X-BOX Megathread 2021

[JasonM]

33 minutes ago, Chris2K said:

FH5 is as great as expected, a little overwhelming compared to FH4 though as everything gets thrown at you right away.

I took @Baddar's advice about playing Spotify in the background, but I chose my work playlist (easy-listening/pop to avoid anything that could be deemed offensive) so I ended up driving a Lambo at 230mph whilst listening to World Of Our Own by Westlife.

As far as the breath of the world, how does it feel? One of my issues with FH4 (and 3 to some degree) was that the UK felt very samey and never really had a wow factor to it.

[Baddar]

OMG. 😍

[Gazz]

Burn your console.

[Chris2K]

55 minutes ago, JasonM said:

As far as the breath of the world, how does it feel? One of my issues with FH4 (and 3 to some degree) was that the UK felt very samey and never really had a wow factor to it.

I guess there's a bit of repetition, there's a lot of desert for example, but there's also fairly big town areas, a jungle and some mountains including an active volcano.

To be fair to Playground, "the UK felt very samey and never really had a wow factor to it." shows that they pretty much nailed the realism of the country.

The biggest letdown so far is the server connectivity which has been fairly awful, I don't think they were expecting such a large number of people to buy the 5-day early access version.

On the Spotify front, Immigrant Song has just come on, except it's while I'm driving a truck hauling a decrepit VW Beetle for a story mission. 

[Baddar]

Yeah, I've been getting booted from the online side of things very frequently. It's a good thing being always online isn't a requirement. 

[King Ellis]

It's going to fill most of my harddrive on the series S but I might have to jump on this Forza hype. Not played it since FH2 so should be cool. Probably should done the preload sooner.

Interesting to see so many people are buying it despite it coming to gamepass. Like apparently 1m people were playing over the last few days through the Baddar premium edition or game pass plus premium DLC add on. I know a lot of people worry that Game Pass will condition people to just not buy stuff now so that's evidence to the contrary.

[apsham]

It's kind of what I did with the last one too - I don't own the game, but I own the DLC pass stuff - them doing it up front this time is smart. As long as you stay on Gamepass, you have access to the game and if you're going to leave and you REALLY want to play the game still - you can grab it on sale or discounted, etc - but at this point I got everything I wanted to out of FH4 and all I paid extra from my Gamepass was a discounted DLC sale.

[Baddar]

The GP upgrade to premium was around £40 I think, so that's what a lot of people have done, as opposed to paying £64 like my missus did. 

Still really enjoying it though. The Expeditions are fun, each one different. It's very much more of the same as far as the Horizon series goes. If you didn't like the previous games, this isn't likely to change your mind. The location for this one is stunning though.

[DFF]

Man, FH5 is so pretty on the Series X. Gameplay wise, they've not reinvtented the wheel, but I don't think FH4 had any particular issues in that department tbh. 

[apsham]

FH5 for me won't turn off the on screen narration accessibility feature. It's lovely that it's there but it's a tad annoying to have everything on screen read for me when I don't have it on - seems others are having the issue as well.

[FLiam]

Glad that it still looks beautiful even on the original Xbox One in regular old 1080p. 

[Your Mom]

I wish I was good at driving games because it looks gorgeous 

[Baddar]

1 minute ago, Your Mom said:

I wish I was good at driving games because it looks gorgeous 

Forza is my favourite driving game series partly due to how accessible it is. There are difficulty/drive sliders all the way down as far as "just hold the trigger and do nothing else" if you wish.

[Your Mom]

Just now, Baddar said:

Forza is my favourite driving game series partly due to how accessible it is. There are difficulty/drive sliders all the way down as far as "just hold the trigger and do nothing else" if you wish.

Nice! I might as well try it then since it's on Gamepass

[Baddar]

The online side of it is done well too. (early server connection issues aside) You'll be in a big room roaming the map with other players, but their cars are ghosts so they can't bash into the side of you when you're going about your own business. That's unless you're racing against people of course.

I enjoy the Horizon Arcade stuff where the lobby works together as a team to complete certain goals.

You'll always get new cars and goodies thrown at you as well throughout, and you can paint them whatever colour you like (or you can be lazy like me and download somebody else's designs).

[JasonM]

1 hour ago, DFF said:

Man, FH5 is so pretty on the Series X. Gameplay wise, they've not reinvtented the wheel, but I don't think FH4 had any particular issues in that department tbh. 

I wish I could set it to be night/dusk all the time, because the game really looks absolutely gorgeous in those low-light situations.

[FLiam]

I’m guessing the seasons thing isn’t going to be a thing this time around? 

[Baddar]

I thought I was driving next to you in a lobby about 10mins ago @FLiam. Turned out I'd been disconnected so it was just showing my friends Drivatars. 

[Chris2K]

1 hour ago, FLiam said:

I’m guessing the seasons thing isn’t going to be a thing this time around? 

I think it is, there just won't be the snowy winter. It's definitely telling me I'm in Spring at the moment.

[FLiam]

1 hour ago, Baddar said:

I thought I was driving next to you in a lobby about 10mins ago @FLiam. Turned out I'd been disconnected so it was just showing my friends Drivatars. 

Haha, yeah I have only played about 30 minutes so far. Hopefully get on it a bit more at the weekend.