News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[bbot]

Went to look at the Amazon Xbox One Day One Edition reviews. I counted 77 5-stars reviews that were verified (they actually bought the unit from Amazon), and 4 1-star reviews that were verified.
The 4 1-star reviewers all reported the same problem: blu-ray reader making grinding noise.

 

[blakjedi]

Amazon delayed my delivery of a day one edition until tomorrow. Im aggravated so i'll go play PS4 tonight.

 

[Cyan]

I am so in LOOOOOOOOOVE with the new interface in which messages are presented. I am usually messaging my best friend online as I did on the Xbox 360 era -I don't see myself going back now, the difference is quite staggering- and the new interface for messages is certainly a winner.

The new avatar full screen poses are also fun to watch.

Edit: Lots of codes to use, lots of settings and some updates to do.

 

[AlphaWolf]

- I downloaded Twitch. It was a 21MB download. I thought it didn't work? I didn't try it -most probably it won't work if I do- anyways, just sayin'.

I believe you could still use it to watch others.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Well, first impressions.

The X360 S is significantly louder. The fan in the Xbox One when not running a game is pretty much inaudible compared to the X360 S which I can hear. You can somewhat hear what "might" be the fan if you put your ear right at the vent. I say might because it doesn't sound like a fan. It might be possible to hear the fan in my media room, but at my friends entertainment room it wasn't. I'd imagine the fan is more noticeable when running a game, but I didn't get to try any games.

Anyone that moves their Xbox One and doesn't re-calibrate it after moving it are idiots. During the initial setup for the Kinect Microphone it specifically states that you need to run the calibration again if you move the Kinect Camera sensor to a different location.

Also, no USB cord for the controller included in the box. I can't believe they included a set of batteries but no USB cord. Not that they are hard to get, but it still would have been nice to have one included in the box.

Initial boot takes a long time. Then there was a 500 MB update to download. Another long boot while it installed the update.

Kinect camera is impressive. The resolution is quite good. The response is good. Audio calibration for microphone use was quite impressive as well.

Voice commands worked flawlessly for everyone there (5 people). The only problems came up was when we didn't know what to say to do something.

Hand navigation in Internet Explorer was fun, but take a bit to get used to. Some things are intuitive like grabbing with your fist and moving it up or down to scroll the page. Some things weren't quite as intuitive, like how to click a link. I still prefer keyboard and mouse for web browsing, but this isn't too bad from the sofa.

Voice navigation also made it extremely easy to instantly switch between apps from anywhere. Just say "Xbox Go To <name of application>" and it goes to that application from wherever you happen to be. I was afraid it wouldn't understand me on some words as I tend to roll my "R"s a little bit in words like Explorer. But it handled it just fine.

I have no clue how to close an app, however. We just did "Xbox Go Home" to get back to the home screen but no clue when or if it closes any previously opened apps.

But that aside, while the intial boot seemed to take forever (we didn't time it), switching between apps is nearly instantaneous.

Kinect 2 is bigger than Kinect 1, but oddly looks smaller when you have it sitting under the TV. It's also surprisingly heavy.

The Xbox One is noticeably larger than the X360 S, but looks VERY nice with other A/V equipment in an A/V cabinet.

Only very quick impressions from about 40-45 minutes playing with the machine. Seems neat though.

Regards,
SB

 

[Jwm]

Figured some things out, was finely able to rearrange my downloading items order. Now I just need to remember what I pressed to do that. Setting up TV it found my 360 as a media center device and turned it on, I do not yet have hdmi plugged in, so I will play with that later.

Had our twins, so I was feeding them and trying not to fall to sleep while playing around with the X1 so have not done much yet.

I did not calibrate Kinect yet, mainly because it wanted my audio turned up and that was not going to happen. However, it did not miss any voice commands that I actually knew and I was able to get music playing easily, so I will admit that is really cool. I was surprise it worked sitting directly in front of the center channel speaker. I did not figure out snap yet.

My 1080p projector must be crap, at nearly 13' in screen size the games looked really good, 720p (KI).

I really miss the mini-guide, as that always made it easier to get around to commonly used items.

Kinect IR is annoying, three visible red dots plus the dimmer white xbox logo next to it. Was not thrilled with the glowing logo on the controller either, think I might mod that to be a bit darker or another color.

My biggest complaint is the horribly short Kinect cable, to make this thing work I have a 50' HDMI cable, a huge optical cable, with the X1 sitting in the middle of the floor. ROFL

First impressions are positive for me, hopefully after some sleep I can play some games. I see some future potential with this box.

Gamertag = Talryyn

Goodnight all. Edit: Love my new NL 1520 phone, great for smartglass and not all that bad to hold.

 

[SlimJim]

...

Great to read that you like it.
We need pictures btw I want to see how it fits in next to other equipments.
MS should have published similar pictures so that user can get a feel as to how it will look between their other equipment, next to their cable box, and so on

 

[dobwal]

Also, no USB cord for the controller included in the box.

I guess you get the cord when you buy the rechargeable battery pack, because otherwise what would you need it for.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I guess you get the cord when you buy the rechargeable battery pack, because otherwise what would you need it for.

You're supposed to be able to run it with a cord without batteries, like a corded controller.

It's a non-issue for me. I don't have an Xbox One but if I did, I'd just get rechargeable batteries. And when using it with my PC, I've got plenty of short USB cables that I can use for that. I just thought it was odd that they didn't include a cable that probably would have only cost a few pennies. Then again, what cables they do provide are pretty high quality, heavy duty, and obviously built to last forever (slight exaggeration).

Speaking of the controller. I found it interesting that it is lighter than the controller that comes with the X360 S.

Oh and the D-pad is much better, but I wish it was raised up slightly more. I think I also prefer the analog sticks from the X360 S controller. The new controller seems to use harder rubber and the way it is designed, your finger is unlikely to ever slip off of it, but it's slightly less comfortable.

Oh, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE QR CODES + KINECT. I'd apologize for the caps, but I really do like that a lot. Scan in QR code or enter 25 digit serial code from a Xbox Gold 12 month card? QR code all the way. It'll be nice to never have to manually enter another code ever.

Regards,
SB

 

[RudeCurve]

Speaking of the controller. I found it interesting that it is lighter than the controller that comes with the X360 S.

Was your observation made with/without batteries? If with were they the same type of batteries?

 

[dlm]

Mine got delivered probably half an hour ago. Haven't played any games, but a few things that might be helpful for folks on getting it set up:
- Console looks nicer than I thought. I wasn't sold by the pictures, but it looks pretty nice in person. It certainly feels a lot less like an eye sore than my PS3 phat.
- As everyone has said, the sticks and triggers on the new controller are a big change. It will take some getting used to. I have zero issue with the bumpers like some people did. New D-Pad is great. I actually prefer it to the thumbstick for text entry (PLEASE MAKE AN X1 CHAT PAD!!!)
- The Kinect cable is pretty long. I have my Xbox on a shelf next to my fireplace, which the TV is mounted above. I don't think I'll have any trouble running the cable through the wall.

On to setup related things:
- First bit: You can't get the MAC of the console before the update is installed. If you, like me, use MAC address filtering on your router, you will need to either run a wire or disable filtering while the console downloads the initial update.
- The first time I tried to get to the update screen, it was blank. Said update at the top, but the UI to actually do the update never loaded. I rebooted and tried again and it was fine. Plus side: It remembered the security key for my router at least.
- Update downloaded in less than 3 minutes. The entire update installation process was probably a bit over 5 minutes. As many people have said, on first boot after the update, the console looks like it has decided to hang. Just wait, it takes a minute.
- TV setup was a breeze. I played with changing channels a bit and my results were hit and mess. Channels that I added to favorites it did a good job with. As someone who watches very few channels routinely, I think it'll be fine for my purposes.
- Oh god does the disk installation experience need work. I popped in DR2 and it just sat at "Installing 0%" for probably 5 minutes. It's been 10 minutes now and it's only at 28%. I installed disks on the 360 all the time, so it's not a deal breaker, but it's kind of annoying that you don't even have the option. This will be way less of an issue when I'm not trying to test 4 different games in quick succession... ever again post-launch. Update: It was playable at around 30%.

Some other things:
- Scanning QR codes to redeem is great. Just great.
- I miss the mini-guide. Not being able to easily see which of my friends are online sucks. I hope they fix that moving forward. I know you can "Snap party", but it's really not the same as the at-a-glance "who's playing what". But maybe there's a way to do it I don't know of yet.
- It's really nice that they shipped the controllers with Duracell's and not some crappy knockoff brand that dies in a day.

Going to play some DR3. More later. Anyone have anything they want me to try?

 

[Cyan]

You're supposed to be able to run it with a cord without batteries, like a corded controller.

It's a non-issue for me. I don't have an Xbox One but if I did, I'd just get rechargeable batteries. And when using it with my PC, I've got plenty of short USB cables that I can use for that. I just thought it was odd that they didn't include a cable that probably would have only cost a few pennies. Then again, what cables they do provide are pretty high quality, heavy duty, and obviously built to last forever (slight exaggeration).

Speaking of the controller. I found it interesting that it is lighter than the controller that comes with the X360 S.

Oh and the D-pad is much better, but I wish it was raised up slightly more. I think I also prefer the analog sticks from the X360 S controller. The new controller seems to use harder rubber and the way it is designed, your finger is unlikely to ever slip off of it, but it's slightly less comfortable.

I still miss the old interface of the Xbox 360 because I am just getting used to the new one.

Oh, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE QR CODES + KINECT. I'd apologize for the caps, but I really do like that a lot. Scan in QR code or enter 25 digit serial code from a Xbox Gold 12 month card? QR code all the way. It'll be nice to never have to manually enter another code ever.

Regards,
SB

Totally agreed on the QR features. For now what disappointed me the most is that I spent more time installing updates and games than playing. Installing a game can take a LOT of time. I am not sure if its due to my connection being slow or the speed of the hard drive/Blu-ray drive.

I tried the voice controls in two languages -could try Portuguese, which I like and understand almost 100%, but my accent is far off, sadly, so I didn't test it out-. Worked flawlessly for me on both.

 

[bkilian]

You guys are making me regret I didn't pre-order I will live vicariously through you.

 

[Cyan]

Look at this.... flawless, that's amazing speed

 

[RudeCurve]

That's sick...but are those disc games installed to the HDD or are those DD games?

You guys are making me regret I didn't pre-order I will live vicariously through you.

I preordered too but won't receive it until next week...

 

[BRiT]

That's sick...but are those disc games installed to the HDD or are those DD games?

From the youtube summary "One of the benefits of going digital on the Xbox One. Fast game switching."

 

[RudeCurve]

From the youtube summary "One of the benefits of going digital on the Xbox One. Fast game switching."

Figures...I played the embedded forum video so didn't realise that was mentioned in the summary. I think I'll stick with game discs and deal with the old game disc switching. DD games sucks too much bandwidth.

 

[Cyan]

You guys are making me regret I didn't pre-order I will live vicariously through you.

haha, some can fill your emotional needs vicariously, through those around here.

SHAPE brings glamour into my life, but not only vicariously.

The console sounds great, better than Xbox 360 (not a biggie by itself) by a long shot!

After many installs, updates and demos I managed to play my first game. Guess which one?

Need for Speed Rivals. :smile2: The karma wanted that to be the one, because the others weren't ready yet, except AC IV.

I say karma because my first game ever was Need For Speed 1 for the PC. It was my first PC and I purchased a game with it, Need for Speed. I hope Xbox One can bring me a lot of fun moments while gaming....

If you need help in Rivals, just like the help interface on Windows a snapped window appear with the help you need. It surprised me once again. :smile2:

Voice commands work great. You say "Change view" and you don't even have to touch a single button, only concentrate on driving and the road. A-mazing.

"Rear view" does what it says.

That experience is impossible to replicate without Kinect or similar. This is one hell of a console, if they know how to market it the console could sell really well.

 

[RudeCurve]

Voice command work great. You say "Change view" and you don't even have to touch a single button, only concentrate on driving and the road. A-mazing.

That's sweet, I'm guessing Forza 5 doesn't have that feature.

 

[Nisaaru]

That the console powers down after the 1h(if in low power mode) while a download is pending is a silly design decision. I would expect it to power down after the download completes. The Fifa14 game code worked but not the Fifa14 Pack code. Anybody else with that issue?