The Xbox One Review: Unifying Your Living Room Experience

[Marcus Yam]

The only major thing missing for the Canadian market at launch is OneGuide support and some region apps like Hulu, but otherwise everything else is feature complete. OneGuide will be coming to Canadian providers between now and Spring 2014.

 

[tuanies]

The only major thing missing for the Canadian market at launch is OneGuide support and some region apps like Hulu, but otherwise everything else is feature complete. OneGuide will be coming to Canadian providers between now and Spring 2014.

Blame Canada.

 

[blcskate]

I have a PS4 and I will be getting a Xbox One on from Amazon on launch. I am mainly an RPG gamer so the PS4 will win games battle unless something crazy happens. MS simply does not have the third party support for RPGs that Sony does. I purchased the One because my wife is a zombie game person and wants to play Dead Rising 3.

The One is a very poor substitute for a Media Center PC. I am still going to have to use either media center or a whole home DVR. The one has zero features of a DVR. It is not even close to Media Center or Tivo and that sucks. As it stands PS4 wins on the Media side for me as well. One simple reason. It has Crunchyroll and MS does not. The TV thing is a complete waste because I still require a DVR (never watch live TV).

Voice commands are always slower and always have hiccups. No interest at all in that, not to mention you sound retarded talking to your TV. Same reason I hate voice apps on phones.

One last really annoying thing. 1080p is a bare-minimum today (1440 for PC and 4k is the future). WTF was MS thinking using upscaled 720p again. I tend to game in my Theater with a 120" screen. It is very noticeable at that size when it is not native 1080p.

 

[blcskate]

I have a PS4 and I will be getting a Xbox One on from Amazon on launch. I am mainly an RPG gamer so the PS4 will win games battle unless something crazy happens. MS simply does not have the third party support for RPGs that Sony does. I purchased the One because my wife is a zombie game person and wants to play Dead Rising 3.

The One is a very poor substitute for a Media Center PC. I am still going to have to use either media center or a whole home DVR. The one has zero features of a DVR. It is not even close to Media Center or Tivo and that sucks. As it stands PS4 wins on the Media side for me as well. One simple reason. It has Crunchyroll and MS does not. The TV thing is a complete waste because I still require a DVR (never watch live TV).

Voice commands are always slower and always have hiccups. No interest at all in that, not to mention you sound retarded talking to your TV. Same reason I hate voice apps on phones.

One last really annoying thing. 1080p is a bare-minimum today (1440 for PC and 4k is the future). WTF was MS thinking using upscaled 720p again. I tend to game in my Theater with a 120" screen. It is very noticeable at that size when it is not native 1080p.

 

[hakesterman]

MS$$ Did a nice job with the design of Xbone. I don't care for the Piano Black, wish they would of gone Matte Black like my Xbox360 slim, i think it would look even nicer. I like how they didn't try to hide all the buttons and USB ports and disk drive like Sony did, their all very easy to access. I wish i could buy it for 100.00 dollars less without Kinect. I will have to wait awhile to make up my mind on Xbone or PS4, it will be a tough one because they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

 

[fykusfire]

Quit trying to make the Xbone happen. It isn't going to happen.

 

[ninong]

i already have something called an htpc that does all that and more :/

 

[BigMack70]

I for one am just unimpressed with the xbone. I don't watch TV, and I have about 10 devices I can watch netflix/etc on. I use my PC for 90%+ of my gaming, and really only use my Xbox 360 to play multiplayer games with my friends who aren't PC gamers (e.g. Halo nights).

May still wind up buying one for Halo 5 and Destiny, but I am underwhelmed. This new console gen makes me very happy to have a high end gaming PC.

 

[16bit]

Game consoles are not just about gaming. This is not new, many people used their xbox 360's for many other purposes than gaming such as netflix, youtube, hulu, and various other apps. People spend alot of time doing other things on their consoles and it would be foolish for a company not to include these entertainment features.

 

[monkeycmonkeydu]

Yeah, ever hear of HDCP, this thing isn't going to work with cable boxes. It doesn't have the hardware to pull in signal directly, it has poor resolution, and it does have the means to monitor your every movement and bombard you with advertisements. This is strictly a console for amateurs who know nothing about technology and want to pay a premium for crap. Basically apple's target demographic. Buy it, don't say we didn't warn you.

 

[lekzero]

"Xbox 360 owners were spending more than half of their time on Xbox Live watching videos and listening to music." ...

this is a trend or because there were no interesting games??

 

[beoza]

I look at this new generation of consoles as being like that old saying "Jack of all trades Master of none." They're trying to be everything to everyone. I don't think the term console applies to these systems anymore as they have moved past that old term starting with the PS3/XBox 360, they are more media centers than consoles. You can play games, watch tv, watch movies on BR-D/DVD and services like Netflix and Hulu, stream music among other things. When I think console I'm reminded of the SNES, Genisis, and Atari; devices that did one thing and did it extremely well (for the technology at that time). I do like console gaming, although I do prefer to do most of my gaming on PC now. There are games that I can't get on the PC because they're console only, which doesn't bother me. I will probably end up getting both the PS4 for myself and XBox One for use with the main TV simply because it has more media features.

 

[LORD_ORION]

I like how it automatically combines the mircophone and camera with the NSA's total lack of respect for privacy.

 

[coolitic]

Good review. Even people I know that are xbox fan boys dont like the xbone. They keep trying to push us to change when need to change. Windows 8 new UI sucked horribly and no matter how long I used it I never liked it. And now the xbone is pushing us to use kinect, which most people dont like and will never use.

If it ain't broke, dont fix it.

 

[anxiousinfusion]

Cool, I can't wait to not buy one!

 

[johnners2981]

How can you review the xbox one, primarily a games console, and not review it's primary function, playing games. Not a great review.

And where's the ps4 review?

 

[johnners2981]

How can you review the xbox one, primarily a games console, and not review it's primary function, playing games. Not a great review.

And where's the ps4 review?

 

[tuanies]

How can you review the xbox one, primarily a games console, and not review it's primary function, playing games. Not a great review.

And where's the ps4 review?

Marcus was unable to purchase games for it aside from the few downloads he had access to. We'll have a follow up soon and a PS4 review. I'm going to go camp out for one tomorrow, just like I did for the PS4 last week.

 

[robochump]

XBox1's requirement for internet/XB Live is the biggest draw back. Both consoles will have their version of DRM so thats a none issue but XBox did a poor job with PR. Price is a non-factor since getting the full PS4 experience requires the PS Eye. Still a tough decision for me so I dont mind waiting and seeing what consumers have to say.

 

[alextheblue]

I'm glad they went with AA batteries! Once again the random kid at Gamestop was wrong. Now I can continue to use my Sanyo Eneloops. Built in rechargeable batteries aren't nearly as convenient as swappable rechargeables, especially if you're trying to avoid wires.

Plus if I'm travelling I can always slap regular AAs in it, in a pinch.

 

[nebun]

how is it that sony can incorporate the power supply inside the PS4 yet Microcrap can't...am i missing something?

 

[hasten]

"Where before you switched between inputs on the TV to flip between games, live programming, your Blu-ray player, or even an HTPC, this device puts all of that under one input that responds to your voice, your face, and the now-old-fashioned controller."

So its best feature my receiver does better? Its like MS randomly picked features from my home theatre and tried to throw them intro a box that does them worse. Then spent ludicrous money convincing the uninformed public its ground breaking? Oh well, PS4 is cheaper and more powerful if I get a hankering for some Madden or FF.

 

[DeViLzzz2007]

Kinect displays have been awful thus far showing that people are being charged an extra $100 for something that once again doesn't work well.

 

[Nossy]

MSFT fails because you have to be a gold member to enjoy all the entertainment features. No need to add another subscription service just to activate another subscription service. Is this still the case for X1? If this is still the case, it fails as a media device for me. Every smart tv now have that feature built in for FREE.

MS thinks that by integration of Media/Game will get your significant other to agree on on the purchase is totally off. There are already plenty of devices in the house to do this and are cheaper. Boxee, Roku, any Smart TV, etc. If they didn't have any "good" exclusive games, this will be an epic fail, just like Windows Phone and Zune.

I thought about using my X360 as a media device to connect to other tvs in the house (non smart-tvs), but the LIVE subscription requirement is absurd. The price of the subscription pays for a ROKU!

 

[nss000]

Bah humbug. Unify THIS. POW!!! For the first time since the 1930s usrland had the price & hardware opportunity to **DEUNIFY** it entire media experience. Just as cheap(er) Depression-era vacuum-tubes and EM-relays created chances to mix-and-match home appliances by hardwire into a ventral power source so now by analogy.

Cheap media HW abounds promiscuously. And software standards have finally evolved to connect those pieces into a multiplexed system of usrland delights. Every fool can bluetooth! ANY combination fits ... let the conflicting spectrums abound as walled gardens fall like maple leaves in an October rain. HooRay for promiscuous random variation --- down with the cloudy unification --- up with usrland programmed chaos!