DarkeSword   Administrators 🎮

I want to remind everyone that voting closes TOMORROW at 2PM EDT. I will not count votes made after that time. Also remember that you need to vote in all active battles for any of your votes to count.

Yeah, come on guys. Post some actual deals that don't require legwork. Also noticing people posting general sales and deal sites. That's not what this thread is for. This thread is specifically for really good deals on products that you can personally recommend. Don't just post a link to Amazon and say "PC games are on sale this week." I can go to CheapAssGamer or SlickDeals to find out about that. Post about products you really care about, where you can say "holy crap, that's available for THAT much?! guys, you all have to buy this right now! it's really awesome and super cheap!!!" That's what I'm looking for here.

Cold Man is from MM&B. Zircon did the same thing because he and Cyril were matched up against each other.

Nice. I needed another motion plus remote.

Live TV integration is something that the 360 has (in a limited regard; only a few channels), but unless I'm mistaken, the One is going to function as a fully featured set-top box (all channels, integrated guide with search, voice commands, etc.). The software features seem like they'll be more robust than what the cable or fiber company can provide on their proprietary set-top boxes. I know that I personally find Verizon's set-top box software to be clunky. Things like interface and usability for media features matter to a lot of people. When I still lived with my parents, they would use my 360 as their DVD and Netflix player, and my father often made comments about how he preferred the 360's interface to the PS3's interface. It made a difference to him, and to my mom, who's not really a technical person. That doesn't mean that the 360 is completely perfect; you can always make improvements to user interface by getting feedback from users and streamlining things. That's what Microsoft is trying to do with Xbox One, and from what I saw from their presentation, the upgraded hardware improves the user experience. That matters. You're conflating two arguments incorrectly. The all-in-one device analogy was brought up in response to people taking issue with games consoles in general doing more than just playing games, not in response to what Microsoft specifically did at their press conference. The preference of consumers towards all-in-one devices is a justification/explanation of Microsoft's overall strategy with the Xbox One, not of their press conference presentation content. Like I said before, Microsoft is planning on focusing on games during E3, which is a few weeks away, and arguably a better place to talk about games content anyway.

In this case it is meaningful. In the analogy, the Xbox One is the smartphone; the device that, in addition to its main function, also provides lots of other features as a media box. It's more convenient to have a device that does a lot of things than to have a lot of devices that all do specific things. Xbox One aims to continue in that regard; 360's media features are very convenient, and the new system is just trying to refine that and keep that going. A lot of people use their 360s for more than just gaming. For a lot of households it's the main media box (DVDs, streaming movies, etc). These features are useful for a lot of people. People are complaining about some supposed move away from gaming as a focus, but the new system isn't really doing anything that the 360 isn't doing already in regards to media; it's just improving things like interface and unifying a lot of the features to make things more cohesive. That's not a bad thing. The system is still going to play games. It's an Xbox; that's the whole point. Sure, Microsoft didn't show a lot of games at the reveal, but that's what E3 is for. The whole idea behind revealing the system before E3 is so that they can use the expo's press conference to focus on gaming software. I don't think anyone likes tuning in during E3—which is ostensibly a gaming event—and seeing a load of stuff about ESPN and live TV services. Now they don't have to, because Microsoft has already gotten it out of the way. They'll mention it of course, but they'll probably spend the bulk of their time talking about new games. Obviously there are some silly things about the new system: game activations, phoning home to verify licenses, second-hand software fees, backwards incompatibility, etc. Those are real issues. The fact that the Xbox One is just refining the media features of the 360 is not.

It's only relevant as an analogy; all-in-one devices are more popular with consumers. XBox One aims to be an all-in-one set-top box that includes media features in addition to gaming features.

How about we not imply that anyone is a rapist? Seriously people, try to be a little less crass.

Can we steer the conversation back towards XBox One discussion? The current track of conversation is better suited to the 3DS thread.

Many PC games use Steam as their DRM.

Wii U has Super Mario U on it. It also has Monster Hunter and Nintendo Land. These aren't sketching art games. They are actual games that you play on the TV in high resolution. I don't understand why you're complaining about the Wii U not being a games system. Nintendo historically focuses their hardware on gaming.

I have a Wii U and I'm pretty sure that what Xbox One is doing is completely different and looks a lot cooler. I've tried to use TVii a couple of times and I find it to be very sluggish and basically useless.

Not to turn this into yet another BC debate, but nobody "suddenly" stopped doing backwards compatibility. 360 didn't have full BC with XBOX. Most PS3s didn't have full BC with PS2. In fact Sony has only ever done full BC with PSX games. Nintendo only implemented BC with GCN > Wii, and then Wii > Wii U. Handheld fared better with Gameboy all the way through to DS Lite, and then DS > 3DS. BC is not a thing that we've consistently had, and it's not something that suddenly stopped. Sometimes it just isn't cost effective to develop hardware that supports backwards compatibility; it can drive up the hardware costs and/or put limitations on innovation and architecture. I'm fairly certain that if they could do it in an easy, cost-effective way, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft would all love to put BC into their systems, because having that preexisting library is obviously very valuable, but leaving out BC is sacrifice that the console makers are willing to make in order to push their system specs higher. I'm not saying this is a good or bad thing, but it's a consideration that the console makers take into account.

I thought it was pretty impressive. I like the name too. It makes sense. Interface stuff looked nice. Nice to have "recent" stuff right up there on startup. Price is obviously a consideration, but I'll probably get one.

Music is up. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Remember, no reviews in voting threads. Review belong in this thread.

Matchups are UPDATED. Mixes due SUNDAY. I'll post the mixes later tonight or tomorrow for voting.

I'll announce matchups tonight. This week's mixing session will go Sunday-to-Sunday. First week was just an anomaly.

Your naming convention is fine. I'll make a new social group for the B4C2.

Yeah I saw that yesterday when I picked up my books. Glad we decided to include Wily Wars in the B4C2. also: Toxic Cave Zone

Yes, Libra Balance stage.

Not really no. But something upbeat is what I'm looking for.

Folks, still looking for a Star Force remix. Would like to see one for this track:

It's rendering 480 video while the console runs in an HD resolution. It's inherently applying anti-aliasing to the image. It's upscaling the signal. That's what upscaling is.

Yeah I read the article. Like I said, you posted an article that says that Wii U upscales Wii games. Yet somehow you're trying to prove that it doesn't?