Seven reasons to buy an Xbox One
It is with not-inconsiderable trepidation that I begin writing this feature. Microsoft's E3 presser and next generation console reveal have not, it's safe to say, earned it many friends. Still, to drop a probably ill-advised technological pun, every dark cloud has its silver lining. For all the uproar Microsoft has roused, there's plenty about Xbox One that should recommend it to your attention. The below list is an attempt to restore a bit of karmic balance, which hopefully won't result in my being tarred and feathered.
1. It's an order of magnitude more powerful than Xbox 360
Hardware chiefs have treated us to some rather excitable rhetoric about Xbox One's technical chutzpah. Last week, engineering manager Jeff Henshaw showcased the console's cloud processing support via a program created in partnership with NASA, which allows Xbox One to track the orbits of 300,000 asteroids (the practical payoff, apparently, is that developers can now "create persistent worlds that encompass tens or hundreds of thousands of players without taxing any individual console").
It's all worth taking with a pinch or two of your preferred condiment, but there are stats to back up the fanciful talk - 8GB of RAM (some of it reserved for Kinect and entertainment apps) over the Xbox 360's 512 MB, accompanied by a beefy new processor, which has been custom-designed for the console by AMD. One of the other simplistic PR equations doing the rounds is that the machine will be "eight times as powerful" as its last generation brother. Look, here's a Halo 4 screenshot. Try multiplying that level of graphical finish by eight in your head, without suffering acute cranial trauma.
2. Cloud computing won't solve everything, but there's huge promise
We've heard Microsoft reps describe the additional processing power available via the Xbox Live cloud as "infinite". That's straining credibility, to put it mildly. Even the fastest internet connections suffer from outages and latency that could be crippling in the context of a real-time game, so don't expect developers to start throwing elephant-sized bundles of textures down the pipe.
Even once you strip out the frothy language, however, the potential is vast. Processing tasks such as AI and lighting calculations can, we're told, comfortably be farmed out to the cloud, freeing up box-native resources for other, time-critical tasks. Forza Motorsport 5 offers 1080p and 60 frames per second throughout despite unprecedented texture detail, for instance, because cloud processors take care of certain activities. The associated transfer loads will be fairly small, Microsoft has promised, so don't worry about spending your entire monthly bandwidth during a single race.
3. Cross-platform is where it's at, and Microsoft has SmartGlass
One of the most striking things about E3 2013 was that pretty much every game offered some form smartphone and tablet cross-over functionality - from first-party efforts like Ryse: Son of Rome and Killer Instinct, to the terrific-looking Tom Clancy's The Division from Ubisoft and the entire EA Sports conference line-up. The notion that tablets and phones could be allies rather than enemies in the struggle to monopolise your recreational time appears to have gripped the industry's imagination. Microsoft, naturally, is perfectly positioned to capitalise on all this with the free Xbox SmartGlass app, which has been downloaded over 10 million times since its late 2012 launch.
If mobile-to-console connectivity becomes the norm a few years from now - and publishers clearly consider this a strong probability - Xbox One will be in the driving seat. The next gen SmartGlass app supports up to 16 connections with handheld devices at once, and the depth to which it can be integrated with games is already apparent thanks to Project Spark, which transforms a tablet into a 3D canvas on which to gouge out a virtual world.
Obviously, not every game's going to make use of the feature to this degree: some, like Ryse, plump for auxiliary features such as customising a character remotely while travelling home, in preparation for the evening's gladiator-pummelling. The pick of the litter should make tablets and phones an essential addition to any connected living room, however.
4. Instantly share games, movies and music between consoles and users
A lot of ink has been spilled on the downsides of Xbox One's online-centrism - you'll have to sign in every 24 hours if you want to play your games, off or online, or every hour if you're playing your games on somebody else's console. This has been styled, correctly, as a sop to publishers who want more control over the sharing and resale of their games, but it's also the inevitable consequence of a system that's designed to benefit the user, by allowing instant access to all your games wherever you are.
Digital libraries are stored in the cloud, and streamed to any console the second you sign in (the game will be playable while it's being installed, thanks to a new segmented transfer process). What's more, up to 10 Xbox Live acquaintances can access the same games remotely without borrowing the disc (they need to be "family members", strictly speaking, but Microsoft isn't going to enforce this). The digital sharing system obviously represents a copyright-breaker's wet dream, and the online sign-in to confirm ownership is thus a necessary inconvenience.
Besides, being obliged to connect every day isn't the end of the world. Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business president Don Mattrick has gone on record to say that people are "imagining" problems with Xbox One's 24 hour sign-in requirement. "When we designed the box we paid attention to what it means to connect to the internet," he said. "The average internet connection is working the majority of the day. People are imagining that it isn't, but I don't feel that's the world we live in."
He could have been more diplomatic about this - in the same interview, the exec casually suggested that those who don't like connected consoles should buy an Xbox 360 instead - and Microsoft has yet to explain in full how Xbox One's connection requirements will work for military personnel, not to mention those who live in countries where broadband isn't yet the norm.
That aside, though, Mattrick's got a point. Xbox One's online checks aren't going to be a problem for the vast majority of users, even those with shonkier ISP packages. The data that's transferred when you sign in can be measured in kilobytes, leading Microsoft's Phil Harrison to suggest that you could comfortably tether the console to a mobile phone connection in the event of an outage.
5. The new Kinect is a real asset to videogames - no, really
Kinect is now a mandatory, organic part of the base hardware, rather than an optional bolt-on, and this should benefit motion and voice recognition capable gaming immensely. As Epic told us in 2011, knowing for sure that Kinect is present gives developers an incentive to build Kinect features into their games "at a deeper level", finding applications that compliment the experience, rather than encumbering it.
Kinect is a lot more powerful nowadays, too. A new IR scanner cancels out recognition problems brought about by poor lighting levels - the device can actually watch your heart beat in the dark, by tracking fluctuations in the blood flow to your face. Skeletal recognition is robuster, allowing the new Kinect to accommodate six players of varying heights and quash one of its predecessor's more vexing issues, whereby limbs fall off radar when you turn side-on to the camera.
The visual sensors are backed by a new multiple array microphone which has the capacity to "zoom" on speakers (identified by watching for open mouths) and dial down background noise. The device runs on locked-down dedicated resources that allow it to offer the same core functions wherever you are in the system - you could, for instance, switch straight into a high definition Skype chat while playing a game. Partly as a result of this, latency has been dramatically cut.
Even with all the improvements, the manufacturer knows full well that motion recognition and voice commands will never oust the controller as your favourite way to play games, and as a consequence, the emphasis is firmly on hybrid efforts that resemble what BioWare achieved with Mass Effect 3.
In Ryse, for instance, all the stabbing and bludgeoning happens by way of familiar pad controls, but you can order your men around using voice commands. Expect the majority of titles to follow suit, though Microsoft will probably also release a full-blown Kinect-only game to showcase the device's expanded grunt.
6. The new controller is a fantastic mix of battle-proven and original
Aoife and I debate Xbox One's controller in a forthcoming issue of the mag, as it happens. I play devil's advocate in the piece, castigating Microsoft for not altering the base design more, but in truth I'm perfectly happy with the controller's blend of tweaks and additions. It's got fundamentally the same layout, but the circle pad is now a more responsive raised cross shape, the sticks are more sensitive and grippable, and the battery is built right into the unit, for a sleeker back cover. The controller also proffers a faster, higher bandwidth connection, not that the Xbox 360's pad is inadequate in this regard.
The key innovations are, of course, the new rumble motors built into the pad's triggers, which aim to communicate subtle effects such as the downdraft from a revolving helicopter blade. By my lights, these tricks are destined to become integral to gameplay in a way you won't really notice till you dig out an old Xbox 360 game, and find yourself marvelling at the paucity of feedback.
7. It's got the best games
Mileages will vary, but I'd say Xbox One's line-up dominated E3 - no other console was able to offer the same, rapid-fire blend of the expected (Halo, Kinect Sports Rivals, Forza 5, Quantum Break), the less expected (Dead Rising 3, Titanfall, Killer Instinct, Crimson Dragon) and the genuinely startling (Project Spark, Below, Sunset Overdrive). It was a tremendous show of force in terms of both new IP and exclusives, with something for every taste, backed by key third-party multiplats such as Kingdom Hearts 3, Metal Gear Solid 5 and Final Fantasy 15.
To pluck a few highlights, Titanfall has the makings of a breakout multiplayer shooter hit, offering familiar, fast-paced ironsights-driven play in the context of honking great mech battles. The gloriously gaudy Killer Instinct is your gateway drug for free-to-play business models, with new combatants available for a small fee. I could not be more stoked for Below, designed by Capybara of Swords and Sworcery fame - but hey, I'll spare you a rewrite of my E3 blog, which makes the case for games on Xbox One in detail.
Source: Rheena.com
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Re: Seven reasons to buy an Xbox One
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