The future for Microsoft

It's been a busy past few weeks for the folks over there at Microsoft, what with E3 conference, the huge backlash, getting wiped all over the floor by Sony and big U-turn on their used game and online check-in policies.

There has been lots of talk on the interwebs about the whole situation but I'm not going to go into detail because I'll be here forever and I've seen that a few people have changed their minds about what console they are going to pre-order now. I personally am still pre-ordering the PlayStation 4 because I've lost trust in Microsoft and a company that were so actively looking to shaft consumers to begin with.  I understand that money is needed to survive when you release a product but there is a difference between making money and rinsing consumers for every possible penny.  To me it seems that Microsoft only care about the money and not what the gamers want; a games console.

I've also seen some people defending the used game policy of Xbox One by comparing it to Steam, and the fact that you can't trade-in the games you purchase off there.  I don't think you can compare the two because Steam is PC gaming and downloads only.  If you download a digital version of a game off of Steam with the expectation that you can trade it in then you sir are a moron.  Needless to say I'm getting off point and must get back to the original reason of this post.

All this talk and the U-turn has left me wondering what the future holds for Microsoft, not so much the next few years but beyond that and the time after Xbox One.

I don't see Microsoft giving up the potential money making opportunities of putting the used game market out of business.  I can see that something similar will return in the distant future and have a very strong gut feeling that the next console they work on will be download only (like Steam).  It is the only sure fire way to get rid of trade-ins altogether in one big swoop and I feel that this will happen at some point.  Whether or not the generation after the Xbox One and PS4 will be consoles as we know them now is something I'm unsure of, but I am confident that the next few years at Microsoft's research/development team will be based primarily on new ways to bypass the used game market and other ways to make more money without seeming like a complete bunch of money hungry arseholes.

I know that this is very, very early days to be talking about things like this when the Xbox One isn't even out yet but it's something that has been rumbling around in my head for the past few days and I felt that I needed to share it.  Let me know what you think either in the comments below or via the Twitter button in the top right.

Xbox One Reveal: Thoughts

Today saw the the new Xbox revealed to the world after months of speculation, "leaked" information and shady pictures.  We now know what it looks like (unlike the PlayStation 4, aye Sony), a general release time (later this year), a look at some of the features of the console and the hardware specifications.

Firstly I would like to make something very clear; I don't fully understand all the Hardware Specification mumbo-jumbo. I know how to use a computer and I have a basic level knowledge of what everything means in a computer. HOWEVER when it comes to gaming consoles I couldn't care less if you had tiny little miniaturized people running the thing or hardware in your console that so powerful it could break a hole in the time-space continuum. All I care about is these simple things:

• Does it look better
• Are the loading screens either gone or quicker
• Is there room for bigger and better games in general.
• Is there enough space for my game saves, demos and updates.

That is more or less all I care about when it comes to a new console, and all your technical words, processors and RAM means jackshit to me.  Obviously I'm drifting off topic so I will get back on track and say that all the video of games that I saw on the reveal looked awesome and loads better than the current gen, minus the EA section where people looked a little rubbery to me.

As we are on the games section there were a few games shown at the reveal; Call of Duty Ghosts, Forza 5, the usual yearly EA suspects of FIFA, NFL etc, and new game Quantum Break to name all the games shown.  Seriously for a big huge hyped reveal that had 4 games if you include the EA collection as one.

So there was a fair amount of the time of the reveal spent on explaining how Xbox One can work with your TV, how it is a complete entertainment unit and not just a games console. How you can talk to it and it recognizes your face and voice thanks to the new Kinect. Talking about how you will have a relationship with your Xbox, cue all the loons and the episode of the talk show: "My partner left me to marry his Xbox".
There was a lot of chat about the new partnerships with the NFL and how your 

be totally up to date, by the minute, with your fantasy teams across multiple sports (all American of course).

Essentially there were just talking bollocks for most of it, telling you that your games console is no longer a games console and is so much more now.  It's a TV box, it's a Blu-ray and DVD player, it's a music player, it can browse the internet and it can cook Bacon faster than a grilling machine. OK I made that last bit up.
I really couldn't give a flying monkeys left nut if it has all those features because I like most people have a computer that can do all those things. Admittedly having Netflix or BBC iPlayer on their is handy but it's not the end of the world or a selling point to me. Because do you know what I really want??

A GAMES CONSOLE!!!

I want something to play games on that maybe has some cool features within the gaming section. I want awesome games that will whittle away the hours of my exceedingly boring and wasted life.  I want to play games with a controller, the way it's always been and not by doing movements or talking to the big huge box sat on my living room unit.  I want something that can play games of amazing quality and that is what sells a new console to me.

I surely can't be the only one out there who feels this way?

Dead Island Riptide: First Impressions

Today has seen the release of Dead Island Riptide; the sequel to the surprise package Dead Island.  If you've never played or heard of Dead Island then it simplifies itself as a Zombie survival story set on a tropical island, where 4 survivors immune to the infection try to escape.  The game is a mixture of the XP and  quest whoring of games like Borderlands with the zombie fighting of games like Dead Rising/Left 4 Dead.

So is Riptide as good or even better than the first Dead Island?  If I'm being totally honest then no.

Riptide picks up exactly where Dead Island finished off, in the story and the game as a whole.  The fighting system is exactly the same and just as clunky, the character animations and voice acting are just as wooden and unsynchronised as before.  The game still suffers from bugs and glitches much as the last game, and only time will tell as to if there are more or less.

After playing with the game for about 2 hours I've realised that this is not a sequel in the true form, instead this essentially Dead Island re-branded and repackaged in a new city with a few new characters.  Yeah there are a few new things; for example the safe camp defence quests, the ability to drive a boat (it's a car on water with a turbo button), and new camp based missions for your camp members.

This game is not going to be for you if you expected a new Dead Island with a massive overhaul with everything having been retuned and made amazing.  If you are looking for a game to play with your friends for a bit of Zombie killing and a laugh at how bad the game is, much like you probably did before, then pick this up.

I will leave you with one last thing; don't buy this game as a single player game because it's boring and I'd honestly recommend that you wait until a price drop until you pick it up.

The New Playstation

So if you haven't already heard the rumours  it would seem that by the end of this month we should all know either some concrete information on Sony's new PlayStation, or even know what it's going to look like.

It does however seem that there has been some leaked photos going around of what the new controller is going to be.  If you haven't seen it then the picture is below.

Personally I'm not a massive fan of this controller at the moment as it looks a big chunky in some aspects.  But what can we tell from the pictures so far?  Well you can see a socket for a jack at the bottom of the controller; is Sony going to do an Xbox and go for wired headsets as well as wireless?
There is also the screen on the front which some people are thinking is a touch screen built into the controller.  I don't see how beneficial that will be considering the size of it means you probably won't get a lot of display on the screen to touch.
You can also see in this picture a white box just above the screen.  Could this be a sensor for PlayStation move and this time round it's integrated into the controller to save having added peripherals??
Finally, the first picture I saw of this had the controller looking like a proper old-school wired controller.  Now I'm sure Sony wouldn't go back to them and this will no doubt be wireless but it does make me worry a little bit.

I'm not sold on this controller if it does in fact turn out to be the new PlayStation controller and leads me to have reservations about the console itself.  Either way Sony is still hurting from the hacking scandal and have lost a lot of consumer trust due to this, and this new console is their big chance to try and entice some of those consumers back to them and away from Xbox.

One thing is for sure; hopefully we should all know what is going on by the end of this month.

Another One Bites the Dust

In the past few days we've had HMV going under and then BlockBusters the next day.  I've already wrote a post on HMV so I wanted to concentrate on BlockBusters, and if you don't know what BlockBusters is then  you are too young and should go out more.

I'm not at all shocked to see Blockbusters go under because it was, and has been for ages now, a dying store.  I personally can't recall the last time I rented anything from a store or anyone I know for that matter.  Video rental stores are more or less obsolete now we live in a world where you can download/stream virtually any movie off the internet.

If there is anyone who has predicted this outcome so well then it has to be The Onion who posted this video online back in 2008. Maybe this is what will happen to Blockbusters.

The Death of HMV

If you haven't been watching/listening to any news in the past 24 hours then you would've missed that high street retailer HMV has gone into administration & many stores (if not all of them perhaps) will be closing.

So my views on this; well at first it will be a great shame to lose another well known & established high street  stores but it's not a surprise to me.  If you follow the financial side to this whole story you will have realised that it's a surprise that HMV has lasted this long as it's been limping on for a couple of years now.

Now I don't know the full ins & outs of the business or how it operates but the pricing system within the chain has been somewhat off the mark. If you look at videogames for example, HMV was generally the most expensive store on the high street for them.  For a store that dedicates sections to videogames you kind of want to be competing with other stores like GAME & CeX for lowest prices wherever you can & not generally being the most expensive; therefore the generally avoided store.

But then again I know that generally a high street store can't really compete to well with the online market and generally that is where most consumers now are going.  You don't even need to really own DVD's or CD's anymore now that there is itunes, Spotify, Netflix, Lovefilm and various other online streaming services/stores.  The future itself isn't looking to bright for most some stores on our high streets but then again you can sometimes turn things around.

Take GAME for example, a couple of months ago they were going under and now they are doing quite well for themselves.  I believe that this has come from the more interactive/personal approach the company has taken now.  Each store now has their own social media forum, stage special events for gamers and there is generally a more personal touch now whereas a year ago I didn't like GAME because, to me, it felt like a cold & heartless store & company.

I genuinely hope that HMV doesn't disappear completely and like GAME, can find a way to bring itself back from the brink.