Xbox Series X/S

[Jason]

Cloud gaming has launched on the consoles today. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm excited to play Game Pass games without having the download and have SSD drive space for them.

[Jason]

I've been working professionally in IT for 30 years now and made such a rookie mistake with my Xbox Series S setup since I've had it. My downloads were so slow and capped at less than 100Mbps since I've had it even though all of my switches and router support 1Gbps. I've read about a lot of people complaining about slow download speeds from Microsoft's servers, so I just assumed the bottleneck was on their end.

Last night I thought about checking the cable I was using and left myself a note to check it this morning. Sure enough, it was the network cable that came with my Xbox 360 I had there previously so I swapped it out and now I'm back to 1Gbps speed. I can't believe it took me so long to think about the swapping the cable earlier and that I didn't swap the cable when I set it up in the first place.

[Brad Company]

Home theater and IT, always check the cables.

[Jason]

After seeing and trying my son's Xbox 20th Anniversary controller I went ahead and ordered one for myself. The rubberized grips make a huge difference. I already have the 20th Anniversary control for Playstation, so now I'll have one for Xbox too.

[Brad Company]

I sideloaded the Gamepass app onto my Nvidia Shield, signed into my old MS account, and grabbed GP Ultimate. Everything is set to go, and the games try to launch, but then the session crashes. Evidently this is a known issue, as the infrastructure has buckled over Xmas. But if I can use the Shield and it's gamepad as a virtual Xbox for the princely sum of $15 a month, I will be stoked.

[Jason]

That would be very cool. I've been impressed with Microsoft's cloud gaming and it's only going to get better. Being able to play a majority of their Game Pass games on a TV without owning a console would be a nice score.

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[Jason]

My Xbox 20th Anniversary controller arrived this past weekend. I don't think it's made any differently than the standard controllers, but it feels like more of a premium product. The smooth plastic on the front and the rubberized back grips on the back make it much more comfortable than the standard controller.

[Jason]

A nearby Target has had 5 Series X consoles in stock since this morning. I've been debating whether or not to get one. If I knew for sure that it would another few months before I'd be able to get a PS5 I'd go ahead and buy it. I'm just worried a PS5 will become available as soon as I spend the money on an X.

[Jason]

A nearby Target has had 5 Series X consoles in stock since this morning. I've been debating whether or not to get one. If I knew for sure that it would another few months before I'd be able to get a PS5 I'd go ahead and buy it. I'm just worried a PS5 will become available as soon as I spend the money on an X.

Fuck Sony. I just ordered the X.

[Jason]

Just walked in the door with it. Now the fun part of moving my wall unit and running wires starts.

[Jason]

It now occupies the former location of my Series S. I'm excited to be able to finish Gears 5 using two consoles instead of split-screen.

[Jason]

I haven't had much of a chance to try it out because my younger son had been on it non-stop, but I can really appreciate the cloud based saves. It's so nice being able to switch between the X and S and just have your current saves available to you no matter which console you're on.

I don't know if the PS5 has a similar feature, but syncing saves across two PS4s sucks.

[Brad Company]

Congrats, the X is a beast.

[Jason]

I've never played a game in 4k before yesterday and other than the sharper graphics, the thing that stood out to me the most is how the higher resolution almost eliminates shimmering in the games I've played. This was very noticeable in racing games where things like guardrails and track lines would always shimmer in the distance. In all the racing games I've tried so far (GRID Legends, F1 2021 and Forza 7) the shimmering is much improved or eliminated completely. I guess it's safe to say that 4k gaming is one of those things I didn't think I needed until I actually tried it.

[Brad Company]

Yep, and the improved frame rates will spoil you fast. It's very hard to go back to 30fps.