In the News: Microsoft Removes 24-Hour DRM and Used Game Restrictions from Xbox One

By Zach Goodier

Microsoft recently decided to change their policies on 24-Hour DRM and used game restrictions, the statement they made was,

“We love getting feedback from gamers. My ideal scenario is always that I’m working to build a product they love."  We still believe in how games and entertainment are transformed by being connected and powered by the cloud, and frankly you’re going to see us really innovate against that experience. But as part of making the changes to allow you to use physical discs the way that you do today, what’s going to happen is your online games and your physical games will work like they do today. That does mean that features like Family Sharing won’t be there. Another example that we think is awesome is that when you move to any Xbox One, the ability to see all of your games in your Games Library. While you’ll clearly only see the ones that you downloaded online, you’d have to bring your physical discs for the other ones.”  

Source: IGN

Maybe I won't miss out of Forza 5 after all...

I, personally, am excited to see these changes.  I was not a fan of what I heard during the conferences at the reveal and E3.  While I know some people feel like this is a step backwards, I like the traditional setup for consoles.  I use Steam on my PC, but consoles allow me the opportunity to trade discs with the guys to let me try other games without potentially wasting some of my limited funds on them.  I can see where Microsoft may have been trying to lead us, but all their explanations were too vague, and there was too much potential for disaster in the minds of many gamers.  Not only that, but many of the features simply didn't appeal to me; I don't like Kinect, my cable box already does fine for TV, and I'd rather trust my own hard drive than a server in some building.  Beyond that, I simply didn't see how the potential benefits of Microsoft's features would outweigh the harm it could do to us as consumers.  

Still not a fan of Kinect, but if I'm not connected to the internet then hopefully the NSA won't be able to watch my pets for terrorist activity xD

Is there some paranoia? Probably.  However, the question that we have to ask ourselves is, "Do we really want to give up control over what we do with the things we pay for?"  I understand that Microsoft is out to make money, all companies need to make money to stay in business; however, it all comes down to how they try to make money.  Sony is planning to start charging for online services, and I'm OK with that.  Microsoft wanted to start telling me I couldn't trade games without losing them forever (to control the used game market), and that I needed to connect to the internet once a day or my console would brick.  I wasn't OK with that, and there were many who agreed with me.  

Those points aside, now that Microsoft has decided to change these features I may look back into investing in the system somewhere down the line.  I like that Microsoft finally listened to the public on this, but the trust has been broken for me, and it will not be fixed so easily.  Microsoft can still implement these features at a later date, and while allowing people to use the system the same way they used the 360 is a relief, the potential for disaster still looms overhead.  

My advice is to just stay alert for any updates, and think carefully about what investments you make.  There are a lot of people who will be going back to the Xbox One.  Hell, I might be one of them.  However, this incident has reminded me that while we as gamers have a lot of freedom through our games, there is always the potential for losing that freedom as well.

In the News: Xbox One

Hey guys, Zach here.  Well, yesterday saw the reveal of the next generation console from Microsoft: the Xbox One.  And while I have yet to hear a lot of specifics on the event, since I was working and couldn't actually sit down and watch the event, I have tried getting back up to speed since then, and the news couldn't be more bleak.  This covers the basic "news," what follows here will be some facts and speculation, mixed with the opinions of a potential Sony convert.

New doesn't always mean better...

First off, let's start with something silly: the name.  I know that the Xbox 360 made people go, "wow, how did I miss Xbox 2 through 359," and while it did supply a good joke or two, we rolled with it.  However, I haven't thought up any good jokes yet, and I just get a little confused since the first Xbox is a decade old at this point.  I just wonder who they hired to name the thing, I'm not seeing any good marketing angle at work here.

I've seen too many creeper movies about corporations spying on people with products and such, and why should I need one of these to play Elder Scrolls?

Now, another detail I have read is that the console will require both internet and Kinect to function.  This, after being unable to update this very site for a week due to bad internet, is frightening.  While the internet requirement hasn't been confirmed, it has been the subject of conflicting responses from the Microsoft staff when asked.  The Kinect is upsetting because I have never been interested in Kinect.  After I bought my Wii, I played it for about a week, then I lost all interest in the motion gaming.  If I want to be active, I'll go outside and do something, I don't need a Wii to stay active.  The motion-gaming gimmick really needs to stop.  While the Wii may look impressive on paper, everyone I know who bought one let it rot after a month or so.    This also seems like another way of draining our wallets to put cameras in our living rooms so Microsoft can spy on us... o.O

However, the single biggest issue I had wasn't in the details that they announced, it was with they seemed to completely overlook: THE F%$#ING GAMES!!!!!!!!! The games are what the Xbox name has been built on, and while they claim to be holding out for E3, why hold this event in the first place?  All I have seen and heard is that this was trying to sell us an entertainment system, something to watch live TV and sports games, while using all the clever features and such that they were working on.  I'll gladly go back to playing 32-bit games if that means that I'll get to actually enjoy myself.  I don't care about showmanship. I don't want something that looks clever, just make it actually clever.  Make it load games faster, give it a solid state hard drive or something, just show me that this console has the hardware and features that actually support and enhance my gaming experience, not televised sporting events.  It almost seems like Microsoft has been bought and paid for by EA, because everything this console does has catered to what EA tries to sell. The few bits relating to gamers just show some fancy graphics that are done in CGI trailers, not in-game engines.

None of this relates to games... at all.  I mean, I get all this on my cable box already.

(Here's the "too long, gimmie short" version)

In short, I'm disappointed.  I hope the E3 conference will have better news, but from what I've seen I won't get my hopes up too high.  While I love my Xbox 360, it feels more like Microsoft has been bought by EA, who have consistently disappointed me with ruining game franchises (Mass Effect 3's story, SWTOR, Dragon Age 2).  Now it looks like the disease has spread to an entire console, with Xbox One looking more like a VCR that is supposed to play TV and allow me to post on Facebook that "i jus shot my bff rob in cod, best nyght everrrrrrr lol #yolo #supernerd."  .....You have no idea how sick I made myself typing that, by the way.  The point is that I don't think we need to see all of these pointless features, I want to see how this console will appeal to those of us that are just in it for the games, because I already have a TV to watch TV on, and a computer to do Facebook and what-not, and I don't like Madden or sports all that much, so why should I care about this?  Hopefully, I'm just overeacting, and soon we'll have all the details about what gaming angle is, but then this announcement was a waste of time to showcase a gaming system.  Oh well, we'll just see what happens...

One Piece

 (the straw hat pirates)

By: Robert Murphy

So since recently I posted a AMV that was cut to scenes of one of my favorite animes, “One Piece”,  I figured I would give you all review to go along with it, for those of you who haven’t seen the show and had no idea what the hell was going on in the video. “One Piece” starts around the tale of Gol D. Roger King of the Pirates, who is finally caught by the Marine forces in “One Piece” and publicly executed.  But before they ended his life he imparted a final word to any pirates or would be pirates who may have been watching, his final words were that he has hidden all of his massive wealth away and anyone may take it as their own, he has hidden it all in one piece. This sets in motion a new golden age of piracy, where everyone and anyone is out to claim the one piece and be the new king of the pirates and this includes or main character Monkey D. Luffy who we follow throughout the series as he makes his crew and sets out on his pirate adventure.

 Gol D Roger at his execution

So to begin with, some of you may be thinking this seems to be a pretty normal show right? Well what I neglected to mention in the previous chapter is that some of these pirates have some pretty incredible powers. In the show there are fruit known as the Devil Fruit, these give whoever eats one of them a super natural ability but at the cost of losing the ability to swim, which can be a problem for a pirate looking to sail the high seas. So essentially we have 17^th century pirates with super powers all sailing around which makes for quiet an interesting story to follow along with, for example our main protagonist, Luffy has eaten one of these fruits the Gum Gum Fruit, this has given his body a rubber quality that allows him to do things like deflect bullets and throw punches a mile away. This leads to some crazy and out of this world fights especially since there are millions of different Devil Fruit out there and plenty of pirates that Luffy and his crew come across in their journey. These fruit can allow you to do anything, some being quite silly and others can be devastating, it’s pretty much a grab bag of insanity. 

Now let’s move on to some of the characters that will be joining our rubber man of a leader on his quest to be King of the Pirates. Zolo, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, and Chomper are the core members of the initial Straw Hat Pirates and they all bring their own unique characteristics to the show.  Sanji is the cook who loves the ladies, Nami is the domineering navigator who loves money, Zoro is the samurai swordsman who wields three blades and sleeps all the time, Usopp is the sniper who tells outrageous lies- but that doesn't quite do them justice and Chomper is our residential reindeer doctor who is shy but quite a thrill for some of the attractive female characters. They all initially have their own interests as you can see but over the time they spend sailing together they develop and grow close to each other and become close friends which is a central theme throughout the show. And of course you can’t forget the enemies throughout the show, while some are a little silly (which silly/goofy is something you need to get use to in this show) others are more serious and quite frankly are a bunch of assholes who deserve to get their faces smashed in by one of Luffy’s gum gum punches.

 the straw hat pirate flag

“One Piece” is a very open ended show that has a story that makes for a good anime in the fact that there is so much that can be done while these characters search for the one piece and it shows through the entire series span. While the story may be winding down to its end, there are have been over four hundred fifty five episodes so that tells you what you are in for if you start watching the show, with just about five story arcs filled with pirate action. If a complaint could be made it would be that some of the worlds/islands that are visted are an idea out of Star Wars where there are areas made of one topographical element like snow or sand but this in itself is a minor flaw with the show.  And I’m only speculating on the end of the series here, it could go on for much much longer and I honestly hope it does, there is so much that the show has to enjoy with things like islands controlled by evil mermen, pirates with out of this world abilities and the incredible cast of characters to choose from, “One Piece” makes for a great anime.

Good:

-A great cast of characters

-Unique pirate/super power idea

-Vastly open story to follow and get into

Bad:

-The fact that some lands visited by the pirate crew feature only one topographical element

Scully rating: 9.5 out of 10  

Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone

Goku the world’s strongest man and best martial artist has married Chi-Chi and together they have a son named Gohan, all seems quiet at their nice mountain home  until Gohan is kidnapped for the Dragon Ball he wears on his hat. Garlic Jr. is behind the kidnapping and wants to summon the eternal dragon, and wish for immortality, worried about his son Goku heads off to find him. The battle between good and evil commences and only the strongest will survive. With help from Krillin, Goku’s best friend, Kami the Earth’s Guardian and even Goku’s nemesis, Piccolo, they all set out to defeat the danger the Earth now faces. 

“Dead Zone” is the first film in the Dragon Ball Z franchise and the film is set sometime between the end of “Dragon Ball” and the start of “Dragon Ball Z.”  “Dead Zone” is only Forty-one minutes long and is the shortest film made for the DBZ universe. The writers tried to jam far too much action in such a short time frame and the movie suffered for it. The fight scenes between characters were short and very underwhelming, with each different fight only lasting mere seconds. Once we get to the final fight it starts to pick up, but still wasn’t up to par with what we see in the anime. Going back to before Goku was flying and using powers that we all wish we had is nice. One thing that I really disliked was that they didn’t mention that Kami and Piccolo are one, and the fact that if one dies so will the other. This is important because if ether one dies the Dragon Balls would disappear. All in all, “Dead Zone” being the first movie had some issues but is a worthy installment in the Dragon Ball Z universe.

 

Good:

-Easy to tell where in the DBZ story this takes place

Bad:

-Fights are short and underwhelming

-Plot is unoriginal and has holes in it

-Movie could have been longer

-Didn’t explain the whole Kami Piccolo being one so new viewers will be lost

Scully Rating: 4 out of 10

Watch "Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone" at: http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/dragon-ball-z-movie-1-dead-zone-english-dubbed-online-free