Topic: Official Push Square Xbox Thread

Superhot looks half decent but its unlikely I'll play any of them, I simply dont have the time and have a stack of games to catch up on through Gamepass, EA Access and the likes of Wolfenstein 2 and Assassin's Creed Origins.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2018/02/27/new-enhanced-xbox-360-...

New enhanced 360 games on Xbox One inc Crackdown and the Witcher 2. Xbox 360 games that are enhanced for Xbox One X run at a higher resolution and 9X the original pixel count on Xbox One X.

Backward Compatible library includes more than 460 Xbox 360 games, 11 Xbox One X Enhanced Xbox 360 titles, and 13 Original Xbox games....

@BAMozzy weirdly I was only looking at The Witcher 2 a few hours ago as I've never played it before and quite like number 3. Also I have Fable Anniversary sat in my library waiting to be played, so this is great news

@carlos82 I loved the Witcher 2 but its not as open world as 3. It's more linear too. I would certainly recommend it but its not like the 3rd in a lot of ways.

@BAMozzy I don't mind that, whilst I loved the open world of 3 it was the story that had me gripped, perhaps more so then any other open world game I've ever played. I'm intrigued by these characters and it'll be nice to have a fresh perspective on the events and relationships of 3.

@carlos82 If that's the case, you should love Witcher 2 as well. If anything, you may want to play Witcher 3 again after and those decisions you make etc take on a lot more significance. All the key characters from 2 are in 3. I was just making sure that if you were looking for a 'clone' - like Fallout 4 was to Fallout 3 - then you may find this much more restrictive but the story is still excellent

@BAMozzy thanks for the advice and I'm quite excited to play number 2 now, I'll definitely be giving 3 another go afterwards as I never got round to playing the DLC and it'll be interesting to see what I make of Triss and Yennefer with a bit more background knowledge. Seen as I'm starting again anyway I'll pick it up for the X for some lovely HDR vistas.

I just picked up a cheap second hand xbox one s and got it all installed. Mainly for the improved blu ray, but also for MP with a friend who only has XB and for backwards compatibility. Now replaying Portal 2. Love that game.

Some great games added to gamepass this month, obviously the big news is Sea of Thieves and having tried the beta I'm a bit more curious about this game. Outside of that we have Resident Evil Revalations 2, Super Luckys Tale but the star of the show is Rise of The Tomb Raider which I've been tempted to buy for some time. Having now spent a few hours with it I don't know why I've waited so long as its easily as good as anything Uncharted 4 had to offer.

@carlos82 Rise of the Tomb Raider was so good, I bought it a year later for PS4 (20th Anniversary edition). Its far more involved, much more RPG and open world than Uncharted which despite being more wide-linear in design, still feels very linear and old-school in structure. I love Uncharted, the characters etc but both Tomb Raiders (reboot and this) are much more interesting from a game-play perspective. If I had to pick one to play, I would pick Tomb Raider without hesitation but Uncharted beats it on story - I don't think Rise was as strong as the reboot in this area but its still a better game overall than the predecessor. I do prefer the first 3 Uncharted Stories to 4. The first 3 felt more 'Indiana Jones' with that mystical/super-natural element but 4 felt more 'Goonies' with adult characters - No mystical element and escaping with just enough treasure to save their future like the Kids did. I also wasn't so keen on the MGS style enemy marking either but 4 is still a great game.

Anyway, unless you want to play in 60fps specifically, I think the enhanced mode is the best option. It may use CB rendering where as the resolution mode is native 4k, but you get all the highest visual settings (best shadows etc) and its still giving a 4k image - It also looks stunning in HDR. When I played on Pro, I opted for Resolution as that was 4k CB where as the enhanced mode was only 1080p so looked a lot softer despite higher visual settings. The 60fps was too variable for my liking where as on the X its more stable and doesn't drop any where near as much or as frequent.

@BAMozzy yeah I love all the Uncharted games with the second still being my favourite but it tends to be for the story more so than the gameplay, I enjoyed 4 and levels like Madagascar but I always felt it needed a bit more exploration and Tomb Raider seems a bit more involved gameplay wise.

Rise defaults to the enriched mode and I left it like that until the Pharoahs Tomb in Syria as it was difficult to get an idea of how much changes until then. Having seen it now I agree with you and will be sticking with it as the difference is quite pronounced. There is a lot more detail than I was expecting and increased tessellation in Lara's hair, whilst the image quality isn't far short of the native 4K anyway. This coupled with arguably the best HDR presentation I've seen and some high quality textures make this the best looking game I've played on the X. More importantly I'm loving every second of the gameplay so far too

Its a stunning looking game - even when I played it at release on XB1 on a 4k TV and in SDR too. If the Witcher 3 hadn't released in 2015 too, this would have been my game of the year. It was tough for them, with the controversy over launching on Xbox first and in a year with games like the Witcher 3, Fallout 4, MGSv for example but I think it was still the 2nd best game of 2015.

What 'little' exploration Uncharted has, its just for 'collectibles' that have no meaning - other than a trophy. I know Rise has collectibles too but there is also reason to explore - even if its just to collect materials to upgrade weapons/gear. I must admit, I still look around with Uncharted as the attention to detail and beautiful visuals make it worth while anyway.

Glad you are enjoying it now and it is certainly a visually impressive game and one I would recommend for anyone looking to see what the 'X' can offer.

@BAMozzy I’m currently playing through Crackdown and I’ve got to say I’m really impress with these OG Xbox and 360 games that have been getting the X enhancements, you’d think they’d have aged badly but the enhancements with some games like Crackdown, really do make them look fresh and up to par with this generation of games, I’ve seen some new releases that look and play worse than some of these X enhanced titles that are like over 10 year old.

Are you looking forward to Crackdown 3? I am but I don’t know how all this destruction is going to play out, are they still using the cloud to make the game handle the graphics and destruction? Even on the X I just think it looks too ambitious with its open-world, high graphics and destruction. I think it will either really scale it down or we’re going to see a lot of frame rate drops. I don’t mean to be negative but I really want it to do well because I’m having a blast playing the first Crackdown and want 3 to do well.

@MaccaMUFC The X does breathe new life into these 'old' games - not only visually but also performance too in some cases. Vanquish rarely runs at 30fps on the 360 or base XB1 (its better) but the X version is a lock on 30fps (apart from a cut-scene).

I am not overly looking forward to Crackdown 3. I liked the first but the second was very mediocre. I have NO interest in co-op or MP in this either and therefore Destruction won't play a part at all. The destructive environments were only in the MP and if games like Battlefield can have big destructive environments with 64players, then I don't see why Crackdown 3 couldn't with fewer players. The game is still listed as having CloudGine co-development and state:-

"Crackdown utilises Cloudgine’s cloud technology to supercharge physics and destruction to a level never seen before. Built on Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, Crackdown 3 utilises the latest in Unreal Engine and Cloudgine technology to create an entirely new experience powered by the cloud."

Part of the issue with the 2017 game-play was that people were wanting to see this promised destruction but that is only expected in the MP maps. They really messed up the game-play demo's too by having 'famous' people who had never played a 'game' before (or so it seemed) too and it looked 'dated' as well. The only 'new' aspect seemed to be a boost in any direction whilst jumping. Anyway, its not on my 'most wanted' list but may pick it up much later on when the price drops as it seems that 'few' are interested in it right now. You hardly see any chatter about State of Decay 2 either - other than the 'big' price drop that had for pre-orders recently - a game that was supposed to be getting the AAA big budget treatment now being priced as a mid range game - like ReCore or Uncharted: Lost Legacy.

@BAMozzy So the destruction in Crackdown 3 isn’t going to be in the solo campaign but only in MP? Crackdown isn’t known for its destruction anyway but if that’s true then it’s further proof that MP is always taking priority over single player.

I’m really looking forward to State of Decay 2 but giving it a price drop before it’s even released doesn’t seem encouraging but I could say that about Crackdown 3 and Sea of Thieves which are all going to be released on Game Pass, I can see many people paying the £8 fee just once for a month to play one of those games when each one is released then just move on but State of Decay 2 is definitely a day one buy for me but will ‘rent’ Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3 before I even consider buying them.

@MaccaMUFC Of course Crackdown isn't known for destruction and could ruin the Single Player - how would you do rooftop races or get the orbs at the top of buildings etc. The fact that they talked about destruction but so far tended to keep to the SP in game-play has brought about criticism and many were thinking that the 'destruction' had been removed because the 'Cloud' hasn't exactly taken off as many expected - think Titanfall and how many games have mentioned 'cloud computing' since. How it was supposed to be the 'saviour' of Xbox and make up for its 'weak' performances...

I don't see it as proof of a MP focus - after all, the game could still offer a massive SP campaign and bigger in scale than the first. MS though are more focused on 'online' AAA gaming in general - even Crackdown has online co-op for example. Destruction doesn't suit the SP either so its not exactly 'proof' of an MP focus - more proof that they are trying to use the 'tech demo' in a game and in a way that suits the game-play loop. Like I said, it could ruin/limit the SP. I still think its been shoehorned into Crackdown to give it an 'edge' over alternative MP shooters. They had the tech demo and looked at which franchises they good shoehorn it into - Halo, Gears etc have more established MP's with static, indestructible maps so could change the MP dynamic. Crackdown hasn't had an established MP so they can build an MP mode to shoehorn that into and it kind of fits with the over the top 'action'.

It also makes sense to a degree on why they can offer these as 'Game Pass' games. If they were just 20hr SP games, people could download and complete these long before they get swapped out but add in an online hook, When they do swap these out, people will be tempted to buy (albeit with a 20% discount) to keep their characters, keep playing with their friends etc. What incentive is there to buy if you have beaten the SP campaign if that's all there is? This is why games like Sea of Thieves and State of Decay will be on game pass on day 1. MS are hoping that you get hooked on playing Pirates or 'surviving' a zombie apocalypse. They also hope that the MP (if not the co-op campaign) of Crackdown will get you hooked and want to keep playing, keep having fun levelling the maps etc.

All their big franchises have an online component - Forza (both), Halo, Gears etc. Even if they do have a 'solid' SP experience, they hope that the MP is enough to keep you engaged long term, longer than these games will remain in Game Pass. They have now started swapping games out having reached a certain number and I would be 'very' surprised if the 'new' releases stay more than a month or two.

@BAMozzy @MaccaMUFC I'm loving the bc on the X so far as it's introducing to me to many games that I've never played and they're all available for so little money. I'm tempted by Crackdown to play with my step son and it'll only cost £4 to get myself 2 copies.

Also found The Witcher 2 for a tenner, only done the training area so far and it suggested I should play on hard (I'm not sure why 😆). In any case its very early days but it plays very well and looks great and I cant wait to see whats in store.

@carlos82 The Witcher 2 was a game I bought at launch on the 360 - although it has been offered free as GwG but its still easily worth £10. All the games on BC run better on the X (not so much on the S) because you get no screen tear at all and generally perfect performance (if not perfect - better than ANY other console). You also get the max Anisotropic Filtering baked in on the X to improve textures as well as better loading times.

Bayonetta runs at a locked 60fps - better than the Switch version and the ONLY console that doesn't drop frames. Even if you enjoyed these old games on a 360/PS3, a LOT are much better now. Only the few games that ran perfectly play like they did - but you still get the benefits of faster loading and better texture filtering as standard across all games.

As I hear a lot, a good game is a good game regardless of its visuals and the 360 era had a lot of great games. Its good to see some getting a boost in resolution too which may encourage 'new' gamers to check these games out for the first time...

@BAMozzy it's definitely a console which is making me want to go back and play some older games, whether it's those that I've played and enjoyed or perhaps missed first time round. The X enhancements are great but I'm just as happy to play others too and doesn't it increase the resolution of og Xbox games by 16x? After trying Burnout Paradise on EA Access it's made me want to play the earlier titles as I miss the crash mode and still have a soft spot for the original game too.

Overall though it is one amazing console that satisfies my needs for the latest in gaming technology and being able to play classic, arguably retro games too. I really like my PS4 but if I go to CEX I'm limited to just the PS4 shelf yet with Xbox I quite literally have half of the shop to look at, with many classics for very little cost and all will work better than they ever Have, the irony is that all I see online is how Xbox has no games and here I am drowning in them

@carlos82 OG Xbox games are only 1080p (still higher than they were) on BC but with 16x Anisotropic filtering as that is baked in - just as it is for XB360 BC games on the X. That filtering is only on 'X' but its 'extra' enhancement on top of the standard XB1 consoles. Its only the 360 'X' enhanced games that are at UHD resolution and its always 9x. A full 720p is 9x smaller than 2160p so any full 720p 360 games are a full 2160p on X but only 720p on standard XB1.

As for games, you don't have the full back catalogue to shop but 466 (of 1232 - according to Wiki) 360 games and (13 of 1048) OG Xbox games. *The LIST also indicates which are enhanced for X too - 11 so far inc Assassins Creed, Fallout 3, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Gears of War 3, Mirrors edge and of course the 4 new recent additions like Witcher 2 and Crackdown. Its worth looking at this list and maybe jotting down the few titles that may interest you. Its better than going out, buying a few games and find out that those aren't BC if you don't have a 360.

It does annoy me too - as you may have gathered from some of my comments, when ignorant people say the Xbox has no games. I can list 20+ that are 'exclusive' and that have released since E3 2017 (not even a year ago and due out in the 'near' future (not rumoured or dead cert games like Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5 or Halo 6 either). Admittedly quite a few would be classified as indies - like Cuphead, Ori and the Will o' the Wisp. Ashen, the Last Night, Below, Tacoma etc but we also have Forza 7, PUBG, Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2, Crackdown 3 - maybe not 9/10 out of 10 games but Forza and especially Cuphead have done very well at the game award shows. Two of the games that PS4 fanboys (notice I say fanboys and not 'gamers') were gloating about will/could be on Xbox soon - Crash is coming for definite and Hellblade looks like it will after several places gave it a classification rating. That, along with all the multi-platform releases and huge back catalogue of XB1, XB360 and those few OG XB games certainly doesn't seem like Xbox One is light on games. Even if you ONLY opted to play X enhanced games, there are more than the average person buys in the lifespan of a console - I believe the average gamer buys around 8 (+/- 2) games a year so the X has plenty of games to keep most people fully engaged. Of course I would like more choice and games of quality with a strong Single Player focus but I too have an ever increasing backlog - inc 100+ games ready to download from IGC (going back to the start of the IGC programme - thanks to BC). I have nowhere near the number of games on my PS4 despite it being my 'lead' console for a while.