Topic: The everything Xbox thread

@ThanosReXXX Yeah, it felt bleak. In a typical Ubisoft way when they get lost but want to hit the market. There's lots of flash, lots of "styled design".....but it all feels empty and weightless to me. Horizon's open world feels alive. NFS open worlds (at least when Criterion did them, haven't tried newer ones yet), felt alive. This....still feels worse than Crew 1 to me. The review hit that on the head. Prettier brightly colored stylization, but it's just cars and races without coherence. It really would have benefited by NOT having an open world if he world wasn't part of the experience.

I've had fun with it the 20 or so hours I put in. That PREview does bring up some valid points though. All in all I'm excited to play it on Friday, already got my crew ready to go😊

@redd214 So, I guess that's three against one on the auto gear front then, huh? Might as well call this thread "The Den of Heathens" from now on...

@NEStalgia I meant NASCAR fans. NASCAR isn't real racing, far as I'm concerned. And there are enough fellow Americans on here for there to at the very least be one die-hard NASCAR fan, so if he or she happens to read your comment (and now mine), that might result in some minor outrage over our blasphemy....

As for using auto gears: In games, I just don't like manual gears. With a controller, it just doesn't feel right/natural to me, and I never went all out on the whole racing seat and controls setup either. For some consoles and games, I do have steering wheels and pedals, but no gear sticks, although I do believe that one of my GameCube steering wheels has those butterfly pedals directly underneath the steering wheel, so I guess I kinda do have the full setup in one instance, well... except for the seat and control frame, then.

Oh, and just for the record: I don't follow racing either. I just (wrongfully) assumed you'd know, since you're still residing within the borders of our great nation, and over here, they all think that every American knows (everything) about NASCAR. Guess that prejudice/stereotyping kind of rubbed off on me, I guess. Small wonder: after all these years of living over here, I probably must have adapted at least some of the habits and viewpoints they adhere to 'round these parts...

@ThanosReXXX huge Nascar fan here. I take no offense to people not liking it. I've enjoyed it since I was a kid, been to tons of races and actually have taken classes on more than one occasion. It's most certainly is real racing trust me. Perhaps not the most exciting for some but definitely real

@redd214 I'll respect your choice and taste in types of sport, so I'll not go into detail on how NASCAR really isn't real racing, if compared to the likes of Paris-Dakar, F1 WC and the 24h of Le Mans, to name but a few...
We all have our own likes and views, so nothing wrong with that.

But to get back on the topic of games, and more specifically, The Crew 2: much like NEStalgia, the reviewer, and some commenters underneath the article that @NEStalgia posted have said, the physics of the cars and even most of the other vehicles feels off. And I only have the first game, but I've never played that more than twice, because I too have found it to be far inferior to just about any other arcade racer that I could play on the Xbox One, but especially to Forza Horizon 3.

Now, you've played Forza Horizon 3, so you must know how big of a difference there is between the two, which makes me wonder how you could have spent so many hours with The Crew and not have gone completely mad at those crazily imperfect physics. I couldn't see myself being able to spend so many hours driving with crazy physics and imprecise car controls. I would have thrown in the towel LONG before even half of those 20 hours would have passed...

Arcade racer or not, there has to be some semblance of car control, and The Crew just doesn't offer that, especially not when compared to other arcade racers.

@ThanosReXXX yes there certainly is a difference, but I usually find racing games easy to settle into and get used too. I'm no savant or anything but after a couple races it's easy to get the hang of how a game handles for me at least. I played almost 200 hours in the original Crew and like I said about 20 in the beta of 2 and haven't had near the issues you have had apparently. Must be the manual controls lol😊

@ThanosReXXX LOL, I think NASCAR's one of those things that creates a cultural identity. If you grew up with NASCAR you're in it for life. Like the circus, or Hollywood. If you didn't, you just won't get it. I didn't. I've seen some of the cars up close at promo events and such, though, cool stuff, but not my thing. The things look like an aircraft cockpit more than a car....which makes the whole "stock car racing" front kind of silly. The only thing "stock" on those cars is the logo plate, beyond that they're as "stock" as an F1 car. I can easily accept it as real racing....it's still performance cars going really fast in a really tight space trying to get in front of the other (only the "fast" part separates it from rush hour)...but the format of hundreds of turns around the same oval make it kind of uninteresting to spectate. (No offense to your new local national sport which also involves laps around an oval..... )

I just can't wrap my head around the idea that not all races are F1 cars. Everything I knew as a child is in question. Race cars are wedges, always.

Well, I mean you're from The People's Democratic Republic of California, and live in Europe, so I'd imagine you' have some pretty odd impressions of what it must be like in the USA, having never lived here yourself

@redd214 Well, issues is a big word, but the controls feel floaty to me, especially if you're used to both of the Forza series, and that is something that just keeps gnawing at me, while I'm playing, and it distracts me to a point that I don't enjoy the game at all anymore. I could continue to muddle on, but I'd rather play a game in which I feel I have way more and actual, responsive control over the vehicle I'm using.

The emptiness that both the review and @NEStalgia were talking about, doesn't bother me nearly as much, if at all. But for a game in this genre, the driving and physics must feel solid and believable, and for me, neither of those do.

@ThanosReXXX At least someone else has some F1 love here I'm not a fan, and don't follow it, but I can appreciate it all the same

The Crew 2: Watch_Dogs Grand Prix.

@NEStalgia Reaching new lows taking pot shots at my birth locale again, I see. Tsssk, tssk...

And what new local sport? Ice skating or cycling? Or running? None of those are new, and none of those interest me either...

@ThanosReXXX like I said I have always felt in control when playing both, Shame you weren't able to do the same, but plenty of choices for us all so nbd. You should check out NASCAR Heat 2, I'm sure you'll love it lol

@redd214 In the interest of fairness, I'll give it an honest go, if it ever appears in Games with Gold, but I'll be damned if I voluntarily pay for it...

@ThanosReXXX Nah, can't reach lower lows than that birth locale....it's just kind of static from there PDRC, DPRK, DPRC, CCCP.....I get all those acronyms confused (I'll just trust you'e from the majority portion (by geography) that's perfectly sane and is held hostage to the minority portion (by geography) of ultra dense population that pretty much occupies the state and controls its puppet government. East California is rational, but oppressed. West California/PDRC really needs sanctions slapped on it. We're only using them for their sea ports, anyway. ) (For the record I'm neither "team red" nor "team blue", they're both opposite sides of the same coin playing good cop/bad cop, politically....but crazy is crazy no matter the politics )

The skating was the local sport I referred to, of course. I thought that was pretty much the big sport over there? (TBH, I actually am a fan of that one, thus my constant picking on team orange....I'm tired of seeing them win I actually watched that world cup race in the pouring rain in the converted outdoor Olympic stadium. )

@redd214 IDK I really loved the LOOK of Crew2, but felt like I'd rather play 1 than 2 (at least from the demo.) Something was just "off" about the whole connection of the world. And with Horizon 3 now, and Horizon 4 to come soon....it just feels like a miss. Planes and boats are all that keep me slightly interested. Forza can't offer that.

@NEStalgia Well, like I said: competitive skating isn't new. It was here before I was even born, and it will still be here long after I'm gone, so it's hardly a new local sport. And that is what got me wondering what the hell you were talking about. And Soccer, erm... Football, is by FAR the biggest sport over here. Skating championships are only a thing for a small part of the year, even though there's also indoor skating options all year round.

As for the first part of your comment: no idea where that is going: WAY too much white noise for me. I don't know what half of these abbreviations mean, and I don't feel any connection with those supposed sides, so I really shouldn't be offended, but it actually does still kinda irk me, because I'm still from there, making it my home, and we're all good people, my family, and some of them still live there, so yeah...

As for the exact part I came from: Benicia, California. You figure it out...

But please let's get back to gaming: other than being highly annoyed at the White House's resident joker, I really couldn't care less about American politics. Or any country's politics, for that matter. Most of them are liars or back-pedalers anyways...

@ThanosReXXX Ahh, I see the confusion. I didn't mean the sport was new, I meant it was the sport of your comparatively new locale of residence.

Hmm, Benicia....geographically it's it's on the wrong side, but it's not one of the infamous locales, so I can give it a pass That's the trouble with a state that spans an entire coastline.....when big parts of it are infamous it gives the whole place a bad rep.

Agreed on politics. While I care much more than not caring...I loathe them all in equal measure.

Well, if we are getting back to gaming, this video has a good look at Forza Horizon 4, with some interesting things some people might have missed.
Like the fact we can be a London Cabbie.

Also, I still need to get the expansions for Horizon 3, so I guess that will be July's racing experience.

@NEStalgia Well, looking at the history of it, it was one of the most important towns, in the mid-nineteenth century. Albeit for all but thirteen months...

And talking about being confused: my new locale? After 39 years? Man, my head hurts...
Oh, and just in case you mean the country: it's far older than the States...

But ehm... gaming? Topic: Xbox?

@DarkRula Still need to get the expansions? Whaaattt??

But all joking aside: they're great fun. Although I could imagine that the Hot Wheels expansion isn't for everyone, whether they like arcade racers or not. For some, all the loop-de-loops and all the other crazy stuff in there, is just a bit too much of the good stuff...

@ThanosReXXX Your new locale as it relates to California being your locale. New for you being there compared to the old. Not new, as it relates to carbon dating But by the time we're done this conversation carbon dating will be required to figure out when it started

@DarkRula Since automated cars are taking over, can you just set the AI to cruise around and you can watch it for a real-life racing sim experience?

@ThanosReXXX Well, I had been thinking of getting the expansion on sale, but I kept missing it. As well as that, I wanted to finish all of the road trips to 100% in Horizon 2, but at this point that seems like a massive daunting task to continue with. I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy both of the expansions of FH3, as those from the second were fun.