E3 2014 Microsoft Press Conference Discussion

By DrunknMunky
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Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

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I was under the impression that they were working on Gears and some new unannounced ip. We shall see...

 

Gears for sure but that's why I asked, how big of a studio are they?  Maybe they can do two games, but if they're smaller then just Gears.

Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

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I was under the impression that they were working on Gears and some new unannounced ip. We shall see...

 

When Gears 4 was announced they gave the impression that the other IP was only a concept and now on the back burner. Specifically that Phil asked them to make something just for show at E3 last year.

 

Might be a while before we see it.

 

What was also surprising was their announcement that a new Gears game was in the works at Black Tusk Studios, especially since Black Tusk had shown a mysterious demo last E3 that was? well, completely not Gears-like. As it turns out, that was just a concept piece, and not an actual game under development.? The thing we showed at E3 last year, it was something that was done in Unreal and more of a concept piece,? Microsoft?s Phil Spencer told Polygon, calling it ?an asset? created by the team to get their creative juices flowing, not necessarily an in-development game.

 

http://gamingbolt.com/black-tusk-studios-e3-2013-teaser-project-was-just-a-concept-piece-a-game-under-development-says-spencer

Grand Master

Showan

Posted
Posted

I'll say it again:

This is what was demanded last year and MS delivered.

The only real issue is if you didn't like the games they talked about.

Why in the world would MS do what they did last year and take the same heat for another whole year?

 

 

I know, I sit a minority group who were all for what was originally shown last year (2013)...

 

The majority speaks, and the majority has gotten what they wanted...

 

I will always applaud a company for taking a chance... Even if the product is for me or not

Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

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From OXM:

 

Conker is back!

Conker will be released as a DLC character for Project Spark. Alas, a new Conker game doesn't appear to be on the cards. Still, perhaps that's an announcement for another day.

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

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From OXM:

 

Well, that puts that to rest, but I expect users to make Conker games in Project Spark this way.

 

And, heck I think we'll get a full game from MS later, I expect all the old IP to make a comeback. 

Grand Master

Showan

Posted
Posted

Another thing I miss is Xbox Dashboard interface.

I take it, you don't like "change" much...

I do love the blades of the 360 launch. But change also let's me know, that they are trying new things. The cool thing is, it's software and it can always be changed... For better or worse.... Or back to better...

Proficient

Brendeth

Posted
Posted

Some pretty cool stuff shown off, but to be honest I'm a bit let down.

All Microsoft had to do was announce bringing back more IP from RARE and they would have won the crowd over. I mean Viva Pinata 3, Conkers Baddest Fur Day, Perfect-er Dark, Banjo Three-ie, Who doesn't want those?!

Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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Just watched MS's conference that I DVR'd thanks to it being on Spike.

Hat's off to MS for doing it right this year. The focus on gaming was no doubt perfect.

As far as "Only On XBox One" games, I am most interested in...

  • Sunset Overdrive
  • Crackdown (WHAT!!!)
  • Forza Horizon 2
  • Inside
  • Scalebound

And honestly, I am not sold on Scalebound just yet. I know people worship Platinum games, with hack n slash games they are very much hit or miss for myself, so am reserved on that one. Every other game I am no doubt very into.

 

I dug the little montage with the ID program. Love a good independent game, and looked like there could be some good ones there.

 

As far as the other tiles I was most interested in, they were all multiplatform, so really a lot is going to depend on just how much secret sauce they have in fact unlocked thanks to freeing up the resources from Kinect. I have no allegiance to either console and am not swayed by who is playing what where, I will always go where the better overall graphics and performance are. So in regards to those other games that looked good, Tomb Raider, The Division, Evolve, AC: Unity, it all comes down to if they are the same from a specifications perspective as to if I will get them on the One or not.

 

There were other games I can see people being excited about that were just not my cup of tea (Fable Legends) for example, so they had a good showing from that perspective.

 

Finally, love the fact Forza 5 finally has N?rburgring, will definitely check that out soon. And pretty damn positive I will also be checking out that Dead Rising 3 DLC. Looked awesome.

 

So really damn good conference from MS. Total 180 from last year. Good stuff. Thanks MS, as now I no longer second guess picking up a XBox One at launch, and I no doubt did there for a little while, as recently as Titanfall tbh. 

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

Some pretty cool stuff shown off, but to be honest I'm a bit let down.

All Microsoft had to do was announce bringing back more IP from RARE and they would have won the crowd over. I mean Viva Pinata 3, Conkers Baddest Fur Day, Perfect-er Dark, Banjo Three-ie, Who doesn't want those?!

 

I don't particularly want any of those. 

Grand Master

neoadorable

Posted
Posted

Phil had me at referring to Sony and Nintendo as our friends and partners and speaking on behalf of the industry. This is what a person who actually enjoys what they do, cares about it, and loves their customers would say. As MS went first it was the right thing to do. He didn't even blink or tug at his nose while at it before anyone gets cynical, i think he means it. The event itself was OK but nothing special, was expecting more to be fair. Very sleek event and everything looks good, except for some titles opting for trailers rather than gameplay.

 

FH2, SOD, Master Chief anthology, Crackdown, Inside...lots of good stuff, looking forward to it but was hoping for more news of Quantum Break, possibly more about Gears. Anything else would have been welcome. The Division looks really good, sort of like Watch Dogs engine but closer to what i believe X1/PS4 can do.

Grand Master

Showan

Posted
Posted

Just watched MS's conference that I DVR'd thanks to it being on Spike.

Hat's off to MS for doing it right this year. The focus on gaming was no doubt perfect.

As far as "Only On XBox One" games, I am most interested in...

  • Sunset Overdrive
  • Crackdown (WHAT!!!)
  • Forza Horizon 2
  • Inside
  • Scalebound

And honestly, I am not sold on Scalebound just yet. I know people worship Platinum games, with hack n slash games they are very much hit or miss for myself, so am reserved on that one. Every other game I am no doubt very into.

 

I dug the little montage with the ID program. Love a good independent game, and looked like there could be some good ones there.

 

As far as the other tiles I was most interested in, they were all multiplatform, so really a lot is going to depend on just how much secret sauce they have in fact unlocked thanks to freeing up the resources from Kinect. I have no allegiance to either console and am not swayed by who is playing what where, I will always go where the better overall graphics and performance are. So in regards to those other games that looked good, Tomb Raider, The Division, Evolve, AC: Unity, it all comes down to if they are the same from a specifications perspective as to if I will get them on the One or not.

 

There were other games I can see people being excited about that were just not my cup of tea (Fable Legends) for example, so they had a good showing from that perspective.

 

Finally, love the fact Forza 5 finally has N?rburgring, will definitely check that out soon. And pretty damn positive I will also be checking out that Dead Rising 3 DLC. Looked awesome.

 

So really damn good conference from MS. Total 180 from last year. Good stuff. Thanks MS, as now I no longer second guess picking up a XBox One at launch, and I no doubt did there for a little while, as recently as Titanfall tbh. 

 

 

If a multi-plat game leverages Microsoft's Azure servers... I would take that over the better graphics...

People trying to get into the BF:Hardline beta is a reminder of EA's sucky servers...

Grand Master

SuperJediMedia

Posted
Posted

Sadly, neither companies fulfilled my wish on awesome RPG/Adventures this year. Fable Legend just wasn't good enough by itself.

 

Neither had any NEW IPS that's jaw-dropping!

 

I am going to bed knowing that I am probably going to wait another year to buy either a Xbox One or PS4, save my money longer.

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

Some pretty cool stuff shown off, but to be honest I'm a bit let down.

All Microsoft had to do was announce bringing back more IP from RARE and they would have won the crowd over. I mean Viva Pinata 3, Conkers Baddest Fur Day, Perfect-er Dark, Banjo Three-ie, Who doesn't want those?!

 

We don't know what else is in the works, I honestly expect them to bring back all those titles again, as reboots for the XB1.  Phil made it clear and the whole show hinted at this just being a few of the games coming.    I look at the trend set so far, look at what old games have come back so far that fans wanted.  People were calling for a new KI, done.  Fans wanted another Crackdown, here you go.   Conker in Project Spark could be a nice tease for now, a nod of sorts.     It hasn't been long since Phil became the boss and with Rare finally looking like it's broken free of Kinect duty I'd say anything is possible.

Proficient

Brendeth

Posted
Posted

We don't know what else is in the works, I honestly expect them to bring back all those titles again, as reboots for the XB1.  Phil made it clear and the whole show hinted at this just being a few of the games coming.    I look at the trend set so far, look at what old games have come back so far that fans wanted.  People were calling for a new KI, done.  Fans wanted another Crackdown, here you go.   Conker in Project Spark could be a nice tease for now, a nod of sorts.     It hasn't been long since Phil became the boss and with Rare finally looking like it's broken free of Kinect duty I'd say anything is possible.

Spencer has been pretty vocal about revisiting IP, so I can agree with you here. I am just impatient and want them to announce more games now!

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

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  • Global Moderator
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Spencer has been pretty vocal about revisiting IP, so I can agree with you here. I am just impatient and want them to announce more games now!

 

Yeah, lots of people do but looking at a the other media events I don't think they did too little actually.  Nothing big was actually shown off from anyone else that sounds like it's overshadowing what MS did IMO.   I think in general this E3 so far has been light on the surprises all around.  Way more stuff was shown that people knew about and expected.

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted

Crackdown, Dead Rising 3 DLC (Oh Capcom with your crazy titles :D ...) Inside, Forza Horizon 2 (why no actual gameplay?), Ori (such beautiful art) and Sunset Overdrive were my favourites. True to Microsoft's word, it was all about games but not an amazing briefing, just good. Much better than last year and no mention of Kinect or TV (Halo got close tho :p ), 7/10 (Y)

 

Oh and finally having the N?rburgring in Forza 5 for free was a nice bonus. With the games above, looks like I will be picking up an Xbox One later this year :happy:

I think Xbox wire has a bunch of gameplay footage for Forza Horizon 2.

 

Edit: http://news.xbox.com/media/?Category=e3-2014-press-kit&AssetType=b-roll

 

Is that Halo or COD? :D

That's Avery Johnson, one of the major characters in Halo 1-3.

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Grand Master

neoadorable

Posted
Posted

I think Xbox wire has a bunch of gameplay footage for Forza Horizon 2.

 

Edit: http://news.xbox.com/media/?Category=e3-2014-press-kit&AssetType=b-roll

 

That's Avery Johnson, one of the major characters in Halo 1-3.

 

It's great to have Avery back, he's the badass sarge incarnate

Apprentice

Vigilant

Posted
Posted

It was a great conference. Almost completely restored my faith in the Xbox One. If I was able to preorder on Xbox Marketplace, I'd of spent a lot.

Forza Horizon 2

Destiny

Batman Arkham Knight

COD: Advanced Warefare

Sunset Overdrive

Halo Collection

Assasins Creed Unity

i could go on, it's going to be a good year

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I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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