Preview of the new social networking applications and Zune Marketplace
This fall, Microsoft will be rolling a fall update to the dashboard that will include Facebook, Twitter and Zune Marketplace. I recently got to check out these new features coming to the dashboard courteously of Xbox Canada’s Glenn Purkis.
The Facebook application is also launched from the Xbox live Dashboard and once you opt in you will you will be connected to your news feed, profile and allow you to update your status. Another cool thing is you are able to search your facebook friends and see if any of them are connected to Xbox live. It will be interesting to see how developers integrate facebook into their games.
Zune Marketplace is going to replace the current Xbox Video Marketplace and will provide consumers with streaming 1080p movies and television shows. During the demonstration, I was asked what movie I wanted to see and I picked one of the Harry Potter movies. After you select your movie, the service automatically runs tests to determine whether to stream in Standard Definition or High Definition, which is based on the speed of your internet connection. Within seconds we were watching Mr. Potter causing havoc with his cousins. One thing that was not discussed was the pricing structure of the movies, I’m curious to see if the price will remain the same or if they get increased.
I am a Twitter junkie and when Microsoft announced Twitter was coming to the Xbox live service I was generally excited. After seeing the demonstration, I have to say that it very easy to use and well designed. What you get is an application which you launch from the dashboard in which you can view tweets, retweet, search and view trending topics all of which are current twitter features. Once you close the application no more twitter updates. This is where I would have wanted some sort of background application were if someone’s @ replies me or sends me a direct message a little pop notification would appear.
Overall I was generally impressed with I had to see and I think if Microsoft is on their way to making the connected console. However there still is 100 friend limit issue… if you truly want to be connected to all social platforms, should there really be a friends limit?.
read moreHalo ODST – Toronto Launch Event
Here a a few photos from last night’s Halo ODST launch event in Toronto. Enjoy!
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read more1 Vs 100 Preview Event
1 Vs 100 Preview Event
On Tuesday May 5th 2009, I had the chance to preview the upcoming 1 vs. 100 interactive game show, coming to Xbox live sometime this spring. There were plenty of media members and even a few lucky community members were able to be at the event. The day started with the showing of the 1 VS 100 official trailer, followed by a speech by Glenn Purkis, from Xbox Canada and Jo Clowes, Director of Development. They briefly explained what we were going to see in today’s preview. They opened up a link that connected to the Microsoft Studio in Redmond, were comedian Chris Cashman had entered the booth and began talking to us live. Chris was very upbeat and a very funny individual.
You are probably asking yourself, what is 1 vs. 100 live?
Well 1 vs. 100 is hosted by Chris Cashman and is going to be the largest interactive game show. He also has a lovely co-host, the Voice of Cortana from Halo. Yes, this show will be broadcasted live. You will be either the One, the 100 also known as the mob or an audience member. Being the One, Mob and an audience member is randomly selected by the service.
Now you are wondering, how does this game work?
Once the One, Mob and Audience have been decided you will begin to be asked trivia questions. You are asked a broad range of questions and yes, some will be regionalized. Once a question is asked you will have 3 possible answers (x,b,a) and a limited time to answer that question. Once everyone has answered the game will eliminate the mob also known as the 100 who incorrectly answer the question. If the One does not know the answer, he can use 1 of his 3 help lines. Only 2 were displayed during today’s preview and they were use the Audiences answer or use the Mobs answer. If you were part of the mob and you were eliminated, don’t worry you can still answer questions to build up your points. We played several games and one of the games the mob won and spilt up a set number of Microsoft points and the other game the One won and received 5000 Points. These looked like Microsoft points as a pop up came up on screen which said Arcade title as well as a point value, followed by the Microsoft point logo.
You will only be able to be the One, once per week unless everyone has already been the One. This will be available to all gold members however, you can also play with silver members locally as well but they will not be eligible to win any prizes. The Canadian Beta starts Friday May 8th 2009 and runs to Sunday May 24th 2009. During the last weekend of the Canadian beta Xbox will open up the beta to all gold and silver members. A season of 1 vs. 100 live will be 13 weeks and 200 gamerscore available for those 13 weeks. There are also advertisements in the game; yes there is a mini television screen in the mob that will display advertisements from Nike, Sympatico and Zuma. Will these advertising dollars pay for the prizes? Sure seems like it. The programming schedule will be Friday Nights at 10pm EST and Saturday Nights at 7 and 10pm.
There is also another version of 1 vs. 100 call extended play. Extended play will not be live and available 7 days a week. You and thousands of Xbox live members play as the mob and battle it out for top score. 1 vs. 100 extended play features themed trivia every weeknight for the ultimate variety. Some examples mentioned were battle of the sexes and with the possibility of doing an Olympic themed night when the 2010 winter games draw closer.
1 vs. 100 features 12 achievements worth 200 gamerscore per season. The achievements are:
Low Rider – Answer instantly and incorrectly three times in a row 5G
Showboating Specialist – In a single 1 vs. 100 live round max our your avatar action 10 times 10G
Thrifty Skipper Extended play: In a single round, save up the maximum of 3 skips 10G
Speedy Delivery – In a single round, score a total of 1300 points through time bonuses 20G
Game Show Guru – In any single round, achieve a streak of 12 consecutive correct answers 25G
Quick Draw – In a single round, receive six consecutive instant answer bonuses – 25G
Hair Trigger – Get three consecutive questions right while receiving an instant answer bonus for each. 15 G
Golden Century – answer a total of 100 questions correctly 25G
Trivia Fanatic – Answer a total of 500 questions 30G
Go Streaking! – In a single round, achieved a streak of five consecutive answers 15G
Group Hug – Your team of four achieved a simultaneous streak of three consecutive correct answers 10 G
Quarter Century – Answer 25 correct answers correctly 10G
They didn’t discuss very much regarding what the prizes will be but it looked
like each round awards a prize to the top 3 high scoring crowd or mob members. For every 10 mob members eliminated, the prizing ladder moves up a level. The top prize is reached when all mob members are eliminated. If the One answers incorrectly, the prize ladder is divided among the remaining mob members. For the Canadian beta every correct answer earns you an entry into a sweepstakes to win Acer Aspire laptop, a Xbox 360 Elite with extra controller, and Xbox LIVE Arcade games. There are a maximum of 500 entries per person per season. As I stated above there seems to be some sort of use of Microsoft points, but they aren’t available during the Canadian beta. Using those MS points to buy arcade games or DLC would be cool!
The Canadian beta starts this week (on Friday May 8th 2009 at 10pm EST) and hopefully thousands of Canadians hop on to play 1 vs. 100 live with host Chris Cashman. This Canadian beta should allow Microsoft to stress-test the technology, to ensure there are no hiccups come launch date. I would expect some sort of announcement to come out of E3.
Halo Mythic Map Pack and Halo Wars Event
On Thursday February 19th 2009 in the west end of Toronto Xbox community members and Media gathered at the Gladstone Hotel to check out the Halo 3 Mythic Map pack and Ensemble Studios final game Halo Wars. Check out the venue below.
Jeff Rivait was on hand from Microsoft to give everyone a demo of Halo Wars. Unfortunately being very new to the RTS (Real Time Strategy games) I decided it was better off not to embarrass myself in front of everyone so I decided just to watch everyone play.
The new Halo 3 map packed call Mythic Maps will be available with the purchase of Halo Wars CE or you will need to wait until spring to get a hold of them. They will also ship with Halo: ODST this fall. The map pack contains 3 maps called Assembly, Orbital and Sandbox. Check out the pictures below of each of the maps. I really enjoyed orbital and driving around on the mongoose honking the horn!. The best moment of the event was playing oddball on Sandbox and killing DarthAlbert III with 1 second left until victory. I held the skull for 76 seconds to make it respectable but ended up losing. As far as for Assembly I just confused on where to go on this map but had some great matches.
Assembly:
Orbital:
Sandbox:
More photos can be found at IGN.com
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