Ralizah

Christ this sucks.

I know the refrain now: "Subscriptions are the goal, not console sales," but permanently lagging in third place in the console market will inevitably lead to lower subscription numbers from console-only gamers, and most of Microsoft's moves lately seem designed to alienate enthusiasts from their platform.

Glad my PC is up to snuff so I don't need to worry about this sort of thing.

It's ridiculous how far behind I am on Yakuza.

That's not a thing that'll ever happen lol.

It is interesting how Microsoft has consistently signaled interest in Nintendo, though.

Should have played Prodeus while I had the chance. Oh well.

Good. Means a PC port shouldn't be far down the road.

I'd buy a PS5 to play this if I had to, but I'm totally willing to wait a while and not invest in a new platform I won't do much with otherwise.

I'll always miss the Mako from ME1, no matter how janky the thing was to actually control.

@SplooshDmg Admittedly, this sort of thing has always happened, where people join sub-cultures or social groups and integrate elements of those into their personal identity. I feel like it expanding to everything to create a persistent and inescapable web of interlocking tribal identities was probably inevitable with the way the internet and social media have transformed human life.

@Lightning720 @SplooshDmg I feel like it's easy for people to allow expectations to unconsciously snowball. Particularly when so many "gamers" are obsessed geeks who tether aspects of their perceived self-worth to the success of their chosen console maker, and thus feel personally invested in the hype and success of projects like Starfield.

To be fair, this was never going to be able to live up to the enormous expectations riding on it.

Bethesda has created some of the most influential and interesting RPGs in the industry. If Starfield really represents the height of their output to date, I'd consider that a massive win.

@Sanquine Yep.

To expand on this, though: people should definitely play them in order. V3 is meant to be a person's last experience with the franchise.

Bethesda actually released a mostly polished game. Someone should check the temperature in Hell.

@Xboxer999 I think people wanted it to be more acclaimed, like God of War or Zelda. Rightly or wrongly, Metacritic scores have a big impact on how games are perceived now.

@ShabdRider Instead of playing some video game 20 hours a day? Priorities, my man, priorities.

Only interested in Starfield, but that'll take me months to get through once I start it.

Persona 5 Tactica will be out by then, and then I can transition directly to Persona 3 Reload next year.

Hopefully we'll know more about Silksong by that time.

Cloud gaming just isn't reliable for me. It's weird, because we have access to high-speed internet, and normal video streaming, even at higher resolutions, works fine, but it's never quite... snappy enough for gaming to feel like a good option.

@NEStalgia Well, reclaiming insults has always been an effective strategy when it comes to robbing them of their bite.

Just saying that if you're in a state where the civil war is taught as "the war of northern aggression," calling someone a northerner isn't always gonna turn out well, depending on the area.

@Backagen That's basically Scotch Tape, right? Yeah, I imagine that would net you a lot of blank stares!

Ah, American/British language confusion. Fun subject.

One of the funniest experiences to be had as an American is the first time you mention "biscuits and gravy" to a limey new to the American experience and watch them internally try to figure out what the hell that could possibly mean.

On that note, as someone living in the American South, you're probably better off not calling people "yanks," since it means something different here.

And if people mention "football," we're watching stocky dudes in armor charge into each-other, not soccer.

@Dan1283 Nah. I'd love to have a portable version of this.

No. I want a Series S with physical game support.

Oh good. The five core Xbox fans who are still gaming primarily on the Xbone are being fed.

This doesn't even run well on new hardware. Might as well announce a Switch port at this point!

@NEStalgia Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope was fantastic. And the new Prince of Persia looks great.

I'd love to see more Trials games from them. Another Rayman game. Maybe a new Child of Light.

Too bad their AAA multiplat stuff consumes the majority of their attention.

I'd love for Nintendo to absorb the Mario + Rabbids team and the people at Ubisoft Montpellier if it comes down to it. The rest of the company can burn, for all I care.

@Romans12 be like

@Grumblevolcano The CMA's concerns are primarily related to Cloud gaming, right? It's not even a deal related to the same company, and Starfield will be integral to driving the Xbox brand for years. There's no reason to think Bethesda games will enter into the negotiations.

Microsoft hasn't really yanked existing live service-y type games off Playstation, but they did cancel development for Playstation versions of everything they could. Regardless of Uncle Phil's good guy, 'play where you want' talk, they clearly understand and value console exclusivity.

@PizzaTime109 That's no more likely to happen than The Last of Us going to Xbox, I imagine. Bethesda is a first-party Microsoft studio.

I'll just play it a week late. I'm looking forward to it, but not in a ZOMG GOTTA HAVE IT DAY ONE sorta way.

@somnambulance Probably a good call. Happy wife, happy life, or something in that vein.

I feel like it benefits a lot from understanding the boatload of references to older Gal*Gun games. Still good fun, though, and, yes, a fantastic multiplayer experience.

I'd love to see a follow-up at some point, since I think they're probably done with the Curse of the Moon games.

Monster Hunter Rise would be my pick if I hadn't already played it on Switch.

@somnambulance Nice to see some Gal Guardians appreciation. Not sure how many people enjoy both Gal*Gun and Bloodstained, but as a fan of both, I felt like this was really speaking to me.

@Cashews It might need some mild downgrades, but nothing I've seen makes me think it couldn't run reasonably well.

I'm still impressed with how the Ori ports turned out.

Seems like the sort of game that might have gone to the Switch.

If their subscriber growth numbers aren't benefitting from it, then this makes a ton of sense. There are still options for cheap people, like redeeming Microsoft Rewards points.

@theduckofdeath @PsBoxSwitchOwner Ah, alright.

Not a practice I'm a fan of, but also not the end of the world for me. Hard to be disappointed when I won't pay a penny to play Starfield.

@themightyant

"Some games like Starfield, Forza require an additional premium pass (£35 in the case of Starfield) to play Day 1."

Literally the first I've heard of this. Would you care to elaborate?

@Ryan_S If Microsoft has even half of Nintendo's game output capability, this would be a much more competitive generation, IMO.

No interest. Give me Dino Crisis.

Good.

It's nice to see SEGA working closely with Microsoft, but I'd prefer if they remain a relatively free agent with Sammy vs. being another publisher whose games vanish from competing libraries.

FSR already works on Nvidia cards, right? Because it's just an upscaler? It seems like all this does is screw over people who own Nvidia cards who want DLSS.

As an AMD GPU owner, though, I'm not going to pretend to be upset about this news lol.

@NEStalgia Why would you want to play ES VI at 60fps? The game will feel great at 30fps with drops.

I think it looks really good on SWOLED. The colors pop.

The OG one? Not quite as, but OK.

@NEStalgia Astral Chain played fine at 30fps.

Action games are better at 60, but they're by no means unplayable at lower framerates.

@NEStalgia "Nintendo's always looking for some unexplored territory, and "handheld" gaming is going to get eroded by mobile/streaming more and more, they need a new niche to make mainstream for a while. "

2009 called. It wants its talking points back.

If sales trends over the last few decades are anything to go by, handheld gaming isn't going anywhere. Game streaming has failed to catch people's attention, and Switch has reinvigorated interest in powerful handheld tech.

Mobile gaming is its own thing.

I'm not saying they won't eventually push out a VR-focused console, but it will also be a hybrid.

Had NO idea Project ReFantasy would be showing up. Not an inkling.

@SBandy1 I bought Final Fantasy Type-0 HD at launch in 2015 and only touched it earlier this year.

Definitely stopped buying so many games at launch, I'll tell you what.

I prefer to play games BEFORE scoring them, personally.

@SBandy1 Pretty sure the developers actually want people to play their games.

Anyway, it was like $5 or something when I got it. Calm down.

Snagged the original on sale years back but never touched it. Since this'll include the content from the second game as well as stuff original to this release, I'll probably just pick this version up down the road.

Hopefully this means I don't have to drop the settings too much on my PC to consistently hit 60fps at 1080p. Will probably enable FSR regardless.

Sea of Stars
Persona 5 Tactica
Persona 3 Reload
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Starfield.

Late 2023/Early 2024 is going to be heavy on Game Pass for me, it seems.

Can't vote.

I'd buy one if it also came with a disc drive.

As it stands, though, my PC will remain my only current-gen Microsoft platform.

@SplooshDmg It'll be nice to finally get some use out of my GPU. I bought it and then subsequently spent all my time playing Zelda!

But yeah, people were fooled by this extended post-covid cross-gen stretch into forgetting that the norm for a console generation is 30fps.