*Clapping
slowly* Well done Microsoft. WELL FUCKING
DONE. Seriously you have truly TRULY out done yourselves this time; your
little reveal for the new Xbox has to be one of the worst I’ve ever seen (also
one of the worst designs for a console I’ve ever seen…but that comes later). Not
only that but I’m also blown away by the fact that nobody saw this coming. I mean
surely somebody over there at Microsoft must have clocked on to what was going
on, to what a massively bad idea it was all turning into. I mean surely somebody
MUST have stood up at some point and questioned what you were doing...and no
doubt got there arse fired or demoted for their bravery I suspect.
Okay so let’s
start at the top shall we. At 6pm BST on
the 21/05/2013 Microsoft revealed the most sophisticated TV remote the world has
ever seen, the Xbox One. And already
I see a problem here ^^…WHAT THE HELL
KIND OF NAME IS THAT! Seriously Microsoft I want to know what possessed you
to name your latest console the Xbox ‘One’, was ‘Xbox 720’ to main stream for
you, was ‘Xbox Infinity’ to showy. How about the Xbox CD-i…I mean you clearly
took some design inspiration from that historic failure…seriously take a look
and see for yourself, to me the likeness is uncanny:
This really baffles me. Surely this is just a coincidence, I mean Microsoft really can’t be stupid enough to base their console’s designs off one of the most infamous and hated gaming systems in all of gaming history surly…right. Then again, who knows O.o it may be a precursor for things to come.
However I should also say that, in
all honesty, I do understand (to a minute degree) why they called it the ‘One’ - I don't agree with it by a long shot but I do understand.
It’s simply because there doing a Nintendo, one system for your multimedia needs. One system for games, TV, Music and internet…and THAT in turn
brings me back round to my previous point. What the hell was wrong with the
name ‘Xbox Infinity’, if they were going for the all-in-one angle then surly
they could twist it into something along the lines of “Xbox Infinity – Infinite possibilities”
or some such guff. But no…instead we get the ‘Xbox One' (=.= and I though the ‘Wii’
was a dumb name for a console). Seriously when will console makers learn that
their consoles don’t have to have some special meaning behind their names. So
long as the console name sounds interesting, like the ‘Revolution’, the ‘Inferno’,
the ‘Galaxy’ or the ‘Vixen’, seriously we’d be happy with that...well…I’d be happy with that at least.
As
for the console itself…well…I'm just amazed at how much Microsoft has done to upset
its Xbox fan base not to mention, really PISSED ME OFF!!! The first thing that
really pisses me off is their new idea of back compatibility or should I say their
lack of any and sadly (though really not surprisingly) Sony has pulled the same
shit with their new PS4 system. Both under the pretense that the new architecture and use in the new systems will not allow it past games to be played…
…HEH…now you see Sony…you too Microsoft…you both have many programmers on your staff, not to mention a lot of money as well as plenty of time. If you wanted to fix the backwards compatibility issues you could very easily do so (for the record all they would need to do is set up a virtual machine or emulation software within the consoles OS and link it up to the Disk Drive. The software will then run the game in an architectural environment that can support the game, ^^ done problem solved), so how about we stop dancing around the issue here and just be honest. You're bullshiting all of us and all for the one simple reason. A reason that many game companies back stab us gamers over, you think we’re all idiots and will not notice your little ploy to get more money out of us.
Well
I’ll let you into a little secret, we HAVE noticed and we know what you’re
doing. By blocking off back compatibility you think all your players will go to
you to re-buy the games they love so much, all so you can turn a quick buck and
play like a noble hero to all us gamers like so, “Lo and behold my people, I have heard your cries and I bestow upon to
you the old games you love and all for a nominal fee”, well to this I say
no, No no no no no no no NO NO! This
bullshit will not stand, you want us to buy into this ploy but we won’t. You
think we are too stupid to not realise the truth of what you’re doing but my
god are you WRONG.
Now
Microsoft could have just left it there and yes a lot of people would be very
annoyed but it wouldn’t be the end all…HOWEVER…Microsoft
didn’t just leave it there, instead they decided to make good on their
original promise of blocking pre-owned games…well, I say “block”. In actual
fact Microsoft have said that each game will be tied to an individual’s Xbox
Live Account and that “On the new Xbox, all game discs are installed to the HDD
to play” (basically through compulsory installation, such as you find on the
PS3…and undoubtedly the PS4). This in turn basically means that if you wish to
borrow a game off a friend or purchase a pre-owned game from anywhere OTHER than
Xbox marketplace then, my friend, you are out of luck UNLESS you buy a license
for said game – more information about this can be found at http://www.computerandvideogames.com/407912/microsoft-confirms-pre-owned-fee-for-xbox-one/
(or by simply running a Google search).
It’s
also at this point that I take a moment to sit back and look upon our old friends at EA and think back to their announcement in recent times about how they are getting rid of their online pass system.
Now gee golly mister, you don’t suppose they are in some way tied with Microsoft’s
little pay-to-play strategy do you.
Now maybe I’m jumping the gun slightly on this considering rumors are already circulating the mill about a “new” system that the Xbox One will utilize for pre-owned games which will involve deactivating pre-owned games on their previous owners gamer profile when installed on a new owner profile and though this is all fine and dandy in the cases where it’s a pre-owned game that you just purchased from a shop…but what if it is a game you’ve borrowed off a friend, what happens when the game deactivates? That question aside however I can’t help but ask a different question in its stead, if this is indeed the case, why are they are doing it? As this idea stands it’s a more complicated version of the current system already in place on the Xbox 360. So why even bother going through all the trouble in the first place? (yes I know that's 2 questions but screw you, this is my Journal so I'll do as i please).
I
should stress as well that this particular point (the point above…though
you should already know that since you are
the one reading this) is, as of the time this is being written, only rumor and speculation based on a twitter post by
the editor of Official Xbox Magazine, Jon Hicks.
On second hand games: you buy disc, it installs, you play from HD. Sell disc, it installs to new console and deactivates your install.
— Jon Hicks (@MrJonty) May 21, 2013
I guess I should wrap this all up with my complaints about the conference (or would it be show O.o) itself. It was crap…simple as that…though I’m going to assume you may want a bit more than that so I’ll break it down to the order that the conference played in. Oh and before I begin, may I just say for the record that for a conference showing the reveal of a new GAMING system they did a really lousy job of showing off the consoles capability to play GAMES! Instead we where given 25 minutes of bullshit which basically boiled down to a man saying, ‘look at the shiny new TV remote we just invented’, followed by EA sports telling us that they make sports games, a man from Microsoft Studios telling us all about how they have “15 new exclusive games within the first year of Xbox One. 8 of which are brand new franchises”, though not showing us any of the said new titles sans two – Forza 5 and Quantum Shift. Instead leaving it untill E3 before we get to see any of the actual GAMES for the new GAMING SYSTEM they were showing off =.=.
After
that we get some more waffle about the Xbox ‘transforming television’, reveal of
a new Halo TV series that’s currently in the works (being directed by Steven Spielberg
non-the-less) and then falling back to how the Xbox will be ‘transforming
television’ only this time focusing on sports (like we haven’t had enough of
that already =.=) before finally wrapping up with a final showcase of the new Call
of Duty Ghosts + a brand new trailer (as well as showcasing the latest casualty in Call of Duty's library of "characters you like that we kill off before the end of the game" - this time its a dog).
So
yer, like I said before…the whole thing was pretty crap, and for one very strong
reason as well as some advice for Microsoft…actually its advice for all companies who wish to show off their new hardware in future...*ahem* If you’re
going to show off a video game system to the world and games at large then TALK ABOUT BLOODY VIDEO GAMES!!!
*sigh*
Looks like I’m going to be sticking to the PC for now unless PS4 manages to blow me away with something…or Microsoft realizes their fuck up and fixes their mistakes and in turn transform the
Xbox One into one of the greatest consoles the world has ever seen………nope ^^ couldn’t even type
that with a straight face.
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