Microsoft Consoles and Updates

[Sly Reflex]

I hope other companies look at XAC and do similar. A bit of competition in that area would do wonders for people that are unable to use traditional inputs.

[Sly Reflex]

I actually meant both. Just because I'm able bodied doesn't mean I should have to get the fucking shears out to cut open tamper proof shit. Packaging that is like that is a complete hassle, I can't even begin to imagine how hard opening something like a memory card is for someone that doesn't have full motor skills. Smarter packaging and products is what we should be aiming for.

[retroed]

Couple days into my Xbox One X ownership and I have zero buyer's remorse.

 

X enhanced 360 games look absolutely stunning in 4K. Halo 3, Forza Horizon and Red Dead Redemption look better than many new releases, and could easily pass as current gen games. Forza Horizon 3 with the X patch looks incredible, and makes me very excited for FH4.

 

I was playing some Fortnite duos earlier with my boy on the Switch and we had a blast. I really wish I could move my progress over from the PS4. Game looks marginally nicer than on PS4 Pro, too.

[retroed]

 

[regemond]

That's... different. I like it!

[ThreeFour]

? fuckin nuts

[DisturbedSwan]

They've made some good hires there but then 343 probably did back in the day and we know how Halo 4 and 5 turned out...

 

The proof will be in 4-5 years time ultimately, Microsoft isn't exactly fantastic at new IP. Their shanghai-heist game got shitcanned so they could turn it into the Gears studio, they'll probably turn The Initiative into the new Crackdown studio or something  

[Hendo]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-08-19-forza-horizon-2-will-reach-end-of-life-status-next-month-and-be-removed-from-the-xbox-store

 

Forza Horizon 2 being delisted at the end of September.

Only been out 4 years so some kind of licensing issue or they just don’t want to cannibalise the new one?

[DANGERMAN]

apparently it's down to the music and they did the same with a previous game? It's shit, but they've just given it away as part of Gold, they're giving people a warning ahead of time, there's not much more they can do

 

I've seen this being used as a stick to beat digital, which isn't entirely unfair, but you'd have been relying on the 2nd hand market anyway in the past, without the possibility of downloading it or getting it with your sub. Games need to get better about how they licence their music though to stop this happening

[mmmark]

It’s a driving game. Patch it to remove all music. 

[Hendo]

Hello, long time 360 user, first time Xbox One user here.

 

I’ve found my “ready to install” list with a shit load of Arcade games and there’s also a couple of disc games there like Ass Creed Brotherhood and Bioshock.

Does this mean that I’ll have bought them digitally at some point? That’s the only two, so seeing as there’s no Gears games or anything that I know is backwards compatible, I would guess that’s the case.

 

Also, lots of memories come flooding back looking at my list, which includes:

 

Both Keflings games, which are awesome.

Battlefield 1943

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

Castle Crashers

Castlevania : Symphony of the Night

Iron Brigade

Might & Magic : Clash of Heroes

Monday Night Combat

N+

Puzzle Quest

Stacking (lol, @Sly Reflex)

Torchlight

Toy Soldiers

Trials HD

 

And loads more.

 

Any idea if my saves will carry across by default?

[regemond]

@Hendo re Ass Creed and Bioshock, yeah it's digital purchases, and no, I don't think saves carry over unless you uploaded them to the cloud at the time.

 

[Hendo]

I just had a look into Game Pass to see what the pricing is and there’s something called Microsoft account balance which says £19:59.

So does that mean I have that cash just sitting there? I guess I must’ve added money to my account at some point and never used it?

[Hendo]

No, but I have one. 

[Hendo]

Spent nearly a week with this now so thought I’d put my thoughts out there.

 

I’ll start with the negatives.

I should preface this by saying I got generously gifted the machine and none of this takes away from that generosity.

 

So the UI is terrible. Slow, sluggish and just an absolute mess of stuff everywhere. Going from the clean, simple UI of the Switch to this is a real eye opener. Granted, the Switch does less stuff, but the PS4 UI is also simple to use.

Maybe the speed of it is down to it being updated so much that it runs better on an X or S and not the original machine, but i’ve found I have to wait a few minutes after booting before it settles down and becomes useable. Before that, if you press the stick around to get somewhere, it moves where you told it to after about 30 seconds. And then follows up with all the other movements you did while you were waiting for it to work.

 

Game Pass, however, is the shining jewel in their favour and is far more vital than Live Gold in my view.

8 quid a month is a really good price for a really good selection of games. For that price so far I have downloaded all available Gears games (bar the unmastered original), the Halo Wars games (and waiting for the collection to drop soon), Cities Skylines, Doom, Fable II and the last Tomb Raider. And there’s still over a hundred left to choose from.

Plus, unlike Netflix, it has a section in the store that tells you which games are leaving next and when, which is really useful.

 

A guy in work who plays on the Xbox is convinced that I’ll make this my main console, but I really can’t see it. Though I am quite happy to pay them the same as Netflix to continue to play their exclusive games.

Most importantly, the Gears X-Com game.

[Hendo]

I can’t see that staying PC exclusive, unless they’re actually insane. 

[mmmark]

25 minutes ago, Hendo said:

I can’t see that staying PC exclusive, unless they’re actually insane. 

 

Theres that gears pop game coming so insanity confirmed. 

[Hendo]

Well, Xcom works well on pads, and as far as I know, PC players don’t think it’s been dumbed down so from what they’ve shown so far, it should work just fine.

[Sly Reflex]

Terrible console. Trying to do anything on it feels like a proper chore. Also disgusting how they've ripped almost all the Kinect functionality out, there was something kind of great being able to control every aspect of your tv with your voice only, but now they've made it the most rudimentary they possibly could. Plus the voice stuff actually worked, it's the first time I've seen that happen.

 

It has the worst interface of any electronic device I've ever used. The different tabs where you can see people streaming and all that other stuff are just a mess, and the last thing I want to see when cycling through the menu's are T&A or some random asshole streaming GTA. This design and presentation really is unforgivable.

 

Setting parties up was 2 buttons presses on 360. It's a right old fuck about on One.

 

Getting a game with anyone is nigh on impossible. It's like trying to get people to play on PS3 back when that was current, except worse since all that's left of the Xbox community is the people that didn't jump ship to PS4. The social gamers moved.

 

The way it deals with playing games is god awful. Sometimes I couldn't start games at all. The disc is in, everything is installed but the One just refuses to go. I've actually (and others I've spoken to as well) have had instances where the game loads and then won't let you play, or won't get your save so you're shit out of luck.

 

Updates take the piss. In fact the whole installing thing takes forever. They promised you could play games while they installed which was a fucking lie for the most part. What they should have said is "You can load the menus up and look at the microtransactions while the rest of the game installs.", because that would be more accurate.

 

Boot from being powered off is ludicrous. elsewhere I can boot from powered off and send a text telling whoever I've signing in and then go right into it. Here? Not so much. It feels like an eternity.

 

Out of all the consumer electronics I've ever had this has been factory reset the most, due to the constant fuck ups. We're into double figures.

 

Lacklustre exclusives. I put up with 360 because the games were fantastic for the most. This, not so much. Everything I've looked forwards to has been shit or cripplingly disappointing. It's actually one of the main reasons I've not played Gears 4. My friend has a One (now a One X) so I've played jaunts on that, but none of the games I loved makes me feel the way I felt previously. If anything I feel totally alienated by the whole platform now.

 

Finding games takes longer. I've had some pretty shitty wait times on stuff like Overwatch on PS4, but One takes the biscuit there. Less players online equals longer wait times.

 

Given the experiences and feelings I've got towards the One I'm surprised it hasn't been buried harder this generation. Out of all the consoles I've owned the One has been the least used for games. I never thought the Wii would have been usurped from that spot, but the One has managed to snatch a loss from the jaws of victory.

[Sly Reflex]

 

When you're getting roasted but you got no comebacks. The only thing you can do is mock their laugh.

 

Seriously though, trash console. If it wasn't for it doing the TV stuff good it would have vacated my house long ago.