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Yesterday, when we all met Call of Duty Dog for the first time, the first thing I said was, "Aww, a dog!" The second thing I said was, "Good thing they are going to kill him." Every comment, every video, every Call of Duty Dog joke made has been accompanied by the logical conclusion that, yes, this dog is totally going to get shot. Why else have a dog in a Call of Duty game? They get us to care about this dog. He becomes part of the team. We'll become attatched. Then BANG! He's clipped by a stray bullet. Or maybe a supply truck runs him over. Some assume he'll die in a slow motion cutscene, but I think it'll have more impact if the death of Call of Duty Dog came not as punctuation to the game's dramatic climax, but rather in the middle of a random mission. When I was growing up, our painful animal deaths were limited to non-interactive forms of entertainment. We couldn't stop Bambi's mother from dying. We couldn't magically cure Old Yeller. Where the Red Fern Grows was not a choose your own adventure book — Old Dan's intestines were destined to become out-testines. There is a unique opportunity in gaming, especially as the graphics and situations become more and more realistic, to really drive the trauma home. I cried for days after Old Yeller was put down for the first of several dozen times throughout my childhood. Imagine how long I'd cry if I had to pick up a virtual rifle and do it in first person, or if it were a cuddly kitten and not some big, slobbering hound? I can see the gameplay segment so clearly. You're trapped behind cover, Call of Duty Dog at your side. Gunfire pours in from all sides. Desperate, you reach to your belt pulling the pin on a grenade and lobbing it in a slow, graceful arc towards the enemy. It rolls to a stop inches from their feet, and here comes Call of Duty Dog, tail a-waggin', scooping up the metal ball in his fluffy jaws. "Bad dog!" you shout, but he's already bounding back. You raise your pistol... I swear to God, they had better kill Call of Duty Dog. Most of us have had a pet die in real life. I lost the best cat ever last year, and the year before that we buried our family dog. It hurts, a lot. So much so that we barely have time to ponder important messages about mortality and responsibility. That's what books and movies are for, and what games can be. Just look at Fable II, or Fallout 3, or Duck Tales. So, time to shake things up, Infinity Ward. Forge a connection with us by giving us human characters we can believe in. Make them love the dog as well, so when the end comes they can share the experience and support each other. If you need to move us emotionally, take out the dog. Let us watch our team grow closer, then tear us apart and test that friendship by having one of us have to put a puppy down. Don't just give us a *crag*ing awesome dog, let us hang out with him, then kill him to make us sad. Give us a *crag*ing awesome dog, let us hang out with him, then kill him to teach us an important lesson about being sad. I mean, it'll work. I'll be super sad if you kill Call of Duty Dog, but not as much as I would if you killed Call of Duty Cat. I guess we'll just have to wait until the game comes out to see if we're going to grow as people in exchange for the life of an animal. In the meantime, what do you think of Call of Duty Dog's survival chances?

Yesterday, when we all met Call of Duty Dog for the first time, the first thing we said was, "Aww, a dog!" The second thing we said was, "Too bad they are going to kill him." Every comment, every video, every Call of Duty Dog joke made has been accompanied by the implicit assumption that, yes, this dog is totally going to get shot. Why else have a dog in a Call of Duty game? They tell us we're going to care about this dog, that he'll be part of the team. We'll forge an emotional attachment to him. That is obviously code for "just before the final act, the main bad guy is going to *crag*ing shoot him in slow motion while you look on, helpless to intervene." Let's not forget that this is Call of Duty we're talking about. In these games, it's more surprising if a mission doesn't end with you getting betrayed and shot in the chest at close-range by a man you Thought Was Your Friend. I can imagine the dogicidal cutscene so vividly, it's like it already exists. You round the corner, and a swarthy gentleman with a beard is standing there. The audio goes hushed and does that flipped low-mid-frequencies only thing, and everything goes into slow motion. He brings his gun up, and then swings it to the side. He fires. A single doggie yelp. Silence. I swear to God, they had better not kill Call of Duty Dog. We've seen it happen too many times. Old Yeller. The Fallout games (if we weren't careful). Fable II (sort of). I haven't even seen I Am Legend and I'm about 95% sure the dog gets it. The dog aaaalways gets it. So, time to shake things up, Infinity Ward. Forge a connection with us by giving us human characters we can believe in. If you need to move us emotionally, show us heartbreaking devastation, make us come to grips with the destruction of a defenseless town or something. Let us watch our team grow closer, then tear us apart and test that friendship. Don't just give us a *crag*ing awesome dog, let us hang out with him, then kill him to make us sad. I mean, it'll work. I'll be super sad if you kill Call of Duty Dog. But surely you can do better! I guess we'll have to wait to see what happens when the game comes out. In the meantime, what do you guys think? How would you rate Call of Duty Dog's chances? I, for one, hope they surprise us all. I hope they let Call of Duty Dog live. Heck, let him star in his own DLC (Dog-loadable content). The nation has fallen in love with Call of Duty Dog. Please, don't tear him away from us.

It's a day of nothing but freebies today, so jump inside and fill up your device with new games for no money spent.

Dear Lifehacker,I have a couple old PC games from the Windows 95 days that I'd like to keep playing. However, I use Windows 7, which creates an obvious problem. Is there a way to play it on my current machine? More importantly, will I just have to give it up some day? Sincerely,Nostalgia Overwhelming Dear Nostalgia,Yesterday, Microsoft announced a new Xbox console and said that it's not possible to play Xbox 360 games on the new hardware. It's not the first time we'll get a reminder that we risk losing the future at the expense of the past and it won't be the last. Maintaining the ability to play old PC games, however, may be just as difficult. Hope isn't entirely lost, however. There are a number of ways to keep an old game playable without breaking out an old PC and loading up a copy of Windows 95 (though if you're a stickler for the most authentic experience, that would be the way to do it). Even better, you're not the only one who wants to keep those old games around and sometimes those other people are devoted developers. Tie an Old Game to A Publisher Account Many games have been updated or patched to work on newer OSes. To get patches like this directly from the source, you can either repurchase a game from a store like Steam, or activate them on your personal library if you have the old activation codes. In some cases, publishers may have issued updates that make games compatible with newer versions of your operating system. A couple of token examples are Doom and Starcraft. Old Doom games appear in Steam and can be installed on systems as modern as Windows 8 and run directly within the app. Meanwhile, Starcraft is tied to a Battle.net account. You can download and install it from the website as many times as you like. If you've already purchased a game, it's relatively easy to tie it to an account. For example, Steam has an Add A Game button in the Library section where you can enter a license key to unlock a game. Keep in mind that you can add non-Steam titles, so you'll want to select "Activate a Product on Steam" if you want to get access to the newest version of your title (where available). Blizzard and other publishers have a similar process. The biggest advantage of this method is that once it's tied to your account, you can download the newest, patched version of the software instead of whatever you received on a floppy disk in the early 90s. Run Apps in Compatibility Mode Windows actually includes the ability to run apps designed for older versions of the OS. By right-clicking on an app's shortcut and selecting Properties, you can select which version of Windows your game was designed for under the Compatibility tab. this isn't a cure-all, of course. Video games in particular have a lot of complex code that can break. If you have old CDs lying around and you're able to install the game on newer machines, you can try running the game with the compatibility layer set to the OS it was built on. Note, that this feature is different from XP Compatibility Mode which was introduced in Windows 7 and removed from Windows 8. Find (or Buy) a Patched Copy Sometimes, the original company won't patch their old game, but other folks will. This is a hit-or-miss approach, but sometimes avid gamers with a development background can release patches that make old games more compatible with new systems. Many development communities can be reliable, but keep in mind that downloading executable files is the quickest way to get malware on your system, so be extremely careful. A much safer way to find patched versions of games is to buy them. Sites like Good Old Games sell copies of titles that you might not be able to find on more modern distribution systems. Not all titles here may work properly on all OS versions, so read the reviews before dropping a few bucks. Find a Ported Version Doom, the classic first-person shooter that popularized the genre is one of the most ported games in history and a prime example of an older title you can find on new platforms. This is another situation where you may have to pay for something twice, but if summer movie blockbusters teach us anything, it's that nostalgia is worth a lot of money. Mobile platforms in particular are experiencing a bit of a renaissance of older games. Phones and tablets are powerful enough to play complex games, but not quite capable of challenging hardcore PC gaming rigs or modern consoles. This has made them ripe for ports of old titles. Square Enix, for example, has a long list of RPG classics available for Android and iOS. Use an Emulator Emulators are often an ethical gray area, since downloading ROMs is technically illegal. The nice thing about emulating PC games, though, is that you can often do so without downloading anything—just use your old floppies or CDs, if you still have them lying around. Programs like DOSBox allow you to play pre-Windows games on both PC and Mac, which is really neat. Previously mentioned ScummVM is perfect for those old point-and-click DOS adventures. In fact, turning your computer into a game-emulating monster is an article unto itself (fortunately, we have several). Nearly all emulators will require you to bring your own ROM (the game file for the title you want to play), which means you'll need to dig up those old floppies If you don't have them, you can often find the games online, but depending on the game, you might be running back into that legal risk (not to mention the aforementioned malware risk). Download a Fan or Publisher Remake These aren't as common as we'd like, but when you can find one, they're fantastic. Black Mesa is the standout property for fan remakes. This is a complete remaster of the original Half-Life PC game with the new Source engine built for Half-Life 2. The entire game (which is mostly finished, but not completely) is available for free online. The primary reason fan remakes are so rare is because the intellectual property situation can get pretty nasty if you're dealing with large organizations, so many remakes may die before they're ever released, but there are quite a few fighting to survive. That being said, a fan remake is pretty obviously a violation of various trademark and copyright laws which means the survival of such titles is up to the mercy of the owner of the original works. Valve is particularly friendly to the modding scene (which has proved very profitable for them), but this is the exception rather than the rule. Of course, fans aren't the only ones who can remake old games. For example, Dune II was a classic RTS that predated the wildly successful Command and Conquer series. Getting the old DOS-based version of the game may not go over so well, but Dune 2000, a remake made a few years later brought similar gameplay and storylines with updated graphics. That title is more readily available online. Contact the Publisher If you're at a loss and just can't find a way to modernize your games, you can always try contacting the publisher. Many companies from decades past have been acquired or changed names, however a quick Wikipedia search can usually tell you who owns them now. In some cases, they may even still run a site under the old branding. For example, id Software is now owned by ZeniMax Media, but you can still hit up their website to purchase old classics like Wolfenstein or Quake. Of course if you don't want to pay for a game more than once, you could always email or call the publisher and ask if they might be willing to steer you toward a version of an old game you can play on your new system. You may get a boilerplate response directing you to their store, but you may also get a gratis copy for being a loyal customer for so many years. It never hurts to ask. Accept that Sometimes Games Go Extinct This is the hardest part to accept but at some point in your life you're probably going to lose a game that you really love. In a way, old PC games are a lot like animal species. Without the ability to be reproduced in new versions for modern OSes, they run the risk of extinction. It requires effort on someone's part to keep games updated. Either by Microsoft in making sure Windows can retain support for old versions, publishers in issuing patches, or fans in picking up the slack. One way or another, though, old software won't run on newer hardware without someone doing something. Many of the options on this list require paying for a game a second (or if you're like me, third, fifth, or tenth) time. It seems unfair to pay twice for the same stuff, but remember that all that effort doesn't happen for free. No matter who you're placing the burden on, expecting a game to be updated for decades because you paid some money back in the 90s is economically unfeasible. From that perspective, the best way to keep your old games alive is to love them. Dote on them now and then. Support communities that keep games working. Keep playing them. Spending five or ten bucks every decade or so is a small price to pay to ensure your childhood never really dies. Sincerely,Lifehacker

...And that's pretty much all we know about it at this point. Seriously, you try making heads or tails of this trailer.

Can you guess which games each of these icons represent? I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty tired of seeing the bulky, medical-blue 'Like' button on every website and, increasingly, coffee shops and other random locations boasting their profile pages and begging for interest. But if they were video game-themed, like those above, they might be more fun and less of an eyesore. Maybe Facebook could take some cues from the artist, Lucas Felipe. Now you just have to guess which icon matches which game, using our nifty image annotation feature. (via Dotcore) To contact the author of this post, write to tina@kotaku.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.

Sim racing games are fun for few, but the community at large finds them boring. Arcade racing games are fun, but they're a bit too fake. So what if there was a game that combined the two? That's what GRID 2 wants to do. It's coming out next week, and the developers are here now to answer all your questions. Fire away! With us we have two developers from Codemasters, Clive Moody and Iain Smith, who have been intimately involved with the development of GRID 2 from the start. I've gotten a good bit of hands on time with the game in both single player and multiplayer modes, and I've found that it isn't a full arcade racer and isn't a sim racer either. It's actually a pretty nice little balance between the two, with a very cool multiplayer mode that goes across platforms and really opens up the world of online racing in a way that we've never seen before. The developers are here for the next hour. Feel free to jump in and ask them anything about GRID 2, like how they designed it, the tracks they chose, the car selection, physics, video games, etc. Really anything you want. Ask away, the floor is yours!

"Why don't you review more Android games?" is a question I get on a daily basis, and it's a question I never ignore. Every time I get it, the first thing I do is go to Google Play on my phone and see if there's anything new worth taking a look at. The service doesn't feature a "New Release" section, but it does offer a selection of "Top New Paid" and "Top New Free" games, which one might assume is a gold mine of cool, clever and creative mobile games. That's where I found Strip A Teen Girl III. There is something seriously wrong here. Google Play might not have the strict app guidelines Apple has in place for iOS devices, but there really has to be some means of moderation. With Android devices gaining traction as dedicated gaming devices, a cheaper alternative to a consoles and console games, there're a lot of young and easily-offended old eyes scanning these lists, and they're seeing shit like this. Awww, it's Monkey Boxing! And there's a version of Heads Up just for kids! And there's...oh. Come on, Timmy, maybe we should stick to your Nintendo 3DS for a bit longer. It's like having a strip club right next to an elementary school. Convenient, sure, but at what cost? I poke fun at systems like the Ouya or Amazon's Kindle Fire for making their own branded shops rather than using Google Play, but if that's what they need to do to avoid this sort of crap, then so be it. For those curious, Strip A Teen Girl III, the latest in Amusing Suite's Strip A Teen Girl series, features a collection of racy photos of a decidedly un-teen girl with clouds over what a purchaser might assume are her naughty bits. The "player" must rub the photo to reveal the tasteful underwear beneath the clouds. The best part of the "game' is the fact that instead of simply placing an interactive cloud overlay on top of a single photo, each shot is actually two shots on top of one another, so you're scratching one picture to reveal another, slightly off-kilter picture beneath it. It's actually quite amusing, in a disturbing sort of way. I wouldn't recommend paying $1.93 for it, but if the price ever drops to $1.91, look out. So not only are we getting sexually suggestive content in the Google Play "Top Paid Games" list, we're getting hilariously bad apps somehow showing up, despite poor reviews and low download counts. This one only registers 100+ downloads. Sega's House of the Dead Overkill, the next app down on the list, has more than 1,000. That doesn't make any sense. So no, you shouldn't buy Strip a Teen Girl III. Furthermore, you might want to look into contacting Google and asking if there's anything it can do to make finding good new games on the service less of an irritating softcore porn minefield. If You Really Want It, Find It Yourself Genre: Embarrassment Developer: Amusing SuitePlatform: AndroidPrice: $1.93

Can you hear the savings now? Amazon has Sony's MDR-V6 headphones for a low $54 today. That's squarely in impulse buy territory, and a no-brainer if you need a new pair. We love headphones at the Moneysaver, and we've found that you do too. Our Audio-Technica ATH-M50's and ATH-M30's were some of our most popular items, and we think you'll really enjoy these as well. The Wirecutter just crowned Sony's MDR7506 as their best $150 headphones, and we agree, they're pretty awesome. They're also $150 (normally), though today you can snag them for $88, or, like we said, save 34 bucks and grab their little brother, the MDR-V6. We heartily recommend all of the cans listed here. Listen in good health. Keep up with Shane Roberts on Kinja and Twitter. Check out Dealzmodo for more great tech deals, and Deals.Kinja.com for even more discounts. This is a Moneysaver One-Shot, a post focusing on a single deal, sale, or category. Join us every weekday at 2:15pm ET for the full Moneysaver roundup, brought to you by the Commerce Team. We're here to bring Kotaku readers the best gaming deals available, and to be clear, we also make money if you buy. We want your feedback.

Rediscover our discovery of the Xbox One! It all seems so obvious in retrospect...

You don't need to feel sorry for the Flash. Despite what it looks like, he's doing okay. The Flash series has been one of the quieter success stories of DC Comics' New 52 reboot. The Fastest Man Alive hasn't had the kind of high-profile crossovers that Batman, Superman or Green Lantern's books have had. Hell, even Aquaman got a big-deal storyline tied into the Justice League book. But The Flash has managed to be a reliable read without the hype of those kinds of editorial stunts. Creators Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato have re-configured the powers, mythos and cast surrounding DC's pre-eminent speedster just enough for plot twists to feel surprising, while keeping much of the charm that made previous iterations popular. Barry Allen is weighed down by a ton of dysfunction or angst, making him feel more like a regular guy you can root for. Just look at these preview pages from today's issue #20. He's moving in with a girlfriend, making peace with a messed-up childhood and putting some recent drama behind him. But the newest incarnation of the most vicious Flash villain ever is waiting in the wings. If you don't know about Reverse Flash, he's a villain who killed the Flash's wife in a prior continuity. And Flash snapped his neck in the ensuing fight. There's bad history here. And what we've seen of the character so far hints at a more psychologically twisted take on Flash's opposite number, with bloody victims left in his wake. That girlfriend, that new apartment, that troubled past hidden from view… chances are that the Flash's darker mirror image will be screwing around will all of those in the storyline to come.

A website for Chinese newspaper Global Times recently published photos of a new Japanese military helicopter "design concept". Too bad it's not real. It's not even made by the Japanese military. On Global Times' website Huanqiu.com, the text reads, "This appeared online today; it seems to be a concept for a Japanese Self Defense Force armed helicopter made by the Japanese military complex." The paper also added, "One can see that because this type of technology is not yet available, it looks like something out of science fiction." The photos were published online in the Global Times' "military" section. There was a gallery of "Fuujin Attack Helicopter" images, art site DeviantArt URL watermarks and all. The story even appeared on Chinese news source Xinhua, which is like the Reuters or AP of China. The Xinhua story, which cites Global Times, also said that the Japanese Self Defense helicopter concept was "designed by a Japanese professional." On Chinese social networking site Weibo, people are baffled at how this helicopter would even fly. "This design looks cool but there isn't anything special, does it even fly?" asked Weibo user hanyu_cger. "Without a tail rudder how does it maneuver?" Others thought it looks more like a comic book design than a military one. Some even claimed it was totally real, while others said it was a Japanese rip-off. Nobody really seemed to realize the DeviantArt URL (probably because it just looked like a string of English words). On Chinese site NetEast, there are over 2,400 comments regarding these photos. Folks, apparently, are still talking about the images. Online in Japan, people were baffled, too. On 2ch, some responded by saying things like, "What the hell is that?" Or, "I want a plastic model version of this!" Needless to say, the Fuujin Attack Helicopter is not a real military concept. Rather, Ridwan Chandra Choa, a digital artist who previously worked at Lucasfilm Animation in Singapore, created it and uploaded it to art site DeviantArt. The Global Times and Xinhua are real news sources in China. It's odd that they would use images with DeviantArt watermarks to scare up fear among readers about Japanese military and technological power. Maybe they didn't know. This is somewhat reminiscent of the time, however, when people online in Japan confused a Blizzard staffer's digital mecha creations with U.S. military hardware. This past April, Choa wrote on his DeviantArt page, "Still looking for work and resting, relaxing a bit, doing personal works and stuff." Maybe something good will come of this. If he hasn't yet found a job, maybe Choa will get work? Is the Japanese military hiring? 日本自卫队未来武装直升机构想 [Global Times/Huanqiu.com] Eric Jou contributed to this article. To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

From A Valley Without Wind creator Arcen Games comes Skyward Collapse, a turn-based god game for the PC that entices not with its looks, but with its premise. As the Creator, your job is to keep the two factions on your floating continent alive by preventing one from overpowering the other and protecting them from outside danger. In other words, babysitting—with mythological creatures, artifacts, and vengeful gods. The trailer above can give you a glimpse into what it looks like. Skyward Collapse is coming to Steam tomorrow, and should be worth a look if the idea of guiding the fates of nations appeals to you. Skyward Collapse [Arcen Games]

Look at these cool dudes! They're so serious. If only there was an easy way to make them look like total goofballs. Turns out, there is. Here's the "serious" cover of Weekly Jump, featuring popular manga Gin Tama. So, how do you make this look ridiculous? Origami! Good times. The images were originally uploaded to 2ch, Japan's largest forum, where commenters were quick to point out that they had previously thought this style of derp folding was only a "paper money special move". For donkey's yonks, people in Japan have folded the country's currency for some easy yucks-yucks. To make the effect work, you need to either look from a lower or higher angle. I've never tried it on U.S. or foreign paper money. If you have folding money with people's faces, give it a whirl. ジャンプのシリアスな表紙にやけさせたwwww [2ch] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Mobile games are great; they allow people to game pretty much everywhere. From gaming during the daily commute to gaming while waiting for the bus, mobile games can enrich people's daily lives. Sadly, for one man in China the joys of playing mobile games had lead to an undeserved beating. According to China's GuangMing Daily, a young man was beaten in Jilin, the capital city of Shandong province for playing on his phone while riding the bus. The young man, who is unnamed, was casually minding his own business playing on his mobile phone. He got on the number 45 bus and continued to play his game. According to the bus driver, Mr. Liu, after about short period of time there was a loud commotion on the bus. "I turned around to see what was going on and then I saw a young man being roughed up by a another man and young lady standing to the side," said Liu. The bus driver stopped the bus and proceeded to find out what was going on. The young lady in question told the bus driver that the young man had been taking pictures of her with his smartphone ever since he got on the bus. The young woman had called the young man a pervert and another bus rider took to her aid and started to beat on the young man. "There are still seats in the back and he's standing so close to me," said the young woman. "His phone kept going 'click, click, click', he's a pervert". Still being roughed up by the other bus rider the young man asserted his innocence claiming he was too busy with his game to take pictures of the girl. "I was into my game," said the young man. "I didn't even notice that seats had opened up." The young man was able to prove his innocence by showing his phone to the bus driver and the young woman and proving that there were no photos of the girl. He even showed that the same clicking sounds came from the mobile game he was playing. Sadly, he was beaten before he could prove his innocence. Top photo: Zelmer / Shutterstock [男子公交车玩手游 被误认偷拍美女险被打] [Guangming Daily via Tencent] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. You can contact the writer at FatAsianTechie@gmail.com

And not just on an iPad, but also on an iPhone. Shizuoka-born artist Seikou Yamaoka uses his fingers and an app called ArtStudio to produce truly stunning digital works. In the above video, you can watch Yamaoka bring Johannes Vermeer's masterpiece "Girl with a Pearl Earring" to life on his iPad Mini. The video is five minutes long; it actually took Yamaoka five hours to create his digital work. It's cool how you can see him create right before your very eyes. Below, you can check out more of Yamaoka's digital art. And before you start thinking this guy is all fingers and digital software, Yamaoka also has a neat watercolor video. Have a look. Seikou Yamaoka Art Gallery [山岡セイコウ via ロケットニュース] Seikou Yamaoka [Facebook] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

YouTube has issued a statement following recent issues like the one surrounding Nintendo and various "let's play" video creators. It basically amounts to "hey, take it up with the publisher".

While Microsoft might not be ready to nail down specifics on some of the most incendiary topics surrounding the Xbox One, Jeff is still covers friends lists, achievements, apps, and a handful of other topics in this 20-minute talk recorded shortly after the big unveiling.

Hot on the heels of Microsoft's Xbox One reveal event, we talk at length about the forthcoming next-gen console battle. Also Star Trek. And spiders. Go Bears!

The dust has settled, the air is cleared. The Xbox One has been revealed. Time to turn it over to you guys. What did you think of the Xbox One announcement? Two polls, coming up.

The Xbox One controller looks a lot like the Xbox 360 controller, but the new pad actually sports some subtle but relevant differences. Let's take a video tour, shall we? The video above shows you the goods and also includes an attempt at a joke by me. Very regrettable, sorry. But...details! For those of you without the time or bandwidth to watch! A clickier d-padSmaller control sticks with a tighter dead zoneControl sticks that take less effort to move (phew!)A new "View" button in place of the back button... could pop up your inventory or map in an RPG or the leaderboards in an FPSA new "Menu" button in place of the forward button... would go to a game's menu."Triple-shot" face buttons that make them look snazzier and require less force to use (phew again!)Vibration motors ("impulse triggers") in the triggers (This is awesome. Find out more from our friends at Gizmodo.)High-speed data portLess-obtrusive battery compartment running AA batteries.

Should've seen this one coming: A developer at Harmonix has recorded a special Call of Duty Dog-themed take on the tune "Dogs" from their iOS game VidRhythm. Heh. They even got that Maya 3D dog gif in there.

IN TODAY'S LESSON, LEARN WHY YOU SHOULD BE CAREFUL WITH A DIVINE RAPIER

According to Xbox support, the Xbox One allows you to have up to 1,000 friends—ten times more than the current limit on the 360. (Via Joystiq)

Battlefield 4 will be out on October 29 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. It'll also be released on PS4 and Xbox One.

Because it just wouldn't be a new console generation without pretty video game cars.

Infinity Ward is back in the driver's seat of Call of Duty with Call of Duty: Ghosts. In this behind-the-scenes video diary, key talent opine on what that means for them.

If you were coming into today's Microsoft press event primarily expecting to see new hardware, new media content, and a lot of sports things, then you probably came away pretty excited about the Xbox One.

Microsoft unveiled the new console today to a crowd of press in Seattle, WA, assigning the new console its singular name, offering up basic specs and new app and hardware features, as well as a small selection of games from both internal and 3rd party publishers. Here's a brief rundown on what we saw:

The Hardware:

Don Mattrick, presenting the Xbox One.

The Xbox One includes:

• An 8-core CPU
• 8GB of System Memory
• A Blu-ray drive
• 500GB HDD
• Built-in Wi-Fi
• HDMI In/Out portsW

While these stats were touched on, Microsoft was far more keen to show off its new interface and media support innovations. Much was made about "Snap mode," a feature that lets you jump between multiple running apps by with simple voice commands. The demonstration showed that you could jump between a video game, web browsing, and live TV, among other things, just by calling out the relevant application.

Yes, live TV was a big focus of the presentation as well. Confirming previous rumors, it was revealed that the Xbox One will allow you to hook your cable connection directly up to the box, and jump between the live TV and in-system apps with relative ease.

In addition to the core hardware, the Kinect hardware has seen a significant technological bump as well. The new Kinect features a 1080P HD RGB camera (which can be used for Skype calls), 30 FPS color, and an increased field of view. It will be bundled with all new Xbox One devices.

Sports!

Exclusive content for FIFA 14 is coming to Xbox One.

Sports got a big push in today's presentation, both in live and in video game form. On the video game front, EA Sports announced a special partnership with Microsoft to bring its upcoming slate of sports titles to the Xbox One within the next year. Games included Madden NFL 25, its upcoming UFC sequel, the (again) revived NBA Live 14, and FIFA 14, the last of which will include exclusive Ultimate Team content on Xbox One.

In the live sports arena, Microsoft has entered into an agreement with the NFL to bring live game broadcasts, as well as fantasy sports content, to the system.

Halo: The Series

One of the more unexpected moments came when the event cut to Steven Spielberg, who, via video, announced that he would be partnering with Microsoft to bring a new Halo TV series exclusively to Xbox One. His exact role on the project was not detailed, nor was any potential production date for the series.

Remedy and Forza

Remedy Entertainment, the developer behind the cult Xbox 360 favorite Alan Wake, showed off a brief, baffling trailer for its new Xbox One exclusive game, Quantum Break. The trailer mixed live action footage of a mother and her strange little girl, and presumably in-game (or at least pre-rendered) footage of a large ship crashing into a bridge, and then suddenly rewinding. More about the game is expected to be revealed at E3.

Microsoft also unveiled the expected, but certainly not unwelcome Forza Motorsport 5. After all, what would a next-gen console reveal be without exquisitely rendered video game cars?

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Call of Duty: There's a Dog Now

As expected, bulk of the show's end was dedicated to Activision's upcoming Call of Duty sequel, Ghosts, which will feature exclusive downloadable content on Xbox One. Ghosts, which is in development at Infinity Ward, features a script from Traffic and Syriana screenwriter Stephen Gaghan that follows a single soldier...and his trusty dog. Yes, much ado was made about a Navy SEAL dog buddy you'll have working alongside your character throughout the game. This dog was motion-captured, even, and will help out as a sort of companion A.I.

What Came After

Beyond the above, little else was learned at today's event, outside of a claim of 15 exclusive games scheduled for the system's first year, and a nebulous "later this year" release window. However, more information has been coming since the event ended, including additional games and a few answers to some lingering questions.

On the subject of backward compatibility, Engadget is reporting that the Xbox One will not play Xbox 360 games, nor digital games built for the 360 architecture. However, as small consolation, gamertags and scores will carry over to the new system.

As for the system's much-talked-about, but previously unconfirmed "always online" functionality, Wired's report on the console states that the system won't always be online. However, developers could make use of Microsoft's Azure cloud computing service, which could present situations where the system would have to be online.

That doesn't quite answer the lingering question of how the Xbox One might handle used games. The Wired article notes that games can be installed to the system, and may have to be. For games that have been previously installed, second players would be prompted with a note saying they could pay a fee to add their account to the game and install it. However, Microsoft wouldn't make a complete declaration about whether or not other players would ever be able to ever play a used game without having to install/pay an additional fee.

Lastly, multiple third-party games have been announced as coming to Xbox One, including Square-Enix's upcoming Thief remake, as well as Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Watch_Dogs.

We'll bring you more on the Xbox One as it becomes available.

There are 15 exclusives coming to the Xbox One, and eight of these are brand new. And some folk thought exclusives were a thing of the past!