Titntin

Xbox has some great titles coming, no question.
They need it though as its a great year for games in general and many of the 'oppositions' anticipated titles are arriving in the next few months.
I hope their summer show has some fantastic new unannounced titles coming soon as well , and I continue to await avowed and hope for Indiana to be all it can be.
I think the recent communication from MS has hurt the brand a bit, but the whole industry is better off with a strong MS. The best way of keeping this is to keep the news where it counts - with strong 1st party games.

@Kaloudz Seriously dude, wtf? You cant stand the fact that the editors want to call out what was an unconvincing performance that left questions, so your stamping your feet and quitting the site? Not eveyone wants to parrot a press release, and anyone with any real desire to analyse the news should welcome questions and other viewpoints without immediately crying 'traitor'.
That a site dedicated to the xbox system chooses to analyse such important and serious news is hardly suprising. They are allowed a view and to question.
Your reaction however, is really suprising. Are you Ok? Seriously hope you are, if not please reach out to someone. I also hope that you reconsider, but if not then take care.
People with different views are just that. They are not enemies.

I think this was announced as a 'peace offering' to confused fans.
But hey, it's a big game and so it's definitely very welcome.

Personally I'd have preferred more openness and honesty about their future directions, but given the huge over-reactions to the initial rumours, I do have sympathy for the tightrope they needed to walk in the cast.

I hear comittment to the platform and hardware, which is great.
I hear day one on gp, which is great.
I hear just 4 titles agreed, which seems ok.
Then I hear them explain why they are now cross platform for the entire rest of the presentation. Theres clearly many more coming in my opinion I just wished they spelt it out in black and white.

I knew all I needed to after 2.5 hours of playing the open beta.
AAAA? It's barely AA its rough and rubbish.
I was such a huge 'Black Flag' fan - this is a real disappointment to me.

Avowed first.
Indy looks pretty sweet, but I'd have far prefered 3rd person (personal preference). I'll be happy to try it though.
Not interested in Hellblade 2 except from a tech view as the tech looks awesome. Apparently there's a small game in there too..

I'd be delighted if we could get another Gears game, but it's been so long!

Its at least nice to see that this is being hosted by Xbox gaming people and not corporate.
I've no idea what this announcement will bring, but I'm sure it won't be as bad as so many have predicted...

I'm hoping it's a few big hitters going multi plat and that's all.

I don't want to see Xbox going anywhere, and I'm pretty certain that won't happen.

@The-Grezzly-Bear
Tool + anything = good. 🎶

Im playing 'one piece odessy' as I picked it up for £18 and fancy some rpg stuff before the new ff remake.
Its fun!

Whatever you are playing, have a great weekend! 😁

@ZuneTattooGuy
Its a good day as I completely agree with you! 😁
I havent played mirage or avatar yet though, but yes the quality of assets on show in suicide squad beats anything Ive seen from ubi. Its a shame the gameplay was dictated by a game model that compromised everything and dictated such a boring cityscape, but the character art team and animations are top draw!

I hate to say it, but I found the game trash. The quality of the art assets, the animation system, and quality of animation work, the script and its delivery, even the water physics that they had right in Black Flag, all of it is less than a AA game and Id be embarrassed to have my name on it.
Like them or loath them, Ubi are capable of far better than this, and you dont need to know anything about the games history to see how troubled this games development was, its clear from the opening scene.
Ive spent 2.5 hours only, but I really regret wasting those hours on this.

Everyone is different of course, but Id rather play black flag than this. I've only played for just over an hour, but this realy felt generic and poorly finished to me,.
This is a shame as Im a complete sucker for pirates and live in a16th centuary pirate town with an annual pirate festival (Brixham, Devon), so I REALLY want to like it!
I will try it again in case it gets better or I was in an unreceptive mood, but based on my first 80 odd minutes I genuinely felt it was 2 gens old. Hugely dissapointing, but long predicted I guess.
Ps. Has anyone heard any sea shanties? Its sacrilege if there are not any...

@Sifi You are aware that most punters could not give a fig whether a game is from 1st or 3rd party aren't you? There are tons of Sony exclusives (games you can only play on a PS) and just in the next few months I'm looking forward to playing some. The new FF game looks like a GOTY contender already, and I'm excited to play Stella Blade.
But what has any of this to do with the subject under discussion? This is a far bigger discussion than childish chest beating over whether you prefer a blue or green toy?
This could change the course of gaming, for better or worse, in a way that transcends ridiculous brand loyalties.

@Sakai You are right to question it. There is so much 'noise' around this announcement at this point that it's impossible to confirm on the net, with many calling it an Xbox event and others calling it a Microsoft event. I did read a very persuasive piece stating that it would be run by Microsoft corp, which seemed valid to me at the time, but I'm unable to locate that piece now, and for all I know that was just idle speculation too.

I dont think its a huge stretch to imagine that these changes, should they be happening, will be happening against Phils wishes and dictated by the needs of the shareholders and those running the corporation as a whole.
Whilst I'm not signed up to the 'cult of Phil' I don't believe he will have maneuvered the brand to be so well positioned only to see the branding damaged and many of his prior statements rendered untruthful.

I'm afraid my assertion that this will be Microsft led and not Xbox led, has to be labelled speculation too.

@Shushibda Sorry mate, I really don't know. Its an event that normally doesn't interest the game community. I had a quick look on google and didnt get an answer

@K1LLEGAL I have doubts about Phil announcing anything. It's a Microsoft event and not an Xbox event, and I'd expect it will be delivered by Satya Nadella.

@Kaloudz
'Cast the trolls to the side, play your games, and just enjoy what you have'
Wise words for now, and indeed for after the news has come and been digested. Enjoy your games wherever they are played.

We all know MS have a strategy that's much bigger than a hardware platform, so if if they decide to make some huge changes, even if that is to become a multi format 3rd party publisher, then so be it. Game pass is not likely to go away and Xbox will always be the native home of GP.

I'd rather not see it, but I suspect they are preparing to be a giant 3rd party publisher and maximise their profits from their large investments.
I don't think they will be dropping any hardware soon, far from it. Their boxes will be the best way to access GP and this is likely to remain the best deal in gaming, but I'm not sure that will be enough for the long term.

Either way, I think people need to wait for the full announcement before going crazy over this news.

@Eejay Crikey! I don't know where I got that idea from then. Thanks for telling mate, appreciated!

I'm still hopeful this will end up being great, and its nice to see them continue to work on it and improve on what was shown.
TBH, the combat didnt blow me away, it felt a bit skyrim and not much evolved from that. That seemed enough to me when I thought this would have the openness and scale of skyrim, but more recent statements have indicated the game will be much smaller in scale than that, so I'd hope combat becomes a bit more dynamic. Time will tell!

Resi 3 is a choice game.
I'm looking to jump back onto GP for a while, mainly for infinate wealth, but Resi 3 would be a lovely addition, so I hope that's correct.
It would be nice to see some more top additions this month. Xbox owners are having to endure a period of uncertainty this week, which I think might have been avoided with better coms, so a reminder of why GP is the best value will help steady the ship a little ahead of whatever news is coming.

O, nice, updated and Resi 3 confirmed. I really enjoyed Tales of Arise too, so if its your kinda game, do try it as I rate it - I hope it is coming and Xbox players can try it...

@Sol4ris I've always valued having an Xbox mate, I've been buying xbox since the beggining and enjoyed working with Xbox game studios when I was a dev.
That I prefer the controller and OS on the PS does not mean I want the Xbox to go away, even it it means I'm labelled 'true blue' by those fighting an imaginary war.
I'm a big forza fan and previous generations of Xbox have provided me with many of my fave gaming memories, just not the current gen, but even then I'm very up for seeing games like avowed and Indy.

Nothing is confirmed or written in stone yet, but I am concerned at the trajectory of this because I value my Xbox, and not just as competition.

@Widey85 I saw a 3rd party PS5 controller with movable thumb sticks so you could use it with offset sticks if thats your preference!
They wont be turning off the lights of the current machines they have shipped, so I dont think theres any danger our series X's are going to be valuless, they will still be the gateway to GP on console.

@BrilliantBill
Hey I'm glad your Ok with it, you have a healthy attitude to it.

But some people here did not want to have a playstation and had an alternative, and that seems to be drifting away now. I have 2 PS5's and they are my main machine, but I have a vested intrest in seeing a healthy competing hardware platform too.
Strong competition has been good for everyone and I'd rather not see Sony have a hardware monopoly in the future, even if its my platform of choice.
I also consider many posters here to be decent people and I dont want to see them unhappy. This has also been my fave site and if they become just a publisher in the future, its likley this site wont exist, so another reason I dont want to see Xbox become irrelevant hardware.

I was rather hoping the internet had ran with false rumours.
No denial would suggest much of its true and that becoming a 3rd party publisher is now the corps route to their future.

Despite the damage control here from the usual suspects, this is a stab in the back for those who have remained true to the xbox eco system, as it very clearly will affect the future prosperity of the hardware platform and eventually its viability. If I had invested in loads of hardware and software Id have a right to be really dissapointed in this direction.
If you are a Corporation champion, you'll be happy the shareholders will do well, just as you would have cheered all those lay offs. If you just like xbox as your platform though, its tough to see anthing but bad news here for the platform.

@KayUK You can contact square enix support and change the default square enix login Id for the game. I had to as my old ID did not match my psn account. By default you can only log in with the same user ID. Ive been told its a one off change and they will never change the id associated with my psn ID again, so I've remembered to make a good note of the details this time!

I put in 60 hours or so and then uninstalled. There's too many problems and absolutely no soul to the game. This was a huge dissapointment to me as Id been eagerly awaiting it. MS7 is a far superior game and much more deserving of a prospective drivers time imo.

I do feel for those that are 'all in' on Team Green. If this happens, I dont see that this is anything other than bad news for them. But MS corp now want to see results and they only way they will get the sales numbers they are hoping for is to be multi plat - cloud is too far off in most of the world hardware numbers show they just havent penetrated the market like they would have wanted.

I'm not a fan of the hardware at all, so I only keep my series X for the odd exclusive. I'd be happy to sell it off if I knew all titles will come to PS5, and I rather think I wont be alone in that.
I dont want to see Xbox go (healthy competition is good for everyone), but it looks like thats what we will see and I will mourn that day.

@themightyant 'And all for £7.99 per month. (or a bit more by then)'
Unless you intend to never play online, you need ultimate, which is £12.99 per month - £156 a year (MS have stopped yearly prices)?

It's still decent value, but its not pocket change. Given this generation has consisted of 'just wait till next year', another promise of things in the future is not gonna be attractive to new Xbox players, and they clearly need new players on their platform.
One of the reasons I've dropped GP is that I far prefer to have my games on Steam, where they are feature complete and useualy work. I'm not the only one, and that does limit their potential growth in the PC market imo.

Still, I have no working crystal ball and it will be interesting to see how this pans out whatever happens. It certainly gives us guys somethign to chat about!

@themightyant
' I would be intrigued to see how many console players would ACTUALLY drop Xbox when they will have so many games coming in future.'
Given that GP is not attracting many players now and growth of subscriptions appears to have flat lined regardless of value, MS appear to have learnt that only die hard gamers are attracted by GP, and like it or not, the bulk of the audience they are trying to sell to are simply not in that category. I think they are realising that the only way to make big bucks from investing in these software houses is to sell their games everywhere. Growing GP and the Xbox brand is not working currently in terms of making bucks, and you dont get better value than GP, so they need to change what they are doing.

..and launching three games on Xbox this year doesnt seem to be 'so many' to me. I waited for two big guns last year and both dissappointed me, so I think it will take more than avowed and indy - I dont count Hell blade 2 as I dont think an 8 hour interactive film will be a winner with the genral population.

Its a shame as its the Xbox brand I like whilst I despise MS corp. If they let X box die, it would be a sad day, even though I barely use mine now. I can only hope the whispers are not true, as Xbox will clearly die if it has no exclusives. Hope I'm wrong.

@Kaloudz Its possible I was being thick of course.
But just trying to walk to a mission point was taking me over 10 minutes to figure out, and though you can individually turn them on and off, there appear to be at least 5 menus on screen a lot of the time and this definately spoilt the look of the game.

I did intend to watch a youtube video or something to get a better handle on how to deal with the interface, but in the end I just went and played some more BG3. It had taken 8 days of Emails between myself and Square before I could get a log in to work (your user name on the console must match your Square ID user name or you cant get in).
I'm sure once you are over the teething issues there will be a great world to explore - I just didnt make it past the interface. I do intend to try again.

If they want to maximise profits, they neeed to sell where people buy most games and thats just not on Xbox.
If this is the way its gonna be I'll sell the series X, its only there for exclusives in this house.

Tried this recently.
Wanted to get into it, but the UI is huge mess of infinate menu's with no explanation for a new comer as to what does what. I gave up - but I can see theres something decent in there if you can break the UI barrier....

'More focussed than skyrim'
Shame, that means more linear story telling and the character and lines delivered we've seen in game so far were the worst part, trully abysmal. I was hopeful for an open world experience, where the kind of combat we've seen makes more sense.
If this is pretty linear with some branching story lines, then this looks pretty poor tbh, and my anticipation for this title has fallen much lower. I hope it ends up being much more.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising.
Only for jrpg fans, but a different blend of game than most, with satisfying real time combat, lots of doing good deeds to help ctizens and build your town, and more fetch quests than you can imagine. An aquired taste Im sure, but Im loving it and want to finish it before its sequal releases in a few months.
If I can tear myself away from the above, Im also looking to play 'one piece odyssey' which I picked up for £18 and hear is good time, even if, like me, you know nothing about one piece.
Ive got a jrpg itch and Im gonna scratch it one way or another!

Whatever you are playing I hope you have a great weekend!

@Stocksy
'This place has some really toxic members.'
Testify! Its why so few people bother staying or commenting. However its a general problem with the net, just particulafly bad on this site.
I particularly hate those who believe unless you go with the herd their must be a ulterior motive. After all, if they heard multiple people say it on the net it must be true right? Anyone whos actually experienced it must be paid off it they dont follow the trend.. Its a shame people of such dimwitted intellect have any kind of voice on the net or anywhere else.

@OldGamer999 More power the better mate. Yeah a 4k pc with all the bells and whistles can look better, but I have to say its not significant enough that I don't prefer playing on console. I use a decent 4090 pc, but only really play a game there if its 30 fps on console and I want the extra refresh. Ive been experimenting with streaming it to the telly via geforce and 4k 60fps is nice and steady. The extra input lag might be a turn off for the yougsters, but Im an old man and barely notice:)
Im always interested in new hardware though. If MS do make a new machine Id be all over it! Can't help myself 🤣

Thank you for this review, its well written and its nice to see someone not simply jumping on the 'meh' bandwagon.

Not usually my style of game, but Im tempted to take a look when the entry price falls!

@OldGamer999 We are all different of course, but Ive never had so many games to play and I've been adult since games started.
Lack of games is not a problem most players are concerned about 😁
Indeed, my series X hasnt been switched on since last October when my GP expired. This is simply as I prefer to play 3rd party titles elsewhere and Ive a huge backlog! Once Ive cleared out them, I'll resub and check its still working. Im not gonna miss out on avowed or indie, but they are some time away yet and theres a lot more to play elsewhere.

I still dont think a handheld is the correct choice for MS or PS for future consoles. Nintendo built their fan base partially on portable functionality which is why they need to stay in that niche, but it will be a big limitation for switch 2. Wont stop me getting one of course!

@OldGamer999
I disagree. Having your main console handheld is extremely limiting simply due to the lack of power you can draw. Thats why the switch is so technically backwards and why the switch 2 cannot be more powerful than a PS4 - portable power is a huge limitation.
I want consoles that push the tech boundaries and they will never do that if they have to be portable - thats simple facts.
Right now, Steam deck is about as good as it gets.

@Romans12 Lol. Your comment made me smile as thats exactly how it is for me, I'd buy it regardless If it plays a game, I'm on it!

I think they would be much better off partnering up with another hardware manaufacturer and offering a stripped down gaming windows OS with their own E shop.
Everyone agrees they are moving away from hardware, so stepping into a market with so many existing proven products would seem like a silly move to me. The above approach seems to fit in better with their longer term goals.
Still, anything can happen.

@ZuneTattooGuy

He's not ripping anyone off. Hes expanding on his proven succesfull designs...
In the days where studios are being closed for investing in new IP's, you can hardly blame him for sticking close to his succesful IP of Bioshock. I'm personally well up for a new Bioshock, so I find Judas to be one of the better showings from sony's show.

Given Xbox sales in Europe, the large share of Series S in the sales that have been made, and the trend towards digital games consumption anyway, there must me very little footfall of people looking to buy physical Xbox media. Its only natural that shops wont bother to stock it.
I've been digital for many years, but I do understand the frustrations of those who wish to buy their games physicaly. They may get better service on another platform for now, but the trend towards all digital cannot be denied and it will be the future for all formats eventually - just looks like Xbox will be first like they have always wanted.

New Vagas and Outer Worlds are definately my picks and both are great games.
I really dont care much for the others - except stick of truth, which was a riot!
They are definately a jewel in Xboxs crown though!
I have high hopes for Avowed, even if I'm getting Skyrim vibes - I'll take a newer skyrim thanks!

Loved it myself. Lots of titles I'll play when they arrive.
But I wouldnt expect genuine assesments of these shows on sites like pure and push, where theres too much 'cool to be meh' and people get too defesive about their plastic toy of choice.
I'm excited to see Avowed and Indy on Xbox, but theres many more Ill be playing from the PS show, fortunately some of it multi plat too. It will be interesting to see if/when they show some 1st party Sony stuff.

All the hairs on my arms were raised as Hideo confirmed he is working on the spirital successor to MGS. As a proper long time gamer (OK, I mean as an old man), that was the reveal of the show for me.

Judas looked great. They are certainly not stepping away from their comfort zone, but when your comfort zone is Bioshock, thats a good thing!

Excellent. I still have three plastic guitars for these games (and two real ones), but Im tempted to look at this one. Playing two player with my wife is a lot of fun!

Good for him - thats a nice gesture.
Hard to imagine he's been in the industry for long if he's only been in one studio closure! I remember at least 3 in my 20 years and all my dev mates were in a similar, or worse, situation. Nothing changes...