Gaming Xbox Series X|S

Which of these do you prefer

  • Microsoft Game Pass

  • Xbox Game Pass


Results are only viewable after voting.
I guess they're technically correct - it will be available for those exact tiers. They just didn't reveal that when the game is out, Xbox Game Pass for Console will no longer be purchasable unless you were already subscribed, and Xbox Game Pass Standard will be in place instead which won't have access to Day One games.
True. Everyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop though.
 
Why anyone doesn't just do xbox live and convert to ultimate I don't know anyone. Cheaper than doing game pass for console.
 
Why anyone doesn't just do xbox live and convert to ultimate I don't know anyone. Cheaper than doing game pass for console.
How much do they give you now? It's not month for month anymore is it?
Edit: just looked it up, it's 3:2.
 
So my 2017 Xbox One S has officially died today after my stepson decided to unplug it during a software update and has bricked it. It's stuck in an endless loop of "Something went wrong" and I can't factory reset or do an offline update either.

I've taken it in to get fixed, but I'm thinking of biting the bullet and upgrading to the Series X ahead of GTA6 and MGS next year. Currently, I pretty much use my Xbox as a means of watching Netflix/Amazon/Disney and not much else, although my kids and stepkids use it for EAFC, Fortnite, Roblox, etc.

So they currently only have EAFC 24 on physical copy, I was toying with getting the Series S digital only, but then I'd be stuck with the games once finished and no way to trade in.

If they can fix my Xbox, is there really any difference between the One S and the Series X/S for what I'd use it for?
 
I can trade in my One S (boxed) for £96 at CEX, and the Series X is £355, so an outlay of around £259 for the Console and a controller, which in my eyes isn't too bad.
 
Just saw that the Teltale Walking Dead game series is on Gamepass. Played, and loved, the first two seasons but didn't play the last two.

Starting season 3, upto episode 3 and it doesn't have the emotional depth that season 1 and 2 had. Can only point to one incident that was an emotional hit while season 1 and 2 had multiple.
 
I can't see one anywhere so I thought I'd ask in here, how come there's no star wars outlaws thread? I thought that would highly anticipated and popular?

I started it the other night anyway and I don't know if I'll stick with it, I don't want to spoil anything obviously, but there is way too much forced stealth so far, and it's an awful stealth mechanic too.
 
I can't see one anywhere so I thought I'd ask in here, how come there's no star wars outlaws thread? I thought that would highly anticipated and popular?

I started it the other night anyway and I don't know if I'll stick with it, I don't want to spoil anything obviously, but there is way too much forced stealth so far, and it's an awful stealth mechanic too.
There is a thread for it, but it hasn't been active since the game's release: https://www.redcafe.net/threads/star-wars-outlaws.484178/. Seen people talk aobut the game in the random gaming thread.
 
Does anyone still play their X box? Do you feel let down by the number of games that have come out for it? This gen has been rough for PlayStation, so must be even worse for you guys.
 
If I am to get GTA6, may well have to upgrade to the Series X as could be a monster size, 120GB at the minimum I would say, and I don't have the room and don't want to delete what I already have.
 
Does anyone still play their X box? Do you feel let down by the number of games that have come out for it? This gen has been rough for PlayStation, so must be even worse for you guys.

Play almost every day, currently enjoying Persona 3 Reload and Dungeons of Hinterberg on Gamepass. Really good games.

Personally most exclusives on both platforms are unappealing to me, mostly waiting for the new Fable and possibly Avowed, though the latter is less my preferred style of RPG.
 
Does anyone still play their X box? Do you feel let down by the number of games that have come out for it? This gen has been rough for PlayStation, so must be even worse for you guys.

I still use it weekly for multiplayer games but play everything else on switch/ds.

I don't feel let down as such because I'm just not vibing much with AAA gaming these days. They're such a time sink now. Astro Bot is the only game I'd like to play but can't.
 
I still use it weekly for multiplayer games but play everything else on switch/ds.

I don't feel let down as such because I'm just not vibing much with AAA gaming these days. They're such a time sink now. Astro Bot is the only game I'd like to play but can't.
That’s an interesting point, are AAA games dying? I still love the proper quality stuff (your Ragnaroks etc), but feel like there isn’t a huge appetite for your huge graphical powerhouse games along with the big stories.
 
That’s an interesting point, are AAA games dying? I still love the proper quality stuff (your Ragnaroks etc), but feel like there isn’t a huge appetite for your huge graphical powerhouse games along with the big stories.
Do the Zelda games count as AAA? Them and From Software are probably the ones i've enjoyed most in recent years and neither are graphical powerhouses. I'd say I'm bored of cinematic, overly scripted games. They kind of need to be absolutely amazing Last of Us tier to get my attention I think.
 
Does anyone still play their X box? Do you feel let down by the number of games that have come out for it? This gen has been rough for PlayStation, so must be even worse for you guys.
Ii got one on release day and it has purely been game pass machine. Never once purchased a game. But I’ve gotten good value out of it. Although ps5 is my main console
 
That’s an interesting point, are AAA games dying? I still love the proper quality stuff (your Ragnaroks etc), but feel like there isn’t a huge appetite for your huge graphical powerhouse games along with the big stories.
I wouldn't say they're dying, every year we're still seeing quality AAA games that move a ton of copies. But I do think they're facing an existential crisis and are becoming unsustainable.

Development times and budgets of AAA games have skyrocketed over the last 5-10 years, but the total console market hasn't really grown over the last few generations and prices, while higher, have not risen nearly as much. At the same time, people have ever growing backlogs and see fewer and fewer reasons to buy games day one (games releasing in poor state, game pass existing, the expectation of fast discounts, etc), which only makes things worse. I don't really see how much longer it can go on. A high profile AAA flop is catastrophic for all but the biggest publishers, and even those can't take too many of them.

Basically, AAA games only make sense if they're guaranteed to be a hit, and that's not exactly a comforting thought.
 
It’s kinda funny all the same purely because MS is one of the biggest companies in the world but they can’t seem to catch a break in some ways. They purchased Bethesda and their output has been extremely poor. Redfall was a huge flop and Starfield is very polarising and even the DLC which was advertised as turning the ship around appears to be not great. Best Bethesda game since the acquisition was a Sony exclusive for the first 12 months
 
I wouldn't say they're dying, every year we're still seeing quality AAA games that move a ton of copies. But I do think they're facing an existential crisis and are becoming unsustainable.

Development times and budgets of AAA games have skyrocketed over the last 5-10 years, but the total console market hasn't really grown over the last few generations and prices, while higher, have not risen nearly as much. At the same time, people have ever growing backlogs and see fewer and fewer reasons to buy games day one (games releasing in poor state, game pass existing, the expectation of fast discounts, etc), which only makes things worse. I don't really see how much longer it can go on. A high profile AAA flop is catastrophic for all but the biggest publishers, and even those can't take too many of them.

Basically, AAA games only make sense if they're guaranteed to be a hit, and that's not exactly a comforting thought.
This is my thoughts too. It’s very risky make an aaa game now, and most don’t live up to expectation.

Maybe AI will be able to help with this in the near future and cut timeframes and manpower required down?

If it can then maybe we’ll see more developers pushing the boat out and trying new things.
 
I wouldn't say they're dying, every year we're still seeing quality AAA games that move a ton of copies. But I do think they're facing an existential crisis and are becoming unsustainable.

Development times and budgets of AAA games have skyrocketed over the last 5-10 years, but the total console market hasn't really grown over the last few generations and prices, while higher, have not risen nearly as much. At the same time, people have ever growing backlogs and see fewer and fewer reasons to buy games day one (games releasing in poor state, game pass existing, the expectation of fast discounts, etc), which only makes things worse. I don't really see how much longer it can go on. A high profile AAA flop is catastrophic for all but the biggest publishers, and even those can't take too many of them.

Basically, AAA games only make sense if they're guaranteed to be a hit, and that's not exactly a comforting thought.
I dont understand why to be honest. They're not fundamentally different to games from 5 - 10 years ago.
 
I dont understand why to be honest. They're not fundamentally different to games from 5 - 10 years ago.
Your guess is as good as mine. The only reason I can think of is that with increasing production values, the required effort seems to be increasing at a much higher rate. We've been seeing diminishing returns in terms of visuals on more powerful hardware, so perhaps we're also seeing diminishing returns in terms of what developers can achieve in a given timeframe.

Honestly, if you'd offer me a choice of having games look no better than, say, RDR 2 or The Last of Us 2 or something for the next 10 years, with devs not having to chase better visuals but perhaps focus their attention on other areas of game design, I'd take it in an instant. Then again, you could point at Tears of the Kingdom which did exactly that, and it still took 6 years and over $100M to make. So what do I know?

Edit: or we're still seeing after effects of COVID and the situation might eventually normalise again? To end on a more hopeful note.
 
Microsoft can suck a dick.

Bought the bairn his game pass code, he puts it in the code thing and now it's forcing us to put card details in for auto renewal? feck off. Literally defeats the purpose of the codes


Absolute fecking wankers. Looked online and it appears they've rolled this out in the last couple of months, it's a feckin bullshit tactic hoping parents forget.
 
It’s kinda funny all the same purely because MS is one of the biggest companies in the world but they can’t seem to catch a break in some ways. They purchased Bethesda and their output has been extremely poor. Redfall was a huge flop and Starfield is very polarising and even the DLC which was advertised as turning the ship around appears to be not great. Best Bethesda game since the acquisition was a Sony exclusive for the first 12 months

I don't know if the Bethesda acquisition can be considered a bad break - the writing was on the wall after Fallout 4 imo, and even if you don't buy that it was certainly clear by Fallout 76 that the studio was in major decline.

As for AAA games dying, I think the level of AA games is coming closer and closer to the AAA standard, while the existing AAA studios are trying for "AAAA" and spending hundreds of millions in the hopes of making the game that grosses billions. That segment of the industry is definitely dying and for good reason. The top of the industry has stagnated, basically, and will probably need to pull itself down with it's own greed before learning some lessons. Meanwhile, plenty of quality games will come out that aren't attempting to be the endgame of all gaming, and do reasonably well. A game like Greedfall for example was made by a team of 30ish iirc and sold a million copies, and has a sequel coming out next year (ie I'd assume they made a profit).

Off the top of my head, the games I'm most excited for in the next 12 months include Kingdom Come 2, Greedfall 2 and Avowed, all of which I'd say exist somewhere between AA and AAA.
 
Microsoft can suck a dick.

Bought the bairn his game pass code, he puts it in the code thing and now it's forcing us to put card details in for auto renewal? feck off. Literally defeats the purpose of the codes


Absolute fecking wankers. Looked online and it appears they've rolled this out in the last couple of months, it's a feckin bullshit tactic hoping parents forget.
It’s shitty. But you can turn off auto renewal immediately after
 
It’s shitty. But you can turn off auto renewal immediately after

The bairn lives with his mam, so getting him the gift cards was always perfect because when her card was on the console before he bought shite with it.

It's a hugely shitty practice. There's not point in the subscription gift cards now.
 
I've done the Microsoft Rewards, over the last 3 weeks and earned enough to get GP:U for a month. It only takes about 20 minutes and can do it while I'm having my breakfast in the morning. It should be easier next month now that I can do GP challenges.

I haven't redeemed it yet as I might as well finish DA:V first.