The XBOX One

[Teiman]

It could be a new type of gamer we don’t know yet. I have seen FNAC (a european books & hardware shop) sell machines to stream/record you playing on your console. People must be buying these devices, or FNAC will not occupy shelf space to sell these.

I personally I have to thanks LMN8R for his posts in this thread. Without him we would perhaps fall into confirmation bias. Is good to have more varied opinions, also a forum is more fun if there’s discussions.

[LMN8R]

For me personally, I just love the trend because it enables me to experience games second-hand that I either don’t have time to play, or would otherwise have no desire to play. I’m sitting on a bus for an hour a day, so it’s nice to be able to watch some streams.

Idle Thumbs in particular has been on a role the last couple of weeks with their Crusader Kings streams: http://www.twitch.tv/idlethumbs/profile

It’s the type of game I’ve never had any interest in playing, and still don’t, but it’s endlessly entertaining to watch.

[Jake_Plane]

Major Nelson just posted about Matchmaking on Xbox One with Smart Match

Below is an edited version of what he posted (they do tend to go on). Long story short, this sounds cool. One thing jumped out at me. Microsoft’s language in the second bullet reads: “freedom to break out of waiting in lobbies and do whatever you want is what separates Xbox One from systems that don’t have a way to instantly switch between tasks.”

According to Sony, they DO offer the ability to switch between apps. Will be interesting to see if that’s not the case.

Smart Match finds the perfect players for the perfect game
Smart Match on Xbox One is matchmaking evolved… For the first time ever, games will be able to share player stats with Xbox Live and each other; to learn, evolve, and provide gamers with the best possible matchmaking available. The results? Titles have the ability to match you with other players based on reputation, skill, language, age, and even your specific gameplay style.

Smart Match frees up your time
With Smart Match, you can do whatever you want while Xbox One finds your perfect match. This means that less popular multiplayer modes and maps that have traditionally taken a long time to find players suddenly become playable. Because Snap mode is a core feature of Xbox One that lets you do two things at once, you no longer have to wait in lobbies while Xbox Live is matchmaking for you. One friend can even set up matches for your whole party. While Xbox Live is matchmaking, you’re untethered and free to do what you want, like watch TV or check out your favorite website or apps while waiting for your next game. If you’re playing digital games, you can even play one game while Smart Match prepares a second. This freedom to break out of waiting in lobbies and do whatever you want is what separates Xbox One from systems that don’t have a way to instantly switch between tasks.

Smart Match lets you know when your game is ready
After you or a party member inputs the criteria for your perfect game, do something more fun than waiting; it’s up to you. Play another game. Find some new DLC. Jump on Reddit. Update your movie queue. Play some music. Skype with your friends. Like. Comment. Retweet. Take yourself as many touch points away from the matchmaking process as you can and you still don’t need to worry about finding your way back. Once Xbox One is done finding your perfect match, it will prompt you with a simple toast—no matter where you are or what you’re doing—so you can jump straight into playing

[Telefrog]

I’ll believe the first bullet when I see it. They said the same thing about the way the 360 would match you up, but that’s been a crapshoot for years.

[Jake_Plane]

Beacons worked fine for me. I think the difference here is that thiss goes beyond your friend list. It will match you up to anyone.

[Teiman]

Server browser is a much superior option. You see how much people play the game, and what is everyone else playing. You can join the same server or servers, to meet the same people. You can make a intelligent decision, like… I don’t like this map, but the ping is really good. Computers can’t do intelligent decision*, Hard-AI has not ben invented yet, and anyone selling stuff that needs Hard-AI is a snake oil vendor.

• Can do other things that are interesting, specially with high volume, a learning algorithm, and well defined problems.

[jpinard]

The matchmaking thing sounds really good. I hope Microsoft will help developers free-of-charge so all developers can implement this properly.

[beloved_one]

How many of those gamers recorded though? The professionals and such well be doing it anyway. Viewing a steam on YouTube and desiring to make your own are not equivalent.

I watch movies but that doesn’t mean the ability to make my own is going to be a huge advantage to me.

I’ve watched some Twitch TV lately and primarily it is not professional casters that I’ve been watching. You benefit not just by becoming one of the 600,000 people casting, but one of the 35 million watching those casters. Think about the history of professional game broadcasting – Professionally produced gaming footage based tv shows have not done well that I’ve seen.

I don’t cast any of my games now, but I probably would if constant recording existed in a hassle free manner and broadcasting was as simple as flipping a switch. I really appreciate what Microsoft is putting forward here, since playing a lot of Dota 2. (Valve makes it very easy to find games to watch while waiting for matchmaking or during times when you can’t commit to a full game.)

[Phred]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe either console can quickly switch between games. That would entail keeping multiple games’ active states in memory simultaneously. They can switch between the one game you’re currently playing and the web, netflix, pandora, skype, etc, but not multiple games.

With FreeBSD as the ps4 os I can’t see that posing the slightest problem at all. Unix’s do task switching very well. Who knows what OS controls that stuff on the Xbox however.

[Teiman]

With FreeBSD as the ps4 os I can’t see that posing the slightest problem at all. Unix’s do task switching very well. Who knows what OS controls that stuff on the Xbox however.

On the iPhone smooth task switching seems to be achieved by having apps need only a fraction of the memory the machine have. Fat apps that need a lot of resources (read: big games) behave poorly, and can become unstable. Lots of games on iOS move the player to the main menu if he task switch and return. Is not big extend to imagine console OS behave similar, and almost all games on consoles to use as much memory as possible (read: big games).

Why these fat iPhone apps close, I don’t know. I imagine even programmers writing “defensive code” have parts of the code where the code make asumptions and is not re-re-re-re-checking stuff still exist. I imagine defensive programming is less popular in games than in other places, even less in console game programming. Some languages have exceptions and stuff where defensive programming can be psedo-auto, but these are not popular for game programming because do too much on background, without the programmer control.

[Phred]

Why these fat iPhone apps close, I don’t know. I imagine even programmers writing “defensive code” have parts of the code where the code make asumptions and is not re-re-re-re-checking stuff still exist. I imagine defensive programming is less popular in games than in other places, even less in console game programming. Some languages have exceptions and stuff where defensive programming can be psedo-auto, but these are not popular for game programming because do too much on background, without the programmer control.

A properly coded and designed OS shouldnt need defensive programming. What you are talking about is handled in the memory manager. When an application needs data, it attempts to access it which causes the OS to page fault, and, if it has flushed the required pages to disk, it loads them back in, and swaps out some lesser used pages. The only defensive programming needed is to handle the page faulting by waiting for the OS to serve up the required pages.

[Teiman]

I dunno.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

I offer this image with a fun bug.

big image

Mount & Blade bug. Sky texture is replaced by the face texture of one of the npcs.

[SlainteMhath]

So Microsoft announces that they’d like you to pay $25 to buy an adaptor to use your current headset with XBone. Or you can buy the crappy headset they’ll be selling separately at $25, either way. Meanwhile PS4 will have a headset pack-in, and support all headsets currently on the market.

Will Microsoft ever stop fucking up with XBone?

[Telefrog]

To be fair, that’s not a new policy for either manufacturer. The 360 currently uses a proprietary system for their headsets, while the PS3 allows any old Bluetooth headset to sync up and be used. It’s just like how you can’t just buy an off-the-shelf drive to upgrade the 360, while you can upgrade the PS3 with a common laptop hard drive.

Just for clarification, no price has been announced for the adapter that will allow you to use a 360 headset with the XBONE. I’m pretty sure that anyone that bought one would be doing so to use their fancy expensive 3rd party headset anyway rather than the flimsy 360 pack-in.

[Jake_Plane]

Where did you get $25? That article doesn’t mention a price at all.

[Canuck]

A decent price for an adapter would be $5 so it will probably be $9.99.

[Coca_Cola_Zero]

I’ll believe the first bullet when I see it. They said the same thing about the way the 360 would match you up, but that’s been a crapshoot for years.

Agreed. Xbox 360 TrueSkill was supposed to solve most of this and didn’t. I have no reason to believe they’ve finally fixed this.

Also tying your reputation into the system sounds good in theory but will fail horribly in practice due to the way rep is current abused. My rep on Live right now is abysmal because I get dinged by lots of COD players for playing the game primarily with a team of other players and playing it as an actual tactical shooter where we hold down positions and communicate and don’t just run and gun or run around “quickscoping”.

Prior to playing COD regularly (back when I was playing the various Halos and GOWs and such) and being on Xbox Live for years I was at like 2% avoided on rep, in the past couple of years playing virtually only COD in a multiplayer setting I’m at 95% avoided, despite always being in party chat (and thus incapable of being a bad voice comm. citizen, though quite a few people do ding me for that when they file the reviews since they seem to just pick whatever random reason they feel like).

[Jake_Plane]

http://www.examiner.com/article/xbox-one-s-slow-recovery-from-pr-missteps

Gamer outrage was at an all-time high, and Microsoft did something unheard of in game console circles. They recanted. Some of their benefits of the new system would be lost, but they would backtrack and give gamers the more traditional styled console they wanted. It would play used games with no restrictions. It could be used offline, although it would still require an initial online activation.

Julie Larson-Green, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of the Windows division, was given the reins dropped by Mattrick and announced as the new Executive Vice President of Devices and Studios. Marc Whitten, the Corporate Vice President of Xbox LIVE, has been the face of the “good” news following Mattrick’s departure.

Microsoft’s earlier statement that it would not allow self-publishing for indie game developers went by the wayside, following a recent about-face. What’s more, every Xbox One console will be functional as a development kit, rather than requiring devs to sign up and pay for expensive kits.

Microsoft’s earlier statement that the new console would not support headsets from the current gen, was dismissed after it announced that an adapter is in production that will allow the use of existing headsets. This may seem trivial, but with wireless headsets approaching the $300 point, repurchasing a headset is not unlike purchasing a whole second console.

It was revealed that the Xbox One was designed to handle being left on - for ten straight years - a huge relief from the early 360 console, which had catastrophic overheating issues, resulting in a billion dollar loss for Microsoft.

Pricing was announced for Xbox One accessories, with reports claiming “large price tags.” Gamers have been quick to protest, but in reality, the prices differ little from current gen pricing for similar items. Xbox LIVE Gold for one year remains at $59.99. Controllers are $59.99, where Xbox 360 controllers run $49-$59. Play and Charge kits with rechargeable batteries run $24.99 compared to the current price of $19.99. The biggest difference is that current controllers have the option of running off inexpensive AA batteries, a feature that Xbox One controllers will not have. Headset cost has also gone up from $19.99 to $24.99.

Finally, some gamers have lamented the loss of the “family plan” for sharing used and digital games. After ditching the “always on” reuirement for the Xbox One, the family plan was dropped. Later, Microsoft said it was not “gone for good” and may be implemented at a later date.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no one should say that this console war is over.

I give a lot of credit to the new Xbox team (and it is new) for moving fast to repair the damage caused by what came before.

[Aleck]

http://www.examiner.com/article/xbox-one-s-slow-recovery-from-pr-missteps

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no one should say that this console war is over.

I give a lot of credit to the new Xbox team (and it is new) for moving fast to repair the damage caused by what came before.

Is there comparative pricing for PS4 accessories yet?

[Brad_Grenz]

PS4 controllers are $60, too. Headset is packed in. Rechargeable battery is built in.