Tag: Xbox One

Nerd Rating’s 2015 Gaming Predictions

Scott

1. Starfox and Zelda Wii U will release in 2015.

Nintendo has said that Starfox will be playable at E3 and set for release this year. Zelda is also supposed to release this year, but I think many doubt Nintendo can make good on that. I think they know what situation the Wii U is in and is making 2015 the make or break year for the console. If Starfox and Zelda can not breathe some life into it, then the Wii U is a lost cause.

2. Resident Evil 7 will be announced. Will drop all unnecessary bullshit and be like Resident Evil.

Resident Evil 6 was the best selling of the franchise (no, you stop buying that!) and yet, I think Resident Evil 7 will go back to its roots and try to recapture the feel of the original. Maybe set in a mansion or large facility. Prediction or just one guy’s wild fantasy?

3. Xbox One will drop to $349 for good at E3.

Microsoft won the holiday season by dropping Xbox One to $349 along with some great bundles. The promotion ended on January 3rd and is now back to $399. While having more holiday sales is great, they still are playing catch up with the PS4. Early year sales should reflect the need to keep the price drop in effect. E3 will be a big stage to announce the new price.

4. Batman: Arkham Knight will lead into Rocksteady’s next unannounced game featuring the Justice League.

I know that the Batman: Arkham Knight collector’s edition statue may have spoiled the end of the game, but this is something I have thought would happen for a while now. Rocksteady said they were ending their Batman story with Arkham Knight, they didn’t say anything about what story they were starting

5. Rockstar will announce their next big release. Will be either Red Dead or Bully sequel.

Please be Red Dead. Please be Red Dead. Please be Red Dead. I will give you what you want. Please!

Trey

1. Nintendo

This is the pivotal year for the house that Miyamoto built as far as the home console market is concerned. I love Zelda and Star Fox as much as the next guy, but those two titles are not going to suddenly move millions of systems. I’m not counting them out yet, but if Wii U sales continue to lag and they continue to lose third-party support, I don’t know what can save them.

2. Multiplayer

Whether you loved Destiny or hated it, the fact remains that it did not permanently alter the gaming landscape as planned. In my opinion, it’s because you can’t plan game-changers like Counter-Strike, Halo, and Modern Warfare. We are due for such a game, though, and I think we will see it this year… it’s probably not Battlefield: Hardline, though. Sorry.

3. “Hardcore” Titles

The Souls series has taken a portion of the gaming world by storm in the past five years and spawned numerous poor copy-cats, along with a few genuinely good titles of the same ilk. Both Bloodborne and Deep Down are slated for release this year, but I think we’ll see a new IP in a different genre than action-fantasy that scratches the hardcore itch and gets the attention of the industry.

4. HD Remakes

Square Enix has already announced a PS4 re-release of their PS3 re-release of Final Fantasy X, which isn’t even a year old as I write this. Capcom is bringing DmC and Devil May Cry 4 to next-Gen, but not until after they bring us a new version of the GameCube version of the original PlayStation game Resident Evil. Considering I will buy all of those from Capcom, this trend is here to stay.

5. Game Journalism

Whether you feel the industry is obsolete, corrupt, out-of-touch, pretentious, or just boring, it all boils down to the same thing: The traditional methods of game reporting and reviewing are dying off, replaced by social media, “let’s play” video, and live-streaming. This year, keep an eye out for ridiculous activity from publishers and existing media outlets as they try to stave off the inevitable.

Erich

1. More HD remakes

I think the trend of HD remakes is far from over I expect a Mass Effect trilogy HD bundle, Dead Space trilogy HD, and Bioshock HD

2. An evening of the sales floor

I think that the Xbone and the PS4 will find an even sales number as the One picks up speed in China

3. Big Announcements

Red Dead Revolution, Fallout 4, Gears, (The Gears of War Sequel) Mass Effect 4, and a new Volition game will be announced this year

4. Delays

Kingdom Hearts, Last Guardian, Fable Legends, and Doom will all be delayed into at least 2016

5. The Wii U continues to lag

No matter what anyone says about Smash Bros. Or a new Zelda, I genuinely believe that this poor little console needs to be put out of its misery. Come on Wii 3 the search for Wii 2.

January 8, 2015
Xbox One Gets $50 Price Drop For The Holidays

Looks like Microsoft isn’t playing around this holiday season. They have announced that starting November 2nd the console would see a $50 price drop including the newest bundles that include Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Sunset Overdrive.

The Assassin’s Creed and Sunset Overdrive bundle will cost $349 while the Call of Duty bundle, with a 1TB hard drive, will be $449. The promotion goes until January 3, 2015.

If you have been waiting for the right opportunity to pick up an Xbox One, this may be it. With Playstation 4 having a big sales lead on Xbox it will be interesting to see if Sony follows or decides to stay the course.

October 27, 2014
Nerd Is As Nerd Does- Twitch TV

A while back Erich and I finally managed to get the Twitch.TV app for the Xbox One to work; the idea is that it allows players to broadcast their play sessions live, while other players can watch and participate via chat. I have openly mocked the idea of people who spend any significant amount of time watching live-streams of competitive gaming; I refuse to use the terms “eSports” because video gaming is not a fucking sport, and the players are not fucking athletes, and I could rage about that for days.

Last night, though, I did a broadcast of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes as Erich followed along, and the end result was actually fairly entertaining. Erich has tried to get into MGS before and been a little put off by the mechanics, but this one mixes things up enough that his interest has been renewed. We decided to try the broadcast feature out with me playing so he could see how a veteran MGS player gets things done.

The answer to that turned out to be “not half bad,” although toward the end I got too arrogant and got spotted because I was rushing along without any situational awareness. The biggest problem we encountered is that the stream isn’t actually “live;” there is a delay of at least a few minutes, which was further exacerbated by Twitch forcing Erich to watch random commercials in the middle of me playing, putting him even further behind. One commercial apparently involved skateboarding wookies, which angered me enough that I killed a guard without provocation in the middle of sneaking past him.

Both Microsoft and Sony made a big deal about live streaming when the new consoles were unveiled, and showed off as-yet-fictional features like picture-in-picture Skype chat while playing games, or one friend guiding another through a difficult section of a game by watching the live stream. Erich tried to guide me to a prisoner he had found but I had previously missed, but the lag meant that I had often passed by a turn I was supposed to take by the time he saw me getting to it.

I don’t know that I would ever broadcast just for the sake of broadcasting, like Todd has taken to doing; Todd has the kind of personality that lends itself to these things, though, and has been making gameplay videos for years. There’s the option to turn on the Kinect microphone and even the camera, so that viewers can watch and listen to your reactions, but that just doesn’t appeal to me. Since the broadcasts are public access, other viewers joined from time to time last night, and each time I couldn’t get over the feeling that my gameplay was being judged.

As it turns out, Twitch.TV is also available to stream from 360 and PC, and it seems like anyone logged in on one device should be able to watch games from another. That theoretically means I could broadcast something like Fallout 3 on PC while Erich and Tillman watch on the One, with all of us in a party so we can chat. Actually finding a broadcast and viewing it was a headache in and of itself, though, and adding in more people across different platforms might be more trouble than it is worth. All in all, I’d say that game streaming is a cool concept, but is still behind the curve of full functionality and accessibility.

June 30, 2014
Crackdown Is Coming To Xbox One

http://youtu.be/LqWvvmgFDt4

No long explanations, no in-depth analysis, no smarmy remarks.

It’s fu**ing Crackdown…on Xbox One.

This is all you need.

June 9, 2014
Scott’s E3 2014 Predictions

Last year’s E3 is but a distant memory. We now have shiny new consoles in front of us and now we are like an addict needing a hit. E3 is here to give us a fix, if only for a brief moment. Here are my predictions of what I think will happen as the unwashed masses descend on Los Angeles to play new games and bitch about how long we have to wait on them.

1. Unlike last year, Microsoft will win the press conference war.

Let’s not sugar-coat it, Microsoft got their ass handed to them last year. It was a beatdown of epic proportions. One that is still being seen today with the PS4 outselling the Xbox One by a good margin. Microsoft had an unpopular message (always online, Kinect must be plugged in, limits on lending games) and then to make matters worse they didn’t have their ducks in a row on the company’s message. One talking head would say one thing about always online then another would say something conflicting to that. It was as bad as bad could get. Then Sony shows up, announces the PS4 will play used games, not require an online connection AND be $100 cheaper. You could just see Sony with their arms wide open saying “we will take you in wounded gamer”.

This year will be different.

With no console announcements this year, Microsoft and Sony will have to focus on the games and just looking at games we know are in the pipeline, Microsoft has a lot more to offer than Sony. Microsoft will be showing off games like Halo 5, the unnamed Halo collection (Halo: The Master Chief Collection most say), Sunset Overdrive, Project Spark, Quantum Break, Fable Legends as well as rumored games Ryse: Son of Rome 2, Forza Horizon 2 and a possible early look at the next Gears of War.

That’s a damn lot of games.

Sony, on the other hand, has Drive Club, The Order: 1886 (which was just delayed to 2015) and…give me a sec.

Yes, Uncharted may be shown, but with all the problems at Naughty Dog over the past few months that is not a guarantee. What else could set our panties on fire? God of War? After the sales of God of War: Ascension is that really something that will help Sony? Guerrilla is working on a new IP that could cause some excitement.

See where I am going here? I am stretching to find Sony’s big moments. I hope they prove me wrong.

2. Super Smash Bros. Wii U will get a release date.

Expect a lot of gameplay shown and a heavy emphasis on the fighter since it will be Nintendo’s main selling point for the Wii U this fall.

3. We will see gameplay from both Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Assassin’s Creed: Comet.

And they will look nowhere near as fun as Assassin’s Creed IV.

4. A new Battlefield will be shown.

I cheated with this one. Battlefield: Hardline was already leaked. The part of this I am predicting is that it will be looked down on because of Battlefield 4’s complete lack of being able to work. Ever. The fact that Visceral, not DICE, is handling developing duties will not make gamers forget.

5. Sony will show off more of Project: Morpheus

Let’s hope it is more innovation than the next Move.

6. Zelda Wii U is shown in some way.

Whether it is pre-rendered video or gameplay, we will see a new Zelda. Don’t expect a release till late 2015 or 2016 though.

7. Same for Gears of War.

The new Gears of War will at most get a teaser trailer, but like Link, it won’t see release till 2016.

8. Microsoft will make Games with Gold mean something.

Playstation Plus is worth so much more than the $50 you pay. My PS3 and PS4 are loaded with so many games that I will never be able to finish them. Microsoft introduced Games with Gold last year and while they get a participation ribbon for trying, it has offered up paltry efforts compared to Plus.

This year should change things now that free games will be coming to the Xbox One. Rumors are that Ryse: Son of Rome (which I liked) will be one of the free offerings. With Microsoft making an effort to bring newer games to the 360, Games with Gold should take a step in the right direction.

That’s all I got so far. Give us some of your predictions for this year’s E3. I will be back after the show to see how my list did. I am going to say I get 5 out of 8.

Games!

May 29, 2014
This One Time, On The Internet- March 7, 2013

Here are the quick hits from the world of movies, TV, games, drink machines, Cobra Kai, whatever catches our fancy.

Movies

The Jungle Book

Idris Elba has been cast as the voice of Shere Khan in Disney’s CGI/live-action version of The Jungle Book. In related news, I will now being seeing the shit out of The Jungle Book. It releases on October 9, 2015.

Matthew McConaughey

A video showing how to make healthy lunches on a budget for the Oscar winners’ just keep livin’ Foundation. Guy Fieri has to be holding back the need to yell “WHAMMY BOOM BAMMY” or see if he can deep fry celery.

TV

Archer

FX has renewed Archer for two more seasons. 26 more episodes of sex, cocaine, Danger Zone, other Barry, LLLAAANNNNAA and Pam. Sploosh.

The Walking Dead

Here is a homemade Michonne figure made out of a Barbie doll. This should be a real thing. I will let you check my man card at the door as I go and buy one.

Games

Infamous: Second Son

Watch the new live-action trailer for the PS4 exclusive here. It releases on March 21st.

http://youtu.be/jHzh96ehv4A

Tomb Raider

The game turns one year old this week and it should pass 6 million units sold by the end of the month. Tell Square and their insane sales expectations to go fuck themselves.

Xbox One

Twitch streaming will be coming to the Xbox One next week. Major Nelson shows you how use it.

March 7, 2014
The First Xbox One Custom Controller Goes To Titanfall

Are you already tired of your two month old Xbox One controller and need a change? Microsoft knows what ails you. Take a look at the custom controller for Titanfall that will release this March. It will only set you back $64.99 or roughly 1/4 the price of the [amazon_link id=”B00G2HSX86″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Titanfall Ultra Mega Huge Look At This Bastard Collector’s Edition[/amazon_link].

Of course you could just tell people it is some kind of rare Mass Effect 2 or Deus Ex controller for Xbox One. As long as it is a game that has an over-dependence on orange colors and is futuristic it will work.

January 15, 2014
How Definitive Is The Tomb Raider Re-Release? Let’s Take A Look

Photo courtesy pushsquare.com

In a few weeks Square will be re-releasing last year’s Tomb Raider for the Playstation 4 and Xbox One as Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. The team at Crystal Dynamics have reworked their engine to harness the power of the next-gen consoles to give one of last year’s best games a makeover including changing the way Lara looks altogether.

The fine folks at IGN have posted a video that compares the PS3 and PS4 versions while executive producer Scot Amos explains all the fancy stuff they have done to the game.

I am actually getting this version of the game even though I played through the Xbox 360 version twice last year. Don’t ask me why. I normally hate double dips but I had a blast playing the game and will gladly go through it again for the Xbox One achievements. It is also a great chance for people who did not play it last year to pick it up on their shiny new consoles if they want.

To all the people bitching about the re-release; you don’t have to buy it. No one is making you. Calm down.

January 14, 2014
Guy Changes Xbox Gamertag To “Xbox Sign Out”, Hilarity Ensues

This gamer (or genius in my book) changed his gamertag to “Xbox Sign Out” and went online with the underage masses in Call of Duty: Ghosts on Xbox One. What follows is some of the most brilliantly funny gaming ever.

Here is to you, sir. You have my respect.

January 9, 2014
Titanfall’s Max Player Count Is Six Vs. Six. Everybody Calm Down

Vince Zampella from Respawn Entertainment, developer of Titanfall, revealed on Twitter that the maximum players on a map will be twelve consisting of two teams of six. He stated that that number of players felt right with the A.I. bots that will also be occupying the maps.

As with everything, the internet has become foaming at the mouth with complaints about it being too small, which I am certain is something these people hear a lot.

I would actually prefer a smaller player count especially since there will already be A.I. controlled characters and titans to deal with. You do not need 128 people on a map to have fun in multiplayer. Let’s not forget, this is the same Titanfall that has done nothing but amaze everyone who have played it the past nine months. Smaller player counts has not changed that.

Titanfall releases on March 11th.

January 8, 2014