Wolfenstein: The New Order is 1080p 60fps

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 24th

Xbox One is clawing its way back from the abyss that, according to SonyGAF, it was so surely sliding towards due to the "Resolutiongate" debacle. Wolfenstein will run 1080p 60fps on all current gen platforms. Wolfenstein is a pretty graphically demanding game, so Xbox One can obviously achieve parity easily with the "upgrades" mentioned below.



The highly anticipated shooter will maintain the highest quality on both current gen platforms, and PC of course.

The dGPU of the Xbox One is obviously beginning to show itself. Tiled Resources and GPU optimisation will take time to show and effort to use, but putting a second GPU in the process is easy to do without any optimisation.

Think of it this way. The original singular GPU of the Xbox One rates five points in a scale. The PS4's superior singular GPU rates 7.5. However, add another identical GPU to the Xbox One side and it rates a total of 10.

 

Microsoft obviously did not expect Sony to push their GPU 100% out of the gate, preferring to slowly increase performance over time. Now they are pushing their two GPUs to provide a superior experience than PS4, and we will begin to see that soon, beginning likely around June.

 

I anxiously await the full optimisation of two GPUs. Great things are coming!

Thief runs better on Xbox One+Dash Beta Update

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 24th 2014

Don't be too quick to hail the PS4 as your eternal savoir, because the results are in. Thief runs better on Xbox One.

Yes, the highly anticipated blockbuster is running at 900p on Xbox One and 1080p on PS4. So what is better?

Xbox One holds a wonderfully smooth framerate at a steady 30fps. The game stays securely at that rate the whole game and very rarely dips.

In contrast, the PS4 runs the game at a higher resolution (which is very difficult to see with the naked eye due to Xbox One's excellent upscaling), but has regular framerate drops into the teens, and occasionally even drops into single figures, according to Crave Online.

So unless you value a completely unnoticeable increase in resolution, then pick the superior framerate (which PS4 cannot do anything about).

Whatever you do, enjoy your Thief experience.

In other news, I have been confirmed access to the upcoming dashboard beta for the Xbox One and I will provide details on that at a later date. Happy gaming!

Pre-Downloading enabled on Titanfall Xbox One (UPDATE)

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 17th 2014

(UPDATE): Turns out that you can't predownload on Xbox One or 360 at the moment (for any game), courtesy of MS. You can still predownload on PC. However, this feature is due to arrive on Xbox One at some point, but we don't know when.

Original story follows:

Respawn has confirmed that "pre-loading" (that means pre-downloading) Titanfall will be enabled on Xbox One and PC. No word on the 360 getting this.

This is the first instance EVER preloading has been on Xbox consoles. Respawn has been pushing MS pretty hard, and MS has been keeping 'em happy, for everyone's benefit. Good job everyone involved. Keep it up, Respawn. 

The Titan will be allowed to drop onto your Xbox at a later date, but it cannot be opened until 12.01PST on March 11th (or your respective release in your country). Be excited, the greatest game of this generation so far will be sitting on your console soon just waiting for 12.01PST on March 11th. This is a good reason to buy disc, you could be on all of 30 seconds earlier! 

Titanfall is due on Xbox One and PC March 11th (or 13th), and Xbox 360 March 24th (or 25th). It will not come to Playstation 4 or any other platform.

Selection for Xbox One Update Beta Test happening now

Post by Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 17th 2014

The selection for the Xbox One Update Beta Test has already begun, and the good news is a lot of people are going to get a chance. The bad news (well, not for me) is you will have to be an Xbox Ambassador to join, and you will have to have put some time in there over the last month. It's a nice reward. An email came through to me with the subject "You've been invited to Preview Xbox One Updates early!". The full transcript follows.

Hello Ambassador,

We’re writing because we’ve selected you – yes, you – to preview Xbox One updates. By now, you should have received a Live Message from Xbox (available on your console and Xbox.com) with a 5x5 code. By redeeming this code, you will be able to install the official update Registration App. By following the steps in this app, you should be accepted in the coming days, and you will be included in the update preview when it begins in the days following.

Why you, you ask? Well, we made sure you were included in this preview program not just because you’re an Ambassador, but because you’re an Ambassador who took the time to help over these past few busy months. We know that you took time out of your schedule to assist your community. And to us, that shows serious care for the betterment Xbox and Xbox Live.  Who better to help us shape the future?

We hope you’ll take advantage of this chance to experience these new features first, give us helpful feedback, and act as a leader and a supporter of your Xbox peers in the private preview forums. (Coming soon to a Forums.Xbox.com near you!)

Thank you for your interest in the Xbox One Preview Program, and for all you continue to do as an Ambassador.

Best,

A few minutes later, a second email came through with the subject "Holy Speedy Emails!". The transcript follows.

Hey again!  Looks like some of these emails are getting to folks before the Live messages, rather than after as expected.  If you get your email first, no worries!  Messages with the Live codes will be going out throughout the day.  Please stay tuned to the Ambassy for more info!

I haven't had a chance to test out the beta yet, and my LIVE message hasn't come through yet. Stay tuned for more from this blog!

MS Didn't Pay Off Press to Hype Titanfall+Xbox One Game News

Post by Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 17th 2014

Microsoft and Respawn didn't pay off the press, nor anyone else, to promote Titanfall as suggested by N4G. Sony fanboys have jumped on the "news" and I, for one, have seen it mentioned many times on Xbox.com. A Microsoft spokesman (EDIT: Drew McCoy, Producer of Titanfall at Respawn) told N4G that MS found it "insulting" that they would be accused of such a low down act, and called it "downright insanity" to think he, EA, Respawn, or MS would pay off people to hype up their game. He admits they "fought tooth and nail" for attention over more establised titles, but they certainly deny the "crazy conspiracy theories" than anyone was being paid off. Good job, MS. Try again, Sony.

In other news (could you call the above news?) Octodad: Dadliest Catch is being considered as a port to Xbox One by its developer, Young Horses. The game was delayed on PS4 to April, and is already avaliable on PC. There are still no plans to bring it to Wii U. 

Halo: Spartan Assault Xbox One has been updated, but it's mostly fixes. Find the full changelist here.

.Microsoft and Black Tusk will not rush the next Gears of War to market, MS has reassured fans. Black Tusk will take their time, and I'm sure it will be good. Microsoft's Gears of War has a reputation to uphold, and I very much doubt they will want to repeat the debacle that was Halo 4 upon release.

Titanfall Xbox One will have a considerable performance "under the hood" upgrade from its beta, as well as other improvements not listed. Bluepoint Games' version of Titanfall (the 360 version) is "coming along really well" according to Drew McCoy, Producer at Respawn. He says he'd rather Bluepoint took an extra couple of weeks to finish up than launch an unfinished version, which is apparantly the opposite of the line of thinking at EA and DICE when Battlefield 4 was released. The game will come to PC and Xbox One on March 11th/13th, and Xbox 360 on March 24th. It will not come out on PS systems.

Finally, a bunch of 360 games are on sale on Xbox.com and the Xbox 360 digital store. And I mean crazy sales. Jump for it now, there will be more tomorrow but if you want to catch Skyrim, FIFA 14, Left 4 Dead and many others you better hurry! However, the sale is not advertised on Xbox.com, so if you want to find the games on sale you will have to check Twitter or go on Xbox 360 before midnight tonight. Go quick!

If you can't see that, that's $9.89. That's approximately £6 in real money so go ahead and invest! 

Oh, and preorder Wolfenstein: The New Order and get access to the Doom 4 beta. Just a hint.

Xbox One: Delivering the Games, not the Numbers

Post by Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 17th 2014

Xbox One has been ridiculed on many gaming sites and by the notorious PS fanboys as being a less-than-1080p delivering console. Despite many games (FIFA 14, Forza 5, and Need for Speed Rivals to name a few) rendering natively in 1080p, a few games have failed to reach the mark. Some did it conciously, like Ryse: Son of Rome, deciding to focus on the effects and picture quality rather than the resolution (hitting 900p 30fps), or Dead Rising 3, which decided to donate CPU and GPU power to produce over 1000 individual sophisticated zombie AI onscreen, which is currently a best for either console.

Others notoriously failed to hit the mark, quoting the fact 10% of the GPU is reserved for Kinect (now 2%), there was an inefficient SDK (fixed, but we won't see benefit for a while) and saying that the system simply wasn't powerful enough. Some can be put down as lazy devs *coughCoD:Ghostscough*, but others could be a valid concern. However, Xbox users, don't pick at the numbers, as it has been proven that next-generation upscaling on Xbox One can produce a picture of almost equal quality from 720p to 1080p as a 1080p native game. Sure, numbers are nice, but what do they really mean?




Here for instance, it is proven Xbox One's 720p to 1080p upscale is better quality than PS4's 900p to 1080p upscale. Other comparisons have revealed little difference in graphical quality in every game except CoD: Ghosts. And IW is lazy, we all know that.

But Xbox One delivers on far more than just graphics, and the best AAA exclusives of this generation so far (as well as some indies not coming to PS like Super Time Force and Roundabout) have been delivered at launch, and many more are due in 2014. The competition had a generic shooter and a less-than-attractive platformer as their primary exclusives for launch, and await just a few more AAA exclusives in 2014, one of which had a graphical exposure on Twitter (including shadows not existing dynamically from streetlights), and another will fill your screen with QTEs and black bars.

Xbox One awaits exclusive titles from Remedy, Insomniac, previously a PS only developer (which made many angry and me very happy), Respawn Entertainment, Team Dakota, 343 Industries, Rare, Capy, Lionhead Studios, Turn 10, and possibly even Playground Games, as well as two confirmed Black Tusk projects (Gears and something else). I'm probably missing some.

PS4 gets the hype as the gamer's machine while simeltaniously not having any worthwhile games other than multiplats, a rip off of Gears due in 2014, and a game that seems to have had its graphics downgraded from E3, also not out yet.. Xbox One catches all the flak while having multiple worthwhile exclusives such as Forza with laser scanned tracks, Dead Rising 3 with a big open world and some big 'ol crowds of zombies, and Peggle 2. OK, Peggle 2 won't be exclusive forever, but I just love it so much.

Even PS4 gamers shouting "We have innovation! We have indies!" will soon be disappointed. March is expected to see the first batch of ID@Xbox titles, and I for sure will be picking up Roundabout. Whoever thought that game up deserves a medal. 

Massive Open Worlds, Time Manipulation, FPS Parkour, 1000 Zombies Onscreen, Laser Scanned Tracks, Unicorns and Pegs, Jetskiing and Wall Climbing, World Creation and a Custom Game Tool, a Top Down (shooter), another Top Down (not a shooter), a Fantasy RPG, 

a competitive FPS, another competitive FPS, possibly an open world car game, and multiple unannounced projects. If Xbox One hasn't got it yet, it's getting it damn soon. Exclusive.

If you ever get sad from looking at your TV playing Titanfall and saying "That picture is 900p upscaled to 1080p", remember this: Xbox One has the best exclusives around, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

Project Spark Xbox One Beta on time, and 4J Studios are close to an announcement

Post by Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 17th 2014

Project Spark's Beta, the most awaited creative game so far on next-gen consoles, is still due out by the end of February, the official @proj_spark Twitter account has announced. The beta is already out on Windows 8 PCs that reach minimum specs, but has been repeatedly delayed on Xbox One due to "various bugs". It has still not gone into certification, but the developers don't seem worried. They have joked that they will have the game out on February 32nd, but they seem fairly confident nothing will turn up in certification and it will arrive on time.

The full game is due out on PCs running Windows 8, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in April. It will not come to PS4 or any other non-Microsoft platform.




In other creative game news, Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will have an announcement "not long" from now. 4J Studios on Twitter declared that they were excited to show us what they had been working on, but they first wanted to update the PS3 version. The studio developed Minecraft for Xbox 360 and PS3, and have shown us a single image of the Xbox One edition. It didn't look much different to the PC version.

This image contains an anvil and emeralds, both things currently not on Xbox 360 or PS3. 

We don't know much about Minecraft Xbox One except these things: It will run a CONFIRMED 1080p 60fps, it will have "much larger worlds", and it will have something close to parity with the PC version. That's it. Fingers crossed this announcement is something good.

Minecraft: Xbox One Edition has no defined release date other than "2014". 

Sale on Xbox One Digital Games

Post by Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 17th 2014

Just a quick update everybody:

Ryse: Son of Rome and Rayman Legends are both on sale on the Xbox One Digital Store. They are both currently lying at $39.99 (or, bizarrely, £33.99) so if you were wanting to make the move and buy either of these, do it now. If you want to show your friends the real graphical power of Xbox One, go ahead and buy Ryse. This sale only lasts until the 22nd of February 2014, so grab 'em now!

Games with Gold will likely feature Ryse and is rumoured to be coming in June. Take that as you will...

My Top 5 Most Anticipated Xbox One AAA Exclusives of 2014

Post by Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 17th 2014

Xbox One has a very large selection of AAA exclusives coming with more than a few first and third party studios working on them. Microsoft Studios is working to secure the best of the best for Xbox One, and even through 2014 Xbox has more of the most anticipated exclusives than any other console on the market. Here are my most anticipated exclusives for 2014.

5. Halo Xbox One

Halo Xbox One is expected to bounce Halo back from the quicksand of obscurity that threatens it after the botched job that was Halo 4. With a new platform with more horsepower, and the power of the cloud to rely on, Halo Xbox One has been confirmed to run at 1080p 60fps, and to include dedicated servers in the technical mastery that are the DirectX12 resources it will use, including the titan of space-saving and texture rendering that is Tiled Resources. 

Halo is the defender of Microsoft's technological prowess. Forza 5 has held the title but is being passed over in irrelevance due to the fair amount of titles running at a lower resolution on Xbox One. Despite the fact the high-quality upscaler means there is little difference, Microsoft need a game that pushes the boundaries of the platform in every way, in the "nice looking stuff" area, the resolution, and a steady 60fps. 343 Industries are ready to scratch that itch.

Oh, and it needs to have the classic Halo gameplay as a central feature, or Halo is going to crash and burn...and sink into irrelevancy. #

Halo Xbox One has no release date except "Late 2014". It will not come to any other platforms.

4. Titanfall

Titanfall is the premier FPS of 2014. The beta has had an extremely welcoming reception from critics and players alike, praising the game not for its good, but admittedly not amazing, graphics (792p 60fps, 900p upscaled to 1080p in the full game), but for its innovative but still recognizable and quick-paced gameplay. Respawn Games has done a good job on this one.

The gameplay is simple to understand: A Titan (essentially an angry mech) will drop at your feet to assist you in eliminating the enemy team, and the enemy team's AI players, every three minutes. The Titan can also be boarded to control and use tactically. Each team has 6 regular players, a possible total of 6 titans, and 12 AI players (Grunts and Spectres, the latter of which is actually a worthy opponent), all of which respawn at their respective intervals. 

Killing enemies (AI or players) skips the Titan clock ahead depending on how many points they are worth. Titans are big and chunky but very powerful, whereas a naked (comparatively) Pilot (player) is quick and dangerous, but not very powerful. 

The game is based around parkour-like combat, and it's dangerous to stay in one place for too long. The game also includes campaign-multiplayer, literally missions based in an online match. Another big innovation is being able to change the AI's alliegences from the enemy to your team, with your data knife. This means the enemy can become your buddies if you stab them, which is strange...I guess.

Standby for Titanfall on 11th March 2014 (or 13th in Europe).

This one isn't totally Xbox One exclusive, it is also due to PC on March 11th/13th, and Xbox 360 on March 24th.

3. Kinect Sports Rivals

Kinect Sport Rivals is fun. There's no getting around that. It's accurate, realistic (rendering at 1080p 30fps) and it wants to reintroduce competition to motion gaming. Yes, you are going to have to put in physical work, boo hoo. Rare, the studio that created all previous Kinect Sports titles, are out to beat their own record of quality, with beautiful HD graphics, amazing open environments using the power of the system, and accurate motion detection with the Xbox One Kinect. It will also include Forza 5's innovation of "driveatars" which copy your style of play, and keep playing in other people's games. Be excited. I am.

Kinect Sports Rivals is due 8th April 2014.

2. Sunset Overdrive

Xbox One Exclusive Sunset Overdrive promises almost everything I've ever wanted in a game. Offering a truly open and dynamic world (and I mean dynamic, if the devs ever wanted to replace a shopping mall with a communist monument they just need to press upload), crazy weapons (such as a disc flinger), loads of AI on screen (although not touching Dead Rising 3), and mutants (FTW), this Third Person Shooter (including RPG elements) is everything I want on a Next Gen system. Developed by Insomniac Games (previously developing only for Sony), Microsoft have snagged a winner here. It even uses incredible parkour mechanics to rival and shame Titanfall.

Also, dat mutant blood. My body is ready, but my wallet is shrinking preordering all these games.

Sunset Overdrive has no defined release date other than "2014".

1. Quantum Break

What is Quantum Break?

Your brother was killed by a time manipulation experiment that you were both forced into, and now time is beginning to collapse. Don't stop there though...you have also received time manipulation powers from the experiment. You can pause time in a specific area (such as the air around bullets or a car) step out of the way or wait for your enemies to walk in their path, and  then set the time-lapsed items back into motion. That could be painful for your enemies. 

This is another Third Person Shooter, but it isn't "another Third Person Shooter". This is the beautiful head of innovation appearing in the sea of clones and crap. Time can be manipulated, fast forwarded, skipped, reversed, and simply paused to explore at your leisure. You are playing to stop the collapse of time, which is due to the bad guy. It also has story choices which dramatically affect the story arc. That's all we know for now. However, it's looking beautiful and a great catch for Microsoft. 

You are playing as both the "good" and "evil" characters in the game, and your choices are made both from the "good" view in some episodes, and the "bad" in the others. 

Remedy have included a live-action TV series on-disc, which adapts depending on your choices in-game. At the end of every game episode there is a choice, and that branches the story in many different directions. Does that make this an RPG? Anyway, I'm going to be forcing my family to watch the TV series with me.

I'm extremely excited for this game, and you should be too. Remedy, Microsoft's Naughty Dog, cannot, and will not, disappoint.

Quantum Break doesn't have a release date other than "2014".