Microsoft Xbox digital events [E3 2020 Replacements]

[Mskx]

It’s 2020, people still think like this, and will likely do so in 2220. If you’re not a fan, you don’t seek out information, and need to be given a reason to look. Pretty pictures does that

They don’t have a cult because they didn’t have consoles out at the time when they were forming, and have never done things to court that sort of behavior. If Nintendo didn’t they’d be the same as Sega today.

This is asinine.
Xbox keeps getting negative reactions to their events even when the games they show and actually put out are usually quite good but you think they should keep doing it the same stupid way because that will somehow magically grow their fanbase despite the negative reactions?

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

hehe, tbh i thought about those little guys when i typed 'ridiculous'. There is this trailer, about reactivating this huge biggest hero of the whole universe... :O
And then... he jumps out of his buggy and shoots cute little dwarfs.

Another example: I remember BJ Blazko. as a Nazi killing machine. Not to take that serious, just for fun. He kills them all and yep - that's what games do.
And then... in the last Wolfenstein i have played, big BJ lies an the knees of his mother and cries like a little baby.

Coming up with new genres is hard ofc, but such things could be avoided easily.

I'm confused. You seem to be complaining both that Halo didn't change and that Wolfenstein did.

 

[Rangers]

This is asinine.
Xbox keeps getting negative reactions to their events even when the games they show and actually put out are usually quite good but you think they should keep doing it the same stupid way because that will somehow magically grow their fanbase despite the negative reactions?

Ehh, all of this pales in importance to the hardware, which they've nailed this gen.

 

[Daozang]

Oooof, reading this, it's obvious I'm not like the majority of people on this forum.

I play games for the gameplay not for the graphics.

The problem is not what was delivered in terms of graphics, but the expectations that were built.
And after seeing the demo for a third time, I'm having second thoughts about the gameplay as well.
I think the first time I saw it, nostalgia kicked in, and masked a lot of things I wouldn't consider good in a first person shooter released in 2020, vs something that would wow me in 2007 (Halo 3).
Now, they need to convince me why I should play this instead of Destiny...
I was really hoping for more... And that is on me.

The game is clearly a current gen game.
If it was advertised as such, it would be the swan song of the XBoxOne(X).
Closing a generation with Halo is not bad at all.

My biggest fear in all this, is that with Microsoft's insistence on reverse backwards compatibility, as in, new games that must work on older hardware as well, multi-platform and first party titles might suffer (graphically and gameplay wise) for it.
There are pros and cons as always, my fear is this strategy might slow progress down.
Mechanical drives and slow CPUs, do hold things back.

 

[Ike Turner]

The problem is not what was delivered in terms of graphics, but the expectations that were built.
And after seeing the demo for a third time, I'm having second thoughts about the gameplay as well.
I think the first time I saw it, nostalgia kicked in, and masked a lot of things I wouldn't consider good in a first person shooter released in 2020, vs something that would wow me in 2007 (Halo 3).
Now, they need to convince me why I should play this instead of Destiny...
I was really hoping for more... And that is on me.

The game is clearly a current gen game.
If it was advertised as such, it would be the swan song of the XBoxOne(X).
Closing a generation with Halo is not bad at all.

My biggest fear in all this, is that with Microsoft's insistence on reverse backwards compatibility, as in, new games that must work on older hardware as well, multi-platform as well as first party titles will suffer (graphically and gameplay wise) for it.
There are pros and cons as always, my fear is this strategy might slow progress down.
Mechanical drives and slow CPUs, do hold things back.

All AAA 1st party titles announced yesterday are XBox Series X/PC only (Forza/Fable/Avowed/SOD3 etc). It's only Halo which is stuck with its ass spread between generations. Infinite should have released last year IMO..but 343i with all of its money can't ship shit on time since Halo 4 which is crazy for a single IP studio. The Coalition which is an order of magnitude smaller than 343i shipped 3 games in the same time period.

 

[Daozang]

All AAA 1st party titles announced yesterday are XBox Series X/PC only (Forza/Fable/Avowed/SOD3 etc). It's only Halo which is stuck with its ass spread between generations. Infinite should have released last year IMO..but 343i with all of its money can't ship shit on time since Halo 4 which is crazy for a single IP studio. The Coalition which is an order of magnitude smaller than 343i shipped 3 games in the same time period.

Perhaps I'm wrong?
I remember that Spenser said that new games will play on old hardware for a few years down the line.
I might be mistaken...

 

[Ike Turner]

Perhaps I'm wrong?
I remember that Spenser said that new games will play on old hardware for a few years down the line.
I might be mistaken...

He did say that...but it is not really the case...So far only the games which had already been announced before (besides Helblade 2 et Everwild which is also XBSX/PC only) are cross gen (actually that leaves only Halo Infinite...can't really think of anything else). Literally every AAA game MS Games studios are working on is Series X/PC only and won't come out until fall 2021/ H1 2022.

 

[Daozang]

He did say that...but it is not really the case

Many quotes, and cases, that might not be the case...
Clear messaging and marketing is a good thing.
The opposite, not that good.

Literally every AAA game MS Games studios are working on is Series X/PC only and won't come out until fall 2021/ H1 2022.

That is in my opinion, very optimistic.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Perhaps I'm wrong?
I remember that Spenser said that new games will play on old hardware for a few years down the line.
I might be mistaken...

The games all showed Xbox One, Series X, Windows PC badges at the end of the trailers. Lots of games didn't show Xbox One badges.

 

[Ike Turner]

That is in my opinion, very optimistic.

Well..it is so far a fact. All the following MS games are Series X/PC Only:

- Helblade 2
- Everwild
- Forza Motorsport ( & you can count on Forza Horizon 5 to)
- Avowed
- Sate of Decay 3
- Fable

Fun Fact: Making games it takes more people , more money and time than before (contrary to what clown ass statements from Epic to pimp their engine....).
Oh and Sony buying Insomniac was their greatest investment in a long while..the studio has been stellar this generation.

 

[Daozang]

Well..it is so far a fact. All the following MS games are Series X/PC Only:

- Helblade 2
- Everwild
- Forza Motorsport ( & you can count on Forza Horizon 5 to)
- Avowed
- Sate of Decay 3
- Fable

Sorry, I wasn't clear!
I was referring to the release date window you mentioned, and that it sounds optimistic, at least to me.
And for that, (and taking into account what Spenser said about the first few years of this gen), I think we will see what the console really has to offer a lot later than usual in the generation.

Edit.

Fun Fact: Making games it takes more people , more money and time than before

I agree, that is why I think those games won't come out so soon.

 

[Deleted member 7537]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1286587931864584193

 

[scently]

My issue is with Halo: Infinite. Its the one game I was looking forward to. Halo is a series I adore simply for the campaign. It means a lot to me but I was left hugely deflated after yesterday's showing. The E3 2018 trailer showed an engine that looked remarkable; wide-open areas with lots of foliage and trees, high-quality textures and geometry, remarkably impressive lighting. The fidelity of graphics on display in that trailer was everything I wanted in a Halo game; the art of earlier Halo with the graphic quality that matches contemporary engines/games.

The E3 2019 trailer showed the same level of art and fidelity but in an enclosed spaced and I was even more impressed. I could already imagine the marriage of the kinds of stuff we saw in both trailers. Matter of fact I watched both trailers back to back just before the showcase so what was shown was extremely jarring to me. It simply does not look anywhere close to as good as what the showed before. The textures are a mess with the gun model looking like they are made out of clay or untextured plastic, the ground textures....where are all that foliage in the first trailer? the models for the brute and other enemies look really bad...they look really off, lacking in detail and their armor are too shiny and look like they are made out of Lego pieces. What are these structures that look like long vertical blocks everywhere? Where is the long-distance view that was visible at the end of the 2018 E3 trailer? What happened to the beautiful lighting? Why is this game lit so wrong? Why are MC and Brohammer the only one that looks nicely detailed? Why is it that MC armor looks worn and having incidental detail while the Elites and Brutes armor looks like they just came off the factory? How is the face of the Brute at the end of the trailer allowed to look like it does? I mean how??? What is up with the textures??? What happened to the beautiful lighting?

I could go on and on but I just hope something changes. The game does not look good even for a current-gen game talkless of a game with an engine supposedly built for the ground up to power Halo for the next ten years. And you might say that gameplay is all that matter but that is not the issue here. My issue is that they showed two trailers; An engine debut/features trailer and a cutscene and what they showed yesterday was missing all of it. Its not the worst looking game in the world but it is much much less than what I expected and that expectation wasn't something I came up with on my own. It was something I was made to expect based on what they previously showed and was told to expect. And they went on about how Halo Infinite has 10x the processing per pixel compared to Halo 5 but I am not seeing it. They said this game and engine was built from the ground up with XSX in mind and I can't see it at all. It doesn't even look good compared to current-gen games. I am not even going to talk about the art because there is so much clashing here. Why all the pop-ups? Where are the shadows to ground the scene? In short, I am disappointed and I have every right to be.
Just because there is so much fake outrage and vitriol around here does not mean you cannot voice your concern and disappointment of what was shown of Halo Infinite yesterday.

As for the showcase as a whole, I am indifferent towards it as I understand the place XGS is at the moment; they need more time. A lot of titles were announced yesterday and we still have Inxile, Compulsion, Playground Forza, The Coalition, and The Initiative still to announce some so on those front things are looking up for XGS. It's just going to require some patience.

In closing, with the current state of the game, and apparently a raytracing update I personally won't mind if the game is delayed. I don't get what they mean by ray tracing update btw. Is it more like BF raytracing update or more like CyberPunk graphics update for next-gen which isn't launching day one? They really need to get this right. I am not sure if Halo can withstand another relatively bad outing. A lot is riding on this.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I think that is extremely unlikely, because people are underwhelmed about what was shown now the messaging is "oh boy, you've seen nothing. That show we overhyped for weeks? that's nothing, in two months we'll show the real games". Maybe some 3rd party stuff but nothing huge. We know both lineups already, yes maybe Sony has their COD reveal in august but I'm not expecting much more unless Silent Hill shows up.

edit: next big things are price and services. In the case of Sony, backcompat.

Matt Booty specifically mentioned that there nothing was shown for work done by some of the MS Studios and that some people watching may have noticed. But not to worry that MS will be showing more before the launch of the XBSX. Presumably specifically to showcase games coming from those studios.

There's potentially something Gears related from the Coalition. Nothing mentioned yet for The Initiative and I'm sure Compulsion games are working on something. Likewise with nothing shown regarding the next Age of Empires from World's Edge.

It wouldn't be a surprise if something shows up from one or more of those studios plus one or more 3rd party studios in the future along with launch date and pricing for XBSX and potentially an official reveal for Lockhart.

Regards,
SB

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Oh and Sony buying Insomniac was their greatest investment in a long while..the studio has been stellar this generation.

A bit of rose tinted glasses there?

• Sunset Overdrive - decent game with mixed reception.
• Ratchet and Clank - A great remake of a great game. Not like this was going to fail. Bluepoint likely could have done just as well.
• Song of the Deep - a nice but certainly not exceptional game.
• Edge of Nowhere - VR game, decent. But again nothing really noteworthy.
• Marvel's Spiderman - the one and only title they released this generation that actually hit it out of the park.

Insomniac are a great developer, but other than the one title, they really didn't do much this generation. Their development history is also littered with average and unremarkable games sprinkled throughout with some really standout games.

Regards,
SB

 

[Daozang]

that actually hit it out of the park

Not a lot of devs that can "hit it out of the park" every single time...
Perhaps Nintendo first party?
I'm not sure, never owned a big N console, but I always hear good things about their games.

 

[Nesh]

I thought Halo Infinite looked freakin spectacular when I saw the live streaming from my phone.
Then I watched the high res video from my computer and I was wondering, is this it?
Is this the game they hyped so much?
The visuals look very sterile. One one hand we have those awesome character visuals and lighting effects during the cut scenes and then we have these ok-ish visuals during gameplay.
Doom Eternal had a lot more going on, ton of visual effects and amazing detail. Destiny 2 looked incredibly better too.
What is going on?

I loved EverWild though. Love the art and many of the effects in that one, even if it is not aiming for super detailed visuals and realism

 

[Bickle2]

This is asinine.
Xbox keeps getting negative reactions to their events even when the games they show and actually put out are usually quite good but you think they should keep doing it the same stupid way because that will somehow magically grow their fanbase despite the negative reactions?

The fanboys will declare anything they do sucky, inadequate and the Great Satan. Nothing they could put out would fix this. They could buy Nintendo, change nothing except the games come out on Xbox instead of Nintendo hardware, and they would still get savaged as ruining everything.

The psychology is identical to any other religious fundamentalists. Tell me, has carefully explaining why they’re wrong to them, with copious irrefutable evidence ever changed anything? No, they just entrench harder. Microsoft will always be evil, and they know it to be true. So Microsoft gave up trying to convert them and started marketing to those they could reach.

You’re not talking to Mommy buying little Joey a console. You’re not talking to the exec who comes in to grab one for Madden. You’re not talking to the 90%+ of humanity that doesn’t live in this world.

If things were normal,,I’d tell you to just sit in a variety of retailers this Christmas, and see what people buy and how they buy it, you’d be amazed to see how it differs from what you see online.

 

[iroboto]

Doom Eternal had a lot more going on, ton of visual effects and amazing detail. Destiny 2 looked incredibly better too.
What is going on?

Never cater to people who don't want change. I sincerely hope MS learns this lesson.

 

[Daozang]

Never cater to people who don't want change. I sincerely hope MS learns this lesson.

Change is definitely a double edged sword.
You can easily alienate your base with it.
But without it, everything gets old really fast.
In this case though, they tried it with the last two games, and it didn't go so well.
Getting back to the old cartoony epicness that is Halo doesn't sound bad to me.
I only wished for a more sincere / coherent message.
Manageable expectation etc.
Can't say that the writing wasn't there to see, but a few last minute statements unnecessarily hyped the game up, to places no game that can run on the base xbox should be.