“We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we’ve confirmed today,” a post by Xbox frontman Major Nelson begins.

That’s a bit of an understatement, after Kotaku and Wired ran two separate stories both reporting the polar opposite information to the other. While Microsoft’s Phil Harrison said that a small fee would be required to transfer the license of your own installed game from your Xbox LIVE account to another, the official Xbox support Twitter accounts claimed that no such fee would be required.

The official Question and Answer form for Xbox One, meanwhile, only goes as far as to say that “We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later.”

Call in the Major

Major Nelson has since waded into the information cross-fire by writing:

“While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail. Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios.”

Nelson goes on to say that, should you wish to play your Xbox One games at a friend’s house, “there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.”

But what if you wish to play on your friend’s account?

We’ll have to wait until a fully formed and official response emerges, but until then you can read over what we do know about Xbox One, its features and games with our round-up post.

Microsoft’s press conference revealing and detailing its new home console, the Xbox One, spent a lot of time providing information on the new features of the device, but a few of the more burning questions that we would have liked to be answered were left to online Question and Answer forms and official Xbox Twitter support lines to handle.

Here are a few of the  questions that have been answered since the conclusion of the Xbox One press conference:

Question: Will current Xbox 360 Achievements and GamerScore transfer to Xbox LIVE with Xbox One?

Answer: “Yes. Your current Xbox Live Gamertag will stay with you on Xbox One if you choose to keep it, and your hard-earned Gamerscore and Achievements will indeed carry over from Xbox 360.”

Question: Will the 100 Xbox LIVE friend limit be increased for Xbox One?

Answer:

@clear_then_die 1000 friends is indeed confirmed ^JG

— Xbox Support (1-5) (@XboxSupport) May 21, 2013

Question: Is Xbox One backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games?

Answer: “Xbox One hardware is not compatible with Xbox 360 games. We designed Xbox One to play an entirely new generation of games—games that are architected to take full advantage of state-of-the-art processors and the infinite power of the cloud.

“We care very much about the investment you have made in Xbox 360 and will continue to support it with a pipeline of new games and new apps well into the future.”

Question: Will we be able to trade and purchase second-hand games?

Answer: “We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games. We’ll have more details to share later.”

Microsoft has answered a few other questions that you might be interested in at the official Q&A page over here, but be sure to visit El33tonline’s round-up of the main announcements and feature reveals for Xbox One for many more details.

Rumours continued to swirl regarding the console’s need for an internet connection to perform these basic functions, and because Microsoft was naturally tight-lipped on the device, no confirmation or denial of such a requirement came to the fore.

Following the announcement of the Xbox One, however, Microsoft has confirmed that while the console will not require an constant internet connection, it will need one to authenticate your games and link them to your Xbox LIVE account. From an official online Question and Answer form:

Q: Does Xbox One require an “always on” Internet connection?

A: No, it does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet. We’re designing Xbox One to be your all-in-one entertainment system that is connected to the cloud and always ready. We are also designing it so you can play games and watch Blu-ray movies and live TV if you lose your connection.

According to a report by Wired, the use or non-use of an constant internet connection is at the discretion of game developers as they are able to make use of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service in order to “offload certain computing tasks to the cloud rather than process them on the Xbox One hardware itself,” which would in turn require a constant connection to the internet.

In addition, Xbox One owners are able to install a game to their hard-drive without the need for a disc to continue to play that game. According to a statement, “all game discs are installed to the [hard-drive] to play,” which makes the process sound like a necessity.

These installed games will then be linked to your own Xbox LIVE account, which means that the disc would only be usable by its owner. If a second install on a second Xbox LIVE account is required, users will be given the option to pay a small fee to complete such an operation. According to official Xbox support, no fee will be required to transfer a license from one account to another:

@bernardoone1 Any information regarding used games involving fees is incorrect.We’ll have more info as we get closer to launch. ^CW

— Xbox Support 3 (@XboxSupport3) May 21, 2013

Note: There seems to be conflicting reports regarding the need to pay a fee to transfer licenses, as Microsoft’s own Phil Harrison has stated that such a fee will be necessary to do so. We’ll need to wait on official comment to clear up the confusion.

Wired received comment from Microsoft regarding the company’s used games policy and how the above processes with come in to play, with details on the matter still on the way.

What are your thoughts on the requirement to use an internet connection to authenticate your Xbox One games?

Catch up with El33tonline’s extensive and continued coverage of the Xbox One over here.

Source: Wired

Crytek’s CryEngine 3 is one of the most impressive and versatile game engines to surface over the past few years and the company used the recent Xbox One (XO) unveiling as an opportunity to remind developers that CryEngine 3 is primed for XO development.

Crytek recently became an officially licensed provider of middleware and tools for the new console, and has made an advanced toolset available to CryEngine 3 licensees which is especially tailored to the Xbox One.

“We offered assurances over two years ago that CryEngine 3 was ready for the next generation of consoles, and time has revealed that promise to be true,” said Carl Jones, Director of Global Business Development at Crytek. “As developers begin to create new games for Xbox One, our technology and unparalleled support will ensure CryEngine 3 users remain at the forefront of the industry now and well into the future.”

Are you looking forward to seeing CryEngine 3′s potential tapped into on the Xbox One? Let us know in the comments.

Battlefield 4, EA has says, will launch for both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 for “early adopters” of the next generation of consoles, as well as Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

batt

“Powered by the advanced Frostbite 3 engine,” EA writes, “Battlefield 4 delivers a genre-defining all-out war experience brought to life with unmatched visual and audio fidelity, superior character animations and dynamic destruction that ensures no two matches are alike.”

Additionally, if you pre-order Battlefield 4 you’ll be eligible for the Battlefield 4 ‘China Rising’ digital expansion pack, which is described thus:

“In this sprawling expansion, players fight for dominance across the vast and majestic Chinese mainland in four massive multiplayer maps, using all-new vehicles and high-tech military equipment.”

If you choose to pre-order the Battlefield 4 Digital Deluxe edition through EA’s distribution service, Origin, you’ll get the game, bonus in-game items, the China Rising pack and access to the exclusive Battlefield 4 multiplayer beta this year.

The Forza Motorsport series holds the distinction of being the highest-rated racing franchise of the past decade, so much excitement accompanied Microsoft’s announcement of Forza Motorsport 5 during its Xbox One reveal event.

Forza 5 will be available as a Xbox One launch title later this year and looks set to raise the bar for visual fidelity and attention to detail based on the game’s announcement trailer and first batch of screenshots which you can view below:

We’ll bring you more on this promising Xbox One exclusive as soon as new details are released.

Quantum Break is said to be a “revolutionary entertainment experience that blurs the lines between television and gameplay.”

Sam Lake, Creative Director at Remedy, says the developer has taken everything they’ve learned from the developer’s previous two franchises and created the “ultimate Remedy experience.” In fact he believes Quantum Break is Remedy’s “next big thing, bigger and more ambitious than anything [they’ve] ever created.”

Watch the teaser trailer for Quantum Break below, and browse through the debut screenshots for the newly announced game in the gallery after that.

For all those Alan Wake fans out there who were hoping Remedy’s next title would be Alan Wake 2, fear not, because Sam Lake says that they will “return to Wake when the time is right,” and promises more details on this tomorrow.

During today’s Xbox One (XO) reveal, EA Sports unveiled the all-new IGNITE engine powering its next generation games for the XO and PS4. Next-gen versions of FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, NBA LIVE 14 and EA Sports UFC will all be released during the next twelve months and are being developed using the IGNITE engine.

This new engine not only allows developers to create more visually appealing sports titles but also paves the way for a more realistic, dynamic experience as players and crowds react to dozens of new elements such as the amount of time left in a match.

“Through years of investment and innovation, we have built technology across EA Sports to create a game engine that will deliver stunning accuracy, realism and experiences that we previously could only dream about,” said Andrew Wilson, Executive Vice President and Head of EA Sports. “With EA Sports IGNITE and the power of next generation consoles, our games will come alive—with more authenticity, more emotion, more connectivity, and more fun.”

Here’s a full breakdown of the noteworthy features of the IGNITE engine, along with some trailers showing it in action:

HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

Instincts. Awareness. Unpredictability. For the first time, all players on the field, pitch or court are alive from the neck up with Human Intelligence.

CONTEXTUAL AWARENESS

The EA Sports IGNITE engine provides contextual awareness and a greater sphere of vision for every player on the field. Players are alive and able to think, anticipate and react to the position of their team-mates, the opposition and the scenario unfolding in the game.

INTELLIGENCE

The Intelligence system of EA Sports IGNITE delivers four times greater decision-making capabilities, allowing the players to react instinctively like real-world athletes. Players can now anticipate, avoid or brace for physical challenges and collisions.

TRUE PLAYER MOTION

From deft movements to crunching tackles, True Player Motion delivers revolutionary biomechanical physics, authentically recreating the dynamic movement and physicality of actual athletes.

STEP-BASED LOCOMOTION

Ten times greater animation fidelity drives the engine’s locomotion system. Foot planting, pivoting and side-stepping are influenced by a player’s momentum in real-time. Players accelerate, evade and shift momentum with the agility and explosiveness of real-world athletes.

BIOMECHANICS

EA Sports IGNITE delivers dynamic movements and biomechanics. The body’s individual components have unique mass, resulting in the authentic reproduction of a player’s body weight, center of gravity and momentum.

CLOTH

EA Sports IGNITE separates the player’s uniform from the body. In addition to increased visual detail, jerseys now stretch and billow depending upon movement. Tugging shirts generates force, which factors into EA Sports IGNITE’s physics, potentially destabilizing the player.

LIVING WORLDS

Living Worlds ushers in an all-new level of immersion and authenticity. Crowds and sidelines are as ever-changing as real-world stadiums.

LIVING SIDELINES

Sidelines are now comprised of individually modeled 3D characters, each with dynamic reactions and behavior. In-game environments are as ever-changing as real-world stadiums and arenas that evolve throughout a match.

Are you impressed by EA Sports’ IGNITE engine based on the footage above? Let us know in the comments.

Activision and Infinity Ward have today revealed Call of Duty: Ghosts with the very first gameplay trailer for the pair’s next military-themed shooter.

The video was first aired during Microsoft’s recently-concluded reveal event for the company’s next home console, Xbox One, where it was promised that the game would still run at 60 frames per second at high resolution, with an all-new story, brand new characters and a newly developed engine to power it all. It was also confirmed that all downloadable content for Ghosts would continue to be exclusive to Xbox for a limited time, before opening up to other platforms.

Get your first look at Call of Duty: Ghosts in the debut reveal trailer below, along with a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the game:

Official Call of Duty: Ghosts Reveal Trailer

Call of Duty: Ghosts – Behind the Scenes Preview Video

Call of Duty: Ghosts – Debut Screenshots

During the reveal event, president of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, Don Mattrick proclaimed:

“Xbox One is designed to deliver a whole new generation of blockbuster games, television and entertainment in a powerful, all-in-one device. Our unique, modern architecture brings simplicity to the living room and, for the first time ever, the ability to instantly switch across your games and entertainment.”

Xbox One, says Microsoft, has been designed with a few core pillars in mind all to make instant access to your entertainment that much easier than before, putting you “at the center of all your games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype.”

Xbox One Unveil Video

The press conference at first focussed on the accessibility features of Xbox One, with ‘interactive TV,’ easy switching to different applications, Skype and group chat, an entertainment access hub called OneGuide, and the ability to ‘Snap’ different applications to portions of the screen, picture-in-picture style, to watch movies, chat and browse the internet at the same time.

Voice commands were also featured, with the ability to switch on your Xbox, switch applications and search for entertainment using only your voice and the recognition technology of Kinect. What’s more is that, the more you use voice commands, the more the system will learn your preferences – here are some of the features announced at the press conference:

- TV on Xbox One: Navigate and watch live TV from your cable, telco or satellite set-top box through your Xbox One. Microsoft is committed to bringing live TV through various solutions to all the markets where Xbox One will be available.3

- Home: Turn on your entertainment system with two powerful words, “Xbox On,” and a custom-tailored Home dashboard welcomes you with your favorite games, TV and entertainment.

- Snap: Do two things at once on the biggest screen in your home. Use Snap to jump into a multiplayer battle while watching your favorite movie, talk with friends on Skype while watching live TV, or track your fantasy team on TV as you watch the big game and more.

- Skype for Xbox One: Specially designed for Xbox One, talk with friends on your TV in stunning HD, or for the first time ever, hold group Skype calls on your TV.

- Trending: Stay on top of what is hot on TV by discovering the entertainment that is popular among your friends, and see what is trending within the Xbox community.

- OneGuide: Find your favorite entertainment easily, searching by network, name or time, all with the sound of your voice and presented in a tailored program guide.

A number of new games and partnerships were also announced for Xbox One, with Forza Motorsport 5 (launch title), Call of Duty: Ghosts, Quantum Break from Remedy, and a host of EA Sports titles including FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, NBA Live 14 and EA Sports UFC revealed. According to reports, however, Xbox One will not be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 or original Xbox games.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, however, as fifteen exclusive Xbox One games are yet to be revealed, eight of which are completely new intellectual properties – here is information on the revealed games:

- Forza Motorsport 5 from Turn 10 Studios is the latest edition of the highest-rated racing franchise of the past 10 years.3 Built from the ground up to take advantage of Xbox One and the infinite power of the cloud, no game better delivers the sensation of being behind the wheel. Forza Motorsport 5 sets a new bar for racing games and will be available exclusively for Xbox One at launch.

- Get More Details

- Call of Duty: Ghosts is the next generation of Call of Duty and a stunning leap forward for the franchise. It delivers an all-new world, an all-new cast of characters and an all-new story, built on a new, next-generation engine. The next-generation technical innovations built to support the incredible gameplay advancements make this the most beautiful and immersive Call of Duty experience yet.

Activision and Microsoft also announced the renewal of their close partnership that will see both the return of the Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox, as well as all-new downloadable content debuting first and exclusively on the Xbox platform.

- Get More Details

- FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, NBA LIVE 14, and EA SPORTS UFC from EA SPORTS will change the way consumers experience and play sports games. Driven by the new EA SPORTS Ignite engine, these new EA SPORTS games will deliver massive innovations in human intelligence, true player motion and living worlds. Adding to its commitment to Xbox One, EA SPORTS also announced the promise of exclusive content to be revealed in the coming months.

- Get More Details

- Quantum Break from Remedy Entertainment is a revolutionary entertainment experience from the creators of Max Payne and Alan Wake that blurs the line between gaming and TV by integrating drama and gameplay into one seamless, uniquely immersive experience. How you play the game impacts the show, and the show informs how you play the game.

- Get More Details

In addition to the new games, Microsoft also announced new entertainment partnerships that will result in the creation of an official Halo TV series, as well as a multi-year contract with the NFL (National Football League)

- Halo television series: Award-winning filmmaker, director and producer, Steven Spielberg will executive-produce an original “Halo” live-action television series with exclusive interactive Xbox One content, created in partnership with 343 Industries and Xbox Entertainment Studios.

- NFL: A multiyear, landmark partnership will deliver the ultimate interactive NFL television experiences for the next-generation Xbox One and leverage Microsoft devices and services to evolve both in-game and on the sideline.

The NFL on Xbox will redefine broadcast experiences through innovations around Skype, Xbox SmartGlass and player-worn technology; add an all-new fantasy football solution for the biggest screen in the house; and create a personalized NFL destination only available on Xbox One.

Microsoft will be making extensive use of Cloud storage to make “everything more convenient and accessible,” which means the ability to install portions of a game and start playing before it’s all downloaded, and even allow for background downloads of updates. “Save and store your personalized profile, games and entertainment in the cloud to access them anytime, from any Xbox One console,” writes Microsoft, and in addition, your current Xbox LIVE Gold membership will “seamlessly” carry over to Xbox One.

Here are the new features coming to Xbox LIVE with Xbox One:

- Smart Match: A new Smart Match matchmaking system virtually eliminates waiting in lobbies by estimating wait times and finding people you want to play with while you are enjoying other activities — reputation fundamentally matters and helps find best matches.

- Game DVR: A dedicated Game DVR captures and accesses your magic moments, all saved to the cloud. Along with sharing tools, you will have the most amazing bragging rights with Xbox Live.

- Living Games: Dynamic, living worlds evolve and improve the more you play, and advanced artificial intelligence can learn to play like you, so friends can play against your shadow.

- Expanded achievements: A new and expanded achievements system captures video of your epic moments, continues to grow a game’s achievements over time and rewards you in new ways, and your Gamerscore carries over from Xbox 360.

- Xbox SmartGlass: Xbox SmartGlass is natively part of the Xbox One platform, built in from the beginning with the ability to quickly render content directly onto your device, and now more devices can connect at one time for multiplayer and shared entertainment.

Xbox Executives Discuss Xbox One

Microsoft’s finishing touches on the Xbox One experience naturally include the design of the console and controller. Xbox One will support Blu-ray discs and is “moulded in a deep and rich liquid black colour and includes a distinctive bevelled edge.”

The higher resolution 1080p Kinect motion sensing and voice recognition device also appears much more responsive than the current version of the hardware, with an expanded field of view and enhanced fidelity. “It works in nearly any lighting condition,” writes Microsoft, recognizes precise motion control from a slight wrist rotation, and distinguishes your voice even in a noisy room using advanced noise isolation.” Also, according to the press conference demonstration, the new Kinect can pick up heart beats for use in games.

The new and redesigned Xbox controller houses over 40 technical and design innovations, with an improved directional pad, as well as better thumb sticks and ergonomic design. Precision and control have also been “dramatically” increased, with vibrating impulse triggers added, too.

“The Xbox One Wireless Controller is designed to work in concert with the new Kinect, allowing the two to be paired automatically to create seamless player syncing,” says Microsoft.

The Xbox One will be available around the world later this year, according to Microsoft, while more details are expected the annual E3 show in Los Angeles in June – El33tonline will be there to bring you our impressions of the console, its features and games. For now, look over a fantastic gallery of images further showcasing the Xbox One hardware:

Additional Xbox One news and details:

- Battlefield 4 dated for October with pre-order DLC, confirmed for Xbox One and PS4

- Xbox One does require an internet connection, but not always

- Crytek announces CryEngine 3 support for Xbox One

- Questions over Xbox One Achievements, friend list limits and backwards compatibility answered

- Major Nelson attempts to clear up Xbox One’s handling of used games

The liveblog and reveal event are now over! Find out most everything you need to know about the revealed Xbox One with our continued and extensive coverage.

[End of Update]

The excitement is building as we get ready for Microsoft’s big reveal of its next generation Xbox today – are you excited? No doubt.

To share the excitement and your reactions with the community, be sure to join El33tonline’s liveblog right now over here.

Hope to see you there soon!

Given the high stakes of today’s next generation Xbox reveal and Sony’s attempts to draw attention away from the event, this one was too good to pass up.

Sony gave us our first (blurry) look at the PlayStation 4 console yesterday with the release of a teaser video, promising that the official reveal of the box would arrive during E3 on June 10th. Today, a clever artist put together some of the clues included in that video to form a picture of what the PS4 might actually look like (take a look over here and let us know what you think).

More recently, the European PlayStation Twitter account earlier tweeted that today, May 21st, has been a “slow news” day and aimed to spice things up by redirecting our attention towards yesterday’s teaser video:

Also – If you haven’t seen our #PS4 teaser video, where have you been?! As it’s a slow news day… here it is: bit.ly/12oYGG7

— PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) May 21, 2013

Why is this so galling? Well, it’s just that Microsoft is due to reveal its next generation Xbox today making it one of the least slow news days for videogames in quite some time.

We’re looking forward to more feathers flying in the coming hours, weeks and days leading up to E3 next month as Sony and Microsoft are no doubt going to take every opportunity to one-up the other.

[Update 1]

Xbox frontman in the UK, Graeme Boyd, has responded to the tweet by PlayStation Europe saying:

@playstationeu Slow news day? That the best you got?

— Graeme Boyd(@AceyBongos) May 21, 2013

Feathers continue to fly.

[End of Update 1]

[Update 2]

PlayStation Europe has had a good bit of fun with its own response to Graeme Boyd, writing:

@aceybongos Ah we never forget about the Chelsea Flower Show! Is that what you meant? I have no idea what you mean…

— PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) May 21, 2013

To which Boyd replied:

@playstationeu Dunno much about flowers, but I’ll have some blooming good news for you at about 6pm. #XboxReveal

— Graeme Boyd(@AceyBongos) May 21, 2013

With one more reply from PlayStation Europe:

@aceybongos Ah that’s kind, I like roses. Best of luck! #PS4

— PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) May 21, 2013

Aw, ain’t that sweet? All in good humour, we would say, but hopefully it doesn’t end in tears.

[End of Update 2]

Be sure to join El33tonline at our liveblog Hangout today, May 21st, starting 30 minutes before the Xbox Reveal event at 10am PDT / 6pm BST / 7pm SAST, and send in your predictions for announcements, too.

Via: Gamespot

http://www.el33tonline.com/spotlight/2013/05/21/xbox-one-revealed-as-next-generation-microsoft-console/

Last week I challenged you to a Metal Gear Solid themed quiz tasking you with identifying characters and games from the series based on six pieces of art by Yoji Shinkawa. Congratulations to Wikus Radyn for getting the most answers correct – five out of six! Image 6 was in fact EVA as Yanas pointed out, and not Sniper Wolf as some of you suggested.

The answers were:

• Image 1: Fatman - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
• Image 2: Vulcan Raven – Metal Gear Solid
• Image 3: Olga Gurlukovich - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
• Image 4: The Boss - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
• Image 5: Revolver Ocelot – Metal Gear Solid
• Image 6: EVA - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Today’s challenge is all about the grotesque creatures and ‘baddies’ from one of my favourite series – Resident Evil. All I’m asking this time around is the name of the game where each enemy made its first appearance. Simple right?

Here they are:

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

Image 4:

Image 5:

Do any of these creatures from the Resident Evil series ring a bell? Feel free to share your el33t recognition and recollection skills with us in the comments below.

Injustice: Gods Among Us has already benefited from the release of an additional downloadable character after Lobo was unleashed into the game, but today NetherRealm Studios will be adding another new fighter to the roster, this time in the form of Batgirl.

We previously glimpsed a few of Batgirl’s exciting fighting moves in her debut gameplay trailer, but today we’ve been treated to a meaty and succinct video detailing the origins and history of the female caped crusader – enjoy below:

Injustice – Batgirl History Trailer:

The Batgirl character DLC will become available today on Xbox 360 as well as PlayStation 3 in North America, and tomorrow for European PS3 owners.

Sony lists the game’s genre as “recovery multiplayer action” and this combined with the screenshot below appears to suggest that gameplay will revolve around competing teams racing for and attempting to recover supplies from various points shown on a map of Japan.

Here’s the full trailer for Freedom Wars showcasing a grim, far-flung future 100 000 years from now where oil reserves have been completely depleted and prison sentences are ubiquitous:

Today, May 21st, will also play host to the debut reveal of EA Sports UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), following EA’s snagging of the rights to develop fighting games based on the enormously popular sport. Previously, THQ held the UFC videogame development license, but the sport’s steward, Dana White, flipped sides and joined EA on stage during E3 2012 to reveal a new partnership.

We’ve heard very little regarding EA Sports UFC since the partnership reveal, but today’s the day that we’ll get our first bits of news on the title. Will EA Sports UFC be unveiled during the next-gen Xbox reveal tonight? It would be a good bet to make.

Be sure to join El33tonline at our liveblog Hangout today, May 21st, starting 30 minutes before the Xbox Reveal event at 10am PDT / 6pm BST / 7pm SAST, and send in your predictions for announcements, too.

Source: EA Sports UFC on Facebook

Are you ready for the next generation of FIFA? How about the next generation Xbox?

If you think that you’ve sufficiently prepared your body and mind to handle both at the same time, then look forward to today’s Microsoft-hosted event where we’ll not only see what the company has in store with its next console, but EA will also be unveiling “the next generation of FIFA” during the gathering.

Are you ready?

Be sure to join El33tonline at our liveblog Hangout today, May 21st, starting 30 minutes before the Xbox Reveal event at 10am PDT / 6pm BST / 7pm SAST, and send in your predictions for announcements, too.

Source: FIFA on Facebook

Whether or not that matters to you, we’ll be getting our first official look at the PlayStation 4 outtards (opposite of ‘innards’) at E3 during the Sony press conference on June 10th… but a clever Reddit user has tried to piece together the puzzle provided in the teaser trailer and come up with their own concept for the console – behold:

Is this the PlayStation 4? Would you be upset if this was the final design? It looks kinda spiffy…

If I want to spend so much time mastering absolutely exact timing of how long I press a button then I will do something other than make a rabbit jump across Asian-themed rooftops. I want to have fun running and jumping, not get annoyed that I didn’t time that button press absolutely perfectly and so touched that piece of goo that is for some reason on the side of a wall somewhere and so died, even though I know kung fu.

I couldn’t bring myself to play Kung Fu Rabbit for very long, I am sorry to say. I like the graphic style; it’s pretty. But the world itself doesn’t have a lot of atmosphere, and things that can kill you don’t stick out enough from their surroundings. The Rabbit himself moves painfully slowly too. We have tight button-based controls on the Wii U, why make things so slow? If you collect enough carrots through playing levels you can purchase things that will speed you up, but you have to play for a good long time before you get that, and in the meantime the levels are really easy and the rabbit is slow.

I firmly believe that games ported from mobile platforms should be thoroughly adjusted when moving to a gaming platform that has button-based controls, and where people are used to sitting down and really applying themselves rather than just getting some game time in while they’re waiting in a queue at a bank. On top of the rabbit being slow (did I mention he is slow), the jumping is just not intrinsically satisfying. The rabbit has no momentum and he feels like he has no heft.

My other complaint is simply this: I’d rather play Super Meat Boy, and I don’t much like Super Meat Boy. Kung Fu Rabbit feels remarkably like it’s taken inspiration from that game, from the long jump to the variable height jump, to the little square character, to the wall climb, to the goo that covers walls and kills you, to the wall slide, to the big collectible in each stage. I understand that Super Meat Boy is not on the Wii U, but even in this console’s rather small library there are options far better than Kung Fu Rabbit.

I really can’t recommend Kung Fu Rabbit unless you’re the most die-hard platforming fan that has ever lived and you’ve already exhausted the Wii U’s great platforming line-up like Runner2, Trine 2, Super Mario World, Kirby’s Adventure or even New Super Mario Bros U and the upcoming New Super Luigi U (not to mention the massive number of great platformers available on the Wii itself). It’s not broken, it’s just stale, and it doesn’t carve its own niche successfully enough.

Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo is a really basic game. Each stage is the size of a few screens, you control a little square shaped critter that is supposed to be a squirrel, you collect little acorns scattered about the stage and then exit the stage once you’ve collected them all. There are enemies which pretty much just follow a path, so there’s no real AI to speak of. The platforming can require some precision which the D-Pad is more than suitable for. Each stage has multiple goals to complete – there is a time to beat, the acorns to collect, some fruit to collect which appear after you collect all the acorns, and some enemies to defeat.

You can do any of the four goals in each attempt of the level, although you always have to collect the acorns and reach the exit door within a specific time limit for it to be a successful attempt. Generally you would do the collection run – acorns, fruit and enemies – followed by a speed run. Then you go to the next level. There are 60 levels, broken up into three years, each broken up into four seasons. Unlocking years requires collecting enough acorns, and unlocking levels in each year just requires getting to the end of the level.

There are a couple of wrinkles added over the course of the levels, such as breakable blocks, falling platforms, swinging points and some new enemies. There are also a set of 30 challenge levels to complete, which test your skills at, for example, jumping with precision or swinging accurately. There is also a Turbo mode, which I implore you to enable from the start because the non-Turbo mode is more like Super-Slow mode and Turbo mode is far more enjoyable.

If you’re looking for a minute-waster Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo is a pretty good one. Play for a minute or five, close the 3DS and move on. Come back later and carry on. Any longer than 10 or 15 minutes and you’ll be aching to play something else. The difficulty just doesn’t ramp up fast enough, the platforming and level design is just not interesting enough. The sense of progression is reasonably created but isn’t very satisfying because the levels don’t have identities of their own. Replaying levels just to complete different goals can be frustrating, especially in early stages where it’s just going through the motions.

If there were no other options in the genre I might recommend Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo, but there are other options. You’re better off getting one of the Wario World, Mario Bros or Kirby Virtual Console titles, or paying three or four times the amount and getting one of the superb full-price platformers available on the 3DS. Unless you’re just looking to pass five minutes. It’ll do that passably well. Or maybe you’re a platforming nut; it might scratch that itch for an hour or two.

(Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo was reviewed on the Nintendo 3DS, downloaded from the Nintendo e-Shop)