Xbox ONE Review : Ich Bin Ein Xbox ONEr ...Week ONE with the last physical console Microsoft will produce

Microsoft : Thinking and gaming outside the Xbox ..

The Xbox ONE and the  PS4 are the last physical iterations or "generation" of  consoles as we know them. The next generation ... will be cloud driven cross platform "services" ..and the signs or should I say designs are already evident when you notice the subtle ways both are moving us away and off our consoles altogether.. you may find yourself playing and spending more time with Xbox ONE and PS4 related services than the consoles themselves..as I have over the last week or so...

The Console issue ...
The console issue is whether the console will survive ... as a format...anybody remember arcades? We still play arcade games .. but not where or how we used to..  Space Invaders in 2013 is the same as Space Invaders in 1977, the games are not going to change, the way we connect or relate to them is..how we access them is... 

The Power issue :
Yes these consoles are weaker than my 5 year old desktop, but tech does not make a good game..ask iD and Epic who have been riding that wave for some would say too long.. I can play games at insane resolutions, so what, in those 5 years how many seminal releases on consoles would I have missed out on and it actually took 5 years for games to arrive that push my hardware..now... So power is a moot point, these consoles will happily cater for your gaming needs till the next generation.

You can design the perfect video game to work in text on one screen... what  it takes is  talent ... power is not relevant .. on consoles we have talent led design from developers considered as talented as artists, on PC we have tech led design ... which has been floundering by the wayside since the last Doom game forced a 3K upgrade to have an imp jump out you from a concealed closet... so no ..if games are bad ..or your prototype VR headset sucks ..it's because you don't have the talent to make it anything but so .. prove me wrong..currently there are idiots who are going to spend 10K to play Star Citizen when it launches it's bug ridden and day 1 crashing 20gb patch waiting self out of RSIs gold pressed latinum public funded hangar sometime in 2040...and I will be one of them...but that does not mean there is no room for a console or two or three in your gaming life...

So if you are reading nonsense about the Xbox or PS4 being under powered .. remember it's just how those people get their clicks.. 

Xbox ONE hardware :

Unxboxing

to look upon the Xbox ONE .. is to look upon that golden age of VHS design ..JVC,AKAI..Panasonic ..halcyon days.. as I joked here ..

Can Microsoft's Xbox One VHS games machine take on Sony's PS4 Betamax? Or will the Wii U 8 Track trump them both?

 In that article I also hoped Microsoft would deliver more ..and they have ...so when I show you my attempts at head cleaning the Xbox ONE with a VHS head cleaning tape ..know this is meant in the sincerest form of jest .. 

Xbox ONE Cooler by Design: 

Whereas the PS4 looks cooler, in operation the Xbox One IS cooler.

The design is ugly, no question, the console itself seems heavier than the heaviest thing you remember lifting. But the design is solid : built to last ..there is nothing flimsy about the Xbox ONE .. this is then is a  triumph of function over fashion .. 

The cooling issue:

Overheating is THE major cause of Console death, poor ventilation in the design itself led to many 360 and PS3 deaths ... for many thousands if not millions of consoles during the last 10 years..

With more powerful CPUS, GPUS and RAM adequate cooling has to be a design priority for the Xbox ONE..which explains why most of it's surface is open to the elements.. the top grill covers half the console top surface ..containing a giant single large diameter fan , the  sides have a grille vent running along their length and a rear vent runs along over the cable management.. 

As a result whilst the Xbox ONE may look like an industrial designed VHS player from the late 70s ..it has intelligent design to counter the bane of console overheating ... 

This is PC cooling design .. and so it should be with the hardware inside...  Sony's solution is quite different...and aesthetically based or biased.... 

As an example let us  a look at the position of the vents .. comparing PS4 and XBox ONE  cooling solutions and their possible long term  impact..

On the Xbox ONE 

at the rear we see a solid block of connectors and to the left we see the rear vent running along the length of the hardware :

 

What this means is hot air is being exhausted or cool air is able to enter the console without baking ,cooking or nuking your HDMI, optical out, Kinect or power cables ... 

Place the console horizontally and the vents take heat out of the console ABOVE the cables ..away from the cables ... as you know hot air rises ... Sony's engineers seem to have missed this point...


Now let's take a look at the PS4 :  

Placed horizontally the vents sit UNDER the cables. So as I noticed hot air exhausts through the rear and rises up through the cables ...cooking, heating and eventually  given enough time the possibility of nuking them .. not an ideal design ...that the console slants inward does not help either because the heat exhaust is shorter than the length of the console ...so you are pumping hot air into cables ...it should have been the other way round so heat is exhausted away from the cables not through and up them .. ..like having a car exhaust that ends under or inside the boot of your car not outside it..

Further your PS4 has no front air intake vents that are visible ... or top vent or fan vents that are visible, there is also no cooling on the HDD .. these "interesting" design choices  form the potential for a lot head ache down the line .. but that's fashion led design for you .. 

The only way to mitigate this is to use the PlayStation 4 console vertically .. but mitigation is not solution..even in the vertical position the heat exhaust finishes BEFORE the console thanks to that aesthetically please angled back ... so  with the PS4 you are exhausting heat into cables and console parts whatever position you use..

In operation this means the Xbox ONE actually runs cooler and quieter than the PS4 ( even when it isn't shredding your Killzone disc) . And this raises the possibility that in the long term you will be replacing your PS4 before your Xbox ONE when it comes to overheating issues...

The Xbox ONE can only be placed horizontally and thankfully does not sing Klingon Opera the way the old Xbox 360 did (does) when playing a game.. and runs quieter than the PS4 ... a great surprise...and as result of the design cooler ...an even greater surprise..

One thing I did note though is the disc eject button extends to the side of the console ...what this suggests to me is that vertical positioning of the console was on the design board at some point .. as you can see from the picture here 

Console setup 

Connecting the console and setting it up is simple .. just remember to get your HDMI in and out the right way round .. 

You log on with your outlook/hotmail Microsoft ID .. which happens to be your Windows 8 ID ... very interesting .. this persistence of ID data across operating systems and devices ..

The Xbox ONE can handle 5ghz Wifi the Sony PS4 CANNOT ...

The ONE has dual band, it connected to my 5ghz only wifi without a hiccup... I have waited a very long time for a console that can do this .. the PlayStation 4 cannot do this ...and this a solid advantage for Microsoft ...as a result 

The XBOX ONE is kitted for cloud based streaming of games and media  : the PS4 is NOT .. 

This is another surprise for me ...

Both the PS4 and Xbox ONE are supposed to herald a change in how we use consoles.. The major change ...cloud usage is going to require mighty powerful wifi ... now streaming of any kind is only possible without issues with 5ghz and dual band wifi .. Onlive and GAIKAI fail at 2.4 ghz I have been testing them for years as you can see in this blog ... even our phones these days are dual band wifi .. every tablet ..released this year ...

With all the hype around the PS4 , no one seems to have mentioned it cannot do dual band wifi .. the PS3 was also locked to this band .. and any time you used Bluetooth headsets or other devices at the frequency you loose WIFI  on the PS3 ..if you were downloading for instance.. this would make GAIKAI use impossible on the PlayStation 4.

With the Xbox ONE Microsoft have improved Wifi capabilities and it seems Sony who own GAIKAI are going to be attempting to stream content using a non ideal and 10 year old  2.4GHZ  band ... the same that your PS3 was locked to..that you could knock out by turning Bluetooth on your phone..hmmh...

This could be the reason why GAIKAI is not in operation at the launch of the PS4 , although it is the most desirable feature of Sony's console and a clear advantage over the Xbox ONE ... It may be in the long term that Sony can never get GAIKAI working reliably with the PS4 as a result of this design choice...and it returns to the PC where it should be... or ends up on a Microsoft console...

This also means that in all likelihood GAIKAI and streaming without issue will only be possible on the PS4 using a wired Ethernet connection.. 

At a very basic level .. I am impressed with Microsoft's foresight ...setting aside the coming cloud rev..we live in homes where multiple devices share multiple wifi signals , interference from neighbours etc.. so having dual band wifi is essential for a smooth next gen gaming and media experience..

The amount of data being shifted to and fro, to the console, from the console to tablets and phones and shared access with other devices means the Xbox ONE is likely to produce a far smoother experience than the PS4 ... 

And having access to 5ghz wifi is a clear advantage for the XBox ONE .. didn't see that coming ..  


Kinect 2.0 : 

Kinect 2.0 is also simple to set up... can I see any sign of it being so sensitive that it can detect changes in my heart rate? No ... despite a week of training Kinect 2.0 still cannot recognise me .. but this is early days...

The speech recognition , I hope will improve with time . Out of game it does not seem that accurate and the slightest change in your environment messes up Kinect 2.0 and you have to calibrate it again.. 

Design wise it looks the business ...Size wise though it is another thing to set up and have set up .. the distance required to use it has been decreased significantly from the Kinect .. but the mic does not seem as sensitive as the PS4 camera I have been using..

You do need to shout but the experience is subjective and when you beckon Zombies with it DR3 that is where things start getting interesting .. though whether it will be anymore relevant to core gamers than Kinect ..we will have to see .. it looks like HAL 9000 to me ...

I think what Microsoft missed is having the Xbox talk BACK to you .. that would have been interesting .. 

Xbox ONE day ONE controller 

The 100 million dollar controller , with chrome still requires batteries to be purchased or a charge cable .. In use it is no different than say the ONLIVE joypad.. Yes I like the day one logo .. The PS4s controllers look and feel futuristic .. and come with a USB charge cable .. so that's a win for me there ( now if only they could send me a console that works) 

There are issues with the ONE controller ... I cannot stand the Windows"esque" menu and select buttons ...these are tiny and you HAVE to use them in so many instances it gets annoying ...

Since Xbox, we are used to hitting that back button the B button ..but Microsoft have moved that action off the button and onto the teeny tiny alien to Xbox fans menu and select buttons ... so where you effortlessly used to move back through menus ..you now find yourself having to relearn the basics .. it's sounds strange yes .. but you will be annoyed ... as you instinctively reach for the B button ...in the dark and it does something else ...DOH!

Xbox ONE Smart Glass: Look Ma...no console...

Smart glass works across Android, iOS and of course our Windows 8 desktops, laptops, surfaces and this opens up a whole new way not just to interact and engage with your Xbox ONE when using it ...but away from it too even when you are not using it .. 

Because Microsoft's cloud based services like Skydrive hoover up your console activities and for example videos and send them to the cloud .. you are connecting,engaging and being involved with traditional gaming activities without even going near your console .. 

The Xbox one is fully able to exploit iOS, Android and more significantly Windows 8.1 features 

You may find this more interesting than actually using the console itself... I spent more time playing around with this than actually playing games ... 

And we and Microsoft are just beginning to grasp the potential of this ..cross platform cloud based activity.. 

Xbox Smart Glass your in and out of gaming Companion .. 

The Doctor has a companion and so too can you ..well an app at this point but one day you could ...

So there was I playing Dead Rising 3 ... with Smart Glass running on my Samsung Galaxy S4... the Dead Rising companion seemed interesting .. I could use live updating map, access additional mission data and quests ..  

Then the game called me on my phone... and that is the wow moment .. and I used the phone to listen to the in game characters requests .. this is cool .. this is how games are moving outside of the Xbox ONE and into the real world ... of course it is not a real phone call .. but what if the game contacted your friend ...on their phone running Smart Glass and asked them to join you .. when you needed help .. 

So you see , power is not everything , over in kickstarter bloated  PC dev land certain name PC devs are harping on about the power of the PC and their latest (donated) 10K hardware setups .. but consoles like the ONE are innovating in ways our PCs cannot ... someone from a game just phoned me on my phone... and it did not require a 20K E-Penis ..Mr Roberts.. 

Innovative application of hardware like this is far more important than measuring FPS or resolutions or sticking the letter K after all your expensive niche hardware .. that has no application other than bragging rights.. 

When we play HALO on the ONE Cortana is going to be talking to you on your phone , or tablet , you are going to be recording the whole thing through speech and be able to play it back even when you have no access to your console ...on your Windows 8 machines ..whilst messing with Windows 8 apps at the same time .. 


Which brings me to GAME DVR 

The Xbox ONE will record up to 5 minutes , shout record that and it will capture the last minute .. There is no slow down in game action when you do this .. 5 minutes is quite limiting but the system does work ... far more easily than traditional game capture methods. 

The video exists in the cloud ..so you do not even need an Xbox ONE to show it off .. as you can see in the video above

The games .. 

The games frankly suck at this point, they are perfectly passable fare, but this is not a console launching with the first Halo, or the N64 launching with Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64 ..or even the PSX launching with Jumping Flash! Toshinden and Tekken ... ...something I went to Japan to pick up ...  There is a surprising lack of oomph in both next gen console launches .. You could definitely state the Wii U had a more solid and substantial launch line up ( which you subsequently never used or played with after launch day..) ...

But then we must remember the gamers getting what they expected, or perhaps deserved.. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have already created their markets .... so excellence or originality are sacrificed for safe core titles ... with staple genres .. 

The purpose of these launches is to re hook the core 1 million gamers that will go on to promote the consoles for each company .. just like the first 100000 core gamers promoted the PlayStation for Sony... you know back when tv presenters and toff journalists wouldn't know a console from a camisole...

In 2013 then we find Microsoft , Sony and Nintendo launching next gen hardware with deliberately old gen software ...playing it safe .. 

But that's not to say there is no fun to be had... 

The Xbox ONE Nintendo Connection: RARE  

Microsoft have not forgotten the vast surge of casual gamers that Nintendo managed to court with each console launch ..( though many of these casuals now find their kicks on iOS and Android instead) ..

It must be a decade or so ago that Microsoft bought RARE from Nintendo ... depriving gaming kind of a Wii and Wii U version of Perfect Dark or Golden Eye and instead giving us the Xbox 360 version of Perfect Dark Zero and a series of bizarre games I am sure were written in protest at being forced to write cute games ...involving furry animals and birds , including one with a lot of harsh language and a squirrel ... As I said ..protest coding at it's best... 

RARE though are the greatest, for they wrote the greatest game of all time ..Goldeneye .. (sorry ageing PC coding Kickstarter Fagins you got beat by a console game )  

RARE were heavily involved in key titles for the N64 and the Xbox ONE titles they are responsible look straight up like N64 games ... wait they are ... well one of them is and the other is Wave Race 64 by another name .. 

Don't fret though because they are also the two most outright fun games on the Xbox ONE right now ... and are free  .. and this as a long time fan since Atic Atac and Cookie ..makes me very happy ..

Killer Instinct is a stunning graphical refit of the N64 acquired taste button mashing
classic...and the fact that it is free (to start off with at least) is not by accident ...it feels much better  mashing buttons for free rather than the $69.99 the old N64 cart cost me... a lot more to import actually...

Both Microsoft and Sony have to cater for gamers used to free and fremium model games and Apps thanks to iOS and Android ... so taking a name game like this , using a free to play initial model and combining it with both the power and control available on a console is a very wise way to go .. there is a caveat of course ... your KI Arcade Stick will set you back around £174... but that is not a criticism.. owning such a device is a matter of pride...

To truly play a game like KI or Street Fighter( sacrilege I know to mention both in one sentence)  you need to invest in an arcade stick and time ... then what starts off as a button mashing game turns into a game of skill, with tears readily flowing when you armed with your arcade stick and memorised combo timings are defeated by your better half mashing buttons on the joypad ...   and they will not give you a rematch...

Wave Race Xbox ONE :Kinect Rivals .. 

This is, as has been demonstrated  recently by the man himself , the most Jimmy Fallon presentation friendly game on the Xbox ONE ... and probably the only family friendly game out at the moment.. 

It is also easily the best demo of the new Kinect 2.0.. but it will make you miss Wave Race ..

Then we come to the "what games can I buy that are exclusive to the Xbox ONE and not running better on other devices" category 

First up continuing the Nintendo vibe ... we have

Super Marius Xbox One ...officially known as Ryse Son of Rome ...

It is true I bought this game because it said Crytek on the box , ..... Like the PS4 launch games I have been around games like this since E3, trying to stay away from them ..so I can comment on a finished game and not just regurgitate  promotion commotion.  I have sat or stood under giant statues and freezes of these games, but as a gamer I don't want to spoil the experience or as a writer be swayed by the ritz and glamour of all these shows (!) ...you know much like many official media types make proclamations following a 2 minute button mash and 3 minute "interview" ..

If you have gamed long enough you know who is going to promise ...and who is going to deliver 

Ryse's game has evolved several times since it's announcement... Playing it in it's final form , you get to see Cryengine on the Xbox ONE for the first time ..and people it runs at 1080p for a start ..so if your game is not up to this ...give Cryengine a go ... The Xbox ONE is perfectly capable of running 1080p , plonk that hardware in a PC and I would be running at 5120 by 1600 ...what matters here is optimisation...give the coders time .. or talent .. and you will have 1080p gaming quite easily..

The detail in this game and character acting is excellent, beyond what you would expect from a hack and slash game ...Mixing actual historical figures with it's fictional characters ...  If you happen to be a Briton ( and in the game there are roughly 4 types ..Skinny Latte who wields a single weapon, Bearded and pony tailed Roadie that likes to hide behind his shield ,Gaga wanabee: Cow Skull/Flesh wearers and Johnny Two Swords Statham types complete with jack the street lad accents)   .. you will get an extra kick from the story line 


However both the Romans and Britons speak English ..which creates an interesting dichotomy ... one wonderful instance in the game has a Roman citizen shouting " run for your lives the Britons are coming " ... which if you are from these parts can have you in stitches... from laughter ... I don't know if it was meant to be funny ..but it is deep .. the most powerful empire on earth is fleeing from us Britons... oh the irony ... you colonials just wouldn't understand... it's an Empire thing...

Perhaps realising that Romans and Britons speaking English ..might get confusing  ... Crytek have "wisely" chosen to give the protagonists different dialects ... the Romans intonations tend to gruff but middle class tones for the soldiers and extend to upper class high camp ( though not quite Lurchio/Frankie Howard) for the ruling classes.. Commodus being a classic example of this .. Whereas the Britons.. tend to speak "Football Hooligan" ... 

It all works seamlessly ...but how cool would it have been to have some Latin in a game about Romans for a change.. 

The game itself uses a Rock Paper Scissors combat system , that comes into it's own when you are surrounded .. based on timing you can ward off a number of enemies culminating in  quick timed finishing moves..following well timed countering moves ... 

It's like what Assassin's Creed's combat system has tried to reach for in around 10 iterations  ...but works ... you don't just feel you are rolling from one enemy to another either , you actually feel like you blocked moves and deserve that parry .. 

This is NOT Sparta ... and certainly not God of War... nor is it the easy flowing ...too easy flowing roll about cape flapping combat of the Batman Arkham series... When you are surrounded by enemies of the limited types .. that is when this game's  combat system  comes into it's own .. but you will not play or need to play with the lightning speed of a Ninja Gaiden game.. 

There are non combat "strategic" moments but not up to the standard of Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword (think) ..  interspersed with the combat .. to beef up the game play .. also not up to anything of the level you had in Creative Assembly's Spartan Total Warrior or Viking Battle for Asgard.. 

But they do look great ... 

Golden Axe... yes it is .. 
The combat is different enough to most hack and slash games ...up to a point ..there are a few cheap characters, the larger animal head wearing Gaga wanabees.. that you end up fighting by rolling around and stabbing in the back and then rolling around and ... just like those classic 16 bit hack and slash games...

Interesting isn't it ? How we have next gen hardware but game mechanics still stay rooted in 20 year old game design...

Smart Glass 

Playing Ryse of Rome is the first time I got to use Xbox ONE's GAME DVR ... shouting record that .. Kinect seems to get better the longer you use it .. here is the first minute I captured :

and here is some serious game play captured the old fashioned way ...using an Elgato and PC 

and some more ... 

Ryse Son of Rome ultimately is more of a Golden Axe clone than any of the other titles I mentioned but it does have it's moments, if you are interested in a new form of combat control hack and slash game that sets it's stall early as the ultimate Russell Crowe simulator then you will be... entertained.

The greatest hack and slash game with actual depth of combat is an old PC game called Severance Blade of Darkness check it out on GOG ...



Then we come to

Dead Rising 3

Dead Rising the third is probably the most next gen game on the Xbox ONE at the moment .. a sandbox Zombie game with time limits and zany Nihon humour ..veering dangerously close to being Saints Row VI at times...  but still retaining the key elements that made the original Dead Rising so interesting.. 

I saw none of the slow down or glitches the pre retail launch  review crowd reported .. and I am not just saying that because I had to buy my copy!  Or am I?

The smartest thing about DR3, is it's use of XBOX ONE Smart glass .., launch the App on your Windows 8 device , or iOS or Android device ( or a combination of all of them) and you actually get additional features that matter... there is the obligatory map,news,messaging system,side mission requests  and one very cool feature ...which became apparent to me around 20 minutes into the game ... the in game characters can actually call you on your Smartglass device ..and if this happens to be your phone ....well ..wait till it happens ...

ZombiU did a lot of this first ...and has the cool camera feature too ..but Xbox ONE Smartglass is actually taking your game and letting it infest and use your every day devices ... it's not really calling you ...it's over wifi ..but the illusion is very real .. you will tap your phone to answer a call from an in game character just like you would a real call, in fact you might have to put someone on hold to answer it ...

Similarly navigating the game map on your phone should be intuitive  to anyone who has used a smart phone..

One day Ottocon will call you from Metal Gear Solid 5 this way on your Android and iOS phones .. 

And this is what I mean about Microsoft thinking outside of the console ... your games are literally starting to step out of the hardware altogether ...and connect across platforms and every day use devices... no longer exclusively consigned to gaming hardware or controllers. In the coming days I am going to see how they can jump out to hmds too .. 

Deductions and elucidations: 

The Xbox ONE .. is  step one on the rung of gaming's  cloud transcendence from physical hardware to torrents of streaming services across all your devices ..

With both the Xbox ONE and PS4 we will spend increasing time with game related content away from the console. They are designed this way ...and the most fun I have had with the Xbox ONE is not using it per se, but accessing Xbox ONE related content away from console or in those moments where your game starts to communicate with you ..through your phone ! 

Sony already talks of the PlayStation as a "service", much like I predicted in an article here  ..And Microsoft are also positioned very well to follow or compete with this .. they have that Windows 8 connection, Skydrive and ONE unique ID ..across your devices which I can tell you ...rocks....

There has been much nonsense about how the Xbox ONE is going to take over your TV and media needs..but that's media self promotion for you,  the real revelation on using the Xbox ONE is  is how well it connects with Android , Windows 8 and even iOS devices . And this can happen even when your console is off , suddenly you start to associate gaming not with a physical console any more, but as a service in the cloud .. which you can connect to from your phone , tablet or PC .. 

This is the subtle change in user perception of what video gaming is, or was pre this generation. The Xbox ONE is more connected to none console devices than many PCs or laptops.. and I don't mean through bog standard stale social media ... that have little to do with gaming   

The tech exists now for you to stream your Xbox ONE game or your PS4 game to your Android ,iOS , Windows or OSX machines .. phone , tablet , PC format .. all possible right now ..but too radical for today's audience ...that is why this tech will come with the next gen ...for a new generation of core gamers ...gotta let go sometime... old timers ... 

Next up I am going to look at HMD , Cinemizer OLED and smd ST1080 usage with the Xbox ONE .. and for Palmer the Rift too .. right after I sort out Sony's PS4 Launch FUBAR 

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