Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

[KSubzero1000]

Great video. Somebody should talk me out of buying this €400 brick just for an 11-year old game.

DF even takes the time to dunk on the PS3/Vita versions, the absolute legend.

[ratsoalbion]

The XOX is fabulous for this sort of thing, if only there were more titles that were given the treatment. Red Dead Redemption 1 in 4K is spectacular, and FFXIII really is a remaster. Ninja Gaiden Black looks utterly sumptuous as well.

[KSubzero1000]

Not helping!

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

Not helping!

To be super unhelpful, the X is a brilliant machine and if you've got the funds burning whole in your pocket then it's definitely worth the price of entry if optimal performance is something you care about (on console obviously, before PC folk jump in!).

There are hundreds of games with specific support now (https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/xbox-o ... anced-list), plus the console gives a boost in general to most games to varying degrees, eg. if something has an unlocked dynamic resolution it'll generally just max it out the whole time, or where you once saw choppy frame rate the game will now run more smoothly.

I now play all third party stuff on it as X optimisation invariably delivers the best version available on console.

Pretty great bit of kit all round really...

[KSubzero1000]

Pretty great bit of kit all round really...

I hear you, the X is certainly a very impressive piece of tech. My main issue is that I can't justify buying one only for the tiny amount of exclusives that would interest me, especially considering my 360 is still in perfect health.

Halo would have been a selling point a few years ago, but I feel like my only multiplayer days are behind me, and 343's approach to the singleplayer campaign side of things doesn't really appeal to me. I watched 5's cutscenes on YT and didn't feel like I was missing all that much by not playing it. Same can be said to a lesser degree for Gears.

Cuphead looks dope, but that was ported to Switch.

I have zero interest in Forza or most of the other Xbox exclusives I can think of off the top of my head. Fable is a franchise I have a good degree of affection for, but the rumors of yet another open world reboot are yawn-inducing more than anything.

My PS4 can handle Blu-Rays and the majority of multi-platform titles without any major drawbacks that I can tell.

So really, it all comes down to NGB and NG2 and I just can't justify that price point and taking away precious TV real estate (it's a real issue, all right! ) in order to be able to play better versions of two games I already own.

[Alex79uk]

I'm probably the only one, but I'm really tempted by the discless XB1. That and gamepass would suit me fine, and I have a ton of digital games left over from my 360 I could play too. It's just too expensive, I guess, given the version with the disc drive is cheaper. I'd definitely think about grabbing one for around £140 though.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

Ha! Well yeah if you’d only play 2 games on then definitely don’t get one

[Chopper]

I'm probably the only one, but I'm really tempted by the discless XB1. That and gamepass would suit me fine, and I have a ton of digital games left over from my 360 I could play too. It's just too expensive, I guess, given the version with the disc drive is cheaper. I'd definitely think about grabbing one for around £140 though.

Game pass makes it pretty tempting but I don’t think I could justify it from a clutter point of view. I could retire the PS3 I suppose

[Stanshall]

I see the value in Game Pass, but I still find the actual collection of games to be mostly very very average. I can't understand when I see folk saying yep, Game Pass will do me now, years and years of gaming there. I don't think I have any GP stuff downloaded at the moment. I'll wait to hear their E3 plans but I'll probably cancel my sub when it expires.

[James]

It obviously depends on what you're looking for from gaming. I choose not to rely solely on Game Pass, Games With Gold, PlayStation Plus, EA/Origin Access, Humble Monthly, and Epic Store's free games; I'd feel like I was missing out on too many games that interest me if I did that.

That said, if I just wanted to fill my gaming time, with those services I easily could, for something in the order of £100-£200 per year. I think that's an incredible prospect, especially for anyone who doesn't have the time or interest to keep up-to-date with gaming releases and curate their own gaming library.

I wouldn't go to the cinema and just buy a ticket for whatever's on next, but I've seen people do just that. Presumably the enjoyment of the cinema for them is in the going, or in the discovery, as much as in the quality of what they watch.

Netflix is changing the way people watch film and TV, because of price and convenience. I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing, it just is. I don't doubt that gaming could also go that way, via streaming services, and likely will. If it does, I expect there'll still be room for the gaming equivalent of the high-tier home cinema experience, but plenty of people are happy with the convenience of streaming films to their computer, tablet or phone instead.

For another example, bargain-bucket mini-game collections did really well on Wii with a certain part of that console's audience. Sometimes cheap and handy, beats expensive and tough to find.

[Flabyo]

You can’t find anything on gamepass at all? Really?

And I thought I was picky...

[Stanshall]

You can’t find anything on gamepass at all? Really?

And I thought I was picky...

In terms of exclusives, I got FH4 with the One X. No other exclusives interest me but I can see what others might get from them. SoT seems unique and of interest, I just don't really play with a group because my variable work schedule makes me unreliable. I'm not really bothered about the 360 games because I already own and have played those of interest. That said, I was wrong before. I have Oblivion downloaded for the X improvements and I've never played NGB so I'll probably try that at some point. And yeah, no flattery bullshit, but I'd like to try Fable 'some rainy day'.

Broadly, though, it's full of what I consider 6/10 type of stuff which is perfectly serviceable and passes the time, like Tomb Raider, Mad Max, Metro, Wolfenstein, but I find that kind of thing boring. They're the equivalent of filling up on rice at the end of a meal, as far as I'm concerned. There are a couple of fantastic games there, as well. Alien Isolation, Monster Hunter World, Edith Finch are very good, probably a couple more, but I bought them a long time ago on the PS4 or, more often than not, ten years ago.

As I say, I see the value in it in principle and practice for the hypothetical 'average' gamer. There's a range of different stuff, something for everyone. It's a great way to build a diverse collection from scratch, it's just a fact that there's virtually nothing I actually want on there at this point.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

My current Game Pass playlist includes: Wolfenstein 2, What Remains Of Edith Finch, Vampyr, both Shantae games, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Rime, Prey, Mortal Kombat X, Monster Hunter World, both Metro games, Batman Arkham City, Hitman, Hellblade, Halo Wars 2, Gears Of War Judgement, Doom, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Alien Isolation, Abzu, The Gardens Between, Ashen, Strange Brigade, Mutant Year Zero.

I’ve got pretty broad tastes and am largely genre agnostic, so maybe I’m in the minority , but Game Pass has plenty to keep me going! If I wanted to I could get 12-18 months out of that lot without buying a single game (never gonna happen of course!) and there’s about the same number again that I’d at least give a go on top of that list.

Obviously entirely depends on your tastes as to whether Game Pass is for you, but for me personally the line-up is very good indeed.

[Scrustle]

Game Pass doesn't really appeal to me either, although there are a decent amount of pretty good games on it. But it feels like it's not meant for me. With all the games on it, there are practically none that interest me that I don't already have, or that I wouldn't mind just buying individually. I'd rather do that and own the game forever than have to continually have to pay for a subscription to have access to. I find the idea of that puts me under pressure to play a game in the shortest period of time possible to make the most out of my money, which kind of makes it hard to enjoy. I'd rather just have a copy I can play whenever I feel like. If I imagine that I didn't already own all those games then there is probably more than enough to justify getting it, but most of the appealing games are multiplatform. The only things that aren't are probably Forza and Halo MCC.

So to me it feels like this service is meant for someone who isn't really in to games that much, and somehow hasn't already jumped on to this generation of consoles, and so doesn't already have a sizable library. Someone who wants a good deal to see what kind of stuff is out there, but isn't really interested in getting that invested in any of it, at least at the time they're picking up an Xbox and this subscription.

[ratsoalbion]

I mean, I’m quite into games and I have Game Pass.

[Alex79uk]

So to me it feels like this service is meant for someone who isn't really in to games that much, and somehow hasn't already jumped on to this generation of consoles, and so doesn't already have a sizable library. Someone who wants a good deal to see what kind of stuff is out there, but isn't really interested in getting that invested in any of it, at least at the time they're picking up an Xbox and this subscription.

I don't really agree with that. I'm in to games. Really in to games. As in they're my favorite thing to do, out of all the things in the world that there are to do. But as a gamer on a budget, I do not have an XB1 and unless I'm buying stuff in a sale digitally, tend to trade in my games as soon as I finish them, meaning I do not have a collection as such, just a rolling library which changes monthly. Gamepass, and even PS Now if it was more reasonably priced, appeals to me completely. Just a constantly changing and growing collection I could dip in and out of to find something to play. I really like the subscription model of gaming we've seen over the last few years. I have no interest in shelves and shelves of games to look at, not really bothered about 'owning' things either or playing the very latest games, so this sort of thing is perfect.

[Scrustle]

I'm not saying that you can't like Game Pass if you're really in to games. But just when I think of what market they're trying to get to that they don't already have served, that's what it seems like they're going for to me. It still seems kind of odd for someone who isn't already really invested in medium though. Since if you're in that position, the more money you already spend on games, the less valuable Game Pass is. You're more likely to already own what they are offering, so you're spending the same price for effectively less content that's relevant to you. The only thing I can think of is maybe you don't mind spending extra for the sake of exploring out of your comfort zone a bit. But even in that case, why not just buy any game like that that catches your eye when it's on sale somewhere? It would make for an extremely specific case that you would be spending less money on Game Pass for those few curios, than you would if you spent that money on simply buying that handful of games yourself.

And if you're someone who isn't that bothered about keeping up to date on the newest releases and wants to keep your shelf space clear, getting things on sale digitally still seems like a more appealing idea to me. I do that a fair bit myself. I don't really keep that up to date with the latest stuff either. When I do get on stuff early it's usually with pretty niche games that don't come around that frequently. But otherwise there's plenty of chances to pick up stuff a few years down the line for next to nothing.

I'm not trying to criticise anyone for signing up for this though. You do you. I just don't really get it.

[Suits]

I’m with you on this Scrustle.

There is undoubtedly massive value in it and I’m pleased others get the most out of what it has to offer.

The current library of games that I don’t already own and exclusives available don’t interest me enough to pay £10 a month for.

The only exception was FH4 - which I used the free month trial for. Great game.

I’m keen to see what new releases and exclusives MS will add to the service and whether that will be enough for me sign up.

[Chopper]

It’s one euro/pound/dollar for three months for the next three days, if you open a new account.

[FemalePheromones]

It’s one euro/pound/dollar for three months for the next three days, if you open a new account.

Or if you actually run your subscription down so it ends and don't renew. They word it as if it is only for accounts that haven't subscribed to Game Pass before but really it's for any account that doesn't currently have a subscription.

Rather than paying X amount each month I'll get whatever deal is on and run it down and then wait to renew until there is another deal on which there seems to be most of the time (£1 for 1 month, £2 for 1 month with a second month free and most recently £1 for 3 months. No one can argue with the library they offer for 33p per month).

I've had Game Pass since September and never paid full price.

*Hope Microsoft don't read this and change the way it works*