The Scorpio and Neo are a betrayal of trust that might come back to bite Microsoft and Sony

Every console generation starts with a chicken and egg dilemma. The shiny new hardware that emerges into the wild might have high hopes and higher price tags, but it inevitably launches with a games library that's a mere shadow of the consoles it hopes to replace.

For awhile the trickle of games is slow. Developers don't want to spend too much money developing for a console that not enough people own, and yet those same people won't take the plunge until enough games exist on the system.

This situation arises every six years or so, and yet every time the new consoles manage to slowly but surely take off despite this seemingly impossible paradox.

So why do consumers chose to buy a console with no games on it? And why do developers make games for machines that nobody owns?

The answer to both has a little to do with confidence, and a little to do with trust.

And it's this trust that the PlayStation Neo and Project Scorpio might just break.

A pact made in plastic

It seems like an obvious answer, but people buy consoles not for the games that are already out, but because of the games they expect to release over the coming years.

Gamers trust that manufacturers will continue to support their consoles for at least six years, and they have the confidence that over that time a machine's software library will continue to grow stronger and stronger.

PC gamers question why anyone would opt to buy a console over the technically superior PC platform, but it's this continued support that makes the console such a good deal for so many people.

But, mathematically speaking, it makes sense: just one purchase can ensure that someone has access to every game released on that platform for the next six years.

When it works, this process is almost invisible, but when it breaks down, as was the case with Nintendo's Wii U, a console will flounder and eventually fail.

Lessons from the Wii U

Just over a year ago, swathes of articles were written about how you'd be crazy to not buy a Wii U. Mario Kart 8 was out they said, and so was Super Smash Bros. There was even an excellent Mario game on the system, Super Mario 3D World. Go out and buy a Wii U they said, you'll love it.

Except people didn't. They didn't for the simple reason that outside of a new Legend of Zelda, there were almost no new games to look forward to on the horizon. No new Mario Kart, no new Super Smash Bros, no new Metroid.

The console might have had a strong library in the past, but its future looked uncertain, and people sensed that uncertainty and stayed away.

Scorpio stings gamers

Neither the Xbox One nor the PlayStation 4 have weak games libraries, but the announcement of the 4K Neo and Scorpio systems casts some doubt on their futures.

Both Sony and Microsoft have promised that their existing consoles will continue to be supported alongside the new hardware, but it's hard not to feel that you won't be getting the full experience if you opt to play a game developed with the Neo in mind on a launch PS4.

We don't yet fully know what the gaming implications of the Neo and Scorpio will be, but at the moment it's hard not to feel betrayed. Gamers bought these consoles because they trusted Sony and Microsoft to support them for six years, and now after four years they're being superseded for a feature that not every gamer can take advantage of.

Is 4K and HDR worth the trust they've lost with gamers? Probably not.

I don't know if people will buy the Scorpio and Neo in their droves. I don't know if enough people have 4K televisions to make the upgrade worthwhile, and I don't know if developers will pay the new hardware enough attention to optimise their games with it in mind.

But what I do know is that when the Xbox Two and PS5 are released people will think twice about whether they represent a solid six-year investment or whether they'll be superseded by new hardware after just four short years.

A drop from six years to four years might not seem like the biggest difference in the world, but that's a third of a console's traditional lifespan.

In other words, from a consumer point of view, the PS5 and Xbox Two may have just lost a third of their perceived value.

Maybe Sony and Microsoft's experiment with mid-generation console upgrades will be a success. Maybe the PS4 and Xbox One will continue to be the consoles that they always were and the Scorpio and Neo will work to complement rather than replace them.

But maybe this mid-generation switcheroo will be perceived as a betrayal by gamers who have seen their expensive hardware become outdated two years ahead of time

Xbox Play Anywhere set to launch on September 13

Microsoft announced Xbox Play Anywhere at E3 last month. The program allows participating games to be played on both Xbox One and PC when bought digitally, with season passes, game add-ons, in-game unlocks, achievements, save files and consumables shared seamlessly between the two platforms. Now the company has announced September 13 as the official kick off date for Play Anywhere along with a list of supported titles.

The service requires that you have the Windows 10 Anniversary Edition update on your PC, which is expected to arrive in August, as well as the summer update on your Xbox One console. Only games purchased digitally will be eligible for the program, with the Xbox Store displaying a Play Anywhere logo in games that support the feature.

Microsoft is planning to bring all of its future first-party games to Windows 10 and Xbox One as part of the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative. ReCore, an upcoming action-adventure video game developed by Comcept and Armature Studio and published by Microsoft Studios, will be the first Play Anywhere title launching on September 13.

Notably, Play Anywhere titles will reportedly cost the same as a regular game, so you get to play on either platform along with any extra content you buy for it at no extra cost.

Check out the full list of supported titles so far:

• Gears of War 4
• Forza Horizon 3
• ReCore
• Sea of Thieves
• Halo Wars 2
• Scalebound
• Killer Instinct Season 3
• State of Decay 2
• Ark: Survival Evolved
• Cuphead
• We Happy Few
• Crackdown 3

Gaming Nostalgia: UT's Facing Worlds is still the best multiplayer map

Above us, the moon. Beneath us, the Earth. In front of us, a massive, three-story tower. Overlapping bleeps and bloops accentuate the eerie calm. We’re blasting off into orbit, and you might know where we’re headed. Never before, nor since, has Capture the Flag been so much fun.

For the uninitiated, here’s a little bit of context: Unreal Tournament drew first blood on the PC in 1999, with a fanciful, science fiction tone and particularly gory splatters. The game focused its efforts on online multiplayer—there was a single player campaign, but beyond using it to learn the controls, few players paid attention to it.

Overwatch Review

Everything about Overwatch is character-driven. The game technically has a story—there was once an international task force of heroes who banded together to restore peace under a banner called ‘Overwatch’—but the game itself is pretty divorced from that lore. If you’ve never watched any of the (excellent) short on YouTube or read any of the comics, you could play Overwatch without ever really knowing what it’s about. The specifics don’t matter that much. You’re here for these guys:

At first, new players are likely to gravitate toward whatever characters look cool as they pursue each match’s objective of capturing a point or moving cargo from point A to point B. With time, however, everyone learns the importance of building a team with complementary skills. It helps that Blizzard actually holds your hands with small details such as gently suggesting improvements toward team composition when you select a character.

There are four types of heroes in Overwatch: tank (the guys who lead an attack and soak up damage), offense (the guys who bring the heat in an attack), defense (the guys who protect areas of interest), and support (the guys who don’t get enough credit for buffing the team). Winston the gorilla, for example, can leap right into an enemy frontline, where he’ll then pop a shield that can herd teammates forward. Tracer, Overwatch’s peppy mascot, is a quick little bugger who can whiz around at mach speed, making her a perfect weapon for dealing damage against a slower enemy. Bastion, on the other hand, is a bulky robot who can turn into a stationary turret, making him great option for fending off heroes. Lucio is a DJ with a sonic amplifier that plays tunes that can either heal or speed up allies. This is just a small slice of the overall roster, but Overwatch lets you take on a variety of different roles through characters who feel unique to play.

Every match of Overwatch also has a certain feel and progression to it, depending on what your objective is. If you’re defending against attackers, you start matches by setting up around the map. You get one minute before the gates open and attackers are allowed on the field, though usually it only takes thirty seconds to get ready. This means every Overwatch match starts with a healthy dose of anxiety hanging in the air, and it’s especially palpable if you’re on the attacking team. Initially, attackers can’t do anything except peer into the map through slits on closed doors. Sometimes, you’ll see an enemy staring back menacingly, perhaps even taunting you with emotes. Maybe you’ll flex back.

Though no action can take place during this minute, it is emblematic of the genuine sense of camaraderie you can find throughout Overwatch. Players try their best to grab each other’s attention during this phase of the game, despite being unable to kill each other. This is sometimes done by plastering character-specific tags in the form of “sprays” on walls, but mostly it’s by bouncing around excitedly. Characters endearingly repeat lines over and over again, as if someone is tugging on their pull strings.

Once the match officially starts, the central tension is push and pull. Attackers do their best to make headway on the objective, and defenders try to stop them at all costs. Initially, it feels as if defenders have the upper hand: they have time to set up choke points, after all, and attackers are literally pushed against a wall. But because attackers can keep spawning right away, and any dead defenders have to trek back to the point, eventually most attackers gain a window to move forward, even if if it’s just a small one. That’s where the real fun begins.

Everything about Overwatch is character-driven.

In any other game, this might be the point where the match becomes a lone wolf free-for-all. Blizzard, however, has designed Overwatch from the ground up to be objective oriented. There is no scoreboard you can pull up midmatch keeping track of how many kills you get, no kill/death ratio to really obsess over. Kills are almost meaningless really, given that the game awards you a “kill” even if you don’t do the bulk of the damage or land the killing blow—the game seems to track any damage contribution, no matter how small. It’s easy to rack up kills if you want, especially given that skills refresh rather rapidly, but pure kills won’t win you the game.

For years, so many class-based shooters have touted the necessity of teamwork and cooperation without significantly altering a framework that made that utopian ideal impossible. Overwatch actually does some work in this regard, and the result feels tremendous.

Heroes also have something called an “ultimate ability,” which the game slowly charges as you play, regardless of whether or not you’re winning or landing kills (though they help). These are devastating abilities that can change the tide of a battle if timed correctly. Lucio, for example, can give all of his teammates a temporary shield, while Winston can go into a Primal Rage mode that boosts his health and attack strength. Because ultimates are not strictly tied to skill, players always have the ability to majorly contribute to a match.

Blizzard also assigns the most value to capturing points or pushing the payload (which, by the way, can also heal you if you’re nearby, for extra motivation). Anyone who contributes in some way toward the objective tends to get participation points, which are tallied up at the end so the game can award experience points. With enough XP, you unlock a loot box, which holds a random assortment of cosmetic upgrades, such as as skins and victory poses. You can also buy loot boxes at .99 cents per crate, though it helps to be patient instead.

Players who are new to Overwatch might have to undergo some deprogramming, because it is a game that actually expects you to work as a team, a prospect that becomes harsher as a match progresses. In Overwatch, sometimes the objective changes mid-match. Once an attacker successfully captures a point, the game will suddenly open up more of the map, and players will then be tasked with pushing a payload forward to win. A map that once featured a wide open space might suddenly become become a long, narrow hallway, for example, forcing you to completely reconsider your tactics for securing the new objective. You might start a match as Reinhardt to make the initial push, then swap to Mercy to keep your teammates alive at the point, only to then pick up Mei so you can freeze enemies at close quarters. This on-the-fly swapping can be difficult to get used to, but it is one of the core pillars that make up Overwatch.

Some heroes are easier to learn than others, but even when I’m waffling around with a character I don’t fully understand, it always becomes an opportunity to gain a deeper appreciation of Overwatch’smany mechanics. As an example: for the longest time, I played Overwatch stuck to the ground...only to have a new world open up to me when I picked up more aerial characters like Pharah (who can jet into the sky) and Genji (who can climb walls). The character swaps in this case changed the game entirely and pushed me to think about new ways to play. Even after dozens of hours in Overwatch, playing constantly feels like a learning experience.

Overwatch’s sound design is also stellar. Characters will bark out things you can’t immediately see, like when an enemy is behind you, or when a turret lies ahead. You can tell different characters apart based completely on their footsteps, which means that, if you’re observant enough, you can catch an enemy sneaking up behind you. Your character will gasp when you are low on health. Details like these are not sweeping, genre-redefining tweaks, but together they form enough changes to makeOverwatch feel like a revelation—and it exists in a genre that nobody thought needed innovations in the first place.

Overwatch feels like a revelation.

Once a match is over, Overwatch spends a couple of minutes handing out kudos to star players. First, every match has a “play of the game,” where Overwatch highlights a moment where someone kicked a lot of ass; the most ass, if you will. At least, that’s the idea, but it doesn’t quite work that way. PresentlyOverwatch’s algorithm highlights too many boring plays where nothing extraordinary happens, such asBastion standing in one place mowing down a line of clueless enemies. Meanwhile, clutch moments made possible by support characters often go ignored. I’m sure that designing an automated system to recognize a wide swath good moments is probably a difficult task, and it helps that the play of the game at the end isn’t really a big deal. All the same, I’m glad to hear Blizzard is working on improving it. Hilariously, in its current broken state, the play of the game is inspiring so many amazing jokes on social media that I don’t really care if it ever gets fixed.

No Man's Sky developer inundated with death threats over game's delay

Video games invoke more passion in their fans than in any other medium. While this shows the love people have for gaming, there are those who move beyond mere fandom and into the realms of dangerous obsession

The ugly side of some video game ‘fans’ appeared once again last week, after it was announced that upcoming space adventure No Man’s Sky had been delayed. The developer said this was because there were "some key moments [that] needed extra polish."

It was Kotaku’s Jason Schreier who first reported that the game’s original release date of June 21 had been moved to August 9. Once the news was officially confirmed, some people actually blamed the reporter for causing the delay by “forcing Sony’s hand.” Schreier, who quoted GameStop as a source, received at least one death threat for his article.

But it was No Man’s Sky’s developer, Hello Games, that became the main target of these hateful attacks. Sean Murray, head of the UK-based company, tweeted that he had “received loads of death threats this week,” and jokingly added that he’d turned Hello Games into the house from Home Alone.

 Follow

Sean Murray ‎@NoMansSky

I have received loads of death threats this week, but don't worry, Hello Games now looks like the house from Home Alone#pillowfort

4:03 AM - 29 May 2016

 
•  2,5162,516 Retweets
 
•  6,5626,562 likes

"Tell me when its safe to remove the marbles and oil from the stairs," Murray said. "It's getting really cumbersome, and I need the toilet."

While Murray's laudable response to the threats shows he’s not going to let them affect him or the Hello Games team, the entire incident has been both unbelievable and embarrassing.

The fact that people are threatening to end lives because of a video game is reprehensible. But sadly, as anyone who remembers when Treyarch design director David Vonderhaar received death threats after the guns in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 were tweaked, this sort of thing isn’t totally without precedent. What makes this case particularly unusual, however, is that the reaction comes from fans of an entirely new IP that no one has even played.

 Follow

David Vonderhaar 

✔‎@DavidVonderhaar

Not sure these fractions of seconds are worth the threats of violence. +

6:42 PM - 23 Jul 2013

 
•  106106 Retweets
 
•  121121 likes

Other websites have been hit with negative comments, too. While not straying into the realm of death threats, some people have been extremely critical of publications that are “too forgiving” when reporting on games being delayed.

It’s true that many titles don’t arrive on their original release dates theses days, but there are genuine reasons for this. Developers don’t enjoy disappointing fans, but they want that final product to be of the highest possible quality.

Often it's better to delay a game, sometimes more than once, to add a bit of extra polish - as was the case with The Witcher 3. While it’s true that a postponement doesn't automatically mean a game will ship without problems - Assassin's Creed: Unity can testify to this - at least it gives devs more time to work on areas that could be improved.

Ultimately, waiting seven extra weeks to play a game isn’t grounds for sending death threats. It’s barely a good reason to get angry; annoyed and a bit upset, perhaps, but if you find yourself frothing at the mouth with rage because of those extra 49 days, maybe it’s time to reassess your priorities.

It's been 10 years since Valve announced Half-Life 2: Episode 3, but will it ever become a reality?

Gamers have been waiting for Half-life 2: Episode three since it was officially announced by Valve ten years ago this week. The seemingly never-ending speculation and anticipation surrounding the project has led to its own catchphrase and series of memes, but right now the game looks less likely to happen than ever before.

It was May 24, 2006, when Valve said the third Half-Life 2 episode was in development. The company promised it would be the “last in a trilogy” that would “conclude by Christmas of 2007.”

As everyone knows, that date passed with no sign of the game. From that point on Valve and Newell mentioned it less and less. As noted by Polygon, the last time Newell spoke about people actually working on the project was in 2009, when he said it was still in development.

There has been very little talk of Half-Life from Valve and Newell in the last seven years. In 2013, excitement briefly grew after the company seeminglyregistered a Half-Life 3 trademark in Europe, but this turned out to be a hoax.

Hopes were raised again in March last year when HTC CEO Cher Wang told theBBC - during an interview about the Vive VR headset – that the company was “co-operating with Half-Life.” She later said she had “misspoke,” and apologized for any confusion.

The last time Newell commented on the Half-Life 2: Episode 3/Half-Life 3 saga was a few days after the Wang interview. In a podcast posted by Geoff Keighley, the Valve CEO said: "The only reason we'd go back and do like a super classic kind of product is if a whole bunch of people just internally at Valve said they wanted to do it and had a reasonable explanation for why."

The chances of the game ever becoming a reality are looking slimmer all the time, especially after Marc Laidlaw, the man responsible for writing Half-Life and Half-Life 2, retired from Valve after 18 years in January. And after a decade of hype and speculation, Half-Life 3 would probably be considered a flop if it was anything other than the best game ever made – that’s a lot of pressure for developers.

It’s likely that the next time we’ll see any Half-Life-related content will be in a movie form. Star-Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abramsconfirmed that a motion picture based on the franchise was in development, along with that other Valve series that is missing a part 3: Portal.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is coming this October

One of the most popular strategy game series is receiving a new installment later this year, with Firaxis Games announcing Sid Meier's Civilization VI today, complete with juicy details on what the game will bring.

Perhaps the biggest change from Civilization V to VI is what Firaxis calls 'unstacking the cities'. Rather than having every single element of a city in the one tile, new elements that you build will be spread out across the landscape, which creates more varied environments and more interesting ways to play.

With the unstacking of cities, it will become important to manage the land at your disposal, and take advantage of geographical elements. For example, placing a scientific campus near a rainforest might give bonuses that wouldn't be available if it was placed deeper into a city.

Civilization VI will see the tech tree tied more closely to the map and in-game situations: if you don't have access to a quarry, you might find it hard to research masonry; or if you haven't found the ocean, it might be impossible to undertake naval research. This differs from previous Civilizations where gamers could choose basically any tech to research at any point.

Firaxis will also be improving the AI in Civilization VI to make different civilizations and leaders feel more varied, and diplomacy will also be overhauled in a way that hasn't been detailed just yet.

Civilization VI will launch on October 21 for Windows, with version for OS X and Linux coming in the future.

Mass Effect Andromeda officially delayed until early 2017

BioWare confirmed today that Mass Effect: Andromeda will be delayed until early 2017.

This news shouldn't come as a surprise as Electronic Arts' chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen told conference goers in March that the game would be pushed back. Jorgensen said the game would be delayed until EA's fiscal fourth quarter, which takes place between January and March 2017.

EA cites scale as being one of the reasons for the delay. "One of our biggest ambitions is to give players an unprecedented level of freedom for a Mass Effect experience - where you'll go, how you'll get there, and how you'll play," writes Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare.

BioWare also hyped up the game's visuals by saying it's the first Mass Effect game being built for "today's consoles" as well as being the first built with the new Frostbite game engine. Just take a look at Star Wars Battlefront to see what Frostbite is capable of.

EA's claim that it wants to "make sure we deliver everything the game can be and should be" seems genuine, as there have been too many half-baked game launches lately.

The good news is that EA will update fans on June 12th during its E3 press conference, but it's not apt to make patience any easier to come by.

What's old is new again as Google Cardboard can be used to play classic Virtual Boy games

With the Nintendo 64 still a year away, the SNES showing its age and Sony’s new disc-based PlayStation stealing valuable market share, Nintendo hoped its futuristic Virtual Boy system would be the next big thing in gaming.

Nintendo’s tabletop Virtual Boy launched in the summer of 1995, a time when tracks like Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise, TLC’s Waterfalls and Montell Jordan’s This Is How We Do It were burning up the airwaves. It was billed as the first system to display true 3D graphics but its high price tag, lackluster collection of games and the fact that it afforded a nausea-inducing, uncomfortable experience made it a commercial flop.

Many would argue that the concept was simply ahead of its time.

I recall playing a few of the original games like Mario’s Tennis and thinking they weren’t all that bad. If you’re in the same boat as me (or you simply want to experience the Virtual Boy’s library for the first time), there’s now a much easier and modern way to do so.

Reddit user The-King-of-Spain recently managed to get some of the console’s original games to work on Google Cardboard. You’ll need an Android smartphone that works with Cardboard, the RetroArch emulator and of course, the game ROMs and a Cardboard headset. Only a few tweaks in the emulator’s settings are needed to get up and running.

The clip above shows gameplay in greyscale although the original red is also an option. After half an hour of gaming, the Redditor said he hadn’t experienced any of the Virtual Boy’s trademark motion sickness.

eBay now lets you drop off items to sell at FedEx Office stores

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. It’s an idiom that’s kept auction specialist eBay in business for more than two decades but as competition in the secondhand market heats up from newcomers like Wallapop and letgo (in addition to continued pressure from familiar foes such as Craigslist), the iconic site is turning to an established player in a different industry in hopes of attracting new users.

eBay on Tuesday announced it is teaming up with shipping giant FedEx to bring its Valet drop-off program to more than 1,600 FedEx Office stores across the country.

For those not familiar, eBay’s Valet service makes selling items on the pioneering auction site a breeze. Rather than having to snap photos of each item, create an auction page, research the average selling price of an item, receive payment and ultimately shipping an item to its new owner, all one needs to do is drop off the item they wish to sell at one of the participating FedEx Office stores.

FedEx will then package and ship the product to eBay’s Valet processing center where it’ll be sold and shipped on your behalf. Sellers will receive updates throughout the process and once it’s all said and done, payment will be sent over via PayPal.

eBay says the top selling categories include electronics, high-end clothing and shoes, sporting goods, musical instruments, small appliances and antiques. A full list of items that eBay doesn’t accept for the service can be found here.

A recent market test in Atlanta and Los Angeles found that the majority of participants were new to eBay, no doubt great news to both executives and shareholders.

As you might expect, such a service isn’t free. In its Valet FAQ, eBay says fees are deducted from the sale price of your item(s). For items that sell for less than $50, expect to receive 60 percent of the proceeds. Items sold for between $50 and $200 will net you 70 percent of the sale price while items that go for more than $200 will result in an 80 percent return.

Should you choose to sell something on your own, eBay typically takes a 10 percent cut of the sale value as well as 10 percent of what you charged for shipping.

What’s more, with the Valet service, buyers pay shipping on items they purchase so that’s one less expense to consider. If something doesn’t sell, it'll be relisted at a lower price. Should it still not sell, the item in question will be returned to you free of charge.

If you have some big-ticket items that would likely bring over $200 and time is a valuable commodity (or you're worried about the safety of selling on Craigslist), it may very well make a lot of sense to try eBay’s Valet service.