Xbox One Tour- Dublin

Fingleberries

Failsafe's description of the event was pretty much spot on, I'll just add some of my impressions of the games as well.

FIFA
Visually stunning, the presentation is done really well on this the stadium (Nou Camp) was gorgeous with individually animated people, the player likeness is amazing for the big name players (although their faces don't animate much, so the eyes look a bit 'dead' - not much of a problem when playing but in the replays it just seems off).

The Audio was amazing, as you can even hear the away fans chiming in from their end of the stadium.

It's an absolute blast to play and ok it's FIFA as FIFA always is, but there are a few nuances that make it better. More intermediate animations for the players trying skill moves. The ball moves really well and sometimes the slightest deflection can take the ball just out of reach of your keeper (who'll try to swing a leg at it even though he's committed to diving the way the ball was originally going.

I'm glad that I'm getting it free with the Xbox next week. Definitely my favourite on the night.

Killer Instinct
I'll openly admit that I couldn't remember any of the moves on this from playing it on the N64, so the fights descended into random button mashing (on one of the consoles without the Mad Catz fight sticks). My review might be a bit coloured by that.

The level of detail on the levels and players was impressive, and the speed of movement and responsiveness seemed OK (I think). The characters seemed a little 'jaggy', but that might be from playing on a huge screen from about 6 inches away.

I was underwhelmed, but it'll be a free download so I'll give it a second chance on launch day.

Call of Duty Ghosts
They had two different sections for this One with a regular multiplayer and one with Extincion. I played on the Extinction one and it was good fun - Call of Duty meets horde mode meets Left for Dead. It took a while to get into the game because someone had played inverted controls beforehand.

The graphics were good (but not great, as Eamon Dunphy would say) definitely more detail than on the 360, but it still looked like Call of Duty. Frame rate was fine, there were no dips that I could see and that's with some amount of action going on-screen, and overall it was good fun to play.

Ryse
This was only a demo of the Colosseum level and one looked nice, it was really quite pretty visually, but it was all about the button mash, rinse (or should that be Rynse) and repeat. If this was aiming for the quick flow combat of the Arkham games, then it was sorely missing. It had the technique of a smartphone fighting game.

That said, it was a small demo and not indicative of the campaign or multiplayer, so I'll hold off on being critical.

Kinect Sports
The was genuinely really good fun - the wave racing 'preseason' that will be available at launch. It was very responsive and any time I crashed it was because I had steered incorrectly and had gone into the choppy sea that the tide would carry my into the mines or something else. It was very competitive and good for a laugh.

During the races there were also the 'ghosts' of Major Nelson and Aceybongos going around the track with you.

Battlefield 4
Very good looking game - especially compared to CoD that was just across the hall. It ran really smoothly and played really well and was good fun in the multiplayer map. The Kinect 'lean' was well integrated, very subtle and very natural.

Forza
Words can barely describe how beautiful the cars look in this game. The level of detail is amazing and to keep it flying along at that smooth pace is really something to behold. It's full of little things that really put you in the game - e.g. in the cockpit view of the car, as it is sunny you can see the reflection of the top of the dashboard on the windscreen.

The game was a one lap demo of Laguna Seca with a selection of five cars. I had a couple of goes because on the first go all the assists were switched on and all I was doing was essentially moving from left to right on screen so didn't feel like I had any real control over the car (accelerate, brake, etc.)

For the next go, I switched off a few of the assists and felt much more in control of the car (at least if I went out of control it was my fault and not because I was battling what the Xbox thought I 'should' be doing at that point).

After the lap, when they show you your car, I genuinely felt guilty for the damage I had put on it (it looked really real, very expensive and would take a lot of time to repair).

Other Games that were there, that I didn't play:
Dead Rising: This looked amazing - the amount of stuff on screen was crazy. All sorts of Zombies and weapons combos. From looking at it, it would almost make me want the game (after the lacklustre DR2 that we just got for free).
Zoo Tycoon: Looked OK, but probably too complex a game to play properly in that setting.
LocoCycle: The 16-bit intro looked jarring compared to the other games (which you don't mind if the game is fun)
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood: This looked interesting, it was an early version, but could be a really good game when it comes out.
Just Dance: It looked like it could have been fun (If that sort of thing is your bag, baby) and at one point I saw four people having a go on the same screen, so might be a good demo for the Kinect.
Crimson Dragon: It looked graphically impressive and very reminiscent of the Panzer Dragoon games (maybe with Starfox thrown in), being mostly on rails until a boss battle.


Now to the Hardware:
The console itself isn't as big as I thought it was going to be - I had it pegged at being the length of a standard BluRay player. It's not that long and a little bit higher. I'll age myself by saying that it looks about the same size as a 3DO from back in the day (but rectangle, not square like the 3DO, if that makes sense)

Actually, I think what the evening highlighted for the design is that it is really aiming for subtlety. You don't notice that the machine is there under the TV, it's like a stealth games console that it's only when you look for it that you'll actually see it otherwise it happily goes on doing it's own thing.

The Controller was very comfortable in the hand - light, but not off-puttingly so, and responsive. I had to learn to take it a little easier in the FPS games, because like Failsafe I had always had the triggers slightly pressed when playing on 360 and there's no need for it on the One. All the buttons felt natural and were responsive. There wasn't much need to test the d-pad, so I can't say much about that.

The rumble triggers - I'll hold of on judging those. It was interesting in Forza when driving along the kerb, but when the assists were on, the braking was automatic and the rumble kicked in and it took me out of the game.

The Kinect worked well in the environment it was given and was responsive enough in the Kinect Sports demo that we played. It seems smaller than the Kinect 1.0.

PharcydeXP

any spare tickets anyone??

deathrider

Had a blast at this today. I enjoyed Lococycle. It's a silly little game that reminded me of the PS2 versions of Spy Hunter with a touch of Pursuit Force. Ryse was boring and clunky. I'm not a fan of the Dead Rising games, but I had a lot of fun with the third one today. Peggle 2 does exactly what you'd expect.

The main attraction for me was Killer Instinct. I spent most of my time playing that. It's tons of fun and it's easy combo system makes it very pick-up-and-play.

MarkY91

was it just me or did the LG's have horrible lag input and bad ghosting today? avoid avoid avoid as a gaming tv!

Thor

MarkY91 wrote: »

was it just me or did the LG's have horrible lag input and bad ghosting today? avoid avoid avoid as a gaming tv!

Weren't they all Samsung's. Unless some of them were LG's.

Didn't notice any issues with input lag.

MarkY91

Thor wrote: »

Weren't they all Samsung's. Unless some of them were LG's.

Didn't notice any issues with input lag.

upstairs at least was LG. not too sure about downstairs. on dead rising 3 and battlefield i noticed horrible lag input. could have been just that particular tv though

tony1980

MarkY91 wrote: »

was it just me or did the LG's have horrible lag input and bad ghosting today? avoid avoid avoid as a gaming tv!

I have seen many threads on forums about the LG having awful input lag. Samsung are supposed to be the best make for gaming, I use a Philips myself and have no issues with it.

shuffles03

Do I need to print my ticket or can I just show it on my phone?

Fingleberries

shuffles03 wrote: »

Do I need to print my ticket or can I just show it on my phone?

phone was enough (for me yesterday). You +1 has to sign in though.

ArklowHoop

Fingleberries wrote: »

phone was enough (for me yesterday). You +1 has to sign in though.

Any freebies to be had at it at all?

Celly Smunt

Ended up getting in without the invitation or anything.Just walked by and the place was empty so i was let in (around 1:30)

V9

Went up to it yesterday afternoon. Good craic, for what it was. I was interested how the current gen games handled on next gen hardware.

Battlefield probably did the best of the lot. Graphically cleaner and smoother ( I found the 360 version a graphical cluster ****.) The pad was perfect for the game. Will probably need to adjust a few sensitivity settings to suit myself but thats minor.

Ghosts was pretty much the same, in my opinion. Graphically superior and cleaener but generally handled the same.

Ryse I couldn't take to at all. I will probably prefer the single player mode in it, but that demo on the floor was very meh.

Forza was beautiful as expected. Made good use of the rumble triggers. I will pick up the game at some point.

Fifa is fifa. Again, visually beautiful.

Dead rising 3, when I was playing it, suffered with some frame rate drops when it got intense, but other than that, pretty good. Ill get it on launch day to give some variety in my games.

As far as the hardware goes, its big, but I wouldnt mind that. The kinect responds at very close range in battlefield which is handy. The pad is delightful,. An absolute gem to use. Light, precise and solid.

I would have liked to mess about with the dashboard but I will leave that til Friday. All in all, its a great console, I enjoyed using it and look forward to Friday. I will be very interested in the second wave of AAA games that come out next year, they will tell what this box can do

FAILSAFE 00

trabpc wrote: »

Was there. Well organized. Did not think much of Xbox itself graphically. Did the games look that much better than the 360?

honestly I did not think so...

Cod bf4 looked no more impessive than on 360. Maybe side by side comparison would show more difference.

Little disappointed tbh

I turned on my 360 to play Ghosts after playing it at the event the other day and I have to say the XB1 version looks far better, lighting, textures etc. I haven't played BF4 on the 360 but others at the event were saying how much better the X1 version looks from the 360 copy they have.

Royale with Cheese

Went along on Thursday night. Was pretty underwhelmed to be honest. Played Forza, Fifa, Battlefield, CoD. They're all just sequels with slightly better graphics, and the jump in visuals isn't all that great either. The battlefield map they used was a bit disappointing. Close quarters combat, no vehicles. Wouldn't be rushing out to buy this console on the strength of any of them.

Also played Ryse, was a bit simplistic but then again it wasn't the full game they were demoing. Killer Instinct, I remember playing this on the snes as a kid but it ain't my thing at all really.

I'll pick one up up eventually, but not anytime soon I wouldn't think. Maybe I'm just getting old, these days I mostly use my 360 for watching tv/films on. GTA V is probably the only game I've bought in the past year.

greenman09

Anyone need tickets I have an email and it inc the + 1. Not able to go now

Fingleberries

ArklowHoop wrote: »

Any freebies to be had at it at all?

Nowt. I had thought maybe a T-shirt or something, but left empty handed.

FAILSAFE 00

Fingleberries wrote: »

Nowt. I had thought maybe a T-shirt or something, but left empty handed.

has someone said in party chat last night,

You get a free HMV catalog
Cant believe they were giving away nothing.

deathrider

In fairness though, the event itself cost nothing to attend, so it's all one big freebie really.

Benzino

Was also at the Xbox One event event today, it was a nice setup, though disappointed not to see Need for Speed or Assassin's Creed at it. Anyway, here are my thoughts:

Console & Kinect: While the console is big, it's not as big as I expected. Likewise for the kinect. I felt the systems at various points throughout the day, and I don't think there will be issues with over-heating this time round, they never felt hot or like they were struggling. I also couldn't hear the console but of course it was not a good environment for checking that aspect out.

Controller: The controller feels fantastic, from the moment my friend and I picked it up, we both said it felt like it was moulded for our hands. Fits perfectly, and feels great. The triggers are very responsive, and the rumble feedback was very nice (however, it seemed only Forza used the rumble on the triggers, didn't notice it on any of the other games). The sticks are noticeably smaller than the 360, but the grips along the side make them very easy to use and adds a nice feel to them. D-Pad was not used by many games, I do feel like these are still not perfect, and perhaps games like Gears might highlight this (I found the D-Pad on the 360 to be very annoying when playing Gears online).

Overall, a great controller. I also got a chance to play the PS4, and I think in this new wave of consoles, people do not need to worry about the controllers. They both feel fantastic to use and are improvements over their current-gen versions.

Killer Instinct: Not a huge fan of this genre, so no point in discussing the game-play, seemed like the standard affair compared to similar games I have played before. However, the visuals were disappointing in my opinion, a lot of very noticeable aliasing around the characters. Honestly, looks like it could run on the 360.

Dead Rising 3: The game I was must looking forward to playing and was left disappointed. The number of zombies on screen is fantastic, they have have done a great job in that department, however this was at the expense in the graphics department. It doesn't look great, certainly not "next-gen", and if it wasn't for the amount of zombies on screen, I would have thought it was a current-gen game. There was a lot of noticeable frame-rate drops too.

What's more disappointing for me is, that despite my love of all things zombie related, I just could not get into this game at all. It feels like it's lacking something. Perhaps the fact that you can get attacked and biten by zombies numerous of times without dying takes away any sense of danger? I mean, in this game you willingly go into a horde of zombies without a second thought, in any other zombie game you try to avoid them if at all possible. There just seems like a complete lack of danger/consequences for your actions in this game.

Forza: Sim racers are not my thing, and this game hasn't changed my opinion on them. It does look great, by the far the best looking game on show, and it made great use of the rumble triggers. I do think sim racer fans will enjoy this, although it doesn't look like they have brought anything new to the genre. In saying that, the demo they had was terrible, it only let you do one lap, which meant I spent 50% or more of the time with Forza just looking at a loading screen. Bizarre decision to only allow 1 lap.

Battlefield 4: Well this is just like most of the other battlefield games, the graphics did look good besides the odd texture flickering here and there. It also ran smoothly for me, did not notice any drops in frame-rate. I found precise aiming to be very difficult, adjusting the sensitivity helped. I also noticed my character would lean left or right every now and then. It was only after I had finished the game that I was informed the Kinect was detecting my stance, and if I leaned to the left, my character would also. Perhaps the Kinect was tracking my head and adjusting my aim based on that too? I would hope this is a feature you could turn off, as it might get annoying after a while.

Cod: Not much to say really, plays like CoD and looks like CoD. Nothing new here. It did confirm to me something was up with the settings on BF4 however, as aiming was much easier in CoD. Oh, I also noticed no drop in frame-rate, ran smoothly for me in multiplayer.

Fifa: Played this the most, again, the standard affair really. It did look really sharp, and had some nice effects such as the grass. Also played this on the PS4 today, they are both identical. If you like Fifa, this won't disappoint you.

Ryse: Ryse looked good, but it just felt like a bit of a button basher. The demo took place in an arena with endless amount of enemies spawning. The animations and attacks were good, some of the finishers were great to watch. But it got repetitive and boring fast, truth be told.

Peggle 2: I don't even know why they had this here, looks like Peggle on an iPad connected to a TV.

Kinect Sports: Enjoyed this, found it detected my movements without any issue. Can't say the same for my mate, although I think his hands were partially out of the camera's view.

In the end, the console and the controller themselves are good, but the quality of the games is average to say the least. I've a launch day Xbox booked, but I'm gonna see if any mates want it otherwise I will cancel. There is simply no reason to buy an Xbox One at this stage, none of the games warrant spending €500 to play them, especially when most can be played on current-gen systems.

Superfint

Lads, question for anyone who has attended this so far - are they strict/asking for ID?
My mate lost his passport & just has his social welfare card as ID, will that be enough with the email? Hes 26 so doesnt look young.
We are ment to be going up tomarrow evening,dont want to travel up to Dublin on the bus for nothing.

ferrigan101

Superfint wrote: »

Lads, question for anyone who has attended this so far - are they strict/asking for ID?
My mate lost his passport & just has his social welfare card as ID, will that be enough with the email? Hes 26 so doesnt look young.
We are ment to be going up tomarrow evening,dont want to travel up to Dublin on the bus for nothing.

I didn't take my ID on Thursday and had no problem. In saying that though, I'm older than 26! I did see a couple turned away for not having ID, but they did look fairly young.

I'd say you'd be grand, so long as your mate doesn't look too young.

Superfint

ferrigan101 wrote: »

I didn't take my ID on Thursday and had no problem. In saying that though, I'm older than 26! I did see a couple turned away for not having ID, but they did look fairly young.

I'd say you'd be grand, so long as your mate doesn't look too young.

Cheers pal. Yeah no he doesnt look young, its more so hes worried he cant prove he is the person on the eticket.
I asked them on the xbox.ie facebook page, havn't got back to me yet though.

The JMC

I'm gonna try and showup tomorrow morning. Does anybody have a pass with a +1 that they don't need? I'd be eternally grateful. Drop me a PM

markad1

I went along today and couldn't find my e ticket on my mobile. No problem getting in.

The JMC

markad1 wrote: »

I went along today and couldn't find my e ticket on my mobile. No problem getting in.

Good to hear, I'm up in Dublin tomorrow anyway so would hate to travel so far and not be let in.

LegoG321

I hope there isnt too much of an issue with ID cause my plus 1 has none listed:/

mark_m360

LegoG321 wrote: »

I hope there isnt too much of an issue with ID cause my plus 1 has none listed:/

We got to the door yesterday morning and were asked twice about having ID. My +1 forgot his. He is 24. But after looking like there could be problems, they let him in and he signed in.

I saw a few 17 year old looking guys turned away with their parent. 18+ is excessive. Their excuse was the games were 18+ but I counted at least 6 games that were not so.

markad1

They should of had a family area. My young fella would have loved it. Sadly no demo of the media capabilities. I left after half an hour of sending pics to annoy the young fella:D

man of the trees!

Well lads has anybody got a ticket or a +1 they can give me today or email on. Desperate now hit me up with a PM.
Cheers

LegoG321

That was nice of them. My friend didnt end up coming with me, didnt want to risk it cause we're both 20 so it could be a little too close to not believable:/

mark_m360 wrote: »

We got to the door yesterday morning and were asked twice about having ID. My +1 forgot his. He is 24. But after looking like there could be problems, they let him in and he signed in.

I saw a few 17 year old looking guys turned away with their parent. 18+ is excessive. Their excuse was the games were 18+ but I counted at least 6 games that were not so.