The Xbox One will require a connection to Microsoft’s verification servers at least every 24 hours despite what PR had said after the recent Xbox reveal event in Redmond. The newly published details explain the online requirements.
While a persistent connection is not required, Xbox One is designed to verify if system, application or game updates are needed and to see if you have acquired new games, or resold, traded in, or given your game to a friend. Games that are designed to take advantage of the cloud may require a connection.
With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies.
This matches some of the rumors and leaked specs that we had seen earlier. It also matches some of the comments that Microsoft executives had made during the press event before the PR folks rounded them up and shut off the information tap.
Microsoft also published a page about games licensing, but details are scarce. They do specify that “up to ten members of your family” will be able to share access to the games on your home console and any one family member can access the shared library from the cloud at a time. As far as reselling and sharing, they say both actions will be allowed, but there are some new rules.
Trade-in and resell your disc-based games: Today, some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit. We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games.
Give your games to friends: Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.
To many gamers, these details mean only one thing. Your move Sony.
For the Horde! The quaintly odd Blood Bowl games have quite the following on Quarter to Three. Is it the concept? Orcs, elves, and humans playing a weird British boardgame version of American football turned into a computer game? Is it the bloodthirsty cheerleaders? Personally, I’ve always liked the way the game seems so arbitrary when you start out, but once you get used to the idea that it’s not really about football and more about minimizing risk while forcing your opponent to roll the dice more, things can really fall into place. Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studio think it may be the announcers.
They teased the fact that they were working on Blood Bowl 2 back in February, but they waited until today to officially anounce the game. Jim Johnson the Vampire, and Bob Bifford the Ogre, will be with players “throughout the game” as their Cabalvision studio set will be the main interface. Oh joy!
The whole game will be presented in a Cabalvision theme – the official Blood Bowl TV! – where Jim & Bob will guide players, comment their decisions and will even interview key star players appearing in the huge campaign mode. Of course, they will also grace us with their wild commentaries during the matches!
Uh, okay. I’m not sure that fans were clamoring for that feature, but I guess they have to talk about something since they’re not showing much else about the game. Waaaaagh!
In his introductary post as the new Diablo III game director, Josh Mosqueira outlined some of the goals he has for Blizzard’s action roleplaying game. Adjusting loot drops and quality, reducing the impact of the Auction House, and creating new foes to fight are on the agenda.
While some Diablo players out there are just looking for a fun single playthrough of the game, for many others, part of the appeal of the game is coming back again and again to test their mettle against challenging foes in an ongoing search for rare treasures, with the goal of making their heroes more and more powerful. We want to give those players, and really everyone, even more reasons to keep coming back to Sanctuary, and we have some great ideas brewing for ways to address randomization, what our endgame should offer, and how to make playing online with friends truly fulfilling.
Josh Mosqueira was originally hired by Blizzard to lead the drive to get Diablo III onto consoles. That side of the project seems to be going well as they just confirmed that the game will be coming to the Xbox 360 as well as the previously announced PS3 version on September 3rd. They are offering an “Infernal Helm” preorder item that gives starting in-game characters an experience bonus.
For all the complaints about violence in videogames, there sure are a lot more of them coming out in which the player has no weapon at all. Of course, there’s still violence being done to the player in a lot of those titles, but a game design with no player weapons must by necessity go outside normal conventions to make things interesting.
That trailer is for INFRA by loisteinteractive. They describe it as a “gun free exploration game.” You play a structural analyst that gets into trouble while surveying some structural damage. First person exploration and puzzle-solving will be the meat of the gameplay.
Nothing more than a quiet desk jockey assigned to survey some routine structural damage. Quickly though, your mission turns from a mundane trek to a fight for survival. Your tools are simple: the camera around your neck and the wits to navigate a virtual labyrinth of debris. How you tell your story is your choice, will you have the commitment to finish your duty, or will you ignore all else but the preservation of your own life?
As you travel through the infrastructure of a city you will find that your actions and thorough observations ultimately determine if others will survive.
INFRA is on Steam Greenlight looking for more votes. The developers are shooting for a 2014 launch. There’s a longer alpha gameplay video here.
