[Video Game Console] Xbox One Review

[Ringo64]

As I sit here this morning drinking my cup of coffee it dawned on my that I've owned my Xbox One for about 2 months now and haven't written a review yet. Whelp here we go...

Overall Score: 4.5 out of 5

Overall the console itself is a great improvement over the Xbox 360 in hardware and software. Without going too technical on you guys , the speed of the One is incredible, you can go from one game/app to another in a second without losing any of your progress in each. Then you can snap specific apps to the side and do multiple things at once, especially handy to do for Pandora, ESPN scores, Fantasy teams, or browsing Forever Pontiac while playing a game, pretty cool stuff. Kinect 2.0 is amazing too, voice commands are crisp and clean, a clear improvement over its predecessor (it no longer does a command when I'm not talking to it ).

The operating systems, yes plural, for the One are very smooth in operation but some of the user interface design and functionality is a little odd. This is the only of the One I really am having an issue with. A lot of the items that you are accustom to on an Xbox console are no longer there, like when a friend comes online, nope no alert. This might be because you can have "Over 1,000 friends" now and followers but think you should be able to set "favorite friends" to be alerted of. Then in order to talk in a party with your friends you have to select to do so. There are some other features that are a bit clunky and as a software engineer myself I would say "odd" but I think overall Microsoft did a nice job with the software components and being inventive with a new UI, also a lot of these "odd" areas can be patched (which MS has said they will improve a lot of them).

Game-wise, I only have 3: Forza 5, COD: Ghosts, and Madden 25.

Forza 5 is down right amazing, the graphics are a great enhancement and true proof of what a next-gen console is capable of. The new UI for Forza can sometimes be a little confusing, especially at first as it puts you right into the game on first play but once you're used to it you'll do fine. Just like Forza IV it has some integration with Top Gear, this time James and Richard joined in as well, it definitely brings the game full-circle for our group of car geeks. This game has made the console for me and I don't want to give away the fun but countless hours of fun have been had. Last point made, I think a great new addition to the game has been the drivatars (compete in the series against your friends, my FB friends probably have seen the Erik's (Crimson and Woody) and I going at it recently) and the built-in innate ability of the Xbox One to record items renders hilarious results (see below for my video).

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=20CF03BE72BF7C0E!10312&authkey=!ADNVcdvAMnsZxiM&ithint=video%2c.mp4

COD: Ghosts and Madden 25 are both decent reproductions of their current franchise for the Xbox One, graphics upgraded, memory/speed allocated, etc... etc... I really don't have much to say other than they take great use of the Xbox One's new architecture and hardware.

Apps on the Xbox One are great and improving over the 360, getting more and more everyday. Netflix has been redone and the UI is a great improvement over the last though I find it very hard to go to a different episode/season of TV show while watching. Anywho, without boring you guys too much, the point is the One is really an all-in-one entertainment device.

In conclusion, the Xbox One is amazing, worth the money, and builds on what the 360 had started.