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Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

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This week on Outside Xbox

The next Xbox, the next XCOM and movie games that ruined the canon.

Outside Xbox awaits next week's unveiling of a new Xbox with mingled excitement and trepidation, as if Tuesday 21 May were Christmas and Judgment Day rolled into one giant green Microsoft presentation. With the PlayStation 4 already out in the open, it's Microsoft's turn to impress - or to trip on the first hurdle in the next-gen race.

In this week's show, Andy calls on his powers of prophecy to predict the crucial details from next Tuesday's Xbox unveiling. What's inside the next Xbox? What will we call it? What will we play on it? Show of the Week reveals all.

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Then, ditching the uncertain future for an alien-infested past, we turn to The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. This '60s-set tactical shooter tells the origins story of alien defence agency XCOM, with squad-based action in the style of Mass Effect. Watch how its time-slowing Battle Focus mode works in this first glimpse at gameplay.

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Finally, Mike and Andy charge five sci-fi movie games for their crimes against canon. When a spin-off game is declared part of the official fiction, it is burdened with not upending the rules of its beloved science fiction universe. Watch how Aliens: Colonial Marines, Enter the Matrix and Star Trek, among others, fail to shoulder that very burden.

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For more, here's us baking the official Portal Cake Mix, with inedible results, and be sure to pick up an Xbox reveal event bingo card for next Tuesday. We'll see you then.