For a game with an almost cartoonish art style, Commandos 2: Men of Courage happens to be one of the most visceral and realistic recreations of the Second World War. Unlike the legions of gung-ho WW2 shoot-em-ups that have you blasting through waves of identikit baddies, the Commandos series...
Dismantling the Nazi war machine has never required such finesse
Worried it might lose younger block-buying customers to video games and computers, Lego has teamed up with Sony to bring the two closer together. PCWorld reports that researchers at Sony's Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo have already...
Does the Xbox One actually require an internet connection? Will used game buyers or sellers have to pay an extra fee? Microsoft hasn't made it clear, but a report at Polygon now claims that the answers are "yes" and "no" respectively. According to the publication's sources, Xbox One games will phone home to Microsoft servers on a regular basis to verify that their users own the games. If you...
With the first phase of Microsoft's Xbox One reveal complete, the company now looks ahead to E3 where it plans to give gamers a more thorough look at the upcoming console. Polygon is today reporting that there are two major features of Xbox One that weren't shown off in Redmond this week: Skype-based remote play and the new Kinect's ability to initiate two-way conversations with users. According to the report, the Siri-like feature will enable Xbox One players to carry on back-and-forth dialogues with Kinect. The console will speak up when it notices an unfamiliar player in the room, for example, requesting a new user's name before automatically setting up their local profile. We've previously reported on Xbox One's vastly improved voice recognition, and while Polygon says this feature may not be ready at launch, it would at worst...
There's so much more to learn
Microsoft believes it can sell 25 million more Xbox 360s despite announcing the console's successor, the Xbox One, earlier this week. The Xbox 360 launched back in 2005, and has sold an estimated 77.2 million to date. Growth has slowed significantly in recent months (despite the console outselling the PS3 in the US for over two years straight), and it only sold 1.3 million last quarter. S...
"We can break a 100 million unit[s]." Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft Senior VP
Microsoft created confusion over its Xbox One online requirement this week, but fresh details are emerging that offer an insight into why the next-generation console needs an internet connection. Microsoft is increasing its number of Xbox Live servers to 300,000, up from only 500 at launch and 15,000 today. The servers will help power a lot of the new Xbox dashboard features, but they'll also...
Sony has confirmed it will release the PlayStation 4 in the UK by the end of the year. In a full-page advert in British newspaper Metro, the company teased the launch of its next-generation console by featuring its new DualShock 4 controller and the message "coming 2013." Today's announcement suggests it will embark on a worldwide launch during the holiday season, instead of limiting an initial release to US and Japanese markets like in previous years.
The International Trade Commission has ruled that Microsoft did not infringe upon any Motorola Mobility patents with the Xbox 360. The decision represents the end of an investigation that stretches back to 2010. Motorola Mobility contended that Microsoft had infringed upon several of its patents with the device, which led to the ITC issuing a preliminary ruling in April of last year that sided with Motorola on four different patents.
However, in the legal back-and-forth all but one of the patents had since been chipped away — some found to be invalid, while Motorola itself requesting others be pulled from the proceedings. In March an...
The Xbox One is a next-generation console, and as such, it's built with some future proofing in mind. It can do things you're not quite ready for just yet, such as play back 4K resolution games, movies, and TV. And it'll support 3D visuals too, despite the fact that 3D in the home has yet to catch in any meaningful way when it comes to TV, movies, or games. Microsoft noted that the new console would support 4K at the Xbox One launch event on...
Will the games be there?
Don't let the goofy name fool you: Blip Blup is a clever and challenging puzzle game with a slick minimalist look and feel. In each level you're presented with a screen of grey squares, and the goal is to fill them with color. All this requires is a touch of your finger, which will send out a...
We've seen the reveal trailer, and now the team behind Call of Duty: Ghosts is pulling back the curtain and providing a look at the game's robust next-generation engine. In the below clip (also screened during yesterday's Xbox One keynote), you'll...
Some Xbox 360 owners are dismayed that their collection of current-generation games won't work on the upcoming Xbox One. But Xbox head Don Mattrick is betting that they're in the vast minority. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mattrick explained the decision not...
With both its current and next-generation PlayStation platforms, Sony is making a concerted effort to capture the hearts and minds of the independent game development community, but the question is whether Microsoft is doing the same with its upcoming console. Yesterday's Xbox One announcement ...
Microsoft didn't reveal all of the planned launch titles for its Xbox One this week. Crytek says that Ryse, a title set in the Roman Empire period, will debut exclusively on the Xbox One. Ryse looks set to be unveiled at E3, with a mini-site teasing the timing for June's gaming event.
Ryse was originally unveiled at E3 2011, with promised Kinect functionality, but the title never made its debut on Xbox 360. The...
Microsoft's Xbox One announcement focused on hardware, entertainment, and gaming, but a controversial aspect of the new console — a rumored always-online requirement — has been left floating amid a sea of confusion. Microsoft sparked the...
Earlier this year, Microsoft discontinued its Xbox Live Gold Family Pack, an option for families to purchase multiple Gold memberships at a reduced rate. It now appears that it's making its way back to the Xbox One in one way or another. Polygon reports that multiple accounts will be able to...
Along with the Xbox One, Microsoft also announced a new Kinect today — and it appears the updated motion-tracking system will be coming to...
The Xbox One console is nice, but what really matters is the controller: after all, it's the thing you hold in your hands the whole time you're...
So is EA making Wii U games, or isn’t it? Last week, company spokesman Jeff Brown said that the company has "no games in development for the Wii U currently," but according to CFO Blake Jorgensen, there actually are plans to make games for the new console, reports Polygon. Responding to a question at the Stifel Nicolaus 2013 Internet, Media,...
Microsoft finally unveiled its next-generation Xbox One console today. Amongst the fanfare of entertainment features, an improved controller, and the centerpiece of Kinect, the company revealed details on the architecture that powers its next console. More importantly, Microsoft says it's running Windows. The company told press that it's marrying its Windows Phone and Windows 8 user interface to the Xbox more closely than ever before, and that in fact the new Xbox is running three operating systems in total. What does that even mean, though?
"Three operating systems in one."
"The soul of the new system is the Xbox One architecture. Three...
"It's what's on the inside that counts" is something of an unofficial mantra of Microsoft's new Xbox One. The Kinect is perhaps the best example: externally, it's more or less unchanged from its predecessor, but it's actually a very different device. It's been upgraded in a huge way, but the end result is simple: the Kinect just sees more. (And hears more, but that's another matter.)
It has an ultra-wide 1080p camera (which should mean the Xbox One doesn't require such a large room),...
We think of video game consoles as being principally about, well, the games. But when the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 went head-to-head in 2006, it wasn't games that truly determined the victor. What eventually drove the Xbox 360 to first place was...
The next generation is nearly upon us. Both Microsoft and Sony have revealed their latest gaming / entertainment consoles to the world, setting up yet another high stakes battle for your hard-earned dollars later this year. The Xbox One and...
In its hour-long Xbox One presentation, Microsoft blazed through announcements for its new next-generation console, including one ostensibly important feature that may raise some eyebrows: the new Xbox will always be listening to you, even when it's turned off.
One of the big rumors leading up to the new Xbox One announcement was the possibility of Microsoft forcing gamers to keep the console connected to the internet. Microsoft says that while the Xbox One requires an internet connection, "it does not have to be always connected." The difference means that Xbox One players won't be restricted from gaming if a connection drops. "We are also designing it so you can play games and watch Blu-ray movies...
