Topic: Official Push Square Xbox Thread

@BAMozzy again, I agree with you on the games as I'm not interested in online only games like SoT but I'm still happy to have Xbox as my gaming choice even though I'm missing out on the PS exclusives. I just don't have the time or money to have two consoles, plus my marriage couldn't take it. The up coming PS games look really cool, especially Spider-Man but again I'm happy I chose Xbox and I don't see that changing. I'm looking forward to the new Mordor game and Forza and when it's announced, the new Halo. I've not played ReCore or Quantum Break although they both look like really cool games.

@crippyd Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy my Xbox gaming too. Like I said earlier, I have the Gears 4 2TB Xbox One S (as well as the original Xbox) and will be getting the 'X' (hopefully day 1 but reliant on delivery services) and own a Day 1 Elite controller and the Limited Gears 4 Elite too. Its not like I have spent all that money just to gather dust . My 'Destiny' year 1-3 is far more hours spent on Xbox than PS4 and waiting for the 'X' now to play the Witcher 3 DLC in 4k. I think I have about the same number of games on both systems - maybe a few more on Xbox, not including all the GwG/IGC games either.

Personally I like owning both. I couldn't stand not playing the PS4 exclusives as they have been excellent and during the previous 2 generations, MS seemed to be able to keep pace with great exclusives - as I am not a JRPG fan it seemed Xbox had just as many exclusives I wanted. Halo and Gears were both great, Forza was starting to get stale by the 4th but Horizon brought in the arcade fun. We also had Crackdown before 2 let it down and of course Fable as well as the 3rd Party deals with games like CoD and Fifa (not that I played Fifa). Now it seems like MS are relying on games that don't feel right anymore, grown stale or quite average and the only 'big' games are multi-platform or on Sony's console. Yes Halo is still there and its MP might be 'good' but with CoD, Battlefront, Battlefield etc there are a lot of FPS games that do it better and have better campaigns too (in some cases), Forza has competition from Project Cars as well as numerous other racers and it feels like if you've got one Motorsport, you've basically got them all. I know these are 'ok' games but not exactly pushing boundaries here. Nothing that in a few years time will look back and remember the XB1 generation for.

When you look at defining games of an Era, the Xbox had Halo, Jade Empire, Fable, Project Gotham - even Forza, XB360 had Gears, Forza Horizon, Crackdown, Alan Wake, Dead Rising (as well as Mass Effect, Bioshock, etc) and this generation has yet more of Forza (3 now +2 Horizon's), 2 Halo games and a budget 1, 2 Dead Rising Games, Gears 4 and a handful of other games that people often forget existed - like Ryse, Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break... Not a Lot that will be remembered or stand up. I think this gen will be remembered more for its 'mistakes', the very difficult 3rd - that maybe with enough time could turn it around - PS3 managed to do so eventually. Right now though it appears that MS are relying purely on performance to sell the 'X' rather than adding in unique and amazing software to support it - much like Halo did for the Original console and then followed that with a good library of exclusives to keep gamers coming...

@KratosMD The reason these games didn't sell is because they are going downhill, getting very stale. Gears 4 isn't as good as the original trilogy - especially not as good as 2 was. Halo is nowhere near as good as the Bungie era was at that time. Sunset Overdrive was made for the Club 18-30's puerile teenagers - no wonder Sony turned it down and Forza Horizon was good but in a franchise that's almost as old as the hills now. Miss this one, pic up the next in 2 years time that does virtually the same thing - next up though is 'Motorsport 7', the game that's just like 6 but now in 4k and we will sell you car pack after car pack after car park to drive around the same boring tracks....

I would say not one of these would be 'game of the year' but Forza Horizon 3 would be best Racing game, and no doubt Forza MS must have won one of these by default as we are now coming up to the 3rd on this gen and apart from Project Cars, I can't think of another 'decent' racer to challenge it. This year it has competition from PC2 and GTSport of course.

That doesn't mean that some of these games don't have 'good' moments. Gears 4 and Halo 5 can provide some good moments in its MP with friends but the campaigns are not as good as what came before it. Gears 4 campaign was quite average but it did have some great HDR visuals but the Locust was a better enemy and its not until the second half that it starts to feel more like a Gears game - the ending was weak though and I really can't believe it ended like that...

I know Sony took a while to get going with their games - Killzone wasn't the best in the series, the Order was style over substance, Infamous, while good, was quite short and Delsin was no Cole. Bloodbourne was well received - not my type of game but seemed to be a great 'Souls' game for those that enjoy that. Then we had a few games like Until Dawn that seemed divisive and DriveClub that was a bit of a mess at launch and only 30fps whilst other racers, like Project Cars were 60fps and just as good looking. But then we started to see games like Ratchet and Clank - not quite a 'new' game but still fun and good looking, then Uncharted 4 a real step up from Uncharted before it. That was followed up by Horizon:ZD and of course we have games like Days Gone, Spider-Man, God of War, Detroit, Last of Us 2 etc - maybe not all games that all PS owners will play but games that people will remember. Horizon:ZD, Uncharted etc are all Game of the year winners/contenders and I wouldn't be surprised if games like DG, GoW, LoU2 etc all are award winning games.

Point I am making is that Sony really seem to have taken a while to get into their Stride and start really pushing their developers to come up with something that is a 'must play', something bigger and better than we had seen before. I know the Coalition are 'new' to Gears and at least had Rod Ferguson to help keep the 'Gears' formula but it kind of missed the mark - partly because of the lack of the 'bromance' in the characters and partly because of the Robot enemies in the first half. If you have played Gears 2, then you understand what I mean - even 3 I felt was better. Gears 1 (or the Ultimate if you missed it on the 360) is better with RAAM being quite Iconic and the first was still quite a dark game. I also felt disappointed by the 'Horde' mode missions - which felt cheap and unnecessary. Still I guess it wasn't 'bad' considering 'Judgement' but still kind of missed some of what made Gears special in the first 3 games. Halo really has missed the mark since 343 took over. I guess 4 was 'ok' as a campaign but still felt short and missing the scale of Bungies epics. It seemed to switch focus more to the MP - something 5 did too and the similarities to CoD was very divisive. Its almost as if MS gave up the exclusivity deal to CoD to make Halo its eSport CoD clone. Now CoD is going back to its roots though, the difference will be more noticeable. The Campaign was weak - fight the same boss not once, not twice, not even 3 times but at least 4 or 5 times. Barely features Master Chief and overall very mediocre - again mainly because it seems 343 spent more time trying to make the MP and getting it up to 'eSport' standards.

The main difference I see between Sony's Exclusives and Microsofts at the moment is that Sony's seemed to be moving forward, keeping pace and maybe even pushing beyond the big 3rd Party developers whilst MS seems to be locked in a '360' era at best, stood still whilst the games around have pushed ahead. Maybe games like Halo 5, SO, etc would have felt better on Last gen, would have stood up against their peers better than they are now. I am not denying that Forza keeps pace with the competition in its genre and 6 was better than 5 and 7 looks to go beyond what 6 was - the weather is far more dynamic and impacts on handling etc rather than just 'cosmetic effects' - something 5 didn't even have so I can see progression and how it can hold its own against Project Cars 2 with its 'live track 2.0'.

Its just I really wanted MS to come out fighting with its games. Yes its given us quite a few, but I feel its mostly mediocre/average games that haven't pushed forward, still stuck in the 360 era in a lot of ways. 343 still haven't caught up with what Bungie achieved - even with ODST and Reach - two obligatory games that Bungie had to make to effectively buy themselves out of MS.

I still feel like MS are pushing the 'media' side, trying to make the Xbox the one stop box for all media and gaming - rather than a 'focused' gaming console that also does media. That was evident in the Slim, a great 4k HDR bluray player, 4k Streaming box but a 900p (average) gaming device. The Xbox 'X' is the 'gaming upgrade' but I wonder if its too late. I almost wish the 'X' was just called the Xbox 'Scorpio' not the Xbox 'One' X because now I feel that the console will be restricted by the 'XB1' base console. I know that 'Exclusives' are likely to be built to 1080p standards so 4k won't be unreachable on the 'X' but I still think MS should have made the Scorpio its 'next' gen console but, like the XB1, had BC with the older gen hardware. Games then could be 60fps on the X and 30fps on the older XB1 hardware. As a mid gen upgrade, I feel 4yrs is too late in - especially considering the XB1 is struggling to deliver even a full HD gaming device - at least the PS4 has more 'leeway' here. It can at least drop to 900p but we are seeing games like Tekken for example, having to release at 720p, with lower levels of texture drawing etc just to keep 60fps. I know the PS4 is less than 900p and the Pro only manages full HD but as we move forward into 2018, 2019 etc, I wonder how many more games will fail to hit 900p on the XB1, how many more games will be limited to 30fps and therefore limited to 30fps on the 'X'? How many more games will MS make that feel like 360 era games to hit the 1080p/4k? The telling aspect is how 3rd Party games run not 1st Party because they are built to the specs of these consoles. Even ND and Sucker-Punch struggled with the PS4 and its CPU limitations - hence Uncharted 4 ended up at 30fps but the more limited area of the MP could hit 60fps if they also cut the resolution to 900p and Sucker-Punch too felt the limitations of the CPU with Infamous - even the Pro can't run that game at 60fps because of the CPU.

I really felt MS should almost have wiped the slate clean and started again with the 'Scorpio'. 4yrs is maybe at the lower limit but not unheard of when it comes to 'next gen'. The N64 and Original Xbox were both around for 4yrs before the Gamecube and XB360 released. I still can't see Sony going 7yrs, 6 at most before we see the PS5 - which could play into MS hands if they do, because MS can bring out its PS5 'killer' in 3yrs time - but if Sony take the initiative in a years time, they could leave MS with an 'expensive' box. By that I mean the PS5 would cut ties to the PS4 but offer 4k/60 to MS's up to 4k/30 for at least 2yrs before MS can respond. I can't see MS building the 'next' box in 2yrs - not with a 'X' on the market. I know its 'similar' to the Pro in concept, but the Pro isn't as 'big' a jump and a PS5 can offer a significant reason to upgrade - where as the 'X' can't. The PS5 could offer a 4k HDR Bluray, Atmos, 4k graphics and Assets (thanks to a beefier GPU and increased RAM) and a 'new' CPU to target better frame rates. The only real upgrade MS could offer is a better CPU and slightly beefier GPU as its 'X' and Slim for that matter already offer the full 4k media suite - It would really need a sizeable 'jump' in GPU to warrant an upgrade status - more than a few teraflops. You wouldn't buy a GTX1070 and replace it with a '1080' a year or two later.

As I said though, it also comes down to software. I am buying the 'X' regardless but I still think MS needed to WOW. Give PS4 owners the feeling that the X was worth investing in, had that library of Exclusives with the promise of some big heavy hitters, big game of the year contenders as exclusives so they feel its worth buying the 'X' as their 'upgrade' console and keep their PS4's for 'exclusives' rather than buy a Pro because it does the same thing and they are not missing out on what MS has to offer too much. Arguably games like Agents of Mayhem could be the multi-platform 'Crackdown', GTSport replaces Forza 7 or even Project Cars 2 could, Sea of Thieves could be 'replaced' by Skull n Bones, State of Decay 2 didn't exactly sell itself either but if H1Z1 arrives, there's a comparison or Days Gone is 'enough' of a Zombie Game to offset that. Most of the others at E3 will be coming to PS4 'eventually' so what's the 'big' reason to consider the 'X' over a Pro? The 4K HDR Bluray player? maybe but you can now buy a XB1s or dedicated player for £200 for that or go for the Pro and just stream 4k HDR content (might be lower quality but cheaper than Blurays). Point is they didn't exactly sell the ecosystem or the console - at least not yet. People still think the 'Pro' is a better buy because it does the 'same' thing only £100 cheaper and maybe not as high a resolution but has the better library.

@KratosMD OK - user scores

Gears 4 - 6.9
Halo 5 - 6.5
Sunset Overdrive - 7.8
Forza 6 - 7.7
Forza Horizon 3 - 8.0
Forza Horizon 2 - 8.3
Forza 5 - 5.9
Rare Replay - 7.9
Gears of War Ultimate - 7.6
Halo Master Chief - 7.4

What this shows is that the general community were not so forgiving as 'critics'. The fact that games like Halo Master Chief (4 games, 3 of which originally made by Bungie inc all the MP too) was better received than a 'new' Halo. Gears Ultimate was 'better' received than Gears 4 not unsurprisingly. Even Forza Horizon 2 was supposedly better than 3 - maybe because these are now being churned out every couple of years with Motorsport every other year.

Its understandable that Rare Repay and Sunset Overdrive come close to the general critics opinion - 1 for nostalgia and 1 because its something 'different'. Halo 4 did well mostly for its MP but the campaign wasn't that well received by critics and fans alike. Even a number of the critics awarding 9 or above were stating how 'disappointing', brief, anti-climatic, lacking depth, less of an event etc but still awarded it 9 or above because they enjoyed Warzone or some other aspect of the MP. Halo may have been at the forefront of online MP, but it was the campaign that drew people in and sold countless Xbox consoles.

As for console install base, the Xbox and Windows 10 PC's can easily match, if not surpass the PS4 install base. That doesn't stop MS from expanding their portfolio, expanding their game studios, offering new and unique first party games to entice gamers over to their eco-system. Is it any wonder why peple associate the Xbox as just Halo and Forza with very little else?

I know what Xbox has as I have still got an original Xbox and big box of games for it, Still got my XB360 and a shelf or 3 full of XB360 games. I still have two XB1's as well as Kinect for both the 360 and XB1. I am NOT new to the Xbox ecosystem and Halo was the game that made me buy an OG Xbox at release. In fact the only Xbox I haven't bought in the first week or two of release was the XB1 - mainly because I had just moved house and needed to furnish that first so had to wait 3-4 months after release to buy my XB1 - back when it still was sold only with Kinect! In fact I still have the original releases of each Bungie Halo game as well as all the Forza MS games from the first on the OG Xbox (still preferred Project Gotham though) all through the 360 era inc a few special edition versions. I even have Mass Effect in a Tin long before it came to PS3 so I am well aware of what MS has offered as Exclusives. Rallisport Challenge, Project Gotham, Fable, Jade Empire, Steel Battalion, Mech Assault, Mad Dash Racing, Blinx, Kameo, Blue Dragon, Perfect Dark, Too Human... to name a few

#BringBackBlinx

I haven't visited in awhile because I traded my PS4 in for an XBox One S in January. I moved it to my son's room last week and bought the Gears 4 1TB bundle after finding a pretty solid deal. It should arrive tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to getting into some games I've put off in the past.

After searching for a good XBox Forum and not finding one, it dawned on me to come see if there was any discussion here since Pure Xbox is no longer active. I'm glad there's at least a little!

In the past, I've focused a little too much on sports games, and while that's great, my new goal is to play more games from other genres. I plan on going through Ori and the Blind Forest pretty soon, since a new Ori game will be on its way soon. I also want to get to some other XBox exclusives (Quantum Break most of all) in the near future.

I'm not a big multiplayer guy, but I'm really excited for Sea of Thieves! It just looks like video game fun, although I don't see much hype for it. It looks really good from all I've seen so far.

Any other XBox exclusives I need to know about that may have flown under the radar?

I haven't ever played the Halo or Gears of War series. Am I going to be completely lost by picking it up with Halo 5 and GoW4? I know they look incredible, but that's about all my knowledge on it.

Games with Gold for August....

Bayonetta!!! Trials Fusion is good too....

I might actually finish Bayonetta now! I'll give Trials a go as I've not played one of those before, although I've read many good things about it and it appears to be like Kickstart from the olden days when I was just a wee boy.

@crippyd I have all the 360 Trials games (only 2 LOL) and considered this. Its good fun but can be tricky. For a 'budget' game, its fantastic. I am not usually one to buy 'Budget' games but I have bought the first 2. The second had the ability to build your own courses or play user created courses which obviously gives more longevity. Its quite 'basic' in its controls but it gets increasingly more tricky as you go on. Sometimes 'speed' isn't the answer but you do feel you have to go fast with the clock ticking...

I will probably add the 2 360 games as well - just because I can but have zero interest in adding Slime Rancher!

@BAMozzy Sounds like a fun game. I think the Slime Rancher is aimed at kids and I don't think I'll bother unless my 3 are interested in it. I have both the 360 games on disc but I can now get rid of them and just have the digital ones.

Really excited to play Bayonetta. I wanted to get the two pack on Wii U but it was discontinued before I could get it and now scalpers want too much for it.

I had a few hours of spare time today, so I started Gears of War 4. After about 5 minutes, I figured it was just another shooter that doesn't fit my gaming preferences. About 2 1/2 hours later (and still playing GoW 4), I realized I've been missing out! Thanks for the recommendation, I'm looking forward to jumping back in soon!

I definitely think I'll go through all the Halo games too just out of respect to XBox, but that may be a little down the road. I'd like to go through as many XBox exclusives as possible if I'm gonna be an XBox guy!

That being said, my wife and I are currently playing our way through Outlast Trinity. We're about 3/4 the way through the first one. I had it on PS4 but never got more than a couple hours into it. I'm glad I bought Trinity though as I was definitely missing out on a great creepy story!

So, I am thinking of picking up an Xbox One mainly for the exclusives like Ori, Sunset Overdrive etc. My friend is offering to sell me his for $150, since he's planning to buy a Scorpio and has an Xbox One Slim.

Now he keeps good care of his consoles but I am just curious if there were any problems with the first run of non Kinect Xbox One's similar to the 360 red ring. I just don't want it failing in a few months or so.

@Tasuki The XB1 was built so large, with so much space to dissipate heat to avoid the RROD. Heat was the cause as the RROD, like the YLOD with PS3, as a 'safety' shutdown and this occurred because the 'thermal' paste between the APU and the heat dissipation would dry out with the excessive heat and thus lose its effectiveness. the heat could also cause some of the APU pins, the solder that holds them in place and form the connection to the motherboard to melt and come loose. This then forced the 'safety' circuit to engage and caused the RROD. If you had the skills and was out of warranty, you could strip it down, clean up the APU and apply new Thermal Paste. Also if you had a very steady hand, could drop a tiny bit of solder on the pins if you noticed any looking 'loose' and that would cure the RROD.

Because it was 'Heat' related, MS built their XB1 on the very cautious side. It had a bigger fan, bigger space etc and also a reason why they kept the 'brick' outside - All to ensure that RROD would not be an issue this time.

The main issue though with the XB1 was the slot loading Bluray drive. It doesn't always pull the disc in enough and therefore you can get 'alignment' issues. It will say there is no disc and 'invite' you to buy the 'digital version from the store. The way around this though, is to lift the front of the Console up to 30-45 degrees and let gravity help pull the Disc in enough.

This affected mine and a fair few people I know and its one of the main reasons I opted to buy my XB1s as I am much more inclined to buy physical software where possible. I had considered holding off until the 'Scorpio' launched but MS went and released that Gears of War 4 custom Xbox One S - a day before my Birthday so I had to buy...

Anyway, the only real issue that I am aware of was more around the Bluray drive and, if you were looking to buy and aiming to build up a Physical library, that would be the main thing I would check. It tends to occur when flat and its also not designed to be used vertically so check if it pulls discs in and loads up when flat. Maybe mine failed because I play mostly with discs and I guarantee I look after everything impeccably too.

I do think that the Slim is a better buy. It may not offer 'Kinect' - at least not 'easily' but its definitely superior as it has a 'small' boost but its also offering 4k HDR media and HDR gaming too. I appreciate that it may cost more (maybe wait until Black Friday) and I don't know if you have a 4k and/or HDR screen but its also smaller and doesn't have the power brick. Because it also offers 4k and HDR, it also comes with a higher spec HDMI out too. I think the OG Xbox offers Atmos (object based and true 360 sound - it offers height as well for example) but the fact it offers this and the 4k Bluray player, it really is worth that bit extra. Isn't the Slim around $250 new?

@BAMozzy I never play my consoles vertically. For one I don't like how it works and 2 I am paranoid that it will fall over.

As for discs I will probably go digitally as I tend to find better deals digitally then physical this gen also as much as I like the collecting part I need to start getting rid of things since I will be moving here in a year or two but that's another subject.

@Tasuki At the end of the day, the decision is yours - I am just giving you as much information as I can so you can make an informed choice and whether or not you think this deal and the money is worth it. You shouldn't suffer from RROD but as with all electronics, they don't last forever but so far, I haven't heard of any XB1's having an issue - well apart from the Bluray drive anyway...

@Tasuki I have a Day One (2013) machine and it is working as well today as it did on the day I first set it up. I tend to buy digitally and I would say invest in an external drive as the 500GB is woefully small for today's games, I mean Halo MCC is something like 100GB and the files are only going to get bigger as 4K/HDR etc start becoming more 'standard'. I haven't had any issues with the disc drive, but as I said I'm more digital these days, so I don't know if that is a factor.

Anyone here getting Cuphead? That game looks awesome.haha

@WanderingBullet I think I will be. It does look very good, I just hope it lives up to the hype!