Today was the day that Mircosoft unveiled their newest console to the game industry. But now that the conference is over is Xbox One truly the one? Or will it be the one left behind this console cycle? To play the review press Start….er click the link. The Conference kicked off with a brief retrospective of the Xbox console cycle then jumped right into a surprising full on the spot console reveal. This was a very good move on their part as Sony only talked about the PS4, but never actually showed their console in a physical manner.
After the big reveal we got the ball rolling, but it was quickly made apparent that this system was more Multi-media console than straight gaming console. Though is not a bad thing as game systems have been shifting to that direction since the start of the last cycle with the 360 and the PS3. The One however seems to be taking that one step further by allowing to watch live TV, surf the net, watch movie, and of course play games on the fly. This is accomplished by what is known as Snap Mode. Snap Mode is a function that allows you run two programs side by side at full functionality, while this isn’t anything new in the pc world it is new to the world of gaming. Another big function that was displayed was the ability to talk to Xbox One. The console utilizing the upgraded Kinect the console will take voice commands on top of controller input or hand motions. So say, “TV” and the One will bring up what’s on your TV. They continued their function demo by demonstrating Skype and says it has the ability to multi video chat.
The Kinect got a bit of an upgrade as well, but it should be said that the Xbox One will not function without the upgraded Kinect it is that integral to this system. The kinect got a better camera claiming to be 1080p HD RGB wide screen that is able to display 30FPS of color. It understands motion better along with such aspects of orientation, balance, depth, and joint movement. It’s heat sensor is so good it can measure you heart beat and give you an EKG read out…which is a little creepy.
The controller is a mix of old and new as it seems to be some fusion of original xbox and 360’s controller . First off is it’s sporting better and less cumbersome battery pack that is now internal and rechargeable similar to the PS3 and PS4 controller. It also now features what is known as Impact Triggers, which is just your standard rumble feature. While there is still rumble in the base of the controller, but now there are independent motors in the triggers to give off their own vibrations. Most importantly the D pad has now been fixed making it deeper and allowing for more precise movements. This means fighting games are now a reality on the Xbox.
While featured only briefly it demonstrated the ability to use Tablets as a controller using Smart Glass and the ability to use a windows powered Smartphone as a remote for the tv function. Neither are all that inspiring honestly as tablets for controllers is the Wii U thing and we all know how that is going for them right now. And if the system is voice activated and navigated why would we be using a remote? So yeah, these last two features are a bit redundant in the grand scheme of things.
We finally shifted into the gaming aspect which was lead off by E.A. which not surprising was given a rather luck warm welcome by the audience. But never the less they talked about their commitment to The One with their sports franchise, more specifically announcing Fifa 14 UltimateTteam. A tech demo was then displayed using something called EA Ignite. EA Ignite is engine all EA sports games such as NBA Live, Madden, UFC, and of course Fifa will be made with.
Mircosoft Games then took the stage to a better welcome and talked about one of their flagship launch titles announcing Forza 5. We are given an absolutely gorgeous trailer to go along with the announcement, but sadly only a trailer. I personally was hoping for in game footage from Forza 5 would be on display. After all one of the reasons why racing games are often first out on consoles is they are able to give the audience a good stick of which to measure the opening titles graphical capabilities by. It’s why Forza and Ridge Racer are usually launch titles for their respective consoles every generation. Still we are given just a trailer in this case, but a gorgeous trailer non the less.
They also displayed in association with Remedy of Max Payne and Alan Wake fame a new game known as Quantum Break. Honestly though, I have watched that trailer five times now and I can’t give you an honest opinion as to what it’s even about let alone the genre. Seriously, the trailer so overly abstract that I think it was more of hindrance rather than help. I assume it’s going to be a third person shooter that deals with time manipulation or augmentation, but that is just my guess.
Next up was 343 games know for Xbox’s primary pillar Halo then took the stage, only this time with a bit of a twist.  No, Halo 5 was not announced as The Ones primary theme is multi media and instead Halo the live action series unleashed. The series is which sprang from the idea of the wildly popular Halo: Forward Uto Dawn is in full production with legendary Film maker Steven Spielberg as the shows producer.
While we are on the subject of Forward Unto Dawn, I thought I may let guys watch an episode. But as of the time of this writing the official site only has episode 1 and 2 free for watching taking episodes 3-5 down until further notice.
The conference then proceeded to wrap up with Activision and highly coveted Call Of Duty series. This brought us the newest chapter in the shooters history Call Of Duty Ghost. Which the One has the privilege of being not only receiving the game first, but it will have console exclusive content as well. The trailer proceeded to give some behind the scenes look at the various aspects including multi player and gave some rather odd attention to a combat dog that is later scene in the trailer.
That pretty much wraps up the conference other than that the system will have 15 exclusive One only titles and 8 of those 7 will be brand new IP.
I’ll say over all this was kinda a lack luster unveiling, if only because there was a lack of software displayed at this event. Now to be fair E3 is less than a month a way so it would make sense they’d save the games for then. Even with that in mind we were treated to nothing but trailers and no actual game play, and as I stated earlier with Forza that was a wasted opportunity. The Halo announcement was cool and hopefully it will follow up on the outstanding Forward Unto Dawn net series. Bringing on Spielberg certainly shows they got the money, but just because they have Steven on board to produce doesn’t mean anything in the long run. After all he did produce Terra Nova which I think has been extinct for a bit now. On the plus side I can’t praise Mircosoft enough for actually displaying their system in real life right off the bat. That was a brilliant move on their part and capitalized on where Sony faltered during their conference. The Hardware looks sleek and stylish almost like they are trying to reboot the Xbox itself which would explain why the controller looks like an amalgamation of the two controllers. The Kinect and it’s voice function is amazing, but still EKG function is bit creepy if you think about it. I did notice while they were giving the specs of the system they were trying to be as non specific as possible were as Sony was practically flaunting it’s specs. I’m not sure as the reason to that exactly, but I would have liked to know a bit more details. I guess everything evens out in the end between the good and the bad if you think about it read about it here or watched it in the previous article earlier. While not a truly bad unveiling it certainly could have been better, but here’s to hoping that the real showing will be at E3.
And if you got any thoughts you’d like to share well then head to the Forums and give us your impressions.
