Yesterday Tami Reller, Windows Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer, released at Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference some new information on the upcoming Windows 8 operating system (OS). Continue Reading
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“Today, it’s all about the Xbox 360, the only device that brings together all your entertainment all in one place,” said Don Mattrick, president of Interactive Entertainment, but what good is this for Gamers?
The last few E3 expos have been, arguably, a little disappointing. The focus for Xbox has been Kinect and now the newly announced SmartGlass. These are to improve the system’s entertainment experience, appealing more to families and amateurs rather than the hardcore gamers among us.
With Kinect continuing to take over every gaming genre and franchise on the market, it is now targetting the sports games.
Fifa 13 will have voice-recognition using Xbox Kinect, allowing you to make substitutions and change tactics without stopping the gameplay.
Kinect will also pick up your reactions to the ref, including swearing. Commentators will say things like: “the ref didn’t deserve that.”
Madden NFL will also recognise your voice, allowing you to direct the game and command your team mates as you play.
While this may be a bit restrictive, with the focus being very much on Kinect, there is the potential for even more immersion when you don’t have to stop the game just to make silly changes, like a sub. The update to Skyrim is an example of this, allowing you to use dragon shouts with Kinect.
It looks like the Xbox 360 will be getting another step closer to becoming the ultimate ‘entertainment hub’ with rumours abound of Microsoft working on an actual internet browser for the console.
According to the Verge website, Microsoft is currently testing the new browser, which will use a modified version IE9 and will make use of Kinect gestures and voice controls.
There already is an online search function – Bing for Xbox – but that isn’t the same as browsing the internet, and, to be honest, it’s about time the Xbox had a proper web browser.
The Gadget Show Live, for those who haven’t been or heard of it, is named after The Gadget Show, the popular Channel 5 TV series. The exhibition has been running since 2009 (the TV series from 2004), is held at the NEC in Birmingham and plays host to many companies from technology and gaming industries and has various talks and demonstrations topped off with a live show presented by the hosts of the TV series.
The show has been expanding year on year and this year was no exception with it expanding into a further 2 halls. After the jump you will find our highlights and thoughts on the show. Continue Reading
At CES Kaz Hirai of Sony stated that there would be no Playstation 4 at this year’s E3 stating “I’ve always said a 10-year life cycle of the Ps3 and there is no reason to go away from that”. Is Sony living in the PS2 days where they couldn’t be stopped no matter what or do they have something else up their sleeve? Well according to Gaikai, a cloud based gaming service, they claim that “there won’t be another generation of systems and that will be the biggest news of E3”. This shouldn’t be taken too seriously as this seems more like a fantasy than a realistic prediction.
Two big pieces of news today of which one will surely be a sigh of relief for PC gamers and among all of that we have some smaller bits of news to digest too!
Microsoft’s Windows 8 to be at the forefront of a new approach to PC gaming?
It all started with Microsoft’s recent overhaul of the Games for Windows Marketplace and then the announcement of a new Age of Empires, a new Flight Simulator and Fable 3 coming to the PC. It all points to Microsoft taking on a new approach to PC gaming which has just been bolstered once again by the hiring of Voodoo PC founder Rahul Sood as General Manager for System Experience. Rahul has previously been very outspoken about Microsoft’s attitude towards PC gaming when Microsoft cancelled their cross platform plans to connect the Xbox 360 and PC in multiplayer.
