Target Audience: Xbox Gamer’s as well as all around
Price: $500

Availability: GameStop, Best Buy, most places electronics are sold

The Xbox One had it’s ups and downs before it ever hit store shelves. There was the online check-in requirement and the DRM knife-in-the-heart to GameStop and any other buy, sell, trade stores. After Microsoft waved the white flag on those issues a few people came back into their court and they have since had a successful release. But what’s the verdict? You sit with $500 dollars and ask yourself: PS4 or Xbox One? Let me tell you how the Xbox One has changed my gaming experience over the last three months.

Gaming

I’ll begin with what matters most – the games. The Xbox One presents next-generation games in 60fps and amazing 1080p like you have never seen before. Forza Motorsport 5 will make you want an actual seat belt on your couch and Battlefield 4 will have you diving for cover while snipers try and pick you off from insane distances. But while the games themselves are beautiful, scary realistic and immersive, what’s better is how the Xbox One presents them to you, and lets you move between playing, managing your party, snapping in a YouTube video of a walkthrough or whatever else you could think of. Right now the lack of backwards compatibility is really hurting Xbox One because the number of available games stands in the single digits. As time goes on there will be many more titles to help justify the $500 price tag.

Operating System and UI

One of the best new additions to the Xbox OS is the Snap feature. At any point in a game (or whenever) you can bring up your party info or even live TV on the right side of the screen without leaving the game. This means you can be inviting your friends to your party while waiting to respawn or changing the music during a pit stop in Forza 5. Another use for the Snap function is the TV app. The Xbox One features an HDMI input port that allows you to attach any source you desire and feed audio and video through your Xbox. My favorite use of this feature is molding it with the Google Chromecast to enable Google Play Movies or Netflix to stream right onto your TV. Now I know you’re going to say the Xbox One already has a Netflix app onboard but let me finish. It’s easier on everyone if you give the task of streaming video to the outside device and leave your Xbox’s internet connection to keep you connected to the game servers. Another added bonus is controlling the stream from a phone or tablet, much faster than switching apps on the Xbox. So the next time you need that extra motivation charging the enemy, just snap in Lord of the Rings or Predator and feel the adrenaline!Another valuable new feature is the automatic game invite. When I log into Battlefield 4 and a party member enters a matchmade game I am automatically asked if I want to join, which means less time messing with menus and more time in-game.

Voice Commands

Voice commands started with the first Kinect, but are far more useful and fluid the second time around. The main feature the ability to navigate any menu, and open any app or game using only your voice and only needing a controller for actual gameplay. The system shows you what to say on the screen and the commands are very logical, but also very specific. While the system has an excellent ability to hear you in a noisy environment, you need to say exactly what its listening for to get anywhere. A prime example is launching Battlefield 4. While the phrases “Xbox play Battlefield 4” or “Go to Battlefield” are very self explanatory, anything other than “Xbox, go to Battlefield 4” won’t get you anywhere. So in the end using voice commands is almost a new dialect and once you are used to using the keywords and pronouncing them perfect, you will be flying through menus faster than your thumbs could take you. The only issue I notice with the voice commands is how vulnerable the microphone is to constant sound. If you are talking with friends and occasionally address you Xbox with a voice command, you’re good. But I sometimes leave a fan on in my room and the constant humm seems to raise the decibel threshold required for the system to listen and means “Xbox On” usually doesn’t work until the fan is off.

Which brings me to an issue with the menu system. The basic dashboard layout is very similar to the new Windows 8 tile system. However the tiles on Xbox One are dynamic and shift positions depending on what you used most recently, which in turn makes things hard to find sometimes. Gone are the days of knowing the layout and blazing through with your eyes closed. At that point voice commands are invaluable because you can get right where you want, no matter where the tile is in the system.

Pros:

• Runs a wealth of different apps in one place
• True next-gen gaming experience
• HDMI in
• Excellent voice control

Cons

• High price tag for amount of games available
• Shelf footprint
• Storage management is difficult (but getting better)

Rating 4.5 out of 5