Most of us have fallen for the allure of Xbox Achievements at some point since their arrival with the Xbox 360. If you're still incessantly bumping your Gamerscore, the Xbox One July update's inclusion of Achievement Snap should be up your alley – rather than stopping your game to check progress, you'll soon be able to track real-time achievement progression with a quick glance to the right side of your screen.
Conquering overly-vague achievement descriptions or challenging feats will also be a bit easier, thanks to a "Get Help" option that will be offered under whichever challenge a user has highlighted. Once clicked, the prompt searches the web for helpful links and videos. You can pin the Achievements they're focusing on at the top of the snapped app, too.
The update will also allow you to launch Snap Center by double-tapping a button. Unfortunately, the Xbox Wire announcement doesn't specify which button that is, and only suggests to "double-tap the button on your controller." If you've already got an app attached, the same double tap will switch between controlling the app and whichever game you're playing. Language options for players in New Zealand, Ireland and Austria will be another addition, with players in those regions soon being able to use the English and German voice models from other countries if they better suit their style of speech.
Users will also be able to "Like" Game DVR clips and posts in their SmartGlass activity feeds, but more interestingly, the update's description mentions support for future digital bundles and compilation discs. This is described as something to grant publishers "options for great digital bundle and disc compilation offerings," with the post suggesting that we'll see "more flexible combinations of game titles and game content" as the feature is tested. Sounds like something that could be used to bundle pieces of DLC or base games together, hopefully with the inclusion of a reasonable price tag. Source: www.joystiq.com
Since the trailer was unveiled at E3 last year, little detail has been publicised about upcoming Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive. Last month, New Zealand Herald social media editor Paul Harper visited the Insomniac Games studio in Los Angeles to get a taste of what the open world shooter is all about.
It's 2027 and in Sunset City, beverage company Fizzco is holding a party to launch their new energy drink, Overcharge Delirium XT. Unfortunately you have to work as a cleaner so you miss the big event. However in the rush to the take the drink to market, Overcharge Delirium XT was not rigorously tested, and those who drink it mutate. The city is quarantined as the mutants, dubbed "OD'd", roam the streets. It's the end of days, but it is not your end of days. Where once you toiled, now you thrive. This is your awesomepocalypse.
There's no shortage of post-apocalypstic games on the market (they've been "done to undeath", as creative director Marcus Smith puts it), but while most take a bleak view Sunset Overdrive paints a different picture. You'll see no rubble in Sunset Overdrive, the developers told media in April. Instead, the game takes on the same stylised imagery seen in previous Insomniac Games (Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank). It's bright, vibrant and edgy.
Sunset Overdrive is a game which knows it is a game, and as such, it doesn't take itself seriously, frequently breaking the fourth wall. In true Insomniac fashion the arsenal of weapons is ridiculous. The TNTeddy launches teddy bears strapped to explosives, the High Fidelity gun propels vinyl records at enemies, while the Hover Turret is a handy fire-and-forget weapon - a toy helicopter with a firearm attached.
Sunset Overdrive.
A word frequently heard at Insomniac's Burbank studios is "traversal" - how you get around is a big point of difference for this game. It's a mix between Tony Hawk's Skateboarding, Jet Set Radio, and Prince of Persia; You grind (sans board), pole swing, wall run, bounce and zip-line your way around Sunset City. The city is a giant playground. Mastering the fast-paced traversal in Sunset Overdrive while using the fantastic array of weaponry is vital, as there's little taking cover. The cooler your moves and the faster your kills (ie. the more aggressively you play), the more your "style meter" will increase. Level up and you'll unlock "amps", which modify the way the player and the weapons behave - from firing fireballs from your feet, to rad mini-nuclear explosions coming from your automatic rifle.
As is typical in open world games such as zombie-shooter Dead Rising and GTA,Sunset Overdrive features a main mission as well as side quests and challenges. In the slice of the game media played last month, the protagonist is tasked by fellow survivors to take out a radio tower. On the way we're confronted by several of the games enemies, most commonly the OD'd - the mutated people who drunk the Delirium XT. Enemies also include scabs (human survivors killing for loot), mutants with objects fused to their bodies (eg leaf blower), Fizzco's robotic security force, and incarnations of the Fizzco's mascot Fizzie (a giant Fizzie balloon greeted us at the top of the radio tower).
You can play as a woman or a man and dress however you wish - so all players can express themselves through the game. The punk rock-inspired creative directors argue that once the laws of a society are gone, social norms would go with them. All the rules would go out the window. Sunset Overdrive certainly embraces this idea.
Surprisingly, a highlight of the game is dying. There is no screen offering advice upon your demise, rather you respawn near where you died, dropped from a ufo or stepping out of a coffin zombie-style. It's super cool. You'll look forward to dying.
