Goodbye Old Friend

Welcome back gamers!

Today I will be taking reflection on what has been 6 years of owning an Xbox 360.

I got my very first Xbox 360 Elite in the summer of 2007 with FIFA (what else?), then 3 years ago this happened.

I'm not gonna lie, it was a sad day when this happened. But thankfully, that Christmas I was gifted a brand new one and it hasn't broken yet (don't jinx it).

I have owned many games over the past 6 years, but I've owned even less. There were so many games that I wish I played. Games such as Mass Effect and the Devil May Cry reboot. I have many hours of fun with this machine though and I'm sure that will continue with the Xbox One, maybe even more so.

Tomorrow (Friday) is the day I will be replacing the old with the new and starting a new journey.

Here is to another decade of fun, and at times frustration.

-3 Lives Left

What's On The Shelf?

Welcome back gamers!

I was racking my brain this afternoon trying to think of something I can give you in the build up to me getting my hands on the Xbox One on Friday. So I decided to give you a sneak peak of the games I currently own.

So here goes...

I know exactly what you're thinking: 'these are the only games you have?'

Indeed, these are the only games I have. The reason being is that I wanted to downsize my 360 collection in preparation for XOne.

 I also wouldn't blame you for thinking 'you own no Call of Duty games'? I used to own every Call of Duty game dating back to Modern Warfare, but after annual let-downs, which got bigger year on year, I decided to trade them all in a get some cash. I also believe that the Call of Duty series is finally being knocked off of it's perch with Battlefield 4 looking fantastic and plays great. However, I think that Titanfall will be the FPS to beat for the next couple of years.

I was waiting for years for any developer out there to come out with a decent Batman game, then Rocksteady got their hands on it, and it was awesome. I had absolutely no complaints about either Arkham Asylum or Arkham City, but I put that down to my bias. They were fantastic games, though. Until Rocksteady left and Warner Bros took over and ruined the combat system.

FIFA 13 & 14 are pretty self explanatory. I am a football fan and FIFA is the best football game on the market. Although, I will say that with each rendition there seems to be a growing number of problems, such as crashing, server connection and the infamous invisible ball/player bug. One thing I can say is my XOne will not be graced with FIFA 14.

Another self explanatory game is GTA V, probably the best game to ever be developed to date. The graphics push the console to the edge of its capabilities and the story line is great (with the exception of ending C).

Portal 2 was another great game. It gave me hours of frustration but it also gave me hours of fun. Who doesn't like listening to sarcastic, evil machines when trying to solve a puzzle?

To round up the other games: 

I completed Fable II. It was fun when I played it but traded in my original copy as it got pretty boring upon completion. My girlfriend then re-bought it and played it once.

I lost interest in Max Payne 3 quite close to the end of the game. That and I bought GTA and FIFA soon after. Bad idea.

Pure is poor, Lego Batman was awesome, never taken Sniper Elite out of the box, barely played Battlefield 3 and SplitSecond belongs to a friend, I let him borrow Far Cry 3, which was one of the best games I've ever played.

That's it guys, an insight into my games collection. Roll on Friday.

-3 Lives Left

Which Console Is Winning?

Hey folks, welcome back to 3 Lives Left.

So as you all should know the PS4 released in the US and Canada on the 15th of November, and Xbox one released worldwide on the 22nd and judging by 1st day sales it looks as though Xbox One is going to get a battering. According to CVG (see here and here) Xbox sold a total of 1m units on day one (worldwide), while PS4 shifted the same amount in the same time frame whilst only being released in the US and Canada. Sony are still 2 and a half weeks off of launching the console in their biggest market yet, Japan.

So the Xbox One not doing too great so far...

To top it off, Xbox are also running into a whole host of problems. CVG have reported that some Xbox One users are experiencing problems with Xbox Live whereby Online Multiplayer is currently unavailable and that users are also unable to redeem pre-paid cards and codes. However, these issues are only occurring in the UK.

IGN also reports that some users are are experiencing hardware issues whereby the console sticks in a loop of crashing and rebooting, as well as an issue with the disc tray in which the tray produces a grinding noise when a disc is inserted, however, the disc remains undamaged.

Hardware Problems
Software Problems

Could it get any worse for Xbox? ... I think it might do when PS4 launches this Friday in Europe, with Japan waiting in the wings.

It is early days yet.

- 3 Lives Left

Xbox One Tour Part 2: The Games

Hey people and welcome back. Today is a continuation of yesterday's post discussing the new Xbox One console.

After I have spoken about the games I will rate it HIT or MISS.

Let's begin.

FIFA 14. One of the bestselling games of all time and undoubtedly EA Sports flagship title. I am a huge FIFA fan, I've been playing it since FIFA 98. So it may come as a surprise to all of you that I'm actually disappointed with the next-gen version of the game.

The graphics are pretty much the same as the 360 version, some marginal pixel differences. The biggest change was probably how the game played. It felt very slow and the touches felt very heavy.

I think I will be waiting until FIFA 15 to get it on Xbox One. 

MISS

Ryse: Sone of Rome. From the people that bought you Crysis series and FarCry now bring you this great, gladiatorial IP that seems sure to on every shelf of every Xbox One owner, and if it isn't, then it should be.

Graphically it is sublime. I believe it is in full 1080p HD, something that Crytek studios expects for all of its games. It also boasts around 250 special execution clips when finishing off enemies.

One thing that really annoyed me was the fact the button combo's feel really repetitive, mostly using X, A and Y. 

HIT

IT'S BACK! 17 year after the last game the fighting game of all fighting games is back and is exclusive to Xbox One. I was thoroughly impressed when I played it. It was full of beautiful colours, wonderful gameplay, and a ton-load of nostalgia.

It was exactly what I thought it would be: Epic.

Only one question to ask: Jago, Sabrewolf, or Fulgore?

HIT

The feeling I get about this game is that it is finally ready to take over from Call of Duty. Everything was on-point, the spawn system, the maps, the guns, the graphics, the bullet drop, dedicated servers. Yes.

Even better news is that to match these super-huge maps, there is more than likely going to be a major increase in team size on multiplayer, going from 24 to 64.

The game mode on show, Domination, did seem to go on for ages as there wasn't a time limit applied. My guess is that it was just an event feature.

HIT

Where do I start with this game? Of all the driving games I have ever played, I think I would rather play Need For Speed Underground on my old GameCube. This game is simply awful. The only good thing about it is that fact that Top Gear do all the talking.

The cars felt heavy and clunky, the handling was pretty dire. The graphics were good though.

MISS

Undoubtedly the best game on show. Even though it I runs at a disappointing, native 720p (upscaled to 1080p) and 30fps (not 60fps) it extremely pleasant to play. The gameplay was so fun I had to play the demo at least 3 times and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I loved killing zombies with lightsaber's so much that it will be the first game I buy.

HIT

That is it for part 2 people. I hope you enjoyed, stick around for the next one. See ya.

3 Lives Left

Xbox One Tour Part 1: The Console

Hey guys and welcome back to 3 Lives Left. Today's post is dedicated to the Xbox One Tour.

I was lucky enough to be a competition winner for the Xbox One Tour in London. Here I will be talking about the games that were on show, and providing you with some very badly taken pictures (it was dark, okay.).

So here goes.

Note, I did say that they were badly taken photos. So this is the site I saw when entering the venue, and we were requested to use the hastag xboxonetour for the duration of the event.

One of the walls was covered with an Xbox timeline featuring the original Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Elite, Xbox 360 S, and finally, the Xbox One.

Here is the Xbox One up-front and personal. As expected it is a pretty big machine, as is the Kinect sensor, which came as a bit of a surprise.

And a better look at the console and Kinect sensor. I took the time to check out how hot the machine gets and it seemed pretty cool when I initially checked it, but upon further inspection the Xbox actually felt really hot on top. However, to be fair, the machines were probably switched on from 9am and were on all day.

This is the brand new Xbox controller. On first sight it does look a lot bulkier but let me tell you now that you would be wrong. It feels a lot better than the current-gen consoles. Less heavy, better analogue sticks, nicer feeling bumper and trigger buttons. The best thing for me is that they finally seem to have removed that hideous battery pack.

Bad news for all of you Turtle Beach owners out there though. The design for the headphone port as now been changed. Gone is the standard pin, it has now been replaced by a flat head. Hopefully Turtle Beach will release adapters for you guys.

The only disappointment's would be the newly designed directional pad (surely an obsolete design feature now?), that and the left bumper button felt a bit stiff.

That is it for Part One of the Xbox Tour. Stay tuned for Part Two which will be all about the games!

3 Lives Left