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Details On Next Xbox Coming In Penultimate Issue Of Xbox World
UK gaming magazine Xbox World may soon be going into that good night (alongside Nintendo Power, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, and PSM3), but with news like this, it seems they’re making sure they go out with a bang.Their second to last issue is a doozie, and will reportedly unveil tons of information on Microsoft’s highly anticipated follow-up to the Xbox 360. For starters, it won’t have the Xbox 720 moniker and will instead be known only as the Xbox. That seems a little strange, seeing as there’s already been an Xbox, but none of this has been, or will likely ever be confirmed by Microsoft. The specs are really exciting though — it will come with a quad-core CPU, built-in Blu-ray player, 8GB RAM, and support for a head-mounted augmented reality device (possibly the Oculus Rift, unless Microsoft has their own in development) as well as the next generation Kinect. More after the jump, including some mock-ups of what the console could look like.
“Xbox World has been at the cutting edge of Durango coverage for over 12 months. Unless something really dramatic changes, everything we reveal in our penultimate issue will be revealed long before E3 in June,” said Xbox World editor-in-chief Dan Dawkins told CVG.
The console will supposedly also come with a TV input, so you can watch television on it, assuming you’re not already doing so via the myriad available apps like Hulu, Netflix, HBO Go, etc. As for the next Kinect, or Kinect 2.0 as it’s being referred to now, that could be so accurate that it can read your lips. I have trouble getting my Kinect to recognize an entire limb, so I’ll believe that when I see it.
The mockups, which you can feast your eyes on below, were created by Xbox World to give us an idea of what the console could look like. “We built ours with the same glossy face and patented VapourMG magnesium alloy Microsoft uses for its Surface tablet, and modeled the silver band after its new ‘Wedge’ touch keyboard and flexible Arc Touch mouse,” wrote Xbox World. “The future will be black, sharp and curved.”
Check it out below and let us know what you think. Is this stylish enough to earn a place in your entertainment center, or do you require more style?
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Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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