JUST STANDING IN MY SHELF NOT BEING USED
Why did I buy the Xbox One?
- Knowing that the PS4 is superior regarding technical details.
Well, first of all, I would have never purchased an Xbox One if they hadn’t made an edition without the Kinect. Next to the fact that I really and utterly dislike “games” that are made with it, I also have a serious problem of inviting Big Brother into my living room anymore than I am already forced to do.
Most important for the decision towards the XB1 was the fact that I have a significant Xbox 360 library of games, which I continue to play and tend to enjoy for a long time ahead. - Not that XB1 is backwards compatible, but I am talking about Xbox Live and playing those games online. In any case I would have continued to play “old” games thus using - more importantly - paying for Xbox Live. Luckily, it doesn’t matter whether XB1 or X360 cause the service Xbox Live stays the same and also needs to be paid only once! In short: Although PS4 was very tempting my financial situation just simple doesn’t allow paying for Xbox Live and PSN at the same time!
The other important decisive momentum were the games. Not only the games available at that time but also considering the ones to be released in the future. I think we know that we are living in times where almost nothing is an exclusive anymore… seriously; except Nintendo’s everlasting, tight grip on Mario, Luigi & Co… the games that are only PS4 or only XB1 are so few it’s almost not worth mentioning it. But anyway, games were a factor in my calculation as well, so feel free to put them on the balance like I did. In the end you might come to the same conclusion: The only two games making a difference are the new Halo only on XB1 and the new Metal Gear Solid only on PS4. So ask yourself which of those games/franchises you prefer more and trust me; the rest is surprisingly really keeping in the balance. - Not that any of these two games will be seeing the light of the day very soon, but here you have it… that’s why I bought an Xbox One instead of a PS4, or rather put the PS4 on hold for the time being.
PROBLEMS AND SERIOUS ISSUES WITH XBOX ONE
Now to the interesting part; am I happy with that decision?1. Technical Stuff (basics,... not talking about frames here)
Xbox One is technically obviously so inferior that on the very first day I bought it, I wasn’t even able to play with it. I am not talking about the annoying first-boot patches, which PS4 has as well, but I am talking how unbelievable and almost indescribable long it takes for games to install! I realize that this is strongly depending on which game you want to play and/or your internet connection and also that there were improvements during the last months, BUT the games I got with the XB1 (Wolfenstein and Ryse) both took more than four hours to be installed (completely) - thus be playable - on my console! Evil Within and Alien Isolation both took more than one hour on my XB1 vs approximately 15 minutes on one my friend’s PS4. Do any of you even remember those times back in the "PS1 age of greatness" where loading times where actually a factor deeming a game good or bad? - Like: “Wow! This game has so long loading times I would rather play something else.” All this seems gone today; not only that loading times with several minutes have become more of a rule than the exception, people already have to wait several hours until they can even start to play what they just bought in the store!
2. Service Problems
Xbox Live is in a desolate state if you ask me. Again, there have been improvements already, but in those three months I now own the XB1 and the approximate 40 times I wanted to do something online with it, in easy 30 cases there were problems with the service. Ranging from smaller bugs like not updating the friends lists correctly, over party issues like being unable to join and/or constant disconnects, voice communication problems to complete worst case scenarios like not being able to play the game due to update problems or the fact that you have to be online for doing so! And by the way, I am not only talking about the last Christmas time where again a bunch of immature kids downloaded some free hacking - or rather - DDOS tools and managed to ruin everything for everybody.
- Sorry, but this is not tolerable. Xbox Live always has been a great networking service in Xbox 360 times, it always made the difference and after all it still is something we pay for. To me it seems that the only thing Microsoft changed from Xbox Live 360 to Xbox Live for XB1 is that both are separated and that information is restricted, meaning that XB1 users and Xbox 360 people can’t join a party together and have a chat as well as that for example 360 users can’t see what games their XB1 buddies are playing but instead only get the message “On Xbox One” or something. I don’t know, but initially that doesn’t seem right and due to the restricted yet not very much improved nature of the programs that run the service that might also be the source for all the troubles we are experiencing.
3. Usability
That kind of goes along with the service issues but it is still worth mentioning apart from it. What I mean is: Xbox One is very poorly designed in terms of usability when you are not working with Kinect. - Admittedly that was not the intention at first but sorry: Fix that! While Kinect users can do pretty much everything with voice control and they can circumvent a ton of button confirmations and menus by doing so, users without Kinect find themselves within a user interface structure that can’t be any more impractical, confusing and simply annoying! I am not only talking about how the whole (unfortunately) Windows 8-based interface is structured but actually quite simpler about how it is used; To invite somebody to your party on Xbox 360 you need to do a total of 4 inputs. On Xbox One you need a total of 6 (depending how well you know the system you might even need to do 8 inputs)! So yeah, basically that is already at least +50% more complicated. But don’t forget all the loading times, which always was a bit of an issue with Xbox Live and since they didn’t improve it too much remains that way. Profile data (avatars, achievements, gamerscore, etc.) is of such an enormous size that it can take several seconds to retrieve the information for a single friend in your list, even with a good internet connection. I welcome you to calculate it up for yourself depending on how many friends you have on your list. Just remember that this loading of this information needs to be done in multiple menus on your way of chaotic navigation.
4. Localization (System)
For example: Language English, Region Austria or Spain is not an option on Xbox One! Well, you might think that doesn’t matter at first, but believe me this policy brings an abundance of problems with it. - Among those for example connectivity issues and lagging in various multiplayer games that come from initially connecting to “wrong” servers or the fact that all the offers in your marketplace are at usually in the wrong currency but in general invalid for you. So, if you want to buy something from the marketplace you would have to change the settings, restart your console, then sometimes realize that the content you wanted isn’t even on your marketplace but if it is, buy it, download it, install it, change the settings back, restart your console again, start the game and hope that it is in English… that really is something, right? And there are a lot of question marks involved. I am really sorry to say this but this is not how you do it! Not in the year 2015 on a very expensive system in conjunction with expensive services and most definitely not after we are used to a better system from the Xbox 360.
5. Localization (Games)
This goes somehow along with the localization of the system but it is not entirely a flaw of the Xbox One. What I mean is simply the fact that from all the (boxed) Xbox One games (and that goes the same for PS4 games) easily estimated about 70% are so strictly localized that English is not an option at all! For example the regional Evil Within that I bought in a local store features a total of four or five languages none of which is English!!!! Besides the fact that this is seriously pissing me off to the point where I almost want to start cursing out my frustration, I should also mention how that is tied to the already messed-up system language settings!
Problem: Put in a PAL/Austrian version of a “wrongly” localized game without changing the system language back to German and the game will most likely start in FRENCH!!! - So there we are… back at changing, resetting, waiting, playing, changing, resetting, hoping and basically losing one’s patience!
What is the responsibility of publishers?
Also, while I am at it, I really wanted to mention how angry it makes me that it still - IN 2015!! - is also not possible to determine which languages the game features that I am buying! You know, stuff like that HAS TO BE ON THE BOX of the game. It’s nice you mention that (in my region for example) the game is in German… Wow! - Thank you very much! I wouldn’t have guessed it… BUT IS IT ONLY IN GERMAN??? Or are there other languages… for example English on it as well? I am sorry I am getting a bit emotional but this issue really goes beyond my rational understand of the world and I feel like somebody is really having a lot of fun at my expense. Even more unimaginable there are also only few internet sources that try to list versions of games with their actual language on it, but the past has proven that those sites are not really reliable either. Look, I am not ten anymore… and actually recalling when I was, I also played games ONLY in English because there weren’t any others. I also don’t think that all games only have to be in English but PLEASE (for the love of sanity and the multicultural pot we are so fond of being melted in) why don’t you screw this whole language issue from the start and just OFFER ALL KINDS OF LANGUAGES AS DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT!?!?! - This might come as a shock to you but I WOULD EVEN PAY YOU another few bucks just to play a game in English! You see!! - You won! You could even make money with this! But please stop treating me like an idiot who can only understand his own mother language and who doesn’t deserve to appreciate others!
How come - not necessarily Microsoft - but foremost publishers fail so utterly to create a game cover that really states all the facts of any given game? You know what I now always do? I seriously call every publisher on the phone and ask them what languages a game has on it: “Hi guys. Sorry to bother you but I am holding your game in my hands now and somehow you failed to write if this is also in English. Can you please check if this version is (also) in English or else I won’t buy it.” - C’mon people. From now on let’s all do that, ok? At some point the telephones will be ringing so much that they will surely get their act together and produce informative game covers!
TO SUM IT UP
... and finally answer the question if I am happy I bought an Xbox OneHonestly… no, I am not. The system is poorly designed in terms of hardware as well as software. Game installations are sheer unbelievable time-consuming tasks and especially service-wise Xbox Live shows no improvements but basically seems to have taken a few steps backwards. The whole menus and controls are not even close to practical, almost every menu you bring up takes time to load like on a PC from 20 years before and everything is made only for and with Kinect in mind. Localization seems to have become the new sneaky coat of restriction and control while language no longer means freedom but rather a prison from which you are not allowed to escape. Some of those points concern PS4 as well and I am pretty sure I would also not be happy with a PS4. The PS4 might be better in some regards but both consoles have the same major problem that ultimately is far more important than the rest:
More than a year after release there are still only a handful of games out that are really worth playing!
I am really sorry to say that but honestly Microsoft has a lot of work to do. I am sure none of the issues I mentioned can't be fixed by reworking the software. First, maybe listening to all those voices on the internet raising concerns about the language setting for example and/or kicking the asses of some publishers to make useful and informative box covers, would be a start. Until then I am afraid at least my Xbox One will remain sad and probably die lonely and not appreciated the day the Steam Box comes out.
Play more! Reason more!
No comments:
Post a Comment