I'm pretty far along in Calisto Protocol and I honestly don't get the hate for this game, I'm enjoying the combat and it feels very polished. Maybe it was different at launch?

Dropped it after a couple of hours.

IMO the battle system is flawed (and very very slow).

It’s not just the Xbox tax but media’s almost religious crusade of trashing Xbox. There’s never been a year where the media has collectively trashed Xbox as open and vehemently as they have in 2023 and 2023 has been a good year for Xbox.

But you’ll say “but FH gets in the 90s so the tax isn’t real” .. tell me what genre is excluded from GOTY nominations again?. COD getting its lowest ever score after ABK closed  from the same media that has been against the deal since day 1? Remind me what other COD was penalised for having a sub 4hrs SP again? I’ll give you a clue, its meta is 94 on Xbox 360. 

How about a review publication giving HFR a lower score because Xbox first party output has been barren this gen? ..  show me another game that was penalised for the same reason. I’ll wait. 

You can deny the tax isn’t real but you’re likely a NN/Sony fan or an IGN employee and I don’t know what is worse ;)

Valhalla Journal Day 19: Raventhorpe level 6/6 hit :) only 2 areas left in England, next up Wincestre. Also broke up with my brothers hand me down. Petra is now best girl.

Eh, there is no such thing as objectivity in rating games. Because games are art. That's why I don't think the size and ambition of Starfield really counts. Yes, I think a lot of trashing Starfield gets online is completely overblown and hyperbole, it is not a bad game. But it has a Meta of 83 and 86 respectively, and this is the rating of a good game but not an amazing game, and I think that rating is totally fair. And it is not about size or technical stuff. A short Hike is IMHO a better game than Starfield, not because it has more stuff (it has a lot less), but because nearly everything can emotionally connect, it has a place, it has a sense. Starfield falls short here, it feels like a lot of Points of Interest with little to no connection and nearly no emotional investment. It is not all bad, but compared to Skyrim or even ESO Starfield connects a lot less emotionally. I see what Bethesda tried to do, they wanted something realistical, not only graphical but also something that could be our world. Which results in travel between planets taking hours, because that is realistic - so you make fast travel. In No Man's Sky I could reach everything in a solar system in minutes with the pulse drive, that is unrealistic, but makes playing more fun. And what is more, in No Man's Sky there is stuff on the flight from one planet to the other, asteroids, space lifeforms, pirates and other stuff. That is not realistic, but fun. On planets a lot gets samey fast. In ESO you can take a screenshot inside a city of random houses, and based on architecture and decorations you can deduce which region you are in, often which city, as even the dark elf houses for instance have differences in architecture. All that leads to Starfield ranking lower. Because ranking isn't about more and better technology, it is about what emotions can be evoked. And again: Starfield isn't a bad game, it just isn't holding up to other stuff, especially this year with especially strong games.

And Nintendo bonus seems also often overblown. Maybe Zelda gets a free pass sometimes, but Nintendo often pours a lot of work into Zelda, so it is hard to judge how much of this free pass is justified. But there is a reason I was genuinely surprised Mario Wonder is nominated for GOTY in the TGA, because the moment something has more than three colors (and that is often the case for Nintendo) it is relegated to family category, and family games never can be taken seriously, right? If you look at the GOTY-tracker here, than 2017 is the only Nintendo game winning with Breath of the Wild. Doesn't seem like much of a Nintendo bonus really.

What I see though is a lot of online trashing of MS and Xbox. And I understand some of it, there is fear of a monopoly for instance and while I see it in other areas, I don't see how MS can control the gaming market, so I am a lot more chill about that. Paradoxically MS/Xbox also get trashed for having no good games (so how should they control the market if true) and people ignore genuinely good games like Grounded, Pentiment and HiFi-Rush to arrive at that judgement. As if project size is somehow relevant - if a smaller game is great, than it still is a great game. And again, Starfield isn't a bad game either, it only pales in comparison to others this year. In 2022 Starfield, Diablo IV and Hogwarts Legacy all would have been nominated to GOTY. They would've lost against Elden Ring, because that is an outstanding game, but they would've been able to nominate. This year no such luck.

I think a lot of the trashing is down to fear of MS taking over and control gaming. I don't see that happen. In the best case MS is able to close the gap to Sony with the acquisitions. That gaming has some bad tendencies is not down to MS. Sony is the one banking fully on GaaS instead of the single player experiences they are known for, something people accused MS of, because they thought that would be the only thing on Gamepass. Square openly says they want to concentrate on AAA games and ignore smaller games, while Xbox has supported Grounded, Pentiment and HiFi-Rush and hopefully does support smaller games in the future. Microstransactions get worse and worse, but Starfield is free of it. It is kinda refreshing that in difference to each Assassin's Creed game Starfield isn't plastering a shop in your face and into all aspects of the game. We will see how that develops in the future for COD and Diablo.

And for nominations: that is ending up seriously strange. Some genres have so low chances of GOTYs: fighters, racers, puzzlers. Games considered "for the whole family" basically never are considered for GOTY.

Bethesda hate =/= Xbox hate.

SF was full with things that are simply not fun while promising it would be.

Personally don't like how Xbox game studios are releasing their games and they deserve the hate.

We saw it with Killer Instinct, Sea of thieves, Gears 5, Halo Infinite and others; releasing games with a low amount of content and then just wait.

Even games like Forza,   Long development time + cut features like Split Screen and then after release drip feed content so people keep subscribed to gamepass. Obviously not going to review great.

They are not really trying hard to make people get an xbox; love how xbots complain how some third parties are porting the games later on xbox but even Microsoft is like Age of empires/Flight simulator (and probably Ara) were not on xbox day 1 just wait.

The waiting is tiredsome, 'Power your dreams' means we have to dream the games?

Waiting for the ABK deal to go trough and now we have to wait again to get the benefits from the deal...

Next year doesn't like that interesting at all, sure I could love Towerborne, but Hellblade II looks like a meh game and Avowed doesn't seems that hot, in fact it looks like a game they will delay to improve it.

Edit: Guess big deals start on friday?  Anyway only got FC classic.

Out of curiosity, what if anything, is it that you enjoy about Xbox?  

He’s a massive Phil Spencer fan 🥸

I agree that xbox does get taxed especially recently, I don't really get how nintendo gets a free pass? Most of nintendos games don't review particularly high compared to others aside from maybe zelda and 3d mario. I feel like sony are the main ones that get a free pass sometimes. I enjoy most of sony's games but outside of technical aspects they aren't really anything special with some exceptions. Most of the sequels they've made this gen have been kind of underwhelming.