JxE Streams: Revisiting Rare with Xbox ‘Conker: Live & Reloaded’
Rare Ltd., the storied game developer Microsoft bought off Nintendo for a hefty sum at the beginning of the century, has started to stir again. After years of developing poorly received motion-control games like Kinect Sports, all while members of the original staff left for other studios, rumors were swirling that the team will return to its classic series from the ’90s. Conker, the foul-mouthed star of Conker’s Bad Fur Day on Nintendo 64, actually popped up as a guest star in Xbox One game creator Project Spark. Just today a Reddit poster, verified as a former Microsoft employee, said that the company has been trying to get a new Conker game off the ground for some time. No time like the present to dig into Conker: Live & Reloaded for the original Xbox on JxE Streams.
Starting at 3PM ET on Engadget.com/gaming and Twitch.tv/Joystiq, we’ll be playing two solid hours of the most juvenile, scatological game to ever make it out of Rare. Tim Seppala will play the game while Anthony John Agnello hangs out in the chat, answering your questions about how it feels to make a rodent smoke a cigar with a controller.
Want more streams? Make sure to check out the show schedule on Engadget.com/gaming and to follow us on Twitch.tv/Joystiq. Can’t catch the live broadcast? Check back right here after the show for a full archive of the stream.
[We’re playing a retail copy of Conker: Live & Reloaded on Xbox streamed through an Elgato Capture HD via OBS at 720p.]
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft
Source: Reddit
The Office 2016 for Mac preview is now available
While Microsoft is hard at work on the final version of Office 2016 for Mac that’ll arrive later this year, it’s offering folks who are too eager to wait an early look. The preview version of Redmond’s productivity suite is now available for download, serving up Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook to machines running Apple’s desktop OS. There’s sure to be a truckload of updates in the months to come, but if you’re still using Office for Mac 2011, the changes that are already in place will certainly give you something to look forward to.
Filed under: Software, Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Xbox Live and ID@Xbox are coming to Windows 10
If the news of Xbox games coming to HoloLens and Elite: Dangerous hitting Xbox One this summer wasn’t nearly enough, Microsoft has a few other tidbits to share from this year’s Game Developers Conference. First up: Redmond is bringing the Xbox Live SDK to Windows 10. It’s part of the universal apps push that the outfit’s making with its new operating system, and will give game developers of any size access to a “vast majority” of Xbox Live’s services. It wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft’s done something like this, but let’s hope it doesn’t turn into another disaster like Games for Windows Live was. The post on Xbox Wire also mentions there will be a new tier of the company’s online gaming service coming as well that specifically allows “any developer to engage with the Xbox Live community.” We’ve reached out for clarification of exactly what that translates to.
Next we have word that the ID@Xbox program is expanding to Windows 10 as well, meaning the amount of indie developers on the platform (most likely mobile) should see an uptick in the future as well. Oh, and from this point on, all Xbox accessories will be compatible with Win10, with a wireless adapter coming for the Xbox One controller later this year. In case you thought Microsoft’s dedication to melding its console with your PC via the Game DVR was the last you’d see, it seems like it was actually just the beginning. Where do we go from here? That’s anyone’s guess at this point, but Build and the Electronics Entertainment Expo aren’t far off.
Don’t miss out on all the latest from GDC 2015! Follow along at our events page right here.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Xbox Wire
Xbox games are coming to Microsoft’s augmented reality headset
If you watched Microsoft’s announcement of its Hololens augmented reality headset and wondered if you’d play Xbox games with it, well, wonder no longer. Today at its Game Developers Conference presentation, Redmond announced that games would be en route to the device and that the APK should be available come its Build conference late April.
Developing…
Don’t miss out on all the latest from GDC 2015! Follow along at our events page right here.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Microsoft bought ‘Minecraft’ after a single tweet by its creator
We’re only halfway through the decade, but it’s already obvious that Minecraft is the biggest game of the ’10s. Its creator, Markus “Notch” Persson has now been honored for his achievement with a cover story in Forbes. The piece reveals a few interesting tidbits about how he came to leave the game that made his name, including the fact that the $2.5 billion sale to Microsoft was prompted with a single tweet.
On June 6th, 2014, Persson was feeling exhausted with dealing with the Minecraft community, and ventured his frustration on Twitter. He asked if anyone would be interested in buying his share of Mojang so that he could “move on with [his] life.” According to the interview, it was mere minutes afterward that Mojang CEO Carl Manneh was being called by a Microsoft executive asking of Persson was serious. Other companies were bidding for control of Minecraft, including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts, although talks with the latter stalled because Persson, apparently, isn’t a fan of EA’s policies.
Anyone want to buy my share of Mojang so I can move on with my life? Getting hate for trying to do the right thing is not my gig.
– Markus Persson (@notch) June 17, 2014
Unfortunately, Persson was less happy with the way his post-Minecraft life has been portrayed by the piece. There is a suggestion that he now spends his days running up $180,000 bar bills at Swedish nightclubs.It’s something he has denied, again, using his favorite medium of Twitter. In a series of messages earlier this morning, he said that he isn’t “dedicated to partying his life away,” and it would be difficult anyway, since the interest payments on his $1.5 billion fortune are going up faster than he could spend it on fancy vodka.
Swedish newspapers copy and paste from the Forbes thing, with the headline “I’m dedicated to partying my money away”. Oh lordy.
– Markus Persson (@notch) March 4, 2015
There are good journalists out there, presumably. But a lot of them don’t give a flying duck about the truth, they just wanna sell copies.
– Markus Persson (@notch) March 4, 2015
Also, and this sounds like bragging, but I’d have to party REALLY DUCKING HARD to keep up with the interest, so it’s not a viable option.
– Markus Persson (@notch) March 4, 2015
[Image Credit: GDC / Wikimedia Commons]
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
Source: Forbes
‘Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’ sneaks out in September
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the latest in Hideo Kojima’s nearly 30-year-old series of melodramatic espionage games, finally has a release date. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of will arrive on September 1st for $60, and on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for $50. PC players have to wait just a bit longer to experience the next generation of hiding from armed soldiers in cardboard boxes. Metal Gear Solid V will be available on Windows via Steam for $60 on September 15th.
The Phantom Pain has made a long, strange journey since its initial reveal. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, a notoriously brief prologue to the Phantom Pain released in 2014, was first announced back in 2012 but it wasn’t clear if it was going to be the proper follow-up to 2008’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. It was technically unveiled in a trailer during the Spike Video Game Awards that same year but in a characteristically (for creator Hideo Kojima) theatrical, bizarre way. Announced without the Metal Gear name, it was credited to a fictional Swedish game maker named Joakim Mogren of Moby Dick Studios, who appeared in an interview with his head totally wrapped in bandages. It was months before The Phantom Pain was confirmed to be the full version of Metal Gear Solid V and that actor Kiefer Sutherland would be playing Snake, the main character.
Anyone excited to hop into Metal Gear Solid V‘s open-world stealth action, which includes building your own G.I. Joe-style secret base and recruiting goats, will have other purchasing options when the game releases in September. Alongside the standard editions is a $100 collector’s edition of the game that comes with a making-of documentary on Blu-ray, a replica of Snake’s bionic arm, a physical map and a host of downloadable content extras for both the single-player game and Metal Gear Online, its included multiplayer component.
We’re live at the 2015 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco!
Every year, in late winter, covering the game industry gives me a chance to leave New York City at its most miserable. It’s with great pleasure that I tell you, yes, we’re here in San Francisco — where its 60 degrees and not 34 — to bring all the news, hands-ons, interviews, videos, and combinations thereof, straight from the 2015 Game Developers Conference. From here on out, we’re gonna make that name a bit simpler: GDC 2015. We’ve even got a page right here where you can keep up to date on all the aforementioned coverage. Head below for a brief rundown of the week to come.
What’s happening this year, besides developers talking to each other about the art and business of making games? We’ve already seen a taste, all the way from Barcelona, care of Mobile World Congress.
HTC and Valve are teaming on a virtual reality headset named HTC Vive. Or HTC ReVive. Or maybe just Vive? Or maybe just Revive? It’s a bit puzzling, honestly.
We’re getting a hands-on in the coming days, and we’ve already got some gorgeous detail shots right here featuring British raconteur James Trew.
Additionally, Samsung and Oculus are continuing their partnership on Gear VR with a new, smaller version intended for use with Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 and S6 edge phones. Don’t expect to be blown away: it’s largely the same as the first Gear VR which launched late last year, albeit with a smaller screen. We’ve got more info right here, and beauty shots below.
And today, just before GDC 2015 officially kicks off, Epic Games announced that its widely used game engine, Unreal Engine 4, is now free for all to use on a commercial (or non-commercial) basis. It’s a major move for an engine maker, and it means one more great tool is more widely available to the folks who make the games we love.
As for what the rest of the week holds, only two things are certain: both Sony and NVIDIA are hosting press events. The former is focusing on PlayStation 4’s virtual reality headset, “Project Morpheus”, while the latter is teased as “more than 5 years in the making” and will apparently “redefine the future of gaming”. I expect nothing less than a picante gouda in a holodeck.
Don’t miss out on all the latest from GDC 2015! Follow along at our events page right here.
Filed under: Gaming, Wearables, Software, HD, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo
Microsoft’s Lumia 640 and 640 XL are its new budget phone stars
After mistakenly letting the cat out of the bag yesterday, Microsoft has officially unveiled its latest Lumia phones at Mobile World Congress — and they’re pretty tempting if you’re looking for a good deal. The new Lumia 640 and 640 XL (can you guess the difference?) are the company’s latest budget phones, effectively replacing last year’s Lumia 630 and 635. They both include a quad-core Snapdragon processor running at 1.2 gigahertz, a gigabyte of RAM, and 720p display resolutions, but they differ in screen size and camera prowess. The Lumia 640 has a 5-inch screen and an 8 megapixel shooter, while the XL — Microsoft’s first budget phablet — packs in a 5.7-inch screen and a 13MP Zeiss-lens camera. That’s a significant bump from the weak 5MP option in last year’s phones, but without a big price increase: The 640, expected in May, will start unlocked at around $155 for its 3G version and $177 for the LTE model. And if you want to get your hands on the XL soon, you’re in luck. It’s coming later this month for around $211 (3G) and $244 (LTE). As usual, final pricing is up to the retailers.
Just as we saw with the new Moto E, both new budget Lumias include some compelling upgrades that were previously relegated to higher-end phones. In addition to the camera improvements — which also includes new front-facing cameras — they sport significantly bigger batteries than the 630 (2500 mAh for the 640 and 3000 mAh for the XL). Both phones can also be upgraded to Windows 10 down the line, and they come with a year’s worth of Office 365 (which includes a terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage).
The Lumia 640 XL
In my brief hands-on time with the phones, I was surprised to find that they both felt pretty comfortable in my hand. Yes, even the giant 640 XL. Microsoft’s head of mobile device marketing, Ifi Majid (a Nokia transplant), tells me the company learned a lot from the massive 6-inch Lumia 1520, a gorgeous phone that was a beast to hold. Microsoft’s designers ended up settling on a 5.7-inch screen as the upper limit for how big they could make a phone without sacrificing comfort. The 640 XL’s rounded edges are also far more forgiving in your pocket than the 1520’s sharper angles.
If you’re hoping for a new Microsoft flagship phone though, expect to wait a while. According to Majid it “doesn’t make sense” to release a new flagship until Windows 10 comes out later this year (there’s no firm release date yet). A killer flagship will be a huge draw for Windows 10, there’s no doubt about that. But such a long wait leaves Microsoft with nothing to show as every other phone maker trots out their latest wares. We might even end up seeing the next iPhone before it’s revealed. At this point, the six-month old Lumia 930 is the best phone Microsoft’s got (we may eventually see a minor upgrade in the form of a Lumia 940, though).
While they’re not as flashy as the latest high-end phones being announced this week, Microsoft’s new Lumias prove one thing: It’s going to be a pretty damn interesting year for budget phones.
Samsung’s Galaxy S 6 will come preloaded with several Microsoft apps
While Samsung may have trimmed some of the bloat from the Galaxy S 6 (and the S 6 Edge), it looks like it’s still going to come preloaded with things you may or may not want. Microsoft’s Skype, OneNote, and OneDrive applications will come standard on your GS6, although you’ll still get to snag that free 100 GB of free OneDrive storage space that Samsung is giving away, so it’s not all bad.
This isn’t the most subtle way to get Microsoft services into the hands of Android users, but it’s definitely going to be an effective one. Google may not like the move, but hey, that’s the beauty of Android being more open than other platforms.
source: The Verge
Come comment on this article: Samsung’s Galaxy S 6 will come preloaded with several Microsoft apps
Samsung Galaxy S6 comes with Microsoft apps out of the box
Those rumors that Samsung would reduce the glut of in-house software on the Galaxy S6, and include some of Microsoft’s apps? They’re at least partly true. Both the S6 and S6 edge will ship with a “Microsoft Apps” folder that currently includes OneDrive, OneNote and Skype. There’s no hint of Office (at least not yet), but you will get 115GB of free OneDrive cloud storage for two years. You certainly won’t be hurting for photo backup space, then. It’s hard to say if the bundle is the direct result of Microsoft and Samsung calling a truce in their Android royalty dispute. Either way, the move is going to give Microsoft’s services a lot more exposure. While they’ve been available on Android for some time, their absence in phone bundles has typically made it easier to lean on equivalents from the likes of Google and Dropbox.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Microsoft
Via: The Verge
Source: Samsung Mobile Press
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