Err, Andy, what about Bioshock Infinite or Metro: Last Light, or Fire Emblem or Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker HD.

Well you're absolutely right, those games are great too. And similarly there are some like Super Mario 3D World and Device 6 that I just haven't got around to unfortunately, and some like Tekken Tag Tournament 2 that technically came out last year but I still keep playing to this day. Either way though, 2013 has proven that there's been no slowdown in the number of great games being released regardless of the anticipation around the release of the next-generation consoles, and that mobile and indie games continue to innovate with both beautiful art styles and unique gameplay.

Roll on gaming in 2014!

UNBOXING
Similar to the delightful unboxing experience of an Apple product, unboxing the Xbox One was a joy also... everything on both the packaging and hardware either a gloss or matte black, a large vivid photo, or a subtle Windows 8-style icon and all together these work in perfect harmony (more so than Windows 8 or the Surface) to create an elegant, and premium whole.

HARDWARE
Whilst there are comparison images of the console size online, stick it next to your amplifier, Sky box, PS3, and telly and the Xbox One not only looks perfectly in proportion but the square form factor allows it to sit pleasantly alongside your other living room boxes.

A minor concern would be that the diagonal slants on the top are going to be a dust haven but that's all ;-)

On the back it has the usual range of ports (minus any archaic display options like Component Out) and a HDMI In. Use this to plug your Sky box or your Xbox 360 into for a seamless experience (we'll get to that later).

The Kinect 2.0 is quite chunky and some may find it difficult to sit on top of their slimline TV but the new controller on the other hand looks way more streamlined (despite being around the same size).

SETUP
Before you get your Xbox One you should probably detach your old consoles and rip up your old cables. If, like me, you've owned your Xbox 360 for over six years then this may take a while(!) and considering the HDMI-only connections you may want to re-wire your setup so it's ready for the next six years ;-)

Once this is done, the actual process of setting the console up was super-simple... There was an initial patch to download and install (took around 5 mins) and then a tutorial of sorts to introduce you to the new interface (which is extremely similar to Windows 8 if you've used that).

There was no need to 'recover my Gamertag' like on the Xbox 360, and my entire profile was present and correct immediately (friends list, achievements, avatar etc..)

MULTIPLE APPS
So I can't stress how good it is plugging your TV into the HDMI In port of the Xbox One. By simply saying "Xbox Watch TV" you can instantly switch to watching television as if it were an app. And by switching I mean Alt-Tabbing like on a PC since you can now have multiple simultaneous items running that can be swapped between freely or even put together on the same screen (known as 'snapping').

So even after a week of living with this seamless integration, it's still a joy to be able to simply say "Go to Call Of Duty" or "Go to Netflix" or "Watch TV" and whatever you were doing gets suspended and the console switches to the new thing immediately with no delay. Once you're done, simply switch back to whatever you were doing and it's where you left off.

And being able to snap multiple items on the same screen is fantastic. How about watching TV and seeing your Friend Activity on the right-hand side so you can wait for a friend to get to a certain point in a game before jumping in with them? Or playing a game with a website FAQ on the right-hand side to help you through a tough section? Or play a game whilst your other half watches a film? THIS IS WHAT MAKES XBOX ONE A GAME CHANGER.

TALKING TO YOUR CONSOLE
Who wants to talk to their devices, right? Siri gets it wrong a lot of the time so how would Kinect be any better? Well it just is. Interface design should be about providing the clearest and most ergonomic road to accessing features and Kinect 2.0 is just that. To switch between the apps above I would have to do this via the gamepad...

1. Press the Xbox One Guide button
   
2. Wait for the One Guide to appear
   
3. Tap down to access my recently-used apps
   
4. Tap multiple times more if the app I was after wasn't in my recently-used list
   
5. Press the A button to open it
   
6. Wait for the app to open

Or, I could just say four words using my voice and whatever I'm doing gets Alt-Tabbed to the new thing. Now I don't particularly have an accent I don't think so am maybe fairing better than others in it's success rate but so far it's delivering on what it was designed to do.

MISCELLANEOUS
In no particular order - here were some other items that caught my attention...

Upload Studio - Whenever you think you did something cool in a game you can say "Xbox Record That!" and it'll record the last 30 seconds of what you were doing. You can then use Upload Studio to trim it, and add other 'broadcast/commentary' options to it and then save it to your SkyDrive.

SkyDrive - I had this already from Windows 8 but SkyDrive is your cloud-based storage for all your Microsoft things. Get it, it's free, and it means you can access your Xbox One user-generated content on your PC (and then it can go anywhere)

Achievements - Nice to see the Achievement system got a bit of an improvement... it now orders your achievements in the order of how close you are to completing them and there are new achievement-like things to strive for in the form of time-based Challenges. There are even achievements for using apps!

Blu-Ray - Finally! As with other apps like Xbox Music, Xbox Video, YouTube, simply install the Blu-Ray Player and you can sit and enjoy your collection

So on to the games, and whilst I don't think it appropriate to comment on the merits and downfalls of each game individually I will say the following in general...

I wasn't wow'ed by any one particular game's visuals. Nothing I've seen so far screams "This is the next gen!". Some of that will be down to being spoiled by PC gaming, and some of it is down to the jump between current-gen and next-gen not being quite as clear cut as it was going from 2D to 3D. We've enjoyed HD gaming for a while now, so only the eagle-eyed would spot the increased draw distance on a terrain, or the increased number of particles onscreen, or the slighlty-higher resolution of textures. Once exclusives and next-gen-only titles like Titanfall, The Division, and Metal Gear Solid V start coming out that's when the increase in graphical fidelity will become apparent.

Definitely maybe!

• The seamless integration between TV, games, and apps is worth it alone since it changes the way you interact with your TV. You'll never go back once you've experienced it.
  
• It's your Xbox 360, streamlined. Everything you love about your existing console is there and has been given a lick of paint and is twice as fast to access (especially via voice or SmartGlass).
• The games are solid. Even if they don't quite hit your preconceived expectations of what 'next-gen gaming' should look like, the launch lineup is strong with two great shooters, two great racing games, a number of sports titles, a number of action or adventure games, and some stuff for the kids

But depending on your finances and your preference for some of the launch titles of course you may want to wait a few months for some of the above titles to become available. Especially since there are some bits that could either do with being improved or are missing currently (eg.. live streaming, improved media centre functionality, beacons).

For me though, the future starts now.

Here's a list of stories and things I'd like to see from future Marvel movies...

Iron Man vs Hulk!

Hulkbuster armour, a friendship we saw budding in the Avengers movie turned sour somehow... let's SMASH STUFF!

Civil War!

A devastating superhero-caused disaster forces the Government to call for all superheroes to register and reveal their secret identities.

Captain America is on one side, Tony Stark is on the other. Brings back all the dislike for each other we saw initially in the Avengers movie.

Iron Skull!

Red Skull returns and causes chaos in a Tesseract-powered Iron Man suit!

Doom vs Stark!

The two most famous men in armour fighting each other - game on!

Secret Invasion!

An alien race called the Skrulls have been secretly disguising themselves as our favorite heroes. Who is real? Who is Skrull?!

Ultron!

The best and most natural way to introduce Ultron in the movies would be to evolve the Jarvis AI we saw at the end of Iron Man 3 into this robotic killing machine.

The Vision!

Obviously to be introduced after the first Ant-Man movie, this would tell the story of Hank Pym's creation of the Vision, likely using some Stark AI technology like we've seen in Jarvis.

M.O.D.O.K.

Continuing AIM's penchant for fiddling with human biology, the next logical step would be to introduce M.O.D.O.K.

Despite his stupid appearance, he could find a place in the 'magical' Phase 3 with Dr Strange and Captain Marvel.

Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet!

The Infinity Gauntlet was in the first Thor movie. There's a reason... it's awesome.

Destroyer Armor!

Iron Man goes to Thor's world and gets his armor imbued with Asgardian technology! Now, go fight something, Tony!

Tony... in... space!

Let's just hope there's a cameo in the upcoming movie!

Before the next generation arrives, there's a ton of new games to play in 2013.

Here's my top picks for each month until Xmas...

Here's the list of games I'm looking forward to at E3 this year...

Since I reached level cap in Star Trek Online and attained the various Omega/MACO gear and highest Tiers of Romulan and Borg reputation my interest in the game faded - there just wasn't enough new stuff to keep me coming back to the game.

With the release of The Legacy Of Romulus though, that has all changed! Here's a very quick run-down therefore of the things I'm up to in the game now...

DISCLAIMER: Below are my own personal predictions for tomorrow's #XboxReveal based purely off hopes/speculation/rumor and are therefore not indicative of any inside info or prior knowledge, nor are representative of any affiliated work... they're just guesses :-)

With that said, here are my predictions...

"White Walker" is a retrospective of D&B from the last 5 years intercut with the hottest tunes right now and was done specifically for my good friends Ben & Ali Durrant's wedding last month (hence the name ;))

Listen to it exclusively on Mixcrate and share, like, download, and dance!