Official XBOX Series X thread

[Mangler]

Infinite was pretty fun to play though.

They just need to hand over the lore stuff to another studio/writer and let 343 handle the gameplay.

[twonha]

Halo is such an enormous game to work on. You've got regular multiplayer in all its shapes and forms; you've got the single player gameplay; you've got the vast universe full of existing lore; you've got the creative side with Forge and you've got the technical challenges in splitscreen. And I don't think Halo fans, myself included, would ever be happy if a Halo title didn't release with all these elements in top condition.

In that sense, I think 343 has a much bigger challenge than most developers, who can focus on any single element and work with that. And they made it even harder on themselves by spanning multiple console generations and versions, aiming for feature parity everywhere.

Unfortunately, outside of practically perfecting Halo's legendary "30 seconds of fun" moment-to-moment gameplay loop, 343 has continuously dropped the ball wherever they could. Infinite's campaign is barebones, its storytelling is troubled, multiplayer is of course never perfect, Forge is late and co-op has been absent for far too long, not to mention splitscreen. It's been a tough ride for its entire development. And with Halo 5 and the Master Chief Collection equally troubled throughout their development and launches, I do think it's time Microsoft and 343 clean house.

[Android1]

Halo Infinite’s Canceled Split-Screen Campaign Can Be Uncanceled by Exploit

The plot thickens in the Halo Infinite spilt-screen story.

Last week, the Halo Infinite development team announced that it was walking back a years-old pledge to support split-screen co-op for the game's campaign mode. The feature had been delayed multiple times before being tossed into the bin, and the decision dashed the hopes of anyone who hoped to enjoy the game's campaign with at least one friend on a single screen.

Within days, fans suggested that the feature had been working on Xbox consoles all along, albeit via a glitch—which, as of press time, has yet to be patched on Halo Infinite's retail version on Xbox consoles. Following reports and videos of the exploit, a team of gaming analysts confirmed via hours of campaign testing that Halo Infinite's split-screen mode is functional—enough so that we're left scratching our heads as to what the heck is going on at Xbox.

Source: Ars Technica

[SubCog]

The plot thickens in the Halo Infinite spilt-screen story. ...

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[SubCog]

Halo is such an enormous game to work on. You've got regular multiplayer in all its shapes and forms; you've got the single player gameplay; you've got the vast universe full of existing lore; you've got the creative side with Forge and you've got the technical challenges in splitscreen. And I don't think Halo fans, myself included, would ever be happy if a Halo title didn't release with all these elements in top condition.

I think this is a great justification for turning Halo into more of a platform than a game. Don't reinvent every feature every iteration. Having a base engine & game that they can just create new content for, improve the graphics over time, is a much better plan for them.

I'd prefer they come out with a sequel every 2-3 years rather than turning this into a live-service game. But each iteration can build on the previous versions, ala Forza, rather than building everything from scratch every game.

[Mangler]

I'd like it if they made the ingame story telling better, right now it feels like you are missing too much stuff if you don't give a **** about the extended halo universe.

[SubCog]

I'd like it if they made the ingame story telling better, right now it feels like you are missing too much stuff if you don't give a **** about the extended halo universe.

[Dungeoncrawler]

Its been a long time since we've seen any compelling stories in video gaming.

[SubCog]

I haven't finished Halo Infinite's campaign yet, but so far what I understand from the story is:

• Master Chief looks at the map and clicks on a random point he hasn't been to. There's a paragraph of text about it, but he's not the kind of space-soldier who would bother to read it.
  
  
• Chief follows the waypoint to that place, either by driving a jeep or by harpoon-climbing over a mountain.
  
  
• He storms into an enemy of encampment, throwing grenades or exploding barrels, kills all of the aliens, before some human soldiers spawn in from nowhere and tell him how awesome he is.
  
  
• Cortana blabbers some nonsense about aliens he's never heard of, before Master Chief randomly chooses another dot from the map.
  
  
• Sometimes these battles happen at small campsites, and sometimes they're in large fortified bases... Master Chief never really knows what kind of fight he's heading into, but it doesn't matter much because he enjoys them and they always end basically the same way.
  
  
• Sometimes after murdering all the aliens, Master Chief gets some kind of item or power-up, but he doesn't pay much attention or think about what that thing he just got does. He just chooses another waypoint at random and heads off for another fight. It's a good day to be a super-soldier.

So far I give the story a 10/10

[Ravens Nest]

I haven't finished Halo Infinite's campaign yet, but so far what I understand from the story is:

• Master Chief looks at the map and clicks on a random point he hasn't been to. There's a paragraph of text about it, but he's not the kind of space-soldier who would bother to read it.
  
  
• Chief follows the waypoint to that place, either by driving a jeep or by harpoon-climbing over a mountain.
  
  
• He storms into an enemy of encampment, throwing grenades or exploding barrels, kills all of the aliens, before some human soldiers spawn in from nowhere and tell him how awesome he is.
  
  
• Cortana blabbers some nonsense about aliens he's never heard of, before Master Chief randomly chooses another dot from the map.
  
  
• Sometimes these battles happen at small campsites, and sometimes they're in large fortified bases... Master Chief never really knows what kind of fight he's heading into, but it doesn't matter much because he enjoys them and they always end basically the same way.
  
  
• Sometimes after murdering all the aliens, Master Chief gets some kind of item or power-up, but he doesn't pay much attention or think about what that thing he just got does. He just chooses another waypoint at random and heads off for another fight. It's a good day to be a super-soldier.

So far I give the story a 10/10

That gave me a chuckle

[Android1]

Halo Reportedly Dropping Slipspace Engine in Favor of Unreal

If it turns out to be true, this change might help streamline development, but I hope it would not affect the signature look of the Halo series.

The game was only released in late December 2021, and it had quite a few performance issues, to boot. That was just the tip of the iceberg, anyway, as 343 Industries had to make massive cuts (two-thirds, according to reports) to ship the game, and some core features like Forge mode and co-op campaign still haven't been added to Halo Infinite.
It's, therefore, not that surprising to hear a new rumor from Jeremy Penter (ACG) about 343i choosing to abandon the Slipspace Engine in favor of Epic's Unreal Engine.

For his part, Jez Corden could not corroborate but did say it is likely. He also noted that Director of Engineering David Berger has recently left the company.

The first Halo game to use Unreal Engine could therefore be Tatanka, in development at Certain Affinity and rumored to be inspired by the Battle Royale genre.

Source: Wccftech

[SubCog]

Yup, Slipspace has been a bit of a failure, despite the microsoft $$ they threw at it. I do love what it accomplishes in Infinite, but clearly Unreal out-does it in basically every way.

Mainly though, Unreal will help them make games on budget & on schedule. Building their own engine just introduces massive amounts of volatility into those areas.

We'll definitely see fewer game engines moving forward. It shouldn't really be surprising though. We're long past the era of small teams building AAA games in someone's garage. As engine development goes, if you can't keep up with the 800 lbs gorillas then stay out of the kitchen. I think that's how the saying goes, right?

[Dungeoncrawler]

I kind of expected this to happen, just maybe not so quickly.

Developer claims ‘many’ studios are asking Xbox to drop mandatory Series S compatibility

This machine is going to become irrelevant very quickly unfortunately (maybe)

https://n4g.com/news/2515532/developer-claims-many-studios-are-asking-xbox-to-drop-mandatory-series-s-compatibility

[SubCog]

I kind of expected this to happen, just maybe not so quickly.



This machine is going to become irrelevant very quickly unfortunately.

https://n4g.com/news/2515532/develop...-compatibility

Considering that most games are still supporting the old xbone, I suspect that series-s still has some life ahead.

Especially, as I suspect that series-s has likely sold more units than seriex-x.

[DeathKnight]

It's a bunch of bull. Any developers who may be bellyaching about the S don't want to put forth the extra effort to adjust their game(s) for the S. It's been done for ages on PC games that accommodate a wide array of configs from lowend to highend. Many of these console games are also on PC.

I really don't see the issue with the S. The system architecture, dev tools and development environment are all identical to the Series X. The CPU is identical save for a couple hundred MHz. The storage speed is identical. The GPU architecture is identical, but its throughput is about 1/3rd of the X. It has 6GB less RAM with lower throughput. These concessions aren't a real problem when the rendering resolution is much lower along with using lower quality assets and settings.

What's really "holding back next-gen" are developers continuing to release their games for the previous generation consoles (with their shitty CPU's and GCN GPU architecture). Hell, Sony is still releasing their primo titles for the PS4.

[Dungeoncrawler]

I was under the impression the S just didn't render in 4k?

[DeathKnight]

Age of Empires 2 and 4 coming to Xbox next year

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/10/25/the-console-age-is-coming-to-age-of-empires/

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[SirBaron]

Can't imagine playing Age of Empires with a controller, too fast paced, but we'll see.

At least it should have mouse and keyboard support anyway.

[KAC]

I am wondering if I should keep the box anymore. I haven't turned it on for maybe 3-4 months. Last game I tried playing was Ninja Turtles which was too hard to play with a controller.
I thought I would use cross play a bit more but that also didn't really turn out to be true. All games now on the PC so not sure why I have this sitting around collecting dust.

Anyone in a similar situation? I just need it for game pass but most of the games that I want to play on game pass are also on PC lol.

[SubCog]

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[Sasquach]

I am wondering if I should keep the box anymore. I haven't turned it on for maybe 3-4 months. Last game I tried playing was Ninja Turtles which was too hard to play with a controller.
I thought I would use cross play a bit more but that also didn't really turn out to be true. All games now on the PC so not sure why I have this sitting around collecting dust.

Anyone in a similar situation? I just need it for game pass but most of the games that I want to play on game pass are also on PC lol.

Its a reason i never got or was interested in an Xbox and a to lesser extent PS4. My PC stays up to date (more or less) and is what i use for my graphical/FPS games. My Switch handles all my other console game needs. Between the two i have all bases covered. An Xbox would be redundant and the PS4 exclusives were never my thing. The only things i dont like is that some games are better suited to a controller vs keyboard/mouse, and my PC isnt hooked up to the television, and that a console is just "turn on, load game, play" whereas my PC takes a little longer to get to the "play" part.

You also gotta remember Gamepass is on both PC and Xbox, There maybe Xbox only titles on it but for the most part anything available on Xbox would be available on PC as well via gamepass.

[DeathKnight]

Xbox's first Developer_Direct show will coming January 25th

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/01/11/xbox-bethesda-present-developer-direct-livestream-january-25/

Glad to see they're embracing this style of update. Starfield will be getting its own dedicated show at a later date.

[DeathKnight]

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Et8r1413Y

Recap: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/01/...nounced-recap/

- Minecraft Legends launches April 18th
- Forza Motorsport still launching this year but no release date yet unfortunately
- Hi-Fi Rush by Tango Gameworks shadow dropped today (name and sparse details were previously leaked)
- Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom expansion launching in June
- Redfall launches May 2nd

[SubCog]

Motorsport looks incredible. Definitely needs support for VR. There's some speculation that xbox will have partnership with Meta for that, but nothing solid yet.

[Dungeoncrawler]

Xbox Series S’ Lower Specs Will Make it Hard for Graphically Intensive Games to Hold up

According to Caverns of Mars: Recharged’s game designer and producer Tadas Migauskas, however, the Xbox Series S is going to struggle as we get deeper into the generation.

From the very start, the whole thing seemed like nothing more than a cash grab due to presumed low quantities of the mainline hardwares (series x, ps5) at launch.

https://gamingbolt.com/xbox-series-s-lower-specs-will-make-it-hard-for-graphically-intensive-games-to-hold-up-caverns-of-mars-recharged-dev

[SubCog]

From the very start, the whole thing seemed like nothing more than a cash grab due to presumed low quantities of the mainline hardwares (series x, ps5) at launch.

https://gamingbolt.com/xbox-series-s-lower-specs-will-make-it-hard-for-graphically-intensive-games-to-hold-up-caverns-of-mars-recharged-dev

I don't think it's fair to say that offering a budget-friendly option is a "cash grab". But I do agree that there will be challenges moving forward for maintaining support for series s.

While I think it's generally a good idea to maintain gameplay feature parity, I think MS could loosen certain requirements, like splitscreen multiplayer.

[GravY]

Xbox showcase killed it. Future looks great for Xbox and Gamepass.