IGNITE blends new technology with the best rendering, run-time physics, animation, intelligence, locomotion, and online systems from across EA into one powerful, new engine. Athletes will possess human-like intelligence for advanced decision-making, players will have the agility required to change speeds and directions with true athletic motion, and living worlds will make the game experience as rich and dynamic as real-world stadiums and arenas.

“Through years of investment and innovation, we have built technology across EA to create a game engine that will deliver stunning accuracy, realism and experiences that we previously could only dream about,” said Andrew Wilson, Executive Vice President and Head of EA SPORTS. “With IGNITE and the power of next generation consoles, our games will come alive—with more authenticity, more emotion, more connectivity, and more fun.”

Athletes in EA SPORTS next gen games will be able to make intelligent decisions with human-like reaction times. IGNITE computes four times more calculations per second than previous consoles, unlocking nearly infinite potential for how players think, and enabling them to make more difficult decisions faster. Players are alive with contextual awareness and instincts—thinking, anticipating, and reacting—just like real athletes, and players are conscious of their environment. In FIFA 14, for example, a player’s sense of urgency increases as the match draws on and a goal is needed, rushing to take a free kick, corner, or goal-kick if time is running down.

IGNITE will deliver the dynamic movements and biomechanics of the world’s best athletes. With 10 times more animation depth and detail than previous consoles, and thousands of new sport-specific animations to drive new locomotion systems, players now plant, pivot and cut, quickly change speeds, and shift momentum with the agility and explosiveness of superstar athletes, to make you feel more in control than ever before playing the game.

EA  games for the next generation will have stunning accuracy and visuals. By creating living worlds, the in-game environment is now as dynamic as real-world stadiums and arenas that change throughout a match.  For the first time ever, 3D crowds and dynamic sidelines will impact the experience, and rich sports atmospheres will change organically based on the progress of a match.  Player actions will change depending on the situation, and crowds will have an expectation of how a game is likely to play out, and react accordingly.

Videogame developer and publisher Crytek has welcomed the unveiling of Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, reiterating that their CryENGINE 3 technology is equipped to start creating software for the system now.

Crytek recently became an officially licensed provider of middleware and tools for Xbox One, and will support the platform as well as equipping CryENGINE 3 licensees with the advanced toolset required to achieve their own games for the system.

“We offered assurances over two years ago that CryENGINE 3 was ready for the next generation of consoles, and time has revealed that promise to be true,” said Carl Jones, Director of Global Business Development at Crytek. “As developers begin to create new games for Xbox One, our technology and unparalleled support will ensure CryENGINE 3 users remain at the forefront of the industry now and well into the future.”

 

Holy Toads!

Crytek’s CryENGINE 3 is used by licensees around the world to create blockbuster hits and popular online games, and is the first all-in-one development solution that provides multi-award winning graphics, and all necessary game systems and tools, out of the box.

For all things Xbox One stay tuned to Einfogames.com

Lets take a closer look at the first set of  Xbox One games that were announced during the live streaming.

• “Forza Motorsport 5” is a new racing experience. Forza has become one of the most popular and well-developed games for racing fans or others who aren’t as familiar with this genre. Forza Motorsport 5 arrives along with the “All in one system” itself, the Xbox One. We have yet more to look up to for Forza in the Xbox One.

• “Call of Duty: Ghosts” plans its success by giving us a little more than what we would expect in a COD game. Activision and Infinity Ward took advantage of using the new engine shown at the Game Developers Conference back in March. Call of Duty takes a big step forward into the next generation by improving state of the art graphics on the next-gen consoles such as lighting, character details, and amazing gameplay. Ghosts introduces a bigger dynamic set of maps that the player taking environmental advantages on the battlefield can change the flow of the map instantly and constantly. This is a great addition to the Call of Duty franchise and to the gaming industry as well. Many FPS fans look forward to its release in November 5th and just like the past CODs, Xbox One will get DLC content and other exclusive content first on Xbox One.

• “EA Sports” in general is willing to make a change, not a drastic change, but a change different enough to make sports fans look at their favorite sports game a bit different. EA promises on giving players a more immersive way to play where players could have more control over their team or player, with more enhanced motion and better looking graphics due to next-gen. FIFA 14 was especially in the light spot due to the Ultimate Team announcement.

• “Quantum Break” goes beyond the boundaries of gaming by connecting the game with the show and vice-versa. Quantum Break brings dramatic and decision-making gameplay to bring players a more immersive edge in actually caring about what the characters think about each other as well as what happens to them. Both, the show and the game will be impacted upon what happens in either one of them which is truly a unique type of genre, as you know Defiance does this concept as well, yet Xbox One is making it an exclusive and a new experience to Xbox gamers.

• One of the best announcements in the Xbox One event was the all-new Halo Series. With the help of award-winning filmmaker and director, Steven Spielberg. No launch date was announced, but it does seem very intriguing as this live-action TV series comes along in the new trilogy we are getting from 343 Studios in the following year.

• “NFL” is by far the entertainment that the new Kinect had connected so much with during the Xbox One event. From having complete control of various applications at once, to digging deep for your fantasy team. NFL on Kinect doesn’t just follow your fantasy team but also keeps track of anything they do, as well as comparing it with other teams or players. Kinect offers this great way of enjoying your favorite sports and keeping in touch with whomever it is you want to follow.

Trailer looks awesome, though I can’t help but notice Batman did utter a peep. It makes me wonder if there may have been a change in voice acting. Do you think Kevin Conroy will reprise his role as the Dark Knight? Or is something fishy going on? Let us know in the comment section below!

And just for the heck of it check out a few screenshots of the new game!

As you can imagine since Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes is coming to the Wii U the game will of course take advantage of the new console by adding some exclusive features and they even made a trailer out of it.

The trailer itself shows that the Wii U version of the game only has three uses for the gamepad so far. The game will have the usual Wii U features of having the map on the gamepad as well as using it to select which character you want to use.

You can have a second player jump in and play on a second gamepad without needing to use the TV screen or if you want use the gamepad alone to play the game using the gamepads off-TV mode.

So if still don’t own a copy of Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes but you do own a Wii U then come May 24^th now you can

Travellers’ Tales listen its okay not to have your game on every console. We don’t mind, really. This game is already on the Wii which is convenient when you consider that you can play Wii games on the Wii U .

The Xbox One is a chunky beast and conforms to the traditional box console design, it has to be said it’s not going to win any awards for looks. However the tech demo which followed the unveil could answer why the Xbox One is such a well built piece of kit. A built in upgraded Kinect comes paired with every console and runs off an 8 core GPU which makes multi tasking seamless. The phrase intelligent T.V was thrown around and during the demo of Kinect’s new power we could see why. An industry first Xbox One will break the parameters of device separation now gamers can control both the TV and console with their voice as well as multitasking with the one television screen through the Xbox Snap feature. Gamers can browse the web watch TV and even search for online games while playing another and will do so in the bat of an eyelid all at the one time. The speed in which this new machine operates is truly next gen. Coming packed with a 500 gb hard drive and 8 gb of RAM the Xbox One will remember what players last did on the system and makes jumping back into where you left off as simple as saying X-Box on.  The independent console specifications can be viewed here.

Xbox Live will also be getting a revamp not only will MS points be disappearing but achievements will be returning and will be more descriptive than ever. Players who have built up an impressive gamer score need not worry either as current Live prescriptions will carry over on to the new system.

A new trending tile has been added to the Xbox Dashboard that will let gamers access the most popular content worldwide. This tagged with the Xbox Guide a fully cross device service which serves as a customisable TV guide makes the Xbox One impressive from an entertainment point of view. It was also announced that Xbox Live will now be running off 300,000 dedicated servers that’s double the current amount we currently have on 360. This only points to the emphasis cloud gaming is going to have on the industry in the next generation, this paired along with the promise of bigger game servers with more players than ever before is a mouth watering prospect.

EA where the first to take to the stage in terms of game footage. They announced a new Ignite gaming engine that all 4 of their next gen titles currently in development will run on. Fifa 14, Madden 25, NBA 2K14, and UFC will all include “True player motion, Human Intelligence and Living worlds.” The demo which followed showed some impressive footage from each of the titles along with some star studded commentary from the likes of Lionel Messi and Robert Griffin 3^rd. Player movement looks more realistic than ever arenas and crowds are bigger fully 3d and more believable the very decisions NPC’s make are more accurate in game that is sure to please hardcore sports fans everywhere. The last announcement from EA was perhaps the most profound as Fifa ultimate team is now an Xbox exclusive one of 15 to come in the first year of the Xbox One’s release and no fewer than 8 of these titles are new IP’s.

Speaking of new IP’s we got a glimpse of Quantum Break although no game play footage the trailer consisted of some visually stunning cut scenes that hint at an all new action adventure. Forza in traditional fashion announced the 5^th instalment in the franchise as Xbox’s answer to Gran Turismo and will be available at launch. The game looked to run smoother than ever and graphically the game could melt retina’s some of the tracks on show where as close to life like as I’ve seen.

When 343 Industries made an appearance on stage a lot of us held our breath. No it’s not Halo 5 at launch however the news they did bring was almost as good. A new live action series of Halo is being created by none other than the legend that is Steven Spielberg and will be available first on Xbox One. Although maybe not the announcement we wanted there is a clear intent of Microsoft’s to spend money on ensuring their community are given high end and constant content something that the next gen crowd can all benefit from.

Finally what gaming conference would be complete without gaming juggernaut Call of Duty making an announcement. Call of Duty Ghosts will have DLC exclusively available first on Xbox One. This shows a massive statement of intent from Microsoft to put a stranglehold on the online multiplayer market. Let’s face it that agreement didn’t come cheap but regardless of how you feel about the COD series it is nice to see a company spend big on its product to ensure their community the most elite content. The game itself was running in real time on The Xbox One system and boasted an all new plot that is being worked on by screen writer Steve Gaghan, whose most notable work is “Traffic.” Again an encouraging sign as maybe now COD developers have listened to the negative feedback regarding the dreaded six hour campaign.

All in all the Xbox One reveal was a little short on new game footage but did show the console running and a sample of the power the console will operate at. Microsoft took a different approach than Sony in their event as was expected but as what is almost certain with any of these events there is now more questions than answers. Released later this year t The Xbox One looks set to take on Sony’s PS4 on all fronts and as an undecided party I can’t wait for one of them to win me over.

Xbox One- Architecture

• 8-Core CPU
• 8GB memory
• 500GB hard disk drive
• Blu-ray drive
• Wi-Fi direct
• USB 3.0
• 1080p wide camera

One rumour that did prove to be accurate was the built in new and upgraded Kinect. Now Kinect runs in true 1080p and with all new levels of depth and perception and with the new power of the Xbox One running such a device multitasking takes a matter of milliseconds.

Xbox also showed their new controller which along with your face the new Kinect also recognises the new pad which opens the many more options for gameplay innovations. The pad itself is almost the duplicate of the 360 pad with a revamped battery pack to make the pad more accessible to gamer’s hands of all ages. It also boasts more accurate precision D-Pad and analogue sticks another interesting upgrade is that feedback will be sent directly from the triggers.

Throughout history different forms of entertainment have been blamed for what goes wrong in the world. In the 1920′s, ragtime and jazz were the blame and why the youth was corrupted back in that day. In the 1960′s comic books were said to rotten your brain. In the 1980′s, the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was formed to, in a nutshell, sensor and label “unfit” music. In the early 1990′s, three men were wrongfully tried and convicted for a murder they didn’t commit. What these three fellas enjoyed in their free time was listen to heavy metal music, and read Stephen King books.

So, now, we get to my point. What we are seeing in the early 2010′s now is video games are the new form of entertainment that gets the blame when something drastic happens. Unfortunately, there have horrific tragedies this past year in Auroa, Colorado and most recently the Sandy Hook shooting. And, unfortunately, people need something to blame, and of course, politicians, the media, they don’t want to put blame on the individual. Or an organization that aligns their back pockets with money. No, they can’t do that. So, what’s a form of entertainment that’s popular and has nothing to do with them? That’s where video games, and violent video games in particular come into play.

The United States Vice President, Joe Biden, has mentioned that he sees “no restriction on the ability to do that, there’s no legal reason why they couldn’t” tax violent entertainment. Obviously, there is. The First Amendment protects video games in that why, because it is art, it is a freedom of speech. But, without trying to get to political, it’s obvious that over the years the law of the land doesn’t really get followed. So, the Vice President of the United States saying something like this isn’t the least bit surprising.

I’ve mentioned this many times, and other video game writers have beat this to death, but these politicians continue to bring it up. It’s so silly that these topics have come up pretty regularly when there are many other important issues in the world. But, again, video games are an easy target because video games, or rather, video game companies aren’t buying politicians. Politicians aren’t gaining from video games, so they have nothing to lose by trying to ban them or tax them.

Now, will this purposed “sin tax” on video games go through? Probably not. There have been a few bills over the past few years trying to restrict violent video games, ban violent video games, putting a label on video games much in the way a label is on cigarettes. So, more than likely, I wouldn’t think this will go through. It’s just the idea and that this is actually talked about is the most frustrating thing about it. Slapping a “sin tax” on violent video games is just a ridiculous notion. Buying a violent video game isn’t endorsing mass murders, and it doesn’t mean you’re a bad guy.

Just have a little common sense. Look at the statistics. Murders and crime rate have gone down as video games continue to get bigger and bigger. Look at Japan, look at South Korea. Two countries that consume violent media, that love video games, aren’t going around shooting each other up. Video games aren’t the problem.