[ad_1]
Related:
This Week on Xbox: GTA V Joins Game Pass, Anime Month, and Major Updates
This Week on Xbox: Wrestling, Moonshine, and New Game Pass Games
This Week on Xbox: Aliens: Dark Descent, Sonic’s Birthday, and More
[ad_2]
Tag: Xbox One
-
8 Games To Play This Weekend
[ad_1]
Diablo IV – Nostrava Stronghold Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
My current goal: Conquer every Stronghold
You read that right, on Steam Deck baby! The step-by-step process to get the just-released Diablo IV working on the Deck took me a little over 30 minutes and was relatively painless. However I do highly recommend using a Steam Deck dock and USB mouse, as there’s a decent amount of copy-pasting and the Deck’s touch-screen controls can be finicky.
Since installing, I’ve played nothing else. Partly because I accidentally unmounted my Steam Deck library so it no longer recognizes what I’ve already installed on there through the store (oops) and partially because Diablo IV on the Deck is simply that rad.
It’s impressive how well the Deck’s default controller scheme jells with Diablo IV. Blizzard’s action-RPG is perfect to play while listening to a podcast or catching up on the borderline dispiriting amount of quality spring anime series I have to watch.
How’s performance you may ask? Pretty good, actually. After tweaking some essential settings, and turning off Cross-Network Play (yes that really did make a difference) I consistently get 40-60FPS let’s say…80 percent of the time. However, entering or leaving a major hub (Kyovashad for example) or a hectic world event has my poor base model Deck wheezing and running at single digits. Using an ultimate spell in a large crowd of enemies will also have your audio popping off, and not in a fun way either. And as you can imagine D4 is a battery Greater Evil. I recommend playing with your AC charger plugged in for sessions longer than 30 minutes.
But like cmon, being able to tackle a Stronghold while laying on my couch? That’s objectively awesome and I look forward to parking my ass on aforementioned couch after I send Claire this blurb. Bye! — Eric Schulkin
[ad_2]
Claire Jackson
Source link -
New Xbox Controller Lets You See The Triggers Vibrating
[ad_1]
We’ve covered the special Starfield-branded Xbox controllers before. They were one of the worst-kept secrets of 2023, alongside the Starfield-branded Xbox headset that is already joining them on store shelves. What I did not know until today was how damn cool the controller’s triggers are.
I mean, I like the controller design itself. I’m not exactly hyped for Starfield, I can take it or leave it, but the beauty of this pad in particular is that it doesn’t really look like a branded controller at all. It just looks like an Xbox controller with a really cool late-70s/early-80s sci-fi theme, like it was something out of The Last Starfighter, and so even if you had no idea what Starfield was, or did and did not care for it, you could still be into this controller.
Anyway! That aesthetic discourse off my chest, I want to talk about the triggers. From leaked product shots we already knew the triggers had a transparent housing, but it was one thing seeing them just sitting around. It’s another seeing them moving, because as long as we have had vibrating controllers—and it’s been decades now—I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the mechanics of them actually vibrating before while you’ve got the finished product in your hand:
That’s neat! Not surprising, we all knew roughly how they worked, but it’s still cool seeing it in action like that. Cool and worrying, because seeing how fast and hard those little guys have to work to keep rumbling I have no idea how controllers last as long as they do. Provided, uh, they actually last as long we want them to.
The Xbox Series X/S controller is $80 while the gaming headset is $125.
[ad_2]
Luke Plunkett
Source link -
Microsoft Explains Why You’re Waiting So Long For Those Xbox Exclusives
[ad_1]
Microsoft revealed some exciting new first-party games like InExile’s Clockwork Revolution and Compulsion Games South of Midnight at its June 11 Xbox Showcase. But others like Fable and Avowed were first teased years ago and still don’t have clear release dates. What’s taking so long?
Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty recently said in interviews with Axios and IGN that the industry is still catching up to a new reality that major projects are simply more complex due to new hardware and rising audience expectations. 4K graphics, ray-tracing and other graphical improvements have made development harder and more expensive, while Microsoft itself had to manage a transition period beginning in 2018 when it snatched up tons of new studios, including those under the Zenimax acquisition like Bethesda, id Software, and Machine Games.
“I think that the industry and the fans were a little behind the curve on sort of a reset to understand that games aren’t two or three years anymore,” Booty told Axios. “There are higher expectations. The level of fidelity that we’re able to deliver just goes up.”
“One, gen 9 hardware is awesome—ray tracing, all the stuff we can do,” he told IGN. “But that trickles down through everything through how the assets are build. Like in Forza Motorsport, how the cars have to be built, how the lighting’s got to be done, how the track’s got to be set up, all the detail. The expectation is very high. Games are just getting more complex in terms of the interactions that are expected.”
There are plenty of examples that back up Booty’s point about games taking longer. Ghost of Tsushima took Sucker Punch six years, the longest the studio had ever spent on making a single game. Final Fantasy XVI is in a similar boat, arriving seven years after the last game in the storied fantasy-RPG franchise. Exceptions like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, a dense 35 hour action adventure and game of the year contender made in just three years, only undermine how rare that turn around time has become.
At the same time, it’s clear Microsoft in particular has struggled to iron things out in its post-acquisition production processes. Halo Infinite’s anemic post-launch support and the poor state of Redfall at release have shown that even when a big game finally arrives, it’s not without problems. Microsoft founded The Initiative back in 2018 but we’ve yet to see anything vaguely tangible out of Perfect Dark. Instead, it’s now reportedly relying on a partnership with Crystal Dynamics to push development forward on the game.
While games like State of Decay 3, Gears 6, and Everwild were all missing from the Xbox Showcase, Microsoft is hinting that they could make an appearance at other events throughout the year like Gamescom or The Game Awards. Even so, it’s not clear their re-emergence will include substantial gameplay reveals or definitive release dates versus CGI trailers. In the meantime, fans finally have Starfield and Forza Motorsport to round out the year. And if Booty’s right, a parade of hits will begin to follow shortly after.
[ad_2]
Ethan Gach
Source link -
Todd Howard: Starfield Locked At 30FPS On Console For ‘Consistency’
[ad_1]
Since Starfield was revealed, fans have been wondering what framerate the sci-fi RPG would run at on console. In a new interview with IGN, creative director Todd Howard confirmed the Xbox Series X/S version would remain locked at 30fps to maintain a consistent look and feel throughout the game.
“I think it’ll come as no surprise, given our previous games, what we go for,” Howard told IGN after the Starfield Direct today. “Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper detail where anything can happen. And we do want to do that. It’s 4K in the X. It’s 1440 on the S. We do lock it at 30, because we want that fidelity, we want all that stuff. We don’t want to sacrifice any of it.”
Read More: Starfield Gets The Gameplay And Story Reveal You’ve Been Waiting For
The longtime Bethesda game designer added that the game is “running great” and even sometimes at 60fps. “But on the consoles, we do lock it because we prefer the consistency, where you’re not even thinking about it,” he said. It’s also apparently performing well on the less powerful Xbox Series S where Howard said he plays most of the time since his kids monopolize the Xbox Series X.
Higher framerates, something players on PC with higher-end gear have long had access to, were one of the big selling points for the “next-gen” consoles. Recently, however, some big blockbusters have struggled to hit that mark. Gotham Knights was locked at 30fps on console, and Arkane Austin’s Redfall, an Xbox first-party console exclusive promoted with 60fps gameplay footage, won’t get a 60fps mode until sometime in the future.
But given Bethesda’s past track record with sprawling open-world RPGs at launch, a stable 30fps will probably be a pleasant surprise for most fans.
Kotaku is covering everything Summer Game Fest, from the main show on Thursday to other events happening throughout the next week. Whether you’re into larger-than-life triple-A games or intimate, offbeat indies, you can keep up with all things SGF here.
[ad_2]
Ethan Gach
Source link -
Microsoft Fined $20 Million For ‘Illegally’ Collecting Children’s Information On Xbox
[ad_1]
The Federal Trade Commission just announced that Microsoft has been fined $20 million “over charges it illegally collected personal information from children who signed up for its Xbox gaming system without their parents’ consent”.
The ruling follows a larger one from December 2022, when Epic Games, developers of Fortnite, were hit with a $550 million fine for using “privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children”.
In this instance, the FTC says the issue centred around the creation of children’s accounts on an Xbox console, a process that until late 2021 would allow a child to enter a certain amount of personal information before requiring a parent’s assistance and permission. Microsoft had been keeping that data (sometimes for “years”), even if the account wasn’t created, which is a violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA).
Microsoft have already responded to the ruling with a post on the official Xbox blog, with Dave McCarthy, CVP Xbox Player Services, saying the violation was a result of a “glitch”, and that Microsoft will “continue improving” going forwards:
We recently entered into a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to update our account creation process and resolve a data retention glitch found in our system. Regrettably, we did not meet customer expectations and are committed to complying with the order to continue improving upon our safety measures. We believe that we can and should do more, and we’ll remain steadfast in our commitment to safety, privacy, and security for our community.
McCarthy goes on to explain the details of this “glitch”, and how it led to retention of children’s data despite this being “inconsistent with our policy to save that information for only 14 days”:
During the investigation, we identified a technical glitch where our systems did not delete account creation data for child accounts where the account creation process was started but not completed. This was inconsistent with our policy to save that information for only 14 days to make it easier for gamers to pick up where they left off to complete the process. Our engineering team took immediate action: we fixed the glitch, deleted the data, and implemented practices to prevent the error from recurring. The data was never used, shared, or monetized.
The FTC’s statement, meanwhile, says:
Microsoft will pay $20 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without notifying their parents or obtaining their parents’ consent, and by illegally retaining children’s personal information.
“Our proposed order makes it easier for parents to protect their children’s privacy on Xbox, and limits what information Microsoft can collect and retain about kids,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “This action should also make it abundantly clear that kids’ avatars, biometric data, and health information are not exempt from COPPA.”
As part of a proposed order filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, Microsoft will be required to take several steps to bolster privacy protections for child users of its Xbox system. For example, the order will extend COPPA protections to third-party gaming publishers with whom Microsoft shares children’s data. In addition, the order makes clear that avatars generated from a child’s image, and biometric and health information, are covered by the COPPA Rule when collected with other personal data. The order must be approved by a federal court before it can go into effect.
[ad_2]
Luke Plunkett
Source link -
Tears Of The Kingdom Is Smaller Than A Call Of Duty Patch, And That’s Great
[ad_1]
Like many others, I just bought the digital version of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on my Switch. I paid for the game, exited the eShop, and then it just…started downloading. No prompt to delete something else to make room. No minor crisis over deciding which of the half-dozen unfinished games on my console would get the boot. The download finished quickly, and then I started playing. Simple, right? And yet I can’t remember the last time installing one of the biggest games of the year went so smoothly.
The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule
Monday 3:53PM
Most modern blockbusters have filesizes of at least 50GB. The biggest are over 100GB, even well over it. With standard PS5 and Xbox Series X storage drives being only 500GB, with even less space available purely for storing games, it doesn’t’ take long before downloading the next hit, or even a small indie game, leads to headaches. Do I really have time to be replaying The Witcher 3 right now? Should I put God of War Ragnarök on hold while I finish Horizon Forbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC? What if I just play one more hour of the latest random 2D Soulslike I downloaded before deleting it?
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor threw this whole gauntlet into overdrive. The game was huge. The patches were huge. The patches kept coming. I love what I’ve played so far but man, that whole part sucks. God help you if you also have an online multiplayer game you jump into regularly like Destiny 2, Apex Legends, or Fortnite. And if it’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, well, all I can say is I’m sorry.
Image: Nintendo Hence the surge of relief when I installed Tears of the Kingdom and didn’t have to deal with any of that. I have a 128GB microSD in my Switch and have never pressed up against the invisible barrier of its storage limits. Nintendo is renowned for optimizing its Switch games, with filesizes routinely half of what ports like Doom 2016 require. Tears of the Kingdom is only one gigabyte bigger than Breath of the Wild, despite an entire new crafting system, a much bigger map, and a ton more voice acting. It’s a small marvel, and one I appreciate now more than ever. And the version 1.1 day-one patch? Barely 300MB.
I get it. With 4K textures, mountains of cutscenes, and full voice acting, cutting-edge blockbusters on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC are never going to be that small. External storage add-ons are also getting cheaper, alleviating concerns for those who can afford them. And maybe one day all our games will be streamed from the cloud anyway, making local storage obsolete. In the meantime, I’m not taking conveniently small game footprints for granted.
Something feels a little old-school about Tears of the Kingdom, and it’s not just that it’s the newest adventure for some of Nintendo’s oldest characters. The midnight launch. The lines wrapped around the block. The fact a gaming culture that’s increasingly fractured, fragmented, and heated is momentarily concentrated on Link gluing rockets to a raft. It’s nice. Also, the game just works. Incredible.
[ad_2]
Ethan Gach
Source link -
HIGH ON LIFE Accolades Trailer
[ad_1]
Related:
Xbox Podcast: Justin Roiland on Why High on Life Came to Game Pass (and How That Will Help Make Future Games)
High on Life Is Xbox Game Pass’ Biggest 2022 Launch, and the Biggest 3rd Party Game Pass Launch Ever
Xbox Podcast: Justin Roiland Says High on Life Players Will Be Discovering New Details ‘For Months’[ad_2]
