The next Xbox could boast DVR capabilities if a Microsoft patent is any indication, letting you record video on your games console.

Shortly after Christmas Microsoft was awarded a patent titled ‘Recording media on gaming consoles’. The patent was filed way back in 2007 and describes “a digital video recorder (DVR) application running alongside a television client component” that “allows users to record media content on the gaming console”.

The patent also specifies that the tech would also let gamers record media while playing games, or when the console is switched off.

What can you record? Microsoft lists TV programming, local and online games, music and DVDs as some of the possibilities. You’ll be able to switch between the type of media you’re seeing while the console is recording.

While it’s prudent not to read too far into these patents, this one could give us a clue as to what the next Xbox will look like. And judging by the features described above, Microsoft could be setting its sights at the TV on-demand market.

Microsoft’s chunky console already boasts loads of video goodies including Sky Player and the Zune movie rental service. LoveFilm and 4oD should be making an appearance shortly, with the BBC’s iPlayer tipped to arrive later this year. But one thing it can’t do is record those tasty bits of video.

Microsoft could also be planning to ape a feature of the OnLive streaming gaming service, which lets you save ‘brag clips’, which are the last 10 seconds of gameplay. That means if something cool or funny happens in-game, you can save it at the press of a button.

Once saved, you can share your clip online. It’s a great feature, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft wanted to plant something similar in its next console.

What do you want to see in the next Xbox console? Tell us in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.

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£69.99; onlive.co.uk

There’s a school of thought which states that the future of video games lies in the cloud, and the arrival of OnLive – the first credible cloud-based gaming service available to consumers – offers a great opportunity to test such claims.

Head for its website, and you will discover an impressive level of flexibility – once you’ve signed up (for free), you can pay to stream a large library of games to your PC, Mac or, via downloading apps, iOS or Android tablet. But, most impressively, you can buy a micro-console that lets OnLive operate through a bog-standard TV.

The latter setup represents OnLive at its most compelling – on the PC, you can buy boxed copies of most of the games for similar amounts to what OnLive charges (although there’s a PlayPass subscription option, for £6.99 per month, that gets you free access to 100-plus games and discounts on new releases).

It’s true that it gives Mac users access to games about which, hitherto, they’ve only been able to dream – such as Batman: Arkham Asylum, BioShock, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Borderlands – and the same applies to the tablets, although they remain hamstrung by their familiar control-system issues.

But if you fork out £69.99, you get a tiny box roughly the size of two cigarette packets, a controller (which is pretty reminiscent of that of the Xbox 360) and a bunch of cables including, commendably an HDMI.

Plug it into your TV and your broadband router, and you’re taken to a home screen which lets you jump instantly into a library of games which is generally pretty impressive – full titles are mixed up with shorter XBLA/PSN-style games including the likes of Braid – although it does have some conspicuous gaps, such as the complete absence of anything published by Electronic Arts, Activision or, of course, rival console manufacturers Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

Nevertheless, there are some absolute gems to be found, and the overwhelming impression is that it would provide the perfect, low-outlay introduction to games for someone who has never owned a console.

It has some tricks up its sleeve, too. You can use it to jump straight into multiplayer games like Homefront, and you can spectate on games being played by anyone on the system. Plus you can record clips of your finest moves, and upload them straight to Facebook.

The enabling technology behind OnLive converts the graphics of games running on the system’s servers to video, which it streams to you without having to go anywhere near a graphics processor. But that strength is also a weakness in one crucial respect: the quality of the visuals it provides is entirely dependent on the speed of your broadband.

Unable to acquire more than 2Mbps bandwidth, we found that visually, it lags way behind the graphics of the current crop of consoles (perhaps approaching the performance of the original Xbox). We reckon it would take about 8Mbps for it to approach the visual polish of the Xbox 360 or PS3.

You often notice a blockiness typical to video-compression and, of course, when you experience broadband slowdown spikes, the graphics become murkier.

That doesn’t necessarily detract too much from your enjoyment of the games: older titles such as Borderlands never looked great anyway, and one aspect of the system that is mightily impressive is the complete absence of any discernible lag in the controls.

If visual aesthetics are a concern, and you don’t have access to the fastest broadband available in this country, OnLive probably isn’t for you.

But if you’re looking to generate a gaming library from scratch, without paying huge amounts of money on a pile of games and a pricey console, plus are happy to forgo the big blockbusters such as Modern Warfare 3, Fifa, Battlefield 3 and their ilk, then OnLive should make you very happy indeed.

And when super-fast broadband becomes widely available, it will become a much more attractive proposition. OnLive isn’t the future yet – but it will be one day.

Rating: 3/5

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Steve Boxer

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The veteran games designer and Lionhead chief says he wants to prove himself after being awarded a fellowship

Peter Molyneux has admitted to having moments of doubts about his future as a games designer. After accepting his Bafta fellowship to a standing ovation at the Bafta video game awards on Wednesday, the industry veteran told the Guardian that some disappointing reviews of Fable III had led to him questioning his abilities.

“The Fable III the reviews were, justifiably, not what I’d hoped for,” he said. “We just weren’t good enough with the craft of what we did. That always makes you reflect. And I said to myself late one night, ‘Have I already created the greatest game I’m ever going to create? Is the rest just a downhill struggle?’ And the next day a letter came through the post telling me I’d been nominated for a Bafta fellowship. And I just thought, ‘I am going to prove that I haven’t done my best.’ Everything I’ve done up to this point is just training for what I should do.”

Molyneux also admitted to being overwhelmed by emotion when accepting his award. “I feel unbelievably humbled. As I walked up on stage I almost fainted. There was this sea of faces, and lots of people I’ve worked with before, and everyone stood. I was choking up. It was an incredible feeling, and I do immediately want to go home and start proving that I’m really, truly worthy of this.”

The industry veteran also took the opportunity to praise games in general and spoke about an “energy in the air” right now for developers. “Tens of millions of people are choosing games as a medium of entertainment. Over my career I’ve gone from selling games on trestle tables at royal horticultural halls in London to a night like tonight. I remember standing in front of the press in 1991 arguing that computer games are art by any definition, they have cultural influence! But what should worry people in film and TV is we’ve only just started. Only now, when you see social gaming, mobile gaming and Kinect coming on, you think, Jesus, where is this all going to go? That’s what’s exciting.”

In his acceptance speech Molyneux humorously touched on his reputation of over-promising on his games, but denied it was a PR tactic. “I’m not over-promising, I’m over-believing. I always truly believe that this is going to be the greatest game of all time – I wouldn’t try to do it any other way. But now I’ve come to realise that, you know what? It’s all about the execution. You can be super-passionate, but you need to execute on it.”

When asked how his current game projects will be affected by the Bafta acknowledgment he said: “At Lionhead, we always have a meeting on Fridays and I think I will stand up and say, ‘This award is for everyone.’

But I’ll also say to them, ‘Let’s ensure our next game is nominated next year!’”

Games

Keith Stuart

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We’re really rather keen on the Nintendo 3DS. In fact we’re about as excited as it’s possible to be without moving this humble tech blog into decidedly top-shelf areas. And it’s easy to see why — Nintendo’s upcoming handheld console offers 3D gaming without the need for stupid glasses.

We’ve thrown together all the images we have on this two-screened titan, for your perusal, so click through the photos above to get familiar.

We learned today that the 3DS will arrive in shops in the UK on 25 March, and while prices will be determined by individual retailers, we’ve seen HMV listing the console online for £230, and other online shops listing the 3DS for just under £200.

That seems like a long time to wait, so er, read this article really slowly, okay? If you finish before the 25th, read our in-depth preview of the 3DS, which is packed full of specs and hands-on impressions.

The 3DS works thanks to parallax-barrier technology, whereby a layer within the screen covered in tiny slits fires two different images in different directions. Line your eyes up with those images and you’ll get a 3D effect without the need for dorky specs.

We found the effect works really well, although if you move your head too far out of the ‘sweet spot’, the effect fails. There’s a handy slider on the right of the 3DS’ top-screen for adjusting the depth of the 3D effect though, so you can make all games 2D if you want.

The 3DS isn’t a one-trick pony though. We’ve recently learned that the 3DS will come packed with content from Sky, Eurosport and Aardman. As well as online play, the 3DS features something called Street Pass, which lets the console automatically swap information with nearby 3DSes, even when it’s folded away in your pocket. Clever girl.

Are you excited about the 3DS? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook wall.

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CNET UK is looking for someone to set up and manage an exciting new section of the site dedicated to family gaming. We’re looking for a good writer with strong people, organisation and interview skills to write for this high-profile section.

You’ll be interacting with parents on our family-gaming panel, game manufacturers, PRs and readers to deliver a unique, compelling angle on this interesting product category.

If you have a passion for both family gaming and consumer tech, and you enjoy writing, please click this link to view our full job description and details of how to apply.

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The wizard kid visits Legoland at the end of next month, but for now here’s another taster from this building block adventure

Taking in elements from the first four reasonably well-known novels, Lego Harry Potter looks set to continue the tradition of Traveller’s Tales’hugely entertaining Lego games, mixing recognisable characters and scenes with humour-filled action adventure gameplay.

I went up to get a behind-the-scenes look at the development studio last week, and we’ll be putting up a video of that visit soon. But for now, here’s the latest trailer. As ever, let us know what you think in the comments section.

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Harry Potter

Keith Stuart

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Two of the Wii’s most anticipated summer releases, Metroid: other M and Sin and Punishment: Star Successor, may have just been pushed back, with Metroid possibly coming as late as September, says Computer and Video Games. “A NeoGAF user claiming to work at US retailer Play N Trade kicked things off by saying that he’d been sent an email from the company’s corporate headquarters, stating that Sin & Punishment had been delayed from June 7 to June 27, and Metroid Other M from June 27 to ‘to be determined,’” they write.

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