Xbox Series S/X: Thread 02

[teddymeow]

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Series X gameplay finally coming soon

That just smacks a bit of desperation.

"See, we have launched games. We do have games. Honest".

[dataDave]

That's not strictly true - if the X is rendering at 4K and downscaling to 1080P, there are potentially quality gains there to be had over the S.

Indeed, but how much of an improvement is that going to be over the S downscaling 1440p to 1080p? Maybe something in the region of 4x MSAA vs 2x MSAA?

[MartyG]

Yeah, it's not going to be huge, everything else being equal.

With running at a lower res, it'd also allow the X to beef up post processing effects and up the framerate over the S with the additional GPU grunt too. I prefer to run my One X in the performance modes for the framerate boost rather than the resolution gains - I find that more important for a better gaming experience.

[hudson]

Just been looking through the games on GamePass and it whoops PS Now's library to pieces in my opinion. Can't wait to ahem...jump in.

[nonny]

Yeah game pass is really good right now but it's about to get insane in November with EA play being added.

I also note Prey, Dishonoured and Wolfenstein have received Series S/X collections classification... So expect all of those series games to be getting the enhancement treatment in the near future.

I'm now wondering if Fallout 4 / Skyrim will get a sneaky overhaul? I mean they're still very popular and Skyrim SE already got a tonne of upgrades but it would be great to see it get the same treatment.

We know Doom Eternal is getting enhanced already...

[cutmymilk]

MS is on the right track with this. There are so many great games from last gen that no one has possibly played everything. Knowing they will be on Game Pass in enhanced form is enticing. Even if they aren't the MS store is full of bargains.

[dataDave]

I'm now wondering if Fallout 4 / Skyrim will get a sneaky overhaul? I mean they're still very popular and Skyrim SE already got a tonne of upgrades but it would be great to see it get the same treatment.

MS would need to hold their kids hostage before they'd ever work on anything meaningful for Skyrim. I'd expect a boost to 4K/60FPS at the absolute most. For comparison if you want to do that on the PC version you edit two lines of text. And yes, the console versions ARE the PC version. Then all of those 256 textures (which are stretched to 512) would end up exposed more than ever.

Just don't expect anything like this:

[nonny]

MS would need to hold their kids hostage before they'd ever work on anything meaningful for Skyrim. I'd expect a boost to 4K/60FPS at the absolute most. For comparison if you want to do that on the PC version you edit two lines of text. And yes, the console versions ARE the PC version. Then all of those 256 textures (which are stretched to 512) would end up exposed more than ever.

Just don't expect anything like this:

I dunno even on the One X I have seen some pretty impressive mods on Skyrim SE so perhaps there is room to bring the base level game up to spec for the Series S/X

[nonny]

MS is on the right track with this. There are so many great games from last gen that no one has possibly played everything. Knowing they will be on Game Pass in enhanced form is enticing. Even if they aren't the MS store is full of bargains.

I think the best part is with BC most uncapped framerate games are seeing a jump from 30 to 60fps which is really great to see. There's still plenty of current (old?) gen games that are going to play even better when you dig them out of your backlog of shame and for me that's an awesome thing when it's always slow for next gen to start pumping out some AAA content.

The fact MS has gotten HDR to work through AI on top of that, and faster loading / quick resume etc... it's all just nice value adds. Then at least with bethesda and first party... its all included in game pass, really can't complain.

[nonny]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-10-07-microsoft-says-using-xcloud-to-demo-game-pass-games-on-pc-and-xbox-on-the-list-of-things-its-working-on

The ability to stream game pass (xCloud) to consoles and PC is "on the list" of features, straight from Phil Spencer himself.

No timeframe but good to know...

[dataDave]

I dunno even on the One X I have seen some pretty impressive mods on Skyrim SE so perhaps there is room to bring the base level game up to spec for the Series S/X

Yes, some of those mods are the culmination of thousands upon thousands of hours of community work over the past ten years. They're only surface-level mods, too. The best mods enhance/fix things at an engine-level, requiring script extension which can only ever work on the PC. Basic INI tweaks for resolution, framerate, and render distance is as far as they'd go.

If they wanted to do a decent remaster of Skyrim it would have already happened by now. The fact is they know they don't need to while the community does all the work for them. Besides, I'm sure they'd rather allocate those resources toward ESVI.

[nonny]

On PC maybe but if they're chucking them all in game pass for Series XS and want to spruce them up then maybe they will revisit them.

Even if they did some extra work getting the SE version working via BC as good as it can be.

[fuse]

Just don't expect anything like this:

Devastated to learn the Microsoft Series platform is not going to be the home of guys in corpse paint.

Who will I turn to now in my hour of black metal need? SONY?! Pssh.

[Lebowski]

anyone else feel underwhelmed that it seems to not be able to hold 60fps 4k on some of the last gen games they tested



was i expecting too much? also why do i want to punch that guy from digital foundry his constant fawning is sycophantic

[dataDave]

anyone else feel underwhelmed

It's not really surprising. Most of those games were not developed with future BC in mind.