First Xbox One Guarded By Sharks

Not sure how much I can really elaborate on that headline, but I'll try.

In New Zealand, the first Xbox One retail unit is currently under water, 'guarded' by more than a few Sand Sharks. The console is at Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium in Auckland and can be seen by visitors until the November 22nd console launch when it will make one lucky queuer very happy, by knowing their Xbox One was, at some point, guarded by motherfucking sharks.

Just give yourself a few moments today to really take in how ridiculous the picture below is. Isn't it glorious. I love this hobby.

So dumb, and yet, I love it.

Analysts Predict PS4 To Outsell Xbox One By 11 Million Units

According to Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst at IHS, the PS4 will be 11,000,000 units ahead of the Xbox One in sales by the end of 2017. Harding-Rolls believes the companies will have a very close launch, with the PS4 marginally inching ahead, eventually culminating in the projected 11 million unit lead. A statement released by IHS states the following:

"IHS expects existing geographical brand allegiance to continue with Xbox One outselling PS4 in North America, and PS4 outselling Xbox One across Europe combined. IHS believes that Sony's wider geographical brand allegiance - especially across continental Europe and Japan - will be decisive in allowing PS4 to outsell Xbox One on a global basis by the end of 2017.

We also believe that both Sony and Microsoft will continue to benefit from Nintendo's Wii U weak sales, with some past Wii users adopting the latest consoles instead of upgrading to Wii U."

Obviously it goes without saying that these are hardly facts, but they seem to make sense. The internet is expecting the PS4 to absolutely stomp the Xbox One but these projections are probably more realistic, Xbox as a brand has built up enough brand loyalty in enough people that it should be there or thereabouts at launch, but it all comes down to the games for the next 4 years in my book, something that doesn't seem to have been considered. I think Titanfall could end up being a huge deal, but hey, what do I know, I'm no analyst!

That Titan FELL!

...And We're Back!

Hello there, and welcome back!

You probably noticed that for the last few months the site has been down, not broken, not just going without updates but DOWN down. Basically I had so little money that I couldn't afford to keep the website up, and also do other things (like eat and live under a roof, you know, the kinda important stuff) so I had to let it come down for a while.

It's been tough! It's been a pretty huge year for games, between GTA:V making a billion dollars in what seemed like minutes, The Last of Us kind of blowing my mind, and easily the most venomous and catty lead up to a launch that I have ever seen... And I've just had to sit there and read it all, unable to comment or give an opinion (apart from Twitter, but I'm pretty sure all but 4 of my followers are bots). It's frustrating, to have nothing but free time but nothing constructive to use it on. Well, hopefully that can change now and things can get back on track!

I plan to get back to the old routine: The big news as it happens, articles, reviews of what I've played (with some slightly older reviews of stuff I played whilst the site was down), and HOPEFULLY videos.

Pretty much my main adversary on the video front at the moment is the internet. A while back a friend and I recorded some Starcraft replay commentaries and it was taking me upwards of 6 hours to upload a 15 minute video. It's really that bad. I'll work on it, but until then I'm just happy to have a website again.

Yay!

Fillion's triumphant return!

Public Service Announcement: REMINDER - NEW XBOX REVEAL TONIGHT AT 6PM (GMT)

I hope this isn't news to anyone, but Microsoft are going to be revealing their new Xbox 360 follow-up tonight at 6pm at a huge press conference in Seattle. There will be no shortage of streams on the internet at twitch.tv and at most of the various bigger game websites (Giantbomb will be my site of choice), and it's also being streamed on the Xbox Dashboard. I won't waste any space here talking about the rumoured features and announcements, but what I will say, is that it's best to get ready early. Get prepared for around 5:30pm, find a site you like that has a nice stable stream and set up camp. So often you wait until event time and then struggle to find a stream that runs well for you and before you know it you're 15 minutes behind and you've missed some important stuff. Treat it like the massive occasion it is and get there early. Thus concludes your friendly reminder. It's a big day folks so just sit back and enjoy it, we really don't get many of these!

Xbox Press Conference On May 21st, Early Rumours Are In

Microsoft have announced that on May 21st, they will be revealing the future of the Xbox brand. At a press conference to be streamed online, on American television and through the Xbox Dashboard. The earliest rumours suggest a November launch and 2 pricing models, 1 a £300+ version and 1 a £100 version if you also sign up for 2 years worth of Xbox Live. It will allegedly play blu-rays and its rumoured "always online" functionality won't be as bad as everybody is making out. Either way, get excited for May 21st!

Mark it on your calendars!

'Skyrim: Legendary Edition' Coming Out On June 7th

If you've held off on buying skyrim for 2 years, then not only do you have the patience of a saint, but also it's your lucky day! A mere month-and-a-half from now you'll be able to buy Skyrim complete with every patch, every extra and every piece of DLC included for a mere £40. One of the best games ever made, and well worth double that price based purely on value for money, this is a must-get if you didn't catch the game the first time. If you're worried that Bethesda will just go ahead and put out more content for the game after you get it, no worries there, because they've stop work on the game to create whatever their next project is. A complete package, and soon to be at a bargain price. Just get it, alright?

Can't wait to buy this sucker for myself!

Americans, Order Pizza From Your Xbox!

Coming today to an Xbox near you, a new app that will let you order from Pizza Hut straight from your Xbox's Dashboard! No word yet whether the app will roll out to other parts of the world, but unsurprisingly, the American market is the first to see it in action. I know there aren't enough ways to order pizzas nowadays, so we wait with baited breath for news of its imminent UK arrival, lest we all starve to death!

Actually, now you mention it, for some reason I could well go for a pizza right now...

'Batman: Arkham Origins' Is A Thing That's Happening... On October 25th

Yep, a new Batman game is well on its way, and is being handled by a different studio than the previous 2. Taking place before the previous 2 Arkham games, but not an origin story for either Batman or Arkham Asylum (confusingly, considering the name). The game will tell the story of 1 night in Gotham in which 8 of the world's best assassin's all come to town to try and kill Batman. The game will feature such bad guys as Black Mask, The Penguin and Deathstroke and will take place in, for the first time, a Gotham city filled with citygoers going about their business. It all sounds pretty cool, but the real clincher is the game's director, Eric Holmes, whose previous game credits include the dumb but ace Incredible Hulk: Ultimate destruction. The kind of pedigree you want behind your open world superhero game. There are a handful of screenshots for the game that have been released via Game Informer, so have a look at the gallery below for what I think are the best ones.

The Cancelled 'Star Wars 1313' Was Going To Be About Boba Fett. My Tears However, Have Not Been Cancelled.

As you know by now, LucasArts has closed down. The production company responsible for the majority of the games you've ever seen with anything 'Star Wars' in the title and also, famously, some of the classic adventure games (Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion etc). One of the most prominent (and promising) titles the company had in production was Star Wars 1313, set between the prequel trilogy and episodes IV-VI and taking place on Coruscant (the city planet), the game was going to follow a set of smugglers, though the 2 main characters' mission was always a little unclear. Well, it turns out, one of those smugglers was going to be Boba Fett, with the game most likely serving as an origin story of the bounty hunter we come to know him as. As a Star Wars fan pretty much from birth, I feel pretty comfortable telling you that writing that sentence almost gave me an erection.

The thought of a Boba Fett origin story, set in the game LucasArts were creating is mind blowing to me. The tech alone had people salivating, and the fact that the game wasn't going to be able to feature any 'force' at all was a truly exciting thought. You add to that mix it being the birth of Boba Fett the bounty hunter and... I think... Yep, there's that erection. I live in hope that this will somehow come to fruition some day, but I fear we will never see what is easily one of the best pitches for anything I've ever heard. I'm genuinely a sad little boy right now. Take a look at the trailer below, and remind yourself that "Here's what you coulda won!"

The Final Fantasy Series Reaches Number 3 In Classic FM's Hall Of Fame 2013

Every year Classic FM (a well known classical focused radio station here in the UK) holds its annual Hall Of Fame voting. Listeners can vote for 3 songs/soundtracks they like and the votes get tabulated to create the top 300. Last year, video games did quite well in the chart, with Dragonborn (from Skyrim) and Aerith's Theme (from Final Fantasy VII) making the list, the latter even breaking the top 20! This year, 3 video game soundtracks made the top 300 (individual tracks getting clumped together as soundtracks from series now), with 2 of them being in the top 5!

Grant Kirkhope's score for Viva Piñata came in at number 174, a tremendous achievement considering this score wasn't even really mentioned during the online "Get Video Games into the Classic FM Hall of Fame" Facebook campaign. It just sort of appeared in the top 300 out of nowhere, and is a much deserved entry and dash of recognition for Grant Kirkhope. More startlingly, breaking into the top 5 were the Elder Scrolls series (embodied by playing Dragonborn from the Skyrim OST) at number 5 in the chart, and the Final Fantasy series (represented by Aerith's Theme from FFVII) in at a remarkable number 3.

Hopefully this will give video game music more of a platform to show its quality, 2 entries in the top 5 is almost unbelievable, and that should show people that this is an art form that we can be proud of. Listen to Aerith's Theme below and revel in Nobuo Uematsu's excellent composing work. Congratulations Nobuo.