VideoGame_Discussion

The X has become my main console. My PS5 had the network card crap out shortly after going out of warranty. Ethernet is completely dead, and wifi drops constantly. Its impossible to stay connected to PSN, and while playing a game you get a million messages about the connection. And both the controller batteries are completely shot. One only lasts around 20 minutes, while the other about an hour. So instead of spending $70 per controller to replace them. And Sony telling me it could cost upwards of $150 for them to fix the console (with shipping both ways), I decided to just make a permanent jump this gen to Xbox. I'll let the PS5 sit until prices on controllers come way down.

Upcoming GP additions

June 22

Need for Speed Unbound (Cloud, PC and Xbox Series X|S)
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales (Console and PC)

June 27

Bramble: The Mountain King (Cloud, Console, and PC)
FIST: Forged In Shadow Torch (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)

June 29

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town (Console and PC)

July 3

Arcade Paradise (Console and PC)

July 5

Sword and Fairy: Together Forever (Console and PC)

Has anyone played the Last Case of Benedict Fox? That looked great but I just haven't started it up yet.

The XSX is still my main console, but I've really only been playing Halo Infinite and Fall Guys with my brothers. I do some of the rewards quests to get points, but most of gaming time has gone into Tears of the Kingdom. I wish Yuzu was ported to UWP so I could emulate the Switch on the Series X. Every once in a while I'll see a video on TotK and clearly they're running on an emulator hitting 60fps and have mods making the game look much better.

As far as new games go, I've recently decided that I need to play through a good amount of my backlog before buying anything new. I sold off my Steam Deck just to discourage me from buying more PC games until I can get through what I've got on Xbox and Switch.

You can just PM bill to re open topics instead of making a new one.

Anxiouz wrote:

I was excited about that one but heard plenty of complaints about it when it launched from meh gameplay (can't be fixed really) to bugs and such (which could be patched). I've been waiting to start it b/c of the bugs and haven't seen any updates to it yet unfortunately. So I played Tinykin and Somerville both before LCoBF and really like Tinykin, Somerville was alright.

Counter question, has anyone been playing Hi-Fi Rush? I have and it's pretty enjoyable. I'm only hitting on the beat around 60% of the time and really stink at the forced parry bits and don't really parry in battle, but the atmosphere, story and art style are solid and the music is generally great.

I really like Hi-Fi Rush but am not great at it. I lowered the difficulty so I could be less precise and that helped make it more fun. I dig the style and humor too but I'm not too far into it.

I’ve been playing Hi-Fi Rush a bit here and there. I think I’m on level 6? I like the story, but parts of the gameplay have annoyed me (particularly the part where an insta-kill heat wall chases you, and you have to use one of those partner assist moves without messing up the timing to survive). I got past that part but it killed some of my interest. I’ll play the rest eventually but over the long-term. The next Game Pass game I’ll probably check out is Exoprimal.

Slickriven wrote:

@Bleed_DukeBlue I think that I recently got past that same chase scene, though maybe there are more than 1. I have beat 2 main bosses for their security keys. I'm now stuck essentially at this one security area fight against a bot that will parry any of my attacks until he enters one of the forced parry sections by me. He hits like 6 times in very quick succession and after a handful of times failures such that Chai has died twice, I'm getting frustrated. Thanks to quick resume I've just paused the game and walked away twice, but it's annoying and halted my overall progress.

As for GP titles, I think I'm finally done with Horizon 5 as I've completed so much and the weekly things have become boring. So that's good, it's time to move on. I'm feeling like I want to try to get back in to Chained Echoes or Eastward next, as I started them both but didn't drive too deep yet. The soon to be released Bramble also looks cool.

Anyone else play Ravenlock on GP? I really liked that one. I couldn't get into Hi-Fi though.

They just announced a price increase for GP.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass for Console pricing will increase starting July 6th. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will move from $14.99 per month to $16.99. The base Xbox Game Pass for Console pricing will also move from $9.99 a month up to $10.99. Microsoft is not changing PC Game Pass pricing, though. If you’re an existing Game Pass monthly subscriber, then these new recurring prices won’t take effect until August 13th. New Xbox Game Pass members will see the new prices immediately on July 6th. If you’re subscribed to Xbox Game Pass through a yearly code, the new pricing won’t take effect until you go to renew your subscription.

Time to get 3 years now at the cheaper price if you are not stocked up already.

I wonder if they'll change the point cost of auto redeem on Xbox Rewards

Was just reading this article too. I think a price increase is long overdue given the amount of titles in there and ongoing new releases dropping day one. It’s not too bad though increasing only a couple of dollars a month.

SwiftJAB wrote:

I'm sure they will. But I'd imagine not until the September redemption.

It's interesting that they raised the price now, since I just saw headlines that they wouldn't raise it after the Activision-Blizzard acquisition, regardless of if that got approved or not. Oh well, for the price, it's still a solid deal, even if the game selection has tailed off the last 6-10 months, but I think that less a case of bad GP, but less top notch games to even add, especially newer releases.

I just realized this puts a year of GPU over $200. I wonder if Sony will raise the price of PS+ Premium now? As that is only $120 a year. Which was $50 less than GPU before. Now its $80.

Honestly, I have both PS+ and GamePass. I've barely used them so to me, it's not worth it.

I hope they wouldn't raise PS+ Premium. They're not giving us the latest new releases the way GamePass does. I feel it's just barely worth the price as it currently is.

RE: Hi-Fi Rush - Well I got past that Samurai bot where you have to parry like 6+ times to beat him, I even got him on the first try this play session. Then I progressed and faced a 2nd instance of that bot and got the parry right on the first or maybe second time. But some of the lasers that do the same thing nearly killed me. Also had 2 interactive things where you need to hit like 8+ buttons in a QTE and wow did I stink at those... but at least you can keep trying without other negatives like losing health, because after all of that progress I faced a 3rd Samurai bot with his 6+ parries required and by failing to parry, he killed me... So I took a break.
Thank goodness for Quick Resume as I really like quick pick/put down games/sessions like that. So I put in 20-30 mins and feel like I made some progress by triggering 2 of 3 nodes that I need to 'fix' - not major progress, but it's something.
I do enjoy the music, quirky story and bright vibrant graphics, but I'm bad with beat timing even though I can tap my foot in sequence. I get too engaged I guess and tend towards more button mashing vs. keeping rhythm, eh I will stick with it but will curse those parry and QTE sections every time.

GP has been great for me as I got around 2.5 years with the first $1 Gold to GP conversion 'trick' and then used that again for 3 full years with the trick costing $15 the 2nd time.
Since I signed up at some point in '19 I've beat ~85 games via the service, with most being on the XSX, but with my X1X still hooked up on a different TV I beat a fair amount on there too, plus a dozen or so for the , and PC.
I've also played a decent amount of others that by trying out I learned I disliked and dropped, plus many that I have an active save in and simply haven't completed yet.

That said, if the Gold to GP trick isn't available when I need it again, I may not keep paying for it, not at $17/month. The unknown timed access to non-M$ internal titles has left me prioritizing those and largely ignoring M$-GP games, but also my sizable owned collection of digital games on the platform. So if I stop paying for it, I could refocus more on the games I already purchased and have neglected. And heck other systems that get less attention as well.

I loved Hi-Fi rush oh so much. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony follows suit and raises the price of PS+ tiers cause reasons.

After finishing Hi-Fi Rush last night and really enjoying it, outside of the dumb QTEs and Macaron's wall breaking interaction, I started Ravenlock... And yeah it's meh so far.
@Archer you said you liked it and it's not horrible but felt bog standard fetch questing with combat where you can hammer the attack button really fast. I'll likely stick with it since it's only like 4hrs long according to HL2B and the music is nice, but it feels rather basic. I only put around 40 mins in and the opening section at your new house was a bore, after doing the combat training and being able to run helped. If I would've been stuck with her initial walking pace the whole time, I don't think I would've kept playing.

If someone were interested in getting into the Yakuza series, more specifically limited to the 8 that are available on the X1/Series, which would be best to start with? 0, Kiwami, Like a Dragon?
Note the offerings are 0, 3, 4, 5, 6, Kiwami 1&2, LaD.
Thanks

Go with Yakuza 0. That’s the origin story and showcases why certain characters, especially Goro Majima, are the way they are in the other Yakuza titles. 0 is one of my faves too next to Kiwami 2, another excellent entry.

Just FYI, the 1:1 on Live to GPU conversion days are now officially over. It now converts at a 3:2 ratio. So you still save money, just no where near as much. They said this was going to be fixed over a year ago. But it was just actually fixed the other day. So you can no longer get 3 years of Live and convert for one month for 3 years of GPU. It will now turn 3 years of Live into 2 years of GPU.

Thanks for the info @Archer

I got a year of Live last weekend and it was turned into 4 months of GPU. I was already a GPU subscriber until April, but that extended it to August. Would I have to have not been a GPU subscriber to get the 3:2 conversion?

Yeah, non GPU subscribers get a better conversion rate than existing subs

Yep the 'trick' only works/ed for non Live subs. When I got it the 2nd time, I let my Live lapse by about 2 days then bought 3 years of Live, applied that to my acct and then bought GP for ~$15 and ended up with 37 months access to GP.

That stinks. At least I extended what I have, I guess. I’m going to need to find a cheaper way to maintain it than $15 a month when it comes due next time. I don’t use it enough for that price.

Depending on how much one can acquire 3 years worth of Live Gold for, it's still not that bad. Using enaba and purchasing from a foreign country I got 3 years for around $42 each last time I tried. So that would convert to 25 months of GP for around $144 which is only around $6/month.

3 years for $42 or each year was $42? My 1 year of Live equaled 4 months of GPU, so 3 years would be 12 months of GPU. I’m all for making this as cheap as possible, but that math doesn’t seem to add up.

Happy 14th year!

That price of $42 would have been per year of live. So x3 that price.

You have to let your current sub completely expire. Even wait a full day just to be sure. Then buy 3 years of live. Even at full price that is $180 for 3 years. A year of GPU is just over $200. Those three years at $180 will then be converted to 2 full years of GPU after you add them and buy 1 month of GPU. So you spend $197.99 (at full price) to get 2 years of GPU. Where as a full year of GPU is $215.88. You end up saving $233.77.

The year of live you bought didn't convert at the best rate because you were currently sub to GPU already. So it did $ cost conversion.

1. Let all subscriptions be expired, no gp, no pc gp, no gpu, no live.
2. Buy 3 years of live, add it to account.
3. Buy 1 month GPU after adding live. It converts live to GPU. Not at 3 full years, but at 2 years.

There is also the Microsoft Rewards points option as well. You can earn enough points to continually pay for a month of GPU with only spending ~10 minutes a day doing stupid crap to earn points. Like doing bing searches. Clicking on tiles to earn points, and just playing a GP game on xbox.

@Slickriven congrats on the 14 years.

Thanks @BucketofJustice and @Archer - I made an excellent choice 14 years ago today it seems, glad to be a part of this community.

Nice work explaining it Archer, that's 100% how I did it last year to get the current subscription situation I'm in. Yeah $42 was per year Bucket, that's why I said it cost me $144, as $42x3=126, then you need to buy 1 month of GP and it'll convert any existing Live months you have to GP. Used to be 1:1 rate, is now 3:2.

Yep that's a good point Archer too on the M$ Rewards path. I search daily on Bing using Edge browser on my PC, do the 3x daily things, playing GP games and earning achievements in them, plus the Xbox things and using the Xbox app and playing a level of Jewel nets me well over 400 points/day for a few mins of effort and I'm up around 235k points right now (haven't redeemed in a good while). Then to redeem for 3 months, it's 35k points, which via quick math you'd need to average earning 390 points/day to keep buying, so my 400+ has me covered... if I went that route.
I tend to buy Xbox GCs instead and purchase games and DLC with those points.

I have a free one month trial of GamePass on PC that came with my PC when I bought it in September 2021. Is there a way I can browse what is currently available to play without having to activate the trial first? I'm obviously not in a hurry to use it if I've already waited this long, especially since I just bought a few more games from the current Steam sale yesterday adding to my backlog even more, but if there's 2 or 3 titles on there I feel I need to play and can't do it elsewhere, I will check it out.

@PizzaTheHutt That code is probably expired now. You might want to check the card it came on. Most of the time those expire after one year.

But you can see a list here:
https://www.trueachievements.com/pc-game-pass/game...

Archer wrote:


It tells me every time I start the Xbox app thingy in Windows that I have a trial and asks if I want to use it. I used the offer last year for 3 months for $1 or something like that, so I thought that would override the trial that came with the PC but I'll test it out maybe this weekend because I do see a couple of games I already have in my wishlist on consoles so I'll check them out on GamePass and see if they're worth buying.

I appreciate the breakdown and explanation. Thank you! We’ll see if it still works that way in a year I guess haha

I really think I’m only going to re-up on GamePass when I’m ready to tackle Starfield and still paying like $18 for a month for GPU now or $11 for GP to hit and quit it is better than the $70 price tag for buying it outright.

Wow, I'm shocked. I got a refund for a digital game. I bought a game on the 7th. Downloaded it. Just booted it up for the first time. Hated it. It was also super broken. Requested a refund. It was approved within 5 minutes. I didn't know it was so easy to get refunds on xbox. Its damn near impossible with Playstation. I've tried to get a few games refunded by them. It was a long processes that required phone calls. And I only ever got one refunded. The others were denied.

Looks like they won the AVB merger case?

Feeb wrote:

And the CMA caved and backtracked as well. So the deal is completed.

I honestly don't think there is one series/Game from AB I even care about.

I’ve Inarguably put more hours into series / games under that umbrella than any other. 15 years ago it was all I was into. Diablo is about all I still play.

Diablo is the only one from them that I play. At least in the last decade or more.

(obviously Sekiro doesn't count since they had fudge all to do with development)

Just wondering how long MS will take to mess this up? They can’t manage what they have… I am sure it will end well.

CoD will be even more rushed out and bad, like all the other recent big Xbox releases.

Maybe Sony can bring back Socom then

We are also in an era of GP hikes… the current one will not be the last.

benstylus wrote:

Would love that, playing that was probably the most fun I had In a military shooter. Honourable mentions would be COD WW2 and the first Rainbow 6.

This is pretty lame: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/07/17/xbox-game-p...

They’re getting rid of the Game with Gold games entirely and just giving access to 25 games that rotate in and out 2-3 times a year.

I actually think in some ways @Bleed_DukeBlue the new GP-Core is better. Being fully honest, there hasn't been an even remotely decent game offered from GwG in the last... 18 months, maybe longer. This way, if you're not a GP sub, you get those 25 games and they listed nearly 20 so far. Those listed included Halo 5, Gears 5, Psychonauts 2, Doom Eternal, Forza Horizon 4, Fallout 4 & 76 - so pretty solid Xbox exclusives and not even comparable to the crap GwG offerings of late. Sure they're not cutting edge newer releases, but Core is really the rebranded Gold, and older titles makes sense. I mean they're not going to lose potential sales of newer releases and at this point very few folks are going out and buying titles in that set.
The interesting thing is the GP-Console offering since it doesn't allow/support online multiplayer and doesn't allow you access to already acquired GwG X1/Series games. So it's GP console only and no 'Gold' like perks, which with the CoD games now likely coming to the service eventually, that rather stinks for the scores of folks who play CoD for MP only/primarily - they'd be missing out on the online party with that tier.

I’m always subscribed to GPU, so the 25 games are ones I would have already had access to. Also, it was nice having some games that don’t have a clock on them as long as you’re subscribed. It’s a net loss for me all around.

Slickriven wrote:

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Yeah I've always been a GPU sub, since the Gold to GP conversion trick gives you Ultimate. I guess that from my Gold days, ever since GP became a thing, those GwG offerings just went to total junk. Plus beside the always keep 360 games, a failure of the 360's store really, you only can keep access to GwG for the time that you're subscribing, so they're timed in their own way. I also get the feeling that of the 25, the near 20 they already announced will very likely remain for many years at that tier, especially if they're only looking to adjust the game set 2-3 times per year.

Anyhow, it's just speculation for now. But I also think it will likely put a nail in the Gold (now Core) to Ultimate conversion trick, or it will stay at that 3-2 conversion rate I suppose.

I can't remember the last time GwG even had a decent game on offer. I couldn't care less its being removed. Its been pretty crap since they removed offering 360 games. And it wasn't that great leading up to that either.

I'm more in line with @Slickriven on this. This really only seems to be a slight blow to GPU subs, but as mentioned, the offerings on GwG have been mediocre at best for quite some time now. That being said, the writing is on the wall here now that the acquisition is moving forward. $67B is no small number and Microsoft is going to start making more and more moves to recoup those costs as quickly as possible.

I just hope that they don't end up screwing up things. I also hope that they can undo some of the terrible decisions that Activision Blizzard have made recently.

Next set of games leaving GP are:
The Ascent
Marvel Avengers
Dreamscaper
Two Point Hospital

I wanted to get into The Ascent and tried it over a year ago. It was alright but a decent amount of reading, it didn't hook me so I didn't play it for like 9 months and when I went back to it, I felt lost. Am thinking I'll just have to walk away from this one.

I did try Dreamscaper and it was decent too but I saw it was a longer title and then didn't end up playing it much.

The Ascent was more fun if you have a buddy to run thru it with I thought.

This new dashboard is fudging terrible. Its just ads. Based on user feedback my ass. The dashboard is now just the store app and the gamepass app all in your face. I hate it so much. They also removed our ability to customize it. And that pisses me off even more. Because I had a very clean and nice minimalist setup with everything removed. And the only things I needed right in front of me. Now its a mess and I can't change anything about it. Really pisses me off.

Surely you can pay to make it go away?🥶

Well all that care about is selling Gamepass, and you sell it by ads targeted towards people who already have it, clearly.

Kommie wrote:

Yeah, this update gives the impression its whole goal is to try and drive more digital game sales. And to try and get people who may not be subbed to GP to do so.

I don't know why none of the console makers can make a system UI or a store UI that is worth a crap.

The last halfway decent storefront was the old PS3 store (before they modernized it and made it run on Java or something and it became super slow).

But PS3's system UI was absolutely terrible for digital games. Sort by creation date or last played date. Just not alphabetical.

OK. Microsoft has officially gone too far with the special edition controllers. This one is "pizza-scented":

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/24/23805501/micros...

Weird. Can't wait to see someone unbox one of these in 30 years to see if it still smells like pizza

Anyone try that Antsream retro game service? It’s $30 a year or $80 for a lifetime subscription. I’m curious about it, but I don’t want to spend the money if it sucks.

I was a bit curious about that @BucketofJustice but after reading some user reviews for the app/game on the console, I lost most of that interest. Some said the lag was terrible, others said the 1400 games promised was BS and way, way less. Seemed like a good bit of or that generation of games and that didn't seem to appeal to me. But if someone actually has real experience I'd be interested.

Slickriven wrote:

Try it on PC - I think they have a free ad supported tier.

Is that an option on Xbox or only the paid annual or lifetime tiers?

Xbox only has the paid version.

And you can see all the games they offer here (not a great selection in my opinion):
https://www.antstream.com/games

If you arr into c64, Amiga, and spectrum games it looks like a dream come true.

Decent selection of arcade games too.

I finally got updated to the new dashboard and %@#$ that - a few days ago I noticed it must've been preparing me for it as my normal like 8 groups of games added to the old style got reduced to just 2 and I couldn't add more. Then this new look is just crap. I don't mind the very top with my most recently used games/software which expanded and then the seemingly standard 3x ads really. But below that is terrible.

Promoting recently added is fine, but they're bigger tiles than anything I actually want to see and they won't change often enough to make them always the first thing you have to scroll past. Then came my 2 optionally added groups which was nice, but after that were 13!!! sections that I don't give a crap about.
Friends & Community was first and meh, I play 99% of the time solo.
Coming to GP was next and that's much like recently added - nice to know, but doesn't need to be that high up also barely will change
Most Popular on GP is next and again I don't care what other's play
EA Play thing was next - this is meh, I already knew what EAplay games were available and had a group of those games before this
Top Entertainment is next and I NEVER use my system for Netflix/Youtube/streaming/etc
Then 8 more categories that thankfully I won't really have to dive down to look at b/c they're useless IMO. But what a cluster-F. I don't care about 80% of that and forcing it on the main screen, even at the bottom is crummy. Then the total lack of customization beyond adding a paltry 2 things that we actually want is THE WORST. I also confirmed that 2 is all we flipping get.

I want to complain about this to them, does anyone know where we can do that? Flarking pissed about this.

Ive heard horror stories of buying used or "refurbished" consoles at Gamestop. I wanted to buy a NEW Xbox X before MS ups the price like they said they would.
Anyone have any experiences? I have a buttload of GS Credit and lots of points to reward for certificates, so i'd prefer to buy from GS, but they never have new consoles in stock.
Dell has new consoles for $429 and then $449 2 days ago and i slept on it and they're OOS now.
Any help and guidance would be appreciated, thanks guys.

Can't you buy a new system on their website using your credit? Or does it have to be in-person?

My local GS always have new series consoles. Check around.

Anxiouz wrote:

I have yet to find a new one in stock on their website

Simon_Belmont wrote:

Probably cause they want you to buy in store and get harassed to pre order something.

Kommie wrote:

100%.
The people at my 2 local Gamestops are cool as crap, they know that i'm a frequent merch buyer for reselling and they're happy to see me when i come in so i can clear some shelf room for them. They even let me use the tiny employee bathroom when i had kidney stones, that was really nice.
Every other Gamestop i've been to (especially mall locations) harass THE FUDGE out of me to the point where i just want to leave the store.

Does anyone know if the Diablo 4 Series X Special Edition Bundle comes with the physical game/code or is it pre installed on the system?
I've found that online at a heavy discount and i'd be fine paying that and then just reselling the game.

It comes as something you have to claim from the console, and then start downloading. No code, it’s just there ready to be claimed once you sign in.

Simon_Belmont wrote:

It’s claimed on an account / included on the
console.

Edit- what he said 👆

https://youtu.be/aWDXDfHdwoU

aghhhh, there goes that idea.
thank you guys
My Fallout 4 edition Xbox One was a physical disc and my Series S Bundle was a bunch of codes.
That pre install crap is annoying.

Edge of Eternity and Midnight Fight Express are set to leave GP soon, the 15th I suppose. I beat MFE and recommend it, was a good bit of 3D brawling fun with an absurd but enjoyable story.

Based on the completely BS changes to the dashboard, I suppose posts about games leaving GP really aren't necessary any more... I'm more promoting MFE vs anything else.

MFE looks fun. It reminds me of Dynamite Cop on Dreamcast. Now, I have to see whether I can pull myself away from Baldur's Gate III long enough to try it out before it leaves Game Pass.

Slickriven wrote:

The following are set to leave GP at the end of the month: Black Desert, Commandos 3 HD, Immortality, Nuclear Throne, Surgeon Simulator 2, Tinykin

Will vouch for Tinykin, that was a fun and endearing shorter title that I played a few months back. If you liked Pikmin then Tinykin is similar. I've heard good things about Immortality but haven't and likely won't try it. Nuclear Throne is a good twin stick shooter but I personally have it on PC from some freebie service.

Immortality is really good. It’s thought-provoking and very different from anything else I’ve ever played with an interesting twist at the end. Definitely worth checking out if you don’t mind that it’s pretty non-linear and requires you to be attentive.

Slickriven wrote:

Simon_Belmont wrote:

Sounds like not in the US Region. They are just matching Sony in other regions.

The 360 store will be shut down next July (2024). So if any of you are still using a 360, keep an eye out for games you want on sale over the next year. As not all 360 games are digital on the current systems stores (backcompat).

And they delisted lots of great 360 titles i purchased over the years. I'm looking at you Scott Pilgrim vs the World, X Men The Arcade Game and Marvel Vs Capcom 2!

Simon_Belmont wrote:

That's the trouble with those kinds of games. The IP holders don't want to grant a license to republish in perpetuity (especially if a game gets really popular and they would have more leverage to get a bigger chunk of the sales).

Swen Vincke of Larian Studios tweeted today that Baldur’s Gate 3 will be releasing on Xbox sX and sS this year. But the S will not have split-screen co-op. Microsoft is letting them be the first dev to not have 100% feature parity between versions. Which I assume is because their own people tried to help them make it work and just couldn't. Hopefully this is a signal that they will be dropping that stupid ass rule and not hold devs back moving forward. Its so stupid to handcuff games on one system because the other isn't powerful enough to do it.

How about we just eliminate the S model altogether? It’s become inferior at this stage in the game. That should clear up developer hesitation from releasing games on the Xbox.

they sold like hotcakes when no one could get a Series X or PS5 and now that people are realizing that they don't need a disc drive to game on a budget, they will still continue to sell well. that 1TB upgraded one that comes out next week is gonna be hot crap. "next gen" gaming for less than $300 is a steal.

There was no way this wasn’t gonna be an issue. All these series s sold could be a bad look.

What Simon said.

Dropping the feature parity rule should have been allowed from the beginning. It's fine for the people who bought a Series S knowing that because they settled for the cheaper model they will be getting the inferior version of games, but don't hold back the people that paid more and expect more from their next gen experience. It's bad enough already that last gen games were holding back current gen.

I don't know how true it is because it's not a game I'd ever play anyway, but I saw on Discord that the new Naruto game on Xbox Series X, players can choose not to match with players on Series S due to that version only running at 30fps.

@Simon_Belmont @Feeb Yeah, exactly.

Buying an S is like going to Best Buy and asking to see the cheap laptops that you can "play games on". And then the sales person shows you a $400 laptop that will "play games". Then you get home and realize you can't play the games you thought you were going to be able to. The split hardware was the biggest mistake Xbox has ever made. And this is going to be a many, many year issue for them. You can't sell that many consoles and then abandon them a couple years later. So Microsoft's response was to tell devs to make only one version that ran on both systems. And just isn't feasible for many reasons. And a lot of devs have spoken out about it. But on the flip side of that, the install base of people who bought the xS are probably going to start getting angry because they don't have the same experience. Nothing Microsoft/Xbox can do to win this situation. They had good intentions to give people a lower cost entry, but didn't actually think it through. Also not everyone has the internet to stream games from xcloud reliably, so the xS consoles are playing the games on the console hardware itself. Which is part of the problem for the xS. They did not intend for users to play the games directly from the console. Its supposed to be a streaming box for xcloud. The whole situation is just stupid. They were way too ahead of the ideas for the last gen with a 100% online only console. And they did the same thing again with this gen.

XsS is fine if you have good internet and can stream well with Xcloud... A lot of ifs though

I wonder how much they offered him?
https://twitter.com/mcnick01/status/16746139726982...

PizzaTheHutt wrote:
$35 cash, $50 credit probably.

Leaving Game Pass on September 15:

-Amazing Cultivation Simulator -- PC
-Aragami 2 -- cloud, console, PC
-Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Anniversary Edition -- cloud, console, PC
-DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventure of Krypto and Ace -- cloud, console, PC
-Fuga: Melodies of Steel -- cloud, console, PC
-Metal Hellsinger -- cloud, console, PC
-Sid Meier's Civilization 6 -- cloud, console, PC
-Tainted Grail: Conquest -- cloud, console, PC
-Train Sim World 3 -- cloud, console, PC

Tainted Grail: Conquest was fun. I'd definitely recommend it if you're into card battle roguelikes.

Tainted Grail was super fun, I wish there was a mobile version. Metal Hellsinger was a great fps meets rhythm game.
Oh and it doesn't seem like anything but the DC Superpets game was highly entertaining. It's a racing/flying game, I recommend playing under the influence.

I noticed that list the other day, thought about sharing it here but wasn't sure if too many folks paid much attention to this thread and the shift in the Xbox dashboard means this can be found easier on there. But, thanks for posting Bleed_Duke.

I'm a bit relieved that even with a bigger list, the only ones I'll maybe miss are Tainted Grail and Aragami - but they gave us the first Aragami title via GwG and I've yet to play it, so missing out on 2 is minor. Tainted Grail I tried and liked it somewhat, but played it once, maybe twice so it clearly didn't hook me - I knew it would leave eventually and still didn't push to play it more.

Aragami is a perfect indie stealth action game. It doesn't look like much but its brutal. It has some Tenchu elements meets supernatural elements.

The upcoming Alone in the Dark game is delayed until January 16. Did anyone else play the demo of it a couple months back? I thought it was way too short and did nothing to convince me I needed to play the full game.

edit: THQ Nordic basically admits they didn't want to get lost in the shuffle with Alan Wake II and Spider-Man 2 releasing around the same time AitD was originally supposed to release (they didn't even mention the new Sonic or Mario, but they will be guaranteed big sellers too).

I guess too many of us have been abusing Microsoft rewards. Because over the last couple months they have really cut back what you can earn. Over the last two months the total points you can earn has dropped by 6K. And they seem to be cutting new things every month. They just cut the 2K point punch card this month. So now 8K points you can no longer earn. I think they are trying to stop people from using it to get game pass for free. And getting all those gift cards.

Archer wrote:

Bummer that we had such a substantial cut in simple points. Xbox Rewards were probably the most generous for the amount of effort out of the other ways to earn. They're essentially driving people to areas that are more lucrative for them, Bing ad revenue and gamepass subscriptions. I wonder if they'll ever do gamer score bonuses again.

They need to make back that $47b and giving away GPU subs doesn't help that.

The rewards points stuff was always a nice freebie but every aspect of it is clumsy and I have technical issues all the time.

I've been hoarding points and have like 225k right now. I've really only ever redeemed them for Xbox store credit and thus bought games/DLC with that. But once I got GP 4+ years ago now, I've backed off and thus built up that bigger sum of points.

Just doing the 3 items in the daily set every morning while on the toilet I earn enough points every 1 1/2 months to get $10 xbox. I don't do anything else. But now they offer $10 Amazon so I've shifted to that which I feel is more worthwhile.

I’ve heard of people buying series x system with points- but I’ve also heard people make a living playing at Dave and busters. Always outliers.

Heh, my guessed points count was a bit low, I'm at 263k. I mainly do the searches on Bing, the 3x dailies and whatever random things I can. I also strive to do the GP related ones on Xbox.
I just need to redeem them for something soon.

Can anyone confirm if the WD Black C50 expansion card can play Series X/S games directly from the card with no need to transfer the game from card to console?

I don't know the model #'s well but if it has a USB cable then no. If it plugs into the back of the console in the special slot and support the velocity architecture, then yes.

Thanks @Anxiouz . The WD Black C50 plugs in the system. I think only Seagate and WD have memory expansions that plug in. The description is a little tricky stating "similar performance as the Xbox internal storage" so I wasnt sure.

Oh right. The language on this is odd but this will operate just like the internal drive and you won't need to copy games to/from it. I don't know if it shows as a 2nd drive like an external drive does, or it just adds to the total "internal" memory.

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/external-d...

I have a USB external WD Black SSD and it says "Xbox Series X|S (play and store Xbox One games / archive Xbox Series X|S games)" which is very different than what the link above says. It doesn't say archive anywhere.

Yeah I had a WD Black external usb drive and it was great. Mine was 2tb, might get another instead of the 500gb expansion.

Mid gen Xbox

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/170399412093786...

MrBean wrote:

Eghhhh "most powerful xbox ever" and " all digital" should not go together.
My justification for buying a Series X for $460 was to get a 4K blu-ray player in the process, since they're all like $200 (which is nuts, right?).
I am stoked to physically buy games until they stop completely.

Does anyone else miss manuals? Especially getting older, I miss the smell of manuals but also having the default controls directly in front of me is a nice touch.
I tried to play a few matches of the new Texas Chainsaw game last night and it has the most confusing controls that have ever existed.
I'm back on my Midnight Suns addiction but those new Gamepass additions are pretty great so far. I'm stoked to try the management style game where you manage the boat that takes you to the afterlife. What a neat, depressing concept lol. Gonna start that on my lunch break.

back4more wrote:

My Seagate "portable gaming drive" has been making weird ass clicking noises, i think its time for an upgrade i guess.
Thanks for the links everyone!

I did the Gold to Gamepass conversion last night, shame they got rid of the free month for turning auto subscribe off, still, 2 and a half years of Game Pass Ultimate for $97 ain't too shabby at all, especially since i feel like Microsoft will up GPU again in a year or so.

Oct 2024. That seems both optimistic and pessimistic at the same time.

Feeb wrote:

It seems like a consoles half-life used to be 8-10 years, now its like every 5 years. It's nutty, i just hope this "updated console" won't be the new standard and we'll be forced to buy it to play new games.

Digital only tho? Hard pass.

Looks like the current Xbox Series X will be worth holding on to if this is the direction they're going.

"now adorably all digital" ... the fudge kind of marketing is that? adorably? because it's a cylinder now?

I find it hard to believe that we're really gonna see the end of physical, once and for all. Yet, MSFT is known to push consumers forward elsewhere, maybe this is it.

They'll probably wait to see how well Sony does with the detachable disc drive on the PS5 and then come out with a disc drive if they have to.

TBH, I've only used the disc drive on my XSX a handful of times. I wonder if MS is tracking this stuff. I'm guessing that MS is seeing the number of Game Pass subs and digital purchases increase and predict that in 2 years the market will be primed for a discless system.

I feel like it’s starting to go the other way with the size of games. BG 3 is huge, next FF is on multiple high capacity discs etc. storage needs are beginning to outpace costs especially for proprietary silliness.

I think this is a “cute” way for them to say without saying, we’re inevitably going to discontinue and phase out the Series S. Which is fine cause that console is strange and unusual anyway at this stage in the game. Xbox should have had a digital Series X from the get like Sony so with PS5. Their digital does everything the disc version does. And for less money.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

Super easy pass here. If everyone can just stop buying into the digital only stuff it will teach them a lesson. Money speaks louder than words.

Ultimately, they'll force us down this path, it's inevitable. Big tech has and always will control the future by ways of how they can make more money. Look at replaceable batteries and microsd on phones. Further, Microsoft specifically, is slowly killing off all on prem tech in favor of Azure. Year over year, getting much more aggressive.

That same leak by the FTC also revealed Bethesda is currently working on an Oblivion and Fallout 3 remaster/remake. The Oblivion one they have scheduled for this fiscal year. And the fallout one for next fiscal year. Please be true. I'd love to play Oblivion in a modern engine. It also said that Arkane has Dishonored 3 slated for fiscal year 2024. I hope that is also true. I love those games. Also a new Doom game called Doom Year Zero.

Microsoft is selling hardware in order to sell Gamepass. So yeah, a digital only makes sense. Who really buys physical Xbox games with Gamepass?

Kommie wrote:

People who buy the yearly COD and the yearly Madden/2K games.
I honestly think that's it.

Archer wrote:

I really hope Arkane recovers after the Redfall negativity, but like 75% of the original Arkane team left between the release of Deathloop and the release of Redfall...so is Arkane even Arkane anymore?
I'd LOVE another Dishonored game, very consistent series, even with the spinoffs.
Also would love to play FO3 in a modern engine.

I really need an xbox, Know anywhere I can get one for 250?

Ziggyro wrote:

I saw it earlier, but one of the closeout sites has NEW Xbox S Series consoles for $249. Not too shabby. I'll update this when i find the link.
I think they're phasing out the 500GB models for the newer 1TB models.

Simon_Belmont wrote:
Aw dude, That would be amazing. Let me know if you find that

Simon_Belmont wrote:

The gamestop link I provided has new series S for $250 (and used for 265 for some reason)

You just have to live with having bought from Gamestop

benstylus wrote:
Haha thanks but it's too expensive with tax and shipping

benstylus wrote:

You have to physically find one in store though. Gamestop won't ship NEW consoles anymore. It's fudging surreal.

Bjs wholesale has series s with $25 gift card for $250 + tax, shipped free......

https://www.bjs.com/product/xbox-series-s-console-...

Ziggyro wrote:

There's no shipping charge because you have to physically find one in store and either buy it in person or store pickup.
If you can find one, $249 plus taxes is pretty good. There aren't any available in a 50 miles radius from me.

back4more wrote:

That's it! That's the deal i saw.
Well played, thanks for bringing that link up!

back4more wrote:
Ayyyy looks perfect!!! Thanks man.

@Simon_Belmont , no problem, I took advantage of the deal yesterday. They got it shipped out today so not bad so far.

@Ziggyro you are welcome

Simon_Belmont wrote:


When did they start doing this?

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

It's for NEW and Pre Owned consoles only. They'll ship refurbished consoles to your house.
It's been at least 8 or 9 months, because that's how long I've been on the search for a Series X.

This post will continue to be edited as I play through more games

I am an Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One owner. I mostly play exclusives on my Xbox, and multiplatform games on PlayStation.

I was initially borrowing my brother-in-laws Xbox Series X, but ended up getting one in mid-December... and am catching up on the last few years of games I missed mostly via GamePass. So far, really liking the service... but might be hard to justify the cost with how much I am able to play since I also own a PlayStation 5 and Switch. I will probably get it for a few months out of the year once I catch up on my backlog.

I have played so far:
Halo Infinite
Gears Tactics
New Super Lucky’s Tale
Inside
High on Life
As Dusk Falls
Hi-Fi Rush
Battletoads
Psychonauts 2
Project Spark's Conker's Big Reunion [non-GamePass]
Pentiment
Microsoft Flight Simulator
007 Goldeneye
Pac-Man Museum+
Cocoon
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Halo: Spartan Assault
Dead Space 2023
Max: Curse of the Brotherhood
Sea of Stars
Planet of Lana
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shedders Revenge
Tunic
The Outer Worlds
Close to the Sun
Unravel Two
Inops [non-GamePass]
Alan Wake's American Nightmare [non-GamePass]
The Evil Within
The Evil Within 2
Gears of War Ultimate
Tell Me Why (Chapters 1-3)
Redfall (currently playing)

I plan to play (in no particular order):
Starfield
Diablo IV
Sea of Thieves
Grounded
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II


I play all platforms and do like the XSX, but it has a weird glitch with 4K/HDR where the video feed flashes black occasionally. I turned off both 4K and HDR and it is better... very annoying that I can't play hassle-free in 4K. Maybe it is my surround sound receiver?

Man if we get an Oblivion remaster I’ll be sooooo happy. I lost my life or lack thereof to that game back in ‘06.

Really don't like the idea of a diskless system. I want the option. If MS does this, then the Series X may have been the last MS console I would have purchased. If I want to play Xbox games I would rather have a physical copy, play when I want to rather then being tied to a subscription service. I could buy digitally sure... and yes I know I am essentially downloading the game anyway since there is rarely the whole game on disk but I want to hold it in my hands.

I’ve found so much of my Xbox stuff is digital thanks to Gamepass that I’ve basically bought Gamepass machines and that’s it. I just extended my subscription by 2 more years so I’m in for the long haul.

My Gamepass is free and yet... I almost never touch my Xbox in favor of ps5. I hope they secure some better exclusives to make this push toward digital!

Me too, but the past… 10 to 12 years or so have led me to believe that won’t be the case.

Looks like I’ll be re-upping my game pass for a few months this fall.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name a Day-One Xbox Game Pass Title
https://ign.com/articles/like-a-dragon-gaiden-the-...

Not sure where to post this, so this topic is as good as any I guess.

Everyone online seems to be losing their minds over the new Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update. Like, way overboard. I'm seeing stuff about it everywhere.

I eventually came around on CP. it’s great. I really don’t want to get caught up in that again but man I got to do it.

I heard the cyberpunk dlc was actually very good too. I may return to it eventually.

I've had CP since day one and haven't played it yet. I'll get to it eventually, and Elden Ring and all the other great games in my backlog. At least these are the lies I tell myself.

Ya I should have added “when time permits” which in most cases it’ll never permit.

Ha, same. Still sitting on Cyberpunk unopened. Seems like now is a good time to get to it but too much else taking priority.

Word. My backlog had only 5 relatively new games in it a month ago, but then I kept getting games on sale so now it’s up to 10 and what am I now playing? Splinter Cell Chaos Theory on XSX via BC cause nostalgia reasons.

Dragons Dogma 2 gameplay looks great. I can't wait.

All CDPRs money goes into marketing. Their games are 7/10, mid tier games that are way overblown for some reason.

Kommie wrote:

uhhhh, ummm...you're welcome to your opinion, but the Witcher 2 and 3 are modern masterpieces, and the DLC is some of the best DLC ever, worth the money.
The Thronebreaker spinoff game was top tier too.
Cyberpunk is a 7/10 (after the update after a year lol)

Story telling, character development, world building, map size etc they are among industry best. Combat is an afterthought unfortunately. CP is extremely impressive stuff even when it sucks it’s best. It’s like comparing a classical musical piece to nickel back “they’re both 7/10”

Right.

MrBean wrote:

I had to take a break from open world games and stick to linear stuff.
I got very far into Cyberpunk when it first released on my PS4 Pro with very little problems other than it would freeze up after a constant 10 or 12 hour session. So when they announced the patch and everything, i figured screw it, i'll start a new character and background and everything and i just havent touched it since.

I tried giving the new Texas Chainsaw game on GPU a shot, but...its the same as other similar game. I like the teamwork component of the villains, instead of just having one villain stalking 5 people, you have at least 3.
Its a good engine and the sound design is excellent, but it's not for me.
I was gonna try Redfall co-op with my friends, the only postive stuff ive heard about Redfall is the co op, so i'll try to get into it. I gotta give it a shot because its Arkane, and they haven't let me down yet.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

Do the Gold to GPU conversion trick. It's not as good as it was, but i'm good til March or May of 2026 and i spent $90 on 3 month Gold vouchers.

Ziggyro wrote:

Did you end up getting a S Series? Are you part of the gang again?

Simon_Belmont wrote:

How does one perform such a trick?

TalonJedi87 wrote:

This is the old guide, it doesn't give you an free month for turning on auto payment anymore so you can skip that step, and you don't have to each gold gift card one at a time, you can load them all in, then convert to GPU.
i look at what site has the cheapest Xbox Gold 3 month vouchers, i usually use CDKeys but this time Eneba was $2 cheaper per voucher. And you have to make sure your Gold/Game Pass is 100% expired on your account before you do it.
If you have any questions about doing it or need a deeper step by step, just shoot me a message or send me an email.

https://www.techradar.com/news/i-saved-85-on-three...

Simon_Belmont wrote:

Given how hard it was to get a PS5/XSX for the first 2(?) years I expected the current consoles to have a longer lifecycle than the last. But it seems to be on the same pace which doesn't make any sense to me.

Instead of refreshing the hardware with "Pro" versions they just need to stop releasing PS4/X1 stuff and the current gen quality will all go up. Supporting those is gumming up the works and it's wild to me that there are still PS4/X1 versions of games coming out in 2023.

Anxiouz wrote:

Physical releases of PS4 and XB1 games have stopped, i saw that announcement, so hopefully you're right.

Simon_Belmont wrote:

They are not masterpieces at all. 7/10 passable eurojank that's massively over hyped.

Masterpiece games are released almost fully functional and working from the get go.

They need to always update their games to get people to drool all over them.

I played TW2/3 and Cyberdud. Never again will I bother with this sub pat studio.

I played through Cyberpunk on XB1X recently with the 10.01 patch from 2022 (latest on last gen systems). It did take a bit to get into but then I had a lot of fun with it. I'm sure it was bad when it first came out but with the 2022 patch, I only had 1 issue. 2 or 3 times i would try to save and get a message that "you cant save right now." It is the same message you'd get if you'd try to save during combat, only I wasnt in combat. The fix is you have to go to your house and go to sleep, then it will let you save. While annoying, it didnt happen too often and there was a work around. Surprised they never fixed it though.

Kommie wrote:

Damn Kommie tell us how you really feel lol

Simon_Belmont wrote:

Thronebreaker is probably the most underrated game of last gen. No one played it and it makes me so sad.

Simon_Belmont wrote:

Thanks for the tip! I’ll give it a whirl.

CDPR also announcing games before any real development happens...... Just to get people hyped and re buying their stuff

Kommie wrote:

All these publishers do the same thing, to be fair. Doesn’t make it right obviously, but it’s not just a CDPR issue.

Heavyd814life wrote:

You'd think after their blunder with Cyberdud they'd learn something... But they haven't

Kommie wrote:

This is actually pretty common practice. It helps with finding developers, artists, etc, reduces rumors about what is being worked on, and hopefully brings interest from investors. AAA games take a ton of money and workforce to create so just being open about what is in the works makes it easier for everyone.

Kommie wrote:

You're super wrong but that's ok. I totally get that you hate fun, but don't ruin it for everyone else.

Witcher 1 started development in 1997 with securing the rights, game was announced in August 2006 and released in Oct 2007
Witcher 2 started development in 2007, announced it in 2009, built a new engine for it, gameplay video released March 2011, game release May 2011.
Witcher 3 started development in 2008, announced in 2013, released May 2015

None of the above games shipped with bugs, they were certified gold before release.

The only CDPR game that had an above mentioned issue was Cyberpunk. Your basing your hate and misinformation on one game. Every Witcher game also got universal praise with 2 and 3 being heralded as the greatest rpgs of their current generation and both games winning MULTIPLE Game of the Year awards. Both Witcher 3 DLC shipped without bugs and were fantastically received, Blood & Wine also won multiple Game of the Year and Best RPG of the Year awards.
So a DLC was beating out legit AAA games for those spots.

Simon_Belmont wrote:

Pretty sure kommie's posts on a random internet forum aren't going to impact anyone's enjoyment or non-enjoyment of their games.

Unless they are getting to one of the climactic, emotional moments of a game and then this appears in their mind and they can't push it out...

image

What is that from? Looking at the image name tells me Mortal Kombat 1 on the switch.

Archer wrote:

It's from the new mortal kombat game

On the oldest hardware that plays it

benstylus wrote:

At first I thought it was that PS3 game by David Cage that he loves so much.

benstylus wrote:

No way lol. That looks awful!

This is pretty fun to skim re: MK1 on Switch: https://twitter.com/search?q=mortal%20kombat%201%2...

Anxiouz wrote:

this is GOLDEN. thanks for posting.
at the end of the PS2's life they did this, released next gen games on not next gen hardware. i remember sludging through something and giving up

Arcade Paradise on Gamepass is the most relaxing game I've playing in a long time. It's a very chill business management sim where you slowly turn your fathers laundromat into an arcade in the 90s. You can play all the arcade games during downtime, make extra money doing chores, and slowly upgrade everything. The setting and the music is what has made this game so great. Really chill dream pop/synth pop original score mixed with licensed music playing over the radio and your headphones. My only complaint is the DLC is a little expensive for what it is. And the UK to US localization is a little off. They fixed some but not others (bathroom is still WC, some things accept dollars but others accept pounds)

Simon_Belmont wrote:

How are the achievements? I need something for the daily achievement. I try to look for relaxing, simple/easy games for that. Ones that I can play through slowly over the course of however long it takes to get them all/most of them. Currently don't have a game and trying to find one in the GP library.

Cocoon released today, and on GP. Its from the guy that was the lead on Limbo and Inside (Playdead studios). He broke off and started his own studio (Geometric Interactive), and this is their first game. This one is not a side scroller though, its a top down/isometric puzzler. Its really good so far. Simple, relaxing. Good music/sound. I've read a couple things about it being super short though. Which isn't a bad thing. Worth checking out.

Been playing through Quantum Break and achievements have been popping pretty easily. The story has been great so far.

SwiftJAB wrote:

I actually bought that on sale for like $25 or something, and then two days later it was announced for gamepass. But yeah, I played through it and got all the achievements. I really liked it. I remember having a couple issues with the the story at the time. But nothing major apparently, because I can't even remember what it was. I played a bit of it again a couple weeks ago due to it being one of the 250 weekly rewards points tasks. I think it was get 5 headshots or something. Ended up playing two full chapters, lol.

Quantum Break was awesome. It’s the best unofficial Flash video game.

Gotham Knights just hit Gamepass. I'm stoked. Even a sub-par 7/10 AAA game based around that engine in that universe is worth playthrough for me.
There's an XCOM style turn based game that hit too, stoked to try that too.

Simon_Belmont wrote:

Free is the only way anyone is excited for that game.

I got Gotham Knights in a Humble Bundle earlier this year. It must have bombed because big budget games don't usually show up in bundles like that mere months after release. Haven't played it though because I only have like 2 friends that even play on PC and the one who is interested in playing it would rather play on console.

I got Gotham Knights on my Steam Deck from one of the bundles to benefit the Ukraine and beat it this year. It was pretty boring. The mediocre reviews are accurate.

I started Pentiment and it was a lot to take it at first... seeing where it goes.

Question for the group. I'm thinking of picking up a used Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One X just because I thought it was cool and I'll most likely never play it since I have a Series X. Seller has it complete in box and it's in very good condition. They're willing to take $100 for it. What do y'all think? I'm usually not one to collect things and I might just end up selling it after a while.

I'd make sure it works first. $100 seems pretty cheap for a limited edition version of a console. The standard 1X 1tb are selling for $150-$200 on ebay. The Cyberpunk one is selling for $300-$350. Are you sure its not a fake listing, and its just the box or something?

That seems very cheap as stated. I’ve been watching these for a long bit since I have one that is sealed I was considering moving. Ask all the questions and make sure it’s all done through eBay for better protection.

Gotham Knights got real grindy. It felt like a beat em up version of The Division, very gear based, the game did not become like FUN until hour 3 or 4.
Its a shame, it has a neat detective based that heralds what the comics actually tried to do. The studio that made it did the criminally underrated Arkham Origins, but thats it.
Rocksteady is doing the Suicide Squad game, so hopefully its not this but i read that WB Games outsourced a lot of the new game to a crapty studio that mainly ports, Sumo?

If i would have paid for Gotham Knights i wouldve stuck with it longer.
This actually worked for the Guardians of the Galaxy game. Bought the collectors edition, got bored a hour or two in and then...forced myself to stick with it and i'm glad i did. GOTG was a fantastic sleeper hit.

I got super excited that a new Warhammer shooter was hitting Gamepass, downloaded, installed...and its Warhammer Vermintide but in the 40K universe. Which is fine. Its fun, it does what L4D 1 and 2 did well and combines it with what Vermintide 1 and 2 did well, i was just stoked for a new Warhammer shooter.

Made it a couple hours into Lamplighters League, i may pick it back up, i dont know. Its not at all what it was advertised as, other than face to face combat, its not X Com related AT ALL. When you get caught or decide to go guns blazing, it gets mildly XCOM-ey, but overall it reminds me of the fantastic stealth military series, Commandos, that Eidos put out. Each member of the team has a speciality class and theres lots of stealth and cool take downs and stuff....i just wanted a X Com clone hahaha.

I'm still spending a ton of time on Arcade Paradise.
Oh and LOOP HERO!
Addictive as hell, simple to learn. A very low tech, rogue-lite, god game with card based mechanics and turned based rpg style fights. You don't directly control the hero. You build the world around him and try to survive as long as possible. It gets surprisingly deep. Its another one that completely caught me off guard. If you're a Slay the Spire, Monster Train etc fan, give Loop Hero a shot.

That free Disney Racer is gorgeous, the music is great and it has the best drifting since classic NFS. I haven't spent a dime on it and ive unlocked 14 or 15 characters.

Archer wrote:

It has a bunch of Xbox achievements and then on top of that, every in-game "day", you're given optional achievements to earn extra money to buy stuff and then every in game arcade game has achievements.
It's really easy to go down the rabbit hole with this one. But also, its really easy to just do ONE in-game day on your lunch break.
I like that.

Simon_Belmont wrote:
i read


Sumo has had a lot more hits than misses for me.

benstylus wrote:

The games they worked on with other Developers are good but we don't know how much Sumo actually did it each game.
Sumo's original games and ports have been godawful.

It's like when people blame Infinity Ward for COD, they use at least 6 mid sized developers to help them get the game out.

Looks like MS killed some more ways to get Rewards Points. The Xbox App was updated to remove bonus points for friends lists and game pass subscriptions. While these were probably silly bonuses in the first place and kind of strange to have this kinds of freebee points, it's a bummer nonetheless. They also added a new Rewards Beta section to Game Pass on Xbox. I wonder if they'll end up killing off the Rewards app altogether eventually and have this be the new spot for rewards tracking on the Xbox.

SwiftJAB wrote:

They've been removing points we can get like crazy over the last couple months. So much stuff has been removed. I think they are trying to kill it for the most part. Or trying to make it so people can't get $20 gift cards every month, or pay for the gamepass every month with points.

SwiftJAB wrote:

Microsoft acknowledged it was a widespread glitch. It's back now.

DCGX wrote:
The activity rewards are back, but the bonuses that came with those are gone. They said that this was intentional.

SMY36738 wrote:

The writing in Pentiment is fantastic... but it is a lot of reading... and since I play mostly at night, has been tough. I beat it yesterday, really liked it, but will be good to not play another game like it for a while haha.

I tried Microsoft Flight Simulator... it is beautifully done, but I wish it was more gamey and less simulator. The achievements are ridiculous too!

Have a bit of time this week so going to run through the single player of Goldeneye... it has been 20+ years!

SwiftJAB wrote:

I got the bonuses today. On PC an mobile.

Archer wrote:

Bonuses for having GPU and 7 friends appear to have been removed for a "random" set of users. I happen to be one of the unlucky users https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/comments...

SwiftJAB wrote:

Holy crap. Was your play jewel nerfed from 30 to 5 points too? The image in Waliczek's tweet shows it as 5 points. I bet they roll this out to everyone next month.

Archer wrote:

No, at least not yet. Still at 30.

May be late with this, but a fun little mash up! I doubt much change will happen anytime soon as it will take years to integrate. I just truly hope they get Diablo back on track more than anything else.

https://youtu.be/AYU4q594LJ0

As a stock holder/employee, man do I hope this moves the needle for the stock a fair amount! It's odd that it was on the rise last couple days but ended up down yesterday and for the week.

While I'd love to see MS turn things around and make things great for the gaming community, I can't help myself from seeing this as the next step in using established IPs for cash grabs.

The way I look at it- anything I’ve really been into by these groups is vintage now- I can go back. I don’t expect to be won over or buy into anything they release going forward. Blizzard has lost its creative flair and is a perfect union with annual rehash factory activision at this point. This has nothing to do with the merger- so I can be optimistic that MS will revitalize some stuff- track record and talent at hand suggests that won’t happen.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/171281848...

And nothing of value was lost.

Oooofff comments in that tweet are brutal!

Woooow. I was expecting Kottick to remain with the company until death. That’s great news though. And long overdue.

Dunno if this will end up being true or not, but the CEO of Limited Run Games claims that he's heard Wal-mart plans to stop selling physical Xbox games in 2024. If true, doesn't surprise me they would single out Xbox first with how hard they're always pushing GamePass.

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/93799/report-wal-ma...

I read bestbuy is out of physical media altogether next year.

Video games are staying for now. They’re just not selling DVDs and Blu-Rays anymore: https://www.ign.com/articles/best-buy-to-phase-out...

Feeb wrote:

I thought I saw all media. Misremembering I guess. Thanks for clarifying

Feeb wrote:

Wont be long before it is all media.

I don’t know about y’all but our Best Buy’s here don’t even have the games available to look at anymore. Like, I can’t hold the box and bring it up, even in that plastic case. You have to order online and pick them up at the counter now.

Games leaving GP soon:
Persona 5 Royal
Kill It With Fire
Signalis
Solasta: Crown of the Magister
Gunfire Reborn

If you like DnD style RPGs, I highly recommend playing Solasta. Its really good.


And upcoming games, glad I held out on buying Dead Space.

October 19

F1 Manager 2023 (Cloud, Console, and PC)

October 24

Cities Skylines II (PC)

October 26

Dead Space (Cloud, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via EA Play)
Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery (Cloud and Console)
Mineko's Night Market (Cloud, Console, and PC)

October 31

Headbangers: Rhythm Royale (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Jusant (Cloud Console, and PC)

I’m playing the Dead Space remake now. Super duper worth it. It’s much better than the original imo. Much more polished and cleaned up and feels like a new game in itself with the new voiceover work and placement alongside new gameplay segments and small side missions.

Gunfire Reborn is really fun if you like roguelites. It’s one of the rare really solid FPS roguelites I’ve found and is especially fun in co-op with randoms.

Archer wrote:

The following are set to leave GP at the midpoint of November:
Coffee Talk
Exapunks on
Ghost Song
Gungrave G.O.R.E
Football Manager 2023 both and console
Lapin
Townscaper

Anyone have cases for playing these?
I "beat" Townscaper, a while ago, it's more of just a building sandbox to mess with, with no general goals outside of achievements. It was alright to mess with for like an hour or so.
I tried Ghost Song and it didn't do much for me even though it's expected to be a decent Metroidvania. Anyone else play it?
I loved the 2x Gungraves on the and tried this new one when it dropped, but I wasn't hooked this time around. Does it get better, worth trying to prioritize it?

Well this is good news! A bunch of us were chatting about how weird it was to remove our perk.

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/172058266518183...

That seemed weird. Allegedly Phil Spencer wasn’t aware of it being removed as a perk, and it got retracted pretty quickly after he did find out. I’m glad it got fixed up.

Is the Minecraft you get on Gamepass, the same as the Deluxe Collection? I know nothing about Minecraft, but my 6 year old has become obsessed with it. Planning on getting him a Series S, and some other Minecraft junk out of the Microsoft employee store. Wasn't sure if Deluxe is or is not the same as the Gamepass version? I don't think it is?

Rewards points with more nerfs this month. Earn an Achievement reduced from 50 to 5.

MrBean wrote:

Deluxe Edition is a ripoff unless you get it crazy on sale, you get a handful of skins and 1600 Minecraft coins.
That's it.
Stay with the standard edition.
I believe i have Minecraft toys for sale in with my flea market stuff, let me know. Anything to help a fellow parent save money.
My daughter is too young for any of it, but she reaches for my controller constantly and we bought her her own "controller", which she does not like as much as my plain black xbox one, of course.

A ton of good stuff was added to Gamepass but i have no interest in any of it, save for the big stuff which i don't have time to play.
Going to start Like A Dragon: Ishin! tonight.

Archer wrote:

That's a shame, everyone is cutting corners everywhere.

Hey everyone, I could use some help. I'm participating in the Salvation Army Angel Tree Program this year. The child I selected is asking for Xbox Game Pass. Does he need to have Xbox Live separately, or does Game Pass include that?

I was hoping to get him a year, to last him until next Christmas, but I checked on Amazon and I'm only seeing 1 month and 3 months. Do they not offer 6 months or 1 year? Also, I was a bit surprised by the prices...$15 for 1 month and $45 for 3 months. I feel like I've seen sales for much cheaper than this, but, it's definitely possible I'm just remembering wrong since I was never actually in the market for it myself so I really wasn't paying much attention. Is there likely to be a better deal on this between now and the end of the month? The gifts have to be turned in by December 1st, so I have a little bit of time. What would be a good price I could probably expect to find a 3 month sub for?

Next, he also asked for "video games" separately. What are some of the best games y'all know of that aren't included in Game Pass? He's 10, so nothing too mature, please.

@Scott - check PM

MrBean probably answered everything i would've said.
YES you can get it cheaper but if you're just buying the kid a physical Game Pass Card, then, no, you can't get it that cheap.

MrBean is hooking me up with a good deal on Game Pass. I'm still looking for feedback on this though:

He also asked for "video games" separately. What are some of the best games y'all know of that aren't included in Game Pass? He's 10, so nothing too mature, please.

Scott wrote:

GP pretty much has him covered. Most of the games he will want to play are already free to play games or on GP. At least in my experience with kids around that age.

However, if he likes Harry Potter, Hogwarts Legacy is not on GP. And that is rated T for teen. But its very much an E type game. No drugs, no dating/adult talk. You don't kill your enemies, you knock them out.

Since GP seems to cover almost all of the major games, I'm thinking I'll just try to get him as long of a GP sub as I can, and put extra toward shoes and clothes since that seems to be a major need for him.

Hogwarts is a great suggestion content wise, but it's still a bit pricey. I think our money will go further in other ways. Thanks for the input!

Is Lego 2K drive on there? Been having fun with it

@Scott basically anything Lego, Plants vs Zombies (on EA Play - not included with GP, but is included with GPU), or Minecraft (on GP).

I was gonna get my kid the black 1tb XSS on my employee discount for $300 (the OG white 512 is $250), but this has me in debate. $75 more an X? Don't 'need' the disc drive, space is limited making the S more appealing... But hard to argue a $75 difference!

https://twitter.com/videogamedeals/status/17258669...

I’d go x. It seemed so much better performance wise. I did not like the s at all.

Feeb wrote:

He's six and priamily plays Minecraft. He's starting to venture into other stuff but it's gonna be this for a bit.

I haven't dug into the performance differences between the two, but it's largely gpu yeah?

My biggest issue is the size. I've got a small cubby hole to put the Xbox in, next to a switch dock. The X is just a wee bit big, but ugh, my gut says spend the extra and just have more future proofing.

Woah! Added to cart, there was a 10% promo + 5% red card... After tax, $417 and get a $75 gift card, sold!

Feeling real dumb ... I haven't played on Xbox in ages.

I think I'm gonna pick up MW3 to play with some buddies. If I buy it digitally for Xbox, can I play it on PC natively via Xbox app, or do I have to stream from console to PC? Ideally would like to play on either or pending on who's using the main TV.

Largely debating whether or not I use that QVC $20 off coupon to get physical, or digital.

Thanks!

--- edit: I don't think so, has to be in the "Xbox Play Anywhere" category, which Call of Duty isn't (yet).

Yeah, no guarantees that it'll support play anywhere now or in the future. Buy it where you're going to play it most. I would think that MW3 would support cross play, so you can play with your buddies no matter where you're playing. The Xbox app on PC supports parties with Xbox players.

SwiftJAB wrote:

All of the COD games since Modern Warfare 2019 support crossplay, HOWEVER there are some caveat's to that. If you purchase/earn COD Points via the Battlepass, they stay on the system they're earned on, which sucks because PS Plus members get exclusive skins and guns, but I'm mainly a Xbox player. Also Battlepass progress is still very strange via crossplay.
I finished last season's Battlepass on PS4 but when i logged into my Xbox X, it showed it still at like 78% or something like that.

Also, yeah now that i have a Series X, i JUST want to buy physical games.

Scott wrote:

Minecraft Story Mode is awesome and not on GPU. Its a graphic adventure, choose your own adventure style game with a little bit of action and QTE's, but the story is deeper than i thought it would be.
It's really well done and the voice acting is all good comedians.

MrBean wrote:

Get the X for long term stability and he'll grow with the console. That's a 4K UHD disc drive in there that upconverts, plus performance and loading and really everything else is like light years ahead of the S.

Gaming wise I'd suggest Grounded, Hot Wheels Racing, Forza 5 with the Hot Wheels add on, and the new Disney racing game. All on GPU, all completely safe for a 6 year old, especially if he's playing Minecraft already. If he can build and survive a shelter and mess up some creeps in MC, he can build a shelter in Grounded and do some damage to some giant spiders and bugs, it's really a neat concept.

There's another game on GPU i can't remember the name of, randomly generated levels, no real way to attack anything, you're basically just an indiana jones style adventurer and you must reach the exit of each temple, you're also competing against everyone else who has played that map. It gets kind of addictive.

$75 more to get an XSX is a no-brainer. Some of the X1X-enhanced stuff is a steal used and is really great on the newer hardware. And just to be able to watch movie discs comes in handy for us (not all that often to be honest, but sometimes).

Any of you folks have Microsoft Complete warranty? $49 for 3 years seems decent.

ryanflucas wrote:

I got it for my X after my last bad experience with my S series. It's like that cheap Walmart warranty I get everytime I buy a desktop pc from them. It's like $40 for 4 years lol.

When I spoke to Best Buy and Target, both said they mail to Microsoft for repairs instead of replacing. Yet their warranties are $80-$100. Best Buy employee boasted about having a manager that replaces non working systems with new but it’s literally in writing that they exhaust other options first, anything more at managers discretion. I might as well pay less and go straight to the source.

Dollar General is open today and has Game Pass Ultimate 3-month cards, Xbox $25 cards, and Xbox $20 card 3-packs 20% off.

So on Series X, games are installed on that internal SSD. Can I hookup a standard usb external ssd of my own and send the apps and 360 games there instead?

Yes. You can have everything install on your external SSD but the Series X games have to run on internal storage. Everything else can be done off the external drive.

Nice

I have a leftover 1TB external ssd that I used with my previous system. It’s the only thing that made my Xbox OneX tolerable.

Oh yeah. You can get the expansion cards that can play Series X games, but they’re stupid expensive for what you get size wise. Your external should be perfectly fine for everything else though.

BucketofJustice wrote:

Agree they're too darn pricey, but I was able to score the original Seagate brand (vs. the newer WD) 1TB size from Woot last weekend for $90 - that was the most I was willing to pay for 1TB so I'm looking forward to getting it installed and using it.

I ran a 4TB USB HDD in my X1X and then on my XSX for the past several years (combined) to play lots of games via (clearly only X1 and older gen titles) but it started to disconnect on me a bunch starting around 8 months ago, so I eventually replaced it with another 4TB HDD acquired from a fellow GTZer so I can keep my huge library of older titles available. Quick Resume is fantastic with a huge library of titles to play.

So there’s a generic adapter you can use to build your own compatible SSD. It only works with specific drives though, same specs as the official expansion kits.

You can do that and hope it works. I watched a couple videos on YouTube and they seem to be iffy at best. It could’ve gotten better in the past couple months, but last I saw it wasn’t a 100% thing.

The only thing that sucks about it is that if its a game that is X/S Enhanced or they updated it to become enhanced with X/S, you HAVE to install that version. I had my ENTIRE Witcher 3 campaign on my external and then when it became it Enhanced, i couldnt play it from the external, i had to move that huge ass file to my internal.
I wish you had the option to play the "un enhanced" version, just to save space.

Far Cry 6 coming to game pass 12/5 for anyone who cares. I stopped after FC5 because it’s just way too much check box open world nonsense but thought I’d share since it popped up on my feed.

I feel like PS+ and GP eventually just end up with each others (non-exclusive) games. I lost interest in FC6 on PS5 pretty quickly.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

It's SUPER FUN as like a stress reliever, but other than that, it's like barely a game. The villain is the least interesting in the series, which is a shame because Giancarlo Espisito is an amazing actor.
KIND OF like Far Cry 5, literally every gun is unlocked from the start so it makes raids and missions pretty easy. You have unlimited spawned vehicles, you can just spawn a helicopter from a cliff, crash it into a base and destroy the base yourself.
I didn't finish 6 or the FC5 spin-off. They need to go back to their roots.
FC5 had it, the world just felt empty, but i was invested in the storyline because the villains were good and the storyline was good and it had most of the survival elements from the previous games so i'm happy i finished it. I'd like re-visit and get one of the other 2 endings, but i don't have any time.
ALSO the fishing minigame in FC5 was super relaxing for some reason.

So all the Fallout 3,4, and 5 DLC is super cheap in the store and i never played The Pitt or Operation Anchorage for FO3, so at .99 cents each, i picked those up.
I installed and booted up FO3 and it looks GORGEOUS.
Did they remaster Fallout 3 or anything like that? I have a Series X and a relatively recent 4K TV, is it just that my TV is good or something?

Also those of you that have the Xbox One version of Skyrim, the X/S upgrade plus creation club and a bunch of other new things is less than $10 bucks. Got it for my wife and i'm going to install it Christmas Eve

I haven't really looked yet, but are they charging for the enhanced series X version of these games on top of owning the standard version on disc?

Are you asking about Fallout specifically, or just in general?

There’s a lot of 360 games that can look better if they’re played on an Xbox One X and/or Series X. You don’t need a special version disc or anything, and they shouldn’t cost any more than normal, and there’s no up charge if you already own the game.

ryanflucas wrote:

Mostly no, some games yes.

Anyone play HiFi rush? Worth it at 50%off?

Oh heck yeah man Hi-Fi rush was a good time. It was like Devil May Cry but with musical rhythm.

Hi Fi Rush is so good.

I wanted to like that game, and I got through about half of it, but the gameplay is really annoying at times. The premise is cool, and the art style is interesting, but it just became not fun to play. For example, there is a timed sequence with instant death in which you have to use the right commands at the right time to call in another character to quickly solve a puzzle while lava is coming toward you.

MrBean wrote:

MrBean wrote:

Do it! Though, if you aren't good at timing and rhythm games, you might have a tough time since combat is tied to the beat.

That game is great. I struggled with the timing but there are settings to make that less critical and I had fun with it. Never got all the way through it though, you really need to have at least some rhythm to get the most out of this.

FWIW there was some FPS that had a similar mechanic where you were supposed to kill enemies on beat with the music. I really sucked at that too. Hi-Fi Rush has a lot more going for it though.

I was TERRIBLE at that game. Shame, a good shooter gone to waste.
Hi Fi Rush was easier to handle and fun as hell. AND it was a huge surprise because it just appeared, no advertising or anything.

Don't be fooled by these crazy end of the year Xbox sales, a lot of them will be going to GamePass come 2024 thanks to the Activision Blizzard deal in January.

Game Pass users, there's a bunch of games on sale only for GPU and one of them is Immortals of Aveum Deluxe Edition for EIGHT BUCKS!
I'm enjoying it, it's like a Doctor Strange shooter with magic and mystical guns. The overacting and bad voiceovers are on purpose, it's like playing a bad action fantasy B movie.

The full game is $8? I see the upgrade to the deluxe version for $8.99 but the game itself is still ~$30. I'm interested in trying the game but there is a lot of belief that it'll hit GP since it didn't sell well.

It was only $8 for the deluxe edition for a day. I had it in my cart and went back with rewards points I cashed in, and it was back to $32ish. I should have jumped, but hopefully this means it’ll be on Game Pass soon.

Oh derp, HiFi Rush is on gamepass, nice. It, along with a ton of Bethesda stuff started showing up in my msft employee discount store recently.

Nice, looks like a fun game to play with the 6 year old.

I enjoyed Hi-Fi Rush, but @Bleed_DukeBlue's comment is valid and having the access via GP likely skewed things for me and my overall view. If you're not great with button press timing you can get frustrated if you have to repeatedly attempt at least a dozen interactions like I had to do. And I didn't actually get better at that either.
I generally enjoyed the vibrant colors, the goofball protagonist, the side characters, the general beats overall and in most cases you didn't have to be crazy precise deal damage and progress through the story. The final boss fight was also a challenge for me since I wasn't a pro with timing. I played it on normal which I believe gave a slightly higher weight to nailing the timing vs. the easy mode that basically allowed you to ignore that timing.

Walmart is selling the Series X for $349

Groo wrote:

Everyone is. I fudgeed up and should've waited a month. I still got mine on sale, but...yeah.
The Diablo IV edition was $349 NEW ONLY on Gamestop last week. And i keep the Forza bundle for $349.

Super great deal.

Minecraft Realms - redeemed a 6 month code, got us 183 days. Redeemed another 6 months, still shows 183 days. Did I just waste money?

Also, how does sharing a GPU actually work?

Getting my kid an XSX for Xmas and I barely play Xbox. Should I make his Xbox the "home" Xbox? He plays Minecraft and now Realms.

We'll more than likely never be online at the same time but I debate if I shouldn't just get him his own gamer tag and a GPU? Now that I've seen realms, I may play with them from time to time.

That and I'd like him to have options to switch between Xbox's easily.

Have done zero homework, no idea how this works.

My son uses an XSX downstairs, and I off-and-on have an Xbox upstairs. I don't play it often though.

What I do is this:
-I use my Xbox account as the main account for everything. I add GPU to my account and set that up as the primary account on the XSX.
-He then just adds a profile to the XSX that links to his own XBL account (that I setup for him).
-He just uses his user on the XSX and has access to all the GPU stuff since my account is primary there. It's pretty hassle free.

The only gotcha is that to DL games from my existing library (unrelated to GPU), he has to switch to my account to do so. So I come login to allow him to do that. Once the DL is kicked off though, he can switch back to his user and not need to go back to my user.

Definitely make them their own XBL account. Otherwise they're going to be adding to your friends list, impacting your achievements, and you won't both be able to play together (or separately at the same time).

@Anxiouz this helps, thanks. Which console is set as the home and does that matter?

Thanks!

"His" console is set as home and we consider that the "main" Xbox. And it absolutely matters.

Setting a home console means other users can access the home user's content and that's why you can only have 1 home machine. And are limited to setting a home machine like 5 times.

My setting his console as my home allows him to just use his user like normal but since I set it as the home xbox for my account it lets him access to play online with friends and GP games. But we never really login with my account on that machine at this point.

One side effect of that is that when I try something on a 2nd xbox I get a brief "checking if you can play this" message since it basically checks that you're not logged in on another machine since my account is access content not on my home machine. On the 2nd xbox I can 100% of everything (GP, access my library) because it's tied to my user.

So with that recent Insomniac hack/leak (which shouldn't have gone as far as it did, basically doxing every employee and making their info public), if you ever wondered why there was no Sunset Overdrive 2, it's probably because the first game only made them a $567 profit.

https://insider-gaming.com/sunset-overdrive-insomn...

Loved Sunset Overdrive, was always hoping for a follow up! Absolutely insane that's all that it made. Margins seem relatively small on most games now a days anyways, which is everything has micro transactions for ongoing revenue streams.

Sunset Overdrive was a good time. It was like the closest thing I felt to a Jet Set sequel. Happy to see Sega is finally returning to Jet Set too soon!

Can’t wait for a new Jet Set. I hope the rest of the games are gonna be good too. It’s be great if the last Golden Axe wasn’t that Beast Rider game, or if the last good Shinobi wasn’t on Genesis like 30 years ago.

My expectations for JSR3 have dropped dramatically with the reveal that it will be open world.

https://www.ign.com/articles/jet-set-radio-reboot-...

Cause we really need another sandbox open world game. Ugh.

benstylus wrote:

It can be argued that Jet Set was always kind of open world. Though I found both previous games more akin to the "open-world" style of the 'Yakuza/Like a Dragon' games. As long as it's more interesting than, say, 'Ghostwire Tokyo''s open world, I'm down.

DCGX wrote:

The second one for sure (and it's part of the reason I don't like that one nearly as much).

The first one had pretty structured levels, though, and except for that part where you have to grind to the end of the crane to jump across a gap, they are really well designed. And even that crane part is more a controls issue than a design issue.

Well there’s an open world style of game I don’t mind when it’s I guess called closed ended open world similar to games like God of War 4/Tomb Raider 2013, and even Dead Island 2. But the huge open world sandboxes become quite overwhelming.

I too am tired of a giant sandbox and try to stray away from those, especially with action games. It's annoying. Using the Tomb Raider reboot as an example of how an open world game of that type is a great example.
Same deal with the recent Shadow Warrior games. Just open world enough...I'd love to track down more of those and I'm 100% happy with a linear 15 to 30 hour campaign. Hell, I'm happy with a 10 hour linear campaign lol.

I miss those days where 15 hour games were the sweet spot.

The slides in that presentation for the remakes all looked poorly translated. I'm not convinced it literally means non-linear open-world.

If it was something like Sunset Overdrive which was fun to traverse, reasonable in size, lots to do on the way, and there was fast travel...I'd be totally fine with it.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

That first Tomb Raider reboot, like the recent ones, was the most PERFECT length for a single player game ever. And it tricked me into thinking the game was over and i still had 3 or 4 more hours, well done.
I also remember the Deus Ex reboot being perfectly paced. Both games were mildly open world.

Oh yeah see when a game like Tomb Raider 2013 is a 12-15 hour ride, I’ll be more inclined to keep playing to 100% it vs say an Ass. Creed game that’s 4x that length with 292833828 check box things to do that don’t really matter or aren’t very interesting.

Anxiouz wrote:

So I don't think I paid attention and now I'm getting ready for tomorrow. Made my kid a Gamer Tag and now I have to figure out what to do with the Xbox's.

So with two Xbox's - Dad + Kid and two GT's - Dad + Kid.

What's the best way to do this?

- Sign into Kids Xbox as Dad's GT - and set as home?
- This enables Kid to get full access to GP, under his own GT?
- Then on Dad's Xbox, I can still access GP, under my GT, just with the delay on validating access (like the Switch does)?

- While on his GT, either console, will his saved games be backed up, and be able to play online? Or is it he only gets access to the GP library not the other XBL functionality?

Thanks!

Is the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller worth the price? They are as low as $96 for red but I'd probably go $130 for white if getting one, then maybe I'd buy a paddle/thumbstick kit on Amazon at a later date. I wear out thumbsticks often so was thinking about upgrading.

EDIT : Please let me know if there other upgraded controllers you guys recommend

To piggyback on back4more's comment, has anyone tried out the Nacon or GameSir Hall Effect analog sticked controllers? They're wired only I believe, but are noted for being pretty solid, cheaper at around $40 and those drift-less sticks are intriguing.

I've had interest in the Elites, but the original $150 price was too high for me, the sub $100 is 'better' for sure, but the extra paddles are at least 75% of the reason I'd even want one, so I'd need to buy them too and clearly that raises the price... so I'll be curious if anyone has thoughts on them as well.

Sorry for the delay, I've been out.

MrBean wrote:
Yes. Then "switch user" and login and set his user/GT to auto-login on that machine. So your user/GT is on there but not logged in or actively being used.

Yes. You should have 2 users on the Xbox, 1 with your GT and 1 with their GT. When a user with GP sets the console as home, all users/GTs on that machine can access GP/online.

Yes. But not nearly as slow to validate. It does a check to see if you have cloud saves to sync in case your user/GT had played something recently on the home console.

Honestly I'm not sure about this one but I think only the GP owner can use the cloud saves. What we've been doing is on my son's xbox he copies his game saves to a USB drive on occasion (as a manual backup).

He will have access to GP and online multiplayer for sure, that's all my son uses. I don't know if he would see GP discounts in the store (we buy everything on my account so that we have just 1 big library).

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