: The reveal itself wasn't really a debacle (though certainly a turn-off or a
: great big 'meh' for a number of people).
: Outside of gaming orientated circles, in the general tech/entertainment
: world, it's probably quite exciting.

: The real debacle has been in what followed immediately after the reveal.
: We're learning now that different MS reps were saying different things to
: various journalists.
: When said journalists were later comparing notes, they found they had many
: contradicting statements.

: We've also had Microsofts own Vice President saying a number of things which
: turned out to be somewhat inaccurate and subsequently had to be
: 'clarified'

: That is the real disaster, and certainly not something that's alleviating
: concern and even suspicion.

: We all knew this was a bit of a rush job to counter the PS4 reveal, but some
: of these very basic and elementary mistakes are, if nothing else,
: incredibly unprofessional.
: It's not like Microsoft is a Mickey Mouse corporation.

They need to clarify everything and soon. The reaction to the XBO has been so negative (and for good reason) and the longer they wait, the more damage the XBO's rep will sustain. If it does require a prohibitive fee for buying used or borrowing from a friend or family member and if it does require any sort of internet connection, that will hurt them. It certainly won't encourage me to be an early adopter, and I will likely stick to the Wii U and PS4 as my primary consoles. I can always wait until it gets a price cut or until Halo 5 is released.

: Oh yeah, one other note.
: That 'new' engine used in Call of Duty: Ghosts?
: Yeah, turns out it's not actually new. Just upgraded again, as it is every
: year.

Well, that explains a lot. I mean, it looks substantially better than COD games on the 360, but that's not saying much. It doesn't scream "next-gen" to me, and it looks rather dated, maybe like an upper-mid tier 360 game. COD2 looked pretty good when the 360 just came out, but its graphics got outdated really quickly once UE3-powered games like Gears of War came out. Yet COD stuck with id Tech 3 for every subsequent game. Now that it's been revealed that they're using that now very venerable engine (Quake III came out over 13 years ago), it's understandable why Ghosts doesn't look next-gen. However, it does at least show how flexible id Tech 3 is in that they have been able to upgrade it as much as they have, but it's still outclassed by most other modern FPS engines. Granted, graphics aren't everything, and gameplay always comes first in my book, but is it too much to ask for that a next-gen game actually looks next-gen?