crispy4000

Hard disagree. There’s many more layered systems to juggle in XB2. Timed press bonuses for basic attacks, elemental combo chains, seals, ‘blade‘ swaps and cancels, animation cancels, break-topple-launch-smash, elemental orbs, health pellets, etc. It’s quite satisfying to stack multiple elemental bursts into one massive chain attack. You need it against most of the late game and end game bosses, unless you find other ways to cheese it through the gatcha and blade leveling (there are a couple). For better or worse, XB2 addresses simplicity concerns by overstuffing it with systems to manage and optimize. I think I might be the only one here who actually beat it? Shame since it’s really worth seeing through to the end. XB2 is also highly relevant to this thread in what it changes to combat, how many more abilities you have access to, there being no real downtime once you discover how the cancel systems/auto-attack timing bonuses work, etc. Have you played it @Bacon? I never found XB1s combat bad, but we’ve had that discussion before. XBX is the game that’s mostly more of the same in combat. Traded off visions and more unique combat styles (like Melia) for homogeneity, with slow ass Skell combat and a color bonus system you can’t really strategize around. It’s worse overall, IMO. But also much more samey than XB2.

Not to cramp your style, but maybe we make this a thing?

Few hours into HOB. Great game so far.

People with brand loyalty, a preference for the UI, the controller, the hardware, the backwards compatibility ecosystem, etc. They could drop the ball on a ton of things and still maintain better than the Wii U or Dreamcast. I think the Xbox One launch proved that much.

We're talking about Nintendo here. The company that has long maintained that a rush to the bottom devalues gaming. They don't even let GeForce Now on the Switch when they partner with Nvidia. I doubt Xbox hardware would go anywhere unless Microsoft pulls the plug. Might mean less market share.

In other words: We don't have to ship these games on Sony's console to recoup investments since we offer plenty of choice ourselves. Take that as you will.

There's a brief snippet from the Xbox Series S reveal. We haven't seen any PS5/Series X footage yet. No clue if the S has any raytraced reflections, but Ubisoft confirmed that the Series X version will have them. Who knows what that looks like.

Yup. At the risk of overhyping it... don't pass on it.

These consoles haven't launched yet. Future tense. It was in response to others joking people would write it off for being a cross-gen game at 4K60. Well, there's cross-gen games that do more with the hardware at 4k60. AC's excuse is being a massive open world game that for whatever reason, didn't have time for WD3's raytracing tech (etc). I'm okay with waiting for the ground-up next gen AC to blow us away, at whatever performance/resolution it targets. Valhalla never needed to be a next-gen showpiece. Let's just not pretend other games aren't doing more in the meanwhile. The smaller scale stuff is more nimble to adapt and wow us early on. (most recently, NBA2K21)

When did I say later games? All sorts of strawmen in here today.

Epic has Amnesia Machine for Pigs and Kingdoms New Lands Costume Quest 2 and Layers of Fear 2 next week.

Destiny 2 is free to begin with. Why would it?

Destiny 2 patch coming December 8th. The Next Generation of Destiny > News | Bungie.net WWW.BUNGIE.NET Series S misses that 1440p 60fps target once again for a current gen port. Joins For Honor and Yakuza 7.

@AbsolutSurgen It looks great for what it sets out to achieve, in the same way ACIV: Black Flag did at the time. But I stand by that comment 100%.

Probably for VR.

Xbox Series X unleashed: Our unrestricted preview ARSTECHNICA.COM In good news, we finally have a stunning 120fps game. But not much else, games-wise. Sounds like journalists are still in the dark with most of the updates. But Gears 5 performs well at 120fps.

A few odds and ends: - Bright Memory 1.0. That means the fully fledged project, Bright Memory Infinite, won't release until later 2021. No biggie, it's an indie team. Like Gears Tactics, the PC version of 1.0 has been available for a while, but should be new for console owners. PC owners of 1.0 will get Infinite for free, so hopefully the same applies on Series X/S. - Scorn must have missed launch day. Like The Medium, it's still slated to come this year. Assuming the same about the Control re-release too. - Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, The Falconeer and Tetris Effect: Connected are the games that will be available for the very first time on launch day, November 10th. Yakuza: Like a Dragon as well, if you don't count the Japan PS4 release.

Launch lineup revealed. Next-Gen exclusive: Bright Memory 1.0 AAA - Next-Gen updated: Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Smart Delivery) Borderlands 3 (Smart Delivery) Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition DIRT 5 (Smart Delivery) Fortnite Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Gears 5 (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Gears Tactics (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Grounded (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) NBA 2K21 Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Sea of Thieves (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Watch Dogs: Legion (Smart Delivery) WRC 9 FIA World Rally Championship (Smart Delivery) Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Smart Delivery) Indie - Next-Gen updated Cuisine Royale (Smart Delivery) Dead by Daylight (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Enlisted Evergate The Falconeer (Smart Delivery) King Oddball (Smart Delivery) Maneater (Smart Delivery) Manifold Garden (Smart Delivery) Observer: System Redux Planet Coaster (Smart Delivery) Tetris Effect: Connected (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) The Touryst (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) War Thunder (Smart Delivery) Warhammer: Chaosbane Slayer Edition Yes, Your Grace (Smart Delivery) EDIT: Divided into AAA/Indie 30 Games Fully Optimized on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S Launch Day - Xbox Wire NEWS.XBOX.COM The launch of a new generation of games is the culmination of epic creative and technical endeavors from developers around the globe, all focused on a single goal: delivering immersive new experiences and rich new worlds to explore. The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S day one lineup reflects this incredible ingenuity – bringing you a creative, diverse and deep collection of iconic, inventive, and...

We've already seen the PC version. It won't look any worse unless you dial the settings back yourself.

You're paying $10 less for the same next-gen product. This isn't like NBA2K21 version where the PC version isn't up to next-gen standards.

There is no (announced) current gen version of Godfall.

That's fair. I think there should be room for full price multiplayer games just as there is single player. The online console tax is the non-starter for me, never mind what (few) games get exempted from it. No game should require Gold/PS+/Nintendo Online for any mode. PC ports of these games highlight the hypocrisy. $60 on EGS. Could be argued that Gearbox is passing the royalty savings along on PC. (although some PC games will still do it anyways on Steam, since prices there tend to lag behind console hikes for a short time)

Beat Hellblade. Still have the same opinions, especially after the ending. It would have been cool to see what exactly her madness caused her to do IRL, but they kind of squandered that opportunity in making it all about her mind. And even that could have been explained a bit better. Coolest part of the game was the beast battle, by far. I haven't seen a game go there with horror elements before.

I could see Ubisoft doing the same with Division 3 and no one complaining. There's also the 12% cut vs 30% cut with EGS exclusivity. Oddly enough, they're actually passing on most of those savings to buyers.