Microsoft Consoles and Updates

[spatular]

on the other hand i think halo infinite is really good, and better than 4 and 5 so for me they're getting better at making halo games

 

edit - also about the new handheld, i think i saw some info on this in another video not in the presentation thing, but if the changes to windows get rolled into normal windows builds it could be pretty good for pc gamers with performance improvements and stuff, and we have valve/steamdeck to thank for kicking them into doing something 

[Maf]

Yeah, I read similar that Windows works really bad on a pad so to make this handheld they wanted to really redesign the PC app experience. People complain about it, I don’t really have any problems with it. My only confusion is if using a Xbox pad on PC and press the Xbox home button it immediately moves to Steam lol. It’s like that’s your pad, own that button 

[Maryokutai]

I think Halo's biggest issue hasn't been the games, but Xbox One. If that system had had the popularity of the PS4, even something as controversial as Halo 5 would have found a large enough audience. Particularly as the game itself wasn't too shabby, it just kind of drove the overarching story down a cliff. And while we lack proper evidence for this, I attribute a lot of Infinite's problems to its cross-gen nature. The tech demo they showed a year before its reveal was pushing for significantly more ambitious stuff than the final game did.

 

Of course all of that doesn't change the fact that the series isn't this big hitter anymore and the path forward not quite clear. But I agree that remaking 1 is a bad idea and likely won't work either. Plus Gears is already moving backwards, we don't need both shooters to do the same thing.

[Maf]

I suppose this should have been obvious but since the Xbox Rog won’t be able to play Xbox games natively, if a game doesn’t have a PC version, or isn’t on Xbox’s streaming service, then you won’t be able to play it. Depending on compatibility that could really limit the use of the thing if you only have an Xbox library and were thinking about getting one 

[one-armed dwarf]

I've just generally being of the view WRT Halo that it is the beneficiary of the climate it released in, the first game coming out when the FPS genre was really in a state of terminal decline on consoles. It optimised the genre so well for playability on a controller, with compromises that felt like features rather than downgrades (to be clear, I consider them downgrades, but not gonna die on this hill right now lol)

 

Second was the wider availability of broadband and the novelty of Halo 2 specifically as a multiplayer title, and especially 3 afterwards. But I just don't see how there's anything in the current shape of the industry that allows Halo to have such a huge presence like it once did, without it undergoing radical re-invention but it's not easy to see what that reinvention looks like. The forces that propelled before have left it in the dust now

 

In either case, I'll continue to not give much of a shit about Halo games anyway

[mfnick]

Halo has always been overrated tosh. Wish they’d give up with it. Without a huge overhaul and doing something revolutionary with it (which could also backfire), it’ll never reach the same heights either. People aren’t bothered anymore. 

[spatular]

What games do you guys like then?

[Nag]

Not many by the sounds of it... 😂

[one-armed dwarf]

Sorry dudes, I've been passive aggressive with the MS stuff, I'll stop (tho I do like lots of games)

[Maryokutai]

There was certainly a bit of Zeitgeist-riding going on with Halo's success but at the same time you could say something similar about CoD (Modern Warfare specifically). Maybe it's just a setting kind of thing, where CoD's 'near future' is more timeless than Halo's late 90's, early 2000's sci-fi mumbo-jumbo, but at the same time I wonder if Halo could simply have stayed relevant if it had turned into a trend-chaser like CoD did, which I believe still does bigger numbers through Warfare than its annual releases (not revenue, but profit).

 

But I guess this is all alternate dimension talk at the end of the day.

[mfnick]

There was a lot at the Xbox showcase I liked actually. But fuck Halo! Even though it wasn’t actually there. 😂

[Maf]

I like Halo 4, 5 and Infinite. But also feel like they’re quite mid and mostly backwards facing

 

DF did a Xbox special afterall

 

 

Just getting in to the Xbox handheld stuff. One thing I guess is most of the games they showed I would want to play on a TV/monitor. They’re what I think of as big screen experiences. I like the idea of a an Xbox device to play smaller games from Gamepass that suit a smaller screen device, which this seems like overkill for. 

[Maf]

John is a fucking idiot 

[Sly Reflex]

I think a lot of games outstay their welcome, that's pretty much it. Like anything if you keep saying the same thing over and over people are going to get fed up, but if you change to much people are going to get alienated. If you are part of a long running series you are trapped.

 

This is where Xbox have fucked themselves. They have had a hand in pushing these huge franchises and then just expect to sit on them for the coming decades, not realising that people get fed up of them. Stuff like Forza has probably never been better, but it feels like the ultimate level of soulless.

 

I don't think that's just an MS problem, it's a game development problem. I felt it with a lot of franchises I've loved previously. Borderlands 3 felt completely devoid of any character. The Gears games after 3 feel like someone forced to make something they don't want to do, but are obliged to. Pumping out more games in these series feels like a huge waste of time to me, especially when they could give Gears 1 - 3 the Master Chief Collection remastering and go off that instead of doing whatever the fuck they are doing now.

 

I think really the only franchise that really gets it is Resident Evil. It works within the constraints of the hardware given and is constantly reinventing itself to be relevant with mechanics that keep up to date or even bucking trends that others follow, all whilst keeping that Resi flavour. I guess God of War did this too, albeit with only one major pitch shift?

 

Of course there's going to be people that hate the new directions, as well as ones that hate the older games, but I think that paradigm shift is needed, and not in a "We're fighting robots now" like in Gears, or whatever the fuck the things were in the Halo games, it needs to be more a radical radical shift. That's just not really feasible in some genres though. Gran Turismo is always going to be dry as fuck no matter how many wacky cars or weird cups you put in it, it's just the nature of the beast. 

[Nag]

Thought I'd post this article about the Xbox handheld as it has some (maybe) helpful bullet points...

 

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/psa-the-xbox-ally-is-a-pc

 

It's an interesting prospect for me... mainly because of the PC side of things (there's loads of horror games that never seem to make it to console)... I do think that the price is going put a stop to any kind of urge for me to get one though.

[Sly Reflex]

 

I am guessing the other people here that own it will also get a free upgrade too. Keep an eye on your messages on Xbox.

[Nag]

I've had the message and code... but to the best of my knowledge I don't own the digital version of Ultimate Edition. I'm not gonna say no though. 

[retroed]

28 minutes ago, Nag said:

I've had the message and code... but to the best of my knowledge I don't own the digital version of Ultimate Edition. I'm not gonna say no though. 

 

Same, I don't own Ultimate Edition and had a code sent earlier for Reloaded. I have played through it, though.

[DANGERMAN]

I got an email, but when I opened it it called me a Sony Pony and flipped me the bird 😩

[Nag]

Tbf that's deserved @DANGERMAN... 👍