This Week's News

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of March 11th 2014

This week offered some big news to Xbox owners. The Kinect became an optional accessory, Games With Gold was announced for Xbox One starting with Spartan Assault and Max: TCoB. However, an active LIVE subscription is a requirement to keep playing the games you get free with the program, unlike Xbox 360's GWG. Apps were removed from the LIVE paywall on Xbox One, and, unsurprisingly, The Division was delayed until 2015.

My take on this all is 99% of it is good. The Division will be a better game for it, GWG will get better as the deal is more convincing for publishers, apps will be free from their prison of a paywall. My only issue is the Kinect unbundling, but it will lead to a power boost and possibly the almightly 1080p, not to mention more sales. Oh well.

Destiny Cost $500,000,000 to make

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of April 5th 2014

How ridiculous is that?

Across Marketing and Development, Activision shelled out A LOT. $500,000,000 to be precise. Kevin Dent predicts that the game will have to sell 30 million copies within the first month to cover this kind of cost and keep Activision happy.

Man Bungie, what yo doing in there? Are you purchasing expensive jewellery to cover your entire studio with? Halo 4 was the most expensive Halo ever and got nowhere close.

As KingBSon seems adamant on explaining on Twitter, Destiny seems clearly meant for PS players to get their Halo fix. I personally will only pick it up if I can get it cheap in a sale, and otherwise I'll wait for Halo: Xbox One.

What do you guys think?

The Amazing Spiderman Two Comes To Xbox One Early

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of April 28th 2014

The Amazing Spiderman 2 is out on Xbox One...Three days early.

The game, which released on the US Digital Store today, was originally cancelled for the Xbox One. Microsoft said an issue with the publisher (Activision) arose, but apparently good 'ol Phil sorted it out for us and even got us it three days early, even if the retail version seems to have gone MIA. The Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, and PC versions of TAS2 will release on May 2nd. Get in your extra time, Xbox Fans!

Technically, the game is the same as the PS4 version, running at 1080p 30fps with the same graphic settings. No advantage for PS4 in resolution, and no advantage for Xbox One in textures. It's an even playing field, which is what we really want to see this generation. Each fanbase receiving a proper port of their games.

In other news, Driveclub has announced an October 8th release date after a nine month delay. The PS4 exclusive will hopefully (for all you PS players) release then, if it isn't delayed again like Watch Dogs was back in 2013.

Fable Legends Sure Is Pretty

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of April 21st 2014

Fable Legends is due out in 2015.

And they have just released the first pictures of it, as an Unreal Engine 4 tech demo and to show the capabilities of Xbox One using DirectX 11.2 and DirectX 12. This tech demo is to do with 100% dynamic lighting, and how much better it looks reflecting light where developers and artists may have missed a reflection with baked lighting. Take a look for yourselves and make sure to click on and enlarge the images. For reference, these are from the Fable Blog here, run by Lionhead, a 1st Party Microsoft Studio.

All of these pictures are full 1080p as is the game, so enjoy. Fable Legends is scheduled to release in 2015.

The above image is of a forest with a loot chest within it, using the Dynamic Lighting parameters.

The picture above is of an arch without using the Dynamic Lighting parameters. Look at how flat it looks.

The above picture is the same arch, with the Dynamic Lighting parameters enabled. Look at how vibrant and realistic it is.

The picture above is a tech demo of how the lighting works. See how the bottoms of the spheres are darkened, and the sunlight conforms to the shape of the objects above it.

If you enjoyed these images, look here for more of the tech demos a la the final picture. There are no more "world" pictures like the arch.

In my opinion, if Sony had published this, the gaming sites would be going mad about how gorgeous it looks and how Sony had once again succeeded in topping the competition. If Microsoft publishes it? Not a peep. It's ridiculous.

Sunset Overdrive Reveals Hinted at May 8

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of April 7th 2014


Get ready folks, because the extremely highly anticipated Xbox One exclusive developed by Insomniac games may finally be getting a proper gameplay reveal on May 8. These were hinted at by Sunset Overdrive's official Twitter account with these images, pertaining to Edge Magazine and Edge Online.

What's this in this month's print edition of @edgeonline? https://t.co/BcaaepbYoP Or this in the digital version?: https://t.co/GCBfUfHJL0
— Sunset Overdrive (@SunsetOverdrive) April 11, 2014

Here are the images:

 

 

Sunset Overdrive's Logo is pictured in the first image, with May 8 written on the top next to the number #267, obviously pertaining to the issue the reveal will happen in. The second image shows Sunset Overdrive's "OverCharge" cola, again with the May 8 and #267. What could this mean? Will we see game play? All will be revealed... soon...

Exposing the Lies

After Titanfall's success and Infamous: Second Son's success, along with hardware sales doubling for both new consoles in their respective launch weeks, surely it would be a GOOD time to be a console gamer?

According to the SDF, only if you are loyal to Sony.

 

The SDF's hate has stepped up on Twitter this week, with some ridiculous claims and clashes with Xbox loyals over what they KNOW is a lie.

@VirtuaMe @majornelson Everyone knows @Titanfallgame would run 1080p/60fps on PS4. So when Nelson talks about Cloud bullshit, it's insulting
— Shane Stocks (@Shane_Stocks) April 4, 2014

Firstly, the cloud demonstration by Microsoft at the Windows Build Conference last week show a 10,000 particle destruction of a building at 32FPS. The local-compute version of the demonstration dropped down to single-figures, whereas the version with a large amount of the processing offloaded to Azure ran smoothly at 32FPS without a drop. Secondly, the servers were the nearest Azure farm, not in the room next door. Thirdly, apparently the building-explosion was not a throwaway project, so it could, and probably will be, part of an upcoming game.

I decided I would expose a few lies in this article while on the slopes today. Guess I'll begin.

Lie #1: Games Look Better on PS4

 

 It is true that the native resolution of some multiplats is higher on PlayStation 4 than on the Xbox One. However, the texture resolution has been ridiculously toned down to reach the 1080p (or 900p) targets. Here is a notable example: Thief running at 900p->1080p on Xbox One, 1080p on PS4 and 1080p on PC. As you can see, the Xbox One stands up well to the PC version with only a tiny decrease in sharpness. The PS4's textures, meanwhile, are disgustingly low-res. This is one of the more noticeable texture problems, but another example is BF4: It runs at 720p->1080p on Xbox One and 900p->1080p on PS4 and yet the textures are HD on Xbox One and SD on PS4, making the Xbox One version look superior. The Xbox One also has another advantage: The RGB colour mode is FULL on Xbox One (255R 255G 255B) and it is limited on PS4, which is why the PS4 games in comparisons look washed out. The SDF will attempt to tell you that is more realistic. Don't listen to them.

Lie #2: PS4 Has Superior Exclusives

 

The SDF repeatedly claim that the PS4 has multiple AAA exclusives on the Horizon, but the only one I see is The Order: 1886. Driveclub has disappeared into the ether. And The Order has wonderful 1920x800 Black Bars. Mmm. Meanwhile, the Xbox One has Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break, Kinect Sports Rivals, a new Halo, and likely a new Horizon in 2014. Your move SDF. Oh yeah, don't say Indies. ID@Xbox has us covered.

Lie #3: The Cloud is a Lie

 

I kind of dealt with this one up top, didn't I? If you need more proof, Driveatars and Titanfall's AI and ships should be enough to show you the way.

Lie #4: Sony is For The Gamers

 

 

 

Sorry to burst your bubble SDF, but Sony couldn't care less about you. While Microsoft is apologising for a five-hour outage which affected less than 1% of the population on LIVE by gifting everyone 7 Days of LIVE, and constantly updating, fixing and refining their console... Sony is sitting on its arse. When PSN went out for more than a month and millions lost their credit cards to hackers, did Sony offer compensation? No, in the face of blinding evidence they said no-one was compromised when it was quite obvious they were, and simply let it slide. Not a cent.

 

They also lie. They lie to sell their products. There isn't any disc-based DRM, until you take it out of the drive. It's against the ToS to resell games. But shh! The end consumer might find out!

 

They said Killzone: Shadowfall's Multiplayer ran 1920x1080p 60fps. It runs 960x1080i with an average of 50fps. But who cares? "Sony are fine, Sony are great, they'll never go bankrupt because they're so great."

 

They sold the PS4 in Canada at parity with the US, and post-launch bummed the Canadian audience by upping the console to $450 and every peripheral and game by $10. MS didn't do that, but it's OK. Sony wouldn't deceive us.

 

They said that 7GB of the 8GB of GDDR5 in the console was reserved for games, but in reality games are allowed a whopping...4.5GB. Woot. It has the same amount of RAM as a crappy laptop for gaming.

 

They said that their CPU is supercharged, but it devotes just 6 of its 8 cores to games, exactly as the Xbox One. The only difference is that the Xbox One's CPU is at 1.75GHz and PS4's is at 1.6GHz, which means the Xbox One's CPU is more supercharged than the PS4's. "Shut up, logic."

 

They have been filling gamers' heads with BS about GPGPU, when they don't seem to realise that their GPGPU technology is on the wrong side of the bridge to work as a CPU. Sorry guys. We also have a GPGPU and a 128bit bus is sufficient for a GPU of the new consoles' strength. Sorry.

 

Microsoft aren't saintly but they also don't lie to our faces and leave grinning.

 

 



So if you see another member of the SDF out there on Twitter, Facebook, LIVE, or even real life (omg rite), then give 'em a good (verbal) slap with these facts. I hereby release you from this article.

Titanfall: A Player's Review

By Robert, Week of 24th March

I just got Titanfall, on Friday.

Yes, it took bloody ages to ship, but I got it off Amazon for £36.70 shipped to Switzerland from the UK. Good deal.

So after the hype, where does Titanfall stand in the presence of the Big Three, Halo, Call of Duty and Battlefield?

Titanfall has a chance. A big one. But the next release needs to cement the feeling of glory and power the first brings to the table, on Xbox One, PC, and soon Xbox 360. I own the Xbox One version, and damn, it's impressive.

 

 

Before we jump into the opinion, let us state the facts. Titanfall is 6v6 with up to 6 Titans and 12 AI on each team. I was initially sceptical about these numbers, but it turns out that 6v6 plays nicely with the current map size. It runs at 1408x792 progressive, which comes out at 1,115,136 pixels being rendered natively, with an upscale to 1920x1080p. The engine puts out 60fps 98% of the time, and when 4+ Titans are exploding or creating Electric Smoke, it can drop quite nastily to what looks like around 20fps. However, this is so rare it is not a problem. The graphics themselves are nice and all textures are on the PC's "Insane".

 

 

 

For comparison, Killzone: Shadowfall's Multiplayer, an exclusive optimised solely for PlayStation 4, runs at 960x1080 (a very bizarre resolution that, unlike 792p, is not 16:9, nor anywhere near it), and according to Guerrilla Games, uses interlaced scanning (progressive's ugly brother) to save bandwidth. It also has a highly variable FPS , averaging 50fps. It is then upscaled to 1920x1080i. Therefore, it is outputting 1,036,000 pixels on interlace, which is 79,136 less pixels using inferior scanning and with an inferior (mostly) framerate. And it is PS4 exclusive.

 

The gameplay of Titanfall is revolutionary. Wall running and double jumps offer a superior movement experience using the full three dimensions of the map that most other FPSs would be hard pressed to keep up with. Titans, as well as loadouts, are excellently balanced from Rank One all through the 50 ranks, and the next 9 generations. Titanfall is initiated, when you have earned enough time credit, or the timer has run out, by pressing the D-Pad. This will drop (or warp) your Titan into battle. Board it, or leave it to activate the (excellent) Auto-Titan AI. When your Titan is severely damaged, eject, and if you enabled Nuclear Ejection, you will cause more than a little trouble among the other team if you were close by.

 

 

 Titanfall's only...well...fall...is the campaign. It is cool and understandable, as well as playable from both sides, but it is very, very short. Not only that, but the actions of the players have no bearing on the story. Win? If you are IMC, you are still going to lose. Lose? If you are Militia, you are still going to win. Multiplayer campaign is a good idea, and all first-person, interactive cutscenes are a bonus, but ultimately it needs work.

 

Verdict: The twitchy but skilful mechanics of Titanfall ask you to perfect the old, and embrace the new. The Titans offer a second, very fun area for experimentation and to be part of a less stealthy, more explosive battle. The campaign lets it down, but to be honest, who was going to buy it for story?

 

Campaign Score: 5.5/10. Don't buy it for story, but it's worth one play through on each side and the missions are fun multiplayer matches.

Multiplayer Score: 9.5/10. Incredible, revolutionary, very few holes.

Graphics: 4/5. Good, shiny, lots of effects. Nothing super incredible like Ryse though.

 

Total Score: 19/25 (13.5/15 for Multiplayer, most of Titanfall).

Microsoft's E3=Games

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

2013's Microsoft E3 wasn't even much of a disaster. The hate didn't start until Sony threw mud at MS for forward thinking policies (10-friend sharing much?), and the internet began to turn Sony into some kind of idol. Hell, a few low blows and some rumour/misunderstanding mongering and the hack of a couple years ago (and subsequent hacks), not to mention the lowest quality online, are a distant memory.

Despite some depressing "win and loss" articles last year, MS is back on track to attack this E3, with GAMES GAMES GAMES being a priority. Phil Spencer has let us know we won't be seeing many executives on stage this year, and the 90 minute show is having content cut and moved to fit it all in. Sounds good.

So what are you looking forward to this year? I personally am looking forward to Sunset Overdrive and Quantum Break news, and of course more Halo.

So What is in the April Update?

Xbox One will be having its largest update yet across April, and us previewers have been told what to expect. No external support yet, but here's a full changelist.

What to expect in this update preview

For those of you that participated in last month’s (1403) update preview, this preview wave will be a little different:

• The 1404 update preview will run a bit longer than the 1403 preview. As a result, not all of the features listed below will be available in the first 1404 update. Some features will be enabled in 1404 updates that are rolled out later in the preview.
• Some of the features listed below will be enabled outside of a console update. Keep an eye on the forums for announcements and information on when new features are made available.

What’s new in this release?

• Game and app saves and updates. A game save progress bar will show you the status of your game saves. You will also be able to easily tell what games and apps are being updated or have been updated recently.
• Friends improvements. Notifications will be added to see when favorites and friends sign in to Xbox Live. This actually was one of the most frequently requested features from the first preview wave and we made it a priority to include it in the April update. Also, friends who are in multiplayer will be identified in the friends list. We’ll also add the ability to view friends’ most popular apps.
• Blu-ray 50 Hz video output support for content recorded at 50 Hz will resolve video playback issues some Xbox Live members in Europe are experiencing.
• Kinect voice and motion improvements will continue to fine tune the quality and reliability of Xbox One commands.
• Improved GameDVR video quality through compression algorithm improvements.
• Updates to Xbox One device management to address issues controlling TVs, set top boxes, and receivers that our customers have reported.
• New audio settings to tune how much volume is lowered when Kinect is used in communications.

So are you excited? You better be. I'll get screenshots when it downloads to my Xbox One. I'm especially excited for better quality DVR with better bitrate. Also, friend notifications will be great, as my first IRL friend got an Xbox One and I want to play Forza and Titanfall with him. :D

In a less immediate comment, I am SO ready for external support in the next next update, as I want it rigged up before I run out of space.

So what are you excited for? Tell me in the comments below!

Watch Dogs is out May 27

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of March 3

Watch Dogs is out on all platforms except Wii U on May 27th. The visuals haven't been downgraded according to Ubisoft and the developer is still looking for parity in visuals and physics. They are also considering The Cloud to help calculate physics and graphics on Xbox One.

The above picture is from the original PS4 demo at E3 2013. Check out the low-res textures. As much as Ubisoft thinks they are controlling next-gen, in reality I think this game will flop. Flop like a fish.

The Biggest Game of 2014 (So Far) is MS Exclusive-Why is that a big deal?

By Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of March 3

Titanfall is not coming to PS4.

Nor is the extremely highly-anticipated game coming to PS3, Wii U, or indeed any other devices except Xbox One and PC on March 11th/13th/14th, with an Xbox 360 port due on March 24/25th.

But why is this a big deal? According to the Sony Defense Force, the game is "CoD with Mechs". Well it's actually CoD with Mechs, Wall Running, Hackable Opponents, Drop Pods, Frigates, Two opposing armies (The Militia and IMC), Futuristic Weapons, and on top of all of that, Multiplayer Campaigns. Two of them. 

Doesn't sound much like CoD really, does it?

Maybe that's why it's being hailed as the CoD killer, the big FPS of this generation, and is praised for having super-fast gameplay and innovative mechanics while staying true to the FPS formula. And lo and behold, it isn't on PS4.

I mean honestly, what AAA games do PS4 gamers really have to look forward to apart from The Order: 1886 and inFamous?

Nor can PS gamers play the resolution card any more. It was recently announced that Killzone: Shadow Fall's Multiplayer runs at 960x1080p at an average of 50fps. Yep. Sony lied. It ain't 1080p, nor is it 60fps. Hell, it's less than the 792p the Titanfall Xbox One beta ran at, and only just beats out 720p, which is supposedly so hated by PS players.

That means that the PS4 has not a single AAA running 1080p 60fps apart from multiplats. Xbox One currently has Forza running at 1080p 60fps. Hmm.

So let's get back to exclusive FPS'. Killzone's Multiplayer renders a total of 1,036,000 pixels at an extremely variable framerate averaging 50fps. It is upscaled to 1920x1080p.

Titanfall, at its release resolution of 1600x900p, renders 1,400,000 pixels at a solid 60fps. It is upscaled to 1920x1080p. Sucks to be you, SDF. 

But at its heart, Titanfall's gameplay is something we haven't seen for a long time: Innovation in an FPS on console. Sony have, according to "insiders" (take this with a colossal mine of salt), been chasing up Respawn and EA to get Titanfall 2 on PS. Microsoft, meanwhile, have been working to make the entire future portfolio of Titanfall exclusive to Xbox and PC after seeing the hype train go flying towards the cash cow. It's a battle worth fighting.

But why did Titanfall end up MS exclusive?

The SDF has assumed that Microsoft paid off EA, and EA looked only at the $$$ leaving Respawn in the dust. But that is wrong. It is so wrong. So very, very wrong.

When Respawn went looking for places to host their games, they pitched to both Microsoft and Sony. Sony said they would be happy to let Respawn and EA publish on PS for a cut of the profits, which is standard procedure. However, EA/Respawn would have to provide their own servers to do the AI calculation and Multiplayer hosting as Sony's few servers were reserved for First-Party games.

Respawn and EA quickly dropped Sony and concentrated on the MS pitch. Happily for all parties involved, Microsoft offered up their net of 300,000 Azure servers as a scaleable farm to run Titanfall, and all calculations, on. For free.

EA and Respawn jumped at the prospect, and without a payout of any kind agreed exclusivity for the high-quality servers the game would run on. The game would run with minimal lag, do AI calculations and send them down the line to the Xbox, and still release on the premier FPS platforms. It was a win for everybody except Sony, who are currently desperately trying to get Titanfall 2 for PS.

We won't see Titanfall on PS until servers akin to Azure show up there, and even so, I doubt Microsoft will let this one slip through the net. 

So the (so far) biggest FPS of this generation, and (so far) the most hyped game of this generation, will not be showing on PlayStation, and Microsoft has got the kudos for it. Well done Microsoft, you even managed to show up Sony on resolution and framerate on the "inferior" machine, which I am very happy with.

Keep on the straight and narrow, stay in school, be a good biscuit today, and Standby for Titanfall on the 11th (US), 13th (EU), 14th (UK), 24th (360 US), or 25th (360 EU and UK) of March. 

Thief on PS4: Sacrificing everything for 1080p

Perhaps the PS4 is not as powerful as some would like to think. Crappy AA, slow loading and poor quality textures and a pathetic framerate all show up on Thief, and for what?

1080p.

Most people don't even know what 1080p is, yet they are willing to lose all of the far more important aspects of visuals (Anti Aliasing, Good Textures, Good Framerate) for a chunky number.

Don't believe me?

Does Sony have some sort of 1080p mandate on? If so, things are looking smooth for the Xbox One. All the Xbox One suffers from on this game is a 900p resolution (don't worry, it's upscaled) and a slightly dodgy framerate.

What's next on Resolutiongate? 1080p with no effects is better than 900p with the full works and HD textures?

I can see it now.

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.