The event itself, as well as the location itself was great: I think there must have been over 80 ONEs there, beautiful and atmospheric decorations, good catering and nice staff. Unfortunately the absence of visitors underlined an obvious insignificance of the next generation system. Ok, they still had all the weekend left and I guess not everyone has the time on a weekday, right? I am curious however how big of an event it had really been at the end.
All together I tested 11 Xbox One titles and I will present you a really short first impression and opinion of them below. Furthermore, I took a critical look at the hardware, and for me personally found out something great, as well as one big letdown.
This will not be a complete and absolutely detailed report, because I don't want to tell you something that you already know. Against the title of this post I still want you to go there and experience things for yourself. As always, I will tell you what was new and important to me.
Now, after this event, my mind is made up 100%. I know that I will definitely not buy an Xbox One within the first half year since release I will most likely be waiting and watching until next spring.
Hardware
- The console itself is a monster; it is so enormous, I wouldn't know where to put it.
- It looks nice and clean however.
- Loading times are partially ridiculous, but obviously nobody is interested in that anymore nowadays.
- Kinect was plugged in and on some sort of standy-by while playing games, which I found great and surprising! It was even possible to obscure Kinect and still play the games. Since this was a demo event, I hope the "always-on camera" and "not being able to play if Kinect can't see you" issues are not just coming up, when logged in via live-account though.
- The system froze two times while playing. Reboots took several minutes! - Could have been due to the demo setups and will not appear with full games... seems a lot familiar to a known 360 issue though.
- The new home menu doesn't look to different but offers a lot more things than the old one at the same time. - Ok, that we all know already.
- The controller was unfortunately the biggest letdown I experienced. It is too small, too edged, to hard and in short feels totally uncomfortable. The new sticks move a lot more sensitive and stabile, on the other hand they are also way too small and again feel simply too uncomfortable to rest the thumbs on. - It could be just the change that feels uncomfortable at first,... I sincerely hope I can get used to the new thing at some point, cause after 10 minutes of FIFA my hand started to pain quite a lot!
Games
All the games I played were demos only. They didn't have all the features of the full versions and might be different from them in many ways. Also the connected televisions might not have been state of the art and you know how it is... on such events you are basically always to close to the screens, because of the cables.
BATTLEFIELD 4
- Does not only not look as I expected it, actually I think it looks pretty bad. - Seriously, these are the graphics you see as next-gen?
- The game is to slow for my feeling of a multiplayer shooter.
- Maybe the campaign is better in graphics and gameplay and can save this game. Multiplayer isn't for me, that's sure.
KILLER INSTINCT
- Was looking forward for that game (childhood memories), but didn't kick me too much.
- Graphics are nothing special.
- Combos can get really sick, like in the old days and the sound is great.
- Seriously hope the game has a good story campaign, like Mortal Kombat did for example. Without such a campaign I have already seen enough of the game.
DEAD RISING 3
- The other parts weren't for me, so why should this one be?
- Yes, a ton of options; pick up and throw everything, build one million cars, gadgets and stuff.
- The kind of "free roaming" scenario playable at this event is fun... at least for 10 minutes.
- Controls seem good, graphics and AI showed nothing special.
- A million zombies but fear factor = zero.
- It plays a lot like Fighting Force, but somehow I just miss the point of the game. Maybe a story/campaign or playing with friends can put some more juice into it...
FORZA 5
- I guess it's Forza... never have been too much of a car game fan. Especially not a fan of realistic car simulations.
- The game is boring to me but might have its loyal and big audience, which I respect.
- In contrast to the general opinion I really don't think the graphics of this game are very good. Yes, there is a lot of anti-aliasing and it looks smooth, but in my opinion everything looks way too artificial. - Really, if I take a look at the race track, to me everything seems made out of plastic. The only thing that looks nice are the cars. But even in that matter current-gen cars pretty much did it for me.
RYSE: SON OF ROME
- Plays kind of interesting, with high combo possibilities.
- Features a level-up/progression system with lot of skills and moves.
- Relies more on tactical combat than on button mashing, similar to the new Batman games.
- Setting and graphics are OK, yet nothing mind-blowing.
- A game that needs a good campaign to immerse players. The multiplayer and arena components are more like the cherry on top of the cake. The actual cake however is still missing.
FIFA 14
- Graphically the most advanced game on display. - On the other hand, also FIFA 13 is pretty good already.
- The rest is clear; It's FIFA, so it's for people that like football simulations. I am more of an occasional FIFA-player. - Yes, I got a few tricks up my sleeve, but since I don't really see the big yearly advances, I always get only every third part of the series. So for me FIFA 15 will be the next.
- What I find to be the best improvement of this game is that throw-ins now are dynamically and realistic. That feels really good, but won't get me to buy that game.
SUMMARY OF THE SMALL
In addition to these 6 rather big titles there were also a few "smaller" ones presented to the players: Zoo Tycoon, Peggle 2, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Crimson Dragon and Kinect Rivals. I honestly want to spare you every word possible about these games and try to sum up all that I have taken from them in a short paragraph.
I don't get it. Why are such games at an 18+ launch event for a new - supposedly - next-gen console? One game is a puzzle game with nothing remotely exciting, the other one is supposed to be canceled already and the next one builds upon a nice idea but seems to be conceived for five year old players... I really don't get it. Are there really still no games that Microsoft can show us? The only game that's looking even remotely interesting from these titles was Zoo Tycoon, but this game is also more special interest than for a broader audience, I guess.
Yeah,... and please somebody blast Kinect! I hated the old one as well as most of the games made for it, and - in contrast to the approach "We've now gone from the childish theme to a look and feel that aimes also at the grown-up players" - it is still the same to me: unresponsive, boring, childish and above all exhausting!
Conclusion
Yep, I felt kind of disappointed and my premonition unfortunately came true: I just cannot see this new console as next generation at the moment. Basically all that has changed are the networking and application control features. There is nothing outstanding or better regarding graphics or gameplay at the moment. In fact the total absence of any real good launch title speaks for itself.
I will most certainly not pay a ton of money for a system at launch, that doesn't give me a single great and/or new game. At the moment the Xbox One is still basically the same like 360 but with a better media center. So far I didn't have the chance to deeply check out the PS4 but from what I've seen and heard, I assume it's the same situation. Like I said above, I think it will be best to just wait and get a new console when there are games out.
Either what's going on now is a great economical plot that creates lots of revenues, or Microsoft as well as Sony are being really, really nice to us. The great and truly next-gen games are definitely coming and the technology will be good for something at some point; be it the new Wolfenstein, Titanfall, Watch Dogs, and many more, I think it's just really nice I am not forced to play all that stuff on a new system, but can instead use the ones I already have to get out the same experience!
The event itself was great and of course I encourage everyone to get on the tour and make up his/her own mind. For me one thing is clear: The time to get a new Xbox will come, but not just yet...
Play more! Wait more!
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