News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[Cyan]

Really nice photos of the special white "I Made This - Launch Team 2013" console, its accessories & Day One games...



http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/xbox-one

Tommy McClain

It looks cute. This is my favourite photo:

I always play in the dark and the Xbox One looks sleek at night. The light of the Kinect, Xbox One and the controller at unison make the console look quite uniform, difficult to explain.

On a different note, Xbox One is ranked 18 at Black Friday sales! :smile2:

Other than that, it is very surprising how the Xbox 360 is performing these days, sales wise. I still have it but I have the Xbox One and 10 games, and while I still kinda miss Skyrim I can't play both consoles.

 

[Cyan]

Thanks for this, I decided to run through the setup again for Kinect using the troubleshooting section as I initially just placed it where the 360's Kinect had been. It was working fine but I wanted to see if it would prefer a different angle. Going through the test and it recognizing my floor, it then wanted me to tilt it as far back as possible. So I expect it to work even better now.

It has been useful for me too, especially this.

After a week with the console, these are my quick impressions.

Controller: The best Xbox controller to date, by far. It is obvious it has been made for the mainstream public, for men, for women and children, because it is light, much lighter than the Xbox 360's gamepad and fits most hands well.

Interface: Lots of multitasking, many things can be happening at the same time and some excellent tools. However, it is very green. At this very early stage they are listening to feedback.

Good idea 'cos there are things that are worse than they were. Especially the parties. They worked fine the first couple of days but now parties aren't as straightforward as they used to be on the Xbox 360.

I love the new messages interface, because I have all my messages organised and displaying horizontally. That's fine and dandy, but again, getting to the messages isn't as straightforward as it used to be.

Xbox Live: It has been working nicely for the most part. But I gotta admit I haven't tried the games where the netcode is the most important thing. The cloud is showing some nifty tidbits about how things might be in the future.

The console: It is very elegant and very silent. In fact the power brick is louder than my console.

The voice recognition makes the interface and games derive benefits from it. BF4 is more fun when you can issue voice commands without touching a button (Engage!), so is Ryse, NFS Rivals and FIFA 14.

Some friends with kids mention that their children go all crazy over voice commands, Xbox show my stuff, Xbox record that, Xbox turn off --> yes, etc etc etc. The whole integration with the TV and multitasking means that the future with these new consoles is now.

The console also has Xbox Video, with a huge library of movies (300.000, second place in the world).

As an early adopter I know some things can only improve. In addition, the console shows a great potential.

 

[AzBat]

That answers Chipworks question of why Kinect, a stationary device, needs accelerators or gyros.

Tommy McClain

 

[Cyan]

I have been playing a little more tonight and I even uploaded a couple of videos of myself playing Powerstar Golf. The community can be quite fun.

Since your friends can see your activity feed, one of them asked me what I think about Powerstar Golf after I uploaded a video, he watched it and he felt curious.

I also watch some clips from my friends, which is good. What I miss is having an option to take screengrabs. Some people might occasionally prefer to take a screenshot sometimes rather than a video, depending on the situation. Both are nifty features.

Aside from that, my best Xbox Live friend watched a video of Ryse that the console had uploaded automatically and she told me about it -that's how I noticed that the console had uploaded the video.

 

[eastmen]

one thing i would say to folks...

Please train your family before putting Xbox one on your main TV. Heres why:

-My remote doesnt REALLY work to raise or lower the volume on the television anymore. I dont know why. I can change the channel and get ti dvr/on-demand but no volume and volume is one of the more difficult things to change using the Kinect. Between the televisions volume and whatever room noise there is... its just easier (and more efficient since the Kinect only lowers or raise increments of 2) with the remote.

-you have to leave the xbox on in order to watch TV. The passthrough is active active so the Xbox has to be on to check on whether there is an active connection at the STB and the TV. If your Xbox isnt on no signal gets from the STB to the TV. Unless everyone is trained to go through the cadence of "xbox on, Xbox Watch TV" They will be very frustrated.

I just say xbox volume up and it raises it. Also smart glass will raise volume now

 

[AlphaWolf]

Ya my volume is on my receiver, it works fine. up or down raises it 3 notches, but most importantly for me is mute.

 

[Cyan]

As I said in a different thread The Witcher 3 is going to feature Kinect support, which is great news.

I hope they add extensive support for voice commands, like in FIFA 14. i.e. you say Formation, a menu appears with a list, say you want to choose 4-4-2, you just have to say Formation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, whatever the formation is, saying Substitution brings up a list of your players, you select one saying his actual name, which is fun, and then select one of your substitutes. Things like that, but for spells and stuff.

Just imagine saying "Drink health potion" or "Health potion" amidst a combat without having to go through a slow menu and being able to focuns on the combat itself.

On a different note, the new Xbox One interface featuring videos from your friends -activity feed- and other people with interesting videos creates a sense of community and it has a lot of potential if done well. I even recorded a video today, voice-over included as well, in a jiffy.

News:

Some robbers wanted to steal several Xbox One consoles and....

http://kotaku.com/robbers-settle-for-ps4-when-gamestop-is-all-out-of-the-1474133489

 

[Cyan]

Two interesting reviews of the Xbox One:

http://bgr.com/2013/11/27/microsoft-xbox-one-review/ (Microsoft delivers a solid contender with unlimited potential)

http://winsupersite.com/xbox/xbox-one-review (The superior new-generation video game and entertainment console)

 

[mrcorbo]

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about the changes to how the multiplayer system works on the XBOne vs how it worked on 360. Not sure why they apparently broke a perfectly working system, but here's a rumor about the issues and how long they might take to resolve.

http://doddscientifics.com/2013/12/...e-party-system-but-its-going-to-take-a-while/

 

[Scott_Arm]

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about the changes to how the multiplayer system works on the XBOne vs how it worked on 360. Not sure why they apparently broke a perfectly working system, but here's a rumor about the issues and how long they might take to resolve.

http://doddscientifics.com/2013/12/...e-party-system-but-its-going-to-take-a-while/

What exactly is wrong with it, other than the UI itself is a little annoying to navigate? As far as I can tell, you can do all of the same things, and it even has some improvements like automatically being prompted to join party members games when they find new matches. They definitely screwed up the menus a bit, and overhauling that would be a good idea. It takes more commands to do the same things right now, but I don't see what is broken or missing.

Edit: Just did some reading and the problem stems from missing manual invites. If you have a party full of people and half want to play one game, and half want to play the other, the auto-invite system doesn't work. The party gets set for a particular game, I'm assuming based on the game that the person that created the party is playing. If they find a match, the party will be notified that a match has been found, and they are invited to join. But if half the party wants to play something else, the auto-invite system will not work for them. Basically, they need to add manual invites as an option to get around that limitation. Seems like a legitimate oversight. It does not seem like it would be an impossible problem to fix. Hopefully it will come sooner than later.

 

[Cyan]

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about the changes to how the multiplayer system works on the XBOne vs how it worked on 360. Not sure why they apparently broke a perfectly working system, but here's a rumor about the issues and how long they might take to resolve.

http://doddscientifics.com/2013/12/...e-party-system-but-its-going-to-take-a-while/

Some of those complains are fair and all, others don't make sense.

I rather prefer not to know when friends get connected.

I don't care first of all and secondly, if you have say... 20-30 friends it can be palatable, but when you have a thousand friends and you are playing a game the notifications can go on forever making it impossible to concentrate and play normally. :smile2:

I think it should be optional because I'm so in seventh heaven right now. :smile: I don't bother with that, also I prefer to keep my friends' privacy, not necessarily knowing when they connect.

Is it so difficult to check who is connected and who isn't? Of course it is very easy, so.... :smile2:

They should leave that optional. Thus you can select not to receive notifications when your friends connect (perfect!!), and you can select not to send a notification to your friends when you connect. :smile2:

That is, if you are connected they can see you if they check, but it doesn't necessarily mean they will receive a notification of your signing in if you prefer not to notify you have connected -be it not to *disturb* others, to play calmly, what have you.

 

[Cyan]

Two very fun videos I uploaded while playing Powerstar Golf.

This one is kinda hilarious. I apply the power well, I used my special power and...

http://sdrv.ms/1cXl0fg

British humour at its best (the developers are British); "We meet again, eh, rough?"

http://sdrv.ms/1eNbNI1

 

[Cyan]

A couple of very interesting suggestions for Kinect usage.

- Speech to text. Yes, just imagine writing messages to your friends using your voice, or naming your character in an RPG without having to use the clumsy gamepad with a virtual keyboard to write it, OR uploading your videos with Upload Studio being able to name them without resorting to the slow, clumsy gamepad!

- Voice support for adventure games and the like. I discussed this with ToTTenTranz in a different thread.

Anyway, just imagine playing Broken Sword The Director's Cut -those who have played the game on PC like I did might know what I am talking about- with Kinect, having a word for every single clue highlighted on the screen. Or being able to combine objects and stuff.

Also having gestures support to make it more awesome. This is just the tip of the iceberg for devices like Kinect, really.

 

[Tap In]

Two very fun videos I uploaded while playing Powerstar Golf.

This one is kinda hilarious. I apply the power well, I used my special power and...

http://sdrv.ms/1cXl0fg

British humour at its best (the developers are British); "We meet again, eh, rough?"

http://sdrv.ms/1eNbNI1

looks cool... is there analog swing control or only three click?
Thx

 

[Cyan]

looks cool... is there analog swing control or only three click?
Thx

It's just three click. Not very exciting and there are moments when I feel like it just isn't my moment for calculating the timing.

No support for Kinect -i.e. if it only featured voice commands (like Iron 1, Wood 4, etc etc) to quickly select the clubs without having to go through an endless list of clubs using left and right on the gamepad- is also a bummer, imo.

But the game is very fun.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

- ...or naming your character in an RPG...

I can't see that every working because it involves made-up words and sounds. Decent speech to text only works when there's a dictionary to compare sounds to. For messages, it'd be easy and more effective to record a sound clip and send that!

 

[AlphaWolf]

For messages, it'd be easy and more effective to record a sound clip and send that!

Only if the contents of the message is normal chatter. If you send links or lists having to replay a voice mail multiple times to make sure you have it right is incredibly annoying.

 

[Cyan]

I can't see that every working because it involves made-up words and sounds. Decent speech to text only works when there's a dictionary to compare sounds to. For messages, it'd be easy and more effective to record a sound clip and send that!

That's right, and that's what it would make it even funnier. Say you want to name a character something like Shifty Geezer in Skyrim.

What if the console understands it as Nifty Cuss, or Shifty Tally-ho or Tally Geezer?

I am not saying it is going to work every time, but this video shows that speech to text might indeed be possible. The guy speaks Spanish but it's just a 14 seconds video and it is pretty easy to understand what he says.

He is performing a Bing search. (you have to say--> Xbox Bing.)

He whispers "Killer Instinct" first, and Bing looks for Killer Instinct. :smile2: Then he mutters "Atras" (Back). And finally he goes "me cago en tu padre" (sod/screw your father) and the console understands it perfectly!!

That was pretty surprising for me because those are completely *random* words totally unrelated to games or known words Kinect would need.

 

[Cyan]

Only if the contents of the message is normal chatter. If you send links or lists having to replay a voice mail multiple times to make sure you have it right is incredibly annoying.

Written messages tend to etch in your memory in a more obvious and pronounced way than voicemails.

I think that's human nature. Besides that, if you don't feel very talkative or your voice is broken for whatever reason, then speech to text might be easier on you.

Besides that, it is cool to see how accurately your console understands you. It could open other possibilities like talking to an AI a la Milo or Cortana.

Back into adventure games, simple commands like Open, Take, Pick up, Talk, Drop, etc etc might work.

For instance you are in a stage where there are contextual options you can interact with. Those contextual descriptions could be clues, items and stuff like that.

It would speed the interactions up in a very significant manner using voice commands instead of using a gamepad.

My last adventure game on consoles -prior to Broken Sword the Director's Cut (PC)- was Gray Matter on the Xbox 360.

I still have the game, but it is difficult to play because of the radial menu which highlights the people and objects you can interact with.

On the Xbox One you would just have to say what or who you want to interact with instead of pressing LB for a radial menu and move around that menu with the right stick.

It can be distressing and exasperating with a regular gamepad. While with voice commands selecting an option could be faster than a mouse.

You could say; "Take" "Rope", then "Combine rope with bottle" -for instance- without having to access the items menu. Lots of possibilities. :smile2:

Also gestures could be faster in some cases, to open a door you could have a voice command like Open, or simply clench your fists.

 

[bkilian]

That's right, and that's what it would make it even funnier. Say you want to name a character something like Shifty Geezer in Skyrim.

What if the console understands it as Nifty Cuss, or Shifty Tally-ho or Tally Geezer?

I am not saying it is going to work every time, but this video shows that speech to text might indeed be possible. The guy speaks Spanish but it's just a 14 seconds video and it is pretty easy to understand what he says.

He is performing a Bing search. (you have to say--> Xbox Bing.)

He whispers "Killer Instinct" first, and Bing looks for Killer Instinct. :smile2: Then he mutters "Atras" (Back). And finally he goes "me cago en tu padre" (sod/screw your father) and the console understands it perfectly!!

That was pretty surprising for me because those are completely *random* words totally unrelated to games or known words Kinect would need.

On the 360, any "bing" search does a cloud recognition (it sends the audio up to the cloud, which is enormously more capable at reco than a console). I suspect it's the same for the One. I am often amazed at how good the bing stuff is at parsing words.