Xbox One

So, last Friday we got that new Xbox One we pre-ordered.

Guys, it's amazing. Like, seriously, I'm really quite taken with it. It's not perfect by any means but it's pretty sweet.

First off, there's the voice control. No, it's not perfect---I have had to tell my Xbox to do some things more than once, but I really like it and I really like it a lot better than being forced to only use a controller. Telling my Xbox to go to Netflix instead of having to look for the app is awesome even if I do tend to use my controller to navigate the app because voice navigation within apps is pretty poor, frankly, even since my discovery of the "select" command. Still, I like it and I do use it enough that I have found that I have no idea where I put my controller because I just haven't been using the thing, and that's pretty cool. Besides, voice command lets me be the world's laziest person, because I no longer have to lift a finger to turn my TV, Xbox and soundbox on and I can adjust the volume with the same amount of effort. I like being the world's laziest person.

The integration of the Kinect into normal games? Well, admittedly so far I haven't cared or thought much of it. The reaction of the machine to voice commands can be a little delayed, so on the game I own which does use voice command, Ryse: Son of Rome, I haven't really been impressed. Telling my archers to fire by voice is kind of badass (which is why I do it!) but I think it would almost certainly be more efficient to just use the left shoulder button. The response would almost certainly be faster. So, yeah, the Kinect in games is gimmicky, but I don't care because see above comments about being the world's laziest person. I want my Kinect so I can live in the future and not get up off my couch, not for games.

The controller is, as everybody is saying, pretty much no different from the 360 controller, but I personally consider this to be a good thing. The Xbox controller was awesome and so is this new one. In fact it is, indeed, even slightly better. They've made the joystick more sensitive and I can actually tell the difference. The big place where it shows is in playing Forza 5, which, if you read my last post on the new generation of consoles, you'll know was basically the reason we got the console. We always get Forza on release day. Anyway, I play Forza with the controller, which is not the best way to play a racing sim---you'll be able to give much more subtle inputs if you use a racing wheel. When you watch a replay of someone playing a racing game using a controller, you can see that a series of small adjustments, instead of the the smooth continuous ones you get from a wheel, is how the car is being turned. Well let me tell you, I have watched a lot of replays of races I've run in Forza (and had the Xbox's game DVR record some of the best moments too) and my game play just looks way smoother. The newer, more sensitive, joysticks really shine in playing Forza. It's not perfect---sometimes you can see the car twitching around as I make a series of small adjustments---but it really is worlds better.

On a side note here, since we're talking controllers, I have to admit I'm really excited to have some stores get in some demo PS4s so I can compare the two controllers. I'm not a diehard fan of either the 360 or PS3 controller, both worked fine for me, but I did generally find the 360 controller to be better and my impression from the internet is that most people seem to think the 360 controller is better. They're also saying the PS4 controller is a vast improvement and some are even saying it's better than the One's controller. I'll admit I'm skeptical about it being better, because frankly I'm not sure how to improve on the One's controller (maybe give the shoulder buttons slightly less resistance?) and I have noticed that the PS4 is still sticking with the same joystick configuration but I'm willing to entertain the idea. Definitely looking forward to getting to try one out. I still think the touchpad is probably pretty stupid though.

There is some bad with the new Xbox, though. For one, my surround sound doesn't work right with it (even though it works fine with both my PS3 and my Xbox 360) and Microsoft didn't even offer an explanation when I went through the tedium of troubleshooting with them. Basically all I got was "play your games in stereo then," which was not what I was looking for. A real explanation would have been great, especially since a quick browse of the Xbox support forums shows I'm not the only one having my particular problem---where sometimes the main audio doesn't play. We're thinking this is because Xbox only puts out in uncompressed 5.1 and we need Dolby---a specific type of compression for surround sound. Basically, without the compression, our boxes are having to filter out some stuff and sometimes it happens to be the main audio. We're hoping this should be fixed when the promised Dolby patch comes sometime in the near future (or so Microsoft has promised us) but it would have been nice if Microsoft had offered that explanation instead of just telling me to suck it, basically. Customer service fail there, if you ask me.

The other bad thing is that, because it's a new console generation, there are only so many games I want. Right now I've got Ryse: Son of Rome (which is a lot more fun than most reviewers have given it credit for, if you ask me) and Forza 5. I'm vaguely interested in Crimson Dragon but the reviews for that haven't been so hot and I don't want to spend even the paltry $20 on a game I'm so unsure about. I've also got the free Killer Instinct but I don't think I'll be spending more money on it. I just don't like the control scheme on it enough. It really feels too arcade, even for a side-scrolling fighting game (which I do have something of a weakness for---hence my love of the Soul Calibur series). The next time a game I want for the new console will definitely be out (there's no official date for when the awesome Project Spark is coming) is next March, when Titanfall comes out and that's really more of a game I'll enjoy watching Fathead play than play myself. Next is Destiny, which will be out next summer. Sure, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is now out for Xbox One, but while I like the Assassin's Creed games, I only like them so much. I'm definitely not willing to pay $60 on the game. Honestly, if they were going to put a title out on both the old and the new systems, I would have much rather it had been Arkham Origins, which I still need to get to playing. I just like the Arkham series better.

Finally, the One is doing a pretty poor job of being my primary media center when not only can it not handle my surround sound but it can't interact with my external hard drive either. I keep movies and music on there so they can be played through my Xbox 360. I would have happily moved them to my One, but much like the Dolby patch, external hard drive support is coming but not here yet. Instead, if you want to play external media, you must put it on Skydrive and it must stay there. My digital video collection is way, way too big for my free Skydrive space, I can't download stuff from Skydrive onto my Xbox One's copious amounts of free disk space and I'm sure not paying for my Skydrive space when I have an external hard drive for this purpose. Even worse, Skydrive doesn't support music. The only way to play music on your Xbox right now as far as I can tell (which may just mean they're hiding a better option) is through Xbox music, which as near as I can tell is just a version of Pandora you have to pay for. Frankly, that sounds awful to me. That said, I am considering using my free month of the service, because then maybe I can have Two Steps from Hell playing as I race in Forza or brutally (and I mean very brutally) kill the crap out of British barbarians in Ryse. Still, it's pretty stupid and you won't catch me paying for a service when I should be able to play my ridiculous number of MP3s for free.

So that's it. My new Xbox One. The future. It's pretty awesome and I have no doubt it will get more and more awesome as more updates come. I doubt it will win the console wars, but then I also doubt the PS4 will too---not because I doubt either is a good console but mostly because I don't really see a clear winner from last generation and because I think both consoles are probably pretty good. That said, if you're lazy like me, want an awesome media box that also plays awesome games and somehow have the money to drop on an Xbox One, I highly recommend one. Honestly, once they roll out external hard drive support, Dolby and (hopefully) TV DVR, I would recommend it to someone just as a media box---an expensive one, certainly, but voice control!

Console Wars

And today, for once, we will be talking about something other than TV---which is amazing, because really, TV was my first true love and is still, to this day, the driving force behind much of my creative spark.

But today, however, we will move on from television and talk about another thing: video games. Or, more specifically, console wars---which is really more about something I hate, because I have kind of thought the whole thing was stupid from the beginning.

Now, first off, this whole discussion is going to mostly ignore the Wii U. This has nothing to do with whether I think the Wii is a current generation console (it is, dammit, because it came out this generation) or how much I like the thing (which is not much, both because I think that it's main innovation is a complete farce next to the awesomeness that was the Wiimote and because its failure as a console has kept the price of the Wii from falling and me from getting a Wii so I can play the 2 or 3 Wii games that I really enjoy). Instead, it has to do with the fact that the Wii U really isn't competing with its next generation console companions, the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One (or the Xbone, if you prefer---which, I believe, is supposed to be a derogatory nickname but is one I actually still find kind of fun and charming). The big question has been, ever since the new consoles were officially announced, Xbox or Playstation?

Secondly, I will openly admit that my husband and I pre-ordered an Xbox One. In fact, we did it even before Microsoft reversed course on the whole always online, kinect required thing. Why? Because while it was poorly advertised (Microsoft marketing FAIL) and could have been implemented better than it was, their whole digital-only games thing was actually pretty cool and would have worked better for me (and, yes, we cough up for very high speed internet and both our Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are always online anyway) than the current disk swapping regime. I was sorry to see it go and I do hope they bring it (or at least the family sharing plan) back at some point in the future.

Anyway, moving to the real point here, the console war itself, the thing that really drives me crazy about the whole thing is how the dynamic of the whole thing is working---I've been on Kotaku a certain amount lately, and all the console war seems to be is people accusing one another of being fanboys (ug) and talk about gaming policy/who's trying to screw over the gaming community harder. It seems that very few people are talking about games, which has been driving me crazy from the beginning, in part because Playstation trolls (not people who happen to plan to get the Playstation 4, but those who have to openly declare to the world that anyone getting the Xbox One must be an idiot---which is to say no one that I've actually talked about this with on either Facebook or in real life) have been claiming from the beginning of this madness that real gamers will get the Playstation 4.

Let's get one thing straight here, "real" gamers care about playing the games they like. Real gamers will get the console that will have the games they really want the most---you know, so they can actually play them. It's really that simple. For me, that's the Xbox One because of Halo (I get to play Spartan dress-up! Yay! Powered armor is so cool and I can make it my favorite color and I can make my character a girl . . .) and Forza (I have owned every game in this series and love all of them---and yes, I love it more than Gran Turismo, which I have played). For you, that may be the Playstation 4. People's tastes are different and when you're spending your money (and let's face it, both consoles have a pretty hefty price tag, even if the Xbox is definitely the pricier of the two), what matters is that you get what you want out of it. Figure out what consoles have the exclusives you want (which, I will note, is actually a pretty anti-consumer move in and of itself and both Sony and Microsoft do it) and then buy that one. Or, if you're into new, innovative indie games, then buy the console you feel supports that best (which apparently, according to the internet at large, is the Playstation, although I'll admit to being a bit skeptical based on all the misinformation about how the original Xbox One game sharing policy was going to work still seems to be believed by so many people). For me, I'm not, because I can't really think of the last "indie" game I liked. Maybe my definition is odd, but it always seemed like they were just a bunch of cheap, crappy looking games available through Xbox Live, for the most part. Again, not for me, but if it's for you (and I will also admit to being somewhat skeptical of those who are so in love with the Playstation's indie game policy but never seem to talk about their love of indie games, but this may be colored by my own preference for more mainstream games), then buy for that!

The point here is, do what works best for you and remember what really doesn't matter here even if it does seem to be at the heart of the debate right now:

Which company has the true interests of gamers at heart. Newsflash here, folks, neither of them do. They're both big evil corporations and they both only care about making money for their shareholders (in fact, they're pretty much legally obliged to). Much like Microsoft's varying reversals about the Xbox One, Sony's moves are less about making us happy and more about getting us to spend money. Are the two connected? Yes, because we spend money on what makes us happy, but if the two ever diverge I can promise Sony will go for the money. So will Microsoft. Like I said, they both suck. Really, the difference between the two of them has more to do with Sony being better at figuring out what will get people to spend money (better marketing, which, again, Microsoft completely failed at) than anything.

Hardware. Yes, the Playstation 4 has better hardware. No, it won't matter. Why? Because most games will be cross-console anyway. Developers won't be making two different games just so they can take advantage of the slightly better graphics offered by the Playstation 4. It's too expensive. That's why no one did that for the current generation either and games pretty much look the same on both consoles. There's no reason that will change for this generation. Honestly, the only way in which hardware will really matter for the person actually playing the consoles is in terms of controllers. Which controller works better for you is important, because, again, most games will be cross-platform and your control scheme is your window into the game experience. Getting the controller that works better for you (or doesn't have features you hate, like my own dislike of the PS4's touchpad), is definitely important.

So, what's the takeaway here? No console, even ones as similar as the Xbox One and Playstation 4, is one size fits all. They are different and they do both have different things going for them---with many of the things that are bonuses to one customer being detriments to the other. We're all different and if you're going to bother to get a next gen console, you should get the one that will really work best for you, from day to day, rather than worrying about all this crap knocking around the internet about how either console is stupid. They'll both do well. They'll both be great. They will both play games well and they will both have good games. Pick the one that works best for you and then game on.