Xbox One Exclusive

According to GameStop there seems to be a growing interest on the Xbox One since the recent price cut. With the Kinect now being removed from the package, Xbox One consoles are being sol for $399 (the same price as Sony’s PS4).

In the recent financial earnings call Tony Bartel, GameStop president, said: "I definitely think we're already seeing in our stores [that] there's a stronger demand as a result of the price drop. The good news for us is... we'll sell a lot more units. And that means there will be more [Xbox One] units out there to put software on."

It has been over 10 days since Microsoft announced that they will be shipping the Xbox One without Kinect. The Xbox One will now be sold for £349, 399 Euros and $499 AUD from 9^th June. This decision has been made supposedly due to consumer feedback but I guess anyone could’ve told Microsoft this was a good thing to do.

Although the bad side is that many of the developers were not even told about this decision and thus were left in the dark. Additional concerns regarding the future of the Kinect has also been voiced by several members in the gaming community. Since the Kinect was there with every Xbox One, there was more incentive to work on apps and features that take advantage of it. Now that might not be the case and the Kinect might again be pushed to the background.

However Phil Spencer did come forward and say that the Kinect still is important to them, "Kinect remains an important part of our vision. We will continue to innovate on Kinect. I think it's an important differentiator for us."

Let’s see what changed since March’s NPD report.

The Xbox One has sold 115,000 units while the Sony didn’t reveal their sales numbers. However, it was confirmed that the PS4 did outsell the Xbox One. The following is an interesting bit of info from the report:

"Life to date, sales of PS4 and Xbox One hardware have more than doubled the combined sales of facPS3 and 360 hardware through their first six months of sales. PS4 software combined with Xbox One software sales are up over 40 percent compared to sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360 through their first six months."

The following list ranks the top 10 most sold games for May and like before Titanfall lead the pack.

1. Titanfall (360, XBO, PC)
2. Call Of Duty: Ghosts (360, PS4, PS3, XBO, NWU, PC)
3. NBA 2K14 (360, PS4, PS3, XBO, PC)
4. Minecraft (360)
5. LEGO The Hobbit (360, PS3, One, PS4, 3DS, NWU, PSV)
6. The LEGO Movie Videogame (360, 3DS, PS3, NWU, XBO, PS4, PSV)
7. Lego Marvel Super Heroes (360, PS3, NDS, 3DS, PS4, NWU, XBO, PSV, PC)
8. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (PS4, 360, PS3, NWU, 3DS)
9. Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)
10. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (360, PS3, PS4, XBO, NWU, PC)

Will the PS4 continue to lead over the Xbox One in sales remains to be seen. With Microsoft removing the Kinect from the Xbox One and now pricing it at $399 (same as the PS4) , the sales for the Xbox One are expected to rise sharply.

Sunset Overdrive is supposed to be a carefree adventure with a story which doesn't aim to take itself seriously. This game is just meant to be fast and fun. The story goes as such. The corrupt company FizzCo. released an energy drink called Overcharge Delirium XT which had horrible side effects including – rage, disfiguration and massive addiction.

To cover up the FizzCo. shuts down the city and blames the cause of the mutants (called OD’D) on a viral outbreak.  Now 17 days have gone by since the event started and you (the gamer) and a bunch of other survivors trapped in the city realize that they have to take matters into their own hands in order to find a solution.

Creative co-directory Drew Murray said, "When we started as pre-production, traversal was not envisioned as part of the game. Instead, we spent a lot of time talking about the mood and about how we want players to feel. I want it to sound like Iggy Pop's Search and Destroy, that's the feeling that I want players to have while they're playing the game and moving through the world."

Co-conceiver of Sunset Overdrive Marcus Smith added, "It was Cameron [Christian, lead designer] who really pushed for that notion of having something that's easy to jump into but that holds a sense of mastery.”

Christian then explained, "We want to encourage people to experiment and not be penalized for trying crazy stuff even when they're up high, because it really sucks when you've worked your way to the top of a building and then you fall down and have to start again.”

"So, we created a system to mitigate by going with a tiered playground approach that ramps up in difficulty as you get higher. The first level is basic, easy traversal with long lines and easy bounces so a new player can approach that and get going right away. As you move up it gets more difficult and the highest level has a lot more wall-runs and need for vision and skill."

"When we first started out, combat and traversal were two separate things. Traversal was really used as a defensive measure but that didn't last long once we discovered that shooting while grinding was fun.”

"We were scared that it would be a lot to take in and once we started mixing the two we had to adjust some of our world-building rules. So, 8m grinds are the minimum and in combat-heavy areas we have to make sure the grinds stretch a lot longer so that the player has time to shoot a dude and readjust to look for the next traversal option."

So all in all this game sound like it can be a fun experience. Running around and trying to defeat both human and AI opposition in a fast paced, colorful world of a comical nature. No gameplay has been released just yet but should be soon and you know we will keep you posted when it does!

 

So a new update is rolling out for Titanfall that is not only going to fix a few balancing issues but also fix some of the remaining bugs. They did a pretty solid launch for the game but minor bugs are expected from every release. Following is a list of changes to be expected according to Respawn.

Balancing and Changes:

• The damage indicator from Electric Smoke is now much more noticeable
• Search Drones will now show up in Classic Modes of Angel City
• Arc grenade/mine effects no longer draw on friendly Pilots and Titans
• Lowered the point value of defensive actions in Hardpoint mode and CTF.
• Increased the score limit in Attrition
• Flag Return points reduced
• Flag Carrier killed points reduced
• Explosives detonated by Dead Man's Trigger are now slightly delayed
• Explosives detonated by Dead Man's Trigger now play a warning sound before exploding
• Slightly decreased the damage of the Smart Pistol when not locked onto a Pilot
• Slightly decreased the hip-fire accuracy of the Smart Pistol
• Certain Burn Cards could be exploited to give multiple uses
• Evac Dropships are now more responsive to Pilots entering them
• Hacking a Mega Turret will now restore it's health to full
• Cluster Missiles damage reduced against Evac Dropships

Fixed Bugs:

• Titan could become stuck in the position he lands in
• Auto-Titan wouldn't stand up until you embarked into it
• Several rare server issues restarting the game in to the lobby
• Pilot could end up out of bounds while rodeoing a Titan as it is destroyed
• Pilot could warp through certain locations when jumping off a Titan
• Rodeoing a Titan that has been doomed by your SMR could kill you
• Players being able to enter some geometry in Smuggler's Cove
• Titanfall will now give proper kill credit when it kills a Pilot embarking into their Titan
• Minions in Attrition now continue to spawn until the Epilogue begins
• Player couldn't hack a Mega Turret console
• Server would sometimes error when leeching a Spectre
• Hardpoints sometimes awarded defense score to players not near the hardpoint
• Rare issue when ejecting from a Titan
• Server would sometimes error after a match while returning to the lobby
• Double XP burn card sometimes not being applied properly

Just recently the requirements for one of the most anticipated FPSs, Titanfall, has been revealed. This reveal came from none other than Vince Zampella, boss of the Respawn (creators of Titanfall).

The minimum PC requirements for the game are as stated:

• 64-bit Windows 7, 8, 8.1

• AMD Athlon X2 2.8GHz or Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz

• 4GB RAM

• 512MB VRAM, Radeon HD 4770 or GeForce 8800GT

In response to whether the game will make its way to Mac he said, "talking about it, would like to see it happen. Would have to be after launch."

The game will be releasing on the 14^th of March, 2014 in the UK and on the 11^th of March in the US. Titanfall will be available on PC, Xbox One and later on the Xbox 360.

Also in regards to the PC version, it has also been confirmed that in order to play Titanfall gamers will have to sign up to Origin (EA’s digital platform). This news again came straight from Vince.

Vince replied to replied to one of his tweeter followers who claimed he would not buy the game if he had to sign up for Origin with “yes it does, we'll miss you :(" and “I'll also ask that you give origin a try for the beta, costs you nothing."

Console players however don’t have to worry about this as Xbox One and 360 version of the game do not require Origin.

Microsoft sent a big press release announcing that it sold over three million Xbox Ones in 2013, and listed numerous upcoming games for the Xbox One. There was however one major game missing — Halo, which was barely teased sometime back as a future Xbox One titled.

I guess there might have been some sort of an uproar as soon enough a PR manager from Microsoft came up to confirm that there indeed will be a Halo coming out soon. Rob had tweed, “Rest assured your next Halo journey WILL begin in 2014. #staycalm,”

Halo for Microsoft is like Uncharted from Sony, although from very different genres both these games are the strongest franchises of their respective companies. For now although we haven’t heard of anything about Uncharted, it is obvious there will be a game out for the PS4. So it is safe to assume that by next holiday season we will be seeing both Halo and Uncharted making an appearance. Mainly because next holiday season will be another decisive battle between these two giants.

After a year under their belt, any existing issue with the Xbox One and PS4 would be ironed out and a flurry of new features would have been added. Add to that the potential price drop. So with a big game like Halo or Uncharted, the companies stand poised to move a lot more of their consoles to late adopters with awesome bundle deals.

All that we know about Halo is the short clip showing Master Chief covered in rags walking across a desert. With the success 343 Industries have had with Halo 4, although some weren't as impressed, Halo is in pretty safe hands. Can’t wait to get more news detailing what we shall be experience in what we can only tentatively call Halo 5.

Hey there guys! I don’t know if you can remember or not, but last E3 Ubisoft mentioned that they were working on a lot of new games, most of which are new IPs which have never been seen. Since then I have been very curious in finding out what these were since Ubisoft has been knocking them out of the park recently with games like Watch Dogs and The Division.

But even before they could get to Gamescom, a new domain registration was discovered for one of their upcoming games called Fighter Within. The domain Figher-Within.com was registered sometime back in June but only recently revealed. Although the page only lead to a bare bone “coming soon” page, just today the first trailer for the game was revealed in Gamescom.

Fighter Within reveal trailer: http://youtu.be/ESrZgOAAQRU

There is not much info regarding the game at the moment and the only gameplay video is a poor quality shot of two people playing it at the show floor at Gamescom. From what can be seen, the game has been designed for the Kinect and for now seems to be exclusive for the Xbox One. Ubisoft has supposedly been developing the game for about two years. From the gameplay video it can be see that by moving around the players can make the in-game characters move back, use their surroundings, kick, punch, grab, i.e. do pretty much everything you can do in other fighters.

The fact that you will be playing with a friend right next to you who can see your movements and predict what you can do is a pretty intriguing concept which might lead to some tense, competitive action. Although I haven’t ever seen a Kinect game I like, this is the Kinect 2.0 we are talking about. Hopefully with its better sensing capabilities and with enough effort from Ubisoft, this game could become one of the first Kinect fighting games that will be used as a bench mark for future Kinect games.

Gameplay video - http://youtu.be/xYctLfM7ufA

During the appearance of Killer Instinct at the EVO fighting game championship this year, developer Double Helix showed off the return of the popular character, Glacius. This character, geared towards long-ranged attacks and spatial control, will join the likes of Cinder, Fulgore, Orchid, Jago and Sabrewulf in this remake of the classic combo-oriented fighting game, exclusively for the Xbox One. Not only that, at the end of a trailer showing off the new character’s various moves, there’s a not-so subtle hint that Chief Thunder - another popular character from the classic game - will make an appearance as well.

Still, all is not well for the developing studio, as fans booed during the showcase. This is attributed not on faulty game design, but more on its exclusivity, as well as its model; the game will only be available on the Xbox One, and to make matters worse, it will be available on a free-to-play basis. This might seem like a good deal, until you realize that only one character will be available upon download. The rest of the roster will be available to gamers... at a price.

Regardless of the controversy surrounding its release, the gameplay itself looks set to satisfy both long-time fan of the Killer Instinct game as well as the fighting game fans at large. With a positively insane combo system, and a graphical horse power to match, this remake is one next-gen title to watch out for.