Xbox One Review

Xbox One – Kinect

Although it will still be considered by many to be a rather pointless accessory, the new Kinect is included with all Xbox Ones and, while you can skip setting it up when you first setup the console, it’s clear Microsoft is sticking to its vision of this being the future of console control. And, you know what, big brother scare stories aside, we’re kind of on board.

It is undeniably convenient to sit down on the sofa, say ‘Xbox on’ and have the console spring to life, logging into your account for you by recognising your face. Follow that up with spoken instructions to open Netflix or watch TV and you really begin to see just how much of a step forward it is compared to using a controller to navigate your multimeda. Sure it’s a bit weird – talking to yourself – but it’s not like people won’t know what you’re doing.



As for the impact of Kinect on your gaming, well the flagship title for it, Kinect Sports Rivals, has delayed, and with the other launch titles doing very little with Kinect, it’s all a little early to say. We have played a preview build of Kinect Sports Rivals and the accuracy of the Kinect is astonishing – and the game is quite good fun too – but it’s probably the case that it will, like the Wii and original Kinect, be something of a rarely used novelty item when it comes to games. But that’s precisely why Microsoft’s approach does actually make a lot of sense: the Kinect is no longer just a novelty for gaming it’s now a somewhat useful addition to your entire living room experience.

In fact, the addition of the Kinect really does help give the Xbox One the feeling of being the step change that the label ‘next gen’ implies, and in the process goes some way to justifying its high price. In contrast, while more powerful under the hood, the PS4 lacks the same impact. Sure it’s the gamers’ console, but that’s all it is: a console.

Xbox One – UI

Looking more broadly at the Xbox One’s UI, it is generally very good. Probably the first thing you’ll notice is just how fast it is with it instantly switching between games, TV and many other features - which again helps boost that sense of it being a useful hub. Apps, such as Netflix, can take a few seconds to load but generally it’s a very slick experience.

The overall layout is pretty good too. The Windows 8-esque side-scrolling layout, while initially a bit cluttered and complicated looking, provides a very efficient way of switching between the various options on offer. It centres around the main content window, which shows whatever game, TV show or app is currently running, while the tiles for the other main features are circled around it. To the left is your profile/friends hub, to the right is Snap (more on which later), your installed games and apps and ranged along the bottom are the five most recently used apps/games/features. We found we seldom had cause to reach beyond these recently used items in any given session, making it a very convenient system.



Another key feature of the UI is Snap. This enables you to split the main view window into two parts, having your game run in one section while having TV in the other, for instance. It’s an interesting trick that we can certainly see being useful – Spotify playing while watching the footy perhaps - though we haven’t yet actually had cause to want to use it in day to day use.



Scrolling right on the home screen brings up the Store section which highlights a selection of the games, apps, movies and music you can download, with links to dive deeper into those sections. Meanwhile off to the left is an area to pin tiles linking to your favourite apps.



It’s all pretty simple but effective stuff, though we’re a little concerned with the lack of categorisation and lists. Everything in the store is ‘featured’ or ‘highlighted’ with no discernible way to drill down in an organised manner to find what you’re looking for. The only alternative is to search, and although the search is good you’ve got know what to search for in the first place. One very neat trick, though, is the ability to add a game to your library by scanning the QR code with Kinect - neat.