Xbox One

[jman]

Awesome.. the Digital TV Tuner for the X1 has been released today Link

Think I'll be picking one up next week when I get paid.. love the fact I can stream live tv to another device without having to buy something else like chromecast to do that.   

[Late]

Happy Birthday Xbox One.

To celebrate Microsoft are giving everyone some free stuff. Like a new avatar item and a new background pic. Are you fucking serious? Totes amazeballs Microsoft.

We also can play Sunset Overdrive free between 5am today and 5am tomorrow (GMT). So that's not bad. Currently downloading.

[Late]

"Thanks for being an Xbox One early adopter. To celebrate Year One, we’re giving you LIMBO when it's released. Stay tuned, your free code will arrive here."

Nice. Played it on the 360 and there not much replay value, but it's been years and I'll happily play it again - especially for free.

[ancelotti]

Got fuck all aside from the crappy gamer pic and background. A bit of an insult tbh.

[Late]

Apparently Limbo was free for anyone who played on their Xbox One on the weekend it was launched.

videogames

[Late]

Forza 5 for 1p (digital copy).

Tis a glitch and likely to be removed soon so get on it fast if you have an Xbox One and don't yet have the game. Or even if you don't have a One but might buy one in the next year our two and would like to have the code ready to use...

dealspwn

[Late]

"Coming soon for Xbox Preview Program Members: Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta early access! This weekend, help us get ready for the public beta, and be among the first Spartans on the battlefield. Check out the Preview Dashboard for details!"

Wonder if I need to install Preview.
Never actually got round to installing the app after Microsoft replaced my One.

[Late]

Installed the Preview app last night, and got my codes today to download the Halo 5 beta.
There are two downloads. Not sure how big they are, but the first one has been downloading for an hour and is still only at 36%...

EDIT:
Took about four and a half hours in the end, for a 10gb download. Must be massive server loads - shouldn't take anything like that to download only ten gig. The second download was a tiny file that took only seconds.

The beta is two maps and one game mode - "Slayer".
I can't remember what the older Halo games were like (I played 1-3 back in the day, and got about halfway through Halo 1 in the MCC recently before getting distracted) but Halo 5 seems to play pretty good. Did recent ones have sprint & climb mechanics? They work well on this, and I'm sure they weren't in Halo CE but later ones might've had them.
The maps seem decent, if a little sterile, from first impressions. I've only played one game on each map but I feel I know my way around both already - which is a little worrying. I'm used to multiplayer maps being bigger and taking a fair while to know your way around.

And of course I did crap - but that's to be expected. I'm okay on COD (just "okay" - I definitely wouldn't qualify as "good" or even "quite good") but was never really any good at Halo.
K/D was 6/12 first game and 10/13 second game.

[Late]

Halo MCC will be getting Halo ODST added for free, and 1 month of Xbox live gold - for all users who played the game between the release date and yesterday.
They will also be adding another remastered map to Halo 2 for free.

Xbox.com

[jman]

Nice, although ODST is probably the weakest halo... Reach would of been good, wonder what they will do with that.  Been playing a lot of MCC recently, looks like they have finally fixed matchmaking too, so been playing a lot of that too.

Have to say my favourite halo game is actually Halo 3, after playing the halo 2 / halo 3 campaigns and comparing the multiplayer, I think halo 3 just edges it, although I have very fond memories of halo 2.


So I played one game of halo 5 mp... Was the reimagined midship level, which is actually one of my least liked maps from halo 2.  17 kills, 9 deaths, 1.9k/d ratio.  Unsure what I make of it, but it doesn't really matter, halo 5 is a launch day purchase whatever.

Think sprint was introduced "properly" in ODST/Reach.  Climbing in halo 3.  Personally I think it makes no difference

[Late]

Nice to see some details finally leaking about Microsoft's VR program.
Expected to be announced at E3, possibly earlier, it's already in the hands of some software houses, and should go into mass production in 2015 - perhaps for a Christmas 2015 release.

techradar
vrfocus

[jman]

Games With Gold for January :

D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die - Xbox One
MX vs. ATV Alive - Xbox 360
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Xbox 360

http://news.xbox.com/2014/12/games-start-the-new-year-off-with-some-sweet-games-with-gold

Would of never bought D4 - it looks a bit fucked up.. but quite happy to give it a go.

[Late]

Witcher 2 had been sat on my shelf still in its cellophane for about 2 years.    Looks good, but I'm unlikely to go back to playing on the 360.

D4 looks weird, but that's fine by me - happy to give it a go. Could be great. Fingers crossed Kinect controls work well.

[Late]

Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Live Ultimate Sale begins this week (Wednesday, I think).

I don't think we're supposed to have details of the deals, yet, but someone's leaked them:

Halo: Master Chief Collection Bundle – 25% off (60% off with Gold)
Killer Instinct Complete Edition – 33% off (40% with Gold)
Shadow of Mordor Season Pass – 33% off (40% with Gold)
Walking Dead: Season 1 and 2 Bundle – 50% off (60% with Gold)
Alien Isolation – 50% off (60% with Gold)
Alien Isolation Season Pass – 50% off (60% with Gold)
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – 33% off (33% with Gold)
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Digital Pro – 20 % off (25% with Gold)
The Crew – 25% off (33% with Gold)
The Crew Gold Edition – 25% off (33% with Gold)
Destiny – 33% off (33% with Gold)
Destiny Digital Guardian Edition – 20% off (25% with Gold)
Fantasia: Music Evolved – 40% off (50% with Gold)
Forza Motorsport 5 – 33% off (40% with Gold)
Lara Croft Temple of Osiris and Season Pass – 50% off (60% with Gold)
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor – 33% off (4o% with Gold)
Monopoly Family Fun Pack – 25% off (33% with Gold)
Telltale Games Collection – 40% off (50% with Gold)
Trials Fusion Deluxe Edition – 50% off (60% with Gold)
Trials Fusion Season Pass – 60% off (67% with Gold)
Watch Dogs – 50% off (60% with Gold)
Angry Birds Star Wars – 75% off (80% with Gold)
Costume Quest 2 – 60% off (67% with Gold)
Kinect Sports Rivals – 75% off (80% with Gold)
Lara Croft: Temple of Osiris – 50% off (60% with Gold)
Lords of the Fallen – 75% off (85% with Gold)
NBA Live 15 – 75% off (85% with Gold)
Sniper Elite III – 75% off (80% with Gold)
Styx: Master of Shadows – 67% off (75% with Gold)


I might have to pick up some cheap credit, and get Kinect Sports Rivals - maybe one or two others.

majornelson
hukd
dealspwn

[jman]

Typical Microsoft.. do all the best deals before payday 

I wouldn't bother with Kinect Sports Rivals.. 80% off is good.. but the game is nowhere near as good as the previous instalments.. the games just aren't that much fun.   I never really got very far in it.

I'd probably pick up Shadow of Mordor if it comes in under £30.. but I've bought two digital games this month already, got plenty to play still.. and probably need to get a hard-drive before I buy anything else... not much space left.