Xbox - Series S/X: Thread 01

[nonny]

Well this is interesting...

https://www.windowscentral.com/halo-infinite-will-get-free-ray-tracing-update-after-launch

Halo will get a ray tracing update at launch. So what exactly will it look like at launch on the Series X and how old was this demo footage?

[nonny]

And apparently Forza Motorsport is a next gen exclusive not coming to the One S. So coming end of 2021 or 2022 then...

[Team Andromeda]

I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Quite

[fishbowlhead]

Re watched the gameplay again on a much better quality stream, yep, still looks like a OneX game, a good one, end of gen showcase, but certainly not a new gen system seller.

[teddymeow]

Halo vid on official Xbox YouTube in 4k looks better until the Brutes turn up. They just look ****.

[hudson]

What are the potential system sellers of PS5 and Series X, so far then?

[EvilBoris]

Planet of the apes

[EvilBoris]

Re watched the gameplay again on a much better quality stream, yep, still looks like a OneX game, a good one, end of gen showcase, but certainly not a new gen system seller.

It inherently isn’t a system seller when it’s included with your subscription that works on any machine.

They have confirmed that they will be adding raytracing in post launch. I wonder where it will be used?

[hudson]

Planet of the apes

oh sound.

[EvilBoris]

oh sound.

We saw the glimpses of a few interesting games today, but they flew through them so fast that we don’t know much about them.

Remedy’s Crossfire looked good, compete with their trademark bullet time. That’s due this year
Everwild from Rare looked super pretty
The Medium is one of the more gritty looking games, with a clear cut gimmick that might be worth a look.
Obsidian’s Avowed looked like they’ve made their own Skyrim
Balan Word from Yukon Naka ticked the Japanese boxes

[Leon Retro]

This made me laugh.

[hudson]

Rackit Louncha!

[Team Andromeda]

What a Show

[Neon Ignition]

This post will come across likely as a bit scatty as at the moment of writing this sentence I haven't seen anything of the Showcase yet. I'm going to write it up as I post it making this a strange blog type experience so before I begin the key notes I see the Showcase needing to cover are:

01 - Justifying that the Series X is not another One X variant that people can skip
02 - At the very least announcing compelling titles that reflect what is selling now and make Xbox relevant again
03 - Delivering something that is a system seller because the Xbox brand is incapable of competing at Sony's level where their system will sell purely because of the number 5 being added to the end of the title.

So, here we go:

Halo: Infinite
I mean, it's fine. Fine as in an early-mid current gen game visually speaking. I appreciate 343's attempt at mixing things up in the Halo formula but I feel like Infinite comes across like something that's a tick box of things that are common place but not actually that wanted. Making it more like Destiny feels like it makes sense in a Game Pass world but Destiny is barely holding it together as the market moves on from that style as well, I'm not sure there's that much demand for Halo to follow suit especially following gameplay footage that looks so dated and also like yet another Halo 1 remaster. I think Infinite will do fine, especially under Game Pass but it's getting really hard to not feel like Halo's system seller status days are long behind it these days. Not bad, but really disappointing.

State of Decay 3
My main memory was the second game being a technical mess. Plus just a CG cutscene. Skip.

Forza Motorsport 8
If this is early in development then I can only assume something went seriously wrong at some point for three years to have passed and not be done by now. I already feel like someone panicked about fidelity and scrapped FM8 to restart as an exclusive for Series X breaking MS's backwards compatible promise. The cutscene aspects were annoying leaving little time to inspect in race stuff but it looks like it might well be better looking than GT7 and also prove MS is full of **** about Xbox One not holding back Series X games.

Everwild
Sucks its a cutscene trailer again. Looks kind of nice but it won't sell.

Tell Me Why
Always nice to see something from Dontnod, not a showcase for XBO or Series X though.

Aside - Sony and MS should keep 120fps to a bulletpoint on the back of game boxes, no-one cares, it's not going to sell your systems next gen and isn't a reflection of their power.

Gigantic
Heard some decent things on this, looks like ass, so still unsure what to make of it.

Avowed
Shoulder shrug - hard to perceive anything worthwhile from that trailer

Psychonauts 2
Nice to see some more, mostly because it feels quite scrappy of it to exist. It's hard to knock because of why it really exist, looks like it meets its original ambition. Will bomb hard though.

STALKER 2
Good to see it's still coming. At this point of the showcase their is a clear theory appearing but I'll wait...

The Medium
I dunno, still looks like a generic PC horror game that platform sees dozens a week of. The patented element may be good but to be honest it makes me sceptical not to showcase it with an example when it's your USP and no-one can copy it, just feels like it's not actually going to be impressive.

Fable
... adds to the theory I guess.

Everything Else
Mostly flops in waiting to be honest, Crossfire looks alright but despite fans happiness PSO2 is very much on the wrong console with that one.


I mean, after the Third Party Showcase it was abundantly clear that MS has made a big error in judgment and allowed Sony to get the upperhand has they often do hence the hype around this one. I know cross gen games and years carry the same arguments each time but to me it was abundantly clear that this Showcase was, brand aside, literally an Xbox One Showcase in every sense of the words. That, and that the few games in this that look like they might actually utilise Series X are blatantly so far off release that we got next to no glimpse here and will likely be talking about Series X Pro by the time they're out.

This Showcase was, I feel, absolutely instrumental in the future of Series X. It had to make an impact because whilst the PS5 Showcase last month had its issues Sony already commands an insane lead in popularity and MS won't get anymore real chances to set public perception of the Series X before release.

Coming out of the other end? It really feels like business as usual for MS. I'll want to play most of those games at some point but honestly - I think they've utterly blown it. I don't think anyone but the same old fan base is going to give much of a toss about Halo Infinite when it launches and they really don't have anything else of note on the horizon. It brings me back to my old concerns with MS whereby Sony completely needs a toe to toe competitor but in all honestly I think Series X is definitely on course to fail to sell as well as Xbox One has in its lifespan, last gens mistakes were bad for MS but there's a real whiff of irrelevance about Series X and its offerings which is a dangerous place to be based on all the ammo they've used up on it now.


Before I click Post...

Fable - So according to updates on Era it's not a Fable reboot or a Fable 4 effort and instead is actually a Fable MMO which means I can cross that off my looking forward to list too.

Well, I don't think Lockhart is going to be a concern. Unless you're very tied in hard to the XBL eco-sphere it seems an incredibly safe bet to get an XBO and use free or low priced passes of Game Pass to save yourself hundreds. The active XBO owners who were always going to upgrade at some point will do fine, XSX users maybe less so by the looks. It's 100% a one horse race moving forward and it's clear MS needs to get Game Pass away from Xbox consoles and onto many other devices if they want to see it grow.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.ign.com/articles/halo-infinite-2-wont-be-happening-says-343-industries

They say it's not but Halo: Infinite is definitely a service game and will have no sequel on Series X, instead being updated constantly by 343