Xbox Series X - The next Xbox that's boxy but sexy xXx

It would be disappointing if the logo were the actual limiting factor. Surely something is happening in parallel.

Could simply be optimisations since launch have further sped up the boot up time. So where the animation was the perfect length at launch to keep you distracted during boot, itā€™s now a bottleneck.

Iā€™m sure thatā€™s the case, seems unlikely they would artificially lengthen startup times just to show a longer animation.

A cold boot on the Series X feels pretty slow. I doubt itā€™s a full minute but itā€™s a lot longer than 9 seconds. If you donā€™t have power saving on I could imagine shortening the animation would save a material amount of time though.

I use power saving and I am already impressed with how quickly mine boots up, knocking off 5 seconds will make the darn thing feel instantaneous to me.

I only recently switched to having Power Saving mode, when they announced that background downloads worked in power saving mode. In the Instant-On mode, there was never an animation logo. The darn thing would just switch on, boom, almost instantaneous. No boot up animation at all. So no, the animation wonā€™t make a difference in that mode.

Iā€™m really impressed that the power save mode is going to be this short now.

Itā€™s just a nice convenience that makes it even more worth using power saver mode instead of instant on mode.

Doesnā€™t feel super slow to me, 20-25s is about right.

Games with Gold for August:

I donā€™t see the video up yet, sorry @Rock8man. Will post when itā€™s up. Not the best month for me personally, I donā€™t know anything about Calico or Scourgebringer and Iā€™ve owned Saints Row 2 and Monaco for years (though theyā€™re both good games and totally worth playing if you havenā€™t).

edit: Looks like itā€™s worse than I thought, both Saintā€™s Row 2 and Monaco have already been GwG.

I thought Monaco looked familiar. Iā€™ve suspected for a while that MS has wanted to de-emphasize GWG, but they should look at what Sonyā€™s been putting on offer and be a bit ashamed.

I played a bit of Scourge Bringer when it was on gamepass. Recommend checking that one out. I thought it was pretty cool, and Iā€™ll happily continue from where I left off someday.

Free play weekend: WWE 2k22, Generation Zero, Naturo Shinobi Striker

Itā€™s way too easy to accidentally delete your games from your wish list. Has happened to me many times. There should be a prompt or something before you delete it.

Here are the Games with Gold for September:

Seems decent enough - if you havenā€™t played Portal 2 yet this is a perfect opportunity to do so. I havenā€™t played any of the others so canā€™t really speak to them.

If you havenā€™t played Portal 2 yet, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Console gamers, I guess.

Other than that itā€™s another boring-ass month.

Whatā€™s the character limit on Qt3 posts again? Iā€™ve got a list!

Wait, are you saying you havenā€™t played Portal 2 yet? Youā€™re in for a treat!

I havenā€™t played either Portal game. :) I hope we can still be friends!!

We can! You should play them both and tell us your impressions! :)

Eh, weā€™ve all got our gaming blindspots. Iā€™ve never played World of Warcraft. Or The Sims. Or any of the Madden football games. But everyone should play the Portal games.