It “won’t count” for whatever reason imagined anyway. Part of me wants Xbox to buy Sega and Take 2 just to see the discourse about Persona 6 and GTA6 and how many points they’ll be docked due to change of ownership.
And the other half of me doesnt care because nothing Sony ever makes ever again will ever get out of game passes shadow.
What I find super silly is people posting Steam numbers for Starfield to show what a “flop” it is. But Alex in a new video of his explains how does doesn’t mean much. Performance issues could be the reason, trolls could be the reason.
But the ridiculous thing is they are using Steam numbers to bash it for Xbox. These folks need to keep the same energy and see how hot, or not, their precious Sony games are doing on Steam. Spidey 2 is finally coming this Friday, but I guarantee they will be back on their bullshit very soon after those 30’ish hours. It’s sad.
Also a good reason to just put Twitter aside for a while.
I agree, I don’t think it will really be recognized as such for a long while though.
HiFi Rush reached 89.
And yeah, play BG3, it’s a stellar game, I absolutely loved it. Tho if it was a MS published game, it would get roasted for buggy sidequests, crashes and 20fps in Act 3 lol
A question I have about the Keighleys this year is whether or not Starfield gets nominated for the big gong. With six slots, it’s pretty much guaranteed that quite a few highly rated games are going to miss out, some with 90+ on Metacritic. I had been thinking that the TGA board would have to at least nominate one game from each of the Big Three- Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox. Tears of the Kingdom seems a lock, and the way things are going Spiderman 2 has booked its place. You would have to think that Starfield is the Xbox nominee- I mean, wouldn’t it look bad for Keighley if Xbox was the company left out? But I can equally see the argument that better games were put aside so that Starfield could be nominated. If Starfield is left off it only perpetuates the thought that Xbox can’t make GOTY games.
Its massive innovative in a number of ways and takes the large RPG world and story forward in incredibly important ways.
As usual the talk is all focussed on some things that some people didn’t like. But the fact is that the structure of the game was one of its strengths. I can go anywhere and I can do so quickly. I don’t have tedious traversal getting in the way of an amazing set of quests, stories and systems to interact with. Starfield with how its set up in a singular world that has traditional traversal and fast travel would be a far worse game.
But its easy to criticise it for what it isn’t (which I think is a really stupid way to review games btw). I think the problem with some reviews, and much of the commentary is people seem to ignore the stuff that makes this game standout. Oh ‘muh exploration is different this isn’t what was promised’ Todd in the direct ‘you explore differently in this game…’
The issue I have is that it is correct there is a range of opinions as there will be on any game ever released. But there are clearly (and I’ve heard very strong rumblings that would suggest this) a small number of outlets determined to give it a poor review and stretch that as far as they could.
You can make the same arguments made against Starfield for literally any game - why doesn’t Spiderman have rich and thrilling side content - its open world its a core part of any open world game - why isn’t the game deep and rewarding? 6/10.
The fact is you have to WANT to do that. Having certain feelings or views is different to looking directly for something you can critique in isolation especially when your critique is not actually about reviewing the game in front of you.
True, tho we didn’t know of its existence for most part of January tho! ^^
But yea it’s a great example of what i was meaning, it’s the best game XGS made this year, yet i would never play it since it’s not a genre i enjoy, same goes for Spiderman, a superhero action game focused on impressing people with its spectacular cutscenes, it’s been a long time since i moved from that kind of games.
Another good example is FH, probably the best games Xbox studios are releasing, yet i would play FM over these any day, or the old Midtown Madness 3, which was 76 on MC.
That’s the good thing about MS games, unless you are really into 3rd person cinematic action adventure games, you’ll have a better time with Xbox first party games nowadays.
And yes, BG3 is or will be the game of the generation most likely, specially once they fix the combat/balance issues with their “Definitive Edition”, i think the press must overlook these technical issues with masterpieces like that one, just like they did with Skyrim or Oblivion, these games deserve to be near 10/10 even if they have some problems at release, specially considering how absurdly big they are.
I can absolutely see Starfield not being nominated for GOTY for two reasons. The overall MC, i don’t doubt that this matters for them, plus games this year that scored way higher. Hogwarts, Zelda, BG3, Spidey 2 and I can see Mario Wonder being nominated too. What is the limit of nominees for his show? If it’s six maybe Starfield could be on there, what other games scored super high this year? Oh wait, HFR was a big surprise too and scored very high.
If not a nominee for that I do expect it to be one in other awards during the show, plus I expect Starfield to be nominated in other award shows too. It would be great for the studio, but for me personally…meh.
But for some reason people say the 90s from Horizon and flight sim dont count and bemoan why cant Xbox put out games with 90+ MC scores.
Litteraly just brushing aside games that score 90 + on MC to push the narrative that Xbox has no 90+ MC scores.
I believe there are individuals that feel this way, no different than I believe there are certain individuals at outlets that have a clear bias that skews their articles and reviews towards Xbox. At the end of the day, I don’t let the opinions or actions of individuals speak for the whole team and especially an industry. When I was with XboxEra, I can’t tell you how many times our reviews were held over my head in a conversation, conveying we were nothing more than a fanboy site when I rarely did reviews. It sucked when I was on the receiving end of that generalization, so I refuse to do it to others.
What I don’t understand is why can’t this mentality be applied to lower reviews as well? Most of the time I see people defend scores or opinions that may be too positive, I see “it’s just an opinion” but when it’s a negative score or opinion it’s “an agenda against Xbox”. It mostly seems like coping people do to shield themselves from the fact that MS can be doing things better or avoid holding them responsible from their mistakes.
What I don’t understand is why you guys let some random fanboys on a forum or Twitter get to you like it does. And what some idiots say on the internet or about steam scores doesn’t apply to the industry. Those people are irrelevant and do it for clicks, clout, attention, or because they still haven’t realized they are adults and no longer children bickering at recess.
All this yada, yada, and its nothing more than telling folks in the Xbox community , and it amounts to nothing more than being gaslighted. I personally am so done with all this denial that there is media bias against Xbox and has been for at least ten years, Its even more apparent today. Some of it front facing with no shame whatsoever.
We all know that if Starfield was a Sony exclusive they’d all be creaming their pants to post positive rants about it until the cows came home - warts and all. And it would be more wildly accepted as a GOTG title. The real issue is that this IP totally skipped Playstation and many toxic gamers are upset about that. Especially Sony fans. We’ve got people using words like “monopoly” without even understanding what that word actually means for crying out loud.
The same thing is happening with Forza right now. A lot of the rhetoric and negative reveiws are coming from the completion of the ABK deal. Now, I have no doubts that some of the complaints may be genuine. Not every game is for everybody. But if you’re seriously going to sit here and say, “there’s no media bias” then have to make sure that everyone who reads your post understands that you either are Xbox bias or been an Xbox fan, I genuinely find something wrong with that picture.
The bias is REAL. Plain and simple. And I totally expect there to be many toxic gamers and Sony fanboys to put in work to make sure that many Xbox titles will be met with the same negative connotations and reviews bombings in the future. There have been actual predictions about what would happen to Starfield and Forza from other gaming enthusiasts that were so on point, some of these kats should probably take up a career in predicting the future of the gaming industry. No doubt they’d probably be hugely successful.
Didn’t mean to go off into a rant but, I find it insulting when people try to tell me I don’t understand the world I live in. I’ve been a gamer for decades. I’ve watched it grow from a seedling into the behemoth it is today with the same excitement I had when I was just a buck. There is MOST DEFINITELY a bias against the Xbox brand. To even suggest otherwise is an insult.
Yet, here is the same guy who was just telling us that there is no media bias. What are we even doing right now my dude? Which one is it? Are we crazy or are we not crazy?? Make up your damn mind!
It’s you not reading or understanding what I’m saying. Fanboys on forums/twitter =/= the gaming media. They are not the same.
Not the same, no. Same ideas, same agendas, same negative narratives? Yes. I understand completely. There were actual journalists who stood with the comical “Gamers Lawsuit”, not to mention Sony pitching in a few bread crumbs of their own. C’mon, Brody! You know better than this.
Yep. As someone who used to think there wasnt a bias, I now do believe that there is and it manifests hard whenever Playstation has a drought. Like in 2019 there was this hard lobbying for Death Stranding to win Goty, when it was clearly undeserving or when Deathloop got very good scores because it was propping up the PS5 for 9 months.
Suddenly Final fantasy games count as first party for some reason.
Or the Baldurs Gate 3 hype train vanishing into ether the day, the day it was confirmed to hit Xbox in 2023.
Theres an emporers new cloak effect at work.
The issue here is the bias rallied around Playstation due to sales, but Microsoft is the one making market leader moves with acquisitions that actually matter, so theres resentment …resentment that Xbox is actually investing in games on a level Sony never will. Like…why fanboy at the alter of a God that doesnt provide?
I don’t expect Xbox to overcome it until gamepass is in the 75-100m range and at which point all the games will have vastly larger audiences to start influencing media bias. They’ll have to give better scores to get the clicks.
Until then… the Xbox will have a consistant larger lineup and better selling games thanks to game pass.
And like I said, I believe there are some individuals who fit that mold but I’m not going to generalize an entire industry because of the actions of a few. I also have to question how some may be influenced by their own bias/preference and misinterpreting or overreacting towards actions of others. So another reason for me not to generalize.
Some?
Do you understand the power media has over public perception and opinions? The written word is a very powerful thing. Journalists are no better than toxic fanboys these days. The only difference is, they have HUGE followings and influence. Thats a dangerous combo. The responsibility and journalists integrity to state unbiased opinions have fallen by the way side long ago. it’ll only get worse from here. Doesnt stop me and many others from enjoying the games regardless but, it definitely has an effect.
Well that’s certainly a take. Nice chatting with you. I’m sorry but I just can’t generalize like that. It’s not fair to the people who aren’t how you describe and I’ve seen more evidence to the contrary. So I’m happy to agree to disagree.
Edit:
BTW if you take anything I say as gas lighting or take it personally, that’s on you. I didn’t include anyone here in my posts and was speaking of the topic in general.
I’m in a tough pickle in where I don’t think Starfield was anywhere near the generation defining game that I thought it would be pre release or even in my top 5 game of the year at the moment but I also acknowledge there was 100% bad faith actors within the review cycle.
I’m just glad Starfield enjoyers can enjoy the game in peace now that the PS idiots have moved on.
I think I’d make a couple of points.
We aren’t talking necessarily about individual biases here…that always happens for particular platforms, games, genres, publishers, developers etc…you can’t avoid it. People have affinity to stuff - its life. But we’re talking about virtually openly publications expressing a dislike for the platform and saying they intend to score the game lower. Or publications writing ‘we can’t score this excellent game higher because of the xbox platform’. I think you are in a few cases beyond ‘well natured reviews with fairly expressed opinions’.
The second point is that yes it is about individual opinions and that cuts both ways. But then what is happening in discourse is the lower opinions are being taken as some sort of consensus whereas there are actually more (by number) high scoring reviews than anything else. So when people say ‘starfield got the score it deserved’ they reference a metascore that is an average of those individual opinions that in this case are clearly pretty high in spread - meaning that the average is distorted predominantly by lower scoring outliers…which begs the question - how can a game ever ‘deserve’ an average score whether good, bad or indifferent…a game surely deserves a score that is down to the relevant opinion of whoever is reviewing in? Or in other words the score doesn’t reflect the consensus opinion…in this case at least…