The Xbox One

Am I the only one who isn't excited about it? I was really eager to hear about this new console and as I watched the announcement I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. I don't think it's a good fit for me.

During the demonstration they only really showed what they could do for people who are into sports and other things I don't care about. I don't care about making a fantasy basketball team. Is there anyway to make that sort of thing work with anything else? What if I wanted to make a fantasy tv personality team? Could I do that? No? Only for people who watch sports? That doesn't alienate anyone. Not at all.

I like the idea that you can have the new Xbox synch with your other electronics so that you can go back and forth immediately between gaming and watching television. It can't record shows like a DVR can. One thing I'm concerned about is what will happen if I'm playing and someone else decides to be a dick and switch the Xbox from the game I'm playing to watch television? What if I hadn't saved in a while? All of the work I put into the game will be lost. I guess what I'm getting at is that it sounds great until you put it into practice. Someone might mention something about watching a show on a specific network and then the Xbox will take it as a command and make the switch over. They say you can instantly switch back and forth, so I might not lose any save data, but I want to make sure first.

You can also do Skype calls while playing a game. I love that idea so much. I wonder if it's just for one on one calls or if you can do conference calls? They also mentioned that the One will have a Blu Ray player. I think that should have come out with the slim, but whatever it's there now. Everything's being released on Blu Ray nowadays, so this was an obvious step in the evolution of gaming consoles. Oh, the new controller actually looks nifty. I like the thumbstick design the most. You could tell that it was designed by gamers for gamers.

My biggest complaint is that the new console will not be backwards compatible. I just bought a new 4G 360 with the plan to trade it in for the new Xbox One when it came out later this year. I made a mistake and assumed the new console would be backwards compatible. That's why I didn't spend any extra for a bigger hard drive. I didn't think that I would need it. It's okay though. Now instead of trading in my Xbox for the new one I can just use the money I would have to spend on the difference on a new hard drive. I don't want to get a new console and have nothing to play on it.

During the announcement they revealed a new Halo tv series, a new Call of Duty game and some sports games. I couldn't care less about any of these things. I don't like Halo unless it involves Red vs. Blue, I hate all of the Call of Duty games and I'm glad Madden announced that it would finally stop making games. I'll give the Halo tv series a fair shot and keep an open mind to it. I think it's really cool that they're making a big budget series for a video game, even if it's not my cup of tea. In the new Call of Duty game they kept saying that they would bring new elements and stuff but don't they do that with every new installment in the series?

I think my final score on the new console is a 2/5. I think I'll wait until someone I know gets one and then I'll check it out. That Quantum Break game looked boss. Anything that involves quantum mechanics/theory gets me really excited. It's one of the reasons why I enjoyed Bioshock Infinite so much. I can't wait until E3 to find out what other games will be released. To be fair, the ones that were announced were the ones that everyone knew would be coming out anyway (except Quantum Break). I know I'm in the minority of people who don't like games like Call of Duty or Halo. I don't like playing MMOs. I don't like lobbies. I prefer to play with friends and that's it. The chances of playing with nice people these days is so slim. I just want to enjoy the game and have fun. I don't want to be harassed and bullied. Unfortunately, the future of gaming is playing online with strangers. You can't even do split screen with some recently released games.