Microsoft releasing wireless adapter for PC later this year
At Microsoft’s presentation at GDC today, Phil Spencer announced that Microsoft will be releasing a wireless adapter for Xbox One controllers and other wireless Xbox peripherals to work on PC. This provides a much better solution than the “wired” controller Microsoft announced last year, which was simply a controller and a USB cable. Spencer didn’t confirm any pricing or date but the wireless adapter is coming sometime this year.
Elite: Dangerous making its way to Xbox One
The first game announced at Phil Spencer’s presentation at GDC was Elite: Dangerous, a game created by Frontier Developments. Microsoft will be once again partnering with Frontier to bring the game to Xbox One, after their release of Xbox One exclusive ScreamRide earlier this week. The Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer unfortunately didn’t give any more details of the game such as pricing or a release date. The space sprawling simulator released on PC late last year. We’ll be sure to let you know about the Xbox One version of Elite: Dangerous when more information is available.
#IDARB coming to Windows 10 with cross-platform play with Xbox One
During Phil Spencer’s presentation at GDC, the Head of Xbox announced that #IDARB would be making it’s way to Windows 10, and would support cross-platform play between Windows 10 and Xbox One. Two #IDARB developers from Other Ocean (Mike Mika and Trisha) came on stage alongside Phil Spencer and Chris Charla from Microsoft to show cross-play – with two players on a Surface Pro 3 running Windows 10 and two players on an Xbox One. No release date was announced, but #IDARB is already released on Xbox One with a PC release set to come later this year, so I imagine that the Windows 10 version will launch alongside the normal PC version of the game.
Shovel Knight took one day to port to the Xbox One with cross-platform play; features Battletoads characters
During Head of Xbox Phil Spencer’s presentation at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today, it was announced that Battletoads would be taking a trip to Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight port on the Xbox One – and Chris Charla teased that this is not all for the Rare created franchise. At the end of Shovel Knight’s trailer showing off cross-platform play and universal app support, the Battletoads made a brief appearance that was quite hard to spot – teasing their inclusion into the upcoming Xbox One game Shovel Knight either at launch or in an update. This was followed up by head of the ID@Xbox program Chris Charla asking where we would see the Battletoads next. Much speculation has been sparked for the Battletoads franchise, after Microsoft renewed their trademark for the series last year. Spencer then wore a Battletoads t-shirt at the Windows 10 conference in January, and when asked about this, said “I don’t think I’ve ever worn a t-shirt that’s been a complete head-fake. I wouldn’t do that.” Alongside this, Shovel Knight was confirmed for Windows 10 after being announced for Xbox One on the Xbox Wire yesterday. Porting to the Xbox One and adding cross-platform play for Windows 10 and Xbox One took one day for the developers of Yacht Club, which shows how easy moving your game from one platform to another is with the Xbox One and how easy adding cross-platform play is. It’s been two decades since the Battletoads game, and I feel that Rare will announce a new game sometime soon. I hope.
Gigantic coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 with cross-platform play
At the Game Developers Conference taking place in San Francisco this week, James Phinney from Motiga took the stage at Phil Spencer’s presentation to announce their partnership with Microsoft to bring their new game “Gigantic” to both Xbox One and Windows 10. The game is due out later this year, and is a mash up of shooters, MOBA’s and RPG games. Gigantic is a five on five shooter with several different playable characters. These characters have different classes, such as Sniper, Heavy (heavy weaponry) and melee. Each team has a computer-controlled “Guardian” which they must protect from the opposition. The partnership between Motiga and Microsoft sees Gigantic become a cross-platform game, with gamers being able to play with and against each other on Xbox One and Windows 10. This includes having one account which you can carry through both versions of the title. When asked if there was a possibility of Motiga becoming a first-party studio for Microsoft, James Phinney quickly dismissed this by saying “Motiga is still Motiga. We value our independence a lot. Still, we’re able to get into a partnership that really made sense for publishing the game.” When head of communications at Motiga, Troy Hewitt, was asked if the game was exclusive to Xbox One and Windows 10, he commented “Right now, the focus is Windows 10 and Xbox One!”
Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition review (Xbox One)
Diablo III on next gen is a game that I’ve been waiting for since it was announced. I never played it on the 360 when it was released, so I was very happy to learn it was coming to Xbox One. I managed to play the demo on Xbox 360 and was very impressed with the game, which is where my excitement for the Xbox One version came from. The game felt right to play, I enjoyed controlling the characters, I just hoped that the Xbox One version was just as good. Well I finally got my copy, installed it and got playing. Was it as good as I remembered from the 360 demo? Let’s find out….. The game is a top down RPG, while this is new to Joon, it felt good to view and get to grips with. One thing that did excite me with this was the open world nature of the game, you can roam where ever you like and do various other little bits around the world in between each main mission. Tick for Joon. The battle system within the game is simple and easy to get to grips with. Its simply pressing A,B,X,Y or RT to fight your enemies, with each button doing something different, making it easy to mix things up during fights. There are several classes for you to pick from, these are: Barbarian Crusader Demon Hunter Monk Witch Doctor Wizard I chose to be a Wizard, pretty standard when I play these type of games, love the magic side of things, but other classes do interest me, such as the demon hunter, and the game rewards you for having several characters and trying out the different classes that are available! So no doubt I’ll try my hand with the demon hunter, and maybe the others too, just to see what the main differences are. There aren’t a lot of choice when it comes to allowing you to choose how your character looks, you can choose their class and gender and that’s about it, which for me was quite disappointing. However within the game you collect loads and loads of little goodies, such as weapons, clothing etc., which you can use to customise what your character wears and make them unique to you. Which is another thing that is brilliant about this game, no two characters will be the same, even co-oping with your friends, and if two of you are Wizards, its more than likely the weapons and clothing you will have on will be completely different! The game plays brilliant using the controller, and you can tell that Blizzard have taken their time over this to get it spot on. You can tell this isn’t just some rushed port over, they have cared and caressed this until it was perfect. The worlds which you play in are vast, vast beautiful and well laid out. I love the element of Destructibility that they have in the game as well. Being able to zap bookcases, pillars, benches, stair railing and much more brings that bit of joy to the inner Child Joon. Me and my partner both love playing this game. Playing it in Coop mode whether it was split screen or us both playing on our own Xboxes, the connection was always fluid and the game play was always smooth. I don’t think that there was any point where we suffered frame rate drops or connection issues. Which at the end of the day, is what you want from a game, and this did it amazingly. When I was in coop with my partner, she would always ask.. “Why does everything have to be so doom and gloom?… Where’s my rainbow retreat…” – Naturally I laughed at this, where could there possibly be a rainbow retreat in this game? Where would that have a place in such a world… Then the following happened.. The squeals that I could hear at the time for the other room… The pure excitement, I knew my partner had found her rainbow retreat… And to be fair, I thought it was a fantastic little addition to the game! Such doom and gloom, and then to find that! It did have me singing ‘Sunshine, Lollypops, Rainbows…’ lol! #GoJoon As you can see from the video, the world changes to vibrant colours and the usual beasts are replaced with Teddy Bears and Ice Creams and other fluffy animals… In conclusion I absolutely love this game, I can see me dabbling with this game for a long time to come! Its been fantastically ported over by Blizzard and I dip my Joon cap to them! My excitement to play this after not playing the Xbox 360 version was well received and I have to admit that both me and my partner love dipping back into this from time to time and having a nice session. 8.9/10 This review was written by @XboxSuperJoon. Credit to him =)
Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition is up for digital pre-order on Xbox One
DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition is now available for digital pre-order and download on Xbox One; the game releases on March 10th but you can download it ready to play it at midnight on launch day now. The Definitive Edition utilizes the power of the next gen consoles and will play at 1080p 60fps. As a fan of the DmC series, I can’t wait to try this one out! Hopefully Capcom can deliver. You can pre-order the game on Xbox One right here.
New ID@Xbox titles being shown at San Francisco this week
Some new ID@Xbox titles are being shown in San Francisco at GDC this week. Via a post on the Xbox Wire, Microsoft confirmed that they will be showing a lot of indie games this week at the Xbox booth, including the likes of: Bedlam (RedBedlam): Based on the novel by award-winning British author Christopher Brookmyre, this is a shooter for everyone who remembers gaming in the ‘80s and ‘90s! Beyond Eyes (Team17): How does a blind person navigate the world? This unique title might give you some sense of what it’s like to live in a world without sight, as you control a young girl in search of her lost cat. ClusterPuck 99 (PHL Collective): This competitive sports game features eight-player local competitive action. Cuphead (Studio MDHR): A run-and-gun adventure, with plenty of 1930s style animation to keep things interesting! It will make its console debut on Xbox One! Earthlock: Festival of Magic (Snowcastle Games): An exciting, nonlinear role-playing game. The Flame in the Flood (The Molasses Flood): A rogue-lite river journey through the backwaters of a forgotten post-societal America. It will make its console debut on Xbox One. Fortified (Clapfoot Games): An exciting new take on action-strategy games that combines shooter, real-time strategy, and base defense mechanics. Game 4 (The Behemoth): One of the weirdest turn-based strategy games you’ll ever play, with plenty of The Behemoth’s unmistakable style. Goat Simulator (Double Eleven): You are a goat, and you are on a rampage. What more do you need to know? More goat to the people! LA Cops (Team 17): This top-down strategy shooter celebrates everything awesome about ‘70s cop fiction. Magic the Gathering: F2P (Wizards of the Coast): The world’s most beloved collectible card game goes free-to-play! It will make its console debut first on Xbox one Mighty No. 9 (Comcept): This Kickstarter darling is the brainchild of acclaimed developer Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man. True side-scrolling perfection! Pixel Galaxy (Serenity Forge): It’s one heck of a hectic shoot-’em-up, inspired by Katamari Damacy. Grow, make friends, and survive together! R.B.I. Baseball 15 (MLB.com): The legendary Major League Baseball franchise returns with fresh game modes, authentic ballparks, improved animations, and deep stat-tracking. Rivals of Aether (Dan Fornace): This fighting game challenges you to uncover the elemental mysteries of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. Shadow Blade: Reload (Dead Mage): Guide a young ninja on his journey to seek the teachings of the last remaining ninja master as he embarks on a quest for revenge. Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games): Steel thy shovel! The amazing retro sidescrolling adventure is coming to Xbox One! SMITE (Hi-Rez Studios): The next evolution in multiplayer online battle arena space. Assemble your team, choose your hero, and destroy your opponents. Stay tuned for details on the Xbox One beta, coming very soon! Submerged (Uppercut Games): You’re trapped in an ancient, half-submerged city, with next to nothing. Explore the flooded cityscape and scale its buildings in a fight to survive! Super Dungeon Bros (React! Games): A multiplayer dungeon-crawling extravaganza with a rock music theme. Get your bros together and get ready to rock out! SWORDY (Frogshark): In this multiplayer physics brawler, you will hit your friends until they explode. You really have to see this one to wrap your head around this craziness. We’re pleased to say Swordy will debut first on Xbox One. The Sun and Moon (Digerati Distribution and Marketing): It’s a platformer with a twist: You can dive into the ground, reversing your gravity while conserving your momentum. Winner of the Ludum Dare 29 competition! ZHEROS (Rimlight Studios): This 3D action brawler – set in an alternative future universe – is rife with engaging combat and outrageous characters. Bear in mind, these are only a selection of games being shown at GDC this week. There’s plenty more games at the Xbox booth and plenty of games in development, like Wasteland 2, Blues’ and Bullets from the developers of Funk of Titans and Grande’ Games Commander Cherry – you can see trailers for these and 28 other games on the official Xbox channel, where over 30 trailers for ID@Xbox games have been released. My personal favourite out of the list would be Shovel Knight, as I’ve wanted to play the game on consoles ever since it’s official release on PC. Some other games to pick out would be Goat Simulator, and Beyond Eyes by Team17, the masterminds behind the Worms franchise and games like The Escapists. I love indie games so I can’t wait for all of these games to release on Xbox One.
Xbox 360 Preview Program revealed
Microsoft announced that starting from early March, selected invitees will be able to join the Xbox 360 Preview Program and will be able to sign up directly from their Xbox 360. If you are invited you will receive a special message in your Xbox Live inbox – then to access the program, all you have to do is go to Settings > Account > Account Management and if you’ve been selected, you’ll see “Xbox 360 Preview Program.” Clicking on this will enroll your console into the Preview Program. Nothing will happen just yet, but you’ll be told when the Preview begins via Xbox LIVE message. In the Preview’s upcoming release, Microsoft will be addressing common customer issues such as improving the ability to troubleshoot your network connection, and adding a Download and Upload speedtest much like the Xbox One has. Make sure to look out for a message in your inbox if you are selected.
Sunset Overdrive DLC revealed – Dawn of the Rise of the Fallen Machines
Sunset Overdrive’s final story DLC, Dawn of the Rise of the Fallen Machines, has been revealed with a set release date of April 1st. Sunset TV host Brandon Winfrey was joined by Jessica Chobot on the weekly show to reveal the new add-on, which sees a rescue mission to save Sam’s old mentors from Fizzco go wrong. Like the previous Mooil Rig add-on, new missions and challenges are both present, and a new move has been announced to help you traverse around the new DLC – the “Energy Ball of Death” will enable you to roll around the city crushing everything in your path. Check it out: Rectify Gaming gave Sunset Overdrive a 10/10 saying that the game “sets very high standards for future Xbox One games”.
