Yeah, so MS revealed the system with a 1-hour conference yesterday. And yes, I watched it, even though I wasn't expecting it to be all that great. MS's last few E3 conferences have been mediocre at best, after all.
And, well, my worst expectations were upheld. At the conference they showed very few games, and spent most of the hour on the numerous TV functions of the thing (watch TV and switch to a game with voice command in the of-course-mandatory Kinect 2! Respond to live TV, just like Nintendo and Sony are also doing this gen! Fantasy football on Xbox One! ESPN! Etc.). Yeah, it was pretty tedious.
As for games, the first actual games that were shown was an EA Sports trailer, with prerendered clips of Madden, FIFA, and such. Yeah. Awesome. Other than that, all they showed was no-actual-gameplay-just-in-engine-stuff-shown bits of Forza and the multiplatform COD: Ghosts. And that's pretty much it. Oh, and there's a Halo TV series upcoming.
They did not, of course, say at the conference anything about the always-online or anti-used-games elements, but outside of it, we've heard that the system will have to connect to MS servers at least once every 24 hours. So you can take it offline, but not for longer than a day if you plan on using the thing. That is quite draconian, obviously. The system also will have mandatory installs. Games don't play off of the discs, they play off of the HDD. That 500GB HDD it comes with by default is going to fill up VERY fast.
As for used games, MS claims that there will be some form of used-games support, but have refused to explain the details. We'll see, but I'm going to guess that either they won't have any after all, or there'll be some system where when you sell the disc to certain authorized retailers (who would be the only ones who could take them or something) they'll disable it from your console after you sell it, or something (remember, must call home every 24 hours!). Oh, and the person buying the used copy may or may not have to pay a fee to MS in order to switch over the license, if they allow used sales at all. We'll see, but it will definitely be the most locked-down console ever released. This is, obviously, very bad for consumers. Very, very bad. At least on the PC, even if used games are mostly dead, there are regular sales to get recent games for $5... I'd never expect that on consoles. Just full-price games which they lock to your system.
And as I said, the Kinect 2 is REQUIRED. Do not unplug it if you want to use the system. It's Microsoft's Big Brother in action! And yes, it works as the microphone for online games too -- there's no headset support, apparently. And as the camera costs quite a bit, the system's underpowered compared to PS4 -- the PS4's GPU is somewhere between 33% and 50% more powerful than the XO's. And for what, a camera that's moderately amusing for TV stuff and atrocious for games? I mean, I think the Wiimote is a good controller, but Kinect... no. Not for any serious game.
Oh, the Xbox One also has a poorly chosen name, too -- Xbox, Xbox One, there's no way people could confuse those, right? -- and is overly large, as well. It doesn't really look like a console, but like a set-top box.
But of course, given the focus of the presentation, that is almost certainly entirely intentional.
Finally, the event was held at MS HQ... and some press people (Adam Sessler, and others) have said that the frequent applause at the conference was not coming from the press section. So yeah, MS packed the back of the theater with employees and had them cheer, it seems. Otherwise it'd have been quite deservedly silent in there.
Overall though, the conference was well worth watching. It's interesting seeing this stuff live, even when it's as tediously boring and anti-consumer as this presentation was.
As for the controller, it's like a 360 controller but with a better-looking dpad and the Start and Back buttons were replaced with other things. I'm not entirely sure what they do, MS didn't explain at the conference.
Oh, and lastly... it might be HDMI-out only. Couldn't use it on my TV then, unless adapters work... my HDTV just has component (and composite, s-video, and rf).
It appears that, briefly, Silicon Knights were being held by much higher standards when Nintendo and Konami were involved in the creative process. After they went 3rd party, Dennis Dyack proceeded to run the company into the ground, with employees focused on appeasing odd whims instead of developing amazing games. Too Human was "okay", but their last game was the death of a company.
Rare's story is a bit different, being bought out from Nintendo (seemingly against Nintendo's wishes but they couldn't do anything about it as they couldn't match that amount at the time) but also having lost a number of their own developers to various startup groups. One did the well received Time Crisis series, but otherwise the splinter groups have all more or less floundered in obscurity.
It makes me wonder if Retro would do as well without Nintendo mentoring them. I recall them mentioning just how hands on Miyamoto was with Metroid Prime's design and also how with Donkey Kong Country Returns they were getting daily commentary on level design from Nintendo.
Retro are skilled, but I think it's time to acknowledge just how important Nintendo's input was in the design of their best games. To that end, I really don't want to see Retro go third party. I doubt they'd do as well afterwards.
Back to Silicon Knights though, I have no intention to fund their spinoff company's "spiritual successor" to Eternal Darkness. Dennis Dyack's ability to lead is under serious question, and I have seen no indication that key people behind the greatness of the first will be working on the new one. Also, it is becoming increasingly clear that Nintendo was heavily involved in the original game, so their absence also creates serious doubts in how well the game could do. Nintendo ought to buy the license from now defunct Silicon Knights and have Retro make the next game in the series. I trust them more than Dennis Dyack at this point. The fact we gave him so much credit when these whistle blowers are revealing just how little he contributed suggests he just HAD to have his name on everything.
So this screed is basically me saying, no Dennis, we aren't going to fund your game in advance. The Torment guys already proved themselves. The old Sierra employees already proved themselves. I'm not paying a cent until I see the finished product. Yes, that's a catch 22, but that's how it is.
First, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed is on sale today only for $7.50. Not sure if I'll get it or not, will it get even cheaper later one? I haven't played the first one yet, and that one's on sale too... http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AWRPEJI
Without spoiling anything, there is a huge red herring in this movie, and the intended "take away" from that is "we all create our own villians". The movie actually monologues what you were SUPPOSED to think in the ending. Unfortunately, terrible writing and direction prevent that premise from actually being realized in any meaningful way, leaving us just confused and angry. Pepper Pot has become amazing, and then they sort of take away her awesome in the last few seconds of the movie. Tony Stark is forced to show what we can cobble together without his suit, and that's awesome, and yet it still sucked. The person playing the Mandarin does an AMAZING job, yet the character itself is AWFUL. The big villian is as stereotyped as it gets. These are two separate statements. The movie's plotline feels like a Lethal Weapon movie, like it was ripped right out of the 90's. Only the acting manages to make it a bit better than the Green Lantern movie, but you can get all the joys of the actors in bite sized chunks from Youtube without having to sit through the rest.
My word, Stark even befriends a poor kid with parent abandonment issues, out of nowhere. The kid manages to act well, be written as interesting and funny instead of annoying, and you STILL hate the scenes with the kid in it because they have NO POINT and just drag the movie down.
How could a movie that SHOULD have everything going for it end up so horrible? It is like Marvel thought they had an easy ride after the Avengers. Hopefully the terrible reviews it is getting will teach them they still need to keep up the quality work if we're going to bother with Avengers 2 down the line.
A bill has been introduced that will specifically legalize circumventing any and all DRM so long as you are doing so for a legal purpose. The wording is explicit, and the intention behind it even more so in public statements that are easily usable in a court room to establish the bill's original intent for years to come. Also, this is ALL the bill does. Nothing more and nothing less. It even has bipartisan support.
...So why do I get the feeling the bill will stagnate and die anyway? Well, probably because the US Congress is required to pass the thing. We may see this transform from the "Consumer digital rights act" to the "Digital rights and gun protection act" to the "Act for the monification of banks and also maybe DRM rights act". Also, think of the children. This is just government sanctioned theft.
First let me state my position on gun control has shifted dramatically. I now favor Australia's approach to gun control, namely to control guns, as they proved it is effective. Digery doo.
However, technology may render ALL gun control laws impotent, forever. If people can freely "print" handguns, then gun control laws become toothless. Think about it. Copyright laws are powerless to stop piracy because anyone can do it, untraced, from inside their own homes. This is different than in the "before times" when you had to go outside to set up a bootleg "shop", which makes you instantly visible and shut down-able.
By the same token, I have recently become convinced that gun control laws in the CURRENT system ARE effective and SHOULD be implemented in America, but if 3D printing takes off, NO amount of law will EVER be able to prevent someone from just downloading the model and printing out their own handgun. You can make the model file illegal, and it won't matter at all, because it is the internet and it will still be available to everyone forever. You can make printing a home handgun illegal, and THAT won't matter, because there will be no purchase, no store, nothing but the inside of your own home, and thus NO way to EVER detect that someone has BROKEN the law, UNTIL they shoot someone, and at that point it's too late. Even that hasty law to require metal components so the gun is detectable is meaningless, as that hunk of metal can easily be omitted (and in fact will be cheaper and easier for users TO omit) and there would be NO way to tell that someone has done so, just as there would be NO possible way to detect that someone has printed a gun in the first place.
There is, however, a high note. These plastic guns currently still require real bullets, as plastic as of yet can't substitute for gunpowder or a projectile that can withstand the strain. If proposed laws are to keep their teeth in the face of this new tech threat, there are only two ways to do it. First, they could make 3D printing illegal except in monitored public spaces like a store. This would allow authorities to track WHAT is being printed, but sadly would drastically hinder the 3D printing revolution we previously thought so beneficial. The second method, which has been surprisingly absent from current proposals, is to put a much larger focus on restrictions to bullets. As prophet of our times Chris Rock has noted, guns don't kill people, it's just those dang bullets. Massive tax increase on bullet purchasing coupled with all the same proposed laws on gun sale tracking being applied to the AMMO as well would be a great step in slowing down this oncoming influx of fundamentally untraceable home made guns.
Not when my cat is around, at least! After spending the winter inside, she's going out again, and caught her first mouse of the year today.
Unfortunately, she brought it back in... alive. Yeah. That is NOT fun. I managed to trap it and bring it out, where she promptly picked up torturing the thing. But mice aren't exactly wanted here, not in town... I wouldn't want to just let it go. At least she was outside at that point, though I did have to close the door to keep her from bringing it back in. :p
So yeah, my cat may be over 16 years old now, but she's still a capable hunter! Three mice last year, several each year the few years before that, now one this year... they aren't in this house, but she manages to find them somewhere, obviously.
Nothing you can do about it, though, and mice aren't good to have around anyway. And she's such a cute blob of purring cuteness... :) (Silly thing eats every speck in sight as soon as she sees it, she's only not badly overweight (and alive) because we've always had to carefully measure out her food, every meal. The constant begging for meals does get old, but hey, at least she's good at reminding me that she's around. :p
Recently I read about Itoi commenting on Star Fox 64's dialog, saying it is written like a historical drama.
Thinking about it, EVERY SINGLE LINE uttered in that game is quotable gold. I believe one could go through a day of conversation just using quotes from that game.
This apparently works very well. With Windows 7, it was hard to set it but could be done in registry. Windows 8 made it even harder, so this tool is a boon.
Alongside that, MS is releasing a service pack down the line that will finally put the start menu back into the "desktop mode" of Windows 8. I was all for revising the "desktop" paradigm, but MS screwed up the design of the new Windows 8 interface. It is ideal for touch screens, but very poor for mice. Glad they are fixing this. It was the thing that kept me from upgrading to the new OS.
