Xbox General discussion **No Order Chat Here**

maximoose

I watched the demo live on my phone - went back and watched the Halo demo on the tv lastnight in 4k - it was less impressive on a big screen - environments didn't look great tbh


I think overall it was an ok show - Halo / The Medium / Everwild / Crossfire / Stalker have me very interested. Fable and Avowed too, but who knows when they'll be out and would like to see more. Disappointed we didn't see anything real on Hellblade 2 - because I can't wait for that. I've never played Psyconauts, the sequel looked interesting.

Is it a bit worrying that both consoles are now due out in a couple of months with no price, no actual dates, lacklustre game shows from both and a very wishy washy idea of when the games will actually be coming out for them

tony1980

Was looking on Reddit and people are worried that Flight Sim won't be available on the Xbox for a long time. Would it be possible that was one of the games they will show at the next event? I really want to play that so considering upgrading my PC so I can play it this year but no point if it comes out on the Series X when it's released.

earthwormjack

Disappointing showing for me. While Halo looks like it'll play great I wasn't overly impressed visually. All the games shown coming to PC and gamepass is great for me though. I see very little reason to buy any hardware from Sony/Microsoft at the moment.

quad_red

Halo Infinite looked off and I think this captures it perfectly:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-07-24-we-should-talk-about-how-halo-infinite-looks

I think the answer lies in the art style. Halo Infinite looks like the fake plastic trees version of Halo, like a video game designed with Mega Bloks in mind. It pops in all the wrong places. The Brutes and their silly faces seem almost plonked down onto the battlefield like a child would arrange toys to bash about in their bedroom. It doesn't feel grounded. It doesn't feel like it has depth. It feels, well, surface level, smooth and uninteresting.

CatInABox

Hard to get overly excited about anything in that reveal, but then that's been the story of this next gen transition. In truth, it's been a good few generations since I've been absolutely blown away by a game that comes out in the first few years of a generation.

Still looking forward to getting a Series X, if only for the improvements that come around it, like the SSD, etc.

Stone Deaf 4evr

CatInABox wrote: »

Hard to get overly excited about anything in that reveal, but then that's been the story of this next gen transition. In truth, it's been a good few generations since I've been absolutely blown away by a game that comes out in the first few years of a generation.

Still looking forward to getting a Series X, if only for the improvements that come around it, like the SSD, etc.

I think the days of being blown away are gone for the most part, the total tonal shifts of 2d sprites to 2d models and the jump from low res to HD were massive, every gen from now is just going to be a smaller refinement as we get closer to photorealism.

super_furry

Feel the same way about the Xbox presentation as I did the PS5 on. Some nice looking games but nothing to get too excited about and nothing that would have me rushing to upgrade my PS4 or One X.

Game Pass and the value is represents is why I'll probably eventually get a Series X but I'm in no hurry at all.

Jordan 199

super_furry wrote: »

Feel the same way about the Xbox presentation as I did the PS5 on. Some nice looking games but nothing to get too excited about and nothing that would have me rushing to upgrade my PS4 or One X.

Game Pass and the value is represents is why I'll probably eventually get a Series X but I'm in no hurry at all.

I might hold off for at least six to twelve months after the Series X release date before I'll pick one up. Hopefully there will be a Forza Motorsport or a Flight Simulator 2020 bundle out by then.

H3llR4iser

Nicetrustedcup wrote: »

I just don’t understand why Sony and ms don’t won’t to give us as price yet

Because they shat the bed and now are desperately trying to not be the first one to show the dirty sheet - or trying to figure out a way to lessen the blow, that's why.



The hardware cost of building both Series X and PS5 are bound to be much higher than they were for the Xbox One and PS4, not to mention the previous gen. They went "all out" and created consoles that are equivalent with a mid-to-high spec gaming PC (if the claims by MS that the X's GPU is as powerful as a 2080Ti are anything to believe), and the cost of building those is not going to be massively different.



Sure, brand new consoles are usually sold at a "loss" just in order to establish a marketshare, plus this time around Microsoft will be more interested in the money that can come from the GamePass subscriptions, but this generation that "loss per console" might be much harder to digest.



If either Sony or MS were able to comfortably sell at the fabled "499 USD" price point, at least one of them would've announced it yet. As we stand, the most realistic scenario is that they're desperately trying to come up with a way to keep the cost to the final customer down.

blockfighter wrote: »

Nothing for me there. I think I'll be bowing out of the Xbox ecosystem for the first time in the next gen. Xbox is doing lots of innovative stuff but the games are doing nothing for me.

I am quite worried that Microsoft is, once again, mismanaging the marketing of the Xbox brand massively.



I recently bought a PS4 to complement my Xbox One...and the contrast is stark: MS has by far the superior ecosystem, GamePass is superb value for the money, the XBone gamepad is as good as it gets, and the Xbox/PC sharing of save date for "play anywhere" games is how it should always have been.



Sony, on the other hand, very clearly understands the gaming scene and gamers much better - even the UI on the PS4, as minimalistic as it is, it all about "here are games. Play!", while the Xbox One seems to always be intent on trying to sell you something, bring you to some Twitch stream and whatnot. I also have to begrudgingly admit that the Sony exclusives are not only more numerous, but also more varied and generally better than XBox's. In a nutshell, the PS4 environment is more polished in that...well Japanese kind of way that is perfect for gaming and gamers.


Which is quite saddening as I have a soft spot for the Xbox brand since its inception - after the end of an era where Atari, Commodore and Sinclair/Amstrad played the lion's part, there was the need for a western-build gaming platform to contrast the utter domination of the Japanese systems. Turns out, the "western platform" maybe ended up being "too western" afterall.

Speckydodge

Where can I get proper 4k videos of the show lads? Is it only Youtube sh1t?

Gizmo55

Really surprised and disappointed that Forza is only in early development. Was sure it would be a console launch title after no Forza last year.

murpho999

Speckydodge wrote: »

Where can I get proper 4k videos of the show lads? Is it only Youtube sh1t?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7nkg_5ZfrM

What's wrong with this?

CatInABox

murpho999 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7nkg_5ZfrM

What's wrong with this?

While it's 4K/60, it still suffers from Youtube compression. I.e. it's not an exact match for what you'd see on your console.

Youtube is good enough for almost everyone, but some want better.

CatInABox

Seems there's a white version of the new controller out in the wild somewhere. Either there's a white Series X to go with it, or Lockhart is going to be white.



The Verge has more here.

H3llR4iser

I'm just noticing that they went with the "Elite-style" D-Pad on the X controller...I wonder if it also has the mechanical parts of the Elite. I love the Xbox One controller, but its one real weakness is the imprecise D-Pad...

Stone Deaf 4evr

H3llR4iser wrote: »

I'm just noticing that they went with the "Elite-style" D-Pad on the X controller...I wonder if it also has the mechanical parts of the Elite. I love the Xbox One controller, but its one real weakness is the imprecise D-Pad...

Really? I would have thought that the (newer bluetooth ones) had a top class d-pad.

H3llR4iser

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

Really? I would have thought that the (newer bluetooth ones) had a top class d-pad.

Maybe it's my finger, but I find myself always hitting diagonals instead of cardinals. Another issue I have is with quarter and semi circular motions (a-la-Street Fighter fireball), which I never seem to be able to pull on it.
Amazingly, it's the one thing I find the DS4 (v2) to be a bit better at (probably because they are "masked").

quad_red

Speckydodge wrote: »

Where can I get proper 4k videos of the show lads? Is it only Youtube sh1t?

The YouTube link given below is super high res but it doesn’t matter if your YouTube app defaults to 480p.

Go into settings (in mobile iOS it’s the top right corner button with three dots) and select the highest res option there is.

EagererBeaver

quad_red wrote: »

The YouTube link given below is super high res but it doesn’t matter if your YouTube app defaults to 480p.

Go into settings (in mobile iOS it’s the top right corner button with three dots) and select the highest res option there is.

As pointed out above, YouTube compresses videos. The poster is looking got the original. I imagine they also don't plan on watching it on a mobile screen.

Speckydodge

Thanks for the link lads, hadn't seen that yet and it's grand.
But yeah the 4k from YouTube doesn't do games justice due to the compression, only my opinion of course.

djan

From scanning through the footage, the visuals are quite underwhelming and halo looks like a 5+ year old game with bland environments and lighting with tragic animation/physics.

Blazer

djan wrote: »

From scanning through the footage, the visuals are quite underwhelming and halo looks like a 5+ year old game with bland environments and lighting with tragic animation/physics.

To be honest the real improvements to the console are the SSD and higher frame rates.
With the addition of the SSD as standard this will make a huge improvement to game development ie fast loading, no long drawn out cut scenes while the map etc loads in the background.
The increase in FPS to let’s say 60 because let’s be honest here, a console graphics card is not going to hit 120fps consistently enough when a video card that costs more than the console itself can barely do it is still better,
Take pubg on Xbox for example.
I’ve played it on pc at 140fps at 2k and when it go to the Xbox one x version it takes a massive hit.
Even sacrificing 4K for increased frame rates barely suffices and I shudder at what the vanilla console will look like.
But you should see 60-80fps on the new console which will be a massive upgrade.
So don’t get too hung up on graphics.
Out of the 3 they are the least important.

djan

Blazer wrote: »

To be honest the real improvements to the console are the SSD and higher frame rates.
With the addition of the SSD as standard this will make a huge improvement to game development ie fast loading, no long drawn out cut scenes while the map etc loads in the background.
The increase in FPS to let’s say 60 because let’s be honest here, a console graphics card is not going to hit 120fps consistently enough when a video card that costs more than the console itself can barely do it is still better,
Take pubg on Xbox for example.
I’ve played it on pc at 140fps at 2k and when it go to the Xbox one x version it takes a massive hit.
Even sacrificing 4K for increased frame rates barely suffices and I shudder at what the vanilla console will look like.
But you should see 60-80fps on the new console which will be a massive upgrade.
So don’t get too hung up on graphics.
Out of the 3 they are the least important.

Being a long time PC gamer, I get your point regarding higher FPS.

But given that the vast majority of the world has been gaming at 30FPS without any substantial uproar, a jump to 60FPS will be more than sufficient for console gaming. That in addition to the fact that very few people (proportionally) will have 60+ fps capable TV's means it shouldn't be seen as paramount.

On the SSDs, putting in a standard SSD instead of a HDD and much more RAM would be sufficient once games are properly designed and much easier to implement. I have not heard of anyone complain about prolonged loading times when running a game on PC from a fast SSD.

In terms of comparisons to previous gen, graphics are paramount. Its very hard to market higher FPS compared to better graphics.

4k is great (if not overkill IMO) but we do not have affordable hardware to run it. I expected consoles to be running proprietary versions of Nvidia's DSSL in order to push high 2-4k output at sufficient FPS. Bruteforcing 4k 60+ FPS is not realistic for consoles without hugely sacrificing visual fidelity.

earthwormjack

A genuinely good cpu is going to make just as big a difference too. The cpu in the xbox one/ps4 was poor from day one.

Stone Deaf 4evr

might be showing my tech dumbness here, but can modern tellys even display framerates higher than 60 anyway?

djan

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

might be showing my tech dumbness here, but can modern tellys even display framerates higher than 60 anyway?

A couple of very recent high end ones would support 120HZ but to get that with low input latency, you're looking at well over 1.5k for a 55". I think it won't be until next get consoles that it becomes feasible for the masses.

quad_red

djan wrote: »

A couple of very recent high end ones would support 120HZ but to get that with low input latency, you're looking at well over 1.5k for a 55". I think it won't be until next get consoles that it becomes feasible for the masses.

Not really - I got a 65 inch Samsung Q70 a few months ago for €1,299 and it supports 120HZ.

Not low end alright but definitely not super high end either.

I'm looking for a new monitor for my PC that will be up to the job when the series one comes out.
any recommendations ?

wotzgoingon

BrownFinger wrote: »

I'm looking for a new monitor for my PC that will be up to the job when the series one comes out.
any recommendations ?

Make sure it has support for HDMI. I had a 1440p 144Hz freesync monitor over Display port but it only supported 1080p 60Hz over HDMI.

Look for adaptive sync over HDMI also when getting a monitor as that is another big feature that is actually really good.

I just thought I would mention them since you said monitor and not TV since TV's generally are only HDMI while most decent monitors use Display port.

Nicetrustedcup

Has any one pre ordered there console yet ?

Pre ordered mine at the weekend in GameStop counting down the days to when ever we might get this console !!!