Topic: The everything Xbox thread

@ThanosReXXX the new GOW is definitely a departure from the rest of the series, in the best ways possible. I played the 1st 2 games in the series and enjoyed them but then everything just went over the top and passed on the rest. Honestly they could call it something else entirely and no one would notice, that's how dissimilar it is imo. Not sure if your a dad or not, but the story was amazingly impactful for me being a father of boys. I know you hate sony but hopefully you can experience it one day

@NEStalgia I don't agree on Destiny = Sony's Halo, and that statement also makes zero sense, seeing as it's on Xbox and PC as well, so there goes that theory. And even though it IS an MMO, you don't HAVE to play it as such, strange as that may sound. I only ever played with those two friends I mentioned earlier, which hardly constitutes "Massive Multiplayer Online". More like "just" normal online play with friends.
We simply ignored all the online idiots and strangers, and just did our campaigns and battles, and that plays and feels just like any other game that you'd play with friends or family, so that should not be anything to deter someone from trying it.

Also don't agree on the thrill of free games being free retail games: I had my Xbox 360 long before there ever was any mention of Games with Gold, and when that service became a thing, I've only ever seen it as a nice bonus that I got as an Xbox Live Gold customer, and that is also exactly what it is. And it is indeed free, since I already paid for that subscription before the service was there, so either I paid too much for Live back then, or we now have a nice bonus on top of Xbox Live. I'd say it's the latter...

Call it consumer rewards, consumer retention, whatever. Either way, to me it's only a positive thing, and as previously mentioned, I value the monthly offerings on their own merits, instead of looking to other platforms, so I can nag about how bad the selection is, compared to what I'd get on that other console.

I wouldn't even do that if I actually would have owned a PlayStation. I'd just see both offerings as supplemental to each other, instead of wanting either of them to be better or worse than the other.

And those Sega games are nothing to scoff at, especially as the last in the series was never released in Western regions, so I'd dare to wager a bet that classic RPG fans will love to get their hands on that one.

And let's not bring Nintendo in the mix here. Their offerings, far as we know now, will be considerably worse/more simplistic, because for the umpteenth time, they're once again going to pander their NES titles again, and maybe some SNES games and other 8 and 16 bit offerings, but no mention yet of them finally getting with the times and releasing some GameCube, Wii and Wii U titles for free, let alone current gen titles, much like the other two are doing with their free game offerings.

That gold box at the end with the question mark is simply a placeholder for the first game of October, but I'll assume you already know that. And what it's going to be, will be known within the space of a couple of weeks, so here's to hoping that people will let the comparison thing go, and will just enjoy what's on offer and/or simply ignore what doesn't interest them, instead of paying more attention to it than necessary.

Probably an idle hope on my part, but I like to have something positive to look forward to, and retain some hope for the betterment of humanity, otherwise, I might just as well step off a cliff right now. Would have to replace that with a skyscraper over here, though, seeing as we don't have cliffs in the Netherlands...

@redd214 No, not a dad, unfortunately. Life apparently had/has other plans for me. But I can imagine what you're describing. And in all honesty, the whole I hate Sony thing is something I over-exaggerate sometimes, either to annoy Sony fanboys, or just to be able to kick at something, when I feel the need to, but the simple truth is that there's little to no emotion tied to it.

It's just that I firmly believe in and adhere to the three strike rule, and Sony did me wrong three times, and as such, they're out forever. They already had their second chance, AND a third, so that's that, far as I'm concerned...

I might play the game through an emulator, somewhere down the line, though. Much like I did with certain PS1 and PS2 titles, but I'll literally never buy Sony hardware ever again, and not just console hardware.

I agree with your assessment on the series, though. That was just it. To me, it was just a WAY to Americanized, over the top, angry man game, that has little to no respect for Greek history and mythology, something which happens to be one of the most interesting topics to me personally, for several reasons.

Not owning a PlayStation obviously made it pretty easy to ignore the series, but even if I would have owned one, or if the series would have been released on the Xbox, then I more than likely STILL wouldn't have played it. I always found the main character far too abrasive and the story far too unlikely to be able to get into it, if you know what I'm trying to say.

And even as an American, I still don't necessarily like the (over-)Americanization of myths and legends of other regions. In comics, it works for certain characters, but in games like these, when it's blown up to ridiculous proportions, I just can't get myself to like it. (the Percy Jackson movies also come to mind as examples of such atrocities)

The only Greek mythology-themed game I ever really liked, was Rise of the Argonauts, which was released on both last gen consoles and PC, and is a game that I'd still very easily recommend to anyone that's into Greek mythology or into action RPG's, so if that's you, I'd say give it a go.

@ThanosReXXX That was a really good comment, Thanos, well written and sensible. I totally agree with you 100%. I started subscribing to Gold casually to get Games with Gold and I consider I got them for free because I paid little money when I was interested in them and I got them for almost nothing, the 360 games for me to keep forever and the Xbox One whenever I am subscribed.

Later, I realised that it was totally worth being subscribed all the time because I found more online games that appealed to me like Sea of Thieves, Fortnite, Rocket League... and also because of the free games, some of them I wanted to buy anyway, so I still consider those as a bonus that save me money.

Game Pass is even more optional but its value is really awesome since it includes first-party games and many third-party games. On top of that, you get backwards and forwards compatibility with Xbox, something that both Nintendo and Sony ditched. Now that Xbox One is getting more releases, including games that we thought we'll never see on Xbox One, I found that the Xbox is a much more compelling platform than PS. Yes, PS4 has some exclusives but so do Xbox and Nintendo and I think that Xbox and Nintendo's are better and I can live without Sony's Uncharted, The Last of Us, etc.

@BlueOcean Thanks, much appreciated.
And yes, that backward compatibility is king on Xbox, no other platform comes close, and it is such an added value, especially as it's not just bare emulation, but also improved visuals and improved frame rate for many of these games.

@ThanosReXXX Yes, I have a lot of X-enhanced games, but even not enhanced 360 and Xbox One games perform much better and original Xbox games render at 4K! That's definitely more than simple backwards compatibility at no extra cost.

@ThanosReXXX all good man I understand. Gow 2018 was one of the few games where after beating it I just sat there for about 20 minutes in silence and just reflected on the whole thing. Really a great experience so I hope you can play it one day!

Given the timing of Games With Gold's launch, it almost seemed like an apology to Xbox fans for how much Don Mattrick messed up the XB1 reveal and E3. Meanwhile PS+ started as a games subscription and later included paid online (which people ate up because of how much Microsoft messed up).

With Nintendo Switch Online, the timing and promotion seems all wrong. This is why I don't think it's going to work well, tomorrow is September and Nintendo's still very quiet.

@Grumblevolcano Interesting idea. You might even be on to something there. Mattrick sure was a jerk, so I was very glad to see him go, and they might very well have felt that they needed to do something positive to get audiences back, or at least make them sit up and take notice.

I'm also quite apprehensive about what Nintendo's going to do. Normally, I'd be inclined to stay cautiously optimistic, but so far, they have given me little reason to do so, unfortunately...

My One is pretty much finished, but the One X with both Horizon 4 and Motorsport 7 for the same price as the One X alone is a good enough deal for me. I might be skipping out on the early access through the Ultimate edition, but that doesn't matter much when I get an extra game thrown in with both coming at no extra cost.

@DarkRula Ah, man. That's a real downer. Did you ever find out what exactly was wrong with it? I've never experienced any overheating so far, nor have I heard about that from friends who own an Xbox One, so I was wondering what it could have been ever since you mentioned it.

@ThanosReXXX I gave it a good clean, and the problem still persisted. I have no idea what condition the insides are like as I didn't want to take it apart. Technology can be damaged under extreme heat, and as I've always been saying - five hour sessions or more nearly every day of the week during temperatures above thirty celcius probably wasn't the best idea.
Once the X is here and set-up, I'll probably take a look inside. It could be possible that there's damage to the fans.

@DarkRula At least it was a XB1 that broke and not something like Switch. All your save data and game purchases will be intact when you setup your XB1X.

@Grumblevolcano I'm thankful that is the case. Cloud saves and a true account system are necessary in this day and age. I'm just dreading the amount of time I'll be waiting for downloads.

@DarkRula Well, there must be something wrong. When I first had my Xbox One (S model, by the way), I've played on it for well over six hours a day, and it never got hotter than it should, and I never experienced any problems, or at least nothing noticeable.

So, that would ultimately lead me to the conclusion, that something out of the ordinary happened to your Xbox. And outside temperatures also shouldn't have any significant effect on a console in perfect working order: it would normally just mean that the fans would spin a bit faster to compensate for it, but other than that, I've never heard of a console overheating due to excessive temperatures outside of it's own casing. And 30+ degrees is reasonably hot, but in the end, it's not too excessive.

If it really would be, then your PC, TV and any other heat generating appliance would also burn out under those same conditions...

LOL so all those rumors of prototype Elite 2.0.....and they announced a new Elite.....the old one...in white.... Glad I got mine when I got it rather than waiting for the supposed replacements that will never come!

@Grumblevolcano That's a pretty fair timeline. It also explains why PS+ is often better than GwG...it was designed from the start to be for the games. Switch Online....defenders say that they've been saying it since day one and games and hardware say "may require additional fee" but I still say that after 1.5 years of it being free, just suddenly dropping a fee to keep doing what you were already doing is not good. If it only applied to new games after Smash or something, maybe....but....not games people already play daily for free. Imagine if Fortnite just suddenly locked out accounts and said "oh, yeah, $1.60/mo please, Visa, Mastercard, or Paypal [here]!" It's not much money, it's not consequential, but the backlash of the sudden introduction would make it seem far worse than it is.

The fact that 3 weeks out they still "will provide details later"....I can't imagine what details there are to tell, let alone why they feel the need to wait until release day to tell people how a subscription they've been telling them about for a year and a half to give the details. For a product some people have already paid for via retail purchases.

@DarkRula Any reason to believe it's not just a hard drive, and it's really a full failure?

@ThanosReXXX Oh, running hardware in hot environments certainly makes a difference. I've fried plenty of (PC) hardware that way, I'm sure 86F is plenty hot to put some extra strain on hardware, especially GPUs and HDDs. It may not cause sudden death but it shears life off the components pretty well. Granted i've been using mine but usually 1-2 hours, and I watch the tmps on the external HDDs.)

@NEStalgia Well, I didn't exactly say that it won't have ANY effect, I just said that I can't believe that it was the reason behind the early demise of his Xbox One. And as for my PC: that's running 24-7 all year round, with two internal hard drives, three external, and during two consecutive heat waves these past two months, so there goes that theory...

@ThanosReXXX You'll have to ask Plywood and Ryu about my endless PC hardware nightmares that brought me to the XBox to begin with I do suspect heat played a major role over time....I mean I've burned THOUSANDS of dollars of hardware over the decades. Hard drives, motherboards, GPU (after GPU (after GPU)), power supplies, you name it! I've started buying all laptops

For HDDs there are a few studies showing the effects of temperatures either too hot or too cool (which shocked me!) on either side of 102F or so (internal temp, not air temp) and the average life span started dropping slightly within 8 or so degrees of that, and sharply after 10 or so degrees (as a function of operating hours.) I think WD did the one study.

@NEStalgia Boy, you must be starting to deteriorate. How can you forget that I was one of the people that kept hammering the advantages of the Xbox One X over PC into your brain?
And I was obviously motivated to do that, by you continuously mentioning your PC problems.

Studies are fine, but they're not always applicable. How else would you explain me never switching off my PC, and not a single disc being faulty? And I've done this for many years in a row. Ever since I started to download and upload stuff.

I absolutely believe temperature has some effect, so that's not the issue, but I don't believe it can cause such a relatively short term effect that a console is destroyed in next to no time flat, without there being any other causes, which is also what I mentioned to him. This was not a normal occurrence, regardless of any temperature. Something was wrong with the console, for it to fail so rather abruptly.

Or maybe, juuuussstt maybe, we simply have to conclude that I am a far better PC builder than the average Joe, and you...

Oh, and all of my discs actually ARE Western Digital. Western Digital Blue, to be exact, and one of my external drives is one of these small Western Digital Elements portable USB3.0 drives. I don't have a single issue with any of them.

@ThanosReXXX LOL yep, takes talent to build them thar pee sees.

I've lost Seagates and DeathStars, Maxtors (remember them?), WD Blacks, WD Raptors......you name it I've failed them out! But HDDs I expect it. What really got me was the 4-5 GPUS that failed, 1-2 mobos, 2 PSUs and a stick of ram.

@NEStalgia Yeah, I remember Maxtors. Had a couple of those in my first PC, Windows 98. Didn't last all that long, especially considering as that was before I had any decent internet to speak off, so I didn't have my PC switched on at all times, so my current discs last me a lot longer, not just relatively, but also factually, if you account for that difference in operational hours.

Throughout my whole PC journey, I only ever lost one gfx card, 1 PSU, and one processor. And one failed hard drive. The others I exchanged before they gave up themselves. I just monitor performance nowadays, and once that starts to drastically go down, I simply buy new ones and swap them out.