notnert427

I'm very, very excited about this. IOI is the perfect dev for this. HITMAN is of course amazing, and several facets of the stealth gameplay will obviously translate well into a spy game. The dry, dark sense of humor they have will work well for Bond quips as well.

From a character standpoint, few Bond games or even movies have really let Bond be that true to Fleming's version, which is far more of a calculating spy than the more "exciting" guns-blazing action hero. This game appears like it will be some sort of origin story that could very well adhere to book Bond and play things less bombastic, which would suit IOI much better than trying to brute force in driving bits and whatnot. "Training scenarios" or straight-up missions could really take advantage of their dynamic, large open worlds.

There's a ton of potential here. I can't wait to hear more about it. As sad as I'll be to have HITMAN seemingly taking a slight hiatus after 3, this is as good of a next project as I could possibly hope for.

Dan and Bianca's Panning the Stream has been pretty entertaining. It's fairly amateur in terms of actual film criticism, but it's typically quite fun if you're not looking for something all that serious. I've enjoyed it.

I went with the Sony X900E over the LG OLEDs because not only was there a significant price difference, I literally could not tell any difference in the picture quality, and I went and stared at the two TVs in multiple locations to try and find a difference. Quality local dimming on an LED can get you to a very, very similar place without the extra cost and risk of burn-in. I've had my X900E for several years now and it's as good as ever. Little to no blooming unless it's just a trash implementation of HDR like Red Dead 2 (I've admittedly become quite the HDR snob over seeing how excellent it can look). I could not recommend my set more highly. I can't speak fully to the newer X900F, G, or H, but I'll damn sure vouch for my X900E. Just an FYI in case anyone is looking for a more affordable OLED alternative without the drawbacks.

Destiny 2, with No Man's Sky-esque things to do on the planets instead of doing the same content over and over.

I have a launch Xbox One and a One X. I have enjoyed owning both. While the OG 'Bone being "underpowered" was massively overstated, it had no chance of doing what the One X can and does.

This generation was weird for consoles because the display tech really changed at about mid-generation with the adoption of 4K/HDR TV sets. Neither launch console had nearly what it takes to deliver 4K, so there's an argument that the half-step was necessary.

For me, I was already in need of a new TV set anyway, so the timing worked out. I would have bought a quality 4K/HDR set regardless of video gaming, but the One X was obviously more tempting once I already had that. I genuinely felt like I got enough out of my launch Xbox One from playing Titanfall, Forza Horizon 2, the MCC, Rise of the Tomb Raider, etc. to feel fine with upgrading.

And after the upgrade? Well, if I'm being honest, 4K res in games is more of an impressive benchmark to hit than it is some game-changer. Yeah, it looks better, but HDR is the real wow factor. HDR, when done right, is fucking incredible. The One X paid for itself the second I fired up the GOTY version of HITMAN 2016 and saw a game that I had put hundreds of hours in look jaw-droppingly better.

Having Netflix and Amazon Prime shows stream through it in 4K HDR has been awesome as well. I opted for a few 4K HDR BluRays of some of my favorite movies as well. I wish more game devs had taken advantage of the One X power this gen, and some big games like RDR2 not having HDR was heartbreaking, but Forza Horizon 4 is an undeniably impressive showcase of what can be done on a console.

As for what it means going forward, it's probably nothing good. The mid-gen upgrades made sense this go-round because the display tech changed. Now I expect that since this ice has been broken, the "cell phone model" will be adopted yet again the next gen, without a need for it.

Honestly, there's arguably not even a need for the next gen yet at all. What are we getting? Ray tracing and faster load times? Okay. I'm sure I'll get one at some point, but the justification is thinner, and I only expect it to be moreso if there's another mid-gen upgrade. 8K/120FPS is pure overkill, so it's hard to make that argument if that's the plan.

I just fear that we're approaching a point where we'll be sold some perception of obsolescence when that's not actually the case. There are precious few games that seem to even remotely stress the One X, and we're about to have something roughly twice as powerful? I guess devs having plenty of extra power to play with will be nice for them, but I'm not remotely buying that the industry took full advantage of the One X hardware in particular or is presently limited by it.

I guess I just don't want the focus to be this arms race from a hardware standpoint and benchmark-seeking from the software. Make a game good. Give it proper HDR. We already hit 4K/60 FPS this gen, so there's no excuse to easily hit that next gen and focus on making games as good as they can be. If I'm told I'm supposed to want/need 8K/120 three years after these new consoles, I'm gonna tell them to fuck right off.

We're very near diminishing returns, if not there already. I'm already questioning if next gen is coming too soon, and I'm going to get really pissed if the "phone model" where some marginal-ass improvement is sold as if it's a must-have, or worse, if consoles adopt Apple's planned obsolescence model where it's forced.

At least the power upgrade is there to theoretically justify the new boxes, but I'm not sure they're entirely necessary as of this moment. The pessimist in me suspects that the industry will only go harder in the direction of trying to sell me on the next thing instead of making the most out of the existing tech, and it might lose me if it does.

That's where I'm at.

First off, excellent pun. Bravo, duder.

I would watch this series. While co-op NMS is a bit hit and miss, you can kinda blaze through the tutorial stuff if one player has the resources. You can just give the player the stuff they need, and it wouldn't take all that long to knock out some of that (either on the series or beforehand) if they were to do it. Hell, if they want a leg up, I'll pop in, hand a bunch of valuable stuff to the duders, and then bounce like some benevolent space sugar daddy.

I did this for my buddy and we had a good time. There's lots of silly fun to be had with NMS, and I'm sure Vinny and Brad would have a good time with it. Here's hoping this happens!

@ntm: I wondered the same thing. It's still such a bummer that they lied about HDR and then half-assed it.

Obviously backwards compatibility will matter a little less to those who skipped an XB1, but speaking as someone with one and a solid library of games for it, it's really comforting to know that my games won't be just rendered obsolete because they made a new thing. And while I'm not a Game Pass guy because I tend to take deep dives into a few games, for people who want to play a little of a bunch of games, the value proposition there is undeniable. And personally, I adore racing games. Polyphony started pissing me off right about the time they pulled the GT5 Prologue bullshit, which is basically what they just did again with GT Sport in selling half of a game that wasn't worth the wait. When I made my decision this gen, it was largely due to the fact that the Forza franchise was trending in a way better direction than Sony's flagship racer, but I couldn't have ever imagined how much that would prove to be the case.

As for selling their new box, I imagine some of this will matter to people. They're certainly keeping me as a customer. You're probably sadly correct that whatever the next Forza game is won't move the internet hype needle, no matter how awesome it actually is. Somewhere along the way, internet gamers stopped caring about quality and decided they will only accept 100% "NEW!!!!!!" products (from MS). Also, everyone got their pretend-CEO title to faux-concern themselves with sales numbers and who they've decided a thing will and won't appeal to so they can go out of their way to tell others what they should want. I don't give a fuck if MS only sells two Series X consoles as long as the one they deliver to me meets/exceeds my expectations the way the One and One X have, and I don't care to try and shitbomb the PS5 on current semi-limited info, because it's likely to appeal to certain people and that's 100% cool with me. It's not my place to try and convince them what console to buy; that's on Microsoft and Sony and people are free to choose either, or be a PC gamer, or none of the above.

Yet the Xbox brand continues to be this internet hate lightning rod for...reasons? My personal "favorite" refrain is this idea that their console is useless because MS offers gamers the Play Anywhere flexibility also puts their first-party games on PC. As if absolutely everyone wants to spend quadruple the price on a dedicated gaming PC to game at a desk (or should). As if there's no appeal to gaming on a big 4K HDR TV (with use beyond gaming) as opposed to spending a small fortune on a good monitor to worry about FOV. Meanwhile, Sony does shit like being resistant to backwards compatibility or putting the new Spider-Man game only on their new console to try and force upgrades and people love them for it. It's like gamers crave obsolescence. They'd rather be forced to "need" the new thing and lose access to shit they paid for due to shitty, intentionally anti-consumer business practices than to have more of an option to upgrade or not at their leisure. I've never understood it.

As far as Microsoft "new IP", I'd argue that Titanfall took off. It was beloved on the Xbox One, and the sequel eventually found some widespread acclaim as well since the internet hate machine decided they could admit the franchise was good once it was not just an Xbox game. And now Apex spun off from that and has found its own audience and success. I'm still hoping for a Titanfall 3, but who knows. It's only Microsoft first-party games that are subject to these "qualifiers", though. I don't recall hearing people downplay God of War because it wasn't "new IP". Nor are there similar complaints about The Last of Us II. And where was all this great "new IP" that Sony apparently had this gen? Outside of Horizon: ZD, I can't think of another example that meets the bullshit demands people make of Microsoft games so they can more easily dismiss a new Forza, Halo, Gears, et al. regardless of how good those games actually are.

It just gets old hearing this stuff. MS has supposedly been working on exactly what people are complaining about with a bunch of first-party studios (even though it wasn't ever actually half the "issue" it's been made out to be), and we'll be able to have a way better idea of what they've come up with in a matter of weeks with the event that's reportedly specifically this. Until then, though, I guess we needed one more thread getting in some last-minute potshots, as if MS not showing their first-party stuff yet means that they don't have any first-party games. When that pure bullshit take goes out the window shortly, I imagine the internet is fully prepared to pivot to shitting on everything they show to instantly decree that nothing counts as good new IP and that none of it could possibly be exciting to anyone or turn out to be quality. So it goes.

A ctrl-f on the original post for backwards compatibility, Game Pass, and the tremendous Forza series interestingly points to no mentions of these obvious Xbox strengths and glaring Sony competitive disadvantages. Weird.

Oh, but let's tout Gran Turismo 7 and its nonexistent release date that's virtually certain to drag out and ignore that Polyphony told everyone their half-assed GT Sport was Gran Turismo 7, and also that Sony arguably didn't release one quality first-party racing game on the PS4 while six great Forza games came out this gen. Racing games should be diminished as just masculine power fantasies anyway (unlike, say, God of War, which is art)...that is, unless Sony shows a racer and then they're cool.

It's also irrelevant that the Series X has a significant power advantage. See, when the PS4 was ever-so-slightly more powerful than the launch Xbox One, THAT was a huge deal because the difference in 972p and 1080p was incredibly noticeable. All that subsequent One X crap of native 4K games often doubling the Pro resolution wasn't noteworthy, just as the continued power disparity next gen won't be. It's all about the games anyway!

Like GTA V, everyone's favorite Sony exclusive that they already played way too much of because the actual PS4 first-party offering for the first three years of this gen was Bloodborne and little else. Microsoft should be mocked for featuring a third-party game like AC Valhalla that we already knew about. And touting their superior hardware? Booooring. Those MS assclowns might as well make up some cheesy slogan like "The Best Place to Play".

Expensive cameras don't mean great movies, so why would anyone EVER buy a console on potential? Horizon: Zero Dawn and God of War (both art) clearly informed early adoption of the PS4 years before their release, while those sad early adopters of the Xbox were stuck playing quality first-party games that actually existed then like Titanfall, Forza 5, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2, Halo 5, etc.

Speaking of Halo, where's the Halo footage? This franchise should really only be acknowledged when it's not prominently featured, but it's easier to downplay it when it's highlighted, so more of that, please. After all, there's a good chance that Halo Infinite could be another masculine power fantasy. If only it exuded personality the way all Sony games do.

Let's not forget those bold, eye-catching console aesthetics. Everyone wants their electronic hardware to be the focal statement piece of the living room. It's why so many routers are used as designer centerpieces instead of being tucked away in closets. We're all fortunate that Sony has made a console to pair well with everyone's standard ultramodernist bright white curvy entertainment center.

This generation's console war has obviously been won already in the first of multiple presentations. There are also no factors in this very normal year of 2020 that could possibly have altered development/production schedules in ways that affected presentations. It is decreed that the Series X will only offer predictable action blockbusters. In conclusion, Sony is art.