Spend as little time as I can to create a character. Like @GamingFan4Lyf i often go with the stock character. There’s several reasons for this, but the big two are
just get me to the “playing” part of the game asap
when I watch video of the game online I can relate to the stock character. There’s few weirder feelings in games than watching videos of something like Mass Effect and seeing these “impostor” Shepards. It feels so wrong, like a bad b-movie clone.
@LaurenceJ1987 Go to Games and Apps and then Sort by Size, you should see what is taking up space. Also remember you don't get all the usable storage XSX only gets 802GB of the 1TB, the rest is used by the system for quick resume etc. Lastly videos, screen captures etc. also take up some space.
@ralphdibny After dying so often, I hadn't raged that much about a game in a while, and on reflection decided to give up, more fun games to play without risking throwing my controller through the TV
Good news. I never played the original games at launch but really enjoyed the Spyro Trilogy, though they are old school collection platformers, it's not just rose-tinted nostalgia.
Crash n'Sane not so much... that bridge level killed me too often!
The generations all run into each other for me so it's mostly about better hardware making gaming smoother for me, a significant performance upgrade. That includes most games at 60fps, almost no load times, quick resume, backwards compatibility features like Auto HDR and FPS boost etc.
There has never been a shortage of games to play through both my backlog and Game Pass. But I still think Xbox is missing a couple of top quality tentpole titles you can't play elsewhere, the ones that makes someone want to buy an Xbox over something else.
@Steel76 I agree the biggest jump was load times this gen, and it's transformational, it's an area that needed a big boost. CPU would be nice next gen, as it's lagging behind.
Yet while I also agree we aren't gaining resolution we ARE generally getting a better final image resolve, whether that be improved texture resolution, better effects etc. As Digital Foundry likes to put it "better QUALITY of pixels over quantity of pixels". It is generally a waste of resources trying to push for native 4K when you can make the game look better with upscaled 1080p - 1440p to 4K with more effects.
That said there are some games that are scraping the barrel at lower resolutions that don't always resolve well. This is the balance right now. But games that are well optimised are doing wonderful things.
@Titntin Completely agree upscaling > Native 4K if done well.
Never believed it. It just doesn't seem possible to have "the largest technical leap... in a hardware generation" anymore without some serious mental gymnastics.
I'm sure SOMETHING will be the largest leap e.g. the amount of AI cores, or cloud supported CPU, but it won't result in a final result that we gamers would call the largest technical leap. Not even close.
Visually it still looks stunning and it seems like they made sensible trade offs with the Series S, it looks good, well done! Hopefully performance is great too.
I really like the visual look of this, it's far more unique than most next-gen games. But I'm not sold on the stop motion, and the gameplay trailer looked decidedly last gen in terms of mechanics. That's not to say it looked bad, just not totally sold on it yet.
@Banjo- Totally agree about playing the third party games on Game Pass first. Though typically I don't play the longer RPGs and 100+ hour games on it, i'd rather buy them than feel rushed.
Also agree Xbox is doing well financially.
And I don't think anyone sensible is saying "nobody buys Xbox games", "developers don't sell anything on Xbox" or "Xbox players only play on Game Pass". But I think it is more nuanced than that, it isn't "nobody", "don't" or "only" those are all too extreme, but it may be "less people buy certain xbox games which is impacting developers", "developers sell less proportionately on Xbox versus their market share" and this could be because "many xbox players predominantly play on Game Pass".
This isn't just made up by people online (though there will be plenty of fanboy trolls doing that which makes it hard to have a rational conversation about it) but these are REAL concerns from developers, as they themselves stated in the report I shared.
At the end of the day we just want to see more games come to Xbox, and if developers are skipping it for any reason, that needs to be acknowledged so it can be fixed.
@Fiendish-Beaver All good points. I agree it's not conclusive, but it's one of the few investigative reports into this speaking to a range of devs, I found it interesting and thought some of you might too. A few thoughts on your points.
1) It doesn't say they always put their games on Xbox last, that is an assumption, though it does sometimes happen, I don't think all stats take this into account.
2) Re: Series S. I always say it is overstated how much of an impact Series S has on devs. Of course the hardware limitation does impact some developers, but I think they are the minority. Logically this is only going to be amplified when you look at the console sales split. At some point you might ask as a div, is the additional work worth it for Xbox sales? We've literally seen Limited Run Games say this for example, in a rate moment of transparency.
However one thing that has come out of the PS5 Pro leaks is how easy Sony have made it to create separate profiles for different hardware: PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, PS5 Pro. We don't really hear about this as a headache from devs on PlayStation unlike the Series S. Just look at PS5 Pro which already has 50+ patched games at launch today with many more on the way, and that's without the non-patched benefits. Devs are praising it. It seems Sony got their tools right here.
3) I agree you expect more sales on PlayStation (so ***** as you said) but I don't think that's their point. Devs are business owners and not stupid, they are talking about the proportional difference. If XBox has half the sales of PlayStation but only gets 20% of the sales for example.
As to being conditioned, I can only talk about my own experience, and I know (because Game Pass is so good and more than often delivers) that I will more often wait for certain types of games to appear on it. Whereas on Nintendo and PlayStation I am more likely to buy. Take Hades, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Sifu or Inscryption for example all of which launched on PS or Switch first, I bought all those, but I have waited for many similar games on Xbox.
Your mileage may vary but I think there is a general trend among enough gamers and reports like this seem to suggest the numbers ARE different on Xbox, though I agree it's not entirely conclusive.
As always Quick Resume is great... when it works. But there's still some things to iron out as it still occasionally causes issues. Though it seems to depend on what games you play, as some have no issues at all. Lucky you.
@Wisegamer they posited that some games weren’t coming to Xbox because if you can’t make it to Game Pass it often isn’t worth porting. The link to the report from SkillUps team talking to several devs is above, I put it on pastebin.
@16BitHero it is a it of a bummer, but it’s third person not first so it’s not as important imo, and GTA campaigns have never been very skill based, so it’s not the difference between wining and losing. Of course I’d prefer 60fps, or even an 40fps mode, but I’ve also enjoyed every other GTA at often sub-30fps so why not this one?
@Fiendish-Beaver @Coletrain That's why I said you are partly right. I don't think everyone has been "conditioned to expect everything on game pass", but I DO think Game Pass does impact many games sales on Xbox, for good and bad, partly because people are willing to wait. It's not quite the same thing but it is a problem for many games on Xbox either way.
If it's small game (like many I mentioned) Game Pass might HELP it reach a wider audience, and more sales, through increased mindshare. But if it isn't on Game Pass sales often seem to suffer. These are the views developers have said (see the link I shared)
On second thoughts it's behind a login so I've temporarily added it to pastebin here for you. It's an interesting read. Link will self destruct in a few days
@Fiendish-Beaver I think you are partly right here that it is overstated, but there is some truth to it too, not really at AAA level like GTA6, it isn't EVERYTHING, but at the AA and Indie level I think it's true.
I have personally noticed my buying patterns have changed for Indies and AA on Xbox, because if they are good, didn't sell as well as they could have, or are a niche offering, they often come to Game Pass even if it's later. This is a good thing as a consumer imo, at least in the short term, as their curation is excellent, but it may be a bad thing in the long run. E.g. Games like Death's Door, Chants of Senaar, Lords of the Fallen, Calisto Protocol, Atlas Fallen, have all come later and I kinda knew they would. I have such a long backlog that I was happy to wait and see.
More importantly than one persons view DEVS have said this is true. There was an investigative report into this by SkillUp and his team and the common consensus was if you are a smaller game you NEEDED to be on Game Pass on Xbox or you wouldn't get many sales over here. This is the report, it's locked behind a Patreon login I believe, but it is free.
@Fiendish-Beaver Agree £17.49 is a steal. Kudos to them for releasing it at a fair price 5 years later and for making it half price at launch. They really didn't have to do all that, but it will likely help it sell, pro-consumer decisions often do!
@GADG3Tx87 Personally I agree, I found it very mid. But I was more referring to fanboys who rubbish games when they think it's an exclusive only to about turn when it's released on their platform. You KNOW you see it plenty.
Woah! Real shame, I have some of these but might have to snap a few others up. Why Sega? Unless a compilation is coming, but why not announce that if this is the case?
@Balaam_ There's always idiots on both sides that are like this. It will be the same for Starfield or whatever Xbox game they thought was an Xbox exclusive comes over to PS5 next. Too many of them sadly.
I’m looking forward to swing if the streaming tech can be relied upon to match the fidelity of the last game, as I’d love to free up the 170+GB it takes up. Also looking forward to tasks, a more guided process of what to do, not just fly A to B.
No regrets, Series X has been a brilliant console since day 1. Short load times in particular are a game changer and worth every penny, I can’t go back to the old minutes long loads. Everything else was more incremental but still strong. Excellent hardware.
My criticisms have more been with the first party library which is a bit underwhelming, there’s not many “you must buy an Xbox for this game” titles, and there have been some long gaps, especially at launch! but there’s no shortage of games to play overall, third parties are the majority of games and there are plenty. Game Pass continues to deliver.
@Balaam_ Handhelds have come a long way since what you describe… you don’t have to squint at tiny screens or have blurry visuals. They typically have higher variable frame rates than average tvs at 60+ (though you may not be able to hit that in all games)
You can sit in your same cushy chair and view on a proportionately large OLED screen I.e. an 8 inch screen in your hands is about relative to a 55 to 65 inch screen when sat down… depending how close you sit of course. The hunching is optional and up to you. But you have the advantage that you can play it anywhere.
There are cons of course, that freedom isn’t free. I’m not trying to convince you, it sounds like you would have no use for the handheld. And FWIW I also prefer to play on a TV. But the way you described the handheld experience is antiquated, they aren’t usually tiny pocket sized devices anymore. Ultimately choice is good and this could be a benefit to many.
If they can get the User Experience right on this it should be a winner and help further differentiate their offering from the competition. But there are quite a few hurdles to overcome e.g.
can they really get Xbox series games to work natively on the go? And if so at what cost to fidelity and frame rate?
and what is the shelf life? People assume the next-Box will be between 2026 and 2028. Will this play those games natively as well or does it have a shelf life of just 1-3 years (assuming launching in 2025 is true) before it doesn’t play new games.
lastly what about compatibility? Gamers already complain Series S holds back Series X, while I think that is over-exaggerated, what would a lower power handheld option do? With the Steam Deck all the latest games do NOT have to play on it, it’s up to you to figure out what does and what doesn’t, but in a console ecosystem we EXPECT all new games to play on the console family.
I’m excited for this but will also need some convincing that these areas and others have been well considered.
@GeeForce Getting people to try more games on Game Pass is good, but it's a balance... 8 a month seems far too excessive and unnatural to me, though perhaps they have data that says more people flip/flop between games.
I like the return of weekly streaks, previously used on other points rewards 2x, 3x etc. And if it is in fact more points, without making them much grindier, that could be good.
But I don't like the "play 8 different games for 15+ minutes" in a month. That isn't how I play games naturally and seems more like a job / box ticking exercise, probably to hit some quota.
@Fishticon Nobody likes these AI assistants, but it's a cultural shift, that's to be expected. But to be fair good customer support is really expensive, and no one wants to pay for it.
My old company used to advise a lot of companies about AI Assistants like this and typically the reality is around 80+% of enquiries are the same basic questions that people could easily google themselves or find answers for on a FAQ page... but they don't. These basic questions end up eating up most of the customer support time and budget. Triaging these basic questions via AI and giving them a purely AI answer from the FAQ can actually speed up customer service for more complex issues that require a human, rather than having to wait on hold a long time while basic questions get answered that could easily be done another way.
But of course that also requires the company to keep investing in actual human support, even if it's less overall which is possible as you remove so much wasted time, and also to train them well... I haven't had to call Xbox in years so can't comment on that side of it. But I am for AI support, assisting human support like this, more generally. The AI is improving very quickly for this sort of task.
Seems like a pretty strong list though surprised UFO 50 didn't make the cut with a 92 on Metacritic and is more unique than anything else here. Animal Well is currently my GOTY, though in truth I haven't played many of this list yet, usually get around to games much later.
Forza Motorsport & Age of Empires. I'm either not a fan of the genres OR I have already put so many hours into the genre I no longer have any interest in them.
@freddones There is a difference between playing the game yourself, not enjoying it and giving it an HONEST score based on your own opinion, and brigading it and giving it a 1 because you want to make a political statement. That's dishonest and makes it easy to ignore.
Oof! That's some pretty heavy hitters on there, Like a Dragon, Persona etc. including a few I haven't found the time for. Thankfully there's several new games being added too, plenty to play, but shame I missed these.
@Romans12 why is that a problem though? I don’t usually use tattoos, non-human races or many other settings in character creators, I just ignore them and move on, they aren’t for me. But they ARE for many other people, why is this any different? Why can’t people just not use them and move on? It’s not that hard. It’s just selfish wanting every setting to be for you alone.
@TheGameThrifter @Wisegamer I dearly hope you are both right, but I believe Wushu were only assisting on updates, Undead were still leading them. They also only just announced a month or so ago that they were now moving to full production on SoD3 so it’s likely a ways off. But I’d love to be wrong.
Why is it a crapfest? Because a group of anti-woke complainers are brigading it and making the conversation around it toxic? 84 Metacritic seems to disagree. Sure it’s not for everyone, but no game ever is.
@Titntin completely agree on DLC. That is ONE of the reasons I haven’t bought this now as I still haven’t gone back to the Inquisition DLC about “the dreadwolf” Solas. Similar happened for Alan Wake 2 and the Control DLC and others. Sometimes not having played the earlier DLC stops me playing the next game immediately.
EDIT: re: data. It’s a good start but it’s still early days, there’s still a chance the game might not keep selling. And of course we don’t know the cost of development, which was likely high after so many years. It’s yet another reason for me to wait to play a game until it’s complete.
EDIT 2: thanks for the link, agree we see less expansions for a whole host of reasons.
@Elbow yes. I was pretty disheartened when they recently said they were finally done with SoD2 and moving fully to SoD3. Again it might be poor wording, but it it seems a ways off which is disappointing as it was announced way back in 2020 and has had multiple trailers.
E-day looks good, and perhaps the breath of fresh air the series needed. But damn is it irritating they’ve gotten distracted before finishing the trilogy. Imagine if Lord of the Rings took a break to make the hobbit after two towers. There’s good reason nobody does this.
@BIG3 to an extent you are right, but this game seems to have stirred up the hornets nest more than most. It’s sad we can’t just enjoy games without commenters sticking their politics in everywhere… which ironically is exactly one of their complaints, yet they do it anyway. Two-faced.
@StaminanX every successive Bioware and Bethesda game strips back and simplifies the RPG elements sadly, this game is likely the same. Look at something like Mass Effect 2 which was brilliant but dumbed down RPG elements, same for Skyrim vs Oblivion and Morrowind. Despite this they were brilliant games.
There’s such a toxic cloud following this game around, it’s virtually impossible to discuss without having to filter out so many bad faith views on both sides from people who haven’t even played the game. I haven’t seen brigading on this scale in a while. It’s exhausting.
I look forward to giving this a go in due course and deciding for myself. Maybe I’ll like it, maybe I won’t. Though that’s no time soon as I haven’t got around to the Inquisition DLC yet and have a lot to play first.
@Elbow I agree using the name Prey on a completely unrelated game was a ***** corporate decision by the publisher. The devs didn’t want it and it backfired. But to not play the game because of it is cutting off your nose to spite your face. It’s doing the game and devs a disservice.
If you have any interest in Immersive Sims (Deus Ex, Dishonored, Bioshock) or Sci-Fi then you owe it to yourself to play Prey as it’s a closet masterpiece. You can like both.
Comments 6,044
Re: Talking Point: How Much Do You Care About 'Creation' Features In Your Xbox Games?
Spend as little time as I can to create a character. Like @GamingFan4Lyf i often go with the stock character. There’s several reasons for this, but the big two are
Re: Stalker 2 Is Now Available To Download On Xbox, But You'll Need A Lot Of Free Space
@LaurenceJ1987 Go to Games and Apps and then Sort by Size, you should see what is taking up space. Also remember you don't get all the usable storage XSX only gets 802GB of the 1TB, the rest is used by the system for quick resume etc. Lastly videos, screen captures etc. also take up some space.
Re: Stalker 2 Is Now Available To Download On Xbox, But You'll Need A Lot Of Free Space
WHOA! Might have to sacrifice Flight Sim or Forza Horizon for this.
Re: Xbox Sparks Excitement As Spyro Is Confirmed For Game Pass
@ralphdibny After dying so often, I hadn't raged that much about a game in a while, and on reflection decided to give up, more fun games to play without risking throwing my controller through the TV
Re: Xbox Drops Extended Indiana Jones Gameplay Ahead Of Game Pass Release
Really excited for this one. Didn't watch much of the video as I want to go in as blind as possible, but it's looking great. Less than a month to go!
Re: Xbox Sparks Excitement With Major New Tease For Game Pass
Good news. I never played the original games at launch but really enjoyed the Spyro Trilogy, though they are old school collection platformers, it's not just rose-tinted nostalgia.
Crash n'Sane not so much... that bridge level killed me too often!
Re: Talking Point: What's Your Favourite Memory Of The Xbox Series X|S Generation So Far?
The generations all run into each other for me so it's mostly about better hardware making gaming smoother for me, a significant performance upgrade. That includes most games at 60fps, almost no load times, quick resume, backwards compatibility features like Auto HDR and FPS boost etc.
There has never been a shortage of games to play through both my backlog and Game Pass. But I still think Xbox is missing a couple of top quality tentpole titles you can't play elsewhere, the ones that makes someone want to buy an Xbox over something else.
Re: Xbox Fans Ponder What 'Largest Technical Leap' Means For The Series X Successor
@Steel76 I agree the biggest jump was load times this gen, and it's transformational, it's an area that needed a big boost. CPU would be nice next gen, as it's lagging behind.
Yet while I also agree we aren't gaining resolution we ARE generally getting a better final image resolve, whether that be improved texture resolution, better effects etc. As Digital Foundry likes to put it "better QUALITY of pixels over quantity of pixels". It is generally a waste of resources trying to push for native 4K when you can make the game look better with upscaled 1080p - 1440p to 4K with more effects.
That said there are some games that are scraping the barrel at lower resolutions that don't always resolve well. This is the balance right now. But games that are well optimised are doing wonderful things.
@Titntin Completely agree upscaling > Native 4K if done well.
Re: Xbox Fans Ponder What 'Largest Technical Leap' Means For The Series X Successor
Never believed it. It just doesn't seem possible to have "the largest technical leap... in a hardware generation" anymore without some serious mental gymnastics.
I'm sure SOMETHING will be the largest leap e.g. the amount of AI cores, or cloud supported CPU, but it won't result in a final result that we gamers would call the largest technical leap. Not even close.
Re: Here's What Might Be Leaving Xbox Game Pass In December 2024
All clear this month so far! Thanks for the list, appreciated.
Re: Is Death Stranding 2 Coming To Xbox? Here's Everything We Know So Far
Almost certainly yes now they own the IP. But I wouldn't' expect it for a while.
Re: Here's How Death Stranding Director's Cut Compares On Xbox Series X And S
Visually it still looks stunning and it seems like they made sensible trade offs with the Series S, it looks good, well done! Hopefully performance is great too.
Re: South Of Midnight Previews Seemingly Being Prepared By Team Xbox
I really like the visual look of this, it's far more unique than most next-gen games. But I'm not sold on the stop motion, and the gameplay trailer looked decidedly last gen in terms of mechanics. That's not to say it looked bad, just not totally sold on it yet.
Re: Kojima Productions Now Owns Death Stranding IP Following Xbox Release
@Banjo- Totally agree about playing the third party games on Game Pass first. Though typically I don't play the longer RPGs and 100+ hour games on it, i'd rather buy them than feel rushed.
Also agree Xbox is doing well financially.
And I don't think anyone sensible is saying "nobody buys Xbox games", "developers don't sell anything on Xbox" or "Xbox players only play on Game Pass". But I think it is more nuanced than that, it isn't "nobody", "don't" or "only" those are all too extreme, but it may be "less people buy certain xbox games which is impacting developers", "developers sell less proportionately on Xbox versus their market share" and this could be because "many xbox players predominantly play on Game Pass".
This isn't just made up by people online (though there will be plenty of fanboy trolls doing that which makes it hard to have a rational conversation about it) but these are REAL concerns from developers, as they themselves stated in the report I shared.
At the end of the day we just want to see more games come to Xbox, and if developers are skipping it for any reason, that needs to be acknowledged so it can be fixed.
Re: Kojima Productions Now Owns Death Stranding IP Following Xbox Release
@Fiendish-Beaver All good points. I agree it's not conclusive, but it's one of the few investigative reports into this speaking to a range of devs, I found it interesting and thought some of you might too. A few thoughts on your points.
1) It doesn't say they always put their games on Xbox last, that is an assumption, though it does sometimes happen, I don't think all stats take this into account.
2) Re: Series S. I always say it is overstated how much of an impact Series S has on devs. Of course the hardware limitation does impact some developers, but I think they are the minority. Logically this is only going to be amplified when you look at the console sales split. At some point you might ask as a div, is the additional work worth it for Xbox sales? We've literally seen Limited Run Games say this for example, in a rate moment of transparency.
However one thing that has come out of the PS5 Pro leaks is how easy Sony have made it to create separate profiles for different hardware: PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, PS5 Pro. We don't really hear about this as a headache from devs on PlayStation unlike the Series S. Just look at PS5 Pro which already has 50+ patched games at launch today with many more on the way, and that's without the non-patched benefits. Devs are praising it. It seems Sony got their tools right here.
3) I agree you expect more sales on PlayStation (so ***** as you said) but I don't think that's their point. Devs are business owners and not stupid, they are talking about the proportional difference. If XBox has half the sales of PlayStation but only gets 20% of the sales for example.
As to being conditioned, I can only talk about my own experience, and I know (because Game Pass is so good and more than often delivers) that I will more often wait for certain types of games to appear on it. Whereas on Nintendo and PlayStation I am more likely to buy. Take Hades, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Sifu or Inscryption for example all of which launched on PS or Switch first, I bought all those, but I have waited for many similar games on Xbox.
Your mileage may vary but I think there is a general trend among enough gamers and reports like this seem to suggest the numbers ARE different on Xbox, though I agree it's not entirely conclusive.
Re: PSA: Death Stranding Has A Major Quick Resume Bug On Xbox
As always Quick Resume is great... when it works. But there's still some things to iron out as it still occasionally causes issues. Though it seems to depend on what games you play, as some have no issues at all. Lucky you.
Re: Kojima Productions Now Owns Death Stranding IP Following Xbox Release
@Wisegamer they posited that some games weren’t coming to Xbox because if you can’t make it to Game Pass it often isn’t worth porting. The link to the report from SkillUps team talking to several devs is above, I put it on pastebin.
Re: GTA 6 Publisher 'Not Really Worried' About Bringing The Game To Xbox Series S
@16BitHero it is a it of a bummer, but it’s third person not first so it’s not as important imo, and GTA campaigns have never been very skill based, so it’s not the difference between wining and losing. Of course I’d prefer 60fps, or even an 40fps mode, but I’ve also enjoyed every other GTA at often sub-30fps so why not this one?
Re: Kojima Productions Now Owns Death Stranding IP Following Xbox Release
@Fiendish-Beaver @Coletrain That's why I said you are partly right. I don't think everyone has been "conditioned to expect everything on game pass", but I DO think Game Pass does impact many games sales on Xbox, for good and bad, partly because people are willing to wait. It's not quite the same thing but it is a problem for many games on Xbox either way.
If it's small game (like many I mentioned) Game Pass might HELP it reach a wider audience, and more sales, through increased mindshare. But if it isn't on Game Pass sales often seem to suffer. These are the views developers have said (see the link I shared)
On second thoughts it's behind a login so I've temporarily added it to pastebin here for you. It's an interesting read. Link will self destruct in a few days
Re: 2K Provides Updated Launch Windows For Its Upcoming Xbox Lineup
GTA6, Judas, Mafia.
Always surprised by how many people seem to love Borderlands!
Re: Kojima Productions Now Owns Death Stranding IP Following Xbox Release
@Fiendish-Beaver I think you are partly right here that it is overstated, but there is some truth to it too, not really at AAA level like GTA6, it isn't EVERYTHING, but at the AA and Indie level I think it's true.
I have personally noticed my buying patterns have changed for Indies and AA on Xbox, because if they are good, didn't sell as well as they could have, or are a niche offering, they often come to Game Pass even if it's later. This is a good thing as a consumer imo, at least in the short term, as their curation is excellent, but it may be a bad thing in the long run. E.g. Games like Death's Door, Chants of Senaar, Lords of the Fallen, Calisto Protocol, Atlas Fallen, have all come later and I kinda knew they would. I have such a long backlog that I was happy to wait and see.
More importantly than one persons view DEVS have said this is true. There was an investigative report into this by SkillUp and his team and the common consensus was if you are a smaller game you NEEDED to be on Game Pass on Xbox or you wouldn't get many sales over here. This is the report, it's locked behind a Patreon login I believe, but it is free.
Re: Kojima Productions Now Owns Death Stranding IP Following Xbox Release
@Fiendish-Beaver Agree £17.49 is a steal. Kudos to them for releasing it at a fair price 5 years later and for making it half price at launch. They really didn't have to do all that, but it will likely help it sell, pro-consumer decisions often do!
Re: Kojima Productions Now Owns Death Stranding IP Following Xbox Release
@GADG3Tx87 Personally I agree, I found it very mid. But I was more referring to fanboys who rubbish games when they think it's an exclusive only to about turn when it's released on their platform. You KNOW you see it plenty.
Re: Surprise! Death Stranding Director's Cut Is Now Available On Xbox Series X|S
Enjoy the game, glad to see it on more platforms. Maybe this will give me the kick to pick it up again ahead of the sequel.
Also Kudos to them for not taking the piss and releasing it for £35 but even more for making it half price at launch. £17.49 is a steal.
Re: SEGA Delisting Multiple Xbox Games This December
Woah! Real shame, I have some of these but might have to snap a few others up. Why Sega? Unless a compilation is coming, but why not announce that if this is the case?
Re: Kojima Productions Now Owns Death Stranding IP Following Xbox Release
@Balaam_ There's always idiots on both sides that are like this. It will be the same for Starfield or whatever Xbox game they thought was an Xbox exclusive comes over to PS5 next. Too many of them sadly.
Re: PSA: Our Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Review Will Be Delayed At Launch
I’m looking forward to swing if the streaming tech can be relied upon to match the fidelity of the last game, as I’d love to free up the 170+GB it takes up. Also looking forward to tasks, a more guided process of what to do, not just fly A to B.
Re: Soapbox: Four Years On, I'm Already Nostalgic For The Early Xbox Series X|S Era
No regrets, Series X has been a brilliant console since day 1. Short load times in particular are a game changer and worth every penny, I can’t go back to the old minutes long loads. Everything else was more incremental but still strong. Excellent hardware.
My criticisms have more been with the first party library which is a bit underwhelming, there’s not many “you must buy an Xbox for this game” titles, and there have been some long gaps, especially at launch! but there’s no shortage of games to play overall, third parties are the majority of games and there are plenty. Game Pass continues to deliver.
Re: Talking Point: Which Of Late 2024's Biggest Xbox Releases Are You Most Excited For?
All 3. But Indy, Stalker and Flight Sim in that order.
Re: Rumour: Xbox May Be Gearing Up To Reveal Handheld Device In 2025
@Balaam_ Handhelds have come a long way since what you describe… you don’t have to squint at tiny screens or have blurry visuals. They typically have higher variable frame rates than average tvs at 60+ (though you may not be able to hit that in all games)
You can sit in your same cushy chair and view on a proportionately large OLED screen I.e. an 8 inch screen in your hands is about relative to a 55 to 65 inch screen when sat down… depending how close you sit of course. The hunching is optional and up to you. But you have the advantage that you can play it anywhere.
There are cons of course, that freedom isn’t free. I’m not trying to convince you, it sounds like you would have no use for the handheld. And FWIW I also prefer to play on a TV. But the way you described the handheld experience is antiquated, they aren’t usually tiny pocket sized devices anymore. Ultimately choice is good and this could be a benefit to many.
Re: Rumour: Xbox May Be Gearing Up To Reveal Handheld Device In 2025
If they can get the User Experience right on this it should be a winner and help further differentiate their offering from the competition. But there are quite a few hurdles to overcome e.g.
I’m excited for this but will also need some convincing that these areas and others have been well considered.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Announces New Xbox Game Pass Quests, But Only For Australia
@GeeForce Getting people to try more games on Game Pass is good, but it's a balance... 8 a month seems far too excessive and unnatural to me, though perhaps they have data that says more people flip/flop between games.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Announces New Xbox Game Pass Quests, But Only For Australia
I like the return of weekly streaks, previously used on other points rewards 2x, 3x etc. And if it is in fact more points, without making them much grindier, that could be good.
But I don't like the "play 8 different games for 15+ minutes" in a month. That isn't how I play games naturally and seems more like a job / box ticking exercise, probably to hit some quota.
Re: Xbox's AI-Powered 'Support Virtual Agent' Now Available To Insiders
@Fishticon Nobody likes these AI assistants, but it's a cultural shift, that's to be expected. But to be fair good customer support is really expensive, and no one wants to pay for it.
My old company used to advise a lot of companies about AI Assistants like this and typically the reality is around 80+% of enquiries are the same basic questions that people could easily google themselves or find answers for on a FAQ page... but they don't. These basic questions end up eating up most of the customer support time and budget. Triaging these basic questions via AI and giving them a purely AI answer from the FAQ can actually speed up customer service for more complex issues that require a human, rather than having to wait on hold a long time while basic questions get answered that could easily be done another way.
But of course that also requires the company to keep investing in actual human support, even if it's less overall which is possible as you remove so much wasted time, and also to train them well... I haven't had to call Xbox in years so can't comment on that side of it. But I am for AI support, assisting human support like this, more generally. The AI is improving very quickly for this sort of task.
Re: Xbox Has One 'Game Of The Year' Nomination At The Golden Joystick Awards 2024
Seems like a pretty strong list though surprised UFO 50 didn't make the cut with a 92 on Metacritic and is more unique than anything else here. Animal Well is currently my GOTY, though in truth I haven't played many of this list yet, usually get around to games much later.
Re: Talking Point: Is There A Popular Xbox Franchise You've Struggled To Get Into?
Forza Motorsport & Age of Empires. I'm either not a fan of the genres OR I have already put so many hours into the genre I no longer have any interest in them.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think Of Dragon Age: The Veilguard So Far?
@freddones There is a difference between playing the game yourself, not enjoying it and giving it an HONEST score based on your own opinion, and brigading it and giving it a 1 because you want to make a political statement. That's dishonest and makes it easy to ignore.
Re: Seven Games Will Leave Xbox Game Pass In Early November 2024
Oof! That's some pretty heavy hitters on there, Like a Dragon, Persona etc. including a few I haven't found the time for. Thankfully there's several new games being added too, plenty to play, but shame I missed these.
Re: EA & BioWare Aren't Making Any DLC For Xbox RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard
@Romans12 why is that a problem though? I don’t usually use tattoos, non-human races or many other settings in character creators, I just ignore them and move on, they aren’t for me. But they ARE for many other people, why is this any different? Why can’t people just not use them and move on? It’s not that hard. It’s just selfish wanting every setting to be for you alone.
Re: State Of Decay Studio Head Provides Update On Team Size
@TheGameThrifter @Wisegamer I dearly hope you are both right, but I believe Wushu were only assisting on updates, Undead were still leading them. They also only just announced a month or so ago that they were now moving to full production on SoD3 so it’s likely a ways off. But I’d love to be wrong.
Re: EA & BioWare Aren't Making Any DLC For Xbox RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard
@Romans12 here’s the link for it in writing.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/11/01/dragon-age-the-veilguard-sets-ea-bioware-playercount-records-on-steam/.
Why is it a crapfest? Because a group of anti-woke complainers are brigading it and making the conversation around it toxic? 84 Metacritic seems to disagree. Sure it’s not for everyone, but no game ever is.
Re: EA & BioWare Aren't Making Any DLC For Xbox RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard
@Titntin completely agree on DLC. That is ONE of the reasons I haven’t bought this now as I still haven’t gone back to the Inquisition DLC about “the dreadwolf” Solas. Similar happened for Alan Wake 2 and the Control DLC and others. Sometimes not having played the earlier DLC stops me playing the next game immediately.
EDIT: re: data. It’s a good start but it’s still early days, there’s still a chance the game might not keep selling. And of course we don’t know the cost of development, which was likely high after so many years. It’s yet another reason for me to wait to play a game until it’s complete.
EDIT 2: thanks for the link, agree we see less expansions for a whole host of reasons.
Re: State Of Decay Studio Head Provides Update On Team Size
@Elbow yes. I was pretty disheartened when they recently said they were finally done with SoD2 and moving fully to SoD3. Again it might be poor wording, but it it seems a ways off which is disappointing as it was announced way back in 2020 and has had multiple trailers.
Re: EA & BioWare Aren't Making Any DLC For Xbox RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard
The amount of mental gymnastics being performed by people to try and suggest this game has failed is bizarre. Here are the facts according to Forbes:
N.B. Xbox lists are slower to update, we’ll have to wait for that data.
Re: EA & BioWare Aren't Making Any DLC For Xbox RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard
@InterceptorAlpha I have to praise EA & BioWare for how they have gone about this release, with none of their usual shenanigans.
Hopefully this is a success for Bioware and a new leaf for EA.
Re: Xbox's Rod Fergusson Explains The Team's Original Plan For Gears 6
E-day looks good, and perhaps the breath of fresh air the series needed. But damn is it irritating they’ve gotten distracted before finishing the trilogy. Imagine if Lord of the Rings took a break to make the hobbit after two towers. There’s good reason nobody does this.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Dev BioWare Thanks Fans For Support
@BIG3 to an extent you are right, but this game seems to have stirred up the hornets nest more than most. It’s sad we can’t just enjoy games without commenters sticking their politics in everywhere… which ironically is exactly one of their complaints, yet they do it anyway. Two-faced.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Dev BioWare Thanks Fans For Support
@StaminanX every successive Bioware and Bethesda game strips back and simplifies the RPG elements sadly, this game is likely the same. Look at something like Mass Effect 2 which was brilliant but dumbed down RPG elements, same for Skyrim vs Oblivion and Morrowind. Despite this they were brilliant games.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Dev BioWare Thanks Fans For Support
There’s such a toxic cloud following this game around, it’s virtually impossible to discuss without having to filter out so many bad faith views on both sides from people who haven’t even played the game. I haven’t seen brigading on this scale in a while. It’s exhausting.
I look forward to giving this a go in due course and deciding for myself. Maybe I’ll like it, maybe I won’t. Though that’s no time soon as I haven’t got around to the Inquisition DLC yet and have a lot to play first.
Re: Arkane Founder Says Xbox Shutting Austin Studio Was 'Stupid' And 'Not A Good Decision'
@Elbow I agree using the name Prey on a completely unrelated game was a ***** corporate decision by the publisher. The devs didn’t want it and it backfired. But to not play the game because of it is cutting off your nose to spite your face. It’s doing the game and devs a disservice.
If you have any interest in Immersive Sims (Deus Ex, Dishonored, Bioshock) or Sci-Fi then you owe it to yourself to play Prey as it’s a closet masterpiece. You can like both.