Xbox One Review

Well I have had my Xbox one for a week now so I thought I would put a little review together.

When I unpacked the box my first impressions were that the unit itself is substantially larger than my old 360 Slim, its also pretty weighty, however once I put it in my entertainment centre it is the same size as my Blu Ray player and doesn't look at all out of place. Microsoft seem to have learned their lessons from the 360 when it comes to heat too, there are great big vents all over the box and lots of spare space visible through the vents inside the box itself too. The Kinect 2.0 at first glance looks bigger than the old Kinect, however in reality it is the same width, only slightly higher and a little deeper than the old one and looks exactly the same perched on top of my TV. There have been some complaints about there being an external power brick, it doesn't bother me though as it hides in the nest of wires out of sight behind the unit.

Once all plugged in and switched on for the first time all Xbox Ones need a day one update from the internet, once this is done they technically do not need to be connected again. The download is 500mb so dependant on your connection it shouldn't take too long. Once updated I signed into my existing Xbox Live account and it updated everything, transferring all my contact details, avatar, friends list etc in a matter of seconds. Also it fired up the Kinect and asked if it could see me, the screen showed me what the camera was seeing and there was a little icon over my head, I selected myself and it recorded what I look like, every time I come into view of the camera it automatically signs me in now.

The new desktop isn't that great, there seems to be layer upon layer of menus to navigate to get to where you want to go, however the voice commands are absolutely superb. I didn't like the voice commands on the 360 and I thought I would hate them on the One as well but they are so easy, fast and intuitive you find yourself using them without thinking. I rarely have to repeat myself, even with a room full of people talking. The task switching is seamless too, I can go from watching TV (through the HDMI pass through), to skyping a mate, to playing a game, to surfing on the internet almost instantly. It really is as good as the demo videos online suggest. being able to snap a second activity to the side of the screen is a great feature too, I was playing Assassins Creed IV with the F1 in a small screen in the top corner on sunday and I can that see watching sports while skyping a mate will be brilliant too.

And now to the games, I bought the console with Forza 5, Assassins Creed IV and Battlefield 4.

Forza is staggering, the graphics are superb, the cars unbelievably detailed, the sounds incredible and the sensation of speed is far superior to any Forza game in the past. The AI of the opponents is a vast improvement too, it is based on how other Forza players actually race, they call the system Drivatars. The console records how well you drive, where you brake, where you hit apexes etc and builds up a constantly updated digital version of your driving style, this is uploaded to the cloud servers so every time you play a single player race it downloads other peoples drivatars so the opponents react like a real person would, its still scaleable too so if you want to adjust the difficulty you can tell the console to make it easier or harder. It could do with a few more tracks and cars but these are coming.

Assassins Creed 4 I absolutely love, the graphics are an improvement over the 360 but not by as much as I was expecting, however the draw distances are vastly improved and there is MUCH more going on than in any previous AC game. Its much lighter in tone than any previous AC game too, you play a Pirate and can free roam over a frankly colossal map area by foot and by sea. The naval aspect is my favourite part of the game, firing broadsides from a galleon is very satisfying and boarding other ships is brilliant fun too, the dynamic weather with rogue waves, water spouts and freak winds make it a very interesting challenge especially when the weather turns in the middle of a pitched battle. On foot it is pretty much standard AC, with sneaky missions and great free flowing combat. It is by far my favourite game so far in the series.

Battlefield 4 is the one game I haven't spent much time with yet, it is very good looking and the weapons have real feel to them when you pull the trigger. The multiplayer is as frantic as you would expect with tanks, helicopters and planes adding real depth to the experience, especially on the 64 player Conquest games.

all in all I am very impressed with my Xbox One, I am genuinely impressed with the multitasking and additional features on the console. Ok it could have done with a pokier processor and graphics system and the Ram is an old design but it really does work well together and is a VAST improvement over my 360. Give the developers a year to get to grips with it and it will be a superb system, I really cannot wait for Titanfall and Destiny now!

 

Not at all, yes the PS4 and Xbox One are based on PC architecture now but that doesn't make them a PC.

I bought an Alienware X51 PC a couple of years ago (I know, I should have built one myself ), i7 processor, loads of ram and a half decent graphics card etc. it is way more powerful than my Xbox One but aside from RTS games I just don't get on with PC gaming, I prefer gaming on a console...

The comments about next gen consoles not being able to run launch games at 1080p are a red herring, the developers themselves admit that in the rush to get games ready for launch they have not been able to optimise them properly for the systems, hence the lower resolutions. Give the developers 6 months to a year and all games will be in 1080p running 60fps. look at Killzone and Forza 5, both running 1080p and 60fps at launch because they were built by first party developers working on a single architecture, COD /BF4 / AC4 etc have been developed for current and next gen systems on multiple platforms so they have been compromised by not being able to concentrate purely on one system.

I would have loved to see Xbone and PS4 having much higher specs but consider this, PS3 and Xbox 360 games still look pretty damn spectacular and that tech is way out of date (and was when they were released too). Look at what Rockstar managed with GTA5 on old technology, giving the developers a fixed set of hardware makes it easier for them to push the boundaries not harder...

 

And im proud of it buddy