MS unveils Project Scorpio details - the 4K Xbox coming later this year

Microsoft had to endure a barrage of criticism due to the Xbox One being less powerful than its rival's PS4, but it's coming back with a vengeance. With Project Scorpio we'll enter the 4K gaming era, and it's arriving later this year.

Sony PS4 vs Xbox One

Sony finally unveiled its new PS4 at E3, and it seems like Microsoft will have to do some serious re-thinking about the Xbox One. (Sorry for not going into much detail, but having to stay up well into over 4AM in the morning to watch the E3 presentations live takes it's toll - though you can check out the posts I wrote in Portuguese about the Xbox One at E3 and the Sony PS4 and hope Google Translate won't make too much of a mess of it - although you can simply skip to the bottom to watch the game videos. :)

I'll do just a quick recap/review of the most important aspects:

• Xbox One - available in November for $499, region locked, requires internet connection every 24h, used/lent games will be allowed (or not) to the producer's discretion.
  
• PS4 - availble for $399, no regions, no internet connection required for offline games, disc games can be resold, given away, etc.

Tough I currently have both a PS3 and a Xbox 360, and am slightly biased to the Xbox (I admit it), I have to say that MS really has a tough road ahead. Looks like Sony really pulled the right cards and trumped the Xbox One in nearly every (all?) aspects. Not everything is perfect, as the PS4 will also require you to pay up for the "Plus" subscription in order to play multiplayer games - much akin to Xbox Live Gold subscriptions. But at least you can still use a PS4 as a game console, taking it with you wherever you want and being able to play (offline) games - while on the Xbox, if you happen to have an internet problem for a week... you won't even be able to spend your days playing games!

Then there's the price. A $100 difference is quite substantial, even more when the PS4 has the edge in raw graphics power (what matters most to gamers). And although the Xbox One includes the new Kinect - which has really amazing capabilities - you can also add the new PS4 camera and still have enough money left to buy some extra game.

Sony also played the right cards when it comes to indie developers, showing that the PS4 will have not only the latest blockbusters and some amazing exclusives, but it will also have lots of original indie games to cater for a substantial larger gameplay variety. And coming 2014, it will also have the Gaikai streaming game techonology.


It will be interesting to watch how MS will react to Sony's PS4 now that the cards are on the table. Will it buckle to the pressure and reconsider its offering? Or will it play it trough, betting gamers won't mind the extra $100, the outdated "region" system, the more restrictive used game policies, and last but not least... the nearly constant internet requirement.

Even worse for MS, it seems that the Xbox One Asia's launch will be delayed substantially, something that would make it even easier for Sony to take a hold in that part of the world.

Being a long time Xbox fan, I can't help but feel kind of sad seeing MS potentially ruining all the reputation built by its Xbox over the years. At the very least I would hope to see the Xbox One and PS4 going at it perfectly balanced and keeping the status quo. As it is right now... I'm afraid there will be a lot more former Xbox users jumping aboard the new PS4 than PS gamers considering the jump to the opposite site.

The Xbox has bet too much into being a TV media center replacement... and forgot the rest of the world won't be able to take advantage of many of those features - and that many gamers don't even care about that  should they have it available.

Microsoft Unveils Xbox One

As promised, Microsoft has finally unveiled the next Xbox, that won't be called Xbox 720 as some were counting on but goes back to the beginning, marking a new era: the new Xbox is the Xbox One. The presentation felt kind of weird - leaving more questions than answers, and showing just about what was already expected - leaving me (and other) wondering why MS decided to do this at this moment, when it ends up promising to show much more less than 3 weeks from now on the Xbox event at E3.

So... what can we expect from the new Xbox?

Xbox Live Account Migration to Other Countires Finally Possible

It might have gone unnoticed by many... but it's a common cause for concern for all those that change countries and would like to take their Xbox 360 with them. The problem isn't carrying the Xbox around, but having your account permanently tied to the country you first registered with. Maybe Microsoft forgot that at least in Europe, it's quite common for people to hop around different countries... and can you imagine having to start all over again after having your Xbox live account filled with achievements and content you bought over the years - that's unnaceptable, and you can find lots of complaints about it in forums all over the internet.

But finally, Microsoft is now allowing us to change the region of the Xbox Live account.

It's still not perfect, as some restrictions apply (although those are quite acceptable I think), but the worst part is that you may lose access to content you had already bought and paid for - particularly, movies and such - and if you have subscribed Xbox Music pass, it will be immediately cancelled, meaning you won't be able to hear even the musics you've downloaded!

Well... at least you can now change countries and take your Xbox live account with you. Having this done, we can now focus on the next "issue": making every type of content available for everyone, no matter what country or region they're in. After all... isn't that what the internet is all about?

New Xbox 720 with Kinect 2 and VR Glasses?

Looks like we're about to have a field day on Christmas 2013. According to a leaked document, Microsoft is not only working on the successor of its acclaimed Xbox 360, but also on a next gen Kinect and... digital glasses as well! (Although those Fortaleza Glasses will only be out later, in 2014 - and Fortaleza being another Brazilian city, just like the Natal codename Kinect had.)


As for the technical details for the Xbxo 720, MS seems to be considering Blu-ray support (still to early to go fully digital I guess), native 3D and FullHD 1080p output, concurrent apps, "always on" mode, and additional sensor and peripheral support. 
Performance is expected to increase 6x, thanks to a 6 or 8 core ARM/x86 Cores at 2Ghz, as well as a backward compatible PPC 3-core CPU for Xbox 360 games. As for RAM, we can expect 4GB, which should help it to live through its planned 10 year life cycle.
Harder to achieve may be the expected $299 price point... but one must consider just how much hardware has evolved - making it a lot less expensive to have a multicore CPU, RAM and a powerful GPU on board.


In any case, the most interesting tidbit might be the digital Fortaleza glasses, that shows that MS is actually taking this technology quite seriously - and that Google might want to speed up their Project Glass. ;)

How to Fix Forza 4 Marketplace Error

If you're an avid racing fan and have an Xbox 360, then you'll know Forza 4 inside and out by now. This amazing racing game puts you behind the wheel of cars of all makes and models, from cheap every day cars to the most exclusive and unaforddable ones.

Even better, every month a new expansion pack comes out, offering even more cars (if you have a season pass, you can get most of them for free).
Usually, the process is quite simple: as you enter the game you'll receive a message that there's new content available, you head up to the Forza Marketplace, select it... and it's done.

However, sometime you might get the following message instead:

MARKETPLACE ERROR Failed to download required marketplace data

And no matter how hard you try, you can't get past it and gain access to the new packs.
Considering the new April Alpinestar pack is out today, some of you might be getting severely frustrated if you face this error.

Well, it seems there is an easy fix, provided by Turn10 studios themselves:

• Delete season pass -> go to HDD -> games and applications > Forza 4 -> delete season pass
• Delete season pass -> go to HDD > clear cache
• Start up the game and re-download the season pass. You should be promoted to download it again automatically
• If not then access the marketplace section of the game and download it manually
• Once that has downloaded it should start the content download automatically

Hope that helps!

[Update: thought that was the end of it, but with the May Top Gear Pack the problem is back... and now it doesn't work even with this technique!]