Hypnotoad107

@UltimateOtaku91 "Nintendo is the more friendly community"

I agree. Nintendo is a distant 3rd place for me amongst the big three, but overall, the community is pretty solid. They just go on, happily doing their Nintendo things.

Super excited about this. Sony is in trouble now.

I’m fine using the Quest 2 for my VR. I prefer their resources are used to continue to bolster Gamepass. 3rd/2nd party partnerships and studio acquisitions definitely sound better than moving their studios’ resources to developing VR software.

@UltimateOtaku91 The joycon drift is real. I’ve changed out the sticks three times. Luckily they’re pretty cheap. The third party games are inferior, and the first party games are few and far between. Mario and Zelda were good, but I didn’t enjoy them anywhere near as much as God of War, Gears of War, Ori, Horizon Zero Dawn, etc. it is the best place to play local co-op party games, which is cool, I guess. My kids love playing Pokemon and Animal Crossing on it, but it’s definitely in a distant third place for me. I AM looking forward to 2d Metroid and Bayonetta 3, though. I finally picked up Hades to play that and right after, it got announced for Gamepass, so I’m just going to play there for the upgraded presentation. I also hate Nintendo’s philosophy of rereleasing old games with minimal upgrades for full price. Sony and MS would get crucified if they did this.

I wanted to use it as a DVR but that didn’t end up panning out, iirc.

@RadioHedgeFund “ it does give PS5 owners a sense of pride.
Microsoft have nothing yet.”

You really think that there isn’t anything that Xbox owners can feel pride in? I could list some stuff.

@RadioHedgeFund “ PS5 is winning this race so far because it has a strong library of exactly that”

“Strong library” seems a little enthusiastic. What games make up the strong library? Demon’s Souls, R&C, and Returnal? “Compelling” is very subjective. I enjoy R&C, but I have no interest in Demon’s Souls or Returnal. I AM really excited for Horizon Forbidden West, however, and even moreso for God of War. Up until this point, I’ve gotten more value out of Gamepass and performance upgrades on the Series X, than I have from the PS5 exclusives that are available.

Tricky question. The upgrades alone isn’t enough for me to buy a new Xbox, but that with the upcoming slate was more than enough to convince me to pick one up. I haven’t regretted it at all. Could I have waited? Sure. But knowing I would end up getting one eventually, there was really no reason not to go ahead and get one and enjoy the faster loading times and upgraded performance while I wait for the new games to come down the pipeline. I’m extremely excited about the games Xbox has in the pipeline.

@masofdas I don’t think it HAS to be played through the cloud. I think it is using cloud tech for extra power. Kind of like MSFS uses cloud tech for rendering the world. That was my understanding. I might be wrong.

@LtSarge On one hand, I can kind of understand people that aren’t in the Xbox ecosystem getting tired of having to hear about it. It’s hard to talk about Xbox and not bring up its biggest selling point. That probably gets annoying to some. On the other hand, as an Xbox fan, for the past 7 years, I had to hear “Xbox has no games” 8 million times, so I don’t really care if they’re tired of hearing about Gamepass.

Make entire dlc packs with little mini campaigns based around different MS IPs. Have a Halo campaign, a Doom Campaign, a Banjo Kazooie campaign, a Gears campaign, a Fallout campaign, a Starfield campaign, etc... Imagine the idea of having a pinball machine and retheming the machine to make it feel new again. They can charge $15-20 a campaign and print money.

Yeah, I was playing this with my brother and son, and we got stuck on two separate occasions. We wandered around for about thirty minutes trying to solve a puzzle that didn’t even exist. It was just a glitch that caused it so we couldn’t progress. It was very frustrating. Putting it down until it’s fixed.

@xMightyMatt14x I just finished up the first tale of the PotC content. It's mostly just puzzle platforming with some battling at the very end. It was quite enjoyable if you're already a fan of SoT. It isn't anything game changing. If you didn't like SoT, I can't imagine this will definitely change your mind, except for the fact that there aren't any other players trying to kill you as you work through your story.

@BrilliantBill I read that one of the reasons Xbox hasn’t been producing as fast as PS5 is exactly this. I think they went this route, so that anyone with an XB1 will be able to partake in next gen gaming using xcloud. That’s reaching a possible 50 million gamers instead of 5 million if they went the console route. That’s my assumption, anyway.

@MaccaMUFC It looks like it can hold a 10 pack. A mini fridge that size usually runs about $80 usd. I expect a bit of a markup, but much more than $100 would probably not be great.

@Dezzy70 That would be awesome. Even better if they put your GT on the fridge somehow.

Assuming it isn’t ridiculously priced, I’m in on Day 1. Definitely want this as a beer fridge for my game room.

@Kopite Sunset Overdrive was fantastic. Unfortunately, it came out when there were on 7 XB1s in the wild, so nobody played it. It does seem Xbox seems to struggle when making deals with 2nd party studios in keeping the IP for themselves. It seems on the surface that Xbox could’ve owned the Mass Effect, Sunset Overdrive, Alan Wake IPs. Oh well.

@BAMozzy If it’s anything like Outriders, I’ll be thrilled. I had a blast playing that with my brother, but if he was busy, I could play solo with no problem. I enjoyed the story and gameplay. Redfall is definitely one I plan on checking out.

Picked one up. Went with the dark gray face with yellow thumb sticks and d-pad. Looks sharp.

They set expectations appropriately. That Hellblade “trailer” was actually more than I thought we would get on that. Nothing really exciting, but again, I wasn’t expecting any more than what we got. B from me, but More like a B-/C+ border grade.

@FatalBubbles It is definitely more fun if you are with a group of friends or if you can find a regular group from here to sail with.

The good thing is that, since it is next gen only, it’s not a situation where 100,000,000 PS4 players are missing out. Customers are in a situation where they are picking their consoles with knowing where these games are going. If it’s important to play Bethesda games, the beginning of a new generation is a great time to jump into an ecosystem. Or just play it on xcloud on a tv dongle. I guess he can apologize if he wants, but the barrier of entry is so low on the Xbox ecosystem, it seems very unnecessary. People not willing to play it because it’s in the Xbox ecosystem just come across as stubborn fanboys, imo.

@SubjectNine Good point. I didn’t even consider that. Thanks!

I love easy points, and I considered doing this, but I decided I’m not willing to install 200 gigs worth of games to get $0.50 worth of points. I’ve been thinking about playing Fallout 76, though, so maybe I’ll pick it up just playing that.

@Xenomorph_79 I personally loved the MP, and the SP is already done, so it won’t hurt anything if they decide to add it.

I’m jealous of the people playing it for the first time right now.

Surprised so many people are “meh” on this game. I actually think this was one of the best games of last generation. Such a refreshing take on a shooter. I actually thought it was better than Spiderman, and I’d take a sequel to Sunset Overdrive over Spiderman any day. I’m definitely hoping this gets made.

I actually think the best chance of Xbox getting VR is them teaming up with Valve to get the Index to be compatible. Then Steam good release a Steam VR app for the console. This way Xbox wouldn’t have to devote its own resources to VR development, and it would expand Steam’s VR footprint. That said, the Index probably wouldn’t compare favorably to the PSVR2, which sounds like it’ll be a beast when it releases.

@Bmartin001 Jealous. Wish I could do it for the first time all over again. It’ll be like my 7th or 8th time for ME1&2.. Only my 3rd time for ME3, as I wasn’t a big fan of the ending. Definitely worth playing, though. ME2 is my favorite game of all time.

@GateCrasherUK If you use the Microsoft Edge browser, you can log in using your MS/Xbox account. Your profile pic will be in the top left corner. You can click on it and see your points. That will link you to your rewards page. Most of my points come from doing Microsoft Edge searches and daily sets in the morning while drinking my coffee (300-330 points daily). Then weekly sets and punch cards on the Rewards app on the Xbox (usually around 3,000 a month for me but more if I buy something). I have no problem getting enough points for Gamepass Ultimate to be free, but I have that stacked for three years, so I use it for games instead.

I auto deduct for the $10 “gift card” each month to get the discount, and usually cash in the rest during a sale if I see something I want. Just picked up Fenyx Rising this way when it was on sale. Good program. Sitting on about 45,000 now.

I really don’t care if Sony or MS buys them, but if I had to pick one or the other, it’s gotta be Xbox, because, you know, Game Pass.

@Benjamin “The other platforms are consistently getting the exclusives the platform holders expect and enjoy.”

The same could be said for Xbox platform holders. I love the Xbox exclusives. I do wish there were more, obviously. Looks like they’re fixing this. I loved Gears 4, Gears 5, Gears Tactics, Ori 1 & 2, Sunset Overdrive, Forza, State of Decay, and halo to a lesser extent. Crackdown 3 did suck. I also have the Switch and PS5 and enjoy their games. God of War is one of my favorite games of all time. That said, the Xbox lineup is most exciting to me. If I’m being honest, I think the Switch is vastly overrated. I thought Odyssey and BotW were pretty good. Smash and Kart are fun mp games. Little past that really catches my interest on that system. My kids play it, though, so it’s all good.

@TheFrenchiestFry Gears 5 got a Series X upgrade free of charge. I’m under the impression the the tLoU remaster will have to be purchased. Not sure, though.

@SegataSanshiro If they have the ability to put out a new model that can handle Ray tracing AND 60 fps, then I can see them doing it. Right now, it seems like I always have to choose between one or the other. Both, please.

If Phil or Todd reads this, could you reset GT: hypnotoad107’s Bethesda achievements, please?

A platinum equivalent would be a welcome improvement.

@armondo36 I didn’t mind them too much. I just embraced the quirkiness and used it for a beer and snack break every time an episode popped up.

I definitely enjoyed QB more than Control (just finished Control dlc last night). I think I just prefer the more varied environments and I’m a sucker for time travel stories. That said, the final boss in QB sucked.

@Senua According to the Xbox site, MLB itself published this game on XBox. That means Phil could go directly to MLB and make the deal with them to put it on GPU. I’m sure Phil opened the checkbook and promised millions of players by putting it on GPU. Sony would not need to approve of this. It’s like any developer working for a publisher. Publisher would have final say.

MS has no reason to put good games on this service. They’ve already shown with the price increase attempt that they want to get rid of this service completely and try to get everyone onboard with GPU. Why put a great game on a service you want to get rid of instead of putting it on a service you’re trying to push. That doesn’t make business sense.

@Trmn8r Sonic Generations was quite fun, as well.

@abe_hikura MS is also in the “chat” business. This acquisition would instantly remove their biggest competition while also providing access to its 300 million registered users. I’m sure this acquisition goes way beyond an Xbox thing, though I’m sure Xbox users would reap benefits from this such as seamless discord integration with their Xbox. While many feel MS’s buying spree is bad for the industry, as an Xbox user, I only can see all my Xbox investments are paying dividends. Every acquisition provides me with more bang for my buck.

@gingataisen Kefka would be awesome. Unfortunately, my wife ISN’T a gamer, and doesn’t appreciate great game characters like I do.

There were a lot of indies shown that In excited about. That presentation was, no joke, one of the worst video game presentations I’ve ever seen.

@NEStalgia I agree with your Nintendo comment. I’ve been a big Nintendo fan my entire life (my sons are named after Link from Zelda and Locke from FF6). I have a Switch and it’s a nice little handheld, but it is, by far, my least played of the three consoles. I give Nintendo lots of credit for always releasing polished games and not relying on patching, but I really don’t understand the absolute blind loyalty they get. The only two must plays on the system, to me, are Odyssey and BotW, and I actually think both of them are a little overrated. Kart and Smash are fun to play with friends, but they aren’t the types of games I’ll drop a ton of hours into. I’ll play them with my sons on occasion. And Nintendo’s practice of releasing old games with little in the way of upgrades at full price is frustrating, especially after experiencing XBox’s back compat program.

@Dezzy70 I think the price point could make the Series S an appealing option for kiddos with 1080p TVs in their rooms. If that’s the case, it would sell better at the holidays. It might also become a second console for some gamers, but that won’t really pick up until MS starts dropping all of these first party games. I do agree that the demand for the S isn’t anywhere as big as the X or PS5, but I think that’s because we’re in the early adopter phase, still. And early adopters typically want the best on offer. I could be completely wrong. If Christmas comes around and the store shelves are still stocked full of them, then I’ll be definitively wrong.

@UltimateOtaku91 I’d put Flight Sim, Ori 2, and Wasteland above anything I played from Nintendo last year, but that might just be me. Worth mentioning, I couldn’t get into Animal Crossing.

@swedetrap That’s where I’m at. I’ve been on Spring break (I’m a chemistry teacher), and I’ve put a couple of dozen hours into it. Back to school tomorrow, so my progress is going to slow down. I’ll probably get a dozen hours in or so this week. I just absolutely love the combat in this game as well. So much more going on compared to BotW with the God powers and swordplay.