Dead Space 3 doesn't want you to just scream in terror at the screen. With Kinect, Dead Space 3 allows players to say "more than 40 intuitive voice commands," rather than pressing all those pesky buttons. The image below outlines all of the voice commands players will be able to use, separated by interface, gameplay actions, skip and tram locations, and co-op actions.
For example, to pull up the inventory the voice command is, "access inventory." To reload, it's "reload weapon," a paired attack escape is "get off me," and to call a partner over for aid it's "help me." Unfortunately there is no action triggered by the "scream like a banshee" voice command.
Dance Central 3 is set to receive a hefty infusion of new tracks this month. One Direction and its ubiquitous "What Makes You Beautiful" will drop on February 5. On February 12 the Beebs returns with two new jams in "Justin Bieber Dance Pack 01," which features "Beauty And A Beat" and "All Around the World." The pack will run $5, or each track will be available individually for $3.
On February 19 you can grab the number one song on your jogging megamix, Ellie Goulding's "Lights." The month is rounded out on February 26 with "Airplanes" by B.O.B., though we're not really sure what music from a 16-bit action game is doing in Dance Central.
Six rides are being added to Forza Horizon on Tuesday: the 2013 Subaru BRZ, '91 Ferrari 512 TR, 2012 Toyota FJ Cruiser, '70 Nissan Datsun 510, and '73 Mazda RX-3. The pass is included with the game's Season Pass or separately for 400MS Points ($5). As a special bonus, the '66 Ford Country Squire will be free for all speed demons.
The Dead Space 3 story may get extended through DLC released in a few weeks' time. That's what a hint by game producer Steve Papoutsis seems to suggest, anyway. Papoutsis closed off a blog post today with a vague drop of a "top secret additional story."
"As you can see, we have a lot planned for you in DS3," Papoutsis wrote. "And the team is hard at work on a top secret additional story that will be coming in a few weeks. We're not saying much, yet - but think 'disturbing' to get your imaginations going."
Papoutsis also revealed there are four modes unlocked by beating the game once, namely New Game+, Classic Mode, Pure Survival Mode, and the return of Hardcore Mode, albeit with a new twist. New Game+ is as it sounds, the mode carrying over your upgrades and weaponry from the completed save. Classic Mode is single-player only, removes crafting, and employs 'classic' aiming to resemble the original Dead Space. Whereas Pure Survival is all about resource management; enemies are the only things that drop any goodies, and there are no ammo, health or weapon packs.
Hardcore mode drops the three-saves-and-out of Dead Space 2, and replaces it with something that sounds far more evil. This time, you only have one life... yup, you read that right. And don't think it's something you can just avoid by going back to a previous save; as PlayStation Lifestyle details, once you die the game simply returns you to the start, end of. Evil. If we ever complete it, there better be a reward of free unlimited rainbows.
Dead Space 3 will chill the spines of many a space engineer when it launches into the retail atmosphere on February 5. Not that a wee bit of cold scares Isaac Clarke, as demonstrated by him taking off his helmet at sub-zero temperatures just so he can give the camera some fierceness.
Best Buy and Amazon are in a war for your attention (see: money), both offering a year-long Xbox Live Gold membership for $35, compared to the standard price of $60. Amazon is the copycat here, price-matching Best Buy's deal. This sale applies to physical Gold cards, since Best Buy's downloadable versions are all sold out and Amazon's digital codes are slightly more expensive, at $40.
Amazon's three-month Gold memberships are $21, while Best Buy has those at full price, or $25. However, Best Buy offers physical Halo 4 and Black Ops 2 12-month Gold membership cards for the $35 sale price, so it all evens out in the end.
EA Sports recently announced Rory McIlroy and Seve Ballesteros as co-cover athletes for the European version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14. Yes, Tiger Woods is on the cover of his game as well, but he's flanked by the legendary Ballesteros and current top pro golfer McIlroy this year, marking the first time the series has featured three athletes on its cover. Fingers crossed for a fourth face next year.
Woods will be joined by Arnold Palmer on the North American cover, while Bubba Watson and Bobby Jones will be featured on the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14: The Masters Historic Edition cover. Check out our gallery below, which includes the full European box art. Tiger Woods 14 will arrive in North America on March 26, and will go international on March 28.
Microsoft's financial statement for the three month period ending December 31, 2012 (aka Q2 fiscal 2013) has been released, and amid the breakdowns of the Windows Division's revenue increase and the Server & Tool division's year-over-year whatever is some information our readers actually care about.
Specifically, the Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes everything Xbox, experienced an 11 percent year-over-year decrease in revenue as compared with 2011; $3.77 billion versus $4.23 billion, respectively. Still, the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console in the United States, as it has been for the last 22 months.
As a whole, Microsoft's Q2 revenue (read: gross income) rang up at $21.45 billion, up three percent when compared to 2011, but its operating (read: net) income went down by three percent to $7.77 billion, which is only enough to buy about 26.7 billion mechanical pencils.
As E3 and the expected announcements of new consoles from Sony and Microsoft draw ever closer, website VGleaks has posted what it claims are specs for the next Xbox. Codenamed Durango, Microsoft's new console will contain an AMD-provided CPU with 8 cores running at 1.6GHz apiece alongside 8GB of DDR3 RAM. The machine will also use a GPU running at 800MHz, and feature a built-in hard drive. The structure reportedly draws from AMD's cost- and power-efficient "Jaguar" designs aimed at the laptop and tablet market.
Durango will also include a "high-fidelity" natural user interface (NUI) sensor. This would suggest that the console has some kind of built-in Kinect functionality, though the inclusion of a dedicated Kinect port seems to indicate that Kinect peripherals will still be available. Also of interest is the capacity for HDMI input, which Digital Foundry speculates could be used for recording or importing video from external sources like cable boxes and personal cameras.
DF offers up some more context for the leak as well, noting that there could be a significant performance gap between the new Xbox and Sony's next PlayStation, specifically with regards to its graphics processor. That's based on the blueprints and specs, mind you - we won't be convinced until we see competing real-time demos of that ballroom dancing scene from Final Fantasy VIII.
Swapping regions on Xbox Live should be smoother now that Microsoft has flipped the switch on its new migration account page. Spotted as a pilot program earlier this month, the account migration page is a streamlined process for Xbox Live users to swap accounts from one Xbox Live-serviced part of the world to another.
Migration through the system will allow users to retain their gamerscore, those hard-earned Achievements, Microsoft Points, remaining time on their Gold membership and their profile. What won't move is access to region specific apps, subscriptions and some content that is blocked in the other location due to "legal obligations or regional restrictions."
Microsoft notes: "Before you change your region, make sure you've downloaded any purchased content you want to keep, like movies or music. Content purchases aren't refundable." Switching between regions can only be done once every three months.
#dancecentral
I've never "finished" a Dance Central game because, every time I start playing, the booze eventually runs out, and/or people eventually go home. I could play it sober, by myself, but, um, no. More »
Usually when a television screen bleeds, it's not cause for celebration, nor does it signify the cutting edge of new technology. Microsoft's Illumiroom challenges that thought, using Kinect and a projector to transpose relevant video and images around the TV, on walls and furniture, while playing games.
Illumiroom can add flickering lights, particles and ambiance to certain games, or expand the environment in others, though it's still a prototype for now. Microsoft showed off Illumiroom in a video at the Samsung CES keynote, and it looked something like the above film.
"IllumiRoom is a proof-of-concept Microsoft Research project designed to push the boundary of living room immersive entertainment by blending our virtual and physical worlds with projected visualizations," the Illumiroom YouTube description reads. "The effects in the video are rendered in real time and are captured live - not special effects added in post processing."
So I guess the next Xbox will be bundled with Kinect, a projector, and a Surface tablet.
How many more episodes of Kinect Sesame Street and Kinect Nat Geo are up on Xbox Live today? Eight! Ah, ah, ah. Season passes for each game/show/thing are available for 2400 Microsoft Points, with individual episodes selling for five bucks each.
Kinect Sesame Street TV's second season adds SmartGlass tech to build playlists. Kinect Nat Geo season 2 adds ... probably some cool footage of a tiger, or something like that.
Late last year we discovered that Dead Space 3's Kinect voice commands were best utilized during couch co-op, but here's a trailer where EA is showing off some other commands. The Kinect functionality will allow players to "find objective," use stasis or "reload."
That all sounds clever, but was tapping down the right analog stick for objectives, or hitting the X button to reload, like the buttons were mapped in Dead Space 2, really less efficient? We know, we know, so many buttons to remember!
Maybe it's for when playing the game co-op with mom? You know, if she's into it.
Microsoft has beat both Apple and Google in acquiring a startup named R2 Studios, which primarily works in home automation and entertainment. R2 holds a number of patents that have to do with using various mobile devices to control home entertainment software and hardware, and Microsoft is reportedly sending the company to work with its Xbox division. R2 was founded by Blake Krikorian, who also founded the company behind the Slingbox, a set-top device that allows users to stream video across the cloud.
This all sounds like fuel for Microsoft's SmartGlass application, which uses various mobile devices to control and interact with the Xbox. Since we're expecting to see a brand new Xbox console this year, R2 could be sent to work on any number of new products or services.
We grew up in a household where swearing wasn't exactly commonplace, which made playing the particularly terrifying games of our collective youths somewhat of a challenge: Sometimes you just need to bust out some language, especially when the going gets tough and your courage gets going.
Kids these days though, with their newfangled Kinect devices, will get more from cursing out their horror games than just a talking to from Dad, at least as far as Dead Space 3 is concerned: "There are commands where you might be in a certain situation and you might yell a specific expletive and it might behave in a way that you want it to," Dead Space 3 executive producer Steve Papoutsis told CVG, regarding the game's "Better With Kinect" functionality on the 360. "We definitely have done some things there."
As we discovered earlier this month, Kinect voice commands are primarily used to trade items between players and accomplish other communal goals during co-op play. Of course, all that intended functionality will take place after the solid 30 minute swearing session scheduled to commence as soon as the game is first turned on.
Tapping in to that long-held Yuletide tradition of throwing fruit around and trying to slice it mid-air, Fruit Ninja Kinect and its add-ons are splattered all over Xbox Live's Countdown to 2013 Xmas Day sale. Halfbrick's produce-pruner has its price chopped in half today to 400 MSP, while its four DLC packs - namely 8-bit Cartridge, Art Box, Space Capsule, and Storm Season - are down by 50 percent to 80 MSP each.
Four other games also got price cuts in their stockings today. Carrying on the Kinect-ified ninja theme, Mini Ninjas Adventures is 50 percent off at 400 MSP. Also discounted on this merriest of days are Rock of Ages (75 percent off at 200 MSP), Hydro Thunder (67 percent off at 400 MSP), and another Kinect game in Leedmees (75 percent off at 200 MSP).
Dance Central 3 has been on a contemporary kick and step, and kick, and turn lately. Lady Gaga and LMFAO tracks arrive over the holidays to keep the party rocking.
On Christmas Day, December 25, Lady Gaga tracks "Paparazzi" and "Alejandro" are available as downloadable content. They can be purchased individually for 240 Microsoft Points ($3) or as part of a Lady Gaga pack for 400 MSP ($5).
To ring in the the new year, LMFAO apologize for their ways with "Sorry for Party Rocking." The single is 240 MSP or can be purchased in the LMFAO Pack 01, which also includes "Party Rock Anthem."
SmartGlass functionality, get off the bench and get into the game! Both the NBA Game Time and ESPN apps on Xbox Live have added SmartGlass functionality to their playbooks for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Sports metaphors.
With SmartGlass, you can make selections and navigate options within each respective app with your smartphone or tablet. SmartGlass is available on iOS, Android and Windows 8 devices.
There's also a new Sports Picks app that Microsoft has dropped onto Xbox Live, where you can make matchup selections across a variety of sports and compare them with friends on the leaderboards. Personally, we don't like to compete with our friends because, well, our friends usually win. Always win.
NBA Baller Beats has been updated with some of the features mysteriously absent from the original version, publisher Majesco has told us. Leaderboards have been implemented in the Kinect rhythm game, allowing you to determine who is the best dribbler on your friends list, and accordingly whose living room is safest.
Photo capture and Facebook sharing have also been enabled, a missing feature that made our reviewer Richard Mitchell suspect the game was unfinished. There's also a new opening cinematic.
Still absent is the music store, to which the game's ESRB rating makes reference. In any case, we're impressed Majesco is putting additional work in on a game that has yet to find an audience.
Double Fine's Kinect Party is ready for revelers of all ages and is available now through the Xbox Marketplace. The minigame collection is free until the end of the year. The 2013 price has yet to be announced, so grab it while it's still gratis.
As Vin Diesel and Bow Wow taught us in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, drifting is the coolest possible way to travel from Point A to Point B, regardless of situation, circumstance or the amount of neon lights underneath your car.
We bring this up because Forza Horizon's latest bundle of DLC is a rally racing expansion pack, available next Tuesday, December 18, for 1,600 MS Points. The "Rally" expansion includes five new rally-purposed cars, new stages, new online multiplayer events and even co-driver announcements, so you can keep your damn eyes on the road you lunatic.
Anyone who purchased Horizon's $50 Season Pass will get the Rally expansion for free, along with an exclusive 2003 Ford Focus SVT. Under any other circumstances, a 10-year-old Ford Focus isn't really what we'd call a "motivating incentive."
During an EA showcase last week, Dead Space 3 executive producer Steve Papoutsis took to the stage to introduce Kinect voice commands for the Xbox 360 version. For example, Isaac and Carver can share items with each other when the player says things like "give Stasis" or "share ammo."
EA also had a small room to test out the Kinect functionality, a place I accidentally discovered the best use of the feature: couch co-op. A PR representative was there to supervise and offer help, but she ended up healing me and forcing Isaac to share resources while I concentrated on fighting Necromorphs. It was an interesting and, to be honest, incredibly useful union.
Sadly the demo itself was no more than 10 minutes, if that - so there wasn't really anything exciting going on content-wise. But for those who may be more content to watch a pal play Dead Space 3 on Xbox 360 rather than pick up the sticks themselves, they can still have a positive impact if there's a Kinect in the room.
#exergaming
Wednesday morning last week I woke up feeling like I had been dragged behind that truck from Raiders of the Lost Ark. It felt like I had actually, like, worked out, which is stupid. I let my month-to-month gym membership expire once review season began. More »
If you own a Kinect, there's no cost barrier between you and a raucous Kinect Party. Double Fine's latest motion controlled minigame collection will be free upon its December 18 launch, and will stay that way throughout 2012. The regular price is currently unannounced, but it'll be more than nothing.
You can see the kind of augmented realities you and your friends will be entering in this new trailer. You do have to bring your own friends, however: Double Fine isn't supplying those for free.
We wish we had watched this Kinect Party trailer sooner. We spent far too long fitting a paper hat onto our Kinect, and finding a magician who would work on short notice for an audience of one game accessory. Turns out it's a party game that uses the Kinect, not a party for the Kinect.
People with expensive home theater set-ups and/or insane people who listen to music through television speakers now have yet another option when using their Xbox as a weird internet radio device. Specifically, subscription-based streaming music service Rhapsody has launched a new app, which is available now for anyone with Xbox Live Gold and a (paid) Rhapsody account.
The app includes access to Rhapsody's full music library, allowing users to access playlists they've constructed on other devices. It also supports gesture and voice commands via Kinect, which sounds good on paper, but we're going to withhold final judgement until we've tested whether our Girls' Generation choreography practice is falsely interpreted as interface navigation.
Today's Gold Box deals on Amazon are primarily dance and fitness-themed. The deal of the day is Just Dance 4 for $22.99 on Wii, Xbox 360, or PS3. Time-limited deals throughout the day include, well, a lot of Zumbas.
There are also some assorted non-Zumba offers, like Epic Mickey 2 at 1pm PST/4pm EST, a Black Ops 2 headset at 8pm PST/11pm EST and some kind of arcade stick at 10pm PST/1am EST. You can try to play Zumba with that, but it won't be a great aerobic workout.
Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business studio in Soho is seeking a television producer to "develop and deliver a number of new TV projects" using Xbox Live and Kinect, a LinkedIn want ad reads.
"Soho Productions is pushing the boundaries of Kinect and Xbox Live to bring a new line of interactive television experiences to the world," the ad continues. "Working with leading global entertainment partners, we are creating experiences that are not bound by the traditional definitions of television or gaming. Experiences where watching and participating are inseparable that will delight and enrich the lives of people everywhere."
As the console landscape alters to highlight mainstream entertainment services, such as music and streaming television and movies, Microsoft appears to be making a major grab for the potential of a broader audience. Microsoft is rumored to be working on a set-top box called Xbox TV, and the Spartan Ops Halo 4 series is an ambitious, serialized endeavor - a television producer would fit nicely within the system the company may be cultivating.
We can't wait for the first episode of The Master Chief Comedy Hour (Now better with Kinect!).
