Two new gadgets for Xbox One have been rumored to be revealed next year. The first one is a new smart watch, similar to Microsoft Band but much more closely connected to Xbox One. It is rumored to get fitness games with achievements for being active. Microsoft care about their gamers, and their health apparently. What the changes from the Band, more than maybe some changes in the OS, is still unknown. Hopefully not much will change as Band have some great features and sensors. This will probably be revealed at it's latest at E3.
The other rumor may be more interesting, a rumored pair of VR-goggles, supposedly named Project: Fortaleza is in the works. This isn't any huge news, as Sony's rumored to work on Project Morpheus, their own set of goggles for PlayStation. As VR seems to be the next big thing in gaming, it's understandable how both Microsoft and Sony want a grab of the money.
Neither of these would be anything wild for Microsoft, and therefor I think we can safely say that both those gadgets are probably in the pipeline for release. However, if they will see the market is not as safe.
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Games With Gold December 2014
This December Gold members will get Worms Battlegrounds for free!
As Xbox.com seems to have trouble showing this game from some countries, here's the game description:
"Game description: Worms™ Battlegrounds Worms™ Battlegrounds brings friends and families together in the noble pursuit of self‐improvement, world domination and exploding sheep. Worms™ Battlegrounds is the biggest and best Worms™ game to date - more worms, larger landscapes, more dynamic water, more weapons and more customisation items than ever before. It features beautiful high definition 3D visuals (but still retains the classic 2D gameplay) with new lighting effects, new features to help users interact socially, exciting additions to improve the single player experience, and more of everything a Worms fan could want. Form Clans, Take On The World Join together with friends and other Worms™ Battlegrounds players to form a fearsome team; name your clan, design your own emblem, promote other players to act as leaders and officers. Enter your clan into the league and fight together to make your mark on the leaderboards. Nobody wants an empty trophy cabinet! Slick Single Player Gameplay Too Story Mode’ adds a ton of variety by introducing physics based contraptions for the first time ever. A plethora of interesting machinery spices up the gameplay, and makes solo Worms™ much more fun! The single‐player game isn’t only about dealing death and destruction, it’s also about negotiating tricky swinging rope bridges and rescuing friendlies from death defying traps! The player spends much more time playing, and much less time waiting for their A.I. opponent to take a shot. Worms™ Battlegrounds is the most fully featured version of Worms™ yet! • Using the Game DVR have some of your greatest moments captured and stored for other to see or simply for you to relive the epic carnage you’ve caused.
• Clan Support
• Multiplayer Clan Leagues
• Clan Emblem Editor
• Companion website
• Day to Night Lighting Transitions
• Physics Based ‘Contraptions’
• Landscape Editor
• Over 200 individual customisation items for the worms
• 65 Weapons and Utilities including 10 outrageous new items: Mega Mortar, Gravedigger, Winged Monkey, Oxygen, Worm Charm, Bovine Blitz, Whoopsie Cushion, Teleport Raygun, Aqua Pack and The Equiliser
• 4 Improved Worm Classes including new special abilities
• 5 Environments: Inca, Viking, Feudal Japan, Industrial Revolution and Prehistoric • Multiplayer Deathmatch and Fort modes
• 25 Single Player story missions
• 10 ‘Worm‐Ops’ time attack missions
• The fastest times set on Worm Ops’ missions are recorded and can be viewed from the leaderboards
• 30% Larger Landscapes"
Get it at: Xbox Store starting at 1st Dec
"Game description: Worms™ Battlegrounds Worms™ Battlegrounds brings friends and families together in the noble pursuit of self‐improvement, world domination and exploding sheep. Worms™ Battlegrounds is the biggest and best Worms™ game to date - more worms, larger landscapes, more dynamic water, more weapons and more customisation items than ever before. It features beautiful high definition 3D visuals (but still retains the classic 2D gameplay) with new lighting effects, new features to help users interact socially, exciting additions to improve the single player experience, and more of everything a Worms fan could want. Form Clans, Take On The World Join together with friends and other Worms™ Battlegrounds players to form a fearsome team; name your clan, design your own emblem, promote other players to act as leaders and officers. Enter your clan into the league and fight together to make your mark on the leaderboards. Nobody wants an empty trophy cabinet! Slick Single Player Gameplay Too Story Mode’ adds a ton of variety by introducing physics based contraptions for the first time ever. A plethora of interesting machinery spices up the gameplay, and makes solo Worms™ much more fun! The single‐player game isn’t only about dealing death and destruction, it’s also about negotiating tricky swinging rope bridges and rescuing friendlies from death defying traps! The player spends much more time playing, and much less time waiting for their A.I. opponent to take a shot. Worms™ Battlegrounds is the most fully featured version of Worms™ yet! • Using the Game DVR have some of your greatest moments captured and stored for other to see or simply for you to relive the epic carnage you’ve caused.
• Clan Support
• Multiplayer Clan Leagues
• Clan Emblem Editor
• Companion website
• Day to Night Lighting Transitions
• Physics Based ‘Contraptions’
• Landscape Editor
• Over 200 individual customisation items for the worms
• 65 Weapons and Utilities including 10 outrageous new items: Mega Mortar, Gravedigger, Winged Monkey, Oxygen, Worm Charm, Bovine Blitz, Whoopsie Cushion, Teleport Raygun, Aqua Pack and The Equiliser
• 4 Improved Worm Classes including new special abilities
• 5 Environments: Inca, Viking, Feudal Japan, Industrial Revolution and Prehistoric • Multiplayer Deathmatch and Fort modes
• 25 Single Player story missions
• 10 ‘Worm‐Ops’ time attack missions
• The fastest times set on Worm Ops’ missions are recorded and can be viewed from the leaderboards
• 30% Larger Landscapes"
Get it at: Xbox Store starting at 1st Dec
Black Friday Deals and rumors
Many, including myself, found the 12 games included in the Xbox One digital Black Friday somewhat lackluster. While the prices are at a good discount, the games them self aren't that impressive. The most exciting titles are Diablo 3 and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
Rayman is also a nice game, especially if you have someone to play it with.
In the midst of all negativity, a rumor appeared that this isn't all the deals they are releasing and that Microsoft are holding back on some deals to the real Black Friday.
A screen shot of the supposedly deals, that is rumored to had been up on the Canadian Xbox site to be brought down and replaced with the other deals just before they launched them.
These are the rumored deals that hopefully will appear. While it's still not a steam sale in numbers of titles, which is okay given the console only been around for a year, it's considerably better than the first set of deals.
In about 24 hours we will know if it's true or false. Major Nelson tweeted to look at the store this weekend, which starts tomorrow. For now, we can just wait and see.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
How to optimize your Xbox One shopping
Being a consumer today isn't just to press 'purchase', it's never been like that. If you now how to use the market you can save a lot of money, which in my case is about 50% of the price, which means 50% more games! Walk that extra mile to get these benefits, it's worth it!
Go Digital
Do you have to have all your games on display in that bookshelf? If not this is the time to stop giving your money to the game store and go fully digital, you have to install every game even if you buy it on it on disc today, and with digital you can always pre-load the game and have it ready when the game launches. Also, a digital game is harder to lose. Sure, you can't sell the games, but you can lend them out, sort of, I'll get to that. Another benefit for going digital is the Xbox Rewards program, which give you money back on your account, up to 10% of the costs, and other ways to get some extra money to buy even more games.
Console Region
Okay, a game in the US costs $60, In Sweden it costs about $100, luckily for us, you can change region on your Xbox One, Microsoft kindly tells you how here. There is a catch, which is easy to circumvent, and that is that you'll need a credit card that has an address in the US. Fear not, the nice people over at EntroPay have this fixed for you. All this is accepted for by Microsoft for the time being. Remember, with the 10% money back you effectively pay $54 USD for each game.
Look around
Still not convinced? Maybe you want to resell the game after you're done with it, then be sure to get the best deal. The best site I've found is XboxPriceChecker which works both for EU and US players, never spend more than necessary! Also, if you're looking for a game that's more than a month old, consider buying a used copy, go to eBay and search for the game, you'll be surprised how fast the prices drops on the big titles.
Don't subscribe!
Get Xbox Live gold, just don't subscribe to it. You can easily find a 12 months code to Xbox Live for $40 over at CDKeys.com. Also, with that low price, consider buying Xbox Live Gold even if multiplayer isn't your main interest in games. You'll get at least one new game in that subscription every month, check MajorNelson's blog (Or mine...) at the beginning of each month to see what games are free that month. Just remember to "buy" those free games, either on the console, the web or via SmartGlass app before the month ends to secure them in your collection.
Talking about subscriptions, check out EA Access, which has a lot of player value. You get access to all the games in the vault, and 10% off any EA game or DLC not in the vault. You also get trials on unreleased games five days before launch, all for $30 per year. My recommendation is that if you're looking to buy one of the games in the vault, buy a years subscription instead.
Get a best buddy
Buddies are great, everyone should have someone to hang out with, on Xbox One this becomes even more so. You can put any console as your home console, and everyone playing on your home console have access to your games and even Xbox Live Gold if you want. You don't even have to sign in to share!
So, get a friend of yours to make your console their "home" and you'll do the same at their console, and you might want to make sure to lock the account so they can't buy anything more. You can now play each others digital games, another reason to go digital, and you can even play them at the same time, in the same match!
This means, that if you and your friend have the same taste in games, you'll pay $27 for a brand new game after discounts and splitting the price. Think games are too expensive? Think again.
Being a consumer today isn't just to press 'purchase', it's never been like that. If you now how to use the market you can save a lot of money, which in my case is about 50% of the price, which means 50% more games! Walk that extra mile to get these benefits, it's worth it!
Go Digital
Do you have to have all your games on display in that bookshelf? If not this is the time to stop giving your money to the game store and go fully digital, you have to install every game even if you buy it on it on disc today, and with digital you can always pre-load the game and have it ready when the game launches. Also, a digital game is harder to lose. Sure, you can't sell the games, but you can lend them out, sort of, I'll get to that. Another benefit for going digital is the Xbox Rewards program, which give you money back on your account, up to 10% of the costs, and other ways to get some extra money to buy even more games.
Console Region
Okay, a game in the US costs $60, In Sweden it costs about $100, luckily for us, you can change region on your Xbox One, Microsoft kindly tells you how here. There is a catch, which is easy to circumvent, and that is that you'll need a credit card that has an address in the US. Fear not, the nice people over at EntroPay have this fixed for you. All this is accepted for by Microsoft for the time being. Remember, with the 10% money back you effectively pay $54 USD for each game.
Look around
Still not convinced? Maybe you want to resell the game after you're done with it, then be sure to get the best deal. The best site I've found is XboxPriceChecker which works both for EU and US players, never spend more than necessary! Also, if you're looking for a game that's more than a month old, consider buying a used copy, go to eBay and search for the game, you'll be surprised how fast the prices drops on the big titles.
Don't subscribe!
Get Xbox Live gold, just don't subscribe to it. You can easily find a 12 months code to Xbox Live for $40 over at CDKeys.com. Also, with that low price, consider buying Xbox Live Gold even if multiplayer isn't your main interest in games. You'll get at least one new game in that subscription every month, check MajorNelson's blog (Or mine...) at the beginning of each month to see what games are free that month. Just remember to "buy" those free games, either on the console, the web or via SmartGlass app before the month ends to secure them in your collection.
Talking about subscriptions, check out EA Access, which has a lot of player value. You get access to all the games in the vault, and 10% off any EA game or DLC not in the vault. You also get trials on unreleased games five days before launch, all for $30 per year. My recommendation is that if you're looking to buy one of the games in the vault, buy a years subscription instead.
Get a best buddy
Buddies are great, everyone should have someone to hang out with, on Xbox One this becomes even more so. You can put any console as your home console, and everyone playing on your home console have access to your games and even Xbox Live Gold if you want. You don't even have to sign in to share!
So, get a friend of yours to make your console their "home" and you'll do the same at their console, and you might want to make sure to lock the account so they can't buy anything more. You can now play each others digital games, another reason to go digital, and you can even play them at the same time, in the same match!
This means, that if you and your friend have the same taste in games, you'll pay $27 for a brand new game after discounts and splitting the price. Think games are too expensive? Think again.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Review: Child of light
So I spent about 10 hours last weekend streaming Child of light, which according to my viewers was more interesting than me dying in Destiny or any other FPS, and I now have a clear opinion on this artistic, beautiful game.
The main story is heavily inspired by Alice in Wonderland, the game starts with you, Aurora, coming to this fantasy world Lemuria and simply trying to find your way home, and that proves to be harder than expected, even if you don't do any side quests.
The mechanics are time based, every character and enemy has an initiative value, and that represents how fast their round is, someone with a higher initiative can act quicker, and sometimes even more times than someone with lower initiative. When you reach a certain point on the initiative bar, the red part on the picture, you'll get to choose action for your character. While some actions are instantaneous, most of them take a varied amount of time based on the actions power. An attack that hits all enemies takes longer than an attack that only hits one enemy, and so on. If you get hit by an enemy attack while casting (being on the red part of the bar), you'll be interrupted and will be set back. This system makes combat more about interruption than about causing damage, control on the battlefield is the key to victory!
The main story is heavily inspired by Alice in Wonderland, the game starts with you, Aurora, coming to this fantasy world Lemuria and simply trying to find your way home, and that proves to be harder than expected, even if you don't do any side quests.
The Good
This game is a piece of art, everything looks hand drawn and simply astounding, from environments, to characters and even enemies. When looking at how the characters move, you can see they are 3D-models, but the textures really make them seem to be 2D, and it's just so gorgeous!
The music fits in to every scene, they have worked this game out so it feels so complete, even the conversations are great. Mostly because they rhyme, which just keep getting better they more you play.
Another great thing with this game is the challenge, when you start you can choose to play either casual or expert, the game defines these two as a story and a challenge, I chose the challenge. This means that you quickly have to figure out the game's combat mechanics which are simple to understand, yet hard and frustrating when you can't master them.
The Bad
This part is directly knit-picking, cause this is a great game, but no game is without flaws. And most of the flaws in Child of Light is on the story elements. The story isn't bad, but it is a bit simple and feels like a Disney movie rip off. The whole setting, also rather straight forward, yes I want to go home I know, but I also want to explore the world more, as it is now it's very standard RPG where you meet someone that you have to help to get to the next place and they end up following you, which repeats until you have a group that chases after the last boss, stolen from every RPG ever.
One flaw in the mechanics I would love to change is that you can only have two characters each battle, I can see how cluttered it might look on the initiative track if you had too many characters and opponents, but I would love a support, a damage dealer and either a controller class or a healer in the same battle. I feel a bit to limited by having to choose among all the fun characters.
I wold love some more living places with more people to talk to and more villages and cities to visit and why not some mysteries? Yes this is my wish list more then actual flaws, also, these changes would change the whole tone of the game, and maybe not to the better.
Bottom line
This game isn't ground breaking, and it might not be my game of the year, it is however a really good game, and I would go as far as to say that is the best RPG you can buy for $15. I've played it for over 13 hours and I'm still not done, which in my opinion is a great value for that money! I strongly recommend this game to every RPG lover!
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