(Seriously, this is actually pretty scary, to me at least!)

Like… woah. This seems like it could be a really significant bonus. There's so much irony in the Xbox being able to play PS1 games, but the PS5 being unable to :-p

Looks like quite a few PS2 titles are playable as well. Not all perfectly, but apparently a lot of the big games work very well.

You can pay 20 bucks to unlock a Dev Mode where you can run custom applications. You have to boot into Dev Mode, and it can't run commercial games, but you can just boot back into regular mode when you want to.

There's already a bunch of emulators you can use. I HEAR Retroarch is good (it sucked on the PI so I'm sus), and there's a shit ton of stuff you can emulate. I haven't heard about any other custom apps but I'm sure people will make more.

Seems smart because now there is zero incentive to jailbreak the system (and if this happens, you know immediately it's not in good faith and just there for pirated games).

Like… woah. This seems like it could be a really significant bonus. There's so much irony in the Xbox being able to play PS1 games, but the PS5 being unable to :-p

I think Kermit has that LG OLED, widely regarded as one of the best HDR sets on the market. He’s having the exact same issues.

Man Bungie, come on… lol.

Cody. We’re not idiots. Destiny has looked great for the past year, then suddenly, the day they drop a massive update in which we know they changed the way lighting works, HDR now looks like shit. Nothing about our tvs changed in the past year, Destiny did. It’s fucking broken.

Because it's like, I'm sorry dude, I've had a 4k HDR display for almost 2 years now that I'm replacing with an even fancier monitor, it is not that I fucked up buying my tv what is wrong with you.

My point was that because there actually aren't any actual brightness requirements for the HDR10 standard, it can look wildly different on many displays. Perhaps Bungie didn't test their new implementation on a wide enough variety of screens. It's the only thing I can think of, because if they saw what he saw internally at the studio there'd be no way they'd ship that as is. If their new implementation is aggressive about making bright things bright, then low quality HDR displays (which there are a LOT of) will struggle. A more conservative solution might have looked fine.

The alternative that they fucked up for any and every TV is just so beyond incompetent I can't convince of that happening. Right?

That genuinely doesn't make sense. If the game is labeled as Play Anywhere on the Xbox/Microsoft Store, it should be available in both libraries. I don't think I've ever heard this problem before.

I just jumped into the Xbox store on my PC to see what I could see. I went to Forza 7, which is the last game I purchased (about 2 weeks before it was added to Gamepass... D'oh!). It is clearly labeled as a "Play Anywhere" title. I made sure I was logged into my account, and then tried to find a way to download it. It showed me an option to download the game for free through my Gamepass account, but the only way to "buy" the game was to pay for it again. I couldn't find any way to download it for free through the "play anywhere" system. So if it is there, it sure isn't easy to find.

By Xbox store, I meant the one on the Xbox. You may have to acquire Play Anywhere games from the Microsoft Store on PC. That may be a bug, an oversight, or a missing feature in the PC "Xbox Store."

That genuinely doesn't make sense. If the game is labeled as Play Anywhere on the Xbox/Microsoft Store, it should be available in both libraries. I don't think I've ever heard this problem before.

I just jumped into the Xbox store on my PC to see what I could see. I went to Forza 7, which is the last game I purchased (about 2 weeks before it was added to Gamepass... D'oh!). It is clearly labeled as a "Play Anywhere" title. I made sure I was logged into my account, and then tried to find a way to download it. It showed me an option to download the game for free through my Gamepass account, but the only way to "buy" the game was to pay for it again. I couldn't find any way to download it for free through the "play anywhere" system. So if it is there, it sure isn't easy to find.

Cody. We’re not idiots. Destiny has looked great for the past year, then suddenly, the day they drop a massive update in which we know they changed the way lighting works, HDR now looks like shit. Nothing about our tvs changed in the past year, Destiny did. It’s fucking broken.

Because it's like, I'm sorry dude, I've had a 4k HDR display for almost 2 years now that I'm replacing with an even fancier monitor, it is not that I fucked up buying my tv what is wrong with you.

Graphics any better? ;-)

Dunky said something interesting:

Cutting edge graphics are no longer within reach for most major game studios

Part of me thinks thats because 4K is the target now, part of me think it's because tools like Unreal Engine 5 aren't widespread yet, and part of me thinks he's totally right and only the most expensive games will be able to make graphics that are "next gen".

Genuine questions for anyone who knows more about this than I. I’m just trying to make a purchase, but no one wants my money!

I think the HDR has several problems. I finally turned it off, and I've been happier.

Thanks for the early report. Hope to have mine in time for the D2 upgrade.

Not to be a dick, but it might be your TV and not be Bungie's fault.

While a TV might be able to process an HDR input, if the TV is shitty, it can actually end up looking worse than an SDR input. Believe it or not, the HDR10 standard doesn't actually mandate a maximum brightness for the display. So if your TV doesn't get very bright and has bad blacks, your HDR is going to look grey, washed out, and shitty.

Does it generally look worse across any game you try? Or is it just Des2ny?

Just Destiny for me, although I actually like the visuals in a Pop art sort of way.

I think the HDR has several problems. I finally turned it off, and I've been happier.

Thanks for the early report. Hope to have mine in time for the D2 upgrade.

Not to be a dick, but it might be your TV and not be Bungie's fault.

While a TV might be able to process an HDR input, if the TV is shitty, it can actually end up looking worse than an SDR input. Believe it or not, the HDR10 standard doesn't actually mandate a maximum brightness for the display. So if your TV doesn't get very bright and has bad blacks, your HDR is going to look grey, washed out, and shitty.

Does it generally look worse across any game you try? Or is it just Des2ny?

However even if 343 fixed Halo to be faithful to the original, you'd still have to buy it again instead of just being able to use the discs you already have for Xbox… That's what's so surprising here. Holding up back compat as a way to bring all your games forward, and then not letting you bring the two literal best selling Xbox games forward. But hey, you can play Fusion Frenzy at least!

The difference is that you can already play H1&2 on the new console. Fusion Frenzy, and the rest of the OGX titles they've chosen so far, you can't.

There is no back compat support for Halo and Halo 2.

Yet.