Now, Microsoft gave a press conference for the newest Xbox, The Xbox One (and not the Xbox 720 like everyone wanted), last Tuesday at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. I'll admit that I didn't watch the the livestream that day because I didn't have my internet connection ready and when I saw the XBO for the first time, I was iffy on the design.
It looked like a mix of a cable box and a DVD player.
I did like the controller and Kinect more.
And also I didn't like some of the features it provided, mostly because all I heard was stuff about connecting to your cable box and the Kinect being bundled with it and nothing about its primary use: being a Gaming Console. I thought "This is stupid. I don't want to buy something for gaming that isn't gaming at all".
But a week later, when I watched the livestream courtesy of Machinima (shoutout to them by the way; Bruce and Kovic are hilarious), I learned a lot more about the XBO. A lot more that changed my mind and actually made me more exited to wait to get my hands on it. Never have I ever been so exited for something so huge and bulky and rectangular and big. Yes, I just noticed what I typed.
So here is the Xbox One is all about.
Now it's not only a gaming system, it's also a home-entertainment system. When you turn it on, instead of manually signing into into your Xbox account, it uses the Kinect to recognize your face and cosign it with the account. So when that happens, it just takes you to home base, problem free. If that's not the coolest thing, i don't know what is. Seriously, I'm not much of a gaming nut, so this is the coolest thing to me. Also cool is talking to your Xbox without using your controller. You just say a command, and the XBO does it in about a second. Just say "Xbox" and then your command, like "Xbox, game" or "Xbox, watch TV" or "Xbox, go to music". You don't have to say "Xbox" every time, but still.
That's just awesome. And just as awesome is the Snap feature; by using it, you can use more than one feature at once. Just say "Xbox, Snap (then a command)", Like "Snap Internet Explorer" or "Snap Favorites". You can also use your cellphone to connect with it. And if you want to go home, just make a grab motion at the Kinect, and you're already home.
When watching TV you can use your voice to check the guide, favorites, and what's trending. To The guide, say "guide". To change the channel, say a network or TV show's name. To Trending or "Favorites", say "Trending" or "Favorites'.
Now to a few things that I'm on the fence about. Now the TV experience thing may sound easy, but might be a bit confusing as time goes on. After a few uses, you probably might go back to the controller. Also, some of the features, including the Fantasy Football feature. There already are ways to check Fantasy Football or other features, including your cellphone, tablet, laptop/personal computer and even on your TV alone with the internet. I don't even play Fantasy Football, so I don't give a rat's hat on that one. Even if you use your Xbox One, you'll have trouble understanding the Xbox concept and graphics. Also the fact that you have to sign into the Internet. Three words: WTF?!
Also to the name.
Even though I like the name Xbox One, I thought Xbox 720 was a perfect name for the new Xbox, following a pattern that started with the Xbox 360, and would've gone back to the first one, Xbox 180. But apparently, Microsoft has gone the "Fast and the Furious" approach with the name. I wonder what the next Xbox name will be.
And now an UPDATE: It seems that Microsoft is doing a 180 (heh) on one of the Xbox One's policies involving logging into the internet every 24 hours. President of Interactive Entertainment Business Dan Mattrick suddenly announce that the XBO will no longer make gamers log into the Internet every day to continue gaming. I didn't talk about that when I originally typed this post, but opinion is that this also isn't a good idea for the console as users will grow frustrated at this, leave the XBO and buy the PlayStaion 4. This may also be too little, too late. But this has been a good move for Microsoft regardless. Here's what he has to say at the Xbox blog:
Anyway, i can't wait for the Xbox One to have more information released during E3 2013 next month. And I really can't wait for it to be released later this year. Oh, and what do you guys think? Tell me your thoughts in the comments section below or on my Twitter page @MaroonMondays.
Until next time, keep your pants on. See ya later.
No comments:
Post a Comment