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Xbox One update brings back Xbox 360's universal controller settings
You don't need to drop $150 on the Xbox One Elite controller to get access to one of its most prominent features: remapping the gamepad's buttons. Tucked away inside the Xbox One's new Windows 10-flavored menus is the app for changing what buttons do what on your standard Xbox One controller as well. Perhaps most notably, you can permanently invert the Y-axis (controlled with the right analog stick by default) to make aiming and moving the camera in third-person and first-person games, respectively, more to your liking. That feature is something that the Xbox 360 had at launch with its "game defaults" options that appeared during initial setup for the system. In terms of how the app works from the Elite to the vanilla controller, it's pretty similar aside from not being able to adjust thumbstick and trigger sensitivity. You'll find the new addition under Settings > Ease of Access > Button Mapping.
Microsoft wants 'Red Dead Redemption' on Xbox One, too
You aren't alone in your desire to play Rockstar Games' old West epic Read Dead Redemption on your Xbox One -- Microsoft's director of program management Mike Ybarra wants to play it again, too. "I would love to see Red Dead," he said of making the Xbox 360 game backwards-compatible. In a recent interview, Ybarra revealed that it's a personal favorite and that he's played hundreds of hours of the dusty 2010 open world game. Behind Call of Duty: Black Ops II, it's number two on the list of fan-requested titles for the just launched Xbox One backwards compatibility feature.
Playdate: We're giving away the 'Fallout 4' Pip-Boy Edition!
The Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Edition proved insanely popular, so much so that developer/publisher Bethesda Softworks had to apologize when it couldn't meet demand for the plastic wrist-computer. You know who isn't saying sorry? Us at Engadget. That's because we're giving away the PlayStation 4 premium edition of this fall's most anticipated game during our Twitch broadcast today. All you need to do is hit the contest widget after the break. Join Sean Buckley and myself as we stream two hours of irradiated galavanting around the Boston Commonwealth starting at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific. Sean's playing the PC version and you can watch us here on this very post, the Engadget Gaming homepage, or Twitch.tv/Joystiq if you'd like to participate in chat. How many hijinks will we get into? You'll just have to tune in and find out. So go grab a Nuka Cola Quantum and settle in. Oh, and good luck! Winner: Congratulations to Onelson G. of Brooklyn, NY!
Fallout 4's Pip-Boy is a glorified smartphone case
"The Pip-Boy is an important part of Fallout and we love it so much we made a real one." Those words, delivered by game director Todd Howard at developer Bethesda Softworks' first-ever E3 media briefing this year, triggered cheers around the world. And thus, the Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Edition was born: a $120 special edition peripheral bundled with Fallout 4 that aims to mimic the game's wrist-bound menu and stat-tracking system. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the premium version of the game proved insanely popular, prompting Bethesda to apologize when it couldn't make any more units to meet demand. Not bad for a rather awkward looking piece of light brown plastic that sits on your arm and holds your cellphone. But is it actually worth the hype and high price?
Playdate: Clambering around London in 'Assassin's Creed: Syndicate'
It's autumn, so that means it's time for a new Assassin's Creed game. This time out the franchise has gone back to London's industrial age with Syndicate. A period when kids worked in factories and hooded folks jumped off of tall buildings to kill members of the Knights Templar. That last part might not be historically accurate. Maybe. There are a lot of variables at play here. Regardless, the last few AC releases haven't been great, but I'm determined to give Syndicate the old college try to see if it can recapture the franchise's highpoint, 2009's Assassin's Creed 2. This time you can come along for the ride with Sean and myself as we explore London's seedy underbelly starting at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific. As always, we'll be playing for two hours and you can tune in either on this post, the Engadget Gaming homepage or Twitch.tv/Joystiq if you'd like to join us in chat.
The 'Fallout 4' Pip-Boy app is available right now
Attention future Commonwealth explorers: The Fallout 4 Pip-Boy app is available for you to download. Unlike the gap between the release of Fallout Shelter on Android and iOS, both versions are available right this very moment. More than just acting as a mobile menu setup, you can play any holotape games you find in Fallout 4 within the app (with what sounds like a version of Missile Command built in). Sounds cool, right? Well, now you've got another something to keep you busy until November 10th -- even if you have an oversized phone. Update: A Windows Phone version has been promised, but as of this writing hasn't gone live yet.
Activision buys 'Candy Crush' developer King for $5.9 billion
Say what you will about the quality of Activision's output, but the company makes incredibly smart business moves. Like the announcement that it purchased Candy Crush studio King Digital Entertainment for a cool $5.9 billion. For comparison's sake, Amazon paid a paltry $970 million for Twitch while Facebook spent $2 billion on Oculus VR and $19 billion on messaging platform Whatsapp. Oh, and Minecraft only set Microsoft back $2.5 billion. Bobby Kotick and Co. definitely think this is a big deal, and considering just how many people play the mindless puzzler this is likely a smart investment.
Nuka-Cola Quantum available in time for 'Fallout 4'
No one really knows what's in those bottles of Fallout Beer, but they likely won't hit US shores. What will however is Nuka-Cola Quantum. The folks at Fallout developer Bethesda have teamed up with the purveyors of funky fizzy drinks, Jones Soda, to put the "irradiated" refreshment on Target shelves just in time for Fallout 4's launch. Come November 10th, you'll be able to start slugging down what looks like the company's Berry Lemonade (a picture's embedded after the break) in preparation for what we're affectionately calling "Vault Day" here at Engadget. You know, what everyone else is referring to as November 10th, a.k.a. Fallout 4's release date.
Download every 'Tribes' game for free
Fancy yourself a fan of playing awesome PC shooters online? Boy howdy, do I have a story for you: Developer Hi-rez Studios has released every game in its Tribes series for free on its website as part of the franchise's 21st birthday celebration. That means everything from Starseige: Tribes to the free-to-play Tribes: Ascend is available right now, gratis. And you don't even have to buy it a drink -- the party's on Hi-rez's dime! As if you had any big plans for this weekend anyway.
Video games are pretty lazy in their portrayal of PTSD
It's reported that one in three troops returning home from war are being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress symptoms. If you look at video games, those numbers are probably exponentially higher considering the events characters endure while saving the (virtual) world. But games aren't exactly known for being particularly subtle, and that's what the latest episode of Low Batteries from Eurogamer is all about. The clip examines Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Spec Ops: The Line, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and a few others. The findings? Sadly, games use PTSD as short-hand to fill in character backstory or motivations and sometimes are pretty lazy about it.
I played through 'Halo 5: Guardians' solo and hated it
This article contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk. Halo 5: Guardians is not the Halo you remember. It's a different kind of game altogether, something that more closely resembles a modern first-person shooter that focuses on multiplayer rather than a strong solo experience. This isn't the first time that's happened, but it is the first time in 11 years that a new Halo campaign feels like a massive step backward compared to its predecessor. Microsoft-owned studio 343 Industries is capable of better than this and proved as much with its killer freshman effort, Halo 4. But instead of addressing what it got wrong with that installment (e.g., an unexplained main villain) and doubling down on what it did right (e.g., an emotional storyline and constantly varying gameplay), the team fundamentally altered how a Halo campaign works to horrendous results.
'Detroit' is Quantic Dream's debut PS4 game
Detroit is bouncing back from some absolutely devastating economic times, but Detroit from Quantic Dream exists in an altogether different timeline. The team behind Heavy Rain is using the Motor City and its manufacturing legacy as a backdrop for its tale of an AI with human emotions, and the game is an extension of the studio's "Kara" demo from a few years back. Aside from that, lead David Cage didn't give an awful lot of info. Considering the studio's pedigree, it isn't too much of a stretch to assume the game will be highly cinematic, but that could also be a detriment. After all, the team's last game, Beyond: Two Souls looked great in demos too, but fell a bit flat in terms of actual gameplay. Become Human isn't the first time a game about androids and AI's been set in Motown -- Deus Ex: Human Revolution did that back in 2011.
'Until Dawn' coming to PlayStation VR in 'Rush of Blood'
Thankfully it looks like Sony isn't treating the excellent Until Dawn as a one and done. The interactive horror flick is coming to PlayStation VR sometime in the future and PlayStation Head of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida promises that the horror will be all around you once it releases. When's that? No dates were given just yet. By "all around you," it looks like the title will be on rails. That doesn't mean the game's trademark choice system will be absent, though. As the trailer embedded below notes, the Butterfly Effect system makes an appearance and your decisions will have rippling consequences on the rest of the game.
'Uncharted' borrows from cinema to sidestep clunky game design
Developer Naughty Dog's games have always had a flair for the cinematic and that's due in large part to their presentation. The studio takes a minimalistic approach to how it delivers information to the player, eschewing ugly on-screen means of directing you where to go by using filmic techniques like smart scene composition and color to subtly guide the players from one area to the next. In the video below, YouTuber Mark Brown explores Uncharted 3's opening, breaking down how Naughty Dog pretty masterfully keeps players on the right track during the rooftop chase sequence without it feeling claustrophobically linear.
'Dragon's Lair' hits Kickstarter in search of a feature-length movie
That Dragon's Lair debuted as a LaserDisc format game/interactive movie but was never a proper film was always a little weird, but that could change. Original creators Don Bluth (An American Tale and The Land Before Time -- not Arrested Development) and Gary Goldman are taking their cinematic aspirations to Kickstarter in the hopes that you'd want to see protagonist Dirk the Daring once more. Dragon's Lair: The Movie will be a prequel this time 'round and fill in the bumbling knight's backstory. The idea here is that if the $550,000 goal's met, the team at Don Bluth Films, Inc. can make a fleshed out teaser presentation to show investors that a feature-length flick is worth pursuing to the tune of the proposed $70 million budget.
SXSW cancels online harassment panel, because of harassment
Online harassment is a real world problem, and you don't need to look any further than a cancelled South by Southwest Interactive panel for more reasons why. Citing "numerous threats of violence" the SXSW planning team has annulled "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games" at next March's event according to an email sent to panelists that was obtained by Jezebel. What's more, the festival has cancelled a pro-GamerGate panel, dubbed "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community," as well. An official statement from the organizers says that since announcing the two panels they've been inundated with threats of on-site violence and in the interest of keeping the marketplace of diverse people and diverse ideas (their words) safe, the best way to do that was simply not act as a venue for the discussions. "Maintaining civil and respectful dialogue within the big tent is more important than any particular session," the statement reads.
One of Xbox Live's creators has left Microsoft
The man who helped transform Xbox Live from a network of desktop PCs running under its developers' desks to a service connecting some 39 million game-playing folk has left Microsoft. Eric Neustadter has worked at the company for 18-and-a-half years, 14-and-a-half of those dedicated to Xbox where he's most recently served as the platform's director of architecture. He recently returned from a sabbatical, and the co-host of the Major Nelson podcast hasn't yet made any indication of what's he's going to do next. If you'd like some more info on who the man who holds the first-created gamertag ("e") is, you should definitely read this two-part history on building Xbox Live which chronicles the birth of the service and its relaunch with the Xbox 360's 2005 release. They're worth your time -- I promise. [Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Xbox One Elite controller review: A better gamepad at a steep price
Is a gamepad worth $150? That's the question Microsoft is asking with the Xbox One Elite controller, a revamp of its almost two-year-old paddle that shipped with the Xbox One. The company isn't targeting this as a device for the mainstream, though. Rather, the Elite is instead for highly competitive gamers -- the type that'd mod their controllers with third-party accessories for greater precision. The customization it offers comes at a steep price, costing over twice as much as the standard $60 controller.Why should you care? Because the vanilla Xbox One controller feels like a cheap knock-off of the vaunted Xbox 360 pad that came before it. Microsoft said it spent over $100 million designing it, considering smell-o-vision and even a built-in projector for the gamepad, only to wind up with a mostly inferior clone. It has too many sharp edges, feels incredibly hollow and seems, well, cheap. Honestly, one of the biggest reasons I don't play my Xbox One much as my PlayStation 4 is because I prefer the latter's DualShock 4 controller. Keep all that in mind when you consider the following statement: I've been using the Elite controller for almost a week and I haven't wanted to put it down; this is the Xbox One gamepad we should've had from the outset.
Telltale's 'Game of Thrones' first season ends next month
Beware, for the night is dark and full of terrors folks: Telltale Games is wrapping the first season of its Game of Thrones series, Iron from Ice soon. When the season finale, dubbed "The Ice Dragon," releases next month on the 17th, Telltale says it'll be the first time that an episode hits each platform simultaneously (Android, iOS, Mac, PC, Playstation and Xbox). What's more, the story-focused developer says that the finale will provide "a uniquely harrowing conclusion" for every player based on the decisions you've made thus far. If I know anything about Telltale and Game of Thrones that means a number of characters are going to die. Probably viciously. Need a place to start? Telltale's using a classic pusher move and is offering the first episode for free. Try not getting attached to anyone.
Playdate: Surviving the apocalypse in 'Wasteland 2: Director's Cut'
Fallout 4 isn't the only post-apocalyptic role-playing game out this fall. Nope. Also out is a sequel to the game that's pretty much directly responsible for Bethesda's dark vision of the future, Wasteland 2: Director's Cut. The PC version of the game released last year, but a console port featuring a number of new additions including new voice overs and a wealth of new recorded dialogue. If XCOM: Enemy Unknown left an isometric, action-point itch that you haven't scratched in awhile, this might be your ticket on PlayStation 4. Join Sean Buckley and myself at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific as we try to survive the cruel environment for two hours either here on this post, the Engadget Gaming homepage or Twitch.tv/joystiq if you'd like to chat with us.
