Topic: The everything Xbox thread

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@NEStalgia I'm going to excuse that you just called Connor sliggy (or whomever the resident dude downer/negative nathan is). Aveline was actually an interesting protag, but she is in a sideline game with horrible controls (HD is better but still) Yet if Odyssey had done the same I would not be complaining (provided both were full games) as I would have just bought Kassandra edition and both she and Alexios would have gotten fleshed out character arcs. Please understand I personally feel that narratives that focus on a sex select protag (that interacts and is not a slate like Link or skyrim or whatever) hurt both...but they hurt the female protag more on the virtue of usually the character is written by a man and as an afterthought (that is the real face of pandering). What gets me is it isn't needed. We have games where a female protag stands on her own (TR reboot, Mirrors Edge, Remember me, even if I'm the only one that played it, Horizon, Wet (well not the best narrative but it was funny), heavenly sword etc and men don't burn down dev studios (granted they don't sale as well for the men that don't want to play as a woman, but hey I don't play god of war games Kratos embodies everything I hate about male machismo so I don't begrudge any dude that doesn't want to step into a woman's shoes. Give me more games where I can say the same about men. Not in a I hate dudes, but I've had to play male stories for the better part of 30 years... I don't want to do that unless it is a good story or I can ignore him.)

Again this is for characters that are narrative driven. Blank slates don't matter because you are playing a piece of cardboard. That's why I didn't like the character select for FO4 either. As it's lukewarm. You give a very detailed backstory (age, occupation, sexual orientation, family) to a character that is supposed to be a blank slate... it still alienates people especially since that isn't enough to make a distinct character narrative...it is just enough to make the blank narrative no longer yours to mold. TES does it better. You are a prisoner and the chosen one (since this is a video game) but that's it. Everything else is up to you. Why did your Dragonborn go to Skyrim? Well mine did because she is the granddaughter of the Heroine of Kavatch (pretty sure I spelled that wrong) and is on the run from the Thalmor that wish to use her bloodline for political gain after they killed her family. I like to be able to fill in the gaps and motivations. And if it is a narrative with a fleshed out character I like to see it tailored to the character.

Altair's brotherhood was never billed as the first. Just the jump point that Abstergo and Ezio for that matter used for more information. They always established that the templars Assassin feud was older than Altair's group. Also agreed that Altair was a redeemable arrogant jerk. Ezio never shook the self centered privileged aspect... he is bruce wayne...his pain is greater than anyone else's while he ignores that while he endured a trauma he is still wealthy and of high social status....and that means something. — #id--Altair-s-brotherhood-was-never-billed-as-the-first-Just-the-jump-point-that-Abstergo-and-Ezio-for-that-matter-used-for-more-infomation-They-always-established-that-the-templars-Assassin-feud-was-older-than-Altair-s-group-Also-agreed-that-Altair-was-a-redeemable-arrogant-jerk-Ezio-never-shook-the-self-centered-privileged-aspect-he-is-bruce-wayne-his-pain-is-greater-than-anyone-else-s-while-he-ignores-that-while-he-endured-a-trauma-he-is-still-wealthy-and-of-high-social-status-and-that-means-something

...I may get flamed for this but you find a technologically advanced precursor race (not aliens) with the ability to create mass hallucinations farfetched as opposed to an invisible unknowable creator (except maybe when you die but there is NO evidence of that at all) that doesn't interact with the world at all. HOW many religious people are there in the world because their parents raised them to think that way? ... .... ..... um. ok....

According to the ubisoft it was Kassandra that is canon and she will be in the book and then they kinda went...there is no right or wrong answer, something something corrupted dna... I'll look for some links once I'm done with work.

The issue isn't political correctness it is appropriation. That never ends well for anyone. (I'd go into detail but we have hijacked this thread enough.) The real form of PC (which is dont be a jerk) is fine. Its when you can be a jerk to this person when you cant be to this person but you can tell that person that you know more about their plight than they do. ...............
However you are correct, companies will do what they must to keep the money flowing. But it is stifling and one of the reasons I don't consider videogames to be an artform.

Not done but work is getting busy. will edit later. This is going to be stream of consciousness until i can edit. so take it as you will.

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@Ryu_Niiyama And yet Connor is exactly how I picture Sliggy.....

I don't think who writes a character matters much, they either do a good job or poor job writing the character. But I do agree a "pick your character" that's not either two distinct characters or a blank slate or semi blank slate (Destiny 2 or Saints Row that has a variety of a few selectable kinda slate characters isn't really the same) really ends up with an awkward character more than a predefined character. Though I'm not always certain it matters. In a historical game it matters as the two would have had a different experience entirely. In a modern setting game (M/F Shepard in ME) I don't think it matters much at all.....in that context there's little reason to feel the situation or interactions would have played too differently (though I can't imagine the alien races interacting with human females without some odd results....but unlike Ubisoft, I can ignore aliens ) So on the surface I don't think "no matter the character's nature: This is the story of what happened to him/her" is problematic. But if you throw them in the ancient world....yeah....no way the two stories would be similar so it tends to feel odd. But it pleases the political advocates.

You know I've still never played a GoW game other than like 20 minutes and found it boring. "Papa Kratos" seems different from old Kratos though, so who knows. I'm looking forward to it, but I never saw old Kratos as anything other than Hulk Smash comic fare.

That said it sounds like you go all in on fanfic, lore, creating a head-canon out of a story before stepping into it so that would all be more impactful. For me, I don't do that. Lore and such never really appeals to me, I don't do the background comics, I just rely on what's in the game. My high elf in Skyrim isn't the product of some intricate backstory in my head, his story begins on the prison wagon, and he is the Chosen One.....I might create some head story between in-game events but I never really go beyond that, and anything else applied to it I kind of just draw it as being "me" rather than inventing a fictional character arc. So yeah I woudn't have as much issue with the starting point in that situation. (Yeah, that's some srs. role playing you do )

Ezio as Bruce Wayne...I never thought of it but you're right! Good analogy. I like him a lot more than you, but he's also not the end-all to me. And I still think Altair is a lot more interesting. They never said Altair's was the original but....it was the Masyaf stronghold....based in the Hashashin, the origin of the very word assassin. Led by Al Mualim...one of the actual Hashashin leaders. It kind of made sense if you're going to make an assassin game, set in Masyaf led by Al Mualim that that's kind of the starting point of the future events....it's a little weird that it's not now. And it breaks the "wow we're playing history!" factor of the game.

Well the precursor aliens don't really compete with religions though as religion is an attempt to explain the origins of life, the universe and everything. The precursor aliens still needed to have been created just as humans did somehow, they're just a randomly meddlesome middleman. I.E. whether or not one believes in precursor aliens interfering as ancient dieties doesn't replace or conflict with any creation theories at all. And while some explanation of the existence of live, the universe, and everything exists somehow, so whether it's random particle collision, an all powerful diety, or a non linearity of temporal mechanics, we created ourselves in the future of the past, and I'm my own grandpa somehow the universe definitely was created. Aliens posing as gods on the other hand doesn't have to have happened (not saying it didn't, just saying I don't know that was the right thematic choice for a game about secret guilds in the 4th century and the present day continuation of the conflict..... )

Interesting if Kass is canon. I'd play as her if she's canon but I get the feeling they went back on that idea given the marketing. And the Amazon Alexios. (I'm not kidding, did you see that? I'm mortified to be both a gamer and an amazon customer now.)

Whatever "political correctness" once meant, it's no longer merely don't be a jerk so much as it is an almost centralized program of speech and thought censorship that prescribes specific lines of speech, specific grievances, accepted boiler plate ideals and values that all must pretend to adopt and enthusiastically support even if they don't, and any deviation is ostracized. Speech control for a harmonious society (by force if needed.) As with most things that rely on force or shouting down others, what started as Good Intentions(TM) to define things that bothered people became a platform for a range of enforcement of harmony through control of speech. For businesses it becomes imperative then to always stay up to date with the latest word list and acceptable terms to never offend anyone. Public discourse reads like a Corporate Trademark Usage Guidebook. And everything is "unoffensive" by being sanitized of any meaning at all. Like Kassandra and Alex here. But if anything had any actual inspiration then one group or another gets offended at it. Best to avoid inspiration. Just use the boiler plate templates that are pre-approved! It's bland but there's no backlash!

Still, is art really art either? Commercial art is still commercial and adheres to the same garbage. And "independent" art is either unheard of and remains obscure or is not different from independent games. Anyone that makes any statement by not towing the approved thoughts, is sure to be shouted down and their lives destroyed. I posted in the (horrible) violence in gaming thread that we're in the post-science world....real science isnt done anymore, just justification for predetermined results. Maybe it's also the post-art world, no free art exists without the destruction of the artists. And in a post-science, post-art world, what is it? Sounds like an authoritarian "utopia". Perhaps that's what it is. Subjugation of thought of the people, by the people, for the harmony of the people.

MM11 and Forza was yesterday. AC: Societal Analysis tonight I think! I'll probably play Alexios. I blame society.

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@NEStalgia Ah, I see you have a nice discussion going, so I'm feeling entirely within my rights, and totally not embarrassed or uncomfortable, to add a text wall of my own making to it...

"ended up re-buying Earthlock on Switch"

Aha, you did huh? Well, guess that saves me the trouble of asking if you still like it, after your initial struggles with the slowness of the beginning of the game. Seems like it has really grown on you, and even to such an extent (apparently) for you to double dip, no less...

And from here on out, it only gets better. Tinkering with the skill trees of your characters can already be a quite time-consuming activity, as is the growing and collecting of plants and herbs to make ammo and special ability weapons with, but I'll not spoil anything about the interesting plot.

Nice to see that the game has found another fan, though. I think it deserves all the support and credit that it can get, and who knows? Perhaps that will even lead to a sequel.

I see you've downloaded Split/Second too. Good man, wise decision. I'm all but sure that you're gonna love it to bits, what with it being such a marvelously over the top arcade racer. Been playing it myself again as well, since the whole mention of the game. I have the original physical version on the Xbox 360 and on PC, and thanks to Games with Gold, I also have the digital version, which I've now also installed on the Xbox One.

And it runs smooth as butter on the Xbox One S, so I suspect it will run even better on the X, although it could of course be that they only did some general improvements that work for all models, but it's still a great game regardless.

As for me, I'm semi-embarrassed to have to admit that I haven't been able to stick to my own words concerning games. Although it's slightly off-topic, it's still about games, so here goes:

One of my regular online game shops had a rather nice discount on Wii U titles, so I just couldn't help myself.
I probably should go look for a Gamers Anonymous initiative or something...

Art Academy Atelier - €5 ($5.76)
Devil's Third - €12 ($13.82)
FAST Racing Neo (Nintendo eShop Selects) - €18 ($20.73)
LEGO City Undercover (Nintendo Selects) - €18 ($20.73)
Mario Tennis Ultra Smash - €12 ($13.82)
Star Fox Zero - €8 ($9.21)

Luckily, the funds reserved for things like these are now well and truly exhausted, so that will at least keep me from buying any other stuff for at least a month or two...

@NEStalgia and @Ryu_Niiyama Aw, you people...
On the one hand, a bit of a logical discussion, on the other hand, sorry miss Niiyama, it's games, not REAL history. I can completely understand some of your more elaborate gripes, except for me, and probably for most people, games are meant as an escape from reality, NOT a reflection of it.

As such, political correctness and gender equality should not even be a topic in that respect, no offense.
And I truly HATE political correctness in general. I think we should relabel the positive form of it, because the only version I've ever encountered, is the negative one, so even the mention of the term already makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in absolute horror, so that's the most predominant emotion that I feel when somebody mentions anything to do with political correctness. In real life especially, I feel it's almost always ambiguous, or quite appropriately so, politically motivated.

These kinds of practices in games, and in other aspects of life, can be truly disruptive and even destructive. Sticking to games, I can still vividly remember the whole Resident Evil 5 discussion, and it annoys, no DISGUSTS me to this day, because entire tribes of SJW's decided that the game was racist, because you were shooting African zombies, so apparently, it was white against black violence in their eyes.

First off, the entire origins of zombies IS African, and second, and of course most obvious: it's a damn game, not a documentary or real life soap. And what disgusts me most about it, is that in all likelihood, it actually managed to scare away people from playing the game, or at the very least made them feel WAY too conscious about the fact that they were "shooting black people", possibly making for quite the disconnected experience, completely taking away from the ACTUAL premise of the game, which couldn't be further removed from racial violence, even if it tried...

But if we're going to look at the positive side of it, and the possibilities instead of the obstructions, then where AC is concerned, in regards to sociopolitical themes, such as same gender relations and female rights and/or strength, then we have to look no further than keeping the series in the era that it is now, because Greeks were most certainly not against those things, so it offers options that they can build upon, even if they haven't done so yet. And of course, Greek lore and legends talk about many strong women, the Amazons probably being the most famous example... Just imagine a female assassin living (and loving) amongst a tribe like that. Might even come close to what you seem to be looking for.

And then there's the Romans: for them, it was more like everything goes, so that would offer even more options...

But all kidding aside, they too had many strong women, and the same could actually also be said for the Egyptians, so with these three eras/realms, they should have more than enough source material to take/make stories from, for many more games to come. But of course, there's also a reason for moving into other areas and eras, because you wouldn't want to allow the series to become stale. (although it arguably already is for some people) Otherwise, they could just have kept to Jerusalem, and just let the series jump through time.

And besides, they could also have an Assassin in modern times as well, so there's actually quite a lot of space in between the first game and the current age we live in, to make stories from, even if they WOULD have stuck to Jerusalem.

Anyway, hope you didn't mind me butting in, and I hope I didn't ruffle your feathers to much. Just my two cents, basically...

@DarthNocturnal Expert tip from your resident Mad Titan: if you don't want to have a mountain dropped on you in a conversation, don't have a discussion with the Hulk...

@DarkRula No external drive yet? Or were you talking past tense? On the X, you're definitely going to need one, since with the 4K textures and game sizes, the internal hard drive is going to be full in next to no time at all...

And on the regular or S model, hard drives can be filled pretty easily as well, once you start to download all the free stuff that comes with an Xbox Live subscription, and the dozens of free to play/free to start games that you can get from the marketplace.

I got this one last week for my Xbox One S:
https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Game-Drive-Xbox-Special/dp/B07...
There's also a green version:
https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Game-Drive-Green-STEA4000402/d...
And if you just HAVE to have it in black, because it just matches better with the X, then there's this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Portable-External-Drive-WDBCR...

Gonna bookcase this text wall, with you, @NEStalgia...

Oh, the troubles of the first world people: how to play their games while pondering the age-old (well, in this modern century anyways) discussion about beautiful looks over frame rate...

From what you've described, Horizon 4 still looks beautiful either way, except less so in 60fps mode. But how much less? Equal to 3, or more like 2? Or more like the Xbox 360 version of 2? All of those are still beautiful to me, so that might persuade me personally to go for 60fps, even though I'm not even one of those "60fps or unplayable" types, as you know...

But then again: I don't even notice the frame rate, most of the time, unless the dips are real easy to discern for the average Joe, and not just for the frame rate aficionados. I'm no average Joe by any means, but in regards to not being able to see single frame drops (or even if I do, and then not being bothered by them at ALL), I actually am.

And a game is supposed to look like a game, so if it is noticeably "less purdy", then that still wouldn't bother me,
if the smoother gameplay more than makes up for it. Sure, a sim should be realistic, but as we all know, that realism is more reserved for Forza Motorsport, whereas Horizon is its more arcadey little brother, so ultimate realism isn't really a prerequisite there, regardless of whether it makes the game look prettier or not.

And besides, once you're racing along at breakneck speeds, you shouldn't even have time to take notice of all the pretty environments anyways, much less if the falling leaves on the ground look less defined or not...

Phew! Okay, I'm done for the day. Time to watch some late night TV before getting some shut eye and move on to the next day...

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@Ryu_Niiyama So the larger follow-up is, I really like Ryse Creed: Breath of the Odyssey. Its weird to me....it's interesting....it's different but familiar. The core game is a sequel of Origins so if you like origins you like it more or less. The game is beautiful. I mentioned me gripe about the frame rate....it's really not "bad" many wouldn't even notice....it just bugs me when I see those 20-25 dips because I'm not used to them anymore. But they're mostly in cutscenes/dialog-scenes, not in actual free-roam/combat. I like what they did with the world. It presented me 5 difficulty settings, all referencing RPGs and understanding equips and skill trees: Awesome. Then it gave me a second option I didn't expect: "Traditional navigation" which puts markers on the map and updated objectives etc like a typical Ubi game, or "exploration mode" which does not and you understand the world through exploration and it notes this is the way the game is meant to be played. I didn't quite understand what they meant at first until I started walking around. You get to choose to play it in UbiSandbox mode or in Breath of the Assassin mode. It's an all out clone of BoTW more or less, and that's not a bad thing at all. Minimal interface and hand holding and you just explore (it does still have markers on the radar for nearby objectives/quest givers etc, but nothing on the main map other than viewpoints. ) You can finally mine ore in caves and not have to repeatedly raid carts over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Finally. Ok, the first Achievement is "This is Sparta!" and that aptly describes the Leonidas intro battle. It ends fast and you can move on with fun things from there But the BotW ish ness is cool. There's a sunken cave near the start to show you the idea that caves are indeed a thing you will stumble into with treasures inside. There's quest givers scattered along the path. Dialog is stilted and one dimensional, no gender choice can save that....don't expect Cdr. Sheppard's poetic soliloquies....these dialog trees don't quite reach those lofty heights ( /sarc ). Also, it turns out the gender choice won't be a problem. I played Alexios. I like Alexios. Men will want to spend 100 hours wanting to be Alexios. Women will want to spend 100 hours wanting Alexios. No straight woman will ever not choose Alexios, guaranteed. I'm straight and I can admit the guy's hot. This game is Senran Kagura for straight gals. Remember the Treehouse ladies' reaction to Shirtless Link? I bet I know what is being Switch streamed in the Treehouse this week..... And for you there's Kass and endless hours of backstory you can make of head-canon. One in which she was abandoned as Alexios was fawned over by nearly everyone and seeks revenge on society one hidden blade strike at a time. Problem solved. (Not trying to make light of your viewpoints, but I played it and that popped into my head so I'm running with it

@ThanosRexx ahh, I was wondering where the mad titan had got to yesterday!
EarthLock: Not so much that it grew on me so much as I now have a hope of actually playing it on Switch.... I bought it on impulse when I saw it on X1 sale after you recommended it and then like 5 hours later discovered it was on Switch which is where any long RPG is ideal for me. I wasn't going to double dip full price but since it ended up on sale on Switch too, that was as good a chance as any! It'll fill my Xenoblade void when I beat the Torna DLC probably this week. (Though I do want to play Undertale as well having heard so much about it.) Forza and (maybe? )Destiny ill dominate my X1 time until I get back to AC: Origins.

Nice game list! Well Art Academy looked cool but I'm not artistic (at all) so I never bothered. I love Lego City. Played it on WiiU, re-bought it on Switch, and just last week re-bought it on an X1 sale digitally. It's a love letter to every 70's and 80's cop show/movie ever. I want to play that game at least every other year forever It's timeless, and a stroll down memory lane. You wouldn't think Legos would do that, but it does.

FAST is awesome, and I liked SF0, critics be darned. Think of it as a sit-down arcade cabinet and you're golden.

FH4: It's such a hard call, it really is. The visuals take a much bigger hit than I like to pretend to think in performance mode, even on a 1080 screen. Particularly the foliage. And there's a lot of beautiful foliage. And bad foliage is a pet peeve of mine. I bought AC: Origins on X1X after already owning it on PS4Pro specifically because the shrubs.... Bad looking foliage just bothers me, maybe because I like looking at real foliage in detail (and used to do a lot of landscape photography where CA and blown highlights on foliage are things you examine with microscopes ) It's not just foliage, but that bugs me most. Draw distance is reduced, and some pretty low rez textures are used in places. That's not to say it looks bad specifically but it's a more than subtle dip. I'd say it looks maybe like FH2 on X1(OG) but at 60FPS. Which isn't to say it looks bad, but it also doesn't compare to the feast for the eyes that is full quality. I wish I could toggle on the fly without restarting like you can switch to OG or remastered Halo in MCC with the View button.

You're 100% right that in races you do not notice at all. If I were just racing I'd be 60fps-only. I'm looking mostly at the blue line anyway and don't see the visuals. But this is Horizon.....just bombing around looking at the vistas is half the game.....and 30fps with full quality makes that so much more rewarding, and you don't really notice the framerate at all while taking in the landscapes.

The catch of course is the series has always been 30fps so you're not losing anything and only gaining in quality mode compared to previous games in the series. So it almost makes 30fps mode a no brainer: Same great gameplay, better physics even more picturesque locale. What's to lose?

But dang those races are so fast and smooth at 60fps.....