Topic: Official Push Square Xbox Thread

@RogerRoger With Sonic Unleashed now running at 60FPS on the Xbox, I’m surprised you aren’t clamouring to get one!

It's a shame that's the end of the BC.

I was speaking to my partner about it and explaining that 50 Cent had become backwards compatible and she pointed out that it had actually become forward compatible.

She's right of course, but it did make me think at what point BC became standard lingo. With the PS2 that system was backwards compatible with PS1 games and it's true, the system itself was backward compatible.

In terms of Xbox one, it would be correct to say that the system is backwards compatible with certain games. But me being lazy will probably continue to say "this game is BC!!!!" 😅

Is the 50c game actually good? Or is it some kind of meme?

@ralphdibny Its the hardware - not the 'software' that is considered with Backwards Compatibility. The Software itself is the 'same' software that released back then and its the 'system' and work behind the scenes to allow the game to run on modern hardware via its Backwards Compatibility.

HDMI ports can be considered Backwards Compatible because you can use a HDMI 1.4 or 2.0 cable in a HDMI 2.1 port. The HDMI 1.4 cable is NOT Forwards Compatible with HDMI 2.1 - because it does NOT offer the HDMI2.1 bandwidth and specs. It limits your HDMI 2.1 spec down to the limitations of the cable so its 'not' forward compatible, but the port that is BC so it still works, but only to the standards expected from the cable

The games themselves are generally 'fixed' to the specs of the original hardware - maybe play a bit better with 'better' hardware - but they are still the same as if played on the older hardware so they Backwards Compatible with the 'new' hardware. The Enhancements are relatively superficial in that they can implement those without developers and the games 'source' code.

If you had a Forwards Compatible HDMI1.4 cable, plugging it in to a HDMI 2.1 port would give you HDMI 2.1 specs instead of limiting the HDMI 2.1 port down to HDMI1.4. As the games are basically the 'same' (excluding those superficial enhancements) as running on Original hardware, they are Backwards Compatible with modern hardware...

@RedKnight34 To be fair, I’ve been pretty vocal about both. Elder Scrolls VI being exclusive doesn’t seem like a great move given how popular Skyrim is on all platforms. But then I can’t exactly blame them given Sony’s exclusivity policies the last couple of gens.

@RedKnight34 @nessisonett I also think this topic isn't as simple as people are making it to be. For instance, there's been speculation that Bethesda was in a poor state financially and Microsoft swooped in and saved them. Another argument is like you guys said that Sony kept paying for timed exclusivity for multiple Bethesda titles such as Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, and Starfield was possibly also on the table. So Microsoft decided to buy ZeniMax in order to prevent more timed exclusive games for PlayStation.

Then my own opinion is that it's better that Microsoft acquired ZeniMax than a company like Tencent that's gobbling up so many studios and publishers. Another advantage of having Bethesda being owned by Microsoft is that all their games will now come to both Xbox and PC day one, as well as Game Pass day one. I mean, imagine being able to pay only €10 to play Starfield. I'm sure there are people out there who would be able to finish a game like that in 1-2 months with constant play.

I'll just leave this here. I'm surprised pushsquare hasn't published this.
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2021/11/playstation-team-celebr...

@RedKnight34 You should probably stop proving Kid’s point. It’s just a bit embarrassing now.

That was actually the last game that I had any part of. It’s not bad, much better than you would expect from a Fiddy game. Haha.

Can anyone recommend a controller that isn’t anywhere near as clicky as the ridiculously loud Xbox controller.

I’ve been using the Series X a lot lately because of Forza Horizon 5 and the noise literally gives me a headache. Especially when using the menus.

Been searching and while a lot complain about the noise, nobody seems to recommend an alternative. I swear with each Xbox it gets louder and louder.

@SoulChimera You're not wrong about the noise. With the Series X controller, the most noise for me comes from the new d-pad. It was ridiculous at first, but the more you use it the more you get used to it for better or for worse. Other than the noise, it is a much better d-pad than on previous ones.

@KilloWertz Yeah, the d-pad is crazy. I’m just not a fan of clicky buttons. I was thinking about playing Killer Instinct the other day, but my neighbours would think I’m demolishing my place.

@SoulChimera Lol, that might be a bit much.

I don't mind the controller overall. It's the little glitches here and there in the Xbox software (things don't always work the way they're supposed to 99% of the time like they do on PlayStation), which there always seems to be, and the fact that their compression is crap compared to PS5's. When a game is nearly half the size (Control: Ultimate Edition) or patches are under 7 GB while they are around 25 GB (Assassins' Creed: Valhalla), that is a sign one company did something really good and the other didn't care.

Not entirely knocking Xbox, as I do actually really like my Series X and will never get rid of it, but it's hard to fully commit to Xbox over PlayStation due to certain things like what I mentioned above.

Did you used to work at codemasters?? I think that's who developed it, I could be wrong!

As for the controller, there's a new wired 8bitdo pro pad coming out for Xbox consoles in early December. Looks like their Sn30 pro pad.

No idea how good it will be or if it will be clicky or not. I might wait for reviews, the price is a bit steep at £40 but I am so tempted because I'll be able to play more d pad heavy games on the One X.

Might be worth waiting for reviews and a bit of a discount on it but it's available for pre order at Amazon

@ralphdibny It was Swordfish Studios at the time.

I’ve got a couple of older 8BitDo pads. Unfortunately, it’s it’s wired, I’ll have to pass on that. I’m quite a distance from the actual console.

@SoulChimera ahh fair enough, I'll ask no more as I guess you are up to your earholes in NDAs!

I read an interview in Edge magazine a few years back that detailed the development of 50 Cent BOTS. It was a really interesting read about how the publisher/parent company changed or something and the game got stuck in limbo for a while.

Also apparently, 50 Cent came in to review the game and brought his son with him. The son said he wanted a helicopter sequence so the Devs had to hastily put one together with reused code or something to appease them! I imagined that situation to be akin to the "more cowbell" sketch with Christopher Walken!!

It's a shame that pad is wired. 40 is a steep ask for a wired pad. I guess it costs a similar amount to license the Xbox handshake than it does to use Bluetooth because it costs the same/bit more than the standard SN30 Pro +/2 pads.

Microsoft seem to be quite Draconian in their approach to licensed controllers. I've not seen a third party wireless controller at all which is a big shame.

There are adapters that allow you to use non XBox pads like the CronusMax and TitanOne but they are very expensive compared to the Mayflash and 8bitdo equivalents that are available for PlayStation and Switch.

@ralphdibny I bought one of those adapters to use my PS4 G29 on my Xbox One years ago, worked perfectly. DriveHub I think it’s called.

Yeah, Xbox 3rd party pads seem a bit of a rare thing. Guess we are stuck with the jackhammer to concrete wall official pads. Haha.

So I decided to buy a month of Game Pass Ultimate seeing as how so many great games have come out and are coming out soon such as Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite and The Gunk. What I've been most interested in though is seeing how well these games perform on my base Xbox One through Cloud Gaming and I'm pleased to report that Forza Horizon 5 at least runs very well with next to no lag at all. However, the game does this thing where it "refreshes" the screen fairly often when it becomes too pixelated, which in all honesty doesn't bother me that much as long as the game doesn't lag since that actually affects how well you perform at the game. Like I remember when I was playing The Medium through Cloud Gaming on my laptop and it would lag every 5-10 minutes for a few seconds and that was rather annoying. But it rarely ever lags when I was playing FH5 and that's the most important thing for me.

Now I'm curious to see how Halo Infinite will run through Cloud Gaming. If it runs just as well as FH5 then the future of Cloud Gaming is looking very promising. This feature is important to me because I'm not planning on buying a next-gen system anytime soon but with this I can play games like the next A Plague Tale, Stalker 2, Starfield and so on, i.e. games that are next-gen exclusive, on my base Xbox One and I don't have to download hundreds of GBs every time to boot. It's just so convenient considering how games just keep getting bigger and bigger, not to mention that it's a great way to test out games on Game Pass instantly. Absolutely brilliant feature!