Smalltalk with James Robertson

Now that Titanfall is out for the 360, and I see that the next Borderlands game is last gen only, this comment in a Joystiq story about that decision made me think:

As for why Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel won't be appearing on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Armstrong says the Borderlands audience is still on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. "The install base [on Xbox One and PS4] isn't quite there yet," he says. "They're doing fantastically well, and it's going to be great in the next couple years, but I think we're going to go where our fans are."

The initial reporting on numbers for the next gen platforms sounded good, but here's a question: how many buyers don't already own a last gen console? Which makes me really wonder about the market for next gen console games going forward....

This sounds good - Peter Hines of Bethesda talking about regular updates to ESO - but I'm skeptical:

"We want to do the version that we think is the best game and the coolest experience," Hines continued. "And that means putting a lot of people and a lot of content creators towards having stuff that comes our regularly; every four weeks, five weeks, six weeks. Big new stuff that you want to do."

Why am I skeptical? Look at the timelines for the DLC packs for the last few games they've done - Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 3. The gap between the significant chunks of content was long, and the stream typically dried up around the 1 year mark after release. I simply have my doubts that they can sustain a system of significant DLC size output at that rate without completely burning out their content development teams. I also wonder what that kind of schedule will do to the development of the more interesting (to me, anyway) single player games they do. Sure, the studios aren't the same ones, but resources from corporate are not unlimited....

Tags: bethesda, eso

I'm going to have to watch some of the videos detailed here - an XCOM: Enemy Within run on Ironman and Impossible difficulty, with no loss of countries or soldiers. I've not managed the second trick on normal mode :)

Tags: xcom, ironman

In some recent reviews, it's come out that the next gen release of Tom Raider looks better (and runs at 2x the framerate) on the PS4 (compared to the XBox One). It looks like part of the problem is the Kinect:

To make matters worse, game developers working on the Xbox One are coding with one hand tied behind their backs. Microsoft requires that all games reserve 10% of the GPU’s capacity for the Kinect, even if the game doesn’t use it. That’s split up into 8% for the Kinect video features and 2% for Kinect voice. In an effort to give a boost to its console, Microsoft is expected to issue a system patch that removes the requirement that games save that 8% for Kinect video.

The silly thing about that is how few gamers make use of the Kinect in non-Kinect specific games. Sure, you can issue voice commands - but with voice commands enabled, any talking (or ambient noise) in the room often gets mistaken for a command. Awhile back, my daughter had coversation choices being made for her in ME3 because we were talking about the game as she played. Not cool.

Tags: xbox, kinect

If you hear someone yelling at the TV for pizza, they probably haven't lost it - they've just found the Pizza Hut app on the XBox:

The app makes ordering a pizza pretty much like yelling at your parents to make you one when you were 10. Just pause your Halo 3 game and use voice commands or the motion-sensing Kinect to compose and confirm your order. You’ll only have to put your controller down when the delivery guy arrives.

Once Amazon gets those drones ready, maybe they can even serve it to you while you play....

Installing the GOTY edition of Borderlands 2:

Here's another reason not to bother with an XBox One - you have to install every game - but MS figures that you have no need to know how much free space you have left. Their explanation?

Xbox One was designed to make storage management automatic. For saved games, settings, and other information that Xbox One customers save to the cloud, space is virtually unlimited. On the internal hard drive in each Xbox One, games and apps can be uninstalled or reinstalled instantly with the click of the Xbox One menu button. Saved games and settings information is retrieved from the cloud for any game as its being reinstalled. By being smart about how storage is managed, Xbox One keeps everyone playing, watching, and sharing their entertainment content rather than worry about limitations. You can also see how much storage any app uses by pressing the menu button on that app.

So they'll let me see how much space any individual thing is taking - but they expect me to whip out paper and pencil to sum it up. Which set of morons came up with this?

Tags: xbone

Minecraft is still adding cool stuff:

Minecraft developer Mojang is partnering with Twitch to bring built-in broadcasting to the game, the two companies announced today, making it easier for players to stream their games to Twitch "at the click of a button." Twitch integration for the Windows PC and Mac versions of Minecraft is expected to go live "soon," the companies announced at MineCon, the Minecraft convention being held in Orlando, Fla. this weekend.

Tags: minecraft

Skyrim in Minecraft:

Bethesda Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks and Mojang are teaming up to bring a official content pack inspired by The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim to Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition, the companies announced at Minecon 2013 today. The pack, which is currently in development and "coming soon," overlays the world of Skyrim onto the "iconic, pixelated" world of Minecraft.

Tags: skyrim, minecraft

And the crowd went wild:

The first half of BioShock Infinite's story-driven add-on content, Burial at Sea — Episode 1, will launch on Nov. 12 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC, Irrational Games announced today.

I'm really looking forward to this :)

Tags: bioshock