This is going to be a very heavily imaged post, but believe me you're going to want to see every little bit that we can get our hands on. I know that when given the chance to peek behind the curtain I want to take as many pictures as possible. So without further adieu lets get some pictures and thoughts up here.
Say hello to the XBOX ONE. You'll see in the picture a redesigned controller, and redesigned connect, and of course a new looking XBOX. Let's start with the actual XBOX, and look at what details they allowed us to take a look at:
So we're at least going to have USB 3.0 included in the machine, the Blu-ray player that everyone knew had to becoming, wireless networking that is a must now, and of course a 500 GB hard drive, which to be honest with you probably isn't going to be big enough, but perhaps they will finally let the proprietary hard drives die and allow us to connect our own externals, or perhaps they will make us rely heavily on their cloud storage (I really hope not, but we might not have a choice).
Now lets go on to the controller:
All I can really say about this controller is that it has an integrated battery pack which makes me worry about the lifespan of the controller. Will it die as fast as the PlayStation 3 Dual Shock controllers, where I feel like I have to buy a replacement every couple of months, or is there some new way to help charge the controller that will allow it to last for at least a year or two. I do find it interesting that they keep trying to go after this precision in the d-pad. I can't tell you how many games I play that exclusively use the d-pad, probably because most games use the analog sticks to handle precision.
Now lets talk quickly about the Kinect. It is a better built in camera with greater depth, and the ability to take in more of the environment. A lot of the show was the power of not having to use a controller to navigate around the dashboard, and going in and out of games, so it should be interesting to see what it can do in different environments. The one thing I did like was all the voice commands and how seamless it appeared to jump between TV, game, movie, and music. It had to be just over a second and under two for the transition.
So there's one more piece to this controlling puzzle and that is Smart Glass. Some of you might have already dabbled in this application that you can load onto your smart device, well its about to be even more integrated into the XBOX One, so be prepared. Though I have to say utilizing it with the connectivity that they are promising, is for lack of a better word, promising.
So here's the deal you can now control all of your entertainment from the XBOX One, you'll be able to utilize a user specific TV guide to find your TV shows, see what is trending among your friends and all XBOX users, you'll even be able to change you TV input from your XBOX without having to fish for a remote.
You'll also have a more customized experience. From the moment you say "XBOX On", you will see that the system will turn on, recognize your face, and setup what you were last viewing, playing, or listening to. There will of course still be the dashboard "blades" that you will be able to navigate to with the swipe of your hand. If you ever want quickly go back to your home screen simply speak "XBOX Go Home", and presto changeo you're back.
They also introduced what they call Snap Mode, this is the ability to snap an addition application on to what you're already doing. One of the examples they gave was watching Star Trek, and then snapping on Internet Explorer to look up some stuff on Star Trek. Paired with the Smart Glass app, you'll be able to check movie times watch trailers, and so much more.
Another built in feature that you'll have at your disposal is the built in Game DVR it will record some of your greatest moments in gaming, and then allow you to edit it, with their native editor to show of to the world at large.
Now of course there is soooo much more that they don't want to say just yet, but I do have to say that this was a promising start, but what about GAMES?!?!?! We need games... well let me tell you what they showed off:
EA Sports took the stage and promised a new FIFA, Madden, NBA Live, and UFC game. All will be utilizing an all new engine called ignite to truly enhance the playing. You'll see precision in the players, but you'll also get wrapped in the stadium experiences, have real crowds that do more than just randomly jump up and down. You'll see emotions of players, and much more.
Then came the XBOX Exclusives, and right off the bat they talked about Remedy's new game, Forza 5, which will be available at launch. I do have to say that the cut scenes were amazing, even if it is just a racing game, but I really wanted to see some actual game play, but I guess that's what E3 is for. They then showed us a trailer for Remedy's new game, Quantum Break. What can I say about this one, ummm, there's apparently this girl that is special, and she touches a lady, and then not too mind-blowing of a cut scene starts, where I think shit goes down in a bad way? I'm not really sure. What I am sure about is the fact that in the first year of the XBOX One they are promising 15 exclusive games, 8 of which will brand new franchises, so this could be very interesting.
The final game that they talked about is the new Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Ghosts. This game will be using a new engine that I have to say made everything look really realistic, and amazing. They are promising little to no latency, and 60 fps, so this could be a game that outsells almost anything. It will feature a new world, new narrative, and new characters. Don't worry you're still on Earth, you're just in the US after its fallen, and you're part of a group called Ghost, a grouping of elite military soldiers that survived the toppling of the US. One of the things that will probably further skyrocket this game is the multiplayer, you're going to have maps that are dynamic. There's chances of earthquakes, user caused destruction, and much more. You'll also get to customize your character basically to the underwear that they are wearing (or not if you're a commando kind of person, just kidding, there's tons of customization in there).
So what could they possibly do to make people more excite and ravenous for this system? How about a live action Halo TV series with the powerful mind of Steven Spielberg at the helm? Yeah they are doing that to, and of course now I have to know what they are going to do, and I need to see this show.
Finally they reached out to one of the biggest, if not the biggest leagues in sports and got a partnership with them that will allow for a lot of extras while you watch the games, including but not only, real time fantasy updates. I'm talking about the NFL, and man do I need this system now.
So sadly that's all I was able to grab in such a short amount of time, but I have to say all I really need to know is where can I preorder one of these? Yes I know there's a ton left undisclosed, and I'm sure there's a couple of wrinkles still in store for us, but they told the vague, it will be this year. They said its going to be the same XBOX Live, which means that maybe they aren't going to go the tiered payment system, and it truly is a machine that is trying to pull all media into one bundle, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I just hope the price doesn't kill me.
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