Topic: The everything Xbox thread

Only just found out that the Xbox One S won't be able to bitstream HD audio codecs for Blu-rays such as Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, and DTS-HD, and is unfortunately stuck with the usual audio standard of Dolby Digital and 7.1 surround sound.

It would have been the BEST UHD Blu-ray player on the market if they implemented Dolby Atmos support. It's nice to see a leap in picture quality however, audio capabilities are very much the 'bog standard'.

$299 for a UHD Blu-ray player is still a very good deal though!

<- has not noticed a difference in latest audio qualities since Dolby 2.0 & 5.1

Just finished up Mission 5 "Assault on the Control Room" in Halo Anniversary, which if I'm not mistaken, puts me at about halfway through?

It was a long mission too, taking me 3 play sessions to work my way through it. There was this one section that almost made me ragequit, though amusingly, a certain foul remark on my part paused the game (it wasn't a fluke either. Afterwards I sat the controller down, tried it 5 more times, and it worked every single time, lol. It stopped working at the next checkpoint, though. Maybe our Kinect got confused, lol).

Anyhow, there were some fun moments too, like getting my hands on a Ghost, and trying to see how far I can get it into narrow areas meant to be played on foot, just blasting everything down the hall, lol.

My bro is coming back from vacation tonight, so my progress through Halo may slow, but I have managed to work my way through mission 7, "the Library", so I'd say I made pretty good progress these past few days.

the Flood have changed my outlook on what to bring into battle, too. Before I preferred Covenant weapons, particularly the combo of the Plasma Gun (well rounded against most enemies, and plentiful in availability) & Plasma Rifle (the stopping power needed against tougher enemies like the Elite). However now, I find myself using Human weapons. the Assault Rifle which is good for clearing swarms of those little things, and the Shotgun which is good against the bigger enemies that rush you.

I'm having a lot of fun with Warzone Firefight and you can too if you have an XB1 and XBL Gold irrelevant of whether you own Halo 5 or not. It's free to download and play for a week!

I'm not big into multiplayer but I downloaded the huge game and I am going to try to play through some of the campaign. I don't know, not really feeling it though. I enjoyed Bungie's Halo but 4 and what I have played of 5, pretty meh.

@Ryno 5's campaign is for sure the weakest in the series but the multiplayer is probably one of the best.

Halo 5: Guardians may well be free to play for a week, but my friend is still looking at the download bar after nearly two days (!) Isn't the game over 80GB or something?

Good news for both the Xbox One and Windows 10 camp:

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/06/29/window...

• Every new title published from Microsoft Studios will support Xbox Play Anywhere and will be easily accessible in the Windows Store.

I guess this means that every single Microsoft published game from here on out will be available for both Xbox One and Windows 10.

The Xbox One isn't selling particularly well (outside of the US and UK) so, making their games available on PC would help them recoup some return on investment.

I don't think we would have seen a 'Play Anywhere' initiative if the Xbox One was as successful as the Xbox 360 though.

Be interesting to see how this new initiative goes!

@Peek-a-boo too bad for the people that do not want to get windows 10. like me. i will stick to windows 7. although i would love to get the forza games on PC :/

i think microsoft just wants to get windows 10 out to more people. that's their main goal right now

@Peek-a-boo I think it may still have happened, don't forget that in the gaming situation there's still a giant question mark known as the NX. Microsoft may have decided to do the Play Anywhere situation in a XB1 success world if the NX actually has a decent online infrastructure to keep the edge over Nintendo.

Seriously though I'm going to be very disappointed if NX digital games and save data are still tied to console rather than NNID or Nintendo Account.

Finally! After clearing a section that had me stuck the past few days, I finally finished up chapter 8 in Halo Anniversary!

It was pretty much the last main group of enemies you're up against in the mission. It's in a snowy area, and they had 2 tanks, 2 of those big armored dudes who's shots hit with almost the strength of a grenade, and over a dozen other miscellaneous enemies (including a turret for the Grunts to make use of).

I went back and found a Sniper Rifle & Rocket Launcher I missed, and they made things MUCH easier.

Been considering a One S myself honestly.

Xbox UK remembers Sonic 06.

Though my progress has slowed due to the ever increasing difficulty (and the fact that it has to share time with Netflix's Marco Polo), my progress through Halo Anniversary has slowed, but I did manage to finish up chapter 9 tonight!

Only chapter 10 left, hope I can make it!

@RR529 The last level/mission doesn't take very long at all; it is the shortest mission in the game!

I see that Red Dead Redemption is now available to play through the whole back compatibility scheme. I never did finish the game as I was bored by the time I reached Mexico, and the game was already beginning to drag on a little bit before then.

I very, very rarely return to play my old games however, the likes of Black Ops, Halo Reach and Red Dead Redemption are still popular. It might not be for me, but they deserve some goodwill for doing this.

Awesome Elite deal!

Have a look at the Xbox One Elite with a 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive and the wonderful €150 Elite controller at €349.99 at the official Microsoft store (free shipping):

http://www.xbox.com/en-IE/xbox-one/consoles?xr=shellnav

I post this because it's the Xbox One version I bought (at €499).

Man, I'm on a section of mission 10 in Halo Anniversary called "Light Fuse, Run Away", and it is absolutely brutal.

It's set in a very large, multi floored room, and you have to climb up to the third floor to undo 4(?) locks, then destroy the 4 vents they unlock, but I have had no success, due to the seemingly endless swarms of Flood (sometimes I swear they endlessly spawn if you try to stay back and try taking them all out before moving on. Only stopping to spawn if you push your way through).

What makes it really tough though is the sudden lack of checkpoints. I've opened all 4 locks, destroyed one of the vents, and fought my way through 4 or 5 waves of Flood, but after dying was sent back to the very beggining of the section due to there being absolutely no checkpoints inbetween all that.

@RR529 Checkpoints do occur but they're rather random. It helps once you've made some progress with unlocking/destroying vents to back off away from the flood. The corridors before you enter the engine room are safe provided you took out the enemies before you entered and a checkpoint will activate.

The reason checkpoints are rather random in this section is simply to prevent something which happens with some games released around the same time as Halo Combat Evolved (early 2000's) namely that you get a checkpoint, die and then the checkpoint reload makes you automatically die.

@GrumbleVolcano, thanks, that worked!

Anyhow, with that out of the way, I went on and beat the game! (that driving section was the most nerve wrecking thing in a game I've come across I think, lol). Anyway, I've had enough time to think on it.

Graphics/Art - I really liked the upgraded graphics. While the old graphics weren't bad per se (I switched occasionally to check them out), they were dark & bland (especially the interiors). The new graphics were overall brighter, with more vivid use of color, and bold neons used for both decoration & plasma blasts. They really gave the world a rich sci-fi vibe that's more welcoming than the old graphics. Ironically enough, my favorite mission though was mission 6, which had a moody horror vibe going on.

Gameplay/Design - I've not played many FPS games (this is my first in this series, too), but the core shooting gameplay was incredibly solid (never felt like anything mechanically was holding me back), so I'd say it's held up wonderfully (I did miss the little grenade indicator some games have, but that's a minor nitpick). It really had me using everything in the arsenal too (I found Plasma Guns & Plasma Rifles useful in the first half, while in the second half I often opted for the Assault Rifle & Shotgun, the latter of which I found to be essential. I even got some use out of the Pistol, and the Sniper Rifle & Rocket Launcher were musts in the situations that demanded them. The Needler was a fun weapon to play around with early on, but I never had much luck making any important use out of it. It also felt very good clearing a room with a well placed grenade, especially when it initiated a chain reaction). The vehicle controls however, were somewhat to be desired. Once I got decently used to them, they could be fun to play around in, but that final section was way too akward (maybe it wasn't so bad since I cleared it on my second try, but I'm not sure if I ever want to do that part again). It could be difficult, but never felt cheap (there were times I would get myself worked up, but usually because I wasn't properly making use of something in the environment). Still, I think I died more here than in any other 360 game I've played, and it always felt good to clear a mission. There was some deja vu with the environments, but it's understandable, and I never got turned around for too long.

Overall it was a very solid experience, and I can say I've played a Halo game. If I ever get the FPS itch again, it's good to know I have a series I can go back to. (Completed on "Normal")

Two and a half years ago, $499.

Present day, 50% off at $249.

Starting today and for a limited time in the US ~ all 500GB Xbox One consoles will be $249: - https://mobile.twitter.com/majornelson/status/757265827997417472

I'm actually surprised they've gone with the "limited" term once again. Just how many "limited" price cuts has the Xbox had? This is now the fourth one, no?

Never before have I seen a console being devalued so quickly in such a short space of time.

Even the Wii U, which is coming up to its fourth anniversary, has held its price - and pride - for longer!