The Xbox One - Part 3

[Thread Manager]

This is a continuation thread, the old thread is [split]458355[/split]

 

[Thread Manager]

This is a continuation thread, the old thread is [split]455655[/split]

 

[Spidey-Bat]

Yeah Jim Sterling wrote a pretty good piece detailing how full of **** Cliffy B is on that matter - http://www.destructoid.com/used-games-and-aaa-games-are-incompatible-good--256227.phtml

This x1000. How much money did Activision spend to get Kobe Bryant and Robert Downey Jr. in a CoD commercial?

 

[Nathan]

Missed that post the first time and just read the article. That was a bloody brilliant read.

 

[Poetic Chaos]

Yes the internet goes down. Usually for what, hours at a time when it does happen? I went a week without internet after moving apartments. Yes, my 360 was essential to passing time. But am I willing to toss a console in the garbage because it might allow me only 350 days of playtime instead of 365? No.

If we end up in a post-apocalyptic society and every shanty has a running ps4, I'll eat my words gladly.

That article was spot on. PS4 is status-quo. A lot more of the same.

 

[Iceman]

Yes the internet goes down. Usually for what, hours at a time when it does happen? I went a week without internet after moving apartments. Yes, my 360 was essential to passing time. But am I willing to toss a console in the garbage because it might allow me only 350 days of playtime instead of 365? No.

If we end up in a post-apocalyptic society and every shanty has a running ps4, I'll eat my words gladly.

That article was spot on. PS4 is status-quo. A lot more of the same.

People who play predominantly multiplayer are used to it. When their internet is down they can't play what they want to play. Playing a single player current gen game doesn't necessarily replace the online CoD, BF, Halo, Gears, FIFA or Street Fighter multiplayer experience to them any more than doing any other leisure interest does. And with a 24 hour window I would never have been affected by this in my entire XBox career. Both my internet and Live have been down in the past but never for more than 24 hours. And if it happened with XB1 (probably not more than once a year) and I still wanted to play games I'd load up 360 (which I'll be playing for the next 5 years at least even if they totally pull all support for it) or PS3 (or PS4) or PC or wii.

I'm not saying I agree with the policy (it should be a week if anything), just that a fair amount of the XBox demographic won't be that affected by it.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

This x1000. How much money did Activision spend to get Kobe Bryant and Robert Downey Jr. in a CoD commercial?

Or Mass Effect. I love the series but I wonder how much money they burned through hiring people like Carrie-Anne Moss and Martin Sheen when there are no doubt hundreds of obscure but talented voice actors they could have chosen from at a fraction of the cost.

I mean it had a great cast but does anyone buy a $60 game just because it has Tricia Helfer or Keith David? Would anything have been really lacking if they'd went with lesser known voice talent?

 

[Poetic Chaos]

Agreed with iceman. It's more a problem in theory.

 

[Iceman]

Or Mass Effect. I love the series but I wonder how much money they burned through hiring people like Carrie-Anne Moss and Martin Sheen when there are no doubt hundreds of obscure but talented voice actors they could have chosen from at a fraction of the cost.

I mean it had a great cast but does anyone buy a $60 game just because it has Tricia Helfer or Keith David? Would anything have been really lacking if they'd went with lesser known voice talent?

Yeah big name voice actors don't increase the appeal much above very good voice actors to me. I'd rather that money was spent elsewhere.

 

[Destructus86]

Yes the internet goes down. Usually for what, hours at a time when it does happen? I went a week without internet after moving apartments. Yes, my 360 was essential to passing time. But am I willing to toss a console in the garbage because it might allow me only 350 days of playtime instead of 365? No.

If we end up in a post-apocalyptic society and every shanty has a running ps4, I'll eat my words gladly.

That article was spot on. PS4 is status-quo. A lot more of the same.

It's almost ironic that you says PS4 is more of the same when if anything...their game library is becoming even more diverse while it appears Xbox One has.....more of the same.

 

[Iceman]

Even if you think they're all crap, MS had quite a few totally new exclusives in that E3 conference. And some of them are very different to the kind of games they've had exclusives in up till now (eg Sunset Overdrive & Ryse).

 

[Nathan]

Still disappointed that Ryse looks like an absolute QTE fest. It looked completely awesome up to that point. It's like they watched 300, and decided to bring that slow-mo combat into Ryse.

 

[Iceman]

The new Kinect will be a hell of a lot better & usable in quite a small area. I'll be playing with Kinect (assuming it sill has Kinect functionality even though they didn't show any more of that at E3) and I think that will be a better experience than with the controller for this game.

 

[StrainedEyes]

Someone leaked an XboxOne PR question and answer document: link. Has a lot of minor answers that MS haven't brought up yet.

 

[Nathan]

Xbox One's Reputation System Sounds Crazy But It Just Might Work

Placing the responsibility for policing a community into the hands of the members of said community is a lovely idea that rarely works as expected. The new Xbox Live reputation system launching with the Xbox One gives players the power to promote the polite over the pestiferous, with (hopefully) enough safeguards in place to prevent gang warfare.

In a post on Major Nelson's blog earlier this week, Xbox Live's Michael Dunn laid out the framework for the new reputation system taking the place of the Xbox 360's ineffectual starring system.

Like the previous system, the new reputation system relies quite a bit on player feedback to determine which category an online gamer falls into — "Good Player", "Needs Improvement" or "Avoid Me." What's different here is the definition of player feedback.

It's not just about simply leaving a rating. Now if you mute another player, it will affect their reputation. If you ban another player from your server for misbehaving, it affects their reputation. And if you decide you don't like another player and urge the entirety of your newly-expanded friends list to complain about them? Well, that's where the safeguards come into play.

Speaking to Major Nelson during Tuesday's Microsoft E3 Day One broadcast, available to stream on Xbox Live Silver and Gold, Xbox Live gaming features principle program manager Chad Gibson and senior global product marketing manager Mike Lavin explained how unfair situations might be handled.

It's not just about collecting data, but how the system uses and weighs the data collected. If a dozen people suddenly report a single user, the system looks at a variety of factors before laying the smack down. Did each of those players actually play in an online game with the person they reported? If not, all of their complaints won't equal that of a single person who spent 15 minutes playing Call of Duty online with the reported party. The system also looks at the reputation of both the person reporting and the alleged offender, the frequency of reports from a single user — it's a system the team plans on tweaking constantly for balance and fairness, but it sounds like they're off to a stellar start.

What really intrigues me about the reputation system, however, is how each Xbox One game with an online component can include the ability to recognize griefing behaviors and react to them accordingly. Even if no one reports you for flagrant team killing or purposefully driving the wrong way in Forza, the games will know you've been naughty, and you could get dinged for it.

There's potential there for hiccups and exploitation, but there's real potential here. It may strip players of their "right" to freely act like an obnoxious ******* online, but I'm willing to take the hit for the good of Xbox Live society.

Source

 

[zenith16]

Still disappointed that Ryse looks like an absolute QTE fest. It looked completely awesome up to that point. It's like they watched 300, and decided to bring that slow-mo combat into Ryse.

Crytek has said over and over again, those aren't QTE's though . They are timed moves that give bonuses for executing them properly, but they are not mandatory. It's like saying well timed street fighter moves are QTE's. I would like an option to turn off the onscreen button prompts my self though, a la Batman Arkham City. To be clear, the usual definition of a QTE is something that you have to pull off or you fail the event. In Ryse, all the timed executions are optional, you can button mash your way through the fights.

• 
  
  more detail here
• 
  Ryse: Son Of Rome Preview – Exploring Combat
  
  Preview
  by on Jun 13, 2013 at 02:08 AM
  8,464 Views
  
  
  
  
  31
  We dig into the complex and brutal battle system at the core of Crytek's new Xbox One game.
  ... More

on a more current note.

• 
  Oddworld Creator: Microsoft “Not Interested” In Indies
  
  e3 2013
  by Adam Biessener on Jun 14, 2013 at 06:39 PM
  377 Views
  
  7
  Oddworld Inhabitants head Lorne Lanning has a dim view of the approach Microsoft has taken with indies on Xbox 360 and continues to on Xbox One.
  ... More

source: GI

 

[Matt Mortem]

Microsoft Employees Ambush Wii U Best Buy Events To Promote Xbox One

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/06/mi...sh-wii-u-best-buy-events-to-promote-xbox-one/

Nintendo announced it would be bringing E3 to its fans by teaming up with Best Buy to provide Wii U kiosks with demos of newly announced titles at select cities across North America, which we feel was definitely a good move for the company considering how poor Wii U sales have been ever since its release this past November. But leave it to Microsoft to crash Nintendo’s party to try to persuade potential Wii U customers into buying an Xbox One instead.

There have been numerous reports coming in from multiple Best Buy locations where Nintendo is holding its special E3 experience that Microsoft employees have been talking to people on line asking why they would bother buying a Wii U when the Xbox One’s release is right around the corner. One NeoGAF member even took a picture of what looks to be a Microsoft employee talking to those in line, which you can clearly see the man is wearing a Microsoft shirt. It’s unsure just how many potential or current Wii U customers were spoken to during the special E3 event, but one member of the message board said they were visited by a Microsoft representative in Culver City, California.

 

[zenith16]

Microsoft Employees Ambush Wii U Best Buy Events To Promote Xbox One

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/06/mi...sh-wii-u-best-buy-events-to-promote-xbox-one/

Oh man. That is desperate and sad of Mircro soft. Not unexpected. but the former of what i said still holds.

 

[Iceman]

Source

Oh great. I hope they crack down on anti-social players. The Reputation system in 360 was well intentioned but not focused enough.

 

[Nathan]

Founding Xbox engineer: last 5 years "painful to watch"

Nat Brown says machine "Coasting on past momentum. Failing to innovate"

Nat Brown, an engineer who joined the Xbox engineering team in its infancy in 1999 and claims to have given it its name, has penned an explosive declamation on the path which the brand is taking, calling the last five years, and "the last year in particular," "painful to watch."

Brown's post, on his personal blog, reveals that, whilst a multimedia experience was always a vital part of the long term plans for Xbox, it has taken centre-stage at the cost of gaming. Specifically, Brown feels that support for smaller developers and digital distribution has been dangerously lacking.

"My gripe, my head-smack, is not that the broader content/entertainment business isn't where you want to go with a living-room-connected device. It absolutely is," writes Brown. "Indeed, this was the point of Xbox, that was why it was the Trojan horse for the living room, where we could land and be welcomed by millions of console customers with more hardware and better software and network connectivity than the non-console devices (webtv, cable set-top-boxes) we had been pursuing.

"No, more and better content was always the point and the plan. My gripe is that, as usual, Microsoft has jumped its own shark and is out stomping through the weeds planning and talking about far-flung future strategies in interactive television and original programming partnerships with big dying media companies when their core product, their home town is on fire, their soldiers, their developers, are tired and deserting, and their supply-lines are broken.

"Xbox's primary critical problem is the lack of a functional and growing platform ecosystem for small developers to sell digitally-/network-distributed (non-disc) content through to the installed base of xBox customers, period. Why can't I write a game for Xbox tomorrow using $100 worth of tools and my existing Windows laptop and test it on my home Xbox or at my friends' houses?"

Going on to rail against the $10,000 cost for registering as an Xbox developer, Brown decries the lack of ecosystem features seen on explosive platforms like iOS, where low-barriers to entry have seen a wealth of content driving both system popularity and breadth of choice.

"Why can't I then distribute it digitally in a decent online store, give up a 30 per cent cut and strike it rich if it's a great game, like I can for Android, for iPhone, or for iPad," he asks. "This is where indie developers have found they can go in order to not make money on xBox, despite an installed base of 76 million devices. Microsoft, you are idiotic to have ceded not just indie game developers but also a generation of loyal kids and teens to making games for other people's mobile devices."

Brown's disappointment isn't limited to the machine's poor support for smaller developers, however, he's also angry with the Dashboard UI, which he calls "creaky, slow, and full-of-s***."

"These are the 2 fronts Microsoft is going to lose on in the living room battle with Android 38, iOS," continues Brown. "It's not going to be based on whether they have (a more expensive) Netflix, whether they have original TV/video content or interactive kids television shows which integrate with Kinect. They will lose unless these two things are sorted out well and quickly.

"Microsoft is living in a naive dream-world. I have heard people still there arguing that the transition of the brand from hardcore gamers to casual users and tv-uses was an intentional and crafted success. It was not. It was an accident of circumstance that Microsoft is neither leveraging nor in control of."

Nat Brown left Microsoft in early 2000.

Source

 

[Whiskey Tango]

 

[Nathan]

I want to say, serves them right. Because you must have done something really wrong to get banned. But on the other hand, I don't like how much power they wield.

 

[Iceman]

Haha, I'm sure I won't be agreeing with anyone else here but this would be the most awesome thing ever. Cheats & *******s have nothing to lose in multiplayer & co-op games at the moment and a fair number spend all their time online ruining it for others. There's popular forums just on the subject of how to do all this modding & hacking crap & I'd be happy to see them & generally abusive people a lot less often. They always needed to put something like this in the terms so that they can enforce it easily.

 

[Spade]

Good against pirates, bad for people mislabeled as pirates. It's gonna be a hoot the first time someone's banned for no reason.

 

[Soapy]

I want to say, serves them right. Because you must have done something really wrong to get banned.

Haha, I'm sure I won't be agreeing with anyone else here but this would be the most awesome thing ever.

Tell that to all the Origin users who lost access to their games because they were banned for no reason at all.

Valve's approach to this sort of thing is much better because good players don't get punished and the bad players don't even have to lose access to their games.