XBox One - One Week Later

A week has now passed since receiving my XBox One CoD AW edition. Having had Prof3ssorM here and having been really sick the whole time meant that I had a lot of time to put it through its paces. Here are some initial thoughts.

Good:

I finally had something related to gaming that Blackwalt didn't have. To put that in context, Blackwalt and I have been 'friends' for somewhere around 25 years (I try to block out a lot of it so exact dates are uncertain). In 25 years, I have NEVER had a game, upgrade, console, etc. before Blackwalt. WOO HOO!!!

That felt great for about 5 minutes. Then I realized I had just spent a sick amount of money getting something that would prevent me from playing co-op with him. Then I felt guilt. Then I remembered how much I hate him sometimes ...

CoD AW: This is why I bought the machine, right? Well, not exactly. I bought it for Assassin's Creed: Unity, but that's besides the point. This is the CoD AW edition. I have only played the campaign up to now, but I have to say this is the first CoD I have truly enjoyed in a long while. The campaign is excellent and the graphics are very pretty. I haven't played multiplayer so I can't comment on it, but the campaign is great.

Destiny: I played through the storyline in Destiny on the 360. Although it was pretty short, I enjoyed it. I decided to pick a different character type on the One and try again. I am impressed with how similar the game is while having it take advantage of the next gen features. It is VERY pretty. More things are happening at the same time and there is added challenge. The AI is smarter. It's definitely a better game on the One, but it was still a good game on the 360.

Bad:

UI: First of all, as SeanMCR mentioned in another post, the UI sucks. It sucks pig's knuckles. There are like seven different ways to get to places and none of them are intuitive. Things that are obvious on the 360 just aren't on the One. Maybe I am old fashioned or something, but I just find it clunky and painful to use. It looks like Windows 8, but is less intuitive and harder to use. Yes, THAT Windows 8. The one that sucks so bad MS skipped right over 9 and is going to 10 for its next release.

Always on: It doesn't turn off. Now, there are good things about this. You can buy games and they will download to the console when they are available without you having to think about it. Ok, perhaps that's the only benefit. On the downside, the stupid machine can't be reset if something goes flaky. And believe me, things go flaky. The controller occasionally just stops communicating with the UI. It's not even a wireless thing, since activating another controller doesn't fix the problem. Switching between games can be interesting. If I play CoD, I usually can't then go to Destiny. It won't connect to the servers. As for NHL 15, that game will have its own paragraph in a moment.

When flaky things start happening, you would probably do what I did. Press down on the Xbox button and hold to turn off the console, or simply hit the power button. Neither of these things actually powers down the console. If you hit the power button again, the One happily takes you to the main screen quickly and efficiently ... and with all of the flakiness still intact. The only way (I have found anyway) to reset the console is to pull the plug. Seriously.

NHL 15: I love the NHL games. They have always caused some consternation for me because I can't stand EA. Fortunately, EA has messed this version of the franchise so badly that I can hate them unconditionally now. I don't even know where to start. The graphics, on the 'next gen' console are worse than NHL 14 on the 360. The gameplay sucks, with much of the player control from the previous version just gone. The sound goes flaky and the controllers just stop working sometimes. The game will take you to the pause screen and make you reselect the side you were playing.

They sold the rights to the in-game voice 'acting' to NBC. NBC?!? The guy doing the play-by-play is obviously a football commentator and he makes me miss Bill Clement and Gary Thorne so much I have to turn the sound off. To top it off, my favourite mode in NHL is the Be a Pro mode. The new version is severely limited and again the player controls are terrible. Along with that, while my last name may not be common among NHL players, it isn't an uncommon name and every version of the game since they released the Be a Pro mode had my name in the selections for the play-by-play commentators. Not anymore. If my name was Han, Mraz or Nguyen, no problem. But apparently my name is too obscure. This may seem like a little thing, but it was THERE! They had to REMOVE it! Ugh.

Conclusion:

I have convinced Prof3ssorM that the XBox One is not ready for primetime. At least for him. He would rather have street hockey equipment for Christmas. Good kid. If it wasn't for Assassin's Creed, I would probably regret this purchase. I seriously hope AC: Unity doesn't suck ...