The XBOX One

GameDaily.biz reports that staff across both streaming platform Mixer and first-party video series Inside Xbox have been affected, with members of the latter quietly let go just before E3 2019.

It is currently unknown how many staff have been affected, but some have already taken to Twitter to announce their unemployment, including producers Kate Yeager, Mara Baker and Terrance Thomas Jr, video producer Garth Avery, senior producer Joshua Hnosko, and product marketing manager Rukari Austin.

Digital Foundry is taking a look at what we know of the Scarlett specs:

In short: we don’t know a whole lot yet, but it seems clear that MS and Sony are pushing the envelope in very similar directions, which will enable similar developments in gameplay. The devil will be in the details only known closer to launch.

I truly wish that for this generation, “developments in gameplay” means more than just making it look shinier. Surely we can do better than that with all these cores and all that RAM.

Essentially, the move to SSD and the vastly faster CPU’s should mean more than shinier. Bigger worlds with more complex simulations. The much faster loading times also making for a more uninterrupted gameplay experience.

That’s the kind of next gen gameplay DF sees them moving towards. 120fps and ray tracing are the visual and responsiveness flourishes.

But it doesn’t seem to be only about shinier.

Hrm I think PC achievements are being listed differently than Xbox One achievements, at least for some games (win32 games maybe?).

Played a bunch of Wolfenstein II via my PC game pass and got achievements. The Xbox One console shows the achievements but they all have a blank background. When I go into the rewards app it refuses to acknowledge that I’ve gotten any Wolfenstein II achievements for the rewards quest purpose.

I don’t even know why it bothers me, it’s 200 points or something lol. It does though because my OCD has me going into the rewards app every few days to see if I should do something to get more points and it’s just taunting me.

I know ‘larger worlds’ is a shorthand, but I can’t imagine we’ll really see many larger worlds. Isn’t something like Odyssey big enough :/

Individual city-based games could definitely get bigger worlds, but I suspect the constraint there is more artist time than asset streaming bandwidth, though it couldn’t hurt.

Maybe this time they can actually do the kind of crowd density they were shooting for with AC: Unity (the one set in Paris, I think that was the name), now that the CPU will be able to handle it.

Specifically, I’d like to see much more effort put into enemy AIs. We’ve advanced from having a single instruction: “advance towards the player while shooting,” to having maybe a couple additional canned behaviors, like occasionally taking cover or trying to flank.

But it still doesn’t feel like I’m fighting a real person/thing. They have no survival instinct, for example. They don’t behave rationally most of the time, like they’re actually defending an objective or trying to accomplish something.

So I’d like to see some of those cores/RAM/SSD dedicated to something that doesn’t make the game look snazzier, but makes it way more fun and interesting to play.

I have heard that PC achievements are not counted by the Rewards App.

That’d all be great, but even with a supercomputer, the developers have to create this stuff. And as interlocking systems get bigger and more complex, you inevitably have more issues with things bugging out and breaking.

AI is definitely something I want to see improve next generation, but writing more advanced AI is a massive undertaking. I recall Spencer mentioned at E3 2018, that they were working on “the next generation of game AI”, so my hope is Microsoft is already plugging away at some sort of standardized AI that can be used across a range of games, basically as middleware.

Yeah I mean, FEAR shows you could have good AI a decade and a half ago. I don’t think CPU power is really limiting it.

That was scripted AI in a very limited space. When they opened up the game a bit in the sequel, people complained about how much worse the AI was, even though they used the same AI from the first game.

Hey dudes, apologies if this is a dumb question, I’ve been on vacation on the east coast all week - but have we seen an announcement for July’s games with gold yet?

Not announced yet. I expect it’ll be these games I bought a few weeks ago

X1

  • Baja Edge of Control
  • Hungry Shark World

360

  • Alice Madness Returns
  • Panzer Dragon Orta

Thanks for the heads up, sorry I didn’t mean to steer you wrong. After reading this I went and registered mine and had the same thing, some date in November. I Googled it and it did come up as something that happens and by contacting MS you can provide the receipt and they’ll adjust it. that being said I saw a bunch of posts specifically mentioning that Antonline seller so it does seem a little off to me. I also saw someone claim it happened after buying at an MS store so who knows. When I registered mine I did with the SN on the outside of the box so it seems like anyone with access could register but I don’t really get the benefit. If I figure out who to contact as MS I’ll let you know the details.

In other news I’ve only got about 40 GB left after loading it up with Gamepass goodies. I’m really happy with it so far, I’ve not played a whole lot yet but I’ve been impressed with the performance.

I hate the GUI. It sucks. I never thought I would be praising Big Picture and maybe it’s just that I’m used to it but it seems way better.

The worst (best?) part is the game sucking up most of my time is one I don’t think really takes much advantage of the HW. It’s that Sky Force Reloaded getting hyped up-thread. I don’t remember hearing about it before but what a blast.

If you’re not already using it, don’t neglect the guide button. Nothing is more than two button presses away if you’re using that button.

New annoying thing: the ad on the home page is now an ad urging me to sign up for Ultimate Game Pass, instead of the weekly Games/Deals With Gold. I can’t get rid of it, and I can’t find the usual link. I had a habit of checking in on the Deals With Gold every week, and then the ‘regular’ Deals in the Store tab. The Gold deals aren’t listed anywhere I can find.

Click on that Ultimate Game Pass ad. It will take you to the same Games/Deals with Gold page as before.

But yeah, it’s annoying that they can’t do a check to realize that we’re already on Ultimate and not show us that ad.

Pretty sure I tried that, and it didn’t work. Do you have Ultimate? Because I don’t- my only PC is a low-end Surface 5 that isn’t suited for gaming (which is how I like it).

Edit: just saw your edit. Heh.