Topic: The everything Xbox thread

@gcunit @ThanosReXXX Capcom 1080p stream FTW! For games it's best to let the console do the supersampling. Odds are it's better at scaling than the display. But yeah, 4k rendering sampled down to 1080 is better than native 1080 there's a lot of detail rendered between the 1080 pixels that can be interpolated into the image, plus it's inherently antialiasing. Though on the new consoles with new upscaling methods there's a lot of debate about if native 4k has any value anymore, because they can render a lot more in a scene at low res and the upscaling is looking so close to 4k it doesn't matter if it way native. So 1080 is the new 4k for rendering (not for display)

@jump They didn't actually know what the game was when they last showed it, either (they actually said so I'm the interviews.) Then the director left. . Classic case of building a cool world and then trying to think of a game for it. Hopefully whatever it reboots into will be much more focused.

@Slowdive I would pay freaking Sony preorder digital deluxe prices for that Garfield game!

@JoyBoy Forza Horizon 7: Rhode Island. The entire game is about fitting a Prius within the state borders. On "simulation" difficulty you do it in a nor'easter. In January.

@Eel I'm looking forward to the shootout escapes in the Juarez area. It's a good choice. They can finally include assault weapons in a Forza game and call it authenticity. They were going to choose Rio, but all the geography capture teams they sent never came back.

@NEStalgia Thanks for the input.

As for the next Forza: I'm going with Forza Horizon 6 being all about extremes. Perhaps Russia or any other country in that area, with a lot of mountains, snow and wide open areas as well.

@gcunit Well, there you go. I'd say it's definitely worth it to re-watch some stuff on your TV, then.

Forza Horizon 6: Afghanistan.

Ok something odd happened with my series s.

It would not let me play any games, constantly saying some sort of update was required but unable to download.

I freed up space, checked the system update status (which said everything was ok), tried to check the game updates, which said the same message, restart the console, and then went offline to see if that did anything… And everything worked!

Until I turned the wifi back on. Then it booted me out of the game I was testing with and went back to being weird.

Now, after leaving it alone for several minutes, it started downloading an update for Stardew Valley, it finished, got installed…

And now all the games work fine? What.

I managed to download Game Pass onto my Fire tablet (after going through the hassle of side loading Google Play, since GP isn't on Amazon's app store), and and have to say I came away impressed with the streaming quality.

I played some Forza Horizon 4 (with my DS4, lol) for a little over half an hour and the controls felt responsive & I only experienced one split second instance of lag (where the image skipped). I'll still be gaming mostly on my PS4 & Switch, but I'll squeeze in some Game Pass from time to time & am looking forward to Flight Simulator & FH5 later in the year!

@Eel Sounds like a little gremlin in your router.

@gcunit the weirdest part about it being related to wifi, is that other online functions worked perfectly.

I guess the system was a bit constipated.

The Xbox random Online requirements are nice, aren't they?

@Zuljaras it worked perfectly when I went offline 🤷🏻‍♂️

Being online somehow made it decide nobody could have fun until Stardew Valley was updated.

@RR529 Been using Game Pass and XBox Remote Play for a while now on my Fire Tablet - very handy for when there's no access to the TV. I sideloaded Google Play onto my and my kids Fire tablets a while back and found it a little buggy - nothing too severe, but occasionally randomly kicking you out of apps etc. There's a program called Fire Toolbox which I've used on my latest Fire that (so far) has been rock solid. It allows you more customisation than simply sideloading Play, eg you can remove all (or as much as you want) of the Amazon Apps and the launcher so that it behaves like a regular Android tablet.

What? That is weird having to go offline on the digital console

Soon there will be Series X exclusive games and I hope someone here buy them physically and tries to install it offline and then play it. For now I only see Battlefield 2042 being labeled as Xbox SX (the One physical version is separate).

I wonder if they would require the download.

@Eel

I've had very similar stuff happening.

The console occasionally acts like it has an "always online" requirement, and boots you out of a game. I assume it must be a bug in the OS software where it triggers an alert that was meant for online games?

It's usually fixed whenever I reset the console.

@dmcc0, I don't even have a newer Xbox (just an old 360), so I signed up to GPU just to try out their exclusives via streaming.

Tried playing a bit of The Tourist on my phone this morning (I already have it on Switch, but wanted to try out touch controls), and it looked & ran great, but I don't think I'll be able to get on with touch controls. Luckily my DS4 seems to work fine.

@RR529 I actually signed up for Gamepass a couple of months before I got my Series S at Christmas for the same reason. Unfortunately is didn't really work with my phone - apparently there was a known issue with some Huawei phones at the time and the ancient tablet I'd inherited from my daughter was no use either so ended up getting a Fire during Black Friday sales. I've only used touch controls a couple of times though, prefer to use a controller, and while I could use the Series S controller, I've got an 8bitdo that I use with the fire - also works on Switch which is handy when you need an extra controller or want to use something with an actual D-Pad.

The extended showcase is great.... Seen more on Hellbade 2 & plenty of the other games

@Zuljaras Microsoft Flight Simulator and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 are also X|S exclusive, console-wise. I'm not counting cloud-based options on Xbox One, because that's running remotely, so obviously not actually on the console itself.

When do you first gain the ability to obtain new cars in Forza Horizon 4? I found a Mini Cooper sitting next to a house, but there was no way to interact with it.

To be fair I'm just starting out, and have just completed my first stunt event where I had to make that big jump (I ran into the Mini Cooper even before completing that).

Hm, so is there like a free play mode in forza horizon games? I kinda want to buy the next one (or renew Game Pass) to explore their recreation of Mexico, and most importantly, Baja California. But the reveal kinda makes it seem like the game begins on the other peninsula.

So I was wondering if it would be one of these cases where the game will want to make me play through some sort of story mode first, or if I'll be able to just indulge and ignore that (until I get bored and decide to actually play the game)?

@Eel Yeah, you can easily free play. Drive all over. Run over fences, bushes, hills, yards, farms, crops, rivers, beaches, or drive recklessly through the city/town. It's quite fun to cruise around fast on the roads avoiding other cars. I imagine you'll be smacking plenty of saguaro cacti over with an all wheel drive lambo/porsche or dune buggy.

The game does start with opening, cinematic sequence, where they drop you into a crazy race, which is usually VERY impressive, fun, but easy. After that, you can free play all you want. The whole map is open. Your home base is a Festival, where your garage is. You either drive to the marked spots on the map where the races are, or just do whatever you want.

edit: There's a good amount of stuff to do that's not racing, like finding billboards and smashing through them, finding "barn finds" = barns hidden in world where a new mystery car is. Find the barn, get a car. There are stunt challenges marked on the map, often big jumps that are amusing to hit, or they want you to hit a top speed in a tricky spot. Its a good time

Ah that’s good to know then, thanks!