official Xbox One Owner Impressions

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

When you say XBLA, are you talking about full size retail titles that are in digital form or smaller games that are only sold via XBL?

I agree that it was a mandate last gen and its obviously not one at this point. The only question is if that is a temporary lifting of the mandate due to time constraints, or if its a longer term change of policy

 

The latter. I really wish they didn't kill the XBLA label, gotta deal with this ridiculous confusion now as well as OG Xbox / Xbox One :laugh:

 

It was 100% change in policy.

[trooper11]

The latter. I really wish they didn't kill the XBLA label, gotta deal with this ridiculous confusion now as well as OG Xbox / Xbox One :laugh:

 

It was 100% change in policy.

Yeah, its a little confusing right now. Basically, instead of XBLA vs Retail, its Digital Only vs Retail.

So it is a change in policy. I would prefer they made it mandatory for all digital titles, but as you said, it must have been in response to developer pressure. You know how developers resist almost anything that is 'required' :laugh:

[George P Global Moderator]

The latter. I really wish they didn't kill the XBLA label, gotta deal with this ridiculous confusion now as well as OG Xbox / Xbox One :laugh:

 

It was 100% change in policy.

 

As good as XBLA is/was there was also complaints about it from developers, the policies were messed up, and they're still in effect on WP and Windows and need to change there as developers aren't bothering to use XBL for their games as time passes.  Gameloft has totally ditched XBL support for it's WP/Win8.1 games now.  

 

The whole certification policy for XBL needs to be scrapped as it is and redone.   They also need to drop the fees and restrictions on updates/patches and so on.   Someone needs to wake up over there quick because Xbox Live is becoming a wasteland on WP/Windows.   Maybe with the change on XB1/360 it'll also happen on the others but it hasn't yet and publishers are ditching it.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

As good as XBLA is/was there was also complaints about it from developers, the policies were messed up, and they're still in effect on WP and Windows and need to change there as developers aren't bothering to use XBL for their games as time passes.  Gameloft has totally ditched XBL support for it's WP/Win8.1 games now.  

 

The whole certification policy for XBL needs to be scrapped as it is and redone.   They also need to drop the fees and restrictions on updates/patches and so on.   Someone needs to wake up over there quick because Xbox Live is becoming a wasteland on WP/Windows.   Maybe with the change on XB1/360 it'll also happen on the others but it hasn't yet and publishers are ditching it.

 

They already did that didn't they? Pretty sure it was announced back in the summer.

 

Some policies were good though (e.g the XBLA demos) but I agree the majority needed to go. Demos protected buyers from wasting ? on crap games. It's why I never bought anything on PSN for months until it was either widely accepted as a good game or the prices fell that, the risk factor was low enough to take.

 

Gamasutra are great for this data as sales data was never released. You could definitely see a very clear trend of bad games = bad sales. A lot of them won't release demos in an attempt to bait and switch gamers now IMO. I'm sure that trend will start to become the opposite this generation.

[George P Global Moderator]

They already did that didn't they? Pretty sure it was announced back in the summer.

 

Some policies were good though (e.g the XBLA demos) but I agree the majority needed to go. Demos protected buyers from wasting ? on crap games. It's why I never bought anything on PSN for months until it was either widely accepted as a good game or the prices fell that, the risk factor was low enough to take.

 

Gamasutra are great for this data as sales data was never released. You could definitely see a very clear trend of bad games = bad sales. A lot of them won't release demos in an attempt to bait and switch gamers now IMO. I'm sure that trend will start to become the opposite this generation.

 

They dropped in for the XB360 but I don't know if/how it works for WP/Windows.  If you look at some examples, a number of games used to have XBL originally, then got pulled and were then resubmitted to the store, updated, but without XBL support anymore.   Others that were also XBL got pulled and never returned because MS decided to be stupid about support and left the developers with no options.    It's all one big joke now, and all the major publishers are showing it by not bothering with the process.    The certification alone is said to be a massive PITA and adds weeks if not months to things.     I'm all for unifying the platforms, the OS' and so on but if developers, publishers and so on, on WP/Windows don't want to use XBL for their games then there's not going to be any cross-over support and so on from future games.  The idea of buying a game and being able to play it on any of the 3 devices is only going to be a dream.

 

The idiots in charge need to change these things, the way they have it set for the new ID@Xbox program is how it should be for all the platforms, none of these jumping through hoops BS and fees and so on.   The goal should be to get as many games, if not all the games, that are released on the platforms to use XBL, not shun it.   I don't get what the heck they're thinking about at this point, it's frustrating really.

[Unrealistic]

The latter. I really wish they didn't kill the XBLA label, gotta deal with this ridiculous confusion now as well as OG Xbox / Xbox One :laugh:

 

It was 100% change in policy.

I bought so many games because of the demos. XBLA games weren't reviewed as deeply as AAA titles and I was usually unsure about my decision if it was 800 points or higher. Hell, I may have never purchased geometry wars if it wasn't for a demo.

I understand they are trying to make it easier on devs, but loco cycle or whatever the hell it is called needs a demo. Given the ###### ratings and the ridiculous price, I refuse to touch it with a ten foot pole. It's going to backfire unless they lower the prices of these games.

Why would I buy a $20 One "Arcade" game when I can get possibly 20 games on my iPad? They have serious competition now and for whatever reason they think their target audience only cares about their platform and their vision alone. They couldn't be any further from reality..

[trooper11]

I honestly don't think demos are going away.

All MS said was that they would not force developers to do it. I think many, if not most, developers feel that a demo can help sell their game. I think any arcade-like titles will end up having demos for that reason.

[trooper11]

I wanted to comment a tiny little feature that I discovered while checking out my profile. 

 

When logging into my xbox I wanted to be auto logged in, but appearing offline.  On the 360, it never remembers that setting.  I always had to turn on the console, go to the settings and change it to appear offline, then manually log into XBL.  On the X1 however, it finally remembers.  Now I can actually let it auto log in knowing that it will also be automatically set to 'appear offline' when I want it to.  Its a small thing, but it saves me a little time/effort, so that means something to me.

[trooper11]

Well I think MS pushed an update of some sort, at least to the store.

Remember how we talked about the lack of demos on the X1 and the fact that there is no section for demos in the store?

Well that has changed. There is now a 'popular demos' section listed among the other sections inside of the Game store.

So it appears MS is quietly making tweaks to the system as we speak. Who knows what else may be different now, but keep your eyes out for any other changes.

On an unrelated note, I just discovered that I could literally leave my game running and shut off the system, only to return to it and it be sitting right there. I know its just going into standby, but its still freaky to see that happen :laugh: I don't think I would do this on purpose though, especially without making sure my game was saved first. I accidently shut it off without closing a game and then there it was when I turned it back on. I guess that's a nice feature to have in case of an accident.

[trooper11]

Anyone that is having problems with voice commands, camera features, etc, I think it would be helpful if you post your issues here.

That way, we can pool our experiences and maybe figure out why its working well for some and not so well for others.

I will note that I have Kinect sitting below my tv, which is hung up on the wall. That puts Kinect about 3Ft from the ground. It also happens to be sitting right on top of my center channel speaker, putting it in the middle of my surround sound set.

Also, when I say 'quiet' testing, its not dead quiet. I have a couple fans, etc going so there is a low hum of ambient noise.

I'll start by sharing some of my experiences with voice commands after doing some further tests today:

'Xbox, On' command:

1. Quiet Room

I am getting 100% detection all the way out to 14 feet with my normal voice. I tried this straight on and from different angles with the same result.

2. If I am playing media from another device via my surround sound speakers at normal levels, the X1 will not respond to my commands, which might be due to my placement of Kinect on top of the center channel speaker.

3. If I'm playing media from another set of speakers in the room (I have a pc set in the corner of this large room with its own speakers) at normal levels, the X1 responds at the same range as the first test.

Based on the above, I would say that at least the 'On' command is sensitive to its location in relation to the source of whatever sound is in the room. So while the command works fine for me with a quiet room and with 'loud' ambient noise from other speakers, it will not work when the sound is in the mid-high range coming from speakers it is very close to.

Thankfully, I can't really think of times when I needed to turn the X1 on while I have sound up that high on my main speakers. I just did it now to see what would happen. I'm not really shocked that a microphone would get overwhelmed in that situation.

[trooper11]

There is now a DR3 demo up in the Store.

I believe it lasts for 20 minutes and you can play through that 20 minutes twice.

[jerzdawg]

There is now a DR3 demo up in the Store.

I believe it lasts for 20 minutes and you can play through that 20 minutes twice.

highly suggest people to check this out..  fun game.. lots to explore.. I think im up to day 5 but still have tons of side missions to complete

 

 

as far as voice commands - I have had no issues so far.. I mainly only use xbox on, off, watch tv, record that and pause (for dvr).  I picked up a tv mount for my kinect to go above my tv instead of below it (2 year old daughter seems awfully interested in pulling it off of the tv stand).  I'll reconfigure my kinect and hope my results do not change.

[McKay]

I wish they'd do something with the Live Tiles, the whole point of them was they doubled as Widgets and icons, information at a glance without going into the App. These tiles on Xbox serve no purpose, they are literally a giant icon. They don't scroll through info, they aren't live. They're just giant blocks.

[trooper11]

I wish they'd do something with the Live Tiles, the whole point of them was they doubled as Widgets and icons, information at a glance without going into the App. These tiles on Xbox serve no purpose, they are literally a giant icon. They don't scroll through info, they aren't live. They're just giant blocks.

Well there is always the future.

Most of the tiles though wouldn't have much live info, so they need to be smart about which have that capability. Even in windows, not all tiles have live info to display.

[The Evil Overlord]

I wish they'd do something with the Live Tiles, the whole point of them was they doubled as Widgets and icons, information at a glance without going into the App. These tiles on Xbox serve no purpose, they are literally a giant icon. They don't scroll through info, they aren't live. They're just giant blocks.

Maybe it's archanoid, and you're just not seeing the baton and the ball? :p

posted only for comic effect, relevant to my friend McKay only

[McKay]

Well there is always the future.

Most of the tiles though wouldn't have much live info, so they need to be smart about which have that capability. Even in windows, not all tiles have live info to display.

 

Ones like the Messages app, just shows a number by it. Why can't we set the size of it? Maybe have it bigger and have it scroll through messages in the tile? Maybe have the friends tile scroll through friends who're online. I'm hoping in a future update we can arrange our personal tiles, beyond the "send to front" option. 

[trooper11]

Ones like the Messages app, just shows a number by it. Why can't we set the size of it? Maybe have it bigger and have it scroll through messages in the tile? Maybe have the friends tile scroll through friends who're online. I'm hoping in a future update we can arrange our personal tiles, beyond the "send to front" option.

Those are all great ideas. MS can easily do that thanks to it being Win 8 underneath. My hope is that they chose that so they could improve on it just as you laid out.

[Showan]

My time with the Xbox One update: now that I've almost had the One for a month, and really have had a chance to dig into it, there are some things that Microsoft has to clean up.

-Game DVR has to be smarter about when to record. I purchased Peggle 2 last night and was stuck on a board for about 7 tries or so. And the Game DVR, recorded the same part all 7 times. And did not auto delete or even bring up a mini-screen to manually delete all the failed instances. What's even worse, I went into Upload and also noticed a bunch of other unnecessary video from NBA2K14 as well.

The One hasn't been out that long, and there's already a bunch of junk videos racking up.

-Is there a way to clean up the notifications section? Because I've got every notification, from the moment I hooked my One still in the same area. If we can't delete them, at least let us archive them or something.

-Game load times has to improve. Games appear to load a tad bit faster since the last update. But still seem longer than usual. F

-Friends needs it own Tab in the UI. There should not be multiple button clicks for this. All friends can be in a "movie poster" state. The background of the poster is either red (offline) or green (online). And when you hover over them they can jump out of the poster in full 3D form with a quick rundown of what they are doing (playing Peggle 2 or watching Hulu Plus) or achieved recently. Having a 4th tab won't hinder the experience IMHO. I know having things buried under a few button clicks, makes Kinect a dream come true. But don't do things like this just to promote a camera.

-Kinect has to be able to hear my voice no matter what's going on, on the screen. Watching Pacific Rim on the One the other day, and the Kinect could not hear me through the loud action sequences.

-The Games section of the store can be better laid out as well. Microsoft talked about discoverability but, the store is all over the place. Can it have a genre section ie; RPG, Action; Adventure, Sports... Etc.

-Can we have voice messages back already???

[incendy]

My time with the Xbox One update: now that I've almost had the One for a month, and really have had a chance to dig into it, there are some things that Microsoft has to clean up.

.

.

-The Games section of the store can be better laid out as well. Microsoft talked about discoverability but, the store is all over the place. Can it have a genre section ie; RPG, Action; Adventure, Sports... Etc.

 

Xbox One already has that, it is built into Bing. Xbox Bing Racing Games, Bing Action Games, Bing Game Demos etc. Works awesome and very fast to get to what you are looking for.

[trooper11]

-Kinect has to be able to hear my voice no matter what's going on, on the screen. Watching Pacific Rim on the One the other day, and the Kinect could not hear me through the loud action sequences.

I believe that might almost be impossible. If you place any mic near a loud sound source, the mic cannot reliably pick up a sound coming from elsewhere. I suppose in software, they could improve the ability to isolate certain sounds, but perhaps the mic array itself cannot isolate the sound when it has such loud sounds around it.

For mic array to work best, it needs to be at least somewhat away from your speakers. My tests confirmed that. You can have loud sounds in the room and Kinect will still hear you, but if Kinect is right next to your speakers, it wont during loud sequences.

[trooper11]

Xbox One already has that, it is built into Bing. Xbox Bing Racing Games, Bing Action Games, Bing Game Demos etc. Works awesome and very fast to get to what you are looking for.

That's true.

I also think they will add the functionality into the store for manual options, but there are currently many functions that I think a lot of people simply are unaware of.

[Showan]

Xbox One already has that, it is built into Bing. Xbox Bing Racing Games, Bing Action Games, Bing Game Demos etc. Works awesome and very fast to get to what you are looking for.

Thanks for the tip. But I don't Kinect everything I do. Though it's smooth, sometimes I don't feel like talking...

[Showan]

That's true.

I also think they will add the functionality into the store for manual options, but there are currently many functions that I think a lot of people simply are unaware of.

I usually talk too much... But there are instances where I just don't want to talk to the Kinect... Especially when family is sleeping..,

[Undead Steve]

Hey guys it looks like I'll actually be able to get an Xbox One during this holiday season! (Bonus check from one job, working holiday pay + overtime at the other). 

 

So my question to you Xbox owners is what buying tips do you have for someone looking to get it - What accessories, rechargeable batteries, ect. should I get with it?

[trooper11]

Hey guys it looks like I'll actually be able to get an Xbox One during this holiday season! (Bonus check from one job, working holiday pay + overtime at the other). 

 

So my question to you Xbox owners is what buying tips do you have for someone looking to get it - What accessories, rechargeable batteries, ect. should I get with it?

Well as far as accessories, the only things that come to mind are a rechargeable battery pack or batteries for the controller and maybe a mount for Kinect depending on where you want to put it.

I have not gotten a battery pack yet since the controller gets such good battery life on regular batteries. I'll wait until the official rechargeable battery pack is on sale.

Other than that, there isn't really much you should need other then getting games and maybe an extra controller.