Xbox Games

[Jacob]

I'm thinking of buying an Xbox for the family - trying to make gaming more of a living-room/ family/ big screen thing rather than an individual on a small personal screen type deal.

Do you have any recommendations for games that are one (or more) of the following:

- co-op
- appropriate for younger children
- just really good and okay for young teens

... and what are your usual go-to for looking for games. I did a quick search on xbox.com and there's more than 11,000 games for the platform. It's a bit much to wade through, even with filters.

[Oexmelin]

Overcooked. I play that with my sister online. She has very different tastes to mine, but we have a lot of fun.

Not co-op, but very silly, gangbeast.


 

[Josquius]

Why xbox?

Nothing comes to mind on the latest xbox that isn't also available on pc-  a steam os computer seems a better option there as you've already got a bunch of games, or switch or ps5 which do have more exclusives.

Really can't think of many games to recommend anyway. I've heard it takes two is a fun family friendly game? And the various lego games though could skew too young.
I'm sure you know the usual stuff for kids that age....

[Jacob]

So the main reason is to have a "centre of the living room console" for family gaming.

The Switch is out as it's very much a "personal screen" type device - and we already have a Switch.

If there was a console equivalent of the Steam Deck I'd be happy to get that (I enjoy my Steam Deck), but I'm not up for putting together and configuring a PC and letting the kids access it.

As for PS vs XBox it's simply that I can get an XBox Series S for much less than a any kind of PS5 - which is comparable to the Series X.

I also believe Microsoft is winning the console war and Sony gaming is gently declining, but I suppose that doesn't really matter.

[Grey Fox]

Eh, this is why I have Xboxes. That & Forza Horizon games.

Subscribe to GamePass Ultimate, it's really worth it with children. There is lots of smaller studios indi contemplating & puzzle games on the service.

My kids play Minecraft & Slime Rancher regularly.

It takes two and Unravel 2 are big hits that my children play together (both available on EA Play).

I enjoyed playing Minecraft Dungeon & sports games with my son.

My Xbox is really a Gamepass machine & I use the tab on the console to find games to play. There's always something new.

Not exclusive to Xbox but play Sea of Stars, a Canadian product!

[The Minsky Moment]

Agree with Grey Fox that even after a recent price increase, GamePass is a good deal if you are going to do a decent amount of gaming. Keys for ultimate can be acquired on sale for $30/3 months, which means a year of access is less than what 2 retail AAA games go for.

As for the X box itself . . . I don't think anyone is winning the console wars because the entire raison d'etre of the traditional console model is in question and sales for this generation are down for Sony and Microsoft. If there is a winner, it is definitely not Xbox on the hardware side because they are a distant 3rd in sales.  But as a company, Microsoft may be a winner as their strategy doesn't hinge on pushing X/S units. Seems like they are considering moving to a model where the "console" is just PC in a box that attaches to TV and has open access to Steam, EPIC, etc as well as MSFTs own store.  If Xbox hardware continues in that scenario, it would then be as a kind of reference series or premium branded product.

As for now, GamePass can be streamed but obviously quality and reliability are better from disk. MSFT seems to be pricing X-Box competitively and so viewed as reasonably priced platform for running GamePass games through the TV, it has a good use case and probably fits your needs.

Because I still work mostly from home, I have to have the best internet connection available, so personally I just stream, mostly through GeForceNow, which also incorporates GamePass titles. That adds some extra sub costs, but frees me from worrying about hardware requirements.  Everything is played either through the Steam Deck, direct on TV with an app, or through a three-year-old Surface.

[Jacob]

Thanks Minsky - I was considering GeForceNow now because I'd like to have access to Steam as well. For GeForceNow does it matter at all whether I use some random old PC, a low-spec Steam Deck, or - as you say - direct on TV with an app (because I'm thinking of getting a new TV to replace my 720p from 2005 or whenever)?

Looking at GeForceNow it has a list of supported games. If I have a game on Steam that's not listed as supported, does that mean I can't play it?

Re: Console Wars I think MSFT is winning because I think they're going to come out ahead in terms of the "Stream Games via our service" model. I expect they'll be the top dog in the race to become the Netflix/ Prime/ whoever of gaming. Though maybe it doesn't matter what hardware I buy now, even if I'm correct.

[The Minsky Moment]

Thanks Minsky - I was considering GeForceNow now because I'd like to have access to Steam as well. For GeForceNow does it matter at all whether I use some random old PC, a low-spec Steam Deck, or - as you say - direct on TV with an app (because I'm thinking of getting a new TV to replace my 720p from 2005 or whenever)?

Yeah you can play on any screen that supports the GFN app.  The device isn't doing anything other than managing the streaming pipe so specs can be utter crap. 

Looking at GeForceNow it has a list of supported games. If I have a game on Steam that's not listed as supported, does that mean I can't play it?

Yeah if the Steam game is unsupported, it won't play on GFN.  That's the real downside of the service; the library is limited. It does have most of the Gamepass stuff.

That said, if you also have a Steam Deck (which BTW is pretty easy to connect to a TV), between steam games that play good natively on Deck and the GFN supported games, that covers a pretty wide net.  For what I'm interested in, it covers pretty much everything except some old fashioned hex and counter games and baseball management sims that can run just fine native on an old laptop.  But keep in mind I don't play any GasS games or MMorpgs so YMMV

Re: Console Wars I think MSFT is winning because I think they're going to come out ahead in terms of the "Stream Games via our service" model. I expect they'll be the top dog in the race to become the Netflix/ Prime/ whoever of gaming. Though maybe it doesn't matter what hardware I buy now, even if I'm correct.

Yeah I agree. Trying to squeeze out profits slinging plastic boxes filled with variant laptop parts is probably not a sound long-term play.

[The Minsky Moment]

I see Star Wars Outlaws, Space Marines II, and Black Myth Wukong are all up (I don't have any them).  They do a pretty decent job getting the rights on the hot new things.

They have all the Paradox games. Diablo. Baldur's Gate III. Looks like a lot of the ubisoft titles. It's a decent selection

Elden Ring is not on, but does play native on steam deck.  Same for the last Harry Potter game that got flack.

[Jacob]

Heh funny you should mention it... my two test case games guiding my purchase are:

Elden Ring (the boy really wants it)

and

Bluey the Game (for the young one, it even has couch co-op)... this one seems to be trickier.

I have a Steam Deck, but that's my primary gaming device and I don't want to turn it into a family device - and it also has the downside of being portable. I'm trying to get more "living room social gaming" going and reduce the amount of "sitting in a corner, slouched over a small screen gaming"... and a Steam Deck doesn't help there.

[The Minsky Moment]

Heh funny you should mention it... my two test case games guiding my purchase are:

Elden Ring (the boy really wants it)

and

Bluey the Game (for the young one, it even has couch co-op)... this one seems to be trickier.

I have a Steam Deck, but that's my primary gaming device and I don't want to turn it into a family device - and it also has the downside of being portable. I'm trying to get more "living room social gaming" going and reduce the amount of "sitting in a corner, slouched over a small screen gaming"... and a Steam Deck doesn't help there.

$30 dock/USB hub + HDMI cable and you can output steam deck to TV.  heck you could probably do it straight USB C to HDMI if you are willing to run off battery.

But believe me I get keeping it away from the kiddies.

[Jacob]

Yeah I know it's possible. I just KNOW that if I get a deck for those purposes, it'll be less than a year before it's just used as a portable device. I wish there was a desktop equivalent of the Steam Deck.

[Josquius]

I beleieve you can install steam os yourself on a computer, effectively making your own desktop steam deck.
There do exist some pretty small quiet PC models.

I've not really looked but I'd be surprised if there's not somebody somewhere selling something ready made as a desktop steamdeck.

Oh. And relevant news I saw today.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/steam-families-is-out-of-beta-letting-you-share-games-with-up-to-five-others

[The Minsky Moment]

Valve has been talking about getting Steam OS compatible for use on other devices for a while but it's been very slow progress.  Most of the people using a Linux gaming set up on Windows devices like the ROG Ally seem to be using Bazzite, which apparently is pretty close to the Steam OS experience.

I think "steambox" type devices are coming soon.  Emudeck has something like that up on a crowdfunding site, although it is retro gaming focused and uses Bazzite.  XBox may be moving in that direction and I wouldn't be surprised if Valve dropped something in the next 12 months.

[Josquius]

Valve has been talking about getting Steam OS compatible for use on other devices for a while but it's been very slow progress.  Most of the people using a Linux gaming set up on Windows devices like the ROG Ally seem to be using Bazzite, which apparently is pretty close to the Steam OS experience.

I think "steambox" type devices are coming soon.  Emudeck has something like that up on a crowdfunding site, although it is retro gaming focused and uses Bazzite.  XBox may be moving in that direction and I wouldn't be surprised if Valve dropped something in the next 12 months.

As in steam actually on an existing xbox as it stands?
I therefore drop all my scoffing at the xbox idea if this is so.

Certainly the direction microsoft seem to be evolving longer term at least though.
Its funny but I remember back when the original Xbox was in development, all the rumours around the playground were it would basically be a playstation that played PC games without all the faff. They're finally getting there.