Xbox One announced

So the Xbox One has been confirmed and from all the rumours spread before hand, it seems like the announcement did not reach the expectations of the viewers! In other words, it was over-hyped! Here is precisely what I think of the 1 hour presentation…

The name “Xbox One” felt as though they were going backwards… There was a big number “360” at the end of Xbox and now they want to minus 359 from it? I don’t know but to me, it feels like a downgrade to me.

The console itself was quite a bit of a disappointment to me. The style of it didn’t look so great and to be honest, the old one looks better. The Kinect (which now comes with the console) does look a little chunky and again, I’d prefer the old design. What makes up for my negativity is probably the controller. It looks more or less the same as the old one but a few changes but I guess for me, the controller made Xbox the right choice for me. Although it is not the best thing for beat em up games, it does accomplish other genre of gaming correctly. Seeing that the console and Kinect will be sitting in front of me, the controller is the vital importance of gaming here so all in all, its not so bad…

The presentation then moved onto living room activities. From what I gathered, they seem to want navigation through TV, movies, music and games easier just with a few simple voice commands. Also, they introduced Skype into the mix. It seems as though I was looking at the Windows 8 interface since the Skype call was taken on the side and had the ability to also watch Star Trek. But with Skype integration, that is what made it interesting. One thing I really loved about PC gaming was that I could video call on Skype with one monitor and play  games on the other.

Then there was a brief overview with EA Sports, Quantum Break and Call of Duty: Ghosts. Of course I expected no game line up since they did specify before hand that the games will be announced at the E3 Expo. Quite honestly, EA Sports always deliver the same and expected games so to me, that is no surprise. Quantum Break was completely baffling! Although the story line of this game remains a mystery, it looks rather interesting. Finally, Call of Duty: Ghosts looks more or less the same as their previous games but the graphics are a touch better.

So the presentation leaves me with the following opinion. It wasn’t a full disappointment but the big point is that the Kinect will be sold with the Xbox One at launch which is a good thing. With the game line up coming up, there really isn’t much to say just yet but with Skype and TV integration, it makes the console worth having. The controller is also kept consistent which I don’t see a problem with.

So far, a 7/10 only because I want to see what games are coming out on launch and especially the price is one of the key factors I was waiting for… One other thing they did not announce is the specific day of release… Would be nice to know when to expect this bad boy…