Xbox One Game Review Out Now

Xbox One Game Review Out Now - ‘You need to install an update’ or ‘we are unable to connect to Netflix’ are two on-screen messages that sum up my time living with the Xbox One.

Xbox One Game Review Out Now

Whether it’s trying to play a game or run an app, Microsoft’s current gen console gets bogged down too often with game installations and updates that are noticeably slower in comparison to the PS4. Software crashes also play their part in what has been a largely frustrating experience and has left me at times wanting to simply turn the console off.

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It’s all fine once things start running properly, but it’s getting there in the first place that can be the problem.

The Windows 8.1-inspired dashboard doesn’t help matters either. For all of its sleek, tiled mosaic looks, it lacks the most important job of an interface, and that’s actually being intuitive. There’s a little too much jumping around screen to discover what you need and at times you won’t always find what you are looking for. Xbox Fitness for example is only really searchable using Kinect and the Bing powered search.

It’s clearly a UI more suited to the touchscreen on a Windows 8 tablet or laptop than a game console running through a TV. The PS4’s Dynamic UI is by no means perfect but it’s definitely much easier to get around.

Kinect 2.0 is there to make navigating and finding things easier and it’s definitely a marked improvement on the first motion-sensing peripheral. Once you get over the fact that it’s more than double the size of the original our experiences with voice and movement recognition are largely positive.

The problem however, as we found with the original, is actually finding a good reason to use Kinect at all. Some small playtime with Zoo Tycoon aside, there’s not really a captivating reason to want to have it plugged in all the time. It actually spends more time perched on top of a speaker unplugged and ignored.

There’s still a nice controller to play with and the transition from Xbox 360 controller to the Xbox One controller is a seamless one to make. While smaller than its predecessor it still feels great to hold. The analogue sticks offer an improved grip for your fingers and the new impulse trigger vibration feedback works great for Forza. If there’s one criticism it’s that the shoulder buttons are a bit on the clicky side. It’s more a nuisance than actually affecting the responsiveness of the controls.

Turning our attention to the Xbox One games and like the PS4, it’s a bit of a mix bag of visually enhanced titles already available on the Xbox 360 like Battlefield 4 and FIFA 14, with a handful of exclusives thrown in.

Forza Motorsport 5 is the pick of the Xbox One-only bunch and will please hardcore racing fans. Dead Rising 3’s  gameplay get tiresome very quickly while Killer Instinct looks great has satisfying combat mechanics but the focus on online play is a little disappointing. Ryse: Son of Rome didn’t get much love at launch and with reason although it is still the best looking game on the console and manages to be fun in places.

The Xbox One is of course not just about gaming. It’s an entertainment hub and it feels more of the all-in-one machine than the PS4, particularly when you compare the interfaces. It does include a few more apps than the Sony console but most will require subscriptions separate from the Xbox Live Gold membership to get the best use out of them. The most notable absentee is Sky Go. One of my most used apps on the Xbox 360. There’s still no news on when it will be arriving on the console either. I’m sure I am not the only one who sorely misses it and as a result, the Xbox 360 is still nestling underneath the TV.

Like the PS4, there are still some issues to iron out with the Xbox One. The dashboard clearly needs work but historically Microsoft has continually tweaked the Xbox 360 interface to good effect throughout its life cycle so there’s hope things will improve.

The latest Xbox One update issued by Microsoft addresses some key issues like Kinect improvements and adding 50HZ signal support so the console works better with set top boxes from Virgin and Sky.

More importantly, the big games are on the way. Titanfall is already shaping up to be a system seller, Watch Dogs is arriving in May and Project Spark, one of the most interesting Xbox One exclusives is now available in beta.

Xbox One Game Review Out Now. Despite the Xbox One price drops, it’s still an expensive purchase and many of the features are still being refined or are simply not yet ready. Like the Xbox 360, Microsoft is clearly playing the long game and, gaming credentials aside, the PS4 is winning the short game.