The Official NextBox Thread!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 5, 2013, 5:28 pm

Fairweather Pure wrote:
I do not hate MS. They just became like Sony was with the PS3 release. Arrogant, overconfident, and are trying to tell people what they want instead of catering to what they actually want.

I like being right. Sue me!

The jury is still out!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 6, 2013, 12:17 pm

Xbox One includes free ad-supported Xbox Music streaming

Microsoft is moving to a free ad-supported streaming model for Xbox Music on the company’s upcoming Xbox One console. Albert Penello, Microsoft’s head of product planning for Xbox One, confirmed the change in a Twitter message earlier this week. It appears that Xbox One owners won’t need to subscribe to the Xbox Music service to stream music, but Penello says users "will get periodic ads." While the streaming is free, Xbox One owners will still require an Xbox Live Gold subscription to access the music app.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/6/50725 ... -streaming

Nice. Does PS4 have a free streaming service or Spotify?

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 6, 2013, 12:27 pm

Free.. But still requires Gold. That's not free!

If you want ads there's always Pandora.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 6, 2013, 12:31 pm

Aslanna wrote:Free.. But still requires Gold. That's not free!

If you want ads there's always Pandora.

No I mean like Spotify where you actually select the songs you want to hear, not random radio station style.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 6, 2013, 12:34 pm

Starting Nov 1, 2010 via Major Nelson
1M Gold: $9.99

rofl? grats 120/year for your multiplayer games. lol

too funny

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 6, 2013, 12:56 pm

Aslanna wrote:
Starting Nov 1, 2010 via Major Nelson
1M Gold: $9.99
rofl? grats 120/year for your multiplayer games. lol

too funny

We already knew Microsoft's pricing! 40.00/year from Amazon!

Well 46.01 is the cheapest atm.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-LIVE-Month-G ... B0029LJIFG

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 6, 2013, 7:28 pm

Winnow wrote:
Xbox One includes free ad-supported Xbox Music streaming

Microsoft is moving to a free ad-supported streaming model for Xbox Music on the company’s upcoming Xbox One console. Albert Penello, Microsoft’s head of product planning for Xbox One, confirmed the change in a Twitter message earlier this week. It appears that Xbox One owners won’t need to subscribe to the Xbox Music service to stream music, but Penello says users "will get periodic ads." While the streaming is free, Xbox One owners will still require an Xbox Live Gold subscription to access the music app.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/6/50725 ... -streaming

DENIED!

And since apparently you need huge fonts in all your posts.. Let me help with that.

Penello was replying to an Xbox 360 owner on Twitter, who asked whether Xbox Music on the Xbox One would work without needing a music pass, as it does on Windows 8.1 and music.xbox.com.

But Penello later admitted he was wrong and that the service would essentially work exactly like it does on the Xbox 360. Although you will get 15 free songs to start you off.

I was wrong about Music on XboxOne: You get 15 free song plays then need Music Pass for ad-free streaming. No ad-supported streaming. Sorry!—
Albert Penello (@albertpenello) November 06, 2013

CD and MP3 support is likely to be patched in later, and Penello hints that Microsoft may reverse its decision and make Xbox Music an ad-supported free service after all. But for now it’s business as usual.

See how ridiculous that looks? Can we all agree to use the standard size when quoting shit? Thanks!

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 6, 2013, 9:39 pm

Right now for unlimited free music, you need to have the Xbox Music pass and to be able to use it on the Xbox you also need to have Gold.

It's kinda ass backwards.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 6, 2013, 11:42 pm

Well that's a bummer. I use free Spotify on my PC. Not big on music but nice to have when you want to listen to a specific song.

I'll stick to using large font on just the headline of quoted stories.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » November 7, 2013, 1:00 am

subscribe to xbox live gold today. navigate passed all of our shitty in-menu ads to get to our ad supported FREE* music streaming service. enjoy all of the biggest hits from 2010, like Callie Swag District and Florence and the Machine. And don't forg-

et to subscribe to other great Microsoft pay services. want to stream tv? pay us. want to watch netflix? pay us. want updates on your favorite sports teams? fucking PAY US.

*$10/month

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 7, 2013, 1:33 am

Rock solid online multiplayer gaming on 300K of servers Microsoft offers is what's important and what Sony does not have.."It's for Gamerz" Sony likes to drone into it's ads and they suck at it so try making up for it with a "free" Netflix app. All of the secondary applets Sony adds for "free" matters not when you can't use the thing as a media hub anyway. Can't even play a simple MP3 and then Microsoft crushes the little Sony online network experience when it comes to the bread and butter...you know...the online multiplayer gaming service that you pay for.

The Xbox controller is way better. What's up with the ancient joystick placement on the PS4 controller? Model T's are cool to look at in Museums but there are better modes of transportation these days.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 7, 2013, 1:38 am

You might have missed it but the XBO can't natively play a simple MP3 either. Just FYI!

Anyway, I'll leave you to the negative posts. From this point forward I'm just going to post news and information about the PS4 that I find useful!

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 7, 2013, 2:48 am

Not a negative post but something to consider as I know some here have been heavily pushing the "cloud" advantage.

Microsoft has revealed that you may get kicked out of games quite frequently thanks to the power of the cloud. Long used as a trump card by Microsoft, it turns out that the cloud might not be such a good thing for players who are deep into their games. Why? Well it turns out that cloud updates will force games to reboot even if you’re in the middle of a multiplayer match.

This problem was confirmed by Xbox Live lead program manager John Bruno during a presentation at GDC Next. It turns out that Microsoft has known about this problem all along and has been attempting to remedy it, but to no avail.

“Once in a while, rather frequently actually, the host OS will require an update, meaning the physical machine is going to get rebooted whether your code is running or not,” Bruno explained. “That’s a problematic thing for a game, and oftentimes it’s in the middle of a multiplayer session. We’ve worked very hard to overcome that, but that’s not to say it’s going to be a reality in every case.”

IGameResponsibly was able to ask Bruno what this means for a game like Titanfall that relies on the cloud. In the past, Respawn Entertainment have discussed how important the cloud is for developing the game. On top of that, Titanfall is a multiplayer-only game.

“I can’t answer that. I don’t know what the guys over at Titanfall have built into their game. It’s up to the game developer. If they want to rely more on our XBLC service, we’re happy to support that. We do provide a platform for them to persist data, but that’s up to the developer to utilize that.”

These issues can be mitigated with future updates or scheduling maintenance times during periods where gamers are less likely to be on. Still, this could be a potential bottleneck for the console and fodder for Sony to use in their marketing for PS4.

Just the facts!

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » November 7, 2013, 1:28 pm

Winnow wrote:Rock solid online multiplayer gaming on 300K of servers Microsoft offers is what's important and what Sony does not have.."It's for Gamerz" Sony likes to drone into it's ads and they suck at it so try making up for it with a "free" Netflix app. All of the secondary applets Sony adds for "free" matters not when you can't use the thing as a media hub anyway. Can't even play a simple MP3 and then Microsoft crushes the little Sony online network experience when it comes to the bread and butter...you know...the online multiplayer gaming service that you pay for.

The Xbox controller is way better. What's up with the ancient joystick placement on the PS4 controller? Model T's are cool to look at in Museums but there are better modes of transportation these days.

Jesus fucking hell you're a dumbass. Is your brain stuck?

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 7, 2013, 3:18 pm

Aslanna wrote:Not a negative post but something to consider as I know some here have been heavily pushing the "cloud" advantage.

Microsoft has revealed that you may get kicked out of games quite frequently thanks to the power of the cloud. Long used as a trump card by Microsoft, it turns out that the cloud might not be such a good thing for players who are deep into their games. Why? Well it turns out that cloud updates will force games to reboot even if you’re in the middle of a multiplayer match.

This problem was confirmed by Xbox Live lead program manager John Bruno during a presentation at GDC Next. It turns out that Microsoft has known about this problem all along and has been attempting to remedy it, but to no avail.

“Once in a while, rather frequently actually, the host OS will require an update, meaning the physical machine is going to get rebooted whether your code is running or not,” Bruno explained. “That’s a problematic thing for a game, and oftentimes it’s in the middle of a multiplayer session. We’ve worked very hard to overcome that, but that’s not to say it’s going to be a reality in every case.”

IGameResponsibly was able to ask Bruno what this means for a game like Titanfall that relies on the cloud. In the past, Respawn Entertainment have discussed how important the cloud is for developing the game. On top of that, Titanfall is a multiplayer-only game.

“I can’t answer that. I don’t know what the guys over at Titanfall have built into their game. It’s up to the game developer. If they want to rely more on our XBLC service, we’re happy to support that. We do provide a platform for them to persist data, but that’s up to the developer to utilize that.”

These issues can be mitigated with future updates or scheduling maintenance times during periods where gamers are less likely to be on. Still, this could be a potential bottleneck for the console and fodder for Sony to use in their marketing for PS4.
Just the facts!

There's no indication that will will happen any more or less frequently than the current scenario with Xbox Live. This may have been more impactful had Sony not announced another one of their multi-hour maintenance window for today with essentially 24 hours of notice.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/11/6/507222 ... -for-nov-7

Frankly I'll take rolling server reboots over this any day of the week.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 7, 2013, 3:22 pm

“Once in a while, rather frequently actually, the host OS will require an update, meaning the physical machine is going to get rebooted whether your code is running or not,” Bruno explained.

"rather frequently" is nothing like the occasional PSN maintenance. Or even Xbox Live.

Rolling reboots over something you know in advance and can work around? Alrighty then.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 7, 2013, 3:24 pm

Yeah, because a maintenance to prepare for a new console release in the middle of the working day (for most of us on this forum, anyhow) is a huge inconvenience.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 7, 2013, 3:34 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:Yeah, because a maintenance to prepare for a new console release in the middle of the working day (for most of us on this forum, anyhow) is a huge inconvenience.

Not only that but... It was two days notice not 24 hours! And you can still play MP games if you had signed in recently. Which is nothing like getting kicked out in the middle of your game.

[MAINTENANCE] Thursday, November 7th, 2013
‎
11-05-2013 09:59 AM
We wanted to take a moment to let everyone know that there is a planned maintenance for PlayStation Network scheduled for Thursday, November 7th from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM Pacific Time (11 AM to 7:00 PM Eastern). To clarify, this is a 7 hour maintenance.

If you’ve signed onto PSN over the past few days, you’ll still be able to play online and access apps during this period, but you may receive a maintenance notification when attempting to access the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home, and Account Management as these services will be unavailable. Be sure to sign in now if you wish to access the Network during this maintenance window.

Staying positive!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 7, 2013, 3:37 pm

Getting back to what matters...launch games.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/11/07/ry ... rough-rome

Ryse fly through of Rome looks pretty nice.

Ryse
Dead Rising 3

Fun looking games for a new console. (see Aslanna's post of Sony launch titles for all of the titles available on both systems)

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 7, 2013, 5:59 pm

Aslanna wrote:
“Once in a while, rather frequently actually, the host OS will require an update, meaning the physical machine is going to get rebooted whether your code is running or not,” Bruno explained.
"rather frequently" is nothing like the occasional PSN maintenance. Or even Xbox Live.

Rolling reboots over something you know in advance and can work around? Alrighty then.

It's unfortunate none of us here have been conditionned to expect this type of inconvenience from playing over 10 years of MMO's.

...oh wait...

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 7, 2013, 6:35 pm

Luckily it wont be an inconvenience for those who choose not to purchase an XBO. I was just passing it along for those who were so they know what to expect. Do with it what you will!

Not to mention most MMOs have a regular announced schedule. While crashes happen your game typically just doesn't drop you right in the middle for a reboot so I don't even think that's a valid comparison.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 7, 2013, 6:54 pm

I dunno about that. The last time I played WoW they did rolling reboots of realms. Would cause about 10 minutes of downtime and the fixes would be in.

Xbox Live as it stands now has figured out how to do their maintenance work without requiring downtime at all. They haven't had to schedule maintenance in 2 years or so now.

I'm positive the group in charge of the cloud compute system will figure this one out before too long as well.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 7, 2013, 7:27 pm

I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Or that it's a good thing. Just that it's a thing and people should be aware of it.

Each console has pros and cons I'm not sure why people get so defensive when someone points out a con. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad product.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 8, 2013, 10:34 am

The Xbox One Dashboard Is Definitely a Next-Gen Improvement

Nice. Looking good. Too bad there's so many negative Nancys out there! This will be a very nice UI to work with.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 8, 2013, 11:00 am

Microsoft leads a 12-minute tour of Xbox One games, TV, and apps

A good look at the UI for those getting the Xbox One

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 8, 2013, 2:03 pm

Winnow wrote:Microsoft leads a 12-minute tour of Xbox One games, TV, and apps

A good look at the UI for those getting the Xbox One

What's a slick demo. I suspect that reality will be a bit lower than than when you add normal internet latency and a million or so users.

I suspect that the xbox in the video here was probably connected to something like Comcast in Seattle/Redmond using Microsoft's employee take-home beta kit. They're probably never more than a few hops away from the servers at any time.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 8, 2013, 2:12 pm

Animalor wrote:
Winnow wrote:Microsoft leads a 12-minute tour of Xbox One games, TV, and apps

A good look at the UI for those getting the Xbox One
What's a slick demo. I suspect that reality will be a bit lower than than when you add normal internet latency and a million or so users.

I suspect that the xbox in the video here was probably connected to something like Comcast in Seattle/Redmond using Microsoft's employee take-home beta kit. They're probably never more than a few hops away from the servers at any time.

You sound like Aslanna!

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 8, 2013, 2:30 pm

I'm at work so haven't watched the video yet. But just the screenshot made me shudder. It's not Xbox related at all I just hate the 'Metrop' UI with a passion. It seriously makes my inner child cry and that's probably the one thing that most put me off on the XBO.

And yes if Sony copied the UI I'd hate it just as much.

Tyek · Post by **Tyek** » November 8, 2013, 3:02 pm

Aslanna wrote:I'm at work so haven't watched the video yet. But just the screenshot made me shudder. It's not Xbox related at all I just hate the 'Metrop' UI with a passion. It seriously makes my inner child cry and that's probably the one thing that most put me off on the XBO.

And yes if Sony copied the UI I'd hate it just as much.

Looks like one of the potential new Microsoft CEO's might want to sell off xbox, and Paul Allen agrees.

Bloomberg also suggests that Elop is willing to shut down or sell some major Microsoft businesses. Elop would reportedly considering killing off the company’s Bing search engine, while contemplating selling the Xbox business. Some investors and analysts have previously called for the software giant to split off its Xbox business and give up on search. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen appears to feel the same way. Allen’s $15-billion asset manager, Paul Ghaffari, revealed recently that Bing and Xbox have been distractions for Microsoft. "My view is there are some parts of that operation they should probably spin out, get rid of, to focus on the enterprise and focus on the cloud." Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund claims Microsoft’s financial earnings could be boosted by 40 percent in fiscal 2015 if the company sold its Bing and Xbox businesses.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 8, 2013, 3:05 pm

Honestly that would probably be a good thing. Then they could work on a usable UI rather than being forced to use Metro.

Maybe Sony will buy it!

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 8, 2013, 3:27 pm

Winnow wrote:
Animalor wrote:
Winnow wrote:Microsoft leads a 12-minute tour of Xbox One games, TV, and apps

A good look at the UI for those getting the Xbox One
What's a slick demo. I suspect that reality will be a bit lower than than when you add normal internet latency and a million or so users.

I suspect that the xbox in the video here was probably connected to something like Comcast in Seattle/Redmond using Microsoft's employee take-home beta kit. They're probably never more than a few hops away from the servers at any time.
You sound like Aslanna!

Just being realistic. I provide some cloud services as part of my job (nothing anywhere near this scope, all related around teleworking) and it isn't an easy task. I'm just saying that data probably won't populate as fast as this and video sharing upload may take a bit more than a few seconds. End to end latency and user hardware plays a part in any service delivery.

I have no bount UI navigation will be this smooth though.

Tyek · Post by **Tyek** » November 8, 2013, 10:11 pm

The PlayStation 4 won't be the only console launching with a critical patch this year. The Xbox One is going to be similarly hobbled.

Actually, hobbled might be too kind a term. Without the update, you've essentially bought yourself a $500 brick.

In an interview with Engadget, Microsoft senior director of product management Albert Penello acknowledged that "functionally, you will be able to do very little without taking the day one update."

Pressed a bit further -- and asked what people could do with the Xbox One if they simply took it out of the box and started playing -- Penello coughed it up: "Nothing. You need the day one update," he said.

http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in ... 38190.html

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 8, 2013, 11:02 pm

Aslanna wrote:I'm at work so haven't watched the video yet. But just the screenshot made me shudder. It's not Xbox related at all I just hate the 'Metrop' UI with a passion. It seriously makes my inner child cry and that's probably the one thing that most put me off on the XBO.

And yes if Sony copied the UI I'd hate it just as much.

Whether you like the interface or not, the video does a good job of showing what the Xbox One can do regarding voice commands and media integration and a little kinect stuff with the skype demo. It's worth a look.

Microsoft leads a 12-minute tour of Xbox One games, TV, and apps

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 8, 2013, 11:10 pm

I took a look. There was one sort of cool feature, and I forgot what it was now, but other than that I am not a fan. I don't care about all the voice shit. And the TV integration is pointless as I don't have cable and I use my PC to stream. My TV also has all the apps I need so I personally wouldn't use any of the XBO stuff if I had one. If I were watching TV I wouldn't want all those notifications popping up. Then again I don't have ADD and I like to focus on one thing at a time so maybe that has something to do with it.

I'm sure it will work well for those who pick up an XBO. It's just not for me though. I can't stand Metro and that's basically what it is.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 9, 2013, 1:39 am

A ton of leaked info on someone that got mailed an Xbox One from Target:

http://kotaku.com/and-heres-another-guy ... 1461279632

skip the video, the guy is a dork. The posted info on game sizes etc is interesting.

Dakanaf · Post by **Dakanaf** » November 9, 2013, 2:55 am

Tyek wrote:
The PlayStation 4 won't be the only console launching with a critical patch this year. The Xbox One is going to be similarly hobbled.

Actually, hobbled might be too kind a term. Without the update, you've essentially bought yourself a $500 brick.

In an interview with Engadget, Microsoft senior director of product management Albert Penello acknowledged that "functionally, you will be able to do very little without taking the day one update."

Pressed a bit further -- and asked what people could do with the Xbox One if they simply took it out of the box and started playing -- Penello coughed it up: "Nothing. You need the day one update," he said.
http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in ... 38190.html

I got a smartphone for the first time today. Resisted as long as I could, and it's barely a smartphone. The whole process took two hours and probably 15-20 minutes of that was the phone just downloading updates before it could even be used. That's just the way the world is now, I guess.

I miss the days when new console launches were exciting and happy occasions, can barely remember it. Now it's all bickering and fighting and nitpicking. Used to be about the games and the fun...

Tyek · Post by **Tyek** » November 9, 2013, 2:14 pm

Dakanaf wrote:
Tyek wrote:
The PlayStation 4 won't be the only console launching with a critical patch this year. The Xbox One is going to be similarly hobbled.

Actually, hobbled might be too kind a term. Without the update, you've essentially bought yourself a $500 brick.

In an interview with Engadget, Microsoft senior director of product management Albert Penello acknowledged that "functionally, you will be able to do very little without taking the day one update."

Pressed a bit further -- and asked what people could do with the Xbox One if they simply took it out of the box and started playing -- Penello coughed it up: "Nothing. You need the day one update," he said.
http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in ... 38190.html
I agree with you. I will eventually own both. I could care less about all the Xbox can do this crap and PlayStation can do this. I have all the systems now and will do so for the next generation.

I got a smartphone for the first time today. Resisted as long as I could, and it's barely a smartphone. The whole process took two hours and probably 15-20 minutes of that was the phone just downloading updates before it could even be used. That's just the way the world is now, I guess.

I miss the days when new console launches were exciting and happy occasions, can barely remember it. Now it's all bickering and fighting and nitpicking. Used to be about the games and the fun...

Dakanaf · Post by **Dakanaf** » November 9, 2013, 2:54 pm

Looking forward to Scotland!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 9, 2013, 3:20 pm

Dakanaf wrote: I miss the days when new console launches were exciting and happy occasions, can barely remember it. Now it's all bickering and fighting and nitpicking. Used to be about the games and the fun...

The internet wasn't around back in the early days that now gives all the stats and reports available. PC vs MAC, iOS vs Android are hot topics. You don't see people fighting over other things as much. Debating politics is still active but I think everyone knows religion is a joke so that hot topic has sort of fallen to the wayside.

While I favor the Xbox One, I think I'll find a use for the PS4. My Nexus 7 sits completely unused as the iPad dominates it in every way but the PS4 will have some exclusives that will be worth playing. I think the Xbox One will be preferred for multimedia over the PS4 (for those that have both and, I assume if have both can swing the PN+ and Live subs). The Skype with Kinect tracking demonstration I posted above (12 minute tour) was very impressive so as communication slowly moves toward video chat, I think Xbox One will be preferred as well. Controllers are a personal preference but if buying a console was purely based off of the controller, the Xbox would win there as well (didn't see articles saying Microsoft saw reports that if 80% of people preferred the Dualshock they'd switch but the reverse is true). UI speed favors the Xbox One as well. The Demo posted above shows how fast you can switch between apps/games/moves and snap windows to the side, and loading games and queuing up multiplayer matches the background is a nice feature. For pure gaming after a game is loaded, either console will do and only exclusives come into play. Network/Multiplayer is a wait and see but Xbox had the advantage last gen and they've indicated a strong commitment to it with the 300K server farm this gen. FPS can be argued but I think you'd have a healthy debate over stuttering 1080p vs rock solid 60fps 720P on a 40-60 inch TV where you won't be able to tell the difference anyway if back more than 6 feet. PS4 might be more impressive if they went with 720 and used their tech advantage to increase textures or something. Xbox One and PS4 have shown games in 1080p 60fps without stuttering (Forza 5 for example) so we'll have a better idea with the second round of games release early next year although it may take longer (see Xbox/PS3 history).

It's nice to hear the Xbox One day one patch is live and is installing smoothly on the small shipment of Target Xbox Ones released. PS4 patch isn't live yet.

I don't want to start another debate, but it sure feels like the Target console release was a calculated move by Microsoft to flood the news channels with Xbox One stories a week before the PS4 launch. Smart move if that was actually planned.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 12, 2013, 2:24 pm

Ok so you've bought an XBO now you need to get some games.. You might want to consider if DR3 is the right game to spend $60 on. It may be better to wait for it to hit the bargain bin! Don't fall into the trap of buying a game just because it's the only thing available.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... d-rising-3

Inevitably, much of this comes at a price; specifically to the frame-rate. When dealing with the signature scenes involving uncountable enemies on-screen, we're left with some very sluggish motion, while the streaming system also seems to spike CPU, resulting in lost performance. The statement from the team is that a locked 30fps is targeted here, but in the build we saw there's a huge gap to be bridged in this regard; drops to 20fps are consistent and sustained when outdoors, with 16fps being our record low during some of the biggest explosions. With Battlefield 4 on Xbox One, the drop to 720p opened the door to 60fps gameplay - Dead Rising 3's big issue is that despite the upgrades, the feeling in terms of refresh and response often feels very much like a poorly optimised current-gen title.

Fact based opinions! From the sounds of it this was originally planned to be a 360 game so I don't really blame the hardware in this instance. It's just bad game design due to rushing it out as a launch title. People criticize Drive Club and Watch Dogs for pushing their release dates back but (hopefully) that should result in better games.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 12, 2013, 7:14 pm

http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-call-of-duty ... 1463163114

Xbox One Call of Duty Offers Better Framerate than PS4, Say Reviewers

The furor that kicked up two weeks ago over Call of Duty: Ghosts' native resolution on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One appears to have gotten its sequel. With reviews of the Xbox One version trickling in today, some are saying the Xbox One does not suffer the framerate drops that were reported in the PS4 version.

Both IGN and Polygon updated their reviews of the game to note Ghosts consistently held at 60 frames per second, where the PS4 suffered noticeable framerate drops in multiplayer, as had been earlier mentioned by these publications and others.

"The Xbox One release's framerate was far more noticeable," wrote Polygon. "As mentioned in the initial review, Call of Duty: Ghosts suffers from consistent framerate drops on the PS4, especially during multiplayer when action got especially hectic. The Xbox One version suffered no such drops, maintaining a steady 60 frames per second throughout."

IGN's reviewer said he dealt with "occasional framerate issues during the single-player campaign on PS3 and PS4, whereas my time with the Xbox One version was stable throughout."

Videogamer.com said "at least the [Xbox One version] ran stable enough to keep me blaming myself and not the frame rate for any kills I may have suffered."

Well I guess there's always all of the other games that play better on Xbox One while we wait for the next round of games.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 12, 2013, 7:34 pm

See.. You went all negative there. I was providing specific and relevant facts!

If a game can't live up to it's stated frame rate than yeah it should definitely get dinged in reviews whether it's XBO or PS4. Fortunately in this case, by all accounts, Call of Duty Ghosts is a terrible game so nothing of value was lost. I'm fine with it being rated lower.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » November 12, 2013, 8:30 pm

According to Giant Bomb, IW is putting out a Day 1 patch which should address the PS4 frame rate.

It must have felt pretty good, if only for a short time, thinking the Xbone was finally better than a PS4 version. Now you have a taste of how PS4 buyers feel all the time!

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 13, 2013, 12:19 pm

Lego Marvel Super Heroes delayed on Xbox One

Lego Marvel Super Heroes, the upcoming Lego action-puzzler from Warner Bros., will be delayed on Xbox One, the company confirmed in a statement to MCV.

The game will still release as planned on PlayStation 4 come Nov. 15, and will arrive on Nov. 29 in Europe for the system's European launch. Lego Heroes launched on Oct. 22 for Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, PS3, PlayStation Vita, Wii U and Xbox 360 systems.

Warner Bros. states the company will provide a new release date for its Xbox One launch "as soon as possible."

omg lol lol lol the XBOX ONE is such a fail they can't even get a LEGO game to run on it. hahaaha piece of shit!

(This post was ran through my Winnow filter. I simply replaced PS4 with Xbox One.)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 13, 2013, 3:58 pm

That's HORRIBLE! Where's the creative Awesome-nots play on words though? Bonus points for catchy headlines!

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 18, 2013, 6:40 pm

Some XBO launch game reviews coming out.

Crimson Dragon and Lococycle - Chris Plante on a Polygon segment said "Don't buy those". A LC review not posted yet but CD got a 4 so I doubt Lococycle will fare much better.

Dead Rising 3 - Seemed decent overall. So if you like the series doesn't sound like any reason not to pick it up. 7.5

Zoo Tycoon - 8 - Seems like the game to get!

With Kinect [...] you can make faces at the animals and oh my gosh they make faces back it's so cute I'm just going to die.

Sounds like a fun non-gimmicky use of the Kinect. I approve.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 18, 2013, 6:44 pm

I'm going to call Ryse now and say it gets a 6 from only the E3 presentation demo.

This seemed like very vanilla God of War clone with too many quick time events.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 20, 2013, 5:27 am

XBO reviews coming out.

For example: The Xbox One has a built-in IR blaster that gives it the ability to control basic functions on your cable box, your TV and your AV receiver. Once you tell it the brand of your TV and audio receiver, it can double as a universal remote control. When you say "Xbox On," the console will power up and switch on the other two devices at the same time. The first time I used it, I felt like I was on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise or the Navigator.

Ah, but what if you're already playing a game on a different console, and your TV and AV receiver are already switched on? If you then say "Xbox On," the console will turn the TV off. That's because it's really just pressing the "power" button on your TV's remote—there's no way to tell it to only press the button if the TV is currently off. If you're anything like me, the first time that happens, you'll deactivate the feature and likely never re-activate it. Back to the remote control we go!

Remotes are key!

Even supposing the Kinect worked flawlessly, it has a bigger, more fundamental hurdle to overcome. See... you have to talk to the thing. Out loud. Every single time you want it to do something.

I've already adopted a specific tone of voice I use when talking to the Kinect. I think of it as my "Kinect Voice"—it's clear and it projects, sort of how I'd sternly tell a dog that he's been bad from across the room. My Kinect Voice is louder and clearer than my speaking voice, and it's... well, it's annoying. Say I'm sitting in a quiet living room with two other people, with my girlfriend working on her laptop and a visiting friend reading a magazine. I want to see if there are any new movies to rent, so I announce, "Xbox, go to video." Maybe it doesn't hear me. "Xbox." I say. "Xbox, go to video."

At this point, everyone in the room has looked up. I feel a bit on the spot and weirdly embarrassed. I really just want the damn thing to switch apps already. It's infrequent but noticeable moments like this that make me question whether voice control is really the wave of the future.

Personally I don't get the appeal. Other than for easily navigating the terrible Windows UI. But if you live alone or in your moms basement I guess it's not a big deal.

It's also possible to do everything the Kinect does with just the controller, but it's a more arduous process. If you'd like to record a clip of your gameplay with Kinect, you can say, "Xbox, record that" to start the recorder. To do the same thing with the controller, you have to pause the game with the the home button, snap the Game DVR app to the side of the screen and start recording, then go back later and edit your clip to take out the part where you paused the game. (The bulk of the Xbox One's game recording functionality is not yet up and running, so we won't be able to issue a verdict on it until after the console launches.) Similarly, you can snap an app to the side of your screen simply by saying, "Xbox, snap Internet Explorer"... or you can pause the game with the home button, select the snap function, pick an app to snap, then double-tap the home button to return to the game. It works, but the Xbox One was clearly designed with voice control in mind.

If only they had a Share button!

The user interface reflects the angular design of the console itself. The home screen and operating system evoke Microsoft's Windows 8, a collection of squares and rectangles arranged in an aesthetically pleasing but sometimes difficult-to-read jumble.

My main complaint about Metro is that it is NOT aesthetically pleasing to me.

Most of the time when using the Xbox One, I switch between apps wholesale and skip snapping; it just doesn't feel intuitive or easy enough to use. It could be that as I get more used to it and Microsoft smooths out the transitions, it'll get easier to use. But for the time being, it's awfully clunky.

Another significant problem: If you snap music or a TV show over your in-progress game, you can't adjust the audio on either thing. I found that snapping a TV show over my game drowned out the game audio entirely, and I had no option to mute or unmute either of the two snapped applications. Microsoft says that snap automatically adjusts the audio to make the primary app louder, and that they're looking into how to allow people to control volume on their own. As it stands, the volume thing is a dealbreaker—I'd be happy to run a basketball game in the background while I play Assassin's Creed, but only if I can mute one or the other.

The 'snapping' was another feature that sounded useless to me from the moment I heard about it. It seems like that is actually the case.

If you're playing one game and switch to another one, the first game you were playing quits. There's no warning, no "You are about to quit this game, all unsaved progress will be lost. Proceed?" Nothing like that. It's unceremonious and immediate. If you want to get your roommate's goat, wait until he's about to win a race in Forza, then yell "Xbox! Go to Dead Rising 3!" The Xbox will immediately switch apps, and he'll lose all of his race progress. Yikes.

!

I admire what Microsoft is trying to do with the Xbox One, and I'm rooting for them to give their console that final push to get it to where it needs to be. The whole thing is almost there. The Kinect almost works well enough to get me to use it all the time. The TV integration is almost smooth enough to make me plug it into the heart of my living-room setup. Multitasking almost works well enough to get me checking the internet while I play games.

The Xbox One is trying some very cool new things, and it's launching alongside some very fun games. But there are so many rough edges, and the software feels incomplete.

If you want an almost console it sounds like the One to get.

All kidding aside as a GAMES console it sounds fairly equivalent to the PS4 so if you like the Xbox exclusives there's no reason not to get an XBO. However as someone who doesn't have cable or doesn't care about Kinect that's pretty much $100 extra over the PS4 for no discernible benefit. Why pay for things I wont be using or have zero interest in using? Anyway, I'm glad both consoles are finally out. Now maybe people can spend more time playing games (and whatever else the XBO does) and less time debating which one is "better". Vote with your dollars because in the end that's really all that matters.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » November 20, 2013, 6:59 am

This console generation is going to be pretty interesting. The last two generations you had roughly identical machines that did roughly equal things. The PS3 was a Blu ray player and cost like a million dollars and the Xbox 360 was a cheap piece of shit that didn't even have a hard drive (official xbox hard drive msrp: one million dollars), but after awhile even that evened out. There is no real reason to care about one over the other except for some bad ports and exclusive games.

This generation people have a choice between an almost pure game console and microsoft's set top box. It will be interesting to see which machine people find more meaningful. Obvious MS is trying to sell their machine as something everyone should have in their living room, even if they don't play video games. I wonder if that will work out for them. I am going to get one just because it has games on it I want. I don't really give a shit about talking to it. If I can't record shows with it and use it like a PVR I have no idea why anyone would want it to control their cable box. I already have a remote that turns my TV, PVR/Cable box and receiver on but a lot of people probably don't. I think this generation is the first one where consumers actually have a choice between machines other than exclusive games.

I do think a lot of people will gravitate to the kinect just because it is cool and your grandma can play with it. It won't take off like the Wii but I can see a lot of non-gamers get interested in the kinect stuff. The fitness apps look really cool and I will use them. My kids will love the kinect games. They go crazy for happy action theater and the sesame street kinect thing. Making it mandatory was probably a smart thing to do because now developers will be force to pay attention to it. It's too bad that MS is greedy and stupid and will basically sell your data to anyone who will give them money for it, but most people who aren't gaming enthusiasts will know what they are up to.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 20, 2013, 11:32 am

People hate hearing it but the controller (subjective) makes a huge difference to me. If I'm going to be playing a game for extended periods of time, I want the most comfortable controller in my hands.

PS4 EYE does not work as a mic. I know they were originally passing it off as a mic instead of the crap headset provided but it echos for everyone else in the game listening to your open mic. I don't think kinect will be any better for that type of use. The less surrounding sounds you hear from other players, the better.

As long as both consoles function without any major flaws, I'll be OK with getting exclusives and playing them on the PS4. It's been quiet and does the basics that it's supposed to. It's nice to have a backup in case something goes awry with either console. I want to get away from PC gaming. MMO's are the only thing I play on the PC now.

The Xbox One will have the advantage with the non gamers, a little because of the TV stuff but more so with the kinect/workout stuff. The included free year's worth of various workout guru stuff on XBL looks interesting. Kinect excels in that area. If they can manage some decent kids games, it may be more attractive to the entire household than to pure gamers while still doing very well as a gaming machine.

I don't see how PS4's UI is any better than Xbox One's. UI should be a minimal factor and probably in Microsoft's favor if you don't have a Windows 8 phobia (best/rock solid Windows OS I've used to date). The UI is subjective with Xbox One having the edge if you want to go all Minority Report when switching between movies selections on Netflix.

Now that both consoles will be out after this weekend, barring any major mishaps on the Xbox One release, it's back to business as usual.