Opinion// Xbox One - Hardcore Gamers Cheer!

You’ve all seen the Xbox ONE reveal, right? Well, how could you miss it? Unless of course you’re Amish, in which case, you won’t be reading this and it doesn’t matter anyway.

Regardless, I’ve seen it and I’ve been asked a simple question; what do you think of Xbox One? The short answer? I think it’s going to be fucking brilliant... if Microsoft pull it off.

It was only revealed last night, and there are already a bunch of obvious Sony fanboys posting videos such as this mighty thing. I think their general issue (judging on the above video) is, “OMG Microsoft want us to do more with our time than just play games wtffffff!!!”. Well guys, that’s right.

With Xbox ONE, we are given the ability to instantly switch from games to TV, from TV to IE, from IE to Skype; all using your voice. As Microsoft's on-stage management themselves described it, Xbox One really does sound like ‘The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system’. Now, a lot of people are saying (and I agree) that this could be the major downfall of Xbox ONE. It could be. I honestly don’t think it will be though.

By incorporating all of these new entertainment related features, perhaps Microsoft has taken its eye off the gaming ball… perhaps. Again, I don’t feel that this is the case at all. I’m perfectly happy with how my 360 works – it’s fast enough, looks nice, runs smoothly and it’s always been fun aiming for achievements – There’s always room for improvement though.

The question is; has Microsoft forgotten about hardcore gamers?

Now, from what I gather, there are going to be a few improvements to the gaming side of the Xbox ONE. It sounds like developers will be able to use cloud computing to beef up their games, meaning larger worlds, more computational power etc. On top of that, we have Kinect 2 confirmed which will apparently be ‘more accurate’ – I guess we’ll have to wait and see for ourselves with that one.

We’ve also seen videos of ‘Illumiroom’ floating around on the internet. Although nothing has been confirmed yet, I think (hope) that Illumiroom will be a thing for that new Xbox thing because, well, it looks like an awesome thing.

I presume you’ve all heard the hype around the PS4s ‘Share’ button? Well, apparently Microsoft has an answer to that. The PS4 will constantly be recording gameplay, and deleting the useless stuff. By clicking the ‘Share’ button, you’ll be able to link a section of your gameplay with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter and whatever else gets added for more “connectivity”.

Microsoft’s answer, according to a press release after the reveal last night is going to be a similar concept. Rather than just unlocking an achievement as we did on the 360, Xbox One will record video footage of your gameplay as you unlock an achievement – you’re then able to share the events leading up to and including that ‘kill 3 enemies with one bullet’ scene. Pretty nifty, huh?

The way I’m looking at the Xbox One, we can discard all of the junk clattering up the living room. We don’t need to scurry around with a stack of DVDs looking for somewhere to store them – we just say, “Xbox, open Netflix” and browse to our hearts content.

Do me a favour and shush
Now I can already guess that some of you are going to moan that you’ll be paying for extra services, (Netflix, Lovefilm, NOW TV etc) but do me a favour and shush. They’re all optional extras – you’d spend £12 on a brand new DVD anyway, and who knows how much Blu-Rays are these days?

In summary, I believe that if Kinect 2 works, and works well, the entertainment side of the Xbox One will be second to none. There are some features here that I think are going to change living room entertainment for years to come.

As for the gaming side, if Kinect 2 really is ‘More accurate’, the Xbox One will appeal to a much wider gaming market than just hardcore gamers. On top of all that, if Illumiroom really is going to be one of the Xbox One’s features, I can’t explain how much I’m looking forward to giving it a trial. Oh, and as for the hardcore gamers? If this whole Cloud computing stuff works, we’ll be seeing some even more advanced games than what we already know – Don’t fret!