Thoughts on the Xbox One

For Christmas this year I asked my parents for an Xbox One. Considering I already owned an Xbox 360, a PS3, and a PS4 I thought they wouldn't get it for me. But alas they did! I got it set up on Christmas morning and thats exactly when the problems started... Granted I know that Xbox Live and PSN were both down because of the hacks. So I couldn't set up the Xbox for awhile since it could not connect to Xbox Live. However once I did get it all set up I immediately started playing Halo: The Master Chief Collection, I'll write the review on that later, for now I just want to talk about the Xbox itself. Please note this isn't a review of the console, I just want to talk a little bit about it.

I like it. I love it. And I apologize for this in advance but it is hard for me to not continuously compare the console to my Playstation 4. The Xbox One really is great. Not being able to immediately start playing it was a major drawback for me though. The console required an update from Xbox Live right out of the box, but Live was down. Eventually it worked out and I downloaded the update and it brought me to the home screen. Personally, I'm not a fan of the Xbox's User Interface. I think it's a little confusing to navigate and it took me a few minutes just to find the Settings app. I'm getting used to it, but I've still had a few issues. The controller is awesome. It's very similar to the Xbox 360 controller, but a little bit bigger and the triggers feel better. The games I've played are Halo: MCC, Shadow of Mordor, and Forza Horizon 2. All of them have functioned well. I had played Mordor on my PS4 and I can't really tell a difference between the two consoles. I love Forza Horizon 2, I think it's a great game and I'll definitely be writing the review on that later, I just got it Saturday the 10th. But yeah overall I'm really loving the Xbox.

The main reason I wanted an Xbox One was for Halo. Halo is the definitive Xbox game, no question. Xbox One sales soared during the month of November when the Halo: MCC was released. Xbox also had to lower it's price temporarily to $349, presumably to compete with the PS4 which had been outselling the Xbox for the last year. Call me a hypocrite but yes I got one. I enjoy having both consoles and I've turned my PS4 on only twice since I got the Xbox. Now I can expand my blog reviews to include Xbox exclusive games which is really exciting for me as the writer and hopefully you as the reader.

2015 is shaping up to be a great year for gaming. There are lots of games coming out this year and I'm hoping for many more announcements to be made(Fallout 4, anyone?). I'll try to be better about writing more, but with school and theatre commitments sometimes its hard(along with all the time I spend gaming). Anyways, it's going to be a great year. Stay tuned to CDRGames!

-Connor