by Joe Gillis, Jun 15 2014 // 10:41 AM

Some of you may remember a little company called Bungie that, back in the day, made cool games for the Mac like Marathon and Myth. As time went on they sold themselves to Microsoft and their Mac games kinda went away in favor of new games for the XBox and other consoles.
You may have heard of one of the games they created for the XBox during that time. It’s called Halo.
Anyway, in 2007 Bungie split from Microsoft and went on its own again. Since then they’ve made some new games and are now set to launch a brand new title we think looks pretty cool: Destiny.
There’s a new trailer for the game. Check it out after the break. Welcome back Bungie.
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Posted in: E3 2014 · Games · News · Video Games
Tagged: Bungie, Destiny, E3, E3 2014, Games, Microsoft, Sci-Fi, Software, Trailers, XBox
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by John Carle, Nov 25 2013 // 8:09 AM

When the original Kinect launched in 2010, it is safe to say the peripheral had a share of flaws. It wasn’t as detailed as one would expect and couldn’t detect hands and fingers the way it was originally designed to. It also had a hard time reading individuals under a certain height. Considering Microsoft was trying to drive kids to play games like Kinectimals with the controllerless gaming, that was up there in the list of top functionality f&#* ups from them.
One that also seemed to be an issue was the rumor that the Kinect also had trouble reading people with darker skin tone. This lead to the premise that the Kinect was actually racist.
The team at Whiskey and Waffles joined up with Sandwich Productions (because the combination just sounded too damn tasty to ignore) and created the mocumentary simply entitled Racist XBox. We were thrilled with the end result and just how awesome WallE looked as a forensic scientist. We won’t spoil anything here but I will say there is a little bit of mature language so I wouldn’t go showing this to your 10 year old.
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Posted in: Comedy · Documentary · Games · News · Video Games · Whiskey & Waffles · Whiskey and Waffles · Xbox 360 · YouTube
Tagged: Comedy, Documentary, Kinect, Microsoft, Mocumentary, Racism, Racist, Whiskey & Waffles, Whiskey and Waffles, XBox, Xbox 360, XBox Kinect
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by John Carle, Nov 19 2013 // 10:00 AM

The lines were drawn some time ago in this latest generation of the console war. With shots being fired all around since the consoles were officially announced to feature sets and launch titles, things have gotten messy.
And even though we are lucky enough to get review copies of games here on a regular basis, we didn’t get our hands on a freebie for either the XBox One or PlayStation 4. When budget came in to effect, I had to choose which side I’d be backing and since there could be only One… (You see what I did there?)
In the end, it came down to two things. The first is that I have bought both a PlayStation 3 and a Vita but the majority of my collection of games in the last generation were for the XBox 360. More people I knew played multiplayer on XBox 360 so for things like Call of Duty: Ghost and Grand Theft Auto V, that’s where people already were.
And as silly as they might be, I have become an achievement whore over the past 8 years and try as they might, Sony’s trophies don’t have the same effect on me. I cracked over 50,000 in one generation, I need to top it in the next.
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Posted in: Editorial · Editorial and Opinion · Games · News · Playstation 3 · PlayStation 4 · Video Games · Xbox 360 · XBox One
Tagged: Editorial, Games, Gaming, Microsoft, PlayStation 4, Sony, Video Games, XBox, XBox Live, XBox One
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by John Carle, Jun 21 2013 // 8:00 AM

Let me start off by saying this is by no means an attack on Sony or the PlayStation 4, so put your flames away. This is just my own opinion on the situation and not meant in any way to talk negatively about the PlayStation 4 and any of its features.
It was announced on Wednesday that Microsoft had changed the DRM features they announced for the XBox One would be removed. Microsoft stated that XBox One owners would now have the ability to play without being logged online every 24 hours or having to worry about the disc being console locked. Immediately, there was a massive outcry saying that it was a huge win for the PlayStation 4.
But that’s not entirely accurate. When you think about it, the huge lead given for the PlayStation 4 announcement happened where it was shown that one console would have these DRM rules while one wouldn’t. As we’ve seen in every race, it’s not over until it’s over.
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Posted in: Games · Microsoft · News · PlayStation 4 · Sony · Video Games · Xbox 360 · XBox One
Tagged: DRM, Editorial, Games, Gaming, Microsoft, PlayStation 4, Sony, Video Games, XBox, XBox Live, XBox One
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by John Carle, Jun 11 2013 // 9:01 AM

Looking back at the events of the previous day, I believe two things happened. First, Microsoft went in with the plan of throwing caution to the wind and hoping for the best. Second, Sony had two conferences ready to roll out. And here is why.
After letting details out before E3 about what the XBox One would do to handle used games and DRM, Microsoft went out hoping their exclusives for the system like Dead Rising 3, Halo 5 and Killer Instinct would be enough to turn the tide on their perception and then announced the $499 price point. And then Sony went…
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Posted in: Call of Duty · E3 2013 · Editorial · Editorial and Opinion · Microsoft · News · Playstation 3 · PlayStation 4 · Sony · Video Games · Xbox 360 · XBox One
Tagged: E3, E3 2013, Playstation 3, PlayStation 4, Sony, Video Games, XBox, Xbox 360, XBox One
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by John Carle, May 28 2013 // 8:00 AM

Last week I posted my thoughts about the XBox One announcement and something just didn’t sit right with me about the focus on the Kinect integration. I’ve thought about it and watched the press conference over and over and the things I saw should have gotten me excited. The ability to control my TV and game system with just hand gestures and talking to it is like Iron Man style Jarvis technology. Why shouldn’t seeing that in action get me excited. This weekend, I finally figured out why.
It’s Nintendo’s fault. Specifically it is the fault of the Wiimote and Wiimotion Plus. Let me explain.
When we first saw the Wii, everyone got the impression that the technology inside the system and controller would be able to accurately track the motions of my Wiimote but quickly found out it wasn’t one to one readings, but gestures that were recognized.
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Posted in: Editorial · Editorial and Opinion · Games · Nintendo · Sony · Tech · Video Games · Wii · Wii U · Xbox 360 · XBox One
Tagged: Editorial, Kinect, Video Games, Wii, Wiimote, WiiMotion Plus, XBox, Xbox 360, XBox One
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by John Carle, May 23 2013 // 8:00 AM

As we learned already, the XBox One isn’t going to be backwards compatible with XBox 360 games. Personally, I don’t see this as an issue. When I got my XBox 360, I didn’t worry about playing my original XBox games on it. And any of us who were born before the PS2 rose to prominence remember the days when we got our SNES and the only ones who questioned if the NES games would still play on it were our parents. We didn’t care back then.
In an interview with The Verge, Microsoft Xbox Live vice president Marc Whitten said, “The system is based on a different core architecture, so back-compat doesn’t really work from that perspective.” As a result, the content of the XBox Live Arcade on the XBox 360 won’t be able to carry over to the XBox One. Since the XBox One’s hardware configuration won’t support XBox 360 discs, it makes sense that the downloadable content would not be supported as well.
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Posted in: Announcements · Games · Microsoft · News · Video Games · XBLA · Xbox 360 · XBox One
Tagged: Gamerscore, Games, Gaming, Microsoft, Video Games, XBox, XBox Live, XBox Live Arcade, XBox One
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by John Carle, May 22 2013 // 9:15 AM

Since we already told you the important facts about the XBox One yesterday, I thought I would take time to let it sink in and then give my reaction to what was announced. Any of you follow me on Twitter saw my initial reactions yesterday, but I wanted to be fair and take a step back before voicing my actual thoughts instead of just hoping for retweets. This isn’t about being a fanboy or ranting, but just my honest reactions to the announcements.
First off, the name has to be addressed. I like the fact that Microsoft didn’t go with calling the console just “XBox” again and at least the “One” differentiates it. I call my current console the “360” in conversation and I don’t doubt that I’ll end up calling the XBox One just the “XBox,” but it was at least better than Apple’s iPad, iPad 2 and then “new iPad.” And let’s be honest, the name isn’t what sells a system as the Wii proved since every gamer ripped that name to shreds.
Also, thank you to Microsoft for showing the system. They needed to do something to separate themselves from Sony and the PlayStation 4 and rather than continue the pissing contest that is going to reach E3, they just showed what it looked like. Much like the name, the overall look of the system isn’t going to make or break the sale of a console (again take a look at the Wii). I was happy to see most of the design on the controller remained and was happy to see the D-Pad had been changed as it is especially reviled by fighting gamers.
Hooray for Blu-Ray. Although that means my HD-DVD is now officially in the same category as Betamax and Laserdisc.
I appreciate Skype being on the XBox One and integrated with the “Snap” feature, but I feel like I’ll never use it. The last thing I want when watching TV or a movie is to have someone talking to me. Maybe if I was a sports guy and wanted to talk trash during a game with my friend across the country during a basketball game, I’d be down. But if I am watching The Walking Dead, don’t you dare try calling me during the show.
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Posted in: Games · Microsoft · News · Video Games · XBLA · Xbox 360 · XBox One
Tagged: Call of Duty: Ghosts, Editorial, Games, Gaming, Halo, Microsoft, Skpye, Steven Spielberg, Video Games, XBox, XBox Live, XBox One
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by Joe Gillis, May 21 2013 // 11:15 AM

During an event today at its Redmond, WA campus, Microsoft announced the brand new Xbox console everyone had been waiting for. Dubbed “XBox One” the new console features a host of internal and external improvement, enhancements and new features/content including 8GB of RAM, a 500 GB internal HD, USB 3.0, 802.11n Wi-Fi, a Blu-ray drive and three operating systems: The standard Xbox OS, the kernel of Windows 8 for web applications and a third platform that connects the two together.
Microsoft has also completely redesigned its Kinect sensor to better respond to users’ voices and gestures and has overhauled its Xbox Live experience, which is now supported by 300,000 servers, or 20 times the number of servers that currently power Xbox Live. That’s a lot of servers.
Microsoft also said during the event that it will launch 15 exclusive games on the Xbox One, 8 of which are new titles. The major one reveled was, of course, a brand new Call of Duty game called: Call of Duty: Ghosts.
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Posted in: Games · News · Video Games
Tagged: Call of Duty: Ghosts, Games, Gaming, Halo, Microsoft, Skpye, Steven Spielberg, Video Games, XBox, XBox Live, XBox One
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by John Carle, Mar 27 2013 // 9:00 AM

Despite Sony rumors running rampant throughout most of February before the PlayStation 4 announcement, the XBox 360 was still the top selling console of the month. Making it now twenty-six months in a row, the XBox 360 topped both the PlayStation 3 and Wii which came out after it in its generation as well as the latest generation’s entrant, the Wii U. With this momentum, does Microsoft really need to announce the next XBox, and if so, when?
Right now, Microsoft has the benefit of learning from Sony’s lessons that were painfully learned from the PlayStation 3 launch which Sony never fully recovered from. When the PS3 launched a full year later at a higher price point than the XBox 360, even the system’s power and free online network weren’t enough to make up the deficit.
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Posted in: Games · Microsoft · News · Rumor · Video Games · Xbox 360
Tagged: Durango, Games, Microsoft, News, Rumors, Speculation, Video Games, XBox, Xbox 360, XBox 720
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