Be Excellent To Each Other

Uncle Mentuss' level of interest in Xbox One confirmed:

https://twitter.com/Mentski/status/336911982584283136

@microsoft @xbox pic.twitter.com/H6ey1b3xTm

— Uncle Mentuss (@Mentski) May 21, 2013

I never get the backwards compatible thing. My Amiga doesn't play C64 games* so what's the issue? Does the 360 play Xbox 1 games then? I mean Xbox games... YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!


* Well it can but not by design.

Just like Siri.

I didn't bother watching the live stream - just waited to read some highlights - and there's nothing that would persuade me to buy one of these instead of a PS4.

I wrote something quick about Microsoft's media-centric strategy: Xbox One And The Battle For Input One http://actionatadistance.net/post/51007 ... -input-one

Superb writing. Quite turns me off it, though, on a first read.

I realise there is naturally an element of bombast at these kind of presentations but the whole "It will change the way you...", "Redefining EVERY MOTHER FUCKING THING EVER", "It will change the way football is played" guff was so at odds with the gimmicky trinkets on display followed by the whooping of some Microsoft employees at the back of the hall just made it look like some kind of Onion parody rather than a genuine reveal.

And the whole COD:Ghosts video/presentation was 95% of the devs talking about "next gen" as a generic term for Xbox One/PS4/PC and 5% "oh and some tacked on Kinect shit for Xbox One"

Of course I'll still buy one at some point because I'm a fucking idiot but that doesn't mean it wasn't shit.

Can someone in the know answer these two questions for me?

Is it always online then or what?
What's the deal with the rumble pack things - two in each shoulder button - so it's got three? Or two - and this gen has only one?

HMDI In question answered it would seem

http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/21/xbox-on ... te-device/

PS - I agree with MaliA - that was a damn good read

Nicely written Doc. I enjoyed that..

I haven't seen the Xbox reveal yet but I've read Twitter about it. To be honest, I would have been shocked if everyone was saying it was great..

There's two in the current controller, in each of the palm bits of the controller. No idea about the new one.

Also in regards to the pre-owned stuff I wonder how strict it is.

Would services like blockbuster or Lovefilm get special discs or special codes that activate the game for days or months at a time?

Could I for instance just put my user account on my friends Xbox and play my disc on his without the fee? Or a one time fee to link Xboxes?

And on a different note inspired by Google Chrome red underlining the plural of 'Xboxes', would two Xbox Ones be a 'two' and three Xbox Ones be a 'three', and so on?

I am neither excited not turned off so far.

A resounding "meh" from Grim..., then.

Worrying news that Quantum Break game is going to be part TV Series like the Halo one mentioned. There was some awful acting and dialogue in the real life segments of that trailer, hope it's not taking from the show.

Also Microsoft says they enable a way to trade and resell games.

Wonder if it's through the system itself? Trade the game with someone else for 3 quid possibly. Or even get store credit to sell your license.

In the same way that 25 years ago we used refined olive oil and not virgin olive oil. Time passes and things get better (in general). There's no excuse for not having backward compatibility nowadays, specially since consoles are pretty much chained/cockless PC's.

There's also the technology slowing down factor. After getting an Amiga who the hell wanted to play C64 or Speccy games?

The issue is that all the new releases of the various franchises are going to be called one, as opposed to the first one of the series.

Also on an extremely positive note someone of NeoGAF noticed an orb from Crackdown as one of the tiles in the presentation. The first is still one of my favourite gaming experiences and was pretty much the game that sold this generation of consoles and the XBOX360 to me.

So same again please, less Crackdown 2 though.

I think RuySan has totally nailed it with that last comment. What I really want on my new games machine is a penis. Perhaps it could stick out the front, generally flaccid but becoming erect during particularly exciting gameplay moments.

Back compat is remarkably complicated. Emulation takes bags of power because things just can't be optimised like they can on native hardware - try running a Gamecube emulator on a modern PC and you'll see what I mean.

The early PS3 (the only one that could play PS2 games, if I'm not mistaken) worked by effectively including a PS2 alongside the PS3!

Yep, specially as Xbox was a cheap PC with some custom bits, Xbox 360 was a complicated PowerPC with lots of custom bits, and now Xbox One is back to being a cheap PC but with different custom bits.

Kinect 2 can read your pulse. From across the room. That's some fucking sci-fi awesome.

Me for a start. I was running a CPC, +3 and a C64 as well as my A1200. I used them all.

But in anycase, backwards compatibility is not trivial if you have a whole new console. Even in the old days upgrades broke stuff. The A1200 wouldn't load about 20% of pre-1989 games for example even when slowed down and emulating OCS. There's even CPC 464 stuff that won't work on a 6128 (the game Mr Freeze springs to mind).

Now put that onto a vastly more complicated modern platform and it becomes a whole lot harder to do.

A delivery of furniture interrupted my viewing at the bit where the guy was saying “Xbox On” and showing how you could move between live TV, Games, and Films etc.

I thought it looked quite good to be fair, but as others have said you wonder how good it will be outside of the US and without a fibre internet connection.

The attempt to control 2nd hand games will just bring the attention of the ethical hackers and I’m sure there will be a solution for that along in the first 6 month after launch , which in turn will lead to home brew and the same sort of game hacks that there are for the Xbox1 and 360.

When the last generation launched I said I wouldn’t get anything as I liked the Xbox1. I have all of them now aside from a PS3, so no doubt will get something once the usual launch date planned stock shortages and mania is over.

Of course, now I've said that I'm playing Eternal Darkness using the Dolphin emulator and it's doing a pretty good job. It's not perfect, but it's way better that it was a year ago!

Try and get an Xbox 1 emulator going.

That's because no one invested enough in developing xbox emulation. There's just no interest. There's almost no exclusives.

Dude, they've not even released it yet!

Is this something it can do with accuracy, or is it the kind of boast that made a lot of people hate the Wii?

Quite accurate, I believe. It uses an IR sensor to read the micro flush in your face. It's not very gamey, but it could be very useful in a Kinect exercise app.

No, it's because it's really hard: http://www.ngemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132032

Impressive tech. Very 'Blade Runner'!

Well i've caught up with the reveal and i'll read some of the other stuff posted later but its a bit meh for me all in

All the TV stuff looked very US focused (oh look its CBS - that does not exist here) - oh its ESPN i dont care about sport , oh its the NFL , oh you can do fantasy football and use skype to wind up people .... after all the bad press XBL gets for people being dicks to each other online thats something you want to call out for your new system ..... really ?

I dont mind the gestures and quick switching but if i'm at home and wanting to play on the console I dont want to have to talk to it and the distance between my TV and my couch is not big enough for a Kinect 1 and maybe the same for Kinect 2 so all that stuff is all probably useless to me.

Interesting to see that it does have a Blueray drive , the larger controller may be okay but it will depend on how it feels , and the rumbles in the triggers I guess could be used for shooters or driving games ?

Smartglass is an interesting idea but you've had it for a year and apart from a GPS unit for Forza has anything actually used it ?

TV stuff - I dont care if your doing a life action Halo thing , it may be good it may be shit but i dont get why its tied to your new console launch

Games all looked cutsceney rather than in game (apart from COD) - Forza looked like a shiny new Forza , that Quantum break thing was a very very short teaser and didnt really look that special (its just a cut scene) - EA sports stuff I dont care about but yes the graphics look nice - and then COD looks like a shiny new COD - "oh the fish swim out of your way" - so what ?

The idea that there are 15 new Microsoft Studio titles coming is good , and that 8 are brand new franchises also sounds good but until you know what they are it could all be stupid kinect party game stuff - I guess we'll wait for E3

I've not ready your post yet Doc , but backward compatibility doesnt bother me (and Chinny you can play *some* original Xbox games on the Xbox 360 but its a very limited number) - the 'used game' stuff does worry me but I'll hold off on that until there is more info - but if it really is 'buy it and you cant resell it on' or 'no used games' then that is probably enough to make the PS4 my 'first' choice console for this gen

Another picture of the cutting edge design of the new Xbox.

I read it was force feedback triggers, which is something quite different from rumble.

Not that it would particularly sell me on the console. That requires enough decent games to outweigh all the shit that seems to be associated.

FYI from what i can see of companies who kicked off pre-orders after the event £400 seems to be their guess at a starting price

I'm wondering if i'm missing the point on this but - Doc - regarding 'input 1'

I've heard this complaint on a number of American podcast that its very difficult to switch between all the different inputs on their TV's and that the actions prohibit people from using systems other than the one they are currently on (e.g. people on their gaming console using it for things which are available on other devices) but I dont really understand it.

When i had all my stuff clagged up to the TV I had 3 choices to move stations , since I could get standard TV over the air i could hit up or down on the channel switch , I could press source and then hit up or down for digital TV , or hit source and select my 360 , my PS3 , or my DVR

For the first 2 I could use my TV remote to change stations or settings , for the 360 I had a cheap crappy little remote or could use a normal controller to move around (since upgraded to their media remote which works the TV as well) , and the PS3 / DVR had their own remote

All seemed pretty logical and easy to do - whats the issue with why which one is in which position , or is there some other weird setup in the US which stops this from working in the same way ?

I can’t see this working that well for a family, my brother has 2 kids 8 and 11. In this scenario the whole family would have to set up Live accounts to voice control the Xbox One so that they could say “TV on” or whatever?

Then I’m not sure my brother would want his 8 year old seeing what the rest of the Live Community were watching or playing as some of it could be inappropriate for her

Also wonder if the seamless control works with older TV's

I did really like what they showed, but give the mess MS have made of Windows 8 you have to wonder if this will work as a selling point.

There is some type of IR out on it .

Also on the reveal when they show the COD dog and say its unlike any other I was waiting for it to open its mouth and bees to shoot out :-)

Listened to about 90 minutes of the Bombcast on the way into work and the stuff they covered :

1) Originally they thought it was force feedback on the triggers but it was later confirmed that its just rumble
2) Friends list goes up to 1000
3) "always on" - the box *needs* to check in every 24 hours otherwise stuff wont work (I really dislike this despite the fact that my console is pretty much always wired up if something goes wrong why cant I play my games offline)
4) The whole used game stuff seems very unclear at the moment and they said they have had different people at Microsoft giving them conflicting answers
5) There is an IR port on the pads which is how Kinect tracks them
6) Kinect *has* to be connected for the system to work and its better with space but still needs a reasonable amount which again probably rules it out for me or anyone else with limited space between the TV and the couch
7) Gamerscore and achievements will carry over to the new system
500GB hard drive included but you can add USB hard drives to it , and it seems only 3 USB ports (one side 2 rear)

All I want to know is: Are the avatars more detailed? Can I buy a pair of Gucci Wellies for my avatar? Will the avatars answer me when I speak to them?

I can't see the EU looking kindly on the used game thing. There was a case recently about someone selling licences they had bought but were not suing and the publiher wasn't happy, but the court slapped them down. I'll dig it out later. other than that, I want to see what games each has. I think it is fair that both the PS4 and The One will have iPlayer and netflix and things, and that's all I really want.

Both have said they will show more games stuff at E3 (18 days away) and Microsoft also said they will talk more about the 360 at that time - the expectation seems to be a smaller / cheaper 360 which they will continue to support for a time which will basically be an AppleTV alike so you can use it for netflix / whatever

You can't resell things you buy on iTunes or ebooks bought from Amazon. Does that fact that it is sold on a physical disc hold some legal significance?

No, this was a downloadable program. basically, Company A bought a load of licences from Company B then sold them to suers. users downloaded teh software from company B's website, then a ctivated the product using the licences bought from Company A. Arguments ensued.

news report

Better thingy

I very much doubt that Microsoft have considered the EU potential response much. They don't appear to have considered their non-US customer much either.

They can turn to the game publishers and say "Look, we tried, OK? Those stinking EU laws, now make more games." and then blame the lack of games on the EU. Or something similar.

This is a rational response. I've had friends move house and been without internet for a few weeks, and I have another friend who used to spend several days at a time away from home with work -- he'd sometimes take his 360 to use in hotel rooms, but had no internet access there of course. These types of scenarios aren't that uncommon.[/quote]

That all reads like they are still in the process of making it up as they go along.

More things. I suppose that this could be used as a work around if you cynically coded soemthing in such a fashion.

I think Microsoft is either downplaying the consumer wishes or they think they're in a much better position that they actually are.

Both after the PS4 and the XB1 announcements barely anyone talked about the technical specs. We've got to the point were must of us say "it's good enough". It's the other details that make the difference. People play on consoles because of convinience and not because of price (pc gaming is definitely cheaper nowadays) and microsoft is gambling big on the consumer motivations.

1-The higher price tag of console games was kind of justified for some people because of the selling back value.

2-Even if some of us think Backwards compatibility is no big thing, people in their mid 25 and younger grew on the PS1 and PS2 and also Wii and are kind of used to it.

3-Even if you say that BC is kind of hard, that doesn't matter much to most users. My PC has BC with almost every game ever released. Either with Dosbox, messing with the settings, emulators, or just playing out of the box.

4-Those old consoles didn't have BC, but i bet most of them still work today. My game boy, game gear and master system are fine but i really doubt the same can be said of most x360's in 20 years.

There was much negativity towards this console after the "deal with it" fiasco, and microsoft presentation did nothing to gain the consumers trust.

Just watched this:

http://kotaku.com/the-entire-xbox-one-reveal-summed-up-in-1-5-hilarious-509197649

From what I can make out they are making a game called "Call of Doody" which the primary selling point of which is that you have a dog. Like Shadow Dancer but with 200 people working on a 3D model.

[slaps forehead]

And you can caress your dog and bag its turds with kinect i bet.