TRAILER

So it's the 80s now, is it? Somehow I didn't know that.

But the start of 24 hour news and the race thing could make for some good entertainment.

Going to a more powerful system would make their complex engine run faster, that means the input lag and such would be greatly reduced, as well as a higher stable framerate to allow the player's mind to more accurately track targets.

That would be he main benefit of Naughty Dog working on PS4 hardware. They already have a really nice painterly style that they could use on the PS4, which means that even after they make everything look pretty, and the characters animate interestingly, they have more left over to put towards quickly processing input and frames.

At this point, for this game, I'm fine with the trade off. However, their games could definitely get better with a silky smooth framerate and no input lag. I also think players will put up with it less as the new generation of games comes to light.

But they won't just make the same level of game with more powerful hardware.  They're going to push that hardware to its limits, too, I'm guessing.  Which would probably create the same issue.

Nightmare Before Christmas wasn't directed by Burton, he wrote it. Henry Selick (Coraline) directed it.

He was also a producer, and I'm not convinced his involvement wasn't along the lines of Spielberg's involvement in Poltergeist.  His DNA is dripping from it.

One of my favorite movies of all times.

I don't get all the new-CATCF hate, but then again, I never saw the original until recently. I guess its one of those "You ruined my childhood" things that I never understand. If you don't like it, just stay clear? It shouldn't ruin your childhood experiences,and you are most certainly (probably?) free to have your children watch the edition you want.

I'm a huge fan of Johnny Depp, and I think he did it splendidly. For all its fun and games, there is a huge undercurrent of danger in the movie. I also haven't read the original book though, so I'm unsure whether that was there as well? I'm actually unsure whether there is any truth to the whole Michael Jackson look-alike thing that Depp and Burton has been accused of, but it certainly adds another dimension to the movie.

I guess what I'm trying to add to the conversation, is that live and let live is a good rule to live by.

Well, it's not just the, hey, don't mess with my childhood thing.  When an update pulls it off, that goes away.  But Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is, as was mentioned here, a classic that stands fine on its own, even today.  Remaking it is a clear cash grab (or possibly also a way to retain rights, though the original had seen a recent rerelease), and it's perfectly sensible to be offended by that aspect of it.

Replaying this after finishing it, I think people's valid complaints about its shooting, and a lot of Naughty Dog's shooting being off or poor is valid.

However, I don't think the basic mechanics as planned and designed are poor, but as I've said before, it's the system that's the problem. They've hit the limit, and no amount of tricks can replicate things like solidly high FPS and control responsiveness. That's the biggest problem for people, and rightly so. Naughty Dog seems to always sacrifice those aspects for more fidelity in graphics and animation.

Give me next gen. Heck, budget to let Naughty Dog do the long porting process to being TLoU to PS4, or see any of these games on PC, and I think the problems people had with shooting would go away once they can simply push the stick in the direction they want to aim and see a reaction that doesn't take an unbearable half second to respond.

Of course, the odd sensitivity on the PS3's thumb sticks don't help.

Supposedly the PS4's thumbsticks are tighter.

You said it nicely at the top, Turtle.  There is an element of hampered ability that's part of the game, and that's fine, but even at its best in this and other ND games, the shooting isn't great.  Not a problem when character and setting and story are the focus of the game (and that's mostly what ND games are about), but those moments where you're forced to shoot are basically just things you have to get through to get to the good stuff.

I'm not convinced that moving to the PS4 is going to fix that, though.  The system is still in place.  I don't know that having more power to play with will suddenly change the system.  Even if that's possible, I imagine ND will just use that extra power to ramp up the stuff they're good at doing to even higher levels and the combat will suffer again.

Frankly, I'd love to see one of their games that avoids combat all together.

For anyone who found Prometheus lacking, track down the cut scenes on Youtube.  In my opinion they vastly improved the movie and I have no idea why they were cut. 

Does she not run in a straight line?  Does the scientist not try to get all cuddly with the hideous monster?  Do the connections to Alien suddenly exist?

the re-make definitely hit it out of the park for the Oompas.

Hated the Oompa Loompas in the remake.

Also, to answer a question mo had about Roald Dahl in the States: I would say he's pretty popular.  His stuff is always available, and kids still seem to read them a lot.  I know my daughter does, and some of her friends, too.

As for YK's list, mine would line up pretty closely with that, although I didn't hate Batman Returns, didn't love Sleepy Hollow and also liked Alice in Wonderland more than I expected.  I'd agree with Hep that Ed Wood is genius.  Probably his best film.

Also, um, Nightmare Before Christmas?

I don't have a huge problem with the online-only requirement from a content delivery perspective. (It's just unfortunate that DRM neatly dovetails into it). Broadband penetration in the US is nearly 70%. It's likely higher among the demographic that buys and plays games. At some point you've got to move on and give the hold-outs an incentive to get with the times.

I recently read that 25% of all sold Xbox 360s have never been connected to the internet. Not even once. That's potentially 1/4 of their previous customers that Microsoft are loudly telling everyone that they don't need.

I would bet money that the next generation of consoles in 2020 (if there is such a thing) will be online-only and nobody will bat an eye.

Absolutely! But that's in the future. This is now. Some people (such as myself) are ready to fully embrace a pure digital console, but I'm in the minority. A small minority. Even those of us who are don't appreciate Microsoft hammering it over our heads. And regardless, there is no reason why we should have to check in every 24 (or 1) hours for digital content. Microsoft doesn't seem to be able to decide if this new generation is digital or retail, and as a result everyone feels punished as if they're in the wrong group. It gets so much easier to just go with Sony, a company that has been slowly and quietly embracing digital downloads for a while now without trying to shove it down our throats. Once the market is ready, Sony will go digital. The market isn't ready.

Very true.

Additionally, YK, comparing an MMO which is a specific type of game that by its nature requires to be online (or have you play in a gymnasium with hundreds of your unknown friends) to a console is beyond apples and oranges.  Also, many of the companies that put out MMOs also have other, new games on the market.  MS has said, "If you can't be online, take our old console and live with it."  They have nearly literally said that.

Lots and lots of diapers.

Pro tip: take a nice cold baby wipe and run it down their legs then wait 10-15 seconds before you open a diaper up.

OK, I'm stumped...Why?

So the kids don't go from being a twinkle in the eye to a tinkle in the eye.

My problem was that I thought Johnny Depps portrayal of Wonka was terrible and completely unlikeable whereas Wilders is one of my favorite characters. 

I am pretty sure that's they wanted, Depp's character wasn't supposed to be likable. It goes into the whole darker side of the original.

Yup, that's pretty much how I saw it.

I like the original and I'm a huge fan of Wilder's films (well...most of Wilder's work), but the remake was truer to the source material.

The original movie was exceptionally dark, and Wilder did a fantastic job of making the character likeable while still doing unlikeable things (his distaste for the parents and children was apparent and amusing).  He was an impish man. 

Depp was just annoying.  I never got that from the book.

I was on the bad side of this the last time it was forced by multiplayer gaming.  There was a time when I was still on Dial-up way past the accepted norm for broadband internet.  Games made a shift to no even allowing dial-up play on PC and I was screwed.  It happens.  This might not be that time, but there does come a time when you just have to move forward without catering to the people stuck in the past technologically.

But it's important to note that word "stuck" you used.

Were you, in fact, stuck with dial-up in the sense that you had no choice as no other options were available in your area?  Or were you stuck in the sense of you chose not to move forward?

There is a decent number of people who are stuck in the former sense, who are 360 owners and who are getting completely hung out to dry by Microsoft on the new console.  Additionally, the attitude about this is appalling: "Fortunately, we have a product for people who don't have internet connections - it's called the Xbox 360."  MS is essentially saying, "Fuck you" to a fair number of their users.  It's no wonder that so many of them are flipping the bird right back.

Remake  

Maybe we can get a remake of Wizard Of Oz with Scarlet Johanson as a runaway New York callgirl.

This almost already exists.  By Alan Moore, no less.

Lost Girls

And when Wikipedia says "sexually explicit," they ain't kidding.

I'll just chime in with my thoughts since I've done all my posting on OO but the discussion over here is more...lively.  

I owned a PSOne, PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360, so as platforms go I consider myself fairly neutral. I did skip the PS3 last generation but that was due to pricing/Sony's arrogance more than any beef with the console itself. After they dropped the price on it I would have picked one up for the exclusives had I had the extra money/time (unfortunately I messed around and had two kids in the last 4 years)  

I understand Microsoft's take on all this. And to some extent I agree with their end goal. I'd love to have an all-in-one box that does everything. I'd love all my games to be in the "cloud" and never have to worry about a game disc (I find physical media repulsive and avoid it whenever possible). However, I think they completely botched their marketing of all this. Instead of opening our minds to the possibilities, they came across as trying to force the future down our throats.

I'm a gadget geek and I love being on the cutting edge. But I like to feel like that edge is there because someone thinks it's cool and can add fun and excitement to my life. I don't like feeling like these new features exist only so a corporation can make more money off of me. Microsoft has not been shy about wanting to dominate my living room, and frankly, I don't enjoy the prospect of someone "dominating" anything of mine. While ultimately I may really enjoy the features I get from this domination, the attitude makes me want to tell them to get the fuck out of my house.

As far as Kinect goes, I think it's super cool. The tech is amazing. I'm sure it's going to be awesome for workout games, a genre I really enjoyed even with the primitive first Kinect. However, my Kinect got approximately 3 or 4 months of regular use before it became "that damn thing the cat keeps knocking off the TV." The software never materialized, and it makes me super-skeptical that developers will suddenly have this huge change of heart and embrace it this time around. I don't think developers were sitting around going, "Man we'd really love to develop for Kinect but it's just not powerful enough. If only it could detect heartbeats and finger movements, well THEN we'd really have something!" I think A) Most people really don't care much about controlling stuff with movement (or voice, for that matter). B) Most developers don't want to put in the extra energy to code for that stuff when the other major console platform can't do it. I'm afraid Kinect 2.0 will be what Kinect 1.0 was - a showcase for Xbox exclusives that are essentially glorified tech demos.

As far as the DRM goes, it doesn't really affect me. I'm always online. My internet has gone out maybe three times in 10 years. I don't do a lot of game rentals, and I rarely buy used games. However, the gall of it really irritates me. I think stuff like that needs to naturally evolve with market forces, consumer tolerances, etc. It shouldn't be because an 800-pound gorilla comes in and deems it so. So even though it would probably never affect me, I can't in good conscience play a part in ushering in that new era.

My final decision came down to practical concerns - money, the fact that PS4 will likely have more Eastern-flavored games (which I often enjoy more than their Western counterparts), and some logistics of my house/kids (a Kinect in my living room (in a useable location) with two toddlers would quickly become a Dis-Kinect). However, it's a really fascinating story on how these two consoles approached the marketplace. I can't wait to see how it all plays out.

Nicely said, YK.  It hits on a lot of my feelings as well.

The always online thing (or the used game thing) doesn't really affect me much, but the attitude about it really galls me, and I just don't feel right about supporting something that excludes so many people intentionally (and dismissively, at that).

"Force the future down our throats" really sums it up nicely.

MMOs are already cloud computing, I'm not sure why you would expect them to change.

Not really. The local client holds all the environmental data - that is not truly "cloud" gaming in the sense where the world changes and the client software doesn't need to, or, updates seamlessly. Remember firing up a game, only to have to wait for patches? Yeah, that step there would be gone, and all the little things you've done, such as littering etc, *could* be persistent. It's up to developers to take advantage of that.

Consider playing a game like Just Cause 3 with 64+ players. Events happening on the other side of the world won't affect you, but they are still happening. If someone were to launch a missile that can reach where you are, as it gets closer that processing event becomes local to you and anyone near you - but until that happens, only the stuff that affects you immediately is on your console itself - think of it as applying how textures load for "viewable" objects, except instead this applies to anything in-game.

As for sixaxis controls, you're talking about two very different technologies - one requires exaggerated movements, applies only to your hands, and doesn't understand nuances. If you're suggesting that the SixAxis controller is on-par with even the current Kinect, I don't think you're going to win that one. The only SixAxis game I loved was Flower - it was done right.

I just dropped $100 today, for both PS4 and Xbox One pre-orders. I'm not wavering on my Xbone preorder though - if I have to skip one it'll likely be the PS4.

But the reason the sixaxis was brought up in the first place was just to show that it was available to everyone developing for the system, but it was clear early on that it was more of a nuisance than helpful, and so no one bothered to do much for it.

Kinect is already far in the whole, so far as this goes.  I see that you were impressed by it, but it's going to take a lot to get game makers to get behind it, given the negative opinion already.  Even if they themselves are impressed with it.  It's an uphill battle.

Shouting at the TV can be fun, but the bigger problem with it is that it assumes that you're playing in a soundproof room.

I enjoyed saying commands in Skyrim and the Halo update, but was severely limited on when I could do that (daytime only, when no one else was home).  Not because I'd feel goofy, but because I don't want to wake/disturb anyone.

Any game that requires me to talk to my TV is not going to get played.

Like the Cracked article (written by the author of John Dies at the End, BTW), the game companies just aren't getting it.  They're seeing the numbers on a page.  They are not seeing the actual real-life experiences, needs and limitations of their audience.  And they're starting to suffer for it.

The Kinect in Xbox One can read facial expressions. Who says sound is the only trigger - lip reading may work just as well? It can recognize and track heartbeats. I'm not saying that game companies WILL force/require gameplay elements such as speaking (or even whispering), but they could. And that's what I'm looking for in the next gen - new experiences.

This is why I don't own a WiiU - at this time, it offers nothing I feel I'm missing out on. Frankly, I'll likely get one when there is significant price drop, but that would be more related to the interests of my 8yr old and his friends.

PS4 looks very promising, and I love me some smashy-smashy (as Mikagami would say), but Second Son is currently the only title that has my interest piqued. Destiny isn't even exclusive to next-gen consoles, so at this time, I'm not missing out on anything else. (KZ was never anything I needed to play, and I have access to a PS3 so The Last of Us is something I can play when the urge hits me).

Again skipping past the point of why this was brought up.  There are things the Kinect can do (that the new version can do better), but if they are forced on gamers, they won't all be met with enthusiasm.  The voice thing is cool, but there are many, many times where I won't be able to use it.  The ability to track my movement seems neat, but I make a lot of movements while playing that have nothing to do with the game.  Making me stand up is not something I want to do generally when relaxing and playing, especially when I have to move the heavy coffee table out of the way.  Facial expression recognition - again, I'm not always responding to the game. 

If these things are required in a game, it will likely limit the number of times I play that game.

See, it's stuff like that last line there that people take as insulting.

???

How on earth could anyone take that as insulting? I said that reviewers seem to agree that the game works for them, and it works for me as well. If you're thinking that what I was saying was some kind of passive-aggressive version of "you don't agree with the reviewers, so you're wrong", you're really stretching it. I was talking about MY experience as compared to the reviewers, not yours.

If I want to insult you I'm going to be obvious about it. I'm not one to shy away from confrontation. If someone annoys me I'll either ignore them or let them know. I won't subtly hint about it. So if I say something that could possibly be read as an insult under the right conditions, assume that I'm not even aware of the possibility that it could be interpreted that way.

I guess the point is, TiLT, that people frequently find you to be insulting, and you either don't care or aren't aware of it.  So maybe you should take a look at how you phrase things, instead of putting the blame on everyone else.

He's not doing a good enough job at being insulting.

I think you bat s*** insane contrarians will find anything you can to rip a game that is getting universal acclaim just so that you can tout your intellectual and gaming superiory the same way dim witted blue collar workers like to swing their genitalia around to display their self delusional sense of dominance.

And Sony rulez Microsoft drools.

I think you're trying to be funny?  But I certainly am not trying to insult a popular game just to do it.  In fact, I find it frustrating that a game I am otherwise really loving hits these speed bumps where I am forced into combat and dread it.  Not dread it in the sense of, ooh, zombies, how immersive, but dread in the sense of, ugh, this is another frustrating game moment.  It's the opposite of immersive at that point.

And the game is so good at being immersive at all other times, that it just drives the frustration home all the more.

Hey, she has my iPad case!

Also, all this talk about plugging your 360 or PC into the Xbone begs the question: Can I plug my PS4 into it?

Or, even more interestingly, what happens if I plug another Xbone into the Xbone?

We all know cats love boxes. But what about big cats?

Do Big Cats like Boxes?

Spoiler alert: the boxes don't survive quite as well.

[Spoiler]

Anyways - I can tell that I'm probably the only one who saw a ton of commentary on the USA in this movie? Drone killings (The torpedos), moral ambiguity in missions, use of lethal force, secret agencies and secret prisons where you just store people without a trial? I can't believe that wasn't on purpose?

Yes, and that is classic Star Trek. TOS was as topical and moralistic as any network TV show could be in its day and I was impressed that Abrams kept the new movie relevant to contemporary controversies. That's really the heart and soul of Star Trek. I was worried that it was going to be a shallow, straight-ahead action movie with a ST theme. Some of the fight scenes went on longer than they should have but the groundlings eat that stuff up, so that's ok.

All in all, I liked it better than I expected to. The Spock-Uhura relationship just doesn't work. And

Spoiler for Hiden:

making the Enterprise equally capable in space, in the atmosphere, and under the sea was hard to swallow. The pressure differentials alone are staggering. At least give me some mumbo-jumbo about your hull integrity field! 

After two films, I think McCoy is the weakest actor. He mouths the lines but he doesn't inhabit the role -- I'm always conscious that it's some guy trying to be DeForest Kelly. Simon Pegg is awesome as Scotty, though. I know his over-the-top, scene-stealing comic relief is a cheap shot but I eat it up anyway. The Spock-Kirk relationship is starting to gel, and that's impressive without the advantage of a weekly TV show to develop the nuances.

And while I'm a big fan of Simon Pegg, I generally have hated him as Scotty.  He was a little better this go 'round, but I'm still not liking him in the role.

this was my favorite sofar.

I like the one with the hidden footrest.

Oh, God, the ears...

It's been almost a month since the last post, is there really no word on this yet?

Have they just washed their hands of this game and left us out to dry?

[Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara]

I heard Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara is coming this week for everything non-handheld, basically.  It looks pretty cool.

Also Game & Wario is supposedly coming to Wii U.  I'll definitely be keeping an eye on that and New Super Luigi U.

You shouldn't be able to easily get headshots.  That's fine.  You shouldn't be taking out zombies from afar anyway.  But if a zombie is coming at you, and you already have a gun in your hand, pointed in his general direction, you should be able to hit the thing.

I thought so as well until I was in the Norwegian Army and suddenly realized I was struggling to hit a human-sized target at 10 meters range with a pistol, while aiming and holding the pistol with both hands. It was quite the eye-opening experience. Generally, shooting any weapon without being able to aim down the sights is incredibly hard and inaccurate under the best of circumstances, and aiming down the sights takes too long when a zombie is running at you.

Anyway, realism isn't necessarily a plus for a game, but believability is. The Last of Us has an approach that works very well for me, and apparently for a near unified review corps.

See, it's stuff like that last line there that people take as insulting. 

I'm not talking about a human target 10 meters away from you.  That's where I'd be getting headshots in other games and wouldn't expect to here.  I'm not talking about double tapping in the right zones.  I'm talking about having a weapon pointed at something in front of you and hitting meat.  I can do that more effectively in real life (well, I haven't hit meat, but you get the point).

Also, saying that you like the combat and all of the reviews are positive does not mean that they also like the combat.  The fact is, as is the case with other ND games, the setting, characters and story trump the otherwise sloppy controls (BTW, don't get me started on how many times I've hit run when I meant to be stealthily listening).  They are spectacular story tellers, even if they get a little arrogant about it.

Shouting at the TV can be fun, but the bigger problem with it is that it assumes that you're playing in a soundproof room.

I enjoyed saying commands in Skyrim and the Halo update, but was severely limited on when I could do that (daytime only, when no one else was home).  Not because I'd feel goofy, but because I don't want to wake/disturb anyone.

Any game that requires me to talk to my TV is not going to get played.

Like the Cracked article (written by the author of John Dies at the End, BTW), the game companies just aren't getting it.  They're seeing the numbers on a page.  They are not seeing the actual real-life experiences, needs and limitations of their audience.  And they're starting to suffer for it.

and insult the person/people who dare make such 'unfactual' comments.

Insult? For fucks sake, who did I insult? The bit I quoted from your post, now that's insulting.

TiLT, it does come off as insulting when you tell people that they just don't understand the game or are playing it wrong.

Now to comment on something else you said, I don't think the Uncharted games have had good combat, either.  They are a long way from slick and precise, IMO.  So if they're plan was to make it worse here, that was a bad plan.

I get that this isn't meant to be a run and gun shooter.  Everyone gets that.  I'm not playing it that way at all.  However, when forced into a situation where you have to shoot, I am positive that if I were somehow in the same situation in the real world, I would be able to do better than in this game.  Of course, I would be dead for other reasons long before getting to this point, but that's irrelevant.

You shouldn't be able to easily get headshots.  That's fine.  You shouldn't be taking out zombies from afar anyway.  But if a zombie is coming at you, and you already have a gun in your hand, pointed in his general direction, you should be able to hit the thing.

[nothing]

and 2) (and this is the hard part) keeping them awake after the feeding.

I've gotten that advice a few times now and it makes me chuckle.  These dudes are petty much comatose after they eat.  We've tried everything:  tickling feet, changing them, stripping them down, cold rag on the soles, tummy time, bouncing, walking, burping...nothing will wake them up.  I'm pretty sure I could put an air born next to the crib and they'd be able to sleep through it.

I know that a lot of it is simply getting into a good routine and that it'll come eventually.  Just hoping its sooner rather than later. 

Oh, yeah, it seems impossible for a while, but eventually you've got 'em awake for a couple of minutes, then a few more, then a half an hour, and suddenly you're on a schedule.  It's not easy, though.  You've got to be determined and patient as hell.

ya i really hate it when people applause in movie theatres.  THERE ARE NO FREAKING ACTORS THERE TO ACCEPT THE APPLAUSE!  So annoying.

I liked the move in general.  I really had to just forget what i already know about the 80's superman and live with the changes.  I really wished they had at least played the true theme song once, and had the classic superman flyby and wink at the end.  Instead they spent too much time destroying buildings.

Didn't really like the change of relationship with Clark Kent/Superman/Lois Lane.

But overall I enjoyed it.

Applause isn't just for the actors' sake.  It is also a release for the audience and a way to collectively show appreciation.

Now a standing ovation might be a little much.

I find that turning Snap Aiming on (or whatever they call it) helps, but the mechanics for the gunplay aren't very good.  And it's not done to make the game "more realistic" - the limited ammo does a fine job of that on its own.  The controls only serve to make it frustrating.

I'm playing in full-on stealth mode wherever I can and conserving ammo like crazy.  There are still moments where gun fights are unavoidable and made super frustrating by the controls.  There's a scripted sequence in particular I'm thinking of where you can't move and are made to shoot at approaching enemies.  The regular zombies were frustrating but fine since a QTE would lead to a better lined up shot, but then the clickers charged and if you don't shoot them, you die.  The sloppy controls were readily apparent here.  I was only able to get through that sequence by turning on the Snap Aiming, and even then some of it was luck. 

I know the AI isn't spotted by the enemy, but they can still cause you to enter an accidental fight.  There have been a number of times when the team has been in stealth mode, creeping along, eyes on a zombie who hasn't spotted me yet, and then I something came tearing up behind me, and I spun around and backed up to avoid it, only to see Bill was the one running at me in his heavy boots.  Of course, by then I've already backed into the zombie.  The AI "stealth" mode in this is ridiculous.

Doesn't mean I'm not enjoying the game, but good lord, Naughty Dog needs to get their combat in order.  They make these spectacular stories, but this one issue keeps making their games more frustrating than they need to be.

Thanks all.  

Brought them home yesterday and had our first night under our own roof.  I'm honestly starting to get a little concerned about how I'm simply going to function on a day-to-day basis only getting 2 hours of sleep.  

Somehow it all comes together.

But try to get them on a schedule.  There are all kinds of ways to do this, but it all boils down to a) making the feedings happen at regular times and 2) (and this is the hard part) keeping them awake after the feeding.

It seems impossible at first, but everyone I know who did this had their kids sleeping through the night just a few months in.  It makes for a well-adjusted kid down the road, too, supposedly, though mine is right on the cusp of tween-girl hell, so we'll see.

I kinda liked the bluetooth for the blu ray remote; I never had to worry about things blocking the signal.

It was fine with dedicated PS3 remotes, but the limited support for universal remotes was the annoying part. I have a little USB doohickey IR receiver plugged into mine for just that reason.

This.  And then they dropped the USB ports down to 2.

The amount of negativity and vitriol in these new console threads is so discouraging and off putting.  One fact that all the expert Gamestop genius employees that get quoted all the time seem to miss in the PS4 vs XB1 Pre-order war is that what I buy won't cost anyone else a red cent.  That's right whatever I choose will incur no cost or obligation to others, so why try to make a big issue about which one is best when we won't see either one for 5 months at least? 

I guess it is fortunate that consoles only get updated every 7 years, this is ridiculous to follow.  Gaming Trend doesn't seem to have a younger audience so I will assume that the users here can be relied upon to make their own decisions in regards to their own monies and desires.  I see no need to descend into mudslinging just because you don't like someone elses choices. 

1.  People try to get their buddies (online or real) to buy the same console so that they can play multiplayer together.
2.  People try to boost the console of their liking up so that they are healthy platforms and get the good exclusives
3.  Microsoft has the PR (rightly or wrongly) that they betrayed their loyal fans by coming out with all this DRM, online, used-game-restrictive-friendly crap.    These are the same fans that abandoned Sony in favor of Microsoft because they seemed more in tune with the gamer (and more consumer friendly) than Sony.    This PR disaster that is Microsoft this time around totally betrayed the very thing that made the 360 successful.

Yeah, I have to say, people are upset, so it's understandable if their ire is up.

OTOH, I haven't seen a lot of people genuinely attacking others on this forum for their opinions or purchasing decisions.  Some joking, sure, but not to the level you're complaining about, Zinfan.

Even TiLT, who should be strutting around like the cock of the walk and ending every post with "I told you so" has been surprisingly rational.

Street Legal Bumper Car

For Sale

Keep in mind that 360 headsets will not work with the XB1 controllers and from reports headsets are not included with the standard package.

you know,Xbox and Playstation really have swapped round for this next gen...but i honestly can not remember hearing so much awful things about the PS3 before it came out,i still wanted a PS3 at launch,6 months away from launch for the Xbox 1 and i really can't see myself wanting it so badly that i need to get it on day one like the 360 and PS3

I wasn't a console gamer at the time so I honestly didn't pay much attention, but I always had the impression that most of the criticism against the PS3 was about the price (at the time anyway). The criticism against the Xbox One covers almost the entire gamut of features it has, as well as the price of course.

The price and the giant crab.

Sony had a delusional attitude the previous round, which was also part of the complaint, but it wasn't quite as delusional as MS seems to be.

Is the ps4 going to be like the ps3 and not have an IR sensor for remotes? If so, BOOOOOOOOOOO!

I was wondering this, too.

I have to admit that the Kinect Minority Report possibilities are appealing.    It's one of the parts of the package that has me curious.

To be fair though, they said the exact same thing about the original Kinect though before it came out......and we all know how that turned out. I would love for the new Kinect to actually be something special, but color me highly skeptical at this point, given all the BS they seem to be spewing about the XB1 in general and the original Kinects track record.

But we were saying that about the first Kinect E3 announcement, where what was described seems to be on par (or even below) what the new Kinect seems capable of.  It all fell to shit during the pre-launch E3 after they'd neutered the hell out of the thing.

They should never have released that first version.  Imagine if our first glimpse of Kinect was this new version, and we hadn't already been let down by its baby brother.  I think folks'd be getting pretty excited for it, actually.

I have absolutely no interest in the Kinect or the new PS Eye (Whatever they are going to call it). So Sony's decision to leave it out of the base unit is a good one to me, I bet it was the final thing they needed to get the system in at $399. I'll take $399 over $450 any day, and I'll buy the camera eventually if I feel like I want some games that support it. It's all about choice.

Also, kinect 2.0 or no there is no way to make games like Star Wars Kinect any better than the total P.O.S. that it is. There are exactly two types of games that I prefer motion controls for, Golf and Light Gun Shooters, and when I want to play Tiger Woods 20XX then I will think about getting the kinect or eye.

But part of the reason we got a bunch of crap for the Kinect was that was all that worked on the shitty device.  Not to say we wouldn't have gotten some crap anyway, but if it worked like it was supposed to, something like Steel Battalion might have been really great, which might have led to other cool games, too.  If it had been innovative and exciting, it might have inspired game makers. 

Unfortunately, now, even if the new Kinect is what it should have been in the first place, it's certainly not as exciting as it might have been and the shine is off the innovation, too.

 

The coincidences with the interaction of the 2 main characters in this game and Bioshock Infinite is pretty funny.  I LOL'd the first time I heard "have some ammo" during a fight.  The voice acting is superb.  Gunplay and stealth elements is kind of sub par at best.  That part continues to be Naught Dog's weak link.  Hopefully they can take some lessons from games like Tomb Raider for the next Uncharted.

The same actor does both male leads, too.

I feel like his accent is all over the place in this one. 

I have to admit that the Kinect Minority Report possibilities are appealing.    It's one of the parts of the package that has me curious.

To be fair though, they said the exact same thing about the original Kinect though before it came out......and we all know how that turned out. I would love for the new Kinect to actually be something special, but color me highly skeptical at this point, given all the BS they seem to be spewing about the XB1 in general and the original Kinects track record.

But we were saying that about the first Kinect E3 announcement, where what was described seems to be on par (or even below) what the new Kinect seems capable of.  It all fell to shit during the pre-launch E3 after they'd neutered the hell out of the thing.

They should never have released that first version.  Imagine if our first glimpse of Kinect was this new version, and we hadn't already been let down by its baby brother.  I think folks'd be getting pretty excited for it, actually.

Please forgive me if its already been posted (if I wanted to read I would go to school  )

Looks like Xbone games were not being played on actual Xbone consoles.
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Xbox-One-Games-E3-Were-Running-Windows-7-With-Nvidia-GTX-Cards-56737.html

And before anyone goes to slam me with " they all play their demos on high end PCs " If memory serves didn't we hear multiple times 'the following demo is played in real time in engine....." ??

Quote:I suppose the only real damning thing about this kind of exposure is that Microsoft didn't even use “comparable specs" from the company providing them with video cards in their home console. For those of you who don't know the Xbox One will run on a modified AMD GPU that, according to Extreme Tech, is on the level of a mid-ranged Radeon 7790. I guess the 7790 wasn't powerful enough for the Xbox One's E3 games eh? They needed a real manly card like the GTX 780, eh?

Nothing seems to be going right for the XB1....   

Yeah, it's pretty funny they used a monster Nvidia card, instead of a middling Radeon card, which is what the XB1 will ship with.

Hey, this has all already been posted...

My kid has seen both versions, but considers the original to be the true version.

Also, I'm not sure how someone could say the original wasn't twisted.

I did not ask how many his allocation was in total however.

I've heard that there's far less Xbox Ones available for preorder than PS4s (about 25%). This could be a result of the yield problems Microsoft has admitted to having recently. They might have just decided to reduce stock instead of downclocking the Xbox One.

Or it's an effort to inflate their holiday numbers.  "Xbone is sold out everywhere" increases demand, even if the reason it sold out is that stores only had two units to sell.