Rant: Xbox One Games

[Scarpozzi]

I don't have broadband internet at home. Say what you want...I've saved THOUSANDS of dollars since 2015 eeking by on 4G hotspot when I need it. Why can't game manufacturers that sell physical copies of games USE the damn media they sold me?

I just bought a $5 copy of The Division 2 from GameStop. After waiting 20+ minutes for the game to install, it's now telling me there's a 55GB download required to START the game. What the hell did it install?

I can go war driving with my Xbox and install the game if I need to...or use my hotspot, but it's the principle of the thing. Games aren't supposed to be this bad from day one that you have to download that much data for an update when you know what libraries are on the disk.....lazy mofos.

 

[RPD]

It’s not just an Xbox thing.. some games give you the option of playing without updating right? Really since the last generation (not current) developers know they can fix/patch games after release and take advantage of that to the detriment of gamers.

 

[Scarpozzi]

It’s not just an Xbox thing.. some games give you the option of playing without updating right? Really since the last generation (not current) developers know they can fix/patch games after release and take advantage of that to the detriment of gamers.

Yeah. The process here is what I have issue with. If you at least got to see something, it would be better. In this case, the update check comes before the game even launches out of the box....I was required to connect to the internet before the game would even launch...so it required the update check...then the 55GB download after a 20+ minute installation process. That's my gripe.

 

[purbeast0]

Yeah I have never seen this happen on any console other than Xbox One, and it's really really stupid.

I think I had an issue with the freaking bluray "app" that is needed to watch movies. And in order to do that, I needed to first update the OS so I could get on the marketplace. It pissed me the hell off because I wanted to just watch a movie and had to wait like 30+ minutes because their updates are slow as shit.

And I don't remember why I couldn't just watch it on my PS4 either.

But yes, this is oh so stupid.

I don't really play my X1 much at all, and every time I do, I can't fathom how awful the dashboard UI is on the console. It's by far the worst dashboard of any console ever. It took me like 5 minutes to figure out how to quit a game and restart it, because we had left the X1 on for like 3 days and my son went to play Paw Patrol, and the game wasn't registering any inputs. I probably could have just powered off the console and turned it back on quicker than it took me to figure out how to quit a game.

 

[quikah]

Pretty much all games are like this now.

The Division 2 is an online multiplayer game anyway, I don't even think you can play it offline, so you are going to be SOL either way.

 

[purbeast0]

Pretty much all games are like this now.

The Division 2 is an online multiplayer game anyway, I don't even think you can play it offline, so you are going to be SOL either way.

No, no they are not. I've never once had this problem on PS4 or Switch, or any game in the history of console gaming. If it requires an online update to play the latest version, you can always just choose "play offline" and play your current version of the game.

(assuming there is a single player portion of the game that is, and I've never once had a multiplayer-only game on console)

 

[quikah]

No, no they are not. I've never once had this problem on PS4 or Switch, or any game in the history of console gaming. If it requires an online update to play the latest version, you can always just choose "play offline" and play your current version of the game.

(assuming there is a single player portion of the game that is, and I've never once had a multiplayer-only game on console)

I was more referring to the fact that every game these days has a day one update. I don't really have much experience with playing from discs, I mostly just buy digital (also mostly PC).

 

[Aikouka]

I think I had an issue with the freaking bluray "app" that is needed to watch movies. And in order to do that, I needed to first update the OS so I could get on the marketplace. It pissed me the hell off because I wanted to just watch a movie and had to wait like 30+ minutes because their updates are slow as shit.

There's a simple reason for this... licensing Blu-ray is not free, which means they'd have to pay per console if they simply packaged the Blu-ray software into the Xbox One OS. In this case, they require you to download it because then they pay only per machine that has installed it.

And I don't remember why I couldn't just watch it on my PS4 either.

PS4 does not support UHD Blu-ray if that's your goal.

No, no they are not. I've never once had this problem on PS4 or Switch, or any game in the history of console gaming. If it requires an online update to play the latest version, you can always just choose "play offline" and play your current version of the game.

(assuming there is a single player portion of the game that is, and I've never once had a multiplayer-only game on console)

You have to keep in mind the game in question, which is The Division 2. The Division 2 is (one of) Ubisoft's latest live service games, which means it's online all the time. To be able to connect to the servers, you must be on the correct patch, which apparently requires a 55GB download.

 

[purbeast0]

There's a simple reason for this... licensing Blu-ray is not free, which means they'd have to pay per console if they simply packaged the Blu-ray software into the Xbox One OS. In this case, they require you to download it because then they pay only per machine that has installed it.

I already had the bluray "app" on my Xbox One though...

 

[Aikouka]

I already had the bluray "app" on my Xbox One though...

I wonder if that relates to how some releases require updates for software-based playback? Although, even if that's the case, it shouldn't take 30 minutes just to update a Blu-ray software playback app. Although, that's one problem that I've noticed about the console manufacturers... compared to PC solutions like Steam, Battle.Net or even Epic Games, the console downloads are slow. I usually get anywhere between 40-70MB/s from the aforementioned PC marketplaces.

 

[purbeast0]

I wonder if that relates to how some releases require updates for software-based playback? Although, even if that's the case, it shouldn't take 30 minutes just to update a Blu-ray software playback app. Although, that's one problem that I've noticed about the console manufacturers... compared to PC solutions like Steam, Battle.Net or even Epic Games, the console downloads are slow. I usually get anywhere between 40-70MB/s from the aforementioned PC marketplaces.

It took 30 minutes to update the OS and then download the updated app. I'm pretty sure MS has this stupid thing with updates where you can't just download "what you need" and rather it make you download the entire game/app/os when you do updates. I think I remember reading about it back in the day when everyone complained about how large/slow the updates were.

It takes the Switch about 30 seconds from clicking "update" until it's rebooted with the new OS version.

And I've never once had an issue with needing updates in any other BR player when watching a movie. They always just work. It's something that MS does and it's stupid.

 

[shortylickens]

Optical discs read very slowly compared to a hard drive, which is somewhat slow compared to a solid state drive.
I guess most of you never had the Sega CD. You have no idea what its like to sit and wait on your games. Was especially annoying if you were coming from a cartridge system, which was practically instant.
Tekken had the right idea, they loaded up a low-data game like Space Invaders to play while the real game was getting ready. I actually wish modern games would do that.
Shit! Fallout 4 already has about a dozen mini games in it already! You could just play those in the foreground when doing world transitions!
Seriously why are loading screens just full of BS info you dont even need?

 

[JPB]

I only have 19 Playstation 4 games...all AAA titles....and they all had to update. Some huge downloads, some really small. But 14 of them had the option of playing the game without updating. I have all 19 installed and updated...but I only have 75GB left free...if that.

 

[ShookKnight]

Lots of issues here.

1. video game developers/publishers are human scum for releasing unfinished games - period.
2. your problem is not relevant to only XBox One games.
3. seriously, game developers/publishers are horrible for what they've been doing. I understand huge updates a year later. But, day one "patches" are essentially last ditch efforts to finish their games

 

[Scarpozzi]

I just got high speed internet and it was nice because games I had been playing in one room I downloaded from my phone's internet hotspot were now downloaded to my second Xbox. I also learned that saved games in the cloud transfer across. That's a nice feature.

Looks like I'm sucked back into $65/month now because I'm working from home through this mess.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Division 2 has content updates. Some of them are enormous. It's no different from PC. MS just doesn't want you to be able to play without the updates, and in the case of Division 2, it's "always on" so I don't think it permits offline play at all.

 

[Aikouka]

While this isn't about game update sizes, I did run into some fun with the Xbox One's OS size.

Someone was telling me about some weird issues that they had been having with their Xbox and how it would turn on to a blank screen. I had them let me take a look at it, and I ended up replacing the hard drive. To do this, you have to download a 5GB update, which is applied via a USB drive to the Xbox One, and then the Xbox One proceeds to download more updates. You could say it's similar to download Windows installation media and then applying Windows Updates afterward. Overall, it was quite a bit of downloading, and given how little there is to the base Xbox One operating system, it makes me wonder if Microsoft could pare that down a bit.

Although, I can say that the Xbox One S is fairly easy to take apart. I did get a bit hung up on the corner with the warranty sticker as the tab just wouldn't release for quite a while. Apart from that, the console used the same size hex driver for all screws that I went through. However, while I am tossing them a bit of praise, it should be noted that I'm lucky it didn't have a bad optical drive given those are paired via firmware with the Xbox One's mainboard. That's not too great for repairability.

 

[LikeLinus]

I don't really play my X1 much at all, and every time I do, I can't fathom how awful the dashboard UI is on the console. It's by far the worst dashboard of any console ever. It took me like 5 minutes to figure out how to quit a game and restart it, because we had left the X1 on for like 3 days and my son went to play Paw Patrol, and the game wasn't registering any inputs. I probably could have just powered off the console and turned it back on quicker than it took me to figure out how to quit a game.

Just leaving this here for future laughs.Takes him 5 minutes to figure out how to end the game and three days to turn the console off! That's gold, Jerry!