To Disc or Not to Disc 💿

Welcome back to Gamer Dad Energy! A newsletter that covers gaming news, tips, and nostalgia for busy gamers.

The rumor mill is spitting out half-ground gaming truths, but they are a lot of fun to talk about! For everyone who is with us right now. You are the foundation! You are in the first 100! We salute you! 🫡 As Gamer Dad Energy's ranks swell, we will figure out something to reward the first 100.

That being said, we are going to a one email a week to build the engine that will recruit more to our cause! Don’t be dismayed, my brothers; while we have to refocus our resources on growth strategies, we will be back stronger! Once we finish building our foundation, we will go back to two a week.

If you would like to send us any thoughts or comments, you can always reply to our emails. We will see you!

-MadHad

Let the rumor mill start flying! Project Helix is the not-so-secret next console coming from Xbox. Many people have thought it would be a hybrid console and PC. Very similar to a Steam Machine.

I believe all those rumors will be true. From what we have seen, Steam has pretty much dominated the PC space, with Windows, built by Microsoft, the current owner of Xbox.

If you don’t know your Xbox history, Xbox was introduced by Microsoft to compete with Sony. It was originally designed to show that they were trying to keep the power from escaping. The Xbox 360 was designed as an exhaled breath, according to some random Xbox exec back in the day. But I digress.

Project Helix has a lot of legs right now. Since Sony is going on record as pretty much destroying everything the gaming community wants, Xbox can come back and win market share if they play the pro-consumer game!

I am here for that! The current timeline is to ship the Alpha Version of the hardware to developers in 2027. This has led people to speculate that we could get a 2027 holiday release if they ship those consoles early in the year.

With the system operating via the PC tie-in, developers might not have to adjust their PC versions of their games much for the console to play them.

Again, take these next statements with a grain of salt. There are rumors that Project Helix will jump the performance by 2-3 times. AMD is working on a specific chipset, similar to handhelds, that will deliver those performance gains for Project Helix.

There is another report that says you might be able to wrap your new Xbox purchase into a monthly payment plan with a 2-year Game Pass membership.

What I am excited for is a new system. I want to have my Steam library and console library in my living room. I want my hardware to be powerful so I can have amazing graphical experiences from my couch. I would love to pay for a new console with my Game Pass subscription. Even if that doesn’t happen, I am sure they will partner with a company like Klarna to break up payments.

I don’t know what to think right now. I am just excited. I hope the gains in system power are real, but this is probably just smoke and mirrors until Xbox says so themselves. But we are getting closer!

_-MadHad

Xbox may finally be fixing one of those problems that has annoyed players for years: inconsistent download speeds.

Microsoft is testing a new “smart download client” designed to improve the speed of game installs and updates. The feature is currently available to select members of the Xbox Insider Program’s Alpha Skip-Ahead ring, so it is not yet a standard update for everyone. Once a download begins, the system checks the available content servers, tests the connection to each server pool, and chooses the fastest option. It will also repeat those tests during the download and switch connections when a better one becomes available.

That sounds like a simple improvement, but it could make a major difference. Xbox downloads have never been known for their consistency. Windows Central tested the update and reported that downloads were finally reaching the full 250 Mbps speed available on the writer’s connection. Microsoft’s release notes focus on consoles, although the writer also noticed better results while downloading games through Xbox on PC.

This is something that has always bothered me. We have fiber internet at our house, and most of our devices take advantage of it without much trouble. Xbox is a different story. A download might move along at a great speed, suddenly slow to a crawl, and then speed back up again for no clear reason. The numbers vary far more than they should, especially when the console is connected to internet service built for fast downloads.

I have always just kind of rolled with it because there was not much I could do. Restarting the console, pausing and resuming the download, or making sure a game was fully closed might help, but none of those tricks felt like a real solution.

For my 16-year-old son, however, it has been REALLY frustrating. He is part of the “access to everything now” generation. When he wants to play a game, he wants to play it now, not after watching a download estimate bounce between 20 minutes and three hours.

Modern games and their updates are enormous, which makes reliable download performance more important than ever. This new system will not magically make someone’s internet connection faster, but it may finally help Xbox use more of the speed people are already paying for.

The feature still needs to make its way through Insider testing before a wider release. If it works as advertised, this will be a small update with a very noticeable payoff.

_-BensZ28

I know I have already talked about this game, but now that I have beaten it, you have to play it! Simply put, it is one of the best games I have played in the last decade! For a side-scrolling game, this should have been in the conversation for game of the year when it came out!

It is superb! The combat is simple but complex enough to make you feel like you are battling the bosses. It’s not some key combination or just pattern watching. You are battling them. Don’t get me wrong, all the big bosses have a pattern recognition that you have to understand to be able to get past them, but because they have a counter block mechanic that doesn't have an extremely small window to counter the enemy, it makes the fights way more dynamic.

I actually believe fighting some of the mini-bosses was just as good if not better than the grand bosses.

If you have ever wanted to fight Shadow Link again, well, you can do it here!

Also, everything in this game is epic. The voice acting, the animations, and the fetching story. Nothing is totally brand new, but the way they weaved it all together, and again it’s only a sidescrolling game. It just works so good!

Prince of Persia: Lost Crown is in Game Pass right now! If you are already a subscriber, then what are you waiting for? This is a perfect handheld game!

This game is long; they really fleshed everything out, and they keep you engaged throughout. If you are short on time, you have to get to save points, which can be frustrating, but there are so many around that you can stop playing and pick it back up really close to where you were at your last session.

Again, I am very happy I spent the time to play this game and beat it. The conclusion and last boss fight were just as epic as the best parts of this entire game. You might need to Google a couple of times when you get stuck, but no shame in that!

Go and fight my brothers!

_-MadHad

PlayStation and Xbox both gave gamers a reminder this week that an all-digital future comes with some very real problems.

On July 24, PlayStation Network suffered a widespread outage that left thousands of players unable to sign in, open downloaded games, use online features, or access the PlayStation Store. Just two days later, Xbox began dealing with its own major outage. Players reported problems signing in, launching apps, and accessing games. The situation became even more concerning when some players could not launch disc-based games because the system was unable to verify their licenses.

That last part should get everyone’s attention.

Sony recently announced that it will stop producing physical discs for all new PlayStation games beginning in January 2028. The company says digital downloads represented about 80 percent of its full-game sales during fiscal 2025, so the business reason is easy to understand. Still, the timing strongly points toward the PlayStation 6 being built around digital games.

Sony has not officially revealed the PS6, and reports disagree on exactly how it will handle discs. One analyst believes the standard console will not include a disc drive, although an optional drive could be offered for older games. An earlier report claimed Sony was planning a detachable drive similar to the current PS5 setup. (The same is now being said for the Xbox project Helix.) Either way, that drive would have limited value if new PlayStation games are no longer released on disc.

I prefer digital games for most of my current purchases. It is convenient to buy a game, download it, and switch between titles without getting off the couch. I am not against digital gaming.

HOWEVER, I still love collecting old games. I have my original SNES, PS1, and Xbox, and I still bust them out from time to time to play physical cartridges and discs. Those games are more than files attached to an account. They are pieces of gaming history that I can hold, display, lend to someone, sell, or play decades later with my kids.

Going completely digital is a bad idea for preservation, collecting, and basic ownership. When we buy a physical game, we own something. A digital purchase is tied to an account, a storefront, license checks, and servers controlled by a company. Access can change when a service closes, an account has a problem, or a network simply goes down.

Physical media is not a perfect shield, especially when modern games require updates or online verification. Xbox proved that this week when even some discs would not launch. That does not make physical games pointless. It shows that consoles should rely less on servers, not more.

Digital games are convenient, and I will keep buying them. But convenience should remain a choice. This week’s outages showed exactly why an all-digital PS6 would be a step in the wrong direction.

_-BensZ28

A. The Hunt for Red October

B. Rainbow Six

C. Red Storm Rising

D. Splinter Cell

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Answer: A. The Hunt for Red October

Fun fact: Released in 1987, The Hunt for Red October was the first video game to feature Tom Clancy’s name, more than a decade before Rainbow Six arrived.