Nextbox 1080: The Reckoning

[Twig]

I also have a R4, and it contains games for which I also have the cartridge!!

[Ucantalas]

I do not have an R4. All of my GBA and DS games are physical cartridges. I just never bothered to get one.

[SiN]

I have an R4, which contains a homebrew DS game I wrote.

 

(And some import games I couldn't find on Amazon. Oh, and Doom)

[TheLastBaron]

From what I've seen there is no flash cart for the 3ds and won't be because there is something that makes the Roms impossible to crack. I haven't really looked since I don't own a 3ds, but that was the situation like a year ago. I had a flash cart for my DS, but I bought games for it. I just hate having to carry around a stack of games in my pocket.

[Roderick]

The 3DS was recently successfully flashed, but the latest firmware update has blocked it again. I reiterate; this is a good thing.

[osmosisch]

I also have a R4, and it contains games for which I also have a cartridge.

I have a CycloDS, but basically this. Not lugging superfluous chunks of plastic around is awesome. There's also a lot of fantastic homebrew for the DS, like Colors!

 

I did on occasion do a try-before-buy though, and have used it to circumvent regional release dates.

[Nachimir]

I had a CycloDS, but it mostly sat in a drawer after the initial excitement and the DS Lite was the last platform I pirated games for. I felt guilty about it, and like osmosisch, it was the convenience of not carrying little chunks of plastic around that I actually liked. I was also kind of shocked at how widespread it was: Totally non-technical, non-games people I knew who owned DSes were casually talking about R4s.

 

Totally with Mington; the collections of discs in cases that I want to hold onto dwindles every year. I have a couple of dozen CDs, DVDs and games now, and even that feels like too many. Collections are mostly just shite to dust, and break your back with when you move house.

[twmac]

Unless it has some seriously good filtering technology, how would Kinect be able to distinguish between you speaking and the noise the speakers right next to it are making? Especially if other people's voices are being emitted from them.

I think that Microsoft rep might be paying a bit too much attention to specs rather than practicalities.

 

Not sure if this has alreay been said but the current Kinect does it reasonably well. It isn't infallible but I have used it and experienced others using it with success.

[SecretAsianMan]

Ok Microsoft, I admit this is kind of cool.  I would like to see things like this integrated into the Xbone.

 

[Zeusthecat]

So Microsoft has reversed course on just about everything that originally bothered me about Xbone.

• No online requirements
• No used game restrictions
• No mandatory Kinect
• Comes with a headset
• Rumored to use 3GB of memory for OS vs PS4's 3.5 GB 

There are probably more things I could list but those were my main bugaboos.

 

So now that the playing field seems to be a little more even my decision isn't as cut and dry as it was. The PS4 still has two advantages in my mind with the lower price point and the faster RAM while the Xbone has a few more cool looking exclusives. For me the Indie stuff isn't as much of a factor since I would probably play most of those on the PC anyways.

 

I think I'm still leaning towards the PS4 mostly because of the lower price but feature-wise I don't see anything the PS4 is doing that Xbone isn't and vice versa. Is there anything else I'm missing? Has anyone else been nudged back towards Xbone from the PS4? And I guess there's the WiiU too.

[melmer]

Microsucks xbone

Nah, I still have 0 enthusiasm for it. Mainly because of the guy who changed his tshirt 3 times during the press conference

This guy

http://kotaku.com/one-t-shirt-isn-t-enough-for-this-xbox-exec-512345547

Twat

I am a shallow guy

[melmer]

ROH RAH

The launch of the Xbox One has been delayed to 2014 in eight European markets, Microsoft announced today.

Microsoft's next-generation console will still ship in November to the U.S. and U.K. as well as Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, New Zealand.

The console will launch in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland next year.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/14/4621372/xbox-one-delayed-in-eight-markets

[Dewar]

One thing I can say about Microsoft, they've actually been talkative about their new console. It seems like Sony has mostly kept their mouth shut.

[toblix]

Apparently one of the reasons is localization. The localization of the Xbox 360 has been a fucking train wreck, so it'll at least be interesting to see if this makes it better or even worse. Also, as things stand now, this gives Sony at least a three or four month head-start in these countries, which was probably a hard decision to make.

[elmuerte]

Localization is really a poor excuse for delays.

[JonCole]

Maybe this is an overly emotional reaction to the state of things for the Xbone, but all of these reversals do nothing to restore my confidence in Microsoft because they come off as totally spineless. Sure, many of the changes were things that I criticized, but it's still very clear in my mind how confident Microsoft was at E3. They were proud of these features they had and seemed willing to stand behind their progressive choices. Instead, they basically decided to rip out almost every differentiation. In some ways, this makes me much less likely to grab one - if it's not offering much different, then why get it in addition to a PS4?

[Dewar]

Yeah, it's a tough line to walk between listening to the demands and caving to them. I'm still happy we're hearing about this stuff though, it shows there's someone in MS thinking about stuff, which has not been my experience with their prodcuts of late.

[Zeusthecat]

Maybe this is an overly emotional reaction to the state of things for the Xbone, but all of these reversals do nothing to restore my confidence in Microsoft because they come off as totally spineless. Sure, many of the changes were things that I criticized, but it's still very clear in my mind how confident Microsoft was at E3. They were proud of these features they had and seemed willing to stand behind their progressive choices. Instead, they basically decided to rip out almost every differentiation. In some ways, this makes me much less likely to grab one - if it's not offering much different, then why get it in addition to a PS4?

 

That's fair. From my point of view though, even before their reversals they weren't doing anything that different from what PS4 was doing. It seemed like they were both checking most of the same boxes but Microsoft differentiated itself by making a number of things mandatory and putting more restrictions in place. If they had gone forward with those plans I still don't see how any of that stuff would have made the system better than it is now. The only somewhat reasonable argument for the mandatory internet requirement was the whole cloud computing thing which I found questionable.

 

As far as the rest of the reversals go, I can't really think of any good argument for how it would have been better before (from my personal point of view of course). If Kinect is still included with the system then I think having the ability to leave it unplugged is better than forcing you to always have it plugged in and connected. Coming with a headset is better than not coming with one. Being able to share physical games with friends and buy used games is better than having to go through a bunch of DRM bullshit.

 

It's cool that they tried to do something different but different isn't always better and I think that is the case here. I would rather see a company re-evaluate what they are doing and change course to provide more flexibility to their user-base than stick to their guns just because. In the end I think we are getting a better system than we would have.

[tegan]

next week: Microsoft decides not to release Xbox One at all, citing repeated consumer concerns

[Frenetic Pony]

The #1 reason I'd want an Xbone is more Fable. But a recent interview with Lionhead described their design decision making as "more plural" now (since Molyneux left). As in, design by committee. Which doesn't lead to any good games I've ever seen, when Will Wright made the Sims and the Sims 2 he got together with one other designer and they told the rest of the team "ok, this is what your doing." On the other hand, stuff like Dragon Age 2 and Spore were more "Committee" like, and well... yeah.

 

I'll wait for previews, but it's not looking good. Sorry M1cr0$oft, but doesn't look like I'm paying for your shit no matter what you do so far.

[JonCole]

As far as the rest of the reversals go, I can't really think of any good argument for how it would have been better before (from my personal point of view of course). If Kinect is still included with the system then I think having the ability to leave it unplugged is better than forcing you to always have it plugged in and connected. Coming with a headset is better than not coming with one. Being able to share physical games with friends and buy used games is better than having to go through a bunch of DRM bullshit.

 

Particularly regarding DRM and Kinect, there definitely were some best-case scenarios where it could have been better. If Kinect is mandatory and developers could rely on it being plugged in at all times, I think there could be a lot of room for innovation. When it comes to motion control, there were few successes but the successes were fantastic. For all the shitting on PlayStation Move, JS Joust is easily one of the most darling indie games that the press talks about on a regular basis. Kinect birthed Dance Central, which I think was a fairly amazing implementation of IR motion tracking that captured the hearts of many of my non-gamer friends and gamer friends alike. And of course, who can forget Wii Sports and how that roped in so many people into the Wii? I think there's still a ton of potential locked into motion control, and having it be quite optional in all of the gaming consoles this generation is sure to put the release of that potential into the first, slow gear.

 

And then DRM I can be less long-winded about. It could have been Steam for consoles, years before anyone else even tried it for mainstream consumers. If they managed to really incentivize digital through convenience and value, it could have really changed the gaming landscape in a positive way.

 

Of course, neither of these scenarios was likely and in fact Microsoft seemed to be doing nothing to foster a Steam-like marketplace nor a creative culture to really juice the best from Kinect. But still, the potential was huge and now it's all gone.

[Zeusthecat]

Of course, neither of these scenarios was likely and in fact Microsoft seemed to be doing nothing to foster a Steam-like marketplace nor a creative culture to really juice the best from Kinect. But still, the potential was huge and now it's all gone.

 

I wouldn't say the potential is all gone. As far as I am aware developers can still count on every Xboner also owning Kinect since Kinect is still included with every Xbone. I don't see any harm in letting people unplug their Kinect. In my mind it is similar to how people don't have to always have a Wii remote on for games that have controller support. Either way I am very skeptical of motion controls. Despite the fact that developers could count on every Wii owner having a Wii remote we still saw mostly waggle shit with a few titles here and there that used it in interesting ways. Maybe Kinect will be different by it's very nature but I think it will always be somewhat niche because using a controller as an input device will likely continue to be much more responsive for most types of games.

 

I'll give a little on your Steam-like marketplace argument. I can see how always-on would have laid the foundation for a digital distribution platform like we see with Steam and that actually could have been cool. I would like to think that you could still offer that kind of service on a platform that could stay disconnected from the internet but I honestly don't know much about the logistics of that sort of thing so maybe I'm being naive. The main problem I have with the always-on requirement aside from the DRM thing is that broadband penetration is still pretty shitty in a lot of areas. I think it will be much less of an issue when the successor to xbone comes out but as it stands now I think they would have unnecessarily alienated a lot of people with those requirements.

[Thrik]

I'm really curious to see whether or not Lionhead can do much now that Molyneux is gone. At the moment they might as well be called Fable studios, with the originality and variety of the games they made in the early-to-mid 2000s now a distant memory.

I'm sure they can whip out some more derivative Fable sequels, but can they do anything truly original? Even Fable 3 was a hugely lazy step after its comparatively brilliant two predecessors. I have no excitement about another Fable game at all, and it certainly wouldn't be the deciding factor of me buying the console like Fable 2 was.

[melmer]

Microsoft has unveiled the list of 23 games that are "targeted" to become available on the still-unspecified launch date of the Xbox One.

 

• Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)
• Battlefield 4 (DICE, Electronic Arts)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts (Infinity Ward, Activision)
• Crimson Dragon (Grounding/Land Ho!, Microsoft Studios) the only one i'd actually be interested in playing.... i wonder if the game has sound now?
• Dead Rising 3 (Capcom Vancouver, Microsoft)
• FIFA 14 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts)
• Fighter Within (AMA Ltd., Ubisoft)
• Forza Motorsport 5 (Turn 10 Studios, Microsoft Studios)
• Just Dance 2014 (Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft)
• Killer Instinct (Double Helix, Microsoft Studios)
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (TT Games, Warner Bros. Interactive)
• Lococycle (Twisted Pixel, Microsoft Studios)
• Madden NFL 25 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts)
• NBA 2K14 (Visual Concepts, 2K Sports)
• NBA LIVE 14 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts)
• Need for Speed: Rivals (Ghost Games, Electronic Arts)
• Peggle 2 (Popcap, Electronic Arts)
• Powerstar Golf (Zoe Mode, Microsoft Studios)
• Ryse: Son of Rome (Crytek, Microsoft Studios)
• Skylanders: Swap Force (Vicarious Visions, Activision)
• Watch Dogs (Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft)
• Zoo Tycoon (Frontier Developments Ltd., Microsoft Studios)
• Zumba Fitness: World Party (Zoë Mode, Majesco)

 

and the FIFA 14 free for Europe is a download code with all pre orders

[Thrik]

Exclusive Zoo Tycoon? That is quite bizarre yet it's by Frontier so I'm definitely interested. I'd prefer Roller Coaster Tycoon but I'll take what I can get.