Posts tagged video games

XBOX ONE: My Thoughts

:: I spent most of my day at work with IGN’s live broadcast in my ear, and while I type this I’ve got MS’s keynote going in the background…so I’ll try to share my opinions on things while they pop up while addressing questions a few of you left for me.

The Name: I like it. I get what they’re doing, it’s obvious. One device to run all your media just makes sense, and has for years now. The idea is great, but I’m not convinced they’ve hit the mark yet. Until companies can shake hands it seems that we’ll always need multiple consoles for different needs.

The Look: Half of it is air vents for a reason. They want to smash any thinking that they’ll need to eventually jump to a ‘slim’ model. But this is Microsoft, so, sooomething will be wrong with it. As for the sleek and “sexy” look, I like it. We don’t need all those game-skins, lights, and weird designs carved into it. Scott Lowe from IGN reported a few important details; it has all the crucial inputs in the back to plug in your cable box, hdmi, etc. And it has no external power brick opting for a built in setup.

The Architecture: When Yusif hit the stage to show off all the multimedia features that came with this console…I found myself snoring. Do people still even watch TV? If this had a built in DVR or satellite receiver it would make sense. This just makes it seem like a computer combined with an over-powered cable box. Snap is cool, if they had apps that I actually use (Bing and Skype…whatever man).

The Controller: The important thing I noticed was the lack of “select” and “start” buttons…replaced with logos for something I’m not familiar with yet. To me this is important; they just did away with generation-old features to implement something new, something that belongs to Xbox owners only (keep this in mind). Along with SmartGlass being able to control different features, I think this is one of the best combo’s for gaming I’ve seen (again…we don’t need Kinect haha)

The Kinect: MSUK is stating that the One won’t be usable without having your Kinect connected…friggin lame sauce! My 360Kinect is currently sitting in a drawer somewhere, as any hardcore gamer will tell you - they’re useless. That being said, for general features on the One I could see this being useful. Things like Snap, and the use of voice/gestures make piloting the system look fun. But I’m not into it for going through features…I have a computer for all those needs…I want to grab the new controller and pwn some dang n00bs!

The Cloud: They’re jumping from 15,000 to 300,000 servers………that’s huge. I still won’t use the “cloud” for major storage, I just don’t trust it on any device from any company. But the fact that they are upping their game by that much for our experience has me sold on Xbox being my console of choice. Bigger still is that your gamerscore and achievement points will be porting over from the 360. Thumbs up!

The Halo Show: yes Yes YES!!! Steven Spielberg making a live action show with Master Chief? Well Machinima already proved that it can be a good idea, so I’m behind this 1000000%

The Games: Or lack thereof! It’s sad that developers were in a panic after the presentation, and resorted to social networks to announce releases. Bungie announced Destiny on Facebook, I heard Ubisoft tweeted a whole list of games (like Assassins Creed 4).
ALSO and more importantly, IGN confirmed that when you buy a game you must install it to your account in order to play…that’s new. THE BIGGEST NEWS which is still being confirmed as far as I know - there will be no cross compatibility with your 360! This is one of the biggest turn offs for me. I just spent 8 years playing those games, I don’t want to give them up!

The Extra Fees: After months of speculation Major Nelsen confirmed that once you’ve installed a game to your account, you’ll be able to play it on any console - as long as you port your account over first! As far as allowing other accounts or consoles to play your game there will be additional fees! This is important to take note of, because for me, this is the news that will change gaming forever.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I think in the end, we were shown a console that is semi-good at multimedia. You can watch TV, interact with friends, and mess around with motion capture, all at the same time. This isn’t a complaint that we didn’t see games, it’s a note that gaming in general is changing. The shock that your game attaches to your account, the fact that the IGN panelists were generally bummed out, and that “bros” like EA Sports and CoD got the most stage time shows me something…geeks are losing their gaming culture. We have to revert back to Nintendo for that simple pleasure of picking up a controller and playing games with characters/stories that we know and love. Even Sony has shown that they don’t care about us enough to show us the actual console…they just push out a product to make a profit. And in the end that’s what I see the XboxOne as: a money making scheme. Think about it; consoles battled for years for the top spot, then all of a sudden we spent a decade under the shadow of the 360 and PS3. Not because we couldn’t find something better…but because we were shown a lineup of games so good we didn’t want to move. Now all of a sudden because there are great TV shows to watch we have to pack up and move to a new town? I’m not sold.

There’s still a lot of confusion attached to it, with more news popping up every minute. So post your replies and comments to this so we can share ideas.

GEARS OF WAR: JUDGEMENT [review]

*possible spoiler alert - curby look away*
So, I didn’t even know I needed a new GoW game until I played this. The Grub War had ended, closure had come to Marcus and his friends…now they had the long journey of rebuilding ahead.
If I’m being totally honest, I don’t even LIKE Baird - I think he’s annoying!
However, I tried to keep in mind what the developers at Epic originally stated with the teaser of this game; “We weren’t ready to move on to a new franchise, the universe of GoW is too much fun!”
LIKES: Having a new set of (quite interesting) characters to fight Locust with is great. You can tell they have to delve into their backgrounds fairly quickly, but it’s more refreshing than rushed. I especially like Paduk…he adds so much flavor to the overarching UIR/COG civil war that’s been going on since before Eday. You get to learn why so many of the Stranded hate the COG, whereas in the original 3 you were just left to your own conclusions. And then there’s the obvious; the weapons are much better, and the scenery is gorgeous. So far I think the Markza is my fav weapon. I also really liked the leveling system - adding ‘stars’ as currency pushed me to play better, take more risks, and play through with more of a go-big-or-go-home mentality! Then of course there’s the unlockable campaign that lets you play as Baird parallel to Fenix’s final mission in GoW3.
DISKLIKES: Going back to the guns…I hate it when games do PREquels that display better tech than the originals, for me it takes away from the story. Also, did anyone else notice that there were no epic levels where you had to pilot something huge? Total buzzkill! I also couldn’t stand the controls; no heads-up to choose your weapons (not to mention you only got two guns instead of 3) and placing grenades took a while to get used to. Overall the game felt a little lacking, like they either ran out of time or just didn’t care about the finer details. Having two campaigns is nice, but having a richer single campaign would’ve been better.

Overall if you’re into Gears you should pick this up. And if you’ve been thinking about getting into it, obviously you have to start with this now. Try borrowing it from a friend though, you can finish the main chunk of it in one evening.

After several changes and a last minute venue opening, my gaming clan is hosting a little get-together of friends, food, and of course the games!

This Saturday, I’m going to be playing the new Gears Of War: Judgement, and checking out some of the new content of World Of Warcraft Patch5.2 (I miiight play some Halo4 multiplayer if anyone else is into it…) 

As always with these things, add me online if you can’t make it out in person (though I’d LOVE to pwn your IRL n00bs) 

XboxLive: ihebb
WoW: ihebby (forgotten coast)
Steam: iHebb