Tag: Xbox

Why should I believe you 343 Industries?

This morning I woke up earlier than usual and I started to scroll through my YouTube subscription feed. I saw that the official Halo channel had uploaded a new video titled “Halo Infinite | Update september 2022“. Initially I was excited but that turned quickly to disappointment at the end of the video, hell even throughout it; but what was I expecting from a game studio that has consistently over promised, under delivers and underwhelms in what they produce in nearly everything put out. Not only that, I read their news blog post to find out a little more detail (where I could) and was equally disappointed from what I read (and lack of details).

If you go to any website that covers technology and/or video games then you will find headlines like this today:

and the list goes on. The two common themes in all the articles I read were delayed, and cancelled. Those two things are what 343 love to do with Halo Infinite.

First I will get something out of the way. I am not actively playing Halo Infinite anymore due to the lack of content, the abysmal network code causing massive desync issues and a poor multiplayer experience for me, and all of the people I did play with have left the game and don’t want to return at all. I will only be returning to the events that I have not completed but other than that I am out. I’ll be finishing my season 2 battle pass and that is it for me. No season 3 and I will be watching from the sidelines for a while until I find there is some meaningful changes to the game and hopefully at 343. I will also say that I am not entitled to anything from 343. I never bought the game, I have spent money on 2 battle passes. I am just a massive Halo fan that wants to best out of the game and franchise I love so much.

A new roadmap from 343 with a massive caveat (as per usual for the company)

“Subject to change” is another way 343 can weasel their way out of adhering and committing to any deadline or ensuring that they met some obligation to completing. Just like their old road map everything is up in the air including the plans that get announced by the team. By saying “subject to change” they can chop and change as they see fit with no real repercussion because they told us that the roadmap is “subject to change”. It leaves them with an out and a way that they are not held accountable for missing anything. If you don’t know you can meet the deadline, don’t commit to including it in your roadmap.

In what world should I believe that this new road map will stick either? You have lied on numerous occasions in the past, you have continued to give false hope to Halo fans, and you have continued to break promises that you should not be breaking. I can also imagine that you are impacting the stock price of Microsoft so you are also affecting shareholders of Microsoft here. I have little to no hope that by the end of the 2022 that we will have a stable network co-op experience. The Forge mode that you are putting out is a beta and not even the final or polished version of the mode; so expect that to also have a large number of bugs and glitches. I have not played it and have not been following what insiders have been saying about the mode. If you question any of those problems that you experience though, 343 can chirp back that it is still “in beta”, so there is another excuse. The new maps that are coming in the winter update (if I read/heard correctly) are also going to be made in Forge so the quality will not even be as high as the other maps that are currently available for Halo Infinite. Cheap and quick maps to please the fans instead of actually putting in the work and creating maps from the ground up with heart and soul. Nothing in this new road map is good news.

Now onto seasons. 343 seems to not understand what a season is. They can say Halo Infinite is a live service game and want to get to a 4 season per year state but I just don’t see this happening. They can continue to say what they want out of a season until they are blue in the face but until they actually produce something of a meaningful season that is expected then I don’t believe a word they say. There is absolutely no excuse season 2 should last 10 months. How in the world has the studio gotten into such a state where they cannot even produce and provide a new season in 3 month increments? How bad is the management or project planning that there needs to be this much under the hood changes to accommodate seasons and being a live service game? Didn’t 343 already know the product was going to be a live service? What in the hell were the teams over at 343 doing for the last 5 years to have Halo Infinite in such a poor state? Also remember the game was supposed to be released a year earlier. Imagine if that did happen. This game needed to be in development for another 2 years minimum. There is no excuse from the teams working on this that they need at least 9 years (current development time and the time it still needed) to produce a quality Halo game.

Where is the apology from the heads at 343? Where is the apology from Phil Spencer on the shit show that is Halo Infinite? Neither care about Halo or the Halo community. If they did they would put their hands up and put out a video looking the fans directly in the face and beg for forgiveness, open and start a dialogue where they transparently say what has gone wrong and the steps that have been taken so that future Halo titles are not going to be affected in the same way. Someone with real leadership working on the title needs to step up and actually do this and reassure the fans because the quality of the posts and videos right now are not doing anything to stop the uproar of fans. I love Halo. I want Halo to be the best first person shooter it can be and to see it in such a state is a shot in the heart and makes me weep. The people writing the Halo blog posts on Halo Waypoint and appearing in the videos are all saying “that the team feels and understands the fans frustrations and the game is not where it should be” but all those words ring hollow right now (to me anyway).

As someone once said “Don’t make a girl a promise, if you know you can’t keep it”. 343 should listen to this and have it plastered all over the walls at offices because right now all we get a broken promises.

Microsoft AU Store: Where are the games in the catalogue?

Today I was feeling generous, so I thought to buy my brother an Xbox game and gift it to him. He had been talking about a couple of games recently, so I wanted to look and see what the Xbox store had. I was already on my PC, and I didn’t want to go over and turn my Xbox Series X on just to gift him a game. I hopped over to the Xbox AU store page to browse their catalogue of games to see what a good game to gift would be, and that is when I noticed something very odd.

This is the page that was presented to me.

I was sort of confused. Maybe the filter was broken or there was something wrong with the options on the left-hand side that had been selected. I checked all of them out and everything seemed to be fine with those filters and options. I went into incognito mode and tried the page again with the same result. Last resort now and that is to try another browser; both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge showed the same broken web page. I have seen my fair share of broken web pages working in the software industry but this one is a big oof to me. I can only hope that it is a security setting or privacy setting I have enabled that is causing this; but if that is the case then I am a little more concerned about what information Microsoft is needing from the user just to show the games on the page.

Microsoft, if you want people to purchase and look through your catalogue of games you have available on your Xbox platform through a web browser then you need to have this functionality. Again, I hope that this is just something on my end and others are also not experiencing anything like this but if they are then it is not a good look when a core component of your website is not functioning as intended.

On the plus side, I did gift my brother a game, Cult of the Lamb. He has been talking about it for a little while now so searching for that specific game and buying it as a gift was a smooth and easy process. Searching the catalogue of games though is not.

Regretting buying the Halo Infinite Season 2 Battle Pass

Oh man do I regret buying the Halo Infinite Season 2 Battle Pass. I knew going in that the state of the game was (is) bad but I did not realize (or want to believe) how bad the game has gotten for me and others after reading thread posts after thread posts on Halo Waypoint and even the Halo subreddit.

I’ll start with the amount of lag and desync that I experience; this is the biggest gripe I have right now and is my major pain as playing the game can be like pulling teeth. The past week I have played a couple of hours, I can count on one hand how many games I played where I had ping less than 20ms. The average ping that I was experiencing, no matter the time of day, was (is) 170ms. On top of the high ping I experience at a minimum:

  • rubber banding and dying around corners
  • grenades causing no damage and bullets causing no damage even though there is hit markers (allegedly)
  • melee trades when they should not happen or melee hits not registering at all

For a PvP arena shooter having these issues is inexcusable. I have played online games for a long time and I have not seen servers and network behavior this bad for a long time. Halo Infinite should have launched with the ability to disable cross platform play (sorry PC cheaters) and a server selection. I remember clearly the launch of Battlefield 4 and the Halo Master Chief Collection which were also abysmal in regard to their online experience.

Before purchasing the season 2 battle pass I looked over the rewards and did like a good portion of what they were offering. I knew how annoying the weekly challenges can be but thought that I could easily complete them. But I do not know if there has been a backend or server side change where the challenges have been changed to be more frustrating to complete. Why are there challenges for game modes that I cannot specifically choose from a playlist? This just causes lop sided games where people quit when they do not get the game mode they want. It makes games worse with an already horrible online experience. Not to mention tracking for the challenges doesn’t work. Kill with the skewer, check. Finish the match and the challenge is not complete, um what.

If I could go back in time I would not have given 343 Industries any more money after the season 1 battle pass. From everything they have shown in Halo 4, Halo 5, Halo Master Chief Collection and now Halo Infinite, they are not the developers for the franchise, there have been too many missteps and issues that could have easily been avoided. I’ll finish the season 2 battle pass (through gritted teeth) but come season 3 there is no way I will be giving 343 Industries any more money even if they fix the game. I know I could buy the season 3 battle pass for free if I complete the season 2 battle pass but I will most likely skip it purely because the game is so bad to play. I’d rather spend the money on another product where the developers actually care about the product they are working on. Developer health is important but when self inflicted wounds cause the game to be in such a horrible state due to constant internal missteps and foolish decisions, why should any player care or play the game? Take all the time off and avoid any form of crunch to keep the health of the team high but don’t be surprised when no one is playing your broken game.

The Inexcusable State of Halo Infinite

It has been a good while since I had done my initial impressions on Halo Infinite. Now I have completed the campaign (which I enjoyed for the most part) and have played a very good portion of multiplayer (I played daily for about 3 hours each day at a minimum). The taste of potential and fun has been completely washed away by the taste of disgust and disappointment. The entire leadership team at 343 Industries needs to have a real good look in the mirror and ask themselves “can we provide the Halo community with a game the fans actually want to play and can we lead the team to deliver it”. Right now, no one at 343 Industries should be happy with the state of Halo Infinite and someone at Microsoft should really be looking at the quality of the team there because it is not up to the standard for a franchise like Halo. This pains me so much to write too because I love Halo so much.

Halo Infinite is supposedly called a “live service” game. Nothing shown by 343 Industries has shown the game to be “live service”. Having cosmetic events every other week that is recycled or offering minor cosmetics is not a “live service” IMO. I have been extremely patient with 343 Industries and Microsoft too. The last patch however to address the issues with being matched into lobbies with high ping and desync has made the game worse for me. I have not played Halo Infinite after I completed the last event and got all the items. Right now, I have absolutely no plans on returning to the game unless there is an event on and when I have all the event gear, I am not playing it anymore. There is no content to work towards as I have done the season pass, the game is not in a playable state here in Australia with the poor selection of player pool. The game is essentially dead to me.

Before I progress any further, let me back up a little. During December, the Big Team Battle playlist was completely broken, and you were still being assigned challenges. I understand completely the team needed to have some time off and spend quality time with the family. I would not want the entire team working on the game to not have a break and want them to enjoy their holiday. However, in saying that, in what way is it smart at any capacity to launch a brand-new game (knowing that there will be bugs and issues all over the shop) during the holiday period without some form of skeleton crew that has the capacity to deploy hotfixes for bugs that will arise? That was the very first red flag. I may be completely wrong in my assumption here, and they did have a team, but what did they do for over 4 weeks while the issue was not fixed? I completely understand how difficult it is to troubleshoot software issues but at the very least they could have removed the BTB challenges from the list. Not only that, once the patch was deployed it fixed nothing and BTB was still broken (a second patch was needed to address BTB).

The second red flag was the deflection, “multiplayer networking code is hard” and “it is not us” posts we got from the team working on the game to address desync and networking issues. I have never (ever) experienced this type of poor matchmaking, lag, desync, and other networking problems in previous Halo games nor in any game where I have a ping less than 20. I do not understand how even in LAN games there are disconnects and desync issues. To me that speaks volumes of the quality of the game’s net code and that there is a serious underlying issue somewhere. If the team at 343 Industries are not sure how to resolve the issue or figure out what the problem is, then they should hire someone or a team that can fix the issues. To deflect and say that the problem will always exist and there is nothing they can really do about it while also saying that geo-filtering is the main culprit is poor on their behalf. Do not treat the community like idiots or ignorant fools and expect us to accept whatever you say as the absolute truth and correct.

The final red flag was the delay of the roadmap. I am completely baffled how the roadmap could be delayed. The team clearly then from the outside looking in has no goals or objectives that they are working towards. If there was some goals or objectives, then share this information with the players. I feel by holding this information back you are saying to the community that “we have nothing to share in the future and you will not be looking at any new content”. We know season 2 got delayed and as such so did co-op campaign and forge mode. I am okay with the delay (if) the features are not complete and would be half baked. Knowing the quality that 343 pump out in their games I feel that they should probably be delayed again because they will not work when they are released. I’m sorry but I have little to no faith in the features working as expected when they are released.

Here is a couple of easy steps 343 Industries can make to better rectify the disappointment and loss of trust from the Halo fans:

  1. Apologize for the current state of the game. Mention the expensive microtransactions and Halo store which seems to be the only thing that is functioning as expected (weird right), the cosmetic gear that is poorly delivered like Jorge’s untextured shoulder pad and the misaligned helmet effects (come on really), the diabolical armour coating system, and the networking of the game. There is probably more they should be apologizing for but that is a start. It needs to also not be a blog post but a video where they look right into the camera and say it to the fans. We need to see if there is actual disappointment in what they have shipped or if they are just giving us crocodile tears.
  2. Make available a public bug tracking system that the entire Halo community can see, follow, and contribute to. Let us have some visibility into the bugs that the team is addressing and help us to help you resolve the issues. We want to play a game that runs and plays smoothly with little issue, and this can go a long way to not only help with this but create better visibility. Let us upload our clips showing the issues. Let us create tickets that express what isn’t working correctly or as expected.
  3. Get the PR and community team to post meaningful content about what is actively being worked on or even do the live streams again. The bug tracking system would help here, but let us know what features are coming, what maps or weapons may be added, etc. Give us something to get excited about. If we hear radio silence, then we can safely assume that nothing outside co-op campaign and forge mode is being worked on (and that is what it feels like right now).
  4. Give us a data center selection option. I find it completely baffling that in 2022 you would provide a multiplayer game without being able to select the closest data center to you to provide the best online gaming experience. Most multiplayer games have an option to select which server you will connect to, I am unsure why Halo Infinite does not have one.

Like I said, right now I have no plans on coming back to Halo unless it is for the few events that have cosmetics that I can earn. Other than that, there is nothing that is bringing me to play the game. When it came out, I was having fun playing the multiplayer as it was a pleasant experience. Now the issues I have with lag and desync, I just want to completely avoid playing it. Why should I play a multiplayer game where I get put into a lobby 9/10 with ping greater than 100ms? So please 343 Industries, I really want to like Halo Infinite, I would like to go back to playing it consistently but the number of issues I have with it makes it very difficult. If someone asks me if they should try it out, I will say no. Even with it being free to play, the game is not a fun experience. Maybe season 2 will change all this but I doubt it very much 😦

Halo Infinite Initial Impressions

The Halo series has been my favourite first person shooter game by far. From the griping stories that are told to the extremely fun gameplay, it has always been a series that has kept me hooked. It is also one of the only game series where I have a number of the novels and comics.

Halo: Combat Evolved is a masterpiece; Halo 2 had revolutionary multiplayer; Halo 3 was the complete story and multiplayer package where I spent hours playing games with my friends and was really the first time where I was going to LAN parties playing Halo non-stop for hours on end; Halo 3: ODST was such a departure in my eyes that it changed the way I looked at the series, and introduced Firefight; Halo: Reach was a gem that had one of the best soundtracks and knowing what happened to Reach even before I played the game made it feel that much more emotional to play plus was my first experience with Xbox Live; Halo 4 had a story that was adequate but nothing special with a multiplayer that was lacking and changed way too much being very close to Call of Duty; Halo 5: Guardians had an abysmal story that I cared absolutely little for but had a really tight, focused and competitive multiplayer that I loved.

Now with Halo Infinite being out for a little bit of time I have some initial thoughts about the multiplayer. I have well over 500 matches and have played over 120 hours of just multiplayer. I have not started or played the single player campaign yet as I’m saving that for my annual leave during the Christmas and New Year period. I have been thankful that I haven’t seen or read any spoilers and none of my friends have spoiled anything too (thanks for that guys).

So where to start with the Halo Infinite multiplayer? What 343 Industries have crafted is a fine tuned and well-oiled machine regarding gameplay. The grenade, shoot and melee combo is nearly perfect. Adding in the new equipment to the combo spices things up just enough to keep encounters interesting. You must position yourself better on the map because if you’re too close to the edge you may be repelled off but can be saved if you have a grapplehook. I can’t recall how many times I’ve grapplejacked a banshee or have been grapplejacked only to be close to the edge and have the enemy Spartan fall off the map.

The maps that are currently available are not too bad either. Some maps are definitively better than others. Behemoth and Launch Site are my least favourite and should not be on the rotation for Tactical Slayer aka SWAT due to how the site lines are and how easy it is to spawn and get killed instantly which happens way too often. Streets, Bazaar and Aquarius are my three favourite maps because they flow so well and have the best balance IMO. A map that I was not a fan of during the beta was Recharge, but it is starting to grow on me especially in Oddball and Tactical Slayer.

Now on to the areas where 343 can improve on and what they must address before gamers start to move away to other games. Here is a small list of improvements and recommendations that I think would make the game even better:

  • The playlist needs to be expanded; there needs to be a Team Objective playlist. We have a Team Slayer playlist, so it only makes sense to have a Team Object one. I know this will take time to fill in all the missing playlists like Infection, etc. but when you have challenges tied to certain game modes you should be able to queue for that game mode.
  • The 18m radar just does not work plain and simple. I don’t think 343 knows what 18m really looks like. I have several videos of a Spartan running and sliding around the corner and the radar does not even pick them up or they are above a ledge. I can see that the radar “looks” to pulse but even then, it does not match with the enemy Spartan movement. Either make the distance larger to 25m or remove the radar entirely as it just a false indicator that has gotten me killed too many times because it has given me false information. What is the point of a radar if it does not give accurate information to the player?
  • There needs to be some way to earn the Halo premium currency in game. Other games like Apex Legends provides ways to earn their premium currency even at a very slow rate. I am not going to comment on the store in particular or the premium currency too much as I am not going to participate in it other than the battlepass and if there is actually something I feel is absolutely worth it (cat ears is not one of them, sorry).
  • The entire amour coating system does not feel right. Why should an armour coating only be available for the Mark V Spartan but not the Mark VII? I have absolutely no plan on buying any amour coating in the store unless it is available to all current and future Spartan models. I am a little more forgiving for weapon and vehicle skins though, but it would be a nice to have that the same sniper skin is available for the assault rifle or commando.
  • There needs to be a way to completely turn off cross play between console and PC players. I have recorded and reported several people who are on PC that either have aim bots or wallhacks enabled. The way they snap to enemy Spartan’s heads or track them through walls perfectly is infuriating to see. Thankfully all of this is visible in Theatre mode. The reason why I no longer play competitive or PvP games on PC is because of the sheer number of hackers running rampant in games. 343 needs to fix this ASAP otherwise people will get frustrated and leave the game.
  • Server selection. I have very good internet download and upload speeds for Australia. Some games I get 4ms ping while other games I get 200ms ping. For the last week, the majority of games have been 120ms ping or higher. I am not alone in this either as others I play with or know who play in Australia also experience this issue (no matter the time of day either). This is completely unacceptable for SWAT or ranked games. When you are around a corner and are still getting shot or die is rage inducing. I am more than willing to wait several minutes to look for a match that has under 20ms ping than be thrown into a match in less than 15 seconds with 170ms ping. Is the game dead in Australia? Does 343 not have adequate servers available in the region? Is 343 prioritizing for skill over ping? This information needs to be made available to the player so that I know what the issue is.

Overall, I think 343 has a solid game on their hands. I applaud the hard work and effort the team has done to date and encourage them to keep at it. Keep refining and polishing this diamond as if they do that it will only get better. Provide the updates like you have been doing so far and keep the community informed of where you plan to take the game. If you keep communicating to the community about what your plans are then hopefully some constructive feedback and ideas can be brought forward. After Halo 5: Guardians I had little hope in 343 delivering something that is worthy of being a Halo title but so far I have been pursuaded.

The team deserve the break they are having now, but when they get back, they absolutely must address the cheating issues going on and the server issues (be it the high ping, being unable to squad up with a number of people and get into a Big Team Battle, or the random disconnects and crashes). Soon I will be playing the campaign and be enjoying that too 🙂

Thank you to everyone at 343 Industries and Microsoft for so far delivering a Halo experience that right now to me is on par with the original trilogy.

Cyberpunk 2077 on the Xbox Series X

I have now been playing Cyberpunk 2077 on my Xbox Series X for over 65 hours. Overall I feel the experience has been extremely enjoyable. I have opted to play the game not in performance mode but to have better visuals and effects at 30 fps purely because the game is not really a twitch shooter and having the game run at 60 fps is a nice to have but not really necessary. Also from what I have played there have been minimal framerate drops that I have noticed and it is fairly stable and consistent at 30 fps. If I did find that playing it at this setting unplayable then I would have changed to the performance mode to get back all those lost frames. Also note that the game is not yet officially released on the Xbox Series X but is “ported” over from the Xbox One so it is not optimized for the new console.

Throughout my time playing the game so far I have only really experienced a handful of bugs and minor inconveniences. For a game of this size and scale I think it is expected unfortunately. Some of the bugs that I have encountered off the top of my head include:

  1. Appearing nude in the mirror or missing my hair and headwear while looking in the mirror – this however seems to have been patched 🙂
  2. Not being able to loot some of the world’s items or items from dead enemies especially the robots – still persists and can be a major pain when you see a rare icon on the map but you cannot loot it 😦
  3. Falling through the world – this has only happened once and happened when I tried to jump a fence with my double jump.
  4. Voice audio not playing when accepting a phone call – unlike Control, Cyberpunk still plays the subtitles just not the voice audio for the individual that was calling me. A simple restart of the game solved this for me though.
  5. Items and enemies clipping through the world – this can be an enemy clipping and glitching into physical items in the world or my car clipping into other cars when summoned.

Other than the above mentioned bugs and issues the game has been rock solid. I have not had any crashed to the Xbox system dashboard *touch wood* or I have not had any instances where I had not been able to complete a quest. In my total time playing I believe I have only restarted the game twice to fix an audio issue and not being able to interact in the world. It has also been able to be quick resumed with absolutely no issue, so loading in and out of the game is crazy quick.

What CD Projekt Red have crafted is a super immersive world. The environment is a marvel to look at and the atmosphere is absolutely dare I say breathtaking. I have been enjoying the side jobs and police activities scattered throughout the world. All of the main characters I have interacted with have also been played really well, except (which may be controversial) Keanu Reeves. I feel that his delivery on his lines are a little stiff and bland especially when compared to Jackie and the female V voice actress.

My current playthrough of the game is with a hacking and ranged character. The various ways to complete a missions is great and the combat is satisfying too. I have not had much experience with the close combat and melee side of the combat except for the fist fighting side quest, but if the close combat when there are more enemies around plays very similar to that then I think my second playthrough will be with a tanky close combat character.

Overall the game looks amazing, it sounds brilliant, the story from what I have played is gripping, the side quests and odd jobs are enjoyable fillers, the characters you interact with are all unique in their own way, and most importantly the gameplay from the combat to the hacking is extremely fun. I know you will read plenty of impressions and reviews where they talk about the bugs and performance problems which is absolutely fine to discuss but I feel they do not take away too much from the overall package. Again I have not nearly experienced the amount of issues as others who have played the game so that may be the reason why I feel this way. I know CDPR will patch their game and support it very well as they had done an amazing job with The Witcher 3. I still have so much of the story to go through and a good portion of the side jobs but I am looking forward to even more content once the game is more stable for every single player out there.

Buggy Video Games = Frustration

I really did not want to write about this but I got extremely frustrated with one game recently that I was playing. No the game is not Cyberpunk 2077, surprised reader? The game in question is Control. Which if you do not know recently became available on Xbox Game Pass for the Xbox consoles.

At first I was having a lot of fun playing the game. The graphics looks and that is without the Xbox Series X|S enhancements (which I will also touch on here as well), the combat is really fun, and the story including all the collectable notes are enjoyable enough. What is not fun though are the bugs. It has caused me to skip large parts of the game and advise Xbox gamers to be wary of this game.

Before I progress further with regard to the bugs I have been encountering in Control I am going to briefly touch the upgrade debacle. Months before the upgrade edition was announced I was going to purchase it along with the season pass, then they announced the ultimate edition. If I did purchase the game at any point before that announcement then I would be pissed right off. What 505 Games and Remedy (the publisher and developer of Control respectively) had done with the upgraded version of the game to the latest Xbox consoles is pure greed and bullshit. In Australia I would have to pay over $50 again to buy the ultimate edition with the enhanced graphics and performance, if I had purchased the game previously. Essentially what they are saying to gamers who bought it previously at a steeper price I may add is; thanks for the money, now pay us again to play it at better quality with better performance. This type of business practice I will never support so I did not pull the trigger to purchase the game. It coming on Xbox Game Pass was just a bonus for me.

Now back to the reason why I decided to write this post. I have rarely encountered graphical issues in Control which is good but I have encountered numerous mission/quest objective issues. There have been numerous times when items are not where they are supposed to be or enemies would just not spawn in based on guides and YouTube videos that I had to resort to using as I was spending a large amount of time looking for how to complete the objective. Thankfully these missions appear to all be side or non main story so I think I can complete the game. But what this is forcing me to do is just completely avoid any of the side missions as I am worried that I will spend time trying to complete them and I won’t be able to. If the developers wanted me to continue to play Control and stay with the game past the main missions then it has not worked because these bugs I have been encountering is just having me skip any side missions now from Pope and the other NPCs.

The other bug that has been infuriating me has been the loss of audio during scenes when characters are talking or a recording and/or other media is playing. Not only do I not hear anything but the subtitles do not show. Like how is this possible? I restarted the game; restarted the console. Nothing fixed this problem. It is not tied to a specific NPC or media either. It can happen at any point when I am looking at the collectable or conversing with the NPC. It is just really weird and jarring just watching your character’s mouth move but there is no audio or subtitles and then the quest progresses and you lose all context.

Generally I do not go out of my way to and advise people not to buy a particular game but in this case I am strongly recommending do not buy this game. I don’t know if this is just tied to the Xbox Series X version of the game if you really do want to play the game then just play it on Xbox Game Pass if you have an Xbox console. It is cheaper than buying the game, and you get to play a whole bunch of other games. On a similar note I look forward to starting Cyberpunk 2077 real soon with all the bugs 😉

Xbox Series X Impressions

I was very fortunate to have been able to pre-order an Xbox Series X from the Microsoft Store in Australia and have it delivered; one day later than the release date but I was not too fussed about that (thanks DHL by the way). Now that I have spent some time with the Xbox Series X I have some impressions that I would like to share and maybe if you are considering in picking up a next-generation (or current generation now I guess) console I can help in some way.

Black, dense, matte and unassuming

If there are several adjectives that I would use to describe the Xbox Series X, I would say the console is matte, black, dense, and unassuming. Microsoft has basically created the most “boring” and unassuming console I can remember to date; and that is not a bad thing either. The Xbox Series X sits on the top right of my TV entertainment unit and really it is nothing too flashy or eye catching. There are no flashing lights or other effects – the only light you will see is the Xbox logo power button on the front of the console.

When you take the Xbox Series X out of the box you will notice one thing very quickly, it is a heavy console. Microsoft must have packed everything in there very neatly and in a way to save as much space as possible but also ensure that there is enough airflow so the console will not overheat. The console is just a solid rectangular prism. None of which is a bad thing. The console feels very premium and for the price the expectations are set and met.

Originally I had the console laying horizontally but the base does not come off and it looks a little weird in my opinion as the base is one large circular dish. I wish that Microsoft allowed the base to be removed if the console was laying down because it does look a little weird. So now I have the console sitting vertically like much of the marketing material showing the Xbox Series X. The entire top of the console is one massive vent with small circular holes too. If you look at the top of the console from different angles you will find a green color outlining the inner perimeter of the circular vent holes; nice touch.

The black color and matte finish is great if you do not mind having fingerprints on the console if you continually touch it; so I say set it and forget it. I am happy it is not any other flashy color or white as it would look a little odd next to all my other black electronic devices in my entertainment unit. Overall aesthetically I feel the console is perfect for me; it is not trying to do too much, it sits there doing what it is supposed to do and nothing more. Microsoft has done a great job in creating something that will just blend in the background.

Fantastic performance across the board for old and new

During the couple of weeks I have been playing games on the Xbox Series X I have noticed that all the games look amazing, load extremely fast and play very well. One of the first games that I did try was Gears Tactics which is optimized for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. With the game installed on the internal solid state drive it loads insanely quick and it looks amazing. I never noticed any graphical issues, pop in or other framerate issues when playing the game; the Xbox Series X handled that game really well. I did have the game crash on me once when I reloaded from a checkpoint but it never happened again so :shrug:

I have also been playing Apex Legends with my friends and that too loads and plays well with little to no issue. The game has not been “upgraded” for the new consoles as far as I know so that is saying something on the upscaling and performance bump the console provides naturally with its raw power. Two other games that were also not optimized that I played were Resident Evil 3 and Doom Eternal. Both of which I may add were installed on the external hard drive I have attached to my Xbox Series X. Again I found no framerate or graphical issues in either game, plus even loading from the external hard drive I felt was fairly quick. Doom Eternal I would like to point out in particular played buttery smooth and looked absolutely amazing; kudos to the developers.

Recently Vermintide 2 got an update to be optimized for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Previously the game took a very long time to load and played in what felt like 30 fps with some harsh dips in frames when there was a large number of enemies on the screen. With the update however the framerate looks to have been bumped up, the game loads insanely fast and there is no framerate dips when the action picks up. So older games when updated play significantly better and if they are not optimized still benefit from small boosts in performance from what I can tell. Again Microsoft has gone above and beyond in ensuring that old games play better and new games play great.

I did test out Destiny 2 because that game on my Xbox One X took forever to load and would only play at 30 fps. When installed on the external hard drive the loading time is faster on the Xbox Series X than on the Xbox One X but there is no framerate improvement unfortunately. If you do move the game to the internal solid state drive then you get an even greater crazy increase in loading performance but again no framerate improvement, so I’ll need to wait for Bungie to optimize the game for the Xbox Series X. I look forward to that.

Overall, no matter if the game is old or new, Microsoft has found a way to squeeze some form of performance improvement being either faster loading or better framerate. With no true Xbox Series X exclusives out that I am interested in playing at the moment (or am aware of) and allowing older games to just perform better on the new console is a massive bonus. If you want to play the best Xbox versions of current games released then you should consider picking up the Xbox Series X; however if you are waiting for a killer game like Halo Infinite then wait for a bundle as I feel like the Xbox One X is more than capable of playing anything out now just not as good as the Xbox Series X.

Along with playing games very well it does so super quietly too. I can barely even hear the Xbox Series X when I am playing games. Sometimes I have even gone up to the console just to see if I can hear the fan spinning. There was no game that I played that caused me to actually hear the fan or console making any noticeable sound. Along with it being whisper quiet the console does gives off a good amount of heat from the top vent. This is to be expected as the top vent acts much like an exhaust. Is it very hot? No not really, but there is a good increase in ambient temperature increase around the top vent. Would it cause the room to get very hot like some “journalists” have noted – no and it also will not cause any discomfort to your hand if you leave it on the vent for a period of time. I am not too concerned about the amount of heat the console emits as it looks to be putting out the heat instead of keeping it inside the console. Only time will tell if there will be another red ring of death scenario and fingers crossed there will not be.

Quick resume and Xbox Game Pass

If you are like me and play two or three games at a time then hopping between games can be a pain. I could be playing Control and then be invited to an Apex Legends or Gears 5 online match. Saving one game and then loading the new game on the Xbox One X could take a long time depending on where I am in the first game as saving or finding a checkpoint is not always possible so quickly. But with quick resume I do not need to worry about that anymore. I have not experienced any game that I have played at the moment that has had issues in loading quickly with quick resume or failing to load with quick resume. I can turn the console off and then the next night I can boot it back up and pick up the game right where I left off; no menu loading or game save loading. I can jump between games and it takes at most 10 seconds compared to the several minutes it would take previously. I do not know how Microsoft has done this but it is fantastic.

Microsoft has bet big on Xbox Game Pass and I love it. From Doom Eternal to Control; paying full price for games is now a distant memory. If you are in the Xbox and Windows ecosystem then it makes the most sense to pick up Xbox Game Pass and if you have a PC then having Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the best option out there. I would never have picked up Crusader Kings 3 but with it being on Xbox Game Pass on PC I gave it a whirl. So while there is no killer exclusive you benefit so much from trying the buffet that is the games on offer with Xbox Game Pass. There really is something for everyone. This is one offering that is available for both previous generation and current generation of Xbox consoles though but I am mentioning it here as there are a good number of optimized games on Xbox Game Pass for the Xbox Series X.

Overall it has been very pleasant

I tip my hat off to Microsoft. From a pleasant aesthetic that does nothing special but does everything right to the great performance in loading and framerate, I am super happy with my day one purchase. I have friends who are still waiting to receive theirs and when I tell them how great the console is performing they are getting more eager and excited to get their own console. I hope you console comes in soon Logan.

Would I recommend the console? Yes with some catches. If you absolutely must have the latest and greatest Xbox console then you would have pre-ordered or have already considered picking the console up when it is available to be purchased again or there is new stock. The Xbox Series X does everything the Xbox One X does but better and with some nice tricks up its sleeve like quick resume. You can wait for a killer game to come out before you pick up the Xbox Series X and you will not really be missing out on anything.

Again if you are in no rush then wait for a small price drop or bundle with a game that you are truly waiting on. Microsoft has done an amazing job in crafting a console that does everything great but in 2020 there is nothing forcing you or screaming out that says you must pick up the new Xbox Series X. If you are on the fence I say wait and save your money but if you want to play the games out now in the best way then what are you waiting for pick up the console.

Impression from the July Xbox Games Showcase

To start things off, I am going to say that I am a massive Xbox fan so this impressions may have a little fanboy in it (and I do not apologize for that one bit) but the July 2020 Xbox Games Showcase was what I was expecting and I was not disappointed overall with what I saw and am looking forward to playing these games on my Xbox Series X console and PC in the future. I’ll break down the games that I am looking forward to the most below but the TL;DR is that Halo looked fine, there were so many games coming day one to Xbox Game Pass, and plenty of the titles shown here are not going to be ready for 2020, 2021, or even perhaps 2022 which is a little disappointing. The full showcase can be seen here in 4K 60fps.

Halo Infinite – the Chief is back baby

Along with being a massive Xbox fan I am a massive Halo fan. I have played all the Halo games and completed them all on Legendary difficulty. From what I saw from Halo Infinite I am pleased, and cautiously optimisitc.

Visually the game does not look too bad; but I was expecting a little higher fidelity, especially from a first party title. There were a couple of draw distance issues where noticable pop in was present, some of the shadows in the pelican had jagged edges and were not as clear and crisp in the outdoor environment, and some of the textures looked a little low resolution or lacking in detail such as the flat nature of the assault rifle or the hexagonal prisim environmental structures on the Halo ring. In saying that though, this is obviously a work in progress build and most likely a cut from not the most up to date build. Hoping that visually we see some improvements before the game is released in holiday 2020. So I cannot be too critical but will still call it out.

From an audio perspective, the game sounded like a Halo game. The music was Halo, the guns were Halo, it felt very Halo. I was fairly happy with how 343 managed to capture the “feel” of Halo through not just the musical score but the Grunts, Brutes and Elites voices and audio cues. If the rest of the game sounds much like what the gameplayed showed us then my ears will be happy.

The gameplay that they showed (and I am so happy that they showed us a solid 8 minutes of gameplay) was also what I was expecting from a Halo game. The shooting looks solid, I like that they have re-introduced pick ups in the game too like the new drop wall. The two new UNSC guns that they showed us, the VK78 Commando and the CQS48 Bulldog look like they are going to be fun to use, along with the new Banished weapons the Mangler and the Ravanger. Glad that the Brutes are back in a mainline Halo game. I am still a little unsure how I feel about the grappling hook, but it gives a new means of movement and adds more verticality to the game’s levels. It will be interesting to see how Halo feels being an “open world” game but I am cautiously optimistic about it. Once I get the game into my hands and start playing around with the objectives and shooting the poor alien bastards in the face, I’ll get a better sense if this really does “feel” like a Halo game.

Overall I think what Microsoft and 343 had shown for Halo Infinite was enough to get me more excited for Halo Infinite. I may have to replay the other Halo games to catch myself up with the story and get back into the feeling of stepping into the boots of the Master Chief. Looking forward to the game’s release. You can see the campaign gameplay reveal here.

State of Decay 3 – Winter zombie deers

I played the previous State of Decay games and I generally enjoyed them. I would not call them AAA games but AA games. They looked okay, they played okay, they had a number of bugs which did annoy me sometimes but overall I had fun playing them in single player and multiplayer. The CGI trailer for State of Decay 3 has me curiously asking if there would be dynamic weather or seasons and the potential of hunting or wild life threats. Very interested to see more. I do not know when this game will be released but I don’t see it coming out in 2020 or 2021. You can see the announcement trailer here.

Forza Motorsport – Vroooom…

Turn 10 and Playground Games have IMO developed the best racing games in the last two decades period. Both Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon are the best simulation and arcade racing games there are, no questions asked. They look, sound, and feel extremely authentic. The in-engine trailer they showed us has me excited to get back into the Motorsport side of the Forza series as it looks photorealistic and running in 4K at 60fps is going to be great. Again, much like State of Decay 3, I want to see more but can see this title being at least 2 years away if it is in early development. You can see the announcement trailer here.

The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon – Mystery! Scandalous Strangers! Thrills! Danger!

The Outer Worlds was a very good RPG by Obsidian. I really enjoyed my time in that universe and am happy to purchase the DLC for this, no questions asked. This trailer was also one of the best trailers promoting a game I have seen in a long time. The voice over and the overlays were hilarious, plus it comes out on September 9th so it is not too far away. Time to reinstall The Outer Worlds and pre-purchase this DLC; bonus discount if you are an Xbox Game Pass subscriber. If the DLC is as good as the main game I will be satisified with my purchase. You can see the announcement trailer here.

Avowed – classic RPG

As an RPG fan the new RPG that Obsidian announced has me intrigued. There was not much shown other than the CGI trailer, but it is fantasy based, there are spells, flaming arrows, skeleton warriors, etc. I’ll need to see more but the RPG games that Obsidan has put out are all IMO hits so this one should be a no brainer if you are an RPG fan. Again I don’t think we’ll see this game released until late 2023 the earliest. Plus being built entirely from the ground up for the Xbox Series X means it will most likely not be released on the Xbox One. You can see the announcement trailer here.

Hellblade 2 – we are going to… Iceland

Using Unreal Engine 5 and built for the Xbox Series X and PC means this game is going balls to the walls with high fidelity. I really enjoyed playing the first game and am looking forward to playing the sequel. Wish that they showed us a little more than just telling us the game is going to take place in Iceland or centered around Iceland. Much like State of Decay 3, Forza Motorsport and Avowed I do not see this game being released in 2020, 2021, or 2022 (starting to see a pattern here anyone?)

Destiny 2: Beyond Light – XSX, XGP, 4K 60fps

Bungie to me have really done no wrong. They made Halo. I never played Destiny 1 and got into Destiny 2 from the start and generally enjoyed it. Now that they have split with Activision they can really spread their wings, try new things and experiment a little with their game. I have not played Destiny 2 in a little while because I find the load times fairly long when playing on my Xbox One X and running at 30 fps is not great after playing many games now in 60fps at a minimum. When it does come to the Xbox Series X in 4k at 60fps and on Xbox Game Pass I’ll be looking to get back into it and I know a couple of my friends will be ready to party up and get back together in our usual fireteam. You can see the showcase trailer here.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 – surprised to see this

I absolutely loved playing the previous S.T.A.L.K.E.R games. I was absolutely surprised to see this game shown off here, even if it was just a CGI trailer that really gave very little away. I look forward to finding out more about this game in the near future with it releasing in 2022 at the earliest. Could this be the S.T.A.L.K.E.R game that has official and proper dedicated coop multiplayer? You can see the official trailer #1 here.

Warhammer 40K: Dark Tide – for the Emperor

As a kid and teenager I played both Warhammer 40K and Warhammer Fantasy. So seeing this game was again a little surprising and pleasing. I am happy that we are not playing Space Marines but the Imperial Guard too as it makes the game feel significantly more dangerous. The CGI trailer looked good and I have enjoyed my time playing Warhammer: Vermintide 2 which was also developed by Fatshark. I would like to see more of this game. It looks like we will be getting different classes based on the characters that they have shown and the Chaos are at their old tricks again. Hopefully this comes out in the next year or two but I do not have my hopes up. You can see the announcement trailer here.

The Medium – rendering two worlds at the same time

I am hopeful that this game is good because what they had shown looked really interesting. Graphically I think it did not look next generation but I guess conceptually what they are trying to achieve requires some of the technology that the next generation of consoles and PC is offering. Unfortunately this game too did not have a release date so I’ll need to wait a little longer before it is released. On the plus side, if it is going to come out several years down the line, they can polish it up and start drip feeding us a little bit more about the game. Happy to see more of this game in the future. You can see the dual reality trailer here.

CrossfireX – a Remedy campaign

Last time I saw anything about this game was the multiplayer and that looked interesting. I am still waiting for a decent military shooter that is not too janky, in early access or Call of Duty. Seeing the footage of what the campaign would look like was another surprise and to have Remedy working on it is a bonus. To me it looks very Call of Duty in regard to the set pieces, explosions and themes. Not sure if this is a day one pick up, but I will be keeping a close eye on this one because if the campaign and multiplayer are any good then bye bye Battlefield (even though in reality I dropped off Battlefield 5 very early on in the release). You can see the campaign reveal trailer here.

Fable – what, you chase chickens?

Finally. I had been waiting so long for another mainline Fable game. Fable 1 was an absolutle blast. Fable 2 was amazing and unfortunately Fable 3 was a little bit of a disappointment and not a great way to send off the series for the time being. To showcase a CGI trailer for such a beloved franchise so early on in the development of the game means that we will need to be waiting a good period of time for this title too. I am more than happy to wait for a new Fable game if they can iron out the lag and issues that plagued Fable 3. Once I find out the release date for Fable it will be a day one pick up on Xbox Game Pass. You can see the announcement trailer here.

An Unanswered Xbox Series X Question

As the release of the Xbox Series X comes closer every day, there is one question that I am unsure there is an answer to (well I cannot find it anyway and I have not heard anything specific from Microsoft or Phil Spencer).

“Will the Xbox Series X support the same my home console settings as the Xbox One?”

What is the my home console setting you may ask? More information about it can be found here but it is by far one of the best Xbox One features. I am also not the only one asking this question. Over at the various Xbox subreddits the same question is asked multiple times with many individuals assuming that just because the Xbox One has this functionality that it would be available for the Xbox Series X. However that is a bad assumption IMO. Microsoft has been very pro-consumer so it may very well be there, but if they remove the functionality then it will go completely against this pro-consumer messaging.

Why is this question so important though? As I noted above it is IMO one of the best Xbox One features because it makes going digital if your household owns multiple Xbox One consoles extremely beneficial and you can save money on a subscription. The scenario in my household currently is that I own an Xbox One X and my brother owns an Xbox One X; I have set my brother’s Xbox One X as my home console, and he has set my Xbox One X as his home console. What this allows us to do is:

  1. Share my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription – I pay for the subscription but my brother gets the ability to play on Xbox Live and any game on Xbox Game Pass on console. The only thing that my brother cannot do is play any Xbox Game Pass game on PC.
  2. Share all our Xbox digital games – if I buy a digital game, my brother can play the same game whether I am online or offline (as long as my brother is connected to Xbox Live); and if my brother buys a digital game then I can do the same.

If Microsoft does remove this functionality then my brother would need to buy his own subscription and we both would lose part of our very large digital library. Generally we both buy games digitally when they launch at full price, and if we cannot share our digital games then I for sure will not be buying as many digital games and will be waiting for massive sales. So Microsoft, Phil Spencer, it would be great if you could let the Xbox community know whether or not you are axing this functionality.

%d bloggers like this: