Earlier this morning, Microsoft unveiled it’s new console; the Xbox One. The presentation was an hour long and provided a great deal of information about the console and what it has to offer players. Many people speculate that console gaming is on it’s way out, but after watching this reveal, I know that’s far from the truth.
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According to a report at theverge.com, the newly introduced Xbox One will not be backwards compatible due to a X86 CPU. This is same with the PS4. So I am posing this question just how important is backwards compatibility? First a brief reminder of console history, the PS2 released in 2002 was the first system with backwards compatibility. That’s 4 generations of system without being BC!! How often do we go back and replay old game after the next generation has been thoroughly integrated into the market? Of course, we will always have a game that will bring back nostalgia from our childhood. But to make backwards compatibility a requirement for all new systems, consumers get over yourselves. Keep your old system if you care that much about the good games on it and buy the new Xbox One when you have the money. I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal to people if they already have the Ps3 or 360. The new systems work a different way than the old ones so it was literally impossible for them to make it backwards compatible. They are releasing much better systems so grab some tissues and get over it. Technology changes and so must we. I personal know gamers with a system from each generation of console starting at the Atari. After the first 6 months of release, no one will ever mention backward compatibility issue ever again.
Chime in on your views in the comment below
For those of you who haven’t watch the Reveal check it out Here
Now that I have taken some time to calm down, relax, and really look at the Xbox onereveal, I can honestly say as gamer this is the reveal Microsoft needed to do. Many reviewers will disagree, saying they need to showcase more games. But let me serious there will be game for this system. Gamers look to E3 for all the future game and expectations. Due to all the rumors regarding the Xbox One, this showcase was to win over gamer with a positive experience. Xbox one is innovative and will be an outstanding system. With voice control, Skype, Internet explorer, and total media control I can understand why the system might consider an always on internet system and I willing to allow it in my house. The only question I am left wondering is how will the system interact for my existing home theater system. Does the Xbox One replace my cablebox? Will I need to rent CableCard? Will I be able to use it day one or will I require upgrade service from my cable provider?
In the end, this reveal was about showcasing a market changing experience. And with all the tie ins and corporate partnership Microsoft displayed, I gladly say look live the Xbox one. Stephen Spielberg to produce a Halo series, NFL connection, and media links, the Xbox is new one ring to control everything. It seems the developers watch back to future and said let’s make this a reality.
SO just how much will the Xbox One set me back in my financial budget?
The Xbox 1
Watching the initial reveal has completely left me lost for words. The world of Minority Report and Back to the Future 2 is finally here with the combination of Xbox one and Kinect 2.0 This system is the new generation of complete home entertainment system. A great way to connect all thing we use daily into one system. I am ready to go out and purchase one right this minute. I can honestly say Microsoft have taken Xbox to the next level. “This is the beginning of truly intelligent TV.”
Spec Under the Hood:
Xbox One has 8 core cpu, 8GB of RAM, USB 3.0, Wi-Fi direct, Blu-ray, HDMI in/out, and 500GB of on-board storage. New Kinect uses a 1080p RGB camera, 30 FPS capability. 2Gbps of data in the new Kinect. Hence the low latency between commands and on-screen action.
New controller looks like a modern hybrid of the original Xbox controller and the 360 controller.Integrated batter on the controller, impulse triggers have force feedback.
Captures and saves footage. Editing and sharing tools native. Achievements dynamic, change.Game DVR will save game clips to the cloud.
The console will be available “later this year.” Microsoft exec Don Mattrick called it out as an “all-in-one” box. The core strategy is “simple, instant, and complete.” It was debuted alongside a new gamepad as well as a new Kinect motion camera.
The system itself is all black and features a two-tone finish with both matte and gloss in equal measure; a slot-loading Blu-ray optical drive sits out front on the left face, while a power button with the traditional incomplete circle symbol is emblazoned on the right side (which looks to be touch-based). A new Kinect was also unveiled, and it powers the console — “Xbox On” is being trumpeted as the most important feature. There’s instant switching from the Xbox One dashboard to live television (which seems to confirm that HDMI-in rumor), and a live demo is showing off impressive speeds. “Switching between live tv and all your games and entertainment is now as simple as using a remote,” Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi said. He also demonstrated gesture controls for the console’s UI, quickly snapping back to the dashboard with a pinch command.
“Design and build an all-in-one system to light up a new generation of games, TV and entertainment,” in a way that’s “simple, instant and complete” is how he characterized the mission for the new device.
Kinect is part of the package, and it’s a voice controlled experience from power on throughout the entire process. Your voice cues the Xbox to your user profile and sets up all your custom options. Then, you can dictate activities to Xbox One, sort of like how many imagined Apple would do their own Apple TV with Siri.
Changing between activities is as easy as telling the Xbox One exactly what you want it to be doing. It’s remarkably quick, quicker even than the process of changing channels on my at-home cable box hardware. But voice control isn’t the only trick, there’s also gesture recognition tech for controlling the system with your hands.
There’s a “Snap Mode” feature, too, which looks like the Microsoft Windows 8 experience, in that it allows you to run two activities simultaneously. So you can watch a movie and then also browse the Internet at the same time, for example, to look up elements of that film. You can even use Skype, newly introduced to Xbox with the Xbox One, and have that running in Snap Mode too.
The Snap Mode feature does something that has until now mostly been reserved for computers and for mobile and tablet devices: provides a second-screen experience that runs right alongside things like live TV. Adding basically a HUD layer to live TV might be the Xbox One’s biggest appeal for content providers who are looking for additional ways to engage audiences losing interest in traditional ads.
I know this might be premature to say but I believe Microsoft might have just won the console war. Watching this reveal, I can not help but imagine what is possible for Project Rift. In my opinion, games for this system is only limited by the developer imagination.
In my previous post on what makes a game great, I talked about immersion and its effects on gamers. For those of you who didn’t read the post, here is a brief recap. One of the key elements a great good is that players no longer feel they are playing a game. They become completely immersed in the story, feeling as though they are actually there. There are many ways to create this feeling of immersion: Storytelling method, dialogue used, setting for the game and the soundtrack. However, user interface is the key to the success or failure of a game. A successful user interface starts with a well designed and implemented Heads Up Display system (HUD).
Now one might ask how a HUD system can affect the quality of a game. In order to answer, we first must understand the purpose of the HUD system. The HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game’s user interface. While the information that is displayed on the HUD depends greatly on the game, there are many features that players recognize across many games. Common features include:
Now how do you make a “Good” HUD? Start by examining games with bad HUD systems. Since my group is attempting to create an action RPG, I examine what I consider to be the biggest HUD Villain, Mass Effect. Mass Effect received a lot of praise when it came out and it still does. However the HUD system robs the player of becoming completely immersed in it. I could talk about the failing of Mass Effect, but I’d rather not beat a dead horse. Instead, below is an excerpt from Game Design Reviews blog by Krystian Majewski on November 5, 2009 detailing the many HUD failures:
HUD
The HUD. What could have possibly gone wrong?
Let us move to something more common: The HUD. The interface overlay on the in-game view is a very small piece of information design but one that is quite important as you stare at it most of the game. You might think that with the little amount of information it needs to communicate, BioWare should have managed to get that right. After all they do have some considerable experience in developing games. So imagine my surprise seeing so blatantly obvious information design flaws shown here.
Arbitrary and misplaced italics (actually backwards-italics). Percentage bars with different lengths. Great solutions if you want to PREVENT players from comparing health bars.
But things don’t end there. Note that the health bar of the character “Shepard” is longer than the others. The obvious explanation to that would be that Shepard has more health than the others. But he doesn’t From playing the game longer than is good for me, I can say with confidence that the length of the bars doesn’t change as the characters level up. So I conclude that it’s just a percentage bar. Making a percentage bar longer than others you compare it to is a major information design failure. It’s difficult to comprehend because it implicitly makes players arrive at a wrong model of how the interface works. More fundamentally, it just makes comparisons between the three health bars even more difficult than it already is with the italics.
I can only speculate that the idea was to highlight Shepard as the main character. Graphic Design 101: use a larger font, put his name on top of the list rather than in-between, use spacing, and text indent to make the other names visually second-order to the main character.
Can you guess what those mean?
They might guess that the upper icon has to do with health. But I’m pretty sure they will never guess that the lower bundle of lines is supposed to be a grenade. You see, grenades in Mass Effect are discs. Using a disc as an icon for grenades is a typical example of the designers with a poor understanding of semiotics (using and “icon” where a “symbol” would be more fitting). A good counter-example is the use of conventional consumer photo cameras as symbols for speed cameras in traffic signage. The actual camera may look nothing like a consumer camera but the shape of a consumer camera is more familiar and thus easier recognizable.
Using symbols instead of icons can facilitate recognition. Of course in the UK, they’re doing it wrong.
The first, health-related icon is just barely recognizable and only because of the use of the familiar cross. Again, one is left to wonder why the designers chose to muddle up the meaning of it by adding useless additional elements. It’s not that they contain any additional information.
It’s also worth pointing out the poor typography that comes with the poor choice of icons. The numbers representing the number of health-packs and grenades are also in italics and distorted. There is also little margin between them and the icons. They are barely legible – an unfortunate property of such a vital piece of information.
For the proper Mass Effect interface experience, try to take in all this in 4 seconds… while fighting alien cyber zombies.
Making mistakes in this part of the interface has even effects on the actual core mechanics. The driving engine behind each RPG is mostly an endless circle of performing a certain task (killing baddies) to get better at performing that very same task (killing baddies faster). This cycle is kept alive by constant feedback. Players need to SEE that they get better. Considering this I don’t quite understand how the developers could have made such mistake. I guess if you develop the game for a long time you get so used to the messages that you are able to scan them quickly enough. But then again, this should have been picked up by testers.
You can read the entire review at http://gamedesignreviews.com/reviews/mass-effect-interface-fail/
From the article above and my personal experience, I have assembled a set of guidelines to create at the very least an unobtrusive and functional HUD:
In the next post, I intend to give a small tutorial on HUD creation in the Unity 3d SDK and a preview of the intended HUD for Rift.
Its been awhile since I started this blog and I haven’t posted much about the game I am developing. So while I got some free time waiting for potential job offers, I figure I will do an update post about the development done so far.
First up, a target game genre has been chosen. The game, codenamed project rift for the time being, will be a modern fantasy action hack and slash. As of right now coop play is being considered. In order to achieve a releasable product, the Unity game engine was selected. Unity 3d game is great starting place for aspire developers especially with feature released in unity 4 and their active community of users.
Unity is primarily used to create mobile and web games, but can also deploy games to consoles or the PC. The game engine was developed in C/C++, and is able to support code written in C#, JavaScript or Boo. The new mechanim system makes creating, transitioning and adding animation to models simple.
The third and perhaps the biggest update is the main protagonist has been conceptualized completely. So without further delay allow me to introduce Elle, codename Rift.
Originally Created By Xeromander of Deviantart
http://xeromander.deviantart.com/art/Riley-Atmosphere-104041381
Codename: Rift
Govt name: Elle
Age 24
DOB:
Race/clan: Mulatto/ dragoon
Species: human
Hobbies: Parkour
Height: 5’8″
Build: medium weight: 145
Background:
As naive child of 17 years of age, Rift join the King Knight’s with most noble of aspirations protecting her country and those she loved. But her role in the knight’s order, as perimeter guard, left her desiring more. At the end of her contract, Rift left the Order in search or adventure and danger as hero for hire. Unfortunately, many of the quest she received were just was mundane and rewarding as guard duty.
Since accepting the challenge to develop decent Indie game title some months ago, I have been pondering a series of questions no one has been able to answer. What is it that makes a video game great? One would think that there is a recipe or development flow chart that would lead to grade A video game development. Looking for a road map or model for my project, I have scoured the gaming website and forum for every top 100 games of all time list and fan boy flame war I found to be relevant. But this tactic only set me back further in my journey. For every element that we consider to make a game awesome, there is an exception to it.
In the end only two factors affect a game’s greatness potential: immersion and game play. When I was a child, I was a nerd (That’s not to say I am not a nerd now, just relaxed with age and discovery of women) and I greatly enjoyed the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. Originally created for 10 to 14 year olds, the books are written in the second person. The protagonist—that is, the reader—takes on a role relevant to the adventure; for example, private investigator, mountain climber, race car driver, doctor, spy, etc. The stories are formatted so that, after a couple of pages of reading, the protagonist faces two or three options, each of which leads to more options, and then to one of many endings. The success of this series of books comes from the immersion style of writing. The reader feels as if he/she is the character, and being able to decide the character’s fate increases that sensation. Video games are the Choose Your Adventure books of the future. True gamers use games as a way to escape the trouble of our everyday life by becoming a hero. In great games, a player feels that he or she is actually there. One such case is the death of Aerith, or Aeris, in Final Fantasy 7, this moment in the game is consider to be one of the saddest moments in history of the series and video games. I personally cried the first few times I played through the game. But afterwards you feel the urge to strike Sephiroth down.
Many say that graphics are the key to immersion. Look at any review, flame war, or forum dedicated to a game and someone is talking about how visually appealing the graphics are. As pc and console head to a new level of power and ability, it is up to developer to push the envelope of graphics and create realistic world in which the players can become lost in. But let us be honest for a mere moment, graphics only sell video games. Graphics are only important the first 3 hours. It is the theory of perceptual adaptation. After initial shock and awe of amazing scenery and characters, a player’s mind adapts and treats them like everyday occurrences. Furthermore, games like Minecraft and Braid and the survival and continuing re-emergence of classics such as Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy 7, Golden Eye and others show graphics are no substitute for a fundamentally solid and fun game. A game does not have to be hyper realistic in order to be good. That’s why they keep getting re-released on virtual consoles over and over again. That is not to say that graphics do not affect the immersion principle.
Perhaps the most crucial element of any game, game play can make or break any game. There are a lot of games with solid stories that suffer from bad game play, IE COD, Brink, Assassins Creed, and my favorite Star War Force Unleashed 2. Game play needs to be fresh, non-repeating, challenging, and done with appropriate learning curve. When consider games with outstanding game play, three games come to mind Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry I. My thumbs still ache from memories of summer nights of button mashing. DMC and Ninja Gaiden consists of levels called “missions”, where players must fight numerous enemies, perform platforming tasks, and occasionally solve puzzles to progress through the story. The player’s performance in each mission is given a letter grade of A, B, C, or D, with an additional top grade of S. Grades are based on the time taken to complete the mission, the amount of “red orbs” gathered (the in-game currency obtained from defeated enemies), how “stylish” their combat was, item usage, and damage taken. “Stylish” combat is defined as performing an unbroken series of attacks while avoiding damage, with player performance tracked by an on-screen gauge. The more hits the player makes, the higher the gauge rises. The gauge starts at “Dull”; progresses through “Cool”, “Bravo”, and “Awesome”; and peaks at “Stylish”. The gauge terms are similar to the grades given at the end of the missions. When the character receives damage, the style rating resets back to “Dull”. Both of these games were unrelentingly difficult, but when you pulled of an 80 hit combo or achieved an S on a mission you would smile for hours.
All this is not an attempt to instruct you on how to invent a good game. Rather, it’s a set of guidelines on the kind of characteristics a good game should have. I hope that you do pursue your own truth about what great games are.
These two sentences best express the qualities of a good game:
A good game will stay with us all our lives.
A good game makes us long to play it again.
– Wolfgang Kramer
Whats your take? Whats you favorite game and why? Comment below.
Due to boredom and lack of cash, I started mining bitcoin,
if you would like to assist http://www.bitcoinplus.com/generateforafriend
if you like to donate
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Being recent single graduate Mechanical Engineer, I have found a lot of time on my hands. Being unemployed, after filling out application after application, there’s not much left to fill the void of a job. So I decide to go into game development. As an avid gamer, I have always dream of creating my own fantasy world. Now I have the skills, the resources, and time, so why not venture into the unknown abyss.
So I encourage you to follow me on the journey and prepare for the next great RPG.
