Topic: Official Push Square Xbox Thread

@Kraven Have you experienced any technical issues with the game so far? Also, how long have you played the game for?

@LtSarge I’ve only experienced one technical issue, or bug, rather, but it’s pretty insignificant. Sometimes when I die or reload a save, my gun isn’t shown in my hands although I have it equipped. It appears in about one second, so it’s not a big deal at all. Other than that, the game isn’t buggy at all for me. I think all the recent patches held tremendously. As for time played, I’d say 30 hours.

@LtSarge @Kraven the biggest issue that I’ve heard about is A-Life 2.0 (the evolving world-progression that fans of the original loved) simply isn’t working whatsoever in the sequel… like at all. The devs are currently trying to work out why and resolve in a future patch.

@colonelkilgore Yeah, that’s the biggest issue I’ve seen people talk about. What is crazy is that the game as it is now is incredible, so I can only imagine how much better it is once A-Life 2.0 is implemented and working properly.

@Kraven yeah that does bode well for sure. I just picked up the original trilogy the other day… don’t know if I’ll play all three before I play 2 but I’ll definitely play the original first, so I’ll get to sample A-Life before I play the sequel and then hopefully it’ll be fixed for 2.0 when I eventually get to that 🤞

@Kraven @colonelkilgore It's good to hear that the game plays better now and might get even better in the future. I've been holding off on playing it until the issues have been ironed out.

It's unfortunate that a lot of Xbox releases haven't stuck the landing (at least initially in some cases) but I'm glad Stalker 2 is a good experience now and with Indiana Jones releasing tomorrow, there are some great new releases to be enjoyed on Game Pass.

@JohnnyShoulder No, I've managed to resist. I'm toying with another playthrough though....

I'll bung this here as its something we've talked about on this thread before, I feel.

But on the latest DF Direct it's mentioned how Steam have added terms and branding relating to the use of Steam OS in other products. So that suggests maybe, just maybe, a PC (or Steam console) built around Steam OS could be in the works, either at Valve or with third parties using Steam OS.

Which, if it comes to fruition, will allow people to move away from the dirge that is Windows and potentially allow for more "Living room PC's" that function pretty much like consoles without the pains of the trash that has held the PC market hostage for 30 years 😛

It also could mean implementation of Steam OS in other handheld systems.

It feels like good news and maybe the start of a new era in gaming could be just around the corner.

It's unlikely this will be in collaboration with MS either, despite the rumblings of handhelds or console like PC's from them, because, you know, it's an OS, so it may be a case of usurping them before they can even make the moves that MS wanted to make in the gaming space.

Interesting to see where it leads, anyway. As I'm someone that is very much interested in a living room PC that doesn't have to deal with MS bloody Windows and can just boot right into a functional gaming OS that takes care of updates and features on its own

@Ravix yeah YouTube’s been ablaze with new steam machine talk all week to be fair

@colonelkilgore I do hope if it is Valve releasing a nice bit of console tech that it isn't called the Steam Machine though, even if was like a PC without the hassle, I'm not sure I could bring myself to buy something called a Steam Machine.

I'm not sure I'd buy 'just' a Steam console anyway either, to be fair. The console space doesn't necessarily need it with PS and GamepassBox, but it's the PC space that needs it, in my opinion, to finally put an end to Windows being anywhere near PC gaming

@Ravix yeah I think they’re (the YouTubers) are just using that term due to Valve’s previous effort… I’m pretty sure it will be branded differently but the basis for the info remains the same. Valve tried making a home-console before and it looks like they’re making another one.

@colonelkilgore I could be won around by specs, too. I have no idea what kind of mark they'd aim for if it was a small form factor pc/console release tbf.

Personally, just really want to justify getting a 4090 or similar without having to deal with Windows 😅 Although, tbh, game pass would help due to having to start from scratch game wise. But, unless MS are scrambling, I can't see them having a fully fledged game pass on steam OS (I believe right now you can maybe stream Game Pass games on Steam OS, but not download, but I very much don't know enough about it to know exactly why that is)

SteamDeck owners could enlighten about the Steam OS experience and what is available on it, I suppose. All I know os Steam OS does a very good job amd Windows does not 😛

@Ravix I would imagine that Steam OS wouldn't give you the games you 'own' or play through Windows/Game Pass. MS sell most (if not all) games on Steam but if you want to Play Anywhere (as in Xbox and PC), you need to buy from Windows Store and Game Pass PC too is 'Windows Store' not Steam.

Call of Duty for example can be 'bought' on Steam but you can't play it 'free' with Game Pass PC on Steam. Game Pass PC is Windows Store only. Its possible a Steam Console could also allow other launchers/stores - like Windows/MS, Epic etc. Hand held PC's still have Steam, Epic, MS store etc but Steam Deck needs 'Windows' (I believe) for Game Pass or access to other PC 'stores' so I don't know that a Steam OS based Console would have Game Pass PC - at most, just a streaming app.

SteamDeck is locked to Steam Only unless you install Windows and as such maybe can focus on Gaming optimisations specifically for Steam based games - where Windows is designed more for multi-tasking and running a much wider variety of Software - inc different launchers etc too

I decided to get a month of Game Pass Ultimate in order to play the new Indiana Jones game (which is phenomenal so far!). I also decided to try out cloud streaming on Xbox and I can't believe how terrible it still is. At least they removed the 5-10 minute queue, still can't believe that was a thing a while ago. But yeah, I streamed Indiana Jones and the game looks absolutely awful. I tried streaming Final Fantasy VII Remake on PS5 just to get a comparison and that game looks much better when streamed compared to streaming a game on Xbox. In fact, I'd say that a streamed PS5 game looks about as good as an installed one. Both my consoles are wired to the internet and I have a 500 mbps internet connection, so there's no difference other than the hardware. So I decided to just download Indy and play through it that way.

@LtSarge You are not the first person i've heard this from. You would have thought it would be the other way round with Sony using some of Microsoft's tech and the latter company's big push for cloud gaming.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, now that you mention it, I do recall reading somewhere that Sony is using Microsoft's servers for their cloud streaming. Really weird then that the streaming quality is worse on Xbox compared to PlayStation.

@LtSarge @johnnyshoulder it's almost like Sony knows how to make video game consoles work, and MS knows how to make PC's not work 🤷‍♂️

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@Ravix I went from a Windows laptop to a Chromebook a few months back, and have not missed it at all. Using one for work is enough for me.

@JohnnyShoulder I fully switched to using Macs at home and Linux for work. I sometimes have to use Windows servers because some of my clients are set up that way and it's easily my least favorite part of the job
Hopefully PC gaming can manage to move away from Windows at some point, Steam Deck is a pretty good start.

From the outside looking in, I would say Indy has received more-or-less an overwhelmingly positive reaction. Doesn’t mean every one will feel that way though. Some people don’t like Mario, some people don’t like Final Fantasy VII… and ahem some people don’t like The Last of Us Part 2 (😉 @LN78)… it doesn’t mean that the majority of people in those cases are wrong… nor the minority as it goes 🍻