TooBarFoo

I have to wonder if that 10 year deal offer is still on the table or, after Jim's "I don't want your deal" comment Phil will be sending him a "you snooze, you loose" txt

Every game going on the XSX is also going to PC so will have the ability to run on hardware of various levels. All this extra work be complained about is really just about selecting the optimized settings for the console. Not exactly a time sink. Game optimization is something that all platforms benefit from so are not a cost to any single SKU

Sounds great, games like this, which I would not have tried without gamepass really make the service shine for me.

If you're looking for a pirate game on Xbox or PC then you can't go far wrong with SoT. From what we saw this is really not going to compare well. I guess PS could have a hole to fill but it seems this is a good few to late for most folks

@ralphdibny Yes please

Great idea, Looking forward to following along

I know I'm in a bit of minority on this but I'll miss E3. I liked E3 as much as Xmas. So I'm happy Xbox will be keeping a little flame alive at E3 time. RIP E3 you were great until you weren't.

The good old days, LucasArts made some great star wars games. Such a shame they threw in the towel.

The only thing worst than one of the big consoles looking into this is both looking into it. XB and PS are always looking over their shoulders at the other not wanting to push their players to the other party. I'm guessing both Phil and Jim both have the same recurring nightmare. Being on a E3 stage telling the press to play on a xbox 360 if you don't have always on internet.

But with both the power players looking into this they will encourage each other. I can only hope one of two pulls back at the last second shouting "Psych, we'd never do that bruv, what you smoking?" I don't think those odds are in my favour though.

@Kezelpaso Do I need to point out that winter in Brazil is summer in US/UK/EU? This seems to be confirming it's on track which is perhaps more of surprise.

Game Pass has cut down on my game purchases. I've bought HFW and Elden Ring. But between GP and EGS giveaways I have so many unplayed games I don't see the point of spending more than my £15 GP most months. I think I must have 500 games across XSX, PS and PC that I have not played. I'm old and I've come to the concussion this backlog is going to the grave with me. I'm probably not going to get into HFW now with so much new stuff coming all the time and that's £65 down the crapper. I'm going to stop buying games for a few years and try and make do with GP and backlog. I'll probably fail and impulse buy a load more but its getting silly at this point.

I wish this was a little more chilled on the combat side, Would make a nice brake between rounds of Elden Ring.

@NeutronBomb Same happened last time, one or two weeks later Breath of the Wild launched. Got to feel for them

I'm fully committed to Elden Ring for some time. Also playing GotG on the side. I started HFW on the blue team but I don't think I'll be going back to that until both Elden Ring and Guardians are done and dusted.

An interesting point here is that although players always presume announcement trailers are aimed at them and may complain about things being announced to early, these early trailers are often part of recruitment drives and not a early part of the sales cycle.

Its a game where they spent so much time on the city that they ran out of time for the gameplay. 75% of the city could have been cut and it would have made almost no difference to the game. Whole areas that you did nothing but drive past.

It felt like they built it with GTA Online in mind thinking it will be used through the years. Not much chance of that after the terrible launch.

I really liked the first one, even the combat. The last battle that is unwinnable worked me up into a real frenzy. I'm hoping the follow up has full Dolby Atmos support. I have a 9:1:6 set-up and it can place sounds so accurately it can be creepy with normal content. Hellblade should be perfect to get the full effect. I'd really be happy with more of the same but its understandable they have to deal with higher expectations now. Really looking forward to this.

Edit: So spoiler tags don't work here. Its 5 years old so I may just leave it.
Edit 2: yes they do, just use [ and not <

I bought 3 for my nephew's along with 12 months of games pass for Xmas. These are the perfect consoles for kids rooms. With MS parents controls they could have a console in their rooms but there mum was able to block them on school days and limit the hours they could play feel she was still in control from her laptop. I wish these were around when I was a little kid!

I've just downloaded Outer Wilds, Its been on my to play list for so long but to many games to little time. Its a great time for those who enjoy video games.

It's a great idea, It will cost £2000, will have top end 2015 performance, every game will be £250 and in 3 years the Apple crowd will tell everyone who will listen that Apple invented the Console and Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox are just cheap copies.

Existing games will stay, new games after the sale completes will be exclusives. For the reason you not will see Spiderman or God Of War on Xbox

For the first time ever this gen I saw a S, a X and a PS5 on the shelf in a shop for the first time last week. Didn't last long though. After being asked to grab a X or PS5 for someone (Either one they could get) I returned the next day and all were gone. When I asked the sales guy just looked at me and shock his head asking why I walk past them if I wanted one? I think this is going to be a giant generation for consoles. Most people are looking for both this Gento get GamePass and Sony exclusives.

Yep, I'm going to agree with many here. The reason the S is out selling the X is due to supply. I've been looking for 2 more X's for my sons for the past 4 months and all that time there have been plenty of S's in stock.

The SX is a great bit of hardware and MS have gotten a lot right as they start the generation but, and its a big BUT.. having no real games for the first year is a pretty big fail in my book. They really need some big hits in 22 to recover. Still great hardware, a lot better than the PS in my humble opinion, yes I have both.

This is one I really have zero interest in just like the last 3 FNAF. I know my 9 year old is the only person I've heard talk about these games in years and he's certainly not play it. But they must have a fan base so it will matter to those people

60 FPS here is still looking way better than any other racer has ever looked before. At speed you will never see the slight difference in detail. This gen I get to compare games maxed out on PC to compared to what XSX will offer due to game pass and having a monster work PC at home and while I expect there will be differences I also expect them to be very slight.

What is with Xbox and co-op games. Its not 2010. Enough already.

It's a confident move from MS not to block this. The MS of yesteryear would have blocked this in a instance. Like most of UK/Europe/Asia I have plenty bandwidth and no data caps for streaming to be doable without issue, But, Its not my preferred play, I would like to be able to start a gamepass game streaming and be able to switch to a download copy if I like it on the Xbox. It would make it easy to jump into a game quick and try it out before downloading the whole game

Most homes in the UK can now get 100Mbps + at pretty low cost. I've 300Mbps+ and its £30 a month. I've no need to cloud game but I tried out both Now and Xcloud and both play very close to local. I think in most of Europe and Asia game streaming is ready for main line. The US has the problem of single provider in most areas and with the FCC in the pockets of the ISP's I don't see the US being ready this decade.

I'm actually replaying Witcher 3 right now, don't know why but after finally finishing Cyberpunk I guess I just wanted something to remind me of the days when we all loved CDPR. But.... I'm playing it on PC. My son had a install with a whole bunch of Graphics Mods that make it a great looking game. I wonder how the next gen console version will hold up against a fully pimped out PC build. Any how, Time to decide between a trip to the lighthouse or a ride on the Unicorn.....

@NEStalgia It is anecdotal, and must be viewed in the light of this being a high income north London environment. But here at least the youth are looking towards PC's and it's the middle aged blokes like me are wanting the laid back sofa experience. It also holds true with my nephews who, while in a well off family themselves, live in what is considered a deprived part of northern England so it has some traction. But it is always risky to view our own experience as a trend.

Most youngsters watch Youtube over broadcast TV and have grown up with the message that PC players > Console players. But the future would still be bright for Consoles, I'm clocking 50 and still gaming. That did not happen a lot 20 years ago. I can also afford the 65" TV, Atmos sound system and the latest console and the big space to put it all in that gets the most out of todays consoles.

Most of the Game Pass subscribers I know are PC players. A lot of that is because I don't know a lot of Xbox players, PS is strong in the UK but among friends of my teenage and 20's Sons they all seem to focused on PC and a lot of them have gamepass. I think PC is by far the largest market for Gamepass expansion at the moment. Xcloud is a future play that will come of age and Xbox players are already in the fold.

My view is MS just needs to start releasing games. First party drives awareness and until the MS studios releases start to flow growth will be constrained.

For all of MS studios it still feels their is very little on the horizon with a firm release schedule, MS has talked the talk for the last 18 months but its time for walk the walk if they are going to regain a standing as a group of game producers.

With any Ubi game you are best waiting 3 months before buying, While this does not seem to be the worst they vastly improve with the first few patches.

I still like Far Cry, It's the only main Ubi game that I still enjoy, and it lets you have a good time while not forcing you to 100's of boring side quests or buy XP boosters, Will never buy a AS game again! So I will pick this up but only when I have the time to play it, but It will probably be during the summer games drought.

@StylesT I have both XSX and PS5. For me the fact the Series X is more powerful, has Dolby Atmos (I have a full Atmos set up so it's a big feature for me, and supports on my TV's VFR means xbox will be my third party machine for the foreseeable future. Gamepass is also a big win. These have meant I have only played two games on the PS5 in the year I've owned it while I play the Xbox every week.

And I think it is going to become more one sided going forward, I would have bought Deathloop on the PS5 but I know its coming to gamepass so I'll wait, So I don't expect to play more than 10 games on PS5 this generation. But that does not change the fact that MS seems to have problems with their studios output

I'm not traditionally a xbox player, only bought a one X because my ps-pro was to loud to enjoy. This gen Xbox will be my main 3rd party console. It's currently the most powerful by far. But I'm amazed that Xbox has not yet fixed their first party games rollout issues. I get that the last management team scrapped most game development but hasn't Phil / Satya team had 7 years to fix this now? Even allowing 2/3 years to turn around the ship it's clear something is not working right for Xbox studios. They need to have games dropping at a constant pase from 22 and There is little sign of this at the moment.

As for Hellblade, I really liked the first. Even with its aa limitations I really enjoyed it so I'm very much looking forward to the second. I hope it does not try to be a GOW clone but stays true to its routes. Just add more variance in the puzzles and I'll be happy.

I had one for my PS1 back in the day, Only had one TV back then so it was very handy. Don't see the use in todays world though

I ranked it a solid B. I expected to see a lot more coming this year and a number of already announced games I hoped would see release this year where not shown but plenty coming to Game Pass and I expect a lot more games are still in the pipeline.

I used back-up storage last gen as PS was (and still is a bit) very slow to download online. But I'm getting download speeds of 900Mbps on the XSX, faster than I can pull off local attached disk. So until much later in the gen when the price drops I'll just delete and reinstall.

I don't think E3 will ever reach its old heights again, the world has turned. But Xbox need to back up their resent wins with some actual game launches if they want t hold the momentum. Sony's not going to be sitting on its hands, They will be locking in all the exclusives they can. Xbox needs to hit back with games.

@Rockboy247 That will do the trick. Didn't know Apple skimped on cables, bet they a had an extra shiny one to sell you though

I would 100% buy this for my games room. I don't drink but pre pandemic we'd go through more beers than my bar fridge could hold every time the Arsenal played away. This would be the perfect addition

@Rockboy247 Apple TV does not use HDMI 2.1 I'm not sure they are even 2.0 compatible so would not count on that cable. But there is a 2.1 compliant cable in the box. My current TV does not support 2.1 but I will make sure to mark my 2.1 cables so when I upgrade later in the year I know which to use where

I would so buy that for my games room. Come on MS embrace the meme and put it on sale

Xbox was gutted out before Spencer. The whole idea that first party games where a thing of the past and 1st party studios a waste of time. All gamers would be playing a limited set of tent pole releases and a console way just a entertainment gateway. Given every call they made was wrong he has done a great job of rescuing the brand but it will take a few more years for some of the fruits of his leadership to make their way into gamers hands.

@Rockboy247 Its a HDMI 2.1 spec cable so as fast as HDMI gets at the moment.

This is just rubbish, This is an incremental improvement. Yes, it will give us higher framerates, improved physics and it will look a bit better but it is nowhere near the advances from 8, 16, 32 and 64 bit and the move to 3D. This guy is a complete bonehead

I'm old enough to remember when Bethesda's engine was cutting edge and rolled out open worlds like we had never seen before. Its just a shame they are still using the same engine 15+ years later!

@BlueOcean As @Medic_Alert stated, memory bandwidth is the biggest current bottle neck. But just fixing that will expose the next and the so on...

For those who haven't seen it yet the links above to Digital Foundry YouTube vid is the best look at the Series X capability out there right now

As far as I understand there is no proprietary tech in these expansion cards, its just using a PCIe 4 controller with only form factor being unique. I expect a number of 3rd parties will join the race to supply and prices will drop. Would be silly to buy at launch given all the back catalogue can be played of USB connected drive. I have a USB 3.1 enclosure with a 2TB SATA SSD in it I'll make use of and only when I have a full main drive of next gen games will I pick up an expansion. Expect price drop by then