MS has the best online services by far and arn't dicks about working with other companies
Two gens of backs compatibility
1X is the only current console designed for performance instead of price
X Enhanced BC patches are basically free remasters
Best all round controllers for modern games
Only platform that goes out of its way to cater to physically disabled gamers with adaptive controller
Forza is arguably the best racing franchise on the market
Game Pass is the best value subscription service and first party is on there day one
MS are keeping Sony in check by getting substantially better as a platform holder over the course of the gen as Sony has gotten notably worse

 

I like Starfox Adventures and would like another game like it

FFVIII is the best mainline FF game.

 

I don't wanna see GameStop go away. I genuinely like it. Where else am I going to get used games that I can return to the store on the off chance there is something wrong with it? Plus its the only dedicated game store I have around here and the staff are pretty cool.

I think Kid Icarus should be a regular series. If they worked out the issues with them, it would be more then an obscure cult following type of game. I have a love/hate relationship because there's always one aggravating thing about them.

I enjoy Star Fox Zero. I just don't play it much because it makes me dizzy.

I love Adventure of Link. Too many people shit on it because of some erroneous retconned belief that there was a Zelda formula back in the day. There were only 2 games. So no, there was no such formula.
It's a solid game that is challenging, but mostly fair with a good exp system.

Also, I hate it when newbies retcon a good game into being a bad one. People don't understand that there's a difference between bad games, and games you personally don't like.

I'm annoyed with the idea that anything rated 5-7 means its somehow atrocious. Number scales people. Go back and relearn them.

1-4 means its bad.
5-means its only okay.
6-7 means its good, but has some issues that drag it down a little.
8-9 means its great.
10 means its pretty damn close to perfection.

 

I was mainly talking about exclusives, not anything else.

 

Forza Horizon 3-4, Ori and Cuphead are really good games that did well critically and commercially
Forza Motorsport is still doing well and doesn't take forever to come out with new games like GT
Halo and GOW still sold plenty this gen despite the online narrative around those franchises being mostly negative
Killer Instinct, Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break are all solid
Sea of Thieves seems to have found its niche, despite unrealistic expectations at launch

Sate of Decay 2 was a lemon though and Crackdown 3 is probably going to get a bit of a critical mauling when it comes out.

Admittedly almost all of them are just console exclusives as they're on PC well, but that doesn't invalidate XB1 as a platform as they are two different parts of the market and MS wouldn't be making/funding those titles in the first place if they didn't have a console platform to sell.

 

My issue with the Xbox is the lack of AAA exclusives recently. I also feel like the need to make a new rpg ip or bring back Fable.

But the Xbox One got better over time.

 

Definitely not going to deny that their first party has been thin this gen and that they made a critical mistake earlier on in cutting back whilst Sony was building the monster they have now. People buy games consoles for games after all.

MS just brought two RPG studios and there's allot of talk that Playground's new team is probably working on Fable, so they'll be plenty of that to go around on their next system.

 

I agree about Starfox Adventures...


Strongly disagree about Final Fantasy... We know Mystic Quest is the best Final Fantasy ever! (Please note that, that is a joke and I am not serious there!)

 

In its defense, Mystic Quest does have amazing music (although with not nearly the number of tracks as a "main" FF game, and the sound-font used is a little hollow sounding).

 

Is the Starfox Adventures stuff really controversial?

As I recall from the time of its release it was a departure, but was well received.

 

I don't like MMX2. I think its a boring-ass game. Most of the Mavericks were blah, and most of the levels only so-so.

 

On the subject of Megaman X games, I liked Megaman X6, moreso than X3, X5 and X8

 

Now that's an unpopular opinion. Whoo boy. Especially considering its horrendous, phoned-in level design, rendered worse by the poor implementation of the "Nightmare System".

 

Please don't take this as me trying to invalidate your opinions; if you like FFVIII that much, that's great, and it's none of my business.
I just honestly want to know, what aspects of FFVIII draw you to it? The graphics, characters, design, story, music, battle system, etc?

I rented the first RDR, and it was one of the most boring games I've ever played, so I have absolutely zero interest in ever playing RDR2.

Then again, RDR was accused of being GTAIII in the old west, and I strongly dislike the GTA series, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised (there's an on-topic unpopular opinion for ya  )

 

Probably the fact that the rule variants for the card game spreads like typhoid fever, thus ruining the one good part of the game.

 

Squall and Laguna are some of my favorite characters in the entire franchise, great artstyle and even better world, the fact that it's the one of the only "modern-esque" FF's help it stand out, great sidequests, best soundtrack in the entire franchise, best minigame in the entire franchise, the first two discs are genuinely amazing, and the Garden Battle at the end of Disc 2 is my all-time favorite moment in the entire series

I'm still pissed Square has done jack shit for the game, like no modern gen ports

I mean, you're not wrong on almost all those accounts, but personally I think it's a fun game to cheese. Though I do think some levels are genuinely great like Blizzard Wolfang and Metal Shark

 

Yeah, there are still some good levels in it. But then you've got Commander Yamarck's level, which is just a big fat nothing in terms of anything interesting happening about it.

Ground Scaravich's level is just the worst though, almost purely because of the Nightmare System. It's not that it's particularly difficult or anything. Just that if you're going for 100% item collection, you've got to go through each of the 16 different variations of the virtual obstacle course side-areas, to rescue all the Reploids from within, and you can only go through 4 maximum in a given runthrough. But if you beat Ground Scaravich, then the Nightmares and all the hostage Reploids are gone. So the only way to backtrack and try again to find the zones that you haven't visited yet are to suicide to restart the level (since you can only exit stages freely if you've beaten them already). Except that the rescued Reploids also give you 1-ups. So to fully "complete" his level, you wind up needing to suicide and reset, like, 50 times. It's inane.

I personally love Infinity Majinion's stage. It's not like it's a fantastic level design, since it's just a continuous downward-winding ramp without any real detours or anything (barring the armour capsule hidden in plain sight at the beginning). But it's a great setpiece, and fun to play in general as a speed run-y, obstacle course/gauntlet level. Plus the stage music is totally (not) "The Final Countdown". The level is better played as X, though. It's complete ass as Zero, because some genius decided to map one of his attacks to down+jump, which is also the command to dismount the ziplines. So you'll frequently find yourself trying to drop to a lower zipline over a bottomless pit and instead activate Zero's uncancellable divebomb attack straight to your grave.

It's not a bad game overall, but there's a reason most fans regard it as the weakest of the 2D Megaman X games, and those opinions are not without warrant. It doesn't help that the localization of it was the most hamfisted and shoddy of the series (even when you consider the hilariously bad English dialogue of X4).

 

I don't like the new style of the Link's Awakening remake. It looks hideous.

 

It's my least favorite of the 16-bit titles, for sure. The Flame Stag and Overdrive Ostrich levels in particular are far from fun, IMO. I do like the Wheel Gator stage though.

But I really can't bring myself to be too hard on this one when X5-8 are things that exist.

 

Windwaker HD is all style and no substance. The overworld is boring. Each island maybe, has one thing on them. I hafta find and feed fish to fill up my map. The bosses thus far, are an unmemorable squash-fest and I can barely remember any of the dungeons, except for the one annoying dungeon I had to go through twice. I have little to no motivation to play through this snoozer and I have no idea why fans praise it to the skies. It's a shame, I reeaally wanted to like it too. Most boring Zelda ever.