The Xbox One Reveal, as it happened

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Broadcast live from Redmond, Washington, the Xbox One was revealed to the world at 18:00 GMT on the 21/05/13.

Here’s a timeline of what went down, including the key figures and features that were shown off.

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18:00

The reveal begins with a video featuring Stephen Spielberg and J.J Abrams, as well as a large number smiling people.

They’re talking about the very you-centric console that’s about to be revealed – one that will make you have a relationship with your television.

18:03

Don Mattrick, President of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, takes to the stage and welcomes the crowd of laptop wielding games-folk. He introduces an “all in one entertainment system” that is ” Simple, instant” and “complete.”

18:07

“Xbox One” is revealed as the name of Microsoft’s new console.

Discarding the rumoured “Xbox Infinity” or “Xbox 720”. The name revelation was followed by some pretty detailed close ups of the very shiny console, controller and kinect, accompanied, of course, by some high tempo ‘wow’ music.

“All your entertainment, All in One,” reads the screen.

Image Credit: extremetech.com

Image Credit: wired.co.uk

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18:09

Yusef Mehdi, Senior Vice President at Microsoft, is welcomed to the stage. He describes how to “always ready and connected” Xbox One will switch on instantly at the words “Xbox on!”.

The Xbox home screen will remember what you have been recently doing, and a trending section is demonstrated, showing what’s popular with our friends and the community.

The interface is familiar, but the new features seemed a welcome addition to the applauding crowd.

18:12

Voice recognition is used to command the Xbox One to instantly change what it’s doing, alongside the controller, Kinect and Smartglass working together to improve and innovate control.

Users will be able to perform two activities at once, such as browsing the web while watching a film, using simple arm movements and ‘snapping’ activities together. But whether the new console really will have the technology to allow these to work as seemlessly as Mehdi demonstrates will be a massive question on every potential buyer’s lips.

18:14

Mehdi interacts in a seemless and high quality Skype call with his team mate, DJ, while in ‘snap mode’ (While he’s watching Star Trek and addressing an audience of millions). Using what he calls the best living room camera available, it seems the online video call experience could be improved greatly by the Xbox One.

Image Credit: ibtimes.com

18:16

In keeping with the rest of the US-centric sports features of the Xbox One, Mehdi commands the console to “watch ESPN” and shows how users will now be able to watch key clips from games. Pointing to awards ceremonies and political debates, Mehdi makes a good case for the Xbox One’s potential in having users interact live with TV.

18:17

We’re also able to use voice commands to navigate through TV guides, so losing the remote won’t be a problem anymore. Although losing your voice might be.

18:19

Marc Whitten, General Manager of Xbox Live, comes on to discuss the mechanics behind the Xbox One.

He demonstrates the incredibly fast operating system, the intricate connections between the many controllers, the inclusion of a Blu Ray drive and the console’s ability to run almost silently.

The next generation of Kinect (including face recognition that will allow the system to load your personal save file) was given an impressive demonstration, including claims that it would have greater recognition of body parts as well as a heart beat sensor.

It also seems Smart Glass will play a big role in controlling the Xbox One to its optimum ability, which could prove controversial.

18:26

Whitten goes on to discuss Xbox Live. In order to create “living and persistent worlds” Microsoft will be providing 300,000 servers, making the number available for the 360 only fractional.

Achievements will also become more dynamic, he claims, focussing not only on what we do, but how we play.

18:28

Executive Vice President of EA Sports, Andrew Wilson, takes to the stage to talk about Ignite, EA Sport’s new game engine, designed to blur the lines of fiction and reality. While the details aren’t clear, an array of high profile sportsman including Jon Jones (a martial artist, not to be confused with Jon Jones, Exeposé Online Games Editor!) talk about the importance of mental immersion in sports that will hopefully be translated into EA Sports games.

Wilson ended with a preview of FIFA 14 that is being developed exclusively for the Xbox One.

18:36

Phil Spencer, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Game Studios is introduced. He is keen to promote the Xbox team’s commitment to providing exclusive features and games, securing 15 unnamed exclusive games in the next year, of which 8 are new franchises.

He also shows trailers for Forza Motorsports 5, which consists mainly of random close ups on car parts, but looks good nonetheless.

18:40

Spencer then reveals the trailer for Quantum Break, a new game from the developers of Max Payne and Alan Wake, that focus on the effects of the player on the world and events surrounding them.

Image Credit: gameinformer.com

He stresses the Xbox One’s provision of new experiences. While the trailer doesn’t reveal anything in game play terms, the inclusion of real recorded clips alongside the ability to change the virtual world around you could be more fun than they let on here.

With more titles in development now than there ever have been in Xbox history, variety seems to be key.

18:42

Nancy Tellem, Head of Xbox Entertainment Studios, comes on to introduce the Xbox One team’s mission to transform television. According to Tellem, the console will be able to provide recommendations with “amazing” precision, and make the television experience more personal and immersive.

While she doesn’t go too far into the intricacies of this, the importance of television as part of the Xbox One experience is apparently integral. Confusingly mentioning the Halo series, Tellem invites General Manager of 343 Industries, Bonnie Ross, to the  stage.

18:44

Ross pays tribute to the Halo universe and its potential for storytelling. She then surprisingly announces the controversial concept of a live action Halo television series, introducing none other than Stephen Spielberg to talk about his involvement.

18:46

Spielberg appears on screen speaking about his love of games. He describes the Halo universe as having potential to be at the intersection between the silver screen and the more physically interactive worlds of video gaming.

18:48

Tellem returns to introduce a “game changing” partnership with America’s National Football League. The following sequence shows Don Mattrick describing the benefits the technology of the Xbox One can bring to watching live sport.

While this doesn’t look great for UK sport fanatics just yet, there is certainly room for innovation later.

18:51

Mattrick returns to the stage to say that the Xbox One is a “must have” all in one system for every living room that will be available, wait for it… At some point this year.

18:53

Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, is welcomed to the stage, with the ominous Call of Duty: Ghosts masks floating on screens behind him. He speaks about reinventing the franchise, with a new world, narrative and cast of characters.

18:54

A behind the scenes look at the work of Infinity Ward, the developers of Call of Duty: Ghosts is played.

Big time director, Stephen Gaghan has been brought in to help devise a narrative, and the game is said to be centred around the remnants of the US forces, and their dog, operating in an America crippled by terrorism.

Realism is improved: we’re able to lean and slide, the maps are more interactive, and the fish even move when you swim past them!

Character customisation, along with new maps, will improve multiplayer games.

Image Credit: mashable.com

18:58

Hirshberg claims this will be the most beautiful, character driven and emotionally engaging Call of Duty game ever made.

18:59

A comparison video is played between COD: MW3 and COD: Ghosts to demonstrate the radically improved. We can even see the hairs on people’s arms!

The jungle map looks particularly impressive with the innovative technologies Infinity Ward have employed.

19:00

The world premiere of the trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts is broadcasted, and can be found here.

With some stunning looking maps, and a big eared dog running around with you, it’s looking to be a successful addition to the Call of Duty Franchise.

19:01: The event ends with a countdown to the E3 Expo, when more will be revealed!

Image Credit: indianexpress.com

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Gemma Joyce, Games Editor

Inglorious Contempt: Why hasn't Quentin Tarantino won the Best Director Oscar?

Benjamin Lewis launches a passionate defence of Quentin Tarantino’s brilliance and explains why he thinks that it doesn’t matter that the writer/director still hasn’t won the Best Director award at the Oscars…

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If I were to ask you to name me one director off the top of your head from the last five or ten years, who springs to mind? Maybe it’s Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park), Peter Jackson (The Hobbit) or James Cameron (Titanic)? What about Quentin Tarantino? An enigmatic and divisive, yet brilliant auteur. But despite an array of nominations and awards from many festivals, there is one glaring absence from his collection, which has meant that, in an official sense, he has been unable to join the upper echelons of directors.

I am indeed talking about the Best Director award at the Oscars (an award that all of the aforementioned directors have won).

Tarantino has twice been nominated for Best Director, in 1995 for Pulp Fiction and in 2010 for Inglorious Basterds. However, both times he lost, to Forrest Gump in 1995 and The Hurt Locker in 2010. On both occasions, Tarantino should have won.

I will embrace my position next to Tarantino on the Academy’s blacklist for saying this, but it is a fact. This is not to detract from the quality of either film, but especially in the case of 1995, Pulp Fiction was effectively the only choice; heavily stylised, it has numerous references to pop culture, a non-linear structure and memorable dialogue. Not only did this set the foundations for Tarantino’s own later movies but it would significantly impact other films, too. As Moviemaker Magazine later wrote, it was, “Nothing less than a cultural phenomenon”. This is a declaration that you would find hard to apply to Forrest Gump, despite its repeated references to cultural crazes.

So why then have the Academy not deemed Tarantino worthy of Best Director over the years? If we look at his four most critically successful movies according to Rotten Tomatoes and overlook Reservoir Dogs due to it being his directorial debut, the other three were all nominated for Best Picture and/or Best Original Screenplay (Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained) and two for Best Director (Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds). Of these, the only two awards Tarantino won were for Best Original Screenplay for Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained. Why is this?

The unfortunate fact is that the Academy is a tight-knit group, who are incredibly political and hostile to outside threats posed to the established status-quo of Hollywood by unorthodox people outside the clique producing unconventional films. According to a recent demographic investigation by the LA Times, the collective is 94% white, with a median age of 62, and 77% male.

If we bear this in mind, the failure of many non-conformist, unconventional and extreme films in the eyes of Academy to win after their nominations makes perfect sense. This is seen clearly with Tarantino, whose handling and choice of extreme violence, an abundance of aesthetic blood and sensitive subject matters, so intrinsic to his style, are also responsible for the catch-22 situation he finds himself in.

Perhaps a brief comparison of Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump is in order. Forrest Gump has a formulaic and linear plot, has a less gritty and overt portrayal of violence, is less stylistic and also less relevant to the time in which it was made. Pulp Fiction is the complete opposite to this and other movies, which cater for the tastes of the Academy. This is most evidently seen with the boring, patriotic, already forgotten Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – a film rightly rated poorly and yet nominated for Best Picture due to its subject matter and creation with the Oscars in mind.

Ultimately, it is my belief that it is Tarantino’s lack of Best Director confirmation that is not only testament to his directorial brilliance, but to his moral worth, too. It is the very unconventional characteristics of his style that are so frowned upon by the Academy – disdain of cinematic convention and aestheticization of violence – that have earned him so much popular and critical acclaim and success. In refusing to change his cinematic style or beliefs in order to be judged more deserving by his colleagues and contemporaries at festivals, he only further cements his standing as an inspirational director.

Benjamin Lewis

Agree or disagree with Ben? Why not join the debate about Forrest Gump, Tarantino and the worth of the Oscars in the comments section?

Awards Season Review: Lincoln

So it is awards season, that time of the year when directors and actors have been biding their time just waiting to unleash their most prestigious ‘Oscar Gold’. Lincoln is just that. The criteria is all there: a famous figure played by an imperious lead actor, an experienced and established director pulling all the strings and a crucial social issue that glues it all together.

Image Credit: BBC

Unsurprisingly, it is the most nominated film at the Academy Awards and it is set to pretty much clean up. Does it deserve all this praise and credit? Yeah, again, pretty much.

Spielberg has not made it easy on himself. To take on a biopic of Lincoln’s life is no easy feat. If it were to be from start to finish of his life it could not be done. Too much happens that would require so much devotion, even in an entertaining film. Instead, Spielberg focuses on one of the most important times in Lincoln’s life, passing the Thirteenth Amendment. This period of about two months is perfect for the screen as it creates a tense political atmosphere, with the backdrop of the American Civil War. It’s a historical filmmaker’s paradise and hell.

Anyway, enough history. The performances are astounding. In the acting world you can’t really say Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) without everyone in the room going weak at the knees, and I apologise to both Hugh and Denzel but when you come up against Day-Lewis you are in for some heavy competition. He is truly astounding. The amount of work that he put into the role is obvious as he mimics meticulously as many aspects of Lincoln’s personality as possible. His oratory skills in huge speeches and small conversations, his domineering height and stride and his dogged determination to end the institution of slavery are all portrayed to the smallest detail.

Day-Lewis is a complete tour de force and every scene he is in has the audience glued to his every word. Despite Day-Lewis’ stand-out performance, it is the more subtle work of the supporting cast that bolster the film’s success. Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men) is charismatic as the abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens. I found that some of my favourite scenes did not involve Lincoln but were actually the moments when Lee Jones was having a political ‘yo mama so fat’ contest with the pro-slavers in the House of Representatives. Sally Field (Forrest Gump) as Mary Todd Lincoln is tragic as a grieving mother and a frustrated wife in the shadow of America’s most loved president. She adds the personal drama of Lincoln’s life outside the cabinet meetings.

The result is that the story goes along quite nicely, balancing out the internal and external drama of Lincoln’s life. The audience is given an entertaining portrait of a charismatic figure and a detailed look at the Civil War era that is fascinating. Yet at the same time, for a non-American audience, there are moments that can be hard to swallow. It is of course very self-serving and often overly aware of its powerful performances. Historically speaking not all is there, Lincoln did free the slaves but it makes no mention of the fact that he advocated sending freed slaves back to Africa after they were free, nor does it really highlight how cruel and devious Lincoln could often be when he wanted something.

These are small things but they can annoy people, especially those enthusiastic in history. Overall, Spielberg has done a top notch job, creating an inspiring and vastly entertaining biopic of an undoubtedly important and great historical figure.

My Rating: 4  Stars

Alex Phelps, Online Games Editor

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