XBOX One

[BillyG]

Yeah, purely online. The campaign doesn't run through all of the maps, 9 of the 15. I wish there was a little more scripted stuff in the campaign, because I was pretty lost in that final map as to what all the shit talking was about.

The stuff going on in space during the maps is just killer. Fucking ships being blasted out of the sky, and breaking into millions of parts. Aliens being pummeled with missiles. There's a lot of Tony Hawk style "lines" where you can run like 7 fucking miles without ever touching the ground. So satisfying.

And server performance was fine last night. There was some server lag in like two matches (out of maybe 15-20 I played), but I've experienced the same or worse in every online game I've played. The game itself runs great, and the only time I've seen it take a bad frame rate hit was during a campaign mission that shoots you down from space and when you land shit is POPPING THE FUCK OFF, but it recovered in like 3 seconds and was fine.

[Abraham Smashington]

looks like you titan killers killed xboxlive for a bit last night according to joystiq. really need to get paid so I can get in on the action

[BillyG]

looks like you titan killers killed xboxlive for a bit last night according to joystiq. really need to get paid so I can get in on the action

Wasn't a Titanfall or Xbox Live issue. Tons of sites were down. Twitter, Xbox Live sign in, Github, bitly, tons of shit. It was weird though, it said I wasn't signed in but I got right in no problem whatsoever.

[B_Metal]

Le sigh.

[gravedigger]

Wish there was a theater option so I could verify that, yes, I did drop my Titan THROUGH the evac ship.

[Abraham Smashington]

so no more forcing Kinect on people. This feels like Microsoft giving the fuck up. Now it's gonna lay dormant like the original if publishers aren't forced to do things with it.

This isn't making me want to run out and buy one so I'm really confused by their 180 with this.

[BillyG]

They needed to just drop the price, and eat the price of the Kinect for a while. I get why they are giving people the option, because the use for GAMES isn't there. But for going through the UI and all that? I couldn't imagine not using the Kinect. For those uses it's great.

[gravedigger]

Are there even any Kinect games in development other than Fantasia? My fanboy leanings aside, I really do think Harmonix is the only company who has really figured out how to use the damn thing. It really is cool for menu navigation but it's still a gimmick. I don't think MS has ever given the thing enough support game-wise.

[BillyG]

It's garbage for games aside from small voice commands.

[Abraham Smashington]

but that's my problem. WE've seen what indie companies were doing with the original (much better head tracking, 3d space stuff, etcc) yet Microsoft can't seem to do anything but bullshit with it.

So now you have a machine that is less powerful than the PS4 (it's science) that doesn't have much to bring to the table at the current moment because if anything, the Kinect could have been poised to bring some crazy shit if they just would have let it.

I've been a fan of the kinect since the beginning (I still am) and if anything was going to force developers to start using it in new ways making every xbone have it was going to be it.

Now that it's not required, this fucking thing will be just like the last iteration, a paperweight for most people. I'm just struggling to figure out why they would do this. If anything this should have been this way since the beginning. I know I'd be fucking pissed if I dropped 500 bucks and then like 5 months later they're like "fuck you guys, now it's cheaper by 100 bucks and that kinect thing you own isn't being pushed on developers anymore"

[BillyG]

Those indie companies were also hacking the shit out of it, and doing crazy stuff on PC's way more powerful than the Xbone, let alone the 360 which is when we were at peak "INSANE KINECT EXPERIMENT" headlines. I don't think the Kinect ever had many applications well suited for gaming, even the voice stuff felt unnatural. I would bet the Kinect ties into whatever Microsofts augmented/virtual reality plans end up being, just like the PS Camera does. That's where the Kinect can really show off, because it's much more capable than the PS Camera.

I'm definitely not happy that I spent the extra $100 for a Kinect, because if the system wasn't built from the ground up with it in mind I definitely would not have bought it. The UI wouldn't be dependent/better with Kinect so I would have no use for it. But I'm not getting worked up over it.

They already said they're working on firmware patch to move processing power away from the Kinect so the difference between PS4 and Xbone are almost nothing at that point. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I can still turn on/off the console with my controller if I have the kinect off so it's not a big deal.

And really, this makes me happy because it's a new crew in charge of the Xbox division. They're making changes better for gamers. The updates to Gold have been wanted forever. Nobody at Microsoft could justify the need to pack in and charge for the Kinect. And if this news is coming out NOW then I am super fucking hype for whatever they have planned for E3.

[Abraham Smashington]

Xbone is the new PS3.

[gravedigger]

Hahaha, dick.

[gravedigger]

But for real, it's sad that it took the fresh blood to come to this realization but I hope, like Billy said, this is setting the stage for some MEGATON announcements at E3.

[B_Metal]

Fuck Kinect. There, I said it. Never had an interest in it, don't give two shits about anything in that area. Fuck motion controls period. Just give me great games that look badass.