Medic_alert

I would like something to happen that allows us to get an Immortals Fenyx rising sequel.

Loved that game.

@OcelotRevolver Silk song is the sequel to Hollow knight but it has been missing in action for some time now when it was supposed to be out a while back.

Fingers crossed it doesn't become vapourware

I hope this gets the full AAA Microsoft budget treatment and we get something very cool.

I didn't play much of the other two but I think there is a really good base to both that could be turned into something amazing.

With that said, so far we have seen a cgi trailer of an angry dear and nothing else so can only reserve judgement right now.

The handheld PC market has made a lot of noise but has made very little real impact on the market. I don't see the Xbox branded handheld making any in-roads in that.

As for a fully fledged Xbox in your hands - the console needs to be a simple pick up and play device, with a good screen and decent battery life. It needs to be comfortable for long play sessions too and the sticks need to be pretty much drift proof and that all has to come in at a reasonable price.

And it still won't sell well.

Sounds like GTA 6 will push the current gen hard and with 30fps rumoured on the big boys the Series S may struggle.

But it would have to be really bad for that message to get to the mainstream gamer.

I suspect people will still buy a PS5 regardless of what MS do now. I don't think the Series S will be part of the conversation for most people when GTA 6 releases.

@Decimateh I haven't played any of those!

And that's the great thing about these games, there are so many to choose from and I love that so many bring something new to the table.

They are my AAA palate cleansers.

I really need to play Will of the wisps. I have had it for ages and just haven't got round to it....

I loved the first one - even that flippin' tree!

Another thought.... I wonder if going too far down the PC route leads to more security concerns?

Are we going to be buying anti-virus and malware software. Surely the closer we get to windows the closer we get to all those security vulnerabilities?

I will admit my tech knowledge on such matters is way more year 2000 than 2025 so happy to be set straight.

All depends on the implementation.

There are some possibilities that would be amazing, the library would be huge and only Nintendo games would be (legally) off the console.

However, I can't see how this doesn't lead to a system that requires way more tinkering than a console and the idea of running anything windows is enough to put me off completely - The Xbox has enough weird unstable moments as it is.

It feels like an attempt to be everything to all people but I'm not convinced that's possible.

It also sounds expensive...

Balatro was for me last year's goty too. I love that game to pieces.

But this isn't really a surprise to me. Most years seem to throw up at least one absolute indie classic that grabs me and won't let go.

Off the top of my head -

Stardew valley
Death's Door
Hades
Celeste
Axiom Verge
Hollow Knight
Undertale

And these are just the headline ones.

Having sunk lots of time into Avowed and enjoyed it a lot I'm now taking a break from normal games to play some PSVR 2.

Using it as a way to be a bit less sedentary. Bringing out the old favourite - Pistol whip and then Synth Riders and Beat Sabre, plus a decent amount of Drums Rock thrown in.

I also played thr opening of Metro awakening but finding myself having trouble adjusting to the control scheme.

If big corporations can't get together to do something worthwhile with this stuff then I'm all for people trying to find other solutions.

People will scream piracy but this hobby has had a long history of forced obsolescence making legitimate purchases useless in some cases and in others attempting to get people to buy things over and over with re-releases and remasters.

I have no problem at all with people finding ways to play old games.

@MaccaMUFC that's the thing though you absolutely cannot do it with a pack of cards, nor multiple packs.

Even a bespoke card game to try and match it would be incredibly complex and almost unplayable.

This is something that can really only be done in video game form.

It looks really interesting and I'm very much up for something new.

However that is always a gamble and much will depend on reviews for me. But fingers crossed it turns out great.

@dskatter I'm sure there will be lots of people that feel the same but MS clearly don't care about that.

I mean they may do an add on drive for b/c purposes but given that they have dropped a fair few games now with no physical copies and outside of COD none of the games they have dropped on other consoles have had a physical copy then I think this is inevitable at this point.

Even if Xbox intend to sell hardware going forward, they sure as hell don't intend to sell physical games so I wonder if this might be just selling through disc based hardware and not restocking it because the next box will not have a disc drive and the hand held certainly won't.

I predict all digital for Xbox next gen in whatever format that takes.

Just over 50 hours to finish it. Really liked it in the main.

Wasn't a big fan of the combat so went with both builds having wands and grimoires giving me access to 8 spells.

Despite all the choices you can make I found the ending to lack the personal touch and I was left not feeling much at all about it.

But otherwise really good solid 8/10 for me.

@MaccaMUFC Incredibly narrow view of what video game is quite frankly.

Balatro is amazing but it is ok if it isn't your jam.

@Titntin it's the subversion of the rules of poker and the standard deck of cards that makes the game later on.

Modifying your deck of cards and jokers to blow apart what is possible with a straight poker deck is the fun of the game. Having to lay down your own sets of rules in the first place would not be as affective because there is no expectation in how those rules play out.

@IronCrow86 no and that's the point, they aren't the same thing.

@IronCrow86 like to see you score 5 of a kind or a flush house with a pack of cards...

@Nightcrawler71 that wand is great, the upgrade you can add to it giving it extra range is amazing. You can cheese so many fights from distance with it.

I went for wands in both load outs giving me 8 spells to choose from. But I also wasn't a fan of hand to hand combat in the game.

Finished Avowed last night, enjoyed it a lot. Probably going to give games a break for a few days. 50 hours plus in 10 days is enough.

Started watching the blacklist so probably go on with that and maybe the new series of Reacher on Prime

@Deljo the cable has never bothered me to be honest. It sits behind my shoulder and I never notice it once I'm in game.

@GeeEssEff yeah I have to lie to my playstation for it to let me play room scale games... the sofa gets in the way!

For me the tech is brilliant and utterly transformative in the appropriate game.

I wish PSVR2 had Half Life on it but otherwise the £300 i spent on it has been a joy.

However, as a business decision, I totally agree that Xbox was right not to head down that route because it hasn't quite taken off and to be fair in that period Xbox weren't getting normal console games out let alone a bunch of VR ones as well.

I highly recommend playing VR if you haven't though. I dare you to play pistol whip and not be entertained!

I want something that makes the buttons more responsive on the controller.

Playing Avowed has really highlighted an issue that has always been there - so many double inputs needed.

I'd love a bit more granularity to this data.

I do wonder if I'm part of the 70% having played single player modes in live service games - efootball and Cod.

And what is the definition of live service. Push Square has posited a very wide definition of live service - one i don't subscribe to but it highlights that you need the definition to be clear on what this really means.

@Nightcrawler71 all the info you need is in the game and you will pick up the poker hands pretty quickly, no experience needed.

@Scummbuddy no problem, learned that the hard way!

Many a lost run thinking I was about to play a flush!

Also, beginner's tip - in the options there is an accessibility feature to improve contrast between the cards - turn it on.

It makes diamonds orange and clubs blue and will reduce the number of silly mistakes you make - particularly on that one last run before sleeping!

Amazing game! Absolutely recommended to anyone who likes a puzzle or collection sort of game.

Obviously no extra cost on gamepass but I'd recommend it on a portable and best on a phone - just the easiest way to pick up and play.

@LordDieALot I'm edging towards a 9. I really love it and it takes a lot for me to really get into a new game.

I have gone from thinking the game is good to feeling like it is brilliant and I am playing a tonne of it. 34 hours in now.

I'd be curious as to how much this cost to make though. In many ways it doesn't feel AAA and I suspect adding some of that AAA 'polish' would have been expensive and added very little.

Anyway, I think it is wonderful and I hope we get more in the future.

Hopefully we will get to find out what this year's indie banger will be.

I know SilkSong will be top of people's list but and Xbox/Gamepass release of Hades 2 would be my wish!

@cornholio005 no need to be a pedant, let's say offer then. The point is they are closing off ways to not pay full price.

All part of closing the loop holes with getting the service cheap/free.

The question then becomes, how many of those using those loop holes convert over to paying. Will be interesting to see - assuming we get any numbers from MS that is!

Sucks, but was always going to happen eventually.

Having not been sure 5 hours in, I'm now 22 hours into Avowed and really enjoying it.

Hard to score it if I'm honest. I could probably list 10 issues with it and yet I don't really feel any of them are breaking my enjoyment of it.

I haven't been this engaged in a game for some time. Well done Obsidian!

@omno I tend to agree with most of this view.

I think Xbox hardware will be there as long as it is profitable and as soon as it isn't then MS game studios takes over and Xbox are an all digital services and software arm of Microsoft.

I can see them going the surface route - but that means unsubsidised (read - expensive) hardware, the only caveat to that is that Phil Spencer did say they want to keep hardware affordable. I'm not sure he is driving this train anymore though.

@nomither6 that's fine, I'm don't need an 'imo' on everything.

I disagreed and gave my view to start a conversation, nothing in the conversation changed my view and so we part where we started.

No harm done.

@nomither6 fair point to mention going PC isn't all about power.

I don't buy the idea that you can corden off one piece of hardware and say it doesn't compete with any others. Everyone has limited time and money and unless you can afford to buy every game on every platform then they very much compete with each other for both your time and money.

Anyway, I stand by my initial statement that I don't believe this to be anything to do with PC sales - unless of course you have data to show otherwise?

@nomither6 still doesn't change the fact that rarely has power been the main draw of a console.

And I have no idea why you are throwing the competitor/not competitor argument at me. It isn't one I'm making. When you are talking about selling over 100m machines all media is in competition for your time and money whether directly or indirectly. How you want to classify those things is of no interest to me.

And handhelds don't always outsell the home hardware. The Vita being the easy response but the 3ds didn't outsell the Xbox 360, PS3 or PS4.

@Millionski this is my feeling too. Coming up to 4.5 years and this gen feels like we are just getting into it.

This is also part of the reason I think you're seeing the numbers above. The cross-gen period has just about faded out now but for many the PS4 and X1 will still play fortnite etc and the current machines have seen no price drop as would normally be the case and have actually gone up in price on the background of some of the hardest economic times since the 80s.

Neither Sony or MS have played a good enough hand to justify massive console sales at this point.

It's fine my biggest issue with the OS is not the UI but the inconsistency in the way it runs.

It doesn't seem to have consistent rules to when a button press takes you back one screen or back to the home screen.

It also still does weird things like getting stuck on 'finishing up' games. It just has random little errors and as such feels very 'windows' to use.

Also why doesn't scrolling with the triggers work in the store?

It just feels a bit inconsistent all round to me.

@nomither6 because that's not why people buy consoles.

Power has rarely if ever been the driver of sales hence why the Series X made no inroads on PS5 and the Switch is on course to be the best selling console ever. Even the PS2 wasn't the most powerful that gen.

The idea that anyone outside the enthusiast crowd is dropping console hardware for PC is just not realistic.

@nomither6 I have no numbers to back this but my guess is that it has absolutely nothing to do with PC and a hell of a lot to do with the Switch 2 announcement.

For just a second I thought Xbox was publishing an official release of Fallout London....

Colour me disappointed...

Interesting idea and one that feels like a good fit for AI.

I wonder if more long term the system could basically re-write any code to run on modern hardware? Albeit that that would be the end of the remaster we currently get... or it could mean hundreds more of them.

Interesting to see where this goes.

Very early days for me but I just don't like the combat and the respawning enemies that means more tedious combat.

7 for me so far, preferred Outer worlds

@armondo36 then I will move away from all of it.

But I have heard this assumption before and it only works if consumers buy into it - which i won't.

I don't agree that the others will follow. Both Nintendo and Sony are much much smaller than MS and their business model relies on being a platform holder - they don't have a trillion dollar business backing them to drop that revenue.

They could, I suppose end up just being an app on other devices but again that isn't something I'd support.