HonestHick

@NEStalgia Sony has long lost lot’s of money on deals like this one but i agree this one pays off. Especially with the extra $20 a copy Sony lured them into. The game is getting mid reviews tho. IGN a 7 and many others around that 70% mark. So it’s not as if this is getting 9’s every where and making it a must play. Same with the other titles this year for Sony. Now of them are holy crap thats great. I’m more looking forward to seeing if that Astro Bot game rumor for this year is true or not. The PS5 Astro game is amazing.

@BacklogBrad i mean that is a good way to look at it for sure. I hope thats the case. Cause if a banger title comes out on Xbox the gamer in me would never wait a year or never to play it. Now i own all 3 consoles so I don’t have that problem. But i wouldn’t want to wait. Just like i am not sure how many PC only gamers will wait a year or longer to play GTA6. Some will pick up a console for it and then get it when it comes to PC. Time will tell but i am hoping for the best versions of Gears, Fable and Perfect dark, those are 3 that have me really excited to see more.

@ShadowofTwilight @NEStalgia the back ground story on Stellar Blade was it was suppose to come to PS, Xbox and PC and only be $50 dollars. Sony swooped in to fill their gaps, smartly so. But they charged $70 and took over the marketing rights for it as an exclusive. Sometimes this used to anger me about Sony. But i see it as a company wanting to sell units and be aggressive to fill players with titles instead of having droughts.

I certainly think MS should use its money more to support more titles to Xbox so there isn’t large gaps in releases. Now that they have bought up enough studios i think that will solve that problem. Any PS fan whining about money being thrown around to get titles or hurt the other companies doesn’t know how money and the world work. You either have it or you don’t and MS does. They tend not to use it all the time is the bigger issue while Sony will cut the check and get the game. I can’t fault Sony for that. They aren’t a non profit organization.

@BacklogBrad thats a really good take on that Brad. I agree with it. But to play a little devil’s advocate here. Isn’t the mystery surrounding what may or may not come to another console kind of damaging to the brand. We know there are players that will wait on titles if it so means they are coming to PS. Not the other way around. I agree with you 100%, but i think it leaves a dark cloud following the releases and hype of owning or even coming into the Xbox platform. I said it on here a few times but I’ll repeat it. Gears is to Xbox for me what Mario is to Nintendo. I liked my OG Xbox. Granted i only had it for 1.5 years and then the 360 came out and this Gears of War title turned me into such a Xbox fan that my PS3 became exclusives only. So maybe i have my blinders on about Gears but i just think there is to many hardcore Xbox guys around cause of Gears. So to see it on another platform would really hurt the brand.

As for the smaller titles, i see your point on those and agree but as i like to say a lot of little things can add up to something bigger. 1-2 maybe 3 smaller titles won’t move Xbox’s but 6-7 of them will start to add up to at least take notice. If those are just going to go to PS, it’s sort of all for nothing. Maybe i am looking at that wrong. Sony is a ruthless killer in the console market place for so long cause they will do anything to have titles on their platform and not others. Whether they have to pay for them, make them or fund them for timed exclusive deals. We all sit here and say man that is shady and cutthroat. But it keeps them in the eyes of gamers as the place to be. Xbox needs to play a little more hardball with their titles if they want to grow and get those eyes on them in the same way.

Sorry for the long reply. You made an excellent point and worded it perfect. I do agree with ya, but i think the old school Xbox fan in me is still struggling with this new plan. I am in my own way with it so to speak.

@DennisReynolds if Gears collection hit’s PS5, and then other major franchises from Xbox hit’s PS5-PS6 it will at the very least take 10-20% of its console player base away. There are a few on this site that i have seen say they would just go PS. So MS has to be very cautious with what they bring over. Unless they just want to go down that rabbit hole all the way of any screen is a Xbox and we don’t like exclusives. Then Sony will sit back and gladly take the revenue and of course market share. I think MS know’s if they do that then they are going 3rd party at some point after. Time will tell but i think Gears stay’s on Xbox and PC. The June showcase can’t get here fast enough.

I wonder when we will find out what set of games are coming next? Or if there is some kind of window maybe like 12 months exclusive to Xbox and then they start to port titles maybe. Still hope core franchises like Halo, Forza, Fable and Gears stick to Xbox or every one will just buy a PS5-PS6.

I hope the Gears of War show has the same effect. This is yet another reason for MS to launch a Marcus Fenix collection. It could be a huge hit and give lots of life to the series.

@NEStalgia yeah for sure i am way tired of the soul’s clone. Yeah i agree i like when the cut scene gives me a break. I am fighting a boss now and it takes 20 mins at least. One tried once and died with him so close to death so i think on the second try i can get him. Yeah i know what you mean about FF. Who knows what they will do next. Hopefully by then i have a lot of games to play and i can wait to see what it plays like from fans and media reviews. At the moment there just ain’t many games out so i took a chance with 16 and really like it.

@NEStalgia yeah i would not be happy to see Red Dead not be Red Dead. Tho I doubt i live long enough to see part 4 and they still won’t have 60fps on console for RDR2 but i digress.

Yeah i do like FF16 but it has its rough spots for me as well. I too would like a little more RPG in it and for sure make the boss fights a little less long or find a way to make it less dodging giant swing attacks and then have me hit it’s feet and ankles and all that just leads up to the next phase which normally tuns into a cutscene battle and push square really fast.

I don’t play soul’s games and even i can see it in FF16 and the upcoming no rest for the wicked from moon studios. The games i want to see today are not happening cause Fortnite and Soul’s games seem to be the trend every one is chasing. I never thought I’d say i like a FF game way more than a God of War game but here we are. In fact the next God of War game i might even wait to read more about it. That’s how unhappy at times i was with that game.

@NEStalgia well if they are action based from here on out. I will buy a few more of them. But yeah the hour long boss fights needs to be toned down some. They are exhausting to fight. I can see the copy cat nature you explained. Lot’s of studios try that trendy game and more times than not it just back fires on them and they lose money and have to retreat back to what it’s fan were buying and playing. Sony couldn’t buy a dozen new cars right now not to mention a billon dollar studio. I don’t know why people think Sony has money like that. They ain’t broke but they can’t buy multi billion dollar companies. Plus the other sectors of Sony would have to throw in money and they likely can’t or won’t. Sony does well enough without buying Square.

@NEStalgia and i think that is my only complaint on FF16. The boss fights are long fights that require dodging like crazy. The battle wears me out. But after the boss fight and i can walk around the world and quest and kill a few monsters, i really like it again. Wow you really think they are going to stay action based? I mean i suppose there’s a chance. But i was thinking they would return to turn based and see if that is still where the sales are at. Funny how the biggest talked about wish on Push was for Sony to buy Square and now i rarely see that being thrown around.

Call of Duty Black op’s Gulf War is likely coming out in October. If they don’t get this game out soon it’s going to launch to close to COD and just be DOA. This game already fumbled most of its momentum away and now this test seemed to be still rough. I hope they can turn it around. But it’s not looking good.

Yeah i think they will make sure when the older COD’s come to GP they will be fully cleaned up as much as they can. Which should at least make them better and gain excitement for players to go back and play some of them. Xbox is getting to a great place and should be even better once the heavy hitters start to release.

@NEStalgia not sure how i let that typo pass. Haha

I think if the next FF is action the true FF are going to lose their minds on Square. FF16 barely sold and while i am sure it will make money on PC and Xbox. It won’t move the series into Square thinking to only make action games. But Square will be Square.

@NEStalgia yeah i agree i am the same way with Nintendo. One min i am like man they are so good and the next few months or even longer i am bored with their games or hardware. However they are still a most own for me.

Konami is just a sad case. Castlevania alone was something that i got excited for. SOTN is one of my favorite PS1 games ever.

So you want to talk controllers with me my brother from another mother. HAHA i couldn’t agree with you more that the touchpad should die. It’s a waste of space on the controller and i have been saying this since PS4. I hear the reply but it’s still useful as a big button. Ok and it is but look at the Dual sense they share and option buttons are so small and hard to reach cause of the hog size of the touchpad. Also i agree whats with the doors needing to use the triggers like that? The thumbsticks still make my thumbs slide off from time to time and it hurts my hands after 45 mins to an hour of play. Xbox controller is king and Switch Pro isn’t to far behind and once MS does it’s update with VCA and Haptics, maybe gyro and new battery solution, quieter buttons and thumbsticks it is all over for Dual sense for me.

Yeah even i agree FF16 action should be a spin off and i would be fine with that and the true FF fan’s could get their fix. I suppose they are getting their fix on Rebirth. All 3 million that bought it anyhow.

@Tasuki yeah i wouldn’t call myself a MMO player. But i did enjoy WOW for around 7 years. I just might build a PC someday to have and if i do then i will for sure get WOW again. At the moment i have plenty to play on all 3 consoles. I am just hoping we get a good Xbox Showcase in June and they have even more coming. I think they do and i think they are about to turn the corner on their releases soon.

@NEStalgia i always loved Japanese games. I miss so many of them that are no longer being made. Castlevania I’m talking about you. They have like you said most of the best games from a kid growing up. The West came back with some bangers of course and now for me and my play style it’s getting closer to 50/50. Japan has more dormant titles not being made that would push it back in their favor. Konami not being a thing is hurting me, cause i liked a good amount of their titles in my younger years. Nintendo is something i tell myself i will outgrow and just not care about. But outside of the handheld Xbox being rumored, the Switch 2 is my most excited hardware. I do prefer western RPGS, so that should tell you why i prefer FF16. Which is such a great game. I am for sure getting it on Series X when it hits. I hope by then we have the new controller to retain some of the gimmicks from PS5.

@Tasuki thats so cool. I bet he enjoys that. I used to really love WOW. It alongside diablo 3 was my games. I forget why i took a break from it and then once i did i just never picked it back up. Crazy to think it’s about to celebrate its 20th year.

If done right i would like to give them a go. I used to like the series a long while back. They are in need of modern tech. Hope they get them done right.

@Tasuki thats awesome. I have heard it’s easy to get back into which is nice to hear. Unlike Destiny which is a mess for new players. I’m excited to see what the future holds for Blizzard they are one of my favorites in the industry. I would love to see them have big success on Xbox.

Rumor has it after the expansion it will get announced for PS5. Still not sure I believe it. But then again i wouldn’t be surprised when and if it does happen. I didn’t get SF as it’s not something that ever grabbed my attention. However i hope we see more of avowed with a release date at the June Showcase.

I like the looks of it. But i am a Hardcore Diablo fan. 1000’s of hours in D2 and D3 and 760 already in Diablo 4. So this game play style isn’t for me. But i do hope the game does well as ARPG’s are one of my favorite genre’s and i welcome more to be made and do well. I am not into soul’s combat and i think that is what threw me off of this from the start. One thing is for sure tho and that is Moon is very talented.

@nomither6 again most of that games foundation has been laid by Bobby’s vision. In the future maybe Overwatch goes back to $70 dollars and leaves the free to play micro transactions format. Time will tell. But we can’t really say anything good or bad about blizzard games yet as there hasn’t been new made games to see the direction under MS. I am hopeful they get back to making some of the best games in the industry but if they stick to expensive skins and free to play, lock walls etc etc then there is no excuse and they deserve the backlash.

@Tasuki yeah thats awesome. I really should install WOW on my Mac again. It’s been 8-9 years since i last had it on there. Think i said this earlier but i used to play Diablo 3 on my Mac before it came to 360. Ran like a dream and i enjoyed it so much. Keep grinding levels my friend 😀

@NEStalgia Nintendo builds 5GB games that largely set’s a standard in fun and entertainment that 100GB games are not doing on a large bases for Xbox and PS. Nintendo understands its budget, its audience and what they want their games to achieve better than anyone in the industry by a long shot. Sony has turned to much to marvel games and movie like games that sometimes aren’t as fun to play as they are to look at for my taste. Xbox and i know some on here won’t like me saying this had NO GAMES. The ones they did were not fun, polished, well thought out and largely successful for any right reasons. To me it left the industry over the last few years in an odd spot for me. Red Dead 2 showed me gaming is the best form of media in the world. To this day i have it as the best single player big budget game EVER. Since then i have had little to say from Xbox or PS that has been worth it for all the money and time they are investing in it. I tell you all the time i don’t like windows all that much and it’s why i don’t build a PC and thats true. However if i did build a PC there is just so few games today that i would want to play on it. I have spent less money since 2020 on gaming then i ever had. There’s just so few games that i think are made well and push the industry to a place that Red Dead 2 did back in 2018. Games coming out broken, only to be decent in 2 years after launch. Nintendo don’t have the problem. So for all the dev costs they are enduring, what is the players getting from it outside of raised cost? Bad games, broken games and games that are selling in game content cause they are to broke to have them as a unlock. I’m on the soap box tonight with ya, sorry it’s been a tough week for me. But i hope PC development eases some of the struggles and i hope we start seeing better games. I own less games and i like even less games between both the PS5 and Series X in almost 4 years combined than i bought and enjoy in 1.5 years of Xbox 360. Before some one calls it age, i just want to say i have 700 hours in Diablo 4. I still play plenty of hours. I’m fortunate to have the time. But dev’s need to start making compelling titles again and not broken games that have no direction for me to take notice. Nintendo does that Better than anyone and doesn’t even have the power of my iPhone 15 Pro not alone a 4090.

@NEStalgia i played and beat Redfall once. I thought i seen a good game there being hit with massive amounts of non polish and direction. So i waited for 3 updates to come along and loaded up for another try to see if what i thought was there really there. It wasn’t. Sure it played better and ironed out a lot of what was in the way. But i just no longer seen the point in pushing forward and stopped. Yes everything you mentioned as a business decision is true and it’s why Bethesda is now team Xbox. Arkane will go back to doing what they enjoy and do best and we will get better games in the future for it. Yeah the PC thing is slowly unfolding in front of us. We seen it just this week with the trophies and menu skin from PS for PC. This is all the start and i think by 2028 we will see the vision of it much clearer. I do think it’s for the better.

@NEStalgia yeah that is a point for sure. It could just be old news at this point. But i think it does good for Xbox to cover all its bases with the ABK deal over time. I have no doubt WOW on Xbox would easily make its development time money back and more. PS1 had everything so it seemed. But yeah they had Diablo. Then we didn’t see Diablo on console for a long while. Man don’t even get me started on what Fortnite has done to the industry. Makes me sick as i am a shooting genre fan. Well was.. seeing as the shooters now make you build a house and wait for the grass to grow before shooting at someone. Battle royal is so boring to me I’d rather paint my fence or run the weed eater in shorts with no eye protection than play those games. I’d do a back flip if Quake or Unreal tournament style arena shooters made a comeback. Heck i would probably buy a PC for that. Cause i would want all the FPS i could get. I used to play Quake 3 on my buddy’s PC when i was younger. We shall see what happens with Blizzard but i do think they will be better without Bobby and the gang making them have money grab mechanics in their games vs just fun. MS get’s a bad wrap a lot, but they really do let their teams go to work. Outside of Redfall i think that it going to be mostly a good thing for us. Tho i will be here eating crow if they don’t.

The new TB Pro’s are insanely good and i am an audio snob. Plus they have swappable batteries so you never have to worry about being out of juice. TB did a great job on that model. Sure it may be expensive for some. But treat yourself if you’re in the market for a pair.

@NEStalgia i talk about WOW on Xbox on here all the time lately it seems. I think it’s a major get for the console. Sure it would come to PS5 or PS6 a year later. But for a year MS could really push that WOW is on console and cross play across all the Xbox connected devices. Maybe i am just being nostalgic and the game has for the better part grown to what it is. But it feels like a selling point or at the very least just good PR for Xbox to have such big known titles on its platform. I mean you spent $69 billion to get all these IP’s and claimed without this deal you (Xbox) can’t complete with Nintendo and Sony. Well i say use them and let the players decide what sticks and what don’t. At least you gave everything you have to the player base. Again i might just be in my feelings about a game i think reshaped PC gaming and the MMO space like no other. Blizzard was my favorite developer for a long long time. Still is actually, if they get moving back in the post Bobby Blizzard world. One thing is for sure, if Sony owned WOW they would find a way to have it on PS. Not that thats a reason to do it, but that is who you are competing against and why they are so successful in many ways. I remember Diablo 1 being on PS1. I wish you lived closer to me so you could throw a rock off my head for trading that in.

@Markatron84 oh for sure. But if i am going to start gaming on the PC, i would built a killer rig and play most titles on it. I’m just not much of a PC user. For work i do. But at home i have all Apple products for the last 18 years of my life. I own all 3 consoles and a LG Oled and $4k in surround sound audio. So i have invested my money into this style over PC. So not sure i will ever make that switch. My MacBook Pro can run Wow. I just don’t do it. I used to run Diablo 3 on it and it ran really well. 😀

@Markatron84 sadly you are right my friend. But that would be really cool if it came over. I really should just built a PC and get it over with. But i love console gaming.

This game lost so much momentum that i hope the game can turn it around so it’s not DOA. At one point i was very interested in it myself. Now i am back to wait and see.

Now get rid of Battle.net and make it part of my Xbox account. Battle.net is awful and not needed. MS account is much better. I would like to see Blizzard go back to the studio that was my #1 favorite in the world at one point. They have the Ip’s to do so, only time will tell. Wow on Xbox would be a system seller tho. Especially if they did a limited edition console or controller bundle.

@Sol4ris Yeah i agree. I just think it would also be crushing to the Xbox and all us loyal fans to not only Xbox but Gears of War. Granted the extra player count would be nice and maybe by then we would be able to access PS games, unlikely of course. But 10 years in this business is a lot of time for changes. Heck at this pace 10 months is a lot of changes and updates. I am keeping my fingers crossed yet again for the June Showcase to show the Marcus Fenix collection. That is my most wanted game by far and i don’t even know if it’s real.

40 million players and they still wanted in on PS5? Seems odd to me, but i am sure it will grow even more with the PS5 user base. Wonder if we will really see more Xbox games make it to PS5 or not. If Gears of War goes that would be crushing to me as it’s like Mario to Nintendo for me. I think of Gears as Xbox more than i do Halo.

@nomither6 100% agree. I despise battle royal games. It had ruined my FPS genre to the point i don’t even have any to play anymore. Really want the fast paced arena shooters to come back at some point. But Fortnite isn’t about to not be the coolest thing around any time soon.

@awp69 Dear Lord yes! Now that is the type of shooters i am talking about.

I mss fast paced arena shooter. All these shooters today made you build stuff and just wait for mins on end to shoot. COD has gotten such big maps that for 6 vs 6 i can not see an enemy sometimes for over a min. I really hope we see a revival of fast paced shooters like Quake and others.

In typical MS fashion it’s cluttered and bloated. Why is there 2 places for the store? The ad’s are still a joke when Sony and Nintendo don’t have them. You can’t customize the underneath stuff to your interest. It needs a lot of fat trimmed off. Needs to be 4K HDR like the PS5 and they need a new refreshed page to the achievements tab. The foundation of it is good, just needs some spring cleaning and updated content and it would be very very good and fast.

@NEStalgia i agree. I think this is the way forward. It makes the most sense on every end. The only thing the video i watched said that could be issue for software is licensing. I am sure they will figure that out as i am not well informed on how all that works. Otherwise this is a slam dunk move cause like me and you have said on here before this is what they wanted Xbox to be. Windows in the home entertainment area of the house. Well this would put windows front and center. Now i just hope we see the handheld they are working on at some point. That is a day one buy for me. The tech and market has matured perfect for it. MS will hopefully cut out the few headaches that market has and if it’s powerful enough, i think it’s a home run device. As for the console. Just make it Zen 5 and don’t skimp on the CPU and it will be fine for console players. If not we can build a PC. Either way it’s all Xbox.

@NEStalgia ok so it finally clicked with me what you were explaining the next Xbox strategy to be. I just watched a video and somehow it made it go this is close to what NES was telling me. They build the Ui to run on windows and the games would be just PC games that would run on Xbox, Pc and handheld with the slight adjustments needed. You buy say Diablo 4 and you can run it across all platforms with cross save and achievements etc etc. so it’s mostly what we have now as a Xbox Series X and PS5 is already just a PC. But it’s more of what windows and the back end of the dev teams would benefit from and of course this fits MS’s mission of games on all devices, play anywhere with anyone. Not that most of this was over my head but i am just starting to see the impact it would have more behind the scenes, and of course the player. Hmm this seems really good actually. I mean why would you even play on PS if it’s locked to just that when you could buy it for windows and use it on 25 different devices of your choice? If and it’s a big if this catches on. Sony would have little to no answer for this as they don’t control the PC software side. They would just have you buy a PS6 game and run it on console and their rumored handheld but no way are they including a PC and PC handheld access or mobile if the title could run there. This seems like the perfect answer really for MS. It will be a win win for them on a software (games & OS) standpoint. Am i missing something?

@RetroMan71 thanks buddy. Yeah it’s my go to shooter and it’s not even close. Would love to see 1-3 cranked all the way up. Players would enjoy it I believe. Oh yeah i remember the Mad World Ad. It was really well done. Would love to see MS advertise aggressively for its games like that again.

@stefan771 cause i like remasters of great games that are on older hardware. It will bring them to the PC and get new gamers into the franchise.

Can we get a feature to delete games we didn’t like and have 5G Score on? That’s all I’ve been asking for since late 360. I’ll gladly take the 5G off my achievement score to have my list narrowed to what i enjoy and plan to play and progress.

I just want more control over my Profile. Achievements and trying game demos is great and all but if i hated it. I want to be able to permanently delete it from my profile to keep my organization in control.

@Fiendish-Beaver thats awesome. Co-op gaming on 360 was so far ahead of the competition. Done right all the way around. I really hope the rumor of a new Halo game using Unreal engine 5 due out in 2025 is true. Plus i hope we get a great gears game and you and i will be all set for a while.

@Fiendish-Beaver thats awesome. Yeah you and i are the local Gear Heads around here. Gears of War is just Xbox to me. Like Mario is to Nintendo. Me and my friends back in the 360 days did weekend Gears and Beers. We would drink beer and just grind hours and hours into Gears on 360. I think that plays a part of why i want the Marcus Fenix 1-3 trilogy so bad. It was just a special time in my gaming life where games were fun and online was new and exciting and fun over took coming online and talking business strategies for the console makers. There was nothing and i mean nothing in gaming at the time like chainsawing a locust. That was as satisfying move in gaming as it got. Gears of War, Red Dead and Diablo is the reason i still play video games today. They just moved me in ways other games didn’t.

Hope it’s good this time and is made in a way new players and older players that haven’t played in a long time (Me) can get back into it and have a feel for it. No missing content and story that makes zero sense.

Wow, i beat insane on all of them but without cover just seems impossible. Gears 5 multiplayer i was at one peak ranked in the top 5%, then i took a break and lost most of those skills. I am still hoping we get the Marcus Fenix Collection at the June Showcase with a Gears 6 trailer.

@TruestoryYep I’ll throw in a bonus. If the collection is real and it goes to PS5, that would draw in more than 2 million players on its own. Rumor has it it could go there to expand the player base for the upcoming show. Not saying it would happen, but i have read a lot of PS5 fans say they hope it’s true.

@TruestoryYep there’s a least a million players on PC alone that would buy them as they aren’t on there. Plus every Gears Forum i read and it’s most of them cause I’m a Gears fanatic. They are asking for it. Saying 1-3 is the real GOW and the heck with 4 & 5 with many saying what i am and thats they want the collection over Gears 6. As for if the player count would die after the excitement wears off i can’t comment on. Player counts come and go without much notice. But plenty of real gears players want 1-3 on unreal engine 5.