Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

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Raid
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Fri Jul 24, 2020 10:08 am

True; I'm going entirely off the promise of the original (it was one of Dave's favourites if I remember rightly, who discussed it a lot during the early Preys World days).

Yeah, Halo 3 was a better game than CE. My issue was probably that I skipped straight ahead to Legendary difficulty having not played in years, but the game really doesn't give you many options in that first mission set on the Halo ring after leaving the Pillar of Autumn. There are too many open spaces that Elites can nail you from half a mile away in, and the only weapon you're given with any range is the UNSC pistol which just isn't that effective against shielded Elites. Let's face it, Halo is nearly 20 years old now, and it just feels its age.

I will be interested in playing Infinite in co-op, but the gameplay looks far more modern and I dare say it'll be a perfectly decent single-player experience.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Mantis » Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:01 am

I've been co-oping the MCC in chronological order on Legendary and am having a blast with all of them. Bungie definitely refined the design with each iteration, though I'm still very fond of a lot of the level design in CE.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Fri Jul 24, 2020 2:14 pm

Interesting reading the responses to the Microsoft event, a lot of people seem to be annoyed that Microsoft no longer wishes to engage in the console wars and instead just wants you to play their games and sign up to their services. I suppose it is to be expected a lot of people are invested in fighting the console wars and the gaming press depend on it to drive views. Microsoft have pretty much followed Nintendo's lead and decided to no longer engage. I wouldn't be surprised if this was their last proper console.

It is still rather baffling that people have had this reaction, Microsoft have been beating this drum for over a year.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Alan » Fri Jul 24, 2020 2:52 pm

I dont get the not engaging in the console war thing. I mean theyre out there saying "we have the most powerful console ever" and still garnering exclusives and buying studios. Everything they are doing right now is because they are engaged in a "war" on the losing side this gen and they are trying to get folk back over to their products. :-k
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Fri Jul 24, 2020 7:55 pm

They still want people to buy their console sure and they need studios to make content for Game Pass. They just aren't going up directly against Sony in a traditional console war, they even said a while back that they see Amazon and Google as their main competitors. Their main goal for the next generation is to get as many people hooked into the Xbox ecosystem whether that be through a console, the PC, streaming or Game Pass.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Rossell » Fri Jul 24, 2020 8:15 pm

I must admit I was kinda hoping Xbox would get their act together with XSX, I'm done with console wars tbh and I'd like to see them doing well because of livelihoods etc.

However with a couple of exceptions this was pretty basic looking.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Mantis » Fri Jul 24, 2020 8:20 pm

Even if they're not as concerned with shifting units now that their titles are part of a subscription platform they still need enticing games under their belt. Game Pass is already really excellent value, but they haven't announced any first party titles that look remotely interesting so far. I think they are far too corporate to really push the boat out with genuinely exciting new IPs.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Sat Jul 25, 2020 10:37 am

I thought Everwild and Avowed sounded fairly exciting, both of which are new IPs. If you weren't interested in them that's fine but it's a bit weird to say that they are too corporate to produce exciting IPs. I'd say purely on a leadership level Phil Spencer is way out in front of both Jack Ryan at Sony and Furakawa at Nintendo.

I don't really have a dog in this fight but it does feel like Microsoft have to always prove themselves more than Sony does. People are happy for Sony to show some sequels and some third party games that are coming to other platforms whilst Microsoft show a wide range of titles including new IPs and all people seem to be able to talk about is whether Halo looked bad or not. Take Destiny 2 for example, if Sony had announced that the whole of Destiny 2 was coming to PSPlus for free along with the latest expansion I guarantee that would have received a lot of positive press but Microsoft announce it is all coming to Game Pass and it's pretty much ignored. Same goes for a new STALKER and PSO. I think it was a misstep for Microsoft not to show much gameplay footage of their next gen titles but I think part of that could be down to the pandemic and just not having the time to put together vertical slices. Other than that I'm not really sure what people want Microsoft to do, it seems that the bar they need to clear is always just out of reach.

Both companies ultimately did little to sell a new console with all the 'exciting' games due next year at the earliest but Microsoft appears to have born the brunt of people's ire over this.

EDIT: These are just general observations of the wider gaming world btw, I'm not aiming them at anyone in particular.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Sat Jul 25, 2020 11:12 am

Nah, I agree with you. There's nothing that's really sold me a PS5 either, the only reason I've said I'd get one over a Series X is that I already own an XBox One X which is going to receive all of Microsoft's first party stuff anyway. There's minimal reason for me to spend probably £500+ on hardware that'll just make the same games look a little nicer or load a little more quickly.

And Microsoft are likely having to prove themselves more simply because they lost in this generation quite badly - the sales figures on Wikipedia suggest Sony have sold more than twice as many consoles as Microsoft (and indeed Nintendo have sold more Switches despite launching a whole 4 years afterwards). They never seemed to recover from the disastrous launch, and they've really struggled to put a worthy software library together.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Sat Jul 25, 2020 12:40 pm

It's not just been this current generation, Microsoft has always had a tougher go of it I think. Even when they have their successes, like Game Pass, it's not really recognised by the industry. Instead we get weird pieces like the Eurogamer Halo piece which blames the state of the game on Game Pass or weird theories about how Game Pass is going to ruin gaming.

Yeah I get the reasoning over getting a PS5 instead of an Xbox if you already have a way to play those Xbox games. I do think the wider media sometimes forgets that not everybody has access to a PC or wants to continue to play next gen games on their current gen system though.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Alan » Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:11 pm

I think you're forgetting the general "PS3 is a failure" motief that was the previous generation even through the RROD fun. MS have been given a hard time with Xbox and XB1 because they were underperforming. I don't think they've had a hard time with Gamepass at all on the whole either.
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:15 pm

Giving PlayStation a hard time doesn't mean Xbox was given an easy time. I think there is an ingrained bias towards Sony to some extent because it is the console a lot of people grew up with, the same way Nintendo engenders some bias in a different generation.

I didn't say they are given a hard time over Game Pass, I said I don't think they get much credit.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Mantis » Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:53 pm

From what I can tell Game Pass has been pretty positively received everywhere and they get plenty of credit for it. I think it's great value and has a lot of really solid games on.

I just feel like Microsoft take less risks when it comes to new IPs. I don't have any inherent bias either way because if the console has games on that I want then I will buy it, I own a PS4 and Switch and would have bought an X if anything took my fancy. Microsoft just don't seem to be putting out as much that catches my eye. Sony haven't really pushed the boat out with the PS5 lineup either but at least they had a good showing of really nice looking smaller studio games. I'm sure the vast majority of offerings for both consoles will ultimately be available on PC anyway.

The devs for Everwild confirmed that they haven't even fully designed the gameplay loop yet, it was just a pretty CG trailer showing the general vibe and art style they were aiming for. That's how early in development it is.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Alan » Sat Jul 25, 2020 2:14 pm

Not necessarily less risks but the risks don’t seem to pay off. Sea Of Thieves and Recore come to mind. Gears Tactics seems about the best one even though it’s an existing ip.

I have a weird relationship with gamepass where I feel anxious that I’ll get right into something and it be taken away so I don’t want to play anything on it other than more bite size games. I’m sure there deep psychology at work.
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Sat Jul 25, 2020 2:47 pm

Alan wrote:
Sat Jul 25, 2020 2:14 pm
Not necessarily less risks but the risks don’t seem to pay off. Sea Of Thieves and Recore come to mind. Gears Tactics seems about the best one even though it’s an existing ip.

I have a weird relationship with gamepass where I feel anxious that I’ll get right into something and it be taken away so I don’t want to play anything on it other than more bite size games. I’m sure there deep psychology at work.
Not sure what you mean about Sea of Thieves as it's massively popular.

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