Topic: The everything Xbox thread

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@Dezzy It appears that Halo 5's size is due to all files, including the updates (and there were many, almost every month, ever since the original launch. The first day one patch was already 9GB), not being compressed.

If you want to know more about the how and why, then you can get some more info from the discussions on these forums:

The obvious downside is that the hard drive space with games of that size will run out pretty quickly, but the upside (yes, there is one) is that uncompressed data loads faster, so that should also be visible/obvious in the game, translating to next to no loading times, or only every now and then.

When I bought my Xbox One S, I immediately went for the 1GB version, because a friend of mine had already warned me about game download sizes. Quite a few games just install from the disc with only minor patches and/or updates, though, so Halo 5 is a bit of big hitter in that regard, along with a handful of other currently available titles. Most Xbox One games stay around 30 - 50GB max, but as mentioned, there are some exceptions, and it is to be expected that more and more upcoming games will grow in size, so better buy yourself a decently sized external HDD...

You're even kind of lucky in some regards, that you don't have the One X, or else you would also get the 4K textures on top of the already considerable downloads...

@NEStalgia No, no, no my friend. it is MY analogy, and as such only I make up the rules. And places as a metaphor for games makes zero sense to me. The only places the consoles go to, are the homes of the people buying them, and the software, because of people choosing which platform to buy based upon the exclusive content, are OPTIONS that the theoretical cars offer. The metaphor was meant to explain MY way of seeing these things, it wasn't meant to be deconstructed and then reconstructed in another way.

But like I said earlier, I already massively regret having mentioned this metaphor, so let's please REALLY leave it alone and let me have my own well-thought out metaphor, without shoe-horning it into one that makes no sense to me whatsoever...

And the QTE bashing was of course only a joke. Had to make my story good and believable, to have it lead into me appearing to be a hardcore Xbox fan...

I personally kinda agree with you to some extent as to why Microsoft got into gaming, because the OG Xbox was ALL about gaming, and was more or less the result of them already having worked with Sega on the Dreamcast, so I think that the initial motive was still pure, however short of a period that intent may have lasted. The Xbox 360 didn't really start out as a full-blown multi-media box either. The old dashboard featured mostly game-related content and only some music and clips, and only with later consecutive updates came the expanded media functionality and eventually, the whole "smells like Windows 8" thing started to happen, and from that point on, I can fully agree with you.

But we all know what Sony had actually planned with their launch, so if Microsoft hadn't screwed up their launch, then we would now have had TWO multi-media DRM boxes with motion-sensing cameras on the market. Those Asian backstabbers sure made good use of their mortal enemy's screw up...

As for me getting a Switch: don't you worry, it'll eventually find a home next to my TV, but per my "one console a year" rule, I will not buy any new devices until the end of this year. Haven't got the cash for it either, so it isn't an option even if I wanted to.

And because I just HAD to get one, I've already made the only exception to my own rule by pre-ordering the NES Mini, so that, the Wii U and the Xbox One will have to tide me over until then...

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@ThanosReXXX "You're even kind of lucky in some regards, that you don't have the One X, or else you would also get the 4K textures on top of the already considerable downloads... "

No joke, I ate over 500GB in a few days and a few games! Then bought a 2TB external SSHD. Might need more storage to keep downloads local as well, just for backup purposes (fun thing the X1 seems to let you do is install from a disc to play with a digital copy. PS does not allow that, your disc install is unrelated to the download, and you have to delete it and download a digital copy from scratch if you want digital. Nice QoL if you have internet troubles later on (though it's still the worse platform for bad internet overall.)

" And places as a metaphor for games makes zero sense to me."
And that summarizes why you aren't interested in most Sony games That's a very different mindset in gaming to me. For me, and I'd argue most of the AAA publishers, is that games are just that, places you go to. I don't "play games" as a toy, I travel and explore new places. The console takes me to these places via the game discs/downloads. Each console can go places the other can't. I fear you've developed the (non-French/Italian which is more like the US/JP in taste) European taste in video games. You should feel bad. Don't you remember the Armchair Traveler sessions in libraries in the pre-internet days? It's like that

RE the OG XBox, the intent was not pure at all. I think there were elements in the development that came from that Sega world, and had pure intent, and the great game library spoke to that. But at a functional level it was anything but pure....arguably the most impure of the bunch until the XBone launch. They actually directly said at one point that the purpose was to get Windows into the living room. But it was deeper than that. MS OWNED game development up through the late 90's....and not in a good way. While OpenGL was a superior API in all ways, plus cross-platform support, MS spent rediculous tons of money to shove DirectX down everyone's throats, successfully, so that it was the defacto game dev API industry-wide, meaning cross platform away from Windows was unlikely. It secured the WIntel monopoly in that industry, and up to that point, games drove hardware sales, which drive Windows sales. The huge success of the PS2 created a crisis for them. Developers were shifting to OpenGL in large numbers. Unwilling to let go of their development monopoly through the API their only solution was to shoehorn DirectX into the console space before they lost the position as the "standard" development API. As such they raced the production on a VERY expensive fast track cycle for a "DirectX box". It was just a working descriptive title that was not intended to be the final name. But the name stuck so well, they ended up shortening it and keeping it: X-BOX. The fast track cost them OBSCENE amounts of money. I mean obscene. On a scale they still haven't actually paid back the losses of the first console via subsequent ones. Each unit was sold at tremendous loss just to build overnight market share.

It's amazing they got it running at all. Remember when they were caught at one of the trade shows running an X-BOX that turned out to be an empty shell with wires running under the table to a dual-Xeon NT4 box?

And THEN after that they somehow lost the last bits of those who cared about games they had and it became a Windows peddling product.

NOW, that may all change now that Spencer has the division to himself and it's no longer under Windows. But it's still MS. Will they push the Cloud mantra of the company as hard as they can through XBox? Probably.

Of course XBox isn't the platform with the power of the cloud

So yeah, nothing about XBox was pure from the start.....it was created, inspired, and designed for corporate politics. Sony and MS are two sides of the same rusty coin

Haha, I missed out on all the Minis....never had them in stock when I paid attention, and then I stopped paying attention. I still have my OG NES though....so that's the better bet

@CanisWolfred Wow that list seems so....meh. Well, ok MCC and HW2 are cool (bought those already.) Though I'm waiting on that rumored summer sale to snag some of the older exclusives. People panned them, but I still want to try them: Recore, Quantum Break, Ryse.

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@NEStalgia Aw man, so many things I want to say, but I know I shouldn't, because my inner mad titan is already starting to rage and is slowly making its way to the surface. Better to keep it locked away, but it is tough to do, also to keep myself from saying all I want to say.

Still have to get at least some of it off my chest, though, so here goes. And please keep in mind: no offense meant...

So, still couldn't keep yourself from mentioning a bit of the whole metaphor conundrum that we've found ourselves to be in (and which I wanted to drop), huh?

I'm also kind of disappointed/sad that you keep misunderstanding me for some reason. That's something that hasn't happened that much before between the two of us, so I've no idea what's up with that.

And like I said before, I REALLY hate to be corrected/misinterpreted, no joke. It really frustrates me, as an honest, straight in your face kinda guy that always says EXACTLY what he means, and as such, there is NO reading between the lines with me or making up some kind of interpretation of what I'm trying to convey.

So, the whole "And that summarizes why you aren't interested in most Sony games" (if you're serious) couldn't be more wrong. I do own multiple platforms after all, and of course, games ALWAYS (well, at least: the good ones) take you to another world, but that wasn't my point at ALL. But I'll drop the rest here, because no offense, but I'm tired of trying to explain myself, and if you didn't get it the first three times, then you're never gonna get it.

Just imagine being me, for a minute: a guy who, among his colleagues and friends is pretty well-known for having the gift of gab and being able to use good and colorful metaphors to simplify almost anything so that even the least technical person on the planet can understand how certain things work or what the heck I'm talking about when it concerns certain topics.

Apparently, that gift only works in a face to face situation, because I can't for the life of me remember a situation where I had to spend SO much time and text on it, and STILL not being understood correctly. Mind blown, but not at all in a positive way...

I fear you've developed the (non-French/Italian which is more like the US/JP in taste) European taste in video games. You should feel bad. Don't you remember the Armchair Traveler sessions in libraries in the pre-internet days? It's like that

Having a European taste in games isn't bad at all, and I'm most certainly not going to feel bad about it either. I've more than likely seen and experienced a hundredfold of what the average American who didn't move to Europe has seen, and as such, my view of the world is broader, more nuanced and also more understanding towards the people of other countries.

And I've long since been cured of the default American stance of everything back home being bigger, better, faster and whatever other superlative we can come up with...

You also misunderstood my Xbox point. I meant pure in the way that to me as a gamer, it was first and foremost a gaming machine, since the dashboard in the beginning was fairly simple and mostly game-oriented with only minor multimedia influences. Only over the years and generations, it became more and more of a multimedia/Windows 8 box. I personally couldn't care less about any of Microsoft's nefarious plans in the background to push DirectX, Windows or anything like that. This has literally had no bearing on me whatsoever as a gamer. Or to be more clear: in my own, personal experience.

But in all honesty, that is also because I never really cared for the whole multimedia stuff anyways, on ANY console. All the "we need Netflix and YouTube" etc. whining has always frustrated me to no end, as if that is somehow a measure of how good a console is. And apparently, one console is TOO much of a multimedia box, and the other just can't win even if they eventually DO offer some multimedia options...

Gamers are a fickle lot, well at least: "modern" gamers. Not all of them, but most definitely a heck of a lot of them.

Phew... okay, done and dusted. We can now enter the happy happy thoughts area again. Although seeing the upcoming games lists being received with less than an enthusiastic demeanor, doesn't predict much good for what they might still reveal at the upcoming E3 event. But I do like some of the games in both my and CanisWolfred's list, so it may not be much on the exclusive content scale, but still more than enough to keep me happy, and that's really all that any individual gamer should care about.

Don't like it? Buy that other console, or a Switch...

As for the Minis: you're definitely missing out. The emulation may not be 100% perfect, but I haven't noticed much of that. Then again: as you know, I'm not such a nitpicker in that regard. I just REALLY like having a small box with almost 200 games on it that I can easily take with me, without having to carry along a big box of cartridges. Not to mention that some of these games are now only available for the most ridiculous amounts of money, and then there's also a certain number of games that simply aren't available at all anymore.

So, unless you still have the original hardware and games, like you do, it is not really an option for most people with an average income. You could of course always buy one of those Everdrive cartridges for your original console, and put all the games on there, but still, I hope you get the point...

And for me, as a "late" Nintendo adopter, having started with the N64, these Minis are a nice way to recapture these 8 and 16 bit moments, and still have a sense of playing on the "real" hardware. My cousins did have all the older consoles, and I always used to play the games at their house, so it's not like I never got in touch with Nintendo before the N64 at all, but I never did own one of the older consoles myself. So, I thought I'd better not miss out on them, this time around...

Either way, I'll be a very happy camper on June 29th, when my NES Mini arrives. And then it's only about 6 more months until I finally get my Switch...

But of course, those consoles don't belong in this thread, so back to the Xboxen...

Ryse, regardless of critical reception and/or reviews (some of which definitely do make some good points) is still a highly entertaining game in my opinion, and I've enjoyed the heck out of it. I got the Legendary Edition for only 20 euros, which has all of the DLC and some other stuff, so that was a good deal and if you can find that version, I can most definitely recommend getting it.

And I agree on also wanting to play ReCore and Quantum Break, although the latter is a bit of a questionable one, because rumors are doing the rounds that we can't wait too long because of the supposed future removal/unavailability of the interactive/video parts.

I have read that these might possibly not be accessible anymore in the not too distant future, meaning you will lose quite a bit of the additional story material of the game, which was actually meant to pad it out and make it more immersive.

So, the game itself would probably still be playable, but instead of watching bits and pieces of real time video in between, you'd probably only get a fade out to black and then back into the game again, which I think would make the experience considerably disconnected, unless they find some way to patch the videos in with another massive download such as with Halo 5, so you'd have all the videos stored on your console...

What will actually happen, only time will tell, I guess.

P.S.

I'm probably WAY too European, but I've never heard of the Armchair Traveler's Sessions, in any form. I only know armchair critics...