The Truth behind Xbox One's second hand games.

Last night was a very interesting night. I thought I would be talking about the Microsoft Expo this morning, but I want to talk a little about what happened after.

Microsoft unveiled their new consoles by the name of Xbox One. A name I understand the choice behind but don’t believe it to be a good idea. The conference was to cover hardware only, so we got to see very little games, and no details on price plans etc.

Soon after the conference the internet blew up with rumors that they had banned second hand games or will now be charging for them.

The main 3 rumors was:

• Xbox will not playing second hand games.


• Xbox will force you to install games to your hard drive, you can then take your disc to a friends house. Install it to their Xbox and they become the owner. Once you put your disc back in your Xbox you become the owner and your friends copy doesn't work.


• Second hand games will work, but at a price.

All the big gaming websites have been reporting this for hours now and I've had a slew of people come flying in on Facebook telling me these rumors are fact. This left me with only one question, where did this information come from if it was a hardware event only?

Then in steps Microsoft’s Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) who writes on his blog

[quote]We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we've confirmed today. While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail.
Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios.
Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.
[/quote]

It looks like the rumor mill went a bit over the top last night and we can now all put down our pitchforks.

So where do we stand? At the moment both PS4 and Xbox One have confirmed you will be able to play second hand games. None of them have confirmed if there will be a price attached. Both Microsoft and Sony are at the same stage at the moment but it sounds like a lot of people have forgot Sony have also been vague about how second hand games.

The best thing we can all do is sit back and wait for Microsoft and Sony to tell us at E3.

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Good Guy EA to Discontinue Online Passes

Before I start I just want to remind you its not April 1st... this is not an April fools. I am even shocked writing the words “Good Guy EA”, but I have to tip my hat to them as this is really good news.

EA are to stop Online Passes... that's right. Even though EA has landed around $10 to $15 million in Online Passes alone they have decided to discontinue the service.

The report says they have seen a significant backlash and "We've listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward".

I for one have stopped buying all games that need an online pass , and I’m glad to see it has paid off.

Remember kids, we can be a vocal punch if we want to, and we can always vote with our wallets. Don’t forget that!

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The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

It was only last night that I was in bed talking to my partner about turned based tactical strategy games. The first thing I said was “You need to play xcom, its amazing”.

Then I wake this morning to find Irrational Games have been hard working on the new installment of XCOM by the name of “The Bureau: XCOM Declassified”.

When I watched the first trailer it look like the turned based shooter has just had its skins updated, but more I’ve spent looking into the game I’ve found it has had a complete overhaul.

Instead of the enemies waiting for you to take your turn, its now all done in real time and you play as one character and are free to fire and reload at will. You can still control your unit but instead of freezing time you simply slow down time allowing enemies to still move.

There is a handful of videos out there, but the one I’ve selected above its the best I’ve seen to explain a little more how the new style of xcom will work.

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Google Launch Play Games

Game Achievements is a big thing, some people use it as bragging rights, some others use it as a way to show completion of a game. I was addicted to achievements when I first got my Xbox but then stopped hunting for them. Don't get me wrong, if I know I’m 10 more head stomps away from an achievement I will seek out the dead and give them a taste of my size 9’s.

You can now find Achievements on Xbox, PlayStation, Steam and even in Apple's Game Center. So its not that much of a surprise that Google now have "Google Play Games" that is already being rolled out to android devices.

The new service will allow save games to be synced on the cloud, achievements, matchmaking, game invites and leader boards.

This then only leaves one area of your life you can't score an achievement... Nintendo? Why they have not found the need to do this I don't know.

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Minecraft meets the Descent - Must watch trailer

The first part of the above trailer reminded me of Minecraft if it had been injected with a billion polygons, I love how you could see your axe cut away at the trees, the character then enters a cave that brings back memories of playing Dear Esther... how nice the water looks, how beautiful the rocks lo... OMG What the hell is that.

This game shocked me a little but as I've never seen a open world horror game. That genre tends to been on rails a little simply because key scripted parts need to be triggered to get those all important scares out of you, but somehow The Forest has combined Crafting, Open world and Horror all in one great looking game.

And to top it all off the game is coming with Oculus Rift support.

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Telltales new Comic book game - The Wolf Among Us

Telltale games put their name on the map with the epic game The Walking Dead (Not to be confused with the mediocre game The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct).

Telltale did confirm they are already working Season 2 of TWD, but also said there will be a new game in between now and Season 2. With this news I couldn't understand how they could do another TWD in between Season 1 and 2 but that was because I wasn't thinking outside of the box.

They have confirmed they are now working on a new game that is taken from the Fables comic book series, but instead of adapting the story for the consoles/pc, it will be set before the series and following one character... Bigby Wolf.

The game will be called “The Wolf Among us” and is set for a Summer launch on PS3, Xbox and PC.

For more information see IGN's interview of follow #HOWL on twitter for the latest news.

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30 Minutes of Game Play from Beyond Two Souls

The creators of Heavy Rain have been working hard on the game Beyond Two Souls and we have not seen much more footage since the original trailers.

This week we get spoilt with a 30 minute playthrough... well 35:06 if you want to split hairs.

I myself have only skimmed some of this footage simply because I want to game to be fresh and new when I come to play.

From what I've seen the attention to detail on this game is mind blowing, and the characters are incredibly life like. This does mean that because they are very believable it will inevitably pull on my heart strings if any of them pass away.

Enjoy watching the video if you don't mind knowing what happens for a good 30 minutes of the game.

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Contrast brings new game elements to the table

With PAX underway there is lots to see and do. There has been lots of gems, but also lots of the same old generic stuff. For me the one game I've really enjoyed the look of has to be Contrast.

The idea is you play as Dawn who needs to help the young Didi explore the word of contrast using a very special ability. The ability to turn into a shadow and react with other shadows in the environment. The game looks like it will have some fun puzzles to solve that might force you to stop and think for a few minutes. Check out the above trailer or head over to the http://contrastgame.com/ to find out more.

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A little Kickstarter story of a 9 year old girl.

Kickstarter is fastly becoming one of the best ways to get your game off the ground. Crowdfunding is becoming bigger by the day, and I for one support it, but sometimes a project comes along that doesn't seem to fit the Kickstarter model.


The story starts with a Kickstarter page by the name of 9 Year Old Building an RPG to Prove Her Brothers Wrong! that was posted by a lady of the Name Susan Wilson.

The Project is for Susan’s daughter Mackenzie Wilson who is 9 to be able to prove her mean older brothers wrong and for her to attend a RPG STEM Camp so she can make her own game.

Now first off this doesn't seem to bad, Young girl wants to make a game... hell I’m even opening up my wallet right now to donate..

Well first off all, we have a project that shouldn't really be on kickstarter as pointed out by their Community Guidelines

The rules state that you are not allowed any "fund my life" projects Examples include projects to pay tuition or bills, go on vacation, or buy a new camera.

Mackenzie page states she has a Mac Desktop and a KindleHD but would like her own laptop, as well as $829 to cover the cost of attending the RPG Stem camp (Both things are not allowed via Kickstarter guidelines)

So at this point you might just think I’m saying this is a wrong simply because they broke the rules? Well lets go a little deeper.

Susan Wilson is not just a parent trying to use kickstarter to help her daughter, but she is in fact the Founder and CEO of The Judgment Group.

[quote]Named to this year's FORTUNE List of the Top Ten Most Powerful Female Entrepreneurs, Susan Wilson is Founder & CEO of The Judgment Group. A member of Ernst & Young's prestigious Winning Women Program, Susan is now completing her third year of a three year executive education program at Harvard Business School.

Prior to starting The Judgment Group, Susan was a founding member and the Executive Vice President of a technology startup that raised $12 Million in venture capital, became kinkos.com, and was sold in 2000 to the copy giant Kinko’s for $100 Million. [/quote]

Susan was even on CNN’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs list

Now credit has to be givent to Redditor Bro-jangles who pointed all of this out.

Bro Jangles has put his detective hat on and even looked up Susan on facebook and found she Won $1,500 on Roulette on spent in on shoes.

So at this point you might think this is a long way to go just to stop a young girl from getting her $829 goal, but this story of Girl VS Brother has been helped along with her mother using her twitter account send the same repeated message to many big names such as @venturingwomen, @WomenTechNews, @TechCrunch along with many more. This also goes against the Kickstart rules of “Spread the word but don't spam” and they point out spam is “Sending unsolicited @-replies on Twitter”.

The Project has now raised more than $21,498 with over 25 days left to pull in even more funding.

This is likely just the case of a mother trying to help her child break into the unforgiving world of gaming, but it definitely seems that she's going about it the wrong way if the mother is who she appears to be.

Source: Bro-Jangles’s Reddit post

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Wii U and Wii Mini's are not shifting like Nintendo hoped

The Wii U sales have started to slow, and reports are starting to surface that Nintendo’s profits was damaged by the Wii U. HMV have now dropped the £299.99 Premium edition down to £199.99 and also chucked in ZombiU with the package to help sell the units.

Also this week we found out the Wii Mini has made its way to the UK but retailers such as GAME have said they refuse to stock the items simply because of the underwhelming interest.

The move to make a dumb down Wii without its big features such as wireless and gamecube compatibility seems a crazy move, especially now that you can pick up an all singing all dancing Wii for £30 second hand.

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Steams Indie Spring Sale is now on

Around about this time of the month our wallets should just about be recovering from Steam’s Winter Sale, but just to make sure you don’t do something silly with your money they are now offering up the Indie Spring Sale.

The featured games are:

The Binding of Isaac - £0.99
Castle Crashers - £5.99
Half Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy - £2.37
10000000 - £2.67
Legend of Grimrock - £5.99
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - £6.49

But there are lots more to choose from... I’ve picked up the gorgeous looking Giana Sisters and will be looking through the pages for any other great deals.

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TimeSplitters Rewind has the blessing from Crytek

Good news for TimeSplitter fans. Back in 2011 there was talking of Crytek making TimeSplitters 4 but it was sadly postponed and fell into the blackhole of gaming, but thanks to the ever growing and dedicated gaming fans, it doesn't take long before someone creates their own game.

The best part of this news is the free game by the name of Timesplitters Rewind will focus on multiplayer and has even got the backing of Crytek. Assets from the Actual TimeSplitters game has even been given to the group for reference material.

To top it all off TimeSplitters Rewind will be using the super shiny CryEngine 3. For more info be sure to check out the groups fan page on facebook

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EA's Origin attack platform exploit

Reports are starting to surface that EA’s game platform Origin might allow hackers a gateway into your completer.

When surfing the Origin website you have several links that start origin:// that tell the software on your computer to complete an action such and launching a game, or uninstalling any unwanted ones. Hackers have supposedly creating custom url’s that trigger your computer to install malware that then will turn your rig into an attack platform.

This is not 100% confirmed but there is no harm in being vigilant and double check that any urls with origin:// in the address have in fact come from EA.

EA response to these allegations are as followed:

[quote]Our team is constantly investigating hypotheticals like this one as we continually update our security infrastructure."
[/quote]

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Free EA game for SimCity users

As we all know EA’s SimCity didn’t get off to the best start with its always online service that was rendered useless with their own servers being offline.

This issue has been quickly fixed but as a goodwill gesture they are offering a free game from EA’s catalog for anyone who activated their game before today (Today being 18th).

Its not been confirmed what games will be up for grabs but here is the statement from them:

[quote]Here's a quick update on the problems we were experiencing with SimCity – and a little something extra for people who bought the game.
The server issues which began at launch have improved significantly as we added more capacity. But some people are still experiencing response and stability problems that we're working fast to address.
So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.
OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. In the last 48 hours we increased server capacity by 120 percent. It's working – the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically. The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent.
So we're close to fixed, but not quite there. I'm hoping to post another update this weekend to let everyone know that the launch issues are behind us.
Something Special for Your Trouble
The good news is that SimCity is a solid hit in all major markets. The consensus among critics and players is that this is fundamentally a great game. But this SimCity is made to be played online, and if you can't get a stable connection, you're NOT having a good experience. So we're not going to rest until we've fixed the remaining server issues.
And to get us back in your good graces, we're going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio. On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game.
I know that's a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We're hoping you won't stay mad and that we'll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.
SimCity is a GREAT game and the people who made it are incredibly proud. Hang in there – we'll be providing more updates throughout the weekend.

[/quote]

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Nudity, Car Surfing and over the top guns.. can only mean Saints Row 4

Volition have put out the new trailer to the next installment to the crazy over the top shooter Saints Row 4.

I was a very big fan of Saints Row 3, from a distance the game looks like a cheap GTA knock off with silly childish gimmicks. Put once get your hands on that big purple dildo and streak around the city you realise the game doesn't take itself serious because its only about one thing, FUN.

A lot of games tend to try and be too realistic or try and push a mediocre story on to your, but a lot of developers have forgot that sometimes all we want is fun.

The above trailer has the following in its youtube description

[quote]"Saints Row IV™ - From the Crack House to the White House
The ball-busting next chapter in the Saints Row franchise, is starting a party in your pants this August.
Developed by Volition, Saints Row IV will launch on current-gen consoles and PC on August 20, 2013, in North America and August 23, 2013, in the rest of the world."
[/quote]

Nice to see another game I can look forward to before this generation of gaming ends.

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PlayStation 2013 Conference

We are not that far into 2013 but already I’ve found it an enjoyable one, is it for the games, is it for the Digital content? No... its simply for its rumors.

I love the rumor mill simply because it give me a lot to talk about with my friends. “Have you heard they are doing this” or “They might stop you from doing this”. All this type of news I take with a pinch of salt, well... a bowl of salt, but the reason I’m very excited today is alot of the Sony rumors will be put to rest some some cold hard facts.

Who is planning to watch the Sony conference at 6PM EST / 10pm GMT?

As much as I would call myself an Xbox fan I still can't wait to get to see some new hardware and I am even rooting for Sony as there is one thing I love and that's competition.

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Playstation Announcement Incoming!

It's got 26 onboard processors!
A graphics card that will make new games look better than real-life!
It'll even cook breakfast for you!

OK, so perhaps I'm over-doing the whole 'rumour mill' thing, however, we'll soon see (hopefully) what Sony have got up their sleeves in the coming few days.

On February 20th Sony will be dropping a video announcement relating to the Playstation brand. Is it the first peak of a new Playstation console? Or perhaps it's something to do with mobiles/the Vita? Maybe it'll just be another announcement announcing a show that will announce something.

The teaser video for the upcoming announcement can be found at the top of this article.

GamingUnity'ers, what are your thoughts?

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Nintendo Breaks Street Date for Fire Emblem Awakening in North America

Looks like Nintendo messed up an forgot to put a street date on Fire Emblem Awakening. I got a call today while working away that I could come and pick up my pre order. I was confused as the game is not due to launch in North America until February 4th. So I rushed down before my local EB Games store changed their mind. I was able to pick up my copy and my local store made the decision to call and have pre orders picked up. I have never known Nintendo in past history to break street date this is definitely a first. Check it out:

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Writers Wanted!

We're now more than halfway through January, and I'm sure most of you have noticed that over the passed month there's been a distinct lack of content on GamingUnity. There are a few reasons for this, but the main one has to be that we are a bit short on time. I have recently started a new job and need to concentrate on that to in order to understand the application my new company provides and how their estates run. As a benefit from this though, there are numerous things I am already picking up that will help me tweak GamingUnity to be more efficient and help me set up some extra services for us to provide.

As most of you will be aware, JurassicJunkie recently left the security of being employed full time to take on the interesting but not necessarily reliable world of free lance web design (with the hopes to also free up more time to work on GamingUnity, but alas... this is not yet the case).

Due to this we need to ask you, our community, for assistance. Have any of you ever fancied writing gaming news, blogs, or other literary treats? Perhaps you've been wanting to break into journalism but just can't seem to get anywhere to publish you? I'm not going to lie, as you know we are not amongst the bigger sites, who writing for would instantly land you global gaming recognition. Nor are we even able to pay you for writing (GamingUnity just about breaks even for our server costs). What we are able to provide is a platform to start getting yourself noticed on and to hone your authoring skills.

If you would like to get in touch regarding becoming a fully-fledged writer for us (have the capability to upload your own news instantly to the front page) then please contact us here. If you would like to submit an article for us, but don't want to write regularly, please use the "Fancy yourself as a writer?" link to the right, or click here.

We hope to soon be able to provide rewards for authors, so watch this space as well.

If you like the GamingUnity community and think that you could assist in other ways, please let us know in the comments below!

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What are you playing?

The weekend is here and for most people it means kicking back, opening a can of beer and gaming. Sadly for me it means going to the gym and trying to work off the 2012 weight that I gained.

Don't worry for me though as I’m sure I’ll make time over the weekend to get my daily fix of Borderlands 2.

I did enjoy Borderlands 1 but I wouldn't call myself a big fan, but after playing Borderlands 2, I can truly say I’m in love. Its not often I play every side quest in a game but I plan to 100% Borderlands 2 as I want every last drop of crazy action, great dialog and hours spent discussion weapon stats on xbox live.

So with the weekend here and most of us are now free from the shackles of work, we simply ask what are you playing this weekend?

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