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'Spider-Man' is my web-slinging dreams come true
Sony first revealed Marvel's Spider-Man for PlayStation 4 at E3 two years ago, but how it actually plays remained a mystery until now. At this year's show I finally got to go hands on with the PlayStation 4 exclusive. My demo was a little different than what Sony showed off at its media briefing. Rather than a frantic mission during a stormy night above and around New York City's East River, I had an hour to explore a sunny daytime chunk of Manhattan's Lower East Side, mostly as I pleased.
Xbox's lack of compelling games won't be fixed next year
Microsoft's 2017 started six months early. At E3 2016, Xbox chief Phil Spencer closed out the company's keynote by teasing the "most powerful console ever." At this year's show, he finally revealed the Xbox One X, and in November, the hardware was at retail. In the time it takes to earn a bachelor's degree, Microsoft addressed one of the internet's loudest complaints about the Xbox One: that it wasn't powerful enough compared to the PlayStation 4.
These are our favorite video game soundtracks
Music can tame the most savage beast, but when you're slinking around a cargo ship as a super spy, playing cowboy or making your way toward a massive mountain in the distance, sometimes you don't want calm. You want dirty, wistful or haunting tracks to fit the action onscreen. The best video game scores stick with you long after you turn the TV off, though, and that's what we want to highlight here. We're pretty big fans of how they've progressed throughout the years from simple beeps and boops to full-blown symphonic masterpieces that've traveled through concert halls around the world. Just below you'll find the scores the Engadget Gaming crew's most fond of and one that we don't particularly care for but felt like calling attention to anyhow. Have a favorite of your own that didn't make the list? Hit the comments below.
Playdate: We're livestreaming 'Sunset Overdrive' on Xbox One! (update: game over!)
We've been singing Sunset Overdrive's praises for awhile now and it's finally time that the rest of the world gets a chance to play it. The Xbox One exclusive isn't just a killer game, but it's one of the stand-out releases in this year's crowded holiday launch season. What makes it so awesome? Well, for starters it places pure fun over everything else, and coming from the folks responsible for the excellent Ratchet and Clank series for PlayStation hardware it really shouldn't be a surprise. Sunset City is where you're free to dress up exactly how you want (my character is rocking an orange-and-blue pompadour and a pair of underwear with a stuffed kangaroo head dangling off the front; seriously) and shoot ridiculous weapons at former humans while grinding around on power-lines and bouncing off of cars. Never before have we seen vinyl records used to mow down cartoonish mutants, but hopefully it happens a lot more in the future.
What's on your HDTV: NBA, US F1 GP, 'Annedroids', 'Sunset Overdrive'
The NBA season is ready to begin, and while we'll have to do without the likes of Paul George, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid and Bradley Beal (for varying lengths of time), we are excited to see the return of Derrick Rose and LeBron James (to Cleveland). The defending champs however, are the Spurs and they will help kick the season off Tuesday night. Otherwise, sports fans can look forward to the final game(s) of the World Series, a 30 for 30 special focusing on Brian Bosworth, and F1 racing in the US on Sunday afternoon. If you're not into sports though, CBS is switching its Thursday night schedule back to the normal shows instead of football, while NBC brings the combo of Chris Rock and Prince to Saturday Night Live and Frances McDormand teams up with HBO on an adaptation of the novel Olive Kitteridge. On Amazon Prime we've got new episodes of Annedroids, a kids show about a young scientist (Anne) who builds droids in her spare time (it's actually very good), while Netflix adds the documentary Bound By Flesh and the movie Rain Man this week. Finally, gamers can check out Sunset Overdrive (Joystiq's five-star review is here) on Xbox One and SingStar on PS4. Hit the gallery or just look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Let's look at each game console's lineup of exclusives for holiday 2014
Can you smell that? It's the aroma of game lovers' tears everywhere as they realize their bank accounts likely can't sustain buying every title coming out in the annual deluge of fall video game releases. That's to say nothing of the amount of time you'd need to play absolutely everything that's come out since September. Or even on November 18th alone! But what is each console offering exclusively this holiday? That's a bit more manageable, and we compare them below.
Here's a closer look at the white Xbox One and its Call of Duty-themed brother
Want to get really intimate with the two new Xbox Ones announced at Microsoft's Gamescom 2014 press conference? Well, unless you're here in Cologne, you probably can't get that close quite yet, but we did find said consoles hanging out behind glass. Good news: the white Xbox One completely delivers on its promise. It's got white plastic! As for the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare-themed Xbox One, well, it's absolutely what it promises: Call of Duty symbols are plastered all over the outside. Of course, that COD-themed box also has a 1TB internal hard drive while the white Xbox One is simply bundled with Sunset Overdrive. Neither box was paired with a similarly-themed Kinect, which tells us not to expect a Kinect in the box when both arrive later this year. Head into the gallery below for a closer look, and we've dropped a couple of Vines of both consoles after the break.
There is a white Xbox One console and gamepad coming this October
The rumors are true: there is a white Xbox One game console on the way, and it's arriving alongside Xbox One-exclusive Sunset Overdrive. And the console isn't the only white bit, as there's a white gamepad coming too. It'll cost $400 when it arrives this October, and it comes with the standard 500GB of storage and the aforementioned gamepad. The bundle appears to come without Kinect, though we'll be sure to ask Microsoft as soon as this Gamescom 2014 press conference is over.
'Sunset Overdrive' shows Ubisoft just how easy it is to put female assassins in a game
We're pretty big fans of Insomniac Games' upcoming Xbox One release Sunset Overdrive 'round these parts, but now that love has grown a bit more. In the latest episode of the development team's web series, noticed by Eurogamer, it was revealed that you can create a female avatar in the game. What's more, if you want to be a dude in a skirt, you can totally be a dude in a skirt -- Insomniac isn't really worried about it either way. The funny part of this is that the female character that's shown is dressed in garb that looks pretty similar to what we've seen a certain male killer from Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2 wear. If you're asking yourself what all of this means, well, last week Ubisoft said putting playable female characters in the franchise's next entry, Assassin's Creed: Unity, would require resources the team simply doesn't have.
Joystiq Weekly: overdrive the sunset, a million dark souls and sample Destiny
Welcome to the Joystiq Weekly wrap-up where we present some of the best stories and biggest gaming news from our sister-publication.
White Xbox One and an all-digital, less expensive console reportedly coming fall 2014
Microsoft's white, employee-only Xbox One could become a little less exclusive. The snow-colored console is rumored to appear alongside the cartoony shooter Sunset Overdrive this October, and a 1TB version of the hardware might release in November according to a NeoGAF thread that's been confirmed by The Verge's sources. What's more, Microsoft's latest console may also see worldwide release this year sans Blu-ray drive for $399. With the annual DICE Summit and Game Developers Conference not far off on the horizon, it might not be long before we see these rumors publicly confirmed. We've reached out to Redmond and will let you know if we hear back. Update: The source of the NeoGAF thread also says that a Limited Edition Titanfall console is on the way too, posting what he says is an image of the special console's design. Skip on past the break for a peek at the alleged hardware.
Insomniac's Sunset Overdrive is our first look at a cloud-infused Xbox One game (update: video)
Insomniac is usually busy developing games for Sony hardware, but company head Ted Price hopped up on stage to reveal Sunset Overdrive. In development with Microsoft Studios, the title is billed as a "open world shooter where the experience can change every day." Though we're told gamers will be able to affect what happens in the world by using the cloud, we're still short on details regarding how that'll happen and what changes. For now, screenshots with hyper-stylized graphics and Mirror's Edge-like parkour will have to sate our curiosity.%Gallery-190849% Update: Head past the jump to catch the entirety of the teaser trailer. Follow all of our E3 2013 coverage at our event hub.
