HAPPY THANKSGIVING AMERICANS!
If you're wondering about getting an Xbox One on Black Friday but still aren't sure, please have a read below of my thoughts and hopefully they might help make your mind up.
If you're wondering about getting an Xbox One on Black Friday but still aren't sure, please have a read below of my thoughts and hopefully they might help make your mind up.
Please be aware that I'm an Xbox Ambassador and self-confessed Achievement chaser so the following might be slightly biased (but I've tried to remain as impartial as possible ;))...
The Setup
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..)
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..)
The Experience
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.
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...
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
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...
- Press the Xbox One Guide button
- Wait for the One Guide to appear
- Tap down to access my recently-used apps
- Tap multiple times more if the app I was after wasn't in my recently-used list
- Press the A button to open it
- 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
The Games
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.
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.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PURCHASE
If you're going to buy one shooter, 2013 might finally be the year to try out Battlefield if you're a usual COD fan | A fantastic career mode and next-gen visuals. This is the title to show off the system even if you're not a hoops fan | Fun for the kids, and a decent virtual world game for the adults. Here's hoping there's marine life DLC! | Grab yourself Killer Instinct from the Xbox Store - it's free! |
If you're worried about all those Xbox 360 games that you haven't finished (like Batman: Arkham Origins or Mark Of The Ninja) then simply plug your Xbox 360 into the aforementioned HDMI In port (instead of your TV) and happily play them through your Xbox One!
ONES TO WATCH
Should I buy one?
Definitely maybe!
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.
- 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.