Threads merged. 
I can't say I have much faith in Microsoft right now due to the president bailing out, a month or so of apparent complete indirection, and basically just bad execution on every front. Nothing makes a brand look weaker than resolutely saying one thing is the future of gaming and then doing a complete u-turn, even if it has somehow made everyone see them in a much better light.
With that said, I don't like such sensationalist headlines. But Edge is usually above that, so I'm hoping the actual article is an analysis of where the XBone is heading based on up-to-date information and isn't about the DRM stuff at all. Edge usually prints topical stuff very close to publication so it's not as behind as you might expect.
Shieeeeet. I don't know about outside of the UK but Edge is like the most respected and authoritative games magazine here, so that's some pretty damning shit. 
Some additional issues were reported and fixed. If you were having trouble making posts all should be OK now.
The forums were taken down for a few hours yesterday to be updated. Changes to the user side of things are minimal, however lots of changes were made behind the scenes to keep things speedy and spam-free.
One side-effect is that some of you may still have old forum data cached, which could cause issues like certain forum features not looking right or working properly. A common example is the post editor being broken.
If this happens, please try logging out and then clearing your cache and history. If this doesn't work or if you spot what you believe to be something broken by the updates, let me know via staff at mapcore dot org and I'll see if there are deeper causes.
Agreed. Looks superb!
There was lens flare?
It definitely wasn't on the same level as Batman or The Avengers, those felt much more tightly put together and just seemed to flow so well. But it did a lot of things right: the characterisation of Jor-El, was brilliant, and in fact the whole set-up of how and why Superman came to earth was much more thorough than I was expecting. I also thought the main villain was superb, in that he wasn't what you'd describe as evil — he was just determined to save his people at any cost. I like it when villain's aren't just cunts for the sake of it.
I guess I was mostly dazzled by the action, though. IMO it was beyond good, literally some of the best shit I've ever seen. If ever there were a benchmark for super heroes and villains kicking each others' asses, this would be it. The one thing I was expecting from Snyder if nothing else was epic action, and fuck me he delivered. It did feel somewhat crazy how many civilians and military dudes were caught in the crossfire though, the death count must have been huge. 
I think one key thing I'd have liked to have seen more of in the film would have been tragic loss that really tipped Superman over the edge. All the stuff he lost in the film happened long ago (ie: his parents and step father), it would have been good to have seen someone like his mother get taken out to really up the stakes. I guess there's an inevitable sequel for things like this to happen though, Lex Luther will probably end up doing a Joker on Superman.
I think the single best thing I'll take from this film is its soundtrack. During the film it did feel like they they overused the main themes, so they were less impactful when they were used. But the soundtrack by itself is amazing, I guess they just repeated bits in the film because it doesn't sound so repetitive on disc. It's mostly Zimmer as his best, wonderful stuff for fans.
Thought it was pretty sweet. The insane awesome action I've come to expect from Snyder, and I really enjoyed how the whole scenario and motivations of the villains were portrayed. The main antagonist was really good, great performance. Like all the best bad guys he was more grey than anything else. Pretty serious death count in the film too.
I don't think there's ever been a particularly great launch list, it's more the first year where things get going. But Sony has said they have all those unannounced titles, some of which could be launch.
Gonna be honest, there's some pretty epic physics stuff going on in that video. This is the kind of shit I want to see in the next generation. Dat water. 
Hot graphics.
Ahhhhh SHIT. Q4 2014 for The Division. 
I hope they do a good job of PlanetSide 2 for the PS4, that could potentially be some good shit. Battlefield 4 will be a big win too if they can make use of the pointer (ie: no horrible stick aiming).
I'm surprised they're bothering to release it at all on current-gen consoles. It's going to be such an inferior experience. It basically defeats the point of Battlefield when teams and maps are so small.
I was delighted to read the other day that the PS4 and XBone versions of Battlefield 4 will be 60 FPS, 1080p(!!), and 64 players. I was kind of expecting the others, but not the 1080p. I hope this sets a precedent that other developers follow because I'm sick of seeing shit-ass 1280x720 jaggies in games.
Nice, been looking for new shit for my RSS reader. I've not been blogging since I retired my old one years ago (sweet it's now full of spam), but I have recently started posting here and I'm hoping to keep it up:
RyanJW: Esteemed connoisseur of fine games
BTW, if anyone is interested in getting their posts lots of exposure and doesn't have their own blog (or even if they do) I'm always open to articles being posted on MapCore. Guaranteed thousands of reads and I've not had enough time recently to pursue people to help write, so if anyone just happens to have something they think would fit at any point in the future just PM me or put it in the submission forum.
Tutorials, technical analysis/reviews, project write-ups... all welcome.
IMO the most important thing is to make good use of your time. A lot of people let years go by in their late teens and early twenties without really moving forward. I personally thought college was a good experience because I got to dip my toes into numerous disciplines and more importantly it developed me socially and helped me to become a functional, productive adult. But at the same time, I actually think that most of the skills I use in my successful career now I developed during my free time outside of college classes.
To put it another way, being in education gave me something to do for a few years while I worked on endless personal projects and taught myself everything I wanted to learn. Some of what I learnt at college fed into my long-term goals, some didn't. At the very least, having some kind of education looks better on a resume than none, and I had some great experiences that're nothing to do with work, met some great people.
So I wouldn't get too beat up over not getting onto the course you want. Getting onto an alternative course or going elsewhere isn't the end of the world, nor is taking on a shitty job in the meantime and spending a lot of your spare time working on your skills. Just do something — give yourself actual projects to work on, just like you would at Uni. Whether you release them or not can depend on the end quality, but keep doing so in mind.
As long as your heart is in the right place you'll succeed. Many people who go to Uni don't have that true heart and passion for making games, so it doesn't help them much professionally. The dudes that succeed would probably have done so anyway, but they'd also have probably gone bankrupt and ended up homeless if they didn't do either education or low-grade work to keep things ticking while they got themselves to the right level.
If you didn't get in after demonstrating that I'm really not sure I'd actually want to go to that University. They either have impossibly high expectations or they're fuckin' clueless.
Out of interest, I wonder how many of MapCore's pros went to Uni?
