RedShirtRod

I fully finished it last weekend. It was a rough ride. I've never had to reload a game as much as Valhalla. I loved Odyssey but this was depressing. Needless to say I'll think twice before buying an Ubisoft Montreal game.

Just buy Fenyx Rising. It's actually good.

@Peach64 Senua mentioned the same thing. The second studio opened in 2017. That would mean Playground would have had 3 years to not only create and finish FH5, but lend experienced members from the first studio to get the second up and running. When you create new departments you have to split the experienced and new hires between both. That's a lot of pressure Microsoft would be putting on them.

@Senua yes but the studio can't be made up of entirely new members. They'd have to split experience between the two. Don't get me wrong, I think Playground is Xbox's best studio and if anyone could do it it would be them. Just think that's a lot of pressure to put on them.

Playground has to be working overtime to have FH5 come out 2021 and Fable in the works.

The Gaas strategy could have worked. Plenty of them have come out poorly but been made successful after patches. The division is a perfect example.

Problem with SE is they burned the xbox/pc communities with the deals with sony and the hardcore playstation players who made Spiderman so financially successful were never going to accept Gaas. PS is the singleplayer king. Xbox focuses on multiplayer. SE needs some sticky notes to remind them of the difference.

@BAMozzy I still haven't got mine for doing a standing stone and there's a secret achievement that 30% of players have done that I haven't received. Haven't looked it up yet but seeing as I'm on the last portion with all of England fully completed I think it's safe to say it's bugged.

I don't see why the framerates are being focused on so much. There's about a half-dozen game breaking bugs I've found and had to reload old saves on. Good FPS is a nicety when you have issues like missions refusing to continue.

Microsoft learned a lot it seems from the xbox one launch. Force change on consumers all at once and you'll get pushback. Slowly implement it and you'll have a better chance of success.

Xbox is doing what Google stadia tried and failed by giving people options and taking their time. It's absolutely brilliant to watch. Very excited to see how far it goes.

Glad they have 4 more zones in the works. The game is pretty good to play with friends. Just needed some variety to keep it going.

Not the biggest issue but I'd like them to fix the achievements as well. I've done six standing stone missions without it popping. Did a quick search online and it looks like I'm not alone.

I think Ghost of Tsushima or Animal Crossing will pick up GOTY. Award shows are extremely political (not in the politics way) and I doubt they'll risk turning away viewers by picking a divisive game like TLOU2.

Good selection of games from Microsoft being recognized. May not be juggernauts but I've played most of those and they were all fun in their own ways.

I truly believe Microsoft needs to bring in one of their other studios to make Halo "light" games. A partnership the same way Turn 10 and Playground Studios do the Forza Motorsports/Horizons. I think the reason 343i was blindsided with infinite was because they haven't released a new game in 5 years and couldn't read the market. Stop making people wait so long and you won't have to scramble.

@hallower1980 Same. After about 30 minutes of hell through Newegg I finally got through with Microsoft. Seems like we've just bought products that aren't made yet.

@Xiovanni me either. Has there been any word on when online sales are open? Should I be camping out all night by my computer?

@Tasuki I can see it at the start of a new console generation but if I recall right this happened last year is well. If you haven't grabbed a console for the COD's that came out the first few years I don't get why you'd change it up now. Maybe it's competing for those who own both?

@IronMan30 it's the selling a lower quality game for the same price that gets me. I'm cool if companies buy the exclusive rights for a game. The publishers already made up their mind that they've lost the business of those console players who don't have their specific console. What I don't like is companies thinking it's ok to charge two different groups the same price for different qualities of games. I'm not paying full price for a game that is holding stuff back because I decided to buy an xbox instead of a playstation.

Exclusive rights are a self fulfilling prophecy. Publishers give these rights to the platforms that are expected to sell the most copies of their games. When all other platform holders refuse to buy their watered down games the publishers use it to justify their actions. It's ridiculous.

I would like to see how many people actually switch consoles because of these silly tactics. Do they really think that double xp is going to convince people to buy a $300-$500 console for it?

500 people to play roughly 1,000 hours of video games each? Doesn't sound like a bad gig at all.

Yeah I thought some shake ups would come out of the delay. Glad it seems he took the initiative rather than wait for the push. I wouldn't be surprised if more left closer/after launch.

That controller is... different.

@Medic_Alert I enjoyed crackdown 3 for what is was. Anyone who paid over $10 could probably make a case for being robbed tho.

Hard for me to think of a totally terrible game. I think Woodle 2 was a recent one that stunk. Bugs are one thing but when I game randomly deletes it's autosave as well then I lose my cool.

Xbox and Playstation: here's our trailers to convince you to buy our consoles.

Me: cool, I'm convinced!

Xbox and Playstation: yeah we're sold out.

😑

Sacrifice it to the tech gods for some good next gen omens.

The Forza Horizon series really redefined the racing genre. It showed that you could have a casual racing game that is fun without the need of blowing up other cars with turtle shells.

The special dlcs for each version really steps it up. Using Nos in Forza 2 was amazing and the hot wheels made me feel like I was 10 again.

@Tharsman I have no idea why they shut all of apex down. The dlc was for a couple tracts that they stuck in an "event" section along with free updates. It all ended August 1st without any notice. So far only apex seems to close dlc. I can still access horizon 1's and beyond. Kinda puts a sour note on the whole thing and I'm a little distrusting of Turn 10 going forward.

I've mentioned this before but it really kills the forza hub reward system when you can't play the games. I'm a little annoyed I can't access my Forza 6 apex dlc anymore, even though I bought it. Kinda hard to get to the next tiers if games keep being delisted.

@sib I feel your pain. I live in midwestern United States so it was 10am on Tuesday when they went live for us. I was knee deep in morning meetings so I chalked it up as a loss.

Key is it's optional. It's not a $100 kinect that drives the console out of the competitive price range.

Lovely. Bodes well for the rest of the world. Let's face it, no matter what this was going to be rough for the Xbox and PS rollouts.

Not a big fan on SE. Whether it's Tomb Raider, Avengers, or FF, Enix seems to be more concerned with getting extra income from exclusive deals rather than providing quality games to as many fans as possible. The goal should be to get customers to buy your games, not getting cash from Sony or Microsoft.

@Kev_Morrison Sorry, should have specified. The Microsoft Store is just their online store. They closed all of their physical stores permanently when Covid hit. My wife just bought a Surface from their online store with all access. Shipped to the house and everything.

@Kev_Morrison where do you plan on getting it? Microsoft store allows all access for almost all their hardware and places like Gamestop and Target should be doing all access at the store.

8-11am on a Tuesday is rough for those working. I can see this going down just as poorly as the PS5.

Sony isn't wrong. It's the benefit of having a highly diversified portfolio. Microsoft has about a half a dozen departments and can afford to try new things with Xbox. Sony has 3 departments and Playstation accounts for 33% of its income. PS is their lifeblood, changes would be extremely risky.

@Jacko11 The info I found showed Netflix had a net income of $1.8B in 2019.

@HammerKirby which is even better. We've gone from the Apple philosophy of "buy it or don't" to a selection more aligned to buying a TV. The point is that we have legitimate options. The ps4 was overpriced and inferior so people bought a 360. The xbox one was overpriced and inferior so people bought a ps4. You now have 4 great consoles to pick from. More choices is always better.

@playstation_king @Cyrus29 just because an event for competition is bad doesn't make the competitor's event good. You can have have different degrees of bad. I think you can't be willing to understand negative feedback you shouldn't be searching on a site for its competition.

Food for thought.

First time for as long as I can remember where people can pick between two consoles based off preference, not price or quality. Should be good for consumers this next generation.

Gotta burn some cash after that tik tok purchase fell through 😆

@TheNewButler If they made another I would have assumed it would be called a Series E after the 360 E. At least keep some type of uniformity. But overall a third new Xbox would just be confusing. No way they could make enough specific product to meet demand.

@pip_muzz Agreed. Especially with Forza hub and their reward tiers. It's a completely different game for those that are racing to unlock better cars compared to those who are getting up to half a million credits a week for free. The system encourages players to play the old games. Not sure why you'd limit that.

@StonyKL Here we go

• Yes, every new Microsoft Studios title releases on Gamepass at launch. Right now most stay on for a significant amount of time. Franchises like Forza, Gears, and Halo have their most recent titles on there while the older titles aren't. Obviously not all third party games launch on Gamepass; very few actually do.
• Yes, games leave Gamepass every month. As said before first party studios tend to stay much longer than third parties but I have seen some third party games stay on for quite a few months.
• Microsoft gives you warning before games leave the service. If you come here often PureXbox does the same. I personally haven't had an issue with games ending. If a game leaves the service without me completing it then I most likely haven't tried very hard to finish it. More on me than Gamepass.
• Downloadable mostly for now but the phone is a whole different beast. I recommend checking out this article from PureXbox. They review xcloud and what you can stream from your phone. Xcloud is still early so I can't give any good personal advice on that.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2020/08/hands_on_project_xcloud_works_almost_impossibly_well

Hope all this helps.

@Menchi I think they wanted to show something that is already relatable. I can easily see people crying foul if they are constantly shown seamless load times and get results like this. Showing a game that has notoriously bad load times gives some substance to their point.

The black is nice but I get why they did the white. They needed to give these consoles some sort of difference for the untrained shopper. Two black consoles would have been a pain for parents, no matter the size difference.

I'm looking to get a racing wheel for the first time this upcoming gen. I know thrustmaster and logitech are big players. Any recommendations from those with more experience?

@GamingFan4Lyf I love Paradox's games but they do have a large learning curve. I usually wait a bit before playing a new game of theirs just so I can watch guides.

@Sinton Yeah, just for PC. I think most people stopped looking for continuity when Microsoft went from Xbox to Xbox 360.

@pip_muzz You should definitely realign your expectations. Microsoft has made it clear that it no longer considers Xbox to be a console gaming division. Anything that hooks up to the xbox servers and gives you achievements is probably safe to fall under the xbox label. A Pure Microsoft sight could probably include every game running on Windows.

Tolkien created large gaps in the history of Middle-earth so readers could fill in stories from their own imagination. He was a firm believer that filling in each detail himself would remove the creative process readers have.

I get having familiar characters can help sell copies but this seems to just spit on Tolkien's memory. Stop creating these games that bend/change the War of the Ring. Do something unique.

I remember reading an article roughly a year ago where an employee of Microsoft stated halo was going to be a "make or break it" for people's careers. I obviously don't have all the pieces but it doesn't look good right now. The long development time with the sub par showing doesn't scream like the leadership at 343i knows what they're doing. I wouldn't be surprised if there is an extreme shake up within that department once infinity comes out.

I think this could hurt Xbox for years to come. Not only did they show that their flagship developers couldn't make a next gen looking game with a rumored $500 million budget, but that they can't hit a deadline even after their last game came out over 5 years ago. Halo really was suppose to be what convinced people to switch from PS to Xbox. Unless the Series X/S prices are incredibly low I don't see why anyone would switch now.

Doesn't bother me at all. I just vote with my wallet. Didn't buy Destiny 2 at full price because the xbox version was an inferior product. Refused to buy No Man's Sky since they wanted almost full price for a game that had been out for years.

I only can't think of a situation where this practice ended well for the game's developer. I mentioned this yesterday on an article over at Pushsquare but usually when games do this practice there is an underlying issue.

@Just1moretry They'll give credit for unused time. They did it when they ended Groove. I had just bought a year and they gave it back as credit.

The pricing release for the Series X makes sense for the reveal of free multiplayer. I think at this point it's not a matter of if, but when. If it wasn't going free Microsoft should have put an end to the rumors by now. At this point not making it free would be more damaging than anything else.

At least 343 has their priorities right this time. I remember the prelaunch show that they did leading up to the Halo 5 midnight release. It was roughly 2 hours of what the company did for competitive multiplayer. It's fine that multiplayer is big for Halo but it was clear that the campaign was an afterthought. Coming out and showing the story by itself really helps drive home that they've listened to the fans.