The first of the cross buy games from Microsoft [XBox One/Windows 10]

I guess it should be mentioned that getting a copy of this game nets you both the Windows 10 and the Xbox One version. Might be a good indicator of what new games that release in this system can do between both platforms.

Will they both perform the same or will one platform be better than the other? Advantages or differences? I guess we will see tomorrow.

Quantum Break was the first Windows 10/Xbox Cross-Buy game.

@mike said:

Eh, not really. You only got a Windows 10 copy of the game if you pre-ordered the Xbox version, and that code took over a week to arrive. If you bought the Windows 10 version, that's all you got. They also appeared as separate purchases, unlike Play Anywhere games which are unified in the store.

Okay, I thought I was crazy for thinking this before, but it sounds like I was correct. It almost led me to preorder ReCore, but Quantum Break didn't really hold my attention for any amount of time. To be honest the only reason I preordered Quantum Break was because I was really interested in the idea of cross buy for Xbox and PC.

The double-whammy because I think Halo: Forge is out for Windows 10: Anniversary as well today for free!

Fixed. (Cue somebody pointing to another game that did it even earlier.) (Also edit: this part of this post got mangled somehow.)

ReCore seems to be the first Play Anywhere-branded Xbox/Win10 game released, I guess. The differences between that and KI are unclear, maybe IG had to do more of the work to get that up and running in lieu of the Play Anywhere infrastructure proper

Regardless, KI is about as cross-play/buy/save as they come, and the PC version is generally considered pretty good. Reasonable enough system requirements, mostly stable and hiccup-free (outside of some launch problems), flashy in-built performance test which you have to pass to play ranked, lots of people seem to be able to get up to 4K and completely eliminate the ~20second load times on matches in the Xbox version, etc.

ReCore seems like the kind of game that came out of two troubled studios and suffers from poor optimization accordingly, so it might not be the best "first" gauge of Play Anywhere. That said, I've heard that PC might be the way to go so that you don't have to sit through the load times?

Question...I've never used the windows store so do they just send you a code or do you have to log in with your Microsoft (Xbox Live) account?

It's basically an app store on your PC. Programs install and you'll see them as an icon in the program list of your start menu. No codes. It's just like having something in a Steam library.

If you buy the game in either place it connects it to your Microsoft account so when moving to the other platform simply go into the store and it will give you an Install option instead of a Buy option. Even the saves are connected to your tag so moving between platforms automatically keeps your save files current. Platform hopping was incredibly easy.

It's actually been out for a while, I installed it last Friday (but you reminded me I still haven't played it...)

@wandrecanada: thanks for the info.

Another question about the cross play. I assume this means I would have to buy the game digital? Because I got the disc and I'm not seeing anything on the Windows 10 Store for the download.

That is correct. Its solely for digital purchases only.

Sooo this game... is it getting any support and fixing or is it abandoned?

I got the impression it was pretty broken at launch but is it actually that bad?

@rethla: I hope they don't leave it to die. The Xbox version really needs the loading times patched, but other than that your mileage may vary with technical issues. The only thing that I ran into was a traversal section that would spawn you back on a platform only to be immediately knocked off, but it only took a few times for it to bounce me back to the right spot. This kind of checkpointing has happened to me in Halo before, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me.

I think the design choices like gating the final dungeon have been way overblown. The solid platforming, combat, and exploration make the game well-worth playing.

It's not pretty broken like other games are at launch. There are niggling bugs that make gameplay frustrating if you encounter them. However you can complete the game without having to restart.

Basically the bad reviews are death by 1000 cuts. Load times are rough on Xbox. Some of the systems are not well implemented (the core energizing). You can't just follow story critical path to win. VO seems like it was just replaced with gibberish for time purposes....

After all that though is a good game. It's a $40 title that can take you a good 15-20 hours of gameplay to beat. The combat is good and fun. The traversal is good and fun. The fact that you have to play more of the game than just the main story just means that you have to play more fun game...

This game is probably a great example of what an excellent game without polish turns out to be. Not enough time to sand down the sharp edges. Both publishers and game players alike should use this as a shining example of why delays can sometimes be worth it for a project to come out right. It coulda been a contenda.