Xbox Series S/X: Thread 04

[nonny]

There’s never been anything wrong with the hardware any of the gears team have had to work with, its just the quintessential done idea, gruff gruff marines fight monsters.

There’s nothing wrong with it, but they’ve rinsed it too many times in quick succession, put it to bed for 10 years and come back to it when a long established team can come up with a fresh perspective, worked for God of War, but that team needs a long time to pull that freshness together.

My comment on the hardware was more around Gears 5 having some open world sections, which I thought really grounded the whole scale of the levels... but clearly were too sparse for their own good, besides some cool weather effects etc...

The graphics in the open sections were also noticeable lower overall resolution than the linear levels. So it makes me wonder if the Coalition went all in on more open level design, multiple routes or pure open world... what they could do on new hardware etc ..

[Cassius_Smoke]

One thing is for sure, it'll be a looker. All the gears games are. I'm not a fan of them, but they do have eye candy.

[Neon Ignition]

It would have to be made without factoring in the XBO which is unlikely. Never really bought that Gears games since the third have been that amazing visually, the cut corners always stand out. Lots of high quality character models, textures and lighting but then tons of linear paths that open up to 2D jpeg backdrops. They're good but the gap between them and the likes of other linear first party games like GOW:R and TLOU2 on PS4 is big. That being said, the visuals aren't really a concern, like Halo, the franchise is just very tired at this point.

[nonny]

The DLC for Gears 5 is probably the best example, graphically. Very impressive through out.

[randombs]

I don’t know exactly when, but Japan’s MS Rewards finally jumped up a gear - it’s giving points for Bing searches.

Last time I used it, I could generally only get points for the daily quizzes/suggested searches(“check out Beyoncé”, etc) and whatever weekly Xbox stuff was going on). I got 322 points today, whereas that would take me more than a week on the old system.

I’m back in the game!

[Neon Ignition]

I wonder if the points rate is tied to currency rates or MS is just tighter in some countries

[nonny]

I wonder if the points rate is tied to currency rates or MS is just tighter in some countries

The earning rate was significantly lower when I was in Australia and you can definitely earn a little more in the US than you can in the UK.

So yeah, it's variable across territories.

[nonny]

343 have stealth launched a new playlist for Halo Infinite with 4 community created maps. So finally we can enjoy some forge creations in official rotation.

Had a quick look earlier and they're all really decent maps. All of them are 4on4 so no BTB maps added but it's a start and great to see.

[Yakumo]

I don’t know exactly when, but Japan’s MS Rewards finally jumped up a gear - it’s giving points for Bing searches.

Last time I used it, I could generally only get points for the daily quizzes/suggested searches(“check out Beyoncé”, etc) and whatever weekly Xbox stuff was going on). I got 322 points today, whereas that would take me more than a week on the old system.

I’m back in the game!

Maybe time to make an effort on these points. Tried it in the past but got bugger all and wondered how people were raking in so many.

[nonny]

In the UK at least you're able to comfortably get £20 a month from it once you know what you're doing.

[hudson]

Is there a site that guides you through the monthly rewards? Do they have you spending lots of time in average games? I might have to give it a go

[Neon Ignition]

Very little of them come from gaming. There are online vids on it and a reddit page but if you're going for absolutely everything my daily routine now is:

PC
-Click through the daily polls and links
-Hammer any key and Enter to grab the 90 points for searching
-Complete the Shopping Quiz
-Run two 2-4 minute fitness vids in the background
-Run Age of Empires DE rewards lobby for a few minutes
Takes around 2-3 minutes at most in total except for the video runtimes

Xbox
-Play an Xbox game until one achievement pings. Unless you have a simple game that pings them readily many games dole out at least one per level so you can have a game like the Halo's, KI etc if you aren't already playing through something anyway
-Click on the daily achievement and any daily rewards in the systems rewards app
Total time varies mostly depending on how long it takes to get the achievement

Mobile
-Complete a level on Jewel via the Xbox app and claim the points (having done the PC options you'll already have cleared the other requirements for maximum points
-Complete searches on Edge browser clicking and key and Enter
-Redeem points on the Xbox Game Pass app
Total time 2-3 minutes

You then have the polls the Rewards page does, weekly and monthly game pass rewards, the Xbox weekly, monthly and streak rewards though all of these will unlock without any work as a result of doing the above daily routine. The only one that takes any specific effort is the weekly reward for doing something in a specific game. That can vary in what's involved but it's rarely too much effort and you have a full week each time to grab it.

In January I earned around 29,000 points in total and I'm very settled into a routine where none of it gets in the way of anything else. Feels pretty passive.

[nonny]

Just to add to Neons guide:

PC
- Create a collection in Edge of 40-50 search tabs (I just search for the numbers 1-50) and then to do the Bing searches super-quick just open that collection and let them all load.
- In Edge also install the "Mobile View Switcher" extension to switch the browser to mobile mode and repeat the step above to do the same searches on mobile

Game Pass / Rewards App Challenges

Use the guides from the YouTube channel Rewards Hunter as they will update for the weekly challenges (refresh on a Tuesday evening) and cover the more difficult rewards from these sources... particularly where achievements are concerned

[randombs]

Achievements is the one I used to have trouble with. My mistake was just playing the games I was already deep into(where achievements are harder to come by). This time I’ll probably queue up some random games to get achievements for things like finishing the tutorial.

Apparently Rare Replay gives an achievement the first time you launch one of its games.

[Lebowski]

Very little of them come from gaming. There are online vids on it and a reddit page but if you're going for absolutely everything my daily routine now is:

PC
-Click through the daily polls and links
-Hammer any key and Enter to grab the 90 points for searching
-Complete the Shopping Quiz
-Run two 2-4 minute fitness vids in the background
-Run Age of Empires DE rewards lobby for a few minutes
Takes around 2-3 minutes at most in total except for the video runtimes

Xbox
-Play an Xbox game until one achievement pings. Unless you have a simple game that pings them readily many games dole out at least one per level so you can have a game like the Halo's, KI etc if you aren't already playing through something anyway
-Click on the daily achievement and any daily rewards in the systems rewards app
Total time varies mostly depending on how long it takes to get the achievement

Mobile
-Complete a level on Jewel via the Xbox app and claim the points (having done the PC options you'll already have cleared the other requirements for maximum points
-Complete searches on Edge browser clicking and key and Enter
-Redeem points on the Xbox Game Pass app
Total time 2-3 minutes

You then have the polls the Rewards page does, weekly and monthly game pass rewards, the Xbox weekly, monthly and streak rewards though all of these will unlock without any work as a result of doing the above daily routine. The only one that takes any specific effort is the weekly reward for doing something in a specific game. That can vary in what's involved but it's rarely too much effort and you have a full week each time to grab it.

In January I earned around 29,000 points in total and I'm very settled into a routine where none of it gets in the way of anything else. Feels pretty passive.

Whats the fitness vid thing? thats one i wasnt aware of?


i don't religiously do an achievement a day on xbox or the PC reward one but i still ended up getting an Elite controller for nothing from about 8 months of collecting points, the big ones are the daily search stuff and the xbox weekly and monthly stuff as that tends to net you a big chunk of points all at once, im up to about £30 worth of points since i got my elite controller a couple of months back so well on my way to something else. maybei can afford the Seagate HDD expansion thing by next crimbo