Titntin

Titntin

Gaming since the late 70's!

Comments 2,054

Re: Forza Motorsport 'Update 8' Arrives Today, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Titntin

I personally think this game is beyond redemption and wont go back, BUT it's still good how it's continually updated and refined for those who do enjoy it.
Given the current operating concerns, I can't imagine this kind of support will always be there for under-performing titles, even when they are part of such a beloved franchise, so enjoy it while it's there!

Re: Talking Point: Is Sarah Bond Hinting At Eventually Moving Away From Xbox Hardware?

Titntin

@OldGamer999 Your not making sense mate. Ps4 launch games were £50, inflatiion means new games should cost £80 now, and thats ignoring the extra rise in dev costs due to the larger scope of some modern games.
Whilst I admire your wishfull thinking, it doesnt withstand any objective or evidenced scrutiny at all. Indeed, as someone else who has seen every single gen since the atari vcs as an adult, gaming has seldom been as affordable as it is today and I spend less now as a proportion of my income then I ever have, yet have the largest backlog Ive ever had.
Being more affordable is never bad, but thats got very little to do with the issues the industry faces imo.

Re: Ex-Blizzard President On Xbox's Future: 'Xbox Can Find A Path To Great Success'

Titntin

Lots of sense in that interview, free from spin and PR speak.

MS still have the tools to be a strong creative force, but they will only do this if they can learn to manage studios to deliver exceptional product, and thats been a bit of a weakness.
I wonder now if they will see that vision through, as ditching those studios so quickly after purchase is very worrying.

As someone who cares about the gaming buisness, I hope for a strong committed Microsoft no matter where I prefer playing games. The market is better and stronger with three key players, so I hope that situation remains.

Re: Xbox Is Shutting Four Studios, Including Arkane Austin And Tango Gameworks

Titntin

@UnlimitedSevens
I assume you are another oldie that's seen this type of behaviour before?
You can't tell those who didnt see it, they think it's in the past and doesn't effect their behaviour now, but it clearly does. That's just young people being young
I'm not stifling anyone else's opinion, but I won't let them mute my own observations..

Re: Xbox Is Shutting Four Studios, Including Arkane Austin And Tango Gameworks

Titntin

@RIghteousNixon
I completely disagree.
I watched through the eighties as MS stifled competition and did anything to squash any small firms who might find a living, and then saw the resultant anti trust debacle.
I consider MS to be the most abhorrent of all the corps. If you were not there and haven't read the history, then fair enough, you do you, but anyone acting surprised that they act in this way is simply uninformed.
There will always be shills for this company irrespective of what they do.

I had hoped that Xbox itself would continue to be allowed its own 'autonomy', but that clearly was going to change after the acti/blizz buyout.
Only shareholders pockets count.

Re: Xbox Is Shutting Four Studios, Including Arkane Austin And Tango Gameworks

Titntin

Microsoft care for nobody and nothing. This is proof. Those people that somehow think they care for xbox fans are very deluded.

My series X is getting dusty anyway, I think I'm done ever buying anything from Microsoft. I'm sure the shareholders will not care a jot, but I can no longer support corporate greed on the scale that MS do it....

Re: Phil Spencer Set To Take Part In Big Interview After 2024 Xbox Games Showcase

Titntin

Of course there will be no mention of rumoured plans to bring more titles to other platforms? This is to celebrate the launches it wants to showcase for Xbox - and we can all hope that there's plenty there to be excited about on the home platform.

No way they would mention such plans, if they exist, as that's completely not what this showcase is about.
I believe there is a strong momentum for MS to be a 3rd party publisher with concurrent releases on all platforms, but there's no way they will discuss this here surely?

I'd like to see some information on the next 'Gears game', what ID are up to, more info on Fable and a few surprises.
What I'm not at all interested in is COD - they should have their own show for that stuff imo, as for purely selfish reasons I don't want to see it in the Xbox show

Either way, the show is definitely something to look forward to!

Re: Hellblade 2 Will Display With Black Bars Outside Of Ultrawide Mode

Titntin

Only rendering half the screen and still cant get above 30fps?
The more I hear about this short interactive movie, the more I wander what they have been doing with MS money all these years.
I hope the film is worth watching at least.

.... and I'm aware that many people are looking forward to this, I hope they get a great experience, I trully do.

Re: Starfield Is Getting A 60FPS Performance Mode On Xbox Series X

Titntin

@OldGamer999 That X95L is a killer TV deal. Closer to reference than almost any other set, and bright enough to use in bright day lit rooms. For the money, it's a steal congrats dude, I'm jealous of your screen!
I wanted to buy one this year, but I'm a Hi fi Nut and just blown 10K plus on some new hi fi units - the wife wont let me spend anymore! For once I think she's probably right

...and back on point, it's good to see 60Hz coming and the god dam maps! Its still hard to believe they released the game without a fundamental part of almost every exploration game. Unfortunately it won't be enough for me to have another crack at it. I spent 80+ hours in it and the issues I had with it were far more fundamental to the design of the game for it to be fixed by these updates. But there are very many who loved it lots more than I, and I'm glad they are getting these updates..

Re: Microsoft Gauges Interest In 'Handheld Gaming' Devices With New Survey

Titntin

@NEStalgia

Yes of course, I get that. But thats simply an appeal to the already coverted. It will take more than that to grow their market against some compelling rivals, especially as those rivals have a much larger fanbase already..
.. or we can hope they have some great unique hardware abilities or functions that will be compelling. I guess we will see if we get a design!
I wouldnt wish it ill, Im just struggling atm to see a large market.

Re: Microsoft Gauges Interest In 'Handheld Gaming' Devices With New Survey

Titntin

Interesting news, but not at all attractive to me. The Steam Deck and Rog Ally are already great options for PC gaming on the go, and my tastes lean far more towards Nintendo if you want a handheld, especially as we are awaiting the Switch 2 handheld.
I can't see that a Microsoft branded alternative would shift many units at all, but I'm sure they will do their research before jumping in, so maybe I'm wrong.

As for PC type consoles - I already have a £4k PC I only seem to use when browsing these sites and dabbling in UE5. I much prefer a straight up console experience. I'd much rather see them go 'balls out' for a proper hardcore console thats not a rebranded PC, and use all the studios they have bought up to support that with 'must have games'. It looks to me like they are throwing in the towel before the impact of their dev team purchases can really shine, but again, I hope I'm reading that wrong.

Re: Talking Point: Do You Actively Avoid Xbox Games With Massive Download Sizes?

Titntin

It was a consideration yes, as I won't pay the silly prices for Xbox expansion cards. Not a problem now as I'm not playing Xbox, and when I do it will only be for one or two titles.

As I can get 3rd party storage expansion on PS5 I've gotten a 2TB one on the main (£120), and 1tb (£80) on on the secondary.
If we were using the series X mor,e I'd probably buy one anyway, but it does annoy me that the price is so high.

Re: Microsoft Rewards Fans Are Preparing For A New Era On Xbox This Week

Titntin

@IOI For those of us that buy games though, it feels better, I've had £35 this year for simply buying digital games I was gonna buy anyway.
For those who don't buy many games though, and are prepared to do what's required, the MS scheme certainly used to be much better. I hope they adjust it so people get the same value from it in the future.

Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?

Titntin

It will certainly push tech and that alone makes it interesting for me and I look forward to seeing it.
Not really interested in playing it though, I didn't like the first one and I've seen nothing to suggest this one has any interesting or new gameplay - indeed gameplay may just amount to 4 hours or so from the info we have had so far.
It won't get GOTY because it wont deserve it, not because of media bias.
For those that liked the first one and are eagerly awaiting this, I really hope it delivers for you.

Re: Rumour: Gears 6 Could Appear At The Xbox Showcase This Summer

Titntin

Can't wait to see what the coalition do with this series, but why is taking this long to come up with anything?
I too hope they change the lead character. Im happy for it to be a female lead, but I would prefer an interesting one to the one we got..

I do hope we get more than a simple FMV movie, but I'm not holding my breath...

Re: Hellblade 2 Sounds Like A True Next-Gen Showcase In First Xbox Previews

Titntin

@GamingFan4Lyf
Comparing older games and systems with todays is simply not comparing like with like. CRT's behave very differently from LCD, which is again different from OLED.
I can cope fine with 30fps on my main TV which is still an LCD, but in the same room I have a LG C1 OLED and I genuinely find it uncomfortable playing the same game on the OLED if it at 30fps.
Add to that the fact that different people have different sensitivities to this 'flicker' and its almost impossible to make blanket statements about comfortable FPS.

It's quite clear though, that the 'issue' is not simply one of people 'jumping on a bandwagon' (though there's many people that will), but it's very clear that different people, using different display technologies can have very different experiences without 'inventing them' as you seem to dismissively suggest.

As my main TV is an LCD where I'm happy enough to play 30fps, that's the least of this games issues for me. But I accept that for some people it's an issue, but its an issue they will have with lots of games...

Re: Which Activision Blizzard Game Do You Want Next On Xbox Game Pass?

Titntin

@Phil-Spencer-Gate There is clearly no easy debate with you, you sound like an Ai bot.

I can't say any clearer that I don't care for revenue and business growth, it means nothing to me.
I can't make it any clearer that I'm only interested in quality games (and I'd prefer Xbox to keep its games and have an identity).

Rather than receive an identikit response about business rather than games, I think in this case I'll agree that we can't agree and disengage, and I'll wish you and your shareholders a lovely day.

Re: Which Activision Blizzard Game Do You Want Next On Xbox Game Pass?

Titntin

@Phil-Spencer-Gate
Strangely, I'm here as a games player.
But I spent 2 decades making AAA games , and yes I have worked on Microsoft products. If I post on gameindustry.biz, that's likely to be with a view to the whole market and business.
When I post here, I do so as a long time games player who simply wants games.
I see the decline of the Xbox brand, and you are seriously living in an echo chamber if you have not seen these concerns from some very notable industry observers.

Your arguments are not cogent. You state 'you make a statement on wrong facts', whilst acknowledging they are true with ' so we can't know the impact on the subscription growth'. My statement is factual now, your argument is it might not be in future, but that's not 'wrong facts'.

I'm not sure why you think think toeing the corporate line on this site is particularly useful. Not one of us cares for the shareholder revenue of a 3t dollar company. We are here for news of, and talk about, entertaining games. Fk console wars, just give us good games.

Re: These Are The 10 Highest-Rated Xbox Exclusives Of This Generation So Far

Titntin

Loved Forza Horizon 5.
Hi Fi Rush and Starfield were enjoyable, but didnt quite hit those heady heights to me.
The rest are titles that just didnt gel with me - I prefered Ghostwire Tokyo to most on here and expected to see it on the list.
I think if you want to understand Xbox's position in the current market, just looking at the lists and understanding that's 3.5 years worth, tells you why. I don't think it bares comparison with its rivals, but obviously that's personnel taste, and I understand many might place more value in games like Infinite for example.

I do hope for better this year and I'm pinning my hopes on Avowed and the Indiana game to do well and entertain. I have severe doubts on Hellblade 2, but maybe that will be great too...

Re: Which Activision Blizzard Game Do You Want Next On Xbox Game Pass?

Titntin

@Phil-Spencer-Gate
'You have a wrong view about these games'
No, I have my view and am perfectly entitled to it, as you are perfectly entitled to yours.
I have no desire for any of these games, and reading the comments above, I'm not the only one who's not desperate to get hold of this catalogue. The acquisition of this company has hardly seen a spike in subs either from what we can gather, and judging by the new '3rd party publisher moves'.

That is of course a view from a games player who is not enamoured with these titles either before or after the deal, and has no reason at all to care for the 'business'.
If you wish to be a corporation cheerleader and are therefore impressed by the funds made from Mobile and a couple of very tired but still very profitable IP's, then indeed you may decide this was a fantastic purchase and I'm sure shareholders will be in agreement as long as they see dollars.

You don't have a hotline to the 'truth' and have no business describing any other viewpoint as 'wrong' simply because you do not share it.
You seem to value money. I value games I want to play. Either viewpoint is perfectly valid.

Re: Which Activision Blizzard Game Do You Want Next On Xbox Game Pass?

Titntin

Isn't it amazing just how few decent IP's you get for 70 billion?
Of course the value in the deal goes well beyond what games you can get for GP, but as someone who's just interested in games, the deal did nothing for me..

Tony Hawks is good, but the PS4 and Xbox one remasters are superb so there's no great desire to see this again..

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 30-31)

Titntin

Final Fantasy rebirth still, 70 hours in and loving it.
Tried the Steller Blade demo too and Im now looking forward to it.

Im resolved to breaking out the fighting stick today, and playing some selections from my shoot em up collection. I gotta scratch that itch sometimes!

Happy easter to you all - whatever you are playing, I hope you are having fun!

Re: Leaked Images Reveal 'First Look' At White, All-Digital Xbox Series X

Titntin

I'm not a big fan of the current featureless Series X, but this thing literally looks like a fridge. It unbelievably ugly, but agree with everyone that this should have been the original offering, at this point its dead in the water, I predict sales will be awful. What a shame.
I hope the rumoured new controller finally surfaces though, my wife won't even touch the Xbox because of its controller, so a new one might help me turn that around..
Whilst the handheld rumours seem to be gathering pace, I'm finding that even harder to believe. No doubt a hardcore fan would buy one, but you are directly pitching against the fantastic Steam Deck and the undisputed champ of handhelds, the Switch and Switch 2. No analyst alive could give them a hope in hell of shifting many such units, and I'd much rather have the other two options for handheld needs, as I'm sure would most of the gaming public.

I dunno guys, I'd rather not be fatalistic, but it seems to me Xbox has lost the plot. Sony could release a turd on a stick and it would probably sell more than this fridge.... Where is the design, where is the inspiration, where are the ideas?