Xbox One: A Modern, Powerful Box

The Xbox One with Kinect 2 and controller

At last it is revealed, the all new Xbox One. Emphasized to be an "All-In-One" system, the new-gen console was brought into light this morning by Microsoft. A lot of new ideas, innovations, partnerships, games and tv shows were mentioned and demonstrated, but there is also some disappointment. All in all this system looks beautiful and promises a lot. Microsoft is making a big claim by remarking it as "entertainment history". Lets break it down section by section.

First, the appearance didn't do a whole lot for me, but then after hearing the theme of this new system it makes sense. As we see in the picture above it isn't much more than a sleek black box. That's pretty much it. But that's exactly the point. The system interface and controls are meant to revolutionize the living room by making use SIMPLE. Even the name is simple; One. I believe that's why we see such a simple design. It is supposed to blend in with the living room and appeal to every member of the family no matter what their technological knowledge is.

Still though, the system needs to capture the gamer's eye the most. That's where the new controller comes into play. 

The new Xbox One controller

If it ain't broke don't fix it. That's the view many had on the Xbox 360 controller. I mean the thing is perfect. However after just seeing this new controller my mindset has shifted. Unfortunately the presenters didn't go into detail on some of the new features. Looking at the picture we see no center X button, but instead two small buttons near the top. No word was given on what these new buttons do. 

The controller is basically the same and while its hard to give a direct judgment without an actual hands on demonstration; the new features don't seem to hurt anything. In fact they only offer improvement. The controller looks to be more inwardly curved to better fit the hand. The joysticks have a new exterior grip which adds style and assumed thumb control. Finally, with the D-Pad being the only real conflict with the current controller, the new D-Pad has been altered for better flexibility. The battery packs were also said to be more efficiently placed. 

So there's the new controller, but what about the actual system interface?

A closer look at the new controller. Notice the gripped joysticks

First things first I have to say this; the Xbox One will have Blu-Ray!!!! Thank you Microsoft!. Now back to business. A lot of new innovations were unveiled, but my thought is "so what?" The concepts presented where impressive no doubt, but didn't really seem applicable. For instance by voice recognition the user was able to  jump instantly from gaming, to internet, to movie, to tv. The jump was fast I'll give it that, but in all reality if I'm playing Halo I have no need to switch to watching Star Trek. Also while watching a movie or anything else you can utilize the new snap feature in order to bring up Internet Explorer on the side of your main entertainment. Again, why would I need to search anything if I'm watching a movie? Good thoughts Microsoft, but not feasible.

Those were my initial thoughts, but I was wrong. I was looking at the idea wrong. Think of it like this: you've been playing Halo for an hour, you want to take a break and check the score for the basketball game on ESPN. Instead of closing the game, going to the dashboard, launching the ESPN app and checking the score, you now simply have to pause the game, say out loud to the Kinect "Xbox play ESPN" and the system will route you instantly to the game being presented on tv. One word. Amazing. This new interface really is revolutionary and better yet, simplistic. 

Now I'm not good with the technology terminology, so I'll just go into small detail by saying this new system comes with the Kinect 2. This new Kinect uses a more advanced skeletal frame and higher frame per second capture device in order to better the experience. New hand motions will be introduced to assist the new dashboard interface and bring forth comfortability for all using members of the family.  

Now lets take a look at the stuff you really care about: launch games, date and price. 

Call of Duty Ghosts was given a world premiere trailer

Now these are details saved for other blogs, but I'll give a brief run down of what was shown. Unfortunately only 1 game was officially said to be available at launch and that was Forza Motorsport 5, big surprise there. The game does look great though don't get me wrong. 

We got to see how the new EA games will look on the Xbox One and learned that four games (NFL, FIFA, NBA and UFC) will be released within the next 12 months. 

Call of Duty Ghosts was shown some game-play on the new system and it looks outstanding. We got to learn a little bit about the story as well. The US are now the underdogs, living in a ravaged and crippled country. The ghosts are gathered soldiers from various past special forces that fight to keep America alive. 

My favorite game mention is that Halo will be coming to the television. Yes that's right, alongside with Steven Spielberg Halo will getting a live action tv show! No official name was given, but the presentation screen read both "Wake Up John" and "Halo the Television Show". 

Finally Remedy Games, creators of Alan Wake, showed us Quantum Break and it was also announced that there will be 15 exclusive games within the first year of Xbox One, 8 of them being all new franchises. Needless to say this new system will be groundbreaking and will usher in a lot of new potential gaming landmarks. 

That's right, Halo is coming to the television

As for a date, we only were told "later this year". I know, how satisfying. Even worse, no price was given which could entail a steep price that Microsoft doesn't want to mention just yet. They'll probably wait until more games and features are announced before revealing the price. 

So there it is. The ONE thing we love. The ONE thing that will change the house. The ONE system to rule them all. The all new, Xbox One.

What strikes you the most about this new system? What game are you hoping for most? Mine was Alan Wake 2. What don't you like? What do you think the price will be? SO SO SO many questions. Let's discuss! 

Bring it on Microsoft. We can't wait.