The design looks a little clunky on first look and I will miss the curves of my 360 when I eventually shell out for this beast but I think Microsoft are sending a definite message that this is designed to sit alongside your Freeview box, Blu-Ray player and (as Microsoft would hope) replace them as the ultimate entertainment system.
And it does seem set to do that, from beinbgf turned on with a voice command ("Xbox on") to having a personalised home screen to being able to seamlessly jump between gaming and other functions, even operating on split-screen so you can IMDB that guy who was in the thing with your movie still playing on the main screen. New features include Skype calls, which have been long awaited by fans such as myself, and will also work with the split-screen function, meaning you can video chat with your friends while gaming.
The biggest boost is the ability to be able to watch live TV by hooking up your reciever to the Xbox One (I'll be interested to see if my Freesat box is compatible) and watch your TV simply by saying 'watch TV' and you can also access and search the TV guide from your xbox with voice and motion commands.
I'm interested in how the new Kinect works, because it only has one camera visible but they boast that it has much better functionality then the previous generation and seemed to be pretty slick in the tech demo at the press conference. We'll see how it pans out - the controller is also supposed to be the 'best ever' but from the outside it hasn't changed dramatically.
Obviously gaming capabilities have been boosted with improved graphics and processing power - Forza 5 was use to demonstrate the realism of picture achievable on the new console. There will also be a new achievment system, improved matchmaking and social capabilities. And the ability to replay your gameplay and take screenshots of all games you play - a very big draw for me - expect to see loads of screenshots popping up on this blog when I get my hands on it!!
No word on the price tag yet but some retailers have put up a preliminary listing of £399 - we'll see what finally emerges nearer to Christmas. Well that's it for now - whatever the final price is I'll be waiting till it drops down first so you won't hear any Xbox One news from me for a while yet - but it does look to be a very exciting console!!
Lastly I was hoping for lots of game announcements but it looks like Xbox are holding their breath till E3 for that - one game was announced 'Quantum Break' which seems to feature time-shitfing/travelling gameplay. Watch the teaser below!
No comments:
Post a Comment