Posts tagged xbox 360
The Xbox Music; hit or miss?
Oct 15th
Let’s be frank, Zune from Microsoft is a horribly implemented joke; The Simpsons had a kick out of it just last week. Despite the ton of good press earned by many Zune products, it gained the reputation of being the “copy cat product no one actually wants”. Microsoft has decided to terminate the failed product and service all together and decided to replace it with the Xbox Music. The launch of the new service is set to be on Tuesday on Xbox 360 before landing on Windows 8 and Windows RT devices later this month once Microsoft’s new operating system is released.
Here’s a little more inside to the new service:
Xbox Music & Zune are not the same, but the former is a chip of the latter:
The new product shares the 30-million catalog of music and videos from the still-on going Zune service.
Here are some of the main features to look out for in the new Xbox Music:
1. Smart DJ: a swift and dynamic method to achieve a more personalized artist-based internet radio, discover new favorites and create ultimate playlists through launching instant mixes based on your preferences.
2. Xbox Music Pass: an unlimited access (including offline access that is) to the songs and artists of your choice is dropping from the $15 a month at Zune to a $10 a month. Yet, the “get 10 free songs per month to own forever” part is gone forever.
3. Xbox Music Store: a marketplace that is said to give you the chance to purchase either a single track or entire albums, just as you can do on iTunes or other popular music stores. Costs shall be comprehensive with the major stores, with most tracks costing $1.29 with discounts of whole albums. The store will be available in the same 22 markets as the Xbox Music Pass service.
4. Exclusivity: Xbox Music shall be the default music app appearing prominently on every Windows 8 PC Start screen. It’s certainly a Modern UI app, meaning it does not run on the traditional desktop and is exclusively built for touch. Meaning it is available for Windows 8, Windows RT tablet/ PC, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox of course. Microsoft promised that iOS & Android versions’ timeframe is “within the first year”, though support for other systems is a little hazy.
5. Social integration: if you’ve caught the social bug and crave immediate integration with the likes of Facebook and Twitter, to name but the major, well then you’ll have to hold on a bit. At launch, Xbox Music will be “anti-social”, with no direct integration with any social networks what so ever. However, you can always use the Share Charm on Windows 8.
6. Cloud Storage: This feature is set to be available by next year, as well as a scan-and-match feature; giving you the ability to scan your local system for music files that you own, match them to the store, and then mark them as “owned” for streaming to other devices (as long as they’re available as stream-able songs in the service). This is quite reminiscing of the iTunes Match and Amazon Cloud Player.
To further explain this feature; if you’re using a Windows 8 PC, then Scan & Match will find all the music in your “My Music” folder, which includes DRM-free iTunes AAC files, which the software can play quite well. From then on, you can see all those files on your other devices and choose to stream or download them. On the Xbox however, your only option would be to stream, yet almost all your music will be available.
To wrap things up, if Microsoft truly intends to make a smash hit out of the Xbox Music, it ought to enable broad support outside its own ecosystem; thinking outside computers and mobile devices reaching out to media-streaming products and so on. If Microsoft does continue to add value to the new Xbox Music while also amplifying its reach, then this music service will soon turn up to be the one to beat.
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Xbox SmartGlass; a collaboration with Usher and South Park?
Jun 5th
The Electronic Entertainment Expo was kicked off on Monday when Microsoft Corp. unveiled a new software called Xbox SmartGlass; a new software that will allow Xbox 360 users to stream and share content across smartphones, tablets and TVs. It also reported that the Internet Explorer browser would be brought to the console this fall.
“Internet Explorer coupled with the power of Xbox will, for the first time, deliver a fast, fluid, intuitive Web experience in the living room,” said Xbox Live corporate vice president Marc Whitten.
So how will this new Smartglass be utilized? Here are two of the ways exhibited during the Expo:
1. Your smartphone can now be turned into a remote control used to surf the Web on a TV.
2. Your tablet can be used as a means to display content about games, TV shows and movies that were simultaneously being played on a TV.
This feature is quite similar to the Wii U from Nintendo Co ;a new high-definition console that will feature a touchscreen controller which will be called Wii U GamePad. Various method and perspectives to interact and play games on the screen are also provided by the controller, not to neglect the ability to play games and browse the Web without the TV.
Microsoft exploited its E3 event to hype new installments of “Halo” and “Forza” as well as unveiling new “Gears of War” and “Dance Central” editions. On top of all of this, they released completely new titles “Ascend: New Gods” , “LocoCycle” and “Matter” all of which come from the director-producer Gore Verbinski – director of Pirates of the Caribbean of course-.
Microsoft brought the bling up with a performance from Usher with his latest hit “Scream” along with several backup dancers to promote his collaboration on the choreography game “Dance Central 3”. Other celebrity appearances included Joe Montana as well as Matt Parker and Trey Stone –South Park creators- who introduced their game “ South Park: The Stick of Truth”.
“How many times have you been watching an episode of ‘South Park’ and thought, ‘I’d like to watch this on my television, while hooked into my mobile device, which is being controlled by my tablet device, which is hooked into my oven – all while sitting in the refrigerator,” joked Parker. “Well, we’re not doing that. We’re just doing this game.”
Microsoft said its voice-recognition ability for Kinect would be available in 12 more countries, and that it secured 35 new partnerships with the likes of the NBA, NHL, Univision and Viacom Inc. to provide content on Xbox 360. The company also announced it was launching a new online music service called Xbox Music.
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Here is your 101 on FIFA 13!
May 30th
If you are a hardcore IFA gamer, then behold; it is back and fiercer than ever! The ball control and the attacking are what entice us this time. They’ve done an excellent job, hands down, in bringing the football experience to a more real to life dynamic, complete with all the team and player related trimmings one would expect from a FIFA game.
Last year, we were excited about the new and enhanced tactical defending that took the game to a whole new level, however, this year we have a lot more to be excited about. So here is everything you need to know.
First touch control
This is undoubtedly the most significant change that we had spotted onto the whole FIFA experience. A new entire system just for receiving passes has been developed. Hence, if you get sent a dodgy ball then chances are you will lose control of it, letting players from the opposing team take advantage of your mistakes.
Now, the way you receive a ball will differ each time a pass is sent in a player’s direction, due to controls such as defensive pressure and ball orientation. Of course, they always say that “a bad workman always blames his tools”, yet this still brings new dynamics to the game.
On the other hand, it is quite notable how different the actual touch of the ball really is; over hitting a ball or sending it loose in the wrong direction are all possible actions now. All of this ultimately make up a game that, rather than being plainly accidental, is intriguing enough to keep it exciting.
Free Kicks revamped
We all know how disappointing free kicks can really be owing to the sometimes poor game execution. FIFA have decided to revamp this aspect giving you a whole set of passing abilities and the opportunity to position up to three players around the kick.
Don’t get too excited just yet, for the other team will be able to block a free kick even better now with the ability to add new players to the wall as well as taking them away; add to that the ability to move it backward and forward as well! A player running across can even be sent to try to ambush the kick.
Player impact 2.0
Last year, with FIFA 12, the mean through which players would interact with each other on screen was, yes, quite marvelous, with the animations so perfectly actualized. Yet the only problem was that, not much was actually done to enhance the gameplay.
FIFA have learnt their lesson with the new player impact engine. Now, you will be able to choose to mess up receiving or making a pass, depending of course, on factors such as player size. Gaining positions over other players has also been altered with the new push and pull mechanic.
Genuine as ever
FIFA certainly does not disappoint with more and more teams and leagues added. As anticipated, the Premiership has been dealt with accurately as has another 500 officially licensed clubs and more than 15,000 players.
Unfortunately, we cannot unveiled more details than this, but stay tuned for the new added elements to EA Sport Football Club. Career mode along with online have had a substantial revamp.
FIFA 13 will be making its way onto Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in August 2012.
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Video Games; Friend or Foe?
Apr 9th
Whether we want to admit it or not, video games have always been a major issue in our lives, and surprisingly enough they are still very popular among teenagers and even young adults.
There are many reasons for educators and parents to look down on this “act”; the most popular argument is time-consumption of course. We must say, we agree! As our days are becoming more and more digitized, we are becoming less connected with our “real” world. Spending countless hours playing a mindless videogame does not help enhance our intellect in any way, in fact it hurts it and hurts our physical fitness as well.
Yet the most horrifying issue in these up and growing video games is how violent they are becoming. You might be asking yourself: How exactly does visual stimuli and violent or adult themed- activities affect one’s behaviour? Well, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of media violence for more than a decade. Now, for the first time, they are showing that violent video games directly alter brain activity–not after years of play, but after one week. (For more information on this study click here: Link )
We cannot be stereotypical here and deem all video games as being violence-inducing; for there are many fun and educational ones on consoles as the Wii and XBox 360. So, our advice would be to always supervise your children, try to put the console in an open area and do not let them isolate themselves and last but not least limit their playing hours to a maximum of 3 hours per day.
Finally, we leave you with the most viral video games of all time:
No.1 God of War 3
1. God of War 3
2. Grand Theft Auto
3. Postal 2
4. Man Hunt 2
5. Mad World 2
6. Thrill Kill 2
7. Mortal Combat
8. Gears of War
9. Soldier of Fortune
10. Carmageddon
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