http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/license

Simple blog post here. Click that link. Read ALL of it and let it process. Most of peoples issues with the new Xbox should be answered in that news post. 

One of the biggest issues I've seen people complaining about is multi-console house holds and or other family members playing a game that someone else in the family purchased.

Well problem solved in these three bullet points:

• Access your entire games library from any Xbox Oneno discs required: After signing in and installing, you can play any of your games from any Xbox One because a digital copy of your game is stored on your console and in the cloud.  So, for example, while you are logged in at your friends house, you can play your games.
  
  
• Share access to your games with everyone inside your home: Your friends and family, your guests and acquaintances get unlimited access to all of your games.  Anyone can play your games on your console--regardless of whether you are logged in or their relationship to you.
  
  
• Give your family access to your entire games library anytime, anywhere: Xbox One will enable new forms of access for families. Up to ten members of your family can log in and play from your shared games library on any Xbox One. Just like today, a family member can play your copy of Forza Motorsport at a friends house. Only now, they will see not just Forza, but all of your shared games.  You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time.

Access to your entire library from ANY xbox. Unlimited Access to family and guests whether you are logged in or not.

Up to TEN members can log in and play shared games from your library on ANY xbox one and at ANY time. 

Are you logged in playing Forza, your kid logs in and plays Forza down stairs too... no problem.

If you can still complain about that then I am positive nothing will please you. 

This actually adds an avenue that wasnt possible with a single disc copy. If the wife and I both wanted to play mass effect we both had to buy a copy. Thats not the case any more. People should be happy about that. 

Now these last two bullet points are were some people and rightfully so have some room to complain.

• Trade-in and resell your disc-based games: Today, some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit. We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers.  Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games. 
  
  
• Give your games to friends: Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.

Its not as bad as most people are building it up to be. With just a couple slight tweaks this could work. One big thing to take is that there is NO FEE for trading or reselling you game. Which plenty of people still seem to think is the case. IT is just not so. It is up the the publishers now if youre game will have some sort of digital DRM. This is my opinion, but I think without MS and Sony backing these policies 100% publishers will not risk the extreme backlash that could come from disallowing resell or trading of any kind.

Second was the misconception of not being able to trade games at all, even just to your friends. Once again here MS has taken the step back stance of leaving it up the publishers enabling this. If available though only one single trade with the stipulation of it being a person on your friends list for at least 30 days. Now if this accounts for say, me lending it to a friend who can then return it, or me lending it to a friend and having the option of getting it back somehow. I could see that as being a better system. More of a lend or give/gift option. One option is just a game on loan, the other becomes theirs permanantly. 

We'll have to see where MS goes with this, but from my perspective, currently this system is pretty acceptable. For someone who uses Steam this should seem pretty par for the course. 

I should say that I don't buy or sell used games, so none of what the majority of people complaining about concerns me personally. Having played mostly pc games for most of my gaming life and having used steam since its inception with Half-Life 2 I have become accustomed to digital delivery. 

I feel what we are seeing here is just a repeat of what happened when Steam was released and the backlashed it caused. Now just take that and place it on the console croud, people will get used to the idea. 

IF microsoft can offer what steam does in terms of pricing I think this could actually be a winning strategy. Many times games within 6 months drop down to half or less than half their original cost. IF it plays out similarly I could see this working. I tend to buy 5-8 games yearly via pre-order or special edition (Full price). The other 5-15 games or so that I buy are usually bargain bin prices or when I catch a steam sale.  

The rotten eggs being thrown about the Xbox one just dont hold any lasting stink.

The new generation will roll in and if gaming media will get off their propaganda horses and wait for facts maybe all the reluctant consumers they are creating will turn to paying customers.

Quick update for now.

Last night I finally had time and enough luck to get a hard drive working that I had though was long gone. It contained at least two years of backed up files, art assets, and many memorable photographs(aka honeymoon pics from alaska).

I couldn't have been happier or more excited. If anyone has ever had a hard drive crash on them they know the feeling to lose work or things precious to you.

I will be posting up some sketches and other things that I salvaged later this evening for others enjoyment.

Until then, a couple pictures from Alaska. If you have never been and you ever have the chance you should go there.

Well, life has its ebb and flow.

It's been 3 years since my last blog post. All my grand plans of a triumphant return were thrown to lifes back seat as my wife and I moved into our first home and began to settle in with our new lives and jobs. My work hours were at times 16 hour days when we were trying to move into the next stages of development. It was crazy but the best couple years of employment that I've had the luxury of enjoying. For our first anniversary I purchased a dog. A wonderful and awesome dog who we named "Gimli".

Here's a couple pics, because I know everyone loves puppies.

Then.

Now.

I was employed, unemployed, now employed once again. I do drafting work for engineers as well as IT for an Engineering firm/contracting company. It's not the dream job I had hoped for but it allows for alot more time with my wife and with my other passion, video games.

I've learned there is no perfect plan for life as things never go as expected. Appreciation for all the little things that I am lucky to have get me through each day and I look forward to the next not knowing what it will bring.

For those who haven't heard Ubisoft has taken Conviction back the "drawing board" even this late in its development cycle. This for me comes with a bit of disappointment, but also allows me to breath a sigh of relief. After what Double Agent brought to the table I was really quite unsure about Conviction. Hopefully this extra development time will allow them to create a product above and beyond what Chaos Theory was. Ubisoft says this could push the game to 2009 possibly even 2010(yeesh, they must really not be pleased with its current state).

Either way this extra time can do nothing but make the game better. I hope they take advantage of it and make something for new people and fans of the series. On a side note... INCLUDE CO-OP!! Those spy missions on Chaos Theory were some of my funnest moments on xbox live.

I've gotten about 21 hours into GTA IV. I'd have to say so far I've enjoyed it quite a bit.

There's a few things that caught my eye right from the start. First, most cars handle like all your power steering was drained and your brake lines were cut. This was annoying to say the least at first. I've started to get the hang of it. Like others have said it is a bit more realistic than all the other GTA games out there in a lot of way not just the driving. The one thing I'd like to see though is how fast I'm supposed to be going. I swear that I'm going like 20 and i can't make a 90 degree turn. Which is ridiculous because if my Hyundai can, any old jalopy should.

Beside the steering troubles, I've enjoyed all the aspects of the game so far. Most the characters are unique and like-able. The stories decent though a little convoluted at points. The graphics are pretty nice. Looking across the city scape onto the ocean into the sunset from the top of the Statue of Liberty, eh I mean Statue of Happiness is something to behold. I do enjoy the new physics though despite the few earlier mentioned setbacks. It never gets tiring watching bodies flop and flail around your car as you plow down a busy street sidewalk. (or watching my body fly though my windshield in a head on collision, come on Niko BUCKLE UP FOR SAFETY! :P)

I can look past any of the little flaws with the game though because it is quite enjoyable. I don't think it was worth the 10 it received but its close enough to one for me to not care.

That's it for now. I had some more on the excess of a few things in the game but I'll save that for another discussion.

In advance... sorry for the wall of text. But hey its been along time so I'm excused at least this once.

8 months. Thats how long its been since I've made a single post on the Gamespot forums. Life gets busy it would seem when you get married. But things have quieted down and the dust has begun to settle, and now I'm back.

Pretty soon I will be employed with a game developement house here in Dallas, TX once again. This time next month I will be living the dream as I did before.

Though I am extremely excited to begin working with them again thats not the reason for my first blog in like 2 years, well not entirely at least.

I'm a gamer to the core and when I can't fit games into life I feel at a loss. Not particularly whole or satisfied with any day that passes by. I begin to feel like a husk performing thoughtless tasks just to earn a paycheck and go on moving about my daily business. This could be in part from the soul sucking job I am currently performing, but not entirely. My time for games in the last months has been almost nothing. I felt drained, like a zombie, just moving about on auto pilot driven forward by some unknown force.

This all changed a few weeks ago though. My tax return came in and I finally had enough money to buy what I've wanted for years, a Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet. Suddenly I was filled ideas, creative thoughts sprang forth. I was excited. It didn't end there though. It seemed not but a day afterward I recieved a call from the game company asking if i was still interested in employment. Oh yes I was! I gleefully accepted their offer. All this excitement got me going. It's like that fourwheeler you had when you were a kid that was electric start, but now that you're both old you've got to use the kick start to get it going. It's like all I needed was that kick start then suddenly everything was falling into place.

I hadn't really sat down and enjoyed any real games since Mass Effect came out last Nov. I beat it Tuesday. It was every bit as enjoyable as the rest of Bioware's excellent line-up. I also picked up Okami for the Wii. It was actually as a gift for the wife which I ended up playing alot more than her. I love the art style and music in it. The whole Japanese water color painting thing really does it for me. I'm at the last "dungeon" if you can call it that getting ready to face the final boss, at least I assume its the last one.

Point is that I'm greatly enjoying these games, and in return life seems better. I saw the family this weekend for my wifes graduation. Everyone enjoyed some rounds of good ol' Wii sports. The bowlings popular with the older folks in my family it would seem. My parents as a gift bought me GTA IV before they left to go back home. My mom tells me she got it so I could keep in touch with my brother. How sweet. :P. Aparently when they were at my brothers house for part of the week he was playing it and said he wished I'd had the game so my mom figured she buy it. Anyway played it a good 6 hours or so in the last two days and it looks like I've got another great game to dive into for the next month or so at least.

Well enough about all that though. Onto the main reason for the update.

I'll be updating my blog at least once a week for now untill I finish my personal website. Then the blogging will take place there 3 to 5 days a week. I'll stick to more gaming and less me spewing out boring stories about how my life sucked for a while. You can also look forward to a webcomic to accompany the blog, also in the near future.

It's good to be back in the game again.

If you haven't seen it, check out my hands on with some of the Xbox 360's 2006 titles-- like Dead Rising, N3, Saint's Row, Tomb Raider: Legend and more.

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24461648