The Xbox One launched on Nov. 22, shortly before the Thanksgiving holidays, giving the Playstation 4 some much needed competition. Launching a week after the PS4, the Xbox One was playing catchup but after having sold one million units on launch day, the “console war” is still neck and neck.
The Xbox One has a different focus than the PS4 or the under-appreciated Wii U. Whereas the latter caters almost specifically to gamers as dedicated video game consoles, the Xbox One caters to the generation of iPhone users and Netflix watchers by trying to become the media center of the living room.
While playing the Xbox at a friend’s house, I noticed that the Xbox One is slightly bulkier and bigger than the PS4 or even than the Xbox 360. The tradeoff is that the Xbox One won’t suffer from the fatal flaw of overheating as its predecessor did. With heat vents covering it, it seems almost as if Microsoft chose functionality over form.
The Xbox One packs a 500 GB hard drive like the PS4, but unlike the PS4, the hard drive cannot be removed or replaced. Microsoft hopes to counter this in the future with the introduction of external storage systems. The back of the box has a HDMI pass-through that is meant for a TV cable, satellite hookup or even a computer.
A big feature of the Xbox One is the multitasking feature called Snapping. When watching TV or playing a game, players can snap to a second app. Snapping opens a window on the right side of the screen, allowing players to do multiple things at one time such as receiving game invites or surfing the web.
Each unit comes with what has been dubbed Kinect 2.0, a camera that tracks movement and voice commands in the living room. The new Kinect improves on the original’s idea in almost every way. Given the Xbox One’s focus on multitasking and multimedia, the Kinect functions as an extension, giving players the ability of voice commands, visual sign in and video calling with Skype. The Xbox One controller also has been improved over the Xbox 360 controller. Microsoft took a less-is-more approach by tweaking the little things about the controller and not giving it a major overhaul like Sony did with the PS4 controller. The new controller has an improved D-pad with a lighter feel and better grip. The newest addition is the creation of rumble triggers that can be programmable to specific responses and give players a better immersion into gameplay.
The games, like the PS4 launch, are somewhat lacking, and I would be amiss if I didn’t mention that currently the Xbox One runs games in a upscaled version of 1080p rather than naturally like the PS4. It is a small problem than should be sorted out in the near future. For now, the Xbox One is still in the lead for gaming consoles that offer more than just the standard game play experience.
