Topic: The everything Xbox thread

@DarthNocturnal It differs. Don't know if they changed it up in 4, but in 3, the barn find often starts an event, with which you can win the car that you have found.

And that's exactly what I said: I never meant that a car needed to be unlocked, just that finding the car starts, aka unlocks a new event.

I say unlocked, because you DO need to find the car before you can perform the stunt or whatever other event is tied to that specific barn find.

Yeah I know. I wasn’t offended. Just clarifying why I jumped in. My tone was neutral or mildly ammused. I’m not a fan of emoji. Have you seen NES when he is trying not to start an argument? His posts look like a lickatung conservatory. I’m pretty hard to offend (mainly because the anonymity that allows others to be cruel lets me lean on my apathy towards people) and I try to be positive . And if I find others annoying I just ignore them. Seeing as we all have members only jackets in the text wall club I took absolutely no umbrage to what you said.

Ok I think I ‘ve caught up notifications.

Also what NES said. Gotta stay off the e shop or I’ll add to the hoard. Also @NEStalgia I don’t have OCD (such an odd acronym). So there.

Anybody get the season pass for AC? I’m going to start on that tonight I think.

@Ryu_Niiyama you smell funny.

@Delibheel lol sorry it might be the barbecue sandwich I just had. I’ll just sit over here...zzzzzz

Did you say something?

@ThanosReXXX @NEStalgia @DarthNocturnal

Guys... what I can say more than THANK YOU ?

So, now my last question is about the games that you DL with the Xbox Game Pass !

Do I need to reconduct the game pass every month to access the DL games OR when downloaded = forever yours ?

Another thing, there are games entitled FREE, others FREE+, others INCLUDED XBOX GAME PASS or with a "+" at the end... what does that mean exactly...

PS : I'm happy with my purchase but it's the first time, since 1980, that I can't be 100% confident with the use of my new system... There are stuffs everywhere that are flashing and moving, basically it's the Vegas map that I see on my screen LOL

The Devil May Cry 5 demo is excellent. Download it if you haven't already!
My only reservations about the game is the character switching. I prefer a game sticks with just 1 character.

@Dezzy I tried it and it's really well made...
I have a problem with the handling though. Dunno if it's the game in itself or me who have to adapt better to the XBOX controller but I'm not "at ease" 100% (dunno how to explain it better...)

Otherwise, yeah it's great and I'm really happy to know that Resident Evil 2 remake is coming and then, it's the turn of DMC V ! I'm getting a kind of oldschool gaming feeling inside of me for 2019.

@DarthNocturnal ok, that's great ! Thanks for the reply !

@Cobalt Like Darth said, GamePass is kind of like a Netflix service with a more limited library. It's just a subscription unlimited rental program. It does have membership perks though. While subscribed, any X1 game in the catalogue can be purchased digitally at a discount. 10% discount for the first 90 days a game is release, then 20% discount after that. So a new release game in the catalogue like Forza Horizon 4 just launched in early Oct, so GamePass members get a 10% discount. After 90 days, so mid-January for FH4, the discount goes up and you can buy it at 20% off digitally. (Only for X1 games, not for X360/OG BC games.)

That's not of interest to physical buyers, but, there's also a fixed 10% discount on DLC/currency purchases for subscribers for any game in the catalog as well.

Other than that, yeah, it's just a Netflix for gaming subscription.

The purchase buttons get confusing. Free/Free+ could be your monthly Games with Gold games, but it can also be F2P games where Free+ is F2P with IAP/microtrans/subscriptions. Included with Game Pass just means it's a game you can download as a GP member. They should have a separate "buy to own" button (at least on the website it does.)

You know, I can't think of that many flashing lights on there. The store front page is animated....and the home screen tends to be annoying (but I almost never use it for anything.) Mostly everything is white on gray slate like Photoshop and Win10 I actually like the UI overall for staying out of your way with the popup and flat gray pages versus the splashy PS4 UI that makes me switch to a bright blue (or themed) full screen to do something as simple as check notifications/invites... And the XBox UI never starts playing music, videos, and twitter feeds randomly while browsing my library unlke PS4 (though the MS Store auto-plays video when available which is annoying.)

I thought I hated the X1 UI but it's become my favorite UI once I got used to it. PS4's UI I hated on launch day even more than PS3's XMB UI which I already hated. It hasn't become better.... I like Switch's UI and if they ever add folders/groups, it may return to being my favorite. Right now it reminds me of PS4 too much with a long row of random assortment games.

@Delibheel (Internet Hug)

@ThanosReXXX Somewhat OT (though not because it will be involved in Windows gaming and eventually XBox gaming), but this article really highlights what we were talking about in terms of how doomed civilization is:
https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidias-ai-is-generating-totally-beli...

TL;DR nVidia now has the tech to randomly generate completely believable realistic photographs of randomly generated people that don't exist. We can create photographic/video documentation of imaginary random people......and by troubling extension, photographic/video documentation of artificially generated recreations of real people. There is not one good thing that can come of this and an infinite array of bad things that can come from this.

This is an extension of the tech that can take a photo of a real location and realistically change the season to any season/weather you wish.

So as of now we live in a world, where photographic/videographic evidence of you committing a crime in a location you never were, during weather that never existed at the location is possible. Fake people can occupy imaginary landscapes and it's all "true" (imagine the propaganda value!!) Similarly criminal organizations (and governments, and corporations) can create people out of thin air, and create an entire history and paper trail for them, that can never get caught for anything. Any reality can be shaped at any time by anyone with the power/position/wealth do do so, and applied to anyone, anywhere in the world. Nothing is true and everything is true. Thus truth is defined by whoever has the power to define and administer it, and may change at any time, and anyone who dares question it is criminal, outcast, or both.

And we're supposed to praise it as amazing new technology to celebrate.

Of course there's always the possibility nVidia is lying through their teeth and using pictures of real people after all like the amazing Russian robot that was actually a guy in a costume.

@DarthNocturnal Don't know what to tell you, man. I want to stress that I didn't say ALL the barn finds start some event/race/challenge/stunt, but some definitely do. It simply goes like this: you find the car, switch to it from whatever you were driving before, and you get to do something with the car. I've had to do that several times. Jumps, speed challenges and so on.

And again: it's nothing really unlocking something, it's just something extra to do with your barn finds.
As far as Forza Horizon 4 is concerned, I'll definitely take your word for it, since I don't own that. Only played the demo for a bit.

@Ryu_Niiyama You'll have to excuse me, and help me jog my memory on what it was that you now replied to, because apparently it was your message back log, and you've replied to something that must be at least a couple of pages back. Sorry for the inconvenience.

@Cobalt To be completely clear: the GamePass subscription that came with the console bundle only lasts for a month or two months, that should be mentioned on the card, and you can also find that information in the subscription settings of the console itself.

You can buy separate GamePass subscriptions from www.cdkeys.com, that site I mentioned previously, where you can also get the cheap Xbox Live Gold subscriptions. I'd sooner buy one of these, since 12 months is now only €38, which is really cheap. With that, you can download the 4 free games every month, and GamePass is more like a library card, so you basically rent the games. Once GamePass expires, you can't access those games anymore, unless you've decided to buy them.

As for your gaming troubles: that's most likely indeed having to get used to the controller. Me already having been used to Microsoft's controller setup since the Xbox 360, makes all the difference, because the Xbox One controller is just a more refined version of the 360 controller, so I was already used to that.

But you'll get the hang of it in no time, once your play time starts to build up. And for the buttons and stick movements, that's just muscle memory, which will also come, eventually. Just keep practicing, and before you know it, you'll be able to use the controller just like you've always owned one.

And the + sign is indeed a hint that there are in-game purchases, but even though that is true for a number of free games, not all free games require in-game purchases, such as Warframe, which can be played completely without ever having to buy anything. It just takes you longer to find certain items and to level up your character, but it's still worth playing without spending money on it, so perhaps you should try that one as well.

@NEStalgia Haha, yeah, that fake robot-man in a suit reveal was hilarious. Stupid commies...
Trying to play it down as "trying to inspire the children and tech people of the future"
To do what? Lie through their teeth and fake test results and/or technical developments?

Oh, well... the wonderful modern age of the internet once again... pffffff...

I'm not even going to give that Nvidia crap a second thought, or I might get even more depressed than this current world already makes me...

On a brighter note:
Downloaded this month's free games, and I simply LOVE OG Xbox game Mercenaries. Never played any of those games (I know there was also a sequel on the Xbox 360, but I don't have that either) but I really enjoyed playing it. And a nice bonus is that even though it isn't Xbox One X-enhanced, far as I know, it does look better on the Xbox One than on the Xbox 360. I've downloaded it to both consoles and compared the two.

I suppose that's what happens with most OG Xbox/Xbox 360 games: not extensively enhanced, but some up-rezzing and cleaning up of textures, to at least surpass what was possible on the Xbox 360, and then the Xbox One X version goes to town all the way.

Whatever the case, an enjoyable game, and totally worth the download, in my opinion.

@ThanosReXXX "To do what? Lie through their teeth and fake test results and/or technical developments?"
Well, new bureaucrats need to be trained somehow....

I downloaded Mercs but haven't given it a spin yet. I did got back and try The Crew 1 again though....it looks so much better than on PS4 Pro....the visuals alone make it more appealing to play. But after FH4, dang, the cars feel like you're racing on an air hockey table. I'm getting used to it...the fun is it's raw arcade, not simcade...took a long time to figure out the way you win races IS by drifting into buildings, cars, lamp posts, pedestrians, and driving over lawns.....it doesn't really slow you down That makes it kind of fun...even if it's unintentional Way better than the very uninspired Crew 2. Crew 1 is an uneasy merger of racing and Watch_Dogs. Crew 2 is an even more uneasy merger of racing and Steep. Though for the low low price I decided to pick it up.....the airplanes are still kinda cool, and I don't have any airplane games other than complex space sims and arcade spaceplane shooters.

BTW, there was another power outage yesterday. When I got the #2 console back up, the hard drive stopped staying on 24/7.....but now it's back to turning on and off every few minutes. Not sure what to think. Both did that after the Oct patch. Then this one went back to normal and the other consistently continued the on/off to present. Now after months of working normally this one reverted to always-on after outage 1 (and unchecking the turn off box), back to turning off but throttling the drive continuously. At least both systems now display the same behavior? Horray consistency! Since your light goes on and off often I'm thinking that's the "bad" normal now.

Fortunately I only have to live with it for a few days as I'm rearranging some stuff, moving the PS4 to a normal vertical stand and ditching my large fan-stand with controller chargers, and intend to switch X1 to the OEM drive at that time....so like the main one it can throttle the drive without spinning it up.

Games with gold for January announced:

Oh wow, now I don't even need to buy Celeste! Let's see if it lives up to the hype

@ThanosReXXX its cool, when you and NES were going rounds about 2D/2.5D/3D video games. I tossed in my .02 and you responded to me again.

Ok so I started the AC:Sparta DLC... I'm officially turning my brain off now when playing this series. I have NO IDEA what Ubi is doing.

Why have I not heard of Plague Tale before now? Looks interesting.

@NEStalgia @ThanosReXXX

Oki ! Now I'm totally aware of everything related to the Xbox world !
A huge THANK YOU buddies !

Now it's time for me to sit on the couch and practice a little bit with Forza

@redd214 Glad I didn't buy Celeste for Switch! WRC should be cool. I haven't heard of the Lara Croft game before. But wait, what's this. Malaria: The Game is going to be free?! Well that's completely awesome....I didn't even think it supported back compat...must be new? Granted the game is terrible....but it's one of those odd slow motion trainwrecks in gaming history that everybody should be subjected to at least once to understand It did some things that were really cool.

@Ryu_Niiyama That's ok. Ubi doesn't know either.

@NEStalgia You and you're drive troubles... (shakes head in utter disbelief)
Completely agreed on the slippy-slidey controls in The Crew. That is also what my major turn off concerning this game was. And I wasn't really in any mood to try and improve my skills, seeing as
I already had the far superior Forza Horizon 3 to play, so I never bothered going back. Still got it installed on the drive, though, so maybe some day...

But probably not.

@Ryu_Niiyama Ah, okay. Fair enough, all is good in the world again, now.
And what's Plague Tale? Is that the name of the AC:Sparta DLC?

By the way: switching your brain off is actually what games are supposed to offer. An escape from reality, into marvelous worlds in which anything can happen, regardless of how little sense it makes in the real world. The same apparently also goes for Ubisoft's quasi-historical games...

@Cobalt You're welcome.

And don't hesitate to ask, if you have any other questions we might be able to help you with. And keep track of https://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/games-with-gold, or check out Major Nelson's Twitter or website to see which free games are coming each month. Might help you decide if you want to subscribe to Xbox Live Gold or not, but to be honest: for me, it's a no-brainer. For the price you have to pay for it, and the amount of games you get in return, you've already got your money back in 1 - 2 months.

Oh, and in case you're wondering: Major Nelson is the Xbox avatar of Larry Hryb, one of the original members of the Xbox development teams, and someone frequently presenting events on E3 and so on.

By the way, here's a pro tip for Forza:
The standard car settings aren't for everyone, so if it is taking you too long to get a good grip on the controls, try different settings, such as braking assist on or off, and traction control on or off. It can make all the difference between coming in second to last, or winning a race...

P.S.

The picture you posted, isn't showing. I don't know what site you use for it, but I always use https://postimages.org/.