Ready for player 2

Today I traded in my old 120GB Xbox 360 Elite and just a handful of games at GameStop and walked away with much more than I expected. The total came to around $97 which I used to purchase an Xbox One controller with charge and play kit. I’m glad I was able to get a second controller because I’m heading home on leave next Friday through the 21st of March and it’ll be nice to play Call of Duty and later Titanfall with my brother on the Xbox One.

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I love the packaging that the controller came in. The box is nice and clean and the presentation is nice on the inside (very Apple like).

 

5 days with an Xbox One

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A look at the new headset controls. I like it!

So I’ve had my Xbox One for about five days and so far it’s been more amazing than I could’ve imagined. I’m in love with voice controls. It’s so easy to swap between apps or games without even picking up a controller. If I get a message I simply say “Xbox go to messages” and in less than 2 seconds I’m seeing my messages. I say “Xbox Go to Dead Rising 3” and I’m back in the game. The quick resume feature is also blowing my mind. I don’t even have to save a game, I just turn the Xbox off and when I turn it back on at a later time I can jump right back into whatever game I was playing at the exact same spot without any loading screens or title screens. Pretty awesome!

I’m loving the entire Xbox One experience. I’ve been watching TV on it via DISH Network and it works seamlessly. The other day I snapped TV and watched Modern Marvels while playing Call of Duty Ghosts. It was great because I could listen to the program as I played and if something piqued my interest I could glance up at the top right corner and see what was going on. Also I’d watch while waiting to respawn or while matches were loading.

 

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History Channel and Call of Duty

I’m also loving the whole Xbox ecosystem more than ever. The Xbox Music app is pretty awesome. The menus and the way it displays artist pictures as you’re listening is very pleasant. I’ve enjoyed using it as I’ve done things around the house and most likely will remain a subscriber for $9.99/mo. Would it be nice if they threw in Xbox Music for free for Gold subscribers? Sure, but with music royalty fees I can’t see anyway they’d be able to do that. Spotify is a similar service and is also $9.99 a month for the full featured version.

I rented a movie using Xbox Video last night and it was quick and easy. It was actually quicker to rent a movie using the Xbox than it would’ve been via DISH On Demand or Amazon Instant Video. The quality was great and I got a few achievements in the process (app achievements are all worth 0 points so far, but will show up in your achievement list and feed as being accomplished).

Playing with friends is as easy as ever and I enjoy the party system / app. I played a bit of Call of Duty Extinction with my buddy last night and it was a great time.

I’m also loving the Xbox DVR and Upload Studio features. I’ve made quite a few videos and uploaded them to SkyDrive with ease. If you want to share these videos on Facebook or YouTube you simply logon to your SkyDrive account and you can download the .MP4 file to do with as you please. I’ll be sharing some of my videos soon, but right now I’m at Starbucks so I won’t upload them all here. I’ve been uploading them to Facebook for now but will put a few up on YouTube to share here.

I played about an hour of Dead Rising 3 last night and it’s an absolute blast. One of the most fun experiences I’ve had in awhile. Creating weapon combos and wreaking havoc on HUNDREDS of on screen zombies is a constant rush. It’s also fun to hop in a car or a steamroller and flatten zombies by the dozen.

One thing to note, the games require huge updates! Forza 5 required a 9GB update right off the bat and Dead Rising 3 required a 13GB update! The good news is that once the update is about a quarter of the way done you can start playing the game.

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I still have yet to play RYSE but will probably play some today if I can pull myself away from Dead Rising 3 and Call of Duty Ghosts. If you’d like to play a game, add or follow me on Xbox Live. My gamertag is Darth Gumballs.

I’ll post some gameplay videos when I have the chance, until then have a good day!

New owner of an Xbox One!

So I’ve been sick for the last week and haven’t been around here much. Sorry for that. I saw The LEGO Movie and loved it, but other than that not much has happened.

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Today, however, I did purchase an Xbox One! I’m officially in the current gen! That said, two of the three games I purchased today I’ve already played on PS3. I picked up Forza 5 (incredibly excited to play it!), Madden 25 and Call of Duty Ghosts. I’m hoping the current gen of those games will be an enjoyable improvement over the PS3 versions I’ve played.

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I’ve always been an Xbox guy, but decided to try out the PS3 last year for something different. In the end I went with the Xbox One as my next gen / now current gen console choice for several reasons. I love the Xbox interface first of all. It’s sleek, easy to use and getting together with friends to play games is most enjoyable on Xbox Live. Also, a lot of people I want to play games with are Xbox gamers so that makes the choice even easier. The games are also a factor. I’ve enjoyed no game as much as I’ve enjoyed games in the Forza series (sorry, Gran Turismo just can’t compare) and I can’t wait to enjoy Forza 5. I also love my Xbox Live avatar, and believe it or not, I like the Kinect. I’m excited to play around with Skype and app snapping once my Xbox finishes the initial update (153mb to go!). 

Anyway, I’m going to go play around with my new toy. I’ll have more to say as I get some hands on experience and feel a bit better.

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Why an always connected Xbox wouldn’t be that bad

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A lot of people think the idea of an always connected console is a bad thing. They’re worried about DRM, being able to play offline and who knows what else. But in reality aren’t most devices ‘always on’ these days? Do you ever turn your computer off? I don’t. Do you ever turn your tablet or phone off? I doubt it. And these devices are most likely always connected to the internet as well (at least in the home).

An always online Xbox is a huge step forward. An Xbox not connected to the internet / Xbox Live is a very limited and nearly useless machine. The Xbox Live experience makes gaming a much better experience.

What I want from the next Xbox is live tiles.

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If there’s one thing I LOVE about Windows 8, it’s live tiles. It’s a really cool concept for a homescreen. You can see your e-mails, Twitter and Facebook feeds at a glance. You have the weather forecast, sports scores and news headlines constantly scrolling on your start screen.

Imagine the next Xbox, always on. Just leave your TV on and you can see all this information in front of you or in the background. Imagine it having the snap screen feature, where you can open an app and snap it next to another app…..Watch TV on one side and play Call of Duty on the other side during commercials (simply ‘click’ the screen to bring it full screen).

The ESPN and MLB.tv apps already offer a glimpse of this. The ESPN app will show videos in the upper left corner which you can bring full screen or search through more highlights, news or live feeds using the rest of the screen. MLB.tv functions very similarly with the latest update.

This is exactly what Microsoft wants the next Xbox to be, an always on, always connected media device feeding you news (and advertisements of course) throughout the day. It’s not a bad thing. It’s a convenient thing.

I barely turn my Xbox off now, but the current homescreen is rather boring. A Windows 8 style live tile interface would be much more useful.

Xbox 360: 750,000 units sold last week!

 

USA Today has reported that Microsoft has sold 750,000 Xbox 360’s last week. This number is quite impressive considering Nintendo’s “next-gen” (more like catch up with current gen) Wii U sold only 400,000 units during the same week. For some people the Wii U was hard to find, but I’ve seen them all over the place in EVERY story I’ve been to since its release. They don’t seem to be selling. Those who are buying them aren’t even that impressed with them (listen to the last few Giant Bomb Bombcast’s for example). Giant Bomb reports in their current podcast that in Black Ops II they haven’t seen more than 700 people playing on the Wii U while on the Xbox the number sits around 600,000 online players at any given time. Just saying. Go Xbox!

Goodbye Microsoft Points? Not so fast.

It’s being reported (CNET) that Microsoft Points are being replaced by real currency…But don’t get too excited, as the change will apparently only take place for the Windows 8 store and not on the Xbox. I suppose it’s a step in the right direction, however it’d be happier news if MS points were disappearing across the board. The point system is odd (ex. 400 points = $5, if you don’t know, and they sell points in sets of 400 ($5), 800 ($10), 1600 ($20) and on from there) and I’ve always found myself with an odd 50-150 points left over with nothing to spend them on. Of course this works out in Microsoft’s favor, when say something costs 1000 points, and you have to purchase 1200 points for $15 in order to receive your content. Now you have 200 points leftover which you can pretty much only spend on avatar clothing or maybe a song in the Zune store.

Let’s hope there’s more to the story as the third generation Xbox gets closer to release.