Topic: The everything Xbox thread

$349 X 😵

15 first reveals and "much much more".

Hope its a good show, being my first as an actual XBONE owner. Funny enough, last year's show convinced me to hunt for an X rather than an S.

@redd214 Well, here's hoping for the people that are interested, that it's not a misprint, like the Tweet says...

@Angelic_Lapras_King Sounds interesting. Gonna watch it live...

Looking back at my predictions I actually did pretty good! ☺️

[ ] Forza horizon 4, Asian setting maybe Hong Kong or Tokyo. They debut a halo car on stage as they've done in the past.
*Was wrong about the setting but game looks terrific!

[ ] SoT and SoD2 free dlc/updates.
*Got this one right

[ ] Crackdown 3 delay to February 12th 2019,
*Was only 10 days off! 😜

[ ] Gears 5 or Halo 6 teaser(see next point)
[ ] Halo battle royale or Gears BR. I see them coming out with a spinoff BR of one franchise and announcing a direct sequel to the other.

*Partially right on these. Hit on Gears 5 wasn't expecting 2 more games as well. And Halo Infinite!

[ ] This is where the lull happens. Another super consumer friendly service a la game pass/ea access. Maybe combining game pass into live as I've seen rumored
*Right a bit, such an awesome service for Xbox owners, definitely jealous.

[ ] Sizzle reel of more new beloved BC games from last 2 gens
*Nope

[ ] New pubg map/mode
*Yup

[ ] Customizable consoles you can order/design just like the controllers. Can send in your current one to be customized.
*Wrong.

[ ] Peripheral hardware announcement. Maybe Some AR headset or emergent tech that will look cool on the stream but won't set the world ablaze
*Wrong

[ ] Updates and release dates for games announced already Ori, Deep Rock etc
[ ] Indie spotlight
[ ] Cuphead Expansion/dlc
*Right on all 3 of these!

[ ] A kid friendly game 3rd party exclusive like a 2d/3d platformer or a Mario/Rabbids level out of nowhere game. 2019 release
*Tunic I guess.

[ ] Extended look at 2 or 3 AAA 3rd party game we already know about that they have marketing right to. Splinter Cell, Rage 2, Anthem, Metro etc something that's already been revealed we get more gameplay here though
*Only Metro

[ ] Fable Teaser
*Nope

[ ] Deep dive into Cyberpunk 2077
*Not a deep dive but I am quite looking forward to learning more

Overall got a lot right but was definitely wrong in thinking it would be an average conference. They really knocked it out of the park and I'm excited about a lot of what they showed!!

It was a great showing, although most of what they showed was multiplatform. Just the nature of modern gaming, I guees, but the exclusives largely didn't do much for me, except for Crackdown 3. Now that looks like a great time!

So WHAT is going on with the Elite controller? We know they're working on V2, we've seen the leaks....the Elite is out of stock almost everywhere most of the time.....I don't know how they could not have announced it. I'm tempted now to buy another one before they're all gone since we don't know if a sequel is on the way or not now.

@ThanosReXXX BTW, I tried Forza Horizon 3....it's veeeeeery arcade! I'm shocked. No drift, no inertial physics.....very fun, very arcade.... I did not expect that from it at all. It makes NFS feel like a simulator. Which is kind of awesome. I see why you like it. It's not really a "racing" game at all IMO. Even Crew puts more emphasis on physics and drift.

@NEStalgia Told ya...

Yeah, I simply LOVE its "over the top-ness". The jumps, the crazy opponents, and some surprises that I won't spoil for you. And the fourth game seems to be even crazier. And the fun thing is that it's all real cars, real locations, but other than that, almost everything sim goes out of the window, in favor of crazy fun arcade gameplay.

P.S.

Tune in now to Xbox Live stream if you have the time and want to see more stuff. Two more hours of Inside Xbox, hosted by Major Nelson. Watching it as we speak...

@DarthNocturnal Yeah, me too. Activated my Mixer account as well. Before E3, I actually never bothered, because I watched all I was interested in on YouTube or Twitch, but hey: free goodies...

So, Mixer it is, then.

Looking forward to the gears games. Crackdown still looks interesting provided it isn’t delayed again.

@redd214 The article got updated: it's a big, fat nope...

@ThanosReXXX ah well 😊

@ThanosReXXX Ok, so I broke down and got normal Forza too. It's better than I expected! Very different from Horizon. I was mostly surprised how much Horizon is NOT much like a racing game at all but is kind of an action game (replace the roads and cars with ziplines and cubist art and it could be a Sunset Overdrive replacement.) Forza seems to handle much more like even NFS to me. I finished 10th in the first race, 1st in the truck race, and 5th in the next race of the early online....it's kind of cool. I haven't opened GT Sport yet on PS4. @Peek-a-boo seems to like that one more, but the internet is evenly divided....I wonder what's so different about it?

Also in Horizon, when do you unlock the Hotwheels access if you bought it? I got the Season Pass for that and the ice mountain one....but it seems to start the story off before you open it.

I also discovered I FORGOT to set my video output to PC RBG instead of Limited/Standard. X360 CRUSHED blacks painfully with a faulty PC RGB mode that had bad curves unlike PS3. X1 supposedly had the same problem, but it looks like at least the X, and maybe S? Fix it. Everything looks even BETTER now! (PS was set right, X1 was on limited....I'm using an IPS monitor, with wide gamut....full/PCRGB is kind of important )

STILL deciding on getting a Combat Tech controller on the $10 sale, or try my luck waiting for someone to get Elite in stock again and get an extended warranty. Razer still has the nicest controller. And there's Scuf which is also infamous for stick drift issues, and IIRC helped design the Elite...which makes ever so much sense as both have infamous quality reputations...)

@NEStalgia For each of the Forza Horizon 3 DLC packs, you will have to open a certain number of festivals. Once you've opened your first three festival locations, which simply happens by winning races and gaining experience, you'll unlock the Hot Wheels expansion shortly thereafter, and after that, you just keep on going with winning races, finding hidden cars in barns and stuff to raise the XP bar, and then the Blizzard Mountain location will unlock as well.

You can race towards them, however, because the point on the map is obviously already there, but it will just be empty. In the case of Blizzard Mountain, you'll find yourself on an abandoned air strip/runway, and once it is unlocked, there'll be an entrance road up a mountain there, so the landscape is sort of insta-changed, although you'll never see that happening: it'll just be there, the next time you drive up to that point.

When I first played it, and had downloaded the DLC that came with the bundle, I also thought that I would be able to play it right away, so imagine my frustration that I found it to be locked. And the Hot Wheels bundle was actually what won me over. The other Xbox One bundles weren't nearly as interesting to me, so I was kinda mad that I STILL had to unlock it, but a quick watching of YouTube tutorials taught me the trick, so just keep at it, and it'll unlock soon enough. Look for special events first, because these will add more XP to your profile, and will do it quicker than winning normal races. So, look for hidden cars, and find all the special objectives: jumps, crazy races and time based objectives.

As for the difference between Forza and GT: from what I've understood, Forza has bettered GT for several years now, so for the console sim racing fetishists, Forza should be the best they can get, both car model wise, number of cars, more precise engine noises and handling, and damage models on ALL cars, which GT never had, or at least not in its HD iterations.

Good that you found the improved settings for display. I think it'll make a lot of difference, both in looks and experience of games. And the S also has the same, so it's not a maybe, but a definite yes. The S even has HDR settings, and can stream 4K, the only difference is that it obviously doesn't support 4K textures, and on games like Forza (both main series and Horizon), it doesn't have a 60fps option, so everything is locked on 30fps.

@ThanosReXXX Ahh, cool, I'm not to impatient to get to the Hot Wheels stuff, but that is indeed what sold me on the game....finding out I like the regular game was a pleasant surprise. But I came for the orange loops

The internet seems split between Forza and GT....I can compare myself but I'm not experienced enough with the genre to even know what to compare I've also heard Forza is more "sim" perfect....and GT fans were very unhappy with Sport at launch. But Peek-a-boo referred to Forza as feeling a bit archaic in contrast so I'm curous. Forza is fun though....which surprises me. Sim racing is REALLY not my thing (I've heard Project Cars....on PC.....is the true sim afficianado's poison though.)

I knew the S had the "PC RGB" (or "Full range" in PS parlance), so did the X360, but the problem is X360 (and at least OG XBone) had a faulty PC RGB, the curves were actually non-standard and crushed blacks badly, and if you ISV calibrated for it, it would be bad calibration for all standard equipment. But I'm thinking they fixed it now. Just not sure if it's a firmware thing across the board, or if it's a hardware fix (and if hardware fix, unsure if it's just the X, or the S has it too.) Back on the X360 it was baaaddd..... your options were "limited RGB" or "Broken black values." What was shameful was they never fixed it...and then carried the same problem to the XBone. Glad they fixed it but that was a decade in the waiting!

@NEStalgia a bit of warning with GT sport, it is quite a departure from past games. It is relatively thin in terms of single player content as compared to past games and is majorly focused on online multiplayer racing. The online racing is fantastic if that's what your looking for but you seem to be more of a single player person so just wanted to give you a heads up. Project cars 2 is another really really good sim racer if your looking for another.

@redd214 Forza 7 really seems online focused as well. Since you're familiar with both, what would you describe as different between GT:S and Forza 7? I technically bought GT Sport because it was a) cheap back when it had a 1 star rating in reviews, and b) VR suport was a curio.

I find it funny, they keep telling us AI is the future, AI will take over the world, yet more and more they remove AI from games and replace it with just fighting humans

@NEStalgia I'm honestly not too familiar with Forza 7 in terms of actually playing so can't give a hands on opinion. But I can somewhat compare the two.

Forza is going to have more cars & more of a variety of vehicles and has deep customization which is very minimal in GTS. GTS is really geared towards esports/racing geeks/serious car nuts. Forza is a more "casual" sim racer, I don't mean that as a negative just for clarification. It's more novice friendly with the amount of assists and things like that you can put on to find your individual sweet spot. It can scale from more "simcade" all the way up to hyper realistic. From what you've said tbh I don't think you're going to enjoy GTS that much. I do because I am a racing/car junkie but from what you said I would recommend forza 7 for you.

Edit. The VR integration is decent in GTS but if you're lookin for really good VR racing on psvr, I recommend Driveclub VR or Wipeout Collection. The latter is very intense though so be careful 😂

@redd214 Thanks, that's helpful! I technically already own both games (I even have the GTS pre-order fuzzy dice even though I ordered long after launch when it was like $15.00 with BB GCU) But GTS is still in shrinkwrap and Forza 7 is digital. And yeah, I'm surprised how much I've enjoyed my 3 Forza 7 races.....I may keep GTS on a long slow back burner.

Cool to hear about DriveClubVR....I do have that as well! Wipeout in VR sounds moderately terrifying.....it's awesome but terrifying in 2D!

I seem to have collected a lot of racing games for someone that doesn't even like racing games

@NEStalgia no problem man, happy to help. And yes Wipeout in VR is insane, literally insane. I have a pretty strong stomach and can usually do VR for an hour or so at a time but with that one after like 15 minutes I strmart getting squeamish. It's definitely a technical wonder but so much speed, so much color, so much going on it can overload your brain lol

@NEStalgia Yeah, I tried Project CARS on the Xbox One, to see what I missed because of it not coming to the Wii U, but I've deleted it after only a couple of tries. It's WAY too much of a sim, it's bone-dry and has so many settings, that it'll make your head spin. It looks fantastic, but playing it takes a LOT of practice.

In that, both GT and Forza are FAR more user-friendly, even though both are very good sims in their own right. Don't know why anyone would label Forza as feeling archaic, because they build upon it with each new game, and add tweaks and new stuff every time. And as mentioned before, they've already taken the crown from GT several years ago, with Forza 4.

I agree with @redd214 that Forza has even more of a low-level entry in that you can either switch on or switch off as many assists as you like, until you feel comfortable enough to stick with a certain setting. It's a nice way to get to grips with a real sim, by turning off settings one by one, the more experienced you get, until you end up playing in full-blown sim mode.

And for the other, and more fun stuff, there's always Horizon, for a bit of variety from the dead-serious sim racing...