The Xbox One keeps on leaving stores as soon as it comes in.
Yusuf Mehdi, who has an extremely long and I am sure very important title with Xbox has announced that the next-generation console has hit the 3 million mark in sales at the end of 2013. The console released on November 22nd and had reached 2 million sold by December 11th.
Sony also announced sales of 2 million Playstation 4’s around the same time in December but have not updated the numbers since then.
Also, in case you were wondering, Mehdi’s title is Corporate VP of Marketing, Strategy, and Business for Xbox or the CVMSBX. Told you it sounded important.
If you watched the VGX’s this past Saturday I am sorry. You really should have just skipped it and watched all of the trailers after the “awards” show was over. I luckily did this and avoided what was, by all accounts, the worst thing to happen to video games since E.T. on Atari 2600.
It is weird that among all the new games shown that an already released game will be my first buy of the new year. Square confirmed that they are releasing this past spring’s amazing Tomb Raider on Xbox One and PS4. Titled Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition the game will include all of the DLC and the game’s graphics have been given a boost for the next generation systems. The most noticeable is that Laura’s appearance has been redone so that she more resembles her voice actress Camilla Luddington (giggity).
Tomb Raider was one of my favorite games of 2013 and will certainly appear on my “best of” list in a few weeks. I am normally not for double dipping but I will take the time to play through it again even if it is only a bit prettier.
If you have read one Ryse review you have read them all. The game has been the butt of many jokes since its debut at E3 this year as a showcase title for the Xbox One, most involving the use of quick-time events which made many people give up on the game months before the product was on the shelf. To those who refuse to even give the game a chance you are missing out on some beautiful graphics, Batman-style combat and blood, blood, blood. The story borders on vapid but I can not deny that I had a lot of fun with Ryse.
The story of Ryse focuses on Marius Titus, a soldier of Rome who sees his family murdered before him and is set off on a tale of revenge that is told through flashback as he explains his journey to Nero himself as Rome falls around them. Revenge stories, especially in this genre, are nothing new and any expectations of story depth like Mass Effect or The Last of Us should be hastily abandoned. You see the betrayals coming, the comrades falling and the sacrifice that will be made early on because it is Writing 101.
The shallowness of the story is taking nothing away from the performances of the actors, who are all solid in their roles. These were more than just simple voiceovers in Ryse with the actors facial expressions all motion captured and will amaze in places with the power of the Xbox One.
Graphically, Ryse: Son of Rome is a game that you pop in to show friends just what next-gen holds in the future. It is beyond beautiful. Even the most cynical of PC gamers will have to admit that it is a wonder to behold in places. Weapons gleam in the midst of combat and backdrops ranging from the glory of Rome to forests filled with rivers and waterfalls will have you stopping to pan the camera around to take in how lavish your surroundings are. I am tempted to play through the game again to see if there was some details that I missed.
The biggest reason I had an enjoyable time playing Ryse was its combat. There is no denying it was influenced by the Batman: Arkham series. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Ryse is showering Batman with roses. You attack with X and use your shield with the A and Y buttons. A is use to deflect attack (ala Arkham’s counter style) and Y is a shield bash you use to open up shielded enemies attacks. B is use for a barrel roll that you will be using. A lot. Pressing RB will make Marius use his focus mode which turns the screen yellow and allows him to go slash happy on any enemy in your path. It is helpful in crowds of enemies but is kind of a get out of jail free card when things get tough.
The combat flows seamlessly and helps with the games combo system that you use to gain back health, XP and focus while you are putting your enemies to the sword. At any time, in and out of fighting, you can hit a direction on the d-pad which distributes the points gained from combos to the three previously mentioned categories. The upgrade system has a lot of options but it is not as deep as it would appear to be. Once you unlock the games varied executions there is little else besides health, focus and damage upgrades which are spread across too many screens.
The infamous quick time events that many complained about are still in the game they have just been slightly reworked since the E3 presentation. During battle when you weaken an enemy an icon will appear over their head. You can choose to initiate the execution or continue your normal attacks until he dies. Hitting RT begins the different kill animations and instead of a button prompt over the head, the enemy will glow either blue or yellow telling whether you should hit X or Y. Here is the weird catch. It doesn’t matter if you hit the buttons or not, once you begin the execution it is going to happen. Hitting the correct button prompts adds to your combo and health/focus/XP gain. Most will find this asinine but I never let it bother me especially when it would give me extra hits on a long combo streak I had going.
Ryse does offer a different take on multiplayer. You and another person will be matched and team up to take on the dangers of the Coliseum. You won’t be stuck in an open arena rather an ever changing environment. Each stage changes to freshen up the proceedings including forests and multi-tiered areas. There is a meter at the top of the screen showing how entertained the audience is in your performance. You must execute often and use your environment to maim to keep the crowd cheering. You will be awarded gold for stage victories that you can use to purchase upgrades to weapons, armor and all the other good stuff a growing gladiator needs. I only played a few rounds and pretty much saw most of what there was to see and did not feel the need to keep going. After finishing the story it just felt like a grind when I had more games to play. Some may find it worthwhile but it was nothing special to me even though it retained the same fun combat.
The complaints about Ryse are understandable depending on what you were expecting. I went in wanting a hack and slash adventure that didn’t overstay its welcome. A fun time waster that showed off what the Xbox One could do visually. That is exactly what I got. The story only took me about seven hours to complete which was just the right amount of time. Combat is fun an fluid and even though it is repetitive I never wanted to stop cutting off limbs or bashing faces with my shield. The story is on the weak side but you should really just channel your inner testosterone and enjoy the mayhem. The best way I can describe Ryse is that it is beautiful Roman murder porn.
I’ve had my first full week with Microsoft’s entry into this “Next-Gen” fracas, and I thought it worthwhile to follow Scott’s example and give you fine folks and idea of what to expect if you’re picking an Xbox One up this holiday season.
Hardware
The Xbox One is a BIG system. It’s larger and heavier than the 360; you could closely compare it to the original Xbox and not be far off. The surfaces are sleek, but I don’t know if I would call the system “visually appealing.” There is a VERY large vent on the top of the console, and Microsoft has already been very clear that the system is not designed to stand upright. There isn’t a disc tray, but a slot that you feed games and movies into, much like the PlayStation 3.
The console still requires a large “power brick,” which facilitates additional cooling and acts as an extra surge-protector. Anyone who has a 360 is familiar with this setup, and will need to find a place for the brick where there’s plenty of air-flow. In my case, I found that the cord that runs from the socket into the power brick doesn’t stay seated very well, and it repeatedly came disconnected as I tried to arrange everything.
Photo courtesy mp1st.com
The Kinect 2.0 is also larger than its predecessor, but is also more stable, and I don’t think I’ll need a mount like I did last time. The front of the Kinect contains multiple sensors in addition to the camera, and the packaging makes it clear that you should NOT place your hands on that service. The USB connection has been changed to a proprietary plug, and this has removed the need for a separate Kinect power cord.
The controller feels very familiar for anyone who has been an Xbox / 360 gamer, though there are a few minor tweaks to the buttons and triggers. The battery section no longer bulges out, and wired play can be achieved via a standard micro-USB cable, but I was disappointed to find that on is not included. The headset now has a more secure connection, and the Mute / Volume buttons are now on the connection port instead of the wire. My friends and I have found that the mic sounds oddly hollow, but it picks up speech well.
Photo courtesy theverge.com
The biggest addition in terms of input / output is an HDMI in which is designed with the TV app in mind. Assuming you have a compatible cable box with HDMI output, you can run it directly into the Xbox One, and then run the One into your television. The One includes a moderate-quality HDMI cable, so if you’re already using HDMI for your cable box, you won’t have to purchase an additional cord.
I’d estimate my physical set-up time at around twenty minutes, all told.
Interface
When you first boot the system up, it has to be connected to the internet and download a rather hefty update; Microsoft has already admitted that the system is non-functional without these files. You’re then prompted to sign in to Live, or create a Live profile, at either the Silver or Gold level.
On a quick side note, I have yet to discover a way to create a profile that is not Live enabled; the very first thing it asks for when you go to create a new profile is an e-mail address. I found this frustrating, as it eliminates the ease of having profiles for friends or family who only occasionally use the system.
Once you are signed in, the Kinect camera will ask you to identify yourself. The Kinect 2.0’s camera is wide-angle, and picks up people more readily than the original, with fewer requirements for area and lighting. From that point forward, the idea is that the Kinect will recognize and sign-in anyone it has information for; so far, it has recognized me every time, and can pick me out with other people around.
The system then has you do a sound-levels check for use of the voice commands; considering how heavily Microsoft has pushed this feature, I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised, though, when my initial levels – already set higher than I usually use – were deemed “too quiet” for an accurate test. I cranked it up to 11, so to speak, and the system played a brief series of notes. So far, the levels seem to be set correctly, as the device easily recognizes my voice even while watching and playing.
The biggest drawback to the voice commands is that the system likes to replace menu choices / file names / app titles with “Item 1,” etc. I understand that this simplifies what commands the Kinect has to recognize, but the end result is that I often cannot tell what “Item 4” corresponds to, forcing me to abandon the voice commands. There is also a forced delay between certain commands; for instance, I can’t just say “Xbox, fast-forward,” but have to say “Xbox, pause” and then wait for the fast-forward and rewind prompts to appear.
Interestingly enough, my biggest complaint about the new Kinect is the motion controls – at least in the menus – which are the entire reason the sensor was created. I have to consciously reach forward to get it to recognize my hands, except for random times it decides me taking a drink is reason enough to rewind a movie, or skip tracks on an album. I haven’t found a way to disable motion controls while leaving voice commands, but I would happily implement such options.
The One’s dashboard isn’t too different from that of the 360, though it is currently rather sparse, all things considered. The only “pages” you can select are Home in the center, Pins to the left, and Store to the right. Home shows your profile, current app, and recent activity; Pins is all apps you have asked the system to put there under your profile; Store takes you to the entire Marketplace, with games, apps, video, music, et al kind of jammed in there. That image at the top of this section – which shows the interface as it’s been advertised – is essentially a big lie. This image below is an accurate portrayal.
I have found it somewhat complicated to navigate the various menu, options, settings, etc. A lot of things are now accessed by using the buttons that replaced “Start” and “Back,” but the console doesn’t give you any real indication of that. Once you do get deep enough into the nested menus, you may find some of the options a bit lacking. For instance, there is now no breakdown of how your memory is being used, or how much life your controller’s battery has left, or what the exact A/V settings being used are.
Xbox Live
As previously stated, all profiles are now expected to be Live profiles, which is probably because you can’t do jack shit without being signed in. Apps, pins, and even some of the more basic settings are tied to whatever profile is currently active. The system tries to make up for this with the Kinect recognition software, which I’ve admittedly not had issue with, though I have to use a controller still. This is because I’ve once again opted to have the console require a series of button presses – six this time, as opposed to four on the 360 – before my profile can be signed in on any console.
I was anticipating a portion of setup time dedicated to signing back into Netflix, Hulu Plus, Skype, and the like, but my One automatically pulled up my user info for the first two. I assume it had that info from the 360 version of the accounts, since my e-mail on those is different from my Live ID; with Skype, it asked me if I wanted to use my Live ID’s address, then prompted for the password, which I had forgotten. I then clicked the “Forgot Password” link, and was taken into the Internet Explorer app to reset it. All-in-all, it was a relatively painless process.
Of course, no matter what Microsoft says, the main focus of Xbox Live is connecting with friends to chat and play games. To that end, the Xbox One kind of sucks, and sucks a good deal more than its predecessor. The Profile/ Friends app on the Home screen takes you to your “News Feed” and “Favorites,” the second of which allows you to see if select friends are online. Because otherwise, you still have to click another tab labeled “Friends” to see who is actually online. See the issue here?
Even better, though, was when I saw that a friend in my favorites was online playing Dead Rising 3, so I shot him a party invite. By that, I mean I opened up the Friends tab, then his profile, the selected the invite option. Because having “Invite to Party” assigned to a single button for the past five years was apparently too difficult to emulate.
It turned out to be useless, since the One does a terrible job of letting you know that you have a party invite, and an even worse job of tracking it down to accept it. Then once you’re in a party, you actually have to stop what you’re doing, and go through nested menus to tell the system to put you in party chat. That’s right, party chat is not the default, and must be manually enabled, even if you’re the player who started the party.
The best part? After waiting a few minutes and figuring he just hadn’t gotten the notification, I called him to see if he wanted to play. He didn’t, mainly because he had been asleep for two hours, with his console powered down. You see, it turns out that your favorites section isn’t exactly up-to-the-minute about who is and isn’t online. In fact, the only way to currently be 100% sure of who is and isn’t online is to select the second “Friends” tab and let it think for a second before it gives you an answer. I’m not kidding; the other day, the Home page said I had seven friends online, and so did the Profile / Friends app when I opened it; when I opened the second tab, though, I watched as over the course of about thirty seconds it realized there were only two friends present.
As far as playing games online, we have found both Dead Rising 3 and Need for Speed: Rivals to have exceptional online play, hidden beneath several layers of absolutely awful interface. The biggest issue on hand is a doozy if you’re a long-time Live user: Currently, there is no way to send or receive invites outside of a game. This means you have to rely upon the games’ internal systems, and neither title mentioned is exceptional in this regard.
In Rivals, we found a way for one person to host and another to join, but no way for the host to invite the other players directly. Dead Rising, meanwhile, will only let you send invites if you are in a party; this invite is the automatically accepted, regardless of what the second player might be doing in their game, although it now seems that they have to be waiting in the main menu for it to work.
I will say that these issues only arise when trying to play with a specific friend (DR3) or group of friends (NFS), while general matchmaking seems to work better. Need for Speed simply drops you into an open server with up to five other active players if you want, and the game experience is identical, just with more people. Dead Rising asks you what kind of play-style you’re looking for, and then either lets you host or join accordingly.
Software
First things first: Dead Rising 3 and Need for Speed: Rivals are fun, if you like Dead Rising and Need for Speed games. I was always frustrated by the first DR, and never even played the second one, but positive reviews – some of which mentioned vast improvements over the previous titles – and the promise of co-op paired lured me in. It still has some flaws, and retains a few nuances that might put some people off, but it lets me duct-tape a car battery to a sledgehammer and hit zombies with it. Need for Speed involves driving cars very, very fast; the cars aren’t as pretty as in Forza 5, but one of the “pursuit tech” upgrades lets your car send out a 360◦ shockwave.
If you don’t like these things, you may want to try some of the other titles on hand. I hear Assassin’s Creed IV is “hot shit” on “next-gen,” but I won’t know for a few months yet. Ryse: Son of Rome has been described as visually-perfect “Roman Murder Porn,” so there’s that. I was exceptionally excited for both LocoCycle and Crimson Dragon, but in the face of poor reviews, $20 price tags, and the noticeable lack of trial versions, I opted for NFS instead. Killer Instinct is there, too, and if I still lived with the people required to enjoy fighting games, I might have been swayed by it. All current titles are available for download, albeit at full retail price, and provided you don’t mind installing them.
Of course, even disc-based titles have to install before you play them, though you can start playing to varying degrees of success once they’ve reached a certain point; any available updates are also automatically downloaded when you put the disc in, without signing you out of Live anymore. As mentioned before, the system doesn’t really tell you how memory is being allocated, and so I can’t report on exactly how much space is needed for each install. Suffice to say that the installs were not exactly quick affairs, even by the standards I expect after manually installing games onto the 360.
The final thing I’ll note about games on the One is that the system seems almost designed for digital content, and I think anyone who has spent some time with it will agree. For instance, recently played games appear on the Home menu, inviting you to launch them at will. If you’ve got the disc versions, however, you’ll then of course be prompted to insert the disc; this system was clearly designed with the intention of letting you dive right in without this pause.
Between this snag and the games having to install before they can be played, I can’t help but wonder why I even bothered getting physical copies. If I had gone a different route, I could effortlessly move between the titles I own, on any system I signed in on, without ever needing a disc. The only thing physical copies currently have going for them is that I can lend / borrow a disc at will, which is important for things like Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, and Thief.
On the non-gaming side of things, I’ve already mentioned Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Skype; they do exactly what you would expect them to, though the ability to “snap” a Skype session into the frame – something they are freely showing in their ads – is still conspicuously absent from the product. With those apps taken into account, all that’s really left is TV and SkyDrive.
I decided to run my cable box through my One, and so far that has been a decision I will probably never regret. The console runs a series of tests to make sure that the signal is being received clearly, then helps you configure “One Guide,” which is supposed to link your provider info with your system so that everything can play nice. In my case, the One Guide couldn’t figure out my correct location for listings, so I still use my cable box remote to navigate, but the experience is still fluid and worthwhile. I have no doubt that the future holds many a television broadcast during which a Live party is enabled for our enjoyment.
I’ve saved SkyDrive for last for two reasons: I have used my One for it more than anything else so far, and it best embodies Microsoft’s talk of “cloud integration” and “multimedia function.” At its core, SkyDrive is just another cloud-storage system, and maybe not even the best on out there. For me, however, it has meant that a number of files – 7.0 gigs, to be precise – from my PC are instantly accessible from my One. I’ve tested it successfully with AVI, MPEG, and MP4 for video, though MKV is unfortunately not supported. As of this writing, I have watched several hours of American television, several more hours of anime, and the RiffTrax for Star Wars: Episode I using the app, and have yet to experience anything but the slightest lag while streaming.
Verdict
I picked up an Xbox One launch day thanks to Amazon’s ability to get more in stock and my family’s generosity at the holidays; before that, I had one pre-ordered, and certainly expected to get it within the New Year window, but it wasn’t a pressing issue. I knew there would be games within the next year that I wanted to play, knew my core gaming group would be getting the One, and knew Christmas was my best shot at getting help buying one until my birthday.
I bought Dead Rising 3 and Need for Speed: Rivals because, out of the launch titles available, they were the ones that interested me the most. If there were no new console this year, and they had been 360 titles, I wouldn’t have paid more than $30 for either of them during a holiday sale. That’s not an indictment of the games, but rather the reality of the situation when it comes to being an early adopter; I knew going in that I was buying potential enjoyment at a premium.
During the weeks leading up to launch, I put upwards of 50 hours into Fallout 3 on my PC, and I’ve also recently put over 20 into Saints Row IV on the 360. I even said at one point that I “wasn’t sure” why I was getting it so early. As soon as Amazon confirmed me for Day One, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement; while that has abated a fraction, I’m still very happy with the product Microsoft delivered. Over the next year, my One will become my primary mainstream gaming and multimedia device, because that’s what I expect it to be; the PlayStation 4 I eventually purchase will see a significant spike in play whenever an exclusive comes out for it, in that I’ll actually be playing it; and my PC will continue to operate at a level far beyond what either console can dream of, while simultaneously lacking the player base to win me away permanently.
A Wii U that I willingly purchase at full price will continue to be the only thing quantum physicists can agree does not exist, has never existed, and will never exist, in all realities across all time and space.
So you now have your Xbox One plugged up and have been enjoying it all weekend. Have you been like me and just shouting random things at it to see what exactly it will do? I have the basics down but I need a list of what I can say to get the most out of my next-gen experience.
We are here to help. Below you will find the list of all voice commands for the Kinect to get you up and gaming to the maximum efficiency.
Now I can stop yelling “Xbox, dust yourself.” or “Xbox, what is the meaning of life?”.
Xbox on
Wakes up system, turns on TV and set-top box
Xbox turn off
Powers off Xbox, optionally powers off TV or set top box
Xbox
Shows master voice command options
Xbox select
Shows contextual voice command options
Stop listening
Cancels voice command mode
Xbox help
Help menu
Xbox use a code
Kinect scan for Qr codes
Xbox show notification
Show notifications
Xbox sign in
Sign in to XBL
Xbox sign out
Sign out of XBL
Xbox sign in as
Sign in a user by name
Xbox sign out as
Sign out a user by name
Xbox record that
Records previous 30 seconds of game footage
Xbox start a party
Starts party application
Xbox volume up
Increases volume
Xbox volume down
Decreases volume
Xbox mute
Activates mute
Xbox unmute
Deactivates mute
Xbox go home
Opens Home
Xbox show my stuff
Opens home
Xbox go to _______
Launches games or applications by name
Xbox show menu
Opens contextual menu
Xbox go back
Go back to previous screen or cycle back a menu option
The most talked about Xbox One title has had the wraps taken off of it. Ryse: Son of Rome has been talked about -mostly negatively- since its announcement at E3 this year. Can the reviews make believers out of the naysayers? Let’s just say there is rough sailing ahead.
“What’s there isn’t at all bad, it just feels like a foundation for something far greater and more nuanced that never comes. Enemy variety does a bit of work to liven things up. Some foes are unblockable, some charge you, and some assault you with a flurry of dual-sword attacks. Dealing with them requires you to care about your blocks, attacks, and movements, which is fun until you figure out their repetitive patterns.”
“From start to finish, Ryse is a constant joy to look at and ticks all the boxes in order to sell its tech: lush forests, awesome vistas, ancient Roman architecture. There’s not a single moment its engine and direction doesn’t impress in some fashion.”
“What initially seems like an impressive system based on precision and timing, largely thanks to some nice visual cues and elegant slow-motion animations, quickly becomes an exercise in mind-numbing tedium–and with just a sword and a shield attack on offer, it’s hardly surprising. Sure, there are blocks, dodges, and counters to help things along, but when you’re faced with opponents whose repetitive moves you’ll have seen in their entirety after the first hour of the game, it’s not long before you’ve experienced everything the combat system has to offer and figured out a sequence to repeat ad nauseam.”
“Some games show off graphics just to, well, show off. Rarely can you point to great graphics and say that they improve the gameplay, but in Ryse, they do. They help distinguish Ryse from being just another brawler. They excuse, to some extent, the game’s constricting linearity and invisible walls. They aid Ryse’s gameplay by supporting a melee combat system that works best if you, the player, visually “reads” your character’s movements.”
“But other than the lackluster campaign, there is one shining light of gameplay in Ryse — the two player co-op arena mode — which took me completely by surprise. This portion of the game is much more interesting due to the fact that it takes a page from many online shooters, adding in different objectives like “hold the point” or “assassinate specific targets” in addition to your typical “kill all these dudes” missions.”
“When I show my friends what Xbox One is capable of graphically, I’m going to pop in Ryse. The visuals are breathtaking, but the gameplay flips on a dime between being legitimately fun and downright bad. There is no middle ground. It’s very much the extreme of both.”
It seems like ever review is reading the exact same and since the scores go between 4 and 7 it looks like as long as you know what you are getting into you could have some fun. It all depends on if you like what Ryse is offering.
This week is the beginning of the next-gen console war where fanboys on both sides build up their system as the best out there while they play games that are available on both consoles. Five years from now Microsoft and Sony will each hold 48% of the market. Is it really a war if there is no winner?
The Xbox One is out this week and with it a host of launch games as well as some exclusives like Dead Rising 3 and Ryse: Son of Rome.
Zombies all around you what are you going to do? Frank West is nowhere to be found so you won’t be taking pictures but new protagonist Nick Ramos is here to build all types of mechanical monstrosities to get through the apocalypse.
Dead Rising 3 is the Xbox One launch title that is getting the most hype so let’s take a look at how the early review are shaking down for the third trip to zombieland.
“Dead Rising 3 doesn’t get by on its looks, but its meaty zombie-slaying combat and nearly endless supply of undead and ridiculous weapons go a long way. Through its lengthy campaign, I was always eager to see what crazy zombie-squishing contraption would come along next. It rarely disappointed, except when navigating its snarled map and waiting out its load times took me out of the fight took too long.”
“Dead Rising 3 makes it very easy to do awesome things—dress up like James Bond and ramp a motorcycle into a crowd of zombies, or loot the local police station for gear and ammo before unleashing hell on a gang of bikers. It made me grin so often that the crass and unfun bits stick out all the more. The game is so good at letting me make my own fun that I’m surprised it can be so lousy at making its own.”
“Capcom Vancouver’s latest entry in the Dead Rising saga is an impressive display of big, dumb fun, and a must-play for fans of the series. It’s also a great demonstration of the outstanding capabilities of next-gen hardware right out of the gate. Thinning out the undead of Los Perdidos is worth your time, but the bugs infesting the sandbox are an unwelcome scourge.”
“It’s as fundamentally silly as it was before, with most of the game’s systems having been designed for the sole purpose of Dicking Around™. The new combo mechanic enables players to create some outlandish weapons (oversize teddy bear + assault rifle = automated sentry gun) which are as much fun to use as they must have been to come up with. These items need to be crafted by first obtaining blueprints dotted around the city. They make for a great incentive to explore, and their sheer absurdity turns Los Perdidos (a stylised reimagining of LA) into a playground of death. You’ll be laughing for about 90% of the time you’re playing.”
“Playing Dead Rising 3 can be a schizophrenic experience — I was angry at the game whenever it required precision from me — precision that the controls just wouldn’t support. But I was thoroughly enjoying myself whenever it let me run amok and get creative with weapons and vehicles. It’s a game with great ideas and intermittently poor execution.”
“But make no mistake — just because Dead Rising 3 is less out there doesn’t mean the core humor isn’t present — because it totally is. There’s still tons of crazy characters to meet, and the new Psychos (modeled after the seven deadly sins) are as colorful as ever, including Sloth, who is literally too lazy to get out of his chair to fight. The cast is a bit more well rounded this time around, as there’s a good mix of walking campy caricatures, and actual characters.”
Even though the title of this sounds like I will be making fun of the Xbox One Snap feature I will, in fact, be praising Microsoft for it. It is another example of how they are truly trying to make the Xbox One the focal point of your entertainment.
Watch Yusuf Mehdi show off as he plays Forza and checks his friend feed, searches the internet and even watches TV while playing the game. It is a good feature for the console and another step in the right direction for the Xbox One.
When you pick up your Xbox One on November 22nd it will come with a 500 GB hard drive (why it is not 1TB I don’t know) and now you can see how much storage will be required for all the games at launch. Some will be small (Killer Instinct) and some will be ummm not small (NBA 2K14).
