Topic: The everything Xbox thread

@NEStalgia Hey man, don't remind me of that lousy company being more popular...

EDIT:
Yeah, I knew about those games already, but thanks anyway. From what I've understood, ALL OG Xbox games are upscaled to AT LEAST 4x the original resolution, and there are several that already contained higher resolution graphics that were never fully unlocked, and as such, much like a PC title, you can enhance them even further, depending on the hardware you're running them on. And I can also imagine them just using some of the PC textures from those games, because even back then, the PC versions already looked a step (or two) above what was possible on the Xbox...

@Dezzy But that's exactly what I've been trying to tell you. Although, in hindsight, I could have elaborated a bit more, so here goes:

Regardless of whether or not you like or want all the free titles, there are more than enough exclusives in there, and at around 500 - 600 pounds worth of free games per year, paying 30 to 40 pounds for an Xbox Live subscription for 12 months, will always be cheaper than buying games yourself, used or not. I don't know how many you buy on average per year, but I reckon it's not going to be 500 to 600 pounds worth, unless you're a REALLY avid collector of cheap games...

And then, in comparison to buying everything yourself, you'd STILL have money left besides being able to download the odd free game that you actually DO want every now and then, and you'd more or less have the best of both worlds. But ultimately, it is of course up to you.

I do both: buying the cheaper games, downloading the free ones, and even buying the odd new game every now and then, depending on how interesting they are or if my friends are also buying and playing them.

@ThanosReXXX

There aren't that many good exclusives at this point though. Like 6 or 7 of them. So I'm not sure it'll make much difference at this point.

@ThanosReXXX
Hehe, yeah it's quite the mess.
All in all, I think Nintendo actually got it right this time around. lol
Even though they seem to be the ones who know the least about all this technical stuff, on Switch, you just pick your account, log into the eshop and you'll be at the regional shop of the account you created. Super easy. No extra security or steps to jump through. So I got a PAL account for everything and then a Japanese account in case some games come out over there that don't get a western version. Although I prefer buying physical editions anyway.

I just looked at your profile.
I'm 42 myself this year and from Belgium actually.
Good to see you still have your Dreamcast as well! I still have both my Sega Saturn and Dreamcast hooked up on the main tv through a Framemeister.

Quickly copied this from Shmups forum:

Disc Based Region Free Shmups:
Bullet Soul (J)
Bullet Soul Infinite Burst (J)
Dodonpachi Resurrection Deluxe Ed (PAL) <does not work on NTS-J console>
Dodonpachi Saidaioujou (J)
Eschatos (J)
Espgaluda II Black Label (J) <standard edition is region free>
Game Center Love Plus Pengo (J)
Ginga Force (J)
Mushi Mushi Pork & Pink Sweets (J)
Mushihami-Sama Futari Ver 1.5 (J)
Shooting Love 10th Anniversary (J)

Which is actually quite a nice list already.
My favourite ones have to be Dodonpachi Resurrection, Bullet Soul Infinite Burst, Espgaluda II Black Label, Dodonpachi Saidaioujou, Mushihami-Sama Futari Ver 1.5, Mushi Mushi Pork & Pink Sweets and Eschatos.
Quite a few of these got a budget reprint as well so they can be found quite cheap.

Then there's Death Smiles and Akai Katana which were both released in Europe and are both horizontal shoot em ups.

@Dezzy True, not at the moment, but a year is long, and I'm pretty sure that there'll be more than 7 exclusives amongst the in total 48 free titles a year, seeing as it's both Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles. And if I look back at what I myself have downloaded from Games with Gold over the past 3 years, then I can definitely attest to there being far more exclusive content than you might think, between the triple A, Arcade and indie titles on offer.

So, I'm pretty sure that they'll keep this up. But that is also why I said that you might at the very least want to keep an eye on the Games with Gold page, so you can decide for yourself if and when you might want to jump in.

P.S.

To only be able to find 6 or 7 good games amongst ALL the exclusives available on Xbox One, seems to point at having a VERY specific taste, though because the list might be shorter than the PS4's, but not THAT much shorter. No offense.

Here's a good checklist that gets updated and has several filters for the various types of exclusives, so you can see what's actually available. Always handy to keep an eye on, much like that Games with Gold page...

https://gematsu.com/exclusives/xbox-one

@meppi64 Haha, posted the list anyway, huh? Like I said: I'm not such a big fan of shoot em ups, or at least not such a hardcore fan that I would like to collect and play all the Japanese ones, so you could have saved yourself the trouble of posting them.

But thanks anyway.

I have the Dreamcast connected with a VGA Box:

Works just as well as a Framemeister, is a hell of a lot cheaper, and only misses some of the more advanced options, and cosmetic options such as scanlines and what not.

Options I don't care for very much anyways. I just wanted a solution for playing my Dreamcast games on my HD TV in a crisp, clean 480p format. And this little box does the trick more than nicely.

@ThanosReXXX
Ah, I had one of those for a long time. But certain games don't work through VGA while others don't work through RGB, like Street Fighter Alpha 3 and GigaWing 1 for example.
So I got one of these: https://www.beharbros.com/toro
This one can force a VGA signal through the RGB connection which in turn, when hooked up to a Framemeister gives you a sweet 720p image with scanlines.

I also got one of these: https://www.retropsu.com/store/
And one on order for my Saturn as well.
Since the power board is one of the things that kills a lot of systems when they get older, this is a replacement that takes a low voltage instead of 220, which keeps everything cool and functioning for many more years hopefully.

@meppi64 True, not all titles are VGA compatible, but that is why the VGA Box also has an S-Video connector, and there's always adapters, so I'm good. I don't really like the open design of that Toro box, though. Seems like a dust gatherer. I do like the Framemeister and all those other more advanced upscalers, but it just isn't worth the money for me personally, since I already struggle to find the time to play games as it is on current and last gen consoles, let alone on retro consoles like the Dreamcast, so that is only booted up every now and then.

As such, the investment of a Framemeister for me would be massively disproportionate to the usage that I would ultimately get out of it, so I simply don't bother, and for me, the much cleaner image from the VGA Box is already more than enough, because it displays the games exactly as the developers intended and how they themselves saw them when they developed them on the Katana tower systems, so a clean 480p is also historically correct, and that is more important to me than to keep upscaling it to fit the resolution of my TV set, because that will theoretically never end.

That is all irrelevant to me, though. And if you stick with the original resolution, you always know what you'll get, without constantly having to adapt/upscale it to new proportions. Perhaps I'll even go back to a CRT again, because I'm still kind of disappointed that I can't use any of my light guns anymore, and I've always wanted to have one of those professional TV monitors, that are still compatible with these devices, so that is something that I actually WOULD want to invest in, seeing as it wouldn't only be for the Dreamcast...

As for PSU/power board problems: never had any, and I doubt I ever will. Especially since I don't use it that often anymore. But perhaps I'll buy another Dreamcast, a refurbished one, so that it'll come with some still relatively new parts.

@meppi64 But enough about the Dreamcast already. We're derailing the discussion: this is the Xbox thread, after all...

@ThanosReXXX I can't argue with you there!
They are all very niche products anyway.
Truth be told, I'd be perfectly fine with a VGA box for my Dreamcast.
But playing Sega Rally on Saturn or WipEout on PSone with a 240p signal isn't pretty nowadays.

Anyway, back to Xbox... Playing some Battlefield 4 now... Yeah, that'll do!

Well, technically the XBox is the continuation of the Sega consoles, so DC -> X0 -> X1 isn't much less appropriate than talking about the N64 in a Switch thread

Looks like the GwG titles for June are named. Kind of a meh list this month. MORE Assassin's Creed Chronicles. They love pawning off this b-grade smartphone platformer spinoff series as serious free games. I guess it's nice they gave all of them away for free? (The appropriate price point... )

Plus the "gold" bundle for an F2P....stay classy, Microsoft!

Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed is certainly a good one for the X360 allotment. WiiU version is better for those that have it though

Lego Indiana Jones seems to be the highlight.

Another slow Deals with Gold week, too. Mostly Rocket League DLC replacing the Fallout/Farm Simulator DLC sale. Good price on the Need for Speed ultimate collection....you know....if you're into that sort of thing. Borderlands making the rounds again.

Still expecting Witcher III soon...it was cheap on PSN last week....usually these things run in cycles. Waiting for FFXV royal (I bought the stupid disc for PS4, and THEN found out you need $30 worth of DLC to make a complete game....so I might as well wait for the complete collection to come down $10 and just get a whole digital copy on the X since it's prettier here.) Also waiting for Wildlands. C'mon Ubi, it's been on sale like 4 times for PSN, throw us a bone!

Meanwhile PSN has another great spread of like 8 pages of great sales this week. MS really does need to step up its digital sales game. Sony's running away with it.

"Achievement Unlocked: Bargain Hunter"

@NEStalgia Tssk, tssk, Mister glass half empty. Or should I say: "Achievement Unlocked: Glass Half Empty View"? Then again: you already had that achievement unlocked quite a few months ago...

And then there's LEGO Indiana Jones, which is indeed a good game, and Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed as well. No idea why you think the Wii U version is better, seeing as it is pretty much the same game, so again: nothing to scoff at. Couldn't give a rat's you-know-what about deals, since besides the free downloads, I prefer the purchases of my own choosing to be physical, so that'll never be some kind of yardstick for me to measure the worth of any offers to, where other consoles are concerned.

Especially seeing as I will more than likely never buy that other console, so comparing it to something that I'm never going to make use of, seems rather futile to me...

P.S.

How's about that invite?

@NEStalgia I think the Xbox 360 version is better, something is wrong with the Wii U version such that the tank levels in story mode are broken on higher difficulties.

@DarthNocturnal Yeah I hadn't followed X1 until this year, but I'd heard there were "big sales" (I haven't seen much fo that yet.) I started really tracking the digital side of the two around the holidays, and PS has had week after week huge sales while X1...has had a disturbing amount of Farm Simulator DLC. (But when X1 does have a sale it seems to undercut PS....Middle Earth series for example was cheaper on XBL 2 weeks ago than PSN this week.) But overall PS seems to have more things on sale more often. If XB has a big sale now and then though, that's cool! I was hoping for something with E3 timing maybe.

@ThanosReXXX I'm not glass half empty. I'm not nearly that optimistic. It's a little below half at all times. Except when it rains and overflows. (Now you see why rjejr and I get along )

Well, for me X1 is the all digital platform (more or less...might pick up oldies like Ryse or something physically.) I have all 3 systems...having ONE of them all digital seemed kind of cool And X1 is the most geared for it, long term. Though since I found out that with both systems I can buy ONE copy of a game and Player Two can use it if we swap accounts/systems....I may go all digital on both machines now. Half price gaming from now on! If only I realized that months ago! It's a weak way of doing a family plan but it works for me. Maybe Switch will go that way too once Online starts. Some things I still want physical though. I get the feeling you haven't bought as many games as me over the years I literally have stacks and stacks of milk crates filled with games and movies....I have nowhere to put game cases anymore! I keep buying physical copies...and just precariously stacking them in pillars until the pillar collapses all over. I end up finding discs that poppped out 2 years later under a sofa or something. I love collecting my physical stuff....but I'd rather go digital on new stuff that's really cloud constrained with patches anyway than get rid of the old stuff that's good forever

Someday your obsessive anti-sony bent will fade. They don't seem inherently better or worse than MS (when one or the other is in the leader position.) Eventually MS will be top dog and wrong us.

Oh, yeah! I keep forgetting to add you! (I always forget. I have like 50 pending friends on Switch from Splatoon and such...they're still pending. )

@ThanosReXXX The Wii U version of Sonic and All-Stars supports 5 players locally on one system rather than four. That's the main reason it's better than the 360 that I'm aware of, but only matters if you have five people who like to play (like I just happened to.)

@NEStalgia "Now you see why rjejr and I get along"

Nah, that's not it. He's just a countryside New Yorker, which basically explains everything, including the whole "now get off my lawn" thing...

And it also wouldn't explain why he and I get along, then. And I'm originally from California, so go figure.
Albeit of course, heavily flavored with all kinds of European influences over the years...

As for me not having bought as much games as you: depends on if you only mean Xbox games, or my entire collection. I usually don't really do the whole "mine's bigger than yours" contest thing, but in general, my collection is large enough to be seen as "considerably above normal".

Not counting the digital purchases, which would add hundreds more across all platforms, I've got around 144 physical Xbox 360 games, 54 OG Xbox games, 14 Wii U games, 30 (original) Wii games, 74 GameCube games, 58 N64 games, 82 Dreamcast games, and then there's also the various games for handhelds and don't even get me started on my DVD & Blu-Ray collection, so I'd definitely also be able to fill a couple of crates myself...

Oh, and that Sony thing isn't likely to fade any time soon: I've already kept it up for well over 20 years, so it's kind of cemented in my soul by now, meaning I'll easily add another 20...

By that time, I'll be almost 70, and then my gaming habits will probably be all but gone, unless they invent some kind of geriatric gamer's club. The big selling point of that club would probably be getting together with other seniors and spending the time that used to be occupied by our daytime job complaining about the lousy games on offer, so that even on a pension, we'd STILL not have enough time in the day left to be able to spend on actually playing the games...

@link3710 Yeah, that doesn't count for me, and wouldn't, even if I had 5 people over here. For me, it's about the game, and that is more or less exactly the same. I'd even argue that it runs better on the Xbox 360, because it was ported to the Wii U from there.

And on Xbox One/Xbox One X, it obviously runs (and looks) even better than that, so that then would seem to be the ultimate version of the game for me. On consoles, anyway.

Got my XBONE X last week at last! Its taken way too long. T.T

laprasking1985 if you wanna add me to your friends list.

@DarthNocturnal got mine as well. Sprung for the Digital Gold edition. Played the first for hundreds of hours and they seem to have improved in every possible way so may as well. Can't wait to try it in a few days!!

Also ready and waiting on The Crew 2 closed beta.
Be good to mess around in the world and get a good feel for how this controls.

@DarthNocturnal yeah I hear you man. HW is terrific, been playing for hours coop with my kids. Played State of decay at a friend's house over the long weekend. Has a decent gameplay loop but yeah it's buggy and janky as hell.