My impressions: I’m kind of disappointed with the Xbox One so far. Not compared to the PS4, but compared to the 360.
For example. On the 360, when you want to see what’s downloading and what’s in the queue, you press the Xbox Guide button, go to active downloads and there’s your list. On the XB1, you have to go to the home screen and then “my games and apps”, and meanwhile the one or two things you were running in the background, like your game, don’t necessarily pause (unlike on the 360, where pressing the guide button pauses the game even if it’s in the middle of a cutscene, which is a great way to pause a game when the developer didn’t allow any in-game method of doing so).
Forza 5 is pretty nice so far, but as usual in a Forza game, the music isn’t that great. So no problem, you just play your own music right? On the 360, you press the guide button, go down to music, select your computer, select the album or playlist from your computer you want, and press play. Right below the play controls is the volume control so you can adjust the music volume to the right level appropriate to the game. Then I press the guide button and get back to the game, listening to blissfully good racing music while I race.
On the Xbox One? First I need to snap Xbox Music to run on the right side. So I’m not using the full screen to play the game anymore. Then, only while Xbox Music is actually running can I run upstairs to my computer, select a list of songs I want to play, and then select the Xbox One to “play to”. And then I have to hit Play before running back downstairs to the Xbox One. Great, now the music is playing. Now I can unsnap and get back to the game, right? Nope. If I unsnap, the music stops playing AND I can’t get it to start again without running back upstairs and hitting Play on Windows Media Player again. Then run downstairs and start playing the game, only to realize that there is no way to change the volume in Xbox Music. So the music completely drowns out the game’s voice-overs and even some engine sounds. So irritating. And yet, all that runaround and convoluted mess is still better than racing without music, or the music that comes with the game.
I do love the new controller though. The feedback on the triggers makes a huge difference in feel for Forza, and I love that the d-pad can actually be used so easily. I like the feel of the face buttons, and there’s something that feels way better about the analog sticks now.
Hopefully the interface issues will get worked out over time. I also ran into some bugs like Brad did upthread. But I was really stress testing this thing I guess. I was switching back and forth between several apps, had several apps queued up to download while I was installing Forza (and playing the game, and watching Netflix, and browsing my friends feed, and trying to snap Xbox Music and get it to work). So yeah, I got some slowdown and some bugs. It’s not as smooth an experience as the 360 was at launch. But to be fair, on the 360 I couldn’t even try to do so many things at once either.
