The Xbox One was released this Friday at midnight and Enemy Slime braved the cold winter weather to pick one up. I took the weekend to play around with the new system and get a feel for this piece of next-gen hardware. I’ve recorded a few thoughts here about my experiences.
First off, the console itself is big. And heavy. It’s sleek, black and a little dense. The accusations that it looks like a VCR seem pretty far-fetched to me, but now that it’s here it doesn’t quite look like the discreet piece of home theater equipment that I might have hoped for. Now that it’s sat on my shelf for a few days it does look pretty inconspicuous, but it won’t necessarily sit discreetly on top of your cable box disguised as stereo equipment. In fact, it’s not supposed to sit on anything, or under anything, according to the manual. Nor can it be set up vertically. So it’s kind of a finicky system. It worked fine for me because I only had a file cabinet to place it on, but users with a little more space may be irked at how many ways you can’t set it up.
The new controllers look pretty cool in black and they feel a little more natural in my hand than the 360 controller. But upon picking it up it felt a little hollow; I wouldn’t call it chintzy but the word did cross my mind when I held it for the first time. Inserting the two AA batteries (Included in the box) did weigh it down a bit more, and after a few days I don’t know if I can really say it feels any less sturdy than the 360 controller, but I still can’t quite shake the feeling that it’s a bit flimsy. Button presses feel right for the most part, similar to the 360. The new dual sticks definitely feel easier to manipulate with a textured outer rim which your thumbs will get good traction on. The D-pad has a better tactile feel to it, and now makes a click that will probably be satisfying to some and annoying to others. The new triggers are wider than the previous generation, but don’t strike me as all that different in feel. However, the new L and R buttons feel a little loose in their slots, and while on the 360 they could be pressed from any angle, on the One some angles are easier to press from than others. While the angles your fingers will fall onto the buttons will almost surely be right to depress them without difficulty, it feels like they’ve tried to fix something that wasn’t broken.
I’m using stock images because I’m ashamed to show you where I live
Now, let’s turn it on. I’m not sure exactly what happened the first time I switched on the Xbox, but it greeted me with a bright green logo screen that I assumed meant it was loading. But it stayed that way. For a long time. Eventually I wondered if I wasn’t supposed to be doing something so I started messing around with the controls and indeed I could hear the clicks of a menu screen being manipulated, but the green screen remained unmoved. I pressed a few random buttons and suddenly I was taken to the normal setup menu, so no harm done, but it wasn’t the most welcome way to start my experience with a $500 piece of hardware.
The new interface initially feels like a vast improvement. Gone are the 360’s numerous clunky tabs, replaced by a more concise home screen that’s more than a little reminiscent of Windows 8. I say this initially seems like an improvement because it looks better, but finding what you want can prove a little challenging. I haven’t had the time to really work through it, but it appears that the options on the Home screen change to reflect the applications you’ve been using recently, which is useful because you will probably use some features a lot more than others. On the flip side it was a bit of challenge finding a feature that wasn’t featured on the Home screen, as some of them are secreted away in menus that aren’t necessarily where you would expect to find them, so in some ways it really is no better than the 360’s unwieldy maze of tabs, even though it looks better. There is some definite need of fine tuning here, but nothing too terrible.
One thing I will say is an outright success for the One is how quietly it runs. I can barely tell it’s on, even when playing games. This makes the lack of backwards compatibility an even greater disappointment, as I would love to be able to play my 360 games on this new silent machine.
The Kinect has also undergone some major improvements. I was not a big fan of it on the 360, as it felt like hardware that wasn’t really ready for a consumer release, but Microsoft has stepped up its game here. The voice commands have been thoroughly functional and responsive; I don’t have to yell at the machine or speak with excessive enunciation to get it to accept orders. There can be a bit of lag between commands, which is more noticeable in games than on the home screen, but it’s mostly negligible. As others have pointed out the syntax of issuing commands is not entirely intuitive, and you will probably want to keep a list handy as you get accustomed to it. I can’t speak to the effectiveness of the motion controls as I don’t have anywhere near the minimum required room that Microsoft suggests, but in playing around with it in my cramped gaming space I’ve been able to get a passably good response out of it. It still feels like an improvement over the 360 iteration and hopefully with the proper amount of room it will prove to be actually usable. Does the improved functionality justify its mandatory inclusion with the system? I’m still not convinced that it makes the game a hundred dollars better than the PS4, and given the option I would wait to pick this up until there were a game that really looked like it would benefit from having it, but now that I’ve got it I have to admit it’s pretty cool.
It’s always watching you… Unless you turn it off.
There are still quite a few features I haven’t had the opportunity to play with on the Xbox One. I’ve only made a brief attempt at editing my gameplay footage, and as I have no cable or Netflix I can’t tell you about how well I can catch up on my favorite shows. There are still some things left for me to research to get the most of out of my purchase, so please keep in mind that I’m not offering a comprehensive review here, just my opinions.
So, that said, how does the Xbox One feel at $500? Kind of expensive, but not that expensive. The price point isn’t doing the Xbox any favors, but even still I feel like I’m getting something good for my money. Playing Ryse proved that the hardware has some power and the Kinect finally feels like a usable tool rather than a shot in the dark. My first weekend with the Xbox One has been pretty positive, and I’m excited to see what’s in store for this new generation. If you haven’t already purchased your own I won’t tell you have to rush out and buy one because it’s a lot of money either way, but when you’re ready to make that step from the last gen the Xbox One might be right for you.
