Gaming Xbox Series X|S

Which of these do you prefer

  • Microsoft Game Pass

  • Xbox Game Pass


Results are only viewable after voting.

Thunderhead

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thinking of getting the S on black friday if there are any bundle deals with headphones, extra controller etc, is the S worth it or should I just be buying the X, general gamer, not hardcore, will probably do the gamepass hack to get ultimate so not bothered about physical copies of games.
 

altodevil

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thinking of getting the S on black friday if there are any bundle deals with headphones, extra controller etc, is the S worth it or should I just be buying the X, general gamer, not hardcore, will probably do the gamepass hack to get ultimate so not bothered about physical copies of games.
The Series S is a cracking wee thing, you'll enjoy it. But in terms of the financials, the X offers far better value for money.
 

DixieDean

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thinking of getting the S on black friday if there are any bundle deals with headphones, extra controller etc, is the S worth it or should I just be buying the X, general gamer, not hardcore, will probably do the gamepass hack to get ultimate so not bothered about physical copies of games.
If you're not going to play it that much, the S will be fine for the odd GP game. If it's your main machine or plan to play it a lot I would go for the X.
 

Thunderhead

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The Series S is a cracking wee thing, you'll enjoy it. But in terms of the financials, the X offers far better value for money.
If you're not going to play it that much, the S will be fine for the odd GP game. If it's your main machine or plan to play it a lot I would go for the X.
hmmm, I'd play it a fair bit I'll see, could buy the S and then get the X at a later date and flog the S I suppose, I'll see what's available around Black Friday, think mainly it'll be playing with the kid on Sea of Thieves cross play as he's more PC gamer than console.

And I do love battlefield so will play the new Battlefield game.
 

DavelinaJolie

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So The Gunk is getting released in December. I'm interested, the Steamworld games are pretty good.
 

Traub

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hmmm, I'd play it a fair bit I'll see, could buy the S and then get the X at a later date and flog the S I suppose, I'll see what's available around Black Friday, think mainly it'll be playing with the kid on Sea of Thieves cross play as he's more PC gamer than console.

And I do love battlefield so will play the new Battlefield game.
Buy an X if you’re going to invest past gamepass i.e. actually buy games. If it’s only a gamepass machine, get the S.
 

Ainu

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Buy an X if you’re going to invest past gamepass i.e. actually buy games. If it’s only a gamepass machine, get the S.
Don't know about that, game pass games obviously benefit just as much from the additional horsepower as any other games. Take Forza Horizon 5 for example, that's a game pass flagship title but if you want 60 fps - not an unnecessary luxury for a racing game - on the Series S you're stuck at 1080p. Especially with all MS games coming the game pass day and date, you can easily fill your time without spending past that for it to be worth getting the premium experience.

I'd simply argue it depends on your TV or whether you're planning to upgrade. Basically the question is how much do you care about image quality.
 

Traub

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Don't know about that, game pass games obviously benefit just as much from the additional horsepower as any other games. Take Forza Horizon 5 for example, that's a game pass flagship title but if you want 60 fps - not an unnecessary luxury for a racing game - on the Series S you're stuck at 1080p. Especially with all MS games coming the game pass day and date, you can easily fill your time without spending past that for it to be worth getting the premium experience.

I'd simply argue it depends on your TV or whether you're planning to upgrade. Basically the question is how much do you care about image quality.
You are right, I was probably making some sweeping assumptions - the main one being that someone who doesn't plan on spending any money past gamepass is likely to be a casual gamer (just a handful of hours of gaming a week on average), which means they wouldn't be that concerned about fps etc.

I bought the S and honestly it's been great. Having said that, I'm literally the example I mentioned above. Every now and again I'll play a few hours just to scratch that gaming itch.
 

Abraxas

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Dragon Quest is on Game Pass, for some reason this escaped my attention the first time I scrolled through the Game Pass options - sometimes attempting to filter out the rubbish incurs faults. A good straight forward JRPG, of which there are not many on there outside the FF franchise so I would recommend this to fans of the genre.
 

VeevaVee

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Left Forza in the middle of a river in a buggy 2 days ago. Can confirm just started it up in seconds and was still in said river.

Forza quick resume. Pun intended.
 

Massive Spanner

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There are definitely times when quick resume doesn’t work for me. It happened with Forza for the first time earlier. But it’s still an amazing feature that works most of the time.
 

Adamsk7

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Sold my Series X for £500 - new Series X Halo edition coming Monday for £479. What a weird world we live in
 

Vidyoyo

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Dragon Quest is on Game Pass, for some reason this escaped my attention the first time I scrolled through the Game Pass options - sometimes attempting to filter out the rubbish incurs faults. A good straight forward JRPG, of which there are not many on there outside the FF franchise so I would recommend this to fans of the genre.
It's true that there's not many RPGs but I had a really tough time with DQ11. The gameplay is very simple and the story is incredibly slow to get going. I gave up about 15 hours in and couldn't say I cared about anything that happened during that time (or even remember really, outside of Sylvando's theatrics).

The music irritated me massively and there's a story behind it because the composer - who has since died - wasn't particularly well when he made it. The overworld theme with the brass stuff plays on what feels like a constant loop every 30 seconds. I turned it off eventually as it felt like my ears were being attacked.

Edit - I don't mean to sound too dismissive. The nice thing about Game Pass is how you can try it out these games and if it works for you then great, no money spent.

It's not on gamepass but I'd like to recommend Lost Odyssey for anybody who likes FF. That's an excellent game and holds up very well :)

 
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Abraxas

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It's true that there's not many RPGs but I had a really tough time with DQ11. The gameplay is very simple and the story is incredibly slow to get going. I gave up about 15 hours in and couldn't say I cared about anything that happened during that time (or even remember really, outside of Sylvando's theatrics).

The music irritated me massively and there's a story behind it because the composer - who has since died - wasn't particularly well when he made it. The overworld theme with the brass stuff plays on what feels like a constant loop every 30 seconds. I turned it off eventually as it felt like my ears were being attacked.

Edit - I don't mean to sound too dismissive. The nice thing about Game Pass is how you can try it out these games and if it works for you then great, no money spent.

It's not on gamepass but I'd like to recommend Lost Odyssey for anybody who likes FF. That's an excellent game and holds up very well :)

You're right for sure, the music is repetitive and the gameplay is extremely simple. No arguing with that.

But I don't always care about complex mechanics. It depends on the game. I think there's a time for everything. For a fairly whimsical game like this I think it's just supposed to be an easy, casual experience while scratching the itch for a few RPG elements.

There are all the FF games too of course, of which there are quite a few I've never played. Think Dragon Age Inquisition is on there, and Skryim of course.
 

Vidyoyo

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You're right for sure, the music is repetitive and the gameplay is extremely simple. No arguing with that.

But I don't always care about complex mechanics. It depends on the game. I think there's a time for everything. For a fairly whimsical game like this I think it's just supposed to be an easy, casual experience while scratching the itch for a few RPG elements.

There are all the FF games too of course, of which there are quite a few I've never played. Think Dragon Age Inquisition is on there, and Skryim of course.
Yeah it does seem that way and perhaps I was simply caught out expecting more. I've since learned that the simple, classic adventure style is something the DQ series is renowned for :)

Also that song has been stuck in my head all evening :mad:
 

Ainu

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It's true that there's not many RPGs but I had a really tough time with DQ11. The gameplay is very simple and the story is incredibly slow to get going. I gave up about 15 hours in and couldn't say I cared about anything that happened during that time (or even remember really, outside of Sylvando's theatrics).

The music irritated me massively and there's a story behind it because the composer - who has since died - wasn't particularly well when he made it. The overworld theme with the brass stuff plays on what feels like a constant loop every 30 seconds. I turned it off eventually as it felt like my ears were being attacked.

Edit - I don't mean to sound too dismissive. The nice thing about Game Pass is how you can try it out these games and if it works for you then great, no money spent.

It's not on gamepass but I'd like to recommend Lost Odyssey for anybody who likes FF. That's an excellent game and holds up very well :)

The music is a real issue but if it's the "S" version, you should be able to set the overworld music to DQ VIII, which had a great tune. Beyond that, yes the game takes an incredibly long time to get going but I still felt it's worth sticking with. The gameplay stops being very simple once you have full cast with access to a load of abilities, but it takes time. Like, easily 30+ hours into the game. It also significantly shakes up your options at certain points in the story. And the story definitely picks up eventually. All in all well worth it.
 

Reditus

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Wait is that it? 20 years anniversary and they show the Halo multiplayer.
Yeah pretty big news for halo fans

My Xbox has now crashed though, so I mustn’t be the one trying to access it

I’m just getting a blue screen and it won’t download for me
 

Alock1

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Yeah pretty big news for halo fans

My Xbox has now crashed though, so I mustn’t be the one trying to access it

I’m just getting a blue screen and it won’t download for me
Its only a 200mb launcher at the moment, the full download isnt available from what I can tell, so just a placeholder (hence blue screen). The console itself isn't crashing.

Hopefully live soon.

Buzzing!
 

AaronRedDevil

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Yeah pretty big news for halo fans

My Xbox has now crashed though, so I mustn’t be the one trying to access it

I’m just getting a blue screen and it won’t download for me
Just thought it would be something new. Not the same thing in 20 years. New games and whatnot. Even a hellblade preview.
 

Fully Fledged

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Its only a 200mb launcher at the moment, the full download isnt available from what I can tell, so just a placeholder (hence blue screen). The console itself isn't crashing.

Hopefully live soon.

Buzzing!
Check for updates. 25gb update downloading.
 

Alock1

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Just thought it would be something new. Not the same thing in 20 years. New games and whatnot. Even a hellblade preview.
They managed expectations up front and still released Halo multiplayer early which is huge (even bigger with the state of cod and Battlefield this year), added a ton more backwards compatible games and did FPS boost on a bunch more.

There's TGA soon which will reach wider audience than existing core xbox fans where they may show stuff off. But in current landscape with covid, every dev is being careful to not stretch resources to just show stuff for the sake of it.
 

Alock1

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