Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

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Flabyo
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Flabyo »

Was hoping for a date for Below, but sounds like we’re not hearing anything about id@xbox stuff now until December 6th at ‘the game awards’.

I really should’ve skipped it and just read a summary afterwards, that was a fairly poor way to spend two hours of my life.
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seansthomas
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by seansthomas »

Didn't see the point in almost any of that. A couple of tweets would have sufficed.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by ratsoalbion »

I think that's slightly harsh, we posted 12 news stories to our Facebook page that came out of the show and that we believe will be of interest to our followers.
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

I thought capping everything off with the release of Thief of Thieves Season One was a bit odd. The game tanked critically on release and I think I'm the only person on earth who's still reading the comic (Which is wrapping up in a few issues anyway)
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Flabyo
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Flabyo »

There was news, and fairly interesting news, but a shorter Nintendo direct style of presentation would’ve been preferable to a loud screaming crowd that sometimes made it hard to know what was being said.
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seansthomas
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by seansthomas »

Yeah it is a bit harsh. I think Microsoft are actually doing a lot of the most interesting stuff in gaming right now; Gamepass, the in-between generation launch of X, acquiring studios, encouraging cross play.

Just didn't see too much in that presentation that seemed new news. The Forza DLC looked cool though, as did that game from The Walking Dead studio.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Simonsloth »

seansthomas wrote: November 11th, 2018, 8:23 am Yeah it is a bit harsh. I think Microsoft are actually doing a lot of the most interesting stuff in gaming right now; Gamepass, the in-between generation launch of X, acquiring studios, encouraging cross play.

Just didn't see too much in that presentation that seemed new news. The Forza DLC looked cool though, as did that game from The Walking Dead studio.
I agree that Microsoft are making the most relevant and important changes. Gamepass is far better value than ps now (on console at least), backwards compatibility is Important to me at least, their studio acquisition stuff is good business for them and the Xbox one X is a beast.

To an extent this comes from the standpoint of being no.2 in the “race” and the lack of decent exclusives compared to Sony. I’m worried about Sony’s complacency. It smacks of early ps3 era smugness which I wasn’t fond of.
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Scrustle
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Scrustle »

Microsoft are in a weird spot. They are doing a lot of good stuff in terms of their platform, but they still don't really have the games to back it up. It doesn't really matter that much how great an offer you make to people if there aren't great exclusives that people will want to take advantage of those offers to play. (That said I'm kind of sceptical of Game Pass in general, but that's another topic) Meanwhile Sony is still coasting on all the high quality exclusives they've managed to get hold of, that people want to play so much that they don't need to push hard on getting people to put down money for. That, and of course still reaping the benefits of Microsoft screwing up the launch of the Xbone.

I hope Microsoft buying up all these new studios will help turn the tide a bit and give us some cool games, but I'm in two minds about it. These studios are capable of putting out great stuff, and Microsoft is capable of helping them achieve that, but the company does not have a great record in dealing with any studio that it didn't found itself. And this generation they have repeatedly tried to push really hard on monetising their games as well, instead of just letting them speak for their own quality and draw people in like Sony has done with their games. A lot of these studios MS has picked up also tend to be very beloved by fans for not being part of the big AAA machine too, so they seem particularly vulnerable to being torn apart by their new parent corporation. Ninja Theory in particular I am worried about, since this seems like the complete opposite direction to what they were heading in after Hellblade, which was such a huge success for them.
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seansthomas
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by seansthomas »

The other thing about buying a business is what that sale does to the culture.

Do your best staff stay? Were the niche projects that normally get axed the things keeping morale up? If the owner goes, do the next layer of management have the staffs respect.

You can buy a great IP or brand, but if the talent leaves or you handle it badly, it's a waste of time and money.

It'll be fascinating to see how it goes. Many bigger brands that purchase smaller ones tend to leave them be now, and reward the owners for growing the business, rather than meddling too much. Time will tell...
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Scrustle
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Scrustle »

Exactly. Clashing corporate cultures and pushing away talent is the big potential issue here.

And from a certain perspective, a significant amount of damage may have been done already. Not specifically to the studios that have been bought, but to the industry as a whole. A lot of the studios they picked up come from the already precarious and small middle-tier level of the industry. And they bought a pretty big number of them. So it's not like MS just brought on a few up-and-coming studios and gave them their big break. They took a huge chunk out of the industry at large, in a space that already has trouble holding together. Again, it's something that we won't be able to see the effects of for a while, but I feel like even if everything goes great for everyone involved in these deals, it might have caused a big wave across the industry that might not be such a great thing in general.
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

I was just thinking about how, in the previous console generation, I continued to replace the badly designed, overheating Xbox 360, over and over, because I loved the games, and wanted to acquire and continue to have access to them. I was motivated more by the content than the unreliable hardware, and I still have my disc-based 360 collection, and a functioning 360.

With this generation the hardware has never been more reliable or better, and yet I don't own, or have any desire to own, an Xbox One. I don't care about Game Pass or any Netflix styled streaming services (even if logically that's where things are headed), and studio acquisitions don't guarantee games (Rare?!?). In many ways Microsoft are looking to the future, but I'm a gamer - strategic corporate outlooks don't really inspire me.

The available exclusives come down to personal tastes, and I have no interest in raining on anyone's parade - I've already got plenty of Forza and Halo on my 360, so I'm sated. But, for me personally, I'm more likely to track down and buy another 360 than invest in an Xbox One. Backwards compatibility doesn't cover the genuinely good exclusives of the previous generation (seriously, that Cave deal from a gamer, not necessarily business, point of view is gold).

So more power to those who are invested in the current generation. I hope something good comes of these arrangements.
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

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Joshihatsumitsu wrote: November 12th, 2018, 11:12 pm So more power to those who are invested in the current generation. I hope something good comes of these arrangements.
If you haven't yet jumped on the current generation then yes, waiting would be the prudent step at this point. As someone who also has a massive 360 back catalogue I can understand the draw, although personally I have enough of it on BackCompat now that I never turn my 360 on.

But the next-gen is close at hand by this point. And given the next gen is almost certainly going to support the current gen games, we are 99% certain that this is MS plan at this point, then waiting now might well be the best option.
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DomsBeard
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by DomsBeard »

Are there any original xbox games I should have a look at that are now backwards compatible?. I never had one back in the day.
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Flabyo
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Flabyo »

Panzer Dragoon Orta is worth a look.
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countstex
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

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Knights of the Old Republic, if you like BioWare RPGs.
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Scrustle
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Scrustle »

Speaking of Bioware, Jade Empire is on there. SSX3 is really good too. Psychonauts and Morrowind are worth a look as well.
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by DomsBeard »

Thanks for the recommendations. As a big Elder Scrolls fan I have never played Morrowind so will give it a go.

I cannot belive the UI is still the same as it was over a year ago. Still way too clunky and compared to the PS4 Pro the download speeds are horrendous. I had previously attributed this to me having a launch xbox one at the time. Is there any way to tell your xbox one to download updates in stand by mode?
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Suits
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Suits »

DomsBeard wrote: November 29th, 2018, 2:56 pm Is there any way to tell your xbox one to download updates in stand by mode?
Yes, there is.

I’m fairly certain it’s under ‘Power’ in settings.

You can choose options on how it powers down, what it does asleep etc...
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

Suits wrote: November 29th, 2018, 3:01 pm
DomsBeard wrote: November 29th, 2018, 2:56 pm Is there any way to tell your xbox one to download updates in stand by mode?
Yes, there is.

I’m fairly certain it’s under ‘Power’ in settings.

You can choose options on how it powers down, what it does asleep etc...
Yes definitely do this! All my games and the system itself just update in the background - since I started using this feature I'm never waiting for anything to download anymore.

It's interesting you say Dom that you get faster download speeds out of your PS4 Pro than out of your Xbox, as I've always had the exact opposite. Significantly faster on the latter than the former for me (before I started using the auto-update and download features obviously).

Another few original Xbox back-compat recommendations - Grabbed By The Ghoulies, Crimson Skies, Prince of Persia: Sands Of Time, Ninja Gaiden Black and Sid Meier's Pirates are all worth a look.

But play Panzer Dragoon Orta first. It's fantastic!
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Re: Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

Post by DomsBeard »

So I have a 50mb a second download on the one x. Quite slow or is it me?.
I have had it 24 hours and only downloaded pubg, Battlefield V and Fallout 76
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