Xbox One Console Reviews
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Scalebound, the next major release from Platinum Games, will feature a massive world and dragon companions. In an interview with our partners at The Inner Circle Podcast, Ken Lobb stated that Platinum approached Microsoft two years ago and pitched the game to them. They wanted to partner with a major Western studio in order to expand their audience. Lobb added, “Scalebound combines the best of what Platinum does and what we do”.
He also confirmed that dragons would play a major part in the game and would not be adversaries. Lobb stated that “the dragons in Scalebound are companions and they are awesome”. When asked about the scope of the game, Lobb said that it was a major “AAA title” that would have its own space. The game “might or might not release in 2015” because Microsoft already has a packed schedule this holiday season. Lobb also played down comparisons to Monster Hunter, describing it as "grindy", before emphasising Platinum Games' strengths in action titles.
Lobb is a creative director at Microsoft Studios and known for creating the Killer Instinct series. Platinum Games have developed some of the best action titles ever including Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, Vanquish, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Hideki Kamiya is also working on Scalebound. Kamiya previously developed games like Devil May Cry and Resident Evil. His stories and sense of direction are superb and the Microsoft exclusive will only benefit from having him in charge.
Lobb told The Inner Circle Podcast that Scalebound gameplay should be out this year. This is definitely one to keep an eye out for because it is a very unique collaboration. Stay tuned to XboxMAD and The Inner Circle Podcast for more information on this game as soon as it is available.
Phantom Dust was announced last year at E3, a remake of the post apocalyptic third person adventure-strategy game which hit the original Xbox in Japan back in 2004.
The announcement of Phantom Dust left a lot of people scratching their heads, before frantically hammering the name into Wikipedia for more information. Phantom Dust was never released in the EU, and suffered a low-key launch in the US. Despite it's obscurity, Phantom Dust enjoys a strong cult following and has quite broad critical praise for its mechanics and systems, which are regarded as being ahead of it's time.
Our partners at TiC Podcast bought up the game to Microsoft Studios Creative Director Ken Lobb in their latest show.
Describing the previous game, Ken Lobb said he didn't see eye to eye with the original developers, describing the game as 'way ahead of its time'. Phantom Dust's card-based strategy combat was wrapped around a full blown JRPG, and accessing this aspect of the game took several hours. "It was a trading card game based arena combat game (...) but it had a full on JRPG to unlock the cards. It had one really big flaw - if you started playing this game you had no idea it was an arena game until you played 3-6 hours depending on how fast you went."
Ken Lobb emphasised that they want to tell the game's story better, which sees humanity hiding under ground from a mysterious apocalypse, whilst Esper's (humans granted psychic powers by the apocalypse) venture above the ground in attempts to discover humanities lost history.
"The core of 'why Phantom Dust' it's because this game is better than it was rated. Its way better than it was treated, except by the people who really got into it."
Ken credited Phil Spencer with Phantom Dust's return, stating that the decision to revive it was based on the games uniqueness, and the simple fact 'not enough people got to see' the game. Phantom Dust would also serve to diversify the Xbox's portfolio beyond its shooter image.
Regarding launch dates, Ken said it 'may or may not arrive in 2015' based on the games development, but also that it wouldn't be fair to shoehorn it in to what is Microsoft regard as a very strong 2015 line up.
Podcast host KoR X Kal El asked whether or not Phantom Dust was pure PVP, Ken Lobb had this to say: "No no no, it's a JRPG. It's about a 30 hour RPG. Through that, you unlock the cards. (...) We want people playing PVP before 6 hours, and we want them to have viable decks without having to wait 15 hours. A lot of the discussion is how do we front load a little of the multiplayer side without breaking the beautiful unlock that was so well designed in the original RPG."
It certainly sounds like it has the potential to be the JRPG that many people are clamouring for. I'm going to try and get a copy of the original somehow.
Be sure to listen to the full podcast, and subscribe to TiC Podcast on YouTube and follow them on Twitter!
TiC Podcast didn't shy from putting the burning questions to Microsoft Studios Creative Director regarding Killer Instinct. Host KoR x Kal El asked Kenn Lobb about Killer Instinct's modular pay model, it's longevity and it's season based development cycle.
"(...) Do you see Killer Instinct continuing to grow for the entire life cycle of the Xbox One, have you or Iron Galaxy thought of recreating the original K.I. stages? Will fatalities make a return in season 3? and in light of Street Fighter V being exclusive, die hard fans like Raymond Franklin want Microsoft to market K.I. beyond Xbox One, like on Prime Time TV - is that in the plans?"
Regarding Killer Instinct's season based model (which sees fighter packs and features arrive as DLC), Ken Lobb said that Microsoft wished to do something differently with K.I.: "When you think about what fighting games have been, there's nothing with it - but the idea that you change a fighting game a little and release it again? it felt like we could do something a little different with Killer Instinct." So don't expect any Killer Instinct Ultra EX Alpha Tag Tournament Extreme SKU's from Microsoft Studios.
Ken Lobb elaborated further to say that he tends to stick to one or two characters whilst playing Tekken and Soul Calibre and other fighting games, so why not allow players to purchase one character and still have access to play online? The modular design also allowed them to ship the game 'early' and take consumer feedback regarding balance and so on to improve the game.
Regarding marketing, Ken Lobb said "the reason that people buy games have changed dramatically", elaborating further he described the current marketing situation for gaming, that being YouTube and Twitch, essentially word of mouth and information sharing is just as effective as 'call to action' product shorts on TV. Ken Lobb said that Killer Instinct has seen millions of players try the game due to the freemium model, and that TV wouldn't necessarily help that along. Microsoft likely has data to corroborate this, and often utilizes big data to determine marketing practices. Ken also didn't rule out further retail releases for Season 2, perhaps via an updated bundle with Season 1.
On fatalities, Ken Lobb said that they were perhaps a bit too 'comedic'. "Fatalities in the original Killer Instinct were arguably a little too comedic." Also stating that the humiliations were a side project "late at night", rather than a core feature. "Like a lot of our games, I'm very passionate about what we do and don't do with our games - but the reality is I don't tell the people that work for me what to do. I have 'passioned discussions about what I think they should be doing." He fell short of stating explicitly whether or not they would return, but perhaps if fans continue to let their opinions heard the developers will be willing to discuss their inclusion.
Ken also offered some insight on the Double Helix acquisition on the part of Amazon, amongst some interesting bits of history from the development on the first games. I urge you to listen to the full podcast below, and be sure to subscribe to TiC Podcast.
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Starting today, Razer will offer all gaming gear and systems for up to 50 percent off for 24 hours, the gaming tech company confirmed on Facebook.
The massive Razer sale, which you can find at the official Razer Store, starts Jan. 12 at 6 p.m. PST and runs until Jan. 13, 5:59 p.m. PT, with all gear (not including gaming systems) available at half price. All gaming systems will be discounted by 30 percent. The company will limit customers to one item during this time.
"During this time, the store will get an intense amount of traffic, slow down, etc and things will fly off the virtual shelves so get ready," Razer warns.
Access to the sale is only available to those registered to Razer Insider's official community site. Those interested are asked to register via Razer Insider first at which point they'll receive a unique RazerStore code.
We caught up with Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan earlier last year to talk about the company's new Nabu smartband, a wearable device that Tan told us could feasibly be used as an on-the-go version of the dating app Tinder. Check out our interview here.
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- Source
- Razer (Facebook)
Microsoft today announced plans for its next game in the Forza Motorsport series, which will launch on Xbox One with the new Ford GT supercar on its cover.
Forza Motorsport 6 will be available to play at E3 in June. No release date has been announced, but a late 2015 arrival is likely. Microsoft and developer Turn 10 used the North American International Auto Show to announce their collaboration with Ford.
Forza Motorsport 6 will feature the GT, Shelby GT350 Mustang and F-150 Raptor which were debuted by Ford earlier today at the auto show. The new GT uses a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 offering over 600 horsepower and is, by all accounts, a sexy beast of a machine.
Turn 10's John Wendl told Polygon that the deal allowed the developers, engineers and designers to work closely with Ford during the design stage of both the game and the car. "We've been doing this game series for a long time," he said. "But this is the first time we've been able to launch a car and a game at the same time."
For Ford, the deal is a marketing promotion aimed at fostering a passion for driving and for cars that has been waning among young people over the last few years. "Our challenge is to figure out how to get the younger generation to be really interested in cars," said Ford Motor Company's Dave Pericak. "It's different than in the past when we went into the garage and became passionate about what we saw. The love for driving is there but it's about how you foster and nurture that love."
Wendl said Turn 10 is not ready to talk specifics about Forza 6, above and beyond announcing the Ford deal. But he said that working with a car manufacturer during the design process had been an eye-opener for the car-crazy company. "They're doing some crazy things with Ford Performance and it takes a lot of work and understanding for us to get that realism into the game," he said.
woulda been dope if they had the XB1 headset in stock 
Starting today, Razer will offer all gaming gear and systems for up to 50 percent off for 24 hours, the gaming tech company confirmed on Facebook.
The massive Razer sale, which you can find at the official Razer Store, starts Jan. 12 at 6 p.m. PST and runs until Jan. 13, 5:59 p.m. PT, with all gear (not including gaming systems) available at half price. All gaming systems will be discounted by 30 percent. The company will limit customers to one item during this time.
"During this time, the store will get an intense amount of traffic, slow down, etc and things will fly off the virtual shelves so get ready," Razer warns.
Access to the sale is only available to those registered to Razer Insider's official community site. Those interested are asked to register via Razer Insider first at which point they'll receive a unique RazerStore code.
We caught up with Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan earlier last year to talk about the company's new Nabu smartband, a wearable device that Tan told us could feasibly be used as an on-the-go version of the dating app Tinder. Check out our interview here.
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- Source
- Razer (Facebook)
Free Assassin's Creed Unity DLC, Dead Kings, Out Now
Set after the events of the main game, the Dead Kings expansion sees Arno exploring a network of catacombs.
Set after the events of the main game, the Dead Kings expansion sees Arno exploring a network of catacombs.
The Dead Kings expansion for Assassin's Creed Unity, which is free for all players to make up for the game's launch woes, is available now across all platforms: PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Set after the events of Unity, Dead Kings sees Arno journeying to the town of Saint Denis, which was known at the time as Franciade. Once there, Arno goes on a mission to explore the underbelly of the city, made up of catacombs and deep caves that contain the remains--and secrets--of dead kings.
Dead Kings introduces a new lantern that Arno will use to move through the catacomb networks, as well as a powerful "Guillotine Gun." Players will meet famous people like Napoleon and the Marquis de Sade, and also encounter a new enemy faction, the Raiders.
The expansion also adds a number of side quests, including new Murder Mysteries and co-op missions. Along your way, you'll also be able to unlock new weapons, gear, and outfits that are compatible with Dead Kings and the main Unity game.
The Dead Kings expansion was originally going to be part of the Unity DLC pass for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. However, Ubisoft announced in November that Dead Kings would become a free download for all players in a bid to make up for Unity's troubled launch.
The Unity DLC pass has since been removed from sale. If you bought it before it was pulled, you'reentitled to a free game of your choosing--and the list is full of great games.
Thanks to the Xbox community, we’re back in action early this year, kicking off 2015 with another system update preview release on Xbox One. Last year, we added hundreds of features on Xbox One — we can’t wait to share more with you this year and hear what you think on Xbox Feedback! This month, we’re bringing members of our Preview program a peek at how we hope to bring the Xbox community even closer together through an all-new feature called game hubs. Your friends, game creators, community managers, and other fans like you can now more easily meet, talk, share content, and play their favorite games. Also, we’re adding more tile transparency for custom backgrounds and a handful of updates to live TV.
Starting today, members of the Xbox One preview program will get to check out these new features first:
- Game hubs – New in preview this month, game hubs are the go-to centers for all sorts of interesting content around your favorite games. Every Xbox One game will have a game hub where you can see which of your friends are playing the game, compete with your friends in game leaderboards, dive into the coolest game clips and game broadcasts, and follow the game’s VIPs and top players.
- Custom backgrounds and tile transparency – We listened to your feedback and added additional tile transparency to the Home tiles to make your background images more visible. As a reminder, to set a custom background, go to Settings > My Xbox > My background. Note: some items can’t be made transparent due to usage rights/restrictions for certain images.
- TV updates – We’re releasing a lot of updates to the live TV experience and features are being released to additional countries in preview this month:
- OneGuide for the Netherlands – Support for OneGuide will continue in preview for the Netherlands and the missing channels for the Netherlands OneGuide listings will become available over the next few weeks.
- TV trending in OneGuide – As you scan the detailed OneGuide TV listings, you can see which shows are trending by a “Trending on Xbox” note and associated icon. Xbox – live TV trending is based on the number of Xbox One owners currently watching that show in each country, pulled from anonymous data collected at a national level. Currently, Xbox TV trending is available to all members in the U.S., UK and Canada.
- Live TV trending (new countries) – France, Germany, Brazil and Mexico will begin seeing live TV trending data in Xbox OneGuide.
- Improved control of TVs, set-top boxes and audio/video receivers – Xbox One will work even better with more devices. This month’s preview release contains updates to the IR blasting database for new models and addresses issues reported by our fan community.
- “Trick play” with Xbox One Digital TV Tuner – Preview members with the Xbox One Digital TV Tuner in supported countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) will now be able to see video frames when fast-forwarding or rewinding paused TV on your Xbox One consoles.
- Live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android – We are continuing the preview of live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android devices for Xbox One Digital TV Tuner owners in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Preview, System Update, Xbox One By MajorNelson
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Hardware modder Eddie Zarick today revealed his latest creation: a laptop that incorporates both an Xbox One and a PlayStation 4.
Zarick already created laptop versions of each console individually (the Xbook One and PlayBook 4), but putting the two consoles together in one portable box is a first. He made the system, which he calls PlayBox, for a client who asked for it specifically.
The laptop runs both systems (not at the same time) and can be switched between either with the flick of a switch.
"I managed to cram a Playstation 4 and an Xbox One into a 22″ laptop form factor," Zarick wrote on his blog. "This was a prototype unit I made for a specific customer and it came out beautifully. This is the same size of the Xbook Duo [Xbox 360 and Xbox One combo], which is only a tad bit taller than the Xbook One or Playbook 4."
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- Eddie Zarick on YouTube
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- IGN
Unlike previous versions of DirectX, the difference between the new DirectX and previous generations are obvious enough that they can be explained in charts (and maybe someone with some visual design skill can do this).
This article is an extreme oversimplification. If someone wants to send me a chart to put in this article, I’ll update.
Your CPU and your GPU
Since the start of the PC, we have had the PC and the GPU (or at least, the “video card”).
Up until DirectX 9, the CPU, being 1 core in those days, would talk to the GPU through the “main” thread.
DirectX 10 improved things a bit by allowing multiple cores send jobs to the GPU. This was nice but the pipeline to the GPU was still serialized. Thus, you still ended up with 1 CPU core talking to 1 GPU core.
It’s not about getting close to the hardware
Every time I hear someone say “but X allows you to get close to the hardware” I want to shake them. None of this has to do with getting close to the hardware. It’s all about the cores. Getting “closer” to the hardware is relatively meaningless at this point. It’s almost as bad as those people who think we should be injecting assembly language into our source code. We’re way beyond that.
It’s all about the cores
Last Fall, Nvidia released the Geforce GTX 970. It has 5.2 BILLION transistors on it. It already supports DirectX 12. Right now. It has thousands of cores in it. And with DirectX 11, I can talk to exactly 1 of them at a time.
Meanwhile, your PC might have 4, 8 or more CPU cores on it. And exactly 1 of them at a time can talk to the GPU.
Let’s take a pause here. I want you to think about that for a moment. Think about how limiting that is. Think about how limiting that has been for game developers. How long has your computer been multi-core?
But DirectX 12? In theory, all your cores can talk to the GPU simultaneously. Mantle already does this and the results are spectacular. In fact, most benchmarks that have been talked about have been understated because they seem unbelievable. I’m been part of (non-NDA) meetings where we’ve discussed having to low-ball performance gains to being “only” 40%. The reality is, as in, the real-world, non-benchmark results I’ve seen from Mantle (and presumable DirectX 12 when it’s ready) are far beyond this. The reasons are obvious.
To to summarize:
DirectX 11: Your CPU communicates to the GPU 1 core to 1 core at a time. It is still a big boost over DirectX 9 where only 1 dedicated thread was allowed to talk to the GPU but it’s still only scratching the surface.
DirectX 12: Every core can talk to the GPU at the same time and, depending on the driver, I could theoretically start taking control and talking to all those cores.
That’s basically the difference. Oversimplified to be sure but it’s why everyone is so excited about this.
The GPU wars will really take off as each vendor will now be able to come up with some amazing tools to offload work onto GPUs.
Not just about games
Cloud computing is, ironically, going to be the biggest beneficiary of DirectX 12. That sounds unintuitive but the fact is, there’s nothing stopping a DirectX 12 enabled machine from fully running VMs on these video cards. Ask your IT manager which they’d rather do? Pop in a new video card or replace the whole box. Right now, this isn’t doable because cloud services don’t even have video cards in them typically (I’m looking at you Azure. I can’t use you for offloading Metamaps!)
It’s not magic
DirectX 12 won’t make your PC or XBox One magically faster.
First off, the developer has to write their game so that they’re interacting with the GPU through multiple cores simultaneously. Most games, even today, are still written so that only 1 core is dedicated to interacting with the GPU.
Second, this only benefits you if your game is CPU bound. Most games are. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a modern Nvidia card get GPU bound (if anyone can think of an example, please leave it in the comments).
Third, if you’re a XBox One fan, don’t assume this will give the XBO superiority. By the time games come out that use this, you can be assured that Sony will have an answer.
Rapid adoption
There is no doubt in my mind that support for Mantle/DirectX12/xxxx will be rapid because the benefits are both obvious and easy to explain, even to non-technical people. Giving a presentation on the power of Oxide’s new Nitrous 3D engine is easy thanks to the demos but it’s even easier because it’s obvious why it’s so much more capable than anything out there.
If I am making a game that needs thousands of movie-level CGI elements on today’s hardware, I need to be able to walk a non-technical person through what Nitrous is doing differently. The first game to use it should be announced before GDC and in theory, will be the very first native DirectX 12 and Mantle and xxxx game (i.e. written from scratch for those platforms).
A new way of looking at things: Don’t read this because what is read can’t be unread
DirectX 12/etc. will ruin older movies and game effects a little bit. It has for me. Let me give you a straight forward example:
Last warning:
Seriously.
Okay. One of the most obvious limitations games have due to the 1 core to 1 core interaction are light sources. Creating a light source is “expensive” but easily done on today’s hardware. Creating dozens of light sources simultaneously on screen at once is basically not doable unless you have Mantle or DirectX 12. Guess how many light sources most engines support right now? 20? 10? Try 4. Four. Which is fine for a relatively static scene. But it obviously means we’re a long long way from having true “photo realism”.
So your game might have lots of lasers and explosions and such, but only (at most) a few of them are actually real light sources (and 3 of them are typically reserved lighting the scene).
As my son likes to say: You may not know that the lights are fake but your brain knows.
You’ll never watch this battle the same again.
Or this. Wow, those must be magical explosions, they don’t cast shadows…Or maybe it’s a CGI scene..
And once you realize that, you’ll never look at an older CGI movie or a game the same because you’ll see blaster shots and little explosions in a scene and realize they’re not causing shadows or lighting anything in the scene. You subconsciously knew the scene was “fake”. You knew it was filled with CGI but you may not have been able to explain why. Force lightning or a wizard spell that isn’t casting light or shadows on the scene may not be consciously noticeable but believe me, you’re aware of it (modern CGI fixes this btw but our games are still stuck at a handful).
Why I’ve been covering this
Before DirectX 12, I had never really talked about graphics APIs. That’s because I found them depressing. My claim to fame (code-wise) is multithreading AI programming. I wrote the first commercial multithreaded game back in the 90s and I’ve been a big advocate of multithreading since. GalCiv for Windows was the first game to make use of Intel hyperthreading.
Stardock’s games are traditionally famous for good AI. It’s certainly not because I’m a great programmer. It’s because I have always tossed everything from path finding to AI strategy onto threads. The turn time in say Sorcerer King with > 1000 units running around is typically less than 2 seconds. And those are monsters fighting battles with magical spells and lots of pathfinding. That’s all because I can throw all this work onto multiple threads that are now on multiple cores. In essence, I’m cheating. So next time you’re playing a strategy game where you’re waiting 2 minutes between turns, you know why.
But the graphics side? Depressing.
That magical spell is having no affect on the lighting or shadows. You may not notice it consciously but your brain does (DirectX 9). A DirectX 10/11 game would be able to give that spell a point light but as you can see, it’s a stream of light which is a different animal.
You don’t need an expert
Assuming you’re remotely technical, the change from DirectX 11 to DirectX 12/Mantle changes are obvious enough that you should be able to imagine the benefits. If before only 1 core could send jobs to your GPU but now you could have all your cores send jobs at the same time, you can imagine what kinds of things can become possible. Your theoretical improvement in performance is (N-1)X100% where N is how many cores you have. That’s not what you’ll really get. No one writes perfect parallelized code and no GPU is at 0% saturation. But you get the idea.
GDC
Pay very very close attention to GDC this year. Even if you’re an OpenGL fan. NVidia, AMD, Microsoft, Intel and Sony have a unified goal. Something is about to happen. Something wonderful.
Xbox One is now $349
damn just 2 weeks in and they said fuck it...good call tho...I read a couple "analysts" basically calling it suicide to revert back to $399 when they did
I want to thank all of the Xbox fans who contributed to our record-setting holiday and making 2014 such a successful year. The Xbox One deals were quite popular and have inspired a new promotion starting January 16 where fans in the U.S. can buy an Xbox One for $349 at their preferred retailer.
Some interesting statistics about 2014:
• Xbox 360 became the best-selling seventh generation console of all time in the U.S.
• In 2014, users logged nearly 8 billion hours globally in apps across Xbox 360 and Xbox One, a
50 percent increase from time spent in 2013.
• Xbox One became the best-selling console in the U.S. in November and December and weekly average sales during these months outpaced Xbox 360 by 50 percent at the same point in its lifecycle.*
• Xbox One also sold more games throughout November and December in the U.S. than any other current-generation platform.*
• From November 24 to January 3, fans spent more time playing on Xbox than they ever have before, at any point in the history of Xbox.
• In the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta alone, 18 million games have been played to date.
The Xbox Wire has a great year in review summary and what to expect in 2015, including a few upcoming console titles and the future of PC gaming on Windows 10.
You can find that article here.
* According to NPD Group
let me say this again
Despite the lead PS has now...I expect that around the middle to near the end of the cycle that Xbox will have drawn even or surpassed Sony
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