Xbox One Review

Work STILL in progress.

Yeah, yeah, I get it. I know this review is nearly a year late and the majority of you people already have made up your mind on which 8th Generation console to buy. But I figured after pretty much owning this console since launch and all the changes that have been made to it since then I can give fairly honest opinion on the console from several months of use as opposed to someone who screwed around with it for a day after launch and slapped a review up just to get something out there. So here it is folks, my verdict on the punching bag of this generation, Microsoft's Xbox One.

To get one thing out of the way, I don't love the One, nor do I hate it. It's one of those consoles that wins you over in some aspects and kicks you in the balls in others. The only real reason I actually got this console was because the PS4's launch lineup had nothing of interest to me at the time. For me, I could have cared less about which console had more power or which UI was better. If the sole heart of a console, it's games aren't anything I'd purchase in heartbeat, then I'd just the get the other console with the games I want, which in this case is Xbox One despite the obvious sour reputation it has.

First lets have a look at our VCR... ahem... console. Ok I guess you can say it will fit in pretty much any living room setting without looking too out of place. It's just really quite dull, there's no real character in it's design unlike the futuristic curves of the first generation Xbox 360. It's just a black box with a lot of vents and it looks like it could play your old VHS tapes if you wanted. The one USB port in a really god awful spot on the side of the console and the smooth gloss surface is magnet to fingerprints. On the plus side the system is very quiet, that's really about it.

Setting up the console is a fairly easy task(Provided you have adequate shelve space of course) Compared to my messy and highly paranoid setup of my 360 which consisted heavily of external network adapters, fans, and audio adapters, setting the One up was breeze. Wall plug plus a brick for your power, and an HDMI cable and you're done. If you so desired you could have hooked up the Kinect but the majority probably have the thing still in it's box locked in a closest never to see the light of day again, which is understandable, I would have done it as well, but then there would be no point in including the Kinect in this review would there? Also, you can hook up the console to your DVR box through an HDMI cable but I will get to the actual TV functionality in bit.

My biggest gripe here is that the One is absolutely incompatible with most aftermarket accessories that were previously usable with the 360. Which basically means that all my headsets and my gaming chair are completely useless with One unless I rig up some crazy adapter system consisting of aftermarket products as the One has no built in or even optional analog audio outputs which is inexcusable. This basically means you're mostly stuck with buying Microsoft products or slapping down a couple hundred bucks on a new Turtle Beach that's compatible with the One when all this could have been avoided.

There isn't really too much to gripe about on the new controller. It's base design is modeled off of the 360's controller which is good because the 360 had arguably the best controller, ever. The One controller is slightly smaller but just as comfortable with some improvements to the triggers and sticks. The D-Pad has been significantly been improved to a much more precise system similar to the Dualshock controllers and the battery compartment has been recessed into the controller body. 

However it's not without it's faults which is a bit disappointing as it is a fairly solid controller. The shoulder buttons are not as easy to press as they were on the 360 controller, they feel much stiffer. The new rumble motors in the triggers while neat, don't really serve any real purpose and just feel gimmicky. Most of the time you won't notice them, other times they just feel ticklish and not really "immersive". And worst of all, Microsoft STILL does not ship the controller with rechargeable batteries which back then was okay but now it's pretty annoying as most modern controllers are rechargeable so you still have to shell out a bit extra just to get a rechargeable pack and a cable for your controller if you want that ability.

The new Kinect is easily the prime low point for me with this One. Originally with the One, it was basically packaged in with the console as a good excuse to drive the price up $100 bucks which just didn't do the One justice, especially against the PS4 which was $100 dollars less. Now the price dropped on the console due to the Kinect being cut as a mandatory accessory. Why would Microsoft do such a thing? The answer is exactly what I'm going to tell you and what a million or so others said about the Kinect.

First of all the device serves no real purpose. Microsoft flaunts the voice commands as some sort of "easy" way to operate the console without having to push a button. In reality 50% of the time, the commands either don't work at all or they are heard by mistake. The other 50%, they work, but it's still nowhere near as fast as operating the console through the controller. The camera acts as a way of using hand motions to navigate the UI and some... other... stuff... but I've only found one good use for it, and that is to scan QR codes on the back of the Xbox cards to save me the trouble of typing the 25 billion digit code now.

As for games, some games have little optional Kinect involved features like Forza 5's head tracking or Battlefield 4's voice command system but they either don't work right or don't serve a purpose at all. Not to mention there isn't a SINGLE game that fully utilizes the devices potential. Yet I don't feel sorry for it, not even a little. What Microsoft had planned involving the Kinect was enough to make customers hate it, even after the big reversal after reveal. So to sum it up, Microsoft basically abandoned the Kinect after consumers berated the device to the point where Microsoft just didn't see it relevant in the console's future anymore.

While the SmartGlass feature suffers from an amount of uselessness like the Kinect, I found it actually quite helpful in some instances to act as more of a multimedia remote which was better suited than using the controller for apps like Netflix and Twitch. Like the Kinect, most of it's in game features are neat but still pointless.

The TV function is one I have not totally explored yet but I attempted to use it as it was intended. Like I said earlier in the post you can hook a DVR up to the console and operate your DVR through the One. No this doesn't mean you can use your controller or tablet to operate your DVR, you still have to use your remote. Here's what happened when I tested it with a DirecTV Genie DVR. First of all there is a very VERY prominent response time lag between my remote and what happens on screen. In fact it's so slow that the DVR is practically unusable. I know it can't be my cable since it works fine directly linked to my TV so my guess is because the signal travels into the console and then the TV, that's where things get screwed up and again, you're stuck with yet another useless feature.

Now we move onto the dashboard UI. I was never a fan of Microsoft's new "Metro" design that they began to shove into every Microsoft branded product despite it's pretty obvious gearing towards tablets and touchscreens and not functionality based on the system it's installed on. I hated the "Metro" dashboard when it launched full scale on the 360 and I knew I wasn't going to like it any better on One. Ok, I'll admit, the One's UI is less cluttered than the 360's and slightly easier to navigate but it still lacks user friendliness. It's almost if the UI was built exclusively to run around SmartGlass or the Kinect's hands free function. In all honesty, it doesn't feel very next gen at all, it just feels very square and corporate. Really quite the departure from the 360's old NXE and Blades dashboards which by the way were quite excellent.

Much of the actual functionality of the system is quite good though. The downloads in the background are a nice touch and the fact that you can resume from where you last left off an any application is really helpful. Clunky UI aside, the One is a very versatile system in terms of what you can do with it that doesn't involve any of it's accessories. The Upload feature where you can record game clips on the fly and share them is especially pretty neat.

And of course you can't forget about the games. The One's lineup is pretty solid with some good exclusive titles like Forza 5, Dead Rising 3, Titanfall, and Halo 5 coming up later on. Also the usual third party titles like Battlefield, Assassins Creed, Call of Duty and such are present on the system. 

One thing to point out is that the hard drive on the console is 500 gigabytes, which may sound decently big on paper but the amount of space these games take up is insane. All the games have mandatory installs and in my case, I only have 5 games installed and I only have around 250 gigabytes left on my drive. The fact that the drive is not upgradeable doesn't help at all.

The graphical leap from the 360 is pretty noticeable but not as substantial as comparing the graphical leap to lets say a high end PC. No doubt the One's games look great and run smooth and they are definite upgrade from the 360. Versus the PS4 there isn't a very big of a difference in terms of graphical quality. Some say the PS4 looks better while some say the One but in all honestly the difference is so little that graphically both consoles are on a level playing field. The PS4 apparently just uses it's hardware better.

So in conclusion the Xbox One isn't exactly what people would want see as a successor to see as a successor to the 360. It's not a bad system but it isn't great either, it's just more of a mixed bag of things that are good and things that are pretty sub par. The games look great, run smooth and there are some useful features that make using the console a bit easier. However the majority of the accessories and features are pretty useless and gimmicky, namely the Kinect. The UI is an ugly, not user friendly mess and the console's lack of compatibility with much of the aftermarket accessories on the market really limit your options on how you want to use the system. The bottom line is that the One is has potential and Microsoft seems to have learned from the majority of their screw ups and they are working on making the One a better system. Like I said, I knew buying this console was a gamble and I knew it could only get progressively better or worse from here on out. I hope the Xbox One ages like wine, hopefully into the successor the 360 deserves.

The Xbox One currently costs $399.99 without the Kinect and $499.99 with the Kinect.

Is It Better Than?

Xbox 360- No, the 360 is an excellent system that ended up somewhat worse from when it first launched in a way with all the garbage Microsoft pushed onto the system later in it's life. Still the 360 is a very solid console with a great lineup of games and a large amount of versatility. Unless you are absolutely dead set about going next gen, buy a 360, or stick with the one you're still using.

Playstation 4- No, the PS4 basically succeeded in every aspect where the Xbox One didn't. While both systems are similarly powerful, the PS4 is far more user friendly and has a strong lineup of games that is still growing. If there is any next gen console to get, then the PS4 is it.

Wii U- Yes, the Wii U is an odd console to say the least. It has a good lineup of games that's fun for just about anybody and it's GamePad is very versatile when it comes to wireless gaming. However the Wii U is underpowered and a little expensive for what it is. Although there isn't much wrong with it, Nintendo seems to have lost touch with reality on what the consumer wants.