Xbox Chat - New Dashboard update, Blizzard signs new deal in China & limits on Game Pass subs in certain countries.

JT986M2 wrote:Is that Blood Gulch (Coagulation?)? Bloody hell - I've not seen that map in years. Looks amazing

Yup H2A redone several maps.

JT986M2 wrote:I'm very late to the Xbox One party so I'm looking for some recommendations for some online multiplayer games please.

I've only really dipped my toes in with the Master Chief Collection and Halo 5. They are both okay, but both have a couple of faults due to the age of the games. In MCC I really need to cast the net wide to find a game in a decent amount of time, and nine times out of ten I will be put in some gimmicky match. Halo 5 is similar - I can't get any matches for my preferred mode (big battle) and always end up put in really 'twitchy' small maps.

For FPSs I'm looking for something as close to Unreal Tournament/Quake 3/Bungie Halo as possible i.e. everyone starts on equal footing and relies on weapons that spawn on the map. No pay to win nonsense that can give people an edge. I think that's getting harder and harder to find though. What are the CoD games like these days? The last I played was Modern Warfare 2 and that was okay from what I remember. My preference is for a game without pre-selected loadouts but I can make my peace with that if needed.

I'm open to most genres though, so if you have any recommendations for games that are still active then let me know.

Apologies if I've missed a specific Xbox Live thread.

How about Doom Eternal?

rinks wrote:
JT986M2 wrote:I'm very late to the Xbox One party so I'm looking for some recommendations for some online multiplayer games please.

I've only really dipped my toes in with the Master Chief Collection and Halo 5. They are both okay, but both have a couple of faults due to the age of the games. In MCC I really need to cast the net wide to find a game in a decent amount of time, and nine times out of ten I will be put in some gimmicky match. Halo 5 is similar - I can't get any matches for my preferred mode (big battle) and always end up put in really 'twitchy' small maps.

For FPSs I'm looking for something as close to Unreal Tournament/Quake 3/Bungie Halo as possible i.e. everyone starts on equal footing and relies on weapons that spawn on the map. No pay to win nonsense that can give people an edge. I think that's getting harder and harder to find though. What are the CoD games like these days? The last I played was Modern Warfare 2 and that was okay from what I remember. My preference is for a game without pre-selected loadouts but I can make my peace with that if needed.

I'm open to most genres though, so if you have any recommendations for games that are still active then let me know.

Apologies if I've missed a specific Xbox Live thread.

How about Doom Eternal?

Oh, that is a good shout. It was already on my 'to buy' list, but I thought it was single-player only. The 2v1 demon vs slayer thing sounds interesting!

I got an inexplicable 1 day ban on MCC last night after getting disconnected from a couple of Halo 2: Anniversary Big Team Battle games. No warning, no nothing. It wasn't even my network connection as far as I can tell. Just booted out with no reason given. Having now experienced BTB on Halo 5 (below) I guess the MCC BTB mode just isn't as stable? Who knows.

Luckily, I had more luck with Big Team Battle on Halo 5 last night. Granted there were still a few occasions where matchmaking timed out without finding anything, but I got into a fair few. I think remaining in the same session after the game is key to getting back into a match in a timely manner too. Having a lot of fun with it to be honest. The game connection is also solid as a rock. Although some of the environments do seem a bit basic I appreciate the fact that they stuck to 60fps throughout.

By sheer chance, when I booted up my Xbox last night on the home screen it informed me I was at 98% to get 10g for 200 MCC mp wins. So I loaded it up and went onto BTB.

Here's my Search Parameters:

Now, it did take a good 3-5 mins to find a match but I was watching football so it didn't seem too long. I needed to win 2 games, lost first 2, then had a close fought draw on Reach CTF match but then won last 2 on Halo 3. I noticed as it got later, the matchmaking speeded up a lot. last 2 matches took about a min each (still lengthy).

JT986M2 wrote:The game connection is also solid as a rock. Although some of the environments do seem a bit basic I appreciate the fact that they stuck to 60fps throughout.

The BTB matches in Halo 5 are all built in Forge, that's why they look a bit odd.

Photek wrote:
JT986M2 wrote:The game connection is also solid as a rock. Although some of the environments do seem a bit basic I appreciate the fact that they stuck to 60fps throughout.

The BTB matches in Halo 5 are all built in Forge, that's why they look a bit odd.

Oh! Didn't realise. That explains that then. I mean they are very functional, but something like the remastered Blood Gulch (one of the maps I got d/c-ed from) puts them to shame. Hopefully they introduce more of the big maps of old in Halo 6 then.

Funny thing I realised last night though - having played Halo 5 multiplayer more, I really miss the sprint ability in the old Halo games! You feel like a sitting duck without it. If you'd told me that I'd say that 2 weeks ago I'd have said you were mad, but it's just so handy to get out of trouble quickly. Same with being able to climb over an edge. I feel like a heretic saying that, but it integrates so nicely.

I'm just reading up about that crouch slide move that everyone seems to do (unluckily for them, a few times they were then on the receiving end of a shotgun).

Ooh, Superliminal is out today. I was very intrigued by the concept when it was first released on PC.

A quick question for those of you who have bought an external SSD to run/store games for the Xbox One - do you think the improvement is worth it? Being a late arrival in the console's lifespan I am picking up games with fairly hefty patches and the internal 1TB drive will be used up in no time. My home internet connection isn't very speedy so I am very hesitant to get rid of stuff I've already downloaded.

I'm currently debating whether, in a month or so, to go for speed (1TB SSD) or - for roughly the same price - lots more storage (5GB 5400 rpm HD - which I gather matches the internal HD speed). Any thoughts on whether the load-time improvements with an SSD are worth it? I've heard the imrpovements aren't quite as great as the equivalent comparison on a PC, presumably because the games have been optimised for the standard console storage. I could be wrong about that though.

I presume most games these days run off internal storage rather than the disc, and the disc is more a physical DRM thing? So a game stored digitally isn't going to interfere with disc reads?

Games are basically all digital now because they are patched into oblivion. I don't own an SSD external drive but I know it's a major upgrade for a few games, not as much as latest drives on PC but still a markedly improved performance.

If you don’t want the expense of an SSD, even a regular USB 3 external drive loads games faster than the internal drive. Not enough of an improvement to justify it, but as you want the increased storage anyway, it’s a bonus.

EDIT: This is a good guide. A bit dated now in terms of the games tested, but the technology hasn’t changed. Scroll down a fair way for the loading times comparison table (the third table is the important one).
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digi ... rade-guide

twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1283823486725758976

Series S is definitely coming then...

I wonder if XB1S will soon follow or it will just become a xCloud box.

The special Cyberpunk One X may be the last manufactured.

Is there a website that lists the lowest price point history of the Xbox store (like CamelCamelCamel)?

KK wrote:Is there a website that lists the lowest price point history of the Xbox store (like CamelCamelCamel)?

https://www.storeparser.com

Cheers.

Microsoft is giving you the chance to get hands on with over 60 new demos for unreleased Xbox games as part of the Xbox Summer Game Fest.

The Xbox Summer Game Fest runs from July 21st to July 27th, during which you can find all available demos via the Game Fest Demo tile on your Xbox One dashboard.

Links from here - https://www.trueachievements.com/event/ ... -game-fest or links for all demos here - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/g ... games/xbox

Demo's available -

I'm sure there are some decent games in there somewhere but this would have been a fantastic opportunity to get out some demos of AC Valhalla, Watch Dogs 3, Halo 6 etc if only for a few days. I guess the danger is someone would find a way into the code and start leafing through for spoilers.

Summer Spotlight 2020 has officially kicked off and we’re excited to bring you a ton of games every week for the next six weeks — more than 60 new games will launch on Xbox One between July 21 and August 31! You’ll also be rewarded for buying Summer Spotlight games. We’re including both Microsoft Rewards and a gift card for your Summer Spotlight purchases.

Spend $50 on eligible games and you will receive 5,000 Microsoft Rewards points and a $5 gift card. The deal gets even better for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members who will receive a $10 gift card. There are also several movies and TV titles that will be included in the collection each week that are eligible for the promotion.

Some of the games at the link - https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/07/21/ ... ight-2020/

The 18 best demos from the Xbox Summer Game Fest

https://www.windowscentral.com/check-ou ... fest-demos

Official announcement - https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/07/21/ ... emo-event/

Xbox Chat - New Dashboard update, Blizzard signs new deal in China & limits on Game Pass subs in certain countries.

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