Xbox One Message Board older than one year ago

It's Xbox 360 vs. Xbox One vs. PC, in this head-to-head graphics comparison.

22cans founder and Fable creator Peter Molyneux expects Microsoft will release Xbox One without Kinect eventually, because, as he puts it, the device "feels more and more like a joke."

In why-the-hell-not news, Johnny Gat of Saints Row fame is the newest combatant to join the ranks of Divekick: Addition Edition. The Steelport gangster first arrives in the two-button fighter's PS4 and Xbox One versions, before cruising "shortly after" onto PS3, Vita and Steam. There remains no word, dive or kick on a release date for PS4 and Xbox One.

Iron Galaxy released the Addition Update for those original platforms last week, bringing a swathe of tweaks to the existing roster along with various other features including blind selection for ranked matches and d-pad input for the menus (yep, really).

Finally, If you've got to get your Gat on ASAP, the good news is you can take him for a spin on the PAX East showfloor in Boston this weekend. [Image: Iron Galaxy]

In why-the-hell-not news, Johnny Gat of Saints Row fame is the newest combatant to join the ranks of Divekick: Addition Edition. The Steelport gangster first arrives in the two-button fighter's PS4 and Xbox One versions, before cruising "shortly after" onto PS3, Vita and Steam. There remains no word, dive or kick on a release date for PS4 and Xbox One.

Iron Galaxy released the Addition Update for those original platforms last week, bringing a swathe of tweaks to the existing roster along with various other features including blind selection for ranked matches and d-pad input for the menus (yep, really).

Finally, If you've got to get your Gat on ASAP, the good news is you can take him for a spin on the PAX East showfloor in Boston this weekend. [Image: Iron Galaxy]

Ubisoft's Watch Dogs has a season pass listed on GameStop's site for $20. According to the description, the season pass will save hacktivists 30 percent from buying each of the items a la carte. The season pass includes a "unique Single Player campaign" with a new playable character, along with more missions and weapons.

PC players can check out the recently announced specs here. The game will download and corrupt the status quo retail on May 27.

Bethesda's latest gameplay trailer for The Evil Within has bits that remind us a teeny bit of the isolated, cult-based horror classic The Wicker Man, albeit in a mental hospital with rivers of blood, chained up trolls, and dudes in aprons wielding huge hammers ... wait, is that a safe on his head?

Shinji Mikami's survival horror probably doesn't have much to do with The Wicker Man, but it's clear to see the influence from arguably his most revered work, Resident Evil 4. The game stars detective Sebastian Castellanos, who's sent along with other officers to check out a series of mysterious murders at the Beacon Mental Hospital. Sure enough, Seb's colleagues get massacred and our hero wakes up to find all manner of monstrosities roaming the halls of his new reality. And then Christopher Lee places him in a giant wicker statue and burns him alive while the islanders sing and rejoice - it could happen.

The Evil Within bursts out of its shell on August 26 in North America and August 29 in Europe, and you'll be able to explore it for yourself then on Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. In the meantime, check out our hands-off impressions following last year's reveal. [Image: Bethesda]

By using your own custom-built Titanfall Eject Button. It's not just one of those big red buttons you can buy everywhere, but one that was created and programmed for one purpose only: To help you leave your Titan in the coolest way possible.Read more...

Despite the upbeat intro courtesy Martha and the Vandellas, the latest trailer for MachineGames' Wolfenstein: The New Order reminds us that the only thing more evil than a Nazi is a Nazi soccer referee. [Image: Bethesda Softworks]

OutsideXbox wasn't content to just make avatars from their normal faces, so they rounded up a bunch of fake noses, wigs, and masks to put the Kinect's facial recognition to the test. Read more...

This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Tuesday, April 8 | T-minus 2 days until final verdict
Current State of Service: Moderate
Summary: Matchmaking update deployed. Some users experiencing longer than usual matchmaking times and connection issues.

On the whole, Titanfall's online service appears to be running just fine after four weeks on PC and Xbox One, though some Titanfall players have been running into problems. Since the recent matchmaking update to Hardpoint and Attrition modes, some users have reported very long matchmaking times - anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes - or connection issues. Respawn itself has noted that matchmaking will take longer as a result of the more selective system, but enough users have encountered issues that the developer has lessened the effectiveness of the update in order to speed up matchmaking while it irons out the kinks. Respawn is also taking feedback on the matchmaking update in the Titanfall forums.

For its part, Joystiq staff members haven't encountered any noteworthy issues since the matchmaking update was released. We'll be monitoring matchmaking performance over the next two days.

Finally, after a recent delay, the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall has arrived as well. We'll be spending some time with it this week, and will incorporate some impressions into Titanfall's final State of Service update this Thursday.

If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).

Have you noticed all the small-scale sci-fi strategy games these days? No complaints here, given how good the spaceship-survival game FTL is and how well the minimalist space-station-building Rymdkapsel turned out. There's Double Fine's Spacebase DF9, too. Next? Habitat, a game about making space stations from space junk.Read more...

I'll admit it: I assumed that the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall would be hot garbage, especially once we found out that Respawn—the studio behind the PC and Xbox One versions—hadn't actually made it. Read more...

The crew of Podcast Unlocked weighs in on Phil Spencer being named Head of Xbox.

The recently released Xbox 360 version of Respawn Entertainment's mech-dropping first-person shooter Titanfall maintains an average unlocked framerate of 46.5 frames-per-second, gaming performance analysis site Digital Foundry reports.

Digital Foundry finds that the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall runs at a 1040x600 native resolution, compared to the Xbox One's 1408x792 resolution. The Xbox 360 version boasts an unlocked framerate of up to 60 frames-per-second, along with an option to lock the framerate at 30 FPS to eliminate screen tearing and input lag.

Presentation-wise, Digital Foundry notes that the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall has "a necessary reduction in texture detail compared to the other versions, but nothing that overtly compromises the look of the game."

The testing results are consistent with pre-release claims from porting studio Bluepoint Games, which promised a framerate above 30 frames-per-second in the final Xbox 360 version of Titanfall.

[Video: Digital Foundry / Respawn Entertainment]

Check out Titanfall running on the Xbox 360.

Microsoft has revealed fresh features coming to Xbox One in the next planned system update for the console.

If you missed last weekend's premiere episode of HBO's fourth season of Game of Thrones, Microsoft is giving you a chance to catch up on Xbox Live. Starting today, the first episode of Game of Thrones' fourth season is available as a free download on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

The offer is open to all Xbox Live members, and does not require an HBO or Xbox Live Gold subscription. Xbox Live members can also access special features, interviews, and other bonus content via the Xbox One and Xbox 360 dashboards.

The free episode will remain available through April 14.

[Image: Microsoft / HBO]

"If you're backwards compatible, you're really backwards," said former Xbox chief Don Mattrick, explaining why Xbox One wouldn't play Xbox 360 games mere days after it was unveiled. If that's the case, then the Xbox world under new division head Phil Harrison may be as backwards as the average Justin Bieber hat. According to Xbox partner development lead Frank Savage, Microsoft is working on a solution to get Xbox 360 games on Xbox One, but players at home may never get to experience it themselves.

When asked by an audience member at Microsoft's Build developer conference whether the company had plans for backwards compatibility on Xbox One, Savage responded in the affirmative but with a serious caveat. Getting software made for drastically different hardware to run on another machine is a tricky proposition.

"There are [plans], but we're not done thinking them through yet, unfortunately," said Savage, as reported by Kotaku Australia. "It turns out to be hard to emulate the PowerPC stuff on the X86 stuff. So there's nothing to announce, but I would love to see it myself."

A Microsoft representative reiterated Savage's statement to Engadget in a follow up inquiry, but also stressed that there are no official plans to bring Xbox 360 compatibility to consumer Xbox Ones any time soon. "It is super challenging to emulate two completely different architectures, and there aren't currently any plans to build this," said the spokesperson.

Players clinging desperately to those copies of Perfect Dark: Zero and Bomberman: Act Zero, don't get rid of your Xbox 360s just yet. [Images: Microsoft]

Even the long, flat, dull, utterly unentertaining drive from downtown San Francisco to Salt Lake City is bearable in Ubisoft's The Crew, a new open-world racing game that draws its roads and racing tracks from the entire United States. It's a compressed, embellished America, allowing you to drive from, say, New York to Miami, with three of your friends and a desire to collect and upgrade a sparkling set of vehicles.

With challenges and events littering its massive country, The Crew is less a white-knuckle test of driving skill, and more of a steady road trip meant to amass better cars, better parts and better loot. It's not quite Diablo with cars, though, and we see why in our new video preview above.

The Crew is set to arrive on PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One this Fall. Check out the latest trailer right after the break.

"It feels like an unnecessary add-on... I'm sure they're going to release an Xbox One without Kinect. It would be unthinkable that they wouldn't." Game designer and programmer Peter Molyneux, in an Edge interview with multiple industry personalities about the Xbox One's future.Read more...

The Kingpin is a big guy. Big shoulders, big suits, big cane, big power. Spider-Man, on the other side, is a scrawny dude in spandex. Doesn't seem like a fair fight - for Kingpin. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is due out on April 29.

Leah Jackson picks pro-gamer Greg "Idra" Fields' mind about Blizzard's shift to more casual games.

Kinect Sports Rivals looks like a mobile game for the new, hit reality sports show that all of your friends will be watching, according to its prime time commercials. The game is crowded with bright colors, an excitable narrator, a hard-ass trainer, prompts to buy perks for your character and ads for State Farm.

It differs from a tie-in mobile game in a couple of important ways: It's on the big screen and is designed to use Xbox One's Kinect for every interaction. The entire game can be controlled with voice and hand motions, in theory. That theory breaks down if your pets are running around and confusing the Kinect as you play, or if your friends all want to sit on the couch behind you, or if you happen to be 10 years old, like my little brother, and miss important instructions among all the banter and color explosions.

Microsoft is updating the YouTube app on Xbox One to allow players to upload gameplay clips directly to the video platform starting tomorrow. The app will integrate with the Game DVR and Upload services already present on the console; players will just need to enter the system's settings, select "Share game clips" and then "Share on social network" to access the YouTube upload option. Additionally, the updated app will allow users to view YouTube videos in snap mode, add them to Pins, add channels to OneGuide and earn media achievements on Xbox One.

Microsoft also announced the GoPro app for Xbox 360, which allows users to "stream and curate" videos created using the brand of high-definition personal cameras. GoPro app users will also be able to purchase cameras within the app through Microsoft's online store. The app will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

The Xbox One's trek into the livestreaming and video sharing realm was marked by the addition of Twitch broadcasting in March, which saw 108,000 broadcasters in the first week. While having the ability to upload content to YouTube directly will be ideal for many users, one hopes that the history of gameplay videos being flagged by the platform's Content ID Match system doesn't prove to be an issue. [Image: Microsoft]

Remember the Xbox One reveal? There was a lot of talk about TV, wasn't there? Now Microsoft's new console is out and all that TV-centric chatter has died down. But there's a lot of work happening to produce and deliver original shows directly to Xbox users. Microsoft clearly wants Xbox Live to become the next Netflix.Read more...

Microsoft is pushing forward on its original television programming initiative by partnering with UK broadcaster Channel 4 and production company Kudos to create a drama series called Humans. The sci-fi drama is an English-language adaptation of Sveriges Television and Matador Film's series Real Humans, and depicts a modern family that lives with a highly-developed robotic servant known as a "Synth." The show will air on the Xbox platform in North America and Channel 4 in the UK in 2015.

What's more, Bloomberg recently interviewed Microsoft's President of Entertainment and Digital Media Nancy Tellem about the company's media ambitions on Xbox Live. Tellem said Microsoft's approach to television, which spans multiple genres like sports, animation and feature-length projects, will be "under the banner of Xbox Originals." Tellem also touched on the properties that Microsoft owns, such as Fable, Age of Empires, Gears of War and Forza, noting that "these are the things that frankly if we weren't attached to Microsoft everyone would yearn to have."

Tellem is the head of Xbox Entertainment Studios, which set its sights on "interactive TV" in February 2013. One of the company's projects is a live-action show based on the Halo series that has ties to Steven Spielberg, which Tellem assured is still in development. As far as the expansion of the Halo brand is concerned, while no movie based on the property is in sight, a "digital feature" for Halo is expected to launch this year. Additionally, former AMC programming director Ari Mark joined Xbox Entertainment in January to create unscripted video content. [Image: Xbox Entertainment Studios]

It's not a No. 1, but Bethesda may be quietly satisfied with how The Elder Scrolls Online fared in the UK. The MMO's launch on Windows PC and Mac was enough to take it up to second place, and there are still PS4 and Xbox One versions to unravel in June.

As it is, we may have to get used to the name currently on top of the UK charts. FIFA 14 is now up to 11 weeks in total (non-consecutive) as the country's No. 1, and - as if it needed the help - the English soccer season is excitingly close this year, and there's a World Cup just two months away. In related news, let's go live to the scene at EA Sports HQ... [Image: Bethesda]

Microsoft still has plans to make Xbox 360 games playable on your Xbox One.

Lee joins the impressive roster of UFC fighters in EA's mixed martial arts game.Read more...

We're going to have garden-themed nightmares thanks to this sound design-focused Alien: Isolation dev diary, which reveals that stomping on ripe vegetables sounds suspiciously similar to an alien sinking its teeth into people. And here we were just getting over our fear of asparagus. [Image: Sega]