News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[dlm]

Polygon's review is up:
http://www.polygon.com/a/xbox-one-review

Tone of the review is very positive and they sound pretty bought in to MS's strategy. There are some clear gaps called out, but I'm excited to get my hands on it.

 

[eastmen]

the voice chat works fine if your clear when your talking. I don't think anything works a 100% of the time , hell I don't understand what others are saying to me quite often and have to ask them to repeat themselves.

As long as it works the majority (i'd say 80-90%) its fine with me. My original Kinect works maybe 50% of the time.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The Verge review is also up. They were less positive on the execution of voice control but overall it's a good review for the One.

 

[baten]

The Kotaku review is not 100% positive, it;s a "wait"
http://kotaku.com/the-xbox-one-the-kotaku-review-1467960010

 

[joker454]

Just read this in the Pocket-lint review:

You can, for example, stream content from your phone to the Xbox One and it will start playing, but you can't initiate that from the console itself. That means it can't go off and find your network storage device to play movies or music you may already have.

I'm confused, seems kinda useless as a media player if it can't do something so trivial. Or maybe they are wrong? I can't believe a device in 2013 can't play media from network storage, that seems insane no?

 

[RenegadeRocks]

The Verge review is also up. They were less positive on the execution of voice control but overall it's a good review for the One.

Yeah, I toow atched that one. The main theme seems to be that the promises are cool, but the implementation isn't yet smooth. I am surprised that he said the voice commands don't really work well if there's someone else in the room. They had shown almost perfect voice recognition in a crowded sound space at e3. Also, he says the menus are cumbersome with the controller.

Going by the Yusuf video where they showed the whole interface I was expecting almost flawless voice navigation with kinect 2, atleast for american accents.

Also, the review says the X1 doesn't output surround sound for the TV channels. So, if we plugin a X360/ps3/ps4 into that hdmi input, we won'tg et surround sound?? Also , he mentioned lag between shifting from games to TV and all, channles not loading up fr some time. Patches, i presume, will arrive.

He says games are better than the ps4 launch games, so Ryse maybe ain't that bad gameplay wise. These guys liked Knack over KZSf too.

Edit: the verge says its a faster x360 anhpolygon says its nothing like a 360. People and perceptions always differ. Kotaku review seems negative.

Ah, but what if you're already playing a game on a different console, and your TV and AV receiver are already switched on? If you then say "Xbox On," the console will turn the TV off. That's because it's really just pressing the "power" button on your TV's remote—there's no way to tell it to only press the button if the TV is currently off. If you're anything like me, the first time that happens, you'll deactivate the feature and likely never re-activate it. Back to the remote control we go!P

Althoug funny, its an oversight.

 

[-tkf-]

Yeah, I toow atched that one. The main theme seems to be that the promises are cool, but the implementation isn't yet smooth. I am surprised that he said the voice commands don't really work well if there's someone else in the room. They had shown almost perfect voice recognition in a crowded sound space at e3. Also, he says the menus are cumbersome with the controller.

Going by the Yusuf video where they showed the whole interface I was expecting almost flawless voice navigation with kinect 2, atleast for american accents.

Also, the review says the X1 doesn't output surround sound for the TV channels. So, if we plugin a X360/ps3/ps4 into that hdmi input, we won'tg et surround sound?? Also , he mentioned lag between shifting from games to TV and all, channles not loading up fr some time. Patches, i presume, will arrive.

He says games are better than the ps4 launch games, so Ryse maybe ain't that bad gameplay wise. These guys liked Knack over KZSf too.

Edit: the verge says its a faster x360 anhpolygon says its nothing like a 360. People and perceptions always differ. Kotaku review seems negative.

Althoug funny, its an oversight.

The Verge pretty much confirms what most of us expected, Kinect 2 isn't flawless, the HDMI IN comes in the way with some STB boxes (many?). A new one is that the UI isn't very good, i didn't expect that to be honest. And that HDMI IN causes problems with picture quality and doesn't pass sound untouched. I guess that is a real problem since it has to embed the XB1 sound.

All in all a disappointment imho, but everything games seems to be good.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

So about what one would expect. The general media loves the Xbox and can't tell that games aren't necessarily 1080p. They dig the features and see it as more polished than the comp. With lots of admiration for the UI.

As you get more technical/console focused. They start to get more obsessed with the details. And you see potential preference for one console or the other start to creep in.

I like that battery life for the controllers seem to be quite exceptional. From what one of the articles stated, it's significantly more battery life (over a week of continuous use) than what I get with an X360 controller. Will be interested in possibly testing that out myself.

I do think it's very clever and a godsend that you no longer have to enter in DLC codes or game codes of any kind as you can scan them in directly with Kinect scanning the QR codes. Absolutely brilliant for a console and makes good use of the included peripheral for a minor feature that provides a significant amount of convenience.

A friend of mine that pre-ordered multiple Xbox One Day One editions is going to hold one for me in case I decide I want one. Still on the fence, but after reading some reviews, I'm now somewhat mildly excited about the box and its living room potential. I'm going to wait until I actually try one at a friend's house though.

Chances are I still won't get one, but who knows, maybe the experience will blow me away and mild interest will turn into something more. None of the games are something I'd buy the box for, as I've stated multiple times. It's going to be all about how the living room experience with it is.

Regards,
SB

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Frankly. I was expecting a pretty much flawless performance, especially with UI and some fo the stuff Kotaku points out is pretty basic. He points out too many kinect goof ups to be enjoyable.

Lets get into consumer hands here at B3D and hear what they say. I can see it doesn't fit in my home in any way. Our cable tvs are still analog anyways. N my family has no inclination to go thru another device at all. Simple folks, my mates here.

Lets see how it evolves. Why not just wait a few months and make it flawless MS? The product has the capability to be the sci-fi impress-er device.

 

[SlimJim]

I think if the XboxOne can become the actual TV receiver, that this would allow for perfect, and flawless fast execution. I am sure future hardware will be like this.

 

[Billy Idol]

Did this get posted already? Raw uncut X1 demo:


http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/11/19/xbox-one-uncut-demo

Hm, really not impressed by the voice command capabilities. I wonder if the X1 will 'learn' over time for a specific user and the experience gets improved...

 

[messyman]

Did this get posted already? Raw uncut X1 demo:


http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/11/19/xbox-one-uncut-demo

Hm, really not impressed by the voice command capabilities. I wonder if the X1 will 'learn' over time for a specific user and the experience gets improved...

Am I the only one who's really not a fan of the metro style UI?
After watching that video, it looks frustrating to navigate using either voice command or controller.

 

[RudeCurve]

The UI is the same as the X360's dash, not sure why it's suddenly news...been known for months already. Works fine on X360 once you get familiar with it. If you don't like it then too bad because there's really no better option out there in a console.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Yap, voice commands are being pretty much slammed everywhere as non-reliable and annoying.

The fact that every Dolby Digital audio that goes through the HDMI-in gets downmixed to stereo is kind of stupid. $500 and no royalties to Dolby?
So every set-top-box that uses Dolby Digital (isn't this almost all of them?) turns into stereo if it goes through the xbone.
Polygon's claims that HDMI-in darkens the image is also a bit worrying.

IR control is also flawed, since there's no way for the xbone to know if a devices was previously powered on or not.
According to kotaku, if a person was already watching TV and yells "XBox On" at kinnect, the xbone will turn off the TV.

 

[messyman]

The UI is the same as the X360's dash, not sure why it's suddenly news...been known for months already. Works fine on X360 once you get familiar with it. If you don't like it then too bad because there's really no better option out there in a console.

I feel like the metro UI just kept getting worse and worse. The first metro UI on the 360 was alright, but it went downhill from there.

 

[-tkf-]

Am I the only one who's really not a fan of the metro style UI?
After watching that video, it looks frustrating to navigate using either voice command or controller.

Nope, i don't like it,will learn the kinect commands and do my best to avoid finding stuff via the UI.

 

[RudeCurve]

I feel like the metro UI just kept getting worse and worse. The first metro UI on the 360 was alright, but it went downhill from there.

Getting worse how? An example would be useful.

 

[Billy Idol]

Well, to be honest...it is not only the X1 UI, also the PS4 UI looks and feels ancient to me.

What I am a bit surprised is that the UI is so slow (both of em)...it really doesn't feel that improved compared to the old consoles...choosing a app and that having to wait until something happens feels awkward after me being used to an iPhone...

If MS substantially improves the reliability, I can really see how this is like a new sci-fi-like experience...he mentioned once that he stood in the kitchen drinking coffee and via voice command switched channels without using a controller whatsoever...but what was demonstrated already made him using the controller navigation because it was a bit frustrating...this could be problematic, if it works not well day 1, people might turn their back to it and start using the standard UI control...

 

[Cyan]

Polygon's review is up:
http://www.polygon.com/a/xbox-one-review

Tone of the review is very positive and they sound pretty bought in to MS's strategy. There are some clear gaps called out, but I'm excited to get my hands on it.

I shall take a look whenever I can, thanks for sharing!

Eurogamer review is up! Richard has mentioned quite a few things in detail. I mostly agree with him by the looks of things.

I can see the potential of certain features although there is still some work to do.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-xbox-one-hardware-test

His power consumption numbers slightly differ from those of the Arstechnica article, but the difference is meaningless anyways.

I disagree with Eurogamer's article on the price. Kinect is a new technology, then you have the 8GB of built-in flash memory, what looks like more solid materials in the design -I also find the box very elegant, aesthetically appealing even, quite flat in terms of design, but it looks sophisticated at the same time, like an Apple product-.

Typical, expected hatred comments still exist but here is my absolutely favourite comment on Richard's article.

Some time ago I would not even consider buying an Xbox One. Nowadays I can't wait to hold it my hands. I'm very happy that all manufacturers choose to go down a different road.

That's quite the thing for me. I am glad the approach is not what I expected it to be coming from the Xbox 360.

The Verge review is also up. They were less positive on the execution of voice control but overall it's a good review for the One.

Not bad, a 7.8 is a tad higher than PS4's 7.7.

The Kotaku review is not 100% positive, it;s a "wait"
[URL="http://kotaku.com/the-xbox-one-the-kotaku-review-1467960010"]http://kotaku.com/the-xbox-one-the-kotaku-review-1467960010[/URL]

I didn't dislike this review despite certain criticism. It seems that Ryse might be a fine game after all, too.

It's obvious that this can be potentially a great platform, perhaps a bit over ambitious for now.

Some Beta features hint at this.

Ars Technica review is nor here nor there, there is some interesting feedback there.

To Phil, the IR of Kinect doesn't have a learning feature yet. I hope they add this later.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/...e-console-less-than-a-living-room-revolution/

This one is a very positive review from Rolling Stone.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/xbox-one-is-a-slice-of-the-future-20131119

Eurogamer's review pointed out the new built-in calibration app and the display/audio options.

My TV is native 36bits so a console offering support for that wins an extra point of awesomeness.

Finally, I can't wait to get my hands on it. I am trying to look into the future and the potentially interesting things you can get with this console, and this is going to be the most interesting console era yet.

I think that a console like this would need an extra year of development to offer all the features other than gaming they want to offer as flawless as possible -not to mention the rectifications since the E3-.

As a gamer though I am mostly interested in the games for now, and willing to give them the time they need to add some exciting and interesting features.

 

[-tkf-]

Yap, voice commands are being pretty much slammed everywhere as non-reliable and annoying.

The fact that every Dolby Digital audio that goes through the HDMI-in gets downmixed to stereo is kind of stupid. $500 and no royalties to Dolby?
So every set-top-box that uses Dolby Digital (isn't this almost all of them?) turns into stereo if it goes through the xbone.
Polygon's claims that HDMI-in darkens the image is also a bit worrying.

IR control is also flawed, since there's no way for the xbone to know if a devices was previously powered on or not.
According to kotaku, if a person was already watching TV and yells "XBox On" at kinnect, the xbone will turn off the TV.

Well it isn't easy to make it work, you have to take a compressed audio signal, uncompress, add the XB1 sound to the signal, re-compress in Dolby and send it on. It might be easier if the STB box was able to send a uncompressed signal instead of a compressed signal.

And there is the constant development of new codecs..
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...t_the_New_DTS-HD_Master_Audio71_Decoder/13126

It seems to me that the HDMI IN is turning out to be a really clumsy solution.