have enough inventory so scalpers didn’t ruin the launch so they are making sure when they do they can flood the market. I respect that actually if true.

@NEStalgia @InterceptorAlpha you are spot on. Yep even my LG Oled has it in its remote haha. What a mess this generation has been. I am focusing my efforts on the Switch 2 for early 2025 hopefully and they get it right. Or mostly right and that will give me something to be excited about until MS and Sony figure out how to get some games out. Again for the record Alpha i love the Xbox controller feel in. Hands and i can use it for hours no problems. But it is lacking features. It just is. Don’t get me and NES started talking controller, we can nerd out hard on this topic hahahha

I have always since i was a kid had as much love for the controllers as the console. I got so excited when a launch was happening and more so for the controller than the graphics. When i seen the GameCube controller i was like yep i can see myself loving it and i did. 360 controller was so good it made the SIx Axis feel like my hand was in a mouse trap that went off.

@OldGamer999 this generation has been awful, heck my favorite game that plays the most next gen is still red dead redemption 2 from last gen. Most of the stuff this gen is only a tad better looking than last gen and has a release date of before 2030. Yeah Gears E Day will be jaw dropping but thats another before 2030 title. Man this is just rough

@Grumblevolcano buddy me and Nes have had these conversations and other controller talks in depth, we agree with you all the way. I normally don’t speak for NES. But he wants Gyro in Xbox controllers more than anyone i know. Let’s hope they add them in the next controller.

@Jenkinss hey i mean if you like it thats all that matters. I just find them needing to update the controller on the inside more. It was rumored to be here in 2024. I think they might hold it back for the launch of next gen.

@NEStalgia yeah i agree. 1st party controller need to step it back up. I am hoping to see the Elite 3 at some point soonish. I would buy one. Better than Scuf. I like some things with the Dual sense, but yeah the stick placement is just so so. I would love for them to make options. If they did an option with offset sticks, they would steal even more marketshare from Xbox likely.

@NEStalgia i was trying to be nice to Sony, since they took more of a chance with their Gen 9 controllers. Xbox did noting from Xbox one but the share button. That’s lame. I do like the way it feels in hand tho. Dual Sense is just a little off, if they tweak it for PS6, then maybe.

@NEStalgia Zzzzz oh look another Xbox controller we don’t need. We the same features from 10-15 years ago plus a share button that they were a gen late on. Ok back to sleep Zzzzzzz

Wake me up MS with a truly next gen controller. I might not like the way the Sony pad feels in hand but at least it’s got modern tech in it. Well….. minus the sticks

@NEStalgia hahaha and they wonder why they loose to Sony.
In fairness i like some of those names better than Wii and Wii U
Haha

@NEStalgia don’t give them any ideas with the Xbox Deuce hahaha

Yeah i get that, Series isn’t the best name by any means. I just like it better than Xbox One. That was lame as heck and someone should have gotten fired.

@NEStalgia kinda see that as a tie honestly. Haha they were so afraid of numbers so they couldn’t call it Xbox 2, so it has to have a 3 in it. Ok fair enough i suppose. So let’s call it Xbox One vs PS4? I am not sure there’s all that much difference there to the general public. Series is ok, i don’t love or hate it. But man they need something more hip and understandable. Something that can market itself well. Cause if that thing tanks out the gate i could see them going 3rd party possibly unless they just want to sit there and slump a 3rd gen in a row.

@OldGamer999 yeah makes sense, but i don’t think they try all cloud yet. Not on a machine now AI for sure thats almost confirmed at this point. But not cloud. Rumors are there about the surface team helping out and making it more of a pc under the tv like NES has been saying. You would be able to load your steam library and of course Xbox games and it could be a huge library of support. If that happens it could be cool. But yes i agree we know for sure what PS6 and Switch 2 will be at thier core that is. We don’t know specs and other stuff of course. But it will play games mostly if not exactly the way they do now and that is appealing to myself as well as you.

@NEStalgia wow that is bad. Those names aren’t as bad as Xbox One. Still my least favorite name they have ever used. That was such a mistake. I didn’t love 360 but it was good enough. It worked. One was just so lame, for a rich company to come up with that it’s like wow. Ya’ll tried hard to make sure this thing failed. Marketing 101 mistakes right there.

@NEStalgia yep and i do like some of the haptic feedback in the Dual sense so i would like to see it in a Xbox controller. I mean chainsawing a locust in Gears with that type of haptics would be really cool, but not having the gyros this far into them being a thing is just insane. MS is just either lazy or dumb. They aren’t ran right for the resources and infrastructures they have. It’s just odd.

@OldGamer999 i think MS has already said they can’t out console Sony and the market isn’t growing and they are lagging behind and with all that i see them keeping the console alive but not making it the best it could be to be in new markets and beat Sony and others there so they can leverage having all those players in their ecosystem. It sure feels like they sell the console itself as just a thing of many things not the thing, if that made sense. So i am not sure we will ever get that type of console back from them unless they do something really clever and great with the next Xbox and players flock to it which i am just not sure if that will happen. So they are all outside the box and trying to build a huge player base of other non Xbox console owners which is smart sure, but it’s not what we want. Maybe when some of the bigger titles hit it will pick up some but the towel is thrown in on this gen and thats now 2 in a row where they are getting mopped up.

@CutchuSlow thats really good. I hope it continues to improve. Cloud can be really cool if it worked great. I am not totally against it. I just don’t currently use it right now.

@NEStalgia yeah good point. I do like the way the Xbox controller feels in hand and the offset sticks. But it’s largely the 360 controller, and of course the Xbox One controller. I mean they are missing tech from a decade or longer ago in them. They better get with the times more on the Series X2 in 2026-2028

@OldGamer999 i agree buddy, and you know i say all the time I believe in 10 years or so cloud will be very good, to the point it’s good enough for causals playing FIFA, not us type gamers. But right now isn’t the time. I have 1000mbps internet and still cloud isn’t amazing, it works. But i prefer hardware. How many people have like 200mbps? A lot. I can’t image the are getting a great experience unless they live close to the data centers and have little to no ping. By the way the data center for Fortnite is in Dallas Texas, when i lived there ping was between 0 and 5.

@NEStalgia yeah it was, but why not just blame Xbox. I am surprised we haven’t see an article or video blaming Xbox for the Dual Sense’s poor battery life. Haha

Or have we and i just missed it? Lol

@NEStalgia buddy i have been trying to log back in to message you, and it wouldn’t login. It would take the email and password and then not load to log me back in. I didn’t even log out so i am not sure if they were having an issue or not. My Push was working ok.

@NEStalgia Tech naming has to be more difficult than us customers are making it out to be with how bad some of these are haha. 360 is my favorite console of all time but i as i said never cared for the name but you are correct now it seems cool cause it was their best console to date. I don’t mind the Series name if it’s going to continue. So we get the Xbox Series X2, i am not saying i love it. But i can learn to live with that and just accept they will never have a good console name. The PS6 is just so much easier to say and reference to what it is. Remember the PS2 day’s it just has a sound to it thats like oh yeah i remember those graphics and time in gaming, now remember the Xbox One, which one was that? Oh that was the PS4 days! LOL

@NEStalgia i never liked the Xbox naming since the first one. For as much as i loved the 360 i didn’t even care for that name. Nintendo has had some odd naming as well and don’t even get me started on Android. Lollipop, cotton candy, Jelly Bean, how in the world would someone know that system of naming? So while MS is up there with the worse names so is many others. This is one area i lean PS, they got it right. Well… not with Vita.

@NEStalgia Hahaha that would be more the case. Those things i hear break so fast and they have a limited 6 month warranty. They cost more than Series S haha

@Markatron84 agreed! For as much as i love the Xbox 360, i never cared much for the name and they only got worse after that. We should be on Xbox 4 and PS5. I mean for as much as i like Nintendo i don’t love their names either most of the time.

@NEStalgia Scuf is really bad and carries a heavy price tag with industry worse warranty, not even sure why people mess with those. Yeah PS5 controllers got off to a really bad start. Supposedly it’s better now. I have 2 normal ones and an edge. None of them are bad yet. But outside of FF16 i haven’t played much on my PS5 all year. So they aren’t in bad shape. I wouldn’t buy a Scuf on sale. Thats how little i trust them.

@NEStalgia i mean it makes no sense. There is no reason in 2024 controller are built worse than in decades past. I will admit tho i have only had one Xbox Controller stick drift on me. Zero for PS5 tho my play time is 1/3rd the amount. Switch was bad in the beginning think i had 2 but now it seems to be mostly fixed to a point that it’s not as bad. Elite 3 better get it right. They have taken their time on it so it better be the best improvement yet.

@NEStalgia me and you been asking that question for a long time buddy. It makes no sense. All the people thinking Sony did us this huge favor with the replaceable sticks is full of it. That was a way to make even more money off the cheap made parts. I understand they cheap out some on the controllers cause they are the higher margin sell to off set console prices but still. Hall effect sticks are setting them back that much.

@NEStalgia well I.T finally got my work PC working this afternoon. I missed a day and half of work cause of that. I mean i got paid but no work done so i am behind. That was strange cause i remember doing the update around 2 and i worked after it installed till around 4:45. No issues. Then around 10:30 that night i seen the blue screen come on and i am like whats this? Next morning i was cooked, i could figure it out. Our I.T department was swamped in calls. Glad thats over with. I thought i heard you say your Xbox was out. Mine was fine. I played a lot on Friday cause i couldn’t work. Had to do something while getting paid. Haha

Funny how i was getting paid to game and i still didn’t want to use the Dual Sense. Hahaha

@NEStalgia no it was a world wide outage caused by an update. Some people didn’t have it tho. Airlines in Europe were affected badly. Look it up, it was pretty big scale. I didn’t even work on Friday cause of it. Got paid to play Xbox. Thanks MS. Haha

@Fiendish-Beaver I agree with every word you just said. There was even a rumor that the next Xbox would launch with a next gen COD game. That will get that target audience of players in a frenzy to play on the best console at the time. Sure it don’t take away from Sony a lot but it win’s some market share back. Console generations used to be 5 years some even 4. So that 7-8 was way too long for my taste. I like 5-6 years. So i am excited for 2026 unless it’s just the Xbox handheld we see in 2026. Which i would still get and enjoy. But i hope it’s the X-2. You hit it on the head buddy. Well said and well written as always my friend. 😊