Every Single Article Written by Johnny - All 103
Xbox Music Prepares to Deal the Death Blow to Zune
If you’re a Zune subscriber – and really, who isn’t? (besides, well, everybody) – then you may be wondering what this whole Xbox Music thing is all about. During E3 back in June, Microsoft announced their new Xbox Music service, but they did so without offering any actual information about what the service is, how it will work, or what it will do besides, you know… music.
Well, thanks to an email sent today from Microsoft to current Zune subscribers, we can at least tell you some of the things that Xbox Music won’t do. Or, more specifically, the Zune features that are getting killed.
NBC’s Olympic Coverage Frustrates Cord-Cutters
Watch the Olympics now, LIVE on tape delay!
NBC is living in the past. When NBC forked over $1.3 billion for the broadcasting rights to the London Olympic Games, the company apparently decided that the best way to recoup their costs was through the same old-school tape delay that networks were using decades ago. And the fact that it’s called “tape” delay tells you how old school it really is.
Oh, sure, every Olympic event is available to live stream on NBC’s website or via their NBC Olympics Live Extra app (provided you are a satellite or cable subscriber), but what NBC really wants you to do tune in at primetime to watch delayed coverage of the games. The better to rack up advertising dollars.
But in a world of Twitter, On Demand TV, and 24-hour news, NBC’s dated model is an Olympic-sized joke.
E3 2012 – Fable The Journey Hands-On
I got my hands on Lionhead’s new Kinect title Fable The Journey during this year’s E3 (or hands off, as this is a Kinect game). Fable The Journey is ambitious, to be sure – the team is striving to make an epic adventure game that will deliver at least 15 hours of gameplay, and all played with motion control via Microsoft’s Kinect. So what do we think?
E3 2012 – Forza Horizon Preview
During this year’s E3, we climbed up to the lofty second floor of the Microsoft booth and caught a preview of Forza Horizon, the latest racing game from developer Playground Games in association with Turn 10 . From the offset, the developer told us that this is not strictly a racing sim and it’s not an arcade racer. “This is an action racing game.”
E3 2012 – Gears of War: Judgement Behind Closed Doors
In case you haven’t heard, there’s more chainsaw gunnin’ and Locust killin’ heading our way with Gears of War: Judgement, a prequel to the blockbuster Gears franchise slated for release on Xbox 360 next year. We sat down with Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games and Adrian Chmielarz of People Can Fly to get all the details.
E3 2012 – Sphero is Spherical Fun for Your Smartphone
We got a close-up look at Sphero today, the “robotic ball gaming device” from Orbotix out of Boulder, Colorado. Sphero is a surprisingly sophisticated little remote control sphere about the size of a baseball that you control with your iOS or Android device (a version for Windows Phone is planned, they say). The device is durable, waterproof and instantly cute – Sphero can change colors thanks to an internal multi-colored LED.
E3 2012 – Far Cry 3 Multiplayer Trailer
We caught a glimpse of Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3 single player during their press conference on Monday. The game is looking great, and I’m not just saying that because the trailer they showed started with some rather gratuitous nudity.
E3 2012 – Naughty Bear is a Deadly Teddy
Today, Keith and I hit up 505 Games to check out their stealth assassin game Naughty Bear, which is being re-released as an arcade title this fall. Naughty is a murderous Teddy Bear who goes on a killing spree when he doesn’t get invited to a party. Apparently, it’s like a super-simplified version of Hitman… with Teddy Bears.
Just to give you an idea of the game’s goofy, tongue-in-cheek tone, the loading screen (called “loathing” screen) is a minigame with Naughty Bear throwing knives into a helpless bear’s chest.
E3 2012 – Assassin’s Creed III Multiplayer Hands-On Impressions
I haven’t played Assassin’s Creed multiplayer before and it shows. The poor Ubisoft rep trying to talk me through the demo would always start by saying something like, “Okay, what you want to do is…” Then I would inevitably die and he’d sigh, “Um, never mind.”
E3 2012 – Rayman Legends Loves Wii U
Yesterday, Ubisoft showed off their new Rayman Legends game during their live press conference with an on-stage demo using development Wii U hardware. What we saw was quite impressive, and it’s clear that game creator Michel Ancel is pulling out all the stops to make his game shine on Nintendo’s new console.
