Yesterday I had been hunting for a game I could play with Spotify playlists in the background instead of the game music. But what game to pick? Everything I had installed seems like it’s best experienced with the in-game audio.
Oh wait! My eyes fell upon Forza Horizon 4. Yes! I know they have a “Radio off” option for the in-game radio station. So I launched Forza Horizon 4.
It’s ridiculous how fast FH4 loads compared to when it was installed on my SSD on my PC
It looks as good as it does on my PC, but instead of a frame rate in the 20s and 30s, it runs at 60! Holy shit, this feels good.
I always have trouble deciding what to do when I get later into these games. Too many options. Last night I discovered that focusing on one activity at a time is very rewarding. I used the achievements I haven’t gotten yet as a guide. First I went after speed tracks, or whatever they’re called, where you race between two points, and it records your average speed. While I listened to my own music, I went all over the map doing these. Then after I got that achievement, I started doing the same for drift runs. This is a great way to play this game!
Anyway, I originally installed FH4 because of @Timex’s recommendation to try it on the Series X in a post above, but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. But I can confirm that it’s gorgeous and it’s sooooooo smooth.
Yea, I’ve never been an Xbox guy before but Forza Horizon is pretty good. Dirt 5 is also pretty good, I picked that up because i appreciated their technical approach to gaming, need to try out that 120 fps feature (even if it kills the graphics on the S). I’m not sure which game has the better driving… maybe I’ve gotten used to Forza already but I’m just slamming into barriers in turns over and over in Dirt 5. Playing the Dirt games did teach me how to react in real life, and over the years the few times I’ve had a fishtail from mud or ice i almost instinctively handle it without a sweat, which is kind of cool, so i have some fondness for good racing games (although i think both Dirt and Forza are “for fun” and not considered the hardcore sims).
I finally got some 120fps gaming to work. I’m not sure I can tell a difference between 60 and 120 with the skill with which I play right now though. But it’s something I can grind on and find out.
So if you leave your XSX in instant mode, it doesn’t shut down completely. Put your hand over the grill when you wake up and the air is slightly warm. It’s basically keeping the RAM on. The thing is, the fan will kick in every minute or so to expel that air.
And sometime last night, I started hearing this faint fan murmur. You know how your case fans can sometimes get unbalanced or something and cause noise? Yeah, that.
Disconcerting as it’s only been 10 days or so. It doesn’t murmur when playing any games, so I’m wondering if it was just an anomaly?
The easy solution, of course, is to switch to power saver instead of instant on. This thing boots up in seconds from cold, and it doesn’t effect quick resume, so there’s really little reason not to. Save a few pennies more on your power bill, too. The only real thing you lose is automatic system/game patching as you sleep.
My Series X seems completely silent playing games.
With some trepidation I did try to play a DVD and then a Blu-Ray on it (I had to return my original Xbox One with Blu-Ray drive problems and I heard some Series X|S have similar issues). It makes pretty typical Blu-Ray noises with a disc in the drive. You can hear something is moving around in there when you stick the disc in or when it’s switching to the title’s Root Menu, or when there’s a disc in the drive and you turn the console on. But I couldn’t hear it at all while the movie was playing. So I’m assuming this is all normal.
Regarding cost reductions, I would suggest that anything people from Microsoft are saying today is based on them preventing people from sitting on the fence waiting for the lower price.
Microsoft and Sony will stay in price parity throughout the cycle no matter what the actual build costs are. When Sony reduces the PS5 price to $399 then $299 Microsoft will 100% follow suit.
I’ve never really played Forza, and apparently you have to actually bid on cars at an auction, and i was actually in a bidding war with someone at the same time as me. I picked up an RX-7 super, RX-8, MX-5 and some old Porche. The RX-7 super kind of blows the Porche away ^^. It doesn’t really have that rotary whine though. I miss my RX-8, i don’t know why i sold it.
Oh, and i think i’ve found a scenario where i can tell 120 fps from 60 fps. I mean, if you take a screenshot of Dirt 5 at 120fps on the Series S, sure, it looks like crap, but in reality you’re going so fast that it’s not as bad as people make out - i mean, it is a terrible dynamic resolution, like it drops to 720p or below, but it is pretty buttery smooth. But really all i see are walls and cars and everything else is just a blur.
It’s not just trying to mislead people so they will buy now. Their are legitimate cost/manufacturing realties today that aren’t the same as it was when they were making the 360. That’s why they built the Series S.
Man I have a conundrum here. I tried logging onto Battlefield V on the One one morning months ago and it said my EA Account was invalid. No idea I even had an EA account. So I contact them and they say it’s been suspended for some reason. Now none of EA games work multiplayer. Battlefront 2 is broken as well.
They won’t unsuspend it because my XBox ID is tied to my old yahoo email address I havent logged into for 10 years now. Microsoft will let me change the contact info on my account but not that yahoo email.
So effectively I’ve been banned from EA products on XBox forever. This has made it so I just can’t buy EA products at all. For instance was gonna pick up Squadrons today but I can’t. It’s made me have to abandon Microsoft completely and I intend to switch to PS5 next gen… feels like they are forcing me.
So EA has ruined Microsoft/Xbox for me. Kinda crappy. I wonder what MS thinks about this. I’ve been a loyal customer since the original Xbox and now one of their partners made me abandon them.
Also opened my eyes to how DRM can screw you royally.
