What's new
By:

All things related to the Xbox platforms

And, onto the review....

So far I am really enjoying the Xbox One. I am still going back to the 360 at times to play CoD with buddies that didn't upgrade, but after trying CoD on the One, I sure wish they would upgrade.

Hardware: It isn't small, but it does look nice on my entertainment stand and fit in with other components in the system. The thing you most notice about it is that you don't notice it. The Xbox One is incredibly quiet in comparison to the 360 or PS3 (then again the 360 is like a ninja next to the PS3, I swear that thing sounds like a vacuum cleaner or jet engine most of the time it is running).

I haven't had any hardware issues myself, and neither have any of my friends who have upgraded (10 of us or so), though as everyone has seen there is a small percentage of either console experiencing trouble. After plugging everything in and turning it on, the initial update took 10-15 minutes and it was ready to go.

I will say that I suspect getting the support for external USB 3.0 devices enabled on the One is likely a top priority. With a 500 GB drive and games ranging from a few GB to 40 GB it could fill quickly, especially since with all games you must install the disc to drive before playing. You can always remove them once completed and download again some day if you wish, so not a huge deal anyway.

Controller: It's a little smaller than the 360 controller and the bumpers are a little awkward at first with the angle. Also, the thumbsticks are smaller. That said, once I played enough to get used to it, I have a hard time deciding which design I like better. I haven't played as much as many here probably think, so I'm betting it won't be long before the Xbox One controller is my preference given how quickly it became comfortable to play with. Other than that, having the rumble feedback directly in some of the triggers and buttons is actually pretty cool, as it can add some context to what's happening without looking. Did you run over the rumble strips with your left tires? With just a controller rumble you wouldn't know without looking, but if just the left trigger is going you have a better idea.

Kinect: The new Kinect is a big improvement over that of the 360. I've not tried any of the Kinect games or much with motion, but the voice commands work very well. I will say initially I had trouble with it not hearing me over the TV speakers, but that was because I initially ran the calibration piece with the TV turned down to much being as late, or early I guess, as it was Friday morning when running through it. I reran the calibration with it turned up as it instructed and it made a huge difference. I used this quite a bit yesterday, watching shows on Xbox Video and Netflix to make selections, switch apps, pause/play/etc while working on some baking to prepare for Thanksgiving. It worked flawlessly. "Xbox On" is also just plain fun, as well as "Xbox Turn Off" (which does prompt and require you to confirm Yes/No BTW). Lastly for Kinect, the facial recognition is a HUGE improvement. The Xbox One does not sign me in automatically when started, but the instant I am in view, I see the "Hi (name redacted)" prompt and am signed in. Very cool, and handy, since it works for the gal too.

TV: So I tried this out and have to say it worked better than I thought it would. Most of my gaming is done upstairs these days, so it's an older 720p pioneer elite plasma television and no receiver/surround system. Also, I use media center, so my Xbox 360 is basically my cable box using the built in media center extender (which the One does not have (yet I hope) unfortunately). To try this then meant that my 360 is connected to the Xbox one and the One is connected to the TV. The TV setup is quick and simple, asks you what TV, cable box, receiver you have and then your zipcode to get cable provider choices. It has a list of components to choose from, but my pioneer was not listed, so I had to say it isn't here, which I figured meant it wouldn't control the TV. Wrong, it had me push a couple buttons on my remote and did a couple quick tests and new how to run the TV. At this point, "Xbox On" followed by "Xbox watch TV" could've turned on the TV, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and had me watching TV. I'll note the TV was controlled by the Kinect sending IR commands. The way my setup is it could not control the 360 via Kinect, but it has a standard IR blaster port on the back and I have some laying around from my Harmony remote setup and they worked great. Once connected I could go to TV and see the 360, browse the 360 UI as I pleased, watch TV, say things like "Xbox watch NBC" and be taken to channel 11, "Xbox watch revolution" and be taken to a channel playing a show titled revolution, or "Xbox volume up" to turn up the TV's volume. It worked very well, which did surprise me a bit, that is until I went to the 360 dashboard and started playing call of duty from the 360 through the One. It induced lag, so while the TV part is cool and I would use it if I had a standard cable/satellite receiver, I won't use it with my 360 for now.

Skype: Played with this a bit with video calls to parents or friends. Works very well. It's neat how it tracks you around the room and zooms in/out dynamically based on where motion is, where you are, or who is talking. It is digital zoom though, so there is a bit of a quality loss if it has to zoom too far.

Apps: Xbox Video and Netflix are the only ones I used. They let you watch videos, the videos are in HD, no surprises, but hey they are there and work well. As previously noted voice commands with Kinect have been working very well in comparison to 360 and can be useful at times. lots of other video apps available (Amazon, Hulu, CW, Fox, ESPN, etc). There's a list of them somewhere on the net if you care more about them than games.

 
I had to break up my post because it exceeded 10,000 characters. Congratulations if you made it this far.

Games: I haven't played/tried them all, but I have CoD: Ghosts, Forza 5, Ryse: Son of Rome, Dead Rising 3, Zoo Tycoon, Powerstar Golf (think Hot Shots golf), Assassins creed 4, Lego: marvel super heroes, Killer Instinct (just the free guy), I might be forgetting something too. Of those I've played CoD, Forza, Ryse, PowerStar and Killer Instinct (just some instructionals at the start):

CoD: Ghosts - so I'll start here since it's the one game I've played on both the One and the 360. It isn't a huge dramatic change, but it does look nicer. There's plenty of side by side video out there on the web for single player. The multiplayer does seem better. Not sure if it is dedicated servers, fewer asshats have upgraded, or what, but in general it seems to be a better experience and I don't see as many lag issues as on the 360 version. The spawning is still terrible, so they didn't fix that for the One version. Also during some effects, the colors are much more vibrant on the One. On a particular multiplayer map, it can basically be nuked and change the entire layout. On the 360 you just get a big white flash, on the One you get this deep/bright nuclear orange glow that is intensifying and just give more of a feeling of being in a huge blast.

Ryse: Son of Rome: So the reviews out there on this are pretty mixed and not great. I can't entirely argue against any of them, but I've played a couple hours of Ryse and I like it so far. It is a little God-of-war-esque, but it isn't quite the same. You run, you sword fight, you shoot arrows from a turret style crossbow in some locations, command your line a bit, watch cinematics and repeat these in some variation. So, it could become a bit tedious I suppose as I continue, if the story line isn't any good. We'll see, but like I said so far it has been quite fun. I have also seen critiques that the executions can't be failed. That is a true statement, they cannot. You can fuck them up pretty good and get about no XP for them, but if you shove your sword into a guys chest and start the execution part, he's dead, it's all flare after that. If done correctly you get more XP, so I don't see much problem with it not failing. Executions are also how you can boost your health, XP, focus or other things, so doing them correctly nets you more of whichever you've chosen at the time. Also, I think reviewers played on recruit difficulty, or are much better gamers than I. I went with a higher difficulty and I've died a lot, so it isn't just a simple run down. Of what I've played this is one good showcase of what the next gen graphics are capable of. Details on the characters and environments are excellent.

Forza 5: You race cars. The cars look gorgeous, though during high speed races you don't have a lot of time to notice. I commented on this yesterday, so not a lot to add, and not much to say about a game where you drive cars around tracks. I'm not a big racing guy, but as I mentioned before the new Drivatar system is pretty cool on it. It draws me back to collect the credits my drivatar earned, and it's also fun to see my friends in the race against me even if they aren't online. The drivatars are supposed to mimic your driving habits and aggressiveness, so I apologize to anyone who mine crashes into. Ok, not really, I don't care, I'd do the same thing. I believe it will, as I often take out drivers on corners, and so does one of my buddies, and his drivatar frequently seems to collide with me on corners...

Killer Instinct: It's a fighting game, like mortal combat. The graphics look pretty decent and it is free to play, with the first character. Also, you cannot get any achievements with the included character. Additional characters can be purchased for $5 a piece, or the entire set for $40 (this is the way to go if you like these games). I'm not much for 2D side scroll fighters like this anymore and never was really much good at them. I played through some of the tutorials with Jago (the free guy) and yeah, I just don't like these games enough to tell you much about how great of a fight game it is or is not. People who like these types of games seem to like it though.

Powerstar Golf: While not a testament of graphical abilities, this is a fun and relatively cheap ($20) game. Cartoonish characters and caddies. Each golfer/caddy have abilities/perks. You compete on different courses. I've actually played this quite a bit, as it is fun on its own, but it also tracks your friends records (long drive, closest approach from X yards, etc) and as you play you'll see markers for your previous bests and your friends records on each hole of the course, and I find pleasure in killing the dreams of others and beating their records.

Did I forget something, do you want to know more about something, well then go buy one and find out for yourself (or just ask I guess...)

 
Thanks for the read a couple of questions, do the old xbox controllers work with the new, or can they not sync? Also did it come with a demo disc or anything for the Kinect? Do they even have any games out for it? Thanks for the review interesting. At this point I am still leaning to the Xbox when I decided to upgrade and play console games again.
 
No, the old controllers do not work with it. They changed the communication protocol to WiDi (not a typo) to support higher bandwidth for support and such. The new controllers really are nice though. I should mention that rather than using rechargeable AA batteries I got the play and charge kit for it. Hope to see a stand alone charger for the battery packs, so it isn't a USB cable from the Xbox to charge, or 3rd party stands to put controllers on. Uses standard Micro USB for charging

As for Kinect. It did not come with a demo disc or games for it. There is a pre-season of Kinect Sports Rivals available to download for free though. Haven't tried it yet. I'm more interested in Kinect for general control, or adding to core experiences, like in Dead Rising 3, where apparently if you make too much noise you can alert zombies near by or have more zombies attack or something.

Also, for the paranoid, in the Kinect settings you can swap between the three views Kinect has to see exactly what it does and no it can't see through your clothes or see your skeletal structure.

 
Thanks for the detailed review boarder, good stuff. Happy gaming!
Click to expand...
Hope it helps someone. I tried to be critical of it, as gaming is one area I'll look at all options (hence admitting I may someday own a PS4 earlier). I haven't been able to find any big flaws though and it is a great experience so far. I like all games, but Xbox has been my preference for years now and it looks to be staying that way.There are a few things that Xbox 360 users will have to get used to that I'm still working on. Viewing friends is a little different. Also, I'm one that almost always pressed the Xbox button when an achievement popped so I could see what it was that I did. Now is about the same, though a little different as far as what you see initially. Also, strange to get achievements (even if it has zero gamer score) from apps like Xbox Video and Netflix.

 
Was playing with the upload studio a bit and uploaded a game play clip from Ryse in with the unboxing pics.

I'll note it did some rendering before uploading for SkyDrive, so not sure how the HD gameplay will show

 
I couldn't find a smiley that took its hat off, but that is quite the review. I have a 20GB (I think that is right) XBOX360 that I bought at a deep discount. That thing is loud as hell. I recall the pictures of the heat signature from earlier, but I wonder how loud the xbox1 is?
 
I couldn't find a smiley that took its hat off, but that is quite the review. I have a 20GB (I think that is right) XBOX360 that I bought at a deep discount. That thing is loud as hell. I recall the pictures of the heat signature from earlier, but I wonder how loud the xbox1 is?
Click to expand...
It's buried in my review, but it is incredibly quiet. Cannot hear it at all, even with a disc spinning during install and you get right up next to it, then you may hear the fan. That is I guess, unless you were near an unlucky one with the drive issues....Also, I forgot to throw in my review that digital games are awesome, in that you don't have to go change the disc to play. Just pick the game and start.

 
As Xbox One Complaints Increase, Microsoft Promises Improvements
Click to expand...
Does anyone remember when they moved from the NXE interface on the 360 to what is there today? It was a big change, some didn't necessarily care for the changes. The Xbox One interface is a change. Yes, there are things it is missing, but it's a week and a half old while the 360 is over 8 years old. Of course it will get better and features will be added over time.There are also things it does better than Xbox 360 though, like pinning items. It is so nice to be able to control what is on the Pins screen and have immediate access to the things I use the most without having to go through different menu sections, into a hub/folder and then pick a game/app/or whatever as on the 360. All in all there's some give and some take, but in the short term I'm guessing there will be frequent updates to get in the bigger pieces and all these minor interface complaints will subside as people get used to the new system as well as changes implemented on behalf of valid feedback.

I haven't tried the party stuff, but one area I want to see changed is viewing an achievement you receive during game play. I mentioned it in my review. There's definitely room for improvement, but what is there today does work, you can play games and you can use the apps to play media.

 
Side by side comparison of CoD on the Xbox One in comparison to the PS4. Can you spot differences? Which looks better? I paused it a few times, and when they stop to do comparisons, it's pretty tough for me to see much difference. The lighting seems a little different between the two, beyond that, it seemed to depend where and when you pause or look which is showing more detail, so probably mostly which was fully rendered at the time I paused it..

http://kotaku.com/and-now-heres-call-of-duty-ghosts-compared-on-xbox-o-1476256070

 
This is not only a bash for the Xbox one, but also the PS4. Why the hell do neither of these support 3D blu-ray? I mean the PS3 does and it's like 4 years old. I know, I know they say it's coming but why didn't it support out the door? You want these things to be multimedia systems too and they don't even support this? This is reason enough for me to wait. I couldn't believe this when I found out.
 
This is not only a bash for the Xbox one, but also the PS4. Why the hell do neither of these support 3D blu-ray? I mean the PS3 does and it's like 4 years old. I know, I know they say it's coming but why didn't it support out the door? You want these things to be multimedia systems too and they don't even support this? This is reason enough for me to wait. I couldn't believe this when I found out.
Click to expand...
How long did it take you to find this out? Just today?!? I agree, but they are gaming systems first. Heck, without the Day 1 update the PS4 couldn't play DVDs. Not sure why it isn't there, or how much work it is to support 3D BD compared to standard BD. Anyway, not much of a big deal for me, as the TV I use most for gaming doesn't do 3D anyway, and I have a few 3D BD players lying around unused anyhow...

 
Well my plan was to take the PS3 upstairs and replace downstairs with a Xbox one to make it my new player, but not now. No I just found out when I saw them in stock at Amazon and other people were complaining. I mean its like buying a modern car and finding out they don't include airbags this day and age.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top