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derpysquirtle64 on 10 March 2019
shikamaru317 said:
derpysquirtle64 said:

What's the point in making Halo:Infinite next-gen only especially considering it will release next year? MS already announced it for Xbox One, not releasing it on the platform after announcement doesn't look like a good idea.

For one, releasing on current gen at all will hold back the graphics of the game on Scarlett. Xbox One is roughly 9-10x weaker than the rumored specs for Scarlett Anaconda, if the game is designed so that it can run on Xbox One/Xbox One S at all, that means the graphics will be held back by default.

Secondly, MS needs big Scarlett exclusives at release that can move Scarlett hardware, they can't afford to let PS5 get an early lead over Scarlett, if PS5 pulls into an early lead Xbox will never catch back up most likely, and history shows us that the console that pulls into an early lead can get 3rd party exclusives much easier. Think of all the 1st party studios that could potentially have a game ready in time for Scarlett's Holiday 2020 release, only 2 come to mind, 343's Halo Infinite and Turn 10's Forza Motorsport 8. Motorsport is on the decline, it can't move the volumes of Scarlett hardware that Halo Infinite could as an exclusive. One of the worst ways that MS could start off next-gen is having no big Scarlett exclusives on release, if everything they have is cross-gen they give people few reasons to upgrade to Scarlett early gen, especially the Xbox One X owners. 

Doesn't matter for Microsoft. Their strategy right now is to get as more users as possible into their ecosystem. So, they don't really care if an Xbox One or One X owner won't upgrade to a new console if he still buys the game. The focus is not on consoles anymore as Phil Spencer said, so they don't care about having lots of sales at launch.



 

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jason1637 on 10 March 2019
KiigelHeart said:
jason1637 said:
A lot of stuff coming to SoT got datamined yesterday.
https://pastebin.com/Y0Ln64vh Lots of great stuff coming.

Sounds great! They've already made changes to ships that indicate cooking & fishing are definitely coming soon.

In the meantime they should focus on balancing PvP. They booster the sword before and it was great against skeletons but too OP against other players. Now they've nerfed it way too much and fighting skeletons is too frustrating.

Everyone should try the game now I'd say. It doesn't lack content anymore. There's plenty of different voyages and new threats. Every time we plan on doing a one quick voyage we end up sailing for hours because something always comes up.

 

edit. these new Mercenary Reaper Run -voyages are a great way to do PvP and pick up a chunk of Captain's Chests while at it. It's kind a like an introduction to The Arena I suppose.

Haven't played the new patch but I've seen lots of people complaining about the sword nerf. Even though the patch prior made swords OP I liked it cause it made Forts easier. 

And yeah the game is pretty rich with content now and Rare keeps updating and communicating with the community. 



Barozi on 10 March 2019

Took me a really long time but I finally managed to finish the campaign of Gears of War 4. (some spoilers below)
I would definitely put it below every Epic Gears game. But still a lot better than Judgment.

Characters are fine, with Del clearly being the most unimportant one.
Graphics are great, but at this point not mind blowing.
Gameplay is pretty much unchanged. Storms are an interesting way to change the formula a bit.
Story is pretty meh. I was barely excited to move on.

Enemy design is pretty weak. Deebees are a bit meh, Juvies are even more annoying than Wretches. Snatchers, Pouncers, Carriers and Scions are nothing but bullet sponges and some can even insta kill you. Playing alone on normal difficulty I had to replay quite a few sections because of them.
Team AI sucks ass. They're doing a fine job at reviving you but they barely shoot at the bigger enemies. Also these enemies always seem to go for you.
Mission design sucks. The Horde elements should stay in Horde mode. The Coalition doesn't understand how to make fun enemy encounters. They just shove random enemy types up your ass and call it a day. "Here have a Scion to fight. Oh he is down? How about another Scion and so on." Same with Juvies that are basically part of every single fight once you encounter them for the first time. Snatchers and Carriers, which are used as a midbosses, simply return later on as regular enemies.
Then there's barely any variety. A motorcycle ride at the beginning of the game and controlling a robot at the end. That's basically it.
Oh and the end boss fight was pretty forgettable and the easiest of them all.

Rating only the campaign I would give it a 7.5/10.

Last edited by Barozi - on 10 March 2019

jason1637 on 10 March 2019
Ryuu96 said:
jason1637 said:
A lot of stuff coming to SoT got datamined yesterday.
https://pastebin.com/Y0Ln64vh Lots of great stuff coming.

Fishing, cooking and pets are awesome, hopefully they'll start add more wildlife into the game, I might have to jump back into the game soon.

I'm more hyped about the new variation they are adding with the cinematic/story quests. Really curious how they are going to implement the puzzles and vaults.



derpysquirtle64 on 10 March 2019
shikamaru317 said:
derpysquirtle64 said:

Doesn't matter for Microsoft. Their strategy right now is to get as more users as possible into their ecosystem. So, they don't really care if an Xbox One or One X owner won't upgrade to a new console if he still buys the game. The focus is not on consoles anymore as Phil Spencer said, so they don't care about having lots of sales at launch.

I know it is their strategy, my opinion is that that strategy will hurt them late gen, because Sony will take the lead with PS5 once again if MS offers no incentive other than better graphics to upgrade. Especially since graphics won't even be a good reason to upgrade since their 1st party titles will look worse than Sony's because they'll be held back by trying to make them run on standard Xbox One, the horribly dated CPU on the Xbox One family in general will hold them back as well.  Meanwhile over on PS5 almost every game after the first year will be optimized for it's Zen 2 CPU, probably 16 GB of GDDR6 RAM, and probably 10 tflop GPU, while the Xbox games will still be optimized so they can run on standard Xbox One's weak Jaguar CPU, 8GB of DDR3, and 1.3 tflop GPU. 

I have no problem with them aiming to move away from hardware revenue to gamepass revenue, but supporting last gen hardware longer than maybe a year is a mistake, and even then next-gen should have some exclusives in the first year. Software sales and therefore Gamepass revenue directly correlate to how good the hardware running the games is. The fact that xCloud is reportedly based on Xbox One tech rather than Xbox Scarlett tech seems to indicate that they plan to release their first party games on both Xbox One and Xbox Scarlett for years after the gen starts. 

Hard to disagree with this. I don't see how MS strategy can be succesful at this point for various reasons. But we'll see next gen I guess. Because it is really hard to see how can they be competitive with the weak console side. They seem to take a hit on a console side hoping to make their service successful on other platforms like mobile, PC, Switch. But those platforms already have established content delivery systems and habits of its users. So, why would those people choose to go to Microsoft service instead of Steam, eShop, App Store. That's the hard problem to solve for Microsoft next gen,



 

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Barozi on 11 March 2019

In case you didn't notice it, I've got a lot of time to play games right now.
It's only logical to work on my backlog so here comes my next completion (well campaign playthrough:
SUPERHOT

Loved it. Really good game and if you haven't tried it yet, you definitely should (was on GwG exactly one year ago).
Sadly the game is over pretty soon as it doesn't have that many levels. Yet the game also has a nice challenge mode, so you could extend your playtime a little.
8.5/10. One of the better indie games on GwG.

Currently also working on Far Cry 5 and a lot of smaller indie games.



I LOVE GIGGS on 12 March 2019

Wow. I can't imagine what your gamescore will look like this month since you "finally" have "free time" to spend on gaming.



Barozi on 12 March 2019
I LOVE GIGGS said:
Wow. I can't imagine what your gamescore will look like this month since you "finally" have "free time" to spend on gaming.

eh we'll see. I try to find a middle ground between some quick and easy completions and some longer games.
Currently at 14,000 for the month, but I've already played most of the easy games I purchased earlier this year.
Probably somewhere around 25,000 to 30,000.



Barozi on 12 March 2019
Ryuu96 said:

Well there's only two things I can imagine.

Halo MCC gets a PC port, which I wouldn't care about at all or Halo Reach gets added.



KiigelHeart on 12 March 2019

I hope it's Halo: Reach. That would be huge!

PC port? ZzzzZzzzzZzz..