Top 5 reasons why Xbox killed it in 2011

Xbox has pushed itself into the hearts and minds of gamers across the globe, more so in the last twelve months. Here's five top reasons why Xbox has proven itself this year and continues to gain momentum as we enter a new year. Microsoft has really shown that they have the right stuff when it comes to planning and deployment of a high-end gaming console. 

Xbox Went casual

Although Kinect released at the end of 2010, there are now some 10 million plus Kinects out there. That's approximately one fifth of Xbox consumers. With a sprawling library of games catering to a wide number of casual audiences, Microsoft has to be applauded for its reinvention of the original Xbox 360 console.

Xbox became mainstream entertainment

Xbox was already partnered with various movie and TV providers such as Sky etc. But with its latest update has integrated more TV options making the Xbox 360 an excellent entertainment hub within the home. Even if the Xbox doesn't take centre stage in the home, the added channels afforded to the console make it so mainstream it's hard to imagine how basic its humble beginnings were.

That deal with Youtube

Whilst many core gamers might scoff at the added extras the Xbox 360 now employs, probably the most notable addition has been its partnership with Youtube. PS3 has had access to the global movie sharing databased via its web browser, but the integration on Xbox is second to none. This is a 'big deal' and means that gamers now have easy access to a load of gaming and non gaming related content from within the singular console.

Home of the multi-platform

Forget exclusives for a moment and look at the multi=platform releases. They mostly sell more on Xbox despite comparable hardware totals. This is simply very encouraging for publishers and means that Xbox is the platform of choice for many gamers. Perhaps it's Xbox Live's superiority despite the costs which has helped pull in online gamers into its fold. The numbers speak for themselves that despite fewer console exclusives, multi-platform games simply thrive.

It entered from behind

The year head start was a well documented tactical move by Microsoft, and although Playstation 3 has now closed that gap, one has to consider that last gen, Xbox original was the new kid on the block and operated at a loss. It simply couldn't compete in terms of numbers with the Playstation's well deserved grip on the market. From mainstream media, to pop culture, "Playstation" was the word used to describe gaming console. Now however, you have artists like Ce Lo Green talking Xbox. Microsoft has done extremely well building from its foundations, making the risk well worth it now as it sits comfortably as a force to be reckoned with across global markets.

Source: http://www.msxbox-world.com/features/article/924/top-5-reasons-why-xbox-killed-it-in-2011.html

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5 Video Games With the Worst Bugs of 2011

​It's not easy to make a video game, and it's certainly not easy to make a game that is free from bugs. Developers only have a limited amount of time to exterminate any game bugs and glitches before it's forced to be released to the world, and oftentimes, there will be a few they'll slip out unnoticed until it's too late. Sometimes these bugs are hilarious. Sometimes they're just downright strange. And unfortunately, they can often ruin an entire gameplay experience.

With video games becoming more complicated to develop over time, the bugs that accompany these games will become more apparent....or hilarious. The following is a look at five of the most notable video game bugs and glitches of 2011. 

5. Dark Souls (PlayStation 3) 
"Invisible Environment" Bug 
 

​Dark Souls is tough. Now, imagine playing the game without any visible environments. A certain glitch in this game will make just about everything invisible to the player. The sky, certain items, sections of buildings and other random frames will appear on screen, but that's about all you have to navigate through this game. Imagine--a single false move will cause you to fall off a ledge that you did not know was there. Surely, someone will enjoy this kind of punishment. 

4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (XBOX 360, PS3, PC) 
"PS3 System Crash Bug" 
 

As amazing as Skyrim is, the game's pretty buggy, especially on the PS3. In the game, using the "waiting" feature and accessing the PS console menu are among the two most common ways to crash your game. Oftentimes, the game will immediately crash after loading up a saved game. After restarting, however, some unlucky players will get a notification that their hard disc is corrupted, which can take a few minutes-hours to restore. 

Repeatedly getting this error message will ultimately result in the corruption of the PS3 system start up files and other important software, basically killing your PS3. Once the crashes start happening, it's probably a good idea to uninstall the patch and start a new, patch-free game. Sure, you've probably wasted dozens of hours game time, but how bad can it be? You have to play more Skyrim. Boo-hoo. 

Note: This is a very rare bug, likely caused by a corrupted download of patch 1.02. 

3. Dead Island (XBOX 360, PS3, PC) 
"Inability to Load Save Files" Bug 
 

​Players can do so much in the world of Dead Island. Tackle objectives in any order, loot, kill, and talk to anyone are what defines sandbox games such as this. Considering how much stuff you can do in Dead Island, it's a wonder why developer Techland imposed an appalling save size limit of 10,260 bytes. This will cause the game to immediate crash when loading a saved game, rendering your saved game useless. 

Another bug heard around the community includes losing save progress, in which players will reload their save file, only to find themselves at an earlier point in the game with a lower level, wasting previous man-hours of game time. 

2. Battlefield 3 (XBOX 360, PS3, PC) 
"Too Many to Name" Bug 
 

​It seems Battlefield 3 shipped a bit prematurely, considering the game was infested with so many bugs that it rendered the game practically unplayable at certain points. From game-halting glitches to graphical issues, developer DICE's forums were clogged with complaining fans. Here are a few of the known glitches that plagued Battlefield 3 during the game's launch: 

• game-halting glitch that occurs during the game's final mission that involves a broken quicktime event that renders the game unfinishable
• bodies hilariously flying across the map
• If you die with the pause menu open the screen will retain its blurred/blue tint until you re-pause the game.
• servers have been down on Xbox 360
• the promised bonus for PS3 owners, Battlefield 1943, was not included with the game
• random colored flashes that occur during turning or sprinting
• bullet paths floating in the air
• audio levels going wrong (often mutes everything but voices, guns, and explosions)
• clipping issues (getting stuck under the ground)
• reload animations not working
• sprinting does not work unless players stand still beforehand
• inability to aim down sights unless players switch out guns first
• killcam displays a section under the map
• gun attachments appearing a few inches away from the gun
• player dies and their gun is pointed up still firing invisible bullets (hilarious)
• characters will have arms and legs that "spaz out"
• characters slide around instead of crouch walking
• unable to quit a match without turning off system
• quitting game leads to never-ending load screen
• ...and many more!

1. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) 
"Song of the Hero" Game-Killing Bug 
 

​Strike three, Nintendo. This is the third game on the Wii with a game-killing glitch. If you are unfortunate enough to stumble into this glitch, you're either going to have to start your game over, send your save file on an SD card to Nintendo to fix the problem, or modify the save file on your computer to remedy the problem. In an age where bugs can quickly be fixed through a patch, it's ridiculous that players have to go through loops and hurdles just to get their game back on track. After similar game-killing bugs found in Twilight Princess and Metroid: Other M, you'd think that Nintendo can get their shit together. Hopefully, the Wii U will be technologically advanced enough to support patches. 

Considering that several other games on this list also have game-halting glitches, Skyward Sword's takes the top spot simply because of the poor method in order to fix it. The game-killing bug here occurs when you complete tasks in a certain order during the "Song of the Hero" quest. If you save the game after the bug is in effect, then prepare to start the game over. 

If you complete the desert section of the quest first and talk to the Goron twice, the game locks out completion of the other two portions, halting all progress of the game. How do you avoid this? Just talk to the Goron guy once. Alternatively, don't do the desert section of the quest first. 

Nintendo is currently working on a program that will be distributed in order to repair the save data. Details of when this program will be released in the future. You can also call Nintendo's hotline at 1-800-255-3700 and talk to one of their ridiculously friendly service reps, and they'll provide players with instructions on how to send in your save file for repairs.

Source: http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2011/12/5_worst_video_game_glitchesbug.php

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XBLIG Review - Homeless

When I was a journalism student at Columbia, there was a guy on 112th Street and Broadway, the most unobtrusive homeless person I've ever encountered in New York. He had no sign and I don't ever recall him verbally soliciting passersby. He just sat there, obviously homeless, with a strangely placid expression. One day I finally gave him 75 cents. 

"You good? I'll take you over there and buy you a coffee if you want," I said, probably sounding insensitive and patronizing. 

"No, no, I don't need coffee," he said. "I'm saving up. They sell Whoppers at the Burger King on 110th for a dollar on Tuesday." It was Monday. I gave him another two dollars, and thanked him for the tip. 

There's a knee-jerk, maudlin quality to exhorting people to listen to the problems of homeless people, and it also ignores the fact that sometimes you learn something useful. I got that feeling again from Homeless, an Xbox Live Indie Game that VentureBeat's Dan Crawley uncovered this past week, and wrote about yesterday. It's made by Jon Flook of Silver Dollar Games in Toronto, which has been responsible for much lighter fare in the past (including Don't Be Nervous Talking to Girls and the hilarious Try Not to Fart) Homeless is 80 Microsoft points. 

In Homeless, you're a panhandler and you have only one button to press, the A button. When passersby are in range and you press it, you get whatever they can spare, which is an amount represented over their heads. Some have only two cents, other times its a quarter or even 30 cents. Each press of A, or beg as I called the action, depletes your energy. The round is over when you run out of energy or time. If the round ends with you falling short of your target, the game is over. 

The strategy is to press A when lots of passersby are clustered around, or when large amounts are in range. A bonus mechanic that I haven't quite figured out sends even larger money amounts scrolling by overhead, but whatever you collect seems not to be cumulative. In other words, bagging a $1.24 bonus is great, but if a 30-cent bonus is overhead when you hit A, you'll trade the larger pot for the smaller. 

In my time with the game, I lasted six days (not realizing that, it appears, you only collect the bonus if you finish the day out of energy. I would have made it the full week otherwise.) The real strength of Homeless is in the uncommonly strong voice acting. As you progress, you learn more about this character. He's been jailed three times. He's a crackhead, apparently recovering, but the memory of his first high with the drug still has a powerful hold on him. There's a hot dog vendor who cuts him a deal, and he's eaten other people's leftovers. He knows that he stinks to high heaven; his only shower is whatever comes off the downspouts of the bridge under which he lives. 

It's not to say Homeless is an emotional experience. There's a drippy soundtrack and, visually, the game is rather barebones, keyed toward you lining up the most opportune amounts of money passing by and then pressing A. There's no real rejection mechanic in this, although a series of dialogue boxes would be about as boring as could be imagined. Empathy or sympathy is extremely difficult to create in any video game, much less a $1 downloadable indie title. 

But it is a thoughtfully designed experience. Gamers who figure out the system and how to exploit it will, in succeeding at it, be served with an increasingly deep story of a typical homeless person, who knows he is responsible for his failures yet still needs immediate help getting through the day. We've all heard the stories of homeless people before; for some, this may be the first time they actually listen.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5871006/make-it-through-another-day-and-xbox-lives-homeless-will-share-its-story

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The New Xbox Dashboard is Stopping Some users From Getting Online

Ever since the release of Microsoft's new dashboard the other week, some unlucky users have been unable to get their consoles back online, something the company is promising to "resolve ... as soon as possible".

"We have recently identified an Xbox Live profile data error that results in Error Code '801540B7' for a small number of Xbox Live members", an Xbox representative told Joystiq. "The error instructs users to attempt to re-download their Xbox Live profile and directs them to customer service support for further assistance. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to our loyal Xbox Live members and are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible." 

The consoles are being kept offline by an inability to sign their profiles into Xbox Live, which means they're not just being kept out of multiplayer games, they're being locked out of some purchased content as well. 

It's not the first problem to pop up with the new dashboard; people who watch a lot of video content have found that the console's capabilities in that regard have gone downhill as well.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5870692/the-new-xbox-dashboard-is-stopping-some-users-from-getting-online

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Importance of Xbox 720/PS4 graphics jump

We’re just a few days away from 2012, which could give us a taste of what the Xbox 720 will include thanks to a possible unveil next year, if current web rumors are anything to go by. The chances of the Xbox 720 being released in 2012 is slim to none in our opinion, although more leaks and rumors are surfacing as we get nearer to a release date.

One popular concept design website showcased a “next Xbox” design that could be, and can be seen in an earlier article. The images are nothing like the radical designs we’ve seen in the past, and some say they look a lot like the current Xbox 360. You’d expect the hardware to jump considerably after so many years, and it does with this concept design including a 2TB hard drive, GPS, a GPU with 8-cores and following some of the latest rumors, a built in webcam that could be used for Kinect type gaming as standard. 

The debate that never seems to end with console gaming tends to be one of gameplay vs. graphics, and while some of us want both, others feel that gameplay is more important than graphics and vice versa. Enhancements like giving every GTA 5/6 pedestrian unique mentalities would be possible with next-gen hardware, although it’s fair to say with the next-generation we’d expect a big graphics jump, and for us this is more important when playing games in 2012/2013/2014, we want ultra real graphics and gameplay thanks to the leaps in technology since the release of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3. 

We must also remember that the next-gen consoles have to last much longer than PCs in graphics terms, so seasoned gamers expect revolutionary graphics and maybe much more than current PC hardware thanks to partnerships with manufactures. This task would be harder thanks to the time it takes to launch a new console, although the machine is dedicated for gaming, which gives a massive advantage. 

In the last year we’ve seen more and more YouTube videos trying to show what the Xbox 720 and PS4 graphics would look like, and this is mostly done by using PCs that have the latest processor and graphics hardware, which could well be the standard for the upcoming console hardware. You can see a video below this article, and we’d love to hear what you think about graphics like this rendered in real time (NOT pre-rendered cutscenes), imagine gameplay like this on the next-gen console. 

How important will graphics be to you when buying the PS4 or Xbox 720 (as it’s commonly known)? 



Source: http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/12/23/importance-of-xbox-720ps4-graphics-jump/

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Modern Warfare 3 – DLC Maps Leaked

After searching through some Modern Warfare 3 files after the latest update, YouTuber MW3 Stream found some images of the supposed 4 new maps included in the recently announced DLC, arriving this January for Xbox 360 Elite Owners first. Below are the images found with the unofficial titles, except for “Park.“ Read more for the images! 

TTG Editor's Comments: Personally we cannot wait for these maps, how do you feel about them? 

 

 

 



Source: http://mp1st.com/2011/12/21/modern-warfare-3-dlc-maps-leaked/

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Gears of War 3 adds 'Fenix Rising' map pack on Jan. 17

The "Fenix Rising" map pack for Gears of War 3 will decorate players who are already well-versed in rolling shotguns. The new add-on, due on January 17, 2012, for 800 MSP ($10), adds five new maps, four character skins and "Re-up," the Gears version of Call of Duty's "Prestige." Here, it allows players to rank through level 100 multiple times for "exclusive emblems and weapon skins."

The Re-up can be done three times to unlock the following weapon skins: 

Re-Up Plasma – Animated flowing plasma in gold.

Re-Up Omen – Shiny, red Omen.

Re-Up Electric – Animated, golden electric shocks.

"Fenix Rising" is the third of four packs bundled with the $30 Gears Season Pass. The "underdeveloped" campaign DLC, RAAM's Shadow, was the most recent release, coming after the co-op focused "Horde Command Pack."

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/21/gears-of-war-3-adds-fenix-rising-map-pack-on-jan-17/

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First Modern Warfare 3 DLC drops January 24 on Xbox

Speaking on the Call of Duty Elite program, "Roll Call," Infinity Ward community guru Robert Bowling revealed that the first batch of Modern Warfare 3 DLC will be available next month. Specifically, Bowling announced that the "full season of content for Modern Warfare 3 kicks off for Elite subscribers January 24th on Xbox Live." As usual, expect the DLC to remain exclusive to Xbox for some time before launching on PS3 and PC. 

Bowling didn't drop details on what the first batch of content would contain, though he did hint MW3 DLC would cover a wide spectrum, including Spec Ops and "a variety of things that players have never seen before." All of this is made possible by the massive development team, featuring Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer and Raven Software. 

Oh, and if you're having trouble finding this particular video on Call of Duty Elite, it might be because it's in the Elite TV section, which is reserved for premium (read: "paid") members.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/21/first-modern-warfare-3-dlc-drops-january-24-on-xbox/

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A Gamer Memorialized In A Modern Warfare 3 Urn After Being Killed In A Fire

Cody Garreans-Walsh in Jefferson, Iowa, is being memorialized with a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 urn after he was killed in a fire inside his own home on December 6. His family and friends held a memorial for the boy on Sunday, and while they all said it was a very sad day for the whole town, they also said they wanted to keep Cody’s memory alive. Especially his love of video games.

His mother got a Call of Duty tattoo in his memory. Family and friends wore Call Of Duty t-shirts under their clothes at the memorial.

TTG Editor's Comment: We feel that this shows a strong bond between the family and their son. We wish them our sympathies in their tragic loss. 

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UFC and VUDU video apps now available on Xbox LIVE

Microsoft released another wave of video apps to the Xbox 360 on Tuesday that includes UFC on Xbox LIVE and VUDU for the United States. UFC on Xbox LIVE lets users purchase pay-per-view fights to stream through their console along with addition content such as weigh-ins, fighter interviews and other promotional videos. It also lets you pick winners of the fights and compare them to people on your friend's list. Better yet, UFC 141 featuring Brock Lesnar vs Alistair Overeem on Friday, December 30 is free when you watch it through the Xbox 360 app.

Update: The free PPV event for UFC 141 was limited to the first 25,000 fans which sold out in less than three hours. Additional, free Pay-Per-Views will be released prior to the event. Follow @UFConXboxLIVE on Twitter for more details. 

VUDU is a movie streaming app that is also available on the Playstation 3. Depending on the quality of your internet, you can stream more than 45,000 films at 1080p with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound. You will need to sign up for an account at the VUDU website to use it with your Xbox 360. 

As a bonus to new VUDU subscribers, the service is offering a $4.99 credit towards a customer's first rental or purchase. There's also 99-cent rentals and 50% off and more savings on holiday favorites. 

Here is the complete list of video apps released to Xbox LIVE today for the United States and other countries. 

4 on Demand (C4). United Kingdom

ABC iView (Australian Broadcasting Corp.). Australia

Dailymotion. Available in 34 countries globally**

Disney XD (Astral Media). Canada

Demand 5 (Five). United Kingdom

M6. France

MSN Video. France

UFC on Xbox LIVE (UFC). Canada, United States

VUDU (Wal-Mart). United States

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Leak Alert: Gears of War 3 emerges on torrent sites

An unfinished developer build of Gears of War 3 has been leaked online, according to NeoGAF and supported by YouTube footage, including the above video showing a "Beta" Gears of War 3 loading screen and campaign footage. The leak is a JTAG version of Gears 3, meaning it will only play on specially modded or dev-kit Xbox 360s. These are commonly difficult to come by, but just because you can't run the leaked code (you can't, right?) doesn't mean other, far less scrupulous people aren't capable. YouTube and video-streaming sites will most likely contain early videos of the game, so shoot your computer screen now if you don't want to see 'em. We've reached out to Epic Games for comment on if, and how, this will affect Gears of War 3's development and release.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/02/leak-alert-gears-of-war-3-emerges-on-torrent-sites/#comments

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Black Ops Double XP Weekend Has Begun

The Double XP Weekend to commemorate the launch of the Annihilation Map Pack for Black Ops has begun. The extra long holiday edition of the double XP festivities will run from now until Tuesday July 5th. The Double XP event has hit all platforms, so that means whether you are a Xbox 360, PS3, or PC gamer, you can get in on the fun during this extended holiday weekend. For Xboxers the Annihilation Map Pack which launched earlier this week is a five map expansion to the game, which adds four multiplayer maps and one new zombies map to the game for 1200 MSP. It's currently available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and is an excellent addition to the game.

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/black-ops-double-xp-weekend-has-begun-2/

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Treyarch designers “weren’t always good” at multiplayer maps

The Annihilation map pack represents Treyarch’s growing skills as level designers, David Vonderhaar has said.“We’re very concerned about pathing through the map. You want to make sure players can navigate the map in a consistent fashion. You want your main paths, to say, be wider than your flanking paths – tell a vocabulary in a visual story there,” the Black Ops design director told Gamefront. “And what we’ve learned over time is that we weren’t always good at that. “[But] we’ve gotten better at that and it’s become just part of our D.N.A. … So you’re seeing in the map packs this evolution of our thinking, and Annihilation represents exactly what we’re talking about here. … I think anything Treyarch does long-term will be more cognizant of it.” Annihilation is the third map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, and is available now on Xbox Live, with other platforms to follow.

http://www.vg247.com/2011/07/01/treyarch-designers-werent-always-good-at-multiplayer-maps/

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Modern Warfare 3 will totally change Killstreaks

The ever contentious subject of Killstreaks in Call of Duty is about to get even more controversial, with Infinity Ward community bod Robert Bowling revealing that Modern Warfare 3 is revamping the entire thing. "We changed the entire way the killstreak system works," he said. "I can't go into detail yet, but I will share when I can." Without any further details, we've no choice but to launch into rudderless speculation. So let me ask you -- what do you want to see done to Killstreaks in Modern Warfare 3? 

http://www.destructoid.com/modern-warfare-3-will-totally-change-killstreaks-205004.phtml

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Red Dead Redemption DLC announcement coming soon, quadruple XP now

If you're ready to quick-draw some funds from your bank account, and your trigger finger is itching to click "buy", you'll be pleased to know that some new Red Dead Redemption DLC is on the way. We don't exactly know when, but Rockstar mentioned on Twitter that the release date and details for this unnamed pack will be revealed "in the coming weeks." Maybe this time it'll be about old-west Draculas, or invisible cowboys. In the meantime, if you're looking for something to do in the currently released RDR content, Rockstar is hosting a quadruple XP event through Monday. Your cowpoke will get four times as grizzled! Update: The new DLC is likely the free "Fan Appreciation DLC" announced during E3, with new "fan-favorite" multiplayer characters, and new content for various multiplayer modes.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/30/red-dead-redemption-dlc-announcement-coming-soon-quadruple-xp-n/#comments

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Andy Gray No Longer A Part of FIFA Games

EA's beloved FIFA franchise will be taking the pitch this year without long-time color commentator Andy Gray. Gray has essentially been issued a red card by both EA and Sky Sports, being sent-off after on-air sexist comments regarding a call from a female official during an EPL match. Gray will be replaced by current Sky Sports commentator Alan Smith who will appear alongside play-by-play man, Martin Tyler. However, EA will offer two commentary options for players this year. Fans can select from the Tyler-Smith duo or opt for Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend, with the default option being that Tyler-Smith will call most of the games and the more important matches will be called by Tyldesley-Townsend to give them a more realistic significance. FIFA 12 is set to release September 27.

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/andy-gray-no-longer-a-part-of-fifa-games/

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Call of Duty XP Event This September

Activision has just recently announced that it will be holding a Call of Duty event for fans of the game this September. The XP event which sounds awfully familiar to something along the lines of Blizz-Con, except that the event will be all about Call of Duty only. At the event that is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles this fall, Activision will unveil Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer for the first time during the two day event, as well as feature a fully functional Call of Duty Elite to show off to fans. There will be plenty of festivities at the event that is said to "feel like you stepped into the game", which include paintballing on a recreated map from Modern Warfare 2, eats sponsored by Burger Town, a real-life recreation of the Pit which you can run, and a $1 million dollar Black Ops Multiplayer Tournament for starters. Attendees will of course have to travel to the 12-acre compound which is located in Los Angeles for the two day event, where then tickets will run $150 according to Giant Bomb. 100% of the entry fees that Activision gets from the Call of Duty-palooza will be going to the Call of Duty Endowment.

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/call-of-duty-xp-event-this-september/

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Why isn’t FIFA in 3D yet?

With sports these days being broadcasted in 3D all over, and the tech being pushed in videogames, why isn’t one of the biggest sports game series, FIFA, in 3D yet? For those few who’ve wondered, FIFA 12 lead producer David Rutter has the answer. “If you look at the broadcast of footballon TV in 3D, what you see is the kind of standard camera angle and the 3D realization of it. We can get 3D working in some camera angles but in others it’s quite jarring,” he explained when quizzed on the matter. “So we’ve been working on it and we’ll look at it, and when we get it right we’ll seriously think about releasing it.” Rutter was talking in the latest episode of EA’s PWNED web series. Catch the whole episode below.

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Modern Warfare 3 Fires Back at the Competition

Perhaps the developers that are working on Modern Warfare 3 are sick and tired of hearing about the Frostbite 2 Engine. There's no doubt that DICE's work on the upcoming shooter is looking fantastic, but that's not stopping the competition from firing back some choice words of their own. Sledgehammer Games, who is co-developing Modern Warfare 3 pointed out that the game is still running at 30 frames per second. "You can go out and name your engine and call it whatever you want, right?" Sledgehammer Games' Glen Schofield said in the recent interview "You know, I've done that before; I've seen that trick and the bottom line is, this game [Modern Warfare 3] will run at 60 frames a second. Not sure any of our competitors will." "Not sure I've seen any of our competitors, on the console especially, running at 60 frames a second, and I'd be a little scared at this point -- in June -- if I was looking forward to a particular game that wasn't on the console and running at 60. And I think 60 is our competitive edge and you just don't throw that away." "I don't know what the future holds for the engine. But you don't ship an engine, you ship a game." he concluded in the interview. DICE has already went on to defend their position on the frame rate concerns that have been expressed by fans. Johan Andersson told fans of the game "We always do 30 FPS on consoles, not possible to fit in vehicles, fx, scale and all players otherwise".

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/modern-warfare-3-fires-back-at-the-competition/

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Xbox 360 Graphics Quality Raised by New Tech

Developers have recently gotten the Xbox 360 to use an MLAA anti-aliasing technique that levels the playing field for the two console when it comes to graphics. The best looking PlayStation 3 games of this generation used this MLAA technology which was implemented using five of the consoles SPUs to compensate for RAM limitations that it had. The development technique produced superior results to what the Xbox 360 was using, which was a traditional MSAA (multi-sample-anti-aliasing). This was one of the major reasons that you saw a quality gap in third party games between the two consoles at the onset of the generation, and in some cases more recently. It had been thought that the Xbox 360 would not be able to match this graphical output, but it appears that a development team has got the technique working on the Xbox 360. This could be a big gust of wind for the Xbox 360's almost six year old sail, one which analyst's believe is beginning to show it's age. Whether developers will be able to take and implement these new findings in upcoming games to deliver noticeably better gaming experiences has yet to be seen.

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/xbox-360-graphics-quality-raised-by-new-tech/

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