After waiting for what seems like forever for K-Mart to deliver my Xbox One, and as you can tell by my Peggle 2 review they did. I am finally ready to give my impressions of the device.
Lets talk about the size of the device first. It is much bigger than the Xbox 360. I guess they are not taking any chances with it overheating, but once it is in with the rest of your AV electronics you don’t even notice it. It is a black box surrounded by black boxes. Plus you can now use the Xbox One as a Blu-Ray player, so that saves a little space.
The Kinect is also a little bigger and heavier, but they have put a lot more in it this time. The nice thing about the bigger Kinect is that it actually works much better now. It can see you and identify you better, and it tracks movement to a much higher degree. Having the Kinect actually work is nice, compared to the hit or miss model that came with the 360.
The new controller is pretty much just a streamlined version of the 360 controller, and that is a good thing. They made the analog sticks a little wider, the triggers rumble, and the D-Pad is finally usable for fighting games. Some people like to rag on the bumper buttons because they don’t really press in. They kind of just click a little, but after using them for awhile, I like them better because I can “bump” them easier when I am playing a game instead of having to press them in.
The biggest difference is the new interface. If you have ever used a Windows 8 device, you will see the resemblance. It has a bunch of square icons that you can press. You can navigate the whole interface with your voice or with your hands via the Kinect. On the 360 you only had certain areas that this worked. The switching between apps and games is very fast, and it is fun to snap two things on the same screen every once and awhile.
The downside for me, is that all my apps and games end up in the same place, and it is kind of a mess to search through to find my stuff. You can pin things to the start screen, but a little more organization would be nice. Just like the 360, I am sure the interface will be tweaked a lot in the future.
People that hate the adds from the 360 should be happy, because apart from the game and apps stores and store fronts, they are gone. It is just your stuff. It is nice not to have even more adds in my life considering we are bombarded by them enough.
It is a good machine, and I am glad I have one. If you get one under your tree this year or next, I am sure you will be too. If you have any questions about the Xbox One let me know, and I will do my best to answer them.
