GRW....

I took the last few days to mess about with the free weekend of GRW on my Xbox One. Mainly to see how it handled as a console version(controller). Being an all in player on the PC version with multiple playthroughs; It went well. Surprisingly well. 

I was very happy to have been able to recreate my main PC character. It's a small thing but that helped with the crossover.  

It's a version of the game I got into and found myself playing away with normally as if I was on pc. So much so I had to stop myself from going outside the starter province. That was the only limit I put on myself, otherwise I'd still be playing it. The Sam Fisher challenge was so, so tempting to try. In saying all that I've no intention to buy the Xbox version (used version not cheap enough yet). But it does lead me to think about the keyboard/mouse support for the Xbox One. As most triple-A games are ported anyway it would be interesting. It has made me wonder about similar games that I've been dismissive of simply because I chose a keyboard and mouse over a controller without a test. Ponder, ponder, ponder.....

Overall I felt the console version was different, not a lot but a little. You could say that's because it's been optimized for console. That's a phrase that can be taken in many ways. I think it's a good thing. I played on a normal difficulty but it was more a feeling of arcadey-ness (words!) that made it feel different. At least for me. Motorbikes felt more bouncy and the terrain more forgiving with collision. On pc going down a hill on a motorbike at speed, hitting a rock or tree would see a character do a superman impression over the handlebars. Not so on console. Not in my testing.... Hit a sharp or flat rock and do a large wheelie jump instead. As for the helicopters, it felt like flying a drone. I never got a chance to test it with the 'older' style of heli settings.

To capture that feeling I journeyed into the Xbox clip/Onedrive/Microsoft authentication fiasco of a system for transferring content from Xbox to PC. Even with my Xbox being 2 inches above my PC and both having USB ports; Microsoft in their wisdom felt the solution was to transfer the files all over the interwebs and back. The joys of technology.

Casual Carebear