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Xbox One First Impressions

Xbox One First Impressions

I've seen plenty of game consoles launch, but have never been able to afford to jump in at day one. This time I've been fortunate enough, not to mention stupid enough, to be on the ground floor to say “day one baby!”

I took 11 days off work to make sure I had enough time to get to grips with the biggest change in my hobby in years. I left behind the mere idea of existing within the mortal realm so I could truly understand just why the hell I paid an extra £80 for a Kinect. I would like to say that all my closest loved ones were supportive during this time, but it appeared that not all understood the sacrifice I was making for the wider community when I would eventually come to writing this article.

After just over a week with the Xbox One I've found quite a few things enjoyable and frustrating. Seeing as there are several different things to talk about, I’ll go about it in a logical sense and talk about them in order of how I came across them.

The Controller

Xbox One Controller2

The first thing I did when opening the box was to discard the insides until I got to the controller. This may seem a little odd, but it was my biggest worry. Being a true day one adopter, and a guy with a job, I was unable to get my hands on one of these in any way up to launch. I'm happy to report that if you were a fan of the, frankly superb, 360 controller you will feel right at home here. All the improved ergonomic design has really paid off. Where it’s predecessor had large sticks with a concave design and a quite loose feel to them, the Xbox One design has smaller, tighter analogs with an indentation at the top of the sticks to allow your thumb to rest perfectly.

To say this design feels good is an understatement. It fits in your hand so well that with the extended play time I've had with it I do literally forget it’s there, which is what any controller worth it’s salt should do. I didn't think it would be possible, but the triggers now feel better than the 360, boasting a shorter response time from pull to click they manage to resolve a problem you never knew you had. The bumpers are a different story, however, they too boast a shorter response time but this doesn't do much to help the overall feel of the controller. I do believe that some reports have been a bit overzealous in their damnation of this change as for anyone with a history of using a 360 pad will find themselves getting used to the new bumpers without any real issue.

The real problem is how noticeable a change they are. I do find myself not clicking them right first time, which in my playtime with Battlefield 4 has gotten me killed more times than I can count. But recently, my muscle memory has adjusted and picking up the new design feels as normal as ever. I would not say this is as huge a deal as many mainstream media outlets have made it out to be, it’s just over-analysing on their part.

Xbox One Controller 2

The D-pad has seen the most improvements when it comes to the controller, once again it’s had it’s response time improved by putting it closer to the board within the controller, allowing it to send a signal faster. It feels like it should and plays like it should. Using it during the free to download Killer Instinct, to pull off classic attacks (such as quarter circle B in this case), feels natural and flows much better than the previous iteration. The face buttons don’t seem to have been touched, apart from bringing them a few millimeters closer together is a good thing as the A, B, X, Y design is nothing to be tampered with.

The biggest difference on the whole controller are the three middle buttons. No longer shall you refer to them as ‘Start’ or ‘Select’ for now they are and forever shall be ‘Three Lines’ and ‘Two Squares’ (TL and TS from now on). I kid ye not, this is a change akin to the Dualshock 4 with it’s share button and touch pad. They are used in very strange ways, the new ‘Two Squares’ (TS) which is the replacement for the select button, appears to be useless outside of games, designed only for use with social features in games. The new ‘Three Lines’ (TL, I will jam down this down your throat) seems to work just as you would expect a start button to. The home button has been cut down to the role of being, well, a home button; press it and it takes you to the home screen. Holding it down no longer gives a menu with various useful options, but the ability to shut the console down or turn off the controller. This is probably my least favourite part of the whole new design but with the speed at which you are able to go home, I do understand the reason why this was cut as it’s almost unnecessary.

The Kinect

Xbox One Kinect

The reason you paid above the odds is this huge black brick, and that is exactly what it looks like. It has it’s own light to make you aware of it’s power state, as it is optional and does not have to peer into your life 24/7 if you don’t desire it to. The functions of it are actually highly impressive, I cannot say I've used it much with hand gestures but I have used it a lot with voice commands. This may have some people wondering why you would want to talk to a machine, but that will be explained later. The voice commands work really well for the most part, I have even talked to it while listening to loud music from the speakers that sit both sides of the machine and it still picked up exactly what I was saying with no issue.

The use of it in games is minimal unless you’re going to pick up Fighter Within, which from what I've seen and heard I would suggest you don’t, but for the minimal things like picking up my cries for a medic in Battlefield 4 it manages just fine. The microphone on the Kinect seems to be very good quality and I’ve used it instead of my headset until new third party headsets are released next year with an in-built mic. The Kinect also notices your face and what controller you’re using, making signing in and syncing your controller a thing of the past. For as much stick as the Kinect got on it’s announcement, it seems to actually justify it’s place in the box. There aren't many games available right now, but with 100% of the installed user base having access to one, developers will no doubt find very interesting ways in which to use it and innovate further than simple voice commands and movement gestures.

The UI

Xbox One UI

The Xbox home screen has been overhauled to feel a lot less cluttered. Instead of loads of little sub sections, you have three main sections: Pins, Home and Store. Pins is where you can put all your favourite apps or games for easy access, you do this by hovering over an app or game you want to add and pressing the TL (Start) button and choosing pin to home. Simple. Your home screen is all your most recently used apps and games displayed along with your profile info and a large screen in the middle that shows what you have open, if anything. In the bottom corner of the screen you have whatever disc is inserted. This is all very intuitive and manages to make navigation a doddle. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the store.

The Store is made up of Games, Movies & TV, and Music and Apps; which frankly makes no sense. You are unable to navigate them through one another, they are all separate stores and must be accessed from the home screen. Also, Xbox Movies and Xbox Music are pointless. With the ability to go into the Apps Store at any time and get Netflix, LoveFilm, YouTube or any number of TV channel apps it seems ridiculous to think anyone will pay the overpriced amounts on these other proprietary services.

Xbox One UI 2

Everything else must be accessed by digging through the main menu and going through all the apps until you find what you’re looking for. For instance, settings is hidden inside of the My Games & Apps app, which makes no sense. There are many examples of these issues throughout the UI of the Xbox One. The party system has been completely revamped and assumes you don’t want to immediately talk to whoever you’re in a party with and asks you to turn party chat on every time you join one, which once again is ridiculous. All games must be installed which you are no longer prompted to do but instead just happens automatically, which is nice but showcases the lack of information the Xbox One gives its users, expecting you to just plain understand what is happening all the time.

The most impressive thing is the way that the UI and Kinect are integrated. Remember I said that settings was hidden, well no need to worry as one simple phrase “Xbox Go To Settings” will put you right into them with no worry. “Xbox Go To…” is a phrase you’ll utter a lot and is surprisingly responsive moving between screens in a snappy fashion with no real need to wait. This is something a lot of my friends and the wider audience were worried about I feel. Once you've done it a couple of times though, it works so well that you won’t think twice about checking you’re alone so you don’t look like a total lemon talking to your television.

Performance

Ryse Son of Rome

I went from using my 360 to my Xbox One literally minutes apart, it was easy to set up and I felt the difference in the hardware straight away. No more waiting for games to start up, no more long loading screens and the response time between pressing a button and things happening was a massive improvement. The one thing you won’t notice is the sound of the machine, its as quiet as a mouse. Even quieter. The only notable sound is when you’re installing a game and on startup, there is a short sound of the disc drive checking what’s in it, but otherwise nothing. The boot time is something to be admired, if you have the console in a state of constant low power then it will boot in a few seconds and all with only the small voice command “Xbox On”.

Games look gorgeous, especially when coming from an old generation of hardware to a new. The worry that the graphical leap wouldn't be worth a new machine is very much absent as you boot up whatever launch game you have. Sure, I could achieve better than this with a top-of-the-range £2000 PC, but for the majority of people unable to afford such an endeavour, this is what next-gen is about; higher resolution and higher frame rate, better graphics all around. I have had the pleasure to play Assassin’s Creed IV, Battlefield 4 and Killer Instinct.The former two give the impression that this new generation can really look better than anything you've seen on previous hardware. Battlefield especiall, runs smooth and looks amazing when things are blowing up around you and helicopters are falling from the sky in a flurry of high definition glory.

I'm sure at this point you’re wondering whether the resolution is an issue, and I can tell you now I don’t even understand the whole debate, unless you are playing both consoles side by side you won’t notice anything. The games look stunning regardless.

Conclusion

Xbox One3

This console is just a joy to own and use. With some small UI issues and the bumpers on the controller being a bit difficult to use first time out, there is very little here to moan about. Also with the smoother of the two console launches, Microsoft makes a very strong case for it’s machine. Xbox Live has never seemed to strain under the pressure of it’s large user base logging on at the same time, and considering that it was released worldwide all at once, and not in individual territories like the PS4 (which has seen numerous issues with PSN since launch), you start to see that at least in online infrastructure, the Xbox has the stronger pull.

I don’t regret buying this day one and hope I continue to not regret it. I have expressed to my friends who have not bought into the hype yet that they are very right to do so and should not feel any pressure to. In a years time is when we will see how these powerhouses of console gaming match up. Will there be another Red Ring Of Death in six months? Who’s to know. Will the Xbox drop it’s price to match the PlayStation and create a level playing field? It’s possible.

Saying that, I would recommend this to anyone who is still on the fence. I've been having great fun with it and only hope to continue having great fun with it.

James Furlong

James Furlong

Writer

James enjoys games, extreme metal and shooting ’N3wBs’ in the face. All from the comfort of his bedroom, in deepest darkest surrey.

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