The Beast of Xbox One X to Exam
It is always exciting to stand before the launch of a new video console, and November 2017 will be remembered for being the premiere of Xbox One X . A Microsoft machine designed to change the paradigm of video games in this type of hardware, and a platform that we submit to analysis. Is it really the most powerful console ever created? We’ll tell you then.
This generation has been the one of change. Last year PS4 Pro came with a modest visual leap and, now, it’s time for Xbox One X to receive a more powerful visual evolution. The Slim model launched last year already incorporated some slight changes and enhancers of its hardware, however the well-known code as Project Scorpio is a qualitative advance so great that many have not hesitated to label Xbox One X as a hidden generational jump. We do not dare with such a statement, however Xbox One X power is disproportionate and complies with that promise made by Microsoft at the time to offer us the most powerful video game console to date.
All the brilliance with which the Xbox brand designs interfaces and offers services like Live for years is accompanied by a hardware that will take a while to see at full lung. What you can read in this article and the conclusions you can draw that accompanies it are those that are derived from the video games that currently have support for Xbox One X, but still are not the majority. There are powerful multiplatform releases of the moment such as Assassin’s Creed Origins or Titanfall 2 that have their X patches ready, while there are other cases such as Minecraft or The Witcher III: Wild Hunt that will wait until moments yet to be determined.
Xbox One X – The video game console, however, becomes strong in how beautifully it looks some of the greatest veterans like Gears of War 4 or Halo 5: Guardians, both with their desktop updates already available. What is clear is that adventures such as Bayek in Egypt and sports such as FIFA 18 show that Xbox One X is the video game where they are best, but there are still significant differences between those offering a light makeup and those who have focused on enhancing their proposal .
Of course, 499 euros is not a negligible amount, and only you can judge if the machine is worth what it costs, so we will try to offer all the information you need to prepare your trial.
What does the Xbox One X box include?
This is always subject to the edition that interests you, so let’s describe what the more standard version of 499 euros brings.
- Xbox One X game console
- Remote and its batteries
- High Speed HDMI Cable
- Power cord
- 1-Month Promotional Code for Xbox Game Pass
- 14 Day Promotional Code for Xbox Live Gold
Comparison PS4 Pro and Xbox One X
To begin with, we would like to highlight the comfort of adaptation. Microsoft has always offered generous facilities to download all its software or to float in the cloud all our user information, something that makes the process very pleasant when changing devices, but if we have an S we can carry out the Transition even with a cable connecting both machines.
As far as interfaces are concerned, in X we have the ones recently released with the latest update, so that the first steps with this new Xbox One X could not be simpler. After a few years of hesitation in the interface, Xbox One X seems that the new line is the clearest and most comfortable, without being as agile as the Xbox 360, but being clearly superior to some of the latest revisions we saw in One. The Redmond effort is still present for the backward compatibility, making the machine compatible with the entire Xbox catalog although we have not gone into too much detail at the moment to see how Xbox One X performs and, on the other hand, the boot time is very similar to the one of the last machine.
Within the comfort section we must also highlight the simplicity of its line, which allows Xbox One X to fit almost anywhere in the living room or in our bedroom, which together with the compactness of Xbox One X design and the ability to work horizontally or vertically. It looks good everywhere. It is good that since the division of Xbox has renounced the unattractive design of the standard One and has chosen again to reproduce something similar to S, although perhaps with something less exquisite in materials and without that panel with holes so elegant and showy of the Slim model.
What ends up rounding the comfort section is that, like the smallest revision released last year, X renounces having the bulky external power supply and that means having a less item at home … Which we all appreciate .
In terms of dimensions to the smallest revision, just a few millimeters of change upwards to finish consolidated in 30 centimeters long by 24 wide and barely 6 in thickness, and with a compact weight of 3.8Kgs. And that, although reproducing content in 4K heats up very slightly more than that model S, the truth is that it is just as silent as that one.
Some things that were superfluous in their design have been eliminated, as in S. For example, the Kinect connection still does not make an appearance, so if someone wants to use the motion detection peripheral, they must buy an official adapter to use it. While it is true that the Xbox One X in question costs a considerable amount, the truth is that the decision to erase in a stroke any connection for him connects with the abandonment to which Microsoft has submitted to this peripheral.
But how about the Xbox One X Games?
This is the most complicated part of evaluating Xbox One X. On the one hand, because everything is constantly changing, the patches are not always finished and the games that are added to the support do not stop doing it, and on the other because what we can show you in the video that accompanies the text is always subject to the loss of quality that there is always in a processed clip. We have tried to carry out some comparisons in the video report, but always end up suffering a loss of detail that ends up not doing justice to how these works really look on a 4K TV and with the considerable dimensions that are needed for that a similar resolution be noted.
Especially difficult is the fact that the level of improvement of the more than 130 video games that are currently listed as support recipients for X will vary significantly depending on what you want to offer the study that develops Xbox One X. For example, in the list you can see that some titles are labeled with the words “Improved Xbox One X”, to dry, that others include it with the word 4K or HDR and that some treasure the three characteristics.
However, as we said, the drip is constant so it’s easy to get outdated. For example, at the time when we were carrying out the video analysis, the updated version of Super Lucky’s Tale for X was not yet available, but at the moment in which we are writing this article … Although at the last minute, what has not allowed to deepen. The game supports 4K and 60 frames per second, being significantly more fluid in the new video game console, and leaving in evidence to some versions for previous machines that, in a first and brief glance, we have seemed much more irregular in this area. It is not the most shocking game but it is the only great launching title that accompanies the platform, so even though the improvement is not colossal it has seemed important to start with it.
And it is that all this is difficult to calibrate, of course. For example, after seeing a title with as much possibility of taking advantage of the resolution by the amount of small elements on screen as it is FIFA 18, the truth is that seeing it in 4K resolution offers very good sensations, making the colors of the turf more vibrant and causing the players to be totally recognizable in their faces even with the most general plans. If you have had the opportunity to watch 4K football on any of the digital platforms, the experience is quite similar, although without the loss of quality of a content broadcast on television. Of course, the game still has some problems here to keep their 60FPS completely stable, something that happens in all editions of the game we have seen to date.
On the other hand, the version that we have had the opportunity to see about Assassin’s Creed Origins in 4K is not yet finished, it will end up having its final version on the day of the video game launch, but already offers overwhelming samples of its possibilities. The 4K, not native this time, is enough to give a visual “push” to the program, but the power of the machine is particularly evident in elements such as the distance drawn or the detail of certain textures and screen objects, something fantastic to encourage the sensation of spectacularity that its resounding stages transmit. Unfortunately this version did not include an HDR that will be implemented on November 7, so again it is a trial that we have to leave halfway.
Gears of War 4, in some things, offers the best results. Unlike with Origins, Xbox One X treat of HDR is formidable, probably the best we have seen so far, and this achieves not only amazing lighting but a remarkable growth in the treatment of color. In addition, its increase in resolution offers remarkable benefits to contemplate the good artistic work carried out by The Coalition. However, we must clarify that the title has two visual options, on the one hand to enhance the graphic section with its best finery and its increased resolution or, on the other hand, increase its performance to trigger fluency. To begin, we must qualify that these alternatives are only applicable to non-competitive modes, that is, to campaign or Horde, so as not to create disadvantages among players; and do not forget to make clear also that the 60FPS that tries to achieve the program in X are not stable in this Performance Mode.
More veteran is Killer Instinct, which saw the light in 2013, and that already at that time debuted with 60 frames per second and a resolution that was initially 720p, after 900p and now reaches 4K. The problem we have with the Iron Galaxy fighting game is that it has its years, and that extra resolution does not just play in favor of a treatment of textures or clothing for wrestlers that not only is it not always trained to take advantage, but sometimes even plays against him, showing some weaknesses that were not so obvious in 1080p.
Halo 5: Guardians received its patch in the middle of the afternoon of November 2, consolidating that feeling of constant reception of titles with Xbox One X support, so together with Super Lucky’s Tale they are products that WE have not been able to devote the necessary time to value it with enough depth. Yes it is true that the sensations are positive with him thanks to that 16GB patch that includes abundant visual improvements and 4K support but, as with the Playtonic platforms, for now we dare not go into much deeper assessments. Yes we can tell you that the sharpness of the program with this number of pixels in this Xbox One X is fantastic, and that we do not see any irregularity in the rate of images per second.
Xbox One X Other considerations
For starters, although it is not directly related to the games but with the price, the truth is that a Blu-ray player in 4K is already worth a considerable amount of money, and both the S model and the X of One include it , something that PlayStation 4 does not do, so already at the beginning there is some ground gained on your part.
On the other hand, and with videojuegos of size as abusive as the 100GB that they haunt, for example, Halo 5: Guardians or Gears of War 4 with all their updates and their free maps, it goes without saying that the Xbox One X had to be provided with a hard disk wide series. Xbox One X has opted for the size of 1TB, however, it will not be difficult to fill with some ease.
The video game console also continues to cultivate what we started to see in Xbox One of Microsoft’s understanding that now the player not only demands to play but also to share his prowess. That is why Xbox One X offers a tool for capturing content much higher than the one provided then, one that significantly reduces the processing of the video that collects and that allows to collect clips at 4K and 60FPS resolution in a material still far from what the best capturing they allow but that it hoards a very estimable level in the 30 seconds of maximum time that they allow. When sharing through Xbox Live come into play the limitations, of course, with a strong processing and a cap of 1080p.
As for load times … The boot, as I mentioned in the section related to comfort, is slightly shorter, but it is true that for other titles such as Gears of War 4 or Halo 5: Guardians itself offers a few times of waiting noticeably longer than in S. This, as you will be imagining, is due to the need to load all the material with new textures of more weight, more complex illuminations and 4K resolutions … but not by logical ceases to be striking .
Conclusions:
Xbox One X is a video game console, so it does not make much sense to finish the assessment with a note as if it were a traditional video game, and more with a machine so subject to show what is really capable over time. And we do not mean that what we think about what hardware is going to change in a year, since it will continue to look like Xbox One X console with enormous potential, but rather due to the fact that we will see then whether it is taking something out of the game or not.
And, in fact, we chase the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg. As often happens with any recently released hardware, the first titles that premiere for him are far from what it is capable of offering. This is something that is particularly evident with this desktop offer from Microsoft. On the one hand, as it is not exactly Xbox One X but a revision of an existing one, it makes sense that, except for Super Lucky’s Tale there is not a big Triple-A to be taken to the mouth … But the one that is thus not ceases to be disappointing and obliges, as we have told you a few lines above, that the big stars of its video game offer are either titles already with a certain time behind them or works from third parties such as Electronic Arts, Activision or Ubisoft. It will be with the passage of the months or years when we begin to see how the exclusives take advantage of it, and also what the multiplatform can do to appear on several devices at the same time and offer something here that separates them from the rest.
But that are nuances and assessments about the software that do not stop being that, opinions on the appropriateness or not of launching a machine with this type of accompaniment. What really matters is that after the hesitant start of Xbox One, Microsoft launches an Xbox One X that costs 499 euros but has both inside that really offers enough value to make reasonable purchase. Of course, the fact that it is so difficult to make judgments from the outside is the factor related to what you need to show in its maximum splendor. Not everyone has a 4K TV, and as estimable as the 1080p rescaling of the super sampling that greatly improves the visual finish in that resolution, the truth is that only with a device capable of playing the 2160p these releases are observed throughout his glory
So we do not think that with hardware dedicated to a hardcore audience and relatively minor because of their price will reverse the current state of affairs, but we do think that there is much courage in the maneuver. Especially taking into account that there are much cheaper alternatives that offer both themselves and the competition, and it is this absence of fear that makes the industry move forward. Now Microsoft has both fronts covered, the most casual player with the beautiful and elegant model S and the most dedicated amateur with the equally slender but powerful model X. We only need the hardest … Fill the calendar of games that show your potential.
