Comments 88

Re: Reaction: This Year's Shaky E3 Was Held Up By Xbox And Nintendo

Nikolaidas

MS did all the heavy lifting. Devolver Digital was always a welcome sight. Nintendo did its thing.

Ubisoft was a disgrace, Take-2 was a travesty, Capcom's was embarrassing.

Three highs, three lows. So ... it was ok. I would've liked Sony to take their stick out of their ass and join the lowly mortals in the festivities in order to have four highs and three lows, but it is what it is.

Re: Don't Worry, More Final Fantasy Games Are Still Coming To Xbox Game Pass

Nikolaidas

@gollumb82 FFVII Remake's battle system is very enjoyable with solid mechanics as well as a semi-pause system which allows you to catch your bearings and strategize a bit.

If you like team synergy - both in gameplay as well as presentation and fluff - you will be amazed at the quality work Square Enix pulled off with this game.

I can't wait for the PC version which will fix (either officially or via mods) the bad textures of the PS4 version.

Re: Early PS5 Tests Suggest Xbox Series X Is Faster At Loading Old Games

Nikolaidas

BC games' loading speed on the PS5 is disappointing, I won't lie. I was expecting games like FFXV unpatched to load in 10 seconds at WORST, let alone a whole minute.

It's obvious that this won't happen on PS5 games (it's already been proven), but it's ironic to see a half-as-fast SSD beat the PS5's and by quite a few seconds, too.

That isn't to say there aren't exceptions - Witcher 3 so far loads a lot faster on the PS5 than the XSX, which means that there are some last-gen games which have an architecture that takes advantage of that speed a lot more than other games.

Here's hoping the day 1 patch will fix some of that.

Re: Xbox Boss Suggests PS5 Represents A Heavy Financial Investment

Nikolaidas

Except that this $70 price tag isn't always $70, Phil. All PS5 users (who don't want to fork out 70$ per game) have to do is wait a few months and the deals will start rolling in.

Aside from Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil games, I hardly buy games day one (thank Christ for my huge backlog), so I can afford to buy Horizon Forbidden West a few months later when it will be 20$.

Re: How Much Faster Do Xbox One Games Run On Xbox Series X?

Nikolaidas

@StonyKL I was disappointed too, but I expect all next-gen games to have almost instant loading times on both the XSX and the PS5.

It will be weird however, to have Bloodborne load a level in 6-10 seconds and Demon's Souls in 1 second.

All said and done, 50 seconds for RDR2 is attrocious for an SSD. Really hope that Rockstar will patch it to load in 5-10 seconds and have better textures and assets. GOTY for many people, it deserves it.

Really interested to see Witcher 3 running optimized on both consoles.

Re: Talking Point: How Many Of Bethesda's Future Games Will Be Xbox Exclusives?

Nikolaidas

@Bobobiwan I hate having these kinds of dileemas myself. I want the Demon's Souls remake (I fell in love with the original on my PS3) and I CANNOT imagine myself not owning a PS system.

I also love Elder Scrolls (2000 hours on Skyrim and I'm still not done) and Doom, so I'm definitely investing on a PC and X Series X as well.

Hell, if the Switch Pro turns out to be a thing, I'm getting that, too.

Re: Xbox Series S Could Be Outdated Within A Few Years, Alludes PlayStation Boss

Nikolaidas

"Based on our research, it’s clear that people who buy a game console want to continue using it for four, five, six or even seven years. They want to believe they have bought something that is future-proofed and not going to be outdated in two-to-three years."

"Which is why we made the PS4 Pro."

Jim, shut up. For the love of God. It's bad enough Horizon 2 is ruined via cross-gen with the PS4, we don't need a Phil 'double-talk' Spencer working for Sony.

Re: Those Xbox Series SSD Expansion Cards Will Be Hot Swappable

Nikolaidas

This is brilliant - they look easy to use and handle like memory cards like back then in the PS2/Gamecube era.

Options are good. You either A) use old external HDDs for cold storage and swap games when you want to play something (can be a bit bothersome but you don't need to download anything), B) buy those babies and have all your games at your fingertips (extremely fast to use but also very very costly if you have a big library), or C) use the internall SSD and simply download/delete what you need/don't need (cheapest solution but also the smallest amount of games to play on a whim).

Make your decision folks, and invest on it.

Re: Xbox Series S Won't Hold Back Next-Gen 'In The Slightest', Says Dev

Nikolaidas

@Z3u5000 Ah, my bad. I mistook an echo chamber for a comment section. Apparently anyone who doesn't blindly kiss Microsoft's ass is an X-Box hater who needs to get a life and is a troll.

Am I a troll when I'm pointing out that the man who questions the relevance and ability to keep up of a 4 TF console when standing next to a 10 TF and 12 TF one is the lead engineer of one of the best shooters in the market?

I'm not hiding my bias - I'm a Sony gamer first and foremost, and I'm lurking in both this website as well as Push Square. However, I can't help but see there is a tendency here to shoo! shoo! anyone who doesn't blindly bow to MS' every decision.

You probably think of yourself as a dedicated X-Box gamer who praises the console and thinks it'll be the best choice in this gen. I'll ask you this: Are you happy with what has been shown so far for the console? Are you happy that so far everything MS has shown on Series X are upgraded last-gen titles and AA indies to show off what the world's most powerful console can do? Did you look at Infinite's gameplay and your jaw hit the floor?

Other than the fact that MS basically allows you to play all major X-Box titles for free (which is nothing to scoff at, but is an option already available to X-Box consoles and PC), what else have they shown that made you go 'I just HAVE to get myself an XSX'?

Re: Random: What's Head Of Xbox Phil Spencer Up To In This Interview?

Nikolaidas

@BrilliantBill Agreed. People like Z3u5000 can play the game of fancy names all they like (remember 'smart delivery'? And how PS5 was not going to have something like that?), but at the end of the day, it means nothing, like the 12TF number they like to bang their chests with.

What matters is the games. The games that make you say 'I gotta get a 'insert console name' in order to play that!!'

PS5 has them. The Switch has them. X Series X doesn't have them. You can play MS console exclusives on your X1X, your X1S, your PC, your mobile via cloud ... whatever you want. You just ... don't need an X Series X. Like, at ALL.

For now, anyway.

Re: Xbox Series X Scoops Gamescom Award For Most Wanted Tech

Nikolaidas

@Z3u5000 Haven and Gears 5 are NOT next gen games. One is a current gen game (also coming on the PS4) and Gears 5 is an X1 port.

I said 'next gen games'.

The closest is Flight Simulator, and that was only shown on the PC so far.

Halo infinite also doesn't count, since it's a cross-gen game (for now, anyway). And also only shown on PC so far.

Re: Xbox Series X Scoops Gamescom Award For Most Wanted Tech

Nikolaidas

@Medic_Alert I'm assuming you're joking. Both the PS4 and the X1 were obsolete in hardware specs from the day they came out. They basically had laptop Jaguar CPUs. And not to mention the archaic HDD storage which had AAA games take 1-3 minutes to load.

If anything, both Sony and MS needed consoles which finally have some true power on their engines to propel gaming to even greater gaming heights.

Re: Xbox Boss: Our Approach Isn't About Selling More Consoles Than PS5

Nikolaidas

@Richnj By insider info, you mean that out-of-context tweet that the now demoted ERA mod Dusk Golem shared with us because he was unhappy with all the negative press MS was receiving after the whole Halo Infinite demo & delay fiasco and desperately wanted to give MS a 'win'? The same tweet that was debunked by a true expert which called Dusk out on his supposed info?

It's amusing to hear the FUD the PS5 is gathering when we've seen numerous games running on an PS5, yet the same people conveniently forget that we haven't seen a single next-gen game running on an ACTUAL Series X. Not one. Everything next-gen shown by MS so far has been officially stated to be running on a PC. Three months before the console is released. And yet the PS5 is mocked by X-Box fanboys as a half-broken console which barely even works. Funny that. I mean, you have certain people actually believing that PS5 is RDNA 1. How much more delusional can one get?

And of course 1st party X-Box games will easily run at 120 fps if they look like Halo Infinite - which is basically an X360 open-world game upscaled to 4K. It's not rocket science. Compare Halo Infinite's visuals to Horizon Forbidden West's - it stands to reason that the latter will have difficulty running at native 4K at 60fps.

Though Insomniac verified that Spider-Man MM will have a performance mode at 4K/60fps - I'm guessing a mode where there is no Ray Tracing at all as well as lacking a few bells and whistles. Options are good.

In truth, and even your beloved Digital Foundry says it (correct me if I'm wrong), native 4K is a waste of resources FOR CONSOLES, considering what they have to sacrifice to get it, and considering the technologies that are being worked on by both Sony and MS in order to counter that.

Also, check out the GT7 gameplay trailer which runs at 4K/60fps on a PS5 and tell me what the PS5 had to sacrifice.

The total quality of a console is many things altogether. Specs, tech breakthroughs, developer talent, services ... MS is playing the specs and services cards. Sony is playing the tech breakthroughs and developer talent cards. Both are valid strategies.

Personally I prefer Sony because they tend to focus more on amazing single player experiences and because their games drop to ridiculously low prices after a few months allowing me to purchase them for a fraction of their original cost.

MS also gives tremendous value to your dollar by giving you (temporary) access to an impressive log of video games for a miniscule, almost negligible cost. They also reward those who like to invest a LOT of time on a few games and seem more and more eager to adopt the GAAS model, which is perfect if you only wish to focus on 3-5 games for an entire year and play them non stop with your friends.

Though truth be told, a lot of c*&p Halo Infinite is getting is not because of the Series X, but because of 343i. Don't know if it's incompetence, overestimation of the project scope coming to bite them in the rear, lack of talent or management issues, but the game screams 'development troubles' and it shows.

I sincerely hope the other dev teams will keep a focused approach and we'll enjoy Fable and Avowed without the same troubles. And yeah, it would be awesome to see these games actually take advantage of all that power.

Because no, I don't think that Halo Infinite is using those 12TFs. Not by a long shot.

Re: Xbox Boss: Our Approach Isn't About Selling More Consoles Than PS5

Nikolaidas

@Kopite People give a lot of credit to Spencer but they neglect the fact that he murdered quite a few of games people were legitimately interested in.

Scalebound? Murdered.
Phantom Dust reboot? Murdered.
Fable Legends? Murdered.

All these were games that had me hyped and hoping for MS to finally up their 1st party game instead of going always Halo, Gears, Forza.

I'm honestly curious to see how many of those 25 'exclusives' will end up seeing the light of day and won't quietly die some months from now. Will we actually play Avowed? Will we see Fable becoming a real game? (considering they're still hiring key positions for that game)

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