New Xbox revealed - Xbox One

Well, the Xbox Reveal is now over and Microsoft has unveiled the next Xbox which is officially called Xbox One. The presenation was short and direct, and what we got was the systems new features using voice recognition, the console specs, and how it actually looks like.

Xbox One is Microsoft's attempt to make their system the center of all devices inside your living room. the all in one entertainment they say. Here are the console features:

TV : Navigate and watch live TV from your cable, telco or satellite set-top box through your Xbox One. This will be available in US at launch with other regions to follow at a later date.

Xbox On: Turn on your system using the two words.

Custom-tailored Home: Dashboard contains favorite games, TV and entertainment.

Snap: Do two things at once such as multiplayer, watching a movie, talking on Skype while watching live TV, or track NFL fantasy team on TV as you watch football.

Skype: Talk with friends on your TV in HD, and hold group calls.

Trending: See what is trending within the Xbox community or with your friends.

OneGuide: Find your favorite entertainment by searching via network, name or time, all with your voice.

After the neat features presented, the console specs were revealed:

8GB of DDR3 RAM

500GB hard drive

Custom AMD chip with 8-core CPU that is “four times quieter” than Xbox 360.

Blu-ray drive

HDMI 1.4 output

Three separate 802.11n radios.

WiFi Direct

USB 3.0

1080p and 4K supported.

7.1 surround sound

Kinect bundled with 250,000-pixel infrared depth sensor and 1080p web cam.

After much talk about the system, you'd expect lots of game announcements(well, I was). but that obviously wasnt their focus during this presentation. To really sum what showed up after the console revealing - Sports, Forza Motorsport 5, one new IP, then more sports, then Call of Duty: Ghost. And that my friends is all they showed..literally.

Forza Motorsport 5 reveal

Don't get disappointed though, right? like... we got Forza 5, and they did show us one new IP for the Xbox One called Quantum Break. Yey? Not much information was given except that the game will also have a TV series in tandem with the game, similar to the MMO Defiance.

Quantum Break trailer

Now, I was expecting more exclusives, or at least new IPs, but Microsoft did confirm that Xbox One will have 15 new IP's in the first year, 8 of which are completely new franchises. How I wish they announced some of them, but that's what E3 is for.

Behind the scenes preview

And as expected, after more sports talk, Microsoft ends the presentation with the reveal of a new Call of Duty coming to Xbox One. Who didn't see that coming?

Call of Duty: Ghost

Seeing the console itself right off the bat was exciting, but the whole presentation as a whole was a bit underwhelming.What was missing? I don't know, more games? Actual game demos? More presentation of the console's power? But I won't hit Microsoft that hard because the intention was clear -Be brief, get the console information/look out there, and prepare for E3. Yes, E3 is only a few weeks away so we should get our fix very soon. I'm sure it was intended to hold back on the one thing many want to see, and that is the games. Boring part is over, and it looks like the best part will be saved for last...I hope.

Microsoft is planning to release Xbox One later this year. No price point was given during the reveal.

Thoughts on the new Xbox? You can watch the full presentation by clicking the link.

Friendly reminder - The next Xbox will be revealed in three days

Just in case you missed it, Microsoft will be revealing the next Xbox on May 21 10AM PDT. A reveal of a new console is always exciting. PS4 was announced last February, and Nintendo has gone first with the next-gen race with the Wii U that's already available, now Microsoft is up next to show what they got and I'm really hoping it's not some Kinect integrated gimick.

You can get all the information right here, but if you're not up for doing one more click to get the information you need. Here's the important bits.

The event is scheduled to start at 10AM PDT in Redmond. Washington, and it should be around an hour-long. For us folks in the Philippines, 10AM PDT is actually 1AM on a Wednesday, May 22. So if you want to see the big reveal live, have a few more cups of coffee. If you're not in the Philippines, you can just check here to confirm when the event starts for you.

Now anything is up in the air to what the new Xbox will have. One thing is for sure is that it will be just as strong as the PlayStation 4. Will it actually be stronger? Well, I'll let the console fanboys duke it out when its official specs are shown. My worry though is that Microsoft might just integrate Kinect's features to their new console. How will that be, I'm just guessing, but I better not be forced to get a Kinect to fully utilize the console.

I'll be watching the event live on the net and will most likely be tweeting what I see like a madman through our twitter. I'll be updating this post once there are more sites or channels planning to live stream the event.

[UPDATE] - Twitch will have a  - http://www.twitch.tv/gametrailers

Metro: Last Light launch trailer

Metro: Last Light is finally out!...well for North America that is. A launch trailer was released for the sequel of 4A Games's Metro 2033. The launch trailer pretty much covers everything about Last light. The creepy underground metro system. The dead wasteland on the surface, and mutant-like monsters that always has an interest with you. Let's have a look at Moscow's post-apocalyptic wasteland shall we?

I actually want to play this game since I enjoyed Metro 2033 thanks to the game's atmosphere and setting. It's out in the US right now, but no word when Metro: Last Light retail copies are coming to the Philippines. Steam will have Last Light unlocked on May 17 in South East Asia. so it looks like we have to wait just a little bit longer until we get to control Atryom and walk around the underground metro.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Batgirl Trailer

So Batgirl's trailer is finally out. And while I'm not still completely diggin' the cowl on her but it looks better than I initially thought.

I'm getting a very 60s and 90s feel from this Batgirl. The 60s part being the colors on her costume. Purple was the main color of her costume back in the Adam West Batman days. Not exactly the best color for sneaking around in the dark but it's cute. The 90s vibe that I'm getting from her is that her gadgets seems to come out mostly from her gauntlets. Sort of like a kid's disc launching role-play toy. Her super is a bit on the goofy/cheesy side as well, at least before the spiked heel stomp.

From the footage, I can't tell how she'll play but she's got the Spider-man web swinging intro, that zipline move, and some ninja smoke bombs. I hope that her character power is different from Shazam's though. We've got enough electric fists.

Oh, and a new Joker costume is in the video too. I hope that the background music in the video is also included when Batgirl comes out.

Pick 5: What I Don't want to see in the next Xbox

Microsoft finally announced last week that the next Xbox they have been working on will be revealed this May. I'm sure a lot of people are excited to see the new console and what unique features it will bring to the table on May 21. It's definitely going to be in par with the PS4 in terms of power, so what will it have to make it stand out? We'll find out soon enough but for now, I'm hoping to not see a few things on the next Xbox. Subscribtion fees

Screw Xbox Live Gold membership! I mean seriously, you are the only one asking gamers to pay a monthly fee for a service that is given for free on other platforms. I've tried it for more than a year and it comes out a waste at times and I sometimes feel the need to just play an online game to make use of my subscriptions.

But I know Microsoft won't do it. They lived with this model surrounded by other platforms providing the same service for free, so it doesn't make much sense for them to remove it when they have a good amount of consumers still willing to pay monthly. Xbox Live is a good service, in fact, it's the best one, but you can't help but dream that one day Microsoft just might take pity on us and lifts the fee. But yea, I'll get off the clouds already. My only hope is that they provide something bigger than playing online or being able to use Netflix/huhu/UFC services. Give us a bigger incentive once we continue our subscription for the next Xbox.

Always Online

This is the nastiest rumor so far about the next Xbox and I'm praying it doesn't come true on May 21. An online connection always required to play and use certain services? That is not a nice feature at all. I hate always online. The constant need for an online connection would make the console unattractive in many ways for different consumers on other parts of the world. In the US, this would be fine, but online services are never up 100% of the time. There will be situations were the service could go down making millions unable to use their new investment.

Is this an anti-piracy feature? or is it a method to battle the used games market? Either way, thanks to Diablo 3 and SimCity's horrible game launches, we got a taste on how bad it would be with a service requiring an online connection at all times. It's one step backwards for the industry and will provide a lot of lmitations for players and bring out some challenges for developers.

Xbox and Kinect as one

Kinect was a gimick ever since it was revealed and was first called Project Natal. It's a great piece of hardware, but not practical in anyway for the normal gamer. Kinect was Microsoft's way of battling Nintendo's very successful Wii that captured most of the casual market, and believe me, that's a big chunk of consumers. But sadly, the only thing good about Kinect turned out to be the voice recognition and Dance Central. The worst thing they can ever do moving forward? merging them. Please don't.

You can tell Microsoft was struggling to keep both casual and hardcore happy with their purchase of the Kinect, but thats how gimicks work - They look appealing, but never gets used everyday. Nintendo struck gold with the Wii and this was Microsoft's strong but sad attempt to get a portion of the casual players. Never happened though, and Star Wars Kinect? Dragon Ball? It actually made things worse for the Kinect. Release after release, the titles were getting worse, and the famous titles were being recycled over and over. I consider Kinect a failure, and if I see some kind of merge within the new console and "you are the controller" peripheral. A huge facepalm from me will follow.

A different controller

Whatever gimick they have planned for the next Xbox, it better not be the reason why they would completely change the controller design. Among all the controllers in the current generation, Microsoft's Xbox 360 controller is the best one. It fits well in your hand when held and the buttons stay responsive even after months of use. This might happen since they did change the design for the 360.

Hopefully they stick with the same design with added small features and tweaks, just like what Sony did with the Dual Shock 4. But please, no drastic change like what Nintendo likes to do. And once and for all, make the new controller rechargeable? It's 2013 and I still can't believe I have a controller that needs either a peripheral or batteries to work.

Same old exclusive titles

This is the biggest problem in the Xbox 360 for two years now. No new exclusives, just sequels after sequels on already known titles like Gears of War or Halo. A safe play. Take some risks already, bring use different titles like Alan wake. Give us more reasons to get your system because Halo exclusives are not enough anymore, even if you put double XP as a pre-order bonus.

As much as I hate to say i, Call of Duty is one of the strongest titles in the system and its a mult-platform franchise. I want to see new titles from first party developers, because they will get hit hard this December because I'm positive Nintendo will dish out their Wii U first-party titles like a Mario game this year, same goes with Sony from what was shown during their event.

It seems that they know this and one of the rumors is Respawn Entertainment(Founded by ex-Infinity Ward founders) is rumored to have an exclusive next-gen title for the new Xbox. It will most likely be a shooter, but I'll take anything new at this point.

When May 21 ends, we will have a good picture on how the next generation will look like. From May 22 onward  it's all going to be about the next generation. The comparisons will start and more discussions will break out on the future of the industry. And with E3 days away, we will get more reveals and announcements on the new consoles.

This is turning out to be a pretty exciting year. So far, the games released during the first quarter is the best lineup to start the year, and with two new consoles planned for release at the end of the month, I don't know if we can take in all of this. We still have those Triple A titles coming this November as well. I feel like a little child again. This year will definitely be a great one.