Xbox Series X | S

[monsly]

Cheers man, I thought I might sort this before bed but I’m going to give in now - thought I could add him to my family group but that’s not happening - will try that age stuff tomorrow.

No set up for purchases, they just go straight through so not sure what’s messing it up - seems this account isn’t a child one but the age restrictions are set to 3! Can’t see a way to change it now but maybe that link might do it. I’ve been setting a lot up today so probably missing something - cheers for the help, much appreciated

[dreamylittledream]

There’s options in the menus to unlock pretty much all content regardless of the recorded age in the profile which I had to end up doing for both my two as otherwise the permission problems were driving me up the wall trying to allow things on a case by base basis.

 

Both my kids know they are not allowed to install anything without permission on pain of severe sanctions which works for us but neither of them are devious and we tend to keep an eye on them when online to check who they are chatting to. Mileage will inevitably vary based on what your kids are like.

[TehStu]

If it helps, if you setup a family group and their accounts come under that, you can use the family safety app to keep an eye on what they're playing, for how long, etc. I rarely look at the particulars but it's useful if you're looking to enforce screen time limits, bed time hours, etc.

[metallicfrodo]

12 hours ago, monsly said:

This set up isn’t working it seems. Set up the S as my home console; I went to play midway arcade treasures and it says I can only play on one account and will log me out of the other (son was playing under my ID on the series x). Do I need to disconnect the S manually from the wifi to play something different at the same time then?

 

If you read my breakdown of how it works again it goes over this situation. It should be noted that even if he was playing on his own account, your account would still need to be signed into the X, so you could not log onto the S while it is online.

 

With regards to the home console the suggestion about making the S the home console is because the assumption is that in a situation where both of you are playing you would want to be on the X. If that is not the case then the X should be the home console. However I assume at the moment you were just wanting to use the S to test it was all setup and in general you’d have first dibs on the X?

[metallicfrodo]

12 hours ago, monsly said:

Cheers stu. I’ll look into that as a next step possibly, but that all went a bit wrong when I did it quickly at the weekend - came up with something about do I want to give this person permission to play just once or something? He was trying fortnite. No idea, was confused about what was going on;  had to get a pass code and enter it - wasn’t really expecting all that to be honest, just let me hit a big button that says this account can do whatever the hell it wants!

If you don’t want to do it on the console, there is a phone app for family settings.

 

https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/apps/family-settings-app

 

In general the settings are very comprehensive and worth taking the time to check through. Obviously if you complete trust your child you can just switch it all off.

[monsly]

13 minutes ago, metallicfrodo said:

If you read my breakdown of how it works again it goes over this situation. It should be noted that even if he was playing on his own account, your account would still need to be signed into the X, so you could not log onto the S while it is online.

 

With regards to the home console the suggestion about making the S the home console is because the assumption is that in a situation where both of you are playing you would want to be on the X. If that is the case then the X should be the home console. However I assume at the moment you were just wanting to use the S to test it was all setup and in general you’d have first dibs on the X?

Yeah, thanks for that. I assumed I’d be ok playing just a local game at the same time but can see what you mean now. I think this way around should be the best way, as I’ll probably be on the S more than him, as most of my stuff I want to play offline anyway - single player campaigns and retro.
 

Tried it later on and switched the S to offline and that meant I could play the Midway collection whilst the series x stayed online for Fortnite. Guess another dimension will be seeking saves between them - have to make sure they’re in sync before going offline. Bit of a fiddle but all the consoles seem to be like this.
 

An awkward dimension is his Fortnite account.  Setting him up with a new account for the Xbox would make things considerably easier but his Fortnite account is linked to my ID and has a ton of bought content; also it ties in with the Switch account and PS5 one. So kind of stuck as is for now.
 

I think all the consoles could make this a bit friendlier - must be so confusing for those who don’t have a background in games. Feels a lot like you’re being policed to me and unnecessarily so. But they all do it. 

[monsly]

Regarding the age thing, the first account I created for him isn’t tied to the family account - it’s a separate one it seems. Had a quick look v late last night and it’s not part of the family group and I couldn’t add it to it.

No idea how I went through the set up as I was working at home; him and his friend wanted to play so I tried to do it quickly with obviously disastrous results.

 

Home working today so I’ll try again at lunch. Tempted to wipe the two accounts I’ve created and start afresh!

[Garwoofoo]

8 hours ago, dreamylittledream said:

There’s options in the menus to unlock pretty much all content regardless of the recorded age in the profile which I had to end up doing for both my two as otherwise the permission problems were driving me up the wall trying to allow things on a case by base basis.

 

Worth noting that EA games have their own set of family settings for online play, which take the age details from your account and cannot be over-ridden.

 

My 12-year-old is gutted that he can't play Star Wars Battlefront II on his account, because it's (nonsensically) got an age rating of 16 and although I can give him permission on the Xbox, EA still flatly blocks him from playing.

[Hitcher]

Anyone else lost the ability to use cloud gaming? It was working fine a few weeks ago but I went to use it this morning and not a single game has the option anymore!

[metallicfrodo]

46 minutes ago, Hitcher said:

Anyone else lost the ability to use cloud gaming? It was working fine a few weeks ago but I went to use it this morning and not a single game has the option anymore!

Just used it to get the Weekly quest for 'playing' Rainbow Six Extraction. And while I haven't launched it the option was certainly there for Terraria

 

Maybe there is something wrong with your GPU sub?

[Hitcher]

Nope.

 

Quote

Subscription expires on

December 2, 2024

 

[TehStu]

8 hours ago, monsly said:

Regarding the age thing, the first account I created for him isn’t tied to the family account - it’s a separate one it seems. Had a quick look v late last night and it’s not part of the family group and I couldn’t add it to it.

 

It could be that creating a general account is assumed to be an adult, and bringing that adult into your family group is a level of supervision that may have privacy issues. For years, Google wouldn't let you do this with their accounts. Although they've finally now allowed adult accounts to become "well actually...." children's accounts with the correct age and supervised by a family, purging whatever data they're not allowed to hold on minors.

 

It's a shitter, but depending on the age (i.e., how long he'll use the account), but it may be worth starting over. Or, ping Microsoft chat support, who have always been excellent for me, and see if they can do anything.

[TehStu]

7 hours ago, Garwoofoo said:

 

Worth noting that EA games have their own set of family settings for online play, which take the age details from your account and cannot be over-ridden.

 

My 12-year-old is gutted that he can't play Star Wars Battlefront II on his account, because it's (nonsensically) got an age rating of 16 and although I can give him permission on the Xbox, EA still flatly blocks him from playing.

Yeah, it's all painfully fragmented. We've got all these settings for Microsoft, Google and Amazon accounts. I wish someone would come up with a data standard.

[TehStu]

Did I imagine us having a discussion about the eleventy trillion gigawatts the Series X consumes at the start of this gen? Anyway, MS just posted their 2021 sustainability report and this nugget was in it:

 

Quote

The Xbox team is also doing its part to reduce Microsoft’s environmental impact. Last year, the team updated the Energy Saver mode on Xbox console to make it use about 20 times less power than Standy mode when the console is not being used. This Energy Saver mode is also enabled by default when users set up a new Xbox console, which is the right thing to do since Xbox Series X|S consoles now boot very quickly thanks to their ultra-fast SSDs.

 

[Kryptonian]

Is there a way to transfer the fortnite account to your kids account? Sounds like if you can that would solve a bunch of issues.

 

edit - no you can’t 

 

You can unlink it but can’t add another, ffs

 

https://www.epicgames.com/help/en-US/epic-accounts-c74/general-support-c79/how-do-i-unlink-my-console-account-from-my-epic-games-account-a3253?sessionInvalidated=true

 

I bet this is why I set mine up with epic accounts and then link those to the console accounts, what a load of shit.

 

And while we’re at it, can’t believe there still isn’t a family gamepass sub.

[Sarlaccfood]

2 hours ago, TehStu said:

Did I imagine us having a discussion about the eleventy trillion gigawatts the Series X consumes at the start of this gen? Anyway, MS just posted their 2021 sustainability report and this nugget was in it:

 

 

I thought eco mode was just a full shut down?

[metallicfrodo]

2 hours ago, Kryptonian said:

Is there a way to transfer the fortnite account to your kids account? Sounds like if you can that would solve a bunch of issues.

 

edit - no you can’t 

 

You can unlink it but can’t add another, ffs

 

https://www.epicgames.com/help/en-US/epic-accounts-c74/general-support-c79/how-do-i-unlink-my-console-account-from-my-epic-games-account-a3253?sessionInvalidated=true

 

I bet this is why I set mine up with epic accounts and then link those to the console accounts, what a load of shit.

 

And while we’re at it, can’t believe there still isn’t a family gamepass sub.

There was a point that you used to be able to do this, I do wonder if it got changed to stop people hacking and then selling accounts.

[K]

13 hours ago, Sarlaccfood said:

I thought eco mode was just a full shut down?

Apparently the eco mode still downloads updates, according to this:

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-03-11-microsoft-asks-you-to-switch-to-xboxs-energy-saver-mode

 

I’m not sure why you’d put it in standby mode if it can still download stuff in the background. I’ve just tried it out, and it boots incredibly fast on a Series X, even in eco mode. 

[Shimmyhill]

1 hour ago, K said:

Apparently the eco mode still downloads updates, according to this:

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-03-11-microsoft-asks-you-to-switch-to-xboxs-energy-saver-mode

 

I’m not sure why you’d put it in standby mode if it can still download stuff in the background. I’ve just tried it out, and it boots incredibly fast on a Series X, even in eco mode. 

 

I was in standby mode as it didnt update apps in the past, shame they didnt default it to eco when they changed it or alerted us somehow! Switched to eco now, seems to still allow remote play in my house at least as it mentions remote options need standby mode…

[Pob]

1 hour ago, K said:

Apparently the eco mode still downloads updates, according to this:

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-03-11-microsoft-asks-you-to-switch-to-xboxs-energy-saver-mode

 

I’m not sure why you’d put it in standby mode if it can still download stuff in the background. I’ve just tried it out, and it boots incredibly fast on a Series X, even in eco mode. 

Oh wow, that's pretty huge!

[TehStu]

I had no idea eco mode did that, going to switch. I don't auto update games, but I do occasionally leave something downloading and turn it off.

[StumpyJohn]

I got a seriesX just yesterday and the eco mode was the default when setting it up via the xbox app 😀

 

I left it doing some transfers from my old oneX overnight and either or both of them must have switched off as in the morning it had not completed the transfer of FH5.  Not that doing a local transfer helped much anyway seeing at it then wanted to do a 96Gb update on the seriesX !  My word it looks loads better now on seriesX and the load times are night and day better.  Photo mode still bafflingly slow of course 😆

[Mallet]

So, I have upgraded from a series s to a series x and I have a very nice 4k 120hz hdr TV arriving today. 

 

I have never actually seen either 4k or HDR believe it or not.

 

What game or games should I install, preferably on game pass, that will look stunning and make me think that it is £1400 well spent. 

 

Is guardians of the galaxy a good looking game that will show if my new toys well? 

[metallicfrodo]

I believe that Gears 5 is a great looker, 60fps at native 4k (with VRS) and great HDR. Also the multiplayer is 120fps so you can try that out as well.

[Mallet]

I'm actually really looking forward to playing the Master Chief collection. It may not be a 'next gen game' but playing those games at 4k, 120fps and HDR is a next gen experience in my eyes. 

 

I wonder if I can come up with an excuse to leave work early today lol. 

 

[Majora]

So is the only difference between eco and standard standby mode that it takes a little bit longer to boot up every time? In the past I'm sure I kept it on standby because it was the only way to background download and auto-update apps. If that's not the case anymore then I'll definitely switch, especially considering how much more power the standard standby mode uses.

[Ry]

1 hour ago, Mallet said:

So, I have upgraded from a series s to a series x and I have a very nice 4k 120hz hdr TV arriving today. 

 

I have never actually seen either 4k or HDR believe it or not.

 

What game or games should I install, preferably on game pass, that will look stunning and make me think that it is £1400 well spent. 

 

Is guardians of the galaxy a good looking game that will show if my new toys well? 

 

 

Just going on game pass games:

 

Gears of War 5 is still one of the best looking games I've played. The Hivebusters add on is great as well (and free)

 

The Ori games are maybe the most beautiful games ever made and have a 120hz mode.

 

Guardians is ok. Has some nice environments. I played it at 60fps and the drop in Res really sticks out. At 30fps it looks nice but feels like walking through mud to play.

 

Flight Simulator is utterly jaw dropping at times and I'm in awe of the technology running that game. Although there's seperate massive (free) downloads for city packs to make things look better.

 

Forza Horizon 4 and 5 both look amazing at 60fps and 4k. 

 

A Plague Tale innocence, brilliant game and it blew me away graphically when I played it at 30fps on the old One X. Character models are not the best but the environments and lighting are too notch. 

 

Killer Instinct is a ton of fun and looks fantastic all these years later. 

 

Battlefront 2 still looks and sounds incredible. 

 

The Ascent is pretty impressive. Lot of people love it and it's had a few patches but I gave up on it after a few hours. 

 

Unpacking. It's simple in its pixel art but also so clean and lovely looking. Also just a brilliant game and had the best story out of anything I played last year even though there's not a single word of dialogue in the game. 

 

Visage. Scarily realistic in its environments. Although I had to stop playing after an hour as it's just too damn scary.

 

 

[Jackson]

Tetris Effect is the most "wow" game I've played on the OLED. It's on gamepass.

[Mallet]

Thanks for the replies

[SqueakyG]

Oof - just had a scary moment with my 2-month-old Xbox Series X. It wasn't reading any discs. Every game was bringing up the error "Please insert the disc. If the disc has been inserted, check it's not dirty or scratched" etc. Shutting down the console and restarting didn't fix it.

 

Shutting down, pulling the plug, then starting up DID thankfully fix it.

 

Scary though. With continued stock shortages you can't be sure what would happen if your XSX or PS5 broke.