The Xbox Thread

[Patriot]

Considering getting an Xbox Series S.

Reasons:

- Haven't had an Xbox since the original
- There's a lot of games on GamePass I'd like to play
- S because I'll be playing on a 1080p monitor, and don't care about anything above 60fps. Also because good luck finding an X
- S because PS5 will still be my primary system for any game not included in GamePass

Considering, not rushing out to get tomorrow.

Someone talk me out of it. Or convince me to do it.

[Q]

For me, the PC and PS5 are the perfect tandem. If I weren't into PC gaming as much I would do the same thing without hesitation.

As is: An Xbox would be "the odd man out."

In this day and age if you're into gaming and you see games you want to play 9/10 times it's going to mean owning more than one platform. Item 2 carries the most weight. That's really all that matters. If you're looking at that and saying "I can't play those games anywhere else" then it's a done deal depending on your budget.


EDIT ADD: Numerous 502 Gateway errors and lag coming on and off of here. Be aware. 

[Patriot]

It just makes sense. $289 for the S, $40 for 3 months of Game Pass Ultimate.

3 months is all I'd need anyway at a time.

[Sandman]

I got an S basically for those reasons(and since I'm not really a PC gamer). Haven't played it a ton yet because it hasn't come up in my primary rotation, but I've played around on some Gamepass games, fun stuff.

Ended up downloading The Masterchief Collection on there since it had an X/S upgrade, might play some Halo after I finish Golden Abyss.

[Patriot]

Masterchief Collection, Halo Infinite, and the Fable games are primarily what I'd like to play.

Loved Fable, never got to play Fable 2 or 3. Likewise, loved Halo and Halo 2, never got to play the others.

[Patriot]

Ordered it, will be here Monday.

Probably going to hold off on grabbing GamePass. Only because I know I'll be on D2 fairly regularly the first week or two of the season, so no reason to cheat myself out of a solid two weeks of GamePass by having it and not using it.

[Patriot]

Actually, just found out that you can buy a Gold membership, and then snag the month trial of Game Pass Ultimate for $1 and it'll convert your Gold into GPU.

So just going to go ahead and do that and pick up a year of Gold from Amazon for $54.99.

That should be 13 months of Game Pass Ultimate for $56.

Might grab two years.

[Sandman]

Yeah that's what I did when I went to GPU. Nice to see they're still doing that.

[Patriot]

Glad I found out about that, because I was just going to grab the $1 month and then later snag a 3-month from Amazon.

I'm liking it, but definitely going to take some getting used to. I prefer the Dualshock, and frankly the PS5 dashboard/interface much more.

[Patriot]

First Xbox game I bought is...

Red Dead Redemption for Xbox 360.

I had been playing it via PSNow on PS5, and it looked terrible. 720p, streaming sort of blurry. Still fun.

The 360 version got Xbox One X enhanced to 4K (though don't care about that, playing on a 1080p monitor for now). Looks amazing. Don't even need a remaster of it. Easily worth the $10.

[Patriot]

Gotta say, the thing I'm liking most about Xbox is the Microsoft Rewards. I've long used Edge and Bing specifically for the rewards, just an easy way to build up Amazon gift cards.

I had no idea that so many points were offered just for doing stuff on Xbox. Here's 2000, here's 500, and another 500. And there 20:1 makes me want to buy games on Xbox instead of PS.

And for the first time, I'm excited for the Xbox/Bethesda showcase event coming up in one week.

[Patriot]

After almost a year with this thing...

I kinda wish I hadn't bought it. I barely play it. I usually turn it on every day, do the Microsoft Rewards stuff, then turn it off. Tried Redfall, it sucked.

My GPU ends on June 22nd, and I don't see me resubscribing to it anytime soon. PS Plus is, IMO, much better than Game Pass. Don't even care about Day One releases when they end up sucking.

Also, I've only bought two games for Xbox; Red Dead Redemption and the original Assassin's Creed, both 360 games. Most everything else I can play on PlayStation where I actually like the controller.

Will be buying a Switch soon, and between PS Plus Extra and Nintendo Online, I think I'll be good on the gaming subscription front.

[Q]

www.techradar.com/news/xbox-boss-phil-spencer-admits-to-being-third-place-behind-sony-and-nintendo

There has a bit of a flap over some of what he said.

I forever maintain that content is king. If you don't have the games the rest just doesn't matter.

[Q]

www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/xbox-games-showcase-starfield-direct-everything-announced/ It was all part of this expose that happened. Some other games show promise. This summarizes it.

Xbox and PC for pretty much everything.


Full Xbox games expose: www.youtube.com/live/n7h1UxOV1E0?feature=share



At the one hour three minute mark they run you through quickly summarizing the entire video if you are in a hurry and want to see some quick footage.


Avowed from Obsidian at 46 minute or so mark has potential albeit fantasy tropes.

31-32 minute mark they open up with the new Fable RPG. These have always been solid. Has to be on the radar.


One hour 22 minute mark Cyberpunk DLC is going to be hot.

One hour 32 mark Clockwork Revolution definitely has potential. Reminds me of Bioshock.

Starfield gets the deluxe treatment starting at the one hour 36 minute mark. Hello Games (No Man's Sky devs) should get a royalty cut for some of this but overall has promise.



For convenience:    Starfield definitely has my attention. 

[Patriot]

The fact that Fable has been in development for years and still can't show any gameplay or even a hint at a release window is absurd. Factor in the ugly protagonist, and I just don't have any hopes for it.

Avowed looks great.

Clockwork Revolution is promising.

Starfield looks absolutely amazing. I will resubscribe to GPU just to play it. I wasn't that impressed with it last year when they showed it, as it just seemed like a No Man's Sky ripoff, but I was very pleased with what all they showed of it today. Obviously, the No Man's Sky inspiration is there, but it's so much more than that. Went from "midly interested" to "we'll see," to now "can't wait."

Could see playing almost nothing but Starfield from release until Mirage releases in late October. Assuming of course the game is as good as it seems like it could be.

EDIT: And I bought the 8bitdo Pro 2 Xbox controller to play Starfield with. It's basically a PS4 controller for Xbox with back buttons. I don't like the Xbox controller style with offset joysticks. Plus it's noisy as all hell too.

[Sandman]

Starfield Direct does look amazing...

[Q]

Agreed about Fable. It's vaporware. 


Avowed and Starfield are the stars for me with Clockwork as a promising looking wildcard.

If I get No Man's Skyrim Fallout with a billion dollar budget that will be good enough for me.

[Q]

Amusing and true.

The only reason I have more optimism than normal is because frankly Microsoft has bet the farm on this game to be their big hit for the year. They need to move some hardware. They need a real hit. (The PC is a separate 'stream')

It has to be good and it has to come out with "relatively" few bugs vs the usual Bugthesda shenanigans of the past. I know better than to believe at least 3/4 of the hype and "promises" about Starfield but if I get No Man's Skyrim with relatively few bugs it will be good enough for me. If it goes past that then so much the better.

Be advised: Starfield is going to be capped at 30fps on the Xbox no matter what. I think this is inexcusable. If every PS5 game can offer a "resolution vs performance mode" then so should every Xbox game. If MS is really serious then this needs to be rectified before the game comes out.