It's really been whiplash inducing to go from reading about how Microsoft was going to dominate gaming because of the Activision buyout to reading about how Microsoft is going to be the next Sega and are possibly exiting the console market. And it all happened in the span of a few months.
Nothing like wasting my money buying digital Xbox since Xbox One days to have it turn into a subscription based company. I’ve enjoyed my Xbox, but really sucks. Still hopefully, but highly doubtful they will continue to make consoles. I’m guessing sub and cloud base allowing access on PS and Nintendo. Good for them, but no reason to keep on supporting Xbox. Move on over Sega, Atari, and whoever else, another one coming aboard
If Xbox disappears and leaves only PlayStation at that tier, I think it's more likely we're looking at the end of consoles altogether in as little as 15 years.
I could see Xbox becoming just a Windows PC preconfigured to launch essentially a Big Picture mode version of the Xbox app or something. And then maybe Sony goes ahead and makes their own store/launcher to sell a PS6 or PS7 that’s just a PC as well. But if you have your own PC, that’s fine too.
With them releasing more of their library to PC, this wouldn’t surprise me.
Sony will hold on to that kicking and screaming, because once they're just selling a PC, they lose money for each third party game sold, and they lose PS+ revenue.
I think the reason for consoles was, you pay X dollars (normally the same price as a decent video card), and you are guaranteed that any games that come out with it works. All you have to do is plug it up to a TV with HDMI and boom, working video game box with smart capabilities. It is/was a good idea, but I’m guessing MS is looking back at their Xbox One always online days and say you can hook up this $100 cloud base console and stream your games (that you pay a subscription for) with little to no degradation. Honestly they could go so far as offering it alongside select or premium TV brands, they are already doing that with LGs. The next battle will be game ownership, Ubisoft has already started that battle. Looking bleak, may be pulling out the old pirate hat
I can imagine them carrying on making consoles this generation but long-term Microsoft is a services company and over successive generations they have failed to recapture the lead from Sony since the 360. Ultimately, they just want to make more money and struggling in the hardware business is not an exciting place for them to be in.
I say this as a Series S owner: the writing is on the wall. I will likely not be purchasing another Microsoft console after this, though I’m not sure they’d be interested in releasing one. I want to buy and own games I can play locally on a piece of hardware, which probably means I have to return to Sony or go back to the humble PC. For anyone currently on the fence seeing this news, I don’t know why they’d consider buying into the Xbox platform and tying in all their gaming purchases.
I mean…I’ve had every one up to S series. I just don’t see any groundbreaking whatever to make me go beyond X since most of what is being produced is getting either the microtransaction treatment or becoming a subscription based game.
I want to buy a game and play it. period. Very few choices and I will probably get a steam deck at some point.
Halo 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Mass Effect 2 were all triple A games. Whatever this game is that they are trying to peddle, is not better than any of the previous games I listed.
In fairness, there are tons of shittier games that are considered AAA. this statement isn’t meant to defend Skull and Bones, it’s meant to show how this rating system has been diluted to useless marketing.
its not insane unless you’re doing completionist stuff, you can easily cap a few sets of armor for key purposes just with chest loot and some monster mashing. I created a second game on another user account after my first game (with duped gems, etc) and its not really grindy until you try to max out like a third set of armor.
you can get most of the battery cell upgrades by opening chests from exploring (and where the chests are becomes obvious if you collected a few old maps) and following the main story. The problem is exploring the depths isn’t all that fun. I never even used duping to get battery in my original game- by the time I explored the depths fully I was maxed out.
That’s it, I never played Nintendo games because I never had their hardware. For me personally it’s just not worth getting into their closed ecosystem. Basically same reason I never had anything apple.
If their game was that good, we would read about it up and down the net. The fact that I read about it here for the first time tells a different story.
Sadly, this doesn’t mean anything. Executives can’t and won’t share highly confidential future plan data with non-executive employees who don’t immediately require the knowledge, because if even one of them leaks that info, it can (and in this case, certainly would) tank their stock price.
Stopping production is not a plan that requires years of dev work to do, it’s something that they can announce at any time and put into practice almost immediately, so they can and will claim (even internally) that Xbox is not going away right up to the moment they publicly announce they’re killing it.
I love Phil, but he doesn’t have the influence within MS to single-handedly save Xbox if the larger company leadership decides to kill it.
Been playing the closed beta and I know it’s a beta but the game releases in 7 days. Not a whole lot you can do in that time.
The game is still really unpolished and feels jarring. The opening section has you in a rather large vessel but the thing turns on a dime. Only water craft able to turn like that is a jetski and even that didn’t have the super tight turning radius this thing did. There was also no time in turning. It felt really jarring, especially when Black Flag did it so well.
The voice acting of the characters you start with is extremely uninspired. I don’t blame the actors but the director who decided this was okay. It’s so jarring and disconnected. Characters aren’t even consistent on pronunciation of simple things.
The combat is hyper simplistic. It’s just hold left trigger to aim and then hold right trigger to fire. A quote I said to my buddy while playing was “Huh. My pirate ship is fully automatic.” The cannonballs just kept firing more and more until I needed a reload, then more and more. Everything is bulletspongey and nothing visually seems to change or update to sort of reflect the damage that you’re doing. Most vessels you fight against have multiple giant red boxes where the helm is located and those boxes are explosive and almost guarantee a one hit kill. It just feels so basic and simple and boring. When you complete the opening battle and get your own small craft, you start getting attacked by sharks who are leaping out of the water to attack the boat. Not you. The boat. Because that makes sense. And you have to attack and kill the sharks by throwing harpoons at it, also super simple point and click. Think the fish fight in Resident Evil 4 Remake or even RE4 OG.
Walking around on the ground is painful. You can’t sprint, for a start, and the character will either keep walking for another few feet when you stop or suddenly stop. This leads you to getting used to the trail so you stop preemptively and end up 5 feet away from the thing you need to do, forcing you to start walking again and that animation is also way too long.
One of the locations you have to go to at the start is called ‘West Island’. I’m sorry but how simple and boring do you have to be at the start of the game to just lazily call it West Island because it’s in the west?
This game is awful. It’s a patchwork disaster which is only made more concerning by that article saying that the third creative director just left the game before it even launches.
The last I heard about this game it was another article about it being delayed again and who knows if it will ever finish. Now I hear it’s out in 7 days? WUT.
Jesus, can’t blame the guy for ditching if that’s what they came up with after 7 yrs. I never had any hopes for it anyway but the increasing price tag for these so called AAAA games are infuriating.
I found Sea of Thieves already quite boring, but it did get the atmosphere right. Also the ships had to be properly staffed and controlling them felt like what I expect it to fell like. Also they managed to put out new content even though it was cheaper from the start. In other words: Ubisoft can suck it.
It felt like a f2p game. I play a decent amount of Star Trek Online and spend some time with some other free games. SnB has the same unpolished vibe. Like you’re seeing the framework of the entire game with posters hung over holes in the wall
Oof, thanks for the review, I was looking forward to this game but didn’t keep up with it past the trailer. Looks like a solid pass for me. I’ve been enjoying the safer seas from Sea of thieves after grabbing it on sale.
Always good to see a new pirate on the sea of thieves! Safer Seas is great for a basic tutorial, but don’t be afraid to jump to High Seas as soon as you are familiar with the mechanics. Do not wait until you’re level 30.
The new quest table in season 11 makes it safer and easier than ever to earn gold as a solo player, so there’s no point in taking the 70% reduction from Safer Seas.
The first thing you want to focus on is buying a captained ship. This will massively increase your convenience in selling loot, and is really the only thing you can buy that actually “upgrades” your character.
The next thing you want to focus on is … whatever you want! Progression is just cosmetics and getting better at the game. It’s a true sandbox.
If you want to get better at PvP, just fight every ship you see. You will sink a lot, but each time you will get a little better. Don’t be afraid to lose fights and lose treasure to other players. There will always be more loot!
For useful tips and tricks aimed at new players, I recommend Phuzzybond’s guides on YouTube.
I grabbed it because I can play in pve with friends. We’re all old people now and can’t take the toxic shit that came with the game from hardcore kids who play and fuck over new players. You probably won’t ever see me in high seas, it’s to toxic of a player base unfortunately.
Understandable. But for anyone else reading this and is interested in moving to High Seas, I should make it clear what is considered “toxic” in this game:
Toxic (actual bannable behavior):
Hacking.
Using slurs, verbal abuse, etc. (the common standards you will see for voice/chat interaction in modern online games).
Not toxic:
Attacking other crews for any reason, even if they don’t fight back or don’t have any loot on their ship.
Trash talking that doesn’t go into the category of slurs and personal abuse. (That being said, you can mute other crews any time with a hotkey).
One of the things that frustrates new players is the misconception that there are rules or standards for getting attacked by other crews.
Fighting, lying, stealing, and sneaking are all part of intended gameplay. They are the essence of the game, and are what leads to the most exciting and memorable player interactions. I say this as an almost exclusive solo player who is always at a disadvantage in PvP situations.
That being said, you can always choose to be nice, and that can also lead to rewarding player interactions. But you should never assume that the other crews are playing by your rules.
I only played the beta a couple months ago and I found it unbelievably boring and uninspired. I’ve never been so uninvested in a game’s world and this is a motherfucking pirate game. How is it this dull?!
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Aktywne