Topic: The everything Xbox thread

@JaxonH yea its on GP. And I get the whole TV tether thing. Thats usually why I play games at or around 10hrs in length on xbox since it's hard to sit in front a TV playing a game that long. Having said that, I'm telling you you're brother 100% correct. It's my 2nd favorite game this year. Well worth it since it's on GP anyway.

@NintendoByNature
I wanna play on Steamdeck, so as soon as it's 50% off I'll grab it. May check it out via Xbox Game Pass cloud in the meantime. We'll see.

I was recently debating selling my PS5/XSX since I never use them, but I realize I need at least one of them as a 4k blu ray player. Only issue is, neither support Dolby Vision for blu rays. And I'm not sure I wanna spend $422 for the Panasonic DP-UB-800 along with $65 for an HDMI 2.1 auto switcher and cable (I'm out of HDMI 2.1 ports). Plus, after the good cloud experience yesterday, I'm inclined to keep the Xbox for that alone. And the fact XIM Nexus works with all Xbox games for gyro.

@JaxonH I might grab a steam deck. Got a decent enough tax return that both me and my wife decided we can spend 500 how we want. I can't decide what I want in the gaming sphere, but a deck is up there. My other option is an Ooni Pizza Grill 🤣. Aside from being handheld, what does a deck do that a series doesn't?

@NintendoByNature I was thinking of getting a Steam Deck as well, so that's a good question. Any insight @JaxonH?

@NintendoByNature @Tasuki
Here's my thoughts.

While this will vary from person to person, preference to preference, I can only share my perspective. And my perspective is this- SteamDeck doesn't come close to replacing my Switch OLED for multiple reasons- notably the fact Switch OLED has a better screen, is lighter, gets twice the battery life on average, easily plays on the TV, handheld or tabletop with removable controllers, and at least for the 1.5 TB of curated games I have downloaded, they look and run just as good as they would on Deck, since I cap literally EVERYTHING to 30fps on Deck for battery life.

However.

For games not on Switch, or the select games that are noticably downgraded on Switch (Witcher 3, DOOM Eternal, Alan Wake, etc), Deck is the perfect companion piece, and has, if anything, replaced my PS5, XSX and gaming PC.

Aside from the advantage of being handheld, the Deck offers a number of advantages over Xbox and PS consoles, which I will list below:

• Ability to utilize gyro aiming for any game you want. This in and of itself is a dealbreaker for me on other consoles, and resulted in me only playing RPGs without aiming. But with Deck, I don't have to worry about it. Every game that needs gyro aiming, you can toggle mouse gyro aiming within seconds.
• Rear buttons make using the controller much more comfortable. Because all controllers except Switch Pro have shoulder bumpers that are ergonomically hard to reach (especially Xbox and yes, even the SteamDeck), mapping LB/RB to the L4/R4 rear buttons is an amazing solution that solves the issue entirely. Furthermore, you can also map another 2 buttons (I usually go with A/B) to the bottom rear buttons, L5/R5
• You can run emulators such as PrimeHack (A fork of Dolphin Emulator designed specifically to play Metroid Prime Trilogy with "dual analog" mouse and keyboard controls, which, since you're playing on Deck, can easily be mapped to controller with mouse mapped to gyro aiming, so you can play Metroid Prime 2 Echoes and Metroid Prime 3 Corruption with the same modern control scheme seen in the Switch remaster of Prime
• Steam Input is the best controller config in the history of video games, and goes way beyond simple remapping or assigning mouse to gyro aim- you can create extra commands, action layers, on screen radial menus... the sky is the limit. And since Steam Input has a community tab you can access from simply pausing the game with the Steam button, you can instantly assign configs uploaded by other users.
• Your games are purchased on Steam, which means you can play said games on a separate gaming PC if you so desire, or even dock the Deck to your TV.
• Because SteamDeck is a PC, you can install all kinds of plug-ins to adjust color saturation to look more like an OLED, have ProtonDB icons on each game in your library that provides the playability rating as platinum, gold, silver, bronze or borked (separate from Valve's internal rating system of playable, untested or unsupported) which hyperlinks to the game's ProtonDB page with user comments on how they got it running best, you can use plugins to change music, themes and sound effects (kind of like homebrewing a console would offer) undervolt for better battery life, upgrade SSD, etc.

Aside from that, there are some negatives to be aware of. The system is 680 grams, so it's heavier than Switch OLED which is 422 grams. But imo it's not so heavy its uncomfortable. Other PC handhelds like OneXplayer2 that clock in at 820 grams... that's too heavy imo. The battery life is also short for AAA games, though if you install CryoTools and if you undervolt, you can stretch 2.5 - 3 hrs on many AAA games, such as RE4 Remake. Less demanding games like Alan Wake (original 360 version port) can hit 5 hrs. You'll pretty much always want to run at 30fps for battery life, though less demanding games can do 40 fps (since it allows you to change screen refresh rate to 40 Hz to match). Pushing 60 though... even the games that can handle it, I wouldn't recommend it.

You can buy the $399 64GB model, then order a 2TB m.2 NVMe 2230 SSD for $157 from AliExpress and swap it out yourself. That's what I'm doing (though I originally bought the 512GB model). That's $557 for 2TB vs $650 for 512GB. It's a no brainer to just do that. Slap a 1TB microSD in on top and you're all set with 3TB, which should last a full generation for Steam games downloaded.

HOWEVER. It does support hot-swapping microSD (means you don't have to power the system off to swap) so in theory you could forego the SSD upgrade and just hot-swap 1TB microSD's as needed. But load times won't be as good as if you upgraded the SSD.

It's also of note that Steam wasn't really designed around offline portable play. All Steam games only have to be launched one time connected to the internet, the first time. After that they can be played offline. However. There are a number of 3rd party games that mandate an online check, such as Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. So just be aware and research before buying games.

I used to love tinkering with my modded 3DS, but that's outdated now and I don't really use it anymore. Deck has taken over that role of "modded system I tinker with". Be it finding the lightest weight portable 10,000 mAh battery in the world and using Deckmate attachment to clip it on the back to get extended playtime, be it installing CryoTools to extend min VRAM from 1GB to 4GB and change Swappiness setting from 100 to 1, be it installing plug-ins to increase color saturation and activate ProtonDB playability rating icons for all games, be it undervolting the CPU, SoC and GPU, be it upgrading the SSD to 2TB... I just love tinkering with this thing to deck it out.

If you don't really value portable play, you won't get much from it. But if Switch has spoiled you to the point you wish every game had the freedom to be played anywhere... you'll get a lot from it. Just be aware of the fact that, for every game you first launch, you're going to have to mess with the settings to get them appropriate for Deck. Sometimes that's easy, other times I have to watch a YT video guide to get the exact settings to reach stable 30. It just depends on the game. But that usually only takes a few min, and it's a one time thing. After you've got the settings dialed in, it's plug and play for that game just like any other platform.

Looks like I'm ready to expand my gaming horizons with XBOX ONE games after some long deliberation.
I have registered 10 XBOX ONE games for my collection.
I only pick 10 games since XBOX ONE have 99% same games as PS4 so I only pick the exclusives on XBOX + 2 games to make it 10 games.
Curious to see what games I have chosen?
Here we go.

1. Disneyland Adventures
2. Disney Rush
3. Zoo Tycoon
4. Scream Ride
5. Rabbids Invasion (Kinect)
6. Shape Up (Kinect)
7. Kinect Sports Rivals (Kinect)
8. ReCore
9. Project Sparks
10. World of Final Fantasy MAXIMA

Well, that's all the 10 XBOX ONE games I want to pick.
Good news, 8 from 10 games I can get from my country, the other 2 games I must do some request.
Even on XBOX I only play kids games with a few of Teen games.

MS asking their fans to not forget about their platform.

@Magician Microsoft is taking that sweet sweet Showcase content and flipping it for themselves

Anyone playing cassette beasts on GP or getting it on switch? I'm forcing myself to try it out today and giving totk at least an hour break from my gaming time.

I think that it's going to be an awesome show.

Watched the Xbox showcase.

Objectively, I think it was pretty great. They showed a truckload of 1st party titles, and some notable multiplats. And if you sub to Gamepass, you're feasting on a 7 course meal.

Subjectively, it was alright. I'm just not into most of the types of games they make, nor am I into the majority of 3rd party games they showcased. However, there were some gems for me in there. Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Tactics, specifically. I'd also say Fable has potential, that Clockwork game has potential (I love Bioshock) and Avowed has potential.

I'm just not into the whole Fallout thing. Never have been. Not saying they're not great games, they just don't do anything for me personally. So Starfield never really interested me much, and this showcase did absolutely nothing to change that. It's just... not my type of game. Is what it is. Looks great though. My brother's gonna love it I'm sure.

So ya, just knowing Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Tactics are likely coming to Switch, that's the biggest W of the showcase imo. I am a Gamepass subscriber though, so I might check out Avowed, that Clockwork game and Fable whenever they release, depending on what other games I'm playing at the time, provided I'm not otherwise preoccupied. Heck, I may even give Starfield a go, even though I could never get into any of the Fallout games or Outer Worlds. If it's free to try, why not.

The stuff I was excited for were Fable, Clockwork Revolution and the Atlus stuff. First 2 are TBA so are at least 2 years away meanwhile the Atlus stuff is almost certainly coming to Switch so I'll pick it up there.

As a showcase though I'd say it's solid, 6/10.

@Grumblevolcano So which game do you think takes GOTY at the Game Awards, Zelda or Starfield? Because after that deep dive, it's quite clearly going to be between those two.

XBOX Showcase 2023 didn't have any upcoming kids games, right ?

Yeah, after watching that showcase it's clear Xbox is the place to be if you're into WRPGs. It's just... that's not me.

Cool that they nabbed some Japanese announcements, though as they all seem to be multiplat it doesn't mean much in terms of winning someone over who already has a PC, PS5, etc.

Solid show though.

@IceClimbers TotK at the moment but I don't think it's guaranteed given Nintendo's upcoming lineup is very barren at the moment which a Direct could easily change. I've said before that I think Prime 4 will be an early 2024 release (with Prime 2 and 3 filling gaps in 2023) but if it turned out to be the big fall/holiday 2023 release instead, I could see that getting GotY over both TotK and Starfield.

@Grumblevolcano I don't think Nintendo's upcoming lineup has any bearing on whether TotK will win GOTY or not. It'll stand on it's own merit. It just comes down to whether the board that votes on the award prefers it or Starfield.

Gut feeling says it'll be Starfield.

Also if Prime 4 does make it this year, it almost certainly won't release until after the cut off date for this year's Awards.

@IceClimbers I was meaning in the sense of if Prime 4 ends up eligible for this year, it'll beat TotK.

@Grumblevolcano Prime 4 would have to be one HELL of a game in order to beat Zelda in the running for GOTY for the Game Awards and for most media outlets.

It's extremely unlikely that it beats Zelda (or Starfield) for GOTY if it's somehow eligible

Look, I'm long past the point of being upset about Microsoft era Rare, but at the same time, MAKE A NEW GAME ALREADY! IT'S 2023! DO SOMETHING ELSE!

I am very sick of every year seeing the Rare logo in these shows and it just being Sea of Thieves, again. Remember when video game devs actually made new games?