Microsoft Xbox One X (XBOX) Reviews and Impressions

Well plugged it in, left it to updated queued Crimson Skies, Halo5 and Recore from my games pass. Thankgod i'm on unlimited fibre connection, hate to think how much it';s trying to download right now

 

Thats an interesting consideration.

 

Build quality on my Xbox X is excellent. Also I had it side by side with the PS4 Pro both playing games (was switching HDMI inputs and comparing some games) and I heard a fan start wooshing. Initially thought it was the X but nope, it was the Pro. I haven't really heard the X at all yet. YMMV on individual consoles noise levels apparently, but mine is nearly dead silent.

But again, for $499 the thing better be like an Apple product! The Pro is $399.

One quality issue, I'm getting some rattling (almost as if it's not secured properly) on the rumble motor on intense rumble on the controller that came with it. This is at least the 2nd if not 3rd Xbox One controller I've noticed this, so it's almost a design flaw IMO. This is problematic as I dont believe you can return just the controller to the store, you'd have to repackage and return the whole console I think, which would get into more trouble than it's worth territory. You could get it fixed under warranty I assume, but I may not have a backup controller to play with for long as I'm planning to sell my S which has my only other controller. At least for now (the controller issue) seems acceptable if not ideal. I didn't notice it while playing Quantum Break last night. Which btw I didn't love that game on first attempt (hence I stalled out) but picking it up again so far I'm enjoying it a lot.

My data cap is destroyed, 404GB against a 250 cap and it doesn't start a new month until the 11th. Additionally Master Chief Collection needs a 19GB DL before I can play it, and I'd love to get EA access and check out Battlefront II, but that'll I assume be at least 50 more GB. My ISP charges $10 per 50GB over so I'm going to be $40-60 in the hole. Pretty absurd.

 

I watched this Gamersnexus teardown of the X and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the cooling system on that thing! Looks even over-engineered to me and it's easy to believe it can handle the heat load very well

 

Ok, so I got one. Looks pretty nice, stays pretty quiet. I have an incredibly quiet apartment, so I can hear it, but it's not loud at all. Any volume from my stereo covers it easily. Xbox One I could barely hear at all, from where I was sitting.

Had all of my stuff on an external so setup was easy. I'm using a 1080p screen right now, so I'm getting the supersampled result.

Gears 4 looked good in the level I was playing, but I preferred the 60fps performance mode to the supersampled look. I know the 4k mode has other visual enhancements, but I can't remember what. The level I was playing may not have been the best example. Still think I'd pick 60fps on a 1080p screen.

Quantum Break looks massively improved. The image quality is just way more stable. Still a unique looking game. Might play around with some specific levels.

Tomb Raider seems to have some kind of bug. I was playing the DLC a while back, and didn't finish it. Tried to continue my game and it said it couldn't load the save because the dlc isn't installed ... but it is installed. Will check it out later after deleting and reloading the dlc.

Titanfall 2 looks very nice supersampled. Only played multiplayer, but you can see into the distance much more clearly. Textures stand out as kind of low res in a lot of places now that the image quality is so sharp.

FIFA 18 looks basically the same.

Killer Instinct looks clean, but I don't really play that game.

Battlefield 1 is not enhanced yet, but it actually has very nice results. For one, it seems to stay at 1080p and not dynamically scale down. Also, the framerate is much more stable in multiplayer. I didn't see any noticeable drops, but there could have been some minor ones. It's a very noteworthy improvement even without enhancements.

I think that's all I've tried so far. Overall, I like it, but unless you're really into image quality, there probably isn't much reason to get it yet, unless you have a really nice 4k HDR tv. As more games get patched, and new games come out that take advantage of it, it'll be an easy win if you can afford it, even on a 1080p tv. Battlefront 2 looks pretty fantastic, and would look massively better than the Xbox One version on a 1080p screen.

 

Tried to play Bioware's Jade Empire, and as expected it didn't work. I also have a copy of xbox call of cthulhu, but I think it won't ever be supported.
I'll try to pop in the disk, just in case it increase some server statistics somewhere "Look ! Someone want to play Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Drop everything at the emu team, and get this working ASAP"
Rise of the Tomb Raider is nice, and much longer than expected. HDR is great, although I don't grok the brightness & HDR luminance settings. If I really use their settings, I need to set both at almost their lowest values which sound wrong.
I dislike the Dashboard though, really small fonts, very confusing, multiple ways to do something. Customisation is bad, you can only set the foreground color, and not get rid of the ugly grey background. Ads everywhere, "You REALLY need to subscribe to Gold". The shop is slow to start
Downloaded 140 GB Worth of Quantum Break, cannot try it yet as I bought a second hand disk, and it's scratched and won't install...
It's missing a big exclusive AAA game to show its capabilities IMHO

 

I haven’t had a change to try an Xbox One X yet, but I did want to pitch in that on the titles that support it on the Pro, I have frequently been really impressies with how great super sampling can look on a 1080p display ...

As for something to show off this system, I reckon AC: Origins would be pretty good?

 

A high-quality 1080p HDR tv (if such a display existed) would be interesting. I'd want to see Xbox One X on a 4k HDR vs on a 1080p HDR. I'm wondering how noticeable the resolution would really be.

 

Controller too. PS4 has that stupid touchpad which isn't good for anything, and all those annoying nooks and crannies where dust and crud accumulate. Xbone pad, very nice no-nonsense, clean design.

Crimson Skies was one hell of a game. I had it for PC, but was unable to finish it because my CPU wasn't up to running the final level at playable framerate... Tried it several times, ended with me crashing or getting shot down.

Strange that nobody picked up the world/concept in all the years since.

 

Crackdown 3 and sea of thieves are AAA , don’t see how one can argue that. They are huge budget games, esp. sea of thieves. Maybe their art style isn’t the usual realistic art style but this doesn’t make them less than AAA. State of decay 2 is a weird one, first game was AA and a very big hit and the sequel seems to have a much bigger budget. We will see what the finished product will be like, I guess.

 

Tried CS last night and it wasn't bad at all, only have a 1080 screen, but game played well even if it takes me 5 minutes to win a dog fight against a single plane... It is a shame that nothing has been done with the ip for such a long time, Jordan Weissman still seems to be nagging MS to do something with it (https://www.pcgamesn.com/crimson-skies-sequel-pc) .

 

Any details on budget? AFAIK it's a $40 release title, which doesn't scream huge-budget AAA.

 

Only tried Gears 4 at 4k HDR so far and I love it, it's almost like a different game than the One S version due to the uber sharpness and texture res. Gonna install Cod WW2 next and finally Asscreed Origins, can't wait to see how glorious they'll look on my Z9D.

 

Dammit. Black Friday can't come soon enough. I like the dsr, but I just feel like I moved my PC gaming direct to console. I really need to see HDR 4K goodness.

 

Mail from Amazon :
"
We are very sorry order ***** for Xbox One X 1TB Console did not arrive as expected.

To apologise for the inconvenience, we've added a £20 promotional credit to your account. It will be automatically applied to eligible orders during the checkout process. "

Not too bad....

 

I wish mine was late.

 

$40 was a rumored price. Amazon US is still listed as $60. Rare have confirmed it's not a free to play title but won't comment beyond that on its monetization. Personally I consider it an AAA game. You don't launch "Art of" & "Tales from" books for an AA game.

Tommy McClain

 

As you said, not too bad at all. I'd be happy with the US equivalent.

Still nothing from US Amazon for my late delivery. Hopefully they'll figure it out on their own before Monday. If not, I'll take action then. I'm breaking out the sweeper and other cleaning gear today.

It's tough not opening it up when I see a lot of positive impressions and new owners online.

 

lol yea. I've been holding back on my impressions, or rather keeping them muted. Once I get 4K HDR OLED TV, I may become an annoying gnat

 

I don't know that the existence of an art book means a title has a huge budget (Shovel Knight). Given an assertion as fact, I'd like to see some evidence to support that. The $40 price was apparently its price for a long time and plenty of people preordered Sea of Thieves at that, which to my mind is the only evidence we have of budget. It's available on Amazon UK for £40, which is below average. Doesn't really prove anything, but does shed a little doubt on the idea of SoT being an $n hundred million investment. Hence a request for some real info one way or another. If it's just a guess, Johnglen should change his comment to, "I guess," or "seems to me," or somesuch to show it's just an uncorroborated feeling.