Microsoft E3 2015 Xbox liveblog!
Welcome to E3 2015! Today is Day Zero and we have a lineup of major showcases ahead of us, starting with Microsoft’s Xbox press conference at 9AM PT. We expect to see new footage and details about Halo 5: Guardians, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza 6 and a ton of smaller, though no less impressive, games. Plus, this conference comes hot on the heels of Oculus’ announcement that all Rift virtual reality headsets will ship with an Xbox One controller and feature Windows 10 integration, including the ability to play Xbox One games in the Rift, in a simulated cinema, via Xbox-to-Windows streaming. Naturally, there will be surprises galore. And it starts at 9:30am PT. Join us!
Here’s where to watch Microsoft’s Xbox event at E3 2015
If you’re an Xbox fan, today is the day you’ve been waiting for. Microsoft’s getting ready to show us what’s next for the platform, live from E3 2015 in Los Angeles. Will we learn additional details about Halo 5: Guardians? There’s a good chance. Or, perhaps, the company plans to talk more about its recently announced partnership with Oculus — new VR experiences? Either way, you can watch it all unfold via Twitch, YouTube or the Xbox E3 website. For your convenience, there’s an embed after the break, but don’t forget to join our liveblog, where we’ll be bringing you the news as it happens. The event starts at 12:30PM ET.
http://en-gb.twitch.tv/xbox/embed
Check here for everything happening at E3 2015!
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Xbox
Recommended Reading: NFL player turns mercenary in ‘Call of Duty’
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you’ll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read.
‘The Whole Game is Beast Mode’
by Sam Alipour
ESPN The Magazine
Kevin Spacey temporarily shelved his presidential persona to play a private military contractor in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. For this year’s title, Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch hung up his cleats to play a mercenary in Call of Duty: Black Ops III. ESPN The Magazine has a behind-the-scenes look at the process, from motion capture to facial scans required to construct the digital version of the NFL player.
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It’s Official: Everyone Has the Same Plan for Tech’s Future Did a lot of Apple’s WWDC keynote sound familiar? The folks in Cupertino announced a collection of items that have already been done before by another company, whether it’s Google, Microsoft or others. Are companies just borrowing ideas now? |
The Day I Learned to Stop Hating Laptop DJs Have you wondered what a traditional turntable DJ thinks of folks who prefer to do their scratching with a laptop? DJ Rob Swift discusses his initial reaction and how he came to realize that the modern setup is nothing more than a tool. |
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Moog Music Gives Employees More Control Moog Music’s small size and workshop-like atmosphere are two things I’ve always loved about the company. This week, owner and chief executive Michael Adams told employees he was selling half of the company… to them. |
The Unkillable Demon King A 19-year-old League of Legends juggernaut can kill more than half of an opposing team in under 40 seconds. ESPN’s Mina Kimes takes a look at how Lee Sang-hyeok (better known at Faker) rose to superstar status. |
[Image credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]
Filed under: Gaming
Microsoft Moonraker is the Nokia smartwatch we almost got
If you were wondering what Nokia’s take on a smartwatch would have been, take a look at the Microsoft Moonraker, a cancelled watch that attempted to bring in some of Windows Phone’s style. Microsoft nixed it when it acquired Nokia’s phone arm, The Verge reports, but now we’ve got an idea of what it looks like thanks to Microsoft designer Pei-Chi Hsieh, who posted it on their (now deleted) Tumblr blog. Noted leakhound (and former Engadget editor) Evan Blass first unearthed the image, which shows a multicolored smartwatch design with slightly rounded corners. From afar, it doesn’t look that much different than the Apple Watch, funny enough. Sources say Microsoft dumped the Moonraker project because it was working on the ill-fated Band wearable.
While the Band was stuffed full of sensors, the Moonraker watch was all about doing more traditional smartwatch tasks. It had phone, email and messaging apps, and it could also remotely activate the camera on your Windows Phone. There was also a variety of other software integration, like Facebook and MixRadio. While Moonraker looks intriguing, at the end of the day it basically does what most other smartwatches do, so it was probably smarter for Microsoft to devote its energy to something truly different. We just wish we got something more than the clunky Band.
Gmail brings OAuth support to Microsoft and Yahoo accounts
Google will soon be making it easier for users to add their Microsoft and Yahoo accounts to the Gmail application. (time frame), Google added the ability to add third-party accounts to Gmail so that users could easily access all of their emails from one application. A beautiful application, if I may say so myself.
Now with the addition of OAuth support, Microsoft and Yahoo users will no longer have to enter their usernames and passwords into Gmail in order to add these accounts. There are two ways that this will work for users.
The first is if you are already logged into your Microsoft Account on the device. If you’ve already logged into the Microsoft Account, you will need to simply tap the “Allow” button to give Gmail access to your Microsoft account. If you have not logged into your Microsoft account, you will be redirected to the Microsoft web page so that you can log in, then once completed, the OAuth page will appear and you can give Gmail access to your account.
This can help cut down on signing in or out of the web versions of third-party email accounts. OAuth integration will definitely be beneficial for users that don’t want to use a ton of different email applications, when they can just use one unified app with Gmail.
These features have not been ported to the iOS version yet, as that version only allows users to use their Google accounts. However, we can hope for some cross-compatibility for those users (like me) that use both platforms and absolutely love the Gmail application. The latest update has already started its rollout process and should hit your devices within the next few days.
The post Gmail brings OAuth support to Microsoft and Yahoo accounts appeared first on AndroidGuys.
I want to love ‘The Witcher 3,’ but my Xbox One won’t let me
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a massive, open-world, role-playing game from Polish studio CD Projekt Red, has sold 4 million copies in two weeks across PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One. Those aren’t Grand Theft Auto V numbers, but it’s a huge milestone for the developer, whose cult classic games have typically launched on PC first with console versions coming much later, if at all. The Witcher 3 has also been a critical success, too, with an aggregate review score of 93 on Metacritic (“universal acclaim” according to the site) for the PS4 version, 94 for PC and 91 on Xbox One. Since its May launch, the game has received four software patches on consoles and five on PC. These updates have ranged from minor things like adding lethal cows to address a money-generating exploit, to major issues like save-file corruption and endless saved-game loops on the Xbox One edition.
While almost everyone I’ve talked to who’s playing the very Game of Thrones-esque The Witcher 3 loves it and hasn’t had any problems, I can’t say the same for myself. Four software updates later, and the latest patch notes still list “fixes” 52 times.
To expand the scope of The Witcher 3, CDPR made the decision to launch simultaneously on consoles and PC, something it had never done before. When you consider that established console developers like Ubisoft and even Microsoft still have trouble getting their games to work properly on current-gen platforms two and a half years after hitting shelves, CDPR’s cross-platform strategy seems ill-advised.
In game development, the amount of things that can go wrong exponentially increases the more complex said game is. For evidence of this, look no further than the high-profile stumble that was Assassin’s Creed: Unity, the first game in the Ubisoft series built for new console hardware. Given the sheer size of The Witcher 3‘s map and that slaying monsters and reuniting with a former charge are but a few of the available activities (there’s also horse racing, card games and sex on stuffed unicorns), the chances for glitches were incredibly high.
I’ve had technical issues with The Witcher 3 since the very first time I played it. As it happens in gaming journalism, I received a code to download the game ahead of its retail release. In the Xbox One’s case, this becomes a two-step process: one code to pre-load the actual game and another to unlock advance access. In the past, this has worked without a hitch. But even a week after the game officially released, my Xbox One kept telling me I was trying to open the game too soon. Instead of simply launching the game from the dashboard (or resuming it), I had to sift through a few sub-menus and load it from the game hub. Dealbreaker? No, but it was still annoying.
I’ve had technical issues with The Witcher 3 since the very first time I played it.
When we’d streamed The Witcher 3 on Joystiq‘s Twitch channel, the game worked without a problem. It wasn’t until shortly after, however, that more serious issues arose. Finding myself overwhelmed in combat by a vicious pack of fish-people (“Drowners” in the game’s parlance), I died and had to reload my last save. Except, instead of the save loading after what seemed like an eternity, a loading symbol depicting a dragon eating its own tail kept spinning above a halted progress bar. To fix it, I went back to the system dashboard, quit out of the game entirely and hard reset my Xbox. But that didn’t work. Instead of being met with an interminable loading screen the next time I fired up the save, what looped was an unresponsive splash screen. So I changed tactics and attempted to load the game from the main menu only to be met by that ouroboros looping yet again. The irony was not lost on me.
After posting a video of the ordeal to Facebook, I was contacted by the game’s publicist with a solution: Unplug my console from the power supply, wait a moment and then turn it back on. He was right; it worked, but I’d lost the progress made since my last save. After finishing the quest for the area I was in a second time, I’d forgotten to save, died in combat and had to do it once more. It was at that point I gave up. I decided it was best to wait for a patch addressing corrupted saves than to keep replaying the same missions over and over again.
Fast-forward three weeks, and I’ve returned to try my hand at The Witcher 3 once more. The corrupted save glitch has since been fixed, but at the expense of suspending and instantaneously resuming the game after powering the system off. As the error resulted from that very convenient Xbox One system feature, it’s since been removed entirely. Again, it’s annoying, but on its own, it’s not quite a major issue. The real problem is that a host of other bugs within the game still exist.
The intro cutscene, for example, plays between the game’s splash screen and the main menu every time I boot up the game. Then there’s the story scene about why I’m in the village of Heatherton that plays every time before I can actually jump into the game, regardless of how far outside Heatherton I am. All told, from the moment I press “A” on the Xbox One dashboard to load the game to the moment when I can actually begin playing, it takes two minutes and 15 seconds of staring at loading screens, menus and cutscenes. And that’s assuming the game launches on the first attempt.
The other night, I was greeted by a different sort of error message when attempting to fire up The Witcher 3; one that stated the obvious: “The game is taking too long to load.” Recently, I had to hit the “A” button a number of times before the game actually launched. For the record, I haven’t had this frustrating of an experience with any other current-gen game.
The corrupted-save glitch has been fixed at the expense of suspending and instantaneously resuming the game after powering the system off.
It’s a heartbreaking situation. When I’m actually playing the game, I can’t help but marvel at how well-realized the world of The Witcher 3 is; how well-written the game is at seemingly every turn; and just how well it handles gender and sexual politics. Early on, the protagonist Geralt encounters a man who’d been exiled to the forest. “I’m a freak,” he tells the Witcher. “I’m a freak, too,” Geralt replies in an attempt to empathize with the hunter. The man then reveals that he isn’t sterile or that he has dubious magic powers like Geralt, but that he’s gay and his sexual orientation caused a kingdom to crumble. It’s quiet moments like this that speak as loudly as the game’s more bombastic ones.
Rather than bash the player over the head with non-interactive cutscenes, The Witcher 3 lets players unravel its story through environmental clues. Consider this: The other night, while playing, I happened upon a stonecutter’s village in the Velen region. The entire burg was filled with peasants nailing together a perimeter fence and prisoners of war doing hard labor, cracking rocks for punishment. The sounds of hammers and stones were as inescapable as that of the crows overhead. Slaughtered livestock occupied the areas near each entrance. A house the size of a single-wide trailer sat with a collapsed thatched roof, broken timbers blocking its door. A few steps away, a water wheel lay on its side, driven into the dirt, halfway across the village from its structure. A guard snorted and hocked a loogie somewhere behind me. Up ahead, a child ran forward, gleefully exclaiming, “Whee! I’m catching snails!” The more I looked around, it became increasingly obvious that before I’d arrived, a massive monster had passed through and left a veritable Dunwich Horror level of destruction in its wake. And yet no one in town would speak to me, making it all the more eerie.
This is truly where the game excels. I’d rather discover a story on my own by exploring an area and picking up hints through its design than be handheld through the story arc. CDPR’s ambient approach to storytelling with The Witcher 3 is indeed powerful. If you’re playing the Xbox One version, though, this experience gets mucked up a bit as you’ll have to suffer through frustrating glitches.
It’s a heartbreaking situation. When I’m actually playing the game, I can’t help but marvel at how well-realized the world of The Witcher 3 is.
While in Velen, I didn’t talk to anyone; I didn’t kill anything. I just explored, lost in my own world. It’s this type of one-off encounter that gives so much of The Witcher 3 its charm. But I had to wonder if this relative tranquility was the byproduct of another glitch. Up to this point, every town I’d stumbled across had at least one character I could have a conversation or conflict with. Here, everyone I encountered was a non-interactive background character. My experience with the broken Xbox One version had me constantly, and justifiably, worrying that another tech issue had robbed the scene of some of its drama. And that’s a shame.
CDPR claims that, on average, it’ll take players around 100 hours to finish The Witcher 3. And while I’m not averse to sinking huge chunks of time into an open-world game, I can’t help but feel my console is standing entirely in the way of that actually happening.
[Image credits: CD Projekt Red]
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
‘Battleborn’ seduced me with arcade spirit and role-playing style
Battleborn looked like it would be my kryptonite. When Gearbox Software showed the game to a group of reporters at a pre-E3 event, the roster of 25 characters looked like League of Legends clones, all of them clashing like a teenage anime enthusiast’s backup Tumblr. That the studio emphasized a 5-vs.-5 competitive mode, where players would hit and shoot each other in online matches, only further entrenched its cosmetic similarity to that game. What’s more, Gearbox promised that playing Battleborn would be all about the “ding” moment, when you level up your character in each match; again just like League of Legends. All those signifiers on top of a name that made it sound like an off-brand He-Man playset, and Battleborn came off like everything I detest about modern gaming. Then I played a co-operative story mission with four other people and never wanted to stop.
Orendi and Phoebe are two heroes with more character than you’d expect.
Don’t let the bad name and eSports marketing fool you: Battleborn is a delicious mix of old-school arcade spirit and Gearbox’s beloved Borderlands role-playing games. Battleborn utilizes the same mix of light cartoon art, snide humor and characters with complementary skill sets that invite players to experiment with how they destroy hordes of enemies in tight, tiered spaces. Unlike Borderlands, though, its challenges are compact. There are no huge worlds to explore, wandering from town to town and you don’t spend dozens of hours building your character up. In the campaign, which you can play by yourself or with up to four other people cooperating, you goals are refreshingly set and simple; it feels far more like a classic arcade game like Final Fight than it does League of Legends.
Battleborn feels far more like a classic arcade game like Final Fight than it does League of Legends.
Gearbox acknowledges that inspiration up front. The demo we got to play was just one section of a larger mission, where our crew had to fight against a bunch of angular monsters called Varelsi. (Those beasts work for some jerk vampire named Rendain, who’s trying to control the last planet in a dying universe. You and your pals are trying to do the same.) Our goal was to fight through an alien canyon, activate a beefy robotic tank and escort it to a giant set of doors so it could blow them up and the good guys could plumb farther into Varelsi territory. Before all that, though, we got to pick our characters from a colorful grid of portraits that looked, as Gearbox noted, like it was lifted straight out of Street Fighter. The simplicity of this setup was extremely welcome and its vivid, exaggerated characters were charmingly approachable rather than cloyingly trendy as they first seemed. Compared to other games at E3 this year, there’s a refreshing clarity in Battleborn when you play it that’s weirdly absent in its marketing.
Building your character in each mission is nice and simple in practice.
Only 10 characters were available in the demo and I tried three of them, each one providing a unique approach to the find-and-protect-the-‘bot scenario. Miko is a giant, sentient mushroom carrying throwing knives and who can toss out smaller fungi to heal companions or hurt enemies. Orendi, a four-armed demon in a witch’s hat and with a jack o’lantern grin, casts big, violent spells and shoots balls of purple fire from her hands. Rath is an iron-haired swordsman who looks like he’s on loan from Samurai Jack. He carries a big red sword and unlocks special moves that let him twirl around like a particularly sharp tornado.
The first thing that impressed me was how much character Gearbox has instilled in these weirdos even though you don’t see them on screen. Battleborn is played in a first-person perspective, but your field of view is full of each hero’s details. Orendi cackles and shouts nasty quips while her four spiky hands flit about the corners of the screen. A cloud of spores drift around you as Miko. Phoebe, another character I didn’t get to try, uses four rapiers simultaneously, and the way they’re angled on screen while you’re playing tells you everything about her; she’s poised and balanced with a flair to her sci-fi fencing skills. Vibrant personality is one of Borderlands‘ biggest strengths. It’s striking how swiftly Gearbox affects that level of soul in Battleborn in so short a period of time.
Gearbox has a knack for making games that feel like more than just another shooter.
The second thing I noted was how natural it makes an outwardly complex style of play. The idea that you have to build your character up from Level 1 to Level 10 in each mission, unlocking new skills and improving old ones as you dispatch enemies, sounds needlessly complex in the abstract. In execution, it gives Battleborn a wonderful thrust. It took about 20 minutes to play through the demo area, just enough time to fully build up each character. Each time they leveled up, a notice would flash on screen and you could pause to select from one of two upgrades. For example, do I want Rath’s sword to be stronger or do I want to be able to use his special moves faster? It adds just the right level of complexity to the rush while keeping the action propulsive, essential when you’re playing with a group.
It’s striking how swiftly Gearbox affects that level of soul in Battleborn in so short a period of time.
Each time through felt fresh thanks to the differences in the characters. While Orendi felt vulnerable and needed to keep a distance from the action, you could wade into the thick of a fight with Rath and just slice away. And although the stages themselves were just corridors leading to slightly more open areas, navigating them always changed depending on whom you were using. Some characters can jump twice, leading you to previously inaccessible platforms and hallways where you could snipe enemies from far away. It has everything old arcade action games needed to thrive; instantly satisfying action with multiple ways to approach and replay it.
Miko is probably gaming’s first truly badass warrior mushroom.
While I never had a chance to try out Battleborn‘s competitive options, I walked away more than impressed by just this fun-size piece of its campaign. Gearbox is making something with real potential that stands to broaden its success beyond the Borderlands games. If the generic name and oppressive trendiness of the messaging surrounding Battleborn have made this seem like a late-2015 game to dismiss, ignore that impulse. This is one to watch.
Oculus and Microsoft sitting in a tree, R-I-F-T-I-N-G
Microsoft and Oculus are leaping into the future of virtual reality hand-in-hand. Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe today announced that the Rift will be packaged with a wireless Xbox One controller, native support on Windows 10 and the ability to play Xbox One games inside the headset itself, in a sort of virtual cinema, via Xbox-to-Windows streaming. Microsoft’s Head of Xbox Phil Spencer took to the Oculus stage to lay out his plans for the Rift and Windows gaming going forward — and there’s a reason he looked so happy while doing so. In fact, there are a few reasons the Microsoft-Oculus deal should be gangbusters for both companies.
First, the Rift is Microsoft’s answer to Sony’s Project Morpheus. The Oculus Rift is ready-made, has super-high brand recognition and is poised to offer a finely tuned VR experience to a horde of anxious, hungry gaming fans. Morpheus could very well walk into a similar situation when it launches, but there’s one major difference between the two systems: Sony has to finish developing and then continually support Morpheus on PlayStation 4; Microsoft has to trust Oculus to handle most of that work.
Of course Microsoft will have to deal with compatibility and software issues on its own end, but the company doesn’t have to build and maintain a VR headset for itself — Oculus is doing that. Handing off hardware production is a calculated risk on Microsoft’s end, considering Oculus has a solid track record of producing stellar, industry-standard VR experiences, plus it has the financial backing of Facebook. As far as trusting a VR company, Oculus is a good bet.
Getting cozy with Oculus also frees up Microsoft to work on its own, new projects, such as HoloLens. With this partnership, Microsoft is free to focus on developing a product in a field that is currently devoid of competitors: augmented reality. Whichever way the industry turns — in favor of either VR or AR — Microsoft is prepared.
And then there’s the gamepad. Shipping the Rift with an Xbox One controller puts Xbox at the forefront of VR developers’ minds. Even after years of production without a consumer release, Oculus remains the highest-profile VR headset in the industry — and now it’s linked directly to the Xbox One. Microsoft suffered a blow to its gaming cred with the bungled announcement of the Xbox One in 2013, heightened by corporate backpedaling and the console’s top-of-the-market price point. All the while, Sony emphasized games — indie games, AAA games, free games and discounted games.
Now, it’s time for Microsoft to change the narrative. Xbox used to be the place for new, innovative and wild games — before the current console generation, the Xbox 360’s Indie Games and Arcade sections provided marching orders for the industry. With the PS4, Sony is king, and Oculus might be Microsoft’s best chance at reclaiming that crown. Oculus’ $10 million initiative to help indie developers make games for the Rift is a great start.
Besides, there’s a sly kind of mic-drop in all of this: Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said in 2014 that Morpheus was not an open system, and just a few months later Iribe told us that he wasn’t intimidated by Sony’s push into VR. In fact, he’d invited Sony to see early Rift prototypes, and Sony in turn invited him to check out Morpheus. All the while, Microsoft kept quiet, worked on HoloLens and integrated the Rift into Windows 10.
This is all well and good for Microsoft, but what does Oculus get out of this deal? Simple: The Xbox One controller. Plenty of gaming hardware companies have tried, and failed spectacularly, to create the perfect traditional gamepad. Oculus has its own, two-hand controller system that might be great — but if it isn’t, the Xbox One gamepad is something that most players already know and love.
Ah, love. On the surface, the Microsoft-Oculus deal looks like an ideal match, but we’ll see how perfect it truly is when both the Rift and Morpheus launch in early 2016.
JXE Streams: Welcome to the ‘Jurassic Park’ extravaganza
Some people saw the trailer for Jurassic World and thought, “That looks stupid. Andy from Parks and Recreation riding a motorcycle alongside a team of velociraptors? What’s become of our beloved movies about dinosaurs trying to eat Jeff Goldblum?” That’s not what we thought here at JXE Streams. We thought, “That looks stupid. Stupidly awesome.” Unable to contain our excitement for the new movie any longer, we’re streaming two old-school Jurassic Park games back to back starting at 3PM ET/12PM PT.
Tune in right here in this post or at Engadget.com/gaming to watch two solid hours of antiquated dinosaur action. Do you want to help us build our very own dino park in Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis for the original Xbox? Then come chat with us at Twitch.tv/Joystiq! Want dinosaurs even more ancient than that? Stick around for Jurassic Park for the Sega Genesis afterward.
[We’re streaming retail versions of Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis for Xbox and Jurassic Park for Genesis at 720p through an Elgato HD via OBS.]
Skype ditches its Windows 8 app on July 7th
If you need any further proof that Microsoft is backing away from touch-centric interfaces in Windows 10, you just got it. The Skype team has revealed that it’s planning to ditch the “modern” Windows (read: Windows 8-only) version of its messaging app on PCs as of July 7th. After that, the next update to the app will kick you over to the desktop release. Skype says that it’s “simplifying” its experience around a single program that you can use with both a touchscreen and a mouse and keyboard. That’s certainly true, although it’s also an acknowledgment that people prefer the desktop app more — it’s easier to navigate without scrolling, and there are more features (such as screen sharing) that might convince you to stay. This shift won’t affect Windows RT or the Skype features woven into Windows 10, but there’s no doubt that the conventional desktop software is the big star going forward.
Filed under: Software, Microsoft
Source: Skype
AIVAnet 