Leaderboard

It was good reading your impressions, @Nicktendo. It's always interesting to hear what a persons thoughts are when new to or returning to a different console's ecosystem, especially when it's going from Nintendo to one of the other two. It's like night and day. Have you tried Party Chat yet? No more need for discord. Game Pass has been a great success for MS and has certainly helped nudge people into choosing an Xbox over their competitors. The selection of games just gets better and better and if MS can keep getting big games launching on the service then it will pull more punters in. Ownership is a big issue for me with the service but I think it's something that I'm just going to get over at some point. It's getting to the point now where all 3 of the console makers are pushing subscription services and rotating games. For better or worse this may be the future of gaming and MS are certainly ahead of the other two when it comes to this. Its a weird one because I had no issue with stopping my purchases of blurays and instead just watched my movies on Sky, Amazon and Netflix but with games I'm having a harder time letting go of physical media, even if at this point just just a key on a disc. What @martinist mentioned about picking up an Xbox over a PS5 is a sentiment I've read a few times over the past couple of weeks on various gaming boards. With MS supporting and celebrating their legacy of consoles and Sony throwing theirs under the bus, it seems a lot of gaming enthusiasts aren't happy with Jim Ryan's direction for Sony and will instead opt to jump to a different platform. I doubt it will effect the mass market gamers but it's little things like this that could end up snowballing. It's going to be interesting to see how things play out once MS have all their ducks in a row and their new studios are starting to churn out games. Things like the rumoured Kojima partnership is another thing that will help build the platform and it's such announcements that I want to see more of and will certainly push me into picking up the console.

I bet he is! After you parted ways did he head in the direction of a CEX?

Although it would be a twist for him to see Manrika, I don't think he has it in him to do it. And the thing is, when everyone meets and sees who is really who, who is going to choose one of the catfish to take the money. Even though she's real, Manrika's story means nothing to me. Sad yes, but we know she's got a presence online and the whole "oh this is the only way I can help my mum with money" feels so false.

Jason has posted a good article over on Bloomberg about how there is a lot of unrest over in the PlayStation camp. Yeah, I'm not liking Jim Ryan's running of PlayStation at all at the moment.

The BC support from Xbox was a big factor in my decision making. I've harped on about Rare Replay for many, many years and finally accepted that it's never coming to a Nintendo console. Out of the gate, there's a good 10 or so titles over N64, Xbox and 360 which I've really enjoyed (yes, including Grabbed by the Ghoulies ). The fact the Fable games are all on Game Pass, Dead Space, Mass Effect (which I've never played!) and countless other classics from the 360 generation which I missed out on is a real deal sweetener. Many of them aren't on Game Pass, true, but they're priced competitively, or even in some cases free to own forever, like Crackdown, another game I adored on 360. Having the entire One library supported out of the gate, with some of them even getting a FPS or resolution boost is superb. I've got 5+ years of content that I've ignored either at my fingertips or at worst fairly cheap in the MS store. I get the BC is not a big deal for a lot of people, especially those who took part in the last gen, but it has maybe been the deciding factor for me jumping in. The X / S support and native titles is only going to grow, and there's plenty of good stuff on there already. I think Nintendo have done an average to good job with BC on the Switch. I've put way more time into the SNES app than I ever imagined and have certainly had a good time messing about with the NES app on occasion. I don't feel like I need to own any of these games (again!) and I'm happy to see them being part of a service. Respect to Capcom and Konami too for keeping their classic games alive with truly fantastic collections. I loved Mario 3D All Stars and would be happy to see more of this from Nintendo, even if it's in the form of another VC service. I get what you're saying about ownership. It is also a question for me too, and I'm still largely sceptical of going digital-only despite having only bought digital Switch games in the past year. That is mostly down to the extortionate physical prices here though, and the voucher system or CDKeys usually works out at 20-25% cheaper. I tried to rationalise subbing to Game Pass the way I rationalised subbing to Netflix back in the day. I sold 400+ DVDs back in 2010 for around £300 and haven't really missed them, bar the odd box set I suppose. I subbed to Netflix and Amazon Prime for a few years before getting bored with most of the content. Now, I generally don't watch films or TV series and if I'm really desperate, I can rent it on Apple for a couple of quid. I think subbing to a gaming service for roughly the same price provides infinitely more value. Especially when it's stuff you would likely have bought anyway. Yes, there's no resale value, but outside of Nintendo physical games, is that ever going to be an issue again? When everything is available digitally, you can find any physical version (non-special edition) for as little as a quid a few years after release. The option to buy digital is always there, especially in a good sale, and you end up saving a lot of space at home I'm going to embrace this new direction and am willing to place a little bit of trust in MS to pull it off. They have me for a year and then I guess I'll sit down and review whether it's really worth it. At £8 a month averaged out, it's certainly better value than Netflix. A lot is going to depend on how pricing evolves and how much they play God over the stuff that is available on Game Pass and for how long. Being able to stream from the Xbox to the phone is good and works surprisingly well. Certainly not on a par with the Switch, but the potential is there. Really interesting to see whether their studio gamble pays off and whether they can quickly bring Game Pass for PC and mobile up to parity with their hardware, including streaming to the mass market. Places like Japan and India would be potentially massive consumer bases if they can pull off good XCloud streaming to mobile. Japan has no interest at all in their hardware (Series X sold 31 units last week), but I do think they could tap into the market with top-of-the-line mobile support for their 1st party and indie titles. I think Sony has a real uphill battle now that they've put all their chips in the Western market and basically surrendered Japan to Nintendo. If MS start to capture the West, Sony are going to have to get their act together. I don't doubt that they will though, and I think this gen is going to be one of the most exciting in decades.

Played and completed HITMAN I over the last few days. I tried it on PS4 back when all the episodes were given out for free and I couldn't get into it. Did it again with the PS5 version and as always: 60fps make a huge difference for me. Looks like I've become a 60fps snob Anyways, the game is very fun. Lots of opportunities and ways to tackle an objective. However, if you're not into playing the same 6 levels over and over again trying something new, you're going to run out of content very quickly. Which is what happened to me. Doesn't help that the story is lackluster. Still, had a fun time while it lasted and would recommend to stealth fans, but only if you can get it during a sale.

Reached the 6th palace last night. SHIT'S GOING DOWN MAN. Currently sitting in the lab, waiting for some stuff. I want to be at home and play the game My plan for now is to complete all available requests in Mementos before tackling the palace, as is tradition Thankfully, it'll be a short day at the lab so I hope I can get a marathon session going later today.

This is what I'm most interested in regarding sales. Personally, I don't give a crap about BC (further than last gen). If I did, I would've gotten an XBox this gen. And I don't see the (for a lack of better word) "casuals" caring about it for the forseeable future. But as you said, it could eventually be one factor to make PS5 and Series X/S sales equal, maybe even turn the tide. Maybe Sony will dial back on their stance and offer some form of "legacy BC", maybe not. Maybe XBox will stay leaps and bounds ahead, maybe not. Maybe the world will end. It definitely will end. Interesting times

Winner not who I expected, but better than Manrika! Just starting the US one, weird how they've brought them over to the UK flats, not their usual NSA apartments...

Exactly. I feel the same! Maybe there could be another episode or something?

IT'S HAPPENING! MANRIKA IS ABOUT TO MEET FELIX SOON! I'm more excited for that than the final, not gonna lie! 😂 Andy or Syed to win, hopefully!

Bloomberg are claiming unrest, but nothing in their article suggests anything close to "unrest", it seems extremely mild stuff that I'm pretty sure happens in all studios.

Interesting. Looks like they need to sort a lot of things out internally, or it might become much worse in the future. For now, everything is fine, I'd say. PS5 selling like crazy, games are on the horizon, PSVR2 in the works. But more and more issues about how PlayStation is run are coming up. Right now, only us gaming enthusiasts know about it, but it could become huge if things continue like this for two or three years. Times are weird, man.

YAY! YOU DID IT! I'm so happy for you both and you look gorgeous, as always!

I really hope so! They've been great from the start and Andy's or Syed's speech was brilliant. Honestly, most of them were but I liked theirs and Manrika's. Who do you think Andy's gone to see? I think it'll be Alice...but at this point of the game, considering nobody will know until the very end, Manrika might be the way to go but I think his conscience would kick in.

Honestly, I'm really intrigued by what this is going to mean. We know how Square Enix works when it comes to bringing games to Xbox (specifically Game Pass) at this point: wait for a truckload of money to show up, but until then, show no signs of treating both brands equally (which I think is fair to an extent, just considering how much greater the appetite is for their offerings on PlayStation). But what makes it more intriguing to me is Intergrade. Yes, the timed exclusivity deal for the original version of the game released last year is coming to an end, but what of the next-gen version, which is the only way to access the Yuffie DLC? Is there going to be a separate timed exclusivity deal for that, as seems to be the case? I don't think we've even seen word on that version coming to PC either (could be mistaken here though). I can't see Xbox being particularly excited to get a lesser version of the game on their platform; with all of the caveats over Intergrade I think they'd be better off waiting until that's ready to come to Xbox, but that doesn't seem to be coming in June. Will it come a few months later to Game Pass, because maybe the PlayStation exclusivity is much shorter (have they offered up a truckload of money already)? Or are Xbox owners going to be waiting another year for the best available version of the game to be playable on their platform of choice? It'll be interesting to see what happens I think.

Yeah, a few on Era also picked up the Switch version and say it's a mess. PS4/Xbox versions seem to be fine in comparison so if you have access to either of those and want the game then best pick it up on those platforms.

FF7R's timed exclusivity ends tomorrow! That doesn't necessarily mean tomorrow we'll be instantly able to play it on every other platform. But the announcement of other platforms might not be so far away now.

A far cry from Donny Boy's - "You can play on Xbox 360" and... TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS TV SPORTS

Completed a new armour set for me and my doggy....was slightly annoying as main item required can only be got from Meowcenaries. (Bit more grinding to have my cat matching) The hunter armour set has Rapid Morph level 2 skill which is perfect for me as a Switchaxe user. And I got a tailisman to take it to level 3

Phil Spencer deserves a ton of credit for turning the ship around in such a big way. Seems a great guy too.

According to random person on Reddit, the port of that game is pretty bad with performance issues and such. https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/mmegvm/warning_republic_commando_switch_performance/

I'm abso-bloody-lutely loving it!! It is such a sleek machine. Quick resume is a game changer, load times are basically a thing of the past, it is a real beauty! I would say, given your situation (which I think is having a One X, right?), the S might not be the best option. The S is basically a One X in terms of power with more modern architecture which makes it perform slightly better and use less power. Right now, bar a few One games that run in 1440p or 4K, or even 120zh, if that's your bag, there is no real difference. Halo MCC, for example, has been optimised for 120hz at 1080p, but not 4K, which I'm pretty sure it could manage on the One X - so it runs at a lower res than on PC for me. Bit of a kick in the balls... but great to have quick resume and no load times. Then there's the issue of storage. 365gb is criminally small. I filled it up pretty fast and now have the majority of my games stored on a brand new 2TB HDD. All non-optimised games run off that, without the benefits of lightning-fast loading. Honestly, for someone who's pretty deep into the ecosystem, I do think you'd be better off biding your time waiting for a Series X. I have been out of the Sony / MS loop for over 10 years now, so this feels super fresh and exciting to me despite the machine not being a beast relative to its brethren. I don't think you'll see much improvement over the One X for the money you'll pay (while losing your disc drive!!), and I'd say it's likely you'd just want an X when the big games start dropping, I know I do... I couldn't justify an X right now, but this seemed tempting as an impulse buy and a "sampling", if you will, of what's going on outside Nintendo and Steam. I'm genuinely impressed with what MS are bringing to the table. I'll share a few thoughts with you having spent a week with my Series S now. - Game Pass is the real deal. I got signed up to Ultimate for the first month for £1 and then bought a 12-month sub off CDKeys for £102. There is almost too much content on there for anyone to get through given there are only 24 hours in a day. It's the variety that I have been impressed with most. There are the first party games from MS over the past few years - your Forza 7, Horizon, Master Chief Collection, Sea of Thieves, Gears 5 etc. Then you've got the big hitters from EA and Bethesda, with Square Enix and the Sega (Yakuza Series) also heavily represented. There are enough AAA games to shake a stick at, if that's what you want. The vast majority of these I've never played, outside of a few hours on PC. I'm hopeful that Death Stranding will come soon so I can play it at a framerate and resolution it deserves. GTAV is coming back on today. If you've had a PS4, there is PLENTY of exclusive and third-party content from the past 5 years there. - Indies are extremely well represented. Granted I've played many of these on Switch, I'm already working my way through three of my favourite indie games again. Celeste, Enter the Gungeon and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. They have the added bonus of achievements, obviously, if you're into that. Yooka looks absolutely mouth-wateringly sexy and looks like it runs in 4K60, but I'll have to check that! There are also a bunch of indie games I haven't bought on Switch or that have not come to the platform. With Game Pass, I have the option of trying them out at least. There's a solid 50 or so well-regarded indie games on the list. Again, too much choice. - Classic games are also fantastically represented. Rare Replay was one of the BIG reasons why I was always tempted by a One back in the day. It's on there of course and I've been having a blast with some classic N64 games - all of them running without any framerate issues whatsoever. I get that some people are purists, but for me, I don't have the space or the time to mess about with original hardware and just want something that works on a modern TV. There's a superb list of 360 games, many of which I'm diving back into or trying for the first time. Skate 3 was an instant download as I'd only played the first and absolutely loved it. It really is wonderful. I still don't know how I'll feel when some of these games get removed and I'm sat there with them unfinished and unpurchased, but MS do give you fair warning that something is on its way out. Subbing to gold / game pass / ultimate also gives you extra discounts to buy games in the store as well. I was surprised when I went into the store for the Spring Sale that's currently on to see that many of the AAA games in Game Pass are on sale for £5-20 each, often the deluxe or ultimate version too. So if you really don't want to lose something, I'm pleased to see that deep, Steam like sales seem to be a thing here. Might pick up the Witcher 3 for a fiver, just to have the option of playing it on the TV rather than the PC. They really have done a stellar job with this machine, bar the obvious space limitations. Once the year is up and some proper next-gen games have been announced, I'd seriously consider upgrading to an X and just dropping PC as a main platform altogether with the exception odd RTS and indie game where a mouse and keyboard are crucial. Gaming on a console on the living room TV without needing to piss about with wires and settings and the like is always so much more satisfying.

Thinking about dropping my attempts at getting a PS5 and switching to trying to get a Series X. Microsoft seem to be doing a better job at preserving older games and has a pretty extensive backwards compatible list that i can see. Mostly for the Forza Horizon games but wierdly also for Skate 3 which I haven't played in over a decade now. I had an Xbox One at a time but ended up selling it, kinda miss playing the master chief collection to be honnest the thing is I don't really want to pay for two seperate online services when i'm already paying for PS Plus however Game Pass does look tempting to me.

It's taken two years, 4 cancellations, more than I care to think about re-bookings and countless emails, only 6 people and social distancing. But we did it.

Thinking about selling my Switch. It's been sitting in its dock for months and I have no intention of using it again in the near/far future. No games on the horizon that interest me. The only thing I'm "worried" about is: I'd lose my digital library if I never get another Nintendo console again, or if Nintendo won't make Switch games available on their true successor (not the rumoured "Pro"). But, one of my best friends might be interested. I could just give him access to my account. Anyways, used consoles still sell for 250-300 on ebay in Germany, but for my friend I'd go cheaper than that Would be great as there'd be no hassle with shipping, etc.