Scalebound … 
5 Likes
I will be in the minority but I gave up on Alan Wake 2 after 3 hours.
I enjoyed the atmosphere, visuals and story seems interesting but the gameplay is too stressful for me. It felt like I was playing resident evil and its just not for me.
I adore the first one and I found that a perfect balance of action gameplay, story, visuals and atmosphere.
I battled nightingale in this one and I exhausted by the end of it.
So at 1:08:00 the next gen talk starts, it’s interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/live/R-XEPGI65c8?si=5byykKUaehyCwzc2
One thing they mention is that if Xbox does come with next gen in 2026, two years later Sony will have their PS6 and very likely be significantly more powerful, which only makes sense. They won’t make the mistake of PS3 ever again. I guess MS could come with a mid gen refresh a year after that, but maybe they won’t. So the question then is, would it be wise for them to do so?
They mention how it probably isn’t a bad idea to launch way earlier than Sony instead of simultaneously, since many people can only afford one and most go for PS, so maybe by going early they can grab some of those people who want that new thing. A two year head start sounds super interesting, but it could become a problem after PS6 releases and the power difference is big.
Whatever ends up happening, it’s certainly interesting.
In my ideal world they’d release new hardware every 4 years and it isn’t a mid gen refresh because there is no gen. Like a phone, when you’re ready to buy you just buy the latest model and keep it moving.
6 Likes
I’m almost positive Phil Spencer alluded to that being a possibility a few years ago, more frequent releases of hardware, you buy a new one when you want and the old ones get dropped once the games simply cannot run on it anymore. I also think thats where smart delivery would shine even more.
Honestly wouldn’t be against that either. Stores let you trade in your current system, get the new one for a good price, bam! Nice.
Good point. I wonder how long the Series consoles will stick around once next gen for Xbox starts. If they come with two consoles again devs will be making games for four consoles, sheesh. Nah, I don’t see that happening. Probably one system.
It will depend a lot on the game engines and dev kit pipeline, would optimization suffer a bit? probably but keep in mind these same games still release on PC which has a multitude of different configurations.
2 Likes
That’s another very good point! Man I really hope MS goes this way, this might just be a better option for them instead of releasing alongside Sony again. And imagine the kind of games we could be having with it such as Fable and Blade, and who knows what else. TES VI would be on it day one and probably nicely optimised for it too.
Rand and Jez also speculated about how MS could do some things differently than Sony when it comes to AI. That was a interesting discussion they had too. And who knows with going early, maybe they might get some people in my country back on team Xbox too, hell, Europe in general. Would be nice.
I wouldn’t mind quicker generations of hardware. Like many others have said, going with the phone model where you have new iterative hardware every 2-3 years would be fine with me.
https://x.com/howlongtobeat/status/1735750590091739428?s=46&t=jjXxOoE4yWMd4fG6_-MQMQ
People are spinning this into a negative but I see it as a positive.
Letting consumers access games to see if they like it or not without spending $70 on it is consumer friendly to me.
8 Likes
It would be so much worse if retail only games get the top spot. Sometimes, you can’t even get refund.
6 Likes
We share the same vision. It’s glorious.
8 Likes
I didn’t know Arkane Studios went to Eidos to work on Thief franchise and well, that didn’t happen. Thus, we got Dishonored. Whoops.
I feel like any time I imagine the advantages and disadvantages I just spiral around. They get a solid refresh, launch with Call of Duty and other major titles, overtake Playstation for 2 years technically and give themselves a chance to build a playerbase in that time - but then PS6 comes out and they risk lagging behind technically, but can start fighting on price with more time for costs to come down and production to be made more efficient. But then Playstation has what…4 years as the more advanced console? Then when Playstation is hitting their midgen refresh Xbox slams down the Series 3 and they’ll both be kind of even I guess. But will it even matter when games are already hitting incredible visual peaks??
Ah, too much to think about. It’d be a bold new strategy for sure, hitting a big reset and moving away from the current structure. The one thing I am certain on is that if we’re approaching shorter console cycles I would want to see a reasonable period of cross gen support.
2 Likes
I think differentiating themselves from Sony as much as possible can only be a good thing going forward as long as it’s not done in a way that makes it complicated for devs
Give the market a shake up and even if PS release a new console 2 years later there’s nothing stopping Xbox from releasing something again 2 years after that
Yep, only makes more and more snese in the era of GaaS and Game Pass
4 Likes
I am early into the game, but I think they nailed atmosphere and story. However, I don’t think the gameplay itself is that good and feels like one of Remedy’s weaker gameplay. However, the game does aim for something different than the typical Remedy game
What’s the methodology here? I’d guess it’s people who have to go out of their way to submit these data to the website but I don’t know if they have access to any telemetry.
This was discussed a bit on the discord yesterday, I think someone said that it entirely submitted by people voluntarily; so yeah there is no actual telemetry with it.
5 Likes
Played the demo of Pinball FX that is part of all the new demos on Xbox now. I rarely ever play Pinball but this brought me back to my childhood. When my parents gave me and my brother a SNES for Christmas and the whole family would come together and we’d play this :
Nothing but good memories, miss those so freaking much. Anyone ever played this too? It was the music for me, and the creature designs of the table.
2 Likes
About as reliable as Metacritic user scores… Yeah.
4 Likes