Polygon: If the Xbox Ally is the future of Xbox, Microsoft is in Trouble.
- Thread starter memoryman3
- Start date
- Opinion Review
existensmaximum
Member
What do you mean? The Game Gear is amazing and was really impressive for its time.
Parazels
Member
Really? How does it work then?
Yekshemesh
Member
Nydius
Member
Let's be honest: Windows doesn't "suck" but it's hardly "premier" either. The only reason it has a stranglehold on PC gaming is because Windows still benefits from Microsoft's desktop/os monopolistic practices of the 1990s. It's not premier it's default, for better and worse.
I'd love to see the day where OS no longer matters and people on Windows, Mac, Unix, or whatever flavor of Linux they prefer could run any and all of those games. If that day ever came then we'd see what OS is truly "premier" for gaming on PC.
balls of snow
Member
Will be interesting to see of ms sticks with the xbox experience for the actual next gen xbox-pc hybrid. That single digiit fps lifts over bog ass windows are hillarious though. ( Referencing the ars technica review)
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Edgelord79
Gold Member
Astute.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
The mediocrity continues.
Ellis
Member
Unlike Ally, GameGear could play my entire Master System library natively.
I adored that handheld. Even though most of my pocket money went on AA batteries every week.
Ellis
Member
RetroGamingUK
Member
My memories of GameGear consist of playing it in hotel rooms, rarely touched it outside.
Ellis
Member
Same. The only handheld I can actually remember playing outside was my later GBP.
RetroGamingUK
Member
Took my PSP to uni and work quite a bit, always got a lot of attention from people.
Ellis
Member
I was too of scared of dropping mine
It felt way too premium and classy.
What an incredible device it was. For me, it is up there with the og GB as the best handhelds ever made. Both incredible for the time they released.
Team Andromeda
Member
Video game journalism is in real trouble, more like
Ellis
Member
It feels like the quality of gaming journalism didn't translate well from magazines to internet.
Team Andromeda
Member
Yep, but they need views or if you Yoube likes and subs and so go for gutter journalism with a headline they know will get clicks
Ellis
Member
A shame as articles/reviews from people like Richard from DF were pretty commonplace in UK mags back in the 90s.
Now it's just bullshit for clicks on YouTube, like you said.
Team Andromeda
Member
Of course, it is... it's the same for sport and film journalism. All with the clickbait headline or highly 'expressive thumbnail'
RetroGamingUK
Member
Team Andromeda
Member
You mean like this...
Yeah, a SONY fan pretending to like SEGA, reminds me of someone
Ellis
Member
You mean like this...
My mate had a little cooking channel on YT a few years ago and he was doing these stupid face thumbnails.
Never failed to tell him he looked a cunt in the comments
Mephisto40
Member
Articles like this make the IGN review look even more baffling
BlackTron
Member
I don't need suspend/resume on my gaming PC, but I do need it in my gaming handheld...this is where a comparison to Switch makes sense because they're both handhelds.
I'd rather use a cheap switch 1 and have sleep mode work 100% of the time and play anything else on PC connected to a display.
I'd rather use a cheap switch 1 and have sleep mode work 100% of the time and play anything else on PC connected to a display.
BlackTron
Member
At least the Game Gear had a library of its own games which are still interesting to check out. And did well enough for those games to take up store space for a good while.
This is just a windows handheld at a time the brand is being stripped from stores.
Astray
Member
He's easily the best content creator to consult about these handhelds.
MrAlwaysRight
Member
I don't on the Ally unless it's plugged into the Wall, at low power handheld mode, i'd play Balatro, but i have it on the iPad, I'd play older games emulated, but i have a switch 2 with virtual console, so the Ally is purely a 30watt handheld for me, at which point I can get Fortnite to 80-120fps, FC25 (not tried FC26 on it yet) plays reasonably at 60fps, but in reality, it's on my daughters desk docked and she uses it as her PC again, when plugged in it's perfectly fine for some games, but it just isn't good enough when portable.
CuteFaceJay
Member
Only people buying this are Drug dealers and tech review bro's. Average joe ain't about to drop a grand on this goof looking thing to play a few xbox games Because that's all people will think it can play due to the branding being xbox.
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Shifty1897
Member
This is clearly a case of the reviewer never being a PC gamer, which is fine, but I don't think the ROG Ally X is for people who don't already have a Steam account full of games. Polygon is just being Polygon.
Not defending this device, but comparing any Windows handheld gaming device to a Switch 2 is disingenuous. It's like those pieces of shit on social media who post videos comparing GTA V and Cyberpunk and then shouting things like "THIS 10 YEAR OLD GAME HAS TIRES THAT DEFLATE WHEN YOU SHOOT THEM BUT THIS NEW GAME DOESN'T."
"CRYSIS IN 2009 HAS REALISTIC WAVES ON THE BEACH BUT THIS NEW GAME BALATRO DOESNT EVEN HAVE BEACHES, CLEARLY A TRASH GAME WITH LAZY DEVS." -Brandon from his MomsBasementGaming YouTube channel
Not defending this device, but comparing any Windows handheld gaming device to a Switch 2 is disingenuous. It's like those pieces of shit on social media who post videos comparing GTA V and Cyberpunk and then shouting things like "THIS 10 YEAR OLD GAME HAS TIRES THAT DEFLATE WHEN YOU SHOOT THEM BUT THIS NEW GAME DOESN'T."
"CRYSIS IN 2009 HAS REALISTIC WAVES ON THE BEACH BUT THIS NEW GAME BALATRO DOESNT EVEN HAVE BEACHES, CLEARLY A TRASH GAME WITH LAZY DEVS." -Brandon from his MomsBasementGaming YouTube channel
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Skifi28
Member
Which makes calling it an Xbox even weirder as it just ends up confusing people about the target audience of the device.
apple_of_enlightenment
Member
We had some good times and laughs in the office over this one:
"Remember, this isn't like buying a game for the Nintendo Switch 2, where you can expect things will work out of the box.
This is much more like buying a game for your home computer.
In other words, you don't know for sure whether a game will work or not."
www.bbc.co.uk
"Remember, this isn't like buying a game for the Nintendo Switch 2, where you can expect things will work out of the box.
This is much more like buying a game for your home computer.
In other words, you don't know for sure whether a game will work or not."
Is Microsoft's first ever handheld Xbox console worth the wait?
The ROG Xbox Ally works with Game Pass out of the box, meaning gamers start off with hundreds of games.
www.bbc.co.uk
apple_of_enlightenment
Member
It was a fatal move for the brand getting into bed with Asus in this way.
Astray
Member
The Switch 2 running absolute circles around this thing at less than half the price and significantly less weight and heat dissipation is a great testament to the engineering skills of Nintendo.We had some good times and laughs in the office over this one:
"Remember, this isn't like buying a game for the Nintendo Switch 2, where you can expect things will work out of the box.
This is much more like buying a game for your home computer.
In other words, you don't know for sure whether a game will work or not."
Is Microsoft's first ever handheld Xbox console worth the wait?
The ROG Xbox Ally works with Game Pass out of the box, meaning gamers start off with hundreds of games.
It feels very clearly rushed to the market as a response to SteamOS obliterating W11 on these handhelds.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Truer words haven't been spoken. This device will only make the Switch 2 look SOOOO much better in comparison.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
It's also a great testament to the differences between companies that have designed consoles in the past versus companies that just put PC parts together and sell their device for the highest profit. Consoles will always punch above their weight.
Switch 2 uses an Nvidia Ampere SoC
The PC handhelds use AMD's APUs…with only a handful using Intel's solutions. No other option that would ensure broad compatibility with a wide PC library.
Nobody's just slapping together PC parts. Not Valve, not Lenovo, not MSI and not Asus.
DLSS allows the Switch 2 pull off some great upscaling, but it's certainly weaker than the newer PC handhelds.
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Katatonic
Member
Match made in heaven if you ask me.
MrAlwaysRight
Member
Fixed that for you, Nintendo had zero input on the hardware side, just what they were willing to pay.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
You are being too literal. I didn't mean literally slapping together PC parts. It's obvious that these PC handhelds aren't built with the same advantages that consoles have when more things are customized.
Astray
Member
There's far more to a console than what SoC it's using.
OS, APIs etc are all very impactful here and it's all made by Nintendo.
MrAlwaysRight
Member
Nvidia provided the SW stack, Nintendo had input on what the OS looks like and features, but API's are mainly Nvidia, it's alluded to in the Nvidia Deep Dive even if not explicit.
MisterXDTV
Member
I mean, people always mock Apple devices prices but an iPad looks like a bergain compared to these
LOL