It’s not impressive, but it’s nice to get a mainstream release that maxes it out within reason for the vast majority of people with zero effort or inside knowledge. If you aren’t happy with anything less than 8k 144Hz, then you can make that happen for yourself by other means. But for the millions of people with 120Hz TVs from a Memorial Day sale, this really is a meaningful offering.
I think they need to do this now before Microsoft does it first. Xbox is flailing and the daylight they can see from there is the Xbox/PC ecosystem. Turning Xbox from a box to a brand that merges PC and console into a fluid system would be the best way to pivot the market and put Sony on the back foot.
I mean technically yeah. But it might also mean some meeting-in-the-middle on what PC/console even means. It’s probably push PC fanning even more toward being console, with the benefits of more consistency and less cheating, but the downside of being less flexible and more crowded with console players. Probably also a bigger push for buying PC games through the Microsoft store when possible.
My Baseless Prediction, i.e. if I ran Xbox, what I would do given their situation:
Microsoft will sunset the Xbox as a console but focus on creating a dual boot mode for Windows similar to the Steam Deck and Big Picture Mode. Probably called “Xbox Mode” or something similarly unoriginal but evocative. This streamlined mode will greatly reduce system overhead and be controller-centric, and it will have an emulation layer to support all Xbox ecosystem games along with backward compatibility. On certain form factors it will be the default boot mode, and supporting this they will release two new Windows PC form factors: a living room box and a handheld. Other PC manufacturers will be able to jump on the wagon as well. I doubt they will in any way define reference performance profiles akin to a console “generation” but they may have some kind of guidance regarding how graphics should scale seamlessly between TV/monitor and handheld form factors to allow for a Switch-like docking experience.
I mean if Star Control 2 wasn’t vastly superior in every way or you could just erase it from history, the game would have had some charm to it. But comparatively, it was a pretty tragic letdown.
The one good part that I still remember though was the quest where you had to retrieve a Daktaklakpak Data Pak. That tickled me since I’m a sucker for fun wordplay.
First off, it’s a sequel (by the original creators) to a game that clearly helped inspire Mass Effect as well as some of the greatest game designers ever. Second, it’s being made without any of the modern live service, microtransaction, evil tricksy EULA manipulations, and other bullshit plagues of recent gaming. THIRD, the art and music are lovingly hand-crafted and build off of one of the most charming, memorable, and musically brilliant games of all time. AND FOURTH, i want an Xbox port. We’re so close! Only $23k left!!!
Even if they do, who cares? These are the guys who created Star Control and Skylanders without the benefit of them being a remake of a sequel of a reboot of a sequel of a sequel. Give me more original TfB IP!